The sky is painted in a stark palette of blotched greys and the air has a slight moisture that serves as a reminder of the fog that was present the night before. Ezel makes his way down a winding path, having emerged from his abode that lies on the edge of Eisengrahl. The house lies at the foot of some elevated land, almost like an infant of a hill, with a steep elevation that serves as enough of a hindrance for anyone who’d try to leave the village. He would know since he’s attempted that multiple times. Once he climbed barehanded, another time with the use of a custom-made grappling hook, and his most successful attempt was with a quadrupedal maintenance vehicle. Ezel had scavenged various parts together and built it away from prying eyes. He’d nearly reached the summit until two of the legs gave out and he was sent tumbling down the cliff-side. Xero found him amongst the rubble and was less than happy, but only voiced his disapproval of Ezel’s antics after carrying him off to the house and administering first aid. That attempt was almost a year ago.
The view of Eisengrahl from the path Ezel is on is one of scattered buildings of varying heights and shapes, some being buildings of old that are comprised of red bricks and holes on the side to serve as windows, others being purely made up of metallic shells that have an industrial architecture and are shown to hold multiple levels within that are similar to Ezel’s house. In the center of the village, there’s an odd-looking mechanical tower that stands above all the adjacent buildings. That tower is the monument that Ezel has been requested to repair by Iala, the overseer of the village’s library and older sister of Barragan himself. While Barra and Ezel’s relationship has been tumultuous from as far back as either of them can remember, Iala is the complete opposite. They’re not necessarily friends, but Ezel has always found it a far better use of his time to speak with her on a slew of different things. She’s had to occasionally take up the role of mediator for the times her brother and Ezel have escalated a simple disagreement into a vitriolic exchange of insults and outright disrespect.
She had an unusual yet adept efficiency in diffusing all disagreements, so much so that Ezel has always wondered why Iala wasn’t Älteste instead. One potential reason may be that she has an aversion to being around people, despite her deft handling of unsavoury exchanges. As such, she spends most of her days in the library. Said library is nowhere near as enticing as it could be, since the collections there are a slew of aged physical books and databanks that house miscellaneous information. Which, to a younger Ezel, were indispensable sources of information about times past. However, as he looks back now, that knowledge felt as if it were a red herring for what could potentially be the truth. There wasn’t any tangible evidence of this claim on his end, but his intuition has always told him that there’s more to the knowledge he’s already been given. He asked Iala countless times about gaps of knowledge from any new piece of information that he’d found, only to be mostly met with a lax shrug of her shoulders paired with a dismissive ‘I don’t know.’
Ezel finally reached the central portion of the village, nonchalantly waving back at the passersby and multiple store and stall owners who greeted him as he made his way through. This was a common sight, as he always made it a point to keep his contact with others to a minimum unless it was necessary. Ezel was rather grateful for the dull sky, as this allowed him to steadily work his way out of his sluggish state.
In a few minutes, he got closer to the base of the Eisengrahl monument. The monument itself is just a tall metallic bell tower of sorts. Yet instead of a bell at the top, there’s an open space where two large and inactive antennas are. The reason for the monument’s existence is unclear, yet it had to be taken care of all the same. In a world where so much historical meaning and context had been lost, safeguarding anything that seemed to have any significance was a common practice. As he approached it, he could make out a woman standing near the bottom and idly staring up at the tower with their back turned at him. Her strait-laced posture, earth-toned shirtwaist dress, and the single braid of hair over the shoulder are features that only belonged to one person in Eisengrahl: Iala.
“Hello there,” she said without even turning around. That always gave Ezel the chills.
“Do you always have to do that? It doesn’t help your reputation, you know.” As he said this, Ezel had joined her by her side and also stared up at the tower.
Iala chuckles before replying, “Oh? What have you heard about me?”
“That all you do is hide in the library, ignore the other villagers most of the time, and stare off in the distance whenever you decide to grace us and the outside world with your presence.”
“Sounds like what I’ve always done, to which nobody has ever had an issue with. Seems like you just wanted to voice your jealousy, Ezel.”
“Guilty as charged. I could never get away with that for such a long time.” As he said this, he turned to look at her and found her still staring upwards. Although he noticed a slight smile creep across her face. She was a woman who looked as if she were stuck in time, with her facial features and demeanour having rarely changed over the years he's known her.
“Sorry for putting off this repair job for so long. I’ve just not been in the mood for it if I’m being honest.” Ezel listlessly stated this, to his surprise. He found honesty to be the easiest yet occasionally surprising thing in the world whenever he spoke to her.
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“It’s alright. I also ‘complained’ to the other villagers knowing that they’d eventually tell Xero, which in turn would lead back to you. Truth is I’m not upset. I just knew that this was the easiest way to get you out of that house.” She finally turned her head to him to give a wink, then resumed her tower gazing. Ezel did the same.
“Of course you did. I take it that your brother is the one that’s truly upset?”
“Yep. So be glad that I’m the one that baited you here.” An idle moment of silence passed, with Iala breaking it again, “So, what’s this about you ‘not being in the mood’?”
