#39 Added by Azazor 2 years ago
Edited 3 times | Last edited by Azazor (1 year ago)
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#40 Added by Eeri 2 years ago
Last edited by Eeri (1 year ago)
#41 Added by Azazor 2 years ago
Eeri barely described the interior of the Marauder camp to me. Let's just say she wasn't very talkative. The important thing to remember is that the Marauders hide their Zinuakeen under construction inside. Impossible to know how it works, since Eeri has not been given access to it. However, the Marauders told her that there was a path leading to the Wide Puddle by the south. A slight detour. So, we went there.After several days of walking through the southern cordillera, made of giant roots emerging from the ground and twisting like braids, we finally reached the Wide Puddle. It was a particularly trying vision. Imagine an expanse of water as far as the eye can see. Wherever you look, nothing but water up to the horizon. I tried to see the end of the range to the east, in vain. This one comes to die on the horizon, suggesting that it does not end before the mouth of the Munshia river and the hypothetical Reef of Baldos. Passed the amazement, we approached the water and we even bathed there. Not for long though, this soup being relatively cold in winter. There were some fish that I did not especially recognize. But well, I don't know nothing about fish. No predator on the horizon apparently. Maybe some come to drink in the Wide Puddle but not this place in any case. There are no paw prints on the shore. Oh yes, an interesting phenomenon to note: the presence of waves! Bigger than the ones you can sometimes observe in Trykoth. Even if I don't see what the root cause of this could be, I suspect that the size of the Wide Puddle has something to do with it, . Anyway, we had a lot of fun with Eeri jumping among the waves, some of them reaching us at the level of the head.For the following of our journey, although according to the Ranger map, no access is listed there, we could perhaps avoid the passage through Sentinel by following the Wide Puddle and then climbing the plateau south of the Citadel. I'm curious to know if there are any homins living there. But given the help the Marauders have given us so far, we would be depriving ourselves of essential information for the rest of our journey in the ancestral desert. So, after some discussion, we decided to cross the cordillera again and follow the small trail described to Eeri by the Marauders, which leads to Sentinel through the northern part of the mountain range. This path is not marked except for the area called the "Scattered Desert" where beacons have been placed to indicate the safe places to walk. The area is indeed filled with crevasses and moving sawdust that can swallow a homin in a few minutes without him being able to do anything to escape. However, we will have to avoid crossing the varinx packs haunting these aeras. According to Eeri, the Marauders spend usually a good month to reach Sentinel. So we'll depart tomorrow morning, leaving the Wide Puddle and its fascinating waves behind us. As for whether they will let us pass, we'll see how we can be useful once we get there.
Edited 2 times | Last edited by Azazor (1 year ago)
#42 Added by Azazor 2 years ago
Last edited by Azazor (1 year ago)
#43 Added by Eeri 2 years ago
Last edited by Eeri (1 year ago) | Reason: Traduction en Anglais par Nilstilar / English Translation by Nilstilar
#44 Added by Eeri 2 years ago
Last edited by Eeri (1 year ago) | Reason: English Translation by Nilstilar
#45 Added by Azazor 2 years ago
#46 Added by Eeri 1 year ago
Sentinel is within our reach. We see the lights of a camp a day's walk away. It is a relief and just as terrifying. The situation is tense between Azazor and me. I have a premonition that something is going turn out badly, for one or the other of us.If I disappear and by chance someone comes to read this journal, it is not the image I want to leave of me and our trip. But I have to admit, I screwed up, big time. Azazor now only talks to me to give me orders, and we've lost trust in each other. He tried to kill me a few days ago. Or to scare me. It worked. He treats me like I'm an orskos. Me!It's my fault. ney. But I didn't lie, dey! I hid things. Is it a lie not to say anything? He didn't ask me any questions. When he asked me if I was a Trytonist, I said yes. If you ask me, I answer. I don't lie. Yes, let it be known. Give this to the Kuilde and let them come to me, if they dare.But toub, Azazor, you are as stubborn as I am... Yes, I should have said everything, revealed everything from the beginning. But could you have heard what I had to say? Even before we left, you wanted to do your own thing, you criticized my positions, my friendships. You didn't even bother to listen or to be interested in what I could have given you. And now you have to tell yourself that you bet on the wrong mektoub. But if I disappear and you read this, know that my respect for you is still alive. I wouldn't have gotten this far without you, and you wouldn't have gotten this far without me.If you had asked the question, "Eeri, do you have a Marauder crystal?" I would have answered yes... Yes, I got a Marauder crystal from Mazé'yum. Without compromising my real name. No, I don't want to join them, especially not those from the New Lands. Even if some of them here have my respect.Another question you could have asked me, and never did: "Am I the father of Uzykos?" I think the answer is clear enough, and that deep down you already know it. But it's not enough to want the truth, you must be able to accept it. One day you will know it, and you will explode, as you do every time you are interested in something other than your own plansAnd dey, I'm not immortal. You forgot, for a crystal to work, you have to be able to activate it. And after ten days of walking, we're just too far away for it to work. If I fall, I die. Just like