The Wind Dancer

A long time ago—so long, in fact, that historians are unable to agree on whether it’s from centuries or millennia ago—there lied a great jungle kingdom to the east. This kingdom was called Tandyrka, and its warriors were said to have a ferocity in battle that rivaled the valor of Balorn’s knights, and indeed the two countries clashed frequently. Alas, it was not Balorn that ended the legacy of Tandyrka.

In Tandyrka’s capital, a large stone castle called Steingard, at the far southeast tip of Chorna, a festival was held by the kingdom’s angelic guardian every year to celebrate life. Musicians, dancers, and other artists gathered in Steingard, filling the stone courtyard and the walls within with their crafts. These artists came from all over the world, with varying levels of fame, but few were as famous as Adressa.

Adressa was a dancer, a master of her craft. It was said that the wind itself came to her aid while she danced, whipping her tassels and scarves around her in a brilliant display of color and motion. The people of Tandyrka celebrated her arrival every year, and wept upon her return to her homeland. She always left the people with a smile, and a promise to return to dance for them once more.

One year, however, as Adressa and the other artists plied their trades, disaster struck. No one knows from where the invaders came, but they came swiftly, and without mercy. Adressa herself escaped the initial attack somehow, and she knew she had to warn the rest of Tandyrka of this dangerous new foe. So, she ran. She ran for miles, for days, stopping only when she reached a village. She warned the people of the village of the coming danger, gave the chance for them to defend themselves or flee. The Tandyrka were a prideful people, and everyone chose the former, even the children. When the invaders came, with a wave of destruction on the horizon behind them, Adressa could do nothing but continue to run.

This series of events repeated itself at every village she passed, with each stop only granting her a short time to rest her legs before the invaders forced her to flee again. She made her way northwest to Sunbridge, hoping to reach the mighty defenders of Balorn at the Sunrise Gate. She’d been running for days at this point, however, and when she finally fell to her knees before the Gate’s defenders, she knew she couldn’t run a step farther.

She pleaded with the men and women of the Gate, warning them of the impending danger. They didn’t believe her at first. Who but them could bring such devastation to their ancient rival? When the invaders appeared, however, the defenders realized she was telling the truth and sounded the alarm. Adressa was ushered inside to safety while the soldiers of Balorn readied for battle.

The Sunrise Gate is a massive fortification stretching the entire width of the bridge city, erected centuries before during one of the more brutal wars with Tandyrka. As the enemy drew near, the Balornic defenders closed and barred the massive gates and took up their places along the wall. The invaders crashed against the gates, but the structure held, and Balornic arrows fell like rain among them.

On the other side of the gates waited the Knights of the Sun, Balorn’s most stalwart soldiers. While the invaders pounded at the gates again and again, the Knights began their ancient battle song, clashing their spears and swords against their shields in rhythm while chanting. The intimidating song seemed to work because, on the other side of the gates, the enemy began to falter. They stopped attacking the gate, instead screaming in fear at the chanting Knights and falling into a disorganized mass while the defending archers continued to rain down death.

Between the Knights’ chant and the archers’ steady aim, the invaders were made short work of. Not a single attacker is said to have survived that day, but the day was not yet done. As the defenders cheered their victory, something strange happened outside the gates. Only the archers saw what truly happened, but they could not tell a soul, for it left them blinded and mad.

No one knows how the jungle was erased from existence, replaced with the Tandolka Desert that now sits where the jungle once stood tall.

Adressa survived her journey, but at great cost. Days of running with barely an hour to rest at each village had left her feet bloody and broken. She was hailed as a hero for her sacrifice, for even though the healers were able to restore her feet well enough to walk, she never regained the strength to dance again. She suffered the greatest loss an artist can experience: losing her ability to create.

She lived a comfortable life, falling in love and having children, but she never danced again. It’s said she died in her favorite chair outside of her home, waiting for the wind to come dance with her just one more time.

Saga recalled the tale fondly. It was said to be based on a true story, but no one knew how the ancient jungle was reduced to sand in such a short amount of time. Supposedly, the oral histories of the surviving Tandolka, who’d changed their name after the loss of Steingard, corroborated some version of the story, but even they were hard pressed to provide a solid timeline. The Tandyrka had been a mostly insular people, and didn’t freely share their records and histories with outsiders. So it was that the loss of their capital resulted in the loss of their history.

Still, true or not, the story was inspiring, and many versions of it had been told over the years. The version she knew came from her grandfather, who she’d pestered relentlessly as a child to tell it to her as often as possible. She didn’t know how much of it was true and how much of it was a fabrication, but it didn’t stop her from wanting to grow up to be like Adressa, a woman who entertained many and saved many more through her efforts.

