Of Cultural Importance -[Rrah]-

[Amur]

Baldur walked through the village at his usual pace; he had no need to be particularly hasty. After all, with Ace undergoing his tutelage in a fixed location Baldur now only had to take into account the time it took for only himself to get around. He was capable of going for up to two weeks without sleep, and now that he no longer had to stop every night to allow Ace to rest Baldur’s travels were now much swifter than they had been.

He had reached the village the previous night and had spent the day sleeping, he had already gathered the few items he wished to take back with him, so once his meeting with Morona was over Baldur would immediately leave. He would be able to keep himself moving at a reasonable pace for two weeks straight before he needed to rest again, and he intended to make the most of it, he had already finished his other little project. He just needed to find the time to test it fully and ensure that it worked as desired.

But that could wait.

At this hour Morona’s audience house would only have guards posted at the entrance; their personal guard would have been relieved to duty for the night. Well, barring Kaime, and even if he was asleep Baldur already knew that Morona would discuss the matters that Baldur was going to discuss with them with Kaime at a later date anyway.

Baldur stopped as the two guards stationed on the doors of the audience house saluted him, inclining his head slightly in turn to acknowledge them Baldur then spent no further time outside as he casually brushed past them.

“Welcome home, Baldur.”
Baldur stopped and nodded his head gently in response to Morona’s initial greeting.

“Baldur”

“Kaime”
Baldur looked at Kaime as he spoke his name and returned the small nod that had been given to him. Now that the pleasantries were over and done with Baldur had more interesting things to discuss with Morona. Namely, his more recent excursions across this land; his explanations lasted for quite some time, detailing his most recent encounters of interest (including the attempt made on his life by a man he did not recognise.) and then the other, smaller pieces of information that he felt may have been of interest to Morona.

“You said that someone made an attempt on your life?”
Morona asked calmly. Baldur simply nodded, not seeing why Morona would feel the need to confirm what Baldur had already told him. The man that had made the attempt had been dispatched quickly and had posed no threat whatsoever to Baldur.

“I eliminated the threat quickly. The man was under-trained and was largely a babbling, incoherent mess when he tried to attack me. It’s hardly an event to be concerned by, I’m more thankful that it occurred away from a populated area, I don’t much like the idea of having to try and explain myself to people incapable of making difficult decisions.”
Baldur stated flatly. He paused for a moment, allowing Morona time to simply dismiss their concern for his wellbeing before he moved onto explaining the last piece of information that he knew Morona would find interesting.

“I have one last piece of information that I know you’ll find interesting. I’ve met a fellow Nirvanian, one whom has been residing in this land even longer than Master Hunter Latro. Her name is Okena Johyrk, and, like me, she is a half-breed.”
Baldur saw the shock cross Morona’s face as silence fell.

“Johyrk? ... We... Were unaware that Wynn was able to stand being around humans long enough to impregnate one... This is unexpected, indeed.”
Morona replied.

“Yes, I thought so, too. It seems that while Wynn neglected to educate her on very much concerning The Empire, he did not raise her under the teachings of The False Gods.”
Once more a look of shock crossed Morona’s features; Morona had already given Baldur in-depth descriptions of their encounters with the most devout followers of The False Gods. Wynn Johyrk had been one of their most loyal and most fanatical servants.

“We... Don’t know what to think of this. Did Wynn eventually see sense?”
Morona asked out loud. Baldur didn’t answer. He knew Morona well enough to know that they were simply asking that of themselves –a fact that he had been told by Kaime- so he gave them a moment longer to work through their thoughts before speaking again.

“I had best be making tracks, Morona. I have some other errands to run and I would then like to see my brother before moving onto my next of tasks.”
Baldur stated.

“How is Ace progressing?”
Morona asked. Baldur simply turned and began walking toward the door.

“I would much rather not discuss it.”
He evaded the question with an air of disinterest before leaving the audience house.
---

Baldur’s progress had been swift; he had already completed the Dead-Drop and had hidden in the most inconspicuous place he could find. And so far, everything was going according to plan. He had taken a casual walk around Ceunon and had concluded that no-one was aware of the Dead-Drop’s presence, or that it was currently working at all.

A promising start, all he had to do now was wait in this city until Okena arrived and he would know, without any doubt whatsoever that his temporary solution worked. So, for the time being Baldur had nothing better to do than simply sit around and wait, presently he was sat in a tavern of some variety conducting his own small social experiment while he waited. As he had expected, everyone present had looked at him and at first passed him off as just another person, but, upon looking at his eyes they had become visibly uncomfortable and then moved away from him.

It was fascinating watching their reactions as one-by-one they slowly looked into his eyes before moving away from him. Well, they didn’t all move away from him, some of them simply just became visibly uncomfortable, but otherwise remained where they were... He would have liked to be able to explain that due the similarities his eyes shared with that of a Wyvern, but, he had still been unable to prove the presence of Wyvern blood in his family’s past. So, for now, he just passed it off as these humans being unable to identify what Baldur was just by looking at him.

... Nevertheless, the reactions were still fascinating.

[Mali]

Okena didn’t know whether she liked dead-drops or not. She felt herself being drawn toward Ceunon. At first, it had been simple. She had been in Gil’ead entertaining when she felt an urge almost, taking her around the lake and heading northwest toward Utgard. As soon as she reached Utgard she began to follow the river north east toward Ceunon. She assumed that it was a dead-drop that Baldur had set up that was calling her, sending mental directions to her through subtle feelings, but that didn’t make it any less awkward to her. She didn’t like the feeling of being led without knowing where she was going. It frustrated her.

She didn’t mind the path that it had taken her through though. Looking at her map, she wondered why the dead-drop didn’t take her straight toward Ceunon and instead took her around the woods. It would have made more sense to go straight there since it was a dead-drop, it just told her where to go, not how to get there. But she assumed that her path was partly done by her subconscious and it already knew where she was headed long before she could figure it out.

