cyanza

[cyanza]

Aonu Chapter Two:

Ugh.

Hunh?!

Wait. What the…?

What happened?

Where am I?

Where’s Zarin?

Why is Azuli passed out?

Why are we laying here in this pond?

Zarin! Where are you?

The last thing I remember we were wading out into the bay to teach Zarin how to swim underwater. He’s always been uncomfortable withwater in spite of being two-thirds Aonu. But he was determinedto do his vision quest by swimming out to spend a solo night on Kermode atoll. He wanted to be like his mother and I, and do the same thing all Aonu do when we each the end of adolescence. Azuli and I have done our best to teach him all the Aonu traditions and culture in spite of being in isolation most of his life. He’s a smart, strong and wonderful kid but has never quite gotten the hang of fishing and swimming. Hunting, orienteering and crafting are more his strong suits. We were just showing him how to use blue snow to slow down his breath and stay underwater. Then suddenlyhis skin started glowing. His eyes rolled back and there was a strange, loud noise. I don’t remember what happened next, but suddenlyhere we are lying in this mountain pond.

How did we get here?

Azuli seems to be breathing, but unconscious.

Where did Zarin go?

When Azuli told me she was going to have a child I was really happy for her. Azuli had always wanted to have a big, close family to make up for us not having one growing up. She spent so much of her life feeling like she was alone in the world, and I’d hoped that even under these strange circumstances this baby would help make her feel a little more content. I’d always hoped for a big family too, but it seems like that ship has sailed – almost literally. My partner and I once talked about having children, but we never got a chance. I had to ship out for a job, and then found out on the way home that my sister needed help. I had to go rescue Azuli before I could ever go back. Leaving my partner behind is one of my greatest regrets, but when your little sister asks for help you don’t question it. You just go, and do whatever it takes. She’s the only family I have left. It’s been justme, Azuli, and Zarin for a while now.

Where the hell is Zarin?

My father, Karrak, was a mariner and made long trips across the sea in his boat, the “Aqoro.” My mother, Tigla, raised me at home. We lived in Kiibo because it was convenient for my father to visit us for a couple days every few weeks. Mother always hated it there. She got along fine with the Okuta, but she missed her Aonu tribe back home. Mother would often try to convince father to move back to Hae’ea, their home village, with uncle Thaelo. But Hae’ea wasn’t a big port, and father’s shipping schedule only went there once every two or three months. To make sure he could see us more often we stayed in Kiibo. When I got old enough father would teach me to swim, sail, and navigate. EventuallyI got to go along with him on some of the shorter trips to nearby Okuta ports, like Mawenzi, and Zira. By the time I was an adolescent I’d decided I too would become a mariner when I grew up. Our family has a long history of sailing the Great Sea, trading with the other races. Despite being slow to swim and sail, I hope Zarin will continue in the family business too. I may not be his father, but he’s still Karrak’s grandson. He has to have some Mariner tendencies in his blood if we can just unlock them. I don’t understand why he reacted like that to the blue snow, though.

What happened to him?

Where the hell is he?

Zarin!?

Okuta men and women are much more equal in social status than the Aiju women, but are not as progressive as we Aonu are used to. Okuta men aren’t used to making non-romantic relationships with women, and Okuta women found my mother’s assertiveness off-putting. She was able to make a few friends, but never very close ones. And as Aonu outisders we were never invited to the Okuta ceremonies and celebrations. It wasn’t that they excluded Aonu. They just never thought to invite us, and it was considered rude to invite oneselves. So mother got very lonely when my father and I were out on the boat for days. She didn’t mind the housework, and never expressed any interest in working on the ship, but she wanted more out of life than occasional chats with the local Okutae. One day she convinced father they should have another child to keep her company. Father was a Yang male, and his business partner and best friend, Malaq, was an Aonu Yin male. One night over drinks the three of them made promises to each other, and decided to have a child together. I’d gotten to know Malaq on the ship, and I had begun to think of him as another uncle - since I rarely saw my Uncle Thalo. Soon, I was going to get a baby sister, and Maraq would become my uncle for real. Azuli was going to be a blessing in more ways than we could have every imagined at that time. I’m so thankful for her. Without Azuli I don’t know how I would’ve made it through what was about to come next.

I hope Azuli is Okay. She’s still breathing. Her eyes are closedbut they’re twitching. What the hell happened to her? What happened to me? What happened to Zarin?

