The vast desert. Barren and lifeless, void of hope. In this scorched wasteland lay a city named Sirithis, known to be broken and abandoned, yet it presented itself in a manner that was the opposite. On the horizon, its gleaming towers and sunlit spires seemed unshifted from its said collapse hundreds of years past.
“Whew! Maxra was right.” Ceres panted under the intense heat of the sun. “It really is… hot! I’m dying here.”
Nakir threw up a wing to cast a shadow over the poor girl. He eyed Venza, standing a few meters away. She was staring deep into the distance, to where the great city was. “That is Sirithis, if I’m not mistaken?”
“Yeah. Shouldn’t be like that though. It was destroyed in the Relic War.”
“That does sound familiar. Who destroyed it?”
“Sirithisians.”
Nakir’s head irked up in confusion. “Why would they do such a thing?”
“I don’t think it was on purpose. No idea what caused it, but out of nowhere the whole city up and vanished. Only bits and pieces of it remained, along with all the gold buried underneath the sands. Only Sirithisians that survived were those outside the city.” She chuckled. “Practically ended the war then and there.”
Ceres had gone silent while Venza spoke, still cowering from the sun underneath the black dragon’s wing. “He must really miss it.”
“Then, climb upon my back and let us-”
“Shh! Look there.” Venza pointed to the right of the sandswept city.
A dune rider seemed to appear out of thin air. Gliding across the shimmering sands, they would stop at nothing to reach the city at the end of the world. As they edged closer, a blinding light seemed to envelop them, and they disappeared just as quickly as they’d appeared.
“Was that Raum?”
“Only one way to find out.”
The anisai and the hybrid climbed onto the dragon’s back and prepared for the rush of wind and blistering speed. With a single flap of his enormous wings, Nakir took off, creating massive waves in the sand they once stood upon. Gliding through the air just as the skiff they’d seen glided across the sands, the dragon flew ever closer to their destination.
As he grew closer, the same blinding light enveloped Nakir as well. His mind went blank for a second. The world lost its color, and all sound was lost to him. After what seemed like a millennium, the roaring sound of his wings slowly invaded his eardrums once again like an old friend returning from a long trip. He suddenly raised his wings to catch air and plunged into the blazing ground below. An aching suspicion clouded his mind and deflected the pain from the fall. Looking up, he confirmed it. They were already in the city.
The sun seemed as if it were on the verge of devouring it all and the planet along with it. It sat in the sky peering down at Sirithis as if it wore an eerie smile.
“Are you two alright?”
Ceres and Venza slid off of Nakir’s back with elegance. Well, Venza more so with elegance. Ceres, slightly sick from the fall, stumbled off but with relative ease.
“Yeah…” Ceres hiccuped, keeping the vomit induced by motion sickness back in her throat. “All good…”
“I’m fine.”
As Nakir’s vision lowered from the endless array of curved, southern-style architecture, he finally noticed the same skiff they had seen before. It was on its side and slightly smoking, no doubt broken in some capacity from its arrival. In front of it, Raum’s unconscious body lay. The scene was almost picturesque; the oddly-garbed man, fallen before the strange city that shouldn’t even be standing. All within his mind, no less. It was all still hard to come to terms with.
“Raum?” Ceres shook the man awake.
“Mhm… Ah!” He took a few weary looks around until he understood the situation. “My fellows. I am glad none of you are hurt.”
Ceres explained everything else to him that he had yet to know.
“I figured it was so. The only other way to relive one’s memories so clearly would be to come to a sudden and tragic demise. I am thankful it was the former.” He stood up and scanned the empty streets as if looking for someone. “I did not think my time would catch up to me so fast, however. It seems Archizend has grown tired of keeping his paws out of this.”
Ceres’s brow wrinkled, an inquisitive look forming on her face. “Out of what?”
Raum looked down at his broken skiff, then at Ceres. The sun beat down on the two of them relentlessly. “Normally, I would not have any chance of relaying this to you, but in our current predicament, I believe it is safe.” He removed the goggles that covered his eyes. “That cat… is not to be trusted any more than the Sorceress is.”
