O'taomon | The Empire of Eraat: V

Olivia wakes to a knock at her door. Loraunt had gone and Logan still hadn't return. Another knock stirs her into action and she dashes to the door.

"Coming, sorry!" She opens the door to a grim troop of soldiers in blue and white uniform.

The man with a trimmed beard speaks. "Hi miss. My name is Çetin. I work with your… I work with Logan."

"Oh. Please, come in," she steps aside, grateful Loraunt had tidied the place. "Is he in trouble of some sort?"

Çetin signals to the younger soldier standing next to him. He offers her a leather breastplate gilded in gold and silver.

She accepts it gingerly. "What's happened?" She feels a growing desperation.

Another soldier offers a spear.

She accepts. "Did," she swallows, "did he die?"

Çetin shakes his head. "No miss, but he is hurt badly."

Olivia lays the breastplate and spear onto the ottoman. "Please, you must tell me," tears stream down her face.

The younger guards look around the room uncomfortably.

Çetin holds her gaze, "He is being transported to the Vitae in Hessessür."

"Hessessür," Olivia repeats. "That's… halfway across the country." She leans against the windowsill. "Logan."

"Miss," Çetin approaches her, "there is more." He unlaces a thick leather pouch from his waist and hands it to her.

Olivia sets the hefty sack alongside Logan's uniform. "What's happened to him?"

"He battled against a Nagari summoner, not even the guard could bring him down." Çetin reaches into his breastplate and hands her a small leather box, "I was instructed to give this to him by the captain."

Olivia opens it. Nestled inside a nest of coiled leather lace, lays a dark lazuli sphere encased in gold and silver framing. It pulses waves of gentle energy. "A shard?" She shuts the box, "what is happening?"

Çetin dismisses the other guards and the two are left alone. "I did not wish to say this miss."

"Olivia, that's my name." Olivia pockets the shard.

"Olivia," Çetin smiles, "Logan. These are foreign names." He resumes a serious expression. "There are powerful organizations in the city. Dangerous." He murmurs his next words, "Sohmnias. Hilal." Çetin straightens up. "You must bring this shard to him, be careful, fahrahn."

"Fahrahn." She sees him out the door, locking it during the process. She walks up to the window, and for the first time in a very long time, closes the shutters.

She opens the pouch and gasps. Gold crystaires.

She sets to work immediately, retrieving a forgotten leather bag from the dresser, and the box chest they stored their savings.

She packs a few clothing items and lays the box on top, unlocks it with the fragment key dangling on a hook at its side, and pours in the crystaires. She pockets a few for later, then adds in the shard, positioning it atop the coins.

Her mind explodes.

Her flesh shone midnight blue and she stood in place for hours, not knowing what anything is or was.

Time dilates her perception and she becomes no more. The walls, the city, it disintegrates into dust. Her memories, her quarrels and qualms, worries, fears, hopes, dreams. All dust. In this space of no space, outside existence and non-existence.

She returns to the dimly lit room, gasping for air like a fish out of water. She waits. Hours more. Until the breaking of dawn, when she can finally pick herself off the floor and drink from the vessel.

An hour more she sat, soaking in the experience. Then it hits her. Logan.

She shuts the chest, careful not to disturb the shard again. The mechanism clicks and she buries it under more clothes.

Locking the flaps to her pack, she straps it over her shoulders. Grabs her Satchel from the desk and empties out its contents, save for a few parchment and an old fountain pen. She lassoes the satchel over her shoulder.

To conclude her traveling gear, she ties the fragment that unlocks the chest around her wrist.

Stepping outside, she shuts the door, and turns the lock.

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Olivia steps off the leviahtran and makes her way toward the university. The atmosphere of the streets fill with ecstatic energy, murmurs and whispers where there normally should be boisterous gossip, news, haggling, and bantering. The weather has cooled appropriately for the season.

The university itself flocks with scholars, researchers, and professors. Though Olivia still has another day yet for lessons, she attends each of her lecture halls and hands a formal letter to the professors excusing her absence for the next few days.

The professors send her off with two weeks worth of notes, reference guides (if she happened to come across a library), and words of good luck.

