They rose from nothing, and the smell greeted them immediately.
"Shit," Biorr said, covering his nose the moment he was tangible.
"I wouldn't be surprised," Ostrava said.
Around them, small droplets of rain hit the wooden planks they stood on, making an amateur catwalk over the valley. It formed a mess of rotting wood and extinguishing flames, the only light in the dark fog.
"We shouldn't have come at night," Ostrava said, after thinking.
"Lad, it's always night, here," Biorr said. "The sun'll never break through those clouds."
Ostrava looked up into the starless sky.
"We should watch our step..." said The Figure, stepping forward past them. Ostrava realized for the first time that his footsteps made no sound. His movements were entirely silent.
"If we're going to be working with you," said Ostrava. "We need something to call you."
The Figure stopped, and didn't turn.
"What am I?" he asked.
"...I don't know." Ostrava said.
"We're called what we are, aren't we...? We're given the titles of the things that we are or become...I'm nameless...call me Nameless..."
"That's bloody ironic, that is," Biorr said.
"I'm not going to call you Nameless. That's ridiculous," Ostrava said.
"I'll answer to it...or you can call me something else...it doesn't matter much...
"What about Frederick?" Biorr said.
Ostrava looked at him.
"What? I'm offering up suggestions, lad. Ye said it yerself, in the middle of a fight we can't go callin 'im 'that guy'. Hell, we can call him Fred, for short. Ye like the name Fred, boy?"
"I used to have opinions..."
Biorr raised an eyebrow, then shook his head and said, "which means ye don't care. Good enough. Let's call 'im Fred."
"Nameless is the one he gave," Ostrava said. "I guess if we're going to use anything, we should use that."
"Ack, fine...but ye said it yerself: it's kinda ridiculous," said Biorr.
"For you, maybe..." Nameless said, and then stepped forward.
Ostrava and Biorr followed.
They were between two cliffs, stretching onward into the darkness. It was less a valley, and more a colossal ravine. The shanties and bridges built between them were shaky at best, and as they watched, one of them even collapsed.
"Charming," Biorr said.
"Where is Saint Astraea?" Ostrava asked.
"The node of the Archstone closest to her is disabled..." said Nameless. "This is actually the closest we could get to her...there is demonic energy blocking off the others..."
"Also charming," said Biorr.
"So...then, where are we going?"
"Down." And for once his voice didn't fade.
So they walked.
Beneath them were the bootprints of those who had come here before them. Nameless looked, and saw them etched into the wood. Saw their stories. Ghosts ran by, and he was reminded of how time and space were collapsing. The Old One was consuming every part of existence, even the laws that governed it.
But echoes remained.
–
Maiden Astraea looked out over the valley. Her white robes tarnished the instead they hit the air. Damp, ambient filth clung to them. She considered cleaning herself, but realized that if she started now, it would only get worse as she continued.
"Milady," Osford of Silenda repeated. "Do you still not think this choice may have been impulsive? Just slightly?"
"Cease your disrespect at once," Garl said, imposing himself over the shorter knight. Osford physically backed away. There was no question between them of who would win if they ever came to blows.
"It's alright, Garl," Astraea said, smiling. "He's only looking out for my safety."
"So am I," Garl said. It sounded almost defensive. "But I value your choices."
"I do as well, Milady," Osford said. "And if this is your choice, then yes, I will defend you to the death. But...I do not believe that it is the right one."
She turned away. "Given what I now know, it's the only one," she walked forward.
"What does she know?" Osford asked, when she had left earshot.
"Mind your tongue, Osford," Garl said with disgust.
"Accuse me of disrespect all you like," he said. "I'm only asking a question."
Garl's heavy voice wafted out through the steel of his helmet. "We are knights. To question is the purest form of disrespect."
Garl hurried after Maiden Astraea, leaving Osford alone. He stood there for a few seconds before he could swear he heard a sound in the distance, then shook, his platemail clanking as he shivered, and ran after his companions.
–
"Careful," Ostrava pulled Biorr aside. His boot, but nothing more, fell though a chunk of rotten wood. Wet splinters fell from the hole and into the darkness below.
"Bloody hell," Biorr cursed, and looked to the being in front of him. "How did ye not fall through that, lad?"
Nameless waved his hand, and ran it toward a post holding up a wooden platform. Both men saw what happened. His hand traveled partially through the wood. Not entirely, but its progress was impeded slowly rather than all at once. More like a thick liquid than something solid.
"I don't weigh much..." he said, then kept walking.
Biorr and Ostrava noticed the silence of his footsteps now, too.
They also noticed the silence in general. It was too silent.
"Biorr, do you think that rotten wood could have been a-" Ostrava started to whisper, but before he could finish, something came running out of the darkness ahead of them.
Nameless reacted faster than either of them could. Whatever it was kept running a few seconds after its head was lopped off, but then stumbled and fell to the ground.
