There wasn't much to do in the following day. The truck was sent to camp with supplies and some rebels who had come to Kotun, and returned with different ones, rotating everyone's time in the village. Klahan was in charge of the camp while Sonam was away; it wasn't likely he would pay a visit. At the same time, Tshering and Hira stayed in the village, not yet ready to return to camp.
Since Andromeda belonged to the whole Ngawang clan, and the oath also entailed that she would be at their disposal, Sonam took her around the village to meet with many relatives. Hardly anyone spoke in the common language, although it was likely that they knew it well. Sonam explained the oath in Galahdian. He ended up getting into some heated conversations with a couple of relatives, which then prompted him to move on to the next one rather than get too red in the face.
When he ran out of relatives, Hira took Andromeda along to introduce her to some of her own. She had far fewer family members here than Sonam did; Andromeda had met many of them years ago in Insomnia. Like in Insomnia, she had difficulty keeping track of family members and their relationships to each other. Sonam and Hira both came from very big families, which interconnected between clans. If Andromeda thought about it long enough, she might have been able to figure out where Sonam and Hira's clans were loosely related. But it all gave her a headache.
She returned to Sonam's house by midafternoon. Sonam had shut himself in his office, presumably to read all of those newspapers. Narayan and Malai soon returned from school, and since Andromeda had been all over the world (mostly), she somehow ended up helping them with their homework.
"Can you speak Galahdian at all?" Narayan asked once his common-language homework was done. Malai had next to nothing for homework—she was only six.
"Just a few words," Andromeda replied. There was so much to learn.
He considered her answer, then went upstairs. She observed Malai coloring in a picture from class. After another moment, Narayan stomped down the stairs again.
"Can you read this?" He put a picture book on the kitchen table and pushed it towards Andromeda.
Malai reached for it. "That's mine! I'm telling Mom you went into my room!"
The woman glanced at the cover, noticing immediately that the writing was not the script used in the common language. She had only glimpsed these symbols on papers in Sonam's tent. They were printed much more neatly on the cover of the book.
She passed it over to Malai. "No."
Narayan ignored his little sister, gaping at Andromeda. "So you don't know how to read or speak at all?"
His astonishment was amusing to her. They had never met someone who didn't know at least some of their native language. They didn't know how lucky they were to have it, despite the Empire's desire to erase it. Andromeda hadn't been able to learn enough of her native language to remember it—she only knew the common one, the only one needed to get by in the bigger world. That these two very young children could speak both languages fluently was really impressive.
"I can read this," Malai said confidently, holding the book to herself.
"No you can't. You have Mom read it to you all the time," Narayan retorted.
"I can too!"
"Why don't you show me?" Andromeda intervened in their arguing before it could get too loud. She glanced at the office door. It remained shut, undisturbed by the outbursts.
Malai was only too pleased at the suggestion. She and Andromeda moved to sit together on the couch. Narayan rolled his eyes, going off to do something else instead of listening to his sister try to read. She struggled a bit with a couple of words; Andromeda guessed it was above her reading level. Yet because she had worked a lot with the book before, Malai was able to get through it, pointing out each word. She usually didn't remember to translate them, though.
Bulan returned halfway through the story. Malai beamed at trying to read on her own, and with an audience. Her mother left them to it, looking slightly amused. Malai seemed to have latched on to Andromeda.
Narayan was roped in to helping prepare dinner while Andromeda was so preoccupied. Thankfully, there were pictures to help make sense of the story. She felt guilty for not helping with dinner, but was assured that keeping a child occupied sometimes was just as important.
Once they sat down for dinner, though, Andromeda was no longer distracted from the Council meeting to be held in another hour. Sonam was also quiet, probably just as nervous, but it didn't affect his appetite. She didn't eat much.
She was also excused from helping to clean up; once Sonam was finished at the table, it was time to make their way to the meeting. Bulan wished them luck as they left.
The sun had already set. There were few lights in the village, but that had no effect on Sonam. They crossed the village, going to the largest house near the center. Several other people were approaching it as well. Sonam and Andromeda walked silently. She already knew all that she needed to about this, and had no more questions about it.
On the outside, it didn't look more than a gathering taking place. A few people stood near the front door, not yet ready to go inside. A couple of them were smoking, presumably because it wasn't allowed inside. Sonam stopped as he was greeted by them. He stayed for a couple of minutes to chat with them. There were comments made about the nice night, but the meeting appeared to be held indoors. Once the people directed him where exactly inside, he led Andromeda into the house.
They went into a room to the left. It turned out to be a dining room, with a very long table. Most of the chairs were already filled; those that weren't had someone standing behind them. Most of the village was crammed into the house. Many were in the dining room, but many more had spilled out into the adjoining room and hallway. Everyone seemed to be speaking Galahdian. The meeting had not yet started yet, so everyone talked freely.