"Thank you professor Omer, farahn." Olivia waves to the balding bespeckled man who'd given her a considerable month's work to be on the safe side.

At her last stop, the hall is empty save for Professor Evrim poring over a hefty stack of paperwork.

Olivia knocks on the door frame.

The professor settles her work and looks up. "Thank you for giving me a reason to take a break," she smiles. "What can I do for you dear?"

Olivia offers her the last letter, delicately written along the way. "I apologize professor, there is some urgent business I have to attend to, I will be gone for a few days, perhaps more."

The professor's gaze drifts to her thick satchel and bulging pack. Her face glows with excitement, "you're off on a journey?"

"Yes, professor, please send Halil my regards," Olivia sets the letter down. She proceeds to hand her the letter for Halil when the professor stands up.

"I think I'm in need of a bit of a stroll. Care to join me? It won't be long dear."

The professor leads her past the courtyard, commenting on the weather and extrapolating on climatic phenomena. Before long they enter the library, and there above in a study alcove is Halil, hunching over a desk beside a tower of books.

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"Halil dear?" The professor calls out.

Halil stretches his arms upward, cracking his spine. "Yes, professor?" He twists in his seat, peering down. "Oh, good morning Olivia," he waves.

"Good morning Halil," Olivia waves back.

"Halil, do you mind coming down for a bit? I'd very much appreciate it," the professor smiles affectionately.

"Of course professor, I'll be down in a minute." He vanishes into the stairwell, followed by a loud scream, a few moments later Halil appears fending for control of his legs and skids to a halt in front of them. "Er…. sorry professor, I lost my step. Maybe a few."

"I saw the demonstration, dear." The professor gestures to Olivia. "Olivia is off on a journey."

Halil's eyes widen, "that's wonderful! Where to?"

After a night of existential demonstrations, Olivia has a difficult time recalling the name. "Hessessür, I believe."

"In Eraat?" Halil frowns.

"For a few days I expect. I wanted to give you my regards," Olivia rummages through her satchel, and produces a letter denoted to the adolescent. "I hoped the professor might have delivered this for me, but seeing as you're here."

Halil accepts the letter, "that's quite considerate of you Olivia, thank you. I can't say I don't envy you a bit. Must be nice to travel outside the city."

"Then why not join her?" Suggests the professor. "You're far ahead in your courses than you realize, and the other professors and I would agree you've earned it." She places her palm on his back, "give the other's a chance to catch up, and save us some paperwork dear."

Halil flushes. "Well I don't know about that, what if I fall behind?"

The professor levels her eyes with him. "Book work and fieldwork go hand in hand. Haven't you told me you never left the city?"

"I may have mentioned it."

"This is your chance, I'll excuse your absence as research on my behalf. The both of you," she nods to Olivia.

"If Olivia doesn't particularly mind."

Olivia shrugs, "of course I wouldn't mind. Personally I think you coming along would help me out quite a bit," she admits.

"I'll need to grab a few things from my place before we depart," Halil climbs up the winding staircase to gather his work.

"Professor?" Olivia begins, "is he really far along in his studies?"

"Quite, my colleagues and I are astonished beyond disbelief how much information that boy can absorb." The professor removes her milky scarf and hands it to Olivia. "You will be needing this dear."

Olivia handles the silky scarf gingerly, "Ethel?"

"One of the collections I had made for me on my first journey. Quality still holds up, doesn't it?"

Olivia wraps the lengthy scarf over her own. "Lovely."

Halil returns a few moments later looking eager with a pack and some books. "I'll leave this back at my place, are you ready?"

Olivia glows, "yes."

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It comes as a surprise to Olivia when they spend a good deal of the journey westward, deeper into the city where terrace farms and fruit groves flourish among quaint stucco buildings. The streets here were wider, and the air fresher. Trees of all sorts bloom in courtyards, plazas, and parks.

"Do you live here? It's beautiful," Olivia notes the people dressed in colorful handmade clothing.

"Yes, though for someone like myself, I could hardly find work out here."

The leviahtran decelerates to a halt inside a capacious station, with frescoes and marble flooring.

Halil leads her into an airy street hinting the subtle scent of spices, and down toward a modest building protruding with verandahs decorous in potted shrubbery.

