The Cartographers' Society
This is the archive post for The Cartographers' Society, my 2009 NaNo story.
Status: 50,000 words reached, story still unfinished and likely to remain so in the foreseeable future.
Last updated 11/29/2009
Summary
Taken from her Soyen home by invading soldiers, Valio Hillevener grows up a ward of the Estrayti Empire, where she and thousands of other children like her are molded into proper Estrayti citizens. Estrat has its own problems, however, as enemies within and without the empire close in to take what Estrat has. Antan del Mikul, a former assassin turned Queen's Cabinet member, believes the answer to the empire's salvation lies in the mysterious ruins and artifacts left behind by a civilization far older than theirs. But he may soon learn to regret messing with things he doesn't understand, as not only Estrat, but the entire world, hurtles toward disaster.
50074 / 50000
(100.15%)
Character List
Soyen citizens
Valio Hillevener - Soyen-born woman who is kidnapped by Estrayti soldiers as a child and forced to become a citizen of Estrat.
Tabus - Valio's best friend, also kidnapped by Estrayti soldiers.
Berlo - Valio's cousin.
Fannith - Kidnapped Soyen child.
Torin Stonecutter - Valio's roommate at the reeducation facility.
Jevika Shalyanar - Valio's roommate at the reeducation facility, originally from Winchote.
Drusa - Valio's friend in the Security Council training program.
The Estrayti Royal Family
Orina an Aryl - The Queen of Estrat.
Cassilius an Aryl - Orina's brother, second in line to the throne.
Members of the Queen's Cabinet
Dorvas tel Danz - the Right Hand of the Cabinet.
Liud tel Orvak - the Cabinet Financier.
Audana tel Luce - the Domestic Advisor.
Leme jol Decel - the Chief General.
Lisi del Ausra - the Foreign Diplomacy Advisor.
Antan del Mikul - Head of the Security Council.
Antan's Spies and Other Security Council Personnel
Mathel lin Oka - Antan's former student, in charge of the "reeducation" campaign in Soyen.
Daro tel Ondrec - Junior agent of the Security Council.
Kennick - Junior member of the Security Council posing as an Estrayti soldier.
Isaro tan Delv - Valio's instructor at the reeducation facility.
Krisuna tan Ivo - Daro's supervisor in the Security Council training program.
Commander del Nikitinius - Daro's supervisor in the Security Council.
Kamit jel Irenkova - millwoman for the Machine House.
Ardan tan Senkus - Lead Cartographer at the Machine House.
Emilka tel Danz - Former infantry general, second-in-command at the Machine House, daughter of Dorvas tel Danz.
Millwoman tan Jeri - millwoman to the Security Council training program.
Nadeka jel Gaius - Daro's partner at the Machine House.
Official Soundtrack
Coming soon.
Timelines, Maps, Worlds, and Other Information
Places
Soyen
Illutu - largest city in Soyen.
Pannid - Valio and Tabus's home village.
Otho - capital city of Soyen.
Danslar - Torin's home village.
Hetch - Jevika's home village in Soyen.
Estrat
Korbanc - capital city of Estrat, seat of the government and the royal family.
28 Teode Street - address of the Machine House in Korbanc.
Calus - Estrayti province, center of civil unrest.
Elsewhere
Winchote - small nation on the southern coast of Anandyr, Jevika's original home.
Ethilikos - continent ruled by the Ethilikens.
Spirathua - capital city of Ethilikos.
Artesia - continent ruled by the Artesians.
Vymeth - island nation with strong alliances to Ethilikos and Artesia.
Excerpt
Valio pressed her back against the wall, the hard damp stones digging into her spine. For a long time all she could hear was the sound of her own ragged breath echoing off the enclosed space, and then, once she had gulped down enough air to satisfy her struggling lungs, she began to hear other things: the slow drip of water down the side of the wall, a cricket singing. She closed her eyes and listened harder, but nothing else came. Had they stopped chasing her?
The girl had no idea what she had done wrong, other than walking the roads alone at a later hour than she should have. That shouldn't have mattered, though, because the fighting and the enemy were both far away, as far away as Illutu. There shouldn't have been Estrayti brigands on the road near Valio's small village. There was nothing here they could possibly want.
