Chapter Text
“We’re approaching the Southern Gates,” a voice said from outside the carriage. “We should be reaching Klodin within the hour.”
Miko jerked upright. He blinked rapidly, disoriented, his hair a mess around his head and his back aching viciously. He smoothed his hair down and tried to stretch his back out, and groaned when it only seemed to make the pain worse. He’d been sitting in the back of this carriage for the past ten hours. His entire body was beginning to betray him.
Miko rubbed his eyes and squinted, bleary, out the windows to look at the scenery. As his eyes adjusted to the bright light, lines of smooth, tan rock came into focus. The sun was glaring down upon them, and the ground seemed to grow beneath it, like lava. Having grown up in Northern Crethia, where it was cold and snowy most of the year, Miko had never experienced weather like this before. He wasn’t even outdoors, really, and he was already sweating.
The cliff faces broke away, leaving gentle stretches and waves of rock and sand. Sticking his head out the window and straining his neck, Miko could just make out the Southern Gates that marked the Southern Crethia border. Miko had never seen this part of the Crethia dynasty before. Truthfully, he’d seen almost none of Crethia at all.
“Do you have everything?” his mother had asked when he’d been preparing to leave, the day before. “Your extra coat, too, just in case?”
“I have everything, mama,” Miko had told her, squeezing her hands in a way he’d hoped was reassuring. “Southern Crethia is mostly desert, remember? I won’t need warm clothing. Don’t worry so much, I’ll be just fine.”
Miko’s mother wasn’t particularly comforted, and neither was the rest of Miko’s family. The entire village had gathered to see him off—a hundred people, give or take—and they’d gazed at him with only worry and pain. Miko felt each of those gazes, still, in the pit of his stomach like needles. He’d almost been glad to climb into the carriage, just to get away from those expressions.
The carriage paused just inside the gates to give credentials to the guards, and then they passed through the small town built just inside. The buildings seemed as though they’d been carved right out of the rock, and they glowed like the rest of the desert, bright and blinding. In front of these buildings was small market, rows of shop stands and traders selling gold and fresh fruit and colorful textiles.
The clothes they wore here were strange, and Miko balked at the amount of skin on display. Neri like him only tended to undress when swimming; otherwise, they wore thick furs and leather fabrics. The clothing here was sheer and made of bright colors and patterns, and the fabric was draped to cover specific parts of the body. Some wore simple sandals, but many went bare-footed. Miko winced at the thought of the hot, sun-baked ground against the soles of his feet.
“Will I have to wear clothes like you?” Miko called to one of the two guards driving the carriage.
“You will be provided everything you need when we reach Klodin,” one of the guards said. That was more or less all the information they’d offered Miko for the past day. Miko pursed his lips and slumped in his seat, frustrated.
Klodin came into view an hour later, the city stretching out in front of the carriage like a mouth ready to swallow them down. It was the biggest city Miko had ever seen, warm and dusty buildings climbing a shallow hill in neat lines. At the top of these stood what looked like a stone palace, walls of sharp lines glittering in the afternoon light. It was shockingly intimidating and elegantly structured.
Dozens of figures—all of them Shatya, Miko assumed—stared as the carriage passed through, as though trying to catch a glimpse of who was inside. Miko slumped further down in his seat to stay hidden, peeking over the rim of the window.
The climb towards the palace at the center of the city felt long. When they finally stopped at the entrance and Miko was allowed to climb out, his legs almost went out from underneath him and one of the guards had to reach over and grab his arm to keep him from collapsing. The heat felt even more stifling once Miko was outside and he glared up at the sky, shielding his eyes from the sun with one hand.
He’d barely taken one step towards the entrance to the palace when a figure came bolting outside towards him. A young woman ran down the walkway, ignoring the guards who tried to stop her, and darted directly towards Miko. She was around his height, her hair long and curled and dark. Her skin was dark brown and her arms were covered in intricate floral tattoos, and she wore simple flowing clothing, draped over her upper body and leaving her midriff bare.
“Miko!” she said, beaming, as she came to a stop. “Are you Miko? You must be! I’ve never met a Neri before, but you look exactly how I thought you would.”
Miko smiled at her “Yes,” he said. “I am. I can’t say the same—you Shayta look very different than I expected.” He tilted his head curiously at her. “You aren’t Noxx, are you?”