Zarin! Where are you?

Father and Uncle Malaq had justfinished packing up to leave for their next trip when mother cam home from the healers and told them she was pregnant. It was a long journey, to a distant Aiju port – Aegdni. It would be much to dangerous for me to go with them, so I had to stay home to help mother get ready for the new baby. We never saw father again. On the way home from their trip an official Aonu emissary ship stopped them. The officers boarded and gave them an ultimatum: become Aonu privateers, or go to prison and lose the ship. Another war had broken out between Aonu and Aiju in the area, and the Matriarchs forced all Aonu vessels to join the war effort. Knowing he had a child on the way, and faced with losing his ship, father reluctantlyagreed. In exchange for one fourth of the bounty, father and his crew agreed to board any Aiju ship they found in the area. They were to steal its cargo, and give the rest to the Aonu war effort. Several of the more pacifist crewmembers jumped ship the first chance they got, but most stayed. Father and his crew commandeered several Aiju-owned ships and stole their cargo. The first few werefairlyeasy, since they’d been at sea when the war started and were unprepared. After a few days, though, the Aiju crews were ready. Aiju ships began posting double guards, even at night, to try to stave off the privateers. But father’s crew was also getting better at catching them unawares. Some of the crew used blue snow to swim deep under the Aiju ships undetected. Then they would come up on the other side and climb aboard, justas father and the rest of the crew approached. The Aiju would get caught in the middle and couldn't fight both sides at the same time. Father’s crew began to get a reputation and sometimes the Aiju would give up without a fight when they saw his ship. For weeks I would go down to the docks after school to hear any news about how father was doing. Often the dockworkers would tell me an elaborate story about father’s crew. Once they had taken four ships at a time, and another time they captured several dozen Aiju soldiers. They began to call father’s boat “the Aqoro-qami,” after a legendary sea monster. I even heard crazy stories of Aiju sailors washing up on shore, describing giant sea creatures attacking their ships. I didn’t believe all the stories but was happy to hear that father was alive and well. I’d hoped that he was being successful enough that he could come home soon. With baby Azuli coming soon our family would need the bounty he was collecting.

Azuli is starting to move a little and looks like she’s trying to open her eyes.

Azuli! Are you okay?

Karrak and Malaq were a privateers for four months before the Matriarchs gave them permission to see their family. The war was beginning to wind down and there were rumors of a ceasefire. But before they could get home the worst possible thing happened. One night father’s ship was overtaken by an Aiju destroyer disguised as Aonu. The Aiju Warriors of Light had stolen a ship and continued to flythe Aonu flag to catch the privateers by surprise. They captured the crew and burned the Aqoro. The Aiju chained up the Aonu crew in the bottom of the ship, and headed back to Zaiku. They were to become prisoners of war, used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the Matriarchs. Given Karrak and the Aqoro’s reputation and value to the Aonu war effort it was a huge win for the Aiju side. But father never made it. The next night it got very cold and a huge storm began to brew. The Aiju Warriors of Light were great fighters, but terrible sailors. In the middle of the storm the ship began to toss and turn in the waves. Someone accidentallyleft a porthole open, and a huge wave crashed through, drenching father and his crew. Several of the soaking-wet crewmen and women got very sick, but survived the journey. Karrak wasn’t so lucky. He caught a chill and died shivering the next night. Malaq knew that father would not have wanted to be buriedin Zaiku, and that the Aiju would never allow his body to be shippedhome. So he convinced the Aiju to throw father overboard and give him a burial at sea. Malaq and the rest of the crew spent four months in a Zaiku prison waiting for the war to end. When the ceasefire was finally reached, Malaq was released and came back to tell us what happened. Soon after, Azuli was born.

Azuli is breathing heavilynow, and twitching. Her eyes justshot wide open and are glowing pink.

Azuli! Are you OK?