But they had been there, three large men dressed in the characteristic moss-green coats, deadly sling-pistols hanging from their belts, clean-shaven faces and dark eyes scowling at her from underneath round military helmets. They hadn't even bothered to conceal themselves from the road, and Valio had frozen the moment she'd seen them, but by then it was too late. With shouts in their strange, slurred language Valio had heard of many times but had never heard spoken aloud until this night, they'd started moving toward her. Valio, once she'd realized that what she saw were not ghosts or her own weary eyes playing tricks on her, did the only thing she could: she ran. She was a twelve-year-old child, and not a match for three grown men who wanted to hurt her.
Her one advantage had been that she was intimately familiar with these fields, and she knew almost immediately that her best option was to find one of the hidden, stone-lined wells that were used as a water source for the crops. It was late Autumn and there had been a drought, so Valio knew that the wells would be dry. She could slip into one and hide until the soldiers went away.
Unfortunately, late Autumn also meant that the crops had been harvested, so there were few places to hide, and no way to disguise her trail across the open field. She ran anyway, shoving past the dessicated remains of stalks, hopping nimbly around rocks and holes in the dirt. At one point she heard a yell and something like a thud. She didn't dare look around, but she hoped it meant one of her pursuers had stepped into a hole and tripped. It served them right; they were strangers here, invaders. They had no business being anywhere near the village or the fields or anywhere else in Soyen. They deserved to be hurt.
At the very least, perhaps it would be enough to distract them so that they never saw Valio slip into the first well she found, its location marked by a flat stone that would mean nothing to someone not from the area. She kicked away the straw and dry grass covering the wooden top and reached down, her small fingers scrabbling for the handle. She moved the wooden cover away easily, as loose dirt slid off and through the bars of a thick metal grate, raining down into the silent, dark pit. This was the only thing that gave Valio a moment's pause; she didn't like the dark. But then she heard the unmistakable sounds of approaching footsteps, boots crushing dried stalks beneath their heels, and that was so much more immediate and frightening and real than any number of older terrors that without hesitation she reached down and undid the grating's latch. She had a vague sense then, a feeling that she might have realized better had she not been fighting for her life, that after this night nothing would ever be the same. Even if she did manage to escape the soldiers, she would never be afraid of the dark again.
Just the things lurking in the dark.
Latch undone, she grabbed one of the bars of the grating and yanked as hard as she could. The grating, not frequently opened because the space between the bars was wide enough for the troughs and pipes the field hands put through to pull up the water, slowly raised with a teeth-grinding squeal. Tears of effort and terror sprang to Valio's eyes. If the soldiers heard the sound they might know where she had gone. She lifted the grating as much as she dared and slithered in as fast as she could. Her feet swung wildly in the darkness of the deep pit beneath her until they found purchase on the handholds cut into the side of the stone. Once her head was clear of the opening she let go of the grating, which smashed back down with a clang that made her cringe. She shimmied quickly down the side of the well, dropping with a squelch to the muddy bottom and pressing herself against the stone wall, hoping the dark was enough to keep her from being seen if her pursuers passed by and happened to glance in.
A long time passed. It had been evening already when Valio was on the road, and now it was full night. It was getting more difficult to see her surroundings as more and more of the light went away. What she could see was a patch on the wall opposite her that looked darker than the rest. It wasn't wall at all, but an opening. The wells in these fields were connected to each other, and eventually the tunnels led to a nearby lake, which was the source of the water when it was high enough to flow into the wells. Valio stared at the tunnel, wondering how long she should stay down there, and if it would be better to follow the tunnel to another well and come up that one, just in case the men were still up top looking for her.
But she had no light source, not even a flint to make fire, assuming she would even be able to find something dry enough down here to burn. The tunnel was blacker than a moonless night, and Valio didn't know where that one led. There were some in the village who had the layout of the tunnels memorized, mainly the stone-sures whose job it was to come down every year and maintain the tunnels, but Valio wasn't even close to being one of those. Her mother was a record-keeper for the town hall, her father a field-hand, and Valio was hardly a farmer. She was only familiar with these fields from her days running around them with her best friend Tabus, pretending they were Soyen soldiers helping fight the encroaching hordes of the Estrayti, using sticks as their sling-pistols and dying loudly and dramatically whenever one of the enemy took them down.
Now, trapped deep in a well with nothing but the black gaping mouth of a strange tunnel in front of her and murderous men looking for her on the surface, Valio thought that game seemed very stupid.
