Excerpt from Ilouay, a novel in progress

© 2002 Jessica Lily Schweber

 

Part 1. The Calling

Chapter 1. Ilouay

 

On a small moon orbiting the Fifth Planet of the Celari sun lay a land where dreams were woven and melded as easily as wool or iron. The moon was so small and lay so close to the Fifth Planet it was almost enveloped inside of its atmosphere. Ilouay was a moon alike no other; river and mountain were one, and sky and storm went hand in hand, and craft and life were indistinguishably intertwined. There was a vast system of extinct volcanoes forming lush, mountainous islands surrounded by a latticework of unending rivers, waterfalls, streams, and canals. Some of the mountains had been worn down so that the soft coastal slopes could be populated with villages and ports, but the steeper land was mostly left to the more wild creatures of the land. Where crumbled rock and soil fell, new land was created and sometimes expanded the tiny islands. Over the years, so many mountains had risen and fallen that they sometimes looked undistinguishable from one another.

What the people of Ilouay loved most was the absence of a wide, stretching ocean taking up more room than it should. So many mountains towered out of the sea on Ilouay that the ocean no longer existed. It was much better this way, as the rivers provided perfect highways for the transport of each island’s particular export. When the waterways were clear of traffic, one could gaze beneath them and watch as the land rose and fell underneath the water, creating beautiful patterns and shapes. You could trace a waterfall back to its source only to find that it came from another part of the mountain that wasn’t really much higher than the waterfall itself. The water worked in strange ways on Ilouay, and some people secretly devoted their lives to discovering how and why.

Lush forests covered the endless hills, grasslands stretched out across the level areas of land, and sometimes snow topped the highest mountains, but rarely. Oftentimes the busy rushing of the river slowed when the water hit a patch of soft soil near the coast and swirled itself into calm, tranquil coves that became sanctuaries for small fishes and swimmers. Once it reached the hard rock of the volcano, the water continued to lap at the base of island, creeping across the land to create even more deltas, canals, and tributaries. Coves could sometimes grow to be big as the towns built around them, and it seemed as though the town were always being expanded into the island’s interior. The land was constantly changing, sometimes so quickly you could watch it.

Ilouay’s sky was always covered with layers upon layers of moisture-laden clouds and banks of fog. Thunderstorms were a daily occurrence, as several times a day the clouds would saturate with the river water and unleash an inevitable but welcomed downpour upon the islands. The people of the land were accustomed to this kind of living and had even begun to notice that their skin was more resistant to water than the Fifth Planeters’.

Trade routes, large sailing barges, and bridges connected the small towns, since not every island had everything that was needed to support an entire community of people. The fertility and diversity of the land and weather provided the perfect environment for harvesting, mining, and raising every raw material available. The sheep ranches on Jakara provided wool and milk, the lumberjacks on Talia shipped out a seemingly inexhaustible supply of logs, and fish never disappeared from the waters surrounding the small village on Iska. Everything was shipped to the storage facilities and loading decks in the city of Trinos on Ilouay’s largest island, Intana. The Fifth Planet and its other six moons relied on Ilouay to provide every raw material for their production facilities, as there was no suitable land on the moon for factories. Trinos was the only location suitable enough to land the cargo shuttles sent from the Fifth Planet and the other moons, and it was the most bustling, diverse, and complex city in the Celari system. It was the point of convergence for the traders from every moon and planet and was always filled with excitement. Here they came to exchange for the resources that their worlds had begun to use up and drop off finished products like clothing and tools. It was a symbiotic system that relied almost exclusively on trade, and everyone got what they needed.

Though all of the people on the moons and Fifth Planet thought of Ilouay as an exploited little moon being stripped of absolutely everything it had to offer, they did very much appreciate the goods that were exported from Ilouay. Most of them would be devastated if they suddenly had no misi seeds to clean out their stomachs after a meal. What indigestion they would have from the food they eat!

The settlements first created on each island all began from small family businesses making use of the land around them. As time passed, more people began notice what materials the other islands had to offer, and they began to settle in other places to provide some variety in their lives. One of the most important islands was Tenai, which mined the purest iron ore in all of Ilouay. There were three towns on Tenai: Polis, Lanida, and Bakaar. Mina and her family lived in Bakaar on the first inlet. It was the largest city and had been run by people in her family for as long as people had been on Ilouay. Mineral deposits were buried deep beneath the island and the three towns were evenly distributed in order to extract as much ore as they could.

Misi seeds, along with the ore, fruit, wool, and countless other materials, were something the surrounding moons and planet would be lost without. These were resources that, on their worlds, were difficult and costly to collect, so they made sure to make fair trades with the tiny moon. Mina and her family worked hard to make sure her neighbors would never go without their resources. They lived in a small, yet upscale house right in the middle of town. It was the largest in the area, reserved for the Director of Operations of the city’s mines, who also happened to be Mina’s father. Both the house and her father’s position were something of which her family was very proud. Though Ilouay was not a very advanced world, small things were still treasured and honored.

