Sol Boxset

by Samuel Small

  “That doesn’t mean you can act like a buffoon,” Elizabeth said.

  “They look like a theocracy, and I’m not sure if you’re aware but history indicates that ancient religions can be pretty strict. I’d recommend keeping on your toes, and that doesn’t go for just Dante, we can all afford to be a little bit more careful than normal,” Jake said. Elizabeth and Sara nodded, and after the two gave Dante a death glare, he begrudgingly agreed. With that out of the way, Jake waved to the group and started up the hill to look for the library.

  “I’m gonna do some research, hopefully come up with a few ground rules. You guys enjoy your rooms,” he said. From behind, he heard Dante say something, although he couldn’t make it out. It didn’t matter anyway – Sara and Elizabeth would keep him in check.

  ***

  “Like I’m just gonna sit here and wait for them to come back with a room,” Dante mumbled, his eyes fixed on Jake’s back as he walked up the hill. Sara didn’t understand why he couldn’t just wait, it wouldn’t be too long and they might take it as rude if they didn’t, but then she remembered what Light said. He did say they could explore the place at their leisure, and she was pretty eager to see what else this land had going for it. The whole vista was dense with trees, and Sara wanted to get a closer look. Since Dante did say he wanted to explore a bit, she grabbed him by the forearm and dragged him along as she set off. He resisted at first, but then caught on that she was exploring, or maybe misinterpreted that she was up to mischief, and let her drag him along. Still pulling on his forearm, Sara called to Elizabeth from over her shoulder.

  “You stay and wait for the guy, just in case.”

  Elizabeth’s posture was abnormally straight, as if she was made uncomfortable by something, but Sara couldn’t pinpoint what. With an eyebrow raised, she nodded, then turned and headed deeper into the building. Sara locked her eyes forward, and narrowed them against the setting sun, which painted the horizon in delicate hues of orange and red. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but she thought heading toward the myriad colors was a good start. From behind, Dante finally stopped resisting and matched her pace, striding to keep at her side. She took note that he’d fallen in line and loosened her grip on his forearm, dropping her hand to her side. She was aware of his own hand, hanging just below his waist and inches from brushing her own. She shook her head, then locked her eyes forward.

  When she reached the top of the hill and the rest of the countryside came into view, Sara let out an astonished gasp. Ahead of her was the end of the great floating landscape they were on, but not the end of the country. Little hunks of earth floated away from the main landmass, maybe a dozen or so at a time, which made a makeshift bridge that led to an island, upon which there was a stone structure, although Sara couldn’t make out the specifics due to the setting sunlight that reflected into her eyes. Almost equally amazing, she saw the rolling landscape that they traversed to get here, including the forest, which was now a simple sea of dark green. Astonished and eager to explore the strange floating island, Sara headed toward it.

  Once she was at the very edge of the land, she felt a bit less enthusiastic about it all. She was now aware of the frantic wind that blew her hair all over the place, which on the mainland had felt calming but now felt dangerous and chaotic. She was likewise aware of the dim rise and fall of Icarus, which reminded her of the stories she’d heard about the ocean, although now it felt like it was shaking, as if experiencing an earthquake. She was scared, and as she peered over the edge she was made even more aware of how high up they were and she took a fearful step back. She knew it was silly, the jump to the first floating piece of land couldn’t be much more than three feet, but the threat of falling kept her heart beating fast.

  Then Dante whirled past her and jumped onto the floating landmass, leaping from one to the other with almost zero pause. She wasn’t sure if he had a plan of action if he fell off, but she doubted it. Still, his confidence was a much-needed boost, and she smirked, then jumped to the first floating platform.

  When she landed, she fell to all fours. The island shifted with her momentum and moved ever so slightly forward, but it was enough to scare the crap out of her. She stayed there, her palms edged into the thin grass, willing it to stop moving. When she was sure that it was no longer sliding forward and only floating up and down, she looked up and prepared to stand. Ahead was Dante, looking over his shoulder with an eyebrow raised. He seemed to be wondering what the heck was taking her so long. Annoyed, Sara jerked up to a stand and hopped from floating island to floating island, eager to catch up with the boy, although it was pointless, as he was just then stepping onto the largest piece of land. A stone structure stood in the center, two trees laden with mysterious fruit at its side. It wasn’t long before Sara reached him, and she cleared the gap with a thud, carrying the momentum to jog to his side.

  Dante stood still, glaring at the odd structure. She wasn’t sure why, it looked like a pretty standard holy landmark. It was a small building, not much more than a chapel really, with pillars presiding over its entryway and a closed pair of doors, both of which were made of stone. The top of it was lined with ancient writing that Sara couldn’t decipher, as well as a few pictographs. Weirdest of all, Dante’s eyes scanned along the top at a slow and steady pace. She raised an eyebrow, and without thinking spoke.

  “Don’t tell me you can’t read normal writing, but somehow understand ancient script?”

  His eyes sprung open and he jerked back as if Sara had awakened him from some strange trance. His eyes rested on her for a second, almost like he had to register who and where he was, then his ordinary demeanor was back and he shook his head.