She stepped toward the tunnel, stopping for a moment to glance upwards at the grate. Only a view of the starry night sky greeted her. She looked back at the tunnel and edged toward it, taking deep breaths in a vain attempt to calm the increasingly panicked beats of her heart. The tunnel was less frightening than the alternative, and now was not the time for childish fears. She slipped one foot inside the tunnel, watching with dread as the utter blackness inside swallowed up her leg until she looked like Old Uver, leader of the Farmer's Union, who had lost his leg in a war a long time ago. For a moment she thought she even felt like Uver, like her leg was gone, eaten by the darkness. Shivering violently with sudden fear and horror, she yanked her leg back from the tunnel and backed up against the opposite wall, hugging her arms tightly around her body. She hated the cowardice she felt, but she did not want to get into that tunnel.
But then, salvation came.
The night was dark enough that the figure didn't throw any kind of shadow on the ground to alert Valio to its presence, so she was unaware anyone was watching her until a familiar whisper came down from above. "Valio! Is that you?"
Relief poured over Valio like a refreshing Spring rain, and she looked up to see a silhouette crouched over the top entrance of the well. She couldn't make out features, but she knew that voice as well as her own. "Tabus! There are Estrayti soldiers out there!"
The figure shifted against the night sky, as if Tabus was looking around. "No," he eventually replied in a hurried whisper. "I don't see anyone."
"No one?" Valio said. Good, that meant they had given up.
"Not now," said Tabus, but he still sounded rushed and worried. "Come on, climb back up and let's go home before they come back."
Valio nodded even though she was sure Tabus couldn't see her in the dark, and began the climb out of the well. She emerged into the cool night air, taking a deep breath in relief. All was silent around her except for the usual singing of crickets and the faint breathing of her friend. Tabus clapped a hand on Valio's back, and suddenly Valio wondered what Tabus was doing out there at this time of the night. Her friend should have been safe in his house hours ago.
Before she could ask, a loud crack filled the air. She looked at Tabus in confusion, because maybe he had made the sound and that made no sense because Tabus understood the need to be quiet, but her friend only looked past her, his brown eyes wide with what she now saw was terror.
Valio tried to turn to see what it was Tabus was looking at, but she was suddenly having trouble lifting her head up, and the ground for some odd reason seemed to be getting closer and fuzzier at the same time, and those were both bigger mysteries than Tabus's expression
.
She barely felt it when her body hit the ground, because everything had gone numb.
Status: 50,000 words reached, story still unfinished and likely to remain so in the foreseeable future.
Last updated 11/29/2009
Summary
Taken from her Soyen home by invading soldiers, Valio Hillevener grows up a ward of the Estrayti Empire, where she and thousands of other children like her are molded into proper Estrayti citizens. Estrat has its own problems, however, as enemies within and without the empire close in to take what Estrat has. Antan del Mikul, a former assassin turned Queen's Cabinet member, believes the answer to the empire's salvation lies in the mysterious ruins and artifacts left behind by a civilization far older than theirs. But he may soon learn to regret messing with things he doesn't understand, as not only Estrat, but the entire world, hurtles toward disaster.
50074 / 50000
(100.15%)
Character List
Soyen citizens
Valio Hillevener - Soyen-born woman who is kidnapped by Estrayti soldiers as a child and forced to become a citizen of Estrat.
Tabus - Valio's best friend, also kidnapped by Estrayti soldiers.
Berlo - Valio's cousin.
Fannith - Kidnapped Soyen child.
Torin Stonecutter - Valio's roommate at the reeducation facility.
Jevika Shalyanar - Valio's roommate at the reeducation facility, originally from Winchote.
Drusa - Valio's friend in the Security Council training program.
The Estrayti Royal Family
Orina an Aryl - The Queen of Estrat.
Cassilius an Aryl - Orina's brother, second in line to the throne.
Members of the Queen's Cabinet
Dorvas tel Danz - the Right Hand of the Cabinet.
Liud tel Orvak - the Cabinet Financier.
Audana tel Luce - the Domestic Advisor.
Leme jol Decel - the Chief General.
Lisi del Ausra - the Foreign Diplomacy Advisor.
Antan del Mikul - Head of the Security Council.
Antan's Spies and Other Security Council Personnel
Mathel lin Oka - Antan's former student, in charge of the "reeducation" campaign in Soyen.
Daro tel Ondrec - Junior agent of the Security Council.
Kennick - Junior member of the Security Council posing as an Estrayti soldier.
Isaro tan Delv - Valio's instructor at the reeducation facility.
Krisuna tan Ivo - Daro's supervisor in the Security Council training program.