"There's more people here than I expected." Andromeda mentioned once she and Sonam managed to wade into the dining room.
"Council meetings are open to all Galahdians twelve and up," He explained briefly. "It's a big deal in a village when the Elders hold Council. Not all of them could make it to this one."
She observed the locals gathered. She guessed anyone at the table were the Elders, and everyone else was from the village. Most were adults; she didn't see any teens in the crowd.
She glimpsed some familiar faces in the doorway to the next room. Hira and Tshering had managed to find a place to stand where they could roughly see what was going on in the dining room. There were a few others from camp as well, clogging up the doorway. Whenever anyone needed to pass, they reluctantly let them through, then huddled up again. The dining room was reserved for Elders, and those wishing to speak with them.
As they continued to wait, Sonam spoke with some people. Andromeda stood beside him, remaining silent. She had been told multiple times not to speak in front of the Elders. The Galahdian spoken was well beyond what she understood. She did her best to turn invisible.
The stragglers outside soon came in. A man standing near the table, but not at a chair, called for silence. The Elders who were not already sitting took their seats, filling every space except for the very end of the table, opposite of a very old man who had been sitting the whole time.
Sonam ushered Andromeda to a corner in the room, away from the table. The man, standing next to the head of the table, began to state the names of the Elders in attendance, and the clans they hailed from.
"They're not using Galahdian?" She noticed after a few people had been introduced.
"Sometimes Imperials impose themselves in these meetings. They banned our language. They don't like it when people speak another tongue," Sonam explained in a hushed tone.
It took some time for the man to announce the presence of every Elder. Then he went on to state the Elders that could not make it, and therefore the clans that were not represented at the meeting. Most were in attendance. Andromeda felt confused between names, faces, and clans.
Once the introductions were out of the way, the Elders apparently picked up on issues brought up in a previous meeting, discussing the progress made since then. It was much more mundane concerns, such as repairing damage made from the last typhoon, now that the season was nearing the end; then there were some clan disputes to settle; news or orders from the Imperial magistrate, which turned out to be trivial, irrelevant matters even to the Elders; reports of daemons and particularly dangerous animals; and the crop report.
As she listened, Andromeda realized that the meeting was much more relaxed than she anticipated. The Elders spoke plainly about matters. There were no formalities in their discussions. A woman sat in the corner, writing down everything that was said, or at least the important parts. At times, the Elders paused so she could catch up in her note-taking.
Eventually, the Elders ran out of previous topics to confer on, and opened the floor to the audience. Several of them looked directly at Sonam, having already spotted him in the room. They obviously expected something from him. By this point in the meeting, it had been agreed by everyone present that no Imperials had come.
Sonam led Andromeda to the vacant end of the table. Some Elders weren't happy to see him; some were, until they took notice of her behind him. Then they looked displeased.
"Any news?" One of the Elders asked.
"I'll just get right to it," Sonam started. "The rumors of a witch and the speculation that the Imperials were using a secret weapon were both true, and they were both the same person. The witch had been forced to work with the Imperial Army, but escaped and returned to Galahd to pay for her crimes."
"Just kill her," A thin, old man interjected. "You don't need the Council's permission to do that. You've never needed it before."
"She's too useful for that," Sonam stated. "If you've been reading the Lucian newspaper, then you've heard of the two attacks on Imperial military bases. That was my camp, with Andromeda's help." He looked to the doorway to the hallway, where two familiar faces watched the meeting: the teenage girl and her father from the day before. "He could attest to her healing magic."
"It's true," The father said. "She took the Scourge out of my daughter."
"Me too." The nervous man from the day before had not only made it to the meeting, but had managed to squeeze his way into the dining room.
"She saved my aunt right before she turned," Another man spoke up, although Andromeda couldn't see where he stood. He must have been the relative of the bedridden woman from the day before. He was over-exaggerating what had happened—his aunt still had had some time left.
Another man—not looking quite old enough to be an Elder—frowned as he sat back in his chair. "We need more than rumors to believe these claims."
"You had no problem believing in a witch that was destroying rebel camps last year," Sonam muttered. He shook his head. "Whether you believe it or not, I've made an oath with her: no Galahdian may harm her, and she may not harm any more Galahdians."
As predicted from conversations earlier in the day, there was some uproar at Sonam's announcement, from Elders and the audience alike. He simply waited, staring at the very old Elder at the head of the table. The Elder looked up at the man standing next to him and said something to him. The younger man straightened and yelled for silence again. Everyone unwillingly settled down.
A robust woman shook her head. "Why would you revive such an old tradition, just to perverse it with a foreigner?"