Ezel took a moment to think of a response, “Part of it is just me tinkering with a personal project of mine. Most of it is just not being able to sleep well lately.” Ezel wanted to mention the odd dreams he’s been having for a very long time now, but there's something within him that's telling him to keep it to himself. Iala’s open-mindedness would’ve welcomed the conundrum, as she took joy in any bit of information that strayed from the norm. However, not even the honesty he’s always had in speaking to her could outweigh his instinct to remain quiet about his nightly visions.
Iala fully turned and faced Ezel, with an inquisitive look on her face. “Is that so? Are you sure that’s all it is?”
“Yeah… That’s all it is. I’ll be fine,” responded Ezel. He made sure to keep his head skyward, as making eye contact would’ve taken this conversation in an uncomfortable direction. Ezel always found it hard to maintain his poker face in front of Iala’s inquisitive gaze.
“I can tell you’re keeping something from me,” Iala flatly stated. Ezel could feel her unnerving eyes burrowing into the side of his head. He had to throw her off. By a stroke of luck, he remembered something that could do the job.
“Remember what happened back when I climbed this tower for the first time?”
“Oh, so is that the other thing that's been on your mind?” Iala turned to the tower again. Ezel could relax. He’s thrown her off for now.
“Yes, I do remember. I think it was… 5 years ago. Quite the spectacle it was. Although it shouldn’t have been in my opinion. Barragan has a knack for turning the mundane into a hassle but I could somewhat see why this was a bit of a deviation too.”
The majority of the story itself is nothing amazing or spectacular, but rather the fact that Ezel was scolded in front of most of the villagers for a reason that the young boy himself found completely unfair and illogical. 11-year old Ezel had climbed to the top of the tower. An easy feat, since the tower interior has spiralling stairs that lead to a hatch that opens up at the top by the two large antennas within the belfry. Lying down and staring at the clouds, Ezel spotted something that he had never seen before. Something that stoked his curiosity. He’d read about avian creatures that used to own the skies and sail through the clouds. This was different. He rushed down the tower and grabbed the attention of any bystanders, excitedly telling them to look to the sky. They all looked, but then looked back at the boy and went on about their day. Most even noting that they didn’t see anything at all. Amongst the crowd was one person Ezel had wished wasn’t there at all: Älteste Barragan.
Barragan approached the boy from behind, and his overwhelming presence in Ezel’s peripheral vision demanded an immediate about-turn. Barragan was always a stern man, standing nearly 2 meters tall with a lean physique and geometrically oppressive facial features that seemed to have been chiseled into a rock. A presence Ezel has never been fond of for what feels to be forever.
An incoherent screaming match followed. The Älteste berated the boy for his lying and wasting everyone’s time, and the boy hurled back insults in retaliation for the false accusations thrown upon him. This enthralled everyone’s attention, with the Eisenites in the vicinity watching on in awe. Barragan couldn’t take the disrespect anymore and swiftly approached the boy. Grabbing Ezel by the collar, he couldn’t even get another word out before what happened next. Scarlet splashes of blood flew into the air, with Barragan hunching over on the ground while covering his face after letting out an agonised bellow. Ezel had reached his breaking point. It was one thing to have always been denied the truth of the world, but being humiliated in front of onlookers and being labelled as a liar for something that clearly happened was something he hadn’t even known was a trigger until that moment. A searing sensation from his head shot out through his entire body, which then automatically made him reach into his pocket and wildly slash at Barragan’s face with a makeshift utility blade the moment he had put his hands on him. The Eisenites’ faces had looks of pure terror on them, as Ezel just blankly stood in front of the groveling Älteste. This isn’t enough, he thought. As he was about to make another move, he was quickly knocked out by what felt like a metallic prosthetic. He would later find out that this was Xero, who’d been led to the commotion by Iala herself. As he was knocked out, Ezel replayed the sky he saw that afternoon. It was a rare occurrence of a partly cloudy day, with the blue sky peaking through as cracks of the more common grey and white diluted ink blots of the clouds. In the distance, he sees something irregular. Not the flying creatures he read about in the books from the library, but rather the shape of one that seemed out of place from what he knew it to be. He saw this blackened shape sailing through the skies at a steady pace. Ezel, to this day, believed that he saw an ancient entity known as Santori.
At the base of the tower, Ezel and Iala continue to share yet another prolonged moment of silence. Ezel goes back to that memory whenever he walks past this place. An involuntary twitch quickly jumps across his face, and his chest suddenly becomes hollow. A contrast that has forever been evident following all recollections of that event.
“I think I’ll get started on fixing the one antenna by the tower belfry. I’m feeling a surge of energy that I’d best take advantage of, don’t you think?”
Iala turned to respond, yet Ezel had begun walking towards the tower entrance, leaving her behind.
Iala couldn’t let it end there, “Are you sure you’re alright? This can wait if need be.”
Ezel gave her one last look of feigned indifference, “Don’t worry. We wouldn’t want Barra to cause a stir over something so trivial again, right?”