Chapter Two:
Ghost Town
|i.|
Flames. Blood. Screams.
Anywhere her eyes looked, Noé saw the same scenario.
Brighter flames. Fresher blood. Louder screams.
Over the many years of her travels, she had witnessed wars of varying magnitudes. She recalled some small ones—rebellions that were quickly quelled by the opposing party. Others, she remembered, were full blown-out wars between countries, sometimes between parts of the world itself, and would last from months to years. None of them ever mattered to her. They were passings of history, natural selection taking its due course.
The strong would live, the weak would die. Just like nature dictated. Just like she had learned.
The fact that she understood such simple concept so easily made this instant even harder to grasp. Why, when all others had been so insignificant, was this one hitting her so hard?
"You lived with them. You broke bread with them. You love them, Noé. You care."
Ah, that's where I went wrong.
This, war of a country against a group of deserters, was being lost by said country. A country that had risen so mightily thanks to its general, a general that now laid dead before her feet. In her stupefied daze, her eyes stared at the body. Golden amor marred in crimson. His lips no longer smiled that smile she loved so much and instead wore an expression of pain. The wound was still fresh, the blade of the broadsword that had struck the openings of his gear and had broken off still impaled in him.
And Noé had been too late to stop it. So preoccupied with safeguarding the city—one she could have truly cared less about—that she failed one of the only people that mattered. And now that same city—his beloved home—was dangerously close to falling alongside him.
"You can stop this. You have the power to stop it."
"What good is that power when he couldn't win, when I couldn't reach in time to save him?"
Andromalius had no answer to that. She knew as much as Noé did that she spoke the truth. There was no good in their power when it wasn't there when it mattered the most. But as broken and grief stricken as Noé was, one thing did manage to reach her.
"They're still there. She's protecting the city they built, the city your son calls home. There's still his legacy, his family, which must be safeguarded. Do not let them down a second time, Noé."
The city. Glancing over her shoulder, Noé watched that grand city protected by the magic shield, a borg. That little girl was keeping it raised all by herself. There was no doubt in Noé's mind that she could keep it raised, but she also knew that if it got attacked that it would not stand for long.
The army of the deserters wasn't large but it was large enough to shatter the borg and for them to siege the city. But that was if they reached it.
I'm not letting them set a foot on your homeland.
Driven by pure determination to keep that promise, Noé stood, brushing the tears, blood and ashes from her face. Just beyond the horizon in the city's direction she could see the enemy's small army marching towards the golden borg.
Twenty minutes on foot was her estimate. In full equip, she could arrive to block their entry in two. But with the seal…
"Come forth and dwell in my body, Andromalius."
A flash of light engulfed her and in the midst of her transformation she flashed, appearing just before the borg as the enemy troops neared it. All men halted at seeing her, the golden light emanating from her blinding them as it burst out into her djinn equip.
Contrasting the brilliance of it, though, was the dullness of her eyes, devoid of any emotion except the grief that consumed her. A quick count of motionless men gave her a total of three hundred. Three hundred of them against one of her.
I am enough.
Raising her arm towards them, the golden bow materialized into her hand and as she pulled back on the thin string of light, a single arrow nocked. The stupefaction of having seen her appear out of the nowhere blew off of the men at seeing this and they rounded to rush against her. They wasted no time to do so. But by then, the light finished gathering into that single arrow.
"Ashieat Alshams."
Her fingers released the arrow and it flew through the sky becoming a ray of sunlight in the rotten gray sky, before becoming hundreds of arrows that fell onto the army. Many were shot down, caught unawares by the multiplied attack. Those who survived and trekked forward only met the sharp end of her arrows. Those who got the chance to get too close to her received one to their heads or throats, not from her bow but directly from her hand.
Three hundred rapidly became two hundred then one hundred until only a handful remained.
Dusk had long taken away the sun and with it the source that would have replenished her magoi. With all the repeated attacks with her djinn, her reservoir was low but she was determined to see them to their end.
She nocked an arrow and shot one through a soldier's neck. As she did so, one other tried to catch her off guard but only caught the sharp end of a light dagger into his eye socket that shattered into his skull. With a swift turnabout, a single arrow was shot from her bow faster than she could breathe and multiplied into three hitting their respective targets as they rushed her.
The stench of iron and ashes and burning flesh came to her nostrils and hit her delicate sense of smell. Her eyes burned, not just at seeing the massacre before her but at using so much of her powers in such short time. When no more came at her, Noé recounted in her head and through the field the number of deaths she had caused in the mere five minutes. Two hundred and ninety-nine.
One more.
And she knew very well who that last arrow would be for even before he showed his face in the battlefield. Perseus dared step into the battlegrounds in luxury decked in golden armor and red cape, his family's sigil engraved onto the breastplate over his heart.
Good. It gave her a clearer target.
Her mind still in a frenzy, it confused Perseus for his younger brother for a split second, softening her resolve. They shared similar features: the slightly tanned skin, the golden mane of hair that reminded her of the sun, and those eyes the color of the sky she loved so much. But Perseus's glare and grimace told her the truth.
He wasn't Pernadius.
"You killed your brother." Noé didn't know why she said those words. It wasn't a question; she didn't have to know why he did it. In reality, she didn't want to know. He would die either way.
"And you have slaughtered my men."
"Men that threatened your city. Pernadius's beloved home. Your home. A home that accepted you. One that loved you. How could you betray him like that—all of them?" She couldn't help ask. Despite what she told herself, she wanted to know how he could throw away such gift.
It was the one thing she couldn't understand of anybody: how they could take for granted their simplest blessing.
