He took her silence as an opportunity to continue, and Eva was grateful for it. She ate it all up. “You see, in olden valco communities, disputes were resolved by strength, as valcos are physical creatures. What humans do—involving civilians and family and the weak in disputes—we saw as dishonorable. Disagreements were resolved one-to-one, and the victor was the last one standing—and in possession of the loser’s antlers.”
A brutal scalping. Eva shuddered, then thought of herself and Javier. “Were there ever disputes between males and females?”
“There were, but don’t pity the female sex. A battle between two properly trained valcos would have been a sight to behold.”
Eva’s fists curled at her sides, following his gaze to the moon. This was what she had wanted from Javier when she’d fled with him. It was what had been promised her: knowledge of her people and of a past she’d never had the opportunity to learn from. “But what if there was a dispute between a weaker person and a stronger one?”
“Valco society wasn’t perfect, I admit. Valcos are creatures of the sword and of honor to the self. However, you must forget human concepts of pride. Insults weren’t enough to cause wars. Pure valcos have high self-esteem, the kind that goes beyond the surface. An insult cannot harm you if you see yourself as superior to it. But humans came along, and although they recognized valcos as mighty creatures, they involved us in their wars for conquest, conning future generations into petty conflicts. So valco families realized the need to adjust. To discourage unions that wouldn’t immediately yield offspring, to prevent the extinction we are seeing now. That is how we arrived at a society with people like your grandmother becoming outraged over what a relationship should and shouldn’t look like. It was a change of mentality in the high society that happened through generations. But people who are courageous enough to break these human Penitent molds exist, like Do?a Feleva ?guila, for example. She had two sons to continue her legacy, but all her life, she only loved women. She once told me of the lover she lost and the act of vengeance that turned her into a killer at a young age. The first deaths she regretted, she called them.”
Eva nodded in silence, marveling at the kind of life Don Samón must have had as a confidant of Feleva ?guila.
“I’m telling you this about Do?a Feleva because I know you have heard of her. Your new mother, were she not dead. She is the truest example of how valcos used to be.”
A warm breeze enveloped them, caressing her curls, while the merriness of the joropo in the dining hall lifted her in mirth. “Javier mentioned they were harmful rumors.”
“What were?”
“Feleva’s lovers.”
Don Samón scoffed. “Don Javier was raised with human ideals, Do?a Eva, under the influence of a human king and a human governor and a human court. Just like yourself. When you do not have valco parents raising you with our teachings, then you default to the human way of life. Do?a Feleva was a caudilla; she had no time for raising children, and she didn’t live long enough to raise Javier. But Enrique had the coin to hire wet nurses. And humans brought their Pentimiento teachings with them. They colonized our lands, enslaved all they could—”
“Nozariels.”
Don Samón nodded. “And spread their beliefs. So, of course, Don Javier and Don Enrique behave like humans. Of course, they involve the weak in their strife and see their mother as a glorified queen—of the human kind. But Do?a Feleva was deeply valco. It is why she didn’t seek to conquer all Venazia. She could have. She had enough gold and iridio to oust Segol and crown herself queen. That is why she was such a valuable ally to my movement for independence.”
Even as Don Samón said it, Eva knew the same applied to him. He could have crowned himself and profited from slavery after securing independence. Instead, he let both valcos and nozariels have their freedom. Now, that she admired.
“But valcos are going extinct anyway,” she prodded, thirsty for this well of knowledge he gifted her.
“Indeed, now we have our freedom from human yoke, at the cost of many valco lives. So we must cherish what we have left. You, Javier, Enrique, Celeste, Ludivina, and a few others are the future. Carry it with pride, and never forget that.”
“So what was the point, then, to achieve this independence if it cost you your people?”
“Our people,” he corrected her, and Eva grinned. “Well, halfway through my campaign, I asked myself the same thing. I came to terms with the fact that war is bloodier than I could have ever imagined. And by partaking in it, I was no better than the valcos siding with the colonists. But I also realized that the land has changed. No longer can we be divided by what species we are. Humans and nozariels aren’t worth less than valcos. They feel just as much as I feel. They reason just as much as I reason. Did you know I was raised by a nozariel?”
“Really? Why?”
“My mother was a weak human. Rearing me put a large toll on her. So I was breastfed by an enslaved nozariel. My mother died when I was nine, and it was Xarima and my father who raised me, who told me stories of our past before the humans. I began my campaign thinking about the people born on this land, who farmed and built cities and made it prosper, yet had to send nearly half their earnings to a king across the ocean, who thought of us as nothing more than a teat to be milked. I did it for the nozariels who were brutalized by the Segolean Crown. I decided to be a champion for us all. It’s not possible to go back to the valco way of life. It is too late for that, and this land is too changed. One day we won’t be valcos and humans and nozariels. We will just be Fedrians.”
Eva met his gaze and felt the spark of a fire deep in her belly. Now she didn’t have to wonder how he’d done it, how he’d rallied thousands into following his cause. It was so easy to hear him and see what he saw.
“I was lucky that I understood my purpose from a young age, and I was able to shape my life around that. But enough about me, Do?a Eva. I am curious to know what you believe your purpose is.”
She let out a broken laugh because she couldn’t shake Javier’s words from earlier. The strongest geomancer in all Fedria. They were foolish and best left to be carried away by the wind.
“You’ve put me on the spot. That’s not an easy question to answer.”
Ludivina giggled, not with derision but with the warmth of genuine interest.
“I apologize,” Don Samón said.
“I think it’s spells.” She thought of the rush, of the craving. “Of iridio, particularly.”
Don Samón chuckled as he leaned over the balcony railing, his gaze on the cyan comet in the sky. He was a handsome man, untouched by his age, save for the lines of ample smiles. Was this otherworldly beauty normal in valcos? Her blood certainly failed her in that regard.
“It reminds me of Rahmagut,” he said, “and you will not be happy to hear what I think of iridio.”
“What do you think of it?”
“Did you know he was sole owner of the iridio rock, millennia ago?” he deflected. “I’m sure you know that as a new member of the ?guilas you will have access to that much power as well. But don’t let it consume you like it did him. Legend says Rahmagut was just a regular man who craved iridio until it drove him mad enough to consider himself a god. Some claim he succeeded in ascending. I suppose, with his legacy, he can be called a god—a treacherous, greedy one. We should thank the heroes of our past that his presence is forever gone from this world.”