NOVEL SIMPLE [Vol.3] Ch.29 Dwarven Lore
My turn for a question, "What's your name?"
They speak their name, "Shastasha Korsask."
The pronunciation was quite difficult for me to grasp, given it's quite different from both Demon and English.
The dwarf follows up with, "And your name?"
"Gokura Zakarus is my full name. I go by Zack," I say. Shortly after I stated it, I realized I hadn't had the chance to talk with the prisoners before about all I'd learned from Zaka about the history of the Gokura name. The surprise shows on Shastasha Korsask's face after I give my name, but thankfully they don't seem as disturbed as they did with the situation with the Eagle.
"Should I call you by your full name when we speak?" I ask.
"You can call me Shasta," she replies, "What do you know about the Demon Lord Gokura?"
I was going to tell them most of what I'd learned from Zaka at some point anyway, and since its unrelated to the crystal, I figure I might as well be open. I spent a few minutes recounting the information Zaka told Zeb and I, with Zeb's help for some of the more complicated parts.
Next is my turn, so I ask, "How did you learn the demon language?"
Shasta shies away slightly but says, "From prisoners. For information gathering."
Well, that does explain some of their difficulty with the language. Not that mine is particularly great.
Shasta asks me, "What is demon homeland like?"
"I don't know, I'm from this island." I reply. "How do your four know each other?"
"I'm researcher from dwarf capitol, 'Korsask'. They're group tasked with protection," Shasta says. Rather than ask another question after this, Shasta says, "I'm tired of questions."
Which honestly, I'm relieved. It's good for building trust and understanding, but it's actually getting kind of stale. I still have lots of questions, but I'm tired of the back and forth through the jail bars.
As a reward for the conversation, I offer to take the prisoners each, one at a time, to the bathhouse today. After Shasta explains to the others, the only one other than herself who takes up the offer is the other dwarf. Each seems to thoroughly enjoy the time relaxing in the bath as well, which I hope will help us move forward.
I've had a few more conversations with Shasta in the past three days, and gained a bit more information into her background. Dwarves, it seems, are named based on which mountain city they were born in. As Shasta was born in the capitol of Korsask, that is her last name. She isn't a particularly high level researcher in her country either. This entire expedition, in fact, was expected to end in failure.
The open ocean is considered incredibly dangerous, so it was half expected that they wouldn't even return to begin with. However, the eagles aren't considered guardian beasts for nothing. Historically, they've been known to single handedly thwart demon invasions attempting to move from the human continent to the dwarven continent. As such, they're considered something of a strategic asset to the dwarves.
They aren't exactly peaceful with the dwarves, however. The dwarves offer them up livestock year round to keep them sated. If livestock aren't readily available, then the eagles seem to be pretty indiscriminate with who they attack. Since any invading demons tend to scare off the livestock caretakers and eat any remaining livestock, the eagles begin preying on the demons that move into that territory.
The other dwarf's name is Katarko Lesigort and he apparently hails from one of the villages near the eagle territory in question. He convinced his adventuring party to take this task because he is worried about his hometown if the eagles disappear. Since he's the one who convinced them to come here, that's why the human got into a fight with him before. This human hasn't actually been with his party for that long, only a few months before coming here, which is likely why tensions flared to the degree they did.
There is a second place with eagles in the dwarven kingdom, and its the only other place that they knew of until now that houses a population. That place is in the nearby mountains around Korsask. This leads me to why Shasta is so interested in the crystal in the bathhouse. The dwarven capitol houses a unique artifact that was supposedly uncovered 800 years ago. A giant mana crystal that was found deep beneath Korsask. The dwarves called this crystal 'ParTor', which roughly translates to GodStone.
The city of Korsask itself is built near the base of the mountain, and partially inside it. Flowing down Mt. Korsask is a large waterfall and river, which the dwarves have carved multiple channels throughout the city to utilize the river. That river flows into a large bathhouse near the royal palace. There, in that bathhouse, is where ParTor is stored. It heats the water and imbues the river with mana. It's said in dwarven culture that once ParTor was placed in the royal bathhouse, the eagles blessed the capitol with their protection.
Shasta thinks, and I agree, that I've probably made an artificial version of ParTor. Given the recent information, I've decided that tomorrow, with extra escorts, I'm willing to show Shasta the large mana crystal I grew.
"Small." That is what Shasta said when she saw the crystal. I mean, I stopped growing it pretty much as soon as it could survive on the surface, but it's a little bit insulting to my pride to hear it called small. "ParTor is more than twice as wide," she says confidently while looking at the submerged crystal from above. "It looks similar though."
Personally, I hope that's a good thing. If my crystal was bigger, I'd probably have to worry about military invasion to recover this crystal as an artifact. Although I'm still worried that might see it as some kind of insult that a demon has something similar to their artifact. It'd be even worse if they think that because I made an artificial one I'm some kind of affront to god. Judging from Shasta's reactions though, I think that the worst case scenario is unlikely here.
After letting Shasta see the crystal, I close the section of the bathhouse up again. Now comes a much harder part. I say, "Look, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I just want peace here. For that I'll need your help, and the adventuring party's help. Eventually, maybe soon, maybe in the distant future, people will probably show up again. When they do, I just want peace between our peoples. Are you willing to work with me to help achieve that?"
Shasta looked about for a little bit before saying, "What's in it for me?"
"You're getting pretty cocky for someone who's still my prisoner," I retort.
"This place would be run over in a matter of weeks if any of the alliance countries showed up. So, what's in it for me?" she says once again.
I mean, we're increasing our defenses, but yeah, if a few hundred soldiers and high level individuals showed up, I'd probably need years and years of prep time to actually mount a defense that wouldn't result in our total annihilation. I also can't just threaten them into it because once they're free, that threat is gone. So I'll have to come up with something to offer.
"What would you want?" I ask.
"Its a big ask trying to convince people that demons can be friendly..." Shasta trails off and sits silently for a bit.
"The way you made the crystals. Tell me it," Shasta says.
"No can do. Then you'll just have us killed after you know it," I say.
"Then let me set up a place for research here."
"How big of a place?" I ask worriedly.
"Well, it'll need helping hands, and likely an embassy, and..." she trails off again. "100 dwarves. That, and we'll need your crystal."
"Now, I can't just give you the crystal."
"Look. That crystal is bringing you nothing but grief. If someone shows up, and I can convince them to not kill you all, that's when I need the crystal," she says.
"Even so, the goblins won't accept it."
"We'll go set the crystal up in the existing eagle habitat somewhere. Then they'll stop coming to this island," she says, but I catch that she quietly says, "probably..." afterwards. "At that point, you can make another crystal if you want it so bad."
Ugh. I mean, I did want to possibly get rid of the crystal. If I can also get peace out of it, then all the better. That said, I'm not too keen on being outnumbered on the island here. I suppose that means I'll need to get back to work on the housing projects in the village. Finally I reply, "Fine, but I'll need to actually get Zaka's approval for it."