The Widow
Rya Mire
Race:
Gem
Age:
18
Element(s):
Earth
Height:
5’6”
Bio:
Within Gemenia, there are small pockets of Gem's who have rejected the view of their kin. Living life their own way, in accordance with their own histories, laws and religious practices Or rather la k of them Depending on who you asked, the people from Rya’s village believed that the Goddess Vivari had turned her back on the Gem's because of how they sacrificed their daughters for protection —abandoning them they way parents abandon their daughters. There were others that argue Vivari had never existed at all. Regardless, the belief is the same. There are no gods. Not any more anyway.
Which lead to the belief that life was placed in the hands of those who lived it. It was extended to the belief that is was the Gems' responsibility to understand the world and, eventually, build it into a vision of their own creation. But first they had to understand it. They believed that knowing how everything connected would reveal the map of life and give its seekers understanding of everything.
Or at least, that is what they tell people. In reality, it was more of a lot of chasing animals through swamps and poking flowers with sticks. And of course, writing their findings down. Most Gems are unaware of this subset of the abandon gods, as they were so few in number that the few who knew of them believed them to simply be that 'odd family' over there.
That didn't exclude them from paying the toll to the Drakken.
Their small community was often overlooked, even by people in their own society. But every once and a while, they were called to pay their dues. Every time a daughter was taken, they would call it the disappearance and try to forget. The girl was never mentioned again and she was erased. Most weren’t even allowed to mourn. It was considered the ‘kinder’ way-to forget and accept things that cannot be changed and spend time focusing on things that can.
The reaping itself was something that was only mentioned to the girls. And only by their mothers. And only on their fifteenth birthday. A secret left to fester for a decade, after that point the daughter would be free. Keeping the secrets for her own daughters’ fifteenth birthday. They were told a beautiful story of silent sacrifice. How their hurt would help keep the vision alive. A whispered opportunity to map the unknown area of the world.
Rya wasn't the first in living memory to disappear. Eight years earlier, an unknown pretty cousin simply wasn't around one morning. She was never brought up in conversation and all prying questions from curious children were hushed away. She was forgotten. All that Rya could recall, was the feeling that her cousins absence brought.
A vague sadness.
And a sense of relief.
Relief brought forth because,while there was no exact science to how brides where selected, it was simply unlikely that a family and community as small as theirs would lose another daughter for many years to come.
So, life went on. Rya and her brother and sister grew up, learning to live from the swamp near their house. Learning to hide in its depths when the Reapers drew near. Rya learned to garden with her mother, working to domesticate the wild swamp plants for medicinal and recreational usages, like her family had been doing for many years. She also spent much time in the depths of the swamp. Rya’s father seemed convinced that, somewhere in their swamps murky depths, among the caiman, bugs and trees, there was the secret to all their problems.
Plants that could stop a womb from quickening and plants that would cause visions to appear for hours at a time. Plants for healing and hurting and something in between. Like her mother and father, she thought she’d have the rest of her life to explore its wonders.
But sometimes children have to find out that parents can be wrong. That they can lie. That Rya and her sister Ayr were not guaranteed the right to grow old in their swamp just because their cousin had been lost. That telling children to hide wasn’t just a fun game or a way to stay out from underfoot. Especially when the Reapers seemed to know what they were looking for.
Rya’s own exit was slightly more dramatic than her cousins. The Reapers appeared, like monsters from a nightmare. Monsters who, with a point of their finger pulled her from the swamp, still covered in slime. Monsters who allowed her to return home to pack a trunk. She didn’t take much, just clothing, her journal of discoveries, stuff to remind her of home. And a small bag of seeds. To “Take a piece of home to wherever that may be”. Rya can’t remember what she had said, but what ever it was, it was the wrong thing to say. Probably “I love you” or “It’ll be okay” But once the shock was over and the anger set it, she knew what it should have been.
What it should have been was
“Don’t let me disappear”
That was last year.
She could have never foreseen the events that unfolded.
She was more or less resigned to her fate by the time the choosing ceremony had ended. She went with her husband back to his keep. Kept sweet and docile and wasn’t nearly as unhappy as she thought she’d be.
She was her husband's first wife. He wasn’t anyone of importance. The facts that he got a wife at all was some what remarkable. His property was small, little more than a hovel really. Far away from most other forms of civilization. He wasn’t a hermit, per say, but he liked his space. Living with her had been as much of an adjustment for him as for her.
Was she happy? No, but she had created a life for herself. Her husband and her had come to an arrangement. There was no love between them, but they made it work. She was allowed to wander the forests and the terrain. Make her notes. Spend her days as she pleased. So long as she always came running when he called.
It was lonely. While Rya didn’t know a huge number of people back home, she was always with someone. Usually her brother and sometimes her sister.
Her husband was content to go on extended hunting missions with his ‘friends’. A lot of them choosing to remember what life was like before the Gems by purposely chucking themselves in front of every dangerous creature they could. And she would be left by herself. Initially tied up for days at a time, but he eventually found it easier to trust that she wouldn’t run. And if she did, she wouldn’t get very far.
Once a week they would dine together on a meal made by Rya’s hands. Most other nights, they were content to keep to themselves. It was one such night that she discovered that her understanding of Gem flora wouldn’t always be helpful in this harsh and cold lands.
It was a stupid mushroom. One that she had used in a thousand different dishes back home. But the dark lands here had twisted it and made it lethal.
Her husband died, choked on his own blood. She nearly did. Why she stayed alive and he didn’t, she will never know.
She hadn’t planned to get freedom this way, or at all. The idea overwhelmed her. A different Gem might have used this opportunity to run. But Rya knew the dangers that lurked in the forests. She knew that venturing too far from the hovel would be a death sentence for herself.
So she simply stayed put. Perhaps the Drakken would be understanding if she explained herself.. It was clearly an accident and not some act of rebellion. But no one ever came. No one even noticed.
Rya had spent weeks practicing her begging for forgiveness speech. Jumping at every sound thinking it was the Drakkan coming to kill her for insighting a rebellion. But nobody came. It fact, her husband had been dead for six months before she saw another person, Drakkan or Gem.
His name was Az.
A Drakkan unlike any she’d ever met before. Or perhaps it was only because she was half mad by the time she met him. Possibly both.
The first time she saw him, she assumed he wasn’t real. For she had been alone for for long that it was easy for her to forget that other people existed in the world. A part of her wanted to hide, to stay away from this creature. But another part of her, the part feeding the madness, refused to be alone any longer.
Az wasn’t exactly accepting of the crazy Gem. He didn’t need a bride and he wasn’t about to be stuck with one. But no matter how hard he tried to push her away, the stupid girl kept coming back. Eventually pity took over and he agreed to at least drag her back to civilization. Back to the gathering.
Other
The effect of the poisoning has left Rya with a vague tremble that will become apparent when she gets tired.
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