A Sound Sleep

The next morning, feeling somewhat sore, she awoke to light streaming in through the windows. Her nose was assaulted by a frightful stench--even in the best rooms, it seemed, it stank horribly. Astra reluctantly pulled herself out of bed. She was pleased to see that clothes had been left for her on a dresser. They were made of leather, light and practical. She gratefully shed her ridiculous leotard and put on her new clothes.

Considering how light it was, it was probably almost noon by now. Astra inwardly cursed herself for oversleeping. She had probably missed many important things. She walked--dangerously close to staggered, to be honest--down to the common room. Turik, thankfully, seemed to be nowhere in sight. Instead, Irena waved to her from a table across the common room. She was alone at it, and Astra sat down beside her. "I take it you overslept?" said Irena.

"Sadly, yes," said Astra. "And I still don't feel I got enough sleep. What did I miss?"

"Business negotiations, mostly. You're lucky you missed them, in fact. You would have been bored to death and shown that you were not, in fact, a merchant. We'll be leaving-- you'll be leaving--in the mid-afternoon."

"I take it you're disappointed you're not going?" said Astra sympathetically.

"A little, perhaps." She seemed slightly irritated that she had been so easy to read. "I've heard of this city often when I lived in Vjorica, and it intrigues me. And I won't get to work with Tregennis anymore. He and you are the only sane people I've dealt with in months."

Astra knew it would irritate her further, but she could hardly resist. "You seem a little taken with him."

Irena seemed almost on the verge of blushing. "Maybe a little. As I said, he's the first truly human man I've dealt with in some time. I have something of a weakness for dreadfully overearnest men. He's completely honest--he despises politics and lying. So you have to be careful what you tell him."

Astra nodded. "He sounds a little like a man I knew back home. I had a slightly complicated romantic situation there."

Irena smiled wryly. "So that's how it is?"

"No, I would prefer to be back home. I have my friends, and my family, and all the people who depend on me."

"You definitely don't sound like a merchant."

"I'll admit I'm glad to have breathing space, though. Although not when I'm breathing in what passes for air here."

"You should see the other parts of the city," said Irena. "This inn is tolerable by comparison." Then a young, lanky, slightly pale man entered the room. When she saw him, Irena grinned widely and waved to him. A wide smile spread across his face as he went to join them. His hair was sandy blond and his eyes were deep brown. He was dressed in the long robes and flat cap of an Allarian academic, and wore large owlish spectacles.

"This would be Martin Tregennis," said Irena. "Tregennis, this is Alleyne. She's one of Turik's other employees, but she seems quite trustworthy. She will be accompanying your party on the mission."

Tregennis seemed for a moment quite struck by Astra's beauty. Then, he seemed slightly guilty and turned toward Irena, an embarassed look on his face. Irena met his glance with a warm smile. He sat down next to her. "Wait," said Tregennis. "So that means you're not coming with us?" This seemed to sadden him a great deal.

"I'm sorry, but no. Turik will need me keeping watch of things here--you saw how they were. But at least you'll have Alleyne to watch over you so you won't be dealing only with the vulgard vultures."

Tregennis turned toward Astra, still a little nervous. "Nice to meet you--Alleyne. I-- guess you must be a good person if Irena thinks of you so highly. She's good at sounding people out, not at all like me, although even I could see through the other members of this expedition. It's so refreshing, to have someone who sees through the other people's pretentions... I think I'm the only one who really cares about discovering knowledge. I'm sorry, dealing with this mission and living here has made me almost bitter. Can you believe that? And you'll have to put up with me for several months like this Alleyne--I'm sorry about that." He laughed with nervous good humor. "I'm sure I'll feel better once I find the city, though."

"That's alright," said Astra. She noted that while he indeed seemed to be the nicest and most genuine person she'd met on this voyage, he didn't seem to have the least bit of doubt that he would, after all, reach the city. Irena had seen right through him, too. "Could you perhaps explain what Ilios is and what's so important about it? I'm not from around here, and as you might imagine, Turik didn't choose me for my archeological skills. Also, is it pronounce Ilios or Irios? I've heard it both ways."

