The Ocean Hearth (A "Hymns of Evermorn" Story) by Lionelson NY
Chapter 19: The Assembly

At the moment he got out of the hole, he was already given angry looks by the starbornes around him. He could hear them hissing at him, calling him names and mocking him. But when they saw Laia approached him and walked by his side, everyone just closed their curtains and stayed quiet.

“The Dalharians sure respect you, don’t they” Eli remarked.

“I may not be head huntress anymore, but I have been serving this city for a long time” Laia replied. “The gate is this way…”

So they strutted down the blood-stained pavements, passing through broken houses and echoing sounds of wailing. Finally they reached the gates. But before exchanging farewells, Laia gave him a torch and a sword to aid him in braving the Blackwoods at night. But more than that, she also gave him a small Terazine ornament that fits right in the palm. She then chanted a short spell on it, illuminating it in blue.

“Let the moonshine pass through the stone and it will guide you to where you need to be. You can use it as a beacon to return to Elmswood as well as to Port Ka’vall.”

“Thank you, Lady Laia. I’ll see you in five nights” Eli took it and wished her goodbye.

She only smiled as he went on his way. She watched him slowly disappear into the shadows until he was nothing more than a flickering light amidst the dense jungle.

But her gaze was interrupted the moment a huntress approached her from behind.

“Your friendship with the human is raising a lot of questions among our people” she said.

“Well that human is our last chance to survive in this realm as free folk, huntress. Now go and assemble the others. The Tarsya would like to have a word.”

Thus, the Sye’rah did as they were told and they gathered at the Square of the High Towers. It had been a few hours since Eli left.

Whispers of concern murmured among them as they were standing on the once holy ground. That was until the Tarsya appeared with a thick fur coat covering her scrawny frame. The Sye’rah, immediately silenced themselves as their queen began to speak.

Raenna climbed up the stage and took a good look at each of those broken souls. Such a small flock they were. Shaking her head, she cleared her throat and spoke.

“Yesterday…yesterday was a day of grief for many. Though the battle was won, our enemies sit behind their stone walls, celebrating. If you do not believe me, realize that the Eleazarian commander used his dying breath to laugh at our empty triumph. For our victory was paid with the price of blood. The blood of our Ashosh…our friends…our families. Blood stains don’t wash off easily. With that said, are we truly the victors of yesterday?”

The Sye’rah remained silent while she continued.

“O, how my heart yearns to kiss my lover again. How my soul thirsts the taste of true victory for Dalhar. But I look at you few, oh you little few, and I wonder if we can ever win this war…”

At that sentence, the Sye’rah began to whisper amongst themselves again. They wondered if their Tarsya had gone mad and decided to surrender. But the Tarsya saw their insecurities and raised her hand, telling them to remain calm.

“And so I prayed for the solution. Though I prayed without incense and ritual, without the aid of a priestess nor any form of magic, I prayed with my solemn tears; begging Alana to help her dying people. And needless to say, the moon goddess works in mysterious ways…

“For she had sent us humans to help us fight against humans!”

Undoubtedly, the statement grasped the attention of the Sye’rah and they started to bicker about it. Seeing the crowd’s faces of disagreement, she signalled them to be quiet once more.

“Now, now an-Sye’rah. I am not one with the greatest prophetic knowledge. But if my seventy years of being Tarsya had served me well, I say forming an alliance with the Reds of Elmswood is a wise decision to make”

But the proposition wasn’t in the interest of her hunters and huntresses. Shouts can be heard from the crowd.

We cannot ally with heathens!

Have the Tarsya lost her mind?!\

This is blasphemy!

“Silence!!!” Raenna shouted as her eyes suddenly blazed white while her roar echoed in a hundred voices. Even the clouds thundered above them. The Sye’rah were stunned, not daring to speak a word any longer. Only then did the Tarsya’s eyes and voice turned back to normal. “This is not a matter of debate! This is an order!”

