甲辰 002: 處暑 [Throughout September]

[singlemilletgrain]

♪ Ti o o beh lok ho
Ah gung nag gia di tau beh gut o ♪

1: Seeds [Early September]
In a conical hat and durable overalls, she checks her setup, knots the ropes attaching the plow one last time, and gives her docile oxen an affectionate pat between the horns.

"He Sheng. Xiao Man. Let's do a good job today."

As she guides her oxen through the underground fields of Vault, she gazes upwards at the jagged, rocky ceiling of the Vault settlement and briefly contemplates with a faint frown. There was no way that the plants in these fields were getting all the sunlight they needed to grow properly. But she had ideas. For now, she could just be thankful she wouldn't get too sweaty.

Supremely self-unconscious, it isn't long in the day before she is comfortable enough to start idly singing, her clear and vibrant voice ringing out through the vast fields even as she works.

♪ Gut ah gut gut ah gut
gut diu ji bui suan liu go ♪
♪ yi ya he to jin jia cu bi

2: Light [Mid September]
Some weirdos are on 50 foot tall scaffolding doing something to the ceiling of the Vault. Below, two oxen meander around in circles, occasionally lowing in faint concern. The plowed and sown fields are growing miraculously quickly. September was the wrong month to sow wheat altogether, and yet an acre of rapidly growing buds are sprouting up as far as the eye can see.

Currently, Shu is clinging to the roof of the cavern in an enormously precarious situation, her tail wrapped around the scaffolding to keep her secure as she drills something into the rock. A young man near her is holding some blueprints and a whole heap of strange looking materials.

"The real problem is the unpredictability. Our efforts will go to waste if the equipment is damaged by a stray blast. If only we could find a way to protect the above-ground harvesting system... Ah! Tch, I dropped it. Well, let's take a break. Thank you for your time today."

The man gives a curt nod before descending the ladder while Shu sits cross-legged on her giant scaffold in the middle of a field and muses.

3: Harvest [Late September]
There is no possible way this field could already be yielding dividends. And yet it is, and Shu is patiently, single-handedly cutting down her crops that reach higher than her head, still hum-singing her song. The oxen now are familiar sights around Vault as Shu takes a ride on one whenever she needs to get anywhere particularly distant with groceries or other deliveries. They don't help, but they are cute, which is emotional help. This matters significantly more.

Anyone who approaches will be met with a beckoning hand or a distant call, depending on how far away they are.

"Hello! You are the help I advertised for?"

Regardless of the answer, a burlap sack and a sickle are thrust into their hands, because it is clear Shu is not listening. "Start here with me, and I'll show you what to do."

Ti o o, o o... ♪

Comments

[singlemilletgrain]

"You may find it hard on the knees if you are not accustomed to this stance at first. Take as many rests as you need to."

She doesn't want to give anyone arthritis.

"I've done a good job? Oh, but the seeds of life only need a little encouragement to flourish on their own. Light, water, nutrients, soil. I have done very little."

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl shrugged. "Even if plants want to grow once you give them what they need, there's still making sure they have what they need."

[singlemilletgrain]

"It is as much for me as anything else." She continues to demur. "I find this familiarity to be soothing. But they are beautiful plants, aren't they?"

Though of a species different from what she is familiar with at home.

"How have you fared this past month, Ilphyl? Do you feel you have settled into this community?"

[spacetogrow]

"They are." Than again, Ilphyl thinks all plants are beautiful. And animals. And fungi. But these are healthy and happy plants, which is better than plants struggling to survive where they ended up.

"I think so. There's a lot to do in Flotsam, so I'm keeping busy. I've only ever been on a boat once before, and that was mostly as a passenger. I still like to feel ground under my feet every so often, though."

[singlemilletgrain]

"It is not my preference."

There is not much agriculture happening on boats. Shu does not think that is the kind of place where she is likely to thrive.

"But you must be worried about the impending attacks. I suppose there has not been much more discussion about how we will approach this battle."

[spacetogrow]

"Not really. Besides logistics about getting people who can leave out," Ilphyl said. "I'm not sure where I'm useful, so I've been just offering to help when I can."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Mm..."

Shu's sigh is directed less at Ilphyl and more at the world in general. For a time, she continues to cut away at the grain, the rhythmic sound of the slicing sickle keeping time for her thoughts.

"I have never been involved in a combat operation at this scale. I fear that might be true for many of us. If we had a commander of some sort -- but the Corsairs have a decentralized leadership, necessarily."

[spacetogrow]

"Right. And, yeah. I've never worked on anything larger than a small group, defending against another small group."

[singlemilletgrain]

"It will be a learning experience for us all."

She murmurs, and though her voice has no particular inflection, it is clear that this is meant to be faintly sardonic.

