This is a world of wonders where even the mundane can be miraculous. Take the Edda Aroyac, the great river that separates Uazica and Obai. Some call it a sea, and I have seen more than one map where it is marked as the Emerald Sea. The water is a brilliant green, and in places even shames the jungle.
For much of its length, the Edda Aroyac runs east to west, fed both by smaller rivers and streams on both continents. The water is brackish, rendering it unsuitable to drink, but filled with creatures that can exist nowhere else.
The river is so wide in places that the opposite shore cannot be seen. Islands dot it, and none have ever managed to chart them all. It is a haven for merchants, and where there are merchants, there are pirates.
The bulk of the northern shore belongs to Kharsoom, the marshy areas that are often forgotten when picturing the endless arid expanses of the Red Wastes. The southern shore includes parts of Lixha, the Ocaital, and innumerable other kingdoms, free cities, and even the Nayarak Republic. The name, Edda Aroyac, comes from two different languages. Edda, is of course, Kharish for river. Aroyac is river in Huyu.
So this most wondrous of things, a jewel in the crown of Thür, is quite literally named "River River."
This fact still tickles me. The Edda Aroyac was one of my favorite places in the world before its transformation. It was grand, and beautiful, and humbling. I first set eyes on it a few months after leaving the highlands. Quiyahui and I traveled north and west, eventually emerging from the dense jungle in sight of the churning emerald water stretching to infinity.
Not long after, I found a small town that needed my help against some pirates. I had driven them off and on the day in question was sitting on a small wooden dock on the eastern edge of town, dangling my bare feet into the water.
As a reward, they had given me the use of a fisherman's shack and this dock, and food for the asking whenever I took the short path into the cluster of houses that made up the town. It was a pleasant existence in every detail save one. I did not much care for the local chocolatl. The bean lacked the complex character of the Pelesamatu varietal. This did not stop me from drinking it, though it made me long for my old home and the love of Ixem.
I was nearing the time when I would have to leave, but for the time being, I was determined to enjoy this place, chocolatl aside. I spent my days on the dock with a line in the water, caring not if I caught anything, and my nights in a hammock hanging next to the shack.
Quiyahui coiled nearby, her eyes closed, her tongue occasionally tasting the air. Her feathers shimmered every gorgeous color of the rainbow as the sun caressed her. Sadly, the full moon was not immanent, and it would be some time before the two of us would lay together again.
I judged another day or two before the two of us would follow the river west. I did not know what I sought, but with my companion, I was more at peace than I had been since I found my night eft's limp form on that distant beach.
My highland clothing had been packed away in a bag, my boots leaning against it, my spear nearby. I wore only my loincloth and hat, my skin pleasantly baking in the sultry air. My line was motionless. There would be food in plenty in the city's center, and more importantly I had my eye on a lovely young widow who might assent to spend a night in my hammock.
I was considering making my way into town when I noticed a boat out on the water. It was headed upstream, hugging the shore to stay out of the strongest current. I watched curiously, as there was nowhere else it could be going other than my dock. It was not flying the banner of the pirates I'd fought, but that meant little. Perhaps they had returned to try again.
"Quiyahui," I murmured.
The coatl's lightning-colored eyes were expressionless, and her blue tongue snaked out once again. She drew herself into a tight coil, her powerful body ready to strike into the sky. I set the pole aside. Ur-Anu was not far from my hand. If these were pirates, they would see what a weapon forged to kill a god would do to them.
The boat was of the most common kind of personal transport often on the river. It was two decks the upper mostly open to the air with a single cabin on the aft end. The second deck was lower, where the oarsmen worked. The ship's figurehead was a stylized coatl, I noted with some amusement.
"Hail!" called a man from the deck. He spoke Nahlor, a local tongue that was a close enough relative to Huyu that I could understand it when spoken slowly and clearly. He was stressed well, in a fine loincloth and light cloak, a feathered headdress indicating his high status. He wore gold at his wrists and throat, but the adornment was small. His long hair was tied back and generously streaked with silver. His body was soft, with a narrow chest and a wide belly. He looked to me like a man who paid others to do work for him.
"Hail," I called back in Huyu.
Two younger men stood by him, both carrying spears and muscled like professional warriors.
"You are the Blackspear?" the man called, now speaking in accented Huyu.
I glanced over at the magic spear and the feathered serpent. Who else would I be? "Yes."
"Please, take the guideline." One of the crew threw a rope to me. Curious, I took the line and helped guide the boat to the dock. After some jockeying, the crew silently put out a gangway. The man who had spoken, who could only be a noble, strode down it, followed by his two bodyguards.
"Hail, Blackspear," he said, nodding to me. "I am Oqyo Malvica."
"You are a noble."
"My family has means and title, yes," he said, "though I would not expect an outlander to follow our customs." When the people of Pelesamatu called me outlander, it never carried any derision. With him, I could not miss a subtle venom.
"And what do you want?"
He gave Quiyahui a superstitious glance. "Is there a place to sit?"
I looked to the shack at the end of the dock. I had been sleeping out of doors, but the shack could provide shelter from the weather. "In there."
He nodded. A gesture to his men, and they stayed on the dock. Quiyahui slithered to Ur-Anu, but she did not do anything else. I went with the noble to the shack and opened the door for him. A tiny hearth took up the bulk of the room, and a pair of stumps served as stools. Oqyo gave the stump a skeptical look, but then tossed his cloak and sat. I settled opposite him.
"Thank you for speaking with me, Blackspear. I understand a man of your skills is highly sought after."
"It seems so."
"I would like to hire you."
