Heroist
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- I welcome you to my dwelling, Klin and Sanexa. - She did not object to the presence of the latter. - Please, proceed.
—Thank you. —Gathering his thoughts, which seemed to take three days, Klin ran his palm over the first page. —Given the scale of the tragedy that unfolded, I cannot reliably assume that any of my loved ones managed to survive simply because they were not in the homeland during that dark hour. It would be unwise to mourn people prematurely, but since no search operation is theoretically possible, all that remains for me is to pass on to you the memory of my family, acquaintances, and friends from my native part of the world.
Nodding to the blind hostess and the sighted companion, Klin immerses himself in memories of the deceased Kridear.
[spoiler=
]Cheg 🌲That was the name of my great-grandfather, whom I unfortunately did not know in his lifetime. In our settlement, there never existed an aristocracy or dynastic surnames, so a supplement to the name, if needed, was traditionally taken from the first known founder of the lineage. The ending "Ver" does not translate literally into your Imperial tongue, but I believe "Faithful" would be the closest meaning. A faithful son of his kin, or a daughter, before marriage.
Thus, the clan of the Faithful Chegs was formed; this is where the second part of my initials comes from — "Chegver". As for my great-grandfather himself, I know almost nothing about him, nor does it relate to the task at hand, for he merged with the planet long before my birth. I only heard that he was also born in Kridear, just on the other side of the mountain.
Oak Chegver 💪
My father was called this from birth, probably due to his prophetically impressive size? Unfortunately, this came with its own tragic consequences: my grandmother did not survive childbirth. From childhood, my father was left to his own devices, taking over the derelict farm from my grandfather very early, and never spent a single hour resting. In his entire life, I think he read only one book: a religious tome, worn through from study, which came to us with the Luensian travelers. The ideas laid out there aligned so well with his own beliefs that he unwittingly became one of the first to actively spread "Ethics" throughout Kridear.
The last time I saw my father was a decade ago, and by then he had successfully built a wealthy and prosperous farm in our settlement. He was respected in the village, called an elder, and often approached for help or advice. He possessed a kind of worldly, conscientious wisdom, a simple and clear view of things, without a shadow of political maneuvering, philosophical pedantry, or mathematical formulas. At the same time, he was not gullible at all: he could see right through cunning traders and all sorts of suspicious rogues. Sometimes it seemed to me as if he could see the colors of human souls.
One might think that in daily life my father was strict and harsh, but that was more my mother's reputation. Somehow, it happened that all his children rushed to help around the house and support the family from the cradle. Perhaps except for me, heh... Despite this, we got along well, and he sincerely supported my naive aspirations and dreams of travel.
I believe he met his final battle with an unequal fate in full determination, clutching his favorite axe in his hands.
Ryag Chegver 😔
This is my grandfather, who, however, left our world during my infancy. They say the passing of his life partner broke him deeply, and he and my father got along poorly on those grounds. I know one should not speak ill of the departed, so I will end with the known facts: one day he got heavily drunk once again and fell off a cliff.
Reza Chegver ❤️
Mother. As she loved to say: "I wish the goddess had put my stats into int instead of beauty." Do not ask what that means — here, alas, I am of no help. Perhaps if my mother had been born in Margel, her fate would have turned out quite differently, but in Kridear she wished to find a reliable man who could solve all the difficult worldly problems, while she dedicated herself to housekeeping. And in the end, she was lucky in this.
To tell the truth, in childhood we feared mother's anger much more than father's, and he himself, it seems, did too. There were many funny and sweet stories associated with this — I think I even have a scar on the back of my head from a thrown frying pan, but listing them would drag out the narrative too much. I will only say that despite all the hardships, she raised us successfully, and we never experienced want in spiritual or material terms.
Kol Chegver 🤠
Elder brother and the second pillar of our family. He always repeated everything father did — sometimes to a ridiculous extent — and naturally intended to follow in his footsteps. Perhaps he was a bit simplistic and prone to gambling, but fortunately, back home everything is much simpler regarding that. Very honest and demanding; for the slightest screw-up or laziness at work, you could get a smack on the head from him, heh. But if trouble occurred in life and optimistic support and a heart-to-heart talk were needed, you couldn't find a better person in the whole world.
When I left, my brother had already found a fiancée and was planning to become a father himself. Imagine, if I returned home now, someone might call out "Uncle Klin" from around the corner, ha-ha... ha, yeah...
