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
“having now spent so many hours within the case files of baalphoria, i cannot imagine remaining so internally calm when facing someone who would be so accepting of the taking of life. even reading of such things brings my heart to a place of cracking sadness and anger.” — olivier de la rue, age 27
✮ ✮ ✮
[
CATREN:
this transcription appears to be of a more official questioning that took place several months after the first questioning, which more directly followed the so-called grand incident. it was found on a highly degraded document. while this questioning appears to have taken place over the course of several days, the entirety of the third day is missing, and large amounts of the fifth—and likely final—day have been damaged by time. in addition, the supreme eminence zo rayan, who takes lead in this more official questioning, speaks in what can only be described as an even more outdated form of grey sander than the rest of the documents, leaving much of his questioning difficult, if not impossible, to translate. for this reason, the following is an abbreviated version of all four available days of questioning. rather than attempt a translation of the whole of the remaining document, i have left notes of my general understanding and opinion of the content and only included direct translations of the most interesting sections. as i have done previously, my own notes have been marked with CATREN so as to avoid any confusion.
perhaps, one day, someone more versed in the grey sander language may be able to translate that which is currently untranslatable to any member of the mjuna family.
perhaps, one day, we will have more complete copies of the transcript or an answer to the question of whether any of this is true.
perhaps, one day, a war with something from a world beyond the aether that surrounds us and guides our lives will truly come. when taken in with the myth that surrounds my family’s exodus from the grey sands, it seems impossible to believe that one will be true and not the other—although, it is possible my family was only one potential target of mitine dyn’s sever, for how might the aether win a war yet far off with only a single plan of attack in the making? yet, to deny that we and our descendants may yet find a place in some grand war seems to be asking the aether to lay her brutality upon us.
take heed of the words below. perhaps there is no truth in their power, but stories rise from reality and shift with the sands of time and imagination. there may be nothing to the words of a woman who vanished from our world a millennium past. there may be everything to the words of a woman who claimed to be connected to both the aether and her enemies.
what is knowledge but another tool in our arsenal? what is forgotten knowledge but another way for our enemies to bury their evil within our minds and souls?
]
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with the supreme eminence zo rayan overseeing the proceedings, the most honourable hyren za curren in attendance and affording her own will and emotions for consumption, this one brings it upon themself to record to the fullest of their abilities the questioning of the high eminence tiran jora, accused in the recent destruction of the northern portion of the tidal cities, its destruction taking the lives of the majority of its citizens back to the aether, as well as in the disappearance of those many souls who have vanished into the moonlit dark these last few summers past. the high eminence tiran jora has openly admitted to being party to the many disappearances both these last two summers past and in the many decades—if not centuries—that came before, the former of which has similarly been pointed upon the late doctors cundura sjuna and linmar sjinura.
due to the sensitive nature of the proceedings and the information that may be revealed throughout, the proceedings are to occur in the seventh outer realm of the capital, with only those four to whom the information is already partially available in attendance, much to the ire of many whom count themselves among our great and prosperous nation’s most eminent and the public itself. the supreme eminence zo rayan has decreed the following be withheld from the public record for the time being, and so shall it be. the supreme eminence zo rayan has decreed all to whom this document and the information herein fall be wary of spreading its knowledge too far, for to share that which is contained within the high eminence tiran jora’s testimony may break the world upon which our lives so rely.
it is therefore possible for this one, a transcriber of the zibura variety, to extended his abilities throughout the whole of the room to which this questioning takes place. this opposes the standard for proceedings of this import, in which we zibura withdraw our abilities to the questioner and questioned alone. those to whom this document finds itself will therefore find notes of this one’s ability to commune through the aether with the souls his own brushes upon extending towards not two but three souls, plus himself.
as is customary, this one has limited the use of names within the scope of his practice. take note:
sezr:
supreme eminence zo rayan
hzc:
hyren za curren
hetj:
high eminence, tiran jora
t12:
transcriber 12, this one; as aligned in marks of the aether: the one to whom this one read from marked with the customary v. designation
with that, let us begin.
