“I suppose you don't know the details, so let me begin at the beginning,” our host began as he sat, gesturing us to do the same. “About a hundred years ago, we suffered a rather large monster incursion. The main holdings of the local Ancient Tia were beset by a flying beast of impressive proportions. I wasn't there, but I was told it was a bird of some form, coming from the east and that it ripped and tore apart everything it found.”

“So there were a lot of deaths?” I asked.

“Oh hundreds and hundreds, yes, villages uprooted warriors slaughtered. Old Tia our leader, gathered a war-band of her strongest and led a charge against the beast though. It was through great sacrifice that the band slew it, though in turn it took the life of Tia. She struck it down at the cost of her own life, and the lives of many of her most powerful followers, children and old elders who battered the creature with her, half of them gone in a day.” He looked sad as he spoke, and I supposed that made sense, he might even have known some of those who died.

“But they won though right? So the deaths ended,” Chien surmised.

“No, the killing had only begun,” he told us.

“Huh?”

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” I explained. “That many of the strongest gone at once? Did the attacks come from inside or out?”

“In, slowly at first but building. None of the survivors could match Tia's power, but three tried, one on each of the great hills. Lon the Mighty, was the strongest, a warrior of power and speed, he took the largest hill in the middle, and to his sides were Uro the Singer and Nora the Healer. Lon gathered the absolute strongest of the people to his cause, though there were few. Uro was the second strongest, attracting most of the elders whom he had better connections with, but the weaker folk loved Nora and flocked to her banner like fish to bait.”

“And the state of things now?” Isha asked.

“Lon fell ten years ago to a combined attack. His forces too few and each loss too deep a wound. Since then there's been several attempts at peace, but neither leader wants to bend to the other. Nora's forces grow, but are still weaker on average, whereas Uro now suffers much like Lon did. Both are entrenched deeply and are constantly trying to gather more supporters.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“I'm guessing most of the villages moved to support one or the other? Promises of high rewards to temp the strong while the weak were fearful to stay behind unguarded?” I surmised.

“You've seen such a thing before?” he asked.

“Not personally, but it makes sense. Out of curiosity, who does your village support? Bearing in mind that we're outsiders with no care for who wins or loses.”

He chuckled. “Nora, she's promised us better lands with easier hunting and more room for homes. Most of the further out villages do, as the inner ones have long denied us good lands.”

I sighed. “We're messengers, here to talk to the leader. We'll have to talk to both.”

“Unlikely friend, they're at war, think they'll just let you walk across the border? You have to make a choice.”

“Says who?”

“Says the world.”

For a moment I looked at him, readying to strike if needed. “If I try to choose Uro what will you do?”

“Nothing, though I'd want you to change your mind.” He sat back, calm as could be.

“Why?”

“Two reasons,” he leaned in, as if conspiring. “One, your boat is nice and big, and if you want to talk to Nora, I could arrange it should you help us move inwards, and two, it'll be safer. Think about it traveler, you've come all that way, you must surely know how to fight. Maybe even learned some things in the war you were in huh? You said one ancient killed another, so you know the old ones can die, and seen it done.”

“I'm uninterested in settling here,” I told him, looking back at my companions.

“Perhaps so, perhaps so, but I think if you talk to our lady she'll convince you, and if I know her she won't object if you leave afterwards.”

“We'll need to think about it.”

I gathered my companions and we returned to our boat/temporary home. Nobody seemed to want to stop us, apparently convinced that we'd be convinced. Honestly though, I had my doubts.

“What to you two think?” I asked them when we'd retreated.

“There's got to be a way to let them both know,” Chien said.

“Does it even matter? We can tell this Nora, and if she loses we tried,” Isha said with a shrug.

“Maybe, but I don't want to be involved in this conflict.”

“You, avoiding conflict? That might be a first,” she quipped back at me, but backed off when I glared.

“I don't like it, just so happens that I'm good at it.”

“Eh,” my assistant said. “Better to not like fighting and be good at it than like fighting and be bad at it.”

“That's refreshingly deep Chien. However, we still don't have an answer.”

“Take out both of them and rule instead?” Chien jokingly suggested.

“Why would I want to?” I asked.

“How should I know? I'm just saying you could, probably.”

That was entirely unhelpful, though I had to consider for a moment if he was right. With enough preparation time, and some hard work I might be able to do something similar to what I'd done back during the war to Cino, but why? I didn't really want to rule these lands, and I certainly didn't like killing. Nor did I care to draw attention to the fact that I could potentially create multiple ancient killing weapons.

“Screw it, we go with Isha's suggestion. We'll let this Nora know about what happened and if we get a chance to send word across the lines we do, but there's no proper ruler here. I'd like to do a better job of it, but unless one of them wins by the time we get there nobody's truly in charge.”

They both agreed with a shrug, after all, it really was the best we could do.