The land of Eldonia is a curious mix of the traditional and fantastic. Eons-old customs and mores clashing with those of strangers who stumbled upon these shores nearly five centuries ago. The actions of those three sea-faring men cemented the fates of a people whose lives were oh-so ordered and peaceful, and one region's path which was not supposed to be. This is what Wallace, the British airman who, whilst in combat with a German flying ace then blown far off-course, thus crash-landing in the middle of the Nemirian mountains, meant by, "Koror was not supposed to exist."
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"He heard that from so many of my people. The same story handed down from time immemorial. It is a secret that I'm supposed to carry to my grave. Such was the case for my father and his father before him, and all my ancestors before them. Centuries of keeping secrets...I know in my heart this will ultimately destroy my people, forever sealing Vlaric's hold over Benut, ushering in another eon of oppression and persecution. My conscience says to turn away from all this, but if I do it...Drat this!"
In the Kororian city of Lemrac, in a laboratory hidden deep within an intricate labyrinth of underground tunnels, Thais, a brilliant mineralogist and Benutian by birth, painstakingly split the precious crystal.
Its name was phérium, a rare mineral of properties so awesome, so unstable, that very few people could handle it without causing a major conflagration. It was that potent, and deadly. Actually, the mineral, a devastatingly beautiful and amazingly clear deep blue crystal, was renown throughout Benut for its ability to impart magical powers to its wearer. Phérium was used, long ago when Benut was still an independent republic, long before those three strangers washed ashore, for ceremonial purposes, in rituals honoring the queen-goddess Amarah.
However, due to the mineral's unstable and potentially destructive nature, the Benutians discontinued its use in favor of the more stable and safer horosh. This substitute crystal, which was of the same clear deep blue, did not impart magical powers but had the ability to help its user to experience a spiritual high far greater than phérium. There were a few old timers who still used phérium but sparingly as the mineral's instability was a constant hazard.
When those three European men began to explore what would be their new home, they happened upon a group of Benutian elders practicing ages-old rituals. What manner of gem produces those powers of such wonder and awe? Of course, the Benutians, ever the hospitable people, welcomed the newcomers, even showed these men their ways. When Thomas, Yves, and Quentin beheld the mystic phérium, they asked of its properties. The ever curious Thomas wrote in his journal every detail of this mineral, its properties, how it is properly used, and how it could be used. He made sure to stress the latter – that phérium could be used as a base for weapons or, perhaps, a source of power, literally.
Thomas' notes would not surface again until near the close of his life, just before his son Percival inherited the throne. The dying father directed the son's attention to the magical Benutian mineral, and the promise to the Kororian queen Ziwan. Mining phérium, thus gaining a telling foothold over Benut via Koror, would seal forever the future of Eldonia.
Thomas, upon hearing of Ziwan's request to align Koror with Chalou, thus gaining more power over the Benutians, granted the queen's wish to possess phérium. "It will give us the ability to use magic. We are not born with such powers, and the Benutians for too long have held sway over us all. I say put them to work. Make them mine their own crystal for our use alone. Why should they hoard it all for themselves? You want Benut to crumble, so let us possess the awesome power of phérium, and you and your future descendants shall never know defeat..."
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"They never knew defeat all right," Thais angrily muttered to herself as she deftly spilt a newly mined crystal. Her tawny face and brown eyes shielded by specially designed headgear and goggles, her lithe frame fully encased in fireproof attire, Thais reached inside the protective chamber with her heavily gloved hands. Even with the heavy protective clothing on her body, the chamber was necessary as one false move could cause the delicate phérium to explode into a major conflagration. Never handle phérium with bare hands, Thais remembered from her training, lest even the smallest vibrations could set off a chain reaction explosion. This, of course, never happened in the olden times when Benutians used the stuff. However, every Benutian knew the mineral's instability and handled it with care. The Kororians and that stupid power-hungry trio of shipwrecked strangers could only see phérium for its magical properties, how it could impart power to those who don't know any better, how its misuse can enslave future generations and bring a once-flourishing, ages-old republic to its knees.
