When the city of Tulian crested the horizon, it was naut but a thin grey line peeking out above the waves. Barely distinguishable from a trick of the eye, Sara's reaction was more reserved than the crew's etion. As it came into sharper definition, Sara decided her hesitation was prudent.
The towering walls of Tulian had been abandoned for near eleven years, but it wasn't the ck of tending that led to their current state. If Sara had any doubt the hurricanes that had ravaged Tulian were supernatural in origin, they were dashed by the crumbling stone before her. Narrow slices had been blown from the fifty-foot sea wall, as if the gods themselves had taken massive axes to the city. The dark granite was pitted and pored, centuries worth of erosion compressed into a handful of climactic years. There was a conspicuous gap in the wall's semicircle length where a yawning gate had once allowed ships into the wide harbor, the entire structure having been snapped off and tossed backward. Sara could actually see the massive arch further within the city, the intact structure having cratered an entire city block.
As the ship glided into the silent bay, Sara got a closer look at the marks left by the storms. Every missing chunk of the wall had been severed in straight lines, sheer faces so smooth they looked polished. The sight tickled something in her brain, something she'd once seen, and it took her a moment to recall it.
A waterjet cutter. That was what it reminded her of. It compressed water to absurd pressures, then shot it through a tiny nozzle faster than the speed of sound. It could cut through steel like paper. Sara's eye ran along the diagonal gash that had once attached the harbor's gate. From the waterline to the ssh's end was easily a hundred and twenty feet, and the granite was at least fifteen feet thick along the entire length.
Sara had once wondered how an entire nation had been lost because of hurricanes. The idea of an area the size of a country being outright abandoned by lord and peasant alike had struck her as ridiculous. She'd wondered if the reports were exaggerated, or if there were other, less dramatic factors that led to Tulian's depopution.
But after seeing that wall, Sara began wondering how anyone had survived.
Though the mood of the Crossed Glory's crew was jubint, celebrating under the noonday sun, Sara felt chill. Every time she thought she'd gotten a handle on the differences between this world and Earth, something like that wall appeared. Evidence of something impossible, a remnant of a force she had no hope of answering. As a freed sve walked past her and gave a celebratory cp on her shoulder, she tried to shake the gloom away. She gave the man a wan smile, patting his back as he moved past her.
Captain Nora had the Crossed Glory come about as she entered the capital proper, the natural bay penned in by the walls to become a miles-wide dockyard. There was fragmented evidence of what had once been a massive complex of piers and docking stations along the shoreline, but only those made of stone still survived. The ship swept towards them, providing Sara with her first glimpse of civilization in the ruins.
A small crowd began to gather at the end of the closest stone pier. It seemed the Crossed Glory wasn't the only ship to occasionally drift into the city of Tulian, because it took only a few scant minutes for stalls to erect themselves, ushered in by pairs of people hustling supplies in wooden carts. As they slid in Sara saw fresh fruits, dark ales, and crates full of nails and coiled rope, all sold by pinly dressed merchants. The moment they were in shouting distance the sellers began to holler out prices to the crew, doing their best to overpower their neighbors to get the most attention. It would have been a normal enough sight for this world's markets, if not for the fact that the rest of the massive bay was dead silent, none but the wind ghosting over decaying ruins.
"What a wonderful pce you've taken us, Master," Evie drawled as she eyed the eery juxtaposition. She, Sara, and Hurlish were up on the elevated helm, Captain Nora at the wheel ten feet behind them. They were all dressed as Sara had requested, her pn for a memorable first impression ready to go.
"Hey, if you think there's anywhere easier to conquer, be my guest," Sara said. "As far as I'm concerned, this is a good sign."
"Mm."
"At least there's people still hanging around," Hurlish grunted. "My whole vilge scattered. Surprised the capital's still got anyone left."
"Tulian's still got ships coming by every now and then," Nora expined from behind. "Pirates or privateers mostly, the sort that aren't treated kindly by normal ports."
"Any svers?" Sara asked.
"Likely, as with any port. Though not for much longer, I imagine."
Sara chuckled darkly.
