Chapter Five.

Chapter Five.
     A hundred hungry mouths clamouring for food, for water, for space to live in. Of course
with resources becoming so scarce the Effecti proved incapable of meeting any of their
own needs and the Vashni, being who they were could not bear to see another suffer. Yet 
the means to provide grew smaller and smaller till they found themselves giving up even
what they owned themselves to the Effecti so that if an Effecti child was abandoned on 
the street (and having so many the Effecti thought nothing of abandoning offspring who
grew too troublesome to care for; for this had become their way under the rule of 
Baakdar) they would say to the Vashni “why does this child go hungry? Why do you not 
help care for it?” and if a Vashni said “but I already have five Effecti children in my 
household how can I care for more ?” the Effectian would say “but are you not Vashni? 
You have always had more than we! Why are you so reluctant to share it?”. When an 
Effectian was hurt in one of their daily feuds they would say that
the ill Vashni should be put from the hospital bed for the reason
that Vashni never fought and so were rarely 
injured(only by accident) and so it was the Effecti who were so quarrelsome who needed 
the bed. Indeed they would if the land of Vashni could only provide a better standard of 
living they would fight less. It was Baakdar who whispered these words in their ears for
 they could not have thought of them themselves.

Within a generation there were five hundred Effecti to each Vashni. Fighting, 
crying, needy,breeding Effecti. As was their way if an Effecti cried
 a Vashni would try to console him but what to do when in their hundreds 
of thousands the wept and mewled and snapped at and wounded each other?
 Can you imagine how it was for a race of 
psychics?



Ann’s throat was dry, her heart pounding in her chest. For a few brief minutes 
during Gwyddionn’s story she had rejoiced at the thought of meeting this race of
 psychics. To find that they had been wiped out…and in such a manner! How
 clever this Baakdar was! It was torture for a mind reader to even think of how he 
had finished them.


“Gwyddionn this must be the first time I’ve heard of
 a nation being conquered via emotional burnout.”


“Ingenious, wasn’t it?” In fact it took two more generations before the most of the
 Vashni had starved to death. Many of the rest took their own lives. Some, a straggling
 few immigrated here. We welcomed them with open arms of course.

“Gwyddionn, one question, those little guys I saw at the castle. The ones I was
 calling monkey men. I remember now that they all had psychic voices. I could feel them
 even though I’m not sure that they sensed me. You called them adVashni at one point;
 are they the same as Vashni? Are they leftover Vashni who’ve become part of Baakdars 
army?

The adVashni as a race is a scant five generations old. They are the product of the
Dark One’s…breeding programme. 

Oh my God!!! Is there something about being a dictator and breeding
 programmes? Like you just don’t make the grade until you have your own racially 
selective science unit for churning out people with six fingers and what have you


Yes the adVashni have six fingers. How did you know?


Nevermind, so anyway  who did he breed to make these adVashni?


First of all I should tell you that the Effecti under Baakdar had degenerated
indeed,although slow witted they were once a noble and goodly race.
He bred them for fighters first of all, each generation in the camps
 they wiped out the meek, the kindly, the soft
 hearted.
 Then when they were vicious enough he…domesticated them. Bred them for 
loyalty. Bred them to have unthinking, unquestioning minds. Like a
vicious dog loyal to only its owner. Some of them he bred so lowly 
they became…well you remember those beasts I told about the ones
the Effecti brought with them to the lands of the Vashni?
 and how it was said they were almost of the same intelligence as the Effecti?


“My God, they were Effecti?”


Yes, but bred near to beasthood. The adFecti they were called.
 One of the saddest sights I have seen is an adFecti, a throwback if
you will, of quite high intelligence who could 
neither rest
comfortably on two legs nor walk properly on four. Wished to speak but 
could emit only a semblance of speech from his bestial mouth. He was a great source of 
amusement to his Effecti masters.

      Baakdar rode in glorious triumph six lifetimes ago into
 the realm of the Vashni. He revelled in his victory as he looked
 upon the ruins of the greatest culture in this world. They
 were utterly lost. The resistance they mounted less than useless.
 Here and there a starving, exhausted Vashni lay clinging to life.
 You can imagine to the Dark One these beings of light were like
 gold. Why if only he could harness the powers that lay in them,
 their fleetness of foot, there innate Magick, their abilities in
 mind speak what an army he would create. With Legions of Vashni
 by his side he would finally wipe out the Osgoths and finish off
 the newly resilient Serpians. Then he could turn his attention to
 us here in Walsmagickland; but those dratted Vashni. They bred slowly,
 were now few in number and it was said that their blood was so
 strong that one who was even a quarter Vashni had a trace of no 
other features but Vashni in them. He would have to breed them
 weak or they might destroy him. For a race which was a quarter 
adVashni might be more warlike and near as strong as the original
 and unlikely to serve one such as him.

He had them rounded up, the tens who remained and had them beaten
 and strapped down. A few he tortured himself for fun and had his
 middling Serpian -descended sorcerers weave spells over them to
 keep them weak. Then he bred them with the adfecti.

With animals?!? 

No Ann, not animals in truth for they were once men though bestial.
 He needed to do this as he needed to degrade the bloodline as
 much as possible. It is said that some true horrors were born of
 this forced interbreeding. Some of our own women used to weep 
as they could feel the post-partum cries of Vashni women in their
 minds as they were torn between instinctive love for their newborns
 and repulsion at their hideous offspring. Let me tell you there
 was no solace for them in that cold Kingdom now. The best of the
 children of these unions looked Vashni. Thus most were killed
 or crippled before their mothers eyes lest they grow strong and 
troublesome. Once old enough and adequately weakened they were 
kept for breeding themselves. He wanted a race with the talents
 of the Vashni but who he could command to attack and would 
unquestioningly do his bidding like the Effecti. The adVashni 
is the name of these mixed off-spring.

Which is why I sensed close to eighty psychic voices in the castle
 when you magicked me there. They were for the most part quite
 weak though.

You are correct Ann. Baakdar did a bad job for the Vashni were
 far more powerful than these adVashni who it is said can only 
read a persons mind if they are beside him and he or she is open 
to them doing so. Yet I must admit that some have a wider reach
(and thus I assume more Vashni blood) than that and I have sensed 
them prying at my mind while hiding behind a wagon across the
 street, or attempting to plant suggestions in the mind of a
 person the Dark One thinks will be politically useful to
 him here in Walsmagickland. Often I have pricked up my ears and
 spotted one peering at me through slitty eyes ‘neath a cowl. I
 suspect some of them make quite good spies.

	Dammit Gwyddionn it’s time to take some action. First
 things first. As a woman I have to say, and I’ll understand if
 you don’t understand this, but as a woman I think that it is
incumbent upon us to rescue those poor Vashni women in those
 …breeding camps or whatever they. Even if they only ever have
 one child between the lot of them ever again let it be a loved 
and wanted child. I don’t know how the women here can bear it if 
the hear the psychic mind-screams of those unfortunates 
in their ears.

	Ann dear nobody hears the ‘psychic mind screams’ as
 you put it of Vashni women anymore. No Vashni wails in despair 
over her newborn bub. There is no one left to liberate for
 the last Vashni has been dead for over a hundred years.

	Raven gave her a meaningful… “all that is left are
 scattered descendents”.

	“Come” Gwyddionn added. “I think it is best we leave this 
tavern now Ann. For I can feel the night lift the edge of her
 cape and drift westwards to her morning home. The sun is 
awakening in the East and the Citadel of Walsmagickland 
is no longer a place where one can feel safe in the day time.