ADAM: here's the story as I've pieced it together from various sources
(All dates are educated guesses.)
(1930's ?)
Daklakht seems to have been born about 70-80 years ago somewhere in Northern
British Columbia, perhaps near the Alaskan border. He lived alone with his
mother, who had chosen no mate, in the most primitive version of life as
a Bigfoot.
(1940's ?)
When he was barely adolescent Daklakh and two local friends were snooping
around a Nokhso logging camp to watch the big machines at work. Young Daklakh
was fascinated with forbidden skesk. The three young squatches were
spotted and four hunters went after them. One of the boys was shot in the
head and killed. Sobbing and afraid, the other two boys had to carry his body
because it was forbidden to allow it to fall into the hands of the Nokhsoli,
which slowed down their escape.
They had to run the wrong way and found themselves on a flat tundra with no
place to hide. The hunters were evidently bushy-bearded hard-drinking mountain-
men who were as attuned to the wilderness as Nokhons, the boys couldn't shake
them off their trail.
Those men also had powerful rifles, noisekillers, accurate from horizon to horizon.
Daklakht was next to be shot, a bullet passed through his leg, fortunately
missing any bones, but slowing them down even more. He was very afraid, of
course, those men seemed like devils to him. The boys tried to be invisible,
but those mountain men could not be fooled, since they could still smell the
squatch-stink.
The boys split up, the unwounded one still carrying the dead body of their
fallen friend, Daklakh crawling across the tundra on his belly to avoid being
seen. He made it to the mountains and home to his mother. But the other boy
never returned.
Daklakh waited two days while his mother treated his wound, then set out to
find his friend. He went to the logging camp and there he saw the bodies of
both his friends displayed as trophies on some wooden slabs in the middle of
the camp. He resolved to steal them back.
Daklakh waited until night, but observed that a guard was hiding in a building
with a view of the bodies, a rifle sticking out the window. He understood that
they were waiting for him to come after the bodies. These men seemed to know
about Nokhon customs.
Daklakh didn't know what to do. Physical confrontation with the Nokhsoli was
forbidden, it always lead to reprisals by an army of warriors armed with
noisekillers . Nor had physical violence even occurred to him, he was a good
boy, well-instructed in Atli by the local wandering Dwayarat. But he was
offended by these hairless little men and decided to outsmart them.
Thinking outside the box he had been born into, he did what no squatch may do:
used skesk, the camp being full of it. In the middle of the night he
quietly pushed a wagon to where the bodies were, keeping it between the window
with the waiting noisekiller and himself. Whoever was on guard was asleep,
so he put his friends in the wagon and quietly rolled them out of camp. Then
he took them, one over each shoulder, and ran up into the mountains and safety.
He took the bodies to his mother's bakhl and hid them out among the trees.
An Elder came to see them next day and declared that a Sha-haka must cremate
them. The Sha-haka was new, his fire made a little smoke.
The same four hunters arrived the day after. Daklakht smelled them coming, so
they didn't get him, but his mother was not paying attention and they shot her.
Another trophy. Then they got drunk in her bakhl and were laughing into the
night.
Daklakh watched in grief from the forest, seething with hate for those Nokhsos,
but still not ready to commit violence. But one of the hunters saw him and
took aim with his noisekiller, a big smile on his ugly face. Daklakh didn't
care what happened; he was not going to run. He applied the vision-shifting
technique he had learned as a boy and it worked: the expert hunter fired and
missed. So Daklakht started walking toward him. The hunter had to reload
after six shots and by then Daklakht was upon him. He didn't know what to do
next, but the hunter made it easy for him by swinging his rifle at Daklakh's
face, starting the violence. The next thing he knew, Daklakht was holding the
bloody pieces of what had been the hunter.
The other three of them were shooting now, one bullet even grazed his arm, but
otherwise they all missed and went down under the fists of the young squatch.
It was so easy, he learned, they were flimsy and weak, all it took was a single
blow and their heads exploded. This was not done in rage, but deliberately,
calmly, because it needed to be done. Afterward he felt neither joy nor
remorse.