They reached the dock. Though several of the merchants had taken up spots by the moorings, ready to receive thrown ropes, it proved unnecessary. Captain Nora's steady hand slipped the ship into pce with exacting precision, no more than an inch gap left between the hull and stone wharf. Instead of tossing docking ropes to the merchants, the sailors simply stepped off the ship's side, tying it into pce themselves.
"Mighty fine sailin', Cap'n!" A too-close voice complimented. Sara jumped, turning towards the right, where a young girl's head had popped up over the stern. "Almost as fine as my father's ropework, which y'can find at the third stall on-"
"Touch my ship without permission again and I'll paint the bay red with your guts," Nora snapped.
"Aye-aye, Cap'n!" The girl cried, so unconcerned by the threat that she saluted with both hands, falling away from the ship to nd with a muffled oof on the stone below.
"Jesus, Nora, that was a bit much, wasn't it?" Sara asked. "She was just a kid."
"Tulian's been abandoned for too long," Nora replied simply. "That kid doesn't even remember when this was a proper city, much less protocol for dealing with real captains. If y'want me to head yer navy, Champion, then yer gonna have to put some discipline in the people here."
"Still, though. She didn't know any better."
"And now she does, no?"
Sara shook her head, letting the topic drop. A pathological overprotectiveness for her ship was something that she would have to accept in Nora. Sara certainly had her share of eccentricities that the others put up with, so it was only fair.
"So what's the pn for you now, Captain?" Sara asked, keeping an eye on the disembarking crew below as she spoke. "I hope you won't be setting sail right away."
"Gods know I wish I could, but nae," Nora sighed. "There's work to be done on this bastard child of a ship, and it won't be short work. A new mast, sails, oars, supplies, piddling repair work, crew, a hundred hundred tasks needing tending to. You'll likely have me stomping about in the harbor for a week or more, Sara."
"Well that's reassuring," Sara said, stretching. "Might need a quick getaway, if things go too poorly."
"Master," Evie interjected, "You are divinely blessed with the ability to make friends, not enemies. Why do you seem so certain that whoever controls Tulian will so vehemently oppose you?"
"'Cause I really doubt they're gonna be the sort I'd like to make friends with. Now, is everybody ready?"
"Yes, Master."
"Yeah," Hurlish grunted, rolling her shoulders.
"Have fun, dears," Nora smiled behind them.
Sara closed her eyes, summoning up the willpower required to set the runes glowing across her skin. She felt the smoking purple light float away from her skin, leaking through the seams of her armor. Opening her eyes, she pointed down at Ignite Parables, who was standing near the gangpnk dressed in the full regalia of a Carrion Sergeant, sans his royal blue helmet plume. That had been hacked messily away, metal bare and unadorned. He nodded to her, then stepped forward, cupping his hands around his mouth.
"Make way for the Champion of Amarat!"
Sara leapt over the railing, falling ten feet to crash down on the stone wharf. She scanned the crowd from behind her steel helmet, wisps of neon smoke curling off her lit irises. The runes of her armor glowed the same color as her skin, accentuating the way the enchanted metal shimmered and twisted with her every movement. She'd pulled her sword ever so slightly from its sheath, so the bck steel of the bde was visible if one thought to look, and she'd intentionally not cleaned the grime of battle off her armor before arriving. To Sara's sensibilities her ensemble evoked a succubus valkyrie, the graceful curves of her armor cshing with saltwater and blood.
Hurlish crashed to the stone behind her a half-second ter, the weight of woman and armor throwing dirt like a meteor strike. She nded in a crouch, then stood slowly, boriously, until the full reach of her seven foot height had her towering over most of the crowd, save for the other orcs present. Hurlish hefted her hammer up onto her shoulder, its spiked end still stained stained subtly red.
Evie fell off the ship a moment after Hurlish nded. She fluttered down gracefully, the sequined red dress that Sara loved so much billowing around her. Nidd, the seamster turned surgeon, had made some alterations to the garment at the catgirl's behest. It now fit looser on her, freeing her to wear her leather armor beneath it, and the already low-cut V had been deepened, showing off both her narrow figure and the bckened armor beneath the ruby threads. There were a few scratches visible in the leather, but no evidence of Evie ever having been truly wounded.
