A Glimpse Of Home [Alia]

[Quetzal]

There wasn't much time left until the Varden were expected to attack Uru'baen, but Ri'Shei was not so worried about the upcoming violence. She had good faith in the Empire. The right people would win this battle, and she was certain she was on the good side. After all, the Empire upheld the law, while the Varden were barbaric savage rule-breakers who cared for themselves rather than the good of everyone. She was living in a small comfortable house with other respected soldiers. She had plenty of hot food, water, training, equipment, and even a few small groups of soldiers at her command. Being tall as a kull and seen as a foreigner from the strange Hadarac desert intimidated some people and earned her respect. Living in the desert made her hardy and she was a good fighter, capable of being a challenge to many of the higher-ranking soldiers. She had noticed how beating men made them uneasy, and also that the more respect she earned, the less like a weak woman she was treated. It was strange but not unwelcome - the people of Alagaesia were often terrible in the way they treated women.

Today she was walking with confidence through the centre of town. She had trained and washed that morning, and was now taking a walk after lunch. It was nice to see the city. She had got to know it reasonably well in her time with the Empire, and it had grown on her. At first it had seemed strange to her, these firmly set stone buildings, the tall walls, the sheer size of it all, in comparison to the travelling caravan villages she had grown up with as a nomad. Now it was pretty, almost, Ri'Shei able to appreciate the architecture now the initial shock of seeing architecture had worn off. The centre was a nice place to be. It was full of people. She liked to imagine what they were all doing. Some were heading in the direction of the market, others meeting friends or family, others hard to guess.

Ri'Shei had no particular purpose being here. She might buy a few things, have a drink, see if anyone she knew was around, something like that. Today her attention was drawn by something she noticed out the corner of her eye. She almost missed it completely, but doing a double take she noticed them. Tattoos on a young woman's hands. They were only visible on the hands, the rest of the woman being covered in modest clothing, but Ri'Shei picked them out because they were something very familiar she had not seen in a long time. There was no mistaking the style of tattoo seen in the Hadarac desert nomadic clans. With a smile, she pushed through towards where she had glimpsed the marks through the crowd. Finding the woman by her tattoos, she walked up next to her. "Those are the markings of the Hadarac desert clans, are they not? That's something I have not seen in a long time. Which clan?" the dark-skinned spartan asked, the desert blatant in her voice to anyone who knew the accent.

[Alia]

Alia watched the strange tall woman out of the corner of her eye. Alia had seen many great heroes while she was in her master's service. Knights, sorcerers, tacticians, and grizzled war heroes, but she'd never seen a woman among their number, and certainly never one as tall and powerful as this stranger. Was she a Surdan? She had heard Surdans were very tall and powerful. Taking one last glance in the tall woman's direction, Alia sighed and returned herself to the task at hand. Spices. The master had expensive tastes today. She slipped through the crowds to the merchants stalls, searching until she found the spices she was looking for. After a quick but savage debate, she bargained the man down to half his original price, before handing over the coins and tucking the spices away in her basket. Alia turned from the merchant, and to her shock found the tall woman next to her.

"Those are the markings of the Hadarac desert clans, are they not? That's something I have not seen in a long time. Which clan?" The tall warrior asked, her Haderac accent obvious. Alia instinctively made to pull her sleeves down over her hands at the mention of her tattoos, but she immediately felt foolish under the tall woman's gaze. Instead, Alia curtsied, bowing her head, and held out her hands palms up for the warrior to see. The red, intricately designed flowers on her palms were plain to see. "I am of Clan Najuul, Mistress. I was raised up in the northern sands." Alia said, her own Haderac accent was less obvious. "I received the flowers when I turned sixteen. They're a tradition for the women of my clan." Alia said, eyes respectively downcast.

Unable to hold back her curiosity, Alia glanced up at the woman's face. There was something different about her, beyond foreign. Her features were finer than most humans. Alia covered her mouth, eyes widening. She had pointed ears! The height, the muscle, the ears, it all made sense now! "You are a Spartan!" Alia blurted, forgetting to address the warrior formally. "My Clan told stories of your kind, but I thought they were only legends!"

[Quetzal]

To Ri'Shei, being from the desert was something to be proud of, so she was surprised when Alia made to cover up her tattoos. That was possibly a reason for her covering up so much. Ri'Shei was pleased when she gave up hiding them and showed her the floral marking. She didn't recognise the clan or the tattoos, but they were obviously in the style of the desert clans. "I don't think I've ever met the Najuul. We never settled in once place long, travelling all over. Tattoos weren't tradition in my clan, but I know it was popular elsewhere and a lot of people had tattoos anyway," she said.