"I'm not sure you want me to give you an explanation, Alleyne." He laughed nervously again. "I'm not much of a lecturer--if I weren't about to do as spectacular a piece of research as I am, I'd probably never be able to get any work in my life. Even Irena can't listen to my tirades about Irios--although you're very kind about it, Irena. Well, Alleyne, I guess you're from Aqualaria from your accent--I've been around a bit, done more research than most people twice my age, to be honest--so you might have heard rumors of it. The Tetrilonians knew about it, especially the prefectures of the west, so most of the sociteties descended from Tetrilonia in the Havnheim and to the immediate west have legends of it. A lot of them are very strange and confusing, and the nearer in time and location you get to Ilios, the stranger and more confusing you get. A lot of sources give the usual rumors you hear in travellers tales, things like, you know, men with faces in their chests and such. But the more reliable historians like Quintanus, they say more interesting things. The Great Empire held power in the regions around it, but apparently stayed away from the city itself. A lot of the recovered Tetrilonian manuscripts from the Great Empire era say that its inhabitants, I think Quintanus's exact words were, 'do not resemble the people of Havnheim or of Aetheopia and the surrounding regions or of Nippon, and certainly not those of the other cities of the Carpathians. Rather, the people of Ilios have features similar to those who live in the province of Allaria and in the northern part of Aqualaria, but their skin is to a man so black that it is almost blue. The people of the surrounding tribes are a warlike stock who as I mentioned have no cities'--this was about two thousand years ago, mind you, that's no longer true now, of course--'and very little magic in them, apart from the dark magic bloodlines, the nosferatu and such, that skulk in the forests; but the people of Irios do not fight wars and may not even have a militia as we know it, but have magic in them that does not seem to rely on the normal triggers of white or black magic but seems utterly alien, and can only be called magic to the extent that it does not resemble anything else. There are rumors that Irios is the capital of a nation of cities that lie under the ground, and that its people can create automatons not like our primitive golems'--and this was at the height of the Great Empire's magical enlightenment, mind you--'but in such a way that they almost exactly resemble living men. They have a bizzarre language whose operation of tenses has all but driven our grammarians mad, and an elaborate code of social behavior that no one has been able to fathom. Almost every expedition that has been sent there has been expelled for breaking said code at some point. No one has been able to fathom their system of government either--Emperor Marcus Antares says in his memoirs that when he visited this city in person and asked to see the man who was equivalent in power to him, they showed him to a statue of a rabbit. None can say whether or not they even have currency. I have heard from trustworthy men that have visited there that in the heart of Ilios is a horn of some kind which can produce any variety of food and which may feed an unlimited number of people, the rulers and the common people alike, yet they still seem to have need of farming--' He goes on a while after that. I'm sorry, I've practically memorized that passage by now. No one knows what happened to them after that. Between the fall of the Great Empire and the rise of the modern city-states in this area from Great Empire forts, it just vanished. From what people have said about it, it lies somewhere in the north, but no one had been able to figure out the site until now. But I think from careful examination of various historical accounts, I have been able to chart the city's exact site--it lies in the valley of Chwald to the north, which many people in the local area believe to be cursed, and on which most of the plants farmed in this area do not grow, which would fit with the effects of magical fallout. Erm... Was there another part of the question? I'm sorry, as I said, I go on a bit."

Astra was rudely jolted out of her thoughts. His manner might have been weak and inconsistent, but the content was fascinating. "Er..." She had forgotten for a moment what her question had been. "Ah yes, the pronunciation. Which is it?"

"Well, it's complicated. You see, no one is exactly sure how Imperial Tetrilonian was pronounced. The old pronunciation, which I first learned, was 'Ilios,' which is still what most of the common people call it, but the pronunciation which is preferred by scholars now is 'Irios.' I tend to shift around equally betwen them, Irena probably picked that up from me and Turik from her, so if you've dealt mainly with them, I can see why you'd be confused. But you--and that goes for you, Irena, I'm sorry I didn't notice this earlier--should probably use 'Irios,' if you want the other academics to take you seriously. I don't care, though. I'll probably find out it's all wrong--not that we're likely to meet any living Irians, of course. Although you never know."