After work, Mina would routinely go for a hike up to a plateau intersected by a small waterfall called Serenity Falls. From there she could see the entire archipelago surrounding Tenai. There was a large river to the East, across which lay the newly developed fishing village on Iska. The clouds overlapped each other as Celari lowered in the sky, illuminating them with a brilliance rivaled only by the gemstones of Dentari. A jump from the plateau down the waterfall would land her in a deep, clear pool of glassy green. The water was so cleansing and pure after bubbling up from the springs within Mount Iapaucus, the second highest mountain of Tenai, and was rumored to contain minerals with calming and healing properties. Mina was there for the sounds more than anything. By the time the water reached the plateau, it rushed down at incredible speeds and crashed onto the rocks below, liberating tiny bits of mist and a steady, beating pattern of sound. The excess winds of a passing storm rustled the forests surrounding her, and tiny rodents scampered over the leaves and twigs of the underbrush.

 Mina sat at the edge of the plateau with her knees folded up to her chin as she soaked in the moisture saturating the air around her. Warm breezes and the smells from a thousand sweet flowers swam up her nose until she felt intoxicated. Opening her eyes, Mina pondered the great questions of her life. She would always wonder if there could ever be anything more than this endless pattern of working, eating, and sleeping, but never growing. She playfully entertained the possibility that she had the same kinds of magical abilities as told in the ancient myths of the old times, but then had the fleeting thought that it could actually be true. She oftentimes found herself wishing for things to be and suddenly finding them happen, but always wrote it off to coincidence.

Though she had heard rumors that the myths of the magic-makers were actually true and that even today they still existed in secret, they were impossible to find. For now, the serenity of the plateau was the only thing that could support her thoughts of fantastical mind expansion and distract her from the monotony down below. A lizard scuttled into the warmth of the decomposing leaves at her feet as she prepared for one of the only things she could call her own.

She dipped her toes into the river just to check the temperature and found that it was perfect, brisk but soothing. Slowly standing up, Mina pulled the straps of her dress down so that it fell at her feet. Soaking it in the river first so that it wouldn’t fly away, she threw her dress into the pool. Taking in a deep breath, she jumped and flew for what seemed like forever before landing gracefully in the pool. She turned around and swam on her back, slowly cutting through the clear water and thick air. Sometimes it was hard to tell which was which. She lay there floating until Celari began to disappear into the unending mass of clouds, for she was watching the sky darken in the Fifth Planet’s sunset as well that of Ilouay.

 “Mina! Mina!” cried a soft voice from beyond the trees. Mina let out a soft sigh, knowing that her mother had sent Asteria to fetch her and bring her back home for the evening meal. Mina swam to the edge of the pool and retrieved her dress, which was lapping softly against the bank. She stood up along the shore of the pool and felt her toes in the soft, wet soil. Her long legs stretched up like trees and her hair clung in one long mass on her back. She wrung the auburn, sun-kissed hair out on the ground, watering some plants at the same time. Fitting her dress on, she heard Asteria approaching from the South.

“I am here, Sister,” she called. Asteria approached with a basket of berries hung across her body. Slipping on her sandals, Mina came to greet her older sister with an embrace.

“Careful not to crush the berries!” warned Asteria. “You wouldn’t want my new dress to become stained.” Mina stepped back and announced that they could return. Walking back to Bakaar, Mina watched Asteria’s soft yellow curls bounce up and down like tiny, graceful springs. She had gotten them from their mother, Denara, who just now would be looking into the sky and nervously wiping her hands on a towel awaiting her only daughters’ return. The walk back to town took only about 10 minutes, while Mina’s daily hike to the plateau could sometimes take up to 40 minutes because of Mina’s tendency to walk slowly and admire the scenery. Mina remained wrapped in her thoughts like a warm blanket she could only borrow while she was at the Falls.

“Do you ever think about leaving?” asked Mina as they walked.

“Leaving? You mean the city?”

“No, I mean going to a whole different island.”

“We do, we take those yearly trips to the Miners’ Guild Summit on Intana,” Asteria replied with a dismissive laugh.

“No, I mean going somewhere completely different, maybe to Everpool or Lintos. I heard the Lintosian flowers are supposed to be beautiful this time of year,” Mina excitedly rambled.

“Everpool! What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing, I was just thinking…”

“Yes, about laying in the sun and being massaged by cabana boys.” Asteria was still laughing at her sister’s absurdity.

“No, that’s not what I meant.” Mina kicked the dirt and twiddled the soil around between her toes. “Asteria, you are a mother, now! Did the thought ever come to your mind of staring a new life of your own? One that isn’t our fathers’?”

“Mina, this is my life. I like it here, I really do. If you want to leave, don’t do it through me.” She stopped walking and turned to her sister, trying to think of a way to put it more nicely. “Besides, even if I left I wouldn’t take you with me. My home and my family are here. My life is all here.”

“I know.  I just thought if I could get away and think some things through…even if just for a little while, you know? Go visit my dear old sister in the countryside, right?” Mina joked, though with a somber undertone.

“What do you need to think about?”

“Nothing, just things I can’t do here, that’s all,” she said, knowing nobody around her could understand. She looked back into her sister’s emerald eyes and clenched her lips, trying to smile, though barely succeeding. Asteria was silent for a long time afterwards but eventually stopped and turned around. She could feel the frustration and pain in her sister’s eyes, and gave Mina a soft and sorry look.

“Oh, I do love you, Mina, but you know how it is here. I can’t leave. We, Gisha, Veklo, and I, we are comfortable, we are simple. You were never that way. I would not be surprised if your destiny lay far beyond this island, perhaps even outside this world. But you have to do what you feel is right. If you must go, then you will go.” Asteria reached up with her right hand and stroked Mina’s cheek. She kissed Mina on her forehead and turned around and started walking again. Mina stood there for a moment longer thinking, and was silent for the rest of the walk home.