Book 3: Chapter 48: The Storm
If a man claims he does not fear crossing the Shallow River, he is either a liar or one of the people from the Sword Ridge mountains. At the heart of the ancient Empire, the Ridges stand tall, home to the Sara Sikuttu, the indomitable people of the curved blades, since time immemorial. Tough and proud, they are almost always short of stature and hold themselves closest to the gods because of their lofty mountain homes.
Among these mountain folk, men of fighting age are known as the Labirukai, or Unbroken in the common tongues, for their martial lineage stretches back to a time before the Cataclysm. For over three hundred years, the Unbroken have served in the Praetorian Guard of the Empire, fighting in nearly every major conflict since the reign of the early emperors. They have earned a reputation as the most reliable, disciplined, and fearless warriors in the known world.
The term Unbroken has since come to refer exclusively to the Sara Sikuttu who serve away from their mountain homes.
- The Fanciful Travels by Beron de Laney 376 AC.
For the better part of an hour, I sat on the bed in the dark room alone after my companions had left to rest, or perhaps in Elwin’s case, to have a drink before bed. A storm had come clad in the garment of night, a screaming portent perhaps, of things yet to come. Or that is how it felt, at least, as I put up with its clangor from the safety of solid walls.
Kidu had been, at first, surprisingly intractable. He did not, or was not willing to, understand that Cordelia was definitely not the best choice to meet the Necromancer. Elwin and I both tried to persuade him, and though he eventually relented, it was not without discord. I had to pull rank as the leader of the group.
The giant of a man would understand in time.
Throughout the debate, my new weapon lay on the bed like an open question. Elwin suggested that it might be a cursed artifact, but I assured him it was not. My Identify spell could easily determine if it was, as it had with the mask in the market, but I felt no urge to explain this to him.
He would just have to take my word for it for the moment.