Cent. Calendar 07/09/1639, somewhere above the oceans north of Qua-Toyne, 7:00
It was the early morning of a day in late January of the 4th year of Reiwa (2022 elsewhere); or at least, that should have been the case had they not transferred to Asherah some months prior.
Remembering that it was actually the 9th Month of the local solar calendar, Hikaru Izumi still had trouble wrapping her mind around what had happened and what was happening. She clutched her head, which was throbbing in pain due to stress, as she tried not to throw up from the rumbling of the Hercules transport plane that she was in. Feeling that she was losing herself in the egregiously fast pace of recent circumstances, she looked outside the small glass window to her rear left.
“Huh.”
What greeted her was an awfully large expanse of sparkling blue ocean dotted with the occasional puffs of white clouds in the foreground. Had it not been for the context that she was really in another world, she would have easily been convinced that she was on a chartered flight that was flying across the great Pacific.
“Looks just like back on Earth, ‘ight?”
A squeaky, feminine voice assailed her ears from her right with the all too obvious Kansai dialect combining with the innate talkative aura hidden underneath the words to create a force strong enough to rival Izumi’s gargantuan patience. Sitting just to her right was her friend and fellow humanities professor, Kita Michi. The early morning sunlight leaking in from the windows served to brighten her flowing golden locks, illuminating the rest of the dark cabin in a somber yellow glow.
“It looks too much like Earth, despite this place being alien. It’s scary.”
“Aw, ya just have ‘ta ruin the atmosphere.”
“I mean, we don’t really know what to expect. Sure, we’ve been briefed and trained on their local cultural mannerisms and language for the past four months, but that’s not much to go on.”
As part of government-commissioned research, they would have to be present onsite to do their work. Several teams consisting of archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, historians, and others recruited from many of Japan’s prestigious universities were created to undertake many objectives. So far, the government has not disclosed the reasons as to why these objectives were being pursued, but the compensation was too good to pass up for many, including Izumi and Kita.
“They showed us some pics, didn’t they? What’re they called again? Was it Qua-Toyne?”
“Yeah. A 16th century-esque principality with farmlands that ‘stretched beyond the horizon’–or so they said.”
What appeared in their minds were the pictures of rustic stone and brick buildings, towering spires, magnificent city walls, and a seemingly endless ocean of agricultural wealth. They were actually set to go there a month ago, but leftover tensions after a local hostility in which Japan was involved prompted the government to delay their deployment.
“Ah! Remembering makes me even more excited, Izumi-san! It reminds me of beautiful Toscana back home~”
The excitement came from a woman who sat to the right of Kita, whose elegantly straightened brunette hair contrasted with Kita’s blonde locks. She spoke fluent Japanese, but her intonation at times breaks the immersion of a listener convinced that she was not a foreigner.
“Right, right! Qua-Toyne’s scenery does give that Mediterranean feel, don’cha think, Cecilia?”
“Ah! Right! You’re from Italy, correct?”
Having grown up in the Tuscan countryside of Italy and taken her graduate studies at the University of Bologna, Cecilia Aquila was more than enthusiastic about exploring cultural worlds beyond the comforts of Europe, which brought her all the way to Japan just before the transference event back in September (almost five months ago).
“Hai, hai! While it is sad that I could no longer go back to my family in Firenze, this is more than what I could have dreamt of when I first wanted to get out and explore.”
In spite of the vibrant smile projected on her face, there was still a hint of forlorn sadness underneath her words. It wasn’t all that bad, but Kita and Izumi had enough capacity to read the room and try not to get caught in their own anxieties and worries.
“We’re probably the first non-government personnel to set foot outside the country! This should be exciting!”
“Right on! I even heard that they’re also doublin’ as test runs for when tourists inevitably get out! We gotta set the example!”
“Pfft. Then it’s only great that the big bad war freaks next door have been pacified, yeah? Wouldn’t want them doing anything everyone would regret.”
Everyone was eager to get down and explore, preferably without the troubles back home gnawing at them at every single step they take.