She walked over to where she assumed the dead-drop was located and found nothing. There was no message, nothing there for her. Looking around the clearing, she wondered what she was supposed to do now. She was in the closest clearing to the entrance of Ceunon and looked around seeing no one. Looking over to Ceunon, she could see people milling about in the town but couldn’t see Baldur anywhere. Had she missed him? And she’d travelled all this distance just to miss him.

Might as well go into town and have a look around. It would be getting late soon and there was no way that she would be able to start travelling if it was going to be dark within a few hours. It was very unsafe for her to even consider travelling at night, alone.

Walking over to a tavern, Okena stopped in front of the building and looked up at the sign hanging up on the front of the building. It advertised that they had rooms for the night so this was the best place to stay for the night. The chances that she would be finding Baldur were slim and the fact that he had probably already left weighed heavily on her mind.

Opening the door, Okena walked in and took a quick glance around the room. Was that? It couldn’t be.

Walking over to what appeared to be Baldur, from behind, she tapped him on the shoulder timidly. Please, let this be him. “Baldur?”

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[Amur]

Baldur hadn’t been taking much notice of the people entering the tavern; his attention was still firmly placed upon the largest group of people that had moved away from him upon looking into his eyes. Taking note of the way they were briefly looking at him and then falling into conversation. Baldur’s sense of hearing may have been no greater than that of a pure-breed human’s, however, his sense of sight was far greater. And even though he couldn’t hear what his temporary test subjects were saying, he was still able to pick out bits and pieces of their conversation by reading the lip movements he was able to see.

From what he had been able to pick up they were all of the impression that his eyes were the result of magical augmentation, but, there was something about him that they didn’t like. Other than that, the group had managed to huddle together closely enough to prevent Baldur from reading any more of their conversation. He shrugged inwardly, they were ignorant, so their assumption was a fair one as far as he was concerned.

He felt a gentle tap on his shoulder, and then heard a familiar voice speak his name. Baldur simply nodded –more to himself- at least he was sure that The Dead-Drop was functioning properly.

“Hello again, Okena.”
Baldur said calmly in Nirvanian-Common. Better to keep their discussions in a language that no-one here would be able to understand. He disliked the everyday rabble listening into his private conversation, especially where Nirvanian history was concerned. He gestured to an empty chair nearby, yet did not immediately look away from his current observations.

“You know, it is fascinating watching people react to something they are unsure of. One look at my eyes and they immediately become uncomfortable, and then, in most cases move to place distance between themselves and I. What makes their reactions fascinating, is that they are aware that greater physical alterations can be made to one’s appearance with the use of magic, perhaps, they are aware on some level, then, that my eyes are not alterations.”
He muttered to Okena calmly –continuing to speak in Nirvanian-Common, hopefully she would get the idea.- Setting Findinokhind across his thighs, Baldur crossed his arms over his chest and fell into thought for a brief moment.

“Perhaps, one day, I will test to see their reactions to my appearance when I am not walking around with my camouflage reflex active. Hmph, it would provide a fascinating insight into how the foreign mind perceives what it did not know existed.”
He fell silent once more, simply thinking on what he would have to acquire before he was able to think about undertaking such tests... He shook his head gently, now was not the time for that. He drew in a shallow breath and then finally looked at Okena.

“Since you’ve arrived, The Dead-Drop clearly works. I hope the feeling wasn’t too overpowering, it is not my intention to have The Dead-Drops cause discomfort if you are unable to make a meeting.”
Baldur stated flatly. Falling silent, he would give Okena the chance to explain to feeling. If she found it too overpowering then Baldur would obviously have to rework the enchantments.

[Mali]

Baldur greeted her in Nirvanian common and she nodded her head in return, taking the seat that was motioned for her. Okena was surprised as Baldur addressed her in Nirvanian common. She hadn’t spoken Nirvanian common for such a long time, she hoped that she wouldn’t have an Alagaesian accent added to her speech.

She was about to speak when Baldur started to say something else. He mentioned his eyes and the way people had reacted to them, moving away from him. It was true, people feared what they didn’t understand, however, it was just a pair of eyes. Elves in this land augmented their bodies much more than just an odd looking pair of eyes. And he eyes weren’t even that odd looking. She waited until he had finished his statement and giggled at his comment about walking around in his natural form to see their reactions. She was lucky, she didn’t need a camouflage form. She was just a little bit curious now as to what Baldur really looked like.

Okena got the gist that Baldur wanted to continue speaking in Nirvanian common and she continued to do so, hoping that there wasn’t an accent evident in her voice.

“I think your eyes are pretty Baldur.” Okena smiled to Baldur before reaching up, her fingertips running along the side of his head, close to his eyes before she pulled it back. Why did she do that? “Sorry,” she shouldn’t have invaded his personal space like that.

As he mentioned the dead-drop, she shook her head. “It was odd, I’ll admit. Something telling me where to go without telling me my final destination. I didn’t like that part,” she chuckled lightly before looking down at her hands in her lap. “But it wasn’t that bad. I was a little confused though. There wasn’t a message in that area, and you weren’t there. I thought I’d missed you. It’s a good thing that I decided to find a room for the night,” she smiled to him before looking at the other people who were still staring and talking about Baldur over in the corner of the tavern.

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[Amur]

Baldur made a mental note of how Okena had sat in silence and listened to his observations. In all truth, he hadn’t intended to say quite as much as he ended up saying. But, the foreign reactions had been interesting enough to warrant some kind of “out-loud” thinking... At least in Baldur’s mind they did.

