In the workshop of Gods

Trayx gazes upon the abyss.

He cannot pierce the giant veil.

Blood oozes from his eyes.

Where do wandering souls go?

Where does the spirit of the dead go?

Can He escape the fate?

Shall he accept those who sing?

The hammer of the God of the seas.

Struck hells a thousand times.

Built our last refuge.

Rampart against the final deluge.

Unknown bard, “Calm sea of Trayx.”

“You may leave us, Dolio. Here they come.”

Nay and Trinne were leaving the third church of Ja. Twenty or so soldiers were blocking the main exit and pushing away the inquisitive eyes of approaching bystanders. A crystal carriage, pulled by two white as snow yaes, was waiting for the two women in front of the sacred building.

A man dressed in a modern servant garb opened the door in front of the vehicle. Nay helped her friend get on. They had stayed alone inside the church for ten minutes or so, time for the red-haired woman to calm her anxiety attack. Even though she was now showing nothing else but confidence, almost haughtiness, Nay could feel the trembling of her hand.

Seen from outside, the coach’s interior was obscured. The crystal vehicle only showed indistinct forms and cubes of unclear colours. But once Nay sat down on the velvety plush cushions, she noticed that looking from the inside, they could actually see the outside as if it had been glass. There were even angles giving her a magnifying effect.

She was especially impressed by the fact that this effect had nothing to do with an enchantment. It was the actual artisan’s expertise that had created the marvel.

“Imperial wheels. We’re lucky.” Said Trinne. Nay remembered hearing about those contraptions before, probably during one of Sage-Brother Berth’s lessons.

Nay bit her lower lip. She hoped her old teacher was alive and well.

“Sigy, the palace if you would.” Jarl spoke briefly with the chauffeur.

“Of course prince.”

The God-Touched stepped inside the carriage and closed the door behind him. A minute later, the yaes started walking.

The silence was heavy. Jarl the Bohemian was fixing her intensely. What’s more, Nay had the feeling people outside were watching her as well. They had intrigued looks on their faces, and considering the vehicle she was in, Nay would have done the same. But even if she knew they were not actually looking at her, the stares were bothering her.

“We have no escort?” Asked Trinne.

For only answer, Jarl the Bohemian laughed at her.

“…Dumba…” Trinne was whispering too loudly, and Nay immediately diverted her attention.

“How is Sage Berth?”

Trinne gave her a knowing look. She recognised what Nay was trying to do. But, she played the young Legio’s game anyway.

“I don’t know, he wasn’t on the plateau, so I have high hopes he’s still in good health. I’ll keep you posted, I haven’t had the time to get in contact with my informants…those that are still alive. Fredere and Veri are alive, last I know. The parents of the children that were and have been to the Legio school have followed your father’s tip to leave the city.”

“Oh. Oh!” Nay didn’t dare believe it.

Trinne’s face grew darker.

“But Massimo and the other Virnyl guard apprentices of our year are dead. All Virnyl guards, actually, are more or less finished. The sole remainders are those that were on a mission outside the city during the initial attack.”

Nay grew silent, her smile gone.

“What about Joanna’s boyfriend?” She asked.

Trinne shook her head.

“…I never managed to tell him. She asked me to tell him…”

“The school of Adienha, where your sister went, has also been destroyed, I believe they…”

The Heir to the throne cut her off. “No, the priestess of Lebe and the children under her care went at an outdoors excursion one week before the attack. She didn’t come back with them until much later. It seems she was tipped off and decided to take the children to safety with her. She’s currently in prison, awaiting judgement for kidnapping. Her sentence will be more than light considering the situation. It shouldn’t be long before she’s out.”

The two women looked at him in surprise. His eyebrows furrowed. “I have no trust in your story, Nay, but until my mother sees through your lies, I’ll act as if you told me the truth. If Gite is truly your home, you deserve to know if your close ones are alive or dead.”

Nay bowed her head slightly. “Thank you.”

Jarl the Bohemian sighed.

“Were you the one that warned her?” Nay turned back to her friend.

“No, probably Ra’fa.”

“Yes, probably…and…erm…do you know if the women of the Soi were…?”

Trinne gave her a weird look. “Yes. I am alive mostly because of Karmena and her tunnel network. All those who survived owe her their lives, in fact. On another note, you would not have believed my surprise when she actually recognized me.”

Nay had an embarrassed smile. “Well, that’s pretty normal, you are very famous and recognizable, after all.”

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“Except she was worrying about you. As if she knew you pretty well.”

“Oh. Yes. Redrick was sending me there to…train.”

“Mh mh. They explained that to me. Weird you never told me about this before, though.”