Looking outside, they could see the thin veneer of clouds getting closer and closer as the sprawling blue ocean beneath seemed all the more sparkly. They then felt the ringing sensation in their ears, the telltale sign that they were now approaching their destination. The massive airframe rumbled ever so slightly as the plane passed through a patch of turbulent atmosphere, shaking underneath the soles and seats of everyone on board.
Just as Izumi held on to her backpack as she tried to mentally brace herself for the coming obligations she had to uphold, a cheeky-faced Kita leaned in close and plugged herself onto Izumi’s pack.
“Greetings, Sir Izumi! I can into speak Asheran!”
Seeing her best friend all full of herself as she butchers her Asheran common, she bursts into a chuckle.
“You dumbass! You used the wrong gender! And you can omit ‘into’ since...”
Having the panache for studying something very intently, Izumi starts breaking down the sentence so that even her airhead of a friend could understand. Behind Kita, Cecilia listened in and also took note of what she was hearing.
“Bene! This is amazing stuff, Izumi-san! To think you’ve learned quite a lot about Asheran common in the few months of prep!”
“That’s Izumi fer ya! Ah, oh! Don’t they also have a higher level of formality? We gon’ meet with some nobles, are we not?”
“Ah, yes. You have to add some suffixes and words to configure the formality to the highest you can possibly do. Still, I think it’s best if you remember this set phrase when greeting them.”
Izumi paused to cough before continuing.
“Alright, repeat after me: We are delighted to be in your presence...”
- - -
“Greetings, to you all! I am Llanfair, the princess and sovereign of the very soil your boots cling to! I bid you welcome to the fair and noble principality of Qua-Toyne!”
A handsomely gorgeous woman in a flowing dress as green as the most virgin of forests greeted their rag-tag group of jackets, slacks, and backpacks in their mother tongue of Japanese. Immediately after her bombacious welcome blared to life the trumpets of the uniformed trumpeters surrounding her, playing an upbeat tune of hospitality. She was flanked by the equally flamboyant purples and reds of what appeared to be the upper society of the country, while off to one end were the familiar black suits of the local Japanese diplomatic mission.
As the big group of Japanese scholars stood on the dusty airfield equally dumbfounded and welcomed by the warm reception they were receiving from the sovereign herself, the lone group of women among the ranks of male professors started whispering amongst themselves.
“Guess we might not have to be as formal.”
“Ya think? With all due respect to her highness, but she isn’t even using the most basic of polite Japanese!”
“That’s probably because she’s royalty, Kita-san. She can look down on us as much as she likes.”
As the egregiously loud buzzing of the turboprop engines of the Hercules transport plane that ferried them there assailed their ears from far away, the high-pitched shrill of a speaker inserted itself into the fray.
“Greetings, all.”
The coarse voice of a man in the perfect, typical Kanto dialect reached their ears. In front, they saw a well-built man with fearsome eyes take the stand. His elegant suit and proper posture exuded an aura of primness and diligence.
“I am Kuribayashi, the ambassador of Japan to Qua-Toyne. On behalf of the government, allow me to thank you for answering the call to study this brave, new world beyond the safety of our home.”
Pausing briefly to cough, he resumed after excusing himself.
“You have already been briefed beforehand on the task that lay before you all and how important it is to our country and identity...”
The three women looked at one another with faces brimming with doubt and worry.
During their briefing, the objectives their team was given were to study any ‘out-of-place’ artifacts that the Qua-Toynians had, confirm and study a specific site of interest in the neighboring kingdom of Quila, and confirm any additional sites of interest for additional study in the future. It all sounded very vague with little in the way of details, but criteria as to what could be considered a site of interest included “out of place artifacts with Earth script markings”, ruined structures that were “too advanced for its age”, and so on. The only definite objective that they had was a known site down in Quila called “Site X”, which according to images and local testimonies was highly likely to be a ruined industrial settlement. They had been given black and white photographs–apparently taken by explorers from the more advanced nations to the west–that depicted a town half consumed by desert dunes, with some of the buildings bearing some semblance to early Showa-period infrastructure.