He remained silent as Okena complimented him on his eyes. Perhaps, a little over two-hundred years ago, he would have smiled and given some kind of return compliment, but now, he didn’t know what to do with such frivolous small-talk, it just made him feel awkward. He was about to simply pass it off as little more than “idle banter” when Okena ran her fingers down the side of his head... Baldur blinked slowly, the contact did not last long. But, it was all that she needed to do to make the sense of awkwardness feel that much worse.

“Was... That really necessary, Okena?”
He asked calmly. She had apologised for the action, it seemed that even she had deemed it to be unnecessary. Perhaps even inappropriate, nevertheless, his question wasn’t left to hang for too long as Okena promptly spoke of her experience with The Dead-Drop.

(Clearly, she had also noticed the sudden sense of awkwardness that had fallen.)

He listened carefully as Okena spoke, taking careful mental notes. Her description was pleasing to him; he had managed to make the feeling noticeable, but not overpowering. Okena’s sense of discomfort would be something that she would have to overcome by herself. He kept a straight face as she finished what she had to say, he remained silent for a short moment and then nodded lightly, his location had been carefully selected, he wouldn’t leave that to chance.

“Yes, it occurred to me that arranging specific meeting points using The Dead-Drops would be next to impossible, and I wasn’t about to stand right next to The Dead-Drop, like I said during our first meeting, they’re easy to misinterpret due to the kinds of people that normally use them.”
He explained flatly, pausing for a brief moment.

“So, I decided to wait here, since it was the most likely location you would come to if you couldn’t find me before nightfall. For the time being, I would suggest looking for me in similar places for any populated area we end up meeting in. It lessens the likelihood of me leaving while you’re trying to find me.”
He said calmly, like his suggestion to use Dead-Drops in the first place it was far from a perfect solution. But, it did greatly narrow down Okena’s potential search routes for Baldur. The chances of the two of them meeting consistently was low enough, and since Okena actually wanted to learn the history and customs of her homeland she didn’t need further odds stacked against her. And since Baldur was the one arranging the meetings, it was up to him to make them as easy to get to as possible.

“Nevertheless, as I said I would, I am prepared to teach you Nirvanian history. But first, I would like to know exactly what your father told you. For what I am about to tell you is a true account of the events that unfolded, which, given your father’s devotion to The False Gods may very well conflict with what you have been taught. For the time being, what he told you on how The Preclusion War began will be sufficient.”

[Mali]

Okena hadn’t meant to make Baldur feel awkward. She had been admiring his eyes and wanted to touch them. Seeing as she couldn’t actually touch his eyes, she touched the side of his cheek. As he asked if that were really necessary, she mumbled another quiet ‘sorry’ before placing her hands in her lap and sitting more rigid than she was before. Now she felt bad for doing it. She was acting without thinking and now she had made him feel awkward, which made her feel awkward. Hopefully this entire visit wouldn’t be awkward.

She nodded her head. She understood why he wouldn’t want to stand next to a dead-drop. He wouldn’t want to be interpreted as an assassin or a thief because he was standing next to an active dead-drop. Then again, the chances of someone seeing him were slim. No one had seen her standing around the dead-drop since it wasn’t inside the busy city. However, if she had been standing around that spot for too long, surely someone would have noticed and that was the reason that Baldur couldn’t stay there either.

Okena nodded her head again. “I shall look for you from now on then,” she smiled up to him, shifting a bit in her rigid position. Sitting like this was really uncomfortable but she felt awkward to sit to close to Baldur. It wasn’t because of him, it was because of the awkwardness that she had created. It was her own fault for doing it but she couldn’t change that now.

Baldur continued on anyways, despite the awkwardness between them and started to ask her about a Preclusion War. What was a Preclusion War? She’d never heard of that term before. Was he referring to the God’s War? She would need to make things clear between them before they would be able to continue with the history lesson.

“I’ve never heard of the Preclusion War, it wasn’t a term my father ever taught me. But he told me about the God’s War if that’s what you mean. He said that the war started because of a plague that the humans had. They pled to the non-humans for help and they murdered their politicians and they started a war. But it was just an excuse to attack against the Gods and for the humans and non-humans to try to get rid of the Gods. And even though the Gods lost the war, they still existed among us,” she paused and looked over at Baldur, gauging his reaction. Hopefully this was somewhat accurate to the truth. She knew that Baldur would tell her the truth about what happened in the war, but she hoped that what she said was at least somewhat true. It would be nice to know that not everything her father told her was a complete lie.

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[Amur]

Baldur spent a long moment turning the information that he had just received from Okena over in his mind, so, the followers of The False Gods did have a different for The Preclusion War. Some of the details were even correct, but, by the sounds of it had been somewhat altered in accordance with Wynn’s beliefs. Not entirely unexpected, but parts of the history would still conflict with what Okena had been told.

Nevertheless, Baldur nodded lightly.

“Interesting, so, the followers of The False Gods did have their own name for it. Some pieces of the information are somewhat accurate as well; Wynn does seem to have neglected to tell you a large portion of the build up to The Preclusion War, however... The Preclusion War is what The Empire at large knows the war that your father named The God’s War as.”
He spent a moment running the full sequence of events through his mind; he needed to ensure that he educated Okena in the history of Empire Nirvana as fully as possible. Since she was a Nirvanian, she should have expected nothing less.

“Our lesson today begins at a little over eight-hundred-and-seventy years ago. Humanity, which has known only prosperity for well over two-thousand years, has started to struggle, animals are slowly decreasing in numbers, farmland is beginning to produce fewer crops and water is starting to vanish. At first, these were largely ignored; however, as time progressed their situation began to deteriorate rapidly.

Up until this point, the two human kingdoms that stood proudly as allies had lived in peace. However, as famine and draught set in political relations between the two kingdoms became strained, and, soon after snapped. After that, it didn’t take long for the situation to worsen further. Following the famine and the draught, plague soon followed. By this point, humanity had abandoned all forms of religion, since they felt that their Gods had abandoned them –I have various scriptures back in Empire Nirvana detailing their religion, however, I never got the chance to read them- and before long, every able-bodied person had joined the war effort in an attempt to attain fertile farmland, and drinking water.

