Ajri's Ivory Shores: Chapter Thirty-Two (8/25/15)

[RainBeau]

Oh my gosh Indy! This is too good! Seriously, the best. I already knew you were the best builder around, but I had no idea of your other considerable talents. I love the concept of Ajri and the connections to Elysium, Avalon and so on. It's essentially the society I theorised as utopia for a paper in university, with the division of labour, interdependence and so on. The marriage traditions and peculiar childbirth were beyond anything I came up with, however. I would love to play about in that world, if you ever make complete buildings. I'm considering making my own, and I might, but it would never be anything like as fine as yours.
Savna. I exclaimed aloud at the news of her death. It was unexpected and heartbreaking, even though looking back it makes sense. I figured from the beginning that it would be Jaffaran who would become the dynasty founder, so I was surprised when he showed up with a woman. I guess it was a foregone conclusion, but you managed to make it a surprise anyway. Well done! 

[intl_incident]

My sister was sitting beside Ajiana's bed to keep watch over her as we had promised Jaffaran we would do, when my mother came by to speak with her.  It had only been about a week since my brother had left us, but the situation on Ajri had continued to decline.  Our scholars and family who had gone to aid the jah'Itan and Nelayan had already reported dozens of deaths from the plague that was sweeping over the island. We had been crafting medicines day and night, but until the source of the scourge was contained once again behind the Gate, all we could do was try to contain the damage.



Ajiana was safe from the disease up in my brother's rooms, at least as far as we knew, but she was still fighting off the effects of the awful day when the Gate had been broken, and evil had returned to the world.

"How is she doing?" my mother asked quietly, drawing Nella's attention from the book she was reading. "Has there been any change?"



Nella greeted her with a weary smile.  "A bit.  She seems more restless. But no major change."

My mother nodded, watching Ajiana's chest rise and fall for a few moments before turning back to Nella. "I need you to go to the Peninsula," she said simply, "We have a message from the Pembina, and I need you to respond on our behalf."

"A message from Lord Radal?"

My mother shook her head, fussing for a moment with Ajiana's blankets while she answered. "No, from Torin.  He says they need our assistance."

Nella's eyebrow shot up nearly to her hairline as she regarded my mother with unconcealed, disdainful surprise. "And we're going to send it, after what they've done?"

"Nella--" my mother's voice was tired as she started to argue, but my sister didn't pause for an instant in her objection.



"They lied to us. They carried that cat here with the key around its neck, and pretended they wanted to make amends. What makes you think this time will be different?"

"Nellaska," my mother tried again, more quietly this time.

"No, mother. I won't do it."  My sister stood up, dropping her book to the chair and pacing toward the arches that lined one side of the room. "They brought this down on all of us -- on all of Ajri.  You read what Aunt Cerian sent from the Breakwater?"



That was the general name for the lands of the Nelayan, where Nella had spent her journeyman years as a teacher.  Our Aunt Cerian had taken medicines and healers to try to help stem the tide of the disease there, and in her first report back, she'd told us that two of the Nelayan heirs -- Nella's closest friends among them -- had been two of the first casualties.

But though my mother's face softened in sympathy, she wasn't swayed. "All the more reason for us to answer the Pembina. This isn't their fault, any more than it was ours. We have a duty to try to help them before the situation becomes worse."

Nella stood with her arms crossed, eyeing my mother, defiant and unmoved.

"If you don't care about the Pembina, then consider this," my mother responded more sternly. "Even in places we can see and help, already the disease is getting worse. And is it gets worse, our friends will become more desperate. And as they become more desperate, they'll fall prey to tricks and persuasion telling them we're at fault and promising them an end to their suffering. You know the histories, Nellaska. You know what comes next. War. And the potential destruction of everything and everyone you do care about."

It was true.  The histories were full of tales of dreadful fighting and the island was littered with the ruins of our ancestors' towns and castles, destroyed in battles that had nearly been the end of Ajri in the days before the Gate.  And we knew that the three Forces that had been released -- disease, deceit and domination -- were among the three most dangerous.  "You'll take Josten," my mother continued matter-of-factly.  He was the wisest of her advisors, and trusted as much as any member of our family. "But we need to send someone who knows how to craft medicines, and we need someone of suitable rank.  You are the most logical choice, now that Jaffaran is gone."

