Chapter 2: Broken Things

The late morning sun peaked over the Wall, casting light into Lito Laeth's apartment at last. Her bronze armor, polished to perfection over the morning, reflected the light into the corners and nooks of her quarters.

Lito got up from her work and wiped the dirt off her hands. She was trying something new: a garden which was decorative rather than functional. In the outside she was growing winter peppers and a type of squash from her home in the farms surrounding Glen-Clachan. Inside, she had placed a welded network of broken swords and spears into her garden, and was working on growing vines and flowers to wind around them.

None of those weapons were her own.

She washed her face and donned a light tunic, with some tights for her legs. The days were getting colder, as Olean was decidedly moving into autumn.

Lito went over to her drawer, and pulled out her green headband, adorned with the spiraling vines and symbols of Fiach, the Lady of the Soil.

“Lady of the Soil, I dedicate this day to you. Please keep me faithful to my commitments today and fruitful in my work. Please continue to hold the ocean back, and give us only the water that we need.”

She kissed the headband, and wrapped it around her ears. Perhaps as the days wore on to winter she would talk to someone about weaving a prayer hat instead.

Lito went out to her garden, and examined her winter pepper plants. They had barely started to come in, but two towards the bottom were growing in their fullness. Lito grabbed the more appealing of the two, and headed out of her quarters into the streets of Cael Proper.

“Flax carpet, flax carpet! Specially hand made by the greatest flax spinners in the Glen-Deoch region, only four and two--”

“Autumn ales, fresh from the brewmasters! Taste the cinnamon and the cloves--”

“The Wall will not stand! Head for Ard-Abthen as soon as you can, the winter storms approach and the King in the Deep is--”

Merchants and the like verbally accosted her as she made her way up the winding paths of Caeledonia's residential half. She did her best to not take official notice of the more aggressive ones. The last thing she wanted on a day like this was to be buried in any kind of district court managing charges for public rowdiness.

She raised her hand in greeting as she arrived at the checkpoint at the Wall.

“Little Lito! You're here rather late today, aren't you?”

Lito snorted. Vesper Grant was only a bit shorter than her, but while she was uncommonly tall for a woman he was uncomfortably short for a man.

“Good morning, Vesper. I'm going to be working late tonight, as our new counselor is due to arrive today. I wanted to greet her first before I got bogged down in work against the Carpenter.”

Vesper whistled lowly. “More bad news?”

“I'm afraid so.”

Lito left it there. She did her best to withhold information wherever possible. The Carpenter's creatively brutal tortures could break the sturdiest of men, and she wanted to teach him as quickly as possible that her men weren't worth the effort.

She trusted Vesper explicitly, but she knew that the Carpenter had spies in her ranks, just as she had spies in his. Her number of agents was slowly dwindling, judging by the infrequent reports she was receiving, while his number of agents could only be growing. She hadn't found a new one in months, and the Carpenter was anything but lazy.

Recently one of her agents had stopped sending information all together. Raeden Clamore, a man who sent reports as regularly as Invercard clockwork, hadn't made contact in days. Lito could only assume that he had been tortured and killed.

Vesper spied the pepper in her hand. “Lito, it's not a Gift Day,” he said.

“I know.” She replied. “I just figure that our new counselor could use the help.”

As could I.

* * * * * * * *

Normally Lito would take the bridge on her way to her barracks. The bridge connected Cael Proper, the residential district of Caeledonia, and Raven's Run, home of the governmental and military districts. Few people actually lived in the Run, except for the most dedicated. Altor Caeton, the King Enclosed, lived in his solitary quarters. But most magistrates lived in the city to increase their popular exposure, and most soldiers lived there as well because they had lives outside their work.

The Rush started here. A series of horizontal gaps in the Wall, almost seventy five feet below the top, lay right at the ocean level. Water poured through constantly, and was channeled into the Rush, the river which wound throughout the Island Beneath and ended at the Drain.

Angry storms would rage against the Wall, increasing the flow of water somewhat, but it was rare to have a wave which breached the top. Such storms had only happened three times in Lito's memory, and it was for this reason that the bridge was built far back from the Wall.

If the Wall ever broke, the majority of Olean would be under water, except for the high places, such as the religious settlements of Ard-Abthen in the mountains. The ever hungry Drain would continue to remove water, Lito supposed, and it would be interesting to see whether it could contain the entire ocean. Perhaps she would know one day when she lived and rejoiced in the silvery courts of the King in the Deep.