The warring continued for some months until the royal families of the two Kingdoms succumbed to the plague. Without their leaders both sides ceased their war efforts abruptly and soon banded together in a desperate bid for survival. They soon found direction in the form of a small circle of Knights, the only one of which history remembers the name of, being Sir Oskar. However, despite their rapidly acquired order and direction, the state of their supplies was poor. As the fear of extinction set in, the Knights –now a council- made their decision.

Sir Oskar would lead a small army and a small number of politicians to the mainland, and plead with their Non-Human neighbours for help. At this age, however, human ignorance labelled them as ‘Demons’, so political relations were largely strained in the first place. Their plan was to declare the war the second political negotiations failed. IF they failed, sorry. And when the negotiations did fail, Sir Oskar and his men attacked immediately, however, the plan to overwhelm the Non-Humans by attacking them suddenly failed as Sir Oskar and his men were pushed back.

The tides were eventually turned enough to force the Non-Humans to flee, however, it became very clear that the war efforts were not going to be anywhere near as simple as the humans wanted. So, the difficult decision was made to move all surviving humans to the mainland for the duration of the war, since they would not be able to survive on their land for much longer.

It is at this point, that The Preclusion War had begun.”

[Mali]

Okena couldn’t believe that her father had even lied about the war for the Gods. That was a holy battle against the Gods and the humans and non-humans. But then again, it was a holy battle because her father had said it was. Maybe it wasn’t so holy at all. She wouldn’t ask Baldur as this might just make him think that she was even more deprived than he already did. He at least seemed to find it interesting what the followers of the Gods called the war, but she didn’t want to say anything that would make him have a bad impression of her. She liked Baldur, as he was wise and knowledgeable. He was also willing to teach her the truth about Empire Nirvana. Many from their homeland would just pass her by and wouldn’t care that what she knew was false.

Okena sat up a bit more as Baldur began to talk about the history lesson for today. She looked interested and like she was paying close attention to what he said. She was eager to learn from him. Nodding her head, she rested her elbows on the table and her head in her hands, listening to every word.

She wondered why the famine and plague had started. Maybe it was because the Gods had abandoned them. But that wasn’t the way that the Gods worked. They didn’t abandon people without good reason. But then again, as far as Baldur was telling her, they weren’t really Gods. At least, they hadn’t gotten to that bit about the Gods’ part in the war. She continued to listen, waiting for the time that the Gods would be mentioned in the war.

“So even though there had been people at war for a few good months, the war didn’t officially start until the humans had to be moved?” See, she was listening. She waited for him to continue the story, knowing that he had yet to mention the Gods and what they had to do with the war. She wanted to hear how much her father had lied to her. But at the same time, she felt a little hurt. He had lied to her and had allowed her to walk around in ignorance all her life.

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[Amur]

Baldur nodded as Okena asked her question. He had expected her to pay attention to what he was saying in the first place, she didn’t need to prove it to him. Nevertheless, the presence of questions and asking for clarification on certain points was a good thing; it would give Baldur a good reason to explain various parts of Nirvanian history in greater depth. And he wanted to make sure the education was as thorough as possible.

“Indeed, it wasn’t until the humans realised that their land was lost that their combined fear of extinction drove them together. The Humans intention was never to have their plight escalate to war; however, it was an outcome that they could not rule out. They had not had much contact with The False Gods or the Non-Humans in general. But they knew enough about the reputation they had all garnered to know better than to think peaceful negotiation would work.

Nevertheless, they tried anyway.

From all reports it is understood that some of The False Gods were initially indifferent to the plight of the humans. Their plan was to simply deny their request and then ensure they were sent back to their own land; however, things did not go smoothly. The remaining False Gods largely deemed the pleas of the humans to be insulting, and had someone sabotage the escort back to the seafaring vessels the humans had used.”
Baldur paused as he worked through the next piece of information he had to tell. It would be interesting to see Okena’s reaction that much he was sure of. However, there was just a small part of him that didn’t want to tell her the full truth of the matter; he knew how badly it could hurt for one to have their image of their parent shattered.

He drew in a shallow breath; he had already decided that the education would be in full, so he was going to see his decision through to the very end.

“Instead of the small escort that should have been provided for them a small army was instead sent to meet them, stating that the wishes of their Lords would be followed. Once they were out of sight the army slaughtered the politicians and their human guards and took the corpses back to the waiting human army. This is the single event that ensured war would follow. You see, to start with, The False Gods deemed the humans to be of little worth and virtually harmless. The same was true of their followers.

The intention was to make an example out of the ‘inferior’ species by decimating a large chunk of their remaining population whilst making it look as though the humans had struck the first blow. It was a well planned sabotage, pulled off by one of the most loyal, devout servants of The False Gods. ‘Madman’ Wynn Johyrk The Saboteur.”

[Mali]

Okena nodded her head as Baldur confirmed what she had asked. So the Non-humans had turned down the help the humans asked for, so who else would they go to but the Gods. It made sense. The Gods should help them even though they weren’t followers. If they helped them out then the humans might have become followers of the Gods, but Okena knew that the true history and even the one she had been told, meant that the Gods had turned them away.

She didn’t understand their reasoning for turning away potential followers until Baldur explained their view on the pleas for help. Inferior race? An insult? She never knew the Gods to be so petty. Of course, she wasn’t a devout follower of the Gods and only spoke with them when she really needed them most, but she never knew that they would ever act in such a way. She wondered what form of arrogance caused the Gods to refuse the humans’ requests for help.