Malaq was still very sick when he came back from the war, and never recovered enough to go back to sailing. The Okuta healers knew very little about the kind of lung diseases you get from nearly drowning and freezing to death. By the time he got to see a traveling Aonu healer the damage was done and there was little she could do to help. Malaq died four years later after a long, slow decline. It devastated mother to lose yet another partner, and she was depressedfor a very long time. She used to spend most of her time at the Kiibo tavern, drinking away her sorrows. That’s where she met another Aonu mariner who promised he’d love her, and take her with him. I was nearlyan adult, and mother couldn’t stand living in Kiibo any longer. Her new partner didn’t want us kids along on his ship, so mother left me to finish my schooling and take care of Azuli. As an Aonu adolescent in an foreign Okuta city, without a family to support me, and a four-year-old sister to raise, I did my best to survive. I worked odd jobs in the evenings, and Azuli made deliveries and ran errands for people during the day. Every night I would come home and teach her to read and write. She took to learning like a fish to water. Whenever she wasn’t making deliveries she was reading books from the Kiibo archives. She started school just as I graduated and was able to work more to support us. Azuli accelerated through the Kiibo school faster than anyone, and was only a few years away from graduating when I signed up to be on the crew of an Aonu trading vessel. The Inikae, was a lot like our father’s ship, and made a lot of the same trips. I impressed the captain with my navigation skills, so when I said Azuli needed to come along he agreed - as long as she stayed out of the way. She wouldn’t eat much and could help clean. After four years we got a better commission on another ship, fishing for purple tuna. I was the navigator, and Azuli showed a knack for reading the star charts with me. She was also a good climber, so she worked a lot of shifts up in the crow’s-nest spotting pods of dangerous leviathan. We sold our purple tuna all over the world. The port cities we visited were full of a diverse range of people from other races, so we began to learn about their cultures and languages. Azuli learned much faster than me, and it was no surprise when she told me she wanted to become a language teacher. She knew Okuta, Aiju, and Qexaal better than anyone I’ve ever met. On her 16th birthday we dropped her off at Hae’ea University and wished her luck. Not that she needed it. Azuli has always been one of the smartest, most talented people I’ve ever known, and she’s good at anything she decides to be good at.

I hope Azuli is ok. The strange glow in her eyes is fading, and they're slowly turning back to aqua again. She’s starting to gasp for breath, and staring right through me. What happened to her? What happened to Zarin?

Zarin!!

Azuli did really well at Hae’ea University and excelled in all her classes, but especially in linguistics and cultural studies. By her fourth year she knew more about Okutaculture and Qexaal language than her two exchange student roommates from Zira and Ytza. She made close friends with lots of her fellow students but was shy most of the time. It was the first time in her life she was among his people her own age. Until then her only friends were a bunch of sailors and fisherman. Eventually though she learned Hae’ea Universityculture just like the foreign ones she was studying, and became less awkward. She made friends with quite a few male Aonu students, but most of them thought she was too weird and nerdy to be datable. But then there was Qawa. Qawa was an older student, my age, who studied marine ecology. He recognized Azuli’s talent and intelligence, and wasn’t turned off by her social awkwardness. They hit it off immediately and began dating. They were together nearly all of her fourth year, but right before graduation some of the professors pressured Qawa into breaking it off. They thought he was too old for her. Azuli was devastated. After graduating they both got jobs teaching in their fields, but at different schools. Azuli went to teach at AegdniAcademy and Qawa to the Ytza Institute. After four months Qawa visited Azuli and they spent a romantic weekend together. When he left her, he said he loved her, but they could never be together. He needed to focus on his new job in Ytza. It really broke Azuli’s heart and she was so sad she could barely teach the next week. One of her Aiju coworkers, Mikado, noticed she was depressed. He’d secretly wanted Azuli, and saw his opportunity to make his move. He invited her for drinks with the pretense of chatting and consoling her. Instead he gave her too much, and when she got too drunk to say no, he took advantage. In the morning she ran out, yelling that she never wanted to talk to him again. A week later she knew something was wrong. She wasn’t just upset, she felt like she was actually sick. The Aegdni healers did lots of tests, but couldn’t find anything unusually wrong. Then they told her she was pregnant. She didn’t know how it was possible, but somehow she was carrying the hybrid baby of Qawa and Mikado. That’s how we got Zarin.

Where the hell is Zarin? Zarin!!!

Aonu-Aiju mixed children are very rare. Most Aonu and Aiju can’t get along well enough to even eat a meal together, much less have a baby. And the probability of an Aiju and a Yin Aonu male impregnating a female Aonu within 4-8 days is incredibly low. Zarin was one in a quadrillion. Most hybrids end up with a combination of the traits of both races. All hybrids end up smaller than average, and look much younger than children the same age. Zarin has golden-orange hair, pinkish gray skin, and bright aqua eyes. Even though he’s nearly 16, he’s about as tall as I was at 8, and looks like he’s no more than 12. Before Azuli and I took him to live on a remote island by ourselves, Zarin had a hard time with people always talking down to him. Everyone always assumed he was much younger than he is. 