He took all four bodies up on his shoulders and was on his way back to the
logging camp, where he intended to put them on display so that the evil little
Nokhsos would understand. If the other Nokhsos gave him any trouble he would
simply kill them all.
Fortunately, he was stopped along the way by the local Elder. "Are you crazy?"
the Elder asked, "they will send White Men with weapons. We've seen what those
White Devils have done to the Red Men, all that keeps us safe is that they
aren't sure that we exist!"
Daklakh was put in the hands of the Alutna, to be punished for his crime of
murder. But the Alutna agents judged that what he had done was fair, saying
"Those Nokhso shits only got what they deserved." They respected Daklakh. So
they arranged for his "punishment" to be exile--far away to Aket, where they
knew of an Alutna-Jii with ambitions who required an agent of special talents.
Daklakh did not see himself as having any useful talent, but was more than
willing to leave now that he had neither friends nor mother. He was escorted
to Aket by the only female Alutna he had ever met, named Ma-ralla. She was
five times his age but preferred young males anyway, so they had a nice
journey. Ma-ralla offered young Daklakh instructions in sex and Alutna
procedures, discovering that he had a natural talent for both.
Ma-ralla had been Sha-haka-ma long before becoming Alutna, so she was versed
in genetic testing and in their sex-play discovered that Daklakht tasted of a
recessive trait that had almost vanished from the Nokhontli people: The
Warrior breed.
It took them four months to walk from Alaska to the Cascades in Washington
State. Nokhons don't have much regard for schedules and they were having too
much sex to hurry. Ma-ralla was also very proficient at secret Alutna fighting
techniques, as a female cop she probably had to be, and she enjoyed teaching the
best student she had ever met. By the time they did arrive at Aket, Ma-ralla
could introduce a very well-versed and trained Alutna potential to Dastardat,
the current Alutna-Jii.
Daklakh was surprised when he finally met the grand master of the Alutna, since
Ma-ralla had described him as the most powerful Nokhon in all the land and the
best Chief-of-Police Aket had ever had. An inspiration to all his agents, their
perfect example of moral and duty. That was her Alutna-Jii fantasy.
The actual Dastardat was an ugly little gnome, not taller than a Nokhso (about 6",
bigger than Napoleon, but kinda teensy for a male squatch). His face was misshapen
and dotted with warts, head/body hair unkempt, thick, matted and shaggy. Except
for his diminutive size, that Bigfoot looked exactly like any avid reader of the
National Inquisitor would have expected: ugly, brutal, monkeylike.
Daklakh felt repulsed by his new boss, but politely said nothing about that.
What he did say was that he was grateful to have been invited to Aket and given
this chance to become an Alutna.
Dastardat, who has since become Elder Da-starda-hat of the Ultimate Nine at
Shamballah, was very interested in Daklakh, having heard of the adventure with
four Nokhso hunters. Dastardat needed a capable agent to handle some special
assignments. Daklakh felt that any Nokhon could have handled those small weak
hunters, but Dastardat told him, "Yes, anyone could--but most Nokhons never
actually DO. You are unique, my pretty boy."
That boy went through the usual ceremonies and Endurings to earn his adult
name of Daklakht, was made Alutna and given a route around the Cascades which
he would patrol like any new agent until he was needed for a special assignment.
He enjoyed having a purpose and authority, and most of the people he governed
were polite and well-mannered. It was then he met Dannat, who was only about
90 years old at that time, newly become the local Elder, and they cooperated
well. It was rare that he had to be a tough cop, but when necessary he was
quite capable of it.
It had not taken Daklakht long to realize that his supreme supervisor, Dastardat,
was hardly the paragon of justice he was supposed to be. The Alutna-Jii of Aket
was morally corrupt and greedy for power, his primary ambition being domination
of others. But since Daklakht was rarely in Aket those days he could simply be
the kind of Alutna he believed in: honest, helpful.
It was on a seldom visit to Aket that he first came into conflict with his boss.
There had been a meeting of Alutna, featuring instructions concerning tighter
control of Atli violations, skesk trafficking, after which Dastardat asked
Daklakht to hang around for some private discussion. That ended with Dastardat
trying to yøramma Daklakht up the butt and being pinned against the cave
wall, straight-armed and strangled by a very offended Daklakht. They both
excused the incident, mumbling about some sort of misunderstanding, but were each
wary of the other after that. At least Daklakht's butt was never assaulted again.
