is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cGoddesses,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amalur, appearing now as a composite of her three forms that some how both completely confused his brain but was perhaps the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, nodded her head down toward him, as if acknowledging him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBai,\u201d he stuttered before continuing. \u201cWhat happens to the people when the bubbles burst?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A flash of sadness seemed to ripple across Amalur\u2019s face before it regained its stoic composure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are simply gone,\u201d she answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cErased from existence?\u201d asked Kepa horrified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amalur floated closer to him and touched his forehead. \u201cSome still exist, here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLike Latxe,\u201d muttered Kepa, a tear welling in his eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite brushed aside the confused feelings of sympathy and jealousy she felt at the mention of Latxe\u2019s name as she turned to Amalur. \u201cWho is de Lancre? Who is he, really?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amalur feigned confusion. \u201cWhat do you mean? He is de Lancre, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEz, ez,\u201d replied Maite, shaking her head. \u201cHe isn\u2019t just another man, there is something more there. What is it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amalur sighed as her formed morphed into that of Ilargia, the goddess of the moon. \u201cSomething more?\u201d her icy voice repeated, sending a chill down Maite\u2019s spine. \u201cPerhaps, or perhaps he is all the evil of humankind personified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite shook her head. \u201cThere is no good nor evil. Just humans making bad choices, or selfish choices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eguzki\u2019s radiance filled the room as she shifted form again. Maite had to turn away as the brightness grew with Eguzki\u2019s smile. \u201cCan that not be a definition of evil?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite threw her hands up in frustration. \u201cFine, be all cryptic with your answers.\u201d She folded her arms as she sat on the bed, pouting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat happens when we collect all of the zatiak?\u201d asked Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou cannot,\u201d replied Amalur, this time, appearing in a new form, an elderly amuma with a sad visage. \u201cAfter you count the stars in the sky, the blades of grass on the earth, and the grains of sand on the coast, there are still more zatiak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With that answer, Amalur faded and vanished from the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maite and Kepa sat there, staring dumbly at Amalur as she continued to morph between her three forms. Kepa couldn\u2019t quite tell if they were three distinct personalities or just different variations of the same person. No, person wasn\u2019t quite right. You didn\u2019t call an ancient earth goddess a person. But, he wasn\u2019t quite sure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1N3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6886,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6885\/revisions\/6886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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