Inside a well kept home with plenty to do, Olivia finds herself doted on by Halil's mother. Offering her refreshments of tea and dates. Noticing she hadn't had anything since the morning prior, Olivia accepts her hospitality. "Your home is quite lovely."

Halil's mother blushes. "We built it ourselves, back before Halil was born. His father's grandfather and great grandfather, a masoner, carpenter, and farmer. With the help of some nephews, uncle's, cousins, and distant cousins. They all came together and built.

"We all help each other, that's why this side of the city is so beautiful."

Halil waits from the doorway, sporting a green and white cap with a tunic to match, thick linen trousers, and leather shoes. In addition he carries a leather traveling bag and suitcase.

His mother rises out of her seat embracing Halil affectionately. "You take care of this lovely lady Pasha. Eraat is fierce, be careful," she kisses Halil on the forehead. "Now go, the journey is long."

Olivia sets the cup down and hoists her satchel and pack. "Thank you for the tea, and the company."

Her words are met with a motherly embrace.

Halil's mother waves them off until they are no longer within sight.

At the station Olivia purchases a one way ticket for herself and two-way for Halil, in the event that she would be delayed a few more days.

They wait on the platform correlating with their leviahtran.

Olivia rummages through her pack and produces two mive fruits. "Would you like one?" She offers.

Halil accepts, "thank you. These are my favorite."

"Mine too," Olivia bites into the pink and white flesh. "I read somewhere that in some places these are called moon berries."

"I can see the resemblance," Halil holds it up to the sky. "Quite refreshing. The stone inside takes well to a variety of soil."

"It's also listed as one of the ingredients for Shixu wine. Logan likes to have it on occasion, I never tried it myself." She finishes off the fruit, inspecting the stone.

"Is that your roommate?" Halil pockets the stone.

"Yes, I failed to mention him before haven't I?" Where the stone first develops into a seed, it takes on an oddly crescent shape. "I think I'll keep this one myself," she packs the stone.

They meander back and forth on topics and literature when at noon their leviahtran arrives.

Inside they are directed to their compacted cabin with two comfortable seats beside a large window, and beds overhead. Beneath their feets, drawers were set in place for their belongings. Aysheks illuminate in apertures along the ceiling, sealed in by glass.

Halil shuts the drawer with his belongings. "I've never been in one like this."

"It is a lot more private than the city's. Not that I'm complaining, they're quite comfortable." Olivia sits down, the seat is a lot more comfortable than her sofa.

Halil joins her, "nervous?"

"A little," Olivia reviews the menu items provided. "Are you up for a meal? My treat this time."

Halil retrieves the menu tucked beside his seat. "I can't say no to that."

The leviahtran lifts and accelerates forward.

Olivia's stomach flutters. "Now I'm nervous. There's no turning back."

Halil peeks over his menu, "aren't you from outside the city?"

"I can't remember." She scans the menu and decides to try a foreign cuisine with pomegranate wine.

Halil decides on a tart salad with beytil, goat cheese, and pomegranate wine.

The two lunch together, zooming through a vast open countryside, with the occasional trees, lakes, rivers, and houses. After an early supper they engage themselves with a variety of topics, debates, and revisions of notes.

To Olivia's genuine surprise, Halil is well versed in just about anything she can bring to conversation.

A uniformed attendant comes by to collect their dinnerware. "Thank you sir and misses. The conductor has instructed me to tell all passengers," she gestures to the window, "Welcome to Eraat." She closes the door.

They gaze out the window and gasp as they move over a steep gorge, speeding toward even larger forest dotted mountains. If Olivia could fly, she imagined this is what she'd see. Far, far down way below, a series of twisting rivers merge and break apart, surrounded by thick vegetation.

"This is a detour to our destination," Halil tries peeling his eyes away, to no avail. "So we're leaving the desert for a bit." They enter the looming shadow of the mountains, "but we're no longer in the jurisdiction of O'taomon."

The great stone faces of the mountains, lush with verdure and cascading falls, fast approach.

They lean in, hearts beating. Olivia grabs Halil's hand, who accepts it gratefully.

Then darkness.