Chapter 10: Semsì

"It was not long after the elves began to split into different groups that the other species began to form. The Dragon-kin, those who descended from dragons of the Years of Growth, first arose along with the Elves, as the very oldest of the Dragons themselves was also a Prime, their offspring included many gods. From Elven-kin came both man and goblin-kin, each with their own polities and cities by the death of the Queen of the Elves." -Excerpt from Kieva's Mythological History

***

Sunrise and sunset were both experiences not of pain or discomfort, just separate feelings of loneliness and comfortability, respectively, for me at least. Save for the slight burning sensation of the tattoo on my arm each time, which really only felt like light pinpricks, and are far less painful than when I got the tattoo from the Kertada, the artists who specialized in the arcane ink. Many warriors and mages are known to use various tattoos and inks to enhance and build on their own natural ability on the battlefield. Many cultures, like that which Jiva originates from, use the arcane ink in similar ways to the warriors of the south, but in many unique ways, not limited to communicating with the Divine.

The sun rose high in the sky again as we strolled along the trail atop the horses, the breakfast settling in my stomach now as the sun continued to rise. My own mind was lost on my thoughts of Jiva. When I had brought out the Prime Cube the night before, she had left almost immediately to the tent as she saw it. Maybe you're overthinking and she was just tired. I thought to myself. I'll ask Va'tu what he thinks of the cube anyway. Pushing Mond forward with a light tap of my heels, I caught up to Va'tu on his tall silver nag. We had raced already, and while my friend Mond could run on and on, it seems he is not the fastest horse out of the stable. Not to say he was slow by any means of course, but the Silver Arrow as I had taken to calling her was another speed.

"Va'tu, I want to ask you about that cube."

"Yeah? I wanted to do the same thing, actually." He chuckled. "You've seen them before too? I saw one while I was training as a Heritan." 

"Uh- that actually makes sense. They tend to flock towards finding old artifacts and protecting them, right?" I wracked my brain trying to remember exactly what the Heritan Guard did, for a place many children of nobles went off to for a career and training, the larger part of their great mission was unknown and they were all together rather secretive.

"Yeah, though they don't let recruits into their citadel until they graduate so I never saw anything of import. Recruits only see the outer buildings, and they keep the good stuff in a place called the Sanctum."

"Would they tell us about the one we found?"

"We'd have better luck taking it to a university somewhere, don't you think?" He eyed me slightly.

"They might, but who knows."

In less than an hour, we would come to a crossroad that would take us to the only other university in the south, without heading back to the city of Siregal. The city of Bizarakz, a primarily dwarven city on the coast, filled mostly with Hill dwarves and humans, held a university.

"We could go to the southern dwarves in Kharbharbar, they have a University there." he proposed. 

"No, no. No need to get off track. Let's stay our course and get across the Garu'ud safely. Argegiond has one of the largest schools in the north of the Hook." I said.

"Mire will agree with you, I think." He said, though his face told me that he was still thinking about the cube. "I know the other one wasn't defaced like this one, that's for sure. The Heritan's kept it locked in some display like they were actually some kind of museum, which was funny considering they were the last people to show the public anything."

"I read that there was something that changed them a few centuries ago, so they may have been more accepting in the past." I said, maneuvering Mond around a fallen tree in the road, keeping an eye on the treeline. The attack last night made me nervous, to say the least, though Mire had cast a ward before we set off to alert us of anything that came within a few dozen meters. Most of the time there was nothing hiding in the bushes bigger than a rabbit, but sometimes larger creatures like deer and elk could be seen watching from afar. 

"They said they were attacked, I think that's what they said. I didn't really pay much attention during that part if I'm honest." Va'tu chuckled as he thought, doing everything he could to remember more about the history. 

Mire prodded the horse under her, a beast that was named Uami, a word that means cloud in elven, on account of the white patch of fur on her left flank that looked fluffy like a cloud. The horse trotted on and caught up to Va'tu and I. 

"Are you still talking about the cube?" She pressed, leaning in to hear what we had been saying.

"By all means." I said. She had spent the better part of the morning since we awoke trying to figure out what it was, to no avail unfortunately. 

"Here," she took the cube out of her satchel, turning it in her fingers before handing it to me. "I'm sure that you will figure it out before me."

