Other Worlds Than These

[Aikanáro]

'It is not the sort of protection that is of any use against wolves or dogs,' replied Ashkaio with a frown. He was going to have to tell her, and tell her in a blunt manner to be sure that she understood. Taking a moment to collect his thoughts, he picked up his waterskin and drank deeply from it. Then he told her.

'Your land and mine are at war, sera. It seems to me now that it is a war shrouded in secrecy, for you do not know so much as the name of the city your king wishes to destroy, but so it is. He has sent his soldiers, those who are alike to men but not, sharp-toothed and merciless. He has sent them with Yagluk who calls himself the Mighty to command them, to attack my Tathera.'

Ashkaio shook his head, trying to maintain neutrality in both face and voice. If he spoke too disparagingly of the ruler she admired, then she would not help him. 'We fought,' he went on to say. 'The Ensi of our city is a good man, and my kinsman. I am of the ruling House Kazhrun. I was there at the deliberations. We decided to fight, to hold the city, and we did - until your people attacked us from within our very walls, through the doors of light.'

He sighed. The less that he said about that, the better. 'That does not matter to you now,' he said. 'What matters is that we wish this war ended. I am here to speak with your king and learn the conditions under which we may negotiate peace. Until I am able to do so, sera, there are those who would call me your enemy. I hope now that you are not among them.'

[feawen]

Elspeth frowned, she wondered if this man was a little soft in the head, doors of light?
"well" she said at length, "Since i do not know that we are at war you can not be my enemy now can you." She reached into her bag, pulled out two biscuits and handed him one while she thought. "Now i really dont think we are at war. I dont know any sharp toothed people, but then i have never meet an elf or one of the short people so maybe they have sharp teeth? Although from what ive heard elfs are not really around anymore and the short people are just well, short and hairy from what ive heard. I do not think it would be dwarfs, although well armed and grumpy most of the ones ive met have been nice enough. Of all the races of the free people of Middle Earth i can not think of any with sharp teeth." She nibbled her biscuit a bit. "My nan tells us stories from the wars, they ended before i was born, she says there were these ugly men like things who were cruel and have sharp, evil teeth. We have a big war against them and their lord. He wanted to make the world dark. The King and the armies of the free all rose up against him and since im sitting here we won! There was a wizard who fought in the war, but they say he died or went somewhere far away so i he could not make these doors of light i guess." She brushed crumbs off her hands, "But i am sure the King will help you...i do hope there has not been a misunderstanding. If someone is using magic or something against you it does seem unfair if you can not fight like with like."

[Aikanáro]

Ashkaio accepted the biscuit with a look of mild surprise and tasted it as he listened to what she had to say. Much of it made little sense, talk of elves and magic. Perhaps it was the same in all places, that the common folk held to old superstitions. It would be better for him to focus on the aspects of her speech that seemed grounded in reality.

'I assure you, we are at war,' he said firmly. 'If you had seen the streets of Tathera before I left you would know it. My own sister is leading the defence of the second spire. The third and fifth lie in ruins, as does much of the western district. There is an unrest and a fear in the city the likes of which has not been seen in living memory. And that is not to speak of those we have lost. Say what you will of me, but do not doubt the truth of it.'

He bit into the biscuit again, and chewed contemplatively. 'You do know of the not-men with the sharp teeth, then. You know what they are. Your king sent them to Tathera, not to occupy the city but to destroy it. We do not know why. He has made no demands of us.' Ashkaio sighed. 'Do you believe what I have told you as truth?' he asked her then, wanting to be certain.

[feawen]

"Well" elspeth said, "You seem to believe so i cant doubt the truth of it, i cant disprove something i havent seen with my own eyes." She looked up at the sky and then continued after a moments thought, "But do you have proof that it is us you are it war with? We were after all at war with the sharp toothed people, they killed numbers beyond counting. Why would we now side with them? Maybe you are thinking of the Easterlings, or the mountain men, i hear they are not very nice. Why would our King send an army of evil people who he fought against to a city we have never heard of? I am very sorry about your people, but maybe you have come to the worry place?"