The huntresses and hunters kept quiet as the Tarsya shouted her decree. They were terrified to see the queen burst out in anger. The only time they ever hear of her rage was in the tales told by the elders about her hunts in the Blackwoods; the days when she was just a young huntress.

But from amidst the stilled crowd, the Tarsya noticed shoulders shrugging as a cloaked huntress was making her way to the front. The huntress took off her hood. It was Laia.

“An-Tarsya, if I may speak.”

“Please do…” Raenna granted.

Laia turned towards her former subordinates, their faces filled with expressions of shock and detest. But regardless, she started to speak.

“Huntresses and hunters of the Sye’rah! For countless of Blue Moons, we have never encountered a year like this. For the first time, our ritual and our home have been defiled by men. It costed us many lives while those who survived are wishing they were dead. But we must keep in our hearts what was written in the scriptures: Sya’amar ha Sya’akhai. La mera emhi Alana. Ka’kana kana.

“For those of you who have forgotten how to speak the old tongue, it means ‘Blessings come and blessings return. But trust in the moon goddess. Let tomorrow’s trouble be its own’. Now I am not the chief priestess, nor am I longer your head huntress. But if the moon goddess had allowed the blue moon to be changed this year, than surely she wants us to have a change of heart as well. And Alana knows that I have.

“I have lived with humans for a few days. I have eaten their food. I have slept on their beds. I have worn their clothes. And I tell you this. They may not be as perfect as starbornes…but the Reds of Elmswood are people like us as well. They, too, are people who are oppressed by Velron Allistair. They, too, have lost their loved ones by the king’s injustices. So you can choose to deny their alliance and welcome death like a friend. Or you can choose to believe me and join me as I march to Eleazar with the Reds on my side!”

At first the crowd was silent. But suddenly, a familiar huntress stepped out of the crowd. It was the huntress who came running from the walls to warn the Dalharians on the Blue Moon of Ashes. The one who Laia called worthless for being short-minded on that unfaithful night.

“I do not believe in the friendship of men” she said. “But I do place my faith in whatever gift the Moon Goddess puts in our hands. So let me join you, Laia. I shall be a coward no longer!”

At the sound of her acceptance, one by one the Sye’rah pledged their daggers once more to Laia. And they praised her as they gladly place their trust in the former head huntress.

Raenna smiled at Laia as Laia stepped off the stage. The Tarsya then faced her people and summoned them.

“Now go, prepare yourselves! The war is nigh!”

The wind was strong on the fifth night. Port Ka’vall, an old pier built by the starbornes a long time ago, had always been hidden from the Eleazarians. Built upon a hidden gulf, north of Dalhar, it was concealed even more by the Priestess’s magic. To this day, not a single human attained the knowledge of its existence.

“We have been waiting for an hour, Laia. Are you sure they are coming?” a hunter asked.

“You should be glad that they replace it hard to reach here. It means this port is still as concealed as it was once was” Laia replied as she gazed upon the treelines over the hills.

Meanwhile, the Reds were marching in the dense forest somewhere between Elmswood and the Blackwoods. All three thousand of them were there. Eli led the company using the Terazine ornament that Laia gave him. He held it high in his palm as moonlight was refracted from the ore, pointing him to the paths they need to take. The refracted ray had a faint white glow that was straight as an arrow. But even then, it was quite confusing when the thick canopies of the trees blocked the moonlight, making the beacon flicker from time to time.

After hours of roaming the forest and hearing the constant complaining of his men behind, he finally reached the legendary Port Ka’vall. Finding themselves among the treelines on top of a hill, a meadow was laid out below them. And by the horizon was a fleet of starborne vessels awaiting them. There, the Reds, for the first time in human history, encountered a full armada of starbornes in their magnificence and strength.

“This is it, brothers and sisters!” Eli said. “Tonight…we conquer!”

The Reds cheered as they marched down the hill to meet the Dalharians.