Oza Chegver 📚
Elder sister and... one could even say, almost a second mother? In large village families, parents don't have enough hands for the little ones, and since neither paternal nor maternal relatives remained by that time, the older ones had to look after the younger ones. All my first warm memories, books about brave Margelian knights, figurines of toy dragons and imperial soldiers — she managed to get them all from somewhere to entertain the whims of myself and the other little ones. Sister mastered literacy and sciences very early, and I read these lines now solely thanks to her lessons. I even heard that she sent several letters to the capital, thanks to which as many as three corrections were made to the Velfern language dictionary! And if you ever stumble upon a dusty volume of Old Kridearian in some abandoned section of a goddess-forgotten library, know this: its preservation is solely my sister's merit.
By the way, I just remembered that when I set out from the village, it was she who caught up with me and handed me the sword I had forgotten in my room: who knows if I would have overcome even a third of the way without a weapon.
Lom Chegver 👨🔧
I happened to be the third in our family, and brother Lom the fourth by a minimal margin. He had a spirit of freedom similar to mine at the time, but also good inventive talents. He was always disappearing somewhere, and then returning covered in mud, bruised and battered, but terribly happy and pleased with himself. As the elder, I should have watched over him, of course, but adolescence took a toll on my character, so, simply put, I "blew it off" and stopped chasing him. Well, Lom wanted to invent a flying machine to move quickly between mountains, and during another experiment, he didn't allocate his stats properly and took a tumble.
Fortunately, the goddess spared his health, but he had to relearn how to walk for several years. Later, everyone recognized him by his pigeon-toed gait with a cane, which gradually became a subject of harmless jokes. But if you think Lom grew depressed because of this, not at all: he crafted many useful things for our village. A mill was built according to his blueprints, tools for safely climbing rocks, reinforced foundations for buildings and barns, a well, and much more were spawned by his restless energy.
Besides being handy, he also managed to inherit appearance bonuses from mother, so village girls had been running after him since his teenage years — only my brother had long been married to the science of invention. Why hide it now: for a long time, as the elder, I envied Lom...
Va and Ha Chegver 😒😆
Two of my sisters, whom everyone always confused, well, you know how it is in such cases. The one who is older by a few moments was all strict, gloomy, and shy, yet very sensible and observant. When she says something, you feel like jumping off a cliff even through Kridearian immunity. I think it's a familiar type.
And the second is the complete opposite: brisk, loud, cheerful, a woman of action, and only then thought. With them, life in our family took on even brighter colors, and the number of curious stories became countless. They especially loved to play pranks on village boys during dates. I think one of them never realized he was being pranked and ended up becoming a psychologist... And another... how shall I put it... lost faith in the female gender entirely.
Yes, I think no one would refuse to have a double with whom you also cover each other's weak points. For this reason, the sisters were very close, even though they had completely opposite hobbies and interests.
Lma Chegver 🔫
It so happened that in that cold year, everyone expected another boy-helper. Perhaps that's why Lma turned out with a boyish temperament. At first, of course, Ha tried to teach her sense and reason by seniority, but she soon figured out who the master of the house was. Or mistress... Before we knew it, she was already going hunting with father. Oh, how mother tried to instill long hair in her, saying it wasn't proper for girls to run around with a boyish haircut, but no luck there!
In the end, my sister became our best scout. Thanks to her, Oza was finally able to finish drawing the map of Kridear, the very one sent to the imperial archive. Now, however, there is neither an archive nor Kridear on the map...
Rub Chegver 🤔
Another brother who went into typically Kridearian matters. It was he, by the way, who introduced me to the blind hermit on the mountaintop. And that's where my sophisticated and incomprehensible utterances occasionally slip from. Only my brother always knew how to give thoughts a beautiful foundation, so that anyone could understand and it would touch the soul.
The older I get, the more I realize that Rub was always very mature for his age: many of his philosophical ideas are becoming clear to me only now. Also, he was the only one who openly discouraged me from leaving Kridear. He understood people well and surely noticed immediately that strong impressions and unexpected trials are not in my nature. But who would listen to the youngest in my place?..
Ura Chegver 🎨
The fate of the last three in our kin is unknown to me: because at the time of my departure, they hadn't even approached adulthood. Ura, for example, drew well; it's quite possible she became an artist and then, having captured all of Kridear, departed for the empire?.. Well yes, empty hope, I wasted my soul with such thoughts, sorry.
Etv Chegver 🌔
Younger brother, who for some reason in his young age became very interested in the science of sky-logy, brought to us by foreign travelers. Instead of sleeping at night, he was fully sketching celestial maps and trying to decipher various mysterious messages in falling stars. Oh, how many times he got it from the parents for this, probably countless, but I think at such an age there's nothing wrong with that?..