Perseus' glare darkened and he spat at the very soil he stood on. "They betrayed me. Him and my supposed home. We took back our city but instead of giving me what is mine by birthright, that witch chose him as king."
Noé's attention got caught by something pulsating beneath his armor. The blackish tint of it meant it wasn't flesh and that it kept pulsating and growing as he walked towards her only made her more wary of him.
"And what does he do with that? He throws it away. He doesn't want to rule and instead chooses to be a mere general." Perseus clicked his tongue disdainfully. "I always knew Pernadius was weak. This just showed me exactly how much."
Her caution wasn't unfounded. The black flesh grew more until it engulfed his right arm, bulging it to the point that his armor on it broke off. Perseus was not bothered by it in the least. His glower, however, did change and slowly morphed into a grin with each step he took towards her. The black mass that clad him like a grotesque second skin spread from his arm and to the rest of his body. The mere sight of it made Noé drawback, her hands holding tight to her bow and her already nocked arrow. Whatever it was and what it was doing to him gave her a really bad feeling.
It was setting off every alarm in her brain. It was telling her to flee. But Noé planted her feet firmly into the ground as Perseus continued to head her way.
"Someone as weak as him won't lead Reim to glory. Only someone willing to do anything for their goal can." The black flesh had already taken over most of his body. Noé wondered how he was even able to walk still. But even as it began to devour his face, the grin and crazed look in his eyes didn't waver. Not even as cracks began to appear on the dark flesh, turning them a bright cyan, forming and emanating a strange smoke. Almost like the cyan insides of the black flesh were seeping out into the air as particles.
It reminded her of her crystals. That thing, though, wasn't made of light. That was made of something different. Something foul.
Finally, just as it was about to engulf him whole, Perseus smiled and said, "I will lead it and Reim will prosper like it never again will. I will do what Pernadius never did. I will rule."
The dark mass consumed him whole and began to shift in shape until it transformed what used to be human into a grotesque beast-like being. It's legs were larger than any animal she'd seen—its hind ones bent as it used its enormous hands to lean over. There was no trace of its face was it was covered by a dark silver mask except for its mouth, the jaw broken and unhinged to inhuman proportions. The same cracks from before covered it entirely in strange markings.
Letters, she recognized; it was the Toran Language. But as far away as she was she couldn't discern the scriptures. They glowed in that same cyan, dimming from time to time as if keeping time with its breathing or heartbeat. From its mouth and behind its mask, black tendrils fell down and were swept back respectively, dripping a viscous substance of the same color from the ones coming out of its mouth.
This thing was not human anymore. Noé didn't even know what to call it.
"It's a dark djinn." Andromalius spoke up for the first time since she equipped her and it unnerved her for some reason.
"He's fallen?"
"Yes, but this is unlike those we encountered back then. It's...different."
In that instant, Noé knew that Andromalius had had that same disquieting feeling as she had. But despite that, Noé also knew that knowing now what it was made her goal even clearer.
It wouldn't be for just Reim anymore. Duty dictated to her heart and mind not to allow such rotten core to exist in this world to further contaminate it.
Mindlessly but with tremendous force, the beast lunged at her. Noé didn't back down. She raised her bow and aimed, both eyes fixated on her target.
Perseus had always been rotten to his core. A piece of trash. One of many that sullied their world.
Someone has to weed all the trash out of this beautiful garden.
A strange euphoria festered in her at that thought which made her grin at the dark djinn that rushed towards her. Her fingers jittered from it, her hands shaking her aim, but she steadied it quickly and pushed the sudden emotion to the back of her mind. Pulling the light arrow back, the string of her bow became taut as she aimed at the beast that was now but a few feet from her.
Why should that not be me?
The arrow flew.
|ii.|
Bored out of her mind, Noé reached underneath her drape and bandages, picking incessantly at her left shoulder where a bruise more akin to a black scab the size of her palm blemished her skin. Her eyes wandered aimlessly, scouring the luscious fields as the wagon trodden through the hardened gravel path.
Her luck had taken pity on her after five days of ambling without a set course. No food or water made it worse, especially the lack of water. After the third day, Noé found herself coughing dry flakes of dark red. She hated when her throat became so dry that it started peeling like that. It hurt constantly and always left a nasty taste at the back of her mouth.
But she thanked her lucky stars and any god out there that decided to put this old man in her way. Jeremiah had been a darling, giving her food and the exorbitant gallons she had asked of water, even extending his generosity further by providing transportation to the next town over.
Needless to say that she graciously accepted.
From what he said, the old man hailed from Reim and was a merchant delivering goods to the docks bordering the northwestern continent. When she heard this, Noé found it ridiculous that the dungeon had literally sent her across the ocean she had crossed back to that part of the world.
All that money wasted for nothing.
"What money?" Chief said with a sarcastic scoff. "You're entertaining doesn't win you enough to assuage that thirst of yours, much less food or transportation."
Details weren't something Noé bothered herself with much which prompted her to dismiss Chief's interruption and instead continued to hear the old man as he told stories. Despite them being nonsensical domestic affairs, Noé found bliss in listening to his life stories. This had been her job once long ago, so it was second nature for her to tune out of her own thoughts and give her undivided attention to those who let themselves be known to her. This focus had been what had won her renown and her position as a recorder since it allowed her to easily memorize what she saw, heard, or read. Generally, it took a try or at most two before she had it ingrained in her brain.
But Jeremiah's life, despite being over fifty, was shorter than their journey and soon the old man ran out of stories to tell. This afternoon was the fourth day without anything to talk about and the boredom dug into her like a shard of glass into her temple.