As the ambassador verbally printed out his dragging speech, the mild heat of the late summer sun casts its rays onto Izumi’s forehead. She wiped off some drops of sweat that had formed next to her eyebrows, her mind lost in thought as her eyes darted across the airfield. Off to the east were sun-kissed stone walls–some several meters in height–decorated with banners of bright green and containing what appeared to be a sprawling city of Renaissance-esque structures. She immediately turned her head to Cecilia, catching sight of her taking glimpses at the almost Italian-like landscape. From what she knew, the Tuscan countryside was dominated by rolling hills, old towns, and plot after plot of agricultural land. Izumi’s gaze drifted south, where she caught sight of something that made her go “ah”: an endless expanse of farmland as far as the eye could see.
“Well... It’s a fine day, isn’t it? If you disagree with me, then you have good senses: it’s about time we get some shade! What better way to do it than to experience Asherah firsthand?”
Ambassador Kuribayashi ended his unforgiving speech with a seemingly seamless transition to the next part of today’s itinerary: taking a quick stroll through the city of Myhark. In response, the venue was filled with a sea of claps from the scholars, underneath of which was a barely audible chorus of exasperated sighs. In the commotion, Izumi caught sight of the Qua-Toynian princess and her escorts boarding a white-painted coach, leaving for the city ahead of them. As a foreign affairs ministry representative started organizing the scholars for the tour, Kita grabbed hold of Izumi’s right arm and gave her a helping of her healthy personality.
“Maaaaaaaaan! Didn’t I tell ya?! This was nothing more than a glorified test run for their tourist programs ‘ere!”
Izumi pinched her glabella, her patience tested by the heat and her friend’s presence.
“I mean, this isn’t half bad... Compared to the shit we get back in Hyogo, this is some well-deserved break; we’re still going to have to do our stuff later on anyway.”
“Distractions are nice, especially if it’s experiencing an alien city firsthand!”
Cecilia was back to her giddy self, her silver pocket camera already in hand and awaiting sights to behold.
“Sheesh. Now I’m the party pooper? And the word ‘alien’ don’t feel appropriate: ya don’t really think of ‘alien’ when lookin’ at brick houses and dirt roads.”
Kita’s response to the heat was her grumpiness, which now started to spread to Izumi as she snuggled her head on the latter’s arm. It was in this state that they departed the Myhark airfield, moving past its out-of-place modern chain link fencing, barbed wire, and a US Marine-manned guardpost before emerging out onto a semi-paved dusty road that ran along the top of a short cliffside. The group maintained a straight line as they moved up along the right side of the road to curious glances and stares from passing wagon drivers. Already some of the professors and scholars had pulled out their pocket cameras, a few even brought bulky digital SLRs, to take pictures of everything that piqued their interest: from the undiscovered species of annoying insect critters buzzing about to the view of wooden, single-sailed cogs next to massive, modern ro-ro ships at the harbor.
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After a ten-minute walk along the coast, they were now standing below the imposing stone walls of Myhark. As they walked closer, half of the group stared at the ramparts high above them while the other half gawked at the wide gate that lay open in front of them. Entering the gate and passing underneath the wide city walls, they looked up to see multiple holes on the ceiling–firing ports from where defenders would shoot down or pour all sorts of nasty things on the unfortunate attackers that were trapped in between the two gates when they’re brought down. Even as they took photos, several of the scholars, including Cecilia, were already starting to gather data on the tiny facets of this corner of Asherah.
The definitely-not-a-tour-group finally entered the city and the scholars were beholden to a sight they’ve only ever seen in historical recreations. Everywhere they looked it felt as if they had been transported back in time to the end of the middle ages in Europe, save for the occasional conspicuous Humvee manned by US Marines that stuck out like sore thumbs. Men loaded crate after crate of berries onto wagons as they seemingly moved to the beat of the striking of iron tools and blazing furnaces from blacksmiths. The strong smell of fresh-out-of-the-brick oven pastries tickled the noses of the empty stomach scholars. At first, the scenery hardly reminded them that it was a different world, but closer inspection hammered the reality; the men that were loading crates were in fact beastmen, people with big builds and animal features; the blacksmiths that striked iron were actually dwarves, people with distinctively short stature and gruffy beards; the women that tended to the bakeries were actually elves, people with hard-to-miss pointed ears and apparently greater mana conduciveness.
