Warper: Echoes of Etangria

by Riley Tune

“Seeing as how you have Craydon with you, I’ll assume you are our neighbors from The Prime Sovereignty.” “Correct as always,” Craydon said, as he glanced towards Halo who rolled his eyes some.

  “You know about the Prime Sovereignty?” I asked him. “The Grim God has told us of all the lands. He instructed that ships be sent out to all of them, as we did to The Prime Sovereignty. All of our crews returned to Rewling, just as they left, except for one sent to The Prime Sovereignty. While some of my men returned, they reported that some of the crew simply, vanished. Not only that, but they brought Craydon to us as well.”

  I felt uneasy listening to Atmos. His men hadn’t vanished, they had instead discovered something almost as dangerous as the Red Beast on our lands. Rema Thorne. Remy’s sister had found the men first, and tortured some of them until she found out just where they came from and who they were.

  Without knowing, Atmos had just given some details on the reason we had even come here. The Grim God. Grimsby Glen. One of the four children changed along with The Keeper. We needed to know why they were sent and more importantly, if their connection to The Grim God, could help us solve what was going on in The Prime Sovereignty and save the twins. This thought made me realize something that I had missed up until now. We all had.

  Since we set foot on Rewling, and passed through its fogs, the blue orbs had stopped falling.

  “Why did The Grim God want your ships to visit all of the lands?” I asked, but Halo spoke and ignored my question. “The games are starting soon, father,” Halo had said. He had a grin on his face and couldn’t seem to stand still. Was I seeing things or was he standing closer to Craydon that he was a few moments ago.

  “By the Grim God! I forgot. Yes, we must get moving,” Atmos said. “Follow me you three. It’s time for a quick tour, but we really must be going.” With those final words, Atmos quickly turned around and began walking. Vida and I followed him.

  I was a few footsteps behind Atmos when I realized, that I didn’t hear Craydon behind us. I glanced over my shoulder, and was stunned to see Craydon and Halo embraced in a kiss. It wasn’t just a simple kiss either. I could have been wrong, but I do believe that Craydon Addersfield was in love, and despite Halo being at least ten years younger than Craydon, it was clear he loved him too.

  I could feel a smile on my face that faded fast. Craydon seemed to have a name made for himself as being a person that didn’t seem like the monogamous type. Halo may be on track for a world of hurt. Despite that, at least this gave me a chance to get some info from his father. I could only hope he would be truthful. For the first time in my life, I found myself wishing that I was a Tongue.

  16

  “Not that I don’t trust you,” Vida said as we walked, “but where are we going?” Atmos paused as he walked and allowed us to catch up to him. “The Rewling Games,” he said. “A tradition in Rewling where men, women, and children come together, and compete in feats of strength and bravery.”

  “Sounds fun,” Craydon said. I took this moment to close the gap between Atmos and myself. “Atmos,” I said as I began to walk beside him. “Yes,” he replied without even looking at me. “What do you know about The Grim God?” “Only what is taught to us,” he replied. “Of all The Forgotten Gods, he is the most powerful, most generous, and our way to salvation. His will is ours.”

  I thought about this for a moment. “Does The Grim God, do anything here?” I asked him as we walked. “Anything here?” He repeated with his brow raised. “I mean, have any incidents ever happened?” “Such as,” Atmos asked. “Well,” I paused as I tried to figure out what I wanted to say or how I wanted to say it. I decided to just be direct. “In Thera, these orbs are appearing, and are actually, harming people. Killing them, or putting some in a deep sleep.” I felt my stomach churn. “My brother and sister are in the deep sleep now. That’s actually why we are here. To see if Rewling had any idea or connection to what was happening.”

  Atmos slowed down some. “Connection?” he repeated. “I assure you, the people of Rewling have no issues with events such as these. We serve the Grim God and that is all. I’m sorry for your family, but that is all I can offer you.” He began to speed up walking after that, leaving me to walk alongside everybody else.

  “Anything?” Vida asked as she came up beside me. I shook my head. I didn’t fully believe him, though. Something made me feel like Atmos was hiding something.

