The Warrior
There are two dividing paths, my young pupil: "A path of a man, woven out of our own wishes ... and a path of wisdom, stringed together by truths out of the all-embracing beyond. However one cannot truly exist without the presence of another."
"Forgive me Master, but I'm not sure I understand. All scrolls say that one must discard himself to achieve true fulfillment. That a warrior's path must be pledged only to honor and self-sacrifice."
"Your memory serves you well my young pupil, but listen. If one is forced to discard himself to achieve this fulfillment, then all happiness and love on this world should eventually be replaced by a unanimous mind of cold steel and impenetrable honor. Now tell me my pupil, is such a world truly worth fighting for?"
The awkward silence that followed was broken only by peaceful sounds of shishi, constructed by village children on a nearby fountain.
It was not the first time Yi became entangled in his thoughts in loss of ideas that would lead to his salvation. His master always liked to talk about those simple yet complicated things such as life, death, destiny and love, and he would always make sure to entrap his helpless and inexperienced pupil in an unsolvable maze. For as far as he could remember Yi never solved any, and sometimes that made him quite flustered, even impatient.
Master brought a final sip of tea to his dry old lips, then finally allowed himself to notice Yi's inner turmoil.
"Patience, patience, my dear Yi. You are young and cannot yet grasp everything this foolish old man tells you in his tea time ramblings." He then made another quick sip from his coup as to emphasize the statement: "Besides, even a Wuyu master such as myself cannot state with whole certainty that all I'm saying is indeed the truth."
Master then proceeded to put down now empty coup and looked directly into Yi's confused eyes under slightly furrowed eyebrows. In that light of noon, master's expression became somewhat distant, almost sarcastic as he said: "Fear not men who think they know too little, fear those who think they know too much … And now you are excused. Let this old man have another go with tea while you proceed with your chores … And don't go telling others about our discussions," he hunched a little towards his pupil in what looked like a mischievous act of woman gossiping: "Those scrolls you mentioned were written for a reason. Different scrolls for different people and for each of them a different path. Now go and think about all what was said!"
Walking away from such conversations was often felt as quite ominous to Wuyu apprentice Yi as he could feel all those inquisitive gazes from village folks drilling at his back in hopes of recovering bits and drops of mysteries they have discussed in private. However they all respected old Master. Even proud warriors and Elders from near and far would not rebuke him, and when he chose a mere son of a fisherman for his pupil, they wholeheartedly acknowledged his choice without further prodding.
Yi's home was located at the far eastern side of Shon-Dong, where open sea got caught between sharp cliffs of Narlin and Galrin, bringing plenty within its raging gray waves to all skilled enough to climb and navigate its treacherous domain. On those stony shores between Narlin and Ionia, Yi's people have carried on the ways of fishermen and Wuyu since time immemorial.
He now strolled along the main road that connected Master's gardens to the rest of their settlement comprised of reed covered wooden cottages and few tall houses inhabited by lesser nobility. There wasn't much else in these parts of Shon-Dong and news from Placidium would rarely reach this far if not for the traders and occasional warriors eager to learn the ways of Wuyu. The latter were never truly accepted by his master and even when he consented, he only agreed to teach them the ways of his blade. Of those other secrets hidden beneath all those scrolls about forms and philosophy he would not discuss with anyone but Yi, and even then the old Master would only talk in twisted tales and riddles.
Some whispered that he was once wooed by the Institute of War to join their Council of Equity as a summoner. Some even hinted that he was once an Ionian Emissary and that he left the Institute after some series of misfortunate events that happened in the League's more turbulent past. Still others said he's been here all from the beginning, living as a hermit on the desolate cliffs of Narlin where he perfected his style of Wuyu and achieved the ultimate form of warrior's enlightenment.
Yi arrived at the dock along with the first golden rays of setting sun. Days were growing short and feeble and snow will soon cover his village with its thin white blanket. His father Bilgiru, a peaceful looking grey man with a straw hat and an unkempt short beard, was waiting at the great jagged stone that supported their wooden crane for lowering small and nimble fishing boats into the sea below foreboding cliffs.
"Early," he nodded in approval: "What news from our Master?"
"More riddles about paths. I don't understand anything he says."
"When I was your age, I could barely separate a grouper from a carp," he smiled: "Only with age and experience can we understand certain things like your paths and my groupers … And don't get me wrong, they are quite complicated fish!"
Both laughed. Yes, groupers were indeed both strong and gluttonous fish that made for the most exciting prey of spear fishermen who sought new challenges venturing deep down into the realm of their prey. First time Yi attempted such a feat, he almost died, but now, he and his father reigned as supreme masters in all disciplines of sea foraging.
Father then explained: "Today we go into the open for squids. They have flocked down into the Neck in pursuit of their prey. I can feel it in my guts."
"So we'll take the larger boat?"
"We'll have to. It's troublesome but we'll have the Galrin lighthouse and clear night skies to orient ourselves."
These squids that sometimes gathered between Galrin and Narlin were as big as a child, some even as big as a grown man. Their white flesh and jet black ink were considered a true delicacy in many a province, even in the Placidium. They served the flesh both dried or fried, chopped on cooked grains or filled with them, and ink made for a great noodle sauce. However they were elusive, so a decent catch of such rarity could fetch you as much as a bag of healing potions on a right market.