From a few feet behind on the trail, Ossunnam cleared his throat. "Semsì, what about that letter? It looked like it was rather important or at least from someone with money for a nice seal."

"Right," I snapped my fingers and placed my palms together in thanks towards Ossunnam. "It's in here somewhere," I said reaching in the Endless Bag, which despite its appearance of a regular backpack was actually a pocket dimension to the Void. The interior was rather cool, like silk against my hand and arms. "There it is." I pulled the letter out.

I recognized the seal at least. It was the emblem of the Baronel Shipping Company. I was actually rather familiar with them, or at least my family was. Being the leading excavator of the earth metals only means something when you can ship it somewhere. Even I remembered that from my fathers lessons. Baronel was a company based out of the city, which operated mostly to take goods and passengers across the Garu'ud Sea. My family even had contracts with them at one point if I was correct in my memory.

"This is the Baronel Shipping Company, what in the world would the goblins have this for?" I pondered.

"Baronel? The ones that claim they can get across the Garu'ud in less than two weeks?" A normal passage would normally take at least a month to cross the sea to the Formith Peninsula and to Formithlothl, the only city on the southern coast for hundreds of miles with a port. 

"The very same." I said, breaking the seal on the letter. "Dear Auteron,"

Dear Auteron,

Let the light of Vakti find you in good health. I appreciate that you were willing to work so closely with us and await the next collaboration. I have reason to believe that the stars have aligned in our meeting. I hope you have a safe trip back to Siregal, I have heard that a band of goblins from the east was spotted near the mountains by some of the Rangers. 

Best of Wishes,

Feldr of Hahyrst 

"That was not what I expected." Va'tu said.

"There is more," I said, reading on, "P.S. The faces speak when the moons no longer shine."

"Okay, what in the name of all of the gods?" Ossunnam blurted. "Is that supposed to be literal? And who are these two?"

"I don't know and I only know the Feldr fellow. He's the owner of Baronel Shipping." I said. 

"You found that in the bag with bloody clothes, the weird cube, and some dice?" Mire cut in, clearly puzzled by the letter and the contents of the bag.

"And some gold and silver but that was scattered in the bottom of the bag." I confirmed. I was just as confused as her, though I suspected that the Prime Cube was the object in which 'the faces' was in reference to. 

"The Prime Cube." she said under her breath, to the point where I could hardly hear it.

"You think?" I questioned further. 

"What else would the man be referring to? There wasn't anything else in that pack that had a face other than that doll, and I know what that does."

"You do?" Va'tu turned his head and glanced at her.

"I took it last night and learned a few things. It's a talking doll. It says whatever words you want it to in specific circumstances," she cleared her throat between sentences, "If you all don't mind, I would like to hold onto it actually."

I looked to the others who each shrugged with indifference. The doll was not my favorite thing, if I was honest. It was stiff and the expression on its face made me feel like it was in some sort of pain. 

"You keep it, I don't really care for the thing."

She smiled rather excitedly and took the doll and placed it in her own pack. The thing was a mess, at least from my perspective. Though to give her credit, she seemed to always know where her things were. 

"I should be able to do something fun with this." The look she gave Va'tu left me feeling rather sick and I wish I never saw it. "And useful," She glanced at me with a mischievous smile.

***

 As the night approached, we found a small clearing off the main road and set up our camp: a few tents and a fire in the center. Mire, as we settled down, sat in the center of the camp, concentrating on the ritual spell that would alert us to enemies who entered the vicinity. 

"I can't believe I didn't think to do this the night before. It won't stop anyone from attacking, but we'll know before they get to us at least." She said as she wrapped the spell up.

"We have people on watch for a reason, don't blame yourself." Jiva said, sitting atop a rock near the camp watching the forest with her bow in hand and an arrow nocked. 

"Still, I trained so long at the Alina College of Magic for a reason, and it wasn't to let goblins wreck my camp." She replied.

"I will take the first watch," Jiva said, giving me a glance out of the corner of her eye.

"I'll stay with you and take second watch." I added, knowing that my dwarven and dragonborn friend would need more sleep than any of us elves. On average, elves only 'meditate' for four hours a night because we don't sleep in the same way as the other mortals. 

After eating our rations for the night and the rest of the camp retiring to their tents, Jiva and I sat atop the rock at the edge of camp, back to back. We sat in silence for a few minutes, taking in the night sky and the moons above.