(1950's ?)
Years passed before he was given a special assignment. The first involved a
berserker, a Nokhon who had spoken out against a decision of the Nine Ultimate
Elders, then had gone insane. He was running around and attacking anyone he
met. Daklakht was sent to bring him in, Dead or Alive. He was easy enough
to find and defeat, but when Daklakht tried to bring the raving man to Aket
alive, he was ordered to kill him. He refused, saying that the man had obviously
been inflicted with a Syssk, and could easily be saved. But Dastardat had that
man put astray in the caverns and suspended Daklakht from duty.
But Daklakht had other allies at Aket, Ma-ralla sponsored him, so he was
accepted for Sha-haka studies, specializing in the discipline of Authority
and the dark magics of Syssk-generation and psychic domination. Once
again he showed a talent for it and the moral not to misuse it.
Eventually he was ready to study under the absolute master of the discipline--
none other than Dastardat himself. It was an awkward situation: they had to
establish a telepathic link, the pupil must allow the teacher to enter his mind,
but they mistrusted and disliked one another (Nokhons don't allow themselves to
say "hated"). However, Dastardat still believed that Daklakht could become his
most valuable special agent ever and was willing to reinstate him as Alutna,
especially if he was capable of psychic warfare against an opponent.
Daklakht was aware that telepathy with Dastardat would be dangerous, knew that
the wicked Alutna-Jii would attempt to dominate him completely, but decided that
he was the stronger of the two and could defy him. He was dedicated to learning
the technique and had to take the chance. It paid off: Dastardat could not break
through his defenses and Daklakht became the new Greatest Master of Psychic
Combat. Dastardat seemed content with having such an agent among the ranks of
his Alutna and graciously treated Daklakht with respect, even a certain
friendliness.
But the talents of a super agent were hardly required for everyday Alutna duties,
although handy to have for emergencies, so Daklakht went back to his normal
routines, which he enjoyed anyway.
Meanwhile, the Elder Sha-haka-mas in charge of fertility and population determined
that Daklakht was a genetically superb specimen and began to assign him breeding
duties around the land, so he was once again required to travel to the places
he had before patrolled as Alutna, now to do his genetic duty for the Nokhon
race. This was hardly random, breedings were group efforts arranged to
coincide with Full Moons, several males were to spend a private Kha-rat with
one chosen female and do their best to impregnate her over four days, while
the Sha-haka-mas would blend the genetic mix with their special magic.
Sometimes it was enjoyable duty, but generally most males preferred to be at
a real Kha-rat and yøramma with many women instead of just one, for whom
they had to wait their turn.
(1960's ?)
Among the children bred in that process were Dagrolyt, born in the Cascades
near Mount Baker, followed by Dabronat by the same mother 2 years later. Just
how much of Daklakht's genetics they actually share is unknowable, there are
too many other males in the mix. Which is why the whole Biological Father
relationship is so vague and usually ignored. But yes, I discovered that the
three of us are "brothers", slightly, by some who-knows-how-much percent.
Dagrolyt and Dabronat had a good family life, their mother lived with a Danat
who was fair to her boys. They were good kids, but adventurous rascals, and
Daklakht watched them growing up thinking they were much like himself as a boy.
They both strived to become Sha-haka, diligently studying Atli, but Dabronat
was caught trafficking in skesk several times and was denied permission to
study at Aket, while his brother Dagrolyt went on to become Sha-haka. But all
that comes later.
(1970's)
Intrigues in the High White Mountains, which we call the Himalayas, were
happening 50 years ago as well as today; there were political rumblings in
the Nokhon Nation that resulted in severe conflicts between Daklakht and
Dastardat, who was still the current Alutna-Jii of Aket at that time.
They became nothing less than enemies, Daklakht having once accused his chief
of corruption, misuse of power and possibly murder, since that man Dastardat
had thrown into the caverns never came out again.
Which is why The Nine Ultimate Elders commanded Daklakht to come to
Shamballah and work for them as special Alutna agent, they knew of his conflict
with Dastardat and considered him an ally against the corrupt Alutna-Jii. He
was not allowed four leisurely months to make that journey, but less than one.
