16th of Vhalar 721
They arrived at the Kankaro Sky Caves, the two of them. Dimza Nil, and his fellow traveler, Demda. The agreed-upon price for this delivery to the Sky Caves? Demda had promised him both Akui, and her riding camel. It was a princely reward for such a paltry guidance, but then he had delivered her safely, and in one piece. This was where she knew she had to be. The people of the Sky Caves were said to have information on the medallion she bore. She would take what guidance she could from Cantara Ulema, and then move on to the next stop in her journey.
So as she parted ways with the two camels, she leapt down from Monk, and untied the lead that tethered her camels. With a thrust of her arm, she shoved it into Dimza’s chest. He gave her a look, mocking her with false emotional wounds. ”Oh Demda, that’s no way to treat an old associate… But I thank you for the camels, they will be delici… I mean I’m sure their breed will improve my stable! Haha!” So saying, he almost turned around, when he spotted the glint of something silver beneath the fold of Demda’s travel robe. He saw the Rosanna, and stammered, ”Th..that… That’s the Rosanna… Where did you find it?” He lurched toward her, but was intercepted by Khorog, who came to block his hand from reaching toward the amulet. Demda took a few steps back, furrowing her brows beneath the goggles. ”What do you mean, Dimza? What is the Rosanna? This?” So saying, she drew the medallion out, and showed it to him.
He tried one last time to lunge for the item, but was pushed off, and kicked in the rear by Khorog, who delivered a few Vorkelian curses at the man before he scurried away.
Khorog waited for the man to make some distance, off away from the village, before turning to regard Demda with an appraising look. He shrugged, and beckoned for her to follow, with her horse Monk.
They made their way into the midst of the Sky Caves. There, all manner of people were gathered, in windows, in the dry desert village about their daily tasks. The Sky Caves were almost idyllic, in their way.
Khorog took the reins of Monk, carefully, making sure Demda trusted him with the reins before taking them fully. Then he pointed the way for Demda, toward an entrance in the rocky formation before them.
She approached it, looking askance back at him a moment, before proceeding. He tied the horse to a nearby hitch post and then waited for her to enter first.
Demda was faced with a curtain of beads, dried bones, shells, and other trinkets that clicked melodically as anyone passed through them. The hanging trinket fell in a two-feet long passage that ensured anyone entering would be heard by the crone that resided there. Demda ducked as well as she could, through the curtain, but ended up getting a face full of the dried bones, wooden beads, and shells that were strung through it. She tried to get through it as gracefully as was possible, but the curtain seemed determined to make her entrance as undignified as possible.
Khorog followed close behind her and was somehow swept by the curtain without as much fuss as Demda herself. This was her first time meeting the Ulema Crone. Cantara was said to be among the more helpful and accurate of the readers of the Kankaro Sky Caves. According to the Ulema.
Khorog swept in front of Demda, and turned to glance at her, making a motion with his hand to indicate that she should remove her hood and goggles. She did so, revealing her fully grown red hair, and the slit-pupil, green avriel eyes she possessed. She glanced this way and that, watching the space with her naked eyes, trying to discern for threats or potential oddities in her surroundings. She didn’t expect that the Ulema would suddenly turn hostile after welcoming her time and again over the seasons. But one could never really know.
She’d paid dearly for this meeting, giving up her two camels for a chance to meet the Crone of Ulema. It had best be worth it, so she thought.
Once she’d swept her hood from her face, and placed the goggles against her forehead, she came forward, when gestured to by Khorog, and then took a seat as directed upon a cushioned stone stool. There, she waited, watching as her guardian, Khorog, went on back through the alcove, ostensibly to fetch his grandmother.
From the other room, Demda could hear them talking in Vorkelian, sharing words mingled with curses she could recognize. Finally, their conversation seemed to hit a low note, and Khorog emerged. He stormed out of the Sky Cave where Cantara dwelt, without another word or look at Demda. Cantara was next out of the next room, and Demda saw her for the first time. She had gray-green hair, tied up neatly into a bun. From her brow, hung a veil of similar beads to those in the portal into this cave-like dwelling. Around her was draped layers upon layers of rich cloth and beast hides, all festooned with exorbitantly valuable trinkets, odds, and ends. She looked every bit the wandering mystic, but a successful one at that. That didn’t put Demda’s mind at ease, however.
