by G M Archer
Joseph sit down against a wall, closing his eyes, and was soon snoring softly. Alexandra regarded him for a moment, then continued to scrutinize papers, not speaking a word for a while. In the silence, I found a loose sheet of paper, and a piece of charcoal, and used them to copy the entire tapestry, sketching a Journeyer in the corner for good measure.
I folded it and placed it in my pocket as Alexandra stood and beckoned me. With the sound of my chair scooting out Joseph startled awake. I walked over to her, and she handed me a parchment, covered in words I didn’t understand but also included illustrations of the necklace fitting into the holes on the map, and turning like a key.
“Let me start by telling you I’ve never had any faith in magic,” Alexandra crossed her arms, “And have had no reason to. We have nothing to go on but these random sheets, and since that’s the best instruction we’ve got, we’re probably going to have to trust it.”
Joseph joined us, his eyebrows scrunched as he listened intently.
“It says the liquid in the necklace is like fuel, it can only transport so many people so far, and only to one of the statues. However, if you’ve already visited a statue, you can move from it to here as you please without depleting any of the necklace, and vice-versa. But even then, the statues can only move so many people as well.”
“So since we’ve never visited a statue, we’re going to have to use the necklace, aren’t we?” Joseph asked.
“Yes, but-”
He turned to me, mistaking her hesitation for a conclusion, “How’d those street boys even get that?” He turned back to Alexandra, “And we didn’t put it in a map to come here, so how did that work? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You interrupted her”, I offered.
“Sorry,” he gave Alexandra an overly dramatic sympathetic expression.
She huffed, looking down. She shifted for a moment with apprehension, then spoke, “I don’t think it would transport more than two people this time. And I don’t want an adventure- I never have.”
“Are you suggesting we just abandon you here and hope you don’t starve to death before we find a way back?” Joseph said.
“The alternative is for all of us to stay here together and starve to death quicker. Would you prefer that?” she retorted.
“She has a point,” I said.
Joseph frowned, but Alexandra shrugged, “I’ve got food and apparently running water. I’ll last a while.”
Joseph grumbled, “I don’t like this,” he scratched his beard nervously, “If we must leave, you must know that I will come back for you, no matter what.”
“My hero,” She rolled her eyes but turned her head to cover up a reserved smile.
Joseph turned to me, and I held the necklace dumbly.
“So where do you want to go?” I looked at the map.
He pointed to the mountains on the western side of the map, “The statue there is actually remarkably close to where the tribe should be this time of year,” he crossed his arms, “Maybe we should just see if this will work first, though, before we go headlong into a quest.”
“We need to find allies for resources,” I inputted.
“Alright, maybe a visit . . . But only if we’re close,” Joseph said.
I took another glance at Alexandra, who was still scrutinizing papers. She looked up, “Make sure you’re holding onto each other, you want to go together.”
I moved the necklace over the key-hole, the chain wound around my fingers as I grabbed Joseph’s arm.
“Goodbye, Alex,” He said.
“Don’t say it so grimly, it makes it sound so final. It’s simply ‘see you soon’,” she said.
He nodded, and she looked at me.
“Congratulations, you got your wish. It’s not just tiny remains of legends anymore, we’re surrounded by them,” she said as I turned the necklace like a key, and before I could say a word, the feeling of falling overcame us.
Chapter 6- Thus We Have Forgotten About Lost Depravity
We came crashing to a halt on a snowy ground, a landing a bit less rough than the last time. Joseph lit his lantern, the light illuminating a cold cedar glade. It was a tiny clearing, enveloped in silence and chill, overseen by a statue of a snowy owl with a viper in its claws.
I looked down at my hand. The necklace was almost empty now, only a tiny bit of liquid swirling around at the bottom under a clear sky and translucent stars.
Joseph kicked the snow and I shivered slightly, our breath freezing in the air. I reached my hand out to touch the cold stone of the owl, and I glanced at Joseph, “I’m going to see if I can go back, just to check. I’ll return right away if so.”
“Good,” he said, “Better you than me, though. That experience makes my head ache a little.”
With a palm placed flat on the statue, I pictured the map and the library, and Alexandra. I was again whisked away, now standing beside the map. Alexandra jumped slightly, sitting at the desk.
“I see it works,” She said with a smile.
“Fantastic, Isn’t it?” I said, “Being able to jump from place to place faster than any ship sails or any bird flies?”
“Fantastic, yes, but also concerning,” Her eyes rested on a book she had open with the same suspicious expression she made when she thought milk had spoiled.
“What?” I said, hand hovering over the map.
“It says only those that wear the cloth of a Journeyer can use the spell to move across the world,” she said.
“I’ve always thought Joseph’s cloak was different,” her protest stopped with my grin, “I jest. Are you concerned because now we can’t trust that all these papers have correct information?”
“Well, yes, but the scribbled note at the bottom says ‘it has been discovered that those with blood poisoned by the Order of Ouroboros may also use it. Be wary and be ready.’”
“Concerning. Isn’t Ouroboros that old symbol of a snake eating itself?” I asked.
“So you did pay attention to some history lessons. They symbol is sometimes a dragon. Meaning eternity usually,” she replied.