you. If the distance had nothing to do with it, I could have simply returned to Fairhaven, as if nothing had happened. But this is another truth you don't want to hear. By the time you read this, it will be too late to realize it.Besides, if the little you told me about what happened at the Wide Puddle is true, so far this crystal has only served to keep me from being totally gobbled up by a big fish. Eeri, dead, guzzled and digested by a prakker. I hope my true ending will be a bit more glorious, I still have that Fyros trait at least.Tomorrow we'll go to the Marauders, to Sentinel. Hopefully they already know we're coming. I have a feeling that these homins are much more ingenious than we might think, and that they have a quicker means of communication than sending a simple messenger. I will let Azazor speak. Anyway, if I open my mouth he'll find something to pick at. And I promised, a few months ago, when we arrived at the Cloudy Cliff Outpost, to let him what he wants. If it goes wrong, I'll try to make it right by taking out my crystal. However, I have the impression that the dice are cast already and that Azazor knows exactly what he is going to do. And that he won't hesitate to abandon me, as soon as he doesn't need me anymore, or as soon as he feels that will save his ass.We set up our camp high up on a root. It reduces the access in case of a predator attack. There are few of them, but they are much bigger and more tenacious. There is also less game here than in our country, maybe it's related. From here, we have a view of the desert to the north. To the east, we could already make out, in the daytime, the presence of this mountain range that separates us from the desert of the Old Lands. We are so close to our goal and yet nothing has ever been so uncertain. I never expected that we would want to kill each other. Maybe that's the strength of the homins here. The fact that we don't go crazy knowing that whatever one does, it might be the last time. Although, now that they're expanding their Zinuakeen network here too, it must totally change their their view of things.. This fear must probably only be valid for us, who have just never been used to this feeling. It makes us lose our minds.
#47 Added by Azazor 1 year ago
I'll keep it short. As soon as we arrived at Sentinel, the Marauders confiscated all our belongings. I am writing this text with a piece of coal on the single leather I managed to hide before arriving here.We arrived in sight of a kind of giant tower built in a tree also gigantic. It is not like the tower of Fort Beacon in the sense that it is not built in a root but in a real tree of phenomenal dimensions. It's more than a tower in fact, almost a circular city with several floors, with a few dead branches at the top reminding us that we are dealing with, basically, a tree. I have never seen so thick and high a tree. Yet, it seems to be only a part of the original tree. The tree is now probably a dead one because there is no foliage and it looks like it was burned by some ancient fire. Scarce bare branches only remain in addition to the trunk. So it is inside this huge tree that Sentinel is built. There is a main entrance covered by a canopy and various secondary stairs outside. Halfway up, we can see balconies where homins are stationed, apparently armed with firearms. Above, there are some more floors in what reminded me of the Imperial Palace, a kind of pseudo-dome, there where the top of the tree must have been. As we came within sight of the tree, Marauders came up from behind us and made us lower our weapons. They asked us what clan we were from. I told them the truth. That I was a patriot of the Empire in the New Lands, that I had come as a researcher to study the Road of Oflovak and the land of our ancestors, that I owed this Marauder armor to O'Tello, the head of the Cloudy Cliff Diplomatic Outpost, and that we had just returned from a delivery mission to build a Zinuakeen, mission to make us up for the misappropriation of some jerky. In short, the truth, raw and unvarnished. I didn't say anything about Eeri. She didn't even say anything, leaving me to speak all along.They then separated us and I was questioned by two homins. I repeated what I had said. When they asked me who Eeri was, I told them that she was a Tryker citizen who was accompanying me. They then explicitly asked me if she was a Marauder. I told them I didn't think so. They told me about the Marauder crystal found in her belongings. I explained that I didn't know about this crystal until a month ago and that Eeri had lied to me. She had sworn that the crystal did not mean that she was a Maraud'. I told them that she had probably stolen it from someone or that one of her contacts had given it to her. At their insistence, I gave them the name Mayé'zum or Mazé'yum. I don't remember exactly. A shady guy from the New Lands an I don't know which Maraud' clan. They then took me to a kind of cell where I waited for several hours.A homin came for me and I was questioned again. This time there was a Fyros of obviously higher rank. I was asked about my intentions. I had to repeat what I was doing here, that I wanted to go to the other side of the ridge. Thinking that I was dealing with the real leader of the Sentinel this time, I added that my goal was also to establish a first contact with the Marauders so that when I returned to the New Lands, we could exchange knowledge. To make my request credible, I had to tell them that I was an akenakos and a student at the Imperial Academy. I also offered them my services as a butcher in order to pay for my stay here, that if they could contact the Diplomatic Outpost, they would learn that I excelled in this art and that they would not regret it. The Fyros noted all this and had me escorted back to the cell where I am waiting without food for a while now. So I take the opportunity to write this. And I don't know where Eeri is. Let her deal with her lies.
