Listen to the Water | FULL SERIES | Wattys 2022 Shortlist | ✔

(13) Ande: Where War Began

The Glauclin clans. I know they're Ruka's people. I know they're Ashianti allies. And I know they're Shalda but not always considered as such. Sar has said they even meet some definitions of sun-water Kels. I also know they have stopovers and information networks and could use spies against Arcas, but beyond that, my knowledge remains limited.

"A little?" I sign. "Not much."

Ruka nods along as I elaborate on that. I seem to know about as much as she was expecting. When I finish, she picks up where I left off. "My people are largely migratory. Most groups have preferred routes they like to take, but most of those overlap at common stopping-points, so we always keep in contact. Over the generations, that interconnectedness has become our biggest asset."

Something about that reminds me of the Ashianti. A Kel people who've become strong through something other than the traditional definitions of strength in the waters they inhabit.

Ruka continues. "It's been generations now that we've been connected to the Ashianti. As you can imagine, we have some things in common, including a desire to be left out of our respective waters' conflicts. We allied properly when the ocean began turning sour, back before your people left the water."

I startle. "Was there war back then, too?"

Ruka smiles sadly. "Your people left the water for a reason."

I knew this. I knew this. I just never put the pieces together. "How did it start?"

"Nobody knows. One generation, the surface Kels spoke a common trade language and largely lived in harmony. The next, they'd split into 'Sami' and 'Karu' and abandoned all of that. Some say the conflict was food. Some say territory. Some say the island chain specifically. But the food scarcity only increased, if incrementally, so the rift was never mended."

So even the categorizations that Kels—some Kels—today like to tout are only ten generations old. "Was it only in the surface waters?"

"No. The mid-water Shalda back then were not so aligned as they are now. They fought one another constantly. It's even possible that the first surface conflicts started in the deep and spilled upward, as historic Shalda-Karu ties broke down, and deep-water Karu lost some of the seamounts they'd shared historically. It wasn't until a handful of generations ago that disappearances got to a point that the mid-water Shalda at least recognized and allied against their common enemy."

Do I say it?

I have to. This is war now.

"Not the enemy they think it is," I sign. "Not entirely, at least."

Ruka pauses, her hands halfway lifted.

"It's Andalua," I finish. "At least as far as we can tell."

Something goes out in Ruka's stance. It's like she ages ten years before my eyes. "I was afraid that would be the case."

We sit wordless for a long moment. There's nothing to say.

When Ruka lifts her hands again, her signs are heavy. "Those disappearances began... at an unknown time after the conflict did. Things broke down completely in the surface waters. True war, not just conflict. Rapal has records of island massacres and an attempted siege on the city, so we know things got extremely violent for a time. Shalda-surface conflict was so bad that it was generations before any records of disappearing Shalda made it to Rapal, and we have reason to believe the situation had deteriorated significantly by then. The mid-water Shalda had allied already by the time those records arrived. The islanders had left for the islands long before."

"I didn't realize this... all this went back so far."

"Twelve generations at least."

Older than the ten my people were on the islands, but not by much. Not in the grand scheme of things. "What happened next? You said it was only that violent for a time?"