Search - Taha, Elise, Lillie

Taha, Elise, Lillie and Haldor were all deep in the underground system of Vitalus, surrounded by reddish crystals as if to preannounce their entry to the Brute's clan territory.

 

Hours ago, they all stood together, bodies folded over a parchment paper, pen in hand, waiting for the right words to come out of their minds. Taha was hesitant to put the pen to the paper, as she was from the Brutes clan, and a poorly worded letter would surely anger Zarod, her clan leader, and instead of it coming across as a request for help it could come across as a demand. And the brutes did not take kindly to demands.

 

The Brutes were resilient. Hard working. A class of haedians who had been shunned by others for their practical mind and "no funny business" mindset. They had been the backbone of society before it collapsed, and they had been the first to rebel when the other haedias had tried to boss them around. When hell broke lose, they all realized that the others would crumble if they stopped working and tried to ask for better conditions, but where shunned for it. So they retreated, with the likeminded, with those who understood, and kept away all the others. The only ones who had not been shunned, over the years, had been the Caretakers. The Brutes knew, passed down from generation to generation, who the Matriarch was. What her role was. How the balance of the underground relied on her. However, the Brutes were also selfish. They had to work hard to gather resources. They had no help from anyone, and while the crystals were the source of stability underground, now the option to go aboveground was there. Who was to tell that some of the old Brutes wouldn't be too proud to refuse interaction with the outsiders or other clans? Think that they'd be ok on their own, that they don't need the Matriarch and she should just die, now that they could leave the caves?

 

Taha did not know all the elders. And none of them, not Taha nor Elise nor Lillie nor Haldor, none of them knew what would happen once the balance of the underground was shook from how it had been for years. would the cave collapse if they freed the Matriarch? Would they be fine? If they failed, would the caves lose their sustenance, and collapse? Either option was terrifying.

 

The Elder had said to free the Matriarch, so Taha would believe him. Because the cities in Vitalus stood right above the underground below it, so if it collapsed, it would bring hell to the whole island. 

 

So they all had been talking, for minutes, for hours. "The Matriarch has nurtured the underground for decades, surely they will understand the importance of saving her" said Lillie, optimistic.

"Ask a war solder if they would show mercy to the enemy, and see if they say yes. These haedians think everyone is their enemy" Haldor said. "if they don't think the Matriarch is useful, of that they wont need her, then they wont help."

"Trying to predict what they will say is useless" said Elise "I agree with Haldor, don't get me wrong, but we need to convey that she's important to Zarod, not to the whole Clan. The clan will follow Zarod because they know she's the strongest, or did i misunderstand, Taha?"

Taha hummed, and said "she sustained our life, whether the Brutes want to acknowledge it or not. The crystals haven't been just decorations and they know it. To let yourself be encased for decades is a selfless act, maybe they wont understand it, won't find it possible or rational, but if we make them understand, i think they'll help."

 

So she pressed the pen to the paper, and began to write:

 

"To Zarod, Leader of the Brutes,

 

Our kin has endured much. I will not waste your time with empty words, as you know that i know how we live, how we survive, how we think. We are a clan of resilience, of strength, of clawing our place with no help from outsiders. We have been wronged many times, shunned many times. We have thrived on our hard work alone and many have tried to take advantage of us."

 

Taha paused, her golden eyes scanning the words she had just written. Would Zarod even listen to her? Would she even read beyond the first few lines? Taha knew that the Brutes held onto their grudges like battle scars, she did too. It was not easy to ask them for anything, let alone for their aid.

 

Elise got closed and read the words too. "I think you should also tell her that we empyrians acknowledge them, acknowledge our disparities, acknowledge that the past was unjust towards them."

 

Taha nodded. She took the pen once again and continued:

 

"I know that the other clans have not been kind to us. I know they have tried to take advantage of us, tried to use us for labor while they lived comfortably. I do not ask for forgiveness of any of them, this is not what this is. I do however ask you to listen to my request, even if it would benefit the other clans."

 

Haldor exhaled. “You should start mentioning the Matriarch, at least what we know,” he said. “They aren't the Caregivers, they might not know the situation down there”

 

Lillie dipped her head. “She has sustained life down here for so long, and suffered for it. They should know.”

 

Taha nodded again and wrote:

 

"The Matriarch has been sustaining the crystals that grow in these tunnels for decades, for longer than my life, and while i know, the crystals aren't an act of servitude she did for us, they aren't help given specifically to us, it still helped us thrive. But down there, in her chamber, she's bound to the crystals. They grow from her body, they are connected to her blood vessels. We don't know what the conditions are, but you asked me to go meet the land dwellers, and i did. And the representative of the land dwellers asked them to help free the Matriarch, as if it would be no effort at all, to help strangers.

 

i do not ask this lightly. I know our ways have always been to not help a single haedian, and lately a single reos, ourside of our clan. But we would not be helping another clan. We would be helping the Matriarch, a haedian who has given her life to let us keep ours."

 

Taha stopped and looked up at the others, Elise and Lillie nodded, but Haldor spoke up. “We should acknowledge their strength more. The Brutes don’t care for flattery, but they do care for respect, dont they?”

 

Taha nodded, considering his words before continuing:

 

"We are the strongest clan. We are hard workers. We have endurance and will to persevere. With our forces, the Matriarch would be free sooner. And the other clans, the land dwellers, the caregivers, they would have to acknowledge us. Our strength. Our will."

 

After she finished writing, they all stood in silence. The words were a mix of desperation and will, they were heartfelt but pragmatic. Now it all depended on the Brutes' clan. 

 

Would Zarod answer? Would they come? Or would they let the Matriarch fend for herself, just as the other clans had let them for all these years?

 

She took the pen once more, pressing it to the paper in the final words:

 

"I ask this of you, Zarod, as my leader and as a haedian who knows what it means to fight for something worth saving. 

I ask as a haedian who has no right to ask. But I ask anyway.

Will our clan lend their streght?"

 

She signed the letter, set it aside. She took a deep breath and slumped, and Elise and Lillie snuggled to her, comforting her.

Haldor read the letter in silence, as he was the diplomat of the group. 

 

Then, one by one, they nodded and stood up.

 

Taha carefully rolled the letter, binding it with a thin red cloth strand, and put it in her bag.

 

And now, hours later, deep into Brutes territory, they could only hope their request would be heard.

 

For the Matriarch, for themselves, for the good of all haedians alike. 

 

They would need all the help they could get.