  As we continued to walk I got to see first- hand how much Rewling was different from Thera. I just couldn’t believe how everything, literally everything seemed to be made out of stone.

  There were also no carriages. From what I could see the main mode of transport were large creatures that the people of Rewling actually called a Caprong as well. Even though they shared the same name, they didn’t look completely like the Caprongs of The Prime Sovereignty.

  It had the size, and the face of a Caprong. Some even had the horns of a mature Caprong, the only difference was that in Rewling they didn’t seem to have the long silky fur. Instead they had very short fur, and as a result looked overly muscular.

  I figured the added heat in the city of stone was the reason why they had evolved to not have long fur. I also noticed that Rewling seemed to have far more people than dwellings for them.

  “Atmos,” I said as we walked. “Yes,” he replied but this time he seemed almost bothered by me as he continued to lead us to the games. “It looks like you don’t have enough homes here in Rewling for the amount of people I've seen.”

  “Home? Oh, yes. I suppose that is what you call them in your land. I’ve been told that by visitors from the land of Lentheos, also.” “You don’t call those homes?” Vida asked as she stopped and pointed to a large structure that, for all I could tell looked like a home that you could find in any kingdom of The Prime Sovereignty.

  The major difference, outside of it being carved from stone that came out of the ground, was that all of the homes here seemed to be large and dome shaped. Each may have contained two levels, but none of them touched the skies as some of the noble homes did in Thera.

  “No, we call them havens.” Atmos said. “See, unlike the other lands, here in Rewling we all share. We are all Bygone. We are all one in the same, so anyplace can be considered a home, as you call it, for anybody. Every place here is a haven. I can as easily walk unannounced into that haven,” Atmos pointed to a far off domed building that was almost hard to see.

  “As easily as I can walk into that one,” he pointed to a larger haven that was close to us. “Everyone shares here. Everyone is equal. We are all one people,” Halo said. Their concept seemed so simple, yet so surprising. A land where everyone was equal.

  “Well if everyone is equal, how come he is the leader of the people? He may as well be a king.,” Vida said. To this Atmos laughed. “I am no king. I only lead because my family was chosen to lead. The power I have can be taken from me at any time, and I am okay with that.”

  “See why I like it here so much?” Craydon said. “My talents here are barely even used. I may steal things back home, but here everything is given freely. Sure, it’s not as exciting as running for your life from a pack of guards, but the end is the still the same.”

  “Indeed, Craydon was one of the few outsiders I have seen take to our ways so freely. He eagerly shared beds with several Bygone women, before he made his way to my son.” Atmos said as Craydon cleared his throat.

  “What we do not do,” Atmos continued, “is share at the risk of others. This was Craydon’s fatal flaw. He took things simply to do so. He took food when he wasn’t hungry and made advancements on women who had taken vows to not be shared.” Vida glared at Craydon.

  “All can be forgiven in time, and we welcome him back in forgiveness, but at that time, we felt it was better if he left.”

  I was beginning to like this place. With their simple views, there was no room for unnecessary violence. No room for poverty, and no room for an upper class to cont
rol. It seemed perfect, but a system like this would never work in any part of The Prime Sovereignty. The people, royals and nobles especially, were too set in their ways.

  What bothered me more, was that so was I. I had spent much of my life on the poor side of Thera. Barely getting by, and some nights even going to bed hungry. Now that I lived in a palace, I had no intentions of ever going back.

  “The amphitheatre is just up ahead there.” Atmos said, as he pointed. What was ahead of us was perhaps the largest structure in all of Rewling. From what I had seen in Rewling anyway. It was about four stories tall and circular.

  Like everything else it was made out of stone that grew from the ground. On each level, there were various oval shaped openings that let you see inside to the inner layers of the building, and it seemed to stretch further than I could see unless I enhanced my vision.

  “Good,” Vida said. “All this walking was beginning to hurt my feet. She was right. My feet were killing me too. I reached inside myself and touched that force that allowed me to warp, and I held on to it and allowed it to wash over me. Instantly, my feet were feeling good again. No pain at all, and I felt like I could walk for an entire day.