“But… Maxra and Zenzi have helped us more than anybody else. Why would they even bother, then? I’ll agree that I don’t trust him, but-”
“That is what I seek to warn you of. Why, indeed? Maxra and Zenzi may not know, that could be the truth, but that… creature has done nothing but spit facts and riddles. Not one truth about them nor himself. What does he want? What do they desire? Not even I know.”
Ceres grasped at the back of her neck. An anxiousness began to seep into her chest. “I…”
“I simply mean to say that everyone has their own weakness. Our desires oft drive us down paths we never thought possible. Almost as if our hearts are what set our fates; preordained by our very own emotions.”
She looked down at her clasped claw. The memory of when she’d met Nakir flashed in her mind. It was when she had first discovered her body’s transformation. “Nothing’s changed since then. Well, a lot has. But I still only have one singular goal: to save Asteria. To protect my sister. If anyone stands in the way of that…” She trailed off, but her vision stayed fixated on her onyx claw.
Raum looked upon Ceres intently, the usual calmness he exuded almost a forgotten memory. Then, in the corner of his gaze, he spotted a man clumsily walking down the dusk-colored street. “Hey, you! Slow your stride, if only for a moment.”
The man weakly turned his head and saw the dune rider, torn clothes, goggles and all. He let out a dry laugh and began walking towards him. “Pardon me, son. I haven’t seen a soul in town in quite a while. I don’t know the last time I took a stroll like this, in fact. What is your name?”
“It is Raum. We’re a bit lost, if you think you can help us.”
“Well, I would if I weren’t lost myself. To tell you the truth, I don’t remember anything, really. If you asked me for my name, I couldn’t tell you. If you asked me what this city was called, I’d have no reply. If you told me this world was dead, I wouldn’t doubt you one bit.” The man wore only a gray set of short pants tied to his waist by a red strand of cloth. His shirtless body was severely burnt, and he was skinny to where one could see his ribs trying to break their way through his crusty skin.
Raum wanted to ask him all the questions in the world, but realized that the greatest gift and perhaps the last gift the man would ever receive was to be left to whatever strand of sanity he had left. “Thank you for your time, sir. I’m sure I’ll find an answer of some kind ahead.”
“Ah, there is one thing, young man. This city was destroyed long ago, but it looks perfectly fine now. If I had any idea as to why, the only thing that comes to mind is the center of town. The plaza.”
Raum thanked the man and they all moved on, following the tip. He wiped the ever-flowing stream of sweat dripping down his neck with his sleeve.
Sirithis was silent. Not another soul passed them on their way through its quiet alleyways. The cracks in the ground were littered with sand. The dry heat leeched all moisture from its husk. The term ‘ghost town’ entered their minds. A town devoid of life was easier to picture, but a whole city abandoned to the elements and left to rot was a rare sight.
“A city of ghosts,” Raum absentmindedly remarked as they made their way through a dusty half-alley. Blocky buildings that seemed to be apartments or other such housing hung over them, casting a much-needed cold shadow. It hugged their bodies with a refreshing chill. The only thing that would have been better was an oasis, something to ease the thirst building in their mouths.
Eventually, dozens of hunched and broken bodies entered their view, crowding the dense ways through the city. Ceremonial garb adorned most of them, and when Ceres raised one to view what lay underneath, a striking odor plunged into her nostrils. Skeletons, some with chunks of flesh still clinging to their decrepit remains.
As they entered the central plaza, their eyes met a terrible yet similar sight. Amongst a great monolith in the middle lay dozens of bodies. They were all but husks now, even their bones succumbing to the intense heat. Some of them had turned to ash, leaving only their elaborate robes behind. The black monolith was inlaid with great symbols that glowed a reddish orange, and at the foot of it was a dusty old tome.
“Is that…?” Venza perked up.
“It cannot be,” Nakir said. Nothing else caught his eye but the forgotten item before them.
Raum picked up the tome and flipped through its heavily worn pages. It seemed to be some kind of ritual book. It described the process of sacrificing dozens of souls to invoke a great power. The power seemed to be demonic in nature. “It is. Though, just as all of this, nothing but a recreation of the real thing.”
“What? What is it?” Ceres asked.