Trinne showed her a carnivorous grin, and Nay decided to just not talk anymore.

The silence in the carriage became even heavier, but Nay could very clearly perceive the amusement in the Rreico of the prince.

The roads of Leïn became larger and larger, until Nay and even Trinne marvelled at the building that appeared in front of them.

The Imperatrix’s palace couldn’t be described accordingly with words. Its architecture was minimalist, but even at its base, it gave out the feeling of being a marble dragon, dominating everything around him with his poise. Though from where they stood, they couldn’t enjoy the optical effect. Nay had to force herself out of her sixth sense, as there were thousands of people inside the walls of the gargantuan climax of Imperial architecture. It was its architectural heart, and Nay gazed upon the multiple lifts going up and down all over the ramparts, their mechanisms hidden inside.

“Follow me.”

“Oh…we’ll take the Climb of the Gods?” Trinne sounded almost excited.

“I won’t carry you. I do not even know if I… In any case, yes, the diagonal lift is over there.” He left the carriage and urged them to follow him.

Nay understood her friend’s excitement. She had no idea what was waiting for her up there, in the Imperatrix’s chambers, but whatever it was, she would first witness what many tales said was the most beautiful view in the world.

“Heir to the throne.” A man dressed in simple clothes, hands full with a tall pile of documents, bowed his head as he passed next to them.

“Jonicien.” Responded Jarl.

A few feet later, a woman dressed in a short skirt did the same thing.

“Prince heir.”

“Amara.”

They hadn’t even passed the building's entrance that twenty people had stopped to salute the God-Touched.

He knew all of their names.

“How…” Trinne asked.

“Enchantment, obviously.” Jarl the Bohemian’s response indicated that he would not explain himself further.

And at that moment, Nay felt respect towards the heir to the throne.

She couldn’t be sure, as the surrounding Rreico was deafening, but she could swear he had just lied.

In the end, they didn’t enter the building but went inside a marble arch between the two staircases leading to the Imperatrix’s palace entrance. They passed under the whole building, then emerged in a gigantic military training courtyard. Nay stopped to look at the soldiers. They were military, not the city’s police. Currently, a hundred of them were exercising, but the place could have easily accommodated a hundred times more. Which begged the question, where were they?

“Nay?” Trinne woke her from her reverie.

“Yeah, sorry.”

After ten whole minutes of walking through the courtyard, they arrived in front of a little wooden building. Nay spotted a large metal cable exiting it, linking the bottom of the mountain to the Imperatrix’s chambers. She felt a dozen Rreicos inside, but more than that, she was astonished by the number of enchantments covering the wooden planks. The surrounding magic was denser than in Leïn’s Cathedral.

“You may enter.” Jarl the Bohemian invited them in, and Nay saw the power of the building touch Trinne’s Rreico. In her case, nothing happened.

Her friend entered, and Nay followed. The two women were immediately stared at by the ten guards. Half of them were soldiers, and the other half were God-Touched. Nay gulped. Even the priests had a sword on their belt, and she noticed three of them were women.

One of the soldiers went towards the prince to shake his hand.

“Chief.” He said.

Nay witnessed like a spark of power exchange between the two men when their hands met.

The soldier nodded. “We don’t see you here often, sorry chief.”

Jarl didn’t accept his apologies. “If you didn’t do exactly this, I would have sent you to hunt the Angel in the Unbroken ones.”

Trinne tensed up. Nay’s eyes grew wide.

The soldier laughed softly, not worried at all. The young Legio would not have been so laid back, there had been no humour in Jarl the Bohemian’s threat.

“Ladies, enjoy the view.” The tension in the air seemed gone, and the soldier smiled at them before going back at his post.

Jarl opened the cable car door, and Nay and Trinne followed him inside.

The sides of the little cubicle had been furnished with the same seats as the ones in the carriage they had just left, and the two young ladies sat with their backs to the mountain.

A few minutes passed, then the lift started moving.

Trinne laid her head on Nay’s shoulder.

In front of them, the sun fell as fast as they rose. The astonishing city was shrinking before their eyes, Leïn’s Cathedral, the roads, the people. Soon, they saw beyond the city, they saw the sky get filled with hues of orange and pink, the rays of the sun bounce on the rivers and the northern lakes, the green and yellow of the fields mingle with the blue-white of the streams.

Nay couldn’t look away. She felt the warm body of her friend next to her.

And a realization gripped her heart, tears began flowing down her cheeks.

“You’re alive.”

She grasped her hand.

Trinne didn’t answer a thing, but Nay felt her Rreico. She heard the untold words.

Then the moment passed.

