After crossing the Obeeskogee on a wooden dinghy, Surelin and her council, minus Kara and Corrina who’d been left behind to manage the migration, were led by a pair of Levidian soldiers into a nearby clearing containing a freshly constructed wood longhouse. The structure was roughly as long as eight wagons set end to end, and about as wide as three put side by side. One of the Levidian soldiers leading the group was quite chatty, and had a rather one sided conversation with Surelin as they approached the longhouse.
“Chief’s built it with their own hands, y’know? Yep, sure did. Insisted despite th' fact not a one's below sixty 'n we young folk bein’ perfectly capable ‘n all. Hell, I been buildin’ log houses since I was barely old enough to walk! Took ‘em just a week to cut all th' timber ‘n build it all up. Pretty impressive fer old folks, I reckon. Th’ clan mother directed it 'n chiefs went on 'n did it.”
“How interesting,” Surelin replied politely.
“Oh yep! Personally I think we oughta be helpin’ ya’ll out considerin’ what ya’ll did fer our folks who was held ‘n bondage ‘n such, but I ain’t makin’ the decisions round here.”
His companion made an annoyed growl. “Cestin, shut yer damn mouth already, ‘fore ya embarrass us any more ‘n ya already have.”
When they reached the door to the longhouse, the annoyed soldier indicated to Surelin and the rest where they should stand before opening the door. Inside, a dozen elderly men and a single tall elderly woman sat at a long table which occupied most of the building, all of them wearing heavy winter coats. The elderly woman sat at the table’s head. At the opposite end of the table, closest to Surelin and the rest, sat several empty chairs.
The annoyed soldier called inside. “Clanmother! Here’s th' Dowager Queen of Forelia 'n her high council t' see ya!”
The woman seated at the head of the table replied amiably. “Send ‘em in then, Domitius.”
Domitius stood out of the way and waved them inside. Surelin thanked him as they entered the building.
After the Forelians stepped inside, both sides studied each other in stony silence. The Levidian men were all stout and had gray curly beards along with long gray hair, which made it somewhat difficult to distinguish them from each other. The elderly woman seated at the head of the table had gray hair as well, though the massive crows feet at the corners of her eyes and mouth seemed to indicate that she was significantly older than the men. It was difficult to place her age exactly, but Gideon guessed her to be in her late eighties.
She settled back in her chair slowly before breaking the silence, her gaze locked onto Edea.
“Last time you ‘n I met, yer lot just called ya Queen, plain ‘n simple. Now they call ya Dowager. I know humility ain’t exactly yer game, but…Kali save us! Time's taken one hell of a toll on ya.”
Edea appeared unaffected by her underhanded insults. “Mother Time swings a double edged sword at us all, Albina, one that delivers old age on one edge and wisdom on the other. But with so much work to do she occasionally forgets to swing twice, rendering her victims old without wisdom. You have my utmost sympathy.”
The men seated at the table looked uncomfortable at the verbal fencing, but Gideon spotted traces of amusement in Albina’s expression. She gestured at the table with a wrinkled, liver-spotted hand.
“Take yer seats, then. There’s much we gotta discuss.”
Edea gave Surelin a nod before they moved to sit down. Gideon decided to remain standing, leaning back against the wall by the door with his arms crossed.
The Levidian on Albina’s immediate right, a man whose only truly distinguishing feature was his wide, rosy cheeks, scowled at Gideon.
“Lookie here, boy, are ya deaf? Put yer bottom in one of them chairs ‘fore I come over’n turn ya black ‘n blue!”
“Nah, I’m fine right here.”
Fury spread across the faces of quite a few of the Levidians, but the one on Albina’s immediate left spoke up to defend Gideon.
“Aw, whaddya know anyway, Markus? Look at ‘im, he’s just the merc type. They ain’t like keepin’ their backs to the door, is all. You’d know the feelin’ if you had a single drop of soldier blood in yer veins, ya wrinkled old sheep herder.”
