Category: Raya

Much like every other day, Raya woke up before her parents and ate a fruit from the bowl on the table, today, one of the apples they had bought at market, imported from West Radregar.  The house seemed more quiet without Novar; when she had climbed out of her bed, dressed, and walked through the doorway, she had half-expected to see his sleeping form on the cot outside her door.  But now the cot was standing upright, leaning against the wall like an empty and abandoned frame for artwork.  Novar’s trial was fast approaching. Continue reading Raya 10

They let Raya in to visit her brother a few days after the crime.  Her parents, thankfully, had been unaware of the course of things until Raya had brought help.  Hemsten, Tharin, and another guard escorted Novar away, before Raya’s parents had a chance to talk to him.  The young man was covered in blood and his eyes full of tears—he went willingly.  Tella’s body was borne out in a stretcher, with a cloth to conceal it, while Councilwoman Santhee spoke quietly to the family.  She said they would be holding Novar until they determined what had happened. Continue reading Raya 9

When Raya returned from another hunt, she found a few wagons sitting along the trail leading up to their short town wall.  Sten and four other guards were present, as well as Lotha, Viker, and Councilman Cavthur, speaking with the owner of the caravan.  It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was starting to set.  At the entrance to the town, the light from the sun framed the North Rise and left them in a warm shadow. Continue reading Raya 8

Raya had come a long way from Vagren over the last few days.  She’d been home for two of them, and on the road for close to three before that.  Hemsten had given her a big hug when she had come walking up to their pointed palisades in the middle of the evening with Viker and Lotha at her heels.  The two magicians had spent a lot of the journey taking notes on parchment or discussing the number of refugees on the road.  They smiled and shook hands with Sten as they entered Olston. Continue reading Raya 7

One, two three—Raya’s heart pounded in her chest.  She was fit, and used to strenuous chases on her hunts.  But she was not used to being the prey.

Through an alleyway her feet pattered, and out into the street.  It was evening.  The street was empty, save another of her pursuers, a man clad in hardened leather armour, with a whip in one hand and a hook in the other. Continue reading Raya 6

After her first week in Vagren, Raya had set up a few appointments.  She had Urvin send some letters for her, asking lords of Royal Houses to speak with her or to consider Olston’s plight.  She was no more skilled at penmanship and persuasive reasoning than she was confident that Olston should become indebted to the Royal House of a slaver city such as Vagren.  As it was, slavers left alone the town as it, and many others, were protected by the Free Hold Policy, one of the few documents that all of the Royal Houses had signed to allow towns of enough size to function with their own governments.  The incentive to the Houses was the production and trade merit of leaving such towns unincorporated to a competitive House.  When wealth bought power in Vagren, the free public kept the standard from too great of an inflation. Continue reading Raya 5

Ahead of Raya, a makeshift palisade wall rose from the gradual slope of the hills, where the slums of Vagren were contained by their outer defenses.  Over the wall and lean-to rooftops, she could see the old stone wall, worn and broken in many places, where the original city had developed.  Now, almost all of that was owned by the Royal Houses—there was no palace or castle in Vagren save the private mansions of the aristocracy. Continue reading Raya 4

She left her town early in the morning, before the sun rose.  Her parents woke up with her, but Novar just rolled off the couch and went into the bedroom to sleep, without saying a word.  They were worried for her, but it was so much more complicated than that.  If Raya didn’t return, they’d depend completely on the generosity of the somewhat hard people of Olston to bring them food, money, new clothes when they were needed. Continue reading Raya 3

Raya had always loved the art of Olston.  Interconnected squares trimmed all the buildings, etched deep enough into the wooden frames to be clear.  Sky blue paint adorned many of the doors, railings, and eaves, while a burgundy some of the children and women made from the shellfish of the Eremes River marked the road-posts and the occasional mural—usually drawings of animals that roamed the savannah—that decorated the town. Continue reading Raya 2

The city of Vagren sat at a meeting place of many worlds.  North and east were savannah, and the Eremes River ran from the city’s gates to a cove on the Boundless Sea.  To the west lay rolling hills with only the occasional cliff to interrupt their gracefulness, and an occasional grove of thick cedars to add green to the dry grasses.

Against the steep incline of one such hill, the small, scattered village of Olston had grown into a town.  With an economy based on the hill’s granite mine, the populace was a tough group that didn’t generally like outsiders.  Despite this, or perhaps because of it, they seemed endlessly loyal to those they considered their family.  Raya Ganner and her parents were thankful to be a part of the community, though Raya was the only one still contributing to it, as her parents health deteriorated with their age. Continue reading Raya 1