Out of the many things in this world, boredom was the worst of all because, unlike all the other things that got on her nerves, this one she couldn't kill.
"Leave it, Noé. You'll make it spread more."
Her fingers stopped but twitched in place, tempted to continue their monotonous labor and let her mind wander again. Chief was right. This blemish would only spread if she continued to bother it. It had overtime and grown to the size it was now from the tiny scratch it had started as.
She pulled her hand away, decided on leaving it alone, and adjusted her drape tightly. Accommodating her clothes back into place and burying her hands in the pockets, Noé heaved a long sigh through her nose before laying back against the wagon as she rode in the back with the cargo and stared up at the night sky.
No matter where she looked at it, it was always wondrous to behold. Be it night or morning or twilight, the sky was always a grand view to her eyes. Her fingers twitched again inside her pockets and the burden she carried on her back painfully shifted at the sight of it.
"You okay, kid?"
Noé didn't answer and instead lowered her gaze, this time to let her head fall to the side and rest awkwardly on her shoulder. But the peace and quiet of the night was interrupted by the muffled noises of civilization. Curious, she rose from her seat and peeked over the wagon's edge to find that Jeremiah was entering the outskirts of a town. What she found odd was that the old man wasn't stopping. Noé climbed over the cargo and snuck her way onto the roof of the wagon to let her head fall over to speak to the old man.
"Hey Jerry—"
"Ah-oh!" Jeremiah held onto his chest and stared dumbfounded at her, his expression relaxing when he realized it'd been her. "Oh, child, do be careful. Both with yourself and this poor man's heart."
She let out a chuckle and apologized before saying, "Why aren't we stopping? I thought you said you'd take me to the nearest town."
"Yes, but by that I meant the safest one nearby, child. I would not be at peace with my conscience if we parted ways here."
Mm. Noé looked around as they began to pass through the streets of the town, surely to get through the town itself, but didn't notice anything odd about the town, much less what was supposed to be dangerous about it.
"What makes you say this town isn't safe?"
"Noé, the town of Maladh has since long ago stopped being the sanctuary it once was."
Maladh. Now that there wasn't a name she recognized and according to Jeremiah, for a good reason. He explained that despite being small, Maladh had prospered well during its founding due to its fertile lands and its nearby woods. Both of those had provided Maladh the ability to self-sustain and become what many called 'the oasis of the west' years ago. He told her how, during the years of war between Parthevia and Reim, Maladh had become a haven for any weary traveler no matter their affiliation. He had known the matriarch before she passed some years ago, the granddaughter of the founder, and Jeremiah said that Yatahammal Ramal had turned Maladh into a safe haven that harbored any traveler or injured. At times that included soldiers of either side of the warfront. Both Reim and Parthevia did not bother with the small town seeing each other as the bigger enemy; apparently, so long as all Maladh did was treat and not kill, they weren't seen as a threat.
Jeremiah said they weren't. Yatahammal had been a kind woman who sought to help those harmed by what she claimed to be a pointless war. Noé agreed on that front. She remembered those times and her visits to either country had not been pleasant.
Regrettably during those times a hardship had risen in Maladh itself. A plague, he said, stormed the lands and poisoned them. Nothing grew that year, nothing grew any years after that actually. The plague took more than just lands, though. Years later as their town continued to decline, many citizens became ill and died including Yatahammal. Even when her son took over as the new patriarch, many more misfortunes happened. Hit so consecutively, neither the people nor the town could take it, and eventually most of the citizens left. Those who remained there were natives to Maladh, and those who came were mere passersby, mostly crooks of the worst kind.
Sounds interesting.
"Well then, Jerry, it looks like this is where you and I part ways."
The horse that pulled his wagon neighed in complaint at being stopped so abruptly by Jeremiah. The old man sputtered in confusion as she jumped off from the roof of the wagon. "B-But, Noé, Maladh isn't safe."
"I'll be okay. Thanks for worrying, though." Noé flashed him a confident grin before giving him a dismissive wave and starting to walk away. Although she heard him worry even more about her, he eventually gave up and left. That or she had walked away far enough to not hear him anymore.
Shoving that to the back of her mind, her eyes scanned the area as she made her way through town. The sun was barely setting but even so she saw no one around in the streets. In fact, the people she saw around, dressed poorly and clearly malnourished and sickly, were running away into their homes, barring doors and even blocking any windows to the inside of their rundown homes before turning all lights off once inside.
Noé took note of their odd behavior before focusing on finding a place to eat and sleep but most importantly some water. The only place that had any lights on was a building larger than any of the others she'd seen in town and by the rambunctious noise emanating from within, she supposed that it was the only place around there that welcomed foreigners.
At entering the establishment, the hair on the back of Noé's neck stood on end even before her gaze came to be on the people inside. The old man hadn't been kidding. There was nothing here but a bad crowd of bandits, swindlers, and—ugh—slave traders. Dismissing the looks she garnered as she walked across the room, she sat at the far end of the bar.
"What will you be having?" The sweet voice caught her off guard and Noé had to verify that it had indeed been a woman who'd spoken to her. A pretty petite one too. Viridian hair was held back from her round face by a half ponytail as her large brown eyes stayed on her. The smile she bore wasn't genuine, Noé noticed, and seeing where she was working, there wasn't a question why. Politeness to customers was a given to the woman apparently, but it was also clear that she was cautious when doing so.
And the man that sat at the far end of and behind the bar drinking, broadsword ready on his lap, told her that it was an added precaution too.
"Just some water." Picking through her pockets, she found the last gold coin she had left and placed it on the counter before pushing it towards her. "As much as this can buy me, please."
