The Lovers
Lore of Arcanum
The cold mountain air chills the cuffs around Farina’s wrists until they feel like icy bands leaching every drop of heat from her body. It’s been three days since the war party raided her village and captured every woman they laid eyes on. Three days doesn’t feel right. How could it have only been three days when it felt like three years?
When the rumors of the raiders made their way to Farina’s small village, no one was inclined to believe they would weather the thin, ice-cold air, and dangerous paths to get to them. Even after Farina urged the village elders to take measures to keep them safe. Her pleas were met with deaf ears and now she has become one of many to add to the raiders’ collection of goods to sell.
The group of women is large, not all of them from Farina’s village, but the group slowly dwindles as women succumb to the freezing temperature and lack of nutrition and water. She estimates another three days of walking at the rate they’re moving until they reach the base of the mountain. Many won’t make it. Their bodies aren’t built to withstand the climate the way Farina is. She’s lived her whole life on the mountain and is used to both the cold and going long periods of time without sustenance. Thus is the way of life when you live in a place where not even many animals make their homes during the long winters.
She catches the eye of the woman standing next to her and stoops to pick up some snow, making a show of putting it in her mouth. They aren’t allowed to talk, but she can at least attempt to demonstrate the importance of staying hydrated during this forced journey. Although the fear of what awaits her makes her wonder if she wants to survive. The woman does the same, greedily sucking away at the moisture provided by the snow and closes her eyes in pleasure at the slaking of her thirst.
Many other women do the same when they notice—it’s as if they’ve never seen snow. And judging by the light material of their clothing, shoes without fur lining, and the fact that many of them have bare arms, they may not have. They’re probably from areas with much warmer climates, if that’s how they dress in the winter. If that’s true, these poor women have probably been traveling for months. Who knows how many they lost before now?
They walk in pairs along the steep mountain passes with horse mounted raiders in front and behind us. Hours pass and the sun dips below the mountains. The encroaching darkness forces them to stop for the night and the raiders sleep in shifts, so there’s always two keeping an eye on the women at all times. They huddle together for warmth, just like they’ve done the last few nights while praying they don’t lose anyone else during the night.
When the sun lights the sky, and the path is once again visible, Farina takes note of the green peeking through the snow. The further down the mountain they get, the less snow they’ll have to quench their thirst, but if she’s lucky, she’ll be able to find edible roots or leaves she can pick without the raiders noticing.
When Farina wakes up the next day, she’s surprised to find out they will have a day to rest before continuing. The man she assumed was the leader, announces the need to restock their supplies before moving on. The thought of food sends sharp pains through Farina’s stomach but she ignores it as she knows he isn’t talking about restocking for anyone but themselves. Every night, they grab a few women from the group to cook, clean, and care for their horses, but offer nothing in return. The women are barely given enough scraps to feed a single person, let alone the forty or so who were captured. Farina doesn’t eat the scraps, opting to let the other women share it—not that it makes much of a difference. But she’s managed to ensure she doesn’t die of starvation by collecting edible plants along the path. There hasn’t been a lot, but it’s been just enough to keep her from passing out and being left for dead.
Before she can do more than sit up and pop a dandelion she pulled from her pocket in her mouth, one of the men grabs her, yanking her roughly to her feet. He squeezes her cheeks together, forcing her to spit the plant into his palm.
“You know what plants can be eaten?” he demands to know. Farina is too shocked to do anything but nod in reply. “Good. You can forage for us today.” He shoves a basket into her hands and nods at one of the other men who reaches out to tie a rope to her shackles. She has almost no time to process what happening before she’s being yanked by the rope and the man holding the other end of it.
He leads her away from the group of woman and Farina’s heart pounds in fear. There’s a modicum of safety when you’re one of many, but to be alone with one of them feels like torture. She has no idea what’s going to happen once they’re out of eyesight beyond the trees. She’s not sure she wants to know. But she has no choice but to follow.