Zarin’s small enough, that I completely missed seeing him at the top of that distant hill. He must’ve climbed up to figure out where we are. It’s probably too windy up there for him to even hear me. 

Zarin can you hear me?!?

When Aegdni Academy found out Azuli was pregnant with an Aonu-Aiju hybrid child they were furious. Aiju conservatism had lightened up enough to allow teachers and students from other races at the school, but the idea of an Aonu professor having a hybrid child was out of the question. They immediately fired Azuli right in the middle of the semester, and hired an Aiju to replace her. Azuli tried to explain that it was Mikado’s fault, but they didn’t believe her. Azuli was left with no job, little money, and a tarnished reputation. And a hybrid child that was not likely to be excepted when he was born. She used the last of her money for passage to Hae’ea, where she new I kept an apartment near the port. I’d been staying there in-between fishing trips occasionally. I came home to find a very pregnant sister on the floor in tears. I did my best to take care of her, but I didn’t have much money either. And I had to tell my captain I was too sick to sail the last week of her pregnancy because she couldn’t get out of bed. 

Azuli could barely move then and is barely moving now. I don’t understand why she isn’t waking up.

Azuli! Wake up!! Are you ok?

When Zarin was finally born, we were overjoyed, until we saw that he didn’t look Aonu. He had Azuli’s bright aqua eyes and his nose and chin looked like hers, but his skin was definitely not in the same color. The doulas gave us strange looks but never said anything. It’s not uncommon for Aonu mothers to give birth without either of the fathers there. The Yin males usually aren’t invited, and the Yang males are often at sea. Hybrid Aonu children happen occasionally, but usually in large cities where the four races intermingle more. But it was obvious that Zarin was not Okuta - his skin wasn’t rough or amber-brown. And there was no way he was Qexaal- he lacked the silvery violet feathers. When Zarin’s bright orange hair started coming in we knew we were in for trouble. His orange hair and pinkish skin make him stand out against the sky up there. It’s a good thing, too, or I might not have seen him. We Aonu tend to blend in with the sky a bit.

Zarin! Can you hear me! Something’s wrong with Azuli! Come back and help us!

Aonu culture is very liberal and excepting of others. We generally get along well with two of the other three races, and only the most conservative Aonu would think anything strange about having a mixed-race child. There have been Aonu-Qexaaland Aonu-Okuta counselors and matriarchs. Counselor Yanza was nearly elected to the Tetrarchy. Most Aonu islands have a few hybrids, and in the largest archipelago villages, about 4% of the population is mixed-race. The issue with Zarin was that he was 1/3 Aiju, and looked it. That’s why we moved to a tiny remote island to raise him.

[cyanza]