Half-way around the world on foot, he had to run, swim the Bering Strait, climb the
Himalayas, but he made it three weeks. Evidently the Elder's little test to
make certain they had a genuine super agent.
There was a problem on the edge of the Gobi Desert, where a group of renegade
Nokhons were causing trouble. They were trading with the Red Chinese and it
seemed that their leader, Dazzee-tat, was willing to lead Chinese troops into
Shamballah in return for weapons and technology. When Daklakht confronted
Dazzee-tat he found himself up against another Warrior. They fought to the
death, Daklakht won. Then he was commanded to kill the Chinese officer who had
been negotiating with Dazzee-tat, to assure that no Nokhso could find secret
Shamballah. He almost refused, but when he realized that the officer was
making plans to invade the Nokhon city, he finished the job. After that
Daklakht was recognized as the man who solved problems.
Meanwhile, my mother to-be Mayala seems to have been born somewhere near Bluff
Creek, California, where the famous (but fake) Patterson Bigfoot movie was
filmed in 1967. Folk tell me she was about the same age as I am now (21) when
she gave birth to me. She migrated north along the Cascades with her mother,
who may still be living although I haven't been able to locate her.
(1980's ?)
After adolescence, Mayala studied to become Sha-haka-ma, sometimes at Aket,
where she became best friends with Malasna, who was already friends with
those wild & crazy brothers, Dagrolyt and Dabronat.
Meanwhile, in a secret Yeti temple city hidden somewhere in Tibet, the Ultimate
Nine Elders of Shamballah had become increasingly concerned about the inevitable
destruction of all nature by Nokhso Civilization. They formulated a Negotiator
Project, to breed a special ambassador between races who might talk the crazy
Nokhsos into not destroying the world. The wisest Sha-hakas had calculated the
optimal genetic mix they would need and had waited for the right combinations
to show up. It was determined that Mayala would be a perfect hostess; they
selected four males to breed with her. One of them was Daklakht.
During his years of service for the Nine Ultimate Elders of Shamballah, Daklakht
had often been sent on missions to Nokhon enclaves scattered over the planet.
On his way back from a year among the Mapinguary in the Amazon jungle he found
himself ordered to return to the Cascades for a breeding assignment.
A breeding ceremony is a special event, since the Nokhontli rarely have children.
Between living long lives and keeping their population at a minimum, not all
females are allowed to have a child, although those with special genetic traits
are commanded to. It's all controlled by a special committee of Elders and
Sha-haka-mas.
Many years could pass between breedings and then several women would be bred
simultaneously, to allow the few children born to have some playmates to grow
up with. Mayala's breeding, however, was solitary: as if her child--me--would
have no use for any Nokhon playmates. Perhaps because I was deliberately
manufactured for export to the Nokhsoli as part of the Negotiator Project.
There were other unusual aspects about my conception, such as Mayala being so
much younger than normal, only in her early 20's at the time. Mature mothers
are preferred, at least in their 30's and 40's, since squatches don't age as
fast as humans. I've learned that Mayala had not chosen to be a mother at all,
she'd been happily busy studying to be Sha-haka-ma, but was commanded to report
for breeding by the Ultimate Nine Elders of Shamballah, orders from the top.
(1990's)
That breeding ceremony took place where Mastinta's school for girls is now.
Young Mastinta herself even took part in the proceedings, although as an
initiate since she had not yet finished her own studies to become the lady
witch doctor we know and love today. Evidently a conception is a complex
operation, there were just as many assistants as there were subjects doing the
actual breeding: 5 and 5.
They all convened on the wooded hilltop, this was to take place in Nature, under
the open sky, Full Moon above. It was an exclusive Kha-rat, timed for the Nokhon
fertility cycle, of course, while female shyøma is peaking.
There were four males, Daklakht among them. I was surprised to learn that
another of my progenitors was a very young and cocky Dazlask (the anti-social
krønoke I'd met while he was in exile). And delighted to learn that one of them
was no other than the Great Fat Dambaraggan Himself, my good friend and
dwayarat. Must be from him I inherited my Orator abilities. The fourth father
seems to have been a Sha-haka from some far away mlønoli, whom I've never
met. These were to be my "fathers" by a magical blending of their genes and
chromosomes. There was only one target female: Mayala, my mother to be.