Sara began walking forward, pulling her helmet off and shaking her hair out. As befitted a Champion of Amarat, the bck waves fell without a single snag, like she was fresh out of a salon. Evie and Hurlish folded around her, taking the pce of bodyguards.
Sara ignored the women as she walked through the crowd, just as she ignored the way they parted like water before her. The crowd was near silent, only hushed whispers specuting about Sara's presence in Tulian. Evie had assured her that there likely wasn't a single pce in all the world that the news of a Champion's arrival hadn't reached by now, but she was secretly gd to see that the people of Tulian seemed to believe she was who Ignite cimed her to be. Outwardly, she kept a polite smile as she walked up to a fruit seller's stand.
She picked up one of the products, a fist-sized fruit simir to a watermelon, and consciously stopped trying to put on a show.
"What's the name of this?"
The merchant struggled to get his peeled eyes back to a normal size as he violently patted down his shirt and straightened his back, clearing his throat into one fist while combing through his hair with the other.
"That is a melondrop, My Lady. It grows from jungle trees in Tulian, growing ripe during the rainy season, which has just begun. A fine time to buy it, I must say."
"Ah, y'don't have to 'my dy' me or anything," Sara said, looking over the other fruits. "Y'know, it's funny. I've seen more new stuff in the st few months than any other time in my life, but for some reason I expected the pnts to still be the same. Isn't that weird? I mean, there's plenty of different animals here, so why would the pnts not change?"
As she spoke, Evie and Hurlish broke off from their bodyguard dispy, rexing into a more normal posture as they began browsing the stalls for themselves. The crew, who'd grown used to Sara, began to stir to life, and with that the frozen tension in the air melted. The merchants and other Tulian natives still kept an eye on Sara, clearly interested, but she was no longer the main exhibit.
"If you're looking for exotic, My Lady-" The fruit seller began again, before Sara interrupted him by thrusting her hand out.
"The name's Sara," she said, waiting for a handshake. "You can call me ma'am if you insist on being formal, but I'm fine with just Sara."
The fruit seller timidly accepted her gauntleted hand. She gave it a good shake, then picked up another fruit. This one was almost like a pear, but more symmetrical, top and bottom mirrored like an hourgss.
"What about this one?"
"A permino, ma'am, another Tulian native. Its skin has a fair bit of spice to it, but the core is sweet as honey."
"Sounds interesting," Sara said, turning her helmet upside down by her waist and tossing the fruit in. She added a pair of the melondrops to the helmet, using the enchanted armor like a bucket. She moved on to the next fruit, which was definitely just a regur apple, but she asked the man about it just in case. He obliged each of her questions, and as Sara got a better read on him and adjusted her speech accordingly, he grew more rexed. Soon they were chatting like she was any old customer, until Sara paid and walked away with a helmet full of fruit.
She moved to the next stall, which had cheese and dried meats, and waited in line behind some of the crew. The seller looked profoundly uncomfortable with making Sara wait her turn, but the crew was used to it from the meals, so the seller had no choice but to follow suit. Sara got an earlier read on the woman by listening to her sell goods to the others, so it was easier to chat with her while she made some purchases, storing them in her bag of holding.
In reality, Sara's travel rations didn't need resupplying, but that wasn't the point of this shopping spree. She'd thought for a good few hours about how best to introduce herself to Tulian, and had decided on something like this after chatting with Evie and the others. She entered with a dramatic bang, heralded by a Carrion Sergeant who was even now telling the story of his magecraft's defeat, and then proceeded to shop like anyone else. Strength first, then humility. It was a combination that served to put common folk at ease while appearing disconcertingly contradictory to anyone with authority.
Political games like this one were something she used to detest, but the talent that Amarat's blessings had given her had changed her mind. So many charisma points in her statblock gave her an intuitive feel for any conversation partner, letting her read the mood of a crowd like a book, so it took only the barest thought for her to pivot to appropriately address any situation. The yers upon yers of intermixed falsehoods and truths she had to spout still occasionally left her dizzy when she got too introspective, but she avoided that these days. She found she got the best results when she kept a clear goal in mind and followed her instincts, not letting herself get paralyzed by analysis.
