Mpahray and Dayvao led me across the town square towards the stone building that I was initially imprisoned in the basement of. During the short walk I could hear many of the people around us whispering to each other, usually after sneaking glances at me. Some were laughing, while others looked afraid. It's strange how quickly Dayvao got over her fear of me, I thought, I was under the impression that she was terrified, but now she's as smug as Mpahray is. The two guards opened the front door to the building and led me inside, closing the door behind me and bolting it.
The interior of the building was lit with what appeared to be oil lanterns of some kind, using cloudy glass sheets to keep the flames from being blown out by passing drafts. Two such devices hung in the first room we entered, which itself had an ornate-looking rug upon which two desks were placed. Behind each desk was a door made of wood and iron, each with a symbol on it. One symbol appeared to be three concentric circles, while the other was a circle divided in half, whose halves were divided in half again by curved lines which connected to the same points as the straight line. A third guard stood at the back of the room between the two desks and nodded to us as we entered.
“Did you have any issues bringing it here?” the guard asked. I stared him directly in the eyes, trying to see if I could elicit an emotional reaction. Unlike the others, this guard stood firm and did not even twitch. Superior officer, I thought, maybe this one has formal training of some kind.
“No,” Mpahray shrugged, “do you need us here for this?”
“You may go,” the senior guard replied, “and you, wait quietly while the yihmpaoawpt and nihmpaoawpt prepare for you.” The last comment was directed at me, obviously. Mpahray and Dayvao left in a hurry, chatting as soon as the door closed. I stood in place, eyeing up the guard. The sword at his hip was different from the ones Mpahray and Dayvao used. It's more of a scimitar or a sabre, I thought, perhaps indicative of rank?
“How long are you expecting this to take?” I asked nonchalantly.
“You have nothing better to be doing,” the guard replied coldly. “Shut up and wait there.”
“Or what, you'll dart me again?” I taunted. “If you wanted me dead you would have killed me already, I knew that the instant I woke up in that cell downstairs.” The guard hissed, then gritted his teeth. Clearly he didn't approve of that decision, I thought. The door with the concentric circles opened, and out walked the female village leader. I knew it was her because she was wearing the same clothes that she had been wearing when talking to the merchant. Now that I had seen a few women, I could identify the slightly enlarged breast and lack of facial hair as well. Matriarch, I thought, that must be the meaning of one of those two titles. That, or something culturally equivalent.
The matriarch sat down at the desk in front of her door, then placed her hands together on top of its surface. After a few moments of silence, she took a deep breath and exhaled.
“Vowteyz, would you nvaob go and tell my sheybngeyljh to hurry up,” she asked the guard beside her. With a small nod, the guard walked to the other door and let himself inside, quickly shutting it so that I couldn't see the interior of the room. After some muffled speech, the guard emerged along with a man who I recognized as the one who had shot me after I had killed the merchant and guards. From up close I could see the skin on his face was more wrinkled and dry than it appeared from afar, a clear sign of aging, though his motions betrayed no wear-related damage to his limbs.
“I was just waiting for you ngoyveyrjh,” the man said to the woman as he sat down. “We can begin whenever you want to.” The pair both looked at me at the same time, then the man withdrew a piece of paper from inside his desk. Glancing at it, then at me, he looked troubled. “So then, forest man, do you know why we have brought you here today?” he asked.
“Whatever the reason, it should include the return of my weapons,” I replied, “but do know that if you try to incarcerate me again I'll be forced to use violence to escape. You won't have time to use any of your poison darts.”
“Those darts are part of the issue actually,” the woman said. “Tell me, did you really not know our language before arriving in Suwlahtk?”
“I did not,” I replied honestly. “It is a simple language compared to my own, so I picked it up quickly by speaking to the boy, Mihvay.” Simple might not have been the proper word to use, but I didn’t know how to express the concept of having a smaller effective vocabulary due to how it modified words through intonation, inflection, and tense.
“You seriously expect us to believe that you learned Uwrish in a couple of days?” the man scoffed. I met his gaze and saw that he was searching me for signs of deception, much like I was searching him.