The conception was to be orchestrated by a Sha-haka-ma and her four initiates.
Mayala had never met any of these men before. Although she was certainly
accustomed to orgiastic Kha-rat sex, sometimes with strangers in the crowd,
this was different because she had been prepared for fertility by witch-magic,
so she may have been less than enthusiastic, or even afraid. But the shyøma
was flowing anyway, which is very hard to resist, for either women or men.
The four males took turns to yøramma her again and again, filling her up with
as much sperm as they could ejaculate, then the witches took her off and did
whatever it is they do to get the intended genetic mix and effect a perfectly
controlled fertilization. One of the female initiates had the duty of entertaining
those shyøma-crazed males to keep them around until they were certain that
pregnancy had been achieved and then they all could join in the orgy for the
rest of the night. Except for Mayala, who was now off-limits.
Jeez, it all sounds so heartless when I tell it like that. I wish I could say that my
mother conceived me while making wonderful love with a man who made her happy.
Fortunately, I can. Daklakht had seen how young she was, how unhappy and--he
tells me--how beautiful. He took her as nicely as he could and although she
might not have fallen in love with him at that time, he did fall for her. From
what everyone tells me, my mother did seem to be an exceptionally nice yøramma.
The two younger men were more frenzied, hot to get their rocks off, although by
then so was she. Dambaraggan was much more gentle with her, fortunately,
considering how big and heavy he is (I could have been born flat as a pancake).
The next day, ceremony and job done, all participants went their various ways,
except for Daklakht, who remained to visit with Mayala.
She had to go back to Aket to finish a course in healing, so he accompanied her.
Already pregnant, her shyøma had vanished (seems that's what happens) but
Daklakht desired her anyway and she found herself responding to that. However
she was not to yøramma for several weeks, so they had to refrain from making
love for a while. They talked instead and a romance developed.
Daklakht was staying at Alutna Headquarters in Aket. He was supposed to return
to Shamballah eventually but had no specific assignment at the time and simply
found busy work to keep himself at Aket so that he could visit Mayala every day.
Sex is prohibited for initiates at Aket, but not for Alutna, who are allowed to
keep a "personal assistant". Once finished with her studies, Mayala was expected
to leave Aket, but moved into his assigned chamber at Headquarters to serve him.
They became a couple.
But babies and children are not permitted inside Aket for several reasons, mainly
because a child should be in touch with Nature, not living underground. Mayala
had to move out before the birth was due. Daklakht took on routine patrol duties
outside Aket and they found a cozy little valley to live in-- the same ken where
Dagrolyt's bakhl is now! When he was on his rounds Mayala was alone, but
she had some friends in the area around her.
Their nearest neighbors were the Sha-haka Dannat and his woman Malla, who
would look in on Mayala in his capacity as healer. Not that Mayala was sick or
crippled simply because she was pregnant, she often hiked over to visit her best
friend Malasna at the woman's magic school not far away.
Malasna had met Dabronat by then, as well as his older brother Dagrolyt. Those
guys were always skirting around the rules, playing with skesk, violating Atli
and yet getting away with it, the rascals. As mentioned before, they had been
given a battered old Nokhso cassette player (a truly evil example of skesk at its
worst) by that mysterious little old white man trader they called Dawalas. It
had only the one tape of the Sound of Music inside. They became tired of it
but Mayala couldn't get enough of the title song and somehow learned to sing
the first verse before the batteries died and it no longer worked. (Or would
she have learned all the other songs too? Jeez, my magical mantra could have
ended up being Do Re Mi or Edelweis!)
I like most squatches, they're generally good people who adhere to the Number
One Atli doctrine of Ø'ø'e'rah, translated "Be Nice." But there's one fussy old
fart I have never been able to like, Dafnat, who spoke out against me when I first
arrived among the Nokhontli and continues to do so to this day. Typical of most
religious fanatics, he ignores the religion's message but loves to enforce the
rules. Seems he was just as fussy twenty years back, because it was he who blew
the whistle on Mayala and her friends, reporting them to the Alutna. He insisted
that they be arrested and punished, preferably severely.