Walking through a wide street that was heading towards a plaza at the center of the city, the scholars were helped to more sights and beset under more curious stares. The semi-paved street they walked on was unremarkable, save for the occasional squashed fruit and pile of cattle dung. The row of buildings of all sorts of dimensions and quality were as mundane as the blue skies that unraveled above, but the sound of shutters snapping and excited wows from the scholars did not discriminate. Kita was still holding onto Izumi’s arm when something caught her attention.
“Hey, do y’all see that?”
Izumi and Cecilia turned their faces to where Kita was pointing. Off to the side of the road was a shabby house built with brick and wood. The facade was unremarkable and could have easily been overlooked, but the real sight was what was happening inside: an elven man was holding up a stone close to his face and was visibly whispering something to it. Mere moments later, the stone he held started glowing; at first faintly, but it didn’t take long for the stone to glow brighter than even the sun. After some time, the luminosity weakened before the changes stopped, at which point the elf brought it up to somewhere on the ceiling of the room and left the brightly lit stone there. In addition to the three women’s surprise with what they’ve witnessed, they were also dumbfounded by how bright the elf’s room was. Had they not seen what they saw, they might have thought that the room was lit up by a standard LED light bulb that could be bought at any home appliance store.
“What... did I just see???”
Her mouth agape in confusion and disbelief, Izumi proved to be the most shocked of the three.
“Amazing! This undoubtedly deserves more in-depth study!”
With the flick of a finger, Cecilia captured the moment on her pocket camera.
“The way he just whispered onto the stone and it turned into an LED light bulb... I have so many questions!”
“Maybe we can bring it up later since this is not within the scope of why we’re here.”
“Aye, good point.”
By the time they ended their conversation, their group had reached the plaza. They had come from a slightly higher elevation so the road they were walking on was on a slope, which allowed them to get a more or less commanding view of the roughly 150 square meter square. A massive, presumably marble statue of what appears to be an elven woman leaning on an actual tree that dwarfed it took up the center. Underneath the wide expanse of the tree’s shade sprawled countless market stalls brimming with traders looking to sell and commoners hoping to bag something for lunch. The breathtaking scene of beastmen and elves brushing shoulders with one another as they haggled underneath the sparkling rays of the sun filtering from the all-encompassing canopy earned the most admiration from the scholars, who wasted no time in capitalizing on the scenery with their endless chorus of shutter flickings.
Off to one side of the square was a road that was completely bottled up with long lines of oxen wagons and cargo trucks all laden to the brim with all sorts of grains, fruits, and cut meat. The entire commotion appeared to stretch beyond the square, likely all the way to the city gate from where they came. The vehicles faced north where the harbor was. That, together with all the other clues, left the scholars with only one conclusion as to what the seemingly endless train of food was for.
“So this is the lifeline on which Japan barely hangs on...”
“And this probably isn’t the only one...”
“Never have I seen the sheer amount of foodstuffs needed to sustain the homeland materialized into reality before... This just makes me unsettled.”
They noticed beggars in torn and ragged clothing approaching the wagons and trucks in droves, stretching their boney hands up to the drivers for a measly penny’s worth of food before being either turned down or forced to disperse by patrolling Marines and JSDF personnel. To the scholars, they had never before seen firsthand how their existence was drastically affecting the people of this world. Despite their hearts crying out for some semblance of justice by offering the beggars food, their own barely empty stomachs were only marginally better off than the beggars themselves. Nevertheless, some of the more justice-minded scholars took it upon themselves to at least record the events taking place using their cameras.
The group then made their way across the square escorted by the princess’s own guards so as to keep the curious Qua-Toynian populace at an arm’s length. Some were unfazed by their presence, having already been used to strange-clothed people appearing in droves as of late; some tried to get closer to get a better look in their first time seeing non-uniformed, unarmed Japanese people; some did not shy from showing how inconvenienced they were. On the other hand, the scholars clicked away at their cameras as they walked underneath the shadow of the tree and its female statue companion.