"...May I ask what sort of world you come from, Ilphyl? I have never heard of a people who dwell beneath the ground. Even the Durin, in my world, who prefer their mines and mountains, have no conflict with the sun."

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl can talk as they work, without slowing down too much.

"That sounds like dwarfs. The Durin, I mean. Or many gnomes." Ilphyl said. "Neither of those have sun-blindness, unless you count the duergar. Dwarves whose ancestors were deliberately altered. But, there's a lot of sorts of people where I'm from. Some of the same kinds as the Empire, like humans and elves. They live on the surface."

"But... I don't know if this place has a lot of caves, but my world does. They go miles down, and are laced with old magic. We call it the Underdark. Some people are native to there, like myconids. Those are mushroom-people. But my ancestors ended up there because of our sun-blindness. There's a few stories about how we got that, but it was thousands of years ago."

[singlemilletgrain]

((Oops, I didn't use the best phrasing earlier since the Durin definitely dwell below the ground.))

"Dwarfs -- "

She considers.

"Yes. The Durin are a... diminutive people." Even that word sounds a bit rude, but she isn't sure how else to phrase it. "Perhaps that is the appropriate equivalent. Their cities are in the earth, but they do not mind traversing on the surface, either. And their cities are domed, with technology that simulates the blue skies and the sun of the world above."

Mushroom people sounds fascinating, but it seems a bit off topic.

"What are your people called? And what kind of food do you grow in your cities?"

[spacetogrow]

"Drow," Ilphyl said. "Or... the old word is Ssri-tel-quessir. It means 'dark elf'. And... well, mostly mushrooms. Bluecap spores can be dried to make flour, and there's a bunch of other edible varieties. Most of them need magic to grow properly, and a lot of fertilizer. Also, we eat fish, and rothé -- they're a lot like goats, but can live on lichen and create their own light to keep the flock together. Sometimes insects."

Insects were complicated: some were considered a delicacy, and some were considered 'commoner food' for people who couldn't even get fish reliably. Which one was which usually depended on how much of a pain they were to cultivate.

[singlemilletgrain]

"Sree... tell... kesser."

Shu enunciates carefully, if incorrectly.

"Dark elf?" This elicits a brief flash of surprise across her face and she stops harvesting the wheat altogether to stare. "Oh -- of course. The ears. And elf... 'magic.' That does make sense. In my world, there are very, very few elves left. They are considered to be nearly extinct, and almost no elf mingles with our modern society. The world has largely left them behind, through little fault of their own."

"I had no idea there were different kinds of elves. Perhaps your people do exist in my world, after all, and I am merely ignorant."

[spacetogrow]

"Maybe," Ilphyl agreed. "Our stories say we didn't originate in the world we live in now. And there are a few different sorts. Sun elves and moon elves are pretty similar except for coloration. Wood elves live in the forests, drow live in dark places, like the Underdark, and sea elves live underwater. Oh, and eladrin live in the Feywild."

[singlemilletgrain]

Sea elves?!

Shu tries to imagine Ilphyl in a shade of blue casually walking around on the sea floor and has to cough lightly to preserve her dignity and stop her from giggling unexpectedly.

"Though perhaps we don't have quite so much variety."

Muelsyse was... pretty much a water elf, in her own way. The only elf, as far as she was aware, that remained a part of Terran society for her own reasons. (She suspected those reasons were an infatuation with a specific individual, but that was none of her business.)

"What unifies you all as elves if you have such different backgrounds? Do the stories say you came from the same ancestors?"

[spacetogrow]

"We share some physical traits, like lifespan, but yeah. We all have the same story about where we came from, though there are different takes on it."

[singlemilletgrain]

Having recovered from her initial surprise, Shu has returned to harvesting the wheat, though her work is a little bit slower than before.

"We have some time before all the grain is collected. If you please, I would be interested in hearing that story."

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl nodded. "I've heard the story from a few different sides, so you'll be getting the version I think makes the most sense."

"The first elf, and leader of the elven deities, is Corellon Larethian. We don't know what plane he came from, or how he was born. He's said to be fluid in form, but always graceful. I tend to use 'he' out of habit, but surface elves are just as likely call him 'she' or 'they'. He and the leader of the orc gods, Gruumsh, really hated each other, and it's said the rest of the elf gods were created when Gruumsh spilled Corellon's blood."

"If you ask the orcs why the two gods hate each other, they say that it was because Corellon and some of the other gods, tricked Gruumsh out of letting his people settle in the forests, or the mountains, or the hills or the plains, leaving only the badlands. Or else they just say that the two are opposites, so of course they'd hate each other. It's so long ago, no one can be sure."

Ilphyl works as they speak, considering where it would be best to pause for questions and commentary.