"More are coming..." they heard from ahead.
And it was true.
The next came for Ostrava. He turned, but not as fast as Nameless had, it was close enough that he could spot it, a Dregling with a long, beak-like nose. It lunged at him with a spear and he deflected it barely in time. Biorr's sword came out, now, and the thing's entire body was chopped in half.
Ostrava turned back expected to see his other companion fighting...but he didn't. Instead, there were four Dregling bodies lying there, dispatched effortlessly. Nameless had already sheathed his sword.
They just stared at him.
"How many did you kill...?" he asked.
They looked at eachother.
"Uh...one," Ostrava said, trying not to sound embarassed.
Nameless looked over, as if it was so surprising that he had to confirm it.
"Five is a small group..." he said. "Next time, there will be more, and they will be more skilled...get faster."
Ostrava could swear that the last word didn't fade away. But that was it, and then he turned away, and kept walking.
"Did you see him kill those Dreglings?" Ostrava asked Biorr.
"No...what did it look like?" Biorr asked.
"I don't know, I was asking you," said Ostrava.
"...Fastest Knight I ever knew downed four men in three seconds...that was less than two," Biorr said.
"Yes," said Ostrava. "But I guess most Knights don't get to learn from their deaths."
–
Maiden Astraea sat over the body, and folded its hands over its chest.
"Why bother...?" Osford asked.
Garl looked at him. Probably glaring
"No...no, I actually want to know," he said, defensively.
She nodded, then frowned and said. "We did this to them. The least that we can do is pay them respects in death...I know there are many...but we have time."
"Not if we catch the plague," Osford said.
"That was the harsh truth that you learned, Milady?" Garl asked.
"That was a question," Osford pointed out.
This time, he could feel the glare for certain.
"No," Astraea said, as she stood, then moved on to another body. "It was one of them. It was the one that tempted me to do this in the first place...but it was not the one that finally sent me. The truth I know is too horrible to share, so I never will. But trust me when I say that given all my knowledge, this is the most noble course of action."
"I trust you, milady," Garl said, and kneeled. It was awkward, because she went down on her knees to tend to another body right after he did.
Osford looked at him, and then did the same, he really had no choice. "I, as well. I apologize for my questions."
"Questioning is natural," Astraea said, as she folded the next man's arms, and then closed his eyes. "But it must be curbed, sometimes. Especially when you do not want to hear the answer.
–
They scaled carefully down the cliffside. There were houses built along the walls, but they seemed to contain nothing but flies and bodies. One house contained nothing more than a group of skeletons, with the flesh entirely cleaned from them.
"Do you think the Fog hit this place first?" Ostrava asked. "These bodies seem pretty far along...and god, that food..."
Biorr shook his head, "No, lad. No...this was here before the fog."
Ostrava turned, "What?"
Biorr just nodded, and started walking toward the door.
Ostrava stopped him. "You must be joking. An entire family of dead bodies just left in their houses in...sorry, in this kingdom?"
"It's the Valley of Defilement, lad." Biorr said, stopping. "It's how it's always been."
Nameless crouched down and picked up something. It almost slipped through his ethereal grasp, but he somehow willed it to stay there.
"But...I don't understand. How did I never hear of this?"
"Because we don't speak of it, anymore, lad. Not after what happened before your time."
Namless realized that it was a doll made out of twisted twigs. Its face had been carefully crafted from dirt, and was now smudged, but the thin line of a smile could still be made out. The nose was blurry, but still there.
The eyes were missing.
"Before my time...? Biorr, have you kept things from me?"
Biorr was quiet.
"What do I not know about this place?"
"Listen, lad, because this is how it is: The Soul Arts are not free. Even when they come from Faith, the Miracler needs Spice. Spice is expensive," Biorr said.
"I don't understand, start at the beginning," Ostrava said.
"Just before yer birth, Boletaria was hit by plague. The only cure for it was supernatural...but like I told ye, it was expensive."
"Are you saying that-"
"Those who could afford it were cured," Biorr said. "Peasants were kicked out of the walls, and sent to this place, and the swamp beneath it."
Ostrava put his hand over his head in disgust.
"Are you telling me, that my entire life, while I was in luxury...the entire peasant class of Boletaria was here, dying out?"
"No, only the sick ones...the others had to work twice as hard, though," Biorr said. "Deaths from overwork were common in the mines. Revolutions broke out. That was how Latria got overstuffed. Prisoners ended up getting brought here to free up space...and prisoners are violent, lad. They made this place even worse."
"You aren't describing a functioning country right now, Biorr," Ostrava said.
"No. I'm not," Biorr said.
"So then...Boletaria...to hell with it: My entire kingdom was falling apart, and my father told me nothing!?"
Nameless looked up. Beneath his helmet it was hard to tell whether he was surprised.
"That's about the size of it."