Aonu

Forty-eight Forty-seven Forty-six I definitely caught him off guard, but now he’s starting to struggle. Reflexes and quick thinking are something you either have or you don’t. You can teach skills but you can’t teach instincts. Up until this moment I would’ve sworn I didn’t have them. But now when I actually need them, here we are. I guess I’ve never been put to the test like this before. It’s the first time in my life that so much depends on me, so in the moment I acted without thinking. My reaction was quick, but was it the right reaction? I don’t know what came over me. If I can hold him I should be able to keep him down here until he passes out. I figure I can hold my breath for at least a couple of minutes, and we’ve been down here for almost a minute now. I didn’t think to start counting right away, though, and this isn’t exactly water we’re in. I have no idea what happens when someone inhales blue snow. I hope I don’t have to find out the hard way. Forty-five Forty-four Forty-three Blue snow isn’t really snow. It isn’t really blue either. It’s sort of a pale cyan color that becomes translucent when the light hits it right. And its structure is more like a bunch of semi-solid glass spheres all about the size of your fist. It’s like water, but somewhere between liquid and solid state. It’s like bubbles filled with water on the inside and air on the outside, not the other way around. Its true name is Qae, and it’s the sacred element of my people, the Aonu. We’re the only ones who call it blue snow, and we’re named for it. In the ancient language “Ao-Nu” meant “children of elemental water.” Each race has it’s own name for elements based on how it affects them. We call it blue snow because when it touches us our skin turns the same turquoise color, and it feels cool on our skin. That’s not all it does, though. It makes us more alert, quicker and stronger when we’re exposed to it. It helps us hold our breath longer, too, which I guess is why we’ve always been much more amphibious than the other races. The more blue snow we’re exposed to, the quicker our pulses and the faster our metabolisms go. The other races seem to have the opposite reaction. Touching it only creates a  mild effect - consuming it multiplies the reaction. If you’re not careful you can overdose and your heart can give out. No one I know has ever been exposed to a huge amount of blue snow, though. They say it would make you chronicly sick and eventually you’d lose your mind. Half an hour exposed to blue snow is  about like 5 shots of espresso, and a couple shots of liquor. An hour or so could make your heart beat so fast you’d pass out, or even worse. That’s the other reason I’m counting. We were already wading in the blue snow for about 20 minutes before we heard the Aiju. Forty-two Forty-one Forty The Matriarchs tell stories about ancient zerkers who would expose themselves to Qae before battle. It would make them fierce and almost invulnerable. Some say the zerkers would eat it to metamorphose into hybrid creatures. That seems outlandish, but blue snow is definitely a mysterious and magical substance. Our fishers use tiny amounts to help them stay underwater when hunting. Blue snow in small, controlled doses also helps control the symptoms of a lot of chronic diseases. Healers use it to soothe pain, slow infections, and help patients with vision and hearing problems. It won’t completely restore someone’s sight, but it definitely helped me. When I was young I wasn’t able to see well enough to read or recognize faces from a distance. But now my vision is almost normal. We also use Qae to keep our food cool so it doesn’t spoil, and purify the salt water so we can drink it. Some of our tinkers have been figuring out how to harness its power to make motors and engines and things. Blue snow has other mystical uses that most of us don’t know anything about. And the Matriarchs sometimes drop hints that the ancient Aonu used Qae for a lot more than we do now. Thirty-nine Thirty-eight Thirty-seven This Aiju kid is struggling hard now, but I definitely have the size advantage on him. I was a late bloomer. I went from a scrawny little kid to a broad-shouldered, barrel-chested adult. I wasn’t able to join the military because of my poor vision. It’s a good thing too, because I was so week and skinny I never would’ve survived initiation. My muscles didn’t kick in until several years later. Now I’m almost twice as heavy as I was then. Not actually fat, but heavier than average. And I’m thankful for the extra bulk right now because it’s definitely helping me keep us under. He’s strong, but I’m a lot bigger than him. Why are you here, young Aiju? The Qae mountain has been ours for centuries, and must be very far from your borough. Zaiku must be at least 4 days journey west, and I know that’s the closest Aiju borough to here. I once hiked up Zameru peak, the highest point in the archipelago, to watch the moonrise. I could see light from Zaiku off in the western distance, but I’ve never been there. If the Aiju are harvesting here they must be desperate for pure elements. Could they have depleted their own supplies of elemental Jyo?. When pure Jyo is like a semi-liquid form of light. It flows from streams that come up from beneath the ground. The Aiju have built most of their boroughs nearby a major Jyo stream. They collect it and use it much like we use Qae, and it affects them in similar ways. I’ve heard that the Aiju call it “Pink Juice.” Thirty-six Thirty-five Thirty-four I’ve never even seen anyone else at the Qae mountain before. It’s only been my family members and me before. Each of the 8 islands has their