The one thing she could claim as a partial achievement was confirming her mother was right. Gates didn’t open in areas populated by the Yscians - Aris learned that the Yscians occupying the area closest to the Caelisian border were a tribe called the Munna. Unlike her mother, Aris actually spotted a few of them during her hidden treks into the dense forests.
They wore much more leather than the people who frequented Gendis, their attire expertly tailored to perfectly fit their body. Every Munna she’s seen had been armed to the teeth with multiple blades sheathed at their belts and quivers full of arrows. Aris could never get closer than two dozen paces before one of them sensed her presence and raised a racket. Even in shade form and hiding in the darkest of shadows, a Munna always seemed to be able to sense her presence.
Although she was fairly confident her shade form prevented them from harming her, she was unsure how to feel about their ability to feel her out so easily Gaians were unable to do this: was it strictly a Yscian ability? Aris decided to keep her distance just in case. However that meant she couldn’t move as easily into Munna territory as they kept a strict patrol of their border and she needed to avoid them.
She wished she could move faster, preferably on a horse. She was only able to scout out a small section of the border and observe as much as she could at tree height. But even then, she had increasing confidence that Gates did not appear within Munna borders. Patrols would behave differently - if Unseeing were pouring out of places in the forest, wouldn’t the Munna assign men to defend against that? Instead, Aris found that all patrols were focused on the Caelisian border.
They weren’t interested in guarding against the Unseeing because there were no Unseeing bothering them. They were only interested in keeping foreigners away from their land.
Her poor mama spent years trying to ascertain whether or not Gates opened in Yscian territory and here she was, finding the answer just a day or two of lurking in the forest. Sure it was circumstantial evidence, but it was more than anything Taurine had to go on.
Aris was only able to skulk around in the eastern Verdant Forests for two days at a time at most. After that she had to make the long trek back to Gendis to receive more food from Jorra and tasks from Morton to ‘earn her keep’. She also had to spend time in her hiding spot in her bodily form to wean herself off from Shade form. It was beginning to be harder and harder to stop herself from just being a ghost all the time.
She came up with a myriad of theories of why Gates were not opening out east. Surely it had something to do with the Munna - did it have anything to do with how they could sense her in shade form? Camaz was also able to see and sense her in Shade form because of his ability to reach out to Solute. Did the Munna have similar abilities? Such an ability was extremely rare for Gaians, which was why Camaz is held to such high esteem. Did all Munna have the ability to sense Solute? If so, how does that relate to the lack of Gates?
If she was still a part of the Academy, Camaz would probably have her write a paper on this. Aris hated to admit it but there were benefits to writing her observations down for reference: what if something happened to her? Perhaps someone would benefit to her findings, even if she never planned on returning to the Academy. Jorra found her as much paper as she could find along with some pencils in exchange for finding some hard-to-access herbs that grew too close to the Munna border.
Before arriving at Gendis, Aris had frequently stolen whatever she needed from unsuspecting villagers or merchants. She tried not to take items that would be noticeable when missing, but people always eventually noticed. People would then be on the alert for a thief and it would only be increasingly difficult to steal again. It was why in Gendis, upon finding the underground room she could sleep peacefully in, Aris decided she needed a connection to the town to give her essentials to remain truly inconspicuous. So far, Jorra had only been too happy to help. There was a ban on runeology in the village and it had only made life difficult on top of the growing concern of Gates in the area. Jorra and Morton used Aris as a way to benefit from magic, yet not directly using it.
Aris didn’t care too much. It would be something the Lunaris would do for her people, right?
While in her solid form, she spent some time with an oil lantern in her sealed off underground room writing her observations on the Munna. The scant amount of information she put down almost embarrassed her. Was this all she’s found out after a year of being here?
She returned to the border the next day, determined to find something new, something useful. The promise she made to Nilda so many years ago wasn’t an empty promise and she will show Camaz that she had always been right about coming back to her kingdom. She is now the Lunaris of Caelis, Parts-damn it, and she will show them.
Her route took her much further north than she’s ever gone. It took her nearly the whole day to be at a point of the border where she assumed the patrol would end because the landscape rapidly shifted beyond. Ragged gray rocks suddenly interrupted the dense forest, the sides steep and walled off the Munna territory. The rocks grew into small hills, then led to the side of a mountain. This was not one of the Nossan mountains, but a smaller one in Munna territory not named by the Caelisians.
The journey exhausted her but for her own protection, she scaled the mountain for a bit to find a suitable little nook to bunker down in. Aris tried not to make the whole journey in her Shade form, although it was tempting to because she didn’t feel exhaustion in that form. Neither did she feel pain. In fact, making the switch often made her giddy, like a child finally able to eat their favorite pastry after a long wait. Of course, the feelings that plagued her corporeal body returned with vengeance when she did turn back. It was a temporary escape. She had to keep reminding herself that.
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She froze at the sound of dried foliage being stepped on. Instinctively, shade form took over and she silently glimpsed over in the direction of the noise.
