She did not confirm his suspicion but, instead, simply shrugged. “I do not know why it does not appear on your maps. I was not consulted when the maps were made. I can tell you that, yes, the settlement is home to many Ylveryans, but it is also home to many of your people as well. They live side by side.”
Such a concept was completely foreign to Kre. He had trouble digesting the words that Kitalia had spoken, though he was certain she spoke the truth. She had only told him the truth, at least so far as he knew, and this was a topic for which he couldn’t imagine she would need to lie about. Everything he had ever known about their two peoples indicated that there was no way the two could ever live together, side by side in an actual community.
“How?” It was a pathetic question. He knew it was the moment that he asked it.
Thankfully, she took pity on him and only mocked him slightly for such a stupid response. “There are people in this world that do not subscribe to the idiotic dogma that your government forces into your heads. They realize that we are simply one people separated at birth.”
Kre nodded and thought more about his next question, hoping to redeem himself in her eyes. “Do all Ylveryan believe that?”
His hopes were dashed when she snorted and rolled her eyes. “Anaoi. Creator you are truly a trial.
“No,” she said, turning in her saddle to look him square in the face, “I would say that a large majority of my people are very much like the large majority of your people. Blinded by events from ages long past. Scarred by their fears over any differences they can perceive, real or imagined. Filled with a hate that would shame the Creator.”
Her eyes grew wistful as she looked past Kre towards something far distant. It looked to Kre as if she were trying to see into the future. “Our people, yours and mine together, are in desperate need of each other. My travels have revealed that much to me. Though sometimes, I admit, when I meet people like your Rangers, I have a more difficult time seeing a way for our people to coexist.”
“Do you believe we can coexist?” he asked quietly, knowing the answer, but very much wanting to hear her say it.
“Of course,” she smiled. “If I did not, I would not be taking us to a place where such a thing has already happened.”
Kre nodded satisfied now that she had verbally affirmed that she believed their two people could be friends. Friends… and maybe more? He shook his head to clear the thought from his mind. Though he appreciated her sentiment, he honestly wasn’t sure he believed it as strongly as she did. It flew in the face of everything he had been taught.
Tehynshins and Ylveryans were at war. They had been since the First Migrants had first stepped foot on this land. Their land. Promised to them by a higher power for the sacrifices they had made in the Old World. A reward for their faith.