My sister may have known good sense when she heard it, but that didn't stop her from resisting once again. "I should have gone wherever you sent him, not the Peninsula. His wife just died. His daughter is sick--"

"And still he did his duty," my mother's voice was sharp now. "We will all be called upon to do things we find difficult in the coming days. We will all have sorrows to overcome. And we must all take strength -- as your brother did -- from knowing that those we have loved watch over us.  That the stars shine down to light our way forward, and--"



"Jaffaran thinks Savna is gone forever," Nella interrupted. "It's in his journal.  She's not in the stars, she's just dead and buried.  You want me to go to the Pembina, then fine, I'll go.  But don't talk to me about the stars when the problems are down here, and don't tell me what Jaffaran thought when you don't know." 

My mother paused, startled by the revelation.  "Those were your brother's private thoughts," she started to object. "You had no right to read them, even if you miss--"

But Nella was gone, out the door without looking back.  My mother hesitated in the silence that was left behind, and then picked up the abandoned journal, turning to the page that Nella was reading.

...the elders say to take comfort from the stars; that she'll be waiting for me when I choose to join her.  But the elders choose to go to the ritual glyphs, to drink a potion and to disappear into a spray of light.  It's magic that sends them to the stars.  Savna had no choice. And Savna had no magic to send her.  She's no luminous being, waiting for me in the sky -- she's decaying in the dirt...



My mother snapped the book shut, suddenly stung by the memory of Jaffaran looking forlornly up at the heavens on the night she sent him away.  She had little time to dwell on the image, however -- a tiny voice piped up to interrupt her thoughts.

"Grandmother?" 

[Magz from Oz]

Yay Ajiana is awake.    I hope there is a way to get word to Jaff. 

[Brooke.]

Aw, Jaffran's journal entry  I'm so happy Ajiana's awake!

[Rhoxi]

"The histories were full of tales of dreadful fighting and the island was littered with the ruins of our ancestors' towns and castles, destroyed in battles that had nearly been the end of Ajri in the days before the Gate.  And we knew that the three Forces that had been released -- disease, deceit and domination -- were among the three most dangerous."

I like this idea, that the island was a paradise because the evils were all locked up behind the Gate. How strange and sad it must be for Jaffaran, now, to be in a world where such things are routine!

[Nutella]

I'm moving this to the Stories Graveyard due to inactivity.  @intl_incident - you can revive this story by contacting a moderator.

Original Storyboard:  Sims 3 Miscellaneous Stories

[Nutella]

Moving back to active storyboard, welcome back @intl_incident.

[intl_incident]

"I can't believe it," Nella murmured to the scholars at her side. "This can't be the same place."

The small party of riders had stopped on a ridge to view the plains below.  And though it had only been a short time since the Gate was opened, the Peninsula -- ancestral home to the Pembina family -- was a wasteland.  Grasses that had once been green and lush were brown and dead.  A sickly mist covered the flat landscape, broken only by the occasional blackened branches of a stark, leafless tree. 



And in the distance, next to the high spires of the Pembina castle, crows circled overhead, their raucous calls loud enough to be heard from the distance.

"We should go back, my lady.  You shouldn't expose yourself--"

But Nella had already spurred her horse forward at the first sound of an objection.  Pulling her silk scarf around her face to block out the mist, she plunged forward, down the slope.



Back home, her mother was at the seeing stone, looking for any sign of the three ghostly forms that had emerged from the Gate. 

"They will have gone back to the places they know," said the uncle seated across from her. "The Pembina lands will bear the worst of this corruption."  As they should, he thought, A just punishment for the harm they've caused.



"We will all be punished," Lady Ybeline replied quietly, without looking up from her work. "It will come to us all if we cannot close the Gate.  And you must remember, Edran, that no one bears the blame for this but our enemies."

He looked up and across the stone at her, startled by the reply.

"It doesn't take a stone to read your thoughts," Ybeline chastised him. "The Pembina were just pawns in this game."



"Still," Edran objected, "they let themselves be used.  You know what's in the readings -- the Forces don't create evil, they only use the evil already within us. If Lord Radal's and Lord Stellan's minds weren't already full of--"

"Of what?" Ybeline asked, lifting her eyes from the stone. "Unkind thoughts?  Ill-wishes for others?"  She raised one eyebrow at him, and he squirmed uncomfortably in his seat.  "Perhaps we should look into our own hearts, and see what we find.   I'll wager there are few people in this world with the nobility of spirit to withstand such scrutiny, or the purity of thought to ward off manipulation by the forces beyond the Gate."



