Inivisible string: A Sam and Nehemia story

Chapter 17

Nehemia

They had almost two weeks left in their journey, or maybe less if the fae magic changed the the speed of the ship, which she thought could happen, but she wasn't sure. They had met a few people in the ship already, but none of them had become friends or anything close to it. Mostly everyone kept to their own, which reminded her of the trip here almost a year ago. It had been some really long weeks, she was happy she had Sam with her right now, but most of all, she was happy Sam had convinced her to go back and that he was here with her.

After a while of walking, she realized she was staring at the fae males, it both surprised her and didn't that there weren't any females among them, after all, in some cultures she had read, females weren't necessarily warriors, but from what she had heard, she hoped it had changed, after all theu were equal in her eyes.

"What do you think about female warriors?" she asked Sam.

He raised his eyebrows, surprised by the question, she didn't think he would say anything against female warriors, but there was always a little doubt on the back of her mind. "They are the same as males, maybe sometimes even better. Remember Cel? The friend I told you about?" At her nod, he continued. "She was the best assassin at the keep, even better than me sometimes, she was my age and she was one of the best if not the best in Erilea. Why the question?"

"It just seemed weird that there are only males with powers in the ship, that's all."

"Well I don't know much about fae warriors, but I think there are plenty of female warriors, or at least there were once upon a time. I don't remember much about my mother, but I remember one story she told me once. It was about a female warrior, it was said she was the best warrior of the land.

Her name was Ithielle, she was a fae female with the power of controlling plants. She could make them do whatever she chose, she could make them carry heavy weight, move themselves around a place and plenty of other things I don't quite remember. But the point is, this gift was really useful in battles, she could fall an army with just one wave of her hand. Every general wanted her to be in their armies, every kingdom fought for her loyalty. As far as history goes, she was the best warrior to ever live. Without her, many kingdoms would have fallen, they would have ceased to exist. It was said that she would only fight when she thought it was right, she never helped conquer a kingdom, she never fought for power, only for what she believed in.

Ithielle was never crowned queen, she never got any power, any riches. But she did fall in love with a fae male, it was unexpected for everyone, since this male was a warrior who unlike her, didn't choose his battles, he would fight every battle he was ordered or asked, never thinking twice about it.

One day, there came a difficult battle. Ithielle's king wanted to conquer the neighboring kingdom, the other kingdom was a place of peace, their army was only there to defend other kingdoms. When Ithielle heard of this, she not only refused to fight, but decided to fight against her own kingdom. Before she left, she learned her lover had gone serve their king, and with a broken heart, left her life behind. My mother said she fought with the other kingdom and then disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to her after the battle, no one knows if she died, if she lived and stayed or if she just left. But her name would stay in history, as well as her courage to do what was right.

The point of the story is not that the female warrior was better than the male, though she kind of was, it's that she was storinger for doing what was right instead of what others thought. She was stronger for thinking for herself."

Nehemia felt a tear sliding down her cheek. "Sam, that was a beautiful story. I wasn't aware there were any stories of that sort left. I thought the King of Adarlan had erased them all from memory. How did that story survived?"

"One of my mothers clients talked a lot. She would always bring me new stories after she... worked for him. Those stories always gave me good dreams and I would keep asking my mother for more stories of that sort."

Nehemia didn't know what to say. Sam, had told her about his mother's job as a courteasean but he had never really told her about the interaction with her clients. Hearing that she felt nice, nice that he had gotten something good out of an ugly situation. Instead of saying anything about it, she just gave him a hug and led him to the dining hall of the ship.

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Still a bit short, but it's longer. Sorry about that. Tried making them longer, but if I do, it's mostly filled with useless details that don't do anything to the story or even to Sam and Nehemia. BTW is there any ship name for these two?