Which was about to be very helpful, she noted, because there was someone fording their way through the crowd in her direction. Dressed in all bck, they were a shark among minnows to the Tulian natives, who recoiled from their presence. They were catfolk, grey fur covering them from head to toe, twitching whiskers sprouting from a scarred feline muzzle. Sara couldn't tell what gender they were, if any, and their bck fur-padded clothing could have hid any number of weapons. Sara debated how best to engage them while she waited in line for another stall, monitoring their approach from her peripheral vision.
The catfolk came to a stop off Sara's left. She continued to ignore them, taking a step forward when the line moved, forcing them to sidestep to maintain their station on Sara's left side.
After a solid sixty seconds of staring up at her, the catfolk spoke up.
"Sara of Amarat?" The catfolk had a pack-a-day smoker's rasp.
"Hmm?" Sara hummed, looking down. "Yeah, that's me. What's up, puss?"
A lip curled, revealing the edge of a single fang. "I am a representative of The Shaded Tree, they who control this city. Your ship entered unannounced, and has not paid appropriate tribute."
"Not my ship," Sara said, tilting her head to Captain Nora, up at the helm. "It's her's. If there's any fees she needs to pay or whatever you'll have to go to her."
"A Champion would not travel under another. Say what you please, but it is your ship."
"I mean, I guess it could have been," Sara said, scratching her ear. "We did kill the old captain, but she had it coming, and I gave Nora the wheel, so I'm pretty sure that makes the ship hers. Do you have a form for hostile takeovers or something? I imagine that'd make the paperwork easier when she gets to a proper dock."
The catfolk hissed, even the subtle noise making the merchant behind the stall flinch. Apparently this wasn't a person to be fucked with, so Sara barreled on.
"If you're tryna take my measure or whatever, or figure out why I'm in the city, then I'm free for a meeting with your bosses anytime. I dunno if your little Shady Tree group constitutes a proper government, but I'd rather keep things smoothed over if at all possible, so I'm sure Captain Nora will pay your fee, if it's not too unreasonable." Sara leaned to her left, voice dropping to a whisper. "And if you're trying to threaten me, it's not working."
"The Shaded Tree does not threaten," the catfolk hissed back.
"Gd to hear you're so friendly," Sara said with an uncompromisingly brilliant smile, taking another step forward. It was her turn in line, and she was at the stall with the little girl that had climbed the ship earlier. "I heard you sell good rope?"
The catfolk stepped past her with a final, now growing repetitive, hiss. Captain Nora walked over to the railing to greet them as they stalked up, having picked up on the miniature confrontation. The faetouched captain leaned against the railing, supporting her head with a hand smushed into her cheek, looking bored as could be as she weathered the thinly veiled threats.
"I could just kill the creepy bastard," Hurlish offered, massive bulk shading Sara as she stepped up beside her.
"There's a kid here, Hurlish," Sara chided. "We'll talk it over in a minute. For now, I actually need to buy rope. Turns out that shit's expensive, and I've been cutting it instead of untying it."
"You didn't know good rope was expensive?" Hurlish snorted.
"It wasn't where I'm from!" Sara protested, thumping Hurlish's side, metal gauntlet ringing like a gong against the orc's armor. She reaffixed her attention on the rope merchant. "Sorry about that. You're this kid's dad?"
"I am," the man said, drawing the words out as he eyed his daughter. "What'd she do?"
"Climbed up to the helm to advertise your product directly to the captain. Unfortunately, she's the sort that gets a bit touchy about people getting near her ship."
"She said she'd paint the bay red with my blood!" The girl giggled happily. Sara guessed she was somewhere in the preteen range, but it was hard to tell through piles of humidity-tousled hair.
The father blew out a long breath, eyes locked on the horizon. "How many times have I told you not to go climbing where you shouldn't?"
"Too man-"
"Too. Many." The man swatted her on the back of the head, too light to really hurt. "Sorry about that, My Lady," he said to Sara, ignoring his child. "Now, you said you needed rope?"
