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The Waters of Caladan

Caladan is paradise. It's oceans are by far the most lovely of all the worlds know to man. The water born of the sky forms streams creating lakes. Lakes birthing great rivers that cut through forest, jungle, meadow and swamp alike rushing to the great mother sea. Water is life and death on Caladan. For it births the eternally fruitful gardens and the ever growing savage forest. It brings overflowing chalices of thirst quenching wines, beers, juices, and water and it shatters the land whittling away at river bends and bring down whole mountains. The stories of this water once held in trance the lover of one god and the mother of yet another. Two great and terrible gods born from what in all the known universe was called the softest of all planets. This not there story. There story has long since been told.

Rather I will tell you of the humble Tradeth family. The Tradeth own and manage the vineyards of Kalm the southern continent. They've kept good ties with the wotte coastal fishing villages and the delta centered ravai managed rice farms. In fact whether the flood wash away the seeds of the summer harvest or an especially proliferate algae bloom kills off the spring catch, the Tradith have always been there to manage the resulting economic lows."God gave Caladan the Atradis and to Kalm the Tradeth." the old would say even as the young forgot there meaning.

It is a special occasion to drink a Kalmen wine. "Ovlea and a Kalm and San Azi will be grand" the saying goes. Such where the blessings of the vine with the Tradeth that each generation had met the duke at least once. Such honors had been noted by the Baigee families that managed Kalm in the Dukes name. The baigee nobles seeking to stay in good favor with the Duke and foil any chance the Tradeth would gain a noble title, kept the Lord or Lady Tradeth as council.

The floods had been good to the rice farmers this year but the excess silt that met the sea would have ruined the seasons catch if not for Lord Olaf buying silt twice the going rate for his new apple orchards and ten or so new gardens he would construct that year. During the fall of that year Lord Olaf received in his home for the second time Duke Leto Atradies. Officially the duke would congratulate Lord Tradeth for what would surely be a fine year for his labels and to once again jokingly attempt to bribe production secretes. Unofficially the Duke would encouraged Olaf to keep an eye on the rubbery gray skinned baigee.

Understandably Olaf was too occupied to mind his son very much, except to note that Paul the Duke's son had markings on his silken coat that where the very mirrored image of his own young wosser jak pup. Which brought to mind his own resemblance to the Duke he shook the grandiose thought out of his mind while he attended his most honored guest.

Never one to miss a golden opportunity Luther quickly came up with a plan to make the most of his fathers absent mindedness. First he would invite his most loyal friend Nehal a wotte girl. She inspired in him a dangerous curiosity. One she gladly provoked and encouraged with grand misadventures. Her favorite of coarse where any where her oiled fur and strong tail would leave him in her mist as she swam away at twice the speed his legs could muster. On this occasion though the adventure took a very different form . Luther would go into the vault and take a box of ovlea. A box contained maybe twenty wafers. Luther had been given one on each of his birthdays and one on San Azimuth's Mas each year a great luxury his friend had shared maybe twice in his life. In this manner although Luther was Nehal's senior by a month she looked a good year maybe two older than him.

Ovlea gave a sharpness of mind to most that borders on a temporary high. Some would be able to envision great masterpieces others could feel the flow of the world as though for the first time. Luther was special he became sharp as a tack grasping impossibly complex ideas in mere moments and on the night of his birthday or San Azi he would always dream. A powerful clear dream that showed peeks of words and places that he would visit later in the year.

While his father and the service catered to the Duke . Luther crept into the vault where valuables where kept far from wandering eyes and hands. On the walls where wine rack with two dozen or so bottles of the best years the yards had produced for maybe ten centuries. Some where kept in frictionless boxes to prevent further aging or spoiling. A bottle of one of the best years had gone for almost a gram. In the center was table 6 inches of the ground and with precious furs stacked 5' tall. In one of the coverts was his goal amongst 20 others, as many as you could keep without bringing supervision upon your self. Luther and Nehal divided the ovlea thirteen for Nehal to eat later to make up for the ones she hadn't been gifted in past birthdays and seven for them to eat all at once between the two.

Luther bit down on the first wafer enjoy how the crisp cookie disintegrated giving way to the sweetness of the underlining sugar. Through the sugar was always a new flavor never once was melange the same in aroma or character. This time he sensed the bite of fresh cardamom followed by the sultry sweetness of saffron and wildflower honey. While his mind reveled in the aromas he felt them focus his thought like lens coming to just the right distance. Suddenly he felt a terrible purpose in his action and himself. Next he took a second disk. This time the aroma was more savory equal parts coriander and cumin. He felt in that moment a great cherishing love for Nehal. Luther faced this fact with unease and anxiety who source he could not tell. A third. This one was mild pundy rice and buffalo milk cooked with honey. The unease grew stronger as he remembered the face of the son of his father guest. His own face except the lips where all wrong. Had only six ovlea remained in that box for them to divide Luther may have lived an ordinary life like the ones common to the people of Caladan. Never the less there where in fact seven pieces. Luther took the seventh disk broke it passed half to his cherished friend and bit down.