Nakir lowered his head to meet Ceres’s level. “That is an archontic tome. A book capable of invoking powers rivaled only by this anisai and I’s ancestors. It is a terrible product of evil.”
Raum shut the book suddenly. “Not evil. It is no more evil than all magic is, than any tool is. In the right hands, one could move mountains. In the wrong, you are right, it could spell doom not just for us, but the whole world.” He turned around and softly pressed his palm against the monolith. He lowered his head and quietly whispered in Sirithisian tongue. “Karesh ni gura vientei. Lera’varun siola mune sha gialla.”
“What happened here, exactly?”
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“Nue kiyesh muvienne. Our last resort. To win the war, it was our only choice. We were backed against the wall. Sirithis and this desert lead only to the far reaches of the west, to the Void Sea. There was nowhere for us to run. Altruin’s magic and Frostmaw’s fierce warriors were simply too much for us. Their greed overwhelmed us. They would stop at nothing to reap all that lay below this city. Secrets the rest of the world were not ready for!” Raum panted, his hunched form spasming. A quiet sorrow filled the dry air.
Ceres moved to comfort him, but Nakir stopped her with a sullen shake of his head.
Raum peered upwards at the monolith’s top, and into the sky and the beaming sun. “I knew what had happened while I was away. My home was gone. When I looked out from the far dunes to the city I knew and loved, once filled with love and life, there was nothing. Only bits and pieces left. Goldcutters stripping the only remnants of its existence.”
The sky darkened slightly, alleviating the heavy heat pounding down onto the group.
“But I returned anyway. Like a moth to a flame, I ran to the only guiding light I had, even when it was invisible. But just as you’ve seen, when I approached, I was sent here. A limbo of our own making. Ah, here it comes! Just as before…”
Just then, the great sun above blazed even brighter and enveloped Raum and the others in yet another bright light. As their mind went blank, so did the world once more, except the sun remained.
“Travelers. You seek the truth. The truth is hidden within. A ritual was conducted here invoking my great power. These men wanted their city to remain in a timeless bubble, free from planetary collapse and national strife. They succeeded, but my power has a heavy price. Sirithis, as your kind called it, is dead. Lost to the shattered pieces of reality where time does not exist. It may resemble its past self from the outside, but hear this: this city is a ghost, and so are you. You were dead the moment you touched the barrier. You are now lost to time. You are now one with the great desert city of Sirithis. May your soul rest with those who sought to transcend their human limitations.”
The archdemon above faded into a softer red hue as Raum fell to his knees. The city may claim those unfortunate to cross its invisible barrier, but all those outside know the fate of the timelost city of Sirithis. He got up and looked around. There was nothing but a barren scorched wasteland. Shattered debris and the tops of spires lined the sand here and there, but otherwise it was devoid of life. He gazed up at the starlit sky and dreamt of a world where Sirithis had lived and died, like every other city in history, instead of being trapped in a stasis in which there was no escape. He began to fade.
Where am I?
Who am I?
What is my purpose?
Fading lights. Dying stars. Crumbling kingdoms. Wilting roses. His soul wavered, still clinging to the city that would never let him rest.
Ding.
A chime? Or a bell?
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
A clock? Had he been sleeping all along?
“Sirithisian. Raum, is it? Excuse me, as I have never understood the fondness humans share for names.”
He opened his eyes, but wondered how. He thought his body had all but gone away, leaving only his soul. A cat looked down at him. Its eyes were missing. “Who…?”
“A Scion, not some petty wannabe like what your kind summoned. My name is irrelevant, though what I can do for you is much greater.”
Raum stared vacantly into the black pits in the cat’s head, then looked past it into the room he was in. An old-fashioned clock tower, seemingly the top of it. The back glass of the ticking clock showed no outside world. Everything he had known was shrouded in darkness.
“I can free you from this hellish limbo. All I require is your consent and your unflinching resolve. You shall be the guiding hand of fate for another hopeless soul. You will guide her to her rightful place in this world, no matter how many loops you must run through.”
From one cycle to the next. It all seemed like some cruel joke. Raum attempted to stand, but realized that it was neither the time nor did he have the strength to do so.
“If you wish to remain shackled to that city torn asunder, then shake your head no. If you wish to serve me and be freed, you need only nod your head.” The cat grinned. It was a wretched, unnatural smile that sent pangs of gloom into Raum.
