translated by catren mjuna—also known as catren hannly, her grey sander name stripped from her by purism, her mjuna ancestors, and the mysteries of her family’s past and place in the aether’s intentions—shortly after her sixteenth birthday.
— catren mjuna, age 16
this translation was stored within the de la rue archives following her eldest brother’s marriage to judith de la rue. shortly before catren moved to the northern reaches of baalphoria, it was removed from the archives at her request. it is unknown if the original translation still exists. this particular translation exists solely within olivier de la rue’s censor, pulled from his memory once his censor was installed.
— olivier de la rue, age 16
“while i have done my best to remember the words of these documents as i read them, i have no doubt inserted errors into these stories.” — olivier de la rue, age 16
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notes from the most honourable hyren za curren taken during the time of the grand incident of the tidal cities. although it was originally decreed by the supreme eminence zo rayan that the grand incident would be summarily dismissed and cleansed from this world, it has become the will of supreme eminence zo yanka that these records be copied down in an official capacity. as for their dispersion into the public sphere, this remains a question yet to be decided, for it is within the sparse records of the grand incident that the future of our planet may be found, and the eyes of too many are forever upon us.
[
addendum:
it shall be noted that his supreme eminence has decreed that in order to sustain our future these records shall fall only upon the eyes of the sighted and aether blessed. his supreme eminence has left leave for the information herein to be recorded but never actively disseminated beyond the official counsel of the land, for as he has seen, when the time is right, this story will find itself within the eyes of the worthy and the necessary.
]
the most honourable hyren za curren gives leave to her betters to do with her words what they deem best. it is this one’s only hope that her words will be heard and shifted through our great and prosperous land as necessary, yet she must allow that the herein is distressing. as a servant of our lands for more sweltering summers than she dare count, the most honourable hyren za curren is still unsure of how to consider the incident to which she found herself beholden to some five turns of the moons ago.
the most honourable hyren za curren must also extend her most heart-wrenching apologies for the time to which compiling this record of the incident has taken, for it is with the most shattered of hearts that this one returned to her home after witnessing the grand incident and aiding in the ensuing investigation. despite her years of service, even this one required rest and ease of mind and heart in order to find peace with the despair witnessed in the tidal cities, especially given the need to all she saw there.
where to start. perhaps at the beginning.
it was two summers ago that strange whispers of creatures crawling from the waters of the tidal cities first reached both this one’s ears and advisers. creatures of the waters and the skies alike are neither uncommon in our lands; however, it is not a common thing for creatures of the waters to be found in the water barrier, nor the forced water. nay, it is from the far depths of the wide blue that those creatures do rise. neither the speed at which the alleged creatures rising from the waters that sit alongside the tidal cities, nor their location, nor even what sparse descriptions could be found of their actions and appearance aligned with those few creatures that rise from the waters of the west.
it was at this time that several of this one’s greatest servants were dispatched to the tidal cities, while my emissary was sent far west, to gather yet more information from our most western neighbours about what creatures they themselves, more pressed into the wide blue than we ourselves, face summer by summer. it took more than a summer passing into a quarter turn for this one’s emissary—who faced many tribulations on their path to our western friends—to return, while the return of this one’s servants from the tidal cities yielded little results for, upon their arrival in the tidal cities, the creatures of the waters failed to show.
this one will not bore those to whom this document has found its way with the details of her servants’ initial time within the tidal cities. what can be said of this time is of little import, save the strange behaviour of several locals to whom the fault of the grand incident was eventually laid. to summarize their behaviour is a strange thing in and of itself, for the oddness shown of the doctors of two towns and the high eminence of another was both of the overt and subtle quality—that strange otherness that we all know so well and yet infinitely struggle to place our finger upon the exact flavour of.
as this one’s first servant stated, before their death upon our second venture into the tidal cities, “there is something that screams of an unrightness with them. it is something felt to the bones, the core, the soul itself. it is a wrongness that cannot be placed, and yet the knowledge is there, written into the universe itself as the aether knows all that occurs upon her skin just as a mortal feels the flickers of a bug’s paws against their skin despite their delicacy.”
first, it was the ease at which they helped, always offering opinions on this or that, each near following this one’s servants around as they investigated the cities to which they gave the designation of home. always was there an undertone of superiority, nothing new on its own, and yet so uncommon within—for this one’s lack of a better word—the lesser lands of the tidal cities. these three strange fellows were not students of some great master, intent to show up this one’s servants—and this one’s servants were each students of great and indisputable masters—nor were they so experienced that their advice was appreciated or ever even requested. yet, when requested that they make way for this one’s servants, there was always an air of affront, if not outright hostility. as those who find themselves in possession of this document no doubt know, this one’s servants are not the sort to whom one dare express such things so openly, for to question this one’s servants is no small thing and is sure to bring ruin upon oneself.