Tiya Chegver 👧
When I left my homeland, my sister had barely passed seven years, so I do not know how her future unfolded. Quite possibly, returning home last week, I could have caught her wedding?.. Who knows, but her poems turned out quite well, childishly endearing. Here, listen, this is the only thing I remember:
—Under eternal light, the goddess' gift;
—Stretching through mountains, lies Kridear.
—In a secluded village by the cliff's shade;
—People are united by harmony.
—Work and friendship rule the ball there;
—And both, moreover, are plenty there.
—Stern Papa will solve the problems;
—Elder brother will crush unseen foes;
—Sister reads me tales at night;
—Klin desires freedom like a bird.
—Our bear-like Lom will fix the toy;
—Ha sent her suitor to the madhouse.
—Truthfully, but painfully Va speaks;
—Lma helps learn the hunt.
—Brother Rub knows all fables in the world;
—Found herself in Ura's portrait.
—Etv learned all planets and stars;
—I help Mama before the frosts.
—It can be hard for us sometimes;
—But it's all nothing: that's what family is for.
Guiltily scratching the back of his dead neck, Klin turns the heavy page and clears his throat for some reason:
—Well, there's probably no point in talking about distant relatives. Not because I belittle their memory: simply I know too little. On my father's side, all passed away very early, and my mother spoke of hers rather reluctantly. So instead, I will fill the gaps with memories of my youth and the people I was lucky enough to spend it with:
Nad 🤝
My best friend and loyal comrade almost from the cradle. How many childhood and not-so-childhood scrapes we managed to climb out of, how many pranks, silly jokes, heart-to-heart talks on nightly evenings, fights first with each other and then together against the neighborhood kids, advice on relationships with the opposite sex, and just stories from which my kind memory is woven — it can never be counted.
I recall with shame that Nad did not take my unexpected departure in the best way: in his eyes, it was a reckless act and disrespectful toward his village. Where extra working hands would have been useful, I preferred the free wind of travels. Though he didn't show it, I now clearly understand that I never managed to apologize in this world and ask for a deserved cuff on the ear with some signature caustic remark addressed to me — for my stunt back then.
Teg 😴
My second buddy, a great lover of snacking and sleeping. There's a funny story about this, when he mistook winter supplies for a festive dinner. Oh, how he got it later! He also loved to philosophize: about labor, politics and economics, the meaning of life, sports, weather. Everything about everything, in short. All while sunbathing instead of working, of course. To every question he had the most important and only correct opinion, and when people disagreed with him, he immediately got terribly offended.
But in the end, there was use from him too: in a year of crop failure, he applied a sub-mountain dialect he'd learned somewhere and became a trader with the underground people. When I left, he certainly hadn't lost weight, and appeared as a guest less and less, but at least he started providing for his family like a true Kridearian. Maybe he even made something of himself in the end.
Mak 🤕
Another buddy of mine, simple to an indecent degree, always getting into all sorts of stupid stories. He also had this nasal voice because of a broken nose, and one eye squinted slightly from being beaten. Where did he get the injuries? Once he started an argument with the senior philosophers: claiming that our planet is flat and stands, figuratively speaking, on two "mountains" of Anuzish, excuse the sacrilege. It ended, obviously, in a friendly duel.
And in everything else, he was a magnet for bad luck, and the most improbable kind. Once, I remember, he was tasked with picking up tools from the storage room, and what do you think: an hour, two, he's gone, and in his place are only ruins. They somehow pried him out from under the rubble, and he says: apparently, he caught some beam with his foot, it hit another, and thus the whole building sank into the ground. Does such a thing even happen?
Teacher 🙏
An old blind hermit who lived on the mountaintop in his modest hut. Whoever you ask in Kridear, everyone will say they received a couple of valuable life or philosophical lessons from him. At the same time, I absolutely cannot remember what his voice sounded like, or if he ever left his own home.
Be that as it may, my brother Rub and I often ran to the teacher for new advice or another piece of wisdom. Perhaps in my youth I didn't quite correctly understand his lessons, but now I think that even the path up the mountain benefited me: if not for the fast legs and endurance gained from those walks, I would have found the earth long ago.
As the mentor's main lesson, I highlight the need to maintain a balance between theory and practice: an ascetic isolated from the world will never bring his philosophy to his own and others' souls, and a businessman deprived of wisdom will lead himself and those around him to ruin. Only by attaining spiritual harmony will you always know "what" and "how" should be done in any situation.
Ryuk 🎣
An acquaintance fisherman. Spent his whole life with a fishing rod in hand, trading family and the continuation of the surname for a good catch. This, you know, is a common problem for many anglers! He told strange stories about mermaids, water spirits, and golden phantom salmons, a dish from which allows one to study all weapon schools simultaneously. True or not, chatting with him was fun and had a positive effect on one's mental well-being.
