j- fortify and strike

Her journey had been long, but not arduous, nor fruitless. She left when the days were just showing promise of growing warmer, and when she reached her first mountains, the first snowmelt was rushing down from tributaries to swollen rivers and rivers to long, thawing lakes. She'd passed over grass seas and beneath thick forests, and each awoke in her a new respect for the world outside Rhaesh Dahaan. So perhaps sending Rakharo so far away was not her intention, but perhaps it would do him good.

Any new khalasar came with its problems. Time and time again she had seen Khals young and old alike unwind beneath the new pressures, new bumps. She would not have it be so for her nephew, who had been burned and plagued by sorrows. Here, she would grant stability and bring their god. And here she would die, and happier for it.

"No!" Awazzi barked. "No, I did not have to. I do not have to do anything! But if you are here to conquer the end of the world and make your home so near the poison sea, I would like to pay witness to this thing. And it is I who sent you away, was it not? You wanted safety for your girl and you found it here, though it was not what I intended." She cackled at his next statement, a low sound that bubbled from her throat. "Too different! Indeed. With the frothing poison sea so near, and so many mountains? You are no longer in Rhaesh Dahaan, Khal Rakharo. Here they do things differently and name us savages." She spit at the thought. "I lived among them once, and found no joy in their lives. Things are different here, yes. But I have come to make them less."