Any doom prophets who blathered inanely about the fall of the Wall were crazy at best, heretics at worst. The Wall was the Breaker of Oceans, the particular marvel of Lito's own emissary: Fiach, the Lady of the Soil. She raised and maintained the Wall, it was said, which patiently and eternally kept the waters of the freshwater ocean at bay. All followers of the Lady of the Soil were to attend to their duties with the same constancy.

Lito had left the bridge and passed through the western checkpoint to get to the top of the Wall. It would mean ascending and descending hundreds of unneeded feet, but she had an offering to make. Frost collected on the metal spiral staircase that wound to the top of the Wall, and it was unlikely that it would dissipate until the sun reached its zenith. The Wall was still casting a shadow, albeit a short one given the lateness of the day, across Caeledonia and the Summer Rush.

She climbed out of these shadows as she reached the top of the Wall. Guards patrolled the length of it, mostly out of tradition. The two staircases, one by Raven's Run and one by Cael Proper, were already protected by checkpoints, and few people were allowed when it wasn't a Gift Day, making the guards on the wall somewhat superfluous. There were exceptions, of course-- visiting dignitaries, priests and priestesses were welcome, as well as the occasional stone smith who would descend through shafts into the partially hollow interior of the Wall to do maintenance work on the storage areas there. The Wall itself rarely required fixing, but network of hollow spaces that lay within could always be improved or expanded.

Lito strode along the wall, winter pepper in hand. When she reached the middle, she leaned over the side, watching the ocean shift almost a hundred feet below.

“Lady of the Soil, I dedicate this offering to you. The best of my work, patiently raised and deliberately gathered. Assist me and our new counselor in our work for the next cycle.”

Such was the tradition of all followers of the Lady of the Soil, each Gift Day, when the moon was full and the gods were attentive. It was custom to dispose of your gift on the Wall, it being the particular marvel of Fiach, but anywhere along the Rush would do-- it was even permitted to burn or bury one's gift if you could not reach the Rush, the important part was to permanently get rid of the fruit of faithful labor.

Having said the ritualistic words, Lito Laeth stretched out her hand and dropped the pepper into the waters below. She barely saw the splash against the waves.

* * * * * * * *

Lito watched the procession approach from her receiving point at the end of the Wall, by Raven's Run. She couldn't hear what was said due to the cacophonous roar of the waterfall that stretched along the Breaker of Oceans, but she could see when they stopped periodically to offer sacrifices in thanksgiving for a safe journey.

Lito wasn't quite sure what sacrifices the priestesses made. Each of the four deities had their own particular desired sacrifices: Fiach wanted her followers to regularly dispose of the best of whatever you worked on, Dotean periodically wanted intricate and beautiful gifts, specially made for him, placed at his altars around the island, Uisce occasionally wanted his followers to permanently give away something precious to them to a stranger, etc.

But the priests and priestesses, who served the King in the Deep, the ruler of the four lesser deities, had no such prescriptions-- as far as Lito was aware. It wasn't clear to her what Aigean desired as a sacrifice, and from talking to the priests of the district she lived in, they weren't quite sure either. They knew that Aigean desired his followers (and the followers of the four lesser deities) to live good lives, and each priest and priestess had their own peculiar and self-made devotions, but there was no consensus on the subject.

The procession reached Lito Laeth at last. She strode forward to greet the new priestess to be her counselor, brought from Ard-Abthen on considerable short notice.

They continued with the formalities. Lito welcomed the new counselor to the fair city of Caeledonia, the counselor accepted her hospitality, and they offered prayers to the gods, great and small, in thanksgiving for the appointment. It was a ceremony that Lito was quite familiar with, but it felt real and new to her, as this entire ritual was for her and the counselor alone.

* * * * * * * *

The woman stretched back in Lito's quarters, enjoying a cup of tea brewed from some leaves which had been grown and stored by Lito Laeth.

After the welcoming ritual, the group had toured Raven's Run for a time, before they returned back along the bridge to Cael Proper. From there, Lito and the priestess had pulled away from the main group, and Lito showed her to her new living space: a stone apartment extremely close to Lito's. From there, they had returned to Lito's apartment for refreshments.

Elaene smiled. “I'm certainly glad that went well. I was absolutely terrified that we would get something wrong! I mean, the words of the ritual shouldn't have changed overly much, but it's the first time a woman has ever been the counselor of this position.” She leaned forward. “So aren't you a puzzle?”