Markus muttered angrily under his breath, and Celaena and Edea both turned to shoot Gideon annoyed looks, but that seemed to be the end of it.
“Thank you for taking the time to come see us, Clanmother Albina,” Surelin began amicably. “We would like to start this meeting off by stating that we’ve rescued almost two thousand Levidians from slavery in Loso and brought them home to you.”
The Levidians stared at her in complete silence for what felt like an excruciatingly long time, causing Gideon to feel confused.
What’s their fucking problem? They aren’t happy to have their people home?
Edea reached over and gave Surelin’s hand a gentle squeeze. They shared a look, and understanding seemed to pass between them.
“You must forgive our cultural differences, Clanmother,” Edea said. “Our young people are brash but well meaning. Our current circumstances have filled them with fiery motivation.”
“Strange ya’ll have so many youngsters in yer leadership group,” Albina said slowly. “Y’ ain’t got no more elders than yerself and th’ bearded fella beside ya?”
“To be perfectly frank, no. The Kenanites have committed unspeakable atrocities against our people.”
The Levidians all nodded their heads solemnly.
“We’re proper sorry to hear that, Dowager Queen,” Albina said. “Sincerely. It’s only by th' strength 'n grit of our youngsters that they ain’t done the same to us yet. We’re sure grateful to ya’ll fer bringin’ our people home.”
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“We need more than your gratitude,” Edea replied sharply. “Our blood was shed freeing your people and acquiring the grain that fed them on the journey here. We need your support in turn.”
“Yeah, Forelian blood,” Markus scoffed. “When we came to ya’ll with open arms askin’ fer aid ‘gainst our common foes, ya turned us away. Then look what happened t’ ya’ll anyway. Y’got some big fuckin’ balls t’ come around beggin’ fer help, now.”
“Not just Forelian blood, sir,” Len responded quickly. “Our organization freely includes many Losoans and Levidians. We shed blood together in Loso, fighting side by side against the great houses, and we succeeded.”
“Y’say that, but I only see one fella present among ya who ain’t a Forelian,” Albina fired back. “Y’really expect us t’ believe yer equally representing everyone when yer only leaders are Forelian? Why ain’t there a single Levidian in this council of yers?”
Edea and the rest had no answer for her, and the silence between the two groups weighed heavily in the air between them. To everyone’s surprise, Edwin suddenly broke the silence with a shout.
“How dare you be so unfair to us! Just because we here are mostly Forelians doesn’t mean we haven’t been treating everyone equally! We’ve done it this way because it’s what works, it’s what we had before the war, before we were brought as slaves to Loso. And before we came your people had absolutely no hope of freedom at all! You didn’t rescue your people from the slave masters, that was all us!!!”
The Levidians were taken by surprise at first, but they clearly didn’t appreciate Edwin’s outburst. All except for Albina, who stared at him thoughtfully. Her gaze passed to Gideon.
“Hey there, handsome youngster. Yer th' only one who ain’t a Forelian, so tell it to us straight. Have these people been lookin’ out fer ourn?”
Gideon blinked. “...Yeah, I’d say so. There’s been no question about whether they’ll help everyone out equally.”
“We have important plans for the future,” Edea added quickly. “Major changes are in store. When we finally arrive, Forelia City will become a permanently open city. All peoples and cultures will coexist within our walls.”
Markus abruptly whistled, an ear piercing sheepherder’s whistle that caused everyone in the room to flinch except for Edea and Albina.
“That’s wild talk comin’ for ya’ll hailin’ from th' Hermit Kingdom. Doubt ya’ll can accomplish that even if ya really did want it.”
“We do want it, sir,” Surelin shot back. “And we will accomplish it.”
The Levidians turned to each other silently, gauging one another. One by one they gave Albina a nod. Markus gave the final nod, albeit with visible reluctance.
“What is it ya’ll need?” Albina asked cautiously.
The relief amongst the Forelians was palpable.
“Food,” Len said. “We need at least three months worth of food for fifteen—ah correction, thirteen thousand people. And more if you can spare it.”