At long last, they arrived at Myhark’s city hall. On one side perpendicular to the long line of vehicles trudging along towards the port stood a magnificent castle-like building that stood out from the surrounding tile-roofed commercial buildings with the presence of parapets on its roof, coupled with imposing cylindrical towers on both sides of the facade that flew the green and yellow standard of the principality. Rising further still above the main building was a slender tower offset to the right of the center with its most distinguishable feature being a clock face on its halfway point. Almost immediately after seeing this, Cecilia jumped in glee.
“Wow! It looks a lot like the Palazzo Vecchio!”
Reminded of home, she couldn’t help but shed tears as she snapped a photo of the city hall for posterity.
As guards on station at the entranceway opened the massive red double doors that led into the building, the three women braced themselves for what was to come.
“The schedule mentioned a party, right?”
“Yeah... Ain’t no running from this one.”
“It’s a warm gesture from the princess; I’m sure she doesn’t mean harm.”
Cent. Calendar 08/09/1639, The Sanctum, Divine Forest, Qua-Toyne
Hands tightly gripping a wooden handrail as if she was fighting for her life, Izumi couldn’t bear to suppress the immense throbbing she felt in her head.
“Fuck! Goddammiiiiiiit...”
She tried to rest her aching forehead down on the handrail to try and relieve some of the pain but to no avail. Standing next to her was best friend Kita, who gently patted her back.
“No one said ya had to go ham at the party, Hikari-chan...”
She remembered nothing of the party yesterday. Accounts from Cecilia and Kita were the only concrete reminder she had of what had occurred; apparently, since they were the some of the only women among the male-dominated scholar group, some local lords had tried to woo her under the assumption she was a Japanese noble (heavy makeup turned out to be common among noble women in Qua-Toyne, as was the case with Princess Llanfair). Beset by countless otherworldly nobles trying to make a move on her, she became uncomfortably stressed, driving her to consume more alcohol than warranted. The result was that she made a mess, apparently collapsing drunk in the arms of a local lord and hurling her half-digested breakfast onto his robes. Not only did she not remember this but her head was also in unrelenting agony from the hangover. Adding insult to injury, it apparently happened in front of everyone, the consequences of which took the form of everyone looking at her condescendingly.
“I don’t really give a shit about the party anymore, Micchin... My head feels like it’s about to explode.”
Kita’s entire person froze, taken aback by her friend’s usual composed behavior melting in front of her, causing her to even call her by the cute nickname from back when they were in middle school.
“Awww...”
An elated Kita embraced Izumi, snuggling her head against the latter’s shoulder over and over again in newfound joy. The Izumi that was coping with the worst of her hangover was unsurprisingly not in the mood, but neither was she strong enough to get her to stop.
“Ugh... C’moooon!”
She looked up in exasperation, unwittingly putting into her still blurry eyes a splash of green. Fixing her focus, she found the countless leaves and branches of a thick forest canopy above her, rustling ever so gently in the whatever breeze that managed to penetrate the thick layer of vegetation. Looking towards her front, all that she saw was wall upon wall of green propped up by countless trees. The scenery below the wooden platform they stood on was not any different–they could hardly even see the forest floor. A fortunate side effect this chamber of greens and yellows had was that it somehow eased Izumi’s head throbbing, giving her more leeway to be able to think clearly.
“Right...”
Slowly, it all came back to her. While the party yesterday and what happened after seemed to be lost for good, the events that took place today were a bit clearer. After being unceremoniously awoken from her almost 12-hour long slumber after collapsing, a half-asleep Izumi was guided by Kita and Cecilia from their accommodations at the newly established Japanese lodgings near the embassy–complete with the standard furnishings and amenities that could be found in a decent three-star hotel–towards some military trucks that awaited them. They and the rest of the scholars were then taken out of Myhark southwards across the vast countryside that was the Qua-Toynian agricultural heartland. After hours of the same scenery of farms and the occasional town, the farmlands gradually started to fade into prairies as the sight of groves started to become more common. Before long, they found themselves climbing in elevation as the surrounding trees became denser and the road less traversable. At the end of the road was a fortress village populated primarily by what appeared to be elves in their senior years. After a brief welcome from their lukewarm hosts, they left the trucks to get to their destination on foot. A trail marked by mossless white stones on the path extended past the fortress village in the forest, leading higher up the mountains and deeper into the forest.