own day to harvest the blue snow. Today is the first day of Neptember, so there shouldn’t be any other Aonu harvesting. Our family and the other three harvesting families on our island keep a strict schedule. No other Aq’omi should be here. When we got to the mountain today my niece, Naia, wanted to climb up to see if she could see Aq’oma from the top. I told her she could try, but not to climb too high. The Qae is much less stable up near the top, and I didn’t want her to start some kind of avalanche. But I figured it couldn’t hurt, since it’s her first time. and we were moving much faster today than usual. Naia walks much faster than her grandma. She got about 10 fathoms up when she said she thought she heard voices. I started climbing up to tell her she was crazy and she needed to come help us harvest instead of making up stories. But then sure enough I thought I heard them too. At first I thought it was some kind of echo, but then I heard a few words in a language that was definitely not Aoni. In a whisper I told Naia to slide back down near her mother and hide in the blue snow. The voices coming from the other side must be from another race, or from one of the nomadic tribes. Either one is a dangerous situation. Thirty-three Thirty-two Thirty-one In the tetraverse the four core elements make up everything. The first element “Xuu” is the densest and most solid. It’s the primary element in soil, rocks, minerals, metals, and our flesh. It symbolizes strength, defense, construction, and growth. The second element “Qae” is fluid. It’s the primary element in water, blood, and other liquids. It symbolizes speed, communication, health, transition, and adaptation. The third element “Zai” is gaseous. It’s the primary element in the sky, space, and in our breath. It symbolizes speech, music, wisdom, vitality, sanctity, and leadership. The fourth element “Jyo” is the most plasmic and energetic. It’s the primary element in light, heat, and fire. It fuels our hearts and symbolizes power and war, love and violence. These four elements compose all things in various proportions. Some things like clouds, lava, mud, and lightning are composed of only two or three elements.  Boulders, rivers, wind, sunlight, and a few other things are primarily one element. But the four elements are rare to find in their pure forms and are treasured. Each element is sacred to one of our races and we have fought many wars to protect our rights to their pure elemental forms. Thirty Twenty-nine Twenty-eight It takes three of us to carry enough Qae back to the island each week. We fill up our packs with five and half gallons each, to replace the octave our island uses up every eight days. It’s about an hour hike, a two hour paddle, and another hour hike up to the mountain. Getting here and back usually takes all day. Aq’oma, our island, has a small storage in case of emergencies. But we depend on the weekly journeys to the Qae mountain to keep our island healthy and thriving. My sister, my niece and I are on harvest duty today. Every 16 weeks it’s my family’s turn. Naela and I have been harvesting for our family since we became adolescents, but this is Naia’s first time. When Naia finished the academy last month she became one of our family’s three harvesters. Ceru, my mother, will now get to spend more time teaching. It was a relief to Naela and I, because Ceru was trying to do too many things at her age. I’m glad she'll get to focus on the difficult task of teaching our culture and history to the kids back on Aq’oma. Her specialty is language and traditions. Other teachers focus on botany, engineering, mathematics, and philosophy. I remember my old teacher, Achelon used to bring samples of Qae and the other elements into lessons for use to see. It was too dangerous for us to touch them as kids, though. We have to gradually build up our tolerances to pure elements. And each race can only handle one element safely. We all have drastically different reactions to touching other elements in their pure forms. What will happen to this young Aiju after this much exposure to the blue snow? I hope it doesn't kill him. I only want him to pass out so I can protect our Qae. Twenty-seven Twenty-six Twenty-five This is only the second Aiju I’ve ever seen. When I was a kid there was a meeting of the four races to reconcile our differences and promote peace. Each race elected a representative to negotiate trade, territories, and diplomacy in the Tetrarchy . The Tetrarchy granted exclusive rights to harvest pure elements to each of the specific races. Only Aonu can harvest Qae. Only the Oq’uta can mine for Xuu – elemental glow crystals. Only the Qexaal can gather Zai, element harmonic wind. And only the Aiju can collect Jyo. As a show of solidarity and peace, the four representatives went on a global procession after the Tetrarchal Convergence. My family went to the festival when they visited our island.  