  Vida didn’t have this luxury. Neither did Craydon. In Thera, we were used to taking carriages here and there and I was usually warping, so walking was kept to a minimum. That did not seem to be the way in Rewling. I was starting to see why everybody here was so muscular.

  Aside from a few on their Caprongs, most people walked, and from what I had seen, most people worked with large stones. Developing muscles to compensate was inevitable.

  We finally made it to the amphitheatre and from the inside it looked more colossal that I imagined. There were so many people inside of the amphitheatre that it seemed all of Rewling was surrounding us. Places to sit covered almost every corner and floor of the huge circular structure.

  The amphitheatre also had no ceiling. As we walked in, I looked up above us and all I could see was the haze that the ever- swirling fog seemed to create over the city. People all around us were cheering and screaming as in the middle of the amphitheatre were various women. They all stood around six feet tall, and all of them were more muscular and defined than even the most battle- hardened Thera guard.

  In front of these women were large stones and each woman slowly picked up the massive boulder- like stone and hurled it in front of them. Some women threw the stone only a few feet, while others through it much further.

  The woman who appeared to have won, was wearing some brown leather trousers, and only a portion of cloth to cover her chest area. I didn’t understand why she didn’t have more clothing on, but thus far that didn’t seem to be the way in Rewling. Once again, I attributed this to the heat of the city.

  The only people who seemed to wear the correct amount of clothing were Atmos and his son Halo. As the women cleared the field the crowd grew silent. “I’m on I suppose,” Atmos said as he turned to us. He looked at Craydon and saw that he and Halo were holding hands.

  Vida actually smiled at this, but Atmos seemed to be conflicted. His gaze lingered on his son and Craydon for longer than I had expected. He seemed saddened for a moment. Perhaps his problem was that his son preferred the company of Craydon as opposed to a woman. Some people were not as open- minded as others.

  Granted Craydon was the first person I had met that openly enjoyed the company of men and women, but I didn’t see a problem with it. “Good luck, father,” Halo said. Atmos simply nodded his head. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was sad about something, or hiding something.

  As Atmos walked into the center of the amphitheatre with his long green cape flapping behind him, he raised his left hand and removed his helmet, while raising his right hand and waving to the legions of people screaming his name.

  “They sure love him, don’t they,” I said as I stood there looking up to the crowd that was above us. We were hidden from the general view of all the people inside of the amphitheatre, so from where I was, I could see all of the spectators of the games, but none could see me.

  “Comes with being their ruler, I suppose,” Vida said as she came and placed her arm around my neck, while kissing me on the cheek.” I smiled. Even with the amount of vomiting she had done on the trip here, I still enjoyed every second of her lips on me.

  I heard a sound behind us and turned to see four of the Rewling warriors standing beside us. Where had they come from? Four men built like statues should have been hard to miss, but they had come upon us unseen.

  My hand, out of instinct reached for my dagger as I watched them stand there. They had those crystallized daggers in their hands as they stood. “No worries, Lox,” Craydon said. “These large bastards are Halo’s and Atmos’ personal guard.”

  “Even though I don’t need them,” Halo said as he looked at the guards. “Oh,” I said as I removed my hand from my dagger. “Also, my father isn’t their ruler.” Halo added. “Remember, he said our family was chosen to lead. Our ruler chose him.” My brow raised. “So, who is in charge then?”

  “All of The Forgotten Gods are. Moreso, The Grim God is. But The Grim God speaks to the Lantra, and the Lantra speaks the will of The Grim God into my father.” We all shared a confused look as Craydon shrugged his shoulders slightly and placed a twig in his mouth.

  Just at that moment, the crowd stopped screaming and shouting. The silence spread through the amphitheatre like a fire set by a torchrunner. I could feel my eyes grow wide as I looked at Atmos standing there alone in the middle of the amphitheatre. A large shadow began to streak across the ground before him, then disappeared.