With a start, she realized Grandpapa and Gem were staring at her, waiting for a response. “I remember it well,” she said. “Do you think whatever killed Master Dorrin has something to do with the invading force that somehow destroyed Tandyrka? That was just some sort of foreign army, wasn’t it?”

Gem shot the old man a glance, and Saga thought maybe she was suppressing a smile. Her met her gaze with a soft glare, then gestured for her to speak. She smiled at him, then turned back to Saga. “Sort of. We still don’t know the full extent of the enemy’s power, but we have reason to believe that whatever force infected Dorrin’s mind was also driving those invaders. Our biggest clue is that, in every version of the legend, the invaders arrived at the Sunrise Gate barely an hour after Adressa did.”

Saga furrowed her brow. “And? They were a bigger force, of course she’d make it first.”

Gem shook her head. “You don’t understand. Large forces like that are slow to stop and slow to start. They have to stop early enough to make camp, then wake up early enough to prepare for the march ahead so that they can move out at a decent time. On the other hand, Adressa was, by all accounts, running the entire time. It’s said she never stopped for more than an hour at each village.”

“Right, because the invaders kept showing up soon after she did,” Saga said, but the wheels of her mind were beginning to turn.

“Correct. How could a force large enough to threaten Balorn keep up with a single woman for days? Through the jungle no less?”

“I’m…I don’t know. I never really thought about it before. Maybe someone added the detail to make it more dramatic, and we’ve lost some context in the meantime that would help explain it?”

Grandpapa cleared his throat, and the two women turned back to him. “This is where I come in.” He sat at his desk and pulled out his journal. It was a large, leather-bound red tome, similar to the one Saga had taken notes in during her studies. On the front was the Academy’s crest, three keys arranged into the letter “K”. To Saga’s surprise, he snapped one of these keys off of the tome, then a second, and used the second key to unlock a drawer in his desk. He grabbed something from inside, locked the drawer, and replaced the keys on his journal before walking back around with a thin notebook in his hand.

“This,” he began, holding up the old book, “is the journal of Adressa Taswin, the Wind Dancer.”

Saga felt her jaw drop, and she almost checked to see if it was still attached. Even Gem’s eyes widened in surprise. Before either of them could respond, he continued.

“Adressa was the founder of our order, and she recordered here what she saw during her run. Some of her memories were hazy, and she admits even she didn’t see what actually happened to Tandyrka that drove the men on the walls insane, but she’s adamant about the timeline of events. An approaching force stayed just behind her for the entirety of her journey, but they weren’t organized like an army. As she describes it, they were madmen, screaming something in the distance. She never saw or heard them close enough to know for sure, but she was as certain as she could be that they were mostly Tandyrki people, and that they were speaking neither the common tongue or their own.”

He stopped, giving them time to absorb his words. Saga glanced at Gem, unsure of what to make of this. They had Adressa’s journal the entire time? “Did you know about this?”

Gem shook her head. “I’ve been told the story, but this is the first I’ve heard about the journal.”

Grandpapa smiled apologetically at Gem. “The knowledge of this journal is on a strictly need-to-know basis. Only Dorrin and a handful of others even know of its existence, and only the leader of our order may read it.”

“Why?” Gem and Grandpapa both looked at Saga as she spoke up, meeting their gazes. “Why not share this information if this threat is so dangerous?”

“Because Adressa believed knowledge of the threat could somehow be dangerous in and of itself,” Grandpapa said slowly. “I admit I’m not sure how that’s possible, but every Headmaster before me has trusted her judgement and kept the secret. That’s why we’re called Keepers, after all.”

“Then why are you telling me?” Saga’s mind reeled from the revelations. Even now, though, she couldn’t help but feel like she was only getting part of the story.

He just stared at her, a patient smile on his face. She looked to Gem for support, but she, too, simply watched her, her expression unreadable.

The realization hit her all at once, and she felt stupid for not realizing it sooner. “You want me to be a Keeper,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Grandpapa’s smile widened. “Despite what you’ve been through the past few days, Saga, you survived, and you carried out the objective you were given.”

“But the village,” she began, but he silenced her with a gesture.

“The village was lost before you ever departed, Saga. Your own investigation confirmed that. We suspected something was wrong, which was why we sent you and Dorrin together. If nothing untoward was happening at the village, he would have pressed on, as he told you. If you two found something, though, his orders were to bring word back to me. He passed on that duty to you, even if you didn’t know it at the time, and you performed admirably. You’re a Keeper in everything but name, Saga. We just want to make it official.”