I remember seeing Aonu Senator Qamaera, her husband Jaenbu, and a girl about my age up on the platform. They were next to a strange rose-skinned man that my mother told me later was Senator Ryuji. His wife and family weren’t part of the visiting party. No other Aiju have ever visited the archipelago since then, and the Aonu and Aiju have preseserved a détente. It’s not exactly peace, but we stay out of each other’s way. Aonu visit Oq’uta and Qexaal territory all the time. I’ve been to Ptaeryx, Qyntaan, and Ytza many times to trade for our Qae for their Zai. I often go to Kiibo, Mawenzi, and Zira to trade for their Xuu. Oq’uta and Qexaal merchants even live on our Aonu islands and in their Aiju boroughs. But no Aonu I know has ever visited a Aiju borough or had direct contact with one before. Trade and business between Aonu and Aiju is always done through a third party in a neutral district. As far as I know this young Aiju is the first one to set foot on the Archipelago in at least a generation. But if he’s here, does that mean there could be others with him? How would an Aiju even get here by himself? Twenty-four Twenty-three Twenty-two We Aonu from Aq’oma have always practiced, safe, sustainable harvesting. After filling our packs we measure the size of the Qae mountain to make sure it hasn’t gotten any smaller. This is Naia’s first time so she’s supposed to do the calculations. I’ve been measuring the blue snow with the octant and qubit for decades. Naela doesn’t like doing it. She never minded the hiking, paddling and harvesting, but she was never interested in math. Math comes easy to me so I’ve always done the calculations when it was her turn. We always get the same answer for the volume of the Qae mountain, within standard deviation. I don’t know how the mountain replenishes itself, but somehow it makes about 16 gallons more each week. If we were to harvest more, it wouldn’t make quite as much, and the next week the mountain would be smaller. Forty years ago my grandfather figured out that the blue snow pile had been getting smaller. Rebels from Ma’ano, the island to the east of ours were harvesting extra blue snow in an attempt to overtake Hae’ea, another Aonu island. After that the Matriarchs started regulating the days each island can harvest, and how much they can take. Since then none of the Aonu islands have fought for dominance, and the Qae mountain has always stayed the same. I wonder what kind of regulations the Aiju have about collecting their sacred element, Jyo? If they’re desperate enough to invade our mountain there must be something wrong with their Jyo streams. Twenty-one Twenty Nineteen The Aiju and Aonu have a long, very complicated, very contentious history. The four races are very different, but Aiju and Aonu are complete opposites in many ways. Aiju have rosey pink skin with magenta eyes and orange hair. They never grow beards and the women never cut their hair. Aonu have skin the color of seafoam and jade green eyes. Our hair is olive, but most men shave their heads and grow long sea-green beards instead. Aiju prefer to live in large boroughs and rarely travel. We Aonu go all over the archipelago and travel to other places often - except to Aiju boroughs. Aiju men are aggressive, loud and belligerent. They always try to have the last word and attempt to sound like experts in whatever they talk about. They’re very short-tempered, especially when someone implies that they are wrong. The Aiju women never speak to anyone but their fathers, husbands, and female relatives. Aonu men and women see each other as equals, but the women take more of the leadership roles. Aonu women are more dominant than Aonu men, and we men honor and cherish our women. All Aonu understand the importance of equality and treating everyone with respect. Aiju believe in strict monogamy and mate for life. Most Aiju have arranged marriages via a contract between the two fathers. Infidelity is punishable by sterilization or banishment. Our Aonu society is structured quite differently. because we live in large families with many partners. Aonu women often have several male consorts and the men usually help raise the children too. Most Aonu nuclear families are part of large clans under a consortium of Matriarchs. My mother’s mother is a member of the Matriarchal Consortium for Aq’oma, just like her mother before her. Eighteen Seventeen Sixteen I am named after of my mother’s father, and like him I am a storyteller. I don’t know much about my father’s family, so I am a lot closer to the grandparents and cousins on my mother’s side. Mindaro, the man who helped raise me, is my father, but not in the way most Aonu think of fathers. Like all Aonu I actually have two fathers. Aonu females develop eggs in their wombs without any genetic material, so we mate in trios. Aonu males have one of two different genes necessary to fertilize eggs and create children in the female’s womb. To get pregnant an Aonu woman has to mate with one of each kind of male within about four days or the egg doesn’t fertilize. Aonu men are either yin or yang depending on what kind of genes they have. Yin Aonu men are more sensitive, compassionate, quiet, intelligent, and creative than others. Other Yang Aonu men are more aggressive, athletic, independent and louder than others. Some folks refer to the Aonu trio as Male, Female, and Threemale, since the yin male is the third most important. Most Aonu females are dominant, but let the yang males feel like they’re actually in charge. Yang males are usually referred to as “father” because they dominate the less-assertive yin males. That’s why Aonu yin fathers are often called “uncle” - their status is less important than a father. My sister and I call Mindaro “father." For many years we’d assumed he was our yang father and that our uncle Nyanza was my yin father. As I grew up, though, we learned that Uncle Nyanza was actually my mother’s brother and Mindaro was my yin father. A few years ago I figured out that my yang father, Khombu, left my mother, the night my sister and I were conceived. He never came back and Mindaro had to help our mother raise us. He struggled in the father role without the help of assertive yang genes, and got very depressed. Eventually he felt he’d failed us all and withdrew from our family socially. He still lives in the house with my mother, but they rarely speak except when my mother sends him to do errands. I’ve never met Khombu. I’ve always longed to have a yang father to teach me how to be more masculine and assertive. I have no idea where it came from today when I dove into the blue snow and grabbed this Aiju. Fifteen Fourteen Thirteen I can feel the young Aiju’s pulse slowing down. He’s either getting weaker or I’m getting stronger. Probably both. I hope he’ll stop struggling and pass out before I need to come up to breathe. Not that I can’t keep holding my breath. Somehow it’s actually getting easier the longer I’ve been down here in the blue snow. I’m worried I'll go crazy, though, or my heart might burst if I’m down here too long.  