“I wouldn't call myself fluent,” I said, mixing in an English word for emphasis, “but I can comprehend basic conversations well enough. The amount of vocabulary required to infer new words is low for this language due to how it is spoken. Even now I'm learning words by listening to you speak.” The man rubbed the tidy beard on his chin, furrowing his brow.
“Then what is that language you speak?” he asked. “I have never heard one that before. Have you, ngoyveyrjh?” That word must be either a professional term or a term of endearment, I figured.
“I have not,” the woman said. “Please, say a few sentences in your language so that we might try to identify it.”
“You people had better be planning to give me my weapons soon,” I said in English. “I'm running out of patience for this bullshit. I need to get information on where my objective is and stop wasting time.”
“Gwahlaob maybe?” the woman suggested. “It's certainly not anything I've heard before.”
“It's not Gwahlaob,” the man grunted, “too many shoyzoydh noises. It could be-”
“It's English,” I interrupted, “now tell me why I'm here and give me my equipment back.” The two village leaders looked at each other, then back to me.
“You told Mihvay your name was Yuwniht, correct?” the woman asked, emphasizing the u into a yu sound just as Mihvay had due to her accent.
“You may call me that if you need a name to refer to me by,” I replied neutrally.
“Is it your name or not?” the man snapped.
“My current name is INFUNIT-24503e,” I said quickly, deliberately taking advantage of the language barrier to induce confusion, “however I believe you may find that name to be too long to use.” The man blinked, and I could see that he was trying to mentally process the information I had just given him. I was no longer afraid that these people might be able to infer anything about my origin from my name as they obviously didn't have any knowledge of advanced machinery.
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“Yuwniht,” the woman said, “why did you attack the merchant?”
“I determined that being sold as an animal would have made my eventual escape from bondage harder,” I said simply. “Thus, it was the correct course of action to kill the merchant and his guards to ensure that I would either be free or imprisoned in a... weak cell like the one below us.”
“Yet you nearly died and were recaptured,” the woman retorted, “so it didn't work.”
“Were it not for the fourth guard's lucky stab, I could have escaped the village afterwards,” I said. “Unfortunately battle can be chaotic.” As if understanding the English word, all three humans in the room gave short nods.
“Do you know who you killed?” the man asked. At first, I thought it was an accusation of some kind, but the tone seemed to pose a genuine question.
“No,” I shrugged, “and I don't really care to know unless the information can benefit me in some way.” The man nodded, then looked down at his paper. The guard stiffened up at my callousness. “Tell me, what happened to the contents of the wagons?” I asked. All three humans reacted to my question physically. The woman inhaled sharply and looked down, the guard stared daggers in my direction, and the man rubbed his forehead. I think I'm getting the picture here, I thought.
“We would like you to sell us the contents of the wagons,” the man said, “at a sahp price of course.” Why? I wondered.
“Do your laws say that I own them because I killed the owners?” I asked. The reaction of the room told me the answer almost instantly. No, I determined, there's probably no law like that. They're trying to get me to sell them stolen goods that I don't own, the question is: what do they gain from this?
“Will you sell them to us or not?” the man asked curtly. He looked up at me, clearly intending to look determined but appearing more as though he was pleading.
“What do you offer in return?” I asked. “Bear in mind that your statement just now implied that you recognize the wagons and their contents as my property.”
“They are of little use to you,” the woman spoke up, “they contain mostly fabrics and iron, with some oylwpaojhaoeylmz for cooking and tools for farm work.” What is it with these people that makes them unable to give me a straight answer? I wondered. I said nothing in reply, waiting for someone to actually answer my question. Assuming the contents of the wagons are just supplies, she's right though, I thought, I need rations, directions, and equipment.
“That cabin,” the man finally said, “you can stay there, we'll give you food and water for a few yeylfz, and so long as you don't harm anyone in town you can stay until you decide to leave.”
“What is a yeylfz?” I asked. To their credit, neither the matriarch nor the patriarch reacted as though my question was annoying or unexpected.
“A period of time,” the woman explained, “it is thirty-two days on average, depending on the zaobeyl.” So a month, I concluded, I'm glad I had Mihvay explain their spoken numbers to me.
