Some small creature skittered away across the dry soil, a brief flash of golden-brown fur and terror in the endless darkness. Gnarled boughs leaned down across the path, long since desiccated and rotten, a forest of death. Far the distance a mournful bird cawed, startling Siqxhe from his thoughts- it was a holy place. A dark place.
They meandered forward through the darkness, illuminated only by the weak light of fire and a suffusing dimness, an orange-bright radiance echoing from above. It wasn't like he'd imagined it beneath god- dismal, for one. The sky felt so close- he paused for a second, sweeping out a thick patch of cobwebs. He'd run into those more than once, and the experience wasn't one he wanted to repeat.
Laeo kicked aside some rotten debris, careful to keep their torch away from any of the overhead branches. "I hate this." Weeks of walking through a dark place, and they didn't even know if they were closer to their destination than when they'd started. Across a barren earth, following a winding trail and the promise of something at the end-
He couldn't tell if they were any closer than they'd started. For all he knew, they were going in circles upon circles, misled by kaleidoscope skies and cool breezes. After a few more minutes of meandering they came to a turbid stream, and Laeo called a brief stop. Any remnants of vegetation had long since withered away, replaced by coarse dirt and muddy water not close to clear.
"Wait-" Siqxhe flipped through a small, leather bound notebook, glancing over scratchy writing done on the fly with what he could. He was running out of ink, not to mention food, and it was starting to grate on him. There wasn't much to go around beside rot and cold… he saw it, the little scrawl of text that he was looking for. Turbid, narrow- densely wooded, much debris. It was close, but between his memory and the writing, he was certain they hadn't been here before. "It's possible- we're possibly approaching our destination."
"Thank God this isn't somewhere we've already passed." Laeo frowned, facing a horizon of jagged mountains and shadowed hills, desiccated forested foothills. Shadows… without sunlight they shouldn’t have been as pronounced as they were- but deep beneath the unknown, darkness and its shades were a thousand times more visible. “I could have thought, though…” Laeo held a hand up to the sky, squinting. “We’re getting close.”
“How can you tell?” They had no better map than the directions they’d been given half a world away and the hushed whispers of Sakaxhy villagers who’d spoken of those few who went into the forest and returned.
Laeo gestured toward the sky, the land- the totality of everything. “Look-” Between sky and earth, the shadows and the shadow above. “The plane of God is flat against the curve of the planet-”
“I see…” He did. It wouldn’t have been noticeable on a moment’s notice, but contrast it against all the mountains and the heights from which they’d entered, it suddenly seemed a lot closer to the ground. His mind ran with the possibilities, every closer, until celestial bodies crushed… “The fortress, then. It’s at the center?”
Laeo shook his head. “Not from what I can tell. I think the center is somewhere over the Ilyaochi highlands… no, it’ll be in the foothills.” A bird cawed, and they heaved themselves off the ground, setting out deeper, into hopeful darkness and a forest of death.
Softly.
They walked in silence, the very air of the place oppression, vivacity and all exuberance washed out and replaced with the immensity of God above them, dark and orange. Windows onto forever… they walked. Through the scent of dust and decay, old soil and the soft scratching of insects as they gnawed. Dreams, tower bright and possibilities… Siqxhe watched the landscape with cool eyes, wondering.
Contemplating motives, and wishing he’d never been sent here in the first place.
……….
Soft fire’s crackling, a gentle sound that pushed back the darkness and draped warmth around them despite the intense nighttime chill. For someone who’d only ever known the tropics before, the roof of the world was a frozen hellscape. Not that he’d say that…
For the breadth of a moment, fire flared brighter- pushed into incandescence by the paper Laeo had thrown into it as he passed out food. Salted meat, a few dried vegetables, and clear water he’d collected earlier, it wasn’t much of a meal but it was all they had beyond whatever the forest gave them. Even Laeo couldn’t find much more than a mushroom or two he thought were edible… Siqxhe didn’t even try. He’d seen too many die of fungal poisons to risk falling himself… still, as he gnawed at the meat, he acknowledged some mushrooms would have been nice. “We don’t have many rations left.”
Laeo frowned, poking through his bag for the rest of their food. Piled together, it couldn’t be more than three days, maybe four if they were conservative. Simple measurements of time like days stretched out so far into forever, marked by the meander of streams, rot and the coming of cold, marked- by shadows, by time. Thoughts of sleep and waking whispered through the recesses of mind, and older mysteries…
Wondering, about desperate need and his comfortable home all the way back in Nolabo, starlit skies, beckoning… sleep as fire died, stirring and grasping-
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“Siqxhe-” A touch, gentle push on his shoulder bringing him out of sleep and into soreness. “Siqxhe- come on. Wake up.” As always, Laeo had woken before him, packing up what little things they’d brought.