The woman stared dumbfounded at the coin but took it nonetheless before stepping back and taking a large mug to fill it to the brim with water. As she did so, she pushed an adjacent door open to call out to someone.
"Luca, hurry with the food." Turning back, she gave Noé the mug. "Six more of those is what you have."
Noé thanked her with a nod and a lift of the mug before she started drinking it. As she did so, she glanced over the rim of the mug to watch as a kid of maybe no more than fifteen walked out of the back room with his hands literally full of dishes of food. She turned in her chair drinking still, and watched the boy she assumed to be Luca as he sped through the floor passing out food that he wasn't thanked for. What's more, the people had no mercy on the poor kid and piled on him the dirty dishes that they'd gathered from their previous meals or ordered even more that they didn't seem to be paying for. The boy didn't complain nor tell them to do otherwise; he took them as he went and finished what seemed an usual rotation before returning to the bar and telling the woman what orders he'd gotten.
"Thank you," she muttered to him and caressed his cheek lovingly. "Tell your uncle to start those up." Again, the trooper that he was, he didn't say no and instead disappeared into the back room.
"Mennie, there's some trouble."
Noé let her mug sit on the bar to watch the man from before with the broadsword now standing next to the bartender, Mennie. He was tall and very well built, certainly the type Noé would hassle around when necessity called. Tanned skin and dark brown hair, this man was a very fine piece of meat but by the looks of it already taken. His eyes that had narrowly scrutinized the place even as he sat and drank were now gentler when looking at Mennie, and the dreamy look those honey-colored eyes of his gave her made it obvious.
Luck has graced them.
Mennie's expression turned to concern, her hand reaching up to his arm in which he held his sword. "It's peak hour, Niko," she spoke in whispers. Most would not have heard her had they not been paying attention. Luckily for Noé, these people had caught her attention much earlier. "Luca and I can't handle this."
"Areste will be a call away. He'll deal with anything here." He leaned in to her ear and whispered something that even N0é could not hear. Whatever it was, though, seemed to convince Mennie enough to let him leave but not without a warning.
"Be careful."
He gave her a chaste kiss to her lips before muttering farewells and leaving. Noé turned, watching him as he left the tavern, but she hadn't been the only one. Many of the men there had followed him with their eyes as well and only muttered amongst themselves while giving lecherous glances over to the bartender.
"What lowlife."
With the way some of them are looking at Mennie here, I'd say this place is a pigsty.
Chief sighed in defeat before changing the subject. "So, what's the plan? Why stay in this 'pigsty' in the first place?"
"Can I have the next one, please?" Noé asked with a smile, passing the mug over to Mennie. The politeness seemed to catch her off guard but she wordlessly served her and gave the mug back.
"You do have a plan, right?" Noé pursed her lips and stared at the water as she swirled it around in the cup. "Right?"
"...I'm thinking about it…" she muttered under her breath as she quieted her words by taking a drink.
"Are you se—" Noé found it slightly amusing that Chief had to literally take so many deep breaths to keep from yelling. Had they not spend enough time together for her not to be surprised anymore, much less be angry, about her modus operandi? "Tell me you at least had a good reason for stopping here. Please. Just give me that much solace that you actually use that thing sitting between your ears."
She delayed her answer as she put the mug down and played around with it, sliding her finger around the rim and watching the other people in the tavern as they rose from their seats and approached the bar. Because of how close she was to Mennie, the hogs that came stood rather close to her. The stench of days' old sweat and grime hit her nostrils like a slap on the face and even got her to jerk back as she rubbed incessantly at her nose trying to make it go away. But it didn't—they didn't—and that irritated her very much so.
"Wouldn't you like to have an actual man bust in you for a change, pretty thing?"
Mennie's brow furrowed and she ignored them, choosing instead to keep working and cleaning the dishes. The men didn't stop though and kept throwing lewd remarks at her from that last one to insinuating on having her multiple times between the lot of them. Noé's water was starting to taste more like sewage by the second. But she refrained from acting, this wasn't her business after all.
"Come on, Mennie." Noé could tell how them calling her that really grinded her gears. Must be something reserved for her husband, she thought. "You'll be screaming for us to keep going when you have us all fucking you senseless."
"Fuck off." That answer made Noé's appreciation for the petite woman rise considerably. What a fierce little one.
"What did you say, you bitch!" But when the man held out his hand and grabbed at her arm from across the bar, the brusque movement shoved Noé and her arm. The action itself made her hit her forehead with the mug as she lifted it for another swig and poured all the water on her.
Okay, that's it.
They could stink like the seven hells around her and even make her drink taste like shit with their remarks but she'd be damned if they were going to mess with her and her thirst.
Stomping her feet as she stood up, the stool screeched underneath her as it was pushed back with her sudden rise. But noise wasn't all that her foot did. From the torches and overhanging lamps that lighted the tavern, Noé found it easy to solidify the light they made into solid pikes of orange crystal that materialized diagonally across the bar, keeping the thugs away in their stupefaction and hurting the one that had bumped into her with one having pierced right through his forearm. He screamed, that pleased her plenty, but that didn't really satiate her annoyance at him having wasted her drink.
With a sweetly devilish smile, Noé brandished her arms out to rid herself of the water on her arms and walked up to lean against the pike that impaled the brute's arm. "Look here, you piece of shit, I'm going to make this really clear and easy for you to understand. You just deprived me of one less glass of water and I'm not too happy about that. Nope, not happy at all."
"You crazy cun—AH!" Another pike materialized into his shoulder this time—right through the joint that connected his arm to the rest of his body—and piercing part of the bar by accident, blood flowing down onto it from the wound.