However, she continued to listen to Baldur’s story. She even wondered why Baldur took a shallow breath before continuing with the story. Was there something special about the ending of this story? Sitting up eagerly, Okena believed that there was a twist to the end of the story and that made it more interesting.

As soon as Baldur started to get closer to the end, Okena inched forward in her seat. Sabotage and intrigue pushing her mind to race with ideas and thoughts. She imagined the war as it happened, the humans being slaughtered and then sent back, the army doing so. But then the bomb was dropped and her hands flew to her mouth upon hearing who had performed the act of sabotage.

She slumped back in her chair, shock evident on her features as she thought things through. Her father, Wynn Johyrk, had been the saboteur and leading man in charge of the army that slaughtered the humans. He was the one who made it look like the humans had attacked first and he was the one to get all the credit, making him the bad guy in the war. She knew that her father had played his part in the war, but she had never thought that he would do something like this. He had been a nice and caring father for her, aside from when he pushed her in her hydromancy training.

“Oh God... I never thought... He never said... he told me he was in the war, that he was the leading man on the hydromancy research team, but he never told me that,” Okena bit her lip and thought this over. Placing her head in her hands, her shoulders slumped, she couldn’t fathom what her father would do for his Gods.

She thought back to when they left Empire Nirvana. Her father hadn’t told her the reason why they had to leave, but she understood a little as to why they were leaving. The village acted strangely and treated her father horribly, that was why she thought that they had left, but it was what he’d done to deserve being treated such a way. This made Okena feel sick.

“Now I know why he was treated the way he was back in Empire Nirvana. But, if he was a follower and believed the humans to be inferior still, why would he have been with my mother?” Okena didn’t think that Baldur would be able to provide that answer for her. She asked out of confusion and she doubted that Baldur would even have an answer to that question. He had a limited knowledge of the followers of the Gods and wouldn’t be able to tell her what her father had been thinking. But she desperately needed to know.

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[Amur]

Baldur watched Okena’s reaction in interested silence, his expression, however, remained as straight as it always did. She tried to explain to Baldur what her father, Wynn had told her, and, very much unsurprisingly to Baldur the man had clearly only given very select pieces of information to his daughter. Was he afraid that she would reject him? Or was he simply using it as a means to indoctrinate Okena for some reason? The number of questions just kept increasing; however, it seemed that not even Okena knew the answers to them.

“I can’t answer that question, Okena. Perhaps somewhere throughout the years he changed enough to actually find love. Perhaps, he saw opportunity to get himself an apprentice that would not go against his wishes. It is hard to say for certain, and I’m not going to tell you what I think. It is best that you draw your own conclusion and stick with it, it is unhealthy to agonise yourself with questions that you cannot answer.”
He said flatly. In some way it would at least offer her some small comfort, Baldur had already lived to see his own perception of his father shattered. And it was not an experience he looked back on fondly, of course, the terms in the mating agreement had been absolute, his father was well within his right to exterminate Ace. Baldur had known that, and it still soured his perception of his father for some reason.

He took a shallow breath before he continued talking.

“However, he didn’t lie to you. He just neglected to tell you the full truth of his role in the war; it is true that shortly after the creation of Pyromancy, The False Gods sought out a way to counter-act the new-found threat and entrusted the task to your father. Not that anyone was ever able to discover why they chose Wynn for this task; perhaps, it was down to his devotion to his Lords. No-one can say for certain.

And, while in a very technical sense, he did succeed in his task. Ultimately, his project was deemed a failure; the practicality of Hydromancy was far too low to counter-act what The Pyromancers were capable of. What I can answer you, however, is the reason your father fled. The failure of his project did hit Wynn hard, but, he was a strong, resourceful person. He managed to continue serving his Lords despite his new-found handicap, of course, one failure set off a chain reaction to follow. As time progressed your father had several encounters with Sir Oskar, and Morona. All of which resulted in loss for him.

The failure of his project, plus the added shame of several failed encounters with both Sir Oskar and Morona caused him to flee. It is then that history loses sight of him.”
Baldur paused, yet again. Somewhere in his explanation he had become side-tracked and had skipped several other important events that had occurred prior of Wynn fleeing from the mainland during The Preclusion War. Why had he done that? Okena had asked a question and he had felt obliged to answer it, he allowed his silence to carry for a short while as he thought on what he had skipped, exactly... Well, she probably would have known about the creation of Pyromancy, Wynn would have probably educated her on that... He still had the Human alliance with the Non-Humans to cover, and another several large-scale battles to describe... But where to start?

“Hmph, before we begin from where I left off, what did your father tell you on the creation of Pyromancy?”

[Mali]

Okena thought about what Baldur said about possible reasons for her father doing what he did. Maybe he had reasons for not telling her. She just wished that there was a way for her to find out what those reasons were. She couldn’t even attempt trying to call a spirit back—and risk creating a shade—because her hydromancy didn’t allow for that type of magic. She should just take Baldur’s advice and settle on her own answer instead of agonizing over it. But what would her answer be?

She almost rolled her eyes as Baldur informed her that her father hadn’t lied to her, but neglected to tell her that information. It was still lying, it was a lie by omission. She also knew what her father had said about pyromancy and what happened to hydromancy. However, as Baldur said that it was deemed a failure, she sat up, her face a mixture of protest at his comment.

“Obviously it wasn’t a failure since I’m so well versed in the art.” she paused, thinking about her father before she realised that she was acting just like him by reacting this way. She had no right to get all defensive about her art. Sure, if he had harassed the integrity of what she did, then she would be allowed to go all over him complaining. But Baldur was just telling her what the rest of the Empire believed.

“I was four when I underwent the ceremony to make me a hydromancer. Just so you know...” At least her father had waited until she was four and could make a choice about whether she wanted to become a hydromancer. However, at that age, she would do anything to please her father.