Tears trickled from Thais' eyes. She had to keep her head together when handling the brilliantly clear blue crystal. How she hated this job, a career that was not of her choosing. She hated the fact that her work was to help destroy her people, not help them. But it was the way it had been for generations, when Thais' forebears, the finest mineralogists in all Benut, were forced to produce phérium amulets for the Kororians, for what is really their only source to magical powers. Thais knew this: Kororians have no powers unless they wear the phérium amulets. This was common knowledge throughout the regions Benut and Nemir, but no one ever talked about, at least not in public and definitely not within earshot of an Eldonian government official.
There was one thing everyone knew that those Eldonians in power (and, more importantly, the Kororians) did not: Phérium had a weak spot. That is it could be neutralized with a mineral compound found only in Nemir. This compound, niuvite, is nearly identical to phérium in color and weight. To the untrained eye, niuvite could be mistaken for the real thing. However, niuvite, when worn or carried by its owner, instantly sends forth invisible energy beams, neutralizing phérium and its destructive properties on the spot. There are no magical powers to gain and no harm comes its user. Niuvite, aside from its noxious effect on the more powerful and unstable phérium, is, to the unaware, just another pretty semi-precious stone – and a dead-ringer for phérium at least in appearance.
Thais, still clad in protective garments, still maneuvering in the safety chamber, carefully placed the phérium crystal into a fireproof, corrosive-proof container. There was more work to finish up, but Thais wanted to call it a day. She put in the required ten hours but there was something else she had to do. Leaving the crystal within its protective box inside the chamber, Thais doffed her lab garb, revealing the petite and pretty tawny haired, brown-eyed lady. Clad in dark colors (She couldn't wear the more colorful dress of her people by order of her employer), Thais at first thought of going home to change. She had wanted to travel to Tyq for Day of the Landing festivities but nixed those plans at the last minute. Who wants to attend a party that celebrates three strangers who stumbled upon this once peaceful nation only to usurp land, power, and wealth at the expense of those who lived here for generations. Besides, Thais had to wait for Odessa, her lab partner who had to pack up those finished phérium crystals for transport to Tyq.
Thais almost didn't hear Odessa enter the lab; she was that much lost in thought. Actually, she became quite apprehensive of her and Odessa's true plan for this weapon. Both sensible women and deeply devoted to their people's desire to be rid of Vlaric's cruel machinations thus restoring Benut to its previous and prosperous republican, egalitarian state, Odessa and Thais hatched a plot that would hasten the downfall of Vlaric and his Kororian minions.
"Thais," said Odessa in an almost hushed whisper, "this place is like a tomb. I do believe we're the only ones here."
Thais smiled at her friend and colleague. She'd always loved Odessa as a sister and admired the woman for her learned mind and incomparable beauty. Odessa, a tall, willowy espresso-hued lady in her early forties, was a descendant of an escaped Florida slave who, back in the early 1830's, stowed away on a ship bound for Massachusetts.
"The story of his escape had been passed down from him to his sons and then to their children. From them to my grandmother, then to my father then to me," Odessa often related when asked how her family came to Eldonia. "His name was Cuffee, and he lived in Pensacola, owned by a wealthy merchant. The story goes that Cuffee attempted to escape at least three times before but always was recaptured by slave patrols – 'pattyrollers' as he called them. And always, upon being returned to his master, Cuffee endured cruel punishment, most often brutal lashings or other excruciating torture. The fourth time, he vowed he wouldn't be caught. So, in the dead of night he stowed away on a steamship bound for a place called Boston in the American state of Massachusetts. It was a merchant vessel, carrying cotton, sugar, and other crops to be sold up north. He knew the voyage would be lengthy and the chances of getting caught were great, but it was a risk he had to take."
The ship, according to Cuffee's handed down recount, left Pensacola then made stops at Tampa, Miami, and Savannah before heading north to Boston. This was in September, during a particularly oppressive heat wave. Cuffee endured the journey around the Florida peninsula, taking care not to be discovered. He hid in the hold, subsisting on dried meats and hardtack he smuggled from his master's food stores. However, something happened. With no way of forecasting violent storms, the ship's crew was simply caught off guard and overwhelmed by gale force winds and torrential rains. Cuffee, safe within his hideaway, felt the ship rock and roll; he heard the howling of wind and felt water rushing in. He had been through this type of storm before, what the old Carib Indians called a "hurakan" – a hurricane.
"Cuffee, according to the story," said Odessa, "had no choice. He had to get out of that hold lest he drown. When he got up on deck, he saw the men tossed overboard like rag dolls. So many had gone over. The surge was just to great for that ship to bear. Miraculously, when Cuffee appeared on deck, no one noticed anything out of the ordinary. They just assumed he was just another Black deckhand. There were several on board..."