✮ ✮ ✮ day 1 ✮ ✮ ✮
[
t12 v. t12
:
day one of the proceedings; initial check; stress levels acceptable; three moons have turned since this one attended the initial questioning of the hetj by hzc, and within that time this one has been debriefed on the reality of the situation in which we find ourselves. while the first day of these proceedings are intended as a simple setting of the situation, so all parties to whom it concerns shall find themselves on the same footing, due to the hetj’s tendency to shift the conversation this way and that, this one has been tasked with summarizing what they learned during those three turns of the moon
]
[
t12 v. sezr:
calm, even; a gentle flow of water over the world
]
[
t
12 v. hzc:
calm, yet it is the calm of a growing wildfire; a gentle flame ready to tip to the side and burn the world to ashes; this one does not think the hzc has followed the advice of himself nor the people to whom his record of the initial proceedings have fallen and sought out the therapy to which she could so benefit from
]
[
t12 v. hetj:
there is an ominous nothingness here; a yawning darkness like the maw of a beast, threatening to snap around anyone who gets too close
]
[
t12 v. t12:
stress levels acceptable; acknowledge that stress levels are already rising; keeping distance from hetj; seek anchor?
]
[
CATREN:
with the exception of two lines, one within t12’s summary and the other in the actual transcription, the entirety of the first day of questioning is intact. however, when read alongside the hzc’s journal entries and the initial questioning, there is little to be gained from a full translation. both cover all that has already been said, with the only additional details gleaned being a line which implies that the supreme eminence—which i have come to assume refers to either an older version of the grey sand’s president or is a leader within their religion, which i have no knowledge of the hierarchy of—was already aware that people had been disappearing throughout the nation, as well as occasionally their neighbours, for many centuries. due to the proximity of chinsata, known even then for sweeping in and abducting people for their slave trade, it appears that the general assumption among the public was that most disappearances were related to them.
it is unclear how many people were kidnapped by the previous generations of experimenters the hetj refers to in both her initial questioning and this day one, but it is clear that the supreme eminence and his predecessors were aware that something unrelated to the chinsata slave trade was stealing away at least some of the missing. interestingly, when questioned on the second day about whether the hetj regrets abducting so many people in such a short period of time, as it clued the authorities into her and her accomplices’ location, she said: ‘no, this eminent one regrets nothing. as the aether guides the tides of the world, so do the forces from without shift what they can. everything has a time, a place. everything is a puzzle piece, carefully set down until a picture of true beauty and freedom can be consumed.’
it also appears that, as was hinted at in the initial questioning by the hzc’s attempts to force t12 from the room, seemingly through making them uncomfortable with their energy, she and many other people of power were already aware that some sort of force from beyond the aether was attempting to infiltrate her. from t12’s summary, it can be assumed that there was some disagreement between these people of power over whether this force from beyond the aether was ever able to make headway in their efforts, and even with the hetj and doctor’s actions, they still appear to have been disagreeing over whether the three were actually doing the bidding of some divine power, or if they were simply mentally unstable.
as for the two missing lines, as far as i can tell, they relate to the same bit of information, however i have found it difficult to even guess at what they may have read, given the lines directly before and following the missing text flows so perfectly that no one would notice their absence were i to create a copy of day one and omit all physical evidence of the redacted lines—which have been saturated in ink of the same variety as it was transcribed in, and even the friends to whom i have sought advice are unsure whether restoration after so many centuries would be possible. for the sake of the curiosity and potential knowledge of those to whom this documents find itself, i have included the two sections and their preceding and subsequent lines below, before moving on to the second day. t12’s initial and final readings of each participant has also been included, so as to act as a contrast to the other three days for which we have partial records.
]
[
t12 v. t12:
what follows is a summary of this one’s many conversations with both the supreme eminence and the many souls whom the supreme eminence assigned to this one to expound upon the mysteries of the universe.
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excerpt from t12’s summary
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… and in regards to the land on which the tidal cities once sat, little is known. they have been part of our great and prosperous land for so many summers burning across our sands that the oral, coral, and written histories of our acquisition of the land have long been lost. while the barren lands that surround the towering blackness, as well as those that bar the sever and their gloriana from trespassing against us—although we all know too well that their tendrils of malevolence reach so firmly into our land and swipe up our most valuable people for they and their allies to do what they will with—have faced many a battle for dominance between the many factions who edge the valuable land, no such incidents appear to have trespassed against the land of the tidal cities until the hetj bore destruction upon it.