Even through his new screams, Noé's smile didn't waver. It widened. "So I'm going to give you two options here." Taking another step, she grabbed the clean end of the orange pike that protruded from behind his shoulder and in her firm grip twisted it making him yelp in pain. "You leave this fine establishment with either a busted arm or no arm at all. Is that clear enough for you?"
He nodded vehemently but that wasn't what she wanted. Twisting it more slowly this time to make the pain last, he cried out, "I-I-I'll l-leave!"
"Good." Noé took her hand away and tilted her head, exulting from the scene of such a beast of a man begging for mercy. A minute was all she gave herself to gloat. She didn't want the bar to get too dirtied up, after all.
If you would, Chief.
Andromalius did as she asked and the pikes broke into particles of light before becoming simple firelight again. The man fell back crying in pain, dirtying the floor more. Standing over him and those who tried to help him up, Noé smiled and kicked at his foot.
"Alright then, buh-bye!"
All of those who weren't with him ran out. He and those that were with him hurriedly helped him to his feet before they ran out of the place. Before long, the tavern was empty. Her ire spent and her mind at ease and happy, Noé bend over to pick up her forgotten mug. She cleaned it up from the dirt with the sleeve of her drape before taking her seat back and reaching it out to Mennie who now had Luca and another brawny man with a hatchet at the ready beside her.
"Sorry about the mess. Would you mind giving me another, please?"
—{ii}—
"I cannot thank you enough for what you did. Truly, we are in your debt."
Noé pursed her lips, uncomfortable at the blatant display of Mennie's husband's so-called gratitude.
It'd been hours since the tavern closed and it had done so earlier than usual apparently after her little stunt of driving all the clientele out. Mennie and Areste thanked her for dealing with the ruffians from before, offering free food and drinks for her as thanks. Noé didn't complain and took the reward with open arms. Days without proper food and not the necessary amount of hydration made her quite grateful for their offer. That and she was somewhat spent from using her powers at night with only firelight to control.
Around the hour and a half mark, Mennie's husband returned and was told what had transpired by his wife and brother while Noé inhaled every last bit of food that Luca kept bringing her. His name was Nikotis Ramal and that alone told her a couple of things. This was Yatahammal's son that Jeremiah spoke about which also meant that he was the de facto headman of Maladh.
Noé picked her teeth as she waved her hands dismissively at him. "I think your family has paid me plenty by feeding me. Luckily I've got a small stomach." That got a chuckle out of Luca, the one who really understood her joke after having been the one catering to her endless appetite.
"Are you a traveler, Miss Noé?" Mennie asked as she took a seat on the same table.
"Yeah," she replied, crossing a leg over the other and leaning her arm on the table to let her chin rest on her hand. "I was curious about what became of Maladh. I've heard rumors, you see." And Noé spared no detail of what she'd heard from Jeremiah to them. She could tell by the grimaces that slowly came to their faces that they were more than aware of this. So instead of beating around the bush any longer, she struck immediately before they could back out. "You've lived here most of your lives, certainly during the time when Maladh's decline began. Have you any idea what might have caused it?"
They exchanged weary looks amongst themselves for a few moments and she took the time to scrutinize their behavior. Mennie and Areste were mostly glancing at Niko as if for approval and it was him that answered her in the end.
"About fifteen years ago, around the time when that first dungeon was conquered, one of those things rose here in the woods. I was younger then and my mother, the matriarch of the town during those times, had heard about the deaths such edifice caused and forbade any citizen from approaching the thing. We listened. But within days, a strange fog began to come from the woods which polluted our fertile lands." Niko walked over to the far wall to take the space between his wife and herself and leaned his back against it, his arms crossed over his chest as he pensively stared at the candle on the table. "You know the rest. Back then, we knew by the end of the month that the structure and the fog had to be related, but we couldn't approach it. Aside from poisoning our fields, that thing is also highly flammable and the woods, as dark as they are, cannot be trekked without light. We cannot search for the origin of the structure despite it being visible at the outskirts of the woods. And if we cannot reach it, we can't figure a way to get rid of it."
"I see. I'd have to go investigate near there then."
Areste spoke up, blubbering nonsensically until his brain seemed to function again. "Did you not hear what Niko just said? You can't go through the woods without fire. The gas ignites. You'll burn the whole place down and you with it if you go."
"I'll figure something out. Besides, you two saw what I can do. Do you think that's as limited as my powers go?"
That made Areste open his mouth and close it immediately which made her chuckle. Mennie was the one to turn to Niko to speak softly. "She did use some strange magic, dear. Something I remember only your mother being able to do and even that pales in comparison to what we saw."
Niko lowered his gaze before turning it to his brother. "Areste?"
"Mama Yatta's magoi manipulation wasn't anything compared to the girl's magic, Niko," Areste explained, seemingly much calmer when speaking to his brother. "I say we let her try."
"I do too." His gaze turned up to Noé who waited expectantly for their answer. "I'll guide you there in the morning. It's too treacherous to go out during the night in this town."
"Sure, I'll take that. Can you tell me where the inn is then?"
Mennie shook her head, her eyes downcast at hearing that. "There is no running inn. Frankly speaking, you are the first real tourist we've had aside from the bandits and slave traders."
"You can stay in our home."
"Really?" Noé asked incredulous. Niko nodded solemnly.
"Stay here?" Areste asked a bit less confused than her. "Where?"
"We have an extra room." That seemed to tell them enough. It was actually quite interesting to Noé how the mere mention of the one vacant room was enough to quiet their questions. Niko pushed himself off from the wall and motioned for her to follow.
