The Withered Land: Dragons and Marauders

Dragons and Marauders, Part Twenty-three

Given the relative beauty of the seaside setting, with its wild shores under rolling clouds that resembled the faces of goblins fanned by a singing, sighing wind full of sadness and menace, one would have thought the people of Peravendath would have been appreciative of their idyllic terrain as comparted to the barren wastes of a lot of the continent. Even the metropolitan panorama of the extended city skyline, with its graceful, delicate minarets and pointed, imposing towers aimed high at a distant and dark heaven, was poetically dramatic, more than enough to inspire the higher aspirations of any citizen who chose to shake off their depression and ennui to look up from the ground. But this was not the case. The consistency of the rhythms of the sea did not bring these people serenity or calm. The people of Peravendath hurried to and fro, shoulders stooped under the perceived heaviness of their day's labors, with pinched, annoyed expressions and with mistrustful eyes that avoided colliding gazes with other passersby.

D'Spayr did not like this place.

They were led down an artery off the main boulevard past an impromptu gathering of nomadic mystics called "Geqabeyts" and their hooded acolytes as the rangy and willowy, multi-tattooed, robe-swathed masked fakirs danced. Accompanied by a solemn percussive rhythm, they whirled about in small bands of triangular formation, singing sad, ululating melodies to a petulant god who had purposefully abandoned them for their all-too-human sins. Their god had hard and inflexible rules of conduct that it demanded humanity follow, iron-clad rules that were frequently beyond the attainment of the fragile human animal. "Geqabeyt" was an old, pre-Emperium Teshiwahurian term that loosely translated as thankless and unrewarded. Their god would never answer their prayers, thinking them unworthy of attention or of forgiveness, yet that was why they loved their deity -- callous and unsympathetic to human suffering, it could not be dissuaded from its indifference, nor negotiated or bargained with. Its neglect was forever constant. The Geqabeyts thought this hard-hearted and insensitive god was the only kind of a god they deserved.

D'Spayr thought that any supposedly spiritual celestial deity such as that was cowardly and useless, worthy only of disdain as opposed to worship. It was hard to be a human, harder still to be a moral and ethical one, especially in a complex world that seemed to purposefully erect barriers and obstacles to the pursuit of virtue and righteousness. Any alleged "god" that would turn its grace away from the human struggle to become more than a self-centered and clumsy, scheming and deceitful primate was not worthy of being regarded as divine -- and certainly not worthy of celebration. To D'Spayr's mind, gods should elevate their worshippers, not denigrate them.

But then again, this was Teshiwahur, the Withered Land. This was a world where anyone who looked up at the so-called heavens could clearly see the sky bleeding through a rip that hinted tantalizingly at a monstrous Void of Nothingness beyond. As large as Teshiwahur's mighty dominant sun was, The Wound would have easily swallowed twenty of them. In the face of such a daily reality, it was a wonder there were any remaining concepts of a divine deity at all.

The Knight was worried. The grim cadre of armed guards who had greeted them at the aerodrome had been convinced to escort them deeper into Peravendath and towards the center of the main island, towards the multi-tiered master piazza where the regional government held its headquarters. Lumynn had, somewhat miraculously, spun quite the tale of secret negotiations and economic intrigues during his introduction of Kolag Y'phree's small expeditionary force. Supposedly, the group was in the Pang Xa'Omathra region to extend an olive branch from Y'phree's government in The City and to take the first steps in establishing mercantile trade and primitive fuel and energy exports between the two non-Emperium metropolises. Lumynn had made use of Nygeia's legendry and social standing as sole heir to the long-abandoned, infamous kingdom of tyrannical Pahrayah to sell the idea of her ambassadorship to the officer commanding the Warhound-General's tactical response unit. Acting with swift machine efficiency, Akkitus Orthwain was even able to provide official documents of transit, documents that had by necessity been slightly altered from their original form, as non-immigrant, diplomatic emissary visas to the tactical officer. The officer, a man named Gerren Morpeliss, was taken aback by the unexpected spirit of cooperation from the group, and had then contacted the Warhound-General's Chief-Adjutant who'd advised the paramilitary tactical unit to bring Nygeia, D'Spayr and the rest of the team to the Public Protectorate Administrative Center. Once there, it would be determined whether or not the group would then be allowed to meet with either the Warhound-General or with the Ymperatur's Grand Advisor, Vashnur Xhant. The circumstances were anything but optimum, however, all things considered, the situation had at least not degenerated into a shooting war. Not yet, anyway.