[Aikanáro]

Ashkaio frowned. As much as it pained him to admit it, she was probably right. What he was doing was likely the equivalent of blaming House Isidaesh for a wrong done by House Lidravit, for no other reason than that Isidaesh was closer. Why should this place, whatever it was, not have its own factions, its own politics of equal complexity?

It complicated matters.

'If you are right,' he said, more to himself than to Elspeth, 'then what am I to do? I do not know which of your factions it is that has done this, not with any certainty. All I have is that accursed name, Yagluk. I have a singular purpose here and that is to speak of peace to those who assail our city. If I do not do this...'

He trailed off, his eyes darkening. If he did not, then he did not think that those murderous not-men would stop until they had killed all who remained. Halli his sister. Liendek, twelve and complaining that he was to be sent away to the Copper Tower with the other children. Aycharindel.

He wouldn't think about Aycharindel. There had to be another way to find out who was responsible for this war.

[feawen]

Elspeth sat in silence with the man for a while. After a while she spoke up, "It seems to me you need to find an ally or at least someone who knows more than me! We may not be the bad side but that means that at least you are at peace with us and thats more than you started with. Seems the best thing to do is find someone in the know and start from there. Peace is never won in a day as they say, it takes hard work. And i find the best place to find information if not peace is in a pub, mens tongues are looser with ale as my mam says!"

[Aikanáro]

She was inviting him to an alehouse? Ashkaio had to resist the urge to laugh at the incongruity of it, knowing that with the thoughts he harboured, any laughter of his was sure to be bitter.

Instead, his lips curved up into the smallest of smiles. 'Your mother was a wise woman, sera,' he said. 'My own mother - Kitaevi Surahi dan-Kazhrun, daughter of the old Ensi - she said that one must always have wine at table, and the more difficult and delicate the court proceedings, the more wine was necessary. Yet she never did drink any herself.'

He turned away from her for a moment and looked through his supplies. What he retrieved was not wine, but a linen bag filled with fresh fruit from the fields surrounding his city. 'We ought not to set out for anywhere tonight,' he decided. 'Tomorrow you will show me the way, and we shall see if our mothers' wisdom holds true. For now, would you share what is mine?' He held out the bag to her.

[Earniel]

Beryn had to suppress laughter when she heard the strange woman accusing them of magic. Not five minutes ago, she had almost levelled the same accusations against Rivailen. What goes around comes around.

"If that was any magic of mine," Beryn said with a grin, "There would have been handsome young men falling out of that circle instead of you. Now that would have been useful magic."

She looked up at the circle. Barufiniel could well be right that it was a door of a sort. She had heard on her travels of people who lived in the far northen regions where snow ruled almost the whole year around. Was that perhaps where these Nolow lived? The poor girl would have to do a lot of walking then. If she wanted to go home quickly, perhaps the door was her best option.

If they could find her a ladder real quick.

"Let us test if it goes two ways," Beryn said.

She picked up a few small rocks and and looking at the circle in the sky, she calculated the distance. She aimed one at the middle of the circle when the light was still the strongest. The rock disappeared into the air. She then threw the second one at the darkening side of the circle. Unlike the first one, this rock landed with a thud a little further on the ground.

"Hm, it does seem to become impenetrable with the fading of the light. I doubt we'll find a ladder before it extinguishes entirely. How did you guess that, Barufiniel? Have you ever seen anything like it before?"

[feawen]

Elspeth smiled at him as he handed her the fruit, it looked strange but tonight was strange as it was so why not! She laughed as they spoke of mothers. "My mam may say ale houses help loosen tongues abit but she never let me in one! Its not a young womans place so she says. It never stopped her going in one though!" She looked at the fruit, "What kinda fruit is this?"