He took her through the back door where she'd seen Luca come and go while the rest of his family came behind her with Areste following right after her.
How cautious.
"If occurrences like the one we witnessed are commonplace, then I do not blame them."
Neither did she honestly. As they went through the back part of the house, Mennie and Luca were the first to retire, leaving her alone with the two brothers. Soon, though, even Areste left at Niko's insistence. It was clear that he didn't want to leave his brother but reluctantly agreed in the end and left to his room. Niko led her further in the house, up the second floor, and to a particular room in the far end of the corridor to the left. He opened the door and nodded his head for her to enter ahead of him. Despite the reception being so detached, she complied and entered the room.
The first thing she saw was a bed across the room against the wall and just under a window. A desk with several things including a lantern and shelf full with books were off to the right and some kind of pile of toys was on the left on top of a much larger table. Drapes hung around the bed's window and over the desk next to the shelf. An odd basin stood to the side of the bigger table made of metal, the underside darker as if having been marked after numerous times of being burnt. The room was small but the small things that she could glimpse from stepping inside gave it a sense of individuality.
Whosever room this was, they were quite the simplistic yet unique bugger.
"I will say this now, despite offering you shelter, I will have to ask that you do not disturb anything in this room aside from the bed."
"The owner too picky about their personal space?"
"My sister wasn't the picky type. Just really liked her things organized."
Wasn't. Liked.
She's gone. And this place is kept like some kind of shrine.
Not wanting to dwell in personal business that wasn't hers, she gave a nod. He thanked her one last time before leaving her to herself in that room. In spite of what she told him, Noé waited until silence came to grab the lantern and begin snooping around.
"I thought this wasn't any of your business."
"Prying isn't my style. But I'm allowed to be curious, Chief. I'll be sure to leave things in their place, so don't sweat it."
"Have you no respect for the dead?"
What kind of respect did she want her to show them? It's not like they would care. They're dead. She disregarded Chief's words and continued on her little meddling mission with her lantern to light the way.
The shelf was her first stop. The books ranged from a few fairytales to others in blacksmithing and many more on metallurgy. Niko had said sister, hadn't he? What kind of girl would be reading up on their engineering? Losing interest there, she went to the desk only to find diagrams of many kinds. Designs of sorts, she guessed. Noé couldn't quite decipher them from how they were written so she left them be. The last larger table seemed to be the workspace the girl had used to do her projects. Scraps of metal—some gold and silver even—laid haphazardly there along with tools. Noé picked up a half-finished metal horse toy; it didn't have legs or a tail, but the head and bridle were detailed beautifully, accentuated with silver and gold pieces so finely woven into the metal that it seemed almost drawn from the same ore.
That girl had had a pretty good hand with this. Pity she died. Would've made a great artisan.
Leaving things back where they were, she went off to the bed and laid down so she could stare out into the dark night. As she gazed at the dark blue skies with stars sprinkled about and the moon giving her its rare light, Noé's thoughts wandered to what Niko and the others had told her about Maladh and the 'strange structure' that had risen those fifteen-odd years ago.
"Flammable fog... Do you have any clue who we're dealing with this time?"
"Flammable fog makes me think it could be those who mastered Fire Magic. They would be more knowledgeable about such sciences."
"Got any names in specific?"
"After those we've already encountered, the pool is quite narrowed. But with 72 of us…it could still be anybody's guess."
Her foot tapped impatiently against the wall were it dangled off of the bed. Finally fed up and unable to wait for the morning, she got up after only fifteen minutes of rest.
"Noé?"
"I'm heading to the dungeon. See what all the fuss is about for myself."
"You should rest up. The moonlight doesn't help you and you used a handful of your magoi already."
"And I ate." She tapped her full stomach lightly as emphasis. "I'm much better now. Besides, I'm not actually going to dive in. Even I'm not that stupid. All I want is to see the dungeon from afar. Maybe that will give you some inkling as to who it is."
Chief agreed with her suggestion so long as it was only to scope the place out. She promised it would only be that and jumped out of the window and tumbled over to land on her knee on the ground below.
As she stood she noted that Maladdh was certainly dark at night even with the light of the moon shining down on it. The light actually made the shadows bigger and made the town appear more menacing that it actually was. But in that darkness is where the scourge of this garden hid best. As she took the stroll towards the woods that she'd seen from the room, Noé could hear the noises of those bandits fighting each other, of slave traders abusing their slaves, and of people just being nasty to one another. Despite the sound of such atrocities so blatant and loud, she knew that there wasn't much she could do. Saving one, maybe two, wouldn't be worthwhile in the end. Who was to say they wouldn't end up in that same situation or worse later? No, the best way she could help was by ridding Maladh of the dungeon.
But first she needed information on it. That would give her the best chance to find out what she needed to prepare for diving in.
By the time she reached the outskirts of the woods, Noé had to cover her nose and mouth with the sleeve of her drape as the fog washed over her surroundings. A single unintentional whiff of it was all she needed to identify it. That was the putrid smell of kerosene. It explained the flammability. And Niko hadn't been kidding about the darkness. A few steps in and the moonlight had already vanished, not even passing through the canopies of the trees.
Lucky for her, her source of light wasn't fire-based. Raising her free hand, she let as much light gather in it to morph it into a small hovering sphere of light that illuminated her surroundings. She sighed heavily through her nose, frustrated at the results after having gathered most of the light around.
So tiny.
"You're to blame. You know dark places don't go well with your powers."