Some thirty minutes of trekking later, they found themselves staring at a marvelous sight: a stone building built on and around the girthy 30 meter diameter trunk of an ancient tree. The manner in which the building was constructed made it difficult for the scholars to guess whether or not the tree it was built on was older or if the tree had pushed the building upwards. Their questions were answered when it was revealed by their guide, an old elf with a beard as long as his robes, spread his arms outward as he voiced out unintelligible words, causing what first appeared to be roots on the trunk surface to part, revealing a hidden staircase inside the trunk that led into the building above.
For Izumi, the sight was nothing less than trippy, especially in her hangover state. Now that they were in the building, she marveled at the lush greenery of the view from the platform but the lull was cut short by one of the foreign affairs ministry representatives calling their attention.
“Excuse me; the orientation with the high priest is about to start.”
Still reeling from the hangover, Izumi had Kita help her get back inside, where they reunited with Cecilia. The three then joined the other scholars in the main chamber at the center of the building where they took their seats on the circular layers that descended towards the center-like steps. Standing at the center and the bottommost platform was the same old elf that revealed the entranceway earlier. Next to him at the dead center of the platform was what appeared to be an altar, which had a constant ray of light shining down upon it from an oculus on the chamber roof above. As soon as the foreign affairs representative motioned to him that everyone was now in the room, he started to speak.
“My humblest greetings, scholars, intellectuals, professors, and students of the mighty country of Japan. I am known as Edyrm by my friends and family; the rest of the ‘lands blessed by the fertile hand’ refers to me as the High Priest, at least according to Qua-Toynian orthodoxy.”
The elf known as Edyrm, the High Priest of the elven cult in Qua-Toyne, coughed underneath his long beard before continuing.
“Our honorable sovereign, Her Highness Llanfair, has deemed it my obligation to materialize my personal gratitude to you for saving us from the Lourian menace through several things. One of those is allowing you entry to this place.”
Edyrm then raised his arms up high and began chanting. In response, the roots that formed the oculus at the roof started moving and reshaping themselves, allowing for light to shine directly on the higher parts of the walls of the cauldron-like chamber. The previously dark parts of the wall were now illuminated, exposing ancient murals that depicted scenes and peoples in all sorts of vivid colors. The scholars, seeing the wonderfully painted illustrations of dragons, sea monsters, warriors, and the like, couldn’t hold back their wows.
“This place is known as the Sanctum, which according to our orthodox is the holiest place in the world. Built before there was even a Qua-Toyne to call home by the first elves, our goddess Astarte–may she bless us for all eternity–deemed our acts worthy of her praise, sending forth her divine gifts to eternally bless the land with food and uprooting the Sanctum from the earth itself as a direct manifestation of her power... or so the legend goes.”
The narrative that Edyrm recounted mirrored the scenes that were illuminated on the Sanctum walls, giving the scholars an unprecedented look into the beliefs and religion of the locals. He then started chanting again, causing the light to shift towards another yet-to-be-lit part of the walls.
“Then, reinforcing our legitimacy as the blessed people, the lands blessed by the fertile hand were also the ones that received the almighty protection of no one but the esteemed deity of the sun itself: Shamash!”
The light then shone on the unlit part of the wall, revealing a mural that took the breath out of every scholar in the room: a shining sun in bright red with 16 rays emanating from it across its entire sector of the wall. Underneath it were depictions of helmeted humans pointing sticks that breathed fire against terrifying, unrecognizable monstrosities. What the supposedly ancient wall paintings were meant to signify were not lost on the scholars.
“Came forth the ancient evil of the terrible demonic empire! Sparing neither village nor kingdom from ruin, the hordes of darkness led by the Demon Lord himself overran the northern continents and were poised to bring their ravenous fangs on the fertile bosom of Astarte herself! However, the almighty mercy and power of the sun shined bright above the chosen land; she sent forth her emissaries, who brought with them islands of hulking steel that delivered the sun’s wrath onto the demons on land, as well as mighty dragons of unwavering resolve that scorched clean the world of evil! ‘Alas!’, cried out the pathetic and defeated Demon Lord, for good had triumphed over him!”