The local Alutna agent was Daklakht, so he arrived planning to arrest those two
troublemaking brothers again, but discovered that his own woman was implicated.
Since he simply would not arrest Mayala he finagled to let them all go on some
minor technicality. When Dafnat protested, Daklakht threatened him with various
other Alutna technicalities and scared him off.
For a short while, Daklakht was very angry with Mayala for putting him in that
position, but he got over it because he loved her and they finally could laugh
about it together. Although he never did like that she would often sing that
"accursed Nokhso myøsik" she had learned. But for Mayala, it was the only song
she knew and she wanted to teach it to her child before she forgot it. Because
even then, she knew that her baby was going to be delivered to the Nokhsos; that
had already been arranged. It was a Nokhso song and would somehow prepare
little Dadameh for that alien Nokhso world.
Was my mother sad about that arrangement? I don't know, but suspect that some
kind of Sha-haka mind control may have been used on her. The Alutna-Jii at that
time was Dastardat and we all know that he was a master of those arts. And that
he was ruthless, corrupt and definitely The Bad Guy in this story.
For example, just before Mayala was to give birth it was Dastardat who commanded
Daklakht to return to Shamballah for a new assignment. Whether to get him out
of the way or just to be MEAN, I can't say, but he was gone for two years, until
after Mayala took me to the Nokhsos. If Daklakht had been at with Mayala that
day at the Mother's Meadow, things would probably have turned out differently.
Especially for Felix Sinsley. But maybe Art too, who knows?
So Daklakht had to abandon his true love just before she gave birth, one could
write a heart-rending romance about that, I suppose. But at least Mayala wasn't
completely alone, her older sister Mawa came north to stay with her. Mastinta
also came to Mayala to assist with the birth, just in case, although it's rare
that a Nokhon woman ever needs help. And finally--POP!--I was born.
I had two years among the Nokhontli with my mother, of which I can only
remember vague details. Bred to be an Orator, I remember sounds best, words
that had been spoken around me, even though I was too young to understand what
was being said. Which is a funny way to remember things, pulling a sound intact
out of my childhood memories and finally deciphering it now that I'm an adult.
But although I may try to piece it together later, this is not my story.
Daklakht was deep in the Himalayan Mountains when my mother died. Dastardat sent
a telepathic message for him to report back to Aket as soon as possible, although
without mentioning that Mayala had perished. So Daklakht was happy to run half way
around the world, believing he would be reunited with his beloved Mayala and
their child. Dastardat made quite certain that Mayala's death was to be kept a
secret until Daklakht had personally reported to him in Aket.
It was a carefully prepared attack: Dastardat sprang that cruel surprise on the
unsuspecting Daklakht the moment they were face to face. Grief is one of the most
effective ways to weaken an opponent's will and resolve-- and it worked. Then
Dastardat bombarded Daklakht with a psychic copy of himself, an especially-honed
ssysk that enslaved him. From then on Dastardat owned a super agent who thought
exactly like himself; who agreed with his every decision and must faithfully obey
his every telepathic command.
This was all part of Dastardat's perverse plan to dominate everyone and everything.
Over the years he had planted other psychic slaves in various positions of power
throughout the Nokhon Nation around the planet. Now he was ready to travel to
Shamballah and steal the position of an Elder of the Ultimate Nine: a death had
been arranged to make that possible.
But before leaving Aket and changing his name to Da-starda-hat, he had to assign
a new Alutna-Jii to take command of his Alutna. He had been preparing Ma-ralla-
hata, she was also his, but Daklakht was more powerful in every way.
So for the last 20 years Daklakht has been the governing Alutna-Jii of the area
you know as West Coast North America, from Mexico to Alaska. He is respected for
being diligent, but feared for being sometimes unfair because of the instructions
he occasionally receives from the other side of the world. He's still himself,
hardly a zombie, but often finds himself preferring to handle a situation exactly
the way his good friend, mentor and master Da-starda-hat would do.
