Warsinger James Baldwin (read this if TXT) 📖

on one Warsinger from the tomb Hector and Karalti found, and we’ve got another from that book you gave me. It has a chapter on Sachara, so good find on that one.”

“Do tell.” I batted my eyelashes at her.

Suri tapped the cover. “Not gonna lie: this Meewfolk nerd is a pretty fuckin’ dull read, but he knows his shit. According to him, Sachara was born in Dakhdir as a gladiatorial slave. Khors came to her in a dream, turned her Starborn, and told her that her destiny was to emancipate the humans, Mercurions, Lys, Dragons, and Meewfolk from the Aesari. Well, somehow she broke her chains and went and fuckin’ did it over the course of about fifty years. It says that Khors gifted Sachara five kinds of knowledge: The Knowledge of Kings, the Talent of the Smith, and the Sciences of the Magic, War, and Medicine. She found the Spear of Nine Spheres in Napath and went north with it to reforge it in a volcanic forge temple to Khors, location unknown. However, after some un-specified adventures where she liberated a bunch of Mercurions, it says she returned to Dakhdir as a giantess who led a massive army of Meewfolk, dragons, and humans against the Aesari in the Shalid. They won, eventually, but the Aesari nearly destroyed the Caul with their magic. The book doesn’t name a Triad: it just says ‘at the end of the greatest war known to this world, one Starborn from every race gathered at the tomb of Khors to calm the souls within the Caul and restore it to balance, and thus gave up their immortality’.”

“Their immortality?” I frowned.

“Yup. ‘After restoring the Caul, Sachara was no longer Starborn. She returned north as a mortal woman to the ‘the Great Grass Sea, the open lands of the plains-riders and the dragons’ to help them deal with Aesari stragglers. She was planning to settle there, but returned to Dalim after, and I quote, ‘she found her lover fornicating with his mount’.”

Rin giggled. Istvan shot me a pointed look.

“If she was talking about Grigori, his mount was a dragon and she probably was like… totally into it,” I flushed, feeling maybe slightly called out after my brief experience with Karalti in the sewers.

“Mm hmm!” Karalti bobbed her head, sucking on her fingers. She had put away the entire fish, including the skin, bones, and fins.

Suri cocked an eyebrow at her. “Anyway, after that, Sachara went back to Dalim, took a harem of nubile young gentlemen to cheer herself up, and apparently ruled wisely and well for the rest of her days. The historian notes, however, that when Grigori and his Queen were murdered-”

“Whoa.” I held up my hands. “Wait: the founder of the Order of St. Grigori was murdered?”

“Martyred, murdered, same diff,” Suri replied.

“Did it say how?”

“This book didn’t, no.” Suri shrugged. “Anyway, Sachara went to his funeral and shaved her head out of grief, and apparently never appeared in public ever again. Her daughters carried her bloodline on.”

“The Fireblooded were the original inhabitants of Dakhdir?” Ebisa said. “Interesting.”

“Well, humans and Lys have only been on Archemi about five thousand years, and Mercurions only a little less than that,” Rin added. “That’s really possible.”

“For real?” Suri looked up sharply.

“Yes,” Ebisa replied. “Your kind were brought here by the Drachan. Humans hadn’t been here even two generations when the first of us were created.”

Rin pressed her lips together and nodded. “The Phaedra say humans were the slaves of the Drachan who broke free and joined the battle against their old masters. The Zaryans say humans remained loyal to the Drachan, and that’s why they hold them in contempt.”

“It was probably a bit of column A, a bit of column B,” I said. “Humans are dumb like that.”

“Why do you think I play a Mercurion?” Rin flashed me a shy crystal-toothed smile, which faded as she spotted something and cocked her head. “You said you took some more rubbings?”

“Yeah. Here.” I pulled them out of my Inventory and spread them out. “I figured we wouldn’t be able to translate any of these-“

“That’s Tlaxi’ca,” Ebisa said quickly, leaning over the scroll with the weird spiral writing. “The Elder Script, the same language used by Mercurions today.”

“Can you understand it?” I asked, craning my neck.

“Yes.” Ebisa didn't have normal eyes: she had a row of six large red gems in a band across her face. She didn't blink, and she had to move her head to track the sentences as she read, her lipless mouth pressed into a thin line.

“And?” Suri craned her head in.

“This is a description of a battle,” she replied. “It picks up from the middle of it. 'We routed the Aesari through the pass and they fled out into the snows ahead of the Empress. She hounded them screaming and burning through the mountains, turning the snows to rivers and then turning the rivers red with the blood of the slavers. After the battle was concluded, the Diamond Queen and her Bonded returned to their land of Hyrsinii, parting from Her Eminence, who paid her respects at the grave of the Dark God and knelt here, in Karad, so the Burned Rose of Dakhdir might be repaired by her Artists, Phaedra and Zarya, and the Arch-Smith Malech Ba’nadi. To Khors we give praise and honor for our victory, victory led by his divine child, Taltas.’”

“Taltas again.” I scratched my jaw. “Could ‘Taltas’ be another name Sachara used?”

“It must be. Maybe she got turned into a man in the stories… wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.” Suri frowned. “Was there any more script? Anything we could use to date this, make sure it’s not about someone else entirely?”

“There’s plenty down there, but the books and scrolls were too fragile to touch. The only other thing I brought back was this.” I pulled the medallion off and held it out to her.

Suri took it curiously, then paused, an odd expression crossing her face.

“What?” I asked.

“This thing just gave