She knew but she had hoped that the reserve in her would be more than a mere nightlight. Noé made due with the tiny light and let it hover ahead of her. Utilizing it like an artificial firefly, it guided her way as she traversed through the woods. Despite not knowing where she was going, she guessed that as long as the fog kept getting thicker, she was going the right way.
And lo and behold, after half an hour of walking, she found the structure she was looking for. She had seen the top of it as it shot out from the canopy of trees from outside but up close it seemed a bit more intimidating.
Torches lined the squared-shaped structure and were lit in bright red flames. Strangely none of the fire reached the gas since it came from a moat several meters away from the entrance. Strangely enough, some of the flora around the dungeon survived the toxic fumes. Even before as she walked through them, she was surprised that the woods and especially the trees had survived the pollutant of the kerosene gas. She guessed that whatever the species was, it had properties of its olden times to survive this type of attack. The dungeon was nothing but a squared tower that rose high and appeared to be made of black obsidian.
It was elegant and dangerous.
"Noé?"
The soft voice that she had gone years without hearing shocked her when it reached her ears and made her turn abruptly at having missed his nearness. But she wasn't particularly worried about him, though. Yunan was a very laid back and kind magi. And with how old and knowledgeable he was where his magic was concerned, it didn't surprise her that he snuck past her without her noticing.
A smile spread across her face which hid behind her sleeve as she gave a sidelong glance at the wandering magi. A bright borg protected the magician from the fog as he watched her with wide baby blue eyes while tilting his hat back to better see her. Instead of answering his call, Noé ran up to him and knocked at his borg before pointing at her face and smacking her chest. Understanding her charades, he extended the range of his borg to include her with a wave of his staff. Once inside, Noé took a deep gulp of fresh air before grinning sheepishly at him.
"Hey, Yu-chan. What brings you here?"
"I'd ask you the same thing if I didn't already know." His gaze averted from her towards the dungeon. "I came to inspect what's gotten Sitri so upset."
"Sitri?"
"Oh, it's her!" Chief sounded pleased to know whom it was as if it were an old friend, but Noé didn't mind her outburst and instead focused on what Yunan had said.
"She's upset? How do you know?"
Yunan gave her a solemn nod before turning his sad eyes towards her. "I raised her dungeon sometime ago. She was wary about the location but agreed on my decision. I haven't seen her dungeon since, though."
"You left after raising it, didn't you?"
"You know I don't like bright places," he grumbled, changing into a weakling like he did when mention of the sun came up. But it didn't surprise her that he had. She knew Yunan tended to raise dungeons during intervals when he wasn't holed up in his home. Which meant…
"You haven't been here for fifteen years?"
"About so." He tapped his shoulder pensively with his fishing rod staff. "Fifteen years ago, I was more preoccupied with other things. I visited a couple of countries if I recall correctly."
"Aside from Parthevia?" If she remembered right, that was the last time she saw him.
He gave her a curt nod. "Since no one conquered it, I didn't bother coming here to check. I never imagined Sitri would have become this upset over that span of time."
"You still haven't said what she's upset about."
"That's because I'm not aware of it. I can't speak with djinn once their dungeons are raised in the world. Even before then, my communications are scarce. Whatever it is, though, she must feel threatened by it."
Djinn? Threatened? "They're powerful beings able to perform grandiose magic. What could they possibly be afraid of?"
Yunan gave her a knowing smile then, one that told her what he wanted to say even before he said it. "We are all prey to something bigger than us, Noé. Even you and I as powerful as we may be have those who surpass us. The djinn are no different, it would seem."
Her silence was the only agreement she gave. But if Sitri was threatened by something and hindering its surroundings then it must be quite the menace. Noé was sure that anything that the djinn was concerned about wouldn't be such if she got out and had a master that could use her pow—
That's it.
"Yu—" But his name died in her throat as she pursed her lips shut. Yunan only gave him a puzzled look, tilting his head at her, but Noé appeased him with a shake of her head. "Nevermind. Will you be here for long?"
"I might. I want to find what it is," he confessed.
"I see." Noé gave him a wide grin, patting him on the shoulder before taking a few steps away and out of his borg. Covering her mouth, she waved with her other free hand as she spoke loudly through her sleeve, "See you around then." Noé didn't wait for him to give her an answer and flashed as soon as those words left her. In that flash, she returned to the room she'd left half an hour ago, the light of her flash shedding off her body as tiny flakes of light that brightened the room a few seconds before they completely disappeared.
"What are you thinking?"
"If Sitri gets a master, she doesn't have to worry about contaminating the woods and keeping whatever threatens her at bay."
"So?"
"So…" Noé drawled with a cocky grin, "We get her a master."
"You mean you're going to conquer her?"
"Not me." She thought there was a worthy fighter in Nikotis. A family man and patriarch sounded like a proper candidate for a djinn.
"Noé as stupid as your ideas are, this is one I cannot get behind."
"Why not?" she asked incredulously as she undid her sandals and loosened her clothes to sleep more comfortably before plopping onto the bed. She raised her hand over her face extending a finger each time she got a point across. "Maladh gets rid of its toxicity." One. "Niko gets the power and money to bring his hometown back from the rubbish it is." Two. "And I get to talk to Sitri by going with him and I get my exit guaranteed." Three. Giddy, she threw her arms back but groaned as she hit the bedposts. She rubbed at her hands but the pain didn't take away her grin. "It's perfect."
"What you are doing is giving the king's power to someone not chosen by a magi. That is not your job. It has never been your job. Lord Ugo did not create this system to be undermined after everything."
Those words were a real downer to her mood. She turned to her side, her hands behind her head and arms cradling her it, and faced the open window and the night sky. Chief didn't stop there, though, and kept chastising her.