However, he has also received orders that he would or could not obey. Three times
has Da-starda-hat commanded Daklakht to be his hit-man for a political purpose.
One of those assignments resulted in the assassination of another renegade agent
in opposition to Da-starda-hat (and who was just as ruthless). He was killed in
hand-to-hand combat, of course, Daklakht can't use skesk-weapons. But the other
two targets presented ethical problems for him because they seemed to be innocent
and were afraid to fight. One was a man, whom Daklakht exiled, the other a woman,
whom he simply released instead of killing her. Then he had to bear the wrath of
his cruel master for a long time, who commanded him to harm himself.
(2000's ?)
Even as Alutna-Jii, Daklakht was required to perform his genetic duty occasionally
and the Sha-hak-mas had a very special assignment for him: he was to father a
child as the only male, his genetics not blended with others. This would be Masnia,
of course. He was amazed and delighted to learn that the mother-to-be was Malasna,
whom he knew well. She'd been Mayala's best friend, remember? Rather than have
her come to him in Aket, he went to her.
For Daklakht that visit was almost like having Mayala back in his life for a
while, they talked about her a lot. He felt like friends with Malasna and her
man Dabronat, they laughed together about all those times he had hassled the two
brothers for their various small sins and then had to let them go that time
Mayala was guilty too. Dagrolyt came by, now a successful Sha-haka instead of
a punk kid. Conceiving a child with beautiful Malasna was like making love,
wonderful and holy. They have all remained friends ever since.
When Masnia was born, Daklakht was invited to visit. Once again, he fell in
love. Fatherhood may be generally ignored by Nokhon custom, but he could never
ignore his very own little Masnia.
Nor could Dastardat, who all the way from far Shamballah was quite interested in
keeping an eye on this very special child, obviously bred for some purpose quite
important to those secretive, conniving Sha-haka-mas. "Those witches and their
accursed Visions!" Okay, I don't know if he actually said that, but it seems
like something a villain would say and it's always nice to slip a little piece
of characterization in the middle of all this historical reportage.
(2010's)
An Alutna-Jii may be the single most authoritative individual within the walls
of Aket, but even he is subject to orders of The Three Elders. Dastardat had
tried for years to establish his dominance over at least two of the three Elders,
without success. He did manage to get Ma-ralla-hata placed among them, but when
the Three Elders link up their minds to temporarily become a 3=1 consciousness,
the political orientation of any one Elder is not enough to guarantee what
decisions will come out of the mix.
Ma-ralla-hata was loyal to him, besides being one of the Three Elders she was
second in command of the Alutna. When Daklakht was away to another mlønoli she
was acting Chief of Police, she was perfect. But when her personality became
absorbed by the group, it was she who swayed. Dastardat would have to replace
one more Elder to maintain power in Aket.
He considered the presence of Elder Da-tobor-hat being to his advantage (that tall,
thin Elder who reminds me of Mr. Spok from Star Trek), since he could always be
swayed by logic rather than personal emotions. So the problem was old Da-nama-hat,
who was his sworn enemy anyway.
Dastardat had attempted to get rid of Da-nama-hat at least four times over the
eighty years they had been at odds with one another, but the old Nokhon was too
wise to outsmart and too beloved to simply murder. The worst for Dastardat was
that whenever the Three Elders convened, their common wisdom usually supported
Da-nama-hat's convictions.
Daklakht had always been on friendly terms with the grandfatherly old guru, but
that ended after Dastardat had infected him with that copy of his own cruel
personality. Da-nama-hat recognized who was speaking out of Daklakht's mouth and
became an ardent advocate against many unfair policies Dastardat/Daklakht attempted
to enforce.
But in Shamballah and other parts of the Nokhon Nation thing were falling into
place for Da-starda-hat, even as the Negotiator Project was falling out of favor
among the Ultimate Nine Elders. Da-starda-hat had been busy putting his own
Elders into place, the balance of power was shifting towards him. Although he
still had to be patient, deaths had to seem natural or accidental.
And now, the destined Negotiator Himself--I guess that's me, the Chosen One--
finally returns to the Nohontli. Only he's been un-chosen. He also brought his
guitar along, which is forbidden skesk.
We'll see what happens next.
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