Okena nodded her head. So many things had led to her life being the way it was and it all had to do with her father and his failures. She never did get to make her own mistakes, guarded and shielded from the world.

And then Baldur asked the question that caused Okena to laugh out loud before covering her mouth with her hand. “What about the devil’s art? I know that some monks teach it now, that the humans and non-humans came together to create it, and that it's highly dangerous, but that’s about it,” she wasn’t going to ask why he wanted to know what she knew about pyromancy. Her father had told her that it was the devil’s art and that it corrupted a person’s soul whereas hydromancy was for good. She disliked pyromancers with a passion, not just because they were corrupted souls, but because their mancy was so widely used while she was the only hydromancer in the world.

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[Amur]

Baldur raised an eyebrow as Okena suddenly became defensive; he had not expected such an emotional response to a simple statement of fact. Of course, her level of skill in the art of Hydromancy proved that even failure could breed success somewhere, but, ultimately Hydromancy had been deemed a failure by far too many people for the skill of a single person to alter facts.

Nevertheless, Baldur kept his thoughts to himself.

As Okena told Baldur of the age she underwent the alteration process at, Baldur just blinked. So, Wynn had clearly presented her with the “choice” when he knew that she wouldn’t say “no”. The very thought of a man manipulating his daughter like that was enough to cause Baldur to feel disgusted, in his mind’s eye Baldur strongly felt that Wynn did not deserve the title of “father” that Okena gave him.

As always, however, Baldur managed to keep a straight face and simply altered his posture enough to rest his chin on his fist.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”
He commented dryly.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Baldur was sure that even Okena was aware that she had been forced into becoming a Hydromancer.

Okena continued, answering his question in detail. He found the given title “The Devil’s Art” unsurprising, Pyromancy had been the more practical specialisation and had been more than enough to show the limitations of Hydromancy in general. It would make sense that the architect of the inferior discipline would curse the superior one.

Nevertheless, Baldur managed to conceal a small smile as she finished her explanation.

“As good a synopsis as any, yes, Pyromancy is the earliest known example of co-opted efforts between Humans and Non-Humans to create something new. As you can imagine, it became apparent very early-on that in terms of sheer destructive capabilities that the Human mages couldn’t even begin to compare to those of their Non-Human adversaries –and, allies, later-on- so, Pyromancy was created in an effort to give Humans greater destructive magical abilities for less energy without having to use spoken intent.

Of course, such drawbacks are obvious. Since, much like you, they lost the versatility of magic that other mages enjoyed.

The art of Pyromancy was officially deemed a success roughly four years into The Preclusion War, and, the significance of that is largely down-played. For, without the raw destructive capabilities of the Pyromancers, several major battles would have been lost; which may have very well resulted in the outcome of the war being very different...

Though, I’ll have to tell my younger, Pyromancer brother ‘The Devil’s Art’, title, there’s always a chance he’ll find that amusing.”
Baldur said calmly, this time actually allowing himself a very faint smile at the thought of Ace’s reaction to the title of “The Devil’s Art”.

[Mali]

Okena nodded her head as he said that he was sorry to hear about her predicament. She knew that her father had forced her into becoming a hydromancer, but she never regretted it. She loved her hydromancy and even though it wasn’t as widely practised, this just meant that she was special. She hoped that she would be able to pass down the art to her children, should she find someone to perform the ceremony for her children. Of course, she would give them a proper choice at an appropriate age.

She had to admit that she wasn’t really interested in hearing about the creation of pyromancy. It was the devil’s art, something created out of shame and corrupted the person’s soul. But she listened intently since Baldur was explaining it for her. She respected Baldur and she would listen to what he had to say, even if she found the topic repulsive.

It only further egged her on when Baldur said that he would have to tell his younger, pyromancer brother about what her father had told her of their art. Feeling flustered and riled up, she couldn’t believe that his brother was one of those kinds of people. Should she pray for his well being? She didn’t believe in the Gods enough to put it down as her main belief system, but she did pray when she needed to. Should she even offer to pray for his soul? But Baldur hadn’t said anything bad about pyromancy that she didn’t already know. So maybe it would be rude for her to say such a thing.

“Your brother is a pyromancer? I’m sorry to hear that, his poor soul, since it corrupts people. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.” she didn’t want to sound rude to Baldur. She didn’t want to offend Baldur in any way. He was nice enough to give her the truth about Empire Nirvana, she should be grateful and she was. She did not want to be rude to Baldur.

Thinking about it, she thought that maybe she should meet this brother of Baldur’s. They could have a match! And she could prove that hydromancy wasn’t a lost cause!

“Hey, what do you think about my meeting your brother? And having a friendly battle? I’ve never met a pyromancer before and it could be interesting,” Of course, she left out the part about wanting to crush him in the battle, it wasn’t something that Baldur needed to know about.

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[Amur]

Baldur fell deep into thought as Okena replied not to the lesson behind the creation of Pyromancy, but to the fact that Ace was a Pyromancer. And the way she spoke certainly offered Baldur more insight to the way Wynn had raised her, and while he found the greater insight fascinating, he would undoubtedly have to somehow quash the “Pyromancers are corrupt people” mentality. Since, quite simply, he would not have Okena looking down at Ace for her father’s beliefs.

That would likely take time; however, the effects of upbringing could not be unravelled overnight.

Baldur sat back in his chair, trying to think of the best way to begin explaining how the alteration procedure worked. In order to become a Pyromancer, the mage in question underwent a large-scale magical alteration, which, not only altered the way their body stored and used energy when they used their magical abilities. But, also altered their very soul, since; after all, they needed to be as “in-tune” with the nature of their specialisation as mortally possible.