[feawen]

Anahere was not best pleased at the mocking grin on the womans face. She folded her arms and stared at the 3 women as they started to talk amoung them selves. Well if they were not going to her she would just have to help her self. She looked at the sky, judging the direction. Head north was the best bet she would run into other wonders who would point her in the Nolows direction. She turned and started heading off north.

[Aikanáro]

'That one is tezhria,' Ashkaio told Elspeth. 'I have also kori-fruit or mavrel berries if you would prefer, and spiced bread.' He took one of the round, green tezhria for himself, and bit into it.

'As for the matter of the alehouse,' he said a moment later, 'your mother is quite correct. It might be possible to make an exception in this case, though, I believe. The urgency of the situation does call for it. If your mother objects, you must tell her I am to blame.' Again came that slight smile of his. 'It is likely not proper for me to visit such a place either. We shall watch for each other, then.'

[Curufin]

"Great. But I'm without a horse. And my, er, ship, is nowhere to be found. Are you headed in that direction?"

As cautious as he was of her, it was better to have her with him than to try to find this place alone. He wasn't <i>terribly</i> out of shape, but walking three or four days wasn't his idea of a fun time.

[feawen]

Elsbeth took a green berry with a smile. "I shouldnt really going into an ale house, someone needs to look after the sheep but i guess since the situation is so important it wouldnt hurt just this once!"

[Aikanáro]

'Yes,' Ashkaio said as he settled down to enjoy the small meal. 'It is rather more important than sheep. I am glad we are in agreement on that point. I will of course see that you are properly reimbursed for the time you devote to assisting me.' He gave her a small smile, and said no more on the matter, just handed her another piece of fruit.

~-~-~-

Tanwendë shook her head, a hint of disappointment written on her features. 'I am not,' she told him. 'I have departed the city and will be heading north.' She was silent a moment, considering their options. She owed this man nothing, he had not even done so much as answer her question about his song. Yet his appearance, together with that of the circle of light above him, signified that something interesting was occurring.

Tanwendë had a habit of being drawn towards the interesting.

'You may ride with me, if you will,' she said almost before she had thought it through. 'I am staying the night at a small village some hours from here. It is not Minas Tirith, but it is likely better than remaining here.'

[Varnafindë]

"I haven't seen anything looking like that one," Barufiniel answered, "but ... well ... I know that once, more than three hundred years ago, there was a portal - a different one - somewhere in Rohan, that at least once let people go from our world to a different one and back. I don't know whether it happened more than once ... but the one time it did happen, those who went through it and got into a different world, were my parents."

She hardly dared look at the others. She knew how hard it had been to believe for the very few people she had told it to. But she had to finish with the whole truth.

"I was born in that other world," she told them, "I lived there for five hundred years. Then we sought for the portal in order to try to go home, and ... someone helped us. He sent my parents to the West - without the help of a grey ship - and he sent me through the portal, back into Rohan. And then he closed the portal so that it would never work again."

[Aikanáro]

If anything, Rivailen felt a hint of relief when the woman Anahera walked away from them. It would have been difficult to decide what to do about her, unconscionable to leave her there alone and empty-handed, and unthinkable to take responsibility for her, unless one of the others wished to do so.

No, Rivailen had more concern for the words of the Elf, Barufiniel, who had answered the question she had wanted to ask before Anahera's arrival. It was an answer, however, of the sort that invited only more questions.

'Tell me of this world,' she implored Barufiniel eagerly. 'Was it alike to the Fields of Sifral? Lush green lands under bright skies as far as the world stretched?' Rivailen did not think it likely, but it was the only image she could bring to mind when striving to envisage another world, that or the West-land of the Elves, and if she was wrong, then Barufiniel could help her to imagine another, a world untold of in all the stories she had heard.

'And how,' she asked then, 'did your companion close up the portal? Was it Elven-magic?'

[Earniel]

Beryn felt a bit sorry if her words had upset the woman enough to go stalking off without another word. But they had no real answers for her, and she hadn't like the answers they had given her. They had no right to stop her from going anywhere she wished. And by going north she'd undoubtedly would find the little town where Beryn had hoped to spend the night. Perhaps she had calmed enough by then to be reasonable.

