The Sun below, the Ground above
Epilogue 4
An Im'ep with memor'ep, quite the surprise for the younger Salentep that just arrived in Pelombis. How had one ended up all the way here in the middle of nowhere? Had any of the Houses known about it, the Im'ep would be kidnapped within days - had the Capital been closer.
Salentep may have come here with their own agenda, but their new lives as a farmer became boring, fast. So, one their stimulation became observing Morep's behavior during every visit, mostly by asking weird or complicated question to see Morep's reaction. Over the following jar'eps, what was simple curiosity, evolved into something more...
Salentep couldn't help but see a part of their younger self - more than 5.000 jar'eps ago - in Morep:
An Im'ep born with a purpose they didn't ask for
An Im'ep that never asked questions
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An Im'ep that just followed orders
Especially that last one had been, was and will always stay a weight on Salentep's shoulders. Coming here, as well as their future fight against the sea may not be that unplanned - on the contrary of how Salentep's day dreams went - after all.
14 days after that realization, Salentep came up with a brilliant idea to help Morep: A moving Kontenad'ep Chamber hidden by an aer'ep illusion. Like this, Morep would step into it when they entered the farms domain and then stay inside until they left, without ever realizing what was happening. Why using such a complicated method? Because Morep would never accept - it would go against their routine - any type of aid or training Salentep could propose, at least not willingly.
Salentep had thought of two alternatives: Kidnapping Morep, the solution most nobles liked to use, followed by detaining them in a Kontenad'ep Chamber. Or making Pelombis disappear - with illusions or more radical methods - to break the patterns enough to force Morep into accepting something new. While Salentep did consider those methods - except the third option, that was Salentep realizing they could, not that they would - they quickly realized that using any of those solutions would go against the reason - freeing Morep from their shackles - Salentep was doing this in the first place. In other words; moving chamber it was!!
After some time - 20 jar'ep and 2 seasons - the walking essence fountain named Morep achieved Grade 2 ! Salentep had felt so proud of their success back then, just still feeling a bit sad about one thing: Salentep didn't have anyone to show off to. But they were sure it would let any of their old friends speechless, maybe they could even win a competition with their contraption back at the Capital !!
Sure, there may also have been a problem afterwards... more like a couple:
Grade 3 had taken 60 jar'eps and 4 seasons
The ?iel'ep grade would take at least 120 jar'eps. As long as Salentep got their calculations right, that would be in about 5 jar'eps.
While the first two had been minor ones - Salentep just had to wait - the next one brought more problems on the table: The qualitative change brought by the ?iel'ep grade. This change would put some kind of pressure on the creatures within 3 im'ep of Morep, like the citizens of Pelombis, making them instinctively view Morep with more respect, or fear, or whatever those creatures would come up with to explain their reactions. Two people - Mayor Nitolep and the sleeping knight Ferdonep - would sadly be able to recognize the pressure for what it was.
Salentep had actually been really lucky - a gamble they had knowingly taken - that Ferdonep never saw what was happening. The title " knight " wasn't randomly given, you needed to graduate from the Academy Perilavak - some alternatives are possible, but it is the most prestigious path - implying any bearer of the title received excellent training. One of the skills they would learn was analyzing others Essence quality and determining that person's grade. In short, had Ferdonep not slept all the time, they would have seen Morep's mysterious improvements for sure. Up until now Salentep was still wining that gamble.
The final problem was that Salentep's farm would start sinking - first direct contact with the ocean - in 3 jar'eps 2 seasons and 18 days, this would also be the departure signal for the migration North. In short, Salentep was behind on schedule, at least with their side experiment on Morep, their other preparations were long done and only improving - Salentep didn't really have anything else to do.
For that reason, Salentep had decided to try keeping Morep for longer on their farm on days like the current one - ones where Salentep was in a good mood. Today being just a day like that, it was time to push a bit against the wall - routine behavior - surrounding Morep. With a bit of luck, so close to the end goal Morep was already feeling some effects.
Morep P.O.V.
Morep liked coming to Salentep's farm !
When they stepped on the lign'ep platform - the farms ground - they felt stressed out a bit like usual. It wasn't as much as during their first visits, but it still just didn't feel normal to walk on lign'ep instead sabl'ep - most houses just use the ground as the floor and even if they don't it would still be a floor using sabl'ep as base material. But about halfway to the center, a calm feeling pushed away all Morep's negative ones...
Which definitely wasn't normal, especially with how stressful Morep's life had been lately - not enough people to greet, the person they normally gave yesterday's journal to passing away, etc - they shouldn't feel so calm. Wait hadn't Morep's life been this stressful since the day they were born?...
There you had it!!! The most stressful realization of them all: Morep could sometimes dissociate their own memories from those inherited from their gepatr'eps. The worst part being it started happening more often recently.
To summarize, Morep felt calm and thinking about how that shouldn't be normal wasn't stressful. But Morep knew it should stress them out, making this entire situation weird and scary.
Conclusion: Morep didn't like coming to Salentep's farm...
