Empires Always Fall Chapter Twenty-seven: Daanah: Debut
content notices: family, discussion of ableism, wealth inequality
The first stop on their tour was Sautgurotays, a city in the east of Ðíúharlaeslai near the Naskan border with a huge Norvic Senki population, where Miwaanii-Shémelús lived. Today, halfway through the fourth cycle of the year and exactly opposite to Manir's, was Alteyr's feast day. Everything had been chosen very deliberately to make the best impression possible to start off their mission.
With big stone starhouses all around, Daanah felt right at home. This was a Norve city all right. Not Dalahe like she was but definitely, firmly Norve.
The crowd went wild when Kéchawaedrii-Orl introduced her as Alteyr's Favoured. Excited to see her. Kéchawaedrii-Orl's team must have done well with advertising before their arrival.
She said a few words, what she and Kéchawaedrii-Orl and Miwaanii-Shémelús had written together as something impactful but simple for her first appearance. (She'd been right about Miwaanii-Shémelús scribing for Kéchawaedrii-Orl.)
Everybody cheered, and exhilaration burned through her exhaustion and anxiety.
"You did great," Miwaanii-Shémelús said. "I'm going to go home for a bit and visit my family- do you want to come? I can introduce you, and I'm sure they'd love to meet you."
"Okay," Daanah said. She wasn't great at unstructured social interaction, but Miwaanii-Shémelús would facilitate it, and she didn't want to let him down. Besides, it would be nice to get away from Kéchawaedrii-Orl's scrutiny for a while.
They took a bright orange bus down the hill and out past the old city wall, Daanah holding tight to Reil's leash in the hustle and bustle of the city.
"We live in a building out here," Miwaanii-Shémelús said, his golden-brown face flushed dark pink. "It's… it's nothing fancy, and when people talk about the bad part of town this is one of the places they mean, but it's my home." He sounded defensive.
"Of course," Daanah said. "Don't worry about that with me, I'm not rich like Kéchawaedrii-Orl."
"You are compared to me," Miwaanii- Shémelús said quietly, red-glass-shaded eyes downcast. "Come on. Don't let on that it's all real gold in your hair."
Daanah tried to stop preening. She'd never had a lot of real gold jewellery before and wasn't good at wearing it casually.
"Aren't you worried about your bag?" Daanah was pretty much certain several of the pieces of jewelry and clothing he'd had Kéchawaedrii-Orl purchase were in there, probably to sell at some point.
Miwaanii-Shémelús visibly tensed. "I don't know what you mean."
Daanah mimed zipping her lips. "I won't tell hir."
They walked in silence down the narrow streets for a few more minutes.
"Here we are." Miwaanii-Shémelús pushed open the door to a very tall star-shaped building. "We're on the tenth floor. Just follow me."
Miwaanii-Shémelús navigated the building much more confidently than anywhere else Daanah had seen him, hardly touching his long cane to the ground.
"I like the walls," Daanah said. Norve mosaics were famous across the empire, and there were some on the walls of the foyer.
"Thanks. I can't see them."
"Right."
"It's fine," said Miwaanii-Shémelús. "I hear the colours are nice, and people have told me what they look like. They're just grey blurs to me, though."
They took the elevator up to the tenth floor. Miwaanii-Shémelús was friendly with each neighbour they encountered.
"Here." They stepped out into a room much like the common part of Daanah's own home, then Miwaanii-Shémelús unlocked the second door on the left. "It's the middle of the day, so most of them will be at work, but my brother Naakiiwé will be here and my little sister Aischa should be home from school soon."
"How many siblings do you have?" asked Daanah.
"Four. Well…" Miwaanii-Shémelús sighed. "Five, but that's complicated."
"I have a half-brother," Daanah said as she followed him across the threshold. "I'm adopted, but my bio mother had a kid before me; he lives with his dad- I never knew my bio dad and I don't really care, but that's why we don't live together. He's family but… it's complicated too."
"Yeah," said Miwaanii-Shémelús. "It's not… quite like that, but I'll explain it all another time. Right now- meet my brother Naakiiwé!"
A stout young man in a heavy-duty power wheelchair turned towards them. "Nii-Shé! And you've brought home… another Divine Scribe?"
Daanah felt a flash of self-consciousness about the extra eyes that floated around her skin, but it was followed by a flash of pride. They were weird, but they were marks of her divinity.