A crisp dew coated every surface, his extremities frigidly cold and stiff as he pulled himself up to help with a wide yawn. They packed their bags, heavy weights beneath the dark eyes of God and an infinite plane of speckled orange rings, oscillating patterns that fell beyond the clouds and sky. It was cold- despite how awful he felt, that part of him that had made him the most desirable candidate to send here made him wonder at what it would do to the flesh. Perhaps he could… wondering of questions, setting off toward the dying light.
Hours passed, running on, interrupted only by the occasional break in the gnarled canopy and burbling brooks that carried- grasping at thoughts, Siqxhe pulled himself onwards. They hadn’t anticipated the cold, or even really the darkness… Laeo was constantly on the watch for wood to burn, while Siqxhe huddled beneath all the layers he could find.
Worn, travelers- cresting waves of wonder and landscapes more thoroughly destroyed than by fire or war, simply… choked of life. Rendered dead. Cresting, exhaustion and hope and a hill, and in the distance they saw a light. At first Siqxhe and Laeo pulled short, thinking they’d mistaken it for something else- a creature, a spark of their torch.
There was light, a single point of brilliance in the totality of a realm. Faint recollections, of warmth- and in the back of their minds, sunlight-
Siqxhe grinned, relieved at last to have a destination… and in the distance, brightness called above dark- roads tread, possibilities unwinding before them, they set off.
………
First the forest yielded to a packed earth path, and then to a gravel trail, and then to a cobbled road that had no place in these dark realms. First the darkness yielded to dim shadows that stretched through legions of trees, then to hope, and at last to a faint brightness that felt altogether foreign to travelers of the occluded sun.
Also, humanity. It was something Siqxhe hadn’t realized he’d missed, but as the telltale signs started to emerge, so did that fascination with its workings. Both of them were too exhausted to do anything more than glance around the squalid town, but still…
It felt good, at last coming to someplace other than endless stretches of wilderness, dark places, sunlit fields, everything they’d found beyond the reach of Tasadir. The interior of Xhyolok was a strange place… it felt strange, knowing that for miles upon miles in all directions there was nothing but land-
He glanced up, and frowned. The townscape before him wasn’t what he’d imagined. He didn’t know why- still, perhaps, the romanticized image of Abōeo beneath God colored his vision. “It’s pitiful, Laeo.” Still, it made him understand better the reasons behind their visit. In such filth, disease must breed quickly.
The town was situated on the slope of a hill, ramshackle houses bordering roads and heaps of ash. Wood, he assumed- drawn from the forest and used to light the village… further up the slope, billowing black smoke drifted skyward from holes in the ground, joining its brother, darkness… It clung to the village, the soot and shadows, not dispelled in the slightest by the many lights. As he passed the Sakaxhy, they turned and stared, wide eyes, soot stained faces…
“I don’t understand…” Laeo’s face was as cold as ice as he looked out over the town. “It simply doesn't make sense. They don’t farm here- all their food must come from somewhere. The expense…”
Now that he thought of it… it was odd. Norapt and Abōeo survived under the shadow of God through extensive networks of trade, capitalizing extensively on their positions as capitals of great nations. He gazed around, noticing the Sakaxhy as they dragged carts full of earth “They’re mining something.”
“Well, obviously… but what?” Laeo pointed toward the carts as they were dumped in piles, workers digging through them. “It’s just… so different-” Left unspoken was the question- why? What made them so wealthy as to demand a doctor from Nolabo? Siqxhe could see how the god-shadowed prestige could make them important enough, but he knew from the negotiations that the town’s lord had been willing to pay an immense sum…
While Laeo moved resolutely forward, Siqxhe moved in curiosity, contemplating, motives and hope all centered on their destination, the fortress above. A few minutes saw them past the mine’s entrances, jagged tears in the ground that evoked thoughts of what deeper darkness might lay below… Soot stained, portal to laborers who toiled up and down a slope that must have been steeper inside than outside, pulling half again their weight in rock to the surface.
The piercing gaze of the Sakaxhy with their too-round eyes… no. Not Sakaxhy. Ilyaochi… “Laeo. This isn’t-”
“I know.” Laeo held a finger to his forehead, silencing him before he could draw more attention to them than they needed. “Ilyaochi have a history of being treated… poorly… in the central and western portions of Xhyolok.”
Atop a trail as the village faded to nothing and the road to a small path nestled between rocks, Siqxhe looked back at the Ilyaochi, frowning- this wasn’t… it plucked at his sensibilities as a healer, but he tried his best to put it out of his mind. The ridge of mountains continued to sweep up behind them after a short dip, but here- this one point, a small peak before the immensity of mountains, was above the earth. He could see so far into the shadows…
Laeo laid a hand on his shoulder, and so reluctantly he turned away from the scope of existence, the memories of travel, walking toward a warm bath, a goal, an end to journeys- a fortress of white stone so brilliant.