  “Nah I can’t read it or nothin’, it’s just…” He directed his attention back to the top of the structure, his eyes narrowing as they took in the ancient masonry. “Part of it looks, I don’t know, kind of familiar.”

  “Familiar how?”

  “That’s what I don’t get. Maybe just the type of writing or something. Like I’ve seen it before.”

  “You went inside that ancient tower right? Was there writing there?”

  He snapped his fingers and nodded. “Yeah, that’s where I’ve seen it, it was lining the walls all the way at the bottom. I couldn’t tell what it said, but these are definitely the same letters and shit.” Then an idea seemed to pop into his mind and he gritted his teeth, scanning his eyes all over the structure. “But then where are the…” he said, the words barely audible. Sara wasn’t sure what his fascination was, but since he was focused on the monument, she suggested that they check inside. He broke out of his trance and looked at her, nodded, then slid the stone slabs that created the entrance open.

  As soon as the way was clear, Dante charged into the building then came to an immediate stop. She followed him in and headed for a shadowy room.

  At first Sara couldn’t make anything out as her eyes were adjusted to looking at the bright colors of the sunset. Things became clearer suddenly, the room bathed in a faint blue light that reminded her of the streetlights of the Republic, and she turned her head to see that Dante had created a ball of energy. It floated in the palm of his hand, growing brighter and fainter as if it were breathing. Dante’s eyes were not on the orb, or Sara for the matter, and were glaring at the area just in front of them. Sara looked forward, ready to see now that the space was well lit.

  Directly ahead in the center of the room was some sort of column with a raised platform about the size of a person. It was odd, but it wasn’t what Dante was staring at, evident by him taking shallow steps past it, his eyes fixed on the wall behind. Sara followed him, then looked closely at the wall that so fascinated him.

  Again, Sara didn’t see the big deal. She looked at the inscriptions and noticed that there was a basic creation story featuring a man creating another man. The next image had the two of them fighting, one with sun cast behind them and the other the moon. It was followed by a person with long flowing hair approaching the nigh
t person, getting injured, and the night person killing the sun person. After that, several hooded figures all surrounded the night person and the next image showed a ball where they had been.

  It was strange, but probably the basis for religion here, and who was Sara to judge? She shrugged, and almost turned around and walked out. She figured that if she thought nothing of it then certainly the attention impaired Dante would too, but that didn’t happen. He still stared daggers into the thing.

  “Did you see something like this inside the tower?”

  “Not exactly, no. Some are the same, like the picture of the shit dude, but a lot of it was smashed up. People didn’t look after that place like they do this one. More importantly there wasn’t this,” he pointed at the image of the sun and moon person fighting, then ran his finger down the line, ending at the image of the sun person being killed. “Or this one.” He folded his arms and looked down. “Speaking of what’s here, you know what isn’t?”

  Sara almost called him an idiot – how was she supposed to know anything about stone carvings in an ancient tower that she’d never been in? – but then she remembered the conversation they’d had inside the diner, the very reason that they were here in the first place. Sara flipped her head back to the carvings and ran her eyes over the entire thing. Dante pointed out the monster they had fought, as well as a dragon and a serpent showed up in a scene toward the end.

  She continued to trace over the images, and was shocked to see that there was space for another, but the stone surface was bashed in. She would have thought nothing of this, it was an old building after all, but the rest was so pristine and well maintained… looking at the cracked stone gave her a bad vibe, as if the damage had been intentional. She shivered all over.

  She heard a soft step, and turned to see Dante heading into the fading light outside. She followed him, eager to be out of the place as her new suspicions about it made her feel like it was alive. As she exited, she could have sworn that the cracked image had grown eyes and stared into the back of her head.

  Up ahead, Dante leaned over the edge of the floating island, ready to jump from platform to platform to arrive back on the mainland. Something about this island still bothered Sara, despite the fact that from a glance all that seemed to be to it was this temple. There was a nipping sensation at the back of her mind, like the solution to an unknown problem was right at hand. She almost said something to Dante about it, but the boy began hopping from platform to platform with an eagerness that suggested he was jumping over a lazy river as opposed to being high in the sky. Still, not wanting to be alone on the strange island, Sara took a hesitant jump and followed.

  ***

  Jake sighed and walked in the direction of his lodging, which he hoped would be ready by now. He was lucky that the people here still spoke the same language as him, but it was clear that a lot of the terms were very different. He tried reading up on the history, but there were so many unique words and phrases that he had to give up after just a few minutes of skimming. There were constant references to ‘The Great Woman’, some kind of calamity, and a bunch of buzzwords that mentioned mythological events that must have been ingrained into the people here, but were a complete mystery to him. The search was useless, and he walked into the open doorway with his head low.

  “Back already?” a voice called. When he looked up he saw Elizabeth sitting on a stool near the front desk, holding a small paperback novel, maybe the same one she’d been reading when they first met. He slumped into a chair next to her.

  “Unfortunately, yes. There’s a lot of information, but there’s a bit of a language barrier.”

  Her eyes still scanned the pages, but she must have been listening. She turned one and responded without looking at Jake. “Really? I haven’t had any problems interacting with the people here.”