When they come to an area where the trees are a little thinner, allowing for more ground plants to grow, the man stops to lean against a tree. Farina hesitates.
“What are you waiting for? Start gathering plants we can eat. I don’t want to be out here forever.” He shoos Farina away with a flick of his wrist. “Don’t even think about running,”—he pats the bow strapped across his chest—“I can put this through your neck from a hundred yards just as easily as a single foot.”
Farina gulps back the bile rising in her throat at his words and hurries to do as she’s told. The mountainside forest has an abundance of edible plants, and it doesn’t take her long to fill the basket she was given. She’s just about to turn back and tell the raider she’s finished when a single plant growing under a tree catches her eye. Deep green leaves with purple edges. Heraldsbane. Glancing up at the man, she makes her decision quickly and sets to work, plucking the leaves from their stems and adding it to her basket.
The plant is edible but carries a rather nasty side effect when ingested, even in the tiniest quantities. Intense hallucinations that last for hours before the causing people who eat it to fall into a deep sleep. It won’t kill anyone, but if she can somehow figure out a way to get all the raiders to eat some of it, it may give her and the other women the opportunity to escape.
Once she’s pulled every leaf the plant has to offer, she returns to the raider with her full basket. On their way back, they pass a few others carrying small birds and game over their shoulders but still hunting for more. Knowing she was carrying something that could get her killed if she were to be found out caused her palms to sweat and her blood to pound in her ears. She wondered if the risk was worth it and whether she should get rid of the leaves before anyone finds out, but ultimately decides any risk is worth it. If she doesn’t find a way to escape these men, her death, along with many others, is inevitable.
When they’re back to the camp, Farina rejoins the women still huddling together on the cold ground. The raiders hadn’t even seen fit to let them have a fire nearby for warmth. If the gods are on her side, the men would eat those leaves tonight.
When the rest of the raiders were back with their catches, Farina was once again chosen out of the women. She had hoped to be picked to cook for them but instead was sent beyond the camp again to skin and prepare the animals brought back. After she finished preparing everything, she was forced back to the group of woman and noted someone had already been chosen from their ranks to cook tonight so she wouldn’t be able to put her plan in motion. She told herself it would be okay. Even if the leaves weren’t used tonight, they would be used eventually. She just needed to be patient.
The smell of roasting pheasant was almost too much for Farina to bear. Her stomach demanded to be fed, but she was down to a single dandelion in her pocket. When she had been foraging earlier, there hadn’t been a single opportunity to pocket food for herself under the watchful eye of the raider who took her. She pulled the last bud from her pocket and popped it into her mouth. It did nothing to assuage the stabbing hunger haunting her over the last few days. She can’t imagine how the other women have gone as long as they did like this. After just a few days of it she can already feel her body weakening.
“The trees are going to kill us all!” The woman tasked with cooking tonight screams from her spot beside the fire and lurches to her feet in panic, eyes wide, spittle flying from her lips.
Dread pools in Farina’s stomach when she realizes what’s happening about the same time as the leader does. He marches toward the group of women, death glinting in his eyes as they search her out. He finds her amongst them and she sucks in a sharp breath at what she sees on his face. But she will not cower. If the gods have decided this is her time to go, then so be it, but she won’t do it in fear. She will do it with the resolution of someone who knows she stood her ground. She can show these women the courage she holds in her heart and hope it sparks the same in them.
These last few days she’s wondered countless times what would happen if the women were to fight back. Could they overpower the men in their weakened states? Without weapons? How many would they lose in the process? Surely too many for it to be worth the chance. But if she was willing to die so another could be free, wouldn’t there be others with the same mind? There are only eight men guarding the women. The rest of the war party probably in search of the next village to raid. There’s nearly five times as many women. They may be weak, half starved, and exhausted. Their bones aching and muscles cramping from the effort of walking so many miles with little to no water. But they’re not dead yet. She’s not dead yet. And if she does die, she will go down fighting.
Farina lifts her chin and meets the leader’s gaze.
