Battleborn: Battleborn Trilogy Book 3--A Dark Epic Fantasy Novel (The Battleborn Series) by Paul Sating

Author:Paul Sating [Sating, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paul Sating
Published: 2022-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

11

NEVILAN

Nevilan Andel stood on the cliff side, looking down at the trident. The rivers thundered as they collided, the waters of the Bitter from the east and the Sweet from the north. The white swirls, a vortex of violence.

"A man thrown into that would never survive," Prosper Malnit said, standing beside him.

Without taking his eyes away from the swirling waters, Nevilan answered, "I prefer to look at it as nature's own sifter."

"Sifter?"

"Yes. You have the waters from the north and the waters from the east converging here, two separate entities becoming one," Nevilan explained. "Any time two different forces come together, you find conflict. The conflict may always look different, sometimes subversive, while other times incredibly violent. Sometimes those involved in the conflict don't even realize they are facing one until they become the victims of it. But look there," he said, pointing westward, where the swirling rapids created by the colliding rivers became a placid flow of water heading toward the southwest. "What do you see?" He took his eyes away from the roaring violence below to examine the Potentate's face.

Prosper stared into the waters for a long while before answering. "I see a river. A river that needs fording if we are to sneak into your village."

Nevilan refused to let his disappointment show. The Potentate was the second-most powerful man in Merchant's Row, yet he could not see the simplest of answers. "It is much more than that. Much less than that. That river," Nevilan continued, pointing toward the calmer flow, "is the continuation of the Bitter River. That area where the Sweet Waters and Bitter meet is the end of the Sweet Waters. It has no say in the matter because the matter has been determined for it. Yet the Bitter River continues. Strange, isn't it?"

Prosper's face was unreadable. "I don't get your meaning."

The man did not sound as entertained by the conversation as Nevilan had hoped. But they had been on the road, setting a hard pace for new suns, and Nevilan was tired. They still needed to ford this river and the Sweet Water upstream before reaching Olma-Ka, which would take time and energy. Time and energy Nevilan didn't feel he had. This was not the end of their exhaustion, so he was grateful for the opportunity to rest and exercise his brain instead of his legs and back.

"The rivers didn't come to an agreement. Others decided the calm water is to be the continuation of the Bitter River," Nevilan explained. "Those not even involved in the conflict itself, I might add."

"So? We're talking about water."

"So," Nevilan said, elongating the word, "it is a metaphor. If we, as people, do not force our say in a conflict and how to resolve it, others will do so for us. Generations from now, the people of this region will still know those calm waters as the Bitter River. For people downstream in Axthelm, they only know of the Bitter River. To them, the Sweet Waters does not flow, even though it provides them with the fresh water from the Spikes range.

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