In the once-grand courtyard of the Pembina, as Nella threaded her way through abandoned carts and crates, her horse's hoofbeats echoed against the cold stone walls, the sound occasionally offset by a feeble cough from one of the men and women slouching on the benches or against the fence.  Wind whistled through the towers overhead, and the sound of the crows was louder here.  But Nella and the other riders were silent as they surveyed the grim scene.   



The eerie calm was broken by the creak and groan of the huge wooden doors as Torin stepped out to the top of the stairs.  "You came," he said with relief and without preamble. "I was beginning to think you'd leave us to our fate."

"Don't think I didn't consider it," Nella replied with a sharp tone, lifting her gaze away from a small child struggling up the steps.  "But I was sent here for the greater good.  My mother is of the opinion that we need to help you in order to help ourselves and the rest of the island.  So here we are."



Torin accepted the harsh reply as if he'd been expecting it. "We're grateful. I'm grateful. Please -- you must be hungry.  I can't offer you much, but there's bread and dried fruit, and I think some wine.  There was someone for the horses..."  He rubbed at his forehead with a bleak look around the dismal courtyard.

Nella frowned at the graciousness, irrationally irritated by the hospitality, partly because of its incongruity in the surrounding misery and partly because Torin was not the surly, bad-mannered bully she'd been expecting.  She shook her head, sliding out of the saddle. "We're not here for dinner," she said briskly, pulling her satchel down to sling it over her shoulder. "And we'll see to our own horses.  It's clear you need our assistance more than we need yours."

"We do," Torin replied, reaching out to take one of the saddlebags. "Desperately."



Inside the castle, it was clear he wasn't exaggerating.  Beds filled every room with a fireplace and even lined the wide hallways.  Men, women and children of every age were huddled under blankets, some shivering and coughing, others lying still as death.  Nella blinked in the dim light, taking a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness and for her mind to adjust to the magnitude of the plague.



"How many?"

Torin shook his head at the question. "I've lost count," he said apologetically. "Hundreds.  We've got two hundred or so beds, and they're all full, but --" He held his hands out in a hopeless shrug. "There are more in the great hall, in blankets on the floor.  And some in the workshops.  I've heard there are more at the tavern.  More that have stayed in their cottages. And of course..."

Nella turned back to him as he stopped, tilting her head and waiting. "Of course...?" she prompted.

"Of course there are the ones who've died," he said, his voice shaking.  "Not many, yet.  But you see why I wrote you.  We need help.  My father wouldn't ask -- he thinks you've caused this. He thinks you've poisoned us, and poisoned my mother and Stellan.  But it's that thing, isn't it? The tree your brother found in the ruins.  That thing has poisoned my father's mind, and now it's poisoning the whole Peninsula."



"The whole island," Nella corrected him. "And it's not the root that's doing it. Not now anyway. It's the forces your family let out of the Gate."

"What?"

Nella eyed him skeptically. "You must have known? Your brother and mother brought a portal cube into the palace.  It was on the collar of Savna's cat. I don't know where they got it, but they broke open the Gate with it.  This isn't some den'Rhelys plot against your family, it's your own family's doing. And the whole of Ajri is suffering for it."

"No, it can't be," Torin said in disbelief. "It can't. My mother would never--"

"She did. And now Savna's dead, and my brother--"

"Savna?" Torin's eyes went wide in an instant.



Nella stopped, instantly regretting her tone. "You didn't know?"

Torin shook his head, blinking back tears.  "I don't know anything, apparently.  If you wrote to tell us, it went to my father, and he didn't think it worth telling me."  He rubbed again at his forehead, his shoulders sagging beneath the weight of the news. "I'm so sorry," he said quietly. "Whatever my mother and brother did, I can only apologize.  But no one here," he gestured down the hallway, "had anything to do with it. My responsibility is to them now, not my father.  Please.  I don't know how to help them. They're good people.  They had no part in--"

Nella put a hand on his arm to stop him. "I know," she said kindly.  "I know."  It was increasingly obvious that Torin had survived his family's ordeals with his sense of duty and compassion intact, he had exhausted himself trying to care for his people with no help from his father, and he deserved far better than the sharp side of her tongue.  Whatever the rest of the Pembinas had done, he'd clearly played no role in it any more than the people he was pleading for.  "You've done the right thing," she reassured him. "You asked us to come."