She came forward, and touched the top of Demda’s head, rubbing the scalp with both fingers. Demda almost felt a brow quirk, but suppressed the urge, and took the treatment in stride. She was sure it would be helpful to the process. And she did want to learn more about this… Rosanna she’d found, that Dimza had identified.
She held the amulet off of her chest, where it’d slipped out of her robes. She tried to catch Cantara’s eye with it, but she ignored the trinket, waving her hand and bringing out a deck of cards from her sleeve. This done, she began shuffling, and then laid the deck down perfectly upon the stone table between them, as she took a seat. She said something in Vorkelian. When Demda didn’t respond other than to look at her sideways, she repeated herself, slowly in broken common, ”Cut deck, girl.” She gestured toward the deck. ”You cut.” She repeated herself once more in Vorkelian, perhaps in hopes that Demda would remember the words she’d spoken and follow along with them.
The woman blinked, but shrugged, and split the deck as she willed to. This done, Cantara nodded. She began picking up cards from each half of the deck, and laying them face up on the table. She repeated words in Vorkelian and then in common. She pointed to certain images on the cards, and rearranged them, so the corners touched in a specific way that Demda couldn’t understand for the life of her. Perhaps some occult manner of divination? In any event, she began rattling off words, and in sequence so as to make it somewhat cohesive, as if it were telling a story that would unfold in Demda’s immediate future.
”Your tomorrow. Today.”
She pointed to a picture of a man, holding a wicker shield, to protect a woman. ”Khorog…” She said, giving Demda a sly smile. Demda squirmed a bit in her seat, not liking the look.
Then she moved onto the next one, ”Danger. The stranger, wolf.” She spread three fingers, indicating two of the cards, on which were depicted rough paintings of those characters, including the wolf at the very end. ”Danger follows, but no fear.”
She began breathing heavily, and her eyes went white for a moment, then she turned to other cards in the line-up. She pointed toward one, depicting a pair of twins, and then pointed to Demda. Saying the words in Vorkelian, and then common, ”Sister. You will see.” Oddly, she pointed at Demda’s medallion, the Rosanna.
”Sister.” Her eyes went white for another few trills and then she held out her hand. What did she want? Demda felt confused for a moment, but then remembered the water-sharing ceremony so common to the tribes. She handed a water skin to the woman, who said a word in Vorkelian, then common, ”Thank. Then she pointed with the other hand, toward the exit, signaling that Demda’s time for fortune-telling had come to an end.
Demda, slightly perplexed by the obtuse reading, yet intrigued, stood up from the stool, bowed before the Crone, and then backed away. She turned around when her back hit the beaded entrance, then slipped through them with more ease than she’d entered.
She found Monk outside, being taken care of by Khorog. He looked at her with a frown, and she blushed. Once she got to him, she slipped him a silver nel, it was most of what she’d saved from the journey over from Desnind. Not much, just what she could spare for his help. He said a word in Vorkelian, and then in common, ”Care full. Desert not safe for lone travel. Do vision hunt, find sand lion's hide, then return as Ulema.”
Demda shrugged at him, then swept her hood over her head, and her goggles over her eyes. She tucked her mask over her nose, and leaped into the saddle of her thorn horse, Monk. She rode away then, sparing one last glance backward at Khorog, before turning her eyes toward her destined direction. Slung across her back, a short hunting bow, at her hip, a cavalry sword and pistol crossbow, its string drawn taut and ready to fire once a quarrel was placed in it. From there, she made tracks out into the desert, intent on satisfying the conditions for her joining Ulema.
Little did she hear, in the kicking up of dust, the padded footfalls following her, in the breaks following her departure from the Sky Caves.