With the most of the crew gone, Cuffee took it upon himself to guide the ship through the storm. He had no idea the ship's location, and he assumed it had been blown off course. Armed with a working knowledge of how to steer a ship, Cuffee grabbed the wheel, only to be shoved aside by a hotheaded man who in turn took over the wheel.
"According to the story, Cuffee then tried to reason with man but decided to save himself. He felt freedom within his grasp, and even in the face of imminent disaster, there were those who'd always deny that independence."
Odessa went on to relate how that man who shoved Cuffee aside found himself swept overboard by a powerful storm surge. The entire ship was soon overtaken, foundering in a raging sea. Cuffee, now in the deep himself, managed to stay afloat by grabbing a stray barrel. Fully aware he could either drown or become shark food, he soon passed out from exhaustion. Whatever happened to him, at least he would, in his mind, die a free man.
It would be days before someone would come to his rescue, and Cuffee's benefactor would be none other than Wydia, the grandmother of Mitra, guardian of Cape Amorra.
Odessa laughed as she further related, "He thought he had died and gone to Hell. To see this half woman, half tentacled creature who saved him from a watery grave was just too much to handle. He had to ask, 'Where am I?', and Wydia simply told him."
To this, Thais joined her friend in good humor, saying, "I'm sure, like most who came to this country from the outside world, he had a hard time adjusting."
"As he did," replied Odessa. "But remember, he was escaping a life of bondage only to find himself in an even more oppressive place. Once settled and adjusted to life in Eldonia, Cuffee managed to establish a trade as shipbuilder, and married a woman who arrived in Benut under similar circumstances. She was an escaped slave, too, from a place called Louisiana, or so the legend goes. How I often wonder what they actually thought of this place. Quentin III was on the Eldonian throne at the time, and things were just as bad as they are now."
Which brought the two women back to their present task. Taking advantage of the many absences, Thais and Odessa carefully loaded freshly created niuvite crystals into specially reinforced crates and labelled each crate "CAUTION! HANDLE WITH CARE."
"Do you think," asked Thais, "they will get wise to us. I mean, so far, we've managed to get away with pulling the switch. Somebody is bound to realize these crystals are not phérium, that is once the things don't do what they're supposed to do–"
Odessa interrupted, "But don't you see? They're expecting a shipment of phérium-rich warheads to use on their missiles. Let them think just that! When they launch their weapon – and I know the heart of Benut is their target..."
"But what of the guiding device?"
"Not worries there as well," said Odessa with a reassuring grin. "My friend, Jarvis, has that baby all reprogrammed. It is en route to Tyq as we speak. By this time next week, our resistance fighters will be swarming all over Tyq, and Koror will be in flames. There will be nothing, not this time, to stop us."
Now Thais grew worried. What if King Vlaric, or Koror's Governor Sadius' spies stumble upon the renewed resistance movement and its latest attempt to overthrow the government? Such endeavors had been squelched before, often with disastrous results, more often with many rebels killed in the most torturous ways. The current Benutian resistance efforts had just been organized only a few weeks ago, and the only scheme hatched was to switch phérium for niuvite. No one had yet to discover the deception. However, this time, there was a glimmer of hope for the rebels. Thais, being part of the resistance, heard the rumors about the stranger washed up on the beach near Brightbridge. That woman, Danielle could be The One, the direct descendant of Amarah. It was Odessa who conveyed that information to Thais, mentioning something about a doll Khalina took to show Governor Chenek, a doll fashioned by a Benutian woman's own hand nearly thirty years ago. How did that doll end up in Danielle's possession?
"How ever that happened is a mystery," said Thais, as she deftly nailed the crates shut. "I'm not one to believe in rumors, but this Danielle is intriguing in the extreme."
Odessa nodded, saying, "She is in Tyq now, with Khalina and Sivin. Surely Chenek detected something within her. My only hope is that all the fervent prayers to our goddess will soon be answered. Here, let us get this stuff ready. That awful Balin will be here to clear us before we can leave. Actually, I think, and the thought just came to me, we should take a trip to Cape Amorra. Something tells me Mitra can shed some light on Danielle."
Copyright©2006 by P.R. Parker. All rights reserved.
