Celadine Hills (Farmland)

Taking her place at the table, Naoki spends a moment to absorb the atmosphere. What a peculiar sort of thing, she muses. What with the open air, and the stone tables all arranged out under the stars. The intermingling fragrances of the prepared dishes and the agrarian undertone permeating the village. The manner in which the whole village seems to be of one family, and the hospitality they exhibit to their guests.

The whole thing is quite unlike any situation Naoki has found herself in to date and is certainly unlike anything that could be found in Isra. Though she isn’t quite sure if she prefers it, Naoki is forced to inwardly admit that she finds it all quite pleasant.

Gesturing dismissively with one hand, in response to Raynor’s inquiry, Naoki responds under her breath, “No waxing will be necessary; I already am. Something short, but skillfully applied would be satisfactory.” With this most blatant of jests and most atrocious alliteration, she serves Raynor a small smirk.

With that said and her smirk still in place, Naoki turns to her other side to glance at Kate, intending to assess how she might be feeling.

Jun's father nodded. He would keep things brief. It didn't take much to get everyone's attention. As soon as Raynor cleared his throat a wave of silence would seem to propagate through the entire affair.

"An impressive display is it not? For us to come together so readily to celebrate the arrival of an honored guest. Let us take pride in our hospitality, for it is part of what defines us. And let us wear that hospitality like a jewel as we share knowledge with and learn from our new allies. May High Lady Naoki's presence signify more than just a political alliance, but a true bond of friendship between our people. Let's just hope she's not allergic to fish."

After a short round of laughter, the people would look to Lady Naoki and raise their goblets. "Here here!"

"Oh, so that's why we did this!" A young man cried out near the far end of the table, to more laughter.

After the introduction everyone settled down and began eating.

Jun turned to answer Kate's question. "Uh... no, not really. As far as I know, he's just a stranger who got lost and needed food and water, so we offered it to him. He seems pretty lost." Raynor would pat Kate's shoulder and smile before moving on to talk to some of the other clan members, but not before giving Enigma a sidelong glance. After he left, Jun remarked to Kate, "My dad has mixed feelings about him." After taking a swig of her fruit drink, she decided to start having a real conversation with horse-girl. "So, Miss Naoki tells me you're into gardening?"

As for Madam Naoki, she would be plagued by an unexpected phenomenon. Periodically, every minute or so to be precise, someone would come by and offer Naoki a small gift. It would be a semi-precious gemstone, a small figurine or wooden carving, a pouch of rare herbs, a vial of medicine, or even a small sweet. Individually each gift would mean little except to a small child. But after a while they would start to add up to a little treasure trove. Jun found this amusing. (As a Sun Marshall she'd also point out that she did not sense any suspicious magic in any of the items.)

***

While Enigma was eating, some of the other Land-Tillers would ask him various generic questions, such as "Where are you from?" "So what's your story?" and "How do you get your skin so smooth?!"

However, he would eventually be approached by a messenger, who shy whispered, "After the banquet, Elder Raynor would like to speak to you privately."

The food was quite good, as Enigma would come to find out, as well as the drinks. This would distract Enigma for a bit and put him at ease, at least until he started being asked questions. He didn't like questions, especially the ones they were asking. He would try his best to answer some of them, though, if anything to get them to stop staring at him expectantly for an answer. 

"Where are you from?"

"I don't know," Enigma stammered. The answer was truthful however, he didn't know where he was originally from, unless he counted the dark ruins of Tamber which his first living memories came from. Recalling those times always unsettled him though. Enigma could distinctly remember hearing the sound of an anguished scream in the pitch black dungeon which he had been imprisoned in for hours on end, only to feel his throat tighten up in pain, which made him realize it was his own screams all along. 

Enigma seemed to be deeply disturbed at this point, and had lost his appetite. He could hear more questions being posed to him, but he did not listen to them, nor answer them. Instead, he shook his head, gritting his teeth slightly, "No more questions..." he said lowly. His mood would not be improved in the slightest when the Land Tillers came to inform him of his meeting with Raynor privately after the banquet. Did they know now? Was he in trouble? Enigma certaintly hoped not, yet he still feared to find out what Raynor wanted after the banquet. Somehow Enigma managed to keep it together for the rest of the feast, though he looked obviously nervous the entire time.