#48 Added by Azazor 1 year ago
Lendemain de mon arrivée J+1J’ai enfin pu récupérer mes affaires. Ils ont épluché tous mes textes et ceux d’Eeri. D’après le fyros, dont je n’ai toujours pas le nom, je semble honnête dans mes intentions. Ce qui n’est pas le cas de celle qui m’accompagne. Il n’a pas voulu m’en dire plus et je m’en moque. Ils peuvent bien la pendre, ce n’est plus mon problème. Les maraudeurs consentent donc à m’héberger pour une semaine en échange d’un travail en cuisine. L’armure maraudeur m’a été confisquée et mes armes me seront rendues quand je partirai. J'ai donc renfilé mon armure fyros. C'est pas plus mal finalement, même si j'aurais aimé ramener une armure maraud dans les NT. Le fyros attend les ordres de ses supérieurs pour savoir s’il doit me faire rebrousser chemin ou s’ils acceptent de me laisser continuer ma route vers les AT. J+2J’ai pu discuter avec un maraud qui travaille en cuisine avec moi. Il m’a expliqué que la Citadelle n’est pas vraiment une cité telle qu’on l’imagine. C’est en fait plus une zone fracturée de la grande dorsale racinaire qui entoure le désert des Anciennes Terres et qui forme une sorte de labyrinthe. Il y a des crevasses un peu partout dans lesquelles les marauds se déplacent régulièrement. Il faut plutôt imaginer un agglomérat de petits campements temporaires se construisant et se démontant au fil des déplacements des kitins. Ceux-ci gorgent littéralement les Anciennes Terres. La stratégie pour les retenir est de les faire entrer en partie dans le labyrinthe et de les faire tourner en rond pour ensuite les tuer ou les faire ressortir. Il faut oublier toute idée de grand mur devant lequel se fracasseraient les kitins. Le combat permanent des marauds face aux kitins est avant tout fait de parties de cache-cache. Le maraud qui m’a raconté cela ne peut pas trop m’en dire plus hélas. Le culte du secret est assez prégnant ici, et on se méfie de moi. Je les comprends. On se méfie aussi beaucoup d’eux dans nos terres. Ce n’est qu’un juste retour de flamme. J+5Les maraudeurs acceptent de m’accompagner jusqu’à un premier campement de la Citadelle dans trois jours. De là, je recevrai d’autres instructions pour me mouvoir à l’intérieur de la Citadelle jusqu’à la sortie. Ils n'ont pas voulu m'en dire plus pour le moment. On m’a demandé avec un sourire si j’aimais l’escalade. Je sens que ça ne va pas me plaire...J+6Un des marauds qui m’avait accompagné en cellule le premier jour est venu me voir aujourd’hui et m’a lancé un paquet de feuille sur ma couchette. Il m’a dit que ça devrait m’intéresser. Il s’agit des écrits d’Eeri, que je pouvais les garder, ils en avaient déjà fait une copie. Je lui ai demandé ce qu’il en était de son sort, il n’a pas pu me répondre. Mais a priori, elle n’est pas prête de sortir. Tant pis pour elle. Elle n’avait qu’à m’écouter et jouer franc jeu. J’ai commencé à lire, mais je dois l’avouer, au moins par écrit, c’est assez difficile. Je me sens un peu coupable d’avoir été si tyrannique, je dois l’avouer. La toub est cachottière et a un sérieux problème de confiance, mais ses intentions étaient bonnes. Je devrais finir la lecture ce soir.J+8 J'ai rejoint un petit convoi en direction de la Citadelle et nous sommes partis tôt ce matin. Plus nous avançons, plus la dorsale parait gigantesque. À côté d'elle, les falaises du Couloir Brulé semblent ridicules. Vais-je réellement devoir escalader tout ça... ? Sinon... J'ai vu Eeri. De loin. Enchainée à un toub et bien gardée. Elle fait partie de notre convoi, à l'arrière. Évidemment, interdiction de l'approcher. D'après un maraud, elle va rencontrer une personne importante de la Citadelle et je n'ai pas à savoir où. Akilia j'ai demandé, il a poussé un grognement. Donc pas Akilia. Et visiblement, elle n'est pas en odeur de sainteté ici non plus. On nous bassine dans les Nouvelles Terres qu'Akilia est la cheffe des Maraudeurs, mais après ce qu'a dit O'Tello, et ça, je commence à croire qu'ici aussi se joue les luttes de pouvoir, avec des pros Akilia et les autres...J+9Ça y est, on est arrivé. Durant les dernières heures de marche, je n'ai pas osé regarder le sommet de la dorsale, de peur d'en avoir la nausée. Ici, les vents étaient particulièrement violents, mais on a finalement réussit à se faufiler dans une petite entailles pour finalement se poser dans un premier campement sommaire à l'intérieur de la