  “It’s a whole other problem when it’s in regards to history and religion though. They keep talking about some great calamity and a female warrior, and it just assumes you know about that stuff. I can’t make heads or tails of any of it,” Jake said.

  She closed her book with a thump, then turned and smirked at him. “Well, why don’t you just ask some of the residents here?” She was clearly mocking him, and he knew she already knew why he didn’t do just that. Still, her evil grin made it seem like she was going to force him to explain it anyway.

  “You know all the stories regarding religions. These people seem nice on the surface, but when they find out we don’t practice their way of life there’s no telling what kind of problems we might have.”

  Seeming satisfied with his explanation, Elizabeth reopened her book and scanned the pages again. “That’s what I like about you. You can actually conjure a decent thought from time to time.”

  The compliment caught Jake off guard, and he almost stumbled out of his chair, but managed to remain seated by grasping the arms tightly. He had a lot of questions for her, but all of them seemed like they were likely to end with her stabbing her rapier through his chest, so he just sat there, staring at the girl who was reading her book.

  Dante’s voice erupted from the background and for once his loud antics were welcome. “We found some old temple, but it was pretty lame,” he said as he walked into the center of the room, then eyed the desk suspiciously. Sara trailed in behind him and grimaced while shaking her head. There must have been more to the temple than that, but before Jake could ask Sara about it, Dante turned to Elizabeth. “They’re still not done with the rooms?”

  “No, and it’ll probably take a while. They said it’s been a long time since they’ve had visitors, and for an isolated country that could easily mean decades. Whatever lodgings they have must be filthy and probably need of a lot of cleaning.”

  “What do you care when they’re done anyway, Dante?” Jake asked, “you’re probably just gonna sleep outside like always.”

  “Well, yeah, but it’s the thought that counts.”

  “Meaning?” Elizabeth said, glancing up from her book.

  “Meaning that if it sucks, they suck.”

  “Only you would complain about a free room,” Sara interjected from behind him. He jumped and turned to her, then dropped his posture and scowled. He slowly shifted his feet so that he was facing forward once again, and his face jerked up. Jake turned to follow his line of sight and saw that the inn worker known as Ratio was standing in the doorway off to the side, hesitant to address the group. Jake didn’t blame him.

  “Um, your rooms are ready. Please follow me,” he said, then gestured toward the room he just came out of. Jake and Elizabeth got up and followed with Dante and Sara at the rear. They took silent steps through a dark hallway that curved the further they went in. Soon they saw the darkness at the end and when they emerged they were behind the building.

  There were two long dormitories. One was made out of fine stone and candlelight flickered from within. From what Jake could make of the interior it was fully furnished, even sporting drapes to the side of the circular windows.

  On the other side was what Jake could only describe as a broken-down crap shack. It was as if you took the lavished boarding hall that was its neighbor and found its drug-addicted evil twin. It had the same proportions, length and height, but rather than stone it was constructed of warped and weathered wood. The planks were set up in everything but level angles, with boards facing every which way as if a bomb had gone off, and as Jake was staring at the structure and begging that it wouldn’t be where he was sleeping, a plank fell from the roof and hit the ground.

  “You two, please follow me,” Ratio said, pointing at Sara and Elizabeth, and he guided them toward the stone structure. From over his shoulder he called to Jake and Dante, “That’s where you’ll be staying,” and pointed at the barely standing building. Jake almost fell to the ground in defeat. He looked over at Dante and waited for his smart-ass remark, but the boy seemed to be regarding the building with a fascination, as if he had to analyze it to tell whether or not it was a piece of
shit. Thinking about it, the required quality of lodgings for a guy who typically slept outside was probably pretty low.

  Dante put a hand on Jake’s shoulder and nodded earnestly. “Listen bedhead.”

  “What’s this about?”

  Dante looked down and pulled his lips in like he was searching for the right words. He stood like that, hand on Jake’s shoulder, in the moonlight for a few seconds and Jake worried about what horrifying thing he was going to say. Was it the truth regarding the Lightning Gang? Or was it whatever secrets he discovered in the unnamed temple? Jake held his breath, awaiting the revelation.

  Dante pointed at the ruined building, nodded, then walked away, gripping his sides and laughing as hard as he could, the sound reverberating throughout the area and even earning a loud “shut up!” from somewhere within the magnificent building to their side. Dante found his way to a tree, began hammering in a stake, barely able to keep upright and manage the task due to his fit of laughter. Jake’s facial features slumped, and he turned and headed for the inside of the crappy building, stealing one last glance at Dante as he pointed and laughed at him.

  Chapter 4

  Everything around them bustled with laughter and color. The simple designs of the robes worn by Light were nothing compared to the array of colors and outfits that Jake saw before him now. He continued to walk around the area and took a bite out of his frozen popsicle, something he should have tried in Niflheim but didn’t bother due to the frigid temperature. To his left and right were booths staffed by people who gave their wares away for free.

  Jake respected this notion and didn’t take more than he needed, but Dante hopped from booth to booth laughing maniacally, insulting the economic system of the nation all the while. He walked before Jake, a mask strapped to each side of his head, several scarves, beads, and garlands around his neck, holding an armful of food and still stuffing more into his face.