Lito didn't think of herself as a puzzle. Her life was pretty straightforward.

“Not really.” She replied. “I'm the leader of the Caeledonian guard. Nothing new there.”

“But you're the first woman to be so. And I'm the first woman counselor to the Caeledonian guard. That's interesting.” Elaene insisted.

“Women have been guard leaders before. We had one back in Glen-Clachan.” When Elaene leaned forward to excitedly say something else, Lito interrupted. “Elaene, please stop putting pressure on me.”

She regretted it almost as soon as she had said it. As unique as her situation was, Elaene's was just as unique. Elaene Alkalae was probably sharing her excitement in Lito's position in the hopes that Lito would reciprocate, which Lito hadn't been doing in the slightest. But now to do so would have been obvious, a ploy to win favor-- but clearly Elaene wanted such things, so maybe...

Lito said nothing, and took another drink of water.

Elaene paused, and then continued to talk about how excited she was to be starting this new position. After her time as a novice, she had continued to mister to the prisoners at the Drain because of how successful she had been (something she was tempted to resent, she was quick to point out), before she was assigned as the counselor to the Table at Invercard, the ruling body subservient to the King Enclosed there.

“And do you know, they made the most beautiful things for the altar to the Master with his Forge. We had one member of the Table who specialized in grass, grass, can you believe that, and he made this giant woven sphere all green and gorgeous.”

“That doesn't seem very practical. What is the City of Tinkers going to do with a giant green ball?”

Elaene frowned. “Followers of Dotean don't really do the whole 'practicality' thing, Lito. They construct for beauty, not utility.” She pointed to Lito's newest project in the corner, the intertwining network of broken blades and vines. “And what use is that for? A follower of Fiach, making something pretty?” She smiled to show she meant no harm. “Function alone does tend to get rather boring, doesn't it?”

“It's a reminder of what happens when you don't persevere in your work.” Lito said.

Elaene paused. “Were these your enemies, Lito?”

She nodded. “I've worked very hard to get where I am, and I'm damn good as a result.” She paused. “I was supposed to be a farmer.”

Elaene smiled. “You certainly have the talent for gardening. I almost wish you were.”

“My parents were farmers, and my early devotion to Fiach made it seem a certain decision. For them, I mean, not for me. The decision certainly wasn't going to be mine.” Lito looked down.

“Altor's programs,” Elaene said.

“They work for nearly every segment of our people. Just not for me.”

“How did you convince them to, ah, follow your dream of being a soldier?”

Lito pulled off the green headband and fingered it slowly. “I convinced them by working very intently for a very long amount of time.”

* * * * * * * *

“I support the King Enclosed and his guard, and you support me.” Lito finished in summation of Elaene's charges as the counselor to the leader of the Caeledonian guard.

“Do you want me to make you daily lunches?” Elaene smiled. “Run errands for you? Clean your clothing? I'm serious, Lito, you should feel free to call on me for anything out of the ordinary, I will be more than happy to help in any way.”

Lito stood there for a moment, on the threshold of Elaene's new quarters. They had finished their tea and walked to her apartment across the way, and Lito had described her expectations for her new counselor. Usually, the counselor was to act as a sort of spiritual adviser to their charge, or charges, and offer prayers on their behalf. Elaene was clearly prepared to go far beyond those natural limits.

“Now that you mention it, there are a few things I would like you to do.”

“Pray tell.”

Lito absentmindedly scratched the stone entry way. “There is a man in one of my sub squads. Dane Wrickon. He is having trouble with following his duties. A lot of trouble.”

Elaene frowned. “Isn't there a counselor for your squads? It's not that I mind helping people other than you,” she hastened to add, “but I don't want to be encroaching on the duties of others.”

“You won't be,” Lito said. “He's tried to help Dane many a time, and has pronounced him as hopeless.”

Elaene nodded. “And the other things?”

“You may have heard of the Carpenter,” Lito said, and continued when Elaene made no visible assent. “There is a group of people in this city who do not approve of the way the King Enclosed runs things. They have been a danger to anyone loyal and in a position of leadership. The Carpenter rules them, and we suspect that he may be gearing up for a larger and deadlier move. I'm not sure what aid you can lend to us in this regard, but it will be nice to have you as a resource. I know it's not the sort of thing you usually do, and I hope that I won't be asking that much of you... but it will be something on my mind.”

“I understand. I'm eager to help in any way you need me to.”

Chapter 2: 2,795 | 6,216/50,000

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