In her small study, Ybeline sighed as she let the seeing stone glide back down to its resting place, and stretched her stiff shoulders.   There had been ample evidence of the effects of the Forces around Ajri, but no sign of their specific location. 

"A needle in a haystack,"  she lamented.



"True," Edran replied as he stood up. "But we'll need to know where they are if Jaffaran makes it back, and--"

"When Jaffaran makes it back," Ybeline said sternly.

Edran hesitated as if considering a reply, but thought better of it, pressed his lips together and simply nodded. "When."

"If you have something to say, Uncle..."

"You can't know he'll be back," Edran said flatly. "I'm glad you believe it, but you can't know it. You don't even know if he's made it to the other world."



Ybeline pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a long deep breath. "No," she admitted. "I don't.  But we still have time.  If it comes to it, I can still send Meri or Nella to try again.  But--" She stopped suddenly, squinting at the stone in the center of the table.

"What is it? Did you see them?"  Edran crowded closer, but she held up a hand to quiet him, and kept peering into the crystal.



After a moment, she shook her head and looked away.  "Nothing. I was sure I saw a movement, or a light, but..." She sighed. "My mind is playing tricks.  I need a cup of tea."

"You need a full meal," said Edran, escorting her out of the room.  "And then a long rest..."

[Magz from Oz]

Fantastic update Indy.  I just don't trust Uncle Edran.  I think he might not be as good or as compassionate as the rest of the den'Rhelys. 

I'm also hoping that something other than duty may develop between Torin and Nella. 

[Playalot]

Wow! I'm so glad you linked this story to your dynasty or I would have missed out on a fantastic read. You have a real talent for spinning the most wonderful tales that truly brings characters alive. Bookmarked and can't wait for the next update.

[intl_incident]

Wow! I'm so glad you linked this story to your dynasty or I would have missed out on a fantastic read. You have a real talent for spinning the most wonderful tales that truly brings characters alive. Bookmarked and can't wait for the next update.

Oh my gosh -- you never read this prequel?  You must have been so confused when Geoff was talking about Ajri all the time.  Now you know what it's all about!

[melancholy_anju]

I wonder what that light could be. Could it possibly be the hope that Jaffaran's dynasty is creating? But oh poor Torin! He seems at his wits ends.

I'm also hoping that something other than duty may develop between Torin and Nella. 

And I agree with Magz, I was hoping myself that they might develop a nice bond.

[samoht04]

Glad to see you're still continuing this story! Have really enjoyed it especially the newer chapters as well! Also love how you're tying into the Immortal Dynasty! Did not see that coming at all! 

[intl_incident]

I wonder what that light could be. Could it possibly be the hope that Jaffaran's dynasty is creating? But oh poor Torin! He seems at his wits ends.And I agree with Magz, I was hoping myself that they might develop a nice bond.

So glad you found the other story so you can keep up now that they're crossing over.  And yeah, poor Torin.  He's really having a hard time of it.  But hopefully you and Magz are right, and he'll find a good friend (or something more?) in Nella.

Glad to see you're still continuing this story! Have really enjoyed it especially the newer chapters as well! Also love how you're tying into the Immortal Dynasty! Did not see that coming at all! 

Yay! You're still reading!  Glad you're still enjoying it, and that the ID twist surprised you.  The two stories are really starting to intersect now, so it will hopefully not be too much longer before we see how this all turns out.

[intl_incident]

 "... Gehren will stay here, to show your people how to dose the medicines, and Aysa will go down the Great Hall to help there.  The rest of us will need to get started crafting more tinctures, so Yaris will bring our supplies into your kitchens."  Nella's tone was brisk and efficient as she directed her small team's response to the plague that had befallen the Pembina household.  "We do have more finished medicines, so if there are others who need immediate care, Kamran and I can see to them ourselves."


 
"There are a few families in the schoolhouse," Torin said. "But--"
 
"But?" Nella looked back from the table where she'd placed their supplies.
 
"But I wonder if you would be willing to try to see my father."  Torin made the request hesitantly, almost apologetically. "I know we may have limited supplies, and I know he's the cause of a lot of what's happened..."


 
"Our supplies are not limited yet," Nella said kindly. "So there is no need to make any difficult decisions about whom we should try to save, and whom we should not." She caught his eye with an understanding gaze, having guessed what was troubling him.  "We came to help everyone, your father included."