The woman giggled. “No,” she said. “Noxx is my brother, you’ll meet him this evening at the ceremony. I begged to be the one to greet you.” She pressed her hand to her heart and gave a small bow, a polite Shayta gesture of greeting. “My name is Adra.”
Miko made to perform the same gesture, and Adra giggled at him again. “Males don’t typically greet one another that way here,” she said.
“They don’t?” Miko said, confused.
“They greet each other like this.” Adra closed her fist and crossed her arm over her chest, doing the same bow as before. “Don’t worry. I know you’re new to the southern region, so I’ll show you what to do.” She linked her arm with his and tugged him towards the palace. “Come with me. Let’s get you ready to meet Noxx.”
Miko hadn’t ever expected to be in this situation. He’d never even expected to leave the village he’d grown up in, really.
Neri tended to live in small, close-knit communities. His kind had adapted to withstand the cold, so they were well-equipped to dive for fish in icy water and hunt in snowy forests for hours without succumbing to frostbite or hypothermia. Miko had spent his childhood with his siblings, learning to hunt and cook and fish. Since he was the oldest, he’d also spent a lot of time taking care of the younger children.
When he’d first heard about Noxx coming of age, Miko hadn’t thought much of it. Noxx was the son of the most powerful Shayta clan leader in Southern Crethia, and he was set to take over for his father within a few years. Before that happened, the clan wanted Noxx to be married, preferably to someone from Northern Crethia to link the two regions.
Miko’s clan was small—most Neri clans were small—but they were one of the most prominent, which was likely why they’d been approached by the Umbra Clan. Miko was the only unmarried Neri of age. There hadn’t been anyone else to take on the responsibility.
Miko had considered refusing the offer, but Shayta were powerful, and the Umbra Clan in particular was terrifying. Shayta had abilities that Miko didn’t fully understand, abilities that allowed them to tap into the very earth and move the spirits. Most other Shayta clans, let alone Neri clans, wouldn’t dare oppose them.
“It will help our clan if I agree,” Miko said to his mother, who was vehemently against the idea. “We’ve been barely scraping by for so many years. Maybe if I unite our clans, it will provide Northern Crethia with prosperity. Not just our clan, but other Neri clans, too.”
His mother had refused to accept Miko’s decision, up until the very moment he’d left home. Miko understood; he’d never been away from home like this, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to go back in a long time. Years, maybe, even.
“It must have been so hard, leaving your family like that,” Adra said now. She handed Miko a pile of fabric. “I would hate that. And you’re so far from home, too.”
Miko nodded. He took the fabric and pressed it against his chest, but he didn’t answer. If he spoke, he worried he’d start to cry. He hadn’t given himself time to really think about the consequences of his decision or about the family he’d left behind. Soon, he promised himself, he’d grieve. But not now.
Adra had spent the afternoon showing Miko around the palace—Miko’s new home, he supposed—and he was in his new bedroom now to dress for this evening’s ceremony. The palace was less intimidating on the inside, full of sunlit terraces and courtyards, gorgeous and well-kept statues, pools of sparkling water, hallways lined with stone pillars. The most unsettling thing hadn’t been the architecture, but rather the staff, who had stared openly at Miko as he’d passed them by.
“You’d think they’d never seen a Neri before,” Miko said as he unraveled the pile of fabric Adra had handed to him. It pooled on the floor off his hands and he frowned at it, not even sure how to start putting it on. “We’re not that different from you Shayta, are we?”
“Hmm…” Adra considered him, her fingertips pressed to her chin. “Well, you’re much more pale than we are. And smaller—more delicate, almost. Are males and females all that delicate?”
“We don’t define sex the way you do,” Miko said. He rolled the fabric back up over his arm, tucking it back against his chest. “There are many different sexes, many genders. But I suppose we are all this size, more or less.”
Adra nodded at him, as though absorbing this new information. “And you can swim better than we can,” she continued. “Right? Someone once told me Neri can hold their breath underwater for over an hour.”
Miko laughed lightly. “That’s an exaggeration,” he said. “Fifteen minutes is all I can do. Some Neri have practiced and can almost make it to half an hour. It takes quite a bit of training to get to that point.” He tightened his fingers around his new clothing and hesitated, wondering if this next question would be offensive. “Are all Shayta…are you all capable of using your abilities?”
