The Unblessed Child

Chapter Eighteen - The Town of Capap

The morning following their arrival on the shores of The Dead Bay, the camp packed up in the first light and began the march forward along the coastline. They aimed to reach a small old earth blessed town of Capap by last light. Rachida had explained that Capap wasn't really considered an earth blessed town anymore, as all those born with the blessing were sent to Olurun to hone their skills. The only people that were left were the unblessed, which meant travelling into Capap was much easier. While the winds of Moons Exhalation sent shivers down the spines of the wandering souls, the beaming sun provided some relief, reflecting off the warming golden sand crunching beneath their feet. The beaming water was as translucent as Aardriyah had ever seen, full of native fish ready to be devoured for a lunchtime feast. Aardriyah remained with Rachida for most of the morning, listening to her endless stories of her family and the history of The Shahood Empire to which she belonged. She tried to pay attention to as much as she could, but the conversation from the night prior and the dreams she had were plaguing her thoughts, demanding more of her attention.

"Are the royal family respected? In your experience I mean, from what you have seen." Aardriyah interrupted what Rachida had been rattling on about. She wasn't impressed by the sudden realisation that Aardriyah was clearly only selectively listening to bits and pieces of her stories. She shook her head and looked over to the water, before responding.

"I suppose so? We don't really get a lot of time out in the cities to talk to any of their subjects; you know the Law of Separation and all. But I haven't seen any riots or heard of any talks of overthrowing them, if that's what you're asking."

Aardriyah nodded, biting the inside of her right cheek as she contemplated the conversation she had envisioned in her dream.

"What about the mysterious lover you mentioned the other day?"

"Oh, that's just a rumour, I'm sure there's no merit to it. You know what people are like when they don't get answers, they try to invent answers or reasons for the way things are. But Princess Kibo and Prince Chastion could just dispel it by setting a wedding date. I mean why wouldn't you? It's not like it's rushed or either of them are morbidly unattractive." Rachida said.

"I'm sure they'll announce something any day now." Aardriyah tried to cheer Rachida up, but couldn't shake the words echoing in her head,

I cannot lie to my people.

Perhaps Princess Kibo was having an affair and the royal wedding wouldn't go ahead because her heart belonged to another. Maybe, Kibo refused to fake the vows of a marriage in a betrothal forced upon her at such a young age. Aardriyah hoped it was untrue, after all Princess Kibo didn't seem like one to ever do something so frowned upon, or risk damage to her reputation. She was so calculated in everything she did, how could she be reckless enough to give her heart to another. Aardriyah sighed, realising she wouldn't be able to understand any of this without confronting either the prince or princess directly. Even then, they had no obligation to tell her. After all, it was a private conversation and she was an ethereal fly on the wall, not meant to be privy to any of it.

As the day wore on the coastline began to change colour and pattern, limestone rocks now replacing the golden sand beneath their feet. The party decided to take the cliffside route rather than the beachside. Making their way up and down a perilous path known as The Zig Zag Mountains, named particularly because of the never-ending winding back and forth. Large juts of red and orange rocks blocked a straight thoroughfare, tiring the company much quicker than the simple path along the sand.

At last light they finally reached the small town of Capap, a large faded rock declaring such in white hand painted letters, underneath it read 'Population 27'. Queen Iber announced to the company that there was an inn she used to frequent that should have enough rooms for at least all the blessed. Aardriyah looked past the sign, and saw several human made mounds, with small rounded holes in the front. The landscape was baron, besides a few windswept and dead trees and tufts of spiky straw-coloured bushes. There were easily hundreds of the mounds varying in heights, widths and depth, yet only one small path, which led through the centre of what she assumed was the township. Torches illuminated the doorways of each of the mound houses, but not much else seemed to decorate the exterior of the houses. There were no doors attached to the front of the mounds, instead strings of pebbles and shells hung in the entrance holes, every now and then hitting each other in the wind making soft clattering sounds. Aardriyah supposed in a town so small there wouldn't be much need for the security of a door, not when everyone surely knew each other.