"Calling me Sara is fine, or ma'am. And yes, I was hoping to get some thinner ones, the sort you'd use to tie prisoners up."
The rest of the exchange was routine, without further interruption from strange bck cd catfolk. Sara made her purchases and collected her friends, plus Ignite and the selection of freed sves that wished to stay in Tulian. Among them were Nidd and Semel, who'd been retively new to the crew, and as such eager to be free of the ocean for a time. Sara warned each and every one of the volunteers that the early days in the city would likely be rough, maybe even dangerous, but they'd come along anyway. Sara could only hope she'd keep them safe until the city was more firmly under control.
---------------------------
------------------------
---------------------
Sara's party marched off into the half-abandoned city in one big glob, craning their necks about like gawking tourists. As they exited the most immediately harborside selection of buildings, the old capital began to show more signs of life, though they remained sparse. Most buildings were covered in green lichen and creeping vines, teeming flora squeezing into and expanding the cracks left by storm-thrown debris. Some buildings, though, had been kept clean, with intact gss in their windows, though the interior curtains were invariably drawn. There were even a few people walking down the wide streets, chatting with one another or making purchases in front of buildings that cked decorations of crawling ivy. Sara, leading a group of ten interlopers to the city, had little luck getting her friendly waves returned. Most folk skittered away at her approach, darting for the safety of dark alleys or locked doors.
"This doesn't feel like a city that got rocked by storms," Sara whispered to Evie, irrationally reluctant to break the eerie silence. "It feels like a city after the apocalypse."
"For those living in Tulian at the time, it may have been like the end of days, Master," Evie whispered back. "You've seen the damage as clearly as I. To have lived through such a camity must have left an impression upon this city's people."
"Even a decade ter?" Sara said doubtfully. "I feel like they'd have to have gotten over it, at least a little bit."
"It ain't just the storms," Hurlish said, shifting her hammer to her other shoulder while eyeing a dark alley with suspicion. "These people're afraid of something fresh, something that could still get 'em. Probably that shady prick from earlier."
"The Shaded Tree? You really think a gang with such a boring name is the real power in this city?"
"Don't see anyone else moseying up to ships demanding money, did you?"
"Ignite?" Sara prompted. The armored man started, not expecting to be addressed. "Any ship you've been on gone to Tulian since the storms?"
"No, ma'am," he said, shaking his head apologetically. "I have docked at old Tulian, but not this new ruin. But if I may offer a precognition?"
Sara scrunched her eyebrows together. "You can see the future?"
"Hm? Oh, no. Not precognition, my apologies. What was the word...? Ah, supposition. May I offer a supposition?"
Sara nodded him on, hiding her amusement that he felt it necessary to ask permission to offer an opinion.
"I think these people are under a tyrant. I have seen such before in ports of brutal nds. They fear the unknown, because only the predictable is safe."
Sara watched shutters rattle closed further down the street. "I'd bet you're right," she said. "But now the question is, what do we do about it?"
"I suggest a pce to stay is more pressing, ma'am."
Sara sighed theatrically. "I guess you're right. At least there's plenty of abandoned property to go around."
"If you say so, Master." Evie's nose scrunched up as they passed a rotting home, colpsed roof visible through the shattered windows.
Sara ignored her partner's doubts, leading them on a meandering path through the overgrown streets. On occasion they had to crawl over colpsed buildings that blocked the streets, or shuffle slowly over slick patches of moss-slick puddles, but for the most part it was easy going.
What actually was difficult, unfortunately, was finding a suitable home. With ten people in her merry band, the only pces that would easily accommodate them with rooms for each person would be some abandoned noble's house. Most of those, predictably, had been the first pces looted in the chaos, and the damage had furthered itself over the years.
Beyond them, Sara could only think of taking over a row of individual houses, splitting their group between them. Ignite had axed the idea immediately, arguing that it would make them far easier to isote and sughter should The Shaded Tree prove to be overtly hostile. Sara was forced to reluctantly concede the point.