Commander del Nikitinius - Daro's supervisor in the Security Council.
Kamit jel Irenkova - millwoman for the Machine House.
Ardan tan Senkus - Lead Cartographer at the Machine House.
Emilka tel Danz - Former infantry general, second-in-command at the Machine House, daughter of Dorvas tel Danz.
Millwoman tan Jeri - millwoman to the Security Council training program.
Nadeka jel Gaius - Daro's partner at the Machine House.
Official Soundtrack
Coming soon.
Timelines, Maps, Worlds, and Other Information
Places
Soyen
Illutu - largest city in Soyen.
Pannid - Valio and Tabus's home village.
Otho - capital city of Soyen.
Danslar - Torin's home village.
Hetch - Jevika's home village in Soyen.
Estrat
Korbanc - capital city of Estrat, seat of the government and the royal family.
28 Teode Street - address of the Machine House in Korbanc.
Calus - Estrayti province, center of civil unrest.
Elsewhere
Winchote - small nation on the southern coast of Anandyr, Jevika's original home.
Ethilikos - continent ruled by the Ethilikens.
Spirathua - capital city of Ethilikos.
Artesia - continent ruled by the Artesians.
Vymeth - island nation with strong alliances to Ethilikos and Artesia.
Excerpt
Valio pressed her back against the wall, the hard damp stones digging into her spine. For a long time all she could hear was the sound of her own ragged breath echoing off the enclosed space, and then, once she had gulped down enough air to satisfy her struggling lungs, she began to hear other things: the slow drip of water down the side of the wall, a cricket singing. She closed her eyes and listened harder, but nothing else came. Had they stopped chasing her?
The girl had no idea what she had done wrong, other than walking the roads alone at a later hour than she should have. That shouldn't have mattered, though, because the fighting and the enemy were both far away, as far away as Illutu. There shouldn't have been Estrayti brigands on the road near Valio's small village. There was nothing here they could possibly want.
But they had been there, three large men dressed in the characteristic moss-green coats, deadly sling-pistols hanging from their belts, clean-shaven faces and dark eyes scowling at her from underneath round military helmets. They hadn't even bothered to conceal themselves from the road, and Valio had frozen the moment she'd seen them, but by then it was too late. With shouts in their strange, slurred language Valio had heard of many times but had never heard spoken aloud until this night, they'd started moving toward her. Valio, once she'd realized that what she saw were not ghosts or her own weary eyes playing tricks on her, did the only thing she could: she ran. She was a twelve-year-old child, and not a match for three grown men who wanted to hurt her.
Her one advantage had been that she was intimately familiar with these fields, and she knew almost immediately that her best option was to find one of the hidden, stone-lined wells that were used as a water source for the crops. It was late Autumn and there had been a drought, so Valio knew that the wells would be dry. She could slip into one and hide until the soldiers went away.
Unfortunately, late Autumn also meant that the crops had been harvested, so there were few places to hide, and no way to disguise her trail across the open field. She ran anyway, shoving past the dessicated remains of stalks, hopping nimbly around rocks and holes in the dirt. At one point she heard a yell and something like a thud. She didn't dare look around, but she hoped it meant one of her pursuers had stepped into a hole and tripped. It served them right; they were strangers here, invaders. They had no business being anywhere near the village or the fields or anywhere else in Soyen. They deserved to be hurt.
At the very least, perhaps it would be enough to distract them so that they never saw Valio slip into the first well she found, its location marked by a flat stone that would mean nothing to someone not from the area. She kicked away the straw and dry grass covering the wooden top and reached down, her small fingers scrabbling for the handle. She moved the wooden cover away easily, as loose dirt slid off and through the bars of a thick metal grate, raining down into the silent, dark pit. This was the only thing that gave Valio a moment's pause; she didn't like the dark. But then she heard the unmistakable sounds of approaching footsteps, boots crushing dried stalks beneath their heels, and that was so much more immediate and frightening and real than any number of older terrors that without hesitation she reached down and undid the grating's latch. She had a vague sense then, a feeling that she might have realized better had she not been fighting for her life, that after this night nothing would ever be the same. Even if she did manage to escape the soldiers, she would never be afraid of the dark again.
Just the things lurking in the dark.