What Barufiniel was telling them was more immediately interesting. Beryn still wasn't entirely convinced that other worlds existed, but those portals had to lead somewhere.

But how did one even know one was on another world? From what Beryn had heard the world they were on could be surprising in its own right. It was said that the Elves in the west had ships shaped like swans that actually flew across the sea, and that further south you went, way beyond Gondor, people turned pitch black. If that wasn't extraordinary and already outwordly, Beryn didn't know what was.

But she didn't want to insult the Elf like she had apparently insulted the strange woman. Barufiniel seemed to know a lot more about portals than anybody else in the neighbourhood and Beryn was curious enough to keep her doubts to herself and just listen. The Elf seemed to think at least she had been on another world, and it wasn't Beryn's place to contradict.

[Varnafindë]

Barufiniel raised her head, surprised and relieved at the fact that the others hadn't brushed her off as a liar right away. They even wanted to hear more about the world of her childhood!

"I don't know about the Fields of Sifral," she said, "but if they are vast fields stretching out even more than the Plains of Rohan, then my world was nothing like them.

"I grew up in a land called Narnia. It's only a small country, but it varies a lot. It has got fields, meadows, hills and valleys, even some forests, but never more than a few miles of each - there are even some mountains, even though those are really on the border to the unknown wildlands in the west.

"My father used to say that Narnia reminded him of the Shire, and I agree with him. The closest countries aren't very different - but there's a large country in the south where there are deserts as well."

She smiled wistfully. She had left Narnia three hundred years ago, and she had gotten used to living without it - but talking about it brought back so many memories.

"And our companion had magic of his own," she added. "He was ... he was the creator of that world. They tell that in the beginning he had sung the world into being - almost like the Valar did with our world. He appeared to people at times, and that day he appeared to us and sent us out of Narnia.

"I don't know how he did it, though. I guess he just commanded those two trees we had gone between, not to let people through any more."

[Aikanáro]

After she had heard Barufiniel's explanation, Rivailen couldn't quite bring herself to believe it. Not all of it. That Narnia might exist was possible. In fact, from the way Barufiniel spoke of it, Rivailen would say that it did exist. That look on her face when she spoke, when she remembered, that was genuine and not the look of a person telling a tale.

She had heard too the story that the world was sung into being. Irnilla, the old woman who had taught her her craft, had also told her many such stories. They could not all be true, not in the real sense, that they had actually occurred. The story of the world-song was an Elven one, though, and it did not surprise her that Barufiniel held to it.

And that last, that she had met the creator of Narnia's world? There was an impossibility, no matter which way one chose to regard it. The creator was outside the creation, not a part of it.

Rivailen resisted the urge to query the point. It was what Barufiniel wished to tell them, whether true or not, and they were strangers, she was hardly going to start a debate with the woman out here in the middle of the plains.

Instead, she smiled at her. 'Narnia sounds like a wonderful place. Not at all like the Fields of Sifral, you are right, but beautiful all the same. I would not be surprised if you miss it, if it was home to you.' She thought for a moment, looking back at the place where the portal had been. 'Do you suppose that woman Anahera...was she from your Narnia?'

[Earniel]

Beryn was amazed how casually Barufiniel talked about other worlds, living there and having the Creator as a companion! Elves did have a knack for that thing, it seemed. If Beryn remembered correctly the old stories told by the few Elven bards that had passed through her village when she was younger, then Elves were pretty thick with the Powers That Be in this world too.

Maybe that world wasn't so different from this one after all. From what Barufiniel had told of that other world, it seemed simular. Middle-earth also had fields, forests, wildlands, humans and dragons. Speaking of which...

"Shouldn't we do something about the small dragon?" She asked when the thought occurred to her. "We can hardly leave it loose in the land. It might attack someone. The children run free in this peace-time."