Even still, he knew he had nothing left to lose. He painfully nodded.
“Then it shall be so. When the time comes, and you have understood the track their lives run on, you will serve as the final nudge that will free us from her dreadful game. Be happy and rest; for today will surely be a crucial moment in the coming future.”
And the clock struck midnight.
Raum opened his eyes. The flapping of his attire had woken him. The wind brushed past them all, sending innumerable grains of pearlescent sand scattering across the dunes. For a second, he thought he’d heard the ticking and the bells tolling once more, but relinquished that it may have been just a hallucination.
With a brief reluctance, he pulled himself upwards. He set his eyes on the great desert. Night had fallen upon them. The sun was gone. The realm slumbered. Yet, they still needed to put it to an end. An inexplicable feeling told him that what they sought was far into the desert. He cursed his enigmatic heart, for it had forced them to search for the way out evermore. Once he’d risen, he noticed he was holding something. He lifted his hand and arm, and saw the archontic tome. Had he really held onto it the entire time?
“Wow.”
Raum turned his head. Ceres, Nakir, and Venza had woken up and were scrambling to their feet, the sand that acted as their blankets slowly falling from their shoulders and garments.
“Wow, indeed. The stars are much brighter here than in the city to be sure.”
“It’s the same back home, too. No fog, no smog. The nights are so much prettier.”
Venza remained silent and showed not one emotion through her mask, though it was clear she admired the night sky just as much as the rest of them.
Raum was dumbfounded. All at once, he fell into a fit of laughter. An awkward smile creased at the sides of his lips, and his body shook with a reignited vigor. “Hahaha! That’s what draws your attention?”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Don’t you mean to ask about the-” He stopped. The others’ faces told him everything he needed to know. They didn’t remember what they’d seen after the sun began to speak. Perhaps it was too soon for all of them. Such things only people outside of reality could fathom could not stay in the minds of normal people for long. Though, he knew that they didn’t have long until they would be forced to look at the things in between their world and the unknowable. “Nevermind. We should walk for a bit, then set up camp. The student will be a bit far away.”
“Do we really have time for that?” Venza grumbled. Her muffled, feminine voice fell on the night air like a feather.
“Time moves differently here, as if in a dream. I can sense it. A few hours are nothing more than seconds.”
An hour passed. The group was gathered around a campfire Nakir had created using magic. The situation gave Ceres another flash of nostalgia. Another vision of the time she’d met Nakir. The warm firelight lit them both now as it had back then. However, Nakir had assumed his human form to create as much space as possible for everyone.
The shadowy dunes lit only by the twinkling stars above stretched forth as far as the eye could see, even for Ceres and Nakir’s superior sight.
“Anyone know any good stories?” Ceres asked.
“...No. Let me rest…” Venza was laying in front of the fire, trying to catch some sleep.
“Come on! What about some stories about you and Maxra, huh?”
“There’s nothing to tell, girl. You already know everything. We were in the same clan. Our clan was killed by psychopaths. End of story. Now let me sleep.”
“Who were those assholes, anyway? The Dark… Court? Right?”
Venza sighed. She finally gave up on getting sleep and turned over onto her back. With her helmet off, she peered up at the shimmering lights with her hands across her chest. “...Yeah. Just a bunch of bigots masking their beliefs as law.”
Ceres knew she was being nosey, but she also really did want to know more about her, Maxra, and the outside world. Her curiosity may have come off as rude, but she was earnest in her questioning. “So, what happened between you two then?”
“I told ya already. That idiot’s getting duped by that damn cat, just like you are. You’ve got the right idea about that one, dark-skin.” She pointed towards Raum without looking.
Raum told her and the others about his dealings with Archizend, but left out some information that could lead to his untimely demise by the hands of the cat. He’d rather adhere to Archizend’s rules and help Ceres than defy him and hurt the girl’s chances at reclaiming her happiness. If he couldn’t bring back Sirithis, then he figured he could help bring back someone else’s light.
“Yep, that explains it.”
“But how could you help the Sorceress? It’s not like they’re your only two options. How could you help someone who’s done such horrible things?”