Latch undone, she grabbed one of the bars of the grating and yanked as hard as she could. The grating, not frequently opened because the space between the bars was wide enough for the troughs and pipes the field hands put through to pull up the water, slowly raised with a teeth-grinding squeal. Tears of effort and terror sprang to Valio's eyes. If the soldiers heard the sound they might know where she had gone. She lifted the grating as much as she dared and slithered in as fast as she could. Her feet swung wildly in the darkness of the deep pit beneath her until they found purchase on the handholds cut into the side of the stone. Once her head was clear of the opening she let go of the grating, which smashed back down with a clang that made her cringe. She shimmied quickly down the side of the well, dropping with a squelch to the muddy bottom and pressing herself against the stone wall, hoping the dark was enough to keep her from being seen if her pursuers passed by and happened to glance in.
A long time passed. It had been evening already when Valio was on the road, and now it was full night. It was getting more difficult to see her surroundings as more and more of the light went away. What she could see was a patch on the wall opposite her that looked darker than the rest. It wasn't wall at all, but an opening. The wells in these fields were connected to each other, and eventually the tunnels led to a nearby lake, which was the source of the water when it was high enough to flow into the wells. Valio stared at the tunnel, wondering how long she should stay down there, and if it would be better to follow the tunnel to another well and come up that one, just in case the men were still up top looking for her.
But she had no light source, not even a flint to make fire, assuming she would even be able to find something dry enough down here to burn. The tunnel was blacker than a moonless night, and Valio didn't know where that one led. There were some in the village who had the layout of the tunnels memorized, mainly the stone-sures whose job it was to come down every year and maintain the tunnels, but Valio wasn't even close to being one of those. Her mother was a record-keeper for the town hall, her father a field-hand, and Valio was hardly a farmer. She was only familiar with these fields from her days running around them with her best friend Tabus, pretending they were Soyen soldiers helping fight the encroaching hordes of the Estrayti, using sticks as their sling-pistols and dying loudly and dramatically whenever one of the enemy took them down.
Now, trapped deep in a well with nothing but the black gaping mouth of a strange tunnel in front of her and murderous men looking for her on the surface, Valio thought that game seemed very stupid.
She stepped toward the tunnel, stopping for a moment to glance upwards at the grate. Only a view of the starry night sky greeted her. She looked back at the tunnel and edged toward it, taking deep breaths in a vain attempt to calm the increasingly panicked beats of her heart. The tunnel was less frightening than the alternative, and now was not the time for childish fears. She slipped one foot inside the tunnel, watching with dread as the utter blackness inside swallowed up her leg until she looked like Old Uver, leader of the Farmer's Union, who had lost his leg in a war a long time ago. For a moment she thought she even felt like Uver, like her leg was gone, eaten by the darkness. Shivering violently with sudden fear and horror, she yanked her leg back from the tunnel and backed up against the opposite wall, hugging her arms tightly around her body. She hated the cowardice she felt, but she did not want to get into that tunnel.
But then, salvation came.
The night was dark enough that the figure didn't throw any kind of shadow on the ground to alert Valio to its presence, so she was unaware anyone was watching her until a familiar whisper came down from above. "Valio! Is that you?"
Relief poured over Valio like a refreshing Spring rain, and she looked up to see a silhouette crouched over the top entrance of the well. She couldn't make out features, but she knew that voice as well as her own. "Tabus! There are Estrayti soldiers out there!"
The figure shifted against the night sky, as if Tabus was looking around. "No," he eventually replied in a hurried whisper. "I don't see anyone."
"No one?" Valio said. Good, that meant they had given up.
"Not now," said Tabus, but he still sounded rushed and worried. "Come on, climb back up and let's go home before they come back."
Valio nodded even though she was sure Tabus couldn't see her in the dark, and began the climb out of the well. She emerged into the cool night air, taking a deep breath in relief. All was silent around her except for the usual singing of crickets and the faint breathing of her friend. Tabus clapped a hand on Valio's back, and suddenly Valio wondered what Tabus was doing out there at this time of the night. Her friend should have been safe in his house hours ago.
Before she could ask, a loud crack filled the air. She looked at Tabus in confusion, because maybe he had made the sound and that made no sense because Tabus understood the need to be quiet, but her friend only looked past her, his brown eyes wide with what she now saw was terror.
Valio tried to turn to see what it was Tabus was looking at, but she was suddenly having trouble lifting her head up, and the ground for some odd reason seemed to be getting closer and fuzzier at the same time, and those were both bigger mysteries than Tabus's expression
.
She barely felt it when her body hit the ground, because everything had gone numb.