"This is Daanah," Miwaanii-Shémelús said. "She's the Scribe of the South and the Balance says she's Alteyr's Favoured."
"Oh, the one you've been travelling with," Naakiiwé said. He gave her a lopsided smile. "Pleased to meet you, Favoured One. I'd take your hand and greet you properly, except I can't, so, sorry."
"Don't worry about that," said Daanah, unconsciously mirroring his smile. "It's nice to meet you too."
Miwaanii-Shémelús abruptly grabbed her hand. "Daanah, I need to speak with you for a minute." Without waiting for a response, he pulled her back into the common room.
"What?" she asked, confused and startled.
"Stop mocking his voice."
"What?" Daanah wasn't mocking anyone's voice.
"You were imitating his voice. You were doing it with my accent too, earlier, and I didn't say anything, but I won't tolerate you mocking my brother. It's not his fault he was in an accident."
"Sorry," Daanah said, beginning to realize what had happened. "I mimic voices by accident sometimes. My mama calls it 'parrot ear' because it's like I'm a parrot after I hear someone talk. I didn't mean to do it." She hadn't even noticed that she was mimicking Naakiiwé's slurring or Miwaanii-Shémelús's Se-Naskan lilt. "I'll try to be more conscious of it. I'm sorry if I caused any harm."
Miwaanii-Shémelús deflated. "I'm glad you weren't doing it on purpose or to make fun of us. People just…" He gestured vaguely. "Naakiiwé's paralysis. My low vision. My sister Raenaa's amputation and hearing loss. All the mental stuff my whole family has going on. You know."
"My mum and sister are both DeafBlind," said Daanah. "Neither of them are or ever will be eligible for military service, and people can tell their disabilities almost right away, and they aren't always… they don't act like they would with abled people and sometimes they're not nice. They get weird really fast about us Touch-Talking. Me with Reil-" her service dog still sat on the other side of the threshold, looking alert but confused- "people can see it, but often they think at first that she's just a pet, and if they're close enough to tell otherwise they're close enough to see my divinity, so I'm shielded from it a bit. Still get it sometimes, though. It sucks."
"It sucks," Miwaanii-Shémelús agreed. "Being Se-Naskan in a city full of Norves makes it worse, because we're already outsiders."
"Can we go back in?" Daanah said. "It seems probably rude to just abandon your brother right after we met?"
"Yeah. Come on."
Miwaanii-Shémelús's family was very welcoming. Aischa, the youngest at eleven, arrived soon after they did, and exclaimed "I saw her!" when Miwaanii-Shémelús introduced her to Daanah.
Miwaanii-Shémelús said something disapproving in Kelétsowif, which Daanah understood a bit of from Talí's family but not enough to keep up. Something about school.
Aischa crossed her arms defensively and fired something back about Rāmiloq and a teacher.
Miwaanii-Shémelús said something about Ðiisiun-Awiir, and Naakiiwé intervened with a phrase Daanah was pretty sure meant something like "It didn't work."
Aischa's lip wobbled, and Miwaanii-Shémelús put an arm around her.
She leaned in briefly, then shrugged him off and turned a bright smile on Daanah. "I love your hair."
"Thanks," said Daanah. "Me too."
After some time, a small grey cat emerged from behind one of the curtains and investigated her. She gave him some scratches behind the ears and earned a small meep and a loud purr in return.
Eventually, Ðiisiun-Awiir and then Raenaa got home, and then just when Daanah was feeling like she'd stayed way too long, Miwaanii-Shémelús's mother arrived.
They all treated her hospitably, and seemed happy to meet her, but it was definitely time for her to give Miwaanii-Shémelús space to just be with his family.
"Can you find your way back on your own?" he asked.
"Yeah," said Daanah, even though she wasn't sure. It would be fine as long as she made it to the bus stop they'd gotten off at, because the number 78 bus had taken them most of the way here, so she just had to get on the 78 going the other way.
"See you in the morning," she said. "I'll make sure Kéchawaedrii-Orl knows you're staying here for the night."
Miwaanii-Shémelús nodded. "Thanks. You're Alteyr's Favoured, so don't be shy about telling hir off if ze gets mad at you about it."
"Do you think ze will?" Daanah had yet to see Kéchawaedrii-Orl mad, and deeply did not want to be the target of any anger or disappointment from hir.
"Just in case," said Miwaanii-Shémelús. "Don't worry about it too much."
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