I made a motion towards the painting room, “Dragons and snakes are something we’ve seen before.”
“Yes but it’s all a great tangled mystery right now,” she pushed her glasses up her nose.
“So does that mean one of us is ‘poisoned’?”
“That goes along with the mystery part.”
I moved my hand over the map, aware that Joseph might be getting concerned, “Well then, apparently you should be wary and ready, Alexandra.”
“I always am. Same to you. Don’t get into anything stupid with Joseph,” she instructed.
“Oh, I believe we are past that point,” I touched the keyhole at first, and my heart fluttered when nothing happened, but when I moved my hand to the owl I came down in the snow beside Joseph.
He handed me his cloak and a pair of the swords, “I was getting a little worried.”
I clipped the cloak on, and double looped it around my shoulders. I walked after Joseph as I slid the sheaths of the swords onto my belt. Actually carrying a weapon would be a new experience for me.
“We have a great advantage being able to cross the world like it’s nothing,” he said.
“Yeah, Alexandra said something about only certain people being able to use it. Journeyers and those with blood tainted by ‘the order of Ouroboros’.”
“That snake thing? So, some of that weird information might be wrong,” he shrugged.
He looked back at me as I finally got my belt buckled, “You know not use those unless needed, of course. A sword that always stays sheathed is a much more powerful statement when drawn.”
I finally noticed his armor revealed by a lack of his cloak, not one I’d seen for a very long time. His breastplate and shoulder guards were golden colored and stamped with the roaring lion of the knight’s Guild. I started to ask him about it and internally answered my own question, a member of the Guild was a revered fi
gure, showing such a symbol could get us into, and out of a lot.
“So where exactly is the camp? And who are these people, you said tribe?” I began to walk in his deeper footsteps.
“They and those who know them call them ‘The Forsaken’. The Guild’s had dealings with them in the past. They don’t ever draw first blood and they will ally with none, we figured that out when we tried to recruit them for the armies. They mine the materials to create gunpowder, specializing in ancient methods of bombs, and arrows that rain fire. Also at their disposal is elegantly powerful ships that can plow through the icy rivers of the peaks, and consequently, any ship they encounter.”
He paused as we came out of the forest and onto a field of snow, the great mountains rising before us and to the west, framing the splattered sharp stars. Joseph pointed out a trail, two pairs of footsteps breaking the pristine sheet of ice. He followed it, his lantern glistening on the cold ground.
“They also wield weapons made of packed ice, never melting, awfully sharp. They’re a unique people, nomadic and sometimes hard to find, but Varrick wanted them on his side badly. They told him that if he didn’t leave them alone that they would show him how effective in battle they could be.”
Slow, large snowflakes began to fall.
“Through negations I befriended their leader, or I hope she still is. Her name is Delilah. Though we now have a place to stay, we’re still going to need rations, and my funds won’t last forever. We’re eventually going to have to work. Perhaps she could give us a job and a purpose, and if we stay with a people that don’t want to be found, than it narrows are chances of being found. Speaking of that, it amazes me how quickly Varrick got on you being gone, and I’m sorry-”
I grabbed his arm, cutting him off as two figures approached in the distance, a lone torch cutting out in the dark.
“That’s probably them, but be ready for anything,” Joseph paused and watched them, continuing on but making sure he stayed between me and them.
Our groups approached each other till the two men stopped a ways from us. From where we stood they were menacing, bundled from head to toe in drab rags and hide, and faces covered with snarling half-masks.
“Who are you?!” the taller one called, voice slightly muffled.
They both carried bow and arrows, the shorter one holding the torch. I realized he couldn’t be but a boy.
“I am Joseph, a friend to Delilah! I wish to speak with her,” he unwound the fabric covering his forearm, displaying the lion of the Guild in his lantern-light.
They both flinched, looking at each other. I gave Joseph a confused look, and he was similarly perplexed.
“I will send my son to request your audience,” the man said, and the boy looked at us once more before he took off running.
The man was a dark shadow in the lack of light now, moving towards us slowly. I had an uneasy feeling.
“Were you patrolling at this hour?” Joseph asked.
“No, hunting,” the man said.
“What game do you hunt at night?” Joseph said.
“Anything we can get,” his voice was straight, but grim.
He looked thin despite all his layers, his eyes sunken.
Joseph looked concerned, “How fares your people?”
“What do you call my people?” his eyes narrowed with a suspicion, awaiting the answer with a stiffness.
“The Forsaken,” Joseph did not hesitate, and the man seemed impressed, relaxing just a bit.
The torch again appeared around the mountain as the boy ran back to us. We stayed in silence till he got to his father, whispering something.
The man motioned for us to come, “Delilah says she’ll see you.”
We followed them without a word, the trail leading into a canyon and winding into the faults of the mountain. They jumped from an overhang onto solid stone, making it appear like the trail ended at the edge. Down below was a cave, the entrance slanted and hidden on the cliff.
The sight inside stuck me only as dreary at first, calm even, but as we moved on through the cave I realized how bleak the silence was. The fires that burned were made of tiny scraps of wood, the people were ghastly figures, thin and bony. The overhanging silence was bleak and oppressing, and everything was drab, no color, no metal, it was a place of dim and dirt.