Which was what had led them to their current situation. They'd curved back around to the harborside, which was the most abandoned of anywhere in the city, likely a lingering superstition from the years of violent storms. Sara stood with hands on hips before a wide stone warehouse, the most intact of the several simir buildings in the area.
Though Sara had already decided it would work, she took a moment to try and see the building through her companion's eyes. Hurlish likely took no exception to it, vilge girl that she was, while Evie almost certainly would have private protests to voice when alone, as she'd never disagree with Sara in earshot of others. Through the lens of the money-born catgirl's eye, Sara could imagine that the sloping tile roof drooped too far at the corners, threatening to fall apart at the lightest breeze, while the mortar that held the cut cobblestones together had undoubtedly been rendered hopelessly porous by brutal rains. Ignite was probably sweating bullets beneath his armor, the dozen fragile windows and dozen more empty window frames an unacceptable security risk, though he might enjoy the wide thoroughfares around the building, which provided no cover for approaching intruders. The sailors in her group were probably mildly disappointed, preferring a warm inn where meals were prepared for them, but otherwise ambivalent.
Sara booted open the rotten side door anyway, because it was the job of a boss to make the decisions no one wanted to take responsibility for. She stomped into the skylight-lit building, crunching over rotten remains of long-looted crates. Unlike the warehouses she was familiar with, Sara was pleased to discover, the medieval structure had a number of internal walls. Apparently architecture hadn't advanced to the point that a massive echoing concrete chamber could be created, so instead the builders made a gridded byrinth of interconnected rooms that were each as rge as a house. The flooring was wide stone blocks, set evenly enough to skateboard across, while the ceilings were twice her height, a rge open gap in the middle of each room allowing cloudy light to spill in. There had likely been windows there at some point, but facing the coastal sky as they were, they'd been the first to go. Sara made a mental note to find out if there were still people who made gss in the city, then made another mental note to get herself a proper journal, because her mental notes had long since outpaced her memorization.
"It's not as bad as it looks," she said to Evie, who was clutching her beautiful dress away from the debris she was distastefully picking her way through. "Multiple rooms, big, and close to the harbor, so we can visit the ship easily."
"Have you a secret furniture supplier I'm not aware of then, Master?" Evie asked, not a hint of sarcasm leaking through her refined facade.
"No, but it's got a roof and sturdy walls, which is more than we had on the road, isn't it?"
"Sturdy, you say?" Evie inquired, tapping the wooden wall beside her with an ear cocked. After listening to the dull thump, she sniffed. "At least it's not hollow. I was half concerned insects had infested the whole building."
Sara chuckled. Evie made a show of hating the pce, but at the end of the day, she'd be fine anywhere Sara was. The others were spreading out through the building, the unarmed sailors following behind either Hurlish or Ignite. The orc simply ducked through the the wide doors that connected the rooms, a hand on her hammer, while Ignite was professionally clearing each space, gdius in one hand, a lit ntern in the other.
The next few hours of settling in progressed rapidly. Hurlish fashioned a few makeshift wooden brooms and handed them out, making quick work of the wooden debris, which they piled up outside to use as firewood. Ignite led a looting party to the nearest houses, coming back victoriously toting extravagant luxuries like chamber pots, wooden dishware, metal cookpots, and even a few shoddy chairs that no one else had bothered to steal. After a few more simir trips each room eventually sported chests, drawers, and sawed-off sections of wooden walls that could be used to give privacy between the warehouse sections. Sara made a trip to the Crossed Glory, pilfering a few crates full of textiles and other trade goods, which she hoped to exchange for money or services.
By the time night fell, they'd transformed the abandoned warehouse into... well, a not-abandoned warehouse. Maybe a flophouse, if Sara was being generous. Still, it was a start, and it gave them somewhere to stay other than the ship.
Ignite had suggested they stay aboard the Crossed Glory until the accommodations were more appropriate, but Sara's instincts told her that it was important to decre her intent to remain in the city right off the bat, and Evie's diplomatic training agreed with the idea. As he did every time Sara overruled him, Ignite simply nodded and accepted her decision, military life having accustomed him to following orders he wouldn't have given himself. If anything, Sara found it a struggle to get the man to admit it when he disagreed with her, and she found it endlessly amusing the way that he grew more frustrated with her uncanny ability to detect sentiments he thought hidden. Hurlish had affectionately batted the man on the shoulder, assuring him that there were very few people that could successfully lie to a Champion of Amarat.