“The guards and the merchant, what about their bodies?” I asked. “What about their possessions?” Did you think I forgot about those? I wondered.
“We will take care of that,” the man offered, “there is no need for you to do anything more regarding them.” Now I see, I thought, this merchant was probably overcharging them, and they're hoping that they can get his whole stock of wares without having to pay. If anyone asks, they'll say they bought them from me, making me the suspect if someone comes to investigate his disappearance. Since I'm just a clueless “forest man”, they're hoping that I don't realize the implications here. While the use of currency in it was new, the general structure of the gambit was well-known to me.
“You will give me their armor, weapons, and tools,” I stated, “clothing as well. You will house me until I see fit to leave. You will provide me with three meals per day from your food stores for a period of at least two yeylfz. Furthermore, you will assist me in a matter which I may or may not speak with about in the near future.” I paused for a moment to take a breath, gauging the reaction.
“That's a bit-” the man began, trying to cut in while I was silent. His eyes were bulging and his pale face was flushed from stress.
“You will also ensure that the village does not act in any hostile way towards me, and I will do the same,” I continued. “As well, if some associates of the merchant or his guards attempt to track me down you will provide assistance in the form of weaponry, traps, and basic combat support.”
“We can't do that,” the woman replied quickly as if to interject, “the last part specifically. We are completely out of ngvowvaos thanks to you, and it cannot be found in this region. Without it all we have is yeyvoydey and our yeyvoydey is not trained for anything more than keeping the peace. In fact, one of the reasons we brought you here is because we were intending to barter for your assistance if any wild animals attack the village. You are strong, and you are clearly skilled at sehpztaazmoydh. Without our poison darts, we are at a high risk of losing villagers to ngahp attacks.”
“How long will it take you to get more ngvowvaos?” I asked. The word seemed to be a portmanteau of the words for “blue” and “leaf”, leading me to believe it was some sort of plant.
“Three yeylfz at a minimum,” the man grumbled, “the zyeywvay taapeyraalb that supply us are infrequent.” Very unfortunate for them, I thought, I don't plan on sticking around that long unless I absolutely have to. Still, admitting that they lacked the materials to create more darts was a key error, and one I would exploit.
“Fine, I agree to provide defense against animal threats for that duration so long as my meals are provided during it,” I lied perfectly, “and so long as the other conditions, except for the combat resources, are met.” Both the man and the woman looked shocked, and the guard seemed confused. They didn't expect me to agree to it? I wondered, I suppose they do think I'm a savage, but how did they expect this to go? Of course, I had no intention of actually honoring my word if the deal became unfavorable for me, but there was no way for them to know that for certain.
“So to be clear, you agree to give us the wagons and help to protect us from ngahp attacks for just three yeylfz of food and water, an old cabin to stay in, the possessions of the dead taapeyraal members minus the wagons and beasts, and a simple ruw of non-aggression?” the man asked, barely containing his excitement beneath a faux-serious tone. You're doing a poor job of making this deal sound fair, I commented mentally, I hadn't thought about the beasts either. I have no idea how to maintain or ride one, so they're useless to me, but it sure does look like these villagers are getting quite the deal.
“I will also be requesting information about a topic at a later date,” I reminded him, “I do expect you to be forthcoming with whatever you know. If you know nothing, that is fine, but if you lie to me there will be consequences.” My warning dampened the room's mood, but only slightly. The matriarch and patriarch nodded, clearly pleased with the outcome and trying to act nonchalant. They both rose and walked towards me beside one another, then held out the arms of their inner shoulders at a forty-five-degree angle. Handshake? I thought, But with both at once? I reached out and took their hands, gave them a half shake, and released.
“The deal is done,” the woman declared. “We will honor this agreement in the names of the wawjhb and znoypoymz. We do not have a mahyneyv in this village, but we will perform a ritual at sundown if you require it. You may also request materials to create a dpael in your new residence.” Just the thought of having to sit through some kind of “ritual” filled me with boredom.
“It's fine,” I sighed, “just know that if you betray me, you will regret it. I want to make that extremely clear.” Both the man and woman nodded in understanding.