"It was the only way I could be certain her throat wouldn't be slit when I turned my back," Sonam answered.
"And how do you know she won't just stab you in the back?" The woman asked. "She's a foreigner—our ways mean nothing to her."
"First off, she's not just any foreigner. She's Tenebraen," He said. "Looks Lucian, but she definitely isn't Imperial. Her story is rather compelling. She was raised in Tenebrae's resistance, and nearly killed when the Empire attacked. She made her way to Lucis for a few years, then got picked up by Niflheim. We know how that went. She escaped and came back here to repent. A Lucian or an Imperial wouldn't know the things Andromeda has told me about Tenebrae. Hardly anyone knew about the rebellion there.
"Some of you may remember that some Tenebraens kept contact with us before either of us were attacked by the Empire. We were on opposite ends of the world, but we supported each other behind the backs of Lucis and Niflheim. Tenebrae's rebellion died with their queen. It's only right to take in the survivor who still wants to fight against the Empire, in honor of our fallen ally."
It had gotten very quiet as Sonam spoke. The hushed chatter among the locals gathered had stopped completely, hanging on his every word. Few Elders could maintain eye contact with him, preferring to glance at one another or down at the table. Andromeda also found the table much more interesting to look at, uncomfortable with hearing her story being told by someone else. His argument was still just a bit too dramatic, but it seemed to work on the older people.
"What are the conditions of payment for this oath?" An Elder asked.
"The debt will be paid when she has saved more Galahdian lives than she has taken," Sonam said. "I know the numbers."
The Elder, a wispy-sort of man, fixed his gaze on Andromeda. "You will never be free of him."
She kept from making eye contact with him, looking to Sonam. She had been told that she wasn't to speak no matter what. Nothing had been said about what to do if an Elder had spoken to her. Sonam likewise frowned at the comment, but said nothing.
"I have never known Sonam to be dishonest," The Elder at the head of the table spoke in a dry, shaky voice. He made the Emperor of Niflheim look young, yet he was not nearly as repulsive as the Imperial leader. "The plague is only getting worse in Galahd as the years go by—who are we to turn down a healer? She even comes from the land of healers. I knew of Sarita Jyoti's true illness. I visited her earlier in the day, and she is not sick anymore. Let's vote on whether Sonam can keep his oath with the foreigner, and the foreigner can thus stay in Galahd."
He raised his own hand first. A couple of others quickly followed him. A couple more followed them, after some consideration. Then still a couple more raised as they took more time to decide. A few Elders did not raise their hands, frowning at the turnout.
The note taker furiously scribbled down the results. "Twelve in favor, six not."
"The oath remains in tact and the foreigner stays," The decrepit Elder pronounced, looking slightly pleased.
Andromeda could feel the relief on Sonam, as well as her own. Had they voted against them, he would have had to forgo the oath. She wouldn't have been allowed to leave Galahd; if not Sonam himself, someone would have killed her.
"Thank you," He gave a slight bow to the Elders at the table, then withdrew back into the audience, taking Andromeda with him.
The Elders reopened the floor to the audience to bring issues to them, but no one did. Not after what had just transpired. It was possible that there was such a high turn-out because rumor had spread that Sonam was home, and he came with news of the resistance. There were no Imperial sympathizers in Galahd.
With nothing more to discuss, the Elders ended the meeting. The conversations immediately started up throughout the house. Sonam pushed his way to the other rebels waiting in the other room, avoiding all other conversations.
"Did that go exactly as planned?" Andromeda asked. She hadn't been sure what he had planned.
"Mostly," He grimaced. "We might have lost a few supporters, though. You should be able to make up for it."
Tshering was grinning. "See? Wasn't so bad at all."
"It hadn't been," She agreed. "All I did was stand there."
"We'll go to camp tomorrow and let them know the Elders' decision. That should take care of the last doubts," Sonam reasoned.
"When will we be leaving?" Hira asked.
"In a couple of more days," He answered, although he didn't give a reason for staying so long. The camp had already restocked. Andromeda suspected he just wanted some time at home.
They returned to camp first thing in the morning. Sonam announced the Elders' verdict to the camp, then went into more detail with Klahan. He also brought the newspapers to camp, placing them in his tent.
Stock was taken of the supplies they had accumulated, and what else they could possibly need. Sonam and Andromeda returned to the village with yet more rebels in need of a break from camp. The camp had far less news to share. Klahan and many others were getting restless to move on.
In the following day, he finally came to the village. With hardly anything needing to be done for the locals, Dechen, Tshering, and Hira all came up with something to show Andromeda. Klahan reluctantly followed along as they went off into the jungle.