What happens when you’re submerged in blue snow for 10 minutes? What am I going to do with this Aiju once he passes out? Will he pass out? I hope I’m not killing him. I’m not a murderer. I’m  defending my home, my family, and my culture, right? Aonu learn from an early age about defending our way of life, especially from Aiju. Maybe that’s what kick-started my attack earlier. But I have no idea what I’m doing, though, or if it’s the right thing. I know this Aiju is not supposed to be here, and I have to do something about it. We can’t let the Aiju steal our blue snow, but is that really what he was doing? I hope this only knocks him out and I can figure out what to do next. I doubt he was here all alone, though. There’s no way he wandered here all by himself, and he was talking to someone else earlier. The other Aiju have probably noticed that he disappeared and are searching for him right now. An Aonu his age would never make a trip like this alone, so I can’t imagine why an Aiju kid would be here with no one else around. Twelve Eleven Ten At the start of adolescence each Aonu takes a small sample of blue snow and swims to the Kermode atoll for a vision quest. We spend the night alone with our thoughts and listen to what the ocean has to tell us. We swim back in the morning and choose our new names and societal roles. That was when I took the name Aavri after my mother’s father. Mindaro wanted me take the name of his fathers, Otari or Zalo, both of whom were warriors. My father always wanted to be a warrior, but was too meek. He also had to spend a lot more time working after Khombu left. I never wanted to be a warrior. I’m not much of a fighter, and I’ve always been much more pacifistic. I’m more creative and communicative than athletic and aggressive. I’m pretty sure I’m threemale – a yin male. I’ve never gotten tested. And none of my past partners have ever gotten pregnant, so I can’t compare myself to their other partners. But I am definitely more on the sensitive side. Being threemale is tough, especially without a strong father figure to raise you. It seems like women tend to be more attracted to males who are assertive and athletic. I’m pretty strong, but awkward and uncoordinated. Some  yang male-female couples invite a yin male to mate with them for reproductive purposes. But that has always felt like a shallow reason for an affectionate relationship. Nonetheless I keep ending up as the third wheel in most of my relationships. I make closer friendships with women because we’re both communicative and compassionate. Yang male friendships feel shallow to me so I don’t have many. But I’ve made deeper friendships with a couple other yin male friends who are always single like me. None of us have much luck attracting women. We tend to be most attracted to assertive, dominant women who aren’t afraid to speak their minds. Unfortunately most of those women are attracted to yang males, or to each other. We yin males are much more sensitive, and it often takes me months to recover after a heartbreak. As I’ve gotten older I’ve decided to put less energy and emphasis into sexual relationships. I'm tired of being hurt and disappointed. There's not much chance I'll ever have children at this point, but I’m already a real uncle to Naia. If I were to have my own biological children they would only call me uncle anyway. I hope Naia and Naela are ok over on the other side of the mountain. Nine Eight Seven The Aiju kid has stopped struggling, but he’s still breathing. I hear something strange, though. There's a distant sound that feels like it’s coming from inside my own head. I’ve been concentrating so hard on holding my breath and staying under that I didn’t notice it at first. It’s like a rhythmic wave and a whisper at the same time, but I can’t understand it. There are no words, but the voice feels familiar somehow. Now that I’m paying attention, I can hear other noises outside my head but nearby, like ripples in the river. I hear movement to my left. Yes, it’s definitely coming from that direction. There are long shadows moving around a little ways away. The blue snow is somehow translucent even though we’re on the opposite side from the sun.  And I can see now that those are definitely legs wading through the blue snow towards me. But not moving directly at me, so I don’t think they know we’re here yet. That other sound in my head is getting louder, though, and more familiar. Not just familiar… familial. Almost like when my sister and I were in the womb together - no words, only sounds and feelings. Naela must be trying to tell me something. If they’ve been hiding like I told them to, she and Naia are also submerged in the blue snow still. All our senses must be heightened now, and it’s like she’s using some kind of mental sonar to communicate. There’s no time to figure it out now, though, because I have to do something about this Aiju before the other two find me. Six­ Five Four