  I heard Halo take a deep breath as the people of Rewling all looked up at once in the sky, and then stood up. One they were standing, they all began to kneel. Atmos, Halo, and the guards with us, all began to kneel.

  Craydon, Vida, and I were the only ones who stood. “Kneel!” Halo said in a hiss. “For what?” Vida asked as she removed her arm from around my neck. “What was that?” I said out loud as I stepped forward some to look up into the sky.

  “By the Grim God, just kneel,” Halo snapped. So, we did. All of us knelt and waited. I saw the shadow again, streak across the ground. Then I heard a loud sound that sounded like a steady beat. Getting louder and louder. It was then that I saw the shadow on the ground growing as a large majestic creature landed on the ground in front of Atmos.

  We all looked up at it, but we stayed on our knees. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. That feeling I got when Jolin used his powers, or how I felt when I touched my own power inside of me, was nothing compared to how I felt by simply looking at this creature.

  It had the face of a cat with a body that was larger and more muscular than any animal I had ever seen. On top of its back were solid white wings that seemed to stretch six feet or more. Its four legs, much like its body was covered in short silver fur. Its feet brandished golden claws and what seemed to be bronze armor.

  Its eyes were a soft glowing swirl of blue, as if the stars themselves lived in its eyes. Finally, its entire body had a faint golden glow to it. I could see its chest heaving and for a second it breathed on the ground in front of it, and that same speck of ground turned to ice.

  “What is it?” I said in awe. “He is the last Lantra of Etangria,” Halo said. “Servant of the Forgotten Gods, and the true chosen ruler of Rewling and all lands.” Etangria. That was the word I heard.

  Just thinking about it made me fearful. “What is Etangria?” I asked Halo. “It is said to be a place of infinity. Home to those that came before even the Forgotten Gods. We do not ask such things of the Lantra, so I am not sure. Before the Forgotten Gods I thought to myself. What did that mean? Was that the place I went to and saw the winged man? Or was it simply the golden city inside the larger orb?

  The Lantra walked around Atmos slowly and then stood in front of him. They locked eyes and Atmos didn’t even blink as the soft glow of the Lantra surrounde
d him.

  The crowd waited in silence and still continued to kneel.

  “How can he be ruler of all the lands?” I asked. “The Prime Sovereignty has never seen this Lantra before.” “The Lantra is the servant of God's. He doesn't serve man. He goes where he is needed and only for the Forgotten Gods. He rules over Rewling, Dinmain, Lenthos, and Rocod, or as you call it, The Prime Sovereignty. One realm for each of the Forgotten Gods.”

  So, there were a total of two other lands, not including Rewling and The Prime Sovereignty, which apparently was once called Rocod. I tried to wrap my head around this when suddenly, a pain shot through my head that caused me to scream.

  I was still kneeling and as I fell to the ground I heard Craydon and Vida shriek as well. Then suddenly the pain stopped as two massive hands grabbed me and pulled me to my feet. It was one of Halo’s personal guard. Vida and Craydon were being held against their will also.

  Not only us, but Halo to was being restrained. “Father!” he screamed as Atmos and The Lantra looked at us. Bring them to me. I heard a voice say in my head. “Did anybody else hear that?” Craydon shouted out as he tried to break free from the guards.

  I looked at the Lantra. His blue eyes glowed intensely for a second, and then I suddenly couldn’t feel anything. I didn’t hear Craydon struggling anymore either. I tried to turn to look at Vida but I couldn’t. I may as well have been a statue.

  All I could see was The Lantra looking at us, as the guards effortlessly brought us closer to him. They were so strong. The guard carrying me, held me in the air as if I were a child. I continued to look at the Lantra. Then his blue eyes looked back at me. No, they seemed to be looking beyond me, inside me, and as that glow grew brighter, somehow, I knew it was his voice we had just heard in our heads.

  As I watched this beautiful creature, I could feel my heart thumping in my chest. I even tried to warp, and couldn’t. Then I heard the voice in my head again. Such is the wish of the Grim God.