They weren't scouting, or doing any sort of rebel business, even if Tshering occasionally stopped to pick at a plant. Dechen had said they were going somewhere fun, although Andromeda didn't exactly trust him. It hadn't helped that Hira had warned her not to wear or bring anything that shouldn't get wet—not that Andromeda was worried about anything getting ruined.
Soon they came to a cliff. There was nothing beyond it but the ocean and the sky. It was an impressive view. It also served as a reminder for just how tiny the islands were.
The others were not in awe of the view. They had been here before at least once.
"Ever swim in the ocean before?" Tshering asked, coming up from behind Andromeda.
"No." She shook her head.
He stopped for a moment. "You do know how to swim, right?"
"Of course I do, but how are we going to reach the water from up here?" It was only when she finished asking the question that she realized what they all had planned.
Hira crossed her arms, her feet set apart in a firm stance. "If you're going to be with us, you have to prove your mettle."
"I thought I already did," Andromeda muttered.
"Yeah, well, you haven't jumped off the cliff like the rest of us have," The other woman huffed. "It's something we've all done since we were teenagers, after we had our First Hunt."
"She doesn't know what that is," Klahan stated, still remaining serious. He still did not particularly like Andromeda, and she couldn't say differently of him. "She's not eligible for it, as a foreigner."
"You said they did it in Tenebrae, too, right?" Tshering looked to her for confirmation. She nodded. "Maybe the Elders will let her do it here, since she couldn't do it there. They already said she could stay for as long as Sonam keeps her under the oath."
The suggestion did not please Klahan anymore. Andromeda tried to keep from reacting. She knew Sonam had asked a lot of the Council already. As they had said, the oath was perverted by her foreignness. They probably would not allow her to partake in their rites of passage.
"Hunt or no hunt, you're jumping off the cliff." Hira concluded.
Removing her bag and kukri from her sides, Andromeda went over to the edge to look down. It was a sheer drop from the edge. The water lapped over some jagged rocks below.
"Aren't you guys worried about getting brained?" She asked, pointing down.
"Only if the wind blows against the cliff," Dechen shrugged.
Klahan removed his shirt and shoes. He suddenly ran towards the edge. Andromeda scrambled aside just before he made it and jumped off. He moved into a good diving form, arms outstretched over his head and his legs held together and also stretched out. He had practice with this.
"It's surprising to see Klahan enjoy anything," Tshering commented.
The splash wasn't very big or loud from where they all stood on top of the cliff. It was another moment before Klahan's head and shoulders surfaced from the water. He looked up at the cliff, then swam off to the left. Andromeda followed his path and noted a small beach on the shore. It didn't look to be that far away, despite the huge difference in elevation.
"Your turn," Dechen told her smugly.
Letting it go, she pulled her shoes off and tossed them at her bag. She backed up from the cliff, then ran as fast as she could. She almost didn't jump as she got to the edge, barely bracing her knees to do so and giving a half-earnest push with her feet. Though she tried to copy Klahan's taut form, she knew she didn't look as good. She took in as much air as she could hold.
She hit the water's surface hard, crashing through it. The sudden cold was piercing. She lost her grip on a lot of air from the shock, then fought to break over the surface again. She gasped, flailing her legs underneath to keep afloat. The cliff was an obvious land feature in front of her, but for a moment, she was confused on where to go.
Someone was yelling from on top of the cliff. She looked up, struggling to understand them over the waves. After a moment, she was pretty sure they were yelling about a shark.
Not knowing what to do about a shark, or how anyone on top of the cliff could see one from up there, Andromeda caught sight of the shore. Klahan had just made it and was waiting. She swam towards it.
There was a splash behind her. She stopped, looking back as another head broke the water's surface. Hira loudly cursed as she gasped for air, just as shocked by the cold as Andromeda had been. She spotted the other woman looking at her once she was over it, and swam to her.
"Shore's this way," She said gruffly, then kept swimming. "Dechen is an ass."
It felt like it was taking longer to get to shore than it really did. They hadn't jumped that far from land, but the beach was off a ways from where they started. Thankfully, the tide was in their favor.
The two wrung out their hair and clothes once their feet touch sand. Klahan, naturally, acted unbothered by the cold water or the fact that he was wet. The sun was intense enough in the afternoon to help them dry off. Salt water left a different feeling on the skin than fresh water did—it didn't feel as slimy as the pond water Andromeda had experience with.
"Does that beat chocobo riding?" Hira asked, grinning.
She had to smile back. "Not by a long shot."
The chocobo ranch was hundreds of miles away on the continent. Andromeda had told Hira about it. She remembered how she wanted to take her friend out riding chocobos one day, if they ever met again. She hadn't had much hope of it happening back then; now she had to wonder if they could find a couple of chocobos anywhere on the islands. There had to be some somewhere.