........................................................

Back at the den'Rhelys palace, Ybeline jerked her hands away from the seeing stone as a flash of raw magic flared outward from the crystal. 
 


"Did you get through?" asked Uncle Edran.  He was surrounded by the old books and scrolls they had found in the recesses of the library, with the faded schematics of the ancient, mechanical portal on Mount Helios, as well as the remains of the charm they had used to try to trace Jaffaran's prior connection back to its source.
 
Ybeline rubbed at her temples, where her head was beginning to ache from the effort.  "I think so, yes... I could almost see something. People, perhaps, in what looked like a barn.  And I think I heard Jaffaran calling out to me. But it was very foggy-- I don't know how much they were able to hear."


 
"Hopefully enough," the scholar said ruefully.  "Adamantine and lodestone are not to be trifled with.  And they have no dimensions for the base stone, or--"
 
"I know," Ybeline interrupted. "I know, Edran.  But Jaffaran is resourceful, and I'm confident he'll find a way to contact us again. We must continue the research. And we must continue to try to find our enemies, so that we are ready to act as soon as Jaffaran returns to us."
 
"You must have searched the entire Peninsula by now.  Where else could they be hiding?"
 
"I've not looked everywhere," Ybeline replied, turning her attention once more to the seeing stone. "There are some dark places in that castle where no light can reach."

........................................................

 
"Father?"  There was pounding on the door, as there had been every day since the plague had descended, but two of the figures in LordRadal's study paid it no heed.  The third, the trickster, turned to their wretched, corrupted host, and prompted him with a whispered command: "Reply to your son.  Tell him to leave you alone.  You don't want to see him."



"Go away!" Radal shouted hoarsely. "Leave me be!"
 
"Father, please." Torin's voice was muffled by the heavy oak.  "I just want to see you. To see if you're ill, or if you need anything.  You haven't eaten in a week."



The trickster rolled his eyes at the sound, and prodded Radal again. "You don't need anything from him.  He's being a nuisance."
 
Radal lifted his heavy-lidded gaze toward the door, eyes unfocused. "I said leave me be!  Why do you bother me? Go back to your games and your friends in the tavern."
 


"Your people are sick, father. They've been poisoned by evil. "  There was a pause as Torin waited for a reply, but none came. "It's poisoned you too," he tried again.

The trickster, having just turned his attention back to the other grim figures, sighed with irritation. "The den'Rhelys have poisoned them," he called in Lord Radal's voice, bored with puppetting the old man.  "It's all part of their plan."
 
"Their plan?" mouthed the skeletal ghoul by his side.
 
The trickster shrugged dismissively, and opened his mouth to reply, when another shout came from the other side of the door: "They haven't done anything. It was Stellan, father. He and mother took something with them, and they used it to set this evil loose.  It killed Savna."


 
All three dark figures turned attentively toward the door.  "How does he know that?" whispered the ghoul. "Why would he believe--"
 
"Silence." The most fearsome of the figures spoke the single quite word with a commanding tone, and the ghoul immediately crouched back. 


 
The trickster looked for the commanding figure to nod his permission, then used Lord Radal's voice once again: "Lies! Lies and treason! It was the den'Rhelys witch and her grasping husband, trying to take our lands and--"
 
"It wasn't," came the reply. "They're here to help.  Lady Nellaska is with me now. She's come to help you, father. To help all of us."


 
"Here!" hissed the ghoul, quivering with nearpanic. "The den'Rhelys are here?"
 
The commanding figure stood from his chair as the latch to the door rattled. "They must not find us," he said firmly. "We need more time to sow the seeds."

"We go?" asked the trickster, his eyebrow raised.
 
"We go," the commanding figure replied.


 
"I'm opening it," Torin said to the guards on the other side of the door. "You will stand back as I do."
 
The guards frowned, stepping forward as if to stop him, but then suddenly froze as if unsure how to respond.  Torin lifted a heavy stone statue from the table beside the door, and smashed it down on the latch.  The doors swung open, startling three black birds that flew out the open window. 


 
Lord Radal lay motionless on the ground, his skin cold.  Kamran knelt at his side, feeling for any sign of life.  After a moment's pause, he shook his head grimly.  "Gone,"he said simply. "And if I hadn't just heard his voice, I would have said he's been dead for days."