A Munna man stood at the bottom where the elevated rock ended and the forest began. Dark blue-black hair cropped short to his skull complimented by blue skin not unlike the color of the flowers in the clearing she meets Jorra and Morton in. Dark green irises seemed to glow as they trained on her Shade form - where Gaians had eye whites, Yscians had dark blue or black color around their irises. He looked to be a little younger than middle aged, but then again, Aris wasn’t experienced in predicting the ages of Yscians.
This man didn’t react the way the patrols did although he clearly spotted her. He didn’t raise an alarm, he didn’t shout or call for reinforcements. He looked up at her half hiding in her little nook and smiled a little.
“Lyssiin,” he said softly. He was speaking Yscian. Aris had no idea what it meant. The tongue hissed off the tongue, far cry from standard Gaian which contained little or no ‘s’ noises. He repeated the word a few times as if calling to her. When she didn’t respond he gave a little chuckle. Then he started speaking Gaian. “Ghost?”
Aris stared back at him and he smiled wider.
“You are the ghost haunting my friends?” he asked. Aris held her tongue. A Yscian man was speaking fluent Gaian to her! “And you are a Gaian ghost?”
Again, she refused to make a sound. She tensed, ready to flee in case he came after her.
“Do you have a name? Can you hear me?”
Silence. The man moved slowly backwards, his hands splayed out as if to indicate he meant no harm. Aris noticed that unlike all the other Munna she’s seen, this man was not armed at all.
“My name is Tassik,” he said. “Do not haunt my friends any longer, lyssiin, they are frightened of you.”
Aris suppressed a snort of derision. Since she wasn’t responding, Tassik decided to retreat slowly back into the forest. She spotted flashes of green in the growing darkness, sure that he was frequently eying her to make sure she wasn’t going after him. Or was he hoping that she would follow?
This Munna man was very different from all the rest she’d seen. For one, he didn’t look like a fighter or even an archer. There wasn’t a single weapon on his body and he didn’t move with the same grace and precision she’d witnessed in the patrols. He also didn’t wear leathers, only a simple loose tunic and trousers.
Not to mention he spoke Gaian. Of course that shouldn’t be that surprising - Caelisians had blood ties to the Yscians (presumably the Munna) long ago, so it only made sense that they co-existed at some point. However racial tensions had firmly divided the two people in the East for the past three to four generations. How in Part’s name does this Munna know Gaian?
While she mulled over this curiosity, dusk descended to make the dark, dense forest even darker. She was about to switch back to her bodily form when she spotted a spark of light appear in the dark that then persisted into a flickering orange glow. A campfire.
She thought Tassik and returned to his home deep in the forest, but it looks like he built himself a campfire between the trees. Or could it be that his house was somewhere close? She pressed back into her rocky nook as she heard his footsteps approach again. She could barely see him in the growing darkness save for his green eyes but she heard him put something on the ground.
“Does a Gaian ghost eat?” Tassik called out softly. He sounded amused. “If so, I share my food with you.”
Footsteps faded away towards the campfire and when Aris looked, she could partially see his form sit down near the fire’s glow between the trees. He was probably testing her, trying to figure out what she was. What if he was trying to trap her? What if he was purposely unarmed to appear defenseless? She had never fought a Yscian before, not counting the numerous times she’s run into Munna patrols. There was no altercation during those times since she simply ran away. If he suddenly attacked her, would she win the fight?
Aris determined he was far enough away she could silently descend the side of the rocky elevation to inspect the food he set on the ground for her. It was some sort of compacted grain, balled up so one could pick it up easily. It sat on a flat, clean leaf to protect it from the dirt on the ground.
She crouched next to it, staring at the grain ball. It reminded her of the buns she’d stolen from Steamer to give to a woefully misplaced Sekrelli man back at the Academy. She spent a lot of energy convincing him she was a tree, then never talked to him again. She wondered how he was doing.
Back then she had hidden from him as well, ‘shrouded’ by her amateurish ability. Out of nowhere, he had introduced him without her prompting in the same manner Tassik had. He had wondered if the food she gave him was poisoned but he ate it anyway in the end. Fool.
Mayhap I will adjust my perspective…
She couldn’t even remember his name but she remembered his words. Back then it planted the seed of the idea to absorb the powers of a Shade. Perhaps now she needed to hear it again.
Aris picked up the grain ball (which also turned shadowy in her grasp) and drifted back up to her hiding spot where Tassik would not see her in the dark. She switched back to her corporeal form then took a bite of the grain ball. It was delicious even if it was cold, spiced with some sort of seasoning she’s never tasted before. The grains were sticky and held together with its own starches and the center had chunks of meat.
If it was poisoned, Aris almost wouldn’t mind. It tasted that good. She demolished the grain ball and took a swig of water from the water skin strapped to her waist. After she was fed she sat back in her hiding spot and watched the flicking orange glow in the forest. She needed to adjust her perspective. It was astounding that this Tassik could speak Gaian, but that wasn’t the thing she should be hung up on.
The most important thing she should focus on was that Tassik was willing to be her friend.