falaise. Les maraudeurs semblent avoir l'habitude de ce voyage. D'après l'un d'entre eux, la plupart des camps sont troglodytes et temporaires. Il existe ça et là quelques campement permanent extrêmement bien cachés et défendus, mais la quasi totalité sont mouvants, en fonction des déplacements de kitins et des tactiques adoptées pour les neutraliser. À nouveau, ces falaises me font penser à celles du couloir brûlé. Un vrai dédale de grottes, de canyons et de crevasses. Mais en tellement plus grand... On repart dans une heure. Le temps d'écrire ceci. Du coup, je sais comment je vais passer dans les Anciennes Terres. Par le haut. On m'avait parlé d'escalade, ça sera le cas. Depuis un endroit de la Citadelle, je pourrai emprunter un ensemble de cordes, échelles et autres passerelles pour grimper sur la dorsale. Une fois tout en haut, on m'a conseillé, si je voulais aller à Coriolis, de suivre le bord de la falaise, plus ou moins suivant la présence des kitins. Ils sont moins nombreux en hauteur, mais toujours présents. Il faudra probablement faire des détours. Mais je ne devrai en aucun cas descendre. Ils m'ont dit que de toute façon, une fois en haut, je comprendrai pourquoi.
#49 Added by Eeri 1 year ago
#50 Added by Eeri 1 year ago
Edited 2 times | Last edited by Eeri (1 year ago) | Reason: English Translation by Nilstilar
#51 Added by Eeri 1 year ago
Last edited by Eeri (1 year ago) | Reason: English translation by Nilstilar !
#52 Added by Eeri 1 year ago
Edited 2 times | Last edited by Eeri (1 year ago)
#53 Added by Azazor 1 year ago
I've been climbing for hours. Now that I can finally settle down, I have to go back to that evening spent with the Marauders, the last one before my climb. It was a shock, one can say so. The group I had accompanied until then had to settle in one of these semi-permanent camps I had been told about. I was invited to share a meal and to sleep there before my departure the next day. We had gathered in a kind of particularly gigantic cave to which one reached after having followed many tunnels dug in the cliff. The entry in the cave was through a narrow tunnel after the climbing of a tumulus blocking the entry. It was explained to me that the entrance was once much larger, but a landslide had been deliberately set off to block the entrance during an epic battle against the kitins. It was while telling me about this battle that I heard for the second time, after Barmie Dingle, about the Flamings. Contrary to what I had believed, not all Flamings were kitins of the kipesta species. In fact, this name "Flamings" is given to the whole new generation of red kitins that appeared in the desert, and it is the term "red dragons" that specifically designates the kipestas among Flamings, for their fire is particularly destructive and their abdomen bristled with spines. During the said battle, many Marauders had perished trying to defend the entrance to the cave where many of them had taken refuge. Since then, the cave has become a symbol for many. The Flamings had continued to multiply, making access to the desert almost inaccessible. The Marauders said that the Karavan was hunting them down and targeting them first.Inside the cave was a huge camp, visibly less rustic than the previous ones. There was a sort of infirmary in a tent, a kitchen area stocked with enough food to feed an entire regiment, a stable full of mektoubs, hundreds of beds dug into the walls and even some sort of tubs filled with water for washing. Here and there, a few devices and tools reminded me that the Marauders had mastered a rather advanced technology, linked in some way to the Powers.High on the walls, one could see several holes connected by walkways. There must have been other rooms behind the walls and on several floors. It was a real miniature city, lit by the glowing of gigantic braziers. One of the Marauds of the company, probably a little too talkative, explained to me that there was also an armory, laboratories and a library somewhere, hidden in this maze of tunnels connecting them to the cave, which served as the main reception hall.But what surprised me the most were the children. Until then I had imagined The Citadel as a huge battlefield, and yet here I found children, old people, a whole bunch of homins that I had not expected to find here.Finally, I understood that this cave was used as a resting place, but