XX How the World Stays Together XX

XX How the World Stays Together XX

Back to the plot. So we were all captured in our home, and it I hadn’t been unfairly tied up you know I would’ve been all over these guys. The armed men wrapped heavy rope soaked in candle oil around Saigan’s body, blind-folding her as well. Apparently she wasn’t allowed to see who was beating her up.

Well, it is against the law to kill, but…in times of war the enemy is always allowed to die. Unfortunately for Saigan, she probably looked too Northern for the armed men to think she might actually live here in Feroa. That, and the fact that she’d given their leader a bloody nose, is why she suddenly found herself facing a seemingly fiery death.

On the other hand, unfortunately for our captors, relative tribe members of the Desert had just come into town and guess who they were looking for—besides the captain of the Emperor’s guard?

They were looking for perhaps the only person who had begun using the Desert’s designs in Lowlander weaponry. See, it’s not a good idea to start using other race’s traditions and culture. In the past wars have been waged over such a seemingly small issue. That’s why no one does it anymore unless they have a specific reason, or they have to in order to survive.

The Northern Desert folk knew that one of their own was living in the Western Lowlands. Desert swords and weapons with intricate Sjerabian designs wouldn’t have been leaked all throughout the Lowlands otherwise.

Saigan had done it on purpose, I now know. She had chosen to sell those swords to merchants from faraway villages that happened to be passing by. She’d done it so the Tribes would know she was in the Lowlands.

But it isn’t what you think. She didn’t do so to make them more confident in the fact that they had a spy in enemy territory. Oh no, every single one of her Sjerabian designs says the same thing. I may not know Sjerabian characters, but I can point out a few that Saigan always used and explained to me about.

Every single weapon warned that if an attack on the Lowlands was imminent, then the wielder of the weapon would be prepared for any and all attacks, courtesy of Saigan’s weaponry.

In a way, I’ve come to realize that ever since she came to Feroa, Saigan had been leveling sides. That was all she’d done from the moment she’d been born, and even now…that’s all she continues to do. She levels the balance and then takes on whatever she can.

Anyway, they were looking for her. They wanted her dead at times, but mostly they wanted her alive. If they had her alive, they could use her as a blacksmith. If she was dead…well, that would just be wasting human talent.

So when they got to our home, they didn’t exactly spend time with pleasantries. A band of Desert men broke through the front door and rummaged ransacked through the house. When they found my mother and me in the kitchen, tied up, the weapons came out immediately. The new men from the Desert took charge of the kitchen and soon enough, most of the Guards were dead. Only the Emperor’s commander survived and that was only because, in perfect tongue, the head Desert man told him to give this message to the Emperor.

“Go now and tell your leader that we have arrived,” he growled in a tongue not unlike Saigan’s. “We have arrived, and we show no mercy unlike those warriors of the Peninsula.”

The tall, dark skinned man from the Desert meant the Lowlander’s war against the Peninsula a decade ago. The Peninsula had attempted to gain control of their own region, but in the end we Lowlanders sent them into submission and they remain a vital part of our economy to this day.

The Emperor’s commander dashed out of our house as fast as his legs would carry him. Once he was gone, the Desert man turned his attention back to my mother and me. He glanced at our hair and sneered, reminding everyone in the kitchen that ethnic ties still bound us to our great nations.

I abandoned all hope of being released by them when he did that, and instead wondered if maybe Saigan could talk to them. She liked us; we were her family. She would know how to talk them into saving us.

Therefore I struggled like mad against my bindings, indicating my body towards where Saigan lay in soaked rope under the washbasin, unconscious. The head Desert man raised one eyebrow when he saw her and smirked.

He pointed and said something in Sjerabian to another Desert man, who suddenly had a grin on his face as well. They went around our kitchen table—right past their fellow struggling human beings—and knelt down next to my unconscious sister…

And tugged at the collar of her under armor until they found the branded star on her chest. Together the two discussed something obviously important, glancing over at my mother and I every once in a while. I screamed some more muffled pleads to untie us, but they quickly ignored me when the leader of the group brought out a curved sword—like so many of the ones Saigan made every day—and cut the rope away from Saigan’s body.

The leader ordered the other one to heft Saigan up on his back (like loot, I would say) and then turned back to my mother and I. My mother, I should probably point out, was near ready to have a midlife crisis by now. She was watching her daughter be taken away by warriors from…well, wherever Desert people popped up from! She was not happy at all to see Saigan being picked up like that.

The leader paid us no real attention though, except to reach into the front of my mother’s dress until he found the little purse of money she kept around her neck. This caused her more shame than I think she was capable of at the time, because after that she allowed herself to cry unabashedly.

The one who had Saigan over his shoulder suddenly propped her against a wall when our mother began to weep, and the lead man quickly jerked Saigan up to standing in his arms. He shook her once; twice…and then resorted to slapping her across the face when she didn’t wake up.

Saigan was quickly conscious, and her head snapped back until she could get a good look at who had just slapped her.

“Ga!” she hissed in Sjerabian, her face twisting into a sneer. “Japosdraviti vi!” which, roughly translated meant, “You! I remember you!”

The man’s lips curled into a wicked grin and he nodded his head, but he refused to answer her. Instead, he spoke something I’ll never be able to translate to the other man and he grabbed Saigan by the wrist, leading her towards the front door. Saigan let out a rabid shriek—unheard of until now—and clamped onto the front door’s handle. She jerked her head back to our mother and me, her eyes alert in desperation.

“Tachs!” she cried. “Take Saud and Sahn and get away from here as soon as you can. My people don’t wait for long.”

Her people? I glanced at Saigan, who was eyeing the lead Desert man nervously; I played along with her. We both knew this drill like the back of our hands.

See, she always knew this would happen one day, so we’ve been prepared for quite a while.

I nodded my head, acting as desperate as she wanted me to play, and watched as this new leader from the Desert turned to her. He knew what she’d said. I only knew this because his was no longer smirking.

The man was instantly at her side. He ripped her fingers away from the door and pushed her out of our house. She tried to push him back, but things didn’t work out so well for her. The man cuffed her hard on the back of her head and she fell to the ground, unconscious once again—or, at least, too in pain to try getting up.

Believe me, if I could have gotten up I would have; I wanted to kill the man who had hurt my sister.

But then again…okay, here’s a part of the story you’ll never hear in the stories about Saigan. When she left our house, she kind of straightened up and let the leader guide her down towards town.

I could have sworn she smiled up at him when she thought no one else was looking.

If anyone ever tells you that Saigan and Orion met that day, don’t believe them. As far as I’m concerned, those two knew each other from before. I don’t know how I know this, but I just do.

There’s something about Orion and her that just makes you know that they can’t have become so close so quickly. Even if they had to live through a war together…

Things like that don’t happen so fast.