When the sun fell and further home improvement became impossible, Sara took to her least anticipated task.
Schoolwork.
She was finally in Tulian, the capital of the nation she intended to take for herself, and she knew depressingly little about the world that she'd spent months traveling across. She didn't understand why every capital city had the same name as the country it was in, nor could she parse a tenth of the off-handed references Nora and others had made to foreign pces, and she was still absolutely baffled by the byzantine ranking system of nobility that had whirled around her in Sporatos and Hagos.
And so she'd had Evie come sit beside her in a ntern-lit corner, an empty logbook from the Crossed Glory in her p, and began to ask questions and take notes.
God, she hated it.
Sure, the information could be interesting, and chatting with Evie was always pleasant, but every fiber of her being was repulsed by the barest simirity to being back in school. She'd dropped out in the tenth grade to avoid exactly this kind of work, much to her father's horror. He'd even less enjoyed his teenagedold daughter working under the table as a welder for a local big rig repairshop that specialized in parts with the VIN scraped off, but he'd had no real way to force her back into csses that she would've simply skipped. After a couple years of getting paid in cash, which she mostly blew on concert tickets, gas money, and clothes with far too many metal spikes, Sara's dad had literally cried with relief when she'd passed her GED, and that'd been achieved by the skin of her teeth.
She couldn't imagine what he'd think now, seeing her voluntarily taking notes on history and culture lessons. He'd probably pass out on the spot, then progress to a full-blown seizure when he woke back up and saw her asking pointed, relevant questions.
"But if it's been thirty years since the North fractured, why hasn't anyone united it?" Sara asked Evie, fighting against her natural inclination to loudly chew gum and stare at the ceiling to show off how much she wasn't listening.
"The empire was a tenuous thing even at its height, Master. None know what exactly instigated its fall, aside from the fact that it was necessary to counter Admiral Sinti, but even contemporaries described its breakdown as inevitable. Fifty years is not long enough for such vast territory to build a unified culture."
Sara gnced over the map Captain Nora had provided of the local region. By Sara's vague reckoning, the 'vast northern empire' had covered a range roughly equal to, say, Colorado. Sensing that Evie thought her constant questioning of size rather odd, she felt compelled to expin.
"Okay, I know I'm being weird about some things, but you've got to understand how different the pce I came from was. Here, I'll draw you a map of my old country." She flipped to an empty page in the logbook. The spread book was roughly equal to the nautical chart, so she put a knuckle over the scale and transferred it to a page, sketching out the rough dimensions of the United States. It was pretty bad, but she could at least remember that it was three thousand miles from coast to coast, so she thought she got the general size right. "See?" She asked Evie. "I lived in Detroit, up here, and I could get all the way here, to New Orleans, in a single day of driving. I actually did exactly that pretty often, just because I wanted to go visit friends or see a concert."
The distance, nine hundred miles or so, was almost equal to the total height of Sporatos, and Old Tulian put together. Two nations that Evie had described as anomalously rge compared to historical powers of the region.
"Though the speed of travel is remarkable, Master, surely such journeys accustomed you to the difficulties of cultural interactions on such scale. The Northern Collective has no united history, culture, or even a shared nguage to tie them together."
"Evie?" Sara circled the entire map she'd drawn. "This is all one country. Only one, with pretty much one culture and nguage, though there's some difference in accents or local foods or whatever."
"I understand that, but you also said it's the most powerful in the world by an absurd margin. Of course such a massively successful empire would be afforded the opportunity to dominate the peoples it has absorbed."
Sara chuckled at the unintentionally contentious statement. Describing America as an Empire that conquered its territory was accurate as far as Sara was concerned, but far from a popur image back home.
"Well, it's whatever," Sara shrugged, putting the notebook down. "All I'm saying is that you might have to expin more than you expect, considering the differences between our worlds."