It was highly likely that Wynn knew this and had adopted a similar –if not nearly identical- alteration process for his Hydromancy. Of course, that would mean that the alterations made to the mages would be the same in some ways with only minor differences interspersed throughout. Judging by what Baldur had been told by Morona it was likely that Wynn Had told only small pieces of the overall process to Okena and poisoned her against the end result whilst simultaneously telling her that the process behind Hydromancy was different.

Judging by the way Okena spoke about Pyromancy and her subsequent reaction to the revelation that Ace was a Pyromancer the observations were beginning to make sense.

“Hmph, my brother is sixteen and still learning his specialisation while you’re an advanced practitioner of your art, Okena. A victory over him at his current level wouldn’t mean much given the fact that you’re so far ahead of him. However, I may very well arrange a meeting somewhere down the line, if only to allow you to meet a Pyromancer so that you can form your own opinion of them.”
Baldur said calmly as he finished making his observations and mental notes. He had concluded that the best way for Okena to free herself from her father’s mentality would be to actually meet one of the people he had made her demonise.

“If it puts your mind at ease at all, my brother has not at all regretted his decision to become a Pyromancer.”
He stated flatly, if he were to arrange a future meeting, it would be best to make sure that Okena didn’t make any rash decisions, and the best way to do that would be to slowly introduce her to Ace through his descriptions of him... At least, that’s the way Baldur looked at it.

[Mali]

Okena felt lighthearted as Baldur told her that his brother was only sixteen. She knew that Baldur was quite old for a half-breed of Empire Nirvana. She could tell by the way he acted that he was much older than her. It was also all the knowledge he had that led her to believe that he was much older than her. Even though he didn’t look that much older than her physically, she guessed that he had to be at least fifty years older. She had just hoped that his brother had been closer to her age. It would have meant for a battle to occur to be a fair fight.

“Oh, he’s only sixteen?” she even sounded saddened. She agreed with Baldur that a fight with a sixteen year old wouldn’t be fair. It also wouldn’t prove anything. She wanted to go up against one of the best and being only sixteen and having a limited number of years on his art versus her twenty-six, meant that it would be pointless.

She did brighten when he said that he might arrange a meeting between them. She knew that her father had lied to her about much of the history of Empire Nirvana, so she hoped that he had lied about this as well. She still thought that his brother may have a cursed soul, but she hoped that maybe by meeting him, she could find out that that wasn’t the case at all. She hoped that maybe she could have someone to spar off against eventually and that meant that she would have to meet with him first.

Nodding her head, she thought about it. Did she regret becoming a hydromancer? It was what her father had wanted for her for the most part. But she loved her father, even if he had been a ‘mad-man’ like Baldur referred to him as. It would explain why he acted the way he did and why he was so fanatic about her practising the art. However, it didn’t change the fact that he loved her. She knew that his love for her couldn’t be a lie.

“That’s good. It would suck to limit yourself and then regret it.” She smiled to Baldur. She knew for a fact that it would suck to regret doing something. She partly regretted leaving Empire Nirvana. She was ten when she left her homeland for some place that they didn’t even know existed. She wished that she could go back sometimes. But she knew that the people there wouldn’t accept her and her hydromancy.

“I regret leaving Empire Nirvana. But I can’t go back, I wouldn’t be accepted there with my last name and my hydromancy,” She knew that she was just mentioning random things now and that they had strayed from their path of a history lesson but she felt it right to tell him.

“So, what else don’t I properly know?” Okena couldn’t help but giggle. She was excited to learn more.

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[Amur]

Okena’s initial reaction to discovering that Ace was only sixteen was somewhat surprising. Her facial expression and even her tone-of-voice gave away her clear sense of disappointment, was she really that determined to prove that Hydromancy was not the useless specialisation that history had made it out to be? He found her resolve admirable, but, her present disappointment told him that Okena wanted to prove that Hydromancy had its worth, and that she knew that facing an undertrained practitioner of Pyromancy wouldn’t supply to proof she wanted.

Baldur remained silent as Okena brightened up slightly following him telling that Ace did not regret his decision to become a Pyromancer. Even going as far to say to Baldur that it “would suck” to undergo the alteration process only to regret it later; Baldur concealed yet another small smile as she said that, as she had just used the type of language and expression that Ace would normally use. Yes, there looked to be a good chance that Okena and Ace would get along well to at least some degree.

Baldur simply nodded his head in agreement as Okena told him how she regretted leaving Empire Nirvana. Many of the people following Morona all felt the same way, no-one had wanted to leave, they had all been forced to leave for various reasons that were outside of their control. From what Baldur had learned from Okena so far, he could understand that the same had been true for both her and for her father.

“Yes, we Nirvanians can be a judgemental lot, can’t we? It is a shame that our history has led us all to behave in such a way.”
Baldur agreed calmly. It was unlikely that anyone in the village would openly shun or hate her, they were even living alongside several Hunters because of Morona’s leadership. If a feat like that could be accomplished by anyone then surely there would be problem among the people if they were to meet Okena.

Nevertheless, it was far too early for Baldur to make assumptions on such things. He had yet to tell Okena that Morona was here with him.

“Hmph, well, I should think that covering the first ten years of The Preclusion War, or, at least the major parts of it should be an adequate place for us to conclude today’s lesson at. Which means, I should be able to educate you in the defeat of False God Baal before we call it a day, I should think ten years of history in one sitting should be enough for the time being don’t you agree, Okena?”
He asked calmly, taking a moment to recall the several major events and battles he had yet to cover before beginning the history lesson surrounding the actual defeat and death of False God Baal himself.

“I should think it unnecessary to cover the alliance between the Humans and Non-Humans that did not worship The False Gods. The reasons for such an alliance explain themselves, which leaves us with several major battles to cover and then the defeat of False God Baal himself. Tell me, are you familiar with a Non-Human form of magic known as ‘charming’, Okena?”