“We would also like to enter into an alliance with you,” Edea added. “An agreement to send military aid to one another, whenever necessary.
Albina immediately shook her head. “No. No alliance. Y’took a big step in reconcilin’ with us by bringin’ our people home, but that don’t mean all’s forgiven at once. Plus I ain’t so sure ya’ll can help us much with fightin’, anyhow, not yet at least. I reckon we can talk about it again one of these days, though.”
“And the food?” Celaena asked, hoping.
“Food we can definitely do,” she replied pleasantly. “You fed ourn, so fairs fair. Y’said three months? We’ll make it six, even. I’ll send over a few of my boys ‘n girls to ya, and ya’ll can work it out.”
“Thank you, Clanmother,” Edea said with sincere gratitude.
Albina carefully attempted to rise from her chair, and the two men sitting next to her rushed to help. Gideon felt it was strange to see her need help with something so basic after listening to how hard she'd just bargained.
“I wouldn’t offer too much thanks just yet,” she said once she was standing. “I think ya’ll are one step away from complete disaster, 'n will be fer a while yet. I hope it all works out fer all ya’ll, though. Kali willin'.”
Edea stood up as well, and approached Albina. They shook hands, staring at one another, and for a brief moment Gideon could easily picture them shaking hands as their younger selves. At Edea’s insistence, Albina then shook with Surelin and Edwin.
The meeting concluded a short time later, and a sense of relief passed over Surelin’s council once they’d had been brought back across the river. With a new supply of food guaranteed, the future of Forelia looked brighter than it had in almost a year, since the end of the siege, and especially with spring being just around the corner.
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The migration remained halted at the Obeeskogee for the next several days as it waited for the Levidians to deliver the food supplies. Throughout the entire exodus from Loso it had never fully stopped for longer than a day, and the relaxation caused an almost celebratory mood to come over the people. They fished in the river and lounged along it's banks, taking a well-deserved rest after the many trials and terrible suffering of the road.
As the migration waited for the food to arrive, the Levidians who’d been part of the journey slowly began to depart to the south, towards the Levidian heartlands. A surprising number of them chose to remain with the migration, however, mostly because they had found Forelian or Losoan spouses who intended to see the migration through to the end. Almost three hundred Levidians elected to remain with the migration.
The promised food arrived from the south about four days after the Levidian tribal council had made the initial pledge to deliver it. The carts had been filled to the brim with barrels full of rice and potatoes, to the migration’s universal delight. After having nothing but grain for months, eating something different and so much more filling left everyone in a good mood. They took a full accounting of the food shipment, and afterwards sent off a courier to express their thanks to the Levidian tribal council.
The migration crossed the Obeeskogee on makeshift rafts they’d constructed during the wait. The crossing took a full day to bring all the wagons across, but once everyone was on the opposite bank the migration set off to the west once again. The coming days grew warmer as spring began its approach, causing morale to skyrocket. Wherever Surelin and her council went within the migration they were met with happy smiles.
A month passed, and the migration left the Levidian lowlands behind and finally entered the gently rolling hills of Forelia. Spring brought life back into the world, and the hills were coated with bright green grass where they weren’t covered in trees showing the first green leaves. It still got fairly cold at night, but in the middle of the day the temperature became positively pleasant.
The worst troubles of the migration, it seemed, were well behind them. People talked excitedly about the future, what they planned to do upon reaching the ruins of Forelia City, and Surelin’s council began the difficult work of organizing the people into the jobs that would be required to form a functioning society. It was within this new atmosphere of relief and realized hope that one of the sentries traveling far ahead of the migration delivered a panicked report. They’d made visual contact with an army approaching from the south, marching quickly.
Surelin sent Celaena on one of the migration’s few horses to personally confirm the news, and when she returned a few hours later the council assembled to hear what she’d found. She was unable to hide her dread.
“It’s the Kenanites,” she told them fearfully as she dismounted. “There’s no doubt about it. I got close enough to see the banners of their king with my own eyes. An entire army of them, perhaps ten thousand strong.”