“You tried to poison us?” he asks calmy. Too calmly. Another wave of fear skitters down her spine, but she pushes it back.
She doesn’t answer him. Instead, her words are for the women. “I did try to poison them. Not kill them. I just wanted to give us a chance to escape them. I failed in my quest, but it doesn’t mean we all have to. We can fight ba—”
The leader yanks her forward to the ground in front of him and squeezes her jaw so hard she thought it might crack under the pressure. It effectively cut her words off, but she hopes the women understand what she was trying to tell them. The leader pulls a small dagger from his belt and holds it in front of Farina’s face. The sun glints off the steel and blinds her momentarily. Perhaps it’s a blessing to not be able to see what happens next.
“You think to fight back against us?” he asks, pressing the flat side of the blade against her face.
Farina squeezes her eyes shut, and the pressure eases ever so slightly on her jaw. Without thinking, she allows herself to fall backward, and the man loses his grip on her long enough for her to plead with the other women.
“We can fight. We can die here or we can die after enduring whatever horrible fate they have planned for us. At least here we have the choice.”
The man is on her again before she can say anything else, but she said enough. Low murmurs rise among the crowd of women.
“Fight and you die just like her!” His voice rises over the women, silencing them again. Farina’s world narrows to a single moment. Her final moment. She focuses on what’s to be the last breath she pulls into her lungs and time seems to slow to an aching crawl filled with the terror of her imminent death.
“Then we die,” a small voice barely audible to Farina’s ears says in reply. “I would rather die fighting for my life and the life of others than at the hands of you and your kind.” The voice is stronger and soon other voices rise with it. Some even shouting their agreement. As one, the women rise from the ground and the leader releases Farina to grab the sword strapped to his back. He lifts is above his head and swings it down toward Farina.
Everything goes still. Not so much as a bird’s chirping breaks the heavy silence and Farina scrambles to get out from under the deadly blade that was just moments ago swinging toward her neck.
“I hoped you would find you voice, Daughter.” The voice was one and many at the same time. Feminine and beautiful. It didn’t take long for Farina’s eyes to find her. She stands with the sun to her back, an ethereal glow shining from her skin. Her hair hangs to her waist in long, thick waves and her eyes churn and swirl like liquid silver.
“What’s happening?” Farina looks around her at the frozen chaos.
“I waited for you to show me what I already knew. That you’re worthy of my gift.” The woman floats forward and presses a single finger to Farina’s forehead. All at once, Farina feels hot and cold and… something more. Something she can’t describe.
“Use my gift wisely, for emotions can be the hardest weight to bear. Nurture it, strengthen it. So it’s ready when she needs it.” The woman vanishes and time starts back up.
The leader’s sword swings down and hits the dirt where Farina had been kneeling. He stumbles backward in confusion and a healthy dose of fear. Excitement permeates the air, chased by fear with undertones of longing, and determination. So many emotions pour into Farina she’s drowning in them.
Love, sadness, anger, despair. And greed. The last one centers her. She knows the owners of that particular emotion and it’s not the captives. She doesn’t know how but she can feel everything everyone around her if feeling.
Instinctively she finds the threads of greed and hatred, following them to the men they belong to and she alters it. She rips their confidence from them with a heavy fist and pours every ounce of what she’s been feeling back into them to replace it. Then she magnifies it so it becomes their entire existence.
One by one, the men drop to their knees, crying. Some of them passing out, others lost to the insanity the emotions she pushed on them is causing. But every single one of them drops. She doesn’t release the new power until she knows the men won’t be able to get back up. Their minds have been broken, much like they tried to do to her will.
She turns to the women knowing there must be someone willing to take the lead. “You’re free. Free to go back to your homes and hold your loved ones once again.”
“And you?” a woman calls from the back of the group.
“I have a war party to catch up with,” Farina tells them.
And so the first of the lovers is born. The power to feel and wield emotions. Healers but also saviors for those in need. An enormous power with endless possibilities.