A large splash announced that they successfully lowered their ship into the water, so they secured the crane and went to a narrow staircase chiseled into the cliff. Methodically, gripping damp ropes that lined the staircase, they slowly descended to a small rocky platform spanning above spraying waves and used another set of ropes to finally step onto the deck.
Their family's ship Hlin was a traditional boat used off Ionian eastern coast. Unlike the usual Ionian junks, Hlin had a slim shallow hull with both stern and bow looking pretty much alike, exception being a chiseled head of a dragon turtle on the end of the latter. Its shape allowed fishermen to navigate both Narlin's foamy strait and northern shallows with relative ease, and still it had enough room for provisions that could take a party of strong men all the way to the mouth of Serpentine River.
"You two weren't gonna sail without us were you?!" a rough friendly voice echoed from above as more people started to descend onboard. It belonged to a tall broad man of cheerful grin and big grey mustaches.
"Oh, brother, you're finally here!" shouted Yi's father, busy with nets and spears at the stern.
After Yi's uncle came his two sons, Asrak and Arvin, both strong and rowdy as their father. Asrak was three years older than both Yi and his younger brother and was renowned for his sword and bow techniques.
After their family came their neighbor Sielgi with his three sons, all of them great fishermen with spear and rod even thou they were one of wealthier families around. They provided means of storage, trade and transportation, but as their family head said, it was better to supervise the catch in person. This way they could never lie about nor the origin nor the freshness of their market stock, thus upholding true standards of Ionian society.
All of them took places behind oars awaiting Yi's father to release them from the crane. Finally he took his place at the rudder and shouted departure.
The evening waters were filled with serenity and evening tide slowly carried them out into the open vastness that was the Guardian's sea. By then it was already dark. Only the stars lighted their path with dim shine of glittering silver gnawing at mysterious darkness that lay beneath their oars. Listening to rhythmic sounds of water beating on the sides of their wooden boat, an unused man could imagine anything.
Yi grew up fearing all the stories about leviathans, sea serpents, krakens, merpeople and fabled dragon turtles that supposedly prowled these bottomless depths. His uncle and father were living libraries of such ghost stories and they enjoyed nothing more than to preach how lowly and insignificant human lives truly were compared to strange nightmares beneath the waves. Here, at the very end of Valoran, people still held things like Nashor in higher regards than Elders of Ionina or even summoners of the Institute.
"Have I ever told you kids how me and my brother once caught a sea yordle," Yi's uncle broke the silence.
Yi looked at father for signs that this was yet another of their long tales, but he only nodded in support of his brother's claims.
"It was a night just like this one, with an empty moon and clear seas. We were trying to catch some squids just like we are trying it now. It was only me and my brother, two fools in a boat way too big for us kids to handle on their own. But we managed somehow to ride the tide all the way to the Neck and further. Before we knew it, both Galrin and Narlin were only small black rocks dotted with lights from hearth fires. Once on the open seas, we started throwing hooks and for a lot of time nothing happened. Just when we were about to somehow paddle ourselves back to shore, something big grabbed my hook and we started pulling like madmen. The damn thing was strong as a shark but at the end we managed to pull it on board. But even before we pulled it out something felt weird. Fish and squids usually pull in all directions, but this one … it just pulled down, like it was toying with us, testing our strength. Now once on board, we immediately jumped away and grabbed our spears because the thing that was standing before us was grinning into our faces with wide sets of jagged teeth and glistering fishy eyes. It was some kind of perverted mix of yordle and octopus and deep knows what else."
He paused for a little, gazing over the deck like it was happening right before his eyes.
"And to make matters worse, it brought company. Soon there were five of them crawling on board, carrying spears and daggers all made from bone and some strange metal. Me and my brother were ready to die back then, thinking those sea things would drag us down to our watery death, but they just watched, watched and grinned. I guess we looked kina funny, scared as we were … They never said a word, those things. Only as they jumped back into their home the last one turned and pointed towards the islands wriggling its slimy arms in the shape of our prey. We were kind of reluctant to follow its advice but once we got to the Neck and threw our hooks, we caught more squids than ever before … And that is a story of how we found their feeding grounds."
"A sea yordle? Aren't the land ones quite enough," mused their wealthy neighbor.
"Who knows," shrugged Yi's uncle: "Maybe they have their own Bandle City down there. Besides, I heard that fishermen from the Flats saw them too, skipping in muddy pools like gobies. And Northerners say they see them sometimes, playing on icebergs in cold night of winter."
Finally father lighted their oil lantern which immediately threw forth strange shadows across the boat and dark waters around them. They stood up and were beginning to prepare for the ordeal when something bumped into the wood at the stern. It paused, yet still it returned, rooting them in place amidst preparations.
Both fear and excitement were clenching Yi's heart. What kinds of things were making such loud and hollow sounds in the middle of the open seas? Was it a branch broken from some tree and taken by the tide? Or was it some kind of mystical creature from their stories?
Finally, his uncle decided to end their silent vigil. In one careful step he came to the lantern and lifted it high, illuminating their surroundings as far as his height permitted.
Yi has never forgotten what he saw that day. It was the beginning of their nightmare. A sea filled with broken junks and corpses.