REDACTED SECTION
despite this, the hetj claims the land on which the tidal cities once lay as an important piece in the grand schemes of whatever may exist beyond the aether as we generally know her. given all this one has learned, perhaps she is correct, for even if this land were not already wound up with the threads of a future conflict that seems inescapable to all whom this one has found knowledge within, but the actions of the hetj herself may well have placed a sign of import onto the land itself—onto every grain of sand that scatters into the wind, onto the aether itself, still so scarred even so many turns of the moons on, that no one is sure when she will recover her magnificence
…]
✮ ✮ ✮ excerpt from later in the transcript ✮ ✮ ✮
[
CATREN:
the following is an excerpt from approximately thirty percent into the actual questioning portion of the transcript. at my best guess, this particular day of questioning must have run over ten hours. as perhaps might be expected of people who do not like one another and yet are forced to spend so much time together, tempers flare at times. this particular section includes hzc slipping over their words, beginning something of a bickering match between herself and hetj, a dynamic that is present during the rare moments they converse with one another, as sezr is primarily responsible for questioning hetj.
i do find it fascinating that the question of whether hetj erred when they were caught comes up numerous times. it is almost as though sezr and hzc both wish to force hetj to admit they have played their part incorrectly. i suppose, that if every piece each party places into this conflict between the aether and her enemies is so important, perhaps in their own questions and attempts to force the issue, sezr and hzc are attempting to place a piece of their own within the world? within this transcript and the minds of those whom it finds? the question becomes then, which side won the fight over whom this document favours: the aether or her enemies?
]
sezr:
you claim that the land of the tidal cities is to play an important part in the war your master casts to fall upon our world in the near future.
hetj:
does your supreme eminence allow for a question within that?
sezr:
this one was under the impression your mouth was fit to fill the silence with drivel whenever given leave.
hetj:
is that so? this eminent one wonders from whom your supreme eminence heard such things. surely not from the honourable one whom watches this eminent one so closely she might as well be carving open this one’s ribs to make a home for herself within.
hzc:
this one is not the one who has made a habit for herself of carving into the innocent.
hetj:
ah! with her words, does the honourable hzc not proclaim this eminent one as innocent as the souls whom this eminent one swiped up for the good of the world? for the honourable one has declared this eminent one’s soul safe from her carving eyes on virtue that she does not care to carve into the innocent! well, as this one has so diligently been claimed innocent, perhaps the sezr will allow this eminent one to move along with her day?
hzc:
this one is sure you have admitted enough on record for it to be clear to all to whom the transcriber’s documents find themselves how the corruption of the outer realms has reached into your heart. had you desired to resist the definition and consequences of the guilty, perhaps you should have remained with your mouth frozen, your tongue lolling about in your mouth. that would better have served your purpose.
hetj:
ah, the honourable one speaks of things she does not understand. what a lovely thing; this eminent one is sure her benefactors will be happy to learn that the aether’s chosen hands fumble so badly in their attempts to find meaning within every move we make.
REDACTED SECTION
hetj:
to think that we do not place every word with purpose and meaning will be your and the manipulative aether’s downfall. every step is but a game—a thousand chances for each side to gain an advantage their enemies will fail to see falling upon them. even with my words, this one doubts either of you appreciate the true cost of this tiny spot of land to the aether’s cause.
…
[
t12 v. sezr:
calm, even; a gentle flow of water over the world]
[
t12 v. hzc:
calm; bored, even; this is nothing new to her ears; annoyed the hetj forced such explanations to stretch so long; annoyed the sezr allowed her to do so?
]
[
t12 v. hetj:
similarly bored; seems almost… pleased? that she was allowed to drag the day along so profoundly that a mere hour or two of information stretched into an entire day of listening and rambling
]
[
t12 v. t12:
stress levels acceptable; covered information was nothing new; this one cannot escape the darkness of the hetj’s soul; request anchor of sezr
]
Arc 9 | Chapter 355: this translator is going to pick and choose
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