“Up, I say,” Yau said, and Aralim opened his eyes. The sun, though blocked by the winding tree branches overhead, blinded him. He raised his hand to block it, like a second canopy. Light spilled through his fingers as his eyes grew accustomed. He sat up and stretched his arms sorely, before looking around. Continue reading Aralim 12
The brown river water slid by the sides of their raft, shadowed on either side by aggressively extending palm or bark-nut trees. In the shadows beneath them grew an assortment of rubber trees and squat oil palms, and the water’s edges were lined with reeds and foliage, as well as water-lilies larger than a man’s face. Aralim rested with his feet up and watched the slow flowing water slide past him. The unending buzz of insects in the rainforest’s canopy was as hypnotic as it was painfully monotonous. Continue reading Aralim 11
A few days passed after the vision entered Miresh’s dreams, and they finally reached Maykren. Aralim and his fellows had awoken late the day after, when a merchant with a two wheeled cart and a small dusty mule had trotting along the road above their little camp. The merchant, a small dark-skinned man with not a single strand of hair on him, smiled to them and asked if they’d like to travel to the city with him. Continue reading Aralim 10
Stinky and sore, Aralim walked along the blistering rock road. Though they had descended from the worst of the cliffs into an overgrown foothill region, the rocky terrain was more open and unprotected than the jungles north of them would be. The sun burnt down and crisped their skin red or grey. Despite their months aboard His Fifth Vision, neither Miresh nor Aralim were accustomed to this measure or intensity of sunlight and their white skin baked. Continue reading Aralim 9
Across Stone Channel from Old Numa, a decrepit shanty town had formed, on the Old Point where the ferry landed. Aralim and his fellowship had landed there a few days after their arrival in Old Numa, and spent a night in an abandoned wooden shack on the edge of the town. People came and left Old Point like the tide, and at low tide there was space for them to enjoy a roof above them, instead of just the stars. In Old Numa, they had slept below the moonlit skies. Continue reading Aralim 8
For close to three months, Aralim and Miresh served as they could aboard His Fifth Vision, drifting across the seas of Gethra. Aralim was finding his way along the Path, he knew, for his trust in Miresh had given him a firsthand look at the Orrish. He wasn’t certain if he should feel disappointed or enlightened—the crew told him when they were above the great fallen star, but they never saw anything from the ocean’s surface. Continue reading Aralim 7
His Fifth Vision was a massive coupled barge, as the Numa called such a vessel, with two main masts and two quarter-masts. The ship’s sails were foiled yellow and grey canvas, her oar galleys seated three men abreast, ran fifty benches deep on both sides of the craft, and her two angular hulls resembled two halves of a watermelon—though closer in sharpness to a rectangle—resting side-by-side. The name was a reference to the crew’s god, Tag’na the Eternal Emperor. Many coupled barges, according to the public ambassador, were named ‘vision’, ‘reach’, or ‘horizon’. The Numa used the ships exclusively for distant travel. Continue reading Aralim 6
“So what next?” Aralim asked. They sat on a broken wooden bench that had been dragged into the public garden area near the sewer entrance. It was a small area where the homeless gathered; sometimes the local inns and shops left food here, so there was almost always a group of bearded, tattered men here. There were one or two women, but not many, and no other children that Miresh.
“I don’t know,” she replied. She was playing with a nearby fern, pulling at the leaves until one stalk had nothing left. “I want to know more about my gift.” Continue reading Aralim 5
It was a painfully long voyage from Lantern Town to Bellasa. Aralim had sailed as long before, but never past leagues upon leagues of forested coast. There were no mountains, only the occasional soft hill, rolling up and down in the far distance. They put in toward the land from time to time and Captain Angal sent hunters to find them food and foragers to find fruits growing from the trees. Aralim had never tasted the such things, clusters of small red berries concealed within a tough outer skin. Miresh laughed and showed him how it was done. Continue reading Aralim 4
Aralim was sunburnt, sweaty, and exhausted, when at last a rainy day forced them to put in to shore, and hide the ship amongst the cliffs of the Great Isle. Captain Angal was in a foul mood and told Aralim he should sleep the whole day so they could all of the next day. This seemed ridiculous to Aralim, and a little unkind. How could the Captain blame him for the weather, when such things were clearly under the control of someone much further along the Path?
He went to find Miresh, and was surprised to find her out in the warm rain, with her feet hanging off the deck. Continue reading Aralim 3