Jun beamed back. This was a good night. She needed this. Life had been so stressful that she was glad to just sit back, eat some good food, spend time with friends, and reunite with the clan.

When she asked her about her adventures, she became a little excited. "One of my adventures... Hmm, oh, wanna see something cool?"

Jun raised one of her hands into the air. She whispered, "You can come out." A glittering flash burst from her hands, and when it subsided she was gripping a bright, metallic blue longsword. "Meet Resonance." A few of the nearby clan members pointed with a few oohs and aahs. Jun didn't like to show off her equipment or combat prowess when she was at home, so even they didn't get to see Resonance very often. "Neat huh. The craziest thing is that it's alive. You can't see it but it's actually... well it's kinda hard to explain. It's sort of a... a sentient construct. It was created by Professor Echoes in Gauldin. Its consciousness is modeled after that of his young son who had been lost in the fabric of time and space. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details but somehow his consciousness managed to reach out to him, and with my help and the help of this thing's older brother, we managed to revive him. Resonance will only serve someone who performs good deeds periodically, so I kinda have to stay on my toes. But it's extremely powerful, and no one can steal it. When it's not in its sword form I can actually see it floating around me as a small fairy. Neat huh?" She waved the sword around carefully. It was highly reflective, but it also seemed to give off its own faint light. The sword was extremely sharp, but it would not harm anyone without Jun's permission.

Finally Jun noticed something odd about one of the gifts Naoki had received. "Oh wow neat! Who gave you that?" Jun pointed into Naoki's basket, singling out a chunk of ancient amber with a trilobite inside it.


"That's a rare form of currency among many of the clans. If you go into the Saskatoon mountains, you can find various fossils, including trilobites. No one really knows how they got there, but there's an old legend that tells of an evil god who once ruled over the Saskatoon mountains. They say that the animals rebelled against the tyranny of the god and traveled into the mountains to fight him. Most of the animals died trying to get there, but the lowly trilobite, a creature from the waters, somehow managed to crawl up there. Their fossils can be found at the highest points, which means these humble creatures were the ones who came closest to reaching the god. Of course no one knows if the story is true or not, let alone how a bunch of crustaceans managed to fight a mountain deity, but those fossils are symbols of bravery against insurmountable odds. People usually keep them in glass orbs, but that one seems to have its own covering. Interesting."

Jun hung her head a bit in playful shame. "Sorry, I've been monopolizing the conversations a bit. But yah, Lady Naoki, you should definitely hold onto that. To us that's worth a gold nugget. Not that you need the money but, you know, sentimental reasons. Whoever gave you that respects you a lot."

The Land-Tillers were a reasonably intelligent people, but even they did not have any knowledge of advanced paleontology.

---

It wouldn't be long before another messenger, an attractive young female with a disarming voice, spoke to Enigma. "Uh... hi." She said shyly. "So, Elder Raynor asked me to tell you that you're not in trouble. Also, he wanted to ask if you wanted to just talk to him right now instead? He says he can be on the other side of the tower in five minutes." Her pretty hazel eyes widened a bit. "You have really nice skin!"

Raynor would show up, alone. It was fairly dark on the other side of the tower so he brought a small lantern with him. He also brought a pitcher with some more tea in it, and a cup.

With a wave of his hand, he summoned two benches of earth from the ground. "Please, sit. Have some tea if you wish."

Afterwards he said, "Son, I want you to know that you are welcome to stay here as long as you wish. Near the top of the tower there is a vacant room. It is humble, but shielded from the elements. If you are willing to contribute to the farms you can have a reasonable amount of food, water, and supplies. Even if you are unable to we will not allow you to starve. But with that said... I sense a certain look in your eyes when you see my daughter. I might be wrong, but I might not be. You feel guilt and shame..." His voice was gentle but solemn.

After another few moments, he said. "You do not have to discuss it with me, but I have found that it does not do to let hidden emotions fester. I assume something happened in Stonevale involving her. What I am trying to say is, if you ever want to talk about it, you can trust me."

There were some nearby crickets chirping. An owl hooted in the distance.

Enigma would sit down on one of the benches, though he wouldn't take any of the offered tea. Instead, he would stare uncomfortably at Raynor until he spoke first.

