Sea of Dekatos

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

“Sailing the sea is simple. It is the relationship between the five cities of men that complicates it.”

-- Sento of Yang

Wentai steered his vessel beside the long granite docks of Yang. Everything in the city was made of stone blocks, every building, every minaret, even the arched ramps spanning the air between towers. 

“Placidus,” he said. “Take some men and purchase more supplies. Idalika and I will speak to the ruler and return later.” As dock workers took the ropes from him and tied his ship up, he and Idalika stood and marveled at the great walled city before them.

Thousands of years ago, on the southern shore of the Sea of Dekatos, a group of men and women stumbled through the night, their homes burning brightly in the darkness. A new style of warfare had been organized, and their inability to counter it left them bereft of land and home. 

Practitioners of organized warfare held a distinct advantage in being able to drive off larger bands of less organized fighters. Violent archery duels had become common, with victory going to those who had spent their time training instead of fishing or harvesting grain in the fertile belt surrounding the sea. Individual men – calling themselves heroes – slew hordes of others in combat, able to do so because they had dedicated their lives to the study of their weapons. Written language had not been developed, yet the killing arts were being steadily refined. Even working together, men who made their living by fishing or cultivating land were defeated by solitary warriors who had mastered the arts of sword combat.

Driven from their lands, they built five simple ships of woven reeds and set sail across the sea, searching for a sanctuary. They braved massive storms, the sharp rocks of the Stony Tract, and the grasping, searching tentacles of the barnacles that clung to rocks in shallow areas. After making their way north, they beached their ships and found an oasis of solitude. Free of corruption by other cultures, they lived, built and farmed with zeal. 

The ground was almost solid stone. The air was dry and hot, filled with abrasive particles driven by the hot winds of the Fractured Wastes. The leader of the group, an artisan by trade, set fire to their reed boats and declared himself King. The dispirited people were too exhausted by years of struggle to resist. The new King quickly gave shape to his dreams.

Under his direction, most of the people became artisans as well. They had brought their tools with them, and the King invented a few more. He had his people bore holes into the rock with their bronze hand-drills, setting the holes into a square pattern. Dry wood pegs were driven into the holes and soaked with sea water until they expanded and cracked the stone. The great stone plains were split and the quarried sections chiseled into blocks. While most people worked as stone cutters, several divers were ordered out into the sea, for the King desired a map.

He explained that he needed an undersea map to properly rule his kingdom. His men spent their days underwater, roaming and exploring, and came back with tales of the undersea life and dazzling rocks that sparkled. The King sent some artisans into the clear waters and they worked with their breaths held, finally surfacing with some of the scintillating rocks. They had found an undersea vein of red gold, a beautiful metal that was destined to become the most valuable currency in the five cities.

The King asked them to bring back anything else they found, and the undersea cartographers returned with clay. It dried and retained impressions of their hands and fingers. Setting several women to the task, the King ordered them to develop a method of transcribing speech into writing. While the task absorbed the four women for the rest of their lives, they created the written language that would eventually be shared with and used by all five cities in the ages to come. More clay was dragged up, some with the bones of long dead sea creatures still embedded in it.