second, it was the way in which all those in the tidal cities avoided these three. it was as though they had shrouded themselves in a repellant bubble, forcing anyone who dare approach them aside. this one’s servants ed how few visitors the two doctors received, the residents of their towns instead choosing to travel the dangerous roads of the kukata, risking these creatures of the water to whom so many deaths are owed, rather than allow those doctors the pleasure of finding their hands on their bodies. as in the case of the doctors, the high eminence found themselves with a lack of people to fall their words upon, turning instead to the streets, where their words would needless drive everyone out of the sunlight. this one’s servants found nothing untoward in the high eminence’s words, yet they also felt the uneasy urge to disappear, lest her words reach into their souls and strangle them.
as this one’s first servant stated, before their death upon our second venture into the tidal cities, “there was no single thing that allowed for a feeling that what the high eminence was saying was wrong. they were words we have all heard a thousand turns over from others of her station and higher. there is no denying, however, the unease to which her words brought upon us. it was as though something lingered within her voice, nudging and tugging at the souls of everyone within her sphere. where the high eminence’s words were meant to take those who did not escape the echo of her voice, we do not know. nowhere good, if the draw of disaster that has laced itself around us since that first unfortunate moment within earshot is to be believed.”
of course, it was within the second of this one’s servants’ visits, to which this one was also party, that the true terror of those three began to clear, the shroud of their horrors rising and falling as this one’s servants left—the creatures of the waters rising with the relief of their vanishing presence—and when they returned alongside this one a mere turn of the moon later. unlike when only this one’s servants first dared step foot in that cursed land, however, the creatures of the waters sped their devouring when this one set their presence upon the tidal cities.
this one is not in the habit of questioning her servants’ observations, yet this one cannot deny that, upon hearing their s of the three to whom the blame for the grand incident falls, she had questions and doubts. never in this one’s many summers has she come across so rude and pushy of people in regards to the actions and requests of such important servants—save, perhaps, for the servants’ parents, to whom they owe all but their name and are therefore loath to offend. how was this one to imagine so many of the same ilk gathered in that small plot of land, that stretches along the water borders? yet, this one is ashamed for questioning her servants. perhaps, had this one believed with the severity of the aether’s knowing, her servants would not have perished in such a gruesome, defiling way.
it was on our fourth night in the tidal cities, stationed far from the home cities of each of our three evils—for this one’s servants had no desire to spend more time so close to people they had grown to near fear, even their many moons away from the tidal cities as they ed their findings and we collectively regrouped as the deaths grew more and more common, failing to release the tension of dread that had risen within them during their time in the three’s varying company—that the first of this one’s servants disappeared.
this one supposes that, while she has referred to all of the creatures of the water’s victims as deceased, it was two days following this one’s servant’s disappearance that any evidence of death—of no death at all—became clear. prior to this one’s servant’s vanishing, all of the victims were simply gone. of course, as two years had already passed since the first disappearance, it was easy to assume each of the victims likely gone from this world; yet, it was not until we found this one’s missing servant that those who refused to accept their loved ones were truly gone began to understand the terrible reality that fell upon their loved ones’ bodies and souls.
[
addendum, from his supreme eminence:
if the aether shall will it, may the souls of the gone rest and be returned in due time. let the aether, in her grand magnificence and all knowing, bless these souls with return upon their destinies allowing.
]
this one has fought in wars. she has cut down the forces of the cruel south, defended our borders from tyranny of the north and east. she has sliced through necks and watched heads with still moving, comprehending eyes roll across the blood soaked dunes, heat burning the bodies of the dead and living alike until the smell of meat across campfires brought only memories of roasting human souls.
nothing this one has seen in their innumerable summers can be compared to the terror of this one’s servant. to describe the state of their body, when it was stumbled across by a small child, their vomit still putrid on the stone of the alleyway this one’s servant had been hung up in. perhaps worse than the stink of vomit and a rotting body; worse than the red of their muscle visible their body over, no skin in sight; worse than the bowels falling out of their body, excrement and urine splattered over the muscles of their legs, dripping through the riverbeds of tendons and sliced open viscera, was the reality that this one’s servant was still alive, some perverse ability forcing the heart visible through their cracked open ribs to shudder and beat, their lungs a twisting, inflating mess of soft pink as they wheezed, unable to even scream their pain for how much have been sliced away from their throat—no tongue, no voice box, their entire esophagus open for the world to watch contract with their attempts to make any sound.
their eyes still haunt this one, each bulb of glassy white sight removed until the root of them was hanging limp out of their forced open sockets. they could not see—nor do we know if they could hear, their ears less mutilated than the majority of their body and yet tortured and dissected nonetheless—who had happened upon them in such a horrific, nightmarish, state.
they could not see who reached out, stabbing their power through their heart in an attempt to cut their pain away with the release of their soul.
they could not take in the horror when even the destruction of their heart did not end their suffering, their body flexing and shaking with yet more pain as the one who had attempted to spare their friend further pain turned and emptied their own stomach beside the remains of the child’s trauma.
this one has already forced far too much detail into the minds of her readers and will refrain from adding more to their knowledge of this one’s servant’s death; instead, this one will leave you with a simple fact: it was not until this one burned her servant’s body back into the aether’s benevolence that their suffering finally ended.
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Arc 9 | Chapter 346: the honourable hyren za curren tells a (horror) story
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