[singlemilletgrain]

Orcs... Not a word she had heard before. From context, this was likely another 'race' of humans that populated the world Ilphyl come from.

"That's a bit melancholic." She comments softly as she works. "For two peoples to be pit against each other due to these old legends. Have relations improved over time?"

Terra had many problems, but race wars were generally not one of them.

"Corellon Larethian created all the elves, then?"

[spacetogrow]

"Not as much as they should. People pushed to the edges often have to do a lot of unpleasant things to survive, which isn't good for good neighbors. Last year, some friends and I got attacked by orc bandits, and once we got them to surrender, we found out they mostly wanted food and things to sell for food. A friend of mine is nobility, and she helped get them set up with food for the winter, and the supplies for farming, and I offered to teach them if they needed it."

Ilphyl is very proud of that.

"But, yeah. Corellon created both the other elf gods and the first elves. Originally, they... we were all capable of changing shape, and so you had people and gods called to the sea, or the forests, or whatever. Corellon fell for one of the other gods, Araushnee, and he started spending more time as a male sun elf to go with her preference to be a female dark elf. They had twin children, Vhaeraun and Eilistraee, and a younger one, Vandria Gilmadrith."

Ilphyl does make a warding gesture at Araushnee's name. This is another world, and the god doesn't use that name any more, but they don't want to draw her attention.

"This is where the stories split, depending on whose followers you ask. Everyone agrees that Araushnee turned against Corellon, because she wanted something different for elves than he did, but it depends on whether you think it was a good thing. But she was the one who had elves take fixed forms, and when it was clear Corellon didn't agree with her about what they wanted for us, she also planned to help Gruumsh kill Corellon so she could be the chief god of the elves. Vhaeraun was willing to help her, and she tricked Eilistraee into playing a part."

[singlemilletgrain]

These are certainly some bloodthirsty creation stories. Shu considers - the nations of Terra had sanitized many of the old legends nowadays, but even in the past, there was nothing quite so... spiteful. The Feranmuts of old were rulers of the land and treated the Ancient peoples with apathy and disregard, but it was with the impersonal nature of a natural disaster. There was no malice or negative emotion involved. They were simply embodiments of the land who couldn't be bothered to care what happened to those who walked upon them.

This was more dramatic -- in some ways, a more human story.

"It does not feel as if patricide could be viewed in a very positive light. But what did they disagree over so dramatically that she would plot to kill him in such a manner?"

That strange gesture Ilphyl had made. She does not recognize it, of course, but there is a sense, from the furtiveness or the quick reflexive nature of the motion that it carries a negative connotation with it.

[spacetogrow]

"What they wanted for elves," Ilphyl said. "Being carefree, adaptable beings who traveled the planes was what Corellon wanted for us. Araushnee wanted us to be great rulers of civilizations, which meant being the sort of beings that were fixed in form. And, probably, because people with fixed forms need things. If you need to get and keep things like food and water, you think more about what you need to do that," Ilphyl noted. "Even the nobles here are worried someone will try to take away what they have, even if it seems impossible."

Ilphyl sighed. "What the elves chose can't be undone, even for those who later thought better of it. When it was found out that Araushnee tried to kill Corellon, she and Vhaeraun were exiled and she changed her name. She still considered the dark elves 'hers', which affected a lot of our history. It's also why Eilistraee voluntarily exiled herself. Because she knew we'd need her as a counterbalance."

Ilphyl actually sounds reverent for the last sentence.

[singlemilletgrain]

It is somewhat difficult to follow these names and stories. Shu works silently for a moment or two as she allows this information to trickle through her mind, thinking through the implications before choosing to comment.

"It sounds as if she wanted power."

Her tone lacks judgment, but even the phrasing seems vulgar, in some manner. It is not something she approves of personally.

"Power for her people as well. Perhaps it was a good intention, in some ways, but the means to accomplish it were ill-advised. The goddess Eye-is-tray... It sounds as if you are more fond of her."

[spacetogrow]

Ilphly nodded. "I grew up in a place run by the priestesses of... She who was once Araushnee." Again, Ilphyl avoiding speaking her name, and acting superstitious. "It was... well, the Empire has a lot in common with it."

"When I left and came to the surface, I first spent most of my time with non-elves. My mentor tracked down a community that followed Eilistraee, so I could find a place with dark elves who had a community that was better than the one I grew up in."

[singlemilletgrain]

"...The desire for power is often identified with the desire for power over others."

Shu murmurs in sympathy as she slices through a few more rows of wheat.

"Inevitably, it leads to destruction. I cannot think of a case where that is not so. I am sorry to hear that was the life you lived."

She does not need to understand the names and the exact stories to understand this parallel.

"This other goddess -- what was she known for?"