“You’re not in Gite anymore. Laws are the same, but people are less open-minded.” Jarl the Bohemian commented. “But if you’re trying to convince me of your humanity, Nay, I have to admit it’s quite successful.”

The sun disappeared completely behind the hills of the western plains.

Trinne scooped away and looked behind at the shine of the lights of the Imperatrix’s chambers growing closer.

It was not a guard that waited for them when they arrived, but a well-dressed maid smelling of red berry bushes.

“The Imperatrix is waiting for you, prince heir, as well as the girl with cloudy eyes. Trinne, daughter of Yarnt? You may follow me, please.

“Wait no I…” Nay began, before getting interrupted by her friend.

“Don’t worry, I expected as much. I won’t be far, so don’t think you can get away with anything naughty…and you better tell me afterwards.” Trinne kissed her cheek, then followed the servant in the corridor.

Nay wanted to say something but held herself back. Her friend was scared, for her. Trinne had acted like this to reassure her.

She left the lift with her head high. The air was less dense this high up but weirdly, it wasn’t cold. Nay could hear the roar of the wind, and the cable car room was half open to the elements, but not even a gust was hitting her hair.

The Rreico of the chambers was peculiar. There were a lot of enchantments, but the feeling they gave her was entirely different than the ones in the cathedral or at the base of the mountain.

“This way.” Said Jarl the Bohemian.

They exited through the same corridor as Trinne and the maid, but then turned the opposite way.

The Chambers were mostly made of wood, tapestries and paintings were all over, but despite this, there was nothing imperial about the location. It had the appearance of a delightful mansion, but it was nothing special. It didn’t even seem that big.

After climbing a set of stairs, the prince brought her in front of a beautiful dark-wood door. The wood seemed…familiar to Nay, but she had never seen any like it in Gite. And still…

Jarl the Bohemian knocked on the door.

“Mother, I am accompanied by Nay, the girl with the grey eyes.”

“Nay?” Responded a voice on the other side. “Enter.”

He opened the door and entered. Nay close behind him.

The room was nice, big, twice the size of Ra’fa’s apartment, with an impressive canopied bed and a few spectacular landscape paintings, each representing different parts of the Empire. The ground was made of yae wool, soft and warm under her feet. There was a bathtub, wardrobes and an impressive table covered in maps. Next to the bed stood a desk, looking quite worn out.

The thing that stood out the most to her were the steps at the other end of the room, leading towards six large glass door windows, showing an absurd balcony that should never have been able to stand in the raging elements of the mountaintop. Considering its western orientation, it would have been a perfect spot to watch upon the city.

The room was nice, the view had to be breath-taking, and even then, Nay was almost disappointed. This place had birthed so many stories, and in reality, it was just the Imperatrix’s room. Where She slept, where She worked, and that was it.

Nay stopped breathing.

The most beautiful of womankind walked down the stairs of her room.

This was why the room was simple.

Pieces of art were superfluous when compared to the Imperatrix.

“The End. After so many years.” Her voice was clear, powerful, furious.

Her Rreico was like the mountain on where she throned.

But Nay wasn’t seeing the most beautiful woman in the world. She wasn’t even registering her beauty.

She saw only two things.

“What have you come to accomplish, vengeance of the Firantes? Did your mistresses finally acknowledge their defeat? Or have they finally decided to end their miserable existence with the most cowardly of acts? What atrocious methods have they found again to give you a semblance of life? Unable to accept that a Siwi has done what they only dreamt of achieving? Came to settle the debt with the last Leïn, the only one not abandoning her name, through a child? I do not know what you came here to do, End, but I’ll admit I was wrong. My choices were right, the massacre of our people the logical conclusion to their hypocrisy. Lebe killed herself because of you, and I shall never forgive them for it! So, End, why are you here? Do you have demands? Did you come to laugh!? Speak!”

But Nay didn’t speak, she had fallen on her knees.

She saw only two things.

Behind strange magic, behind an illusion based on blood and sacrifice, she saw the Imperatrix’s true eyes. Violet like the colour of the clouds before a storm.

“It cannot be.” Said Nay out loud. And still, the full picture was little by little revealing itself to her, as if she was seeing the truth for the first time.

“What’s not possible?” Asked the most beautiful woman in the world.

“You…you are…”

Nay felt the Rreico emanating from the one who had saved the human species from complete annihilation.

The young Legio had just uncovered the greatest secret of the Imperatrix Hyn.

“…You are a Firante. You are a Leïn.”

The Imperatrix had a mocking laugh.

“What are you talking about? You think you can surprise me with such weak attempts? Of course I am a Leïn.”