The young woman finally looked up at her face. Ri'Shei could see her trying to place what was odd about her appearance, and was delighted when she exclaimed correctly her race. She smiled, nodding. "Yes, I am. We keep ourselves to ourselves mostly, which is I think why you must have thought we were just legends. It's a relief to finally meet someone who recognises me as a spartan. Most people assume I'm some kind of weird half-elf." She was truly happy to be correctly identified someone. As much as she liked being out of the quiet desert life, it did get quite frustrating when hardly anyone had even heard of her race before. She was never homesick, but hearing the Hadarac accent in Alia's voice and thinking about her old home made her begin to wonder if a visit back wouldn't be so bad. Locating anyone she knew would be a problem.

The way the other woman was acting so formally and respectfully was appropriate behaviour for a servant, and ordinarily Ri'Shei would make no comments on it. Engaging in normal conversation made it seem weird to be talking so formally. "There's no need to look down at the ground the whole time, or to call me 'mistress'. I'm only a soldier, no one too high-ranking. My name's Ri'Shei; you can call me that. What's yours? Do you ever miss the desert?" she asked.

[Alia]

Alia nodded respectfully at the woman's words. "Forgive me, Ri'Shei." She just managed to stop herself from saying mistress. "My master is strict on matters of propriety. I am Alia. I am property of the Lord General, and I serve him as a domestic servant." Alia held up the basket of groceries, "Ensuring that my master remains well fed is just one of my duties." Alia wondered if Ri'Shei could understand. She was a Spartan... surely such powerful beings all lived lives of adventure and glory on the battlefield.

Despire herself, Alia began to relax, feeling tension that she didn't even know was there disappear. Usually she could only relax around the other slave women of her master's household, her friends. Here, with another desert native, she felt she could allow herself to be at ease. "Yes, I miss the desert greatly... although it has been many years. I'm afraid the Najuul would not take me back at this point, and one must have a clan to survive in the desert." Alia sighed. She wished she could go back to the way things were... but now she belonged to a very powerful man who was unlikely to part with his possessions. She worried that the only way she'd part with him would be by being thrown to the wolves on the auction block. She'd prefer to stay in his service than risk being taken by a much, much crueler master. Alia pushed the sadness and fears away and smiled up at Ri'Shei. "I have adapted to Imperial life well enough, but what of you, Ri'Shei? The Chieftain of the Najuul said your kind were very secretive. If I may ask, why come so far from the Haderac? Why come to the heart of the Empire?" Alia glanced at Ri'Shei's inhuman features again, memorizing them. It was an honor to be in the presence of such a great being, and she wondered how many of the legends of Spartans were true? Would Ri'Shei be open to explaining them?

[Quetzal]

There was nothing to forgive. This woman was so polite it was annoying. One word did make Ri'Shei pause. "Property?" she repeated. "Slavery isn't against the law, but I've never been comfortable with that. It's not so bad if the slave owes a debt and pays it in labour, but if they haven't done anything wrong..." she had never given much thought to her opinions on slavery. It had always seemed a distant thing, none of her concern. Never had she properly examined a slave - they were invisible to her as most servants were to most people. Slavery had never bothered her massively, but she had never stopped to think of how the slaves felt about it.

Ri'Shei nodded in agreement. "Surviving in the desert is a team effort, yes," she said. Anything in the desert was hard to find. No doubt the years spent surrounded by identical scenes of sand taught Alia a lot about navigation - she herself had learned from her nomadic lifestyle to look at the stars and find their rough location on a map. Even if she could find the Najuul, clans varied in how welcoming they were. Spartans would happily adopt other spartan clans, and might help someone of another race but most likely would not allow them to stay there permanently. Some desert clans were weird, hostile, and worshipped strange gods with what seemed to Ri'Shei like completely unnecessary sacrifices. Those would probably make a sacrifice of Alia. She seemed reasonably sane, so it was probable she came from one of the friendlier clans. After all these years, even with her tattoos she may be seen to have abandoned them. "How friendly are your people? Would they resent you for leaving?"