"I thought we were rich. I thought we were profitable. I thought that we were making advancements in magic and technology every day," Ostrava said.
"We were," Biorr said. "Because of the Soul Arts, and...well...we had nothin else, but we had a surplus of souls."
Ostrava looked over at the dead family lying on the floor again.
"No...that's sick. That's utterly sick," he said.
"They were sick," Biorr argued. "They was goin to die anyway, least we could do was-"
"No," Ostrava said. "We aren't discussing this again...if this Kingdom comes back...and it will...it will be different. I'll make it different."
"I thought ye didn't want to be King?" Biorr asked.
"To hell with that," Ostrava said. "If this is how bad things were...if I could have helped, but didn't...then no. I'm done denying my responsibility. I will find my father after we are done here, whether he's alive or dead, and I will take the crown from him. I will restore this kingdom to its former glory...and this..." he looked over at the skeletons.
"This will never happen again."
There was a silence.
"Are you with me, Biorr?" Ostrava asked.
"Lad...Boletaria is gone," Biorr said. "And to be honest...it may have deserved it."
"Both those things may be true," Ostrava said. "I don't care. Are you with me?"
"I stood by and slept on my laurels for over twenty years, boy..."
"Then change that now. I won't ask again: Are you with me?"
Biorr looked up. Tears had formed in his eyes. He raised out his hand, and took Ostrava's.
"To hell with it, Lad. I'm with ye."
Nameless tucked the doll without eyes away.
"What about you?" Ostrava said, turning to him.
He looked up.
"Don't be surprised. You can fight...honestly: better than I can. You'd be an asset, and we'd be happy to have you."
There was a silence.
"Well?" Ostrava asked.
"May I speak honestly...your highness...?"
Ostrava buckled, but said, "...Yes, if you wish to."
"You're an idiot..."
They all stood completely still.
"You're an idiot...Biorr was right...your kingdom is gone and it's never coming back...he only went along with it because he's guilty about how he did nothing in the past, and he wants to pretend he can find redemption...but that's all it is. Pretend," suddenly, his words were no longer slurred. "We haven't even gone into the valley, yet. And this is why you entertain this hope. This is why you pretend that success is possible and that your filthy, inhumane, dysfunctional kingdom can be saved...that even the world itself can be saved. But if this place is even slightly as bad as the places I've been...you'll see what lies beneath this house. You'll see monsters that shouldn't exist outside of nightmares, and you'll learn the truth: there's no coming back from this. Not even in your courtly dreams. Not even if you use your most princely commanding voice, and ask it to please stop."
"Yer speaking to Royalty! Curb yer filth tongue!" Biorr yelled, and almost drew his weapon.
"Why are you so angry!?" Ostrava retorted. "What did I ever do to you?"
"You? Nothing...but your attitude...oh, that attitude did everything," Nameless said. "Everything that I have lost. All the torture that I have endured...it was because of hope. Hope put me through this. Everyone had hope. They thought that if they threw me against a brick wall repeatedly, I would eventually break through..so they did it. Again and again and again. I have suffered through a thousand deaths because of people like you, and I am still not even allowed to die...so no. No to your hope." He pointed at the bodies. "Because in the end, regardless of what we do. This is all that's left of us. Animals eat our bodies, men eat our souls, and we're nothing but bones that eventually crumble."
And with that, he briskly walked out of the house.
Biorr looked downward. Whatever spell Ostrava had managed to cast on him was broken. He followed and went outside.
Ostrava, stayed a little longer, and looked down at the bodies.
He vaguely recognized that something from the room had been removed, but he did not consider it.
–
She had watched them enter.
Out of all the places in Boletaria, this was the safest to hide. It should come to no surprise that the Soul Society had a foothold here. Still, it always did surprise them. New students often thought that they would not be immunized, because, naturally, such cures were the work of the Soul Arts. Did they think that agents of the organization were above using the Soul Arts for anything? Because that was not true. No...she always reminded her students: they must win first, and then remove that vile power. However, in this world as it was, they could achieve nothing without it.
She watched him dispatch four of them in an instant. That was him, she knew it at once. No one else could have killed Yurt. Maybe the big one...he seemed skilled. But he was tied to the younger one...the prince...who was as good of a fighter as a prince is expected to be.
And Yurt was dead before Ariona Allant had even returned.
So it was the ghostly one. It could be no one else, and his demeanor...the very way he carried himself gave her far more options than she'd thought she would have. Perhaps a direct Assassination was not called for, here. Perhaps there were subtler methods available. In order to know, though, she'd have to watch further.
Mephistopheles slipped away, into the shadows.
Sorry about the delay, there. I was working on a lot of things and I just got my head above water, now.
This chapter is shorter and less focused than some of the others, I'll admit. I had to introduce a lot of characters/new information here. We'll be spending a while in the Valley of Defilement though, there's a lot of important stuff that has to happen, here.