Adra gave a small, sad smile. “I’m not sure,” she said. “Females are not allowed to harness our abilities. Sometimes they escape from us in small ways, when we are taken by a strong emotion. But males are typically the only ones who are trained.” She folded her arms, her brow furrowing. “From what my brother has told me, the training can be difficult and rigorous. Our powers can overwhelm us if we’re not careful.”
Miko relaxed a little at that. When he’d entered the southern region he’d expected to be surrounded by hundreds of thousands of powerful sorcerers, prepared to put him under a spell if he looked at someone wrong. “Neri can do a little magic,” he said, smiling now. “Just a little. We can weave spells through our singing.”
“Ooh!” Adra beamed at him, lighting up immediately. “Really?”
“Yes. We can perform healing magic, or call upon the skies for rain, or clear skies. My mother, she would always sing me the same song when I was a child, whenever I was upset or unable to sleep, and it felt as though her singing healed me from the inside.”
“You’ll have to show me sometime.” Adra pushed him towards the screen at the far side of his bedroom. “Now, go change. I want to see you in your new clothes.”
Someone had prepared a bath for him as well. Miko shed his travel-worn clothes and sank gratefully into the water, stretching out his sore muscles. His hair, silver-white, had grown long over the years and was tangled from his nap in the back of the carriage. He dragged his fingers through it, smoothing it.
The clothes proved a little complicated. First was a pair of draped white pants that he’d originally assumed was a skirt. Then the top was flowy and gold and red and draped along his chest to leave his stomach exposed, something that made him feel very vulnerable. When he finally thought he had it correct, he emerged from the screen and Adra came to greet him, looking him over critically.
She adjusted the clothes a little so they draped correctly. “Not bad,” she decided. “It suits you.” She danced over to the dresser, light on her feet, and grabbed a collection of silver and gold, carrying them over to Miko. “Hold out your hands,” she commanded.
She slipped several bracelets onto both of his arms. The jewelry on his right arm was made of tiny, delicate silver leaves strung together, and on the left were simple gold bands. Miko shook his arms experimentally and smiled at the pleasant way they tinkled.
“Final touch,” Adra said, handing Miko a pair of dangly earrings. Miko removed his usual earrings, a pair of small, basic hoops that his mother had given them, and placed them carefully on his bed. He replaced the earrings with the gold ones Adra had given him, and shook his head back and forth afterwards, testing the weight. The earrings dripped towards his shoulders in a beautifully dramatic way. They caught the light whenever he moved his head.
“You look so good,” Adra said. She was bouncing on her toes, as though preparing to leap into motion at any moment. Miko had a sister like her, with her endless energy and constant movement.
“Are you a dancer?” he asked her, tugging anxiously at the top of his outfit. “My sister loves to dance. You remind me of her.”
Adra nodded eagerly. “I’ve been dancing since I was little,” she said. She leapt over to the other side of the room one more time and picked up a pair of sandals off the ground, pressing them into Miko’s hands. “Put these on. My mother and father are downstairs with Noxx. The ceremony will start as soon as we’re ready.
Miko’s head swam with how quickly all of this was happening. He followed Adra downstairs in a daze and blinked, disoriented, when they stepped into the central courtyard. The evening light was glowing, hot and red, off in the horizon, and in front of it stood three unfamiliar figures.
They were all dressed in similar clothing to what Miko was wearing, gold and red tunics and glittering jewelry and simple sandals. Their brown skin was decorated in intricate, beautiful tattoos that crawled up their arms and across their shoulders. Two of them were clearly much older than him, one broad-chested and intimidatingly tall, his eyes nearly black and his chin covered in a thick black beard. Next to him was a slender woman a little shorter than him, her hair long and curled and the same color as Adra’s. Her hands were elegant and her nails were painted red to match her clothing.
On her other side was a younger man. He looked much like his father, muscular and tall, his hair black and his eyes dark and intense. His gaze was sharp and austere and he held himself with easy confidence, but there was a tightness in his shoulders, like he was preparing himself to leap into battle at any moment.
Miko knew who this younger man was. This was Noxx, the person who would, within a few hours, become Miko’s new husband.
“Miko,” the tallest man, the Umbra Clan leader, rumbled, spreading his arms in greeting. “Welcome to Southern Crethia.”