Venza propped herself up on one arm and stared into the half-dragon girl’s face with an annoyed expression. “It isn’t any of my business. She told me…” She stopped for a moment, debating whether to share her words with the people around her, then came to a conclusion in her mind. “She told me that if I helped her, death would be overwritten. She said… she said that we could bring back the clan. It’s like I said before. Imagon, Ilzathk, Zandos, Arkiel. They only help her for their own selfish reasons. Same with all of you. Granted, maybe you aren’t quite as cruel. But, as much as I hate to admit it, what Maxra said before was also true. You won’t save your sister at the rate you’re going. You have to be prepared for anything. Any of you could die. Against her, I’m not even sure any of you have a chance.”
“She will.” Raum spoke up. “If anyone has a chance to dethrone that madwoman, Ceres does. Even so, if you must make a choice between us and Asteria, choose your one and only sister. Though I’m sure we matter to you more than any common person, she is more precious to you than anything, yes?”
Nakir nodded. He recalled their conversation back in Ymiris’s Rest, in the tunnel of the great tree. “She is your guiding star.”
“Her one and only star,” Raum added. “People in Aza, or Frostmaw, or Altruin would lay claim to thousands of stars, yet they would never find what they’re looking for.”
“They don’t find it,” Ceres answered.
“And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single star, or a little water…”
“Of course.”
“But eyes are blind, Ceres. You have to look with the heart. The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched.”
Ceres smiled sadly. She cared for them all. She knew that. It was too hard to compare one to the other. But they were right. Deep down, Asteria was what was most precious to her. “The stars really are beautiful out here. It reminds me of that night…”
“Hm?”
Ceres came back to reality. “Ah… it’s nothing. Just reminds me of a night as beautiful as this one, long ago.”
They rested and slept. They told stories. Raum spoke about the great desert, the food they would serve in Sirithis, and his family. About his stern mother and father. About his younger brother, who had been caught in the city’s displacement. As entertainment, he performed the Journey of Szilvack the Deserted, a tale told almost completely through an odd Sirithisian dance. He told them about the Stomach of the Sands, a massive pit that many ancient Sirithisians had fallen prey to. All the while, a brilliant smile shone across his face. It wasn’t the usual one he showed when in the presence of company. Maybe the desert wasn’t only to reflect his old home, but his heart as well. Even within the company of fellows, his face would always hold a sullen hue. But now, even for a fleeting night among thousands of nights, that loneliness was subdued.
Venza, too, spoke of the anisai. She explained to them the anisaisara, their culture’s principle. It was the idea to respect any fighter who dared to oppose you, because in a way, each fighter gives the other possession over their own life. To lay claim on another’s life while respecting the ever-turning wheel, the anisaisara, is to respect all life and preserve the world’s ever-turning progression.
Both the Sirithisian and anisai kept their heritage alive through their words. Words only the black dragon and village girl would hear, under a desert facade. But any word spoken is not wasted. They fall to the earth as sound, and bind themselves to its ebb and flow, to be born again on the surface in some other form.
The night was beginning to fade. The sun barely peeked out from the far, far line of sunlight. Heat rose in the wastes once more.
“What makes the desert beautiful,” said Raum, “is that somewhere it hides a well…”
They extinguished the flame and trekked onward across the barren landscape. Across wayward, drooping dunes. Past scorpions and snakes. The sun rose ever higher, and with it, the group’s energy fell more and more. They felt the urge to succumb to the heat, to fall and lay on the sand until nightfall. But they knew they couldn’t. Not with their goal set in mind. Even in daytime, that star was always in sight, and Ceres followed it without end.
Finally, in the center of desolation, they found the poor child. It was in a well, after all. In the middle of the desert, no less. The student was hidden inside, though not as much as they had thought. The wires still led out from it and ascended into the sky all the same. It convulsed in pain. The wires shook violently, but without intervention, they would not come undone. The splashing of the water below sent shivers down Ceres’s spine, but she suppressed the feeling. No amount of fear would push her forward. Promptly, she cut the wires upholding the world around them. It shifted and transfigured, then fell like a proscenium curtain. A familiar white light claimed them, and tranquility filled their tired, disheveled bodies.