Song of the White Nightingale

Chapter X | Jaak

The sun was now settling upon the tops of the mountains to the west, and just past the mountains was the ocean. Hartcove, the city they just escaped from, was the capital city of Orowind. It was a port city, overlooking the Crystal Bay. The city was planted on a delta overlooking the Crystal Bay. It fed into the Winding River, where the trio were now resting alongside. Jaak told them all these things as he let the horses rest and drink.

"So carriages and boats? That's your best way of transportation?" Kara said.

"Well, yeah. During the war I had one of the fastest horses on the continent. What did you guys use in your home world?" Jaak asked her.

"We had magnetrains," Sam pitched in.

"Magna-what?" Jaak's eyebrows flinched.

"It was a really fast, giant train that could travel up to hundreds of miles an hour. We could get across an entire country in less than two hours."

"Fascinating." Jaak plucked a fruit from one of the tries on the side of the road and fed one to each of the horses. "How long has it been since you've echoed here? Can't have been very long ago."

"We woke up in the forest south of the city just this morning. So we've been here for not even a full day." Sam was sitting on a log fidgeting with a small, smooth rock.

"I was on my own for weeks before I found any other Unionizers. I was much younger than you, too." Jaak then looked them both up and down. "How old are you?"

"I'm seventeen, and Sam is fifteen. You?"

"I just recently turned twenty one. I echoed here when I was twelve. Do you have any kinetics training?"

Kara looked down at her feet. "I hadn't been accepted into the kinetics program at the academy, so, no. What about you Sam?"

Sam sunk his head down. He tried to make himself look like he didn't hear the question.

"Sam?" Kara repeated herself. "Do you have any training at all?"

"Huh? What? Umm..." He looked up to see two sets of eyes fixed on him. "Well, dad tried to show me a few tricks, but I still haven't been able to do anything yet." His voice began to trail off as soon as he started talking, making his last few words barely hearable.

Jaak's hand met his forehead, and he turned around towards the river. "How in the world were the two of you able to echo? And what are the chances that you would echo to a city full of Collective officials?"

Kara's eyes searched the river and then made their way across the land, before eventually settling onto the mountains to the north west. She listened to the winds that came from the mountains, hoping they might whisper to her some sort of explanation. "I don't know, but now we're here. Do you know any other Unionizers? Is there anywhere for us to go?

Jaak took in a deep sigh before answering. "Yes, there are others. I'm not sure we'll be quite welcome there, though."

"Why wouldn't we be welcome? We're fellow Unionizers."

Jaak sighed again, as if a sealed box had just been unlocked. "The Unionizers at Roseville and I aren't exactly on the best terms. They might not have a problem with you, hell, they might've even took you in if you found them on your own. But they don't trust me. And because they don't trust me, they might not be so keen to like you either."

"Why don't they trust you?" Sam asked.

"That's another story for another time. They wouldn't let me back even if I tried."

"Well, we've gotta try." Kara stood up. "I'm not gonna become just another refugee, another victim of a war beyond my control like everyone else we saw in that city. We need to find those other Unionizers, regroup, and formulate some kind of a plan."

Sam seemed to take a step back, and shrugged with pride. "I mean, she's got a point. We can't just do nothing."

Jaak took a quick look between the both of them. He let out another deep sigh, as he realized they were still awaiting an answer. "Alright, let's go. We should probably find somewhere to camp overnight. We won't reach Roseville for a few weeks."

Kara's shoulders seemed to sink back into her body again. "Weeks?!"

"I thought you wanted to 'regroup and formulate a plan,'" Jaak chuckled.

"Well, yeah, but.."

"Don't worry. Wars can last years, even decades. This last year, the Great War of our Time ended, and there were heavy losses on all sides, except for Vinland. The Collective hides behind the veil of the country of Vinland, which gave them an upper hand on the war. I enlisted in the Vinland army to spy on the officials to gather more intel about the Collective and their personal motives for the war, and what they plan to do next."

"What did what did you find out?" Sam asked.

"Not a whole lot. We mostly just fought on the wrong side of the war, barely surviving. Once it ended, I transferred to the Vinland embassy in Hartcove to continue in my investigation, hoping to find out who the High Priest might be." He looked like he had finished talking, but after seeing the half-empty look in Kara and Sam's eyes and their silent mouths, he continued on.

"I think the High Priest of the Collective could be someone higher up in their government. Maybe not quite one of the Chancellors, but it's possible. I also doubt he works at the Hartcove Embassy where I worked, so I was trying to work my way up to get another transfer approved. But I found you two, and I knew that soon enough they would have realized who you were, so I rescued you, even though it blew my cover."

Kara noticed his face finally switched to a more somber type, and she began to feel like a weighted foot. "How did you know?"

"Look at your right palm. See that marking? Only a Unionizer who has echoed can have that palm marking."

She looked down at her hands, and her eyes widened. "You're right." Stepping closer to him, she said "we couldn't thank you enough. I'm sorry we can't offer much, but we'll try our best. I still think our best bet is to meet with the other Unionzers, and gain some better understanding about this world and cultures so we don't stick out like a sore thumb."

Jaak put his hand on her shoulder, and replied. "It's okay, and you're right. Maybe they will forgive me, and we can all band together once more."

As happy as Sam was about their new gameplan, he couldn't hold himself back from asking, "what happened between you and the other Unionizers?"

"Like I said, that's another conversation for another time." Jaak pivoted his body towards the horses, and readied them for travel once more.

"Where is Roseville?" Sam asked.

"Just further north. Right now we're only a few miles north-east of Hartcove, so we got lots of ground to cover."

They piled back into the carriage. The sun was beginning to settle behind the mountains instead of resting on top of them. A chilly, evening breeze brushed against Kara's thin shoulders. "Anywhere we can find some new clothes? Looks like it's going to be a cold night."

"I'm sure there's a small village or town somewhere down the road. I'll see what we can do." He then whipped the horses and blasted off down the road. 

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Stay tuned for Chapter XI: The Gamboling Goat

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