Joseph’s eyes combed the place wildly, bewildered and distraught, “What has gone wrong here?” he whispered, “How did it become this way? They were a proud and powerful people.”
A small girl lunged out and clutched at Joseph’s arm, her frail fingers raking against the fabric, “Look, mama, a knight! A hero like the fairy tales to come and save us!” She cried, her voice a cracked whisper.
“Come back child!” A voice commanded somewhere in the tents, “There are no such heroes.”
Joseph reached out as she scrabbled away into the dark, his lips moving but no words coming out.
The man and his son paused and looked back at us. Joseph’s face took on a grim sort of determination as he followed them, his eyes dark under his brow.
We paused before a tent larger than the others, lit from within by some greater light than those outside. Our guide whispered something to a guard outside and he disappeared into the tent.
The man readjusted his bow as he passed Joseph, “Farewell, knight, may whatever business you have here bring good tidings. Because there seem to be none left.”
The boy nodded at me as they passed.
The guard re-exited the tent, “You may enter.”
Joseph stopped me as I moved forward, “Give me a chance to figure out what’s going on and explain who you are before she meets you.”
I nodded, looking around and feeling queasy. He entered the tent.
I could see movement behind me, people moving through the camp, slow and sickly. I realized how sheltered my life had been, a view from a polished curtain of ignorance. Never had I known suffering except for my own self-pity, and I now knew what a luxury that suffering had been.
I moved with a slow deliberation into the shadows and around the tent, hoping for a place to eavesdrop through the hide walls.
“What happened, you ask?” a female voice scoffed, “What happed? Varrick the mad king, and his vindictive greed, are what happed!"
I leaned closer.
“We refused to wage a war that was destroying everything and everyone poured into it, and his revenge to our desire for peace was to kill us. Not directly, of course, he wouldn’t waste resources on a trivial pestilence like us. The cities, especially Voltaren- our main crop and food source, have been forbidden to have any dealings with us. There is only so much we can take from our mountains, and it is not enough. On top of that, there are rewards given to people that take game from these lands. We have been left to starve. Forsaken is no longer just a name,” her voice bit quick and sharp.
A hand suddenly seized my forearm, the guard yanking me to the entrance and flinging me to the ground.
“Listening is a privilege earned by being part of the audience,” he spat, and whirled back out.
Joseph winced. Delilah sit turned away, a giant of a man seated beside her, his massive form silhouetted by lantern-light.
The woman turned, her eyes narrowed and unamused, but they shot open wide as I stood.
“ATLAS!” the giant guard jumped to his feet as she screeched, Joseph putting his hands out.
The guards opened the flaps of the tent as she stood, bristling, “How- Why is she- You dare bring her here!? Blood from the horrid castle!” The light flickered off her pupils as I got to my feet, hands out defensively.
She was a middle-aged woman, decorated with bones and teeth, clothed in animal hides and fabric that once colorful. But despite her adornment, her cheekbones stood out, her eyes were hollow, she was just as starved as her people.
I spoke before Joseph could, the weapons of the guards and the massive war-hammer of her personal sentry catching my eye, “Varrick is not my brother nor has he has never b
een. I am no more ‘blood of the castle’ than you are. I ran from the capitol and the war. We are both forsaken, Delilah.”
Her head roiled back in wild laughter, and when she snapped it back down her teeth gnashed in a snarl, “You think you have the right to say that?! Fool! When you watch mothers bury their children, sisters bury brothers, when death’s claws come for you and your surrender comes from helplessness, then you may call yourself that.”
She turned away from me, “Sit, Asa, she is no threat”, her guard sit and the flaps closed as she looked down with a bitter expression.
“Then do something! Fight until death comes instead of surrendering in acceptance! Move your people, reason with a farmer who is human enough to understand suffering, who values life over the royal command!” I argued.
She looked up at me with anger flaring, “They all value life, but it is only their own. You know nothing. No man fights the crown. No man gives his goods to anything but the war against the Terminus people. It does not matter where I move my tribe, either. Varrick will only tell the people there to let us die.” She slumped.
Joseph looked back and forth between us.
“You’re filled with false hope, Atlas, foolish ideas to better things that will never change,” her eyes were weary.
“Is there any way I could help?” Joseph interjected, “Is there any way we could help?”
Deliliah looked up slowly, “You could- no-” she sighed, bit her lip, “There was a group of men in Voltaren that wanted to send us supplies but they feared Maul and his bandits would attack them delivering them here. Usually soldiers travel to keep the bandits at bay, but it would be against the law to bring them to us, so they receive no assistance. My men are not fit to fight, but you could help them travel here, perhaps, if they are even still willing.”
“Maul?” Joseph asked, “I’ve heard that name before, but the man I’m thinking of is an army captain.”
“Oh, he was. Now he’s a deserter. Ran off and took every man that ever had a thought of rebellion along with him. He snatches up more of them at any chance he gets. It would be amusing to me, the way he infuriates the royal army, if we weren’t starving,” Delilah said.