[Mali]

Okena nodded her head. It was disappointing that their people were so judgemental. It was the reason she had never attempted to go back to Empire Nirvana after all these years. Even though she regretted leaving Empire Nirvana, she knew that there was no place for her there. As soon as someone had found her practising hydromancy that the people in her village approached her father, accused him of worshipping the Gods by teaching her hydromancy, and chased them out of Empire Nirvana. She remembers that night well, it was scary seeing as she was only ten and didn’t think that she had done anything wrong.

Nodding her head again, she mumbled a quiet ‘yea’ before looking down. She was eager to learn the truth, she wanted to know more than just this. However, Baldur knew better than she did. If he thought that covering ten years of fighting was a large chunk of history, who was she to question him?

He mentioned God Baal and added the word false in front of it. Was that how she was supposed to refer to the Gods? If she was going to learn about the true Nirvanian history, she would use the correct terms when speaking about it. As Baldur asked her about ‘charming’, Okena couldn’t help but shake her head. She had never heard of it before.

“Never heard of it, but I know one thing... I can’t perform it,” she laughed lightly before quieting down for Baldur to continue the history lesson. Maybe charming was something really interesting that she was going to learn about. It made her excited to hurry up and get to the topic.

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[Amur]

The answer he got from Okena in response to his question on “Charming” was very much as Baldur had expected. However, he wanted to ensure beyond all shadow of a doubt that he wasn’t teaching Okena anything that she may have already known as doing so would have been a waste of time for the both of them. Nevertheless, Baldur simply nodded gently and then altered his position slightly so that he was sat comfortably.

“As expected, ‘Charming’ was the name given to a method of magically altering the memories and loyalties of people in such a way that they changed whom they fought for. Due to the nature of the magic used it was impossible to reverse the effects of such magic, it became widely feared based on the fact that it could turn small armies against their comrades with ease.”
He took a moment to organise his thoughts, detailing the sequence of events that led to the death of False God Baal was a complex task.

“Roughly eight years into the war is the first known record of the use of ‘Charming’, an army of two-hundred humans vanished without a trace, and then turned up again several months later swearing loyalty to The False God Baal. The two years to follow saw the Human Alliance lose roughly one-thousand troops to ‘Charming’, all of them appearing once again swearing loyalty to False God Baal. As you can imagine this drastically altered the priorities of The Council and Sir Oskar; since they couldn’t very well allow themselves to lose more troops to this new; very effective brainwashing technique.

However, the problem that lie before them was taking the two strong-holds held by the forces of The False Gods before reaching the city ruled over by False God Baal himself. After several agonising weeks spent in tactical meetings, The Council and Sir Oskar eventually had their plan, and it was a risky one.

Dividing their forces they besieged the two strongholds simultaneously, however, the forces laying the individual strong-holds to siege were merely a ruse for their true plan. Four small teams of ten-men –including their leaders- worked to infiltrate assigned strong-holds, two teams on each strong-hold. Once inside their task was to stealthily dispatch any guard patrols and then allow the bulk of their forces into the strong-holds to attack by surprise, their task took nearly a week, but eventually their plan was successful.

However, upon the time of the attack the armies discovered that the occupants of both strong-holds were all Humans that they had once called allies. While the task set before them was difficult, they saw it through, vowing to avenge the deaths of their brethren. Ultimately, it was these acts of mercy that strengthened the resolve of the Human Alliance and saw them march toward The Empire of False God Baal.”
He took another breath, once more allowing Okena some time absorb everything that she had just heard; before he finished off the build-up leading to the death of False God Baal.

“These events eventually became known as The Siege of Broken Brotherhood.”

[Mali]

Baldur was quick to explain what Charming was. She had to admit that it interested her greatly. The idea that you could brainwash people to follow your beliefs intrigued her. This made her wonder about several things. Even though hydromancy and pyromancy was a specialized art, were they able to practice charming? She knew that her father wasn’t the best of men, he had lied to her and made her follow his beliefs, but did that mean that he had charmed her? Had he charmed her into becoming a hydromancer? No, she wanted to become one, to please her father. Or was that what he had wanted her to believe?

“I’m assuming that hydromancers can’t perform charming, since we’re a specialized, magical art form.” she practically knew the answer, since she couldn’t do any other magic but she wanted to be sure. She needed to be sure that her father wasn’t able to charm people. It wouldn’t sit right with her if he were able to.

Okena listened to what Baldur said about the rest of the war. It interested her to know that charming could be so effective. She wanted to know if it was a long process like the ceremony for hydromancers and pyromancers or if it was a spell that included the desired beliefs in the words cast.

Feeling sad for the troops that infiltrated the fortress or whatever it was that the false believers were guarding in, she wondered how they planned to avenge the deaths of their used-to-be comrades. By ending the war and winning was probably the most likely outcome for them to avenge anyone that would have perished at their hands. But there had to be another way to avenge the deaths of their fallen comrades than just defeating the Gods.

“How did they avenge their fallen comrades?” Okena had never been so full of grief or any emotion really, to desire to avenge something or someone. She had never come across a situation where she needed to avenge something. The closest she had ever been to that feeling was her desire to prove that hydromancy was just as effective as pyromancy.

“I have another question about charming,” she paused before smiling playfully to Baldur. “Are you charming me right now?” She giggled before adjusting her arms to rest her elbows on the tabletop and her chin in her palms. She liked Baldur and knew that he was probably well versed in magic. Since she didn’t know if it was just a spell being cast or whether it was a longer process, she had no way of knowing if Baldur were charming her. But she doubted that he would do such a thing. She wanted to know the truth of her homeland since their first meeting. Unless he had charmed her then, then there was no way that he could be charming her now. But it was a fun little joke to through in there to lighten the mood. He was trying to convince her of the truth of her homeland’s history, and in a way, that was trying to convert her to his beliefs about what happened. So it was sort of similar.

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