Bred and brothers 🤡
Neighborhood kids — our sworn enemies and rivals. Every broken nose, black eye, split lip, knocked-out tooth — all the merit of cruel child-youth enmity in the imaginary village hierarchy. Well think, would they call a normal person "Bred"?.. Our parents, by the way, got along quite well. So I wouldn't be surprised at all if upon returning home, for example, I found the wedding of my youngest sister to Bred Junior.
Velniada Tanelgor 💍
A wanderer who arrived from afar to research abandoned Kridearian ruins. What was she trying to find there besides centuries-old dust? Hard to say definitively. In the village, she was considered an eccentric guest, but was never denied help or advice. Although here we had more of a cooperation: the researcher showed us new farming techniques and crops suitable for cultivation that even my ancestors didn't know about. "All republic technologies!" — she answered the obvious question with deepest respect.
Velniada was not of the sociable breed, and apart from my younger brother, hardly anyone interacted with her. He said that she missed her homeland, and therefore wished to complete her work here as soon as possible and return home. I don't know if she succeeded in her goal.
Zha 🍗
A woman with a kind heart, a broad soul, and similarly broad dimensions. She loved to cook and gladly treated every dear guest to her cooking. She had no relatives, and some tragedy had happened to her daughter, so we visited her from time to time to brighten her loneliness a bit.
Bor ✝
Tried to develop a new religious teaching. About the daughter of Anuzish and her fifteen disciple-apostles, who was then crucified on a cross by evil Arselians or something of that sort. After a visit from the local clergy, he renounced his ideas.
Tor 😎
A lumberjack, a friend of my father. Knew a thousand decent and twice as many indecent jokes. Sneezed very loudly.
Dijius Uxius 💰
Imperial appointee in our region. A small but very self-important cog. Paperwork drudgery, taxes-duties-income-expenses and other useless junk: all his department.
On the other hand, I don't want to speak ill: unlike other officials, he lived in the neighboring mountain settlement, often visited us, and took an interest in our affairs, and we experienced no problems with the center of the empire in those years.
Iko 😖
Another ascetic. Hit his head hard falling off a hill and since then dragged home everything that came across his hand. We had to make forced raids into his cluttered dwelling once a month: to rescue cutlery, matching shoes, buttons, and working tools.
Ve 🥳
A great admirer of Emperor Shinalun. Believed that to adopt the culture of the empire, we should start with its best traditions. Regarding this, she began organizing annual festivals in our village. True, instead of song and beauty contests, we had competitions of, how shall I put it, "local" flavor: philosophical debates, tug-of-war, log juggling, mountain jumping, who could eat and drink more than the other, along those lines.
Retiy 🤬
A former Margelian soldier who sought a sanctuary of spiritual peace among us. It seems he participated in wars with the undead or at least in border operations. Spoke very negatively of the empire, gods of land and sky, and the ruling dynasty. Was unsociable, drank a lot.
From him I learned basic skills with two-handers — I had to bribe the poor fellow with the only thing that could warm his heart. And capital curses, by necessity, as well.
Ot 👊
Founded his own school of martial arts on the other side of the mountain and taught for free everyone who wished to learn self-defense. He called his techniques the "style of the ascetic," but unfortunately, I do not know the details. Back then I was even younger and even stupider than I am now (is that possible???), and therefore naively believed that hands and feet could hardly be valuable weapons.[/spoiler]
Unwittingly carried away, the knight continued his tale with several more mentions of neighbors, ascetic buddies, foreigners, and other inhabitants of the perished homeland. With each new name, life flared brighter in his eyes. He was no longer really reading his own lines, but switched from the Margelian capital dialect to the forgotten native mountain tongue.
In this fleeting moment, standing in the middle of the room was not a hunched blue-souled dead man — but a young, stately highlander, full of life and confidence. It seemed that now neither Melesar, nor the lich-lord, nor one hundred and fifteen apostolic stones could do anything to his soul.
But that was only a minute of enlightenment, which dried up as quickly as the letters faded in the invisible lines of his consciousness. The lifeless curse plunged with a cold grip into the whirlpool of bright memory, indifferently tossing gray faces and names to the backwaters of the mind. The life-giving hearth extinguished in the knight's eyes, and he crashed from heaven to earth again with the force of a hopeless meteorite. The Kridearian's head dropped down, a lifeless gaze sliding over the silent listeners.
—Well, something like that... Thank you for listening.
Whatever
Ple-Sen
