Fiiris bint Kessrin

[Yavamaya]

[What follows is written in the tight, Midani script. Almost certainly in Fiiris' own hand. As cold and calculated as her speech. As always, the perspective is of an outsider looking in. Even when describing herself.]

Fiiris. A name chosen by her mother and honored by her father.
Bint Kessrin. Daughter of a broken family. N'asr takes who he will, despite At'ar's objections. In moments of weakness, her father had spoken of her mother's beauty. He never begrudged N'asr his covetousness.

It would be unwise, if he had.

The Bedine have a relationship with death, N'asr, that is unfamiliar to the ulugarr. It is a practical thing, oft wrought and rarely lingered upon. Too much effort is needed for worries of survival, and cannot be wasted in fearing N'asr. If one cannot travel, one is killed. If one risks the tribe, one is killed. If one's life serves no purpose, one is killed. It is as putting down a goat who is lame, diseased, or elderly. Necessary and dispassionate, even though you have unwisely named the goat and grown attached. The Bedine also work this death between tribes. War is a constant reality, and insults are remembered. If one dies before they can repay grievances they have caused, then it may be for their son or brother to step forward and accept death. If death is not accepted, then there is war.

Even among the Bedine - few accept death for themselves. And so war is the way of things.

Fiiris was a goat- and camel-herd. She came to know death earlier than many Bedine, practicing it upon her herds as needed. She also learned that N'asr, while covetous and final, can be appeased through nurture. N'asr had a soft spot for those who he might take, but would fight back. He would let them live. So, Fiiris learned of the many medicines and wisdoms provided by the oases of the Sword and Saiyaddar in order to stay N'asr's greed.

The Sword and the Saiyaddar teach all Bedine of At'ar. She is the sun that blazes upon their necks. More ancient than the Southern Lathander. Unforgiving. Unbending. Beautiful. At'ar will be respected, or she will strike one down with stroke. She will be honored, or she will lead you to false waters. Among the gods of the Bedine, there is but one who can soothe At'ar. Kozah tries to love her, and N'asr constantly steals her affections away. Only Eldath is free of her whims. She of the Oases.

It is in her study of the medicines of the Oases that Fiiris came to know Eldath. And she grew alongside Eldath in age, beauty, and wisdom. This also came with the blessings of Eldath.

The Bedine rarely tolerate witch craft. Their lives are free of magic, and their legends riddled with Jann, sorcerer-tyrants, and all-knowing shadows. Magic earns one death. Sometimes, wisdom spoken by a respected faris, sitt, or qadi will deem minor works to be the blessings of the gods, and they will be forgiven and known. Though they are only accepted by faith in such a speaker.

Fiiris's husband was qadi - a judge among the Bedine. He spoke for her, and she for Eldath. The tribe prospered, as warrior and faris alike remained war-ready under her ministrations, alongside goat and camel. Fiiris' power in Eldath grew as her understandings of the uses of the many poisons and plants of the desert did. The tolerance of her tribe did not.

Fiiris' husband died in his fifth decade. A venerable age among those who walk with N'asr.

His word died with him. And so, nearly, did Fiiris.

 

[Yavamaya]

Fiiris had been wounded in body and spirit before fleeing south through alien terrain - Titanic redwoods rising to meet Kozah's own peaks, crested and ridden down into Cormyr. Physical misery was of no consequence to Fiiris, as ritual and herb wrought her body back into a healthful shape, leaving only lingering aches that would plague her for her remaining years.

A body may be well-healed by time and idleness. However these things may rend upon wounds of the spirit.

There was no need for an oasis in this land of plenty, for the victuals needed to tend her wounds were abundant. There was no space in her spirit for peace. In this land of flowing rivers and mirrored lakes, Eldath was blind and dead to the plight of her faithful. Fiiris knew this for what it was - she had turned away with the rest of her tribe. Eldath had remained behind when 'healer' was instead deemed 'witch'.

It was no place for peace.

It was in this half-decade that Fiiris learned the first of her true Maiden's precepts: Let pain be as pleasure. She did not yet know Talona's name, but she came to know this thing all the same. How pain can drive one to success. That it can be the impetus to discover what combination of stria and color on a fungus might lend one to forgetfulness. Or which toads might paralyze spasming muscles and leaves one's mind to roam free.

It was not so different from the Bedine drive for survival at all cost. It was familiar.

Though Eldath had abandoned her, Fiiris' magic never had. In her lucid hours, she would wonder at this. In her enlightened states, she would instead marvel at them and come to understand. She would come to know her Maiden's next precept: that subtle acts may beget spectacular results. That small poisonings might free a mind or release a muscle. That a finely-measured dose can in equal measure ease pain, or release a soul to N'asr.

It was in the following half-decade that her mother's wasting would make itself known. A dire inheritance which would attack her breath, and drive her to Arabel in search of answers.

 

[Yavamaya]

It is difficult to overstate the importance of oases to the spiritualism of the Bedine. Within, no blood may be shed. An ultimate sacrifice for a people eternally warring amongst themselves. This is not to say that oases are a place of safety. Instead of the passive threat posed by Kozeh, At'ar, Beshaba, and N'asr there are much more active dangers. Lions, snakes, crocodiles, wild dogs, fetid waters, poisonous plants, scorpions, and occasionally trespassers.

Fiiris believed on some level that she had been robbed of her spiritualism by her loss of the oases. In lands so lush with herb, berry, fish, and game there was no need of such things. A land of plenty was a land of ingratitude.

Among the Bedine, the only sin greater than excess is to hoard one's excess. This forest kingdom was excessive, but she has come to know it as generous as well.

It was not until she reached Arabel in her quest for medicines that she understood the land, however. These cities, with grand walls and towers, appeared as Dao sorcery to Fiiris. Within, she found something akin to her oases. The antithesis to what she had come to know as Eldath. The spot behind one's closed eyelids after staring too long at the holy grounds.

By now, she had come to know Talona, and the unadulterated hope that Her Wisdom had brought. She had come to know that because of her new devotion, she would remain without tribe. No Circle of her Oath would keep her, fearing for their glades and wards. No township would accept more than what she could offer in one night, and then only so long as she passed through quickly.

It had become familiar to Fiiris. It had become comfortable to her. She understood, and she did not blame them.

All of this is to emphasize that Fiiris had found her own glade in this city. One where she could be comfortably singular and work towards her ends. What the oases of her once-home were to the Sands, Arabel was to the forests and swamps. Overgrowth and abundance to such an extreme that the surrounding lands may as well have been barren desert. Within the packed quarters of this city, she could thrive. She could work her ritual and study her disease, while suffering only that ache of lonesomeness that she understood. It was here that she came to love the libraries and tomes afforded to such settlements - nearly non-existent among her own people. Any topic that could be thought upon could be studied.

Here, in Arabel, she finally came to understand her relationship with Talona. Here, the only risk of famine was caused by the sins of hoarders. The primary diseases caused by the sins of excessives.

A Balance was to be struck. One that spoke to both the Talontar and the Bedine.

And all the while, she could study the mechanisms causing her to waste away.