Enigma nodded tentatively. He was ok with working if he had to stay here. A little manual labor was the last thing he had to worry about in his goal of being allowed to remain here with the Land Tillers after all, and when Raynor continued to speak these worries would return to the forefront of Engima's thought process once again. He gulped, somewhat more nervous now. However, Raynor did say Enigma could trust him, and this would incline Enigma to talk to him.

"Okay... I will tell you what happened in Stonevale, but don't tell anyone..." Enigma said, his voice sounding somewhat reluctant, yet he continued, "Sometimes I lose control, and hurt people. I am better than I was before, but still not perfect. That's what happened in Stonevale, and I burned down nearly half of the city before they stopped me, Jun was there. She still thinks I am imprisoned in Medan, but I escaped since then. She doesn't recognize me because I have another form... the form of a dragon with black scales. It is the form of the other half of me, who always whispers in my ear now, urging me to do terrible things, and..." Enigma would pause for a second, a deep feeling of regret and sadness came over him in that moment, "Sometimes I give into it."

Having finished his piece Enigma would look on at Raynor, somewhat scared now to see what his reaction would be. Realization started coming to Enigma then, he probably shouldn't have told him any of this. 

Raynor contemplated what Enigma had just said. He crossed his arms.

"I see." He thought for what might seem the longest moment in Enigma's life. "This is more of a challenge I'm afraid. Your presence here represents a danger to our people. And yet, we have already given our word to give you hospitality. I do not wish to rescind it."

He sighed. "What did it take to subdue your dragon form? Do you remember? And do you think our forces could do so with no loss of life to ourselves or you? Would my daughter be powerful enough to defeat you?"

Jun grinned as Kate shook the sword's hand. She winked. Next thing they knew Resonance would appear in Kate's hand by the hilt.

"He likes you." Jun said, giving Kate a chance to wave it around before it would disappear again.

As to the inquiry about what trilobites taste like, Jun frowned. "Uh... I mean... I'm sure they wouldn't taste kinda good." She didn't want to say anything but to suggest eating one was kind of rude to her people. But she would try to let it go. "Supposedly they're all gone. Although, I've heard rumors of a pool hidden somewhere in the Expanse where they still live. They say a strange man in Isra resurrected one in front of the Land-Tiller's first delegates there. But it's just a rumor."

The flirting between Naoki and Kate was amusing. God they were such a cute couple! Jun blushed, somewhat aware of her third wheel status. Although... knowing Naoki and her... openness... She was still somewhat traumatized by her solicitation involving Artemis and Calico. Jun wondered if kate knew about Naoki's tendencies.

"Speaking of cryptids, Kate. Got any weird, rare, and special plants in your collection? Tell me more about your gardening hobby! How did you get into plants?"

As for Naoki, most of the conversations she was listening in on would involve fairly typical subjects. How are your kids doing? Is little Mana going to qualify for the Wizard's Tower? Raynor's been teaching me a new farming technique! So I met this girl from the Ivy Clan. How was your trip to Gauldin? I've never seen an airship up close before.

There were other conversations too.

Lady Naoki is pretty. What species is she? There are so many foreigners visiting us now. Are we sure that's a good thing? Elder Havador is getting so old. Why do people keep re-electing him? I heard your cousin died during the battle for Aaedan. All the other nations are so strong. We should get stronger. Why did we have to go rescuing another nation when they used to hate us? The Gauldish don't respect us. They think they're better than us. I kinda wanna join the Black Tower, see the world, do some traveling. Goraia scares me. I heard Jun hates them even though they used to be friends. Do you think Jun still cares about us? She spends so much time away from home. When is Va'nei going to come back? Are we going to war again soon? I hate war. My parents survived the civil war. Eh, Jun's overrated. Her grandmother was way more powerful.

Lady Naoki may or may not like everything she was hearing. 

Enigma's eyes widened slightly in shock at the suggestion. It sounded crazy to him, even though he could be defined as crazy himself. They would willingly put themselves in danger for a plan that he knew was not likely to work?

Enigma would shake his head, nervousness coming into his voice once again as he dissented "No... I-I don't think that would work. I know the dragon within me better than anyone else, and what if I did kill someone? Once I give the dragon control I can not regain it for quite some time."

Enigma wanted to avoid maintain control whenever he could, not willingly forfeit it to the presence within him that destroyed everything around him, even those close to him.