"I left the tribe." Jiva began, prompting me to adjust myself atop the rock, and turning to face her. 

"You left? That's possible?" I began what was going to be a tirade of questions but I closed my mouth to let her go on.

She chuckled for a moment before answering. "I will always be a child of the Hu`te`dine, the Misty Mountains. But I am no longer traveling with them. I hope to meet you in Clethorpe actually."

"Wait, you left? What about our shadow?" 

"I do not worry about him. He must still gather his forces." 

"His forces?"

"I've left. The war will begin without a doubt. My people will retreat to the north and give me time to get to you before Wata`aran is able to break through the new ward." She scanned the forest as she spoke, us returning to our back to back position.

"Your tribe was okay with it?"

"No. But they know it must be done." She chuckled to herself as she thought for a moment. "Besides, our magic places me physically with you for twelve hours, not some lesser spell made by a lesser mage." She smiled with pride. Obviously referring to her grandfather, and the spell that bound her and I together.

"You're right. I trust you, but I'm going to make sure we hurry as much as possible. Where were you traveling last?"

"I haven't made it to Shizda," referring to the northern Chrzurub Mountains,where the Shizdabar Dwarves called home, "but they're on the horizon."

"Okay. I will figure out a way to get to Clethorpe as fast as possible, but the sea's rather worrying me."

The night was cold and dark. The one waxing moon covered by clouds. After being relieved from duty after a few hours, we returned to our tent. The tent felt much better inside and the fur bedrolls were at least quick to warm once we were under the covers. 

"You think I shouldn't have left?" She said, looking at me with her round eyes.

"No. That's not it." I kissed her forehead lightly and smiled. "I wish we could have had an opportunity to talk about it perhaps, but like I said, I trust you know what you can handle."

"That makes me feel better. I've been alone before on treks, but nothing like this, at least during the day I can keep moving and at night I'm with you." She kissed me with soft lips on mine and I felt her hand sliding up my bare torso, her touch sending shivers down my spine. 

Our feet and legs intertwined under the covers and I rested an arm around her waist, and the other twirling my finger in her long frizzy black hair that ran down her back. Her lips as we kissed, and her fingers as she traced something absent-mindedly on my chest, felt like the touch of a goddess. 

"Woman, I will never run out of love for you." I grunted, leaning into her kiss harder. She moaned as I bit her lip and grasped her backside with my right hand. Her right hand ran down my chest and undid the button to my shorts, grasping the member, though it had not yet had its chance to grow to its full size. She began to stoke and I could feel her smile as it grew in her hand. 

"Your skin is always so soft," she whispered, taking long slow strokes down the shaft between kissing me. 

"I keep myself moisturized," I whispered back as I took off the top she wore. She kissed me one last time before sitting up and straddling me. 

"You're going to please me tonight,"

"Of course, my dear." I smiled, sitting up slightly before she put a hand out and forced me back. She slowly began taking the underwear off of me, turning around in the process, so that her mound hovered above me, each thigh on either side of my head. 

I picked my head up slightly, and licked the small bead that was directly above me, taking both of my arms around her hips and two large handfuls of ass as I licked further, taking her folds apart with my tongue and tasting the sweet juice within. hin. She moaned as she moved her hips back and forth, grinding on my face and I could feel a hand cradle my member lightly, then gripping it and stroking slowly. She took the tip in her mouth, and flicked across it a few times, as I licked and played with the hooded bead. Her mound was wet and tasted slightly of sweat though we had rinsed off in the river before the night began. I grasped her backside tightly as I sucked lightly then licked her mound, my nose wet from being inside her wet folds. Time blended together and I felt lost in the pleasure for hours, though that surely didn't pass. 

I felt her tense and rise suddenly, twisting around and placing a kiss on my lips, biting rather hard on my bottom lip. She placed herself above me, straddling me, while kissing me and playing with my hair in one hand, she reached between us and guided my member between the folds and into her warmth and wetness. 

She let go of my lip and moaned as she lowered herself on my shaft, in response, I leaned forward initiating a kiss of my own, biting her lip in return. She moaned into my face and began to rise and fall, taking me slowly at first. Though with each, she would moan slightly and speed up. After a few moments of this, she lowered all the way, enveloping me completely.

"Oh fuck." We both said together.