It's not like Noé didn't understand. She knew the roles of the magi and that only they could choose proper candidates. But that gave her more reason to come up with the idea that she did.
"He will not be chosen by the magicians of creation. A faulty candidate will not be a long lasting one. It will be cursory just like everything else."
And if they're not long lasting then whatever they do with the power won't matter in the larger scheme of things.
Telling this to Chief did not placate her blatant disapproval however. It in fact made it greater.
"If that is your choice, then I cannot stop you. But I will not help you, either. You want to go through with this then you go through this by yourself."
Noé scoffed, her grin turning crooked. "Fine with me."
She'd gone through most of her life alone. However long it took for this plan of hers to go through would be less than a second compared to that. And if Andromalius was going to be such a craven about this and not help then so be it. It's not like Noé needed her anyway.
Noé wouldn't blame her though—she knew better than to do that when Andromalius was only adhering to the purpose she gave herself for—but like her, Noé wouldn't care about it either. They've had their disagreements—gods know we have—this wasn't the first and sure as hell wouldn't be the last, of that she was sure.
But none of those things would set her back. This was just a stepping stone to save them all, and if she had to throw some into the water and let them sink for others to cross safely then she would. No helping the inevitability of fate.
Wanting the bitterness of the conversation forgotten, Noé closed her eyes and took several deep breaths to calm herself and try to sleep. " 'Night, Romali."
That night no voice called back to her 'goodnight.'
|i.|
There hadn't been any people. It was a dying bonfire left behind by whoever had been passing by. Her luck still clung to her a little longer though seeing as the fire was still fresh enough for her to restart it with minimum effort.
The day had been shorter than she expected since by the time she reached the origin of the smoke, night had caught up to her. Noé felt the cold of the desert night hit her like iced water. All her bones, especially her arms, ached from the iciness of the night and her teeth chattered uncontrollably even when she tried holding her jaw closed with her hands.
"Don't do that, kid. You'll break them."
"But i-i-i-it's cold-d-d-d."
"Get closer."
Noé did as she was told and scooted closer to the small fire burning brightly in the night. Huddling her knees against her chest, she wrapped her arms around them and managed to wrap that thing around her tiny body.
It was bigger than her and it covered her nicely. The feathers were warm...and puffier than usual.
"They do that to trap as much warm air as possible. That and the fire should hold you for the night."
"W-What if it doesn't?"
"It will," she corrected, assuring Noé. "You will see the morrow's morning."
Noé didn't understand how but her words comforted her enough to focus on how cozy the warmth around her was even with the icy breeze passing by around her. As a particularly cold one passed and made her shiver, she curled up closer in her small bundle. But as her eyes began to close from exhaustion, a thought kept shaking her awake.
I can't sleep. I have no proper shelter, no protection. If I'm attacked—
"Rest, Noé. I don't know about that thing of yours but I won't let anything harm you. Of that you can be sure."
That promise did put her at ease but it also brought back memories. Andromalius had never said that to her before. Bitter words of revulsion and disdain, yes, even many deprecating her, but seldom kind ones. It had only been recently that Chief saw her as anything normal. Anything remotely worthy of being treated as an equal.
Noé knew not to expect Andromalius to be a compliant djinn and for her to see her as her master, much less her king. But a part of Noé's heart swelled with equal parts of happiness and grief and it made tears begin to prick at the corners of her eyes.
This seemingly shocked Chief and prompted her to ask, "W-What's wrong, kid?"
"N-Nothing." Noé wiped at her eyes with the heel of her palms, the rough action turning her cheeks even redder than the cold had left them. But as she stared at the burning flames of the fire, her mind full of so many things, she found it necessary to voice them. "Chief?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you," she spoke softly, burying her face into her arms somewhat embarrassed, "for choosing me, for getting me out of there, but mostly for…" The tears threatened to fall again remembering Andromalius' words.
"You are not a stain in the lineage. Even with that deformity, you have endured, you have survived, and you surpassed all. It didn't take away from you. It empowered you. And I cannot imagine a worthier candidate for king."
"...thank you…"
"All that I said was true. And know that from now until your last day I will be with you, for you, and for your goals. You are my king, Noé, and I will serve you as such."
That left a bitter taste in her mouth. To be king, that wasn't what she wanted. She didn't want to rule. She never did.
I've only ever wanted what everyone else already did: a life.
"I'd rather you not."
"What do you mean?"
"More than having a subordinate, I'd much rather...have you as a friend."
Silence came to be in her head with the only sound being the crackling of the fire before her. But Noé heard a small sigh and could almost imagine the smile on Andromalius' face. So gentle, so warm.
"Then that is what I shall be, Noé."
A smile returned to her at hearing this, "Mm."
Now she had one friend. One of the many she dreamt of having her whole life. And one of the many that now by being in this place, she would surely have. But that was looking too much into the future. It didn't stop her from dreaming of how great her life would be now.
Those were the dreams she would always have and would regret in the morning because she knew they could never come true. Now that wasn't the case anymore. Now that wasn't an impossibility. It could happen. And it would.
With so much happiness filling her head, it was a bit tough to fall asleep but she soon gave up to her exhaustion, eagerly awaiting the new adventures she would see rise with the morning sun.
A/N:
As promised here is the second chapter. Now this time I'll keep my word about slot sharing my time between TM and CoU. So it'll be sometime before I update this story again. Also, forgot to mention before but the cover art for this story and also SL's is by the lovely hvalross-art. Check out her tumblr for more amazing art!
Hoped you guys liked this double-chapter premier of The Meanderer and stay tuned for the next chapter! :D