It was good to hear Alia had adapted well. The customs of the Imperials were strange to her as the ways of the desert nomads were to the Empire. "I have adapted like you, I suppose. I understand the culture and customs, but I chose not to adopt them all myself since I prefer some of the desert ways." Clothing was an example of this. Though she had had to have some made especially to be warmer, she still wore robes like the spartans did in the desert. "People still think of me as foreign, especially because most don't know about the spartans, but I like that. It gives me something over them. As for how I came to be here... I was always more adventurous than the rest of my village growing up. I wanted to have real adventure beyond travelling the desert. Finding a new clan and exploring more would have been enough, but one evening some Empire soldiers came to our village. We fought them, but being untrained for real combat, lost without much of a struggle. Their leader asked if any of us wanted to join the Empire, to leave the desert and see a world where the landscape was different everywhere you looked, where there were plants covering everything and cities and stone houses. He offered adventure to fight for our country in a war we weren't even aware of, so I volunteered and didn't let them force anyone else to go. I was the only one who left. I don't regret the decision. I would have been bored staying with my village, so I think I would have explored outside the desert anyway sooner or later. I'm glad the people to help me leave knew about the outside world. Being so secretive, we hear a lot of news from the other spartans but little of the outside world. We didn't know about the return of the Riders, the war, anything." That had been a bit of a shock to find out.

[Alia]

Alia listened to Ri’Shei’s story with rapt attention, fascinated to hear of the spartan’s people and how she was transplanted to Imperial lands. Despite her alien, inhuman appearance, Ri’Shei’s story sounded very human. However, she was certainly more adventurous than Alia ever had been. Alia had never touched a true weapon in her life… and yet as far as she could tell Ri’Shei made her living by such devices. It brought freedom certainly, but as Alia thought about the idea of hurting and killing for her own benefit she felt sick. She could never do that!


Alia shuffled a little. Ri’Shei had told her so much, it was only fair that she told some of her own life in return. “My people are… hard hearted. They can be generous when they wish… but ultimately their loyalty is devoted to their blood. While I was raised Najuul, I was not born of them. I was born in the Empire, and the Chieftain told me that my parents had sold me when I was very young.” Alia realized that she was wringing her hands a little and forced herself to calm. She would present her story with dignity! She owed herself that much at least. “When I turned sixteen, I was promised that I would be freed and married to one of the young men within the clan. I would mix my blood with his and strengthen us all.” Seizing on her courage Alia rolled up her sleeves, displaying the graceful, spiraling tattoos that wrapped up around her arms. “These show that I was ready for marriage. But before I could meet with the matchmaker we were raided by bandits and lost everything. After that... the new chieftain sold me back to the Empire for silver." Alia remembered well, and the fear, pain, and anger she had felt on that day still echoed within her.

Alia sighed and rolled her sleeves back down, once again taking on the look of a demure servant. “I’ve been through a couple masters now… and I have been very lucky. I served a family once… and they… they were some of the purest and kindest people I ever knew. But now I’m here.” Alia sighed. “The Master is not cruel… but he is strict.”


Realizing the time she had spent talking, curtsied politely one last time. “Thank you for the conversation Ri’Shei, but I really must be going. My Master does not take patiently to delays. It was a pleasure to meet you… it is always good to meet a sister of the sands. May you find victory for us in this endless war.” Alia turned quickly and made through the crowds. She had more chores to do... but she would remember this conversation. If she was lucky, she'd see Ri'Shei again.

[Quetzal]

Ri'Shei understood completely when Alia said her people were loyal to their own blood. The spartans were a lot like that. Friendliness towards other villages were common, though some were less like that. Her village had been one of the friendly ones, trading and talking whenever they met other friendly clans and having close connections with some, meeting regularly or sometimes travelling together. Yet these were all spartan clans. Clans of other races were treated with suspicion and avoided wherever possible. "It's a shame your new chieftain did not keep the promises the old one made. You were raised among them, you must have been more used to their ways than anything else. I've seen clans who forbid any outsiders to join. Over the years, ailments and deformities can be passed down generations until the whole clan is afflicted. They should have let you stay," she decided the Najuul had been wrong.

It was good that the family Alia had served once were nice. Slavery wasn't so bad if the slave was happy. Whatever she said about her current master not being cruel, she didn't look happy now. Concern flickered in her to see it, especially with how she lacked the time even for a simple chat. "Goodbye. I hope you are not too affected by the war, however it ends," she said, unsure whether or not to let her walk off as she was. Hopefully she would be all right.

((Are we ending the thread? If not, assume Ri'Shei runs after Alia and asks if she's really all right))