"I wonder if that's not why Radu is so interested in putting this expedition together. I've seen the state of things here," said Astra.

Tregennis hung his head. "Yes, well, Irena's sources say that could very well be the case. The horn of plenty probably a legend, of course, it turns up in the myths of a lot of nations, and those who saw it may have been misinterpreting somethng else, but there's certainly evidence that the people of Irios had advanced farming techniques that could be of use to this city and many others, assuming the government here has the organization to pull it off. But they probably want instant solutions, that's the way of a lot of rulers. So we might not even get paid for it. Still, that doesn't matter to me as long as we find the knowledge. It depresses me, the way the others are. I'm not in this for power or money, unlike the others. I just want to find the knowledge, so we can help understand ourselves and our world better."

By now, he seemed weighed down and deeply saddened. Astra found herself sympathizing, even if she couldn't quite understand why he felt this was so important it was worth working with Radu. It was odd how one the one hand, he seemed kind, disarmingly passionate, and almost ridiculously considerate, and on the other hand, his outlook on the world in some ways seemed so inhuman. Perhaps it was because he had learned to look at the world only through the eyes of an academic, and it had skewed his viewpoint. Perhaps, had she gotten to know him better, Fred would have been that way too--many warriors were.

Still, she was very intrigued herself by now. If what Tregennis had said about farming techniques was true, it could help her nation as well. It might alleviate the famine that had struck Aqualaria Cystrygia recently, and even making it profitable again--allowing herself, she reminded to kill two birds with one stone, as it could help defuse the somewhat dangerous political situation there. A situation, she reminded herself, which directly impacted her due to her apparent magic powers, the problem she was desparate not to face.

"Don't worry," said Irena. She held his hand affectionately. "I'm sure you can wring something important from this expedition, and then I hope you can tell me all about it. I'm actually quite interested. And at least Turik didn't send someone who was illiterate--I'd assume from Alleyne's background as a former merchant that she is literate."

"I am indeed," said Astra. "In fact, I even have a relatively substantial knowledge of ancient languages, although from what you said, I doubt I'd be able to make much sense of Irian." Astra noted with interest that this meant that this exchange could very well mean that Irena was literate herself--which would mean there was a good chance that she came from the mage part of Vjoricia. Speaking of which...

"I'm mildly curious," she then asked. "Irena, you seem to be quite interested in this expedition yourself. Why is that?"

"Well, there are many legends about it in Vjoricia. This city may have played an important part in Vjorician history--it used to be thought that the first mages in Vjoricia were descended from Ilians--Irians, sorry. There certainly might be a chance that Vjoricia may have had cultural contact with Irios, which would help explain why our city has magic. As you know, some places have more magic and magicians in them than others--I've heard it said that this has something to do with the nature of the culture and thought processes of the people that live there. Before the Great Empire, there was very little magic in this area for whatever reason, and indeed even now there isn't nearly as much in most places as in most cities of comparable size in Havnheim. It might be the influence of Irios that allowed some of the Vjoricians to become spiritually aware of magic, and also caused others to become deathly afraid of it. Also, the magic of Vjoricia is very different from the magic of other nations--it certainly has some influence of the ancient Great Empire magic, of course, and we preserved more knowledge from the Great Empire than most nations, but there's also something that's very alien to the rest of the world's magic, and Irios may have influenced that. That's what I've heard people say, anyway. Of course, in the legends of the mages it was a perfect society, and in the legends of the non-mages, it was a living hell. I guess I grew up with that conflict defining my life, and I wanted to know which one was closer to the truth."

1. Astra had further questions for Tregennis.
2. Astra decided to leave momentarily, as she wanted some time to herself.

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