Marina

Marina’s world was a play world. She and her friends loved to go into the wild and create worlds of  kind rulers and just systems for all. Of course Marina only knew the ‘all’ of the wealthy since the perimeter of her ‘wild’ was fenced in and guarded. Marina was a princess and her father and mother ruled their lands. Marina’s ‘friends’ were enslaved children from lands that her parents had conquered. Marina’s father was over protective of his daughter who he considered the most beautiful girl ever imagined. In his thinking if he allowed her to only play with the enslaved girls she would not want to visit the other girls of the elite until she was much older. The thing he did not appreciate was that in order to play Marina and her friends had to learn the languages of the conquered lands that each one was from.

When Marina was ten years old her parents were conquered by a more powerful ruler. Her father was beheaded in her presence and her mother married the new ruler. Within a year Marina had a new brother. This could be seen as a great event to Marina but her mother wanted to ensure the new kingdom would eventually be ruled by the new boy in line of succession through the blood her new husband. Her mother felt that Marina could complicate that succession by not having the ruler’s blood and show them both as outsiders. When one of the enslaved friends of Marina died the mother took the opportunity to sell Marina to a nomadic trader and inform the populace that it was Marina who had died.

The trader sold Marina far away from her mother and half brother. The family who purchased her were sea traders who moved about the shores of many lands and spoke many languages. Thus, Marina became inclined to learn to speak different dialects and languages to assist the trading of her owners. The family were not bad people and Marina was raised in comfortable appointments since the family owned several small homes along their trade routes and treated her as a part of the family. There were two other girls, a little older than Marina, and two boys who were both younger than Marina. Marina’s work included cooking, washing clothes, negotiating, navigating and teasing the market men with her beauty. She felt it was a fun life along the lines of her childhood play world.

When Marina reached her fifteenth year the family celebrated her beginning of womanhood and awarded the girl her freedom. Marina did not exactly understand what that step into freedom meant for a single adult woman. She stayed with the family and worked as she normally did. Gradually, she understood that she had the right to disagree with things and, as teenagers are prone to do, she started looking at alternatives for her future. She fell in love with the older son but their class differences made it impossible for marriage. They had a son anyway and she struck out to build her wealth enough to become a part of a better class and could marry him. The family agreed to this plan, loaned her one of their boats and took care of the baby boy.

On her travels her language skills proved valuable to many traders who hired the beautiful girl for both that skill and the possibility of romance. Marina was skilled in avoiding advances in a diplomatic manner and stayed loyal to her mission and to the father of their son. 

Fate intervened in the strangest manner. The lands were being invaded by silver beings. She heard that these things came aboard giant ships from the stars without the permission of any of the gods. There was a call to unite and defend the lands, and Marina was one of the first to join her family aboard the largest of their three vessels to attack the intruders.

Her man was wily and courageous and was among the first to die in battle. The smoke of fire balls cleared as he lay in her arms smiling and urging Marina to carry on the fight. As the fireballs hit the boats and caused serious damage Marina came up with the plan to take four youths and swim to the vessels at night and auger holes in their bottoms. This worked but a result was for the ships to land for repairs and to disembark their armies who had fireball sticks. It was found that they did not have four legs but rode atop animals taller than jaguars and that they themselves were similar to humans. But this did not deter the invading army from defeating the many rulers and eventually Marina was captured. The silver invaders assumed that she, being a cloaked woman, was a cook and she was so assigned. Marina quickly discovered that they were not silver but covered with silver armour.

Marina took a particular delight in seeing her mother’s realm destroyed. She found that both her mother and her half brother had committed suicide and lay alongside the ruler in a special tomb.

As these armies moved North conquering all or making allies along their path Marina learned the invaders’ language and was able to get a position of interpreter. She would translate ultimatums to the peoples they encountered. She could also translate the intentions of offerings and economic deals between the sides. She came to the attention of the leader of the silver people, who were becoming known as the Humans of the Rising Sun. The silver people were not thought of as human but were a similarity from the stars. People began to form the opinion that there were other people out in the heavens and began to almost worship the silver people.

Marina had another son with the leader of the Humans of the Rising Sun. She listened to his tales of the world he came from and hoped to go there with him when this conquest had ended. It seemed the sea led into the heavens on secret routes and this marvel of kingdoms of towers that were larger than any he had seen in this world of her’s. He told her of forest within homes and glass. Mirrors, clothing, make up, even the shine of pointed weapons were all fascinations for Marina that were beyond imagination. 

When the leader of the Humans of the Rising Sun took another woman and gave Marina and their son to his best friend she grew despondent, depressed and though she served as translator and later gave to his friend another child, a girl, Marina lost the will to live. She had fallen in love with the leader and stayed in love with him and never travelled to his great lands. Marina used a fireball like the type that killed her first love to end her life. 

The leader began the legend that she moved along the sea route to the land of the silver people and became immortal.