The scholars listened with unnerving intent as they couldn’t sit still due to excitement. Edyrm, however, chose to break the mood with his next words.
“Ah, but that was according to the surviving legends. Her Highness wanted me to put on an amazing performance with this storytelling since she told me that a friend of hers told her that you Japanese love romantic things.”
A faint yet resounding sound of disappointed sighs emanated from the scholars. Perhaps they were expecting something even more exciting, thought Edyrm.
“Forgive me if I was lackluster; I did what I could to give an ‘interesting’ introduction. I was told that some of you don’t directly study religion or... that word you use for studying people and societies–I don’t remember. For that reason, I don’t want to bore the majority of you with my talks about the orthodox faith and my countless scrolls on whether or not a sovereign having concubines is deemed unorthodox or blasphemous.”
“The Sanctum is also functionally a library and a center of study; the other priests and some of the students can help you out in the areas of study you’re assigned to. While we ourselves keep to strictly upholding the laws of the faith, modern thinking suggests that not everyone has to follow our customs. As such, the sole rule I have for you is to be respectful and civilized, whatever that may mean in your culture.”
With Edyrm having concluded his introduction to the Sanctum, the foreign affairs representative started systematically leading the scholars out of the chamber towards the library. Kita, seeing the opportunity to talk to the High Priest, broke out of line and headed towards him. She took the chance to also fix her appearance and prepare her Asheran common.
“G-Good day, father.”
The old elf was caught by surprise by Kita’s language.
“Hm? I’m not your father, though?”
Her face reddened in embarrassment as she fiddled with her fingers trying to come up with a better statement. Seeing her friend caught in a pinch, Izumi rushed in to offer some help as Cecilia followed suit.
“Apologies! One of the religions we have back home had followers refer to the priest as ‘father’.”
“Ah. What a peculiar way of addressing, if not curious. Anyhow, what can I do for you ladies?”
“We’re scholars who study human remains and artifacts from the past; we’re wondering if you have some artifacts on hand that we can examine...”
Edyrm lowered his head and closed his eyes as he tried to recall their inventory.
“We... do. I think. We can check later, if that’s alright.”
The three did a mini fist bump with one another as they made progress on one of their objectives.
“Thank you so much! Then, we’d like to confirm one more thing: are there any ruins built by the so-called ‘emissaries’ here in Qua-Toyne?”
The question had Edyrm grasp his head for a long 30 seconds before returning to face them.
“Truth be told, I’m not completely sure. The tale of the emissaries was from long, long, long ago. It was from a time when we still didn’t think of writing down records to keep track of what happened, but there’s sufficient mention in newer chronicles from old high priests about the ‘lost articles’, a compilation of first-hand accounts regarding the emissaries. Unfortunately, these are just as the name implies since the contents were deemed too ‘blasphemous’ by old high priests to be stored in the Sanctum–these were likely accounts that painted neither the early elves nor the emissaries in a favorable light, if you asked me. Getting back on topic, they must have also contained mentions of where the emissaries have built their settlements.”
Edyrm paused as he recollected more of what the scrolls mentioned.
“That’s because in the tales from that period–you know, the embellished ones–also make mention of the emissaries settling down on this continent. Unfortunately, the scrolls get no further than that. There only exists a handful of holy sites here in Qua-Toyne and none of them are known to have been where the emissaries settled. If they ever did build settlements here, the Divine Forest is a force that could change the earth itself, so it might have swallowed them, never to be seen again.”
He then turned back to the three with a less grim face than before.
“However, I am well aware of a well-preserved holy site down south in Quila that’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
The three turned to look at one another with faces that said “ah.” What the high priest was referring to was likely Site X, so they pulled out one of the black and white photographs from Izumi’s pack and showed it to Edyrm.
“That’s it! I forgot what that place was called... I think it was Krko? The local name is hard to pronounce, but we refer to it as Kil-Quo. Both names came from the original name the emissaries gave to the place, but that is also lost to us.”
Now they had two names: Krko and Kil-Quo. That alone should be interesting for linguistics to study, but the part that’s relevant to the three was still yet to come. Satisfied with their questions being answered, the three gave their thanks to the high priest before joining the rest of the group at the Sanctum’s library.