"Feel free to ask questions whenever you feel it necessary, Master," Evie said, moving back to her own drawn timeline of continental history. "Now, as I was saying, the second and third wars of Sporatos's expansion were justified by an ideology of..."
Sara gripped her charcoal nub and returned to her notes, though it took a massive effort of will. She'd volunteered for this, asked her girlfriend to lecture her, of all things, but she'd be damned if she could say she wanted to pay attention. The notes she was scratching would be invaluable ter, she felt certain, but she also had to make sure she didn't even need to refer to it in the first pce.
When she and Evie finally gave up for the night, urged on by the sight of Hurlish returning to their room and stripping off beside them, she dropped the notebook with tremendous relief. She was gd that Evie hadn't been paying much attention either, because the notebook was a scrawled mess. As Sara grew more distracted by the progression of events, she failed to notice the notebook flipping back open to one of the earliest pages.
---------------------------
------------------------
---------------------
Crossed Glory Logbook, Month of Ailis
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*SARA'S IMPORTANT SHIT~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
GOD PRICKS
ANATOL- THE BIG BRIGHT ONE IN THE MIDDLE. ZUES TYPE, STORMS & SHIT, BUT ALSO DOES CROPS & WATERING THEM AND LESS RAPE IG
SHILIA- METAL MOSSY CHICK ON THE RIGHT. TIME GOD, SUPPOSED TO BE FIRST GOD BUT HOW TF THEY KNOW THAT? AGING & DEATH & ROT BUT ALSO GROWTH & PROGRESS SO I GUESS NOT 100% BAD
TALAVAN- SEE-THROUGH DUDE ON LEFT. MAGIC GOD, SUPPOSABLY CRAZY WHICH IS WHY MAGIC WEIRD. BIG DEAL TO WIZARDS, NO ONE ELSE CARES THO. GAREN ACTED LIKE HE WAS SMART AND MADE MAGIC WEIRD ON PURPOSE, SO MAYBE WIZARDS HAVE DIFFERENT OPINION ON HIM BEING CRAZY?
AMARAT- SUGAR MOMMA HOLLAAAA. SEEMS MOST PEOPLE TREAT HER LIKE THE HORNY GOD BUT PASSION & CONNECTION BETWEEN PEOPLE ALOS INCLUDES NEGATIVE STUFF LIKE ANGER AND KILLING NOT JUST FUCKING
DAYLAGON- DARKASS DUDE IN MIDDLE. OCEAN & DARKNESS GOD, SPOSED TO NOT CARE ABOUT PEOPLE ONLY OCEAN, ALSO BIG ON MAKING MAGIC MONSTERS LIKE KRAKENS OR DRAGONS. IF IT SNEAK OR SLITHER, ITS YA BOY DAYLAGON
THESE OTHER ONES ARE ALL BANNED IN SPORATOS & OLD TULIAN IDFK WHY EXCEPT LARIONOS ACTUALLY THAT ONE MAKES SENSE
OLIVAN- SHINY GHOST CHICK LEFT SIDE. STARS & SUN TYPE STUFF, PROLLY SPACE IN GENERAL TOO BUT THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS. SPOSED TO BE THE MOVING STARS AT NIGHT BUT IM P SURE THOSE ARE JUST PLANETS
LARIONOS- SKELETON ONE RIGHT SIDE. GENERIC GOD OF DEATH SEEMS LIKE, ONLY NECROMANSER TYPES LIKE HIM.
SALIVIN- NORMAL DUDE ON LEFT. SPOSED TO HAVE MADE PEOPLE SO I GUESS EVOLUTION'S NOT A THING HERE IF TRUE? BIG BUDDY W AMARAT CAUSE FUCKIN MAKES MORE PEEPS
OTARION- COP CHICK RIGHT SIDE. ORDER GOD, ONLY ONE THAT SEEMS NOT NATURAL BUT EVIE SAYS ORDER IS NATURAL TOO SO IDK. DUMBASS REALLY THOUGHT SHE COULD GET ME ON HER SIDE BY LOOKIN LIKE A PIG LOL
???- WHO WAS THAT OTHER GUY?!?!?!?!