also as a research area and a place to fall back in case of massive attacks, as it happened sometimes. These few spaces were in fact the only stable areas of The Citadel. The nerve centers of this movable city, reconfigured with defeats and victories. However, there was no guarantee that the kitins would not succeed in taking these places, as had already occurred a few times. Everything was designed to be easily moved, as evidenced by the shape of the furniture and the many mektoubs equipped as if they were on departure.The evening was enriching, especially on a cultural level. As I watched them laughing with their loved ones, talking about their last day, helping each other with daily duties, playing music and dancing, I realized that these Marauders did not fit our idea of them. Their ability to create moments of life for themselves, while a few dozen kilometers to the east, a gigantic swarm of kitins threatened to swoop on the Oflovak Road, generated in me confused emotions. Respect, but also a strange sense of pride. As I watched these Marauders, I remembered that the first of them were Fyros. Fyros who decided not to flee from the kitins, but to fight to keep their homes, and who were still fighting today. I even felt some anger at the Empire of the time of Cerakos II, which had abandoned its people to flee from the kitins. To my surprise, that evening, many of them shared moments with me. Their friendliness surprised me. Of course, they considered me as a stranger, and kindly told me not to insist, when I asked them about their links with the Powers and if I could consult the books in the library... For the rest, they seemed happy to share this evening with someone coming from so far away, and asked me a number of questions. Especially since this time the stranger was not a Ranger! I was a stranger among strangers. I also believe that they respected me very much for undertaking such a dangerous journey to carry out my research. As in Fyros society, Courage, Honor and Truth were strong concepts in Marauder society. Yet, several hundred kilometers to the west, Akilia was waging a dirty war against the nations of the New Lands, not hesitating to recruit criminals and commit terrorist acts. Why such a difference? I dared to ask the question to one of my hosts who expressly ordered me, in a low voice, to change the subject. A Fyros who was passing by our group at that moment heard my question and launched into a violent monologue defending Akilia's policy. Then, raising his head towards a footbridge above him, he turned around and walked away while mumbling. I raised my head and saw that some guards had stopped up there to watch us. So, from what I could see, at The Citadel pro- and anti-Akilia people stand alongside. Though, probably, many don't take sides. Like my hosts who, visibly uncomfortable, hastened to change subject.A Tryker told me later, under the tone of confidence, that if the pro Akilia were present in minority in The Citadel, and frawned upon by many—because suspected of fomenting conspiracies—they were nevertheless admitted in these places. First, because many of them were members of the oldest clans, from the Melkiar era, and were among the most powerful and feared Marauders. Second, because conflicts between the various clans had always been commonplace, and it was implicitly understood that no dissension should ever endanger Marauder society. Thirdly, because The Citadel was the home of all Marauders, and to be permanently banished from it was the heaviest punishment of all... The Tryker added, however, that what was most important, and what everyone agreed on, was the fight for survival and against the kitins. To imagine that the Marauder society owes its cohesion, and thus its existence, to the presence of a monstrous swarm at the gates of The Citadel, seemed sadly ironic...Finally, I ended my evening by telling some children the History of the Cult of the Great Dragon. It was a real delight to see their eyes both amazed and terrified at the adventures of Liriope. I never thought I would find children here, so close to danger. I thought they would all be in Sentinel, but that was a mistake. The Citadel was the heart of the Marauder people, the place where life was beating. And when I saw these Marauders children, I thought of my own...
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