Thick fog enveloped the city, obscuring the vision and hiding most of the buildings behind it, leaving only the tips of the towers and higher buildings visible from afar. The wind was light and gentle but it wasn’t strong enough to push the fog away or even remove the stench of rotten flesh.
A loud footsteps broke the silence as two people entered the city through a fallen gate. A young woman in a dark dress and dark veil over her face, her blond hair fell on her back reaching shoulder-blade.
In front of her stood an old man, smaller than her. He looked even smaller because of his hump which made him curl forward like a shrimp. Long beard spread from his chin that almost touched the ground. Grey hair came out of his nose and ears, barely any on his head. He had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. All he had was a faded yellow robe and a grey rope around his neck which the woman behind him held like he was on a leash.
They were unbothered by the smell of death and many greenish skeletons all around the gate and the path forward, all that was left from the monsters named barnacles.
The woman took a good look around, spotting a few rotting corpses of the fallen soldiers. Holes in their chests or missing arms, marks left by the monsters. Some of them had their uniform ripped to shreds and had scratches so deep that their bones and organs were visible. Only her mouth was visible under the veil but she didn’t seem bothered by the gore all around her.
She began walking forward, walking over the skeletons and crushing the frail bones of the monsters as she stepped on them, not minding what was in front of her. Her focus was elsewhere, looking around, especially at the corpses with metal armor on them. The old man quickly followed her so as to not get choked by the rope by falling behind. He also seemed calm and unbothered by the corpses.
All the buildings near the wall were destroyed or heavily damaged with roofs collapsed or the walls with holes in them. Closer to the second wall only the windows were broken and a few doors were busted. She took a look inside one of the buildings. Near the entrance, there was the corpse of a rotting man, a citizen judging by his simple clothing. Grey shirt and sweatpants. A few feet behind him were three corpses, one of a woman in a light dress and two children under her arms.
“Poor souls. Didn’t react in time and had to stay here, in a frail fortress they called home.” Stated the woman with no sympathy in her tone. She simply observed and stated the facts.
She then stopped walking and took a look at the wall of a building that had dry blood over it, tracking it down there was a corpse, a woman with a gaping hole in her chest. The woman pointed the finger at her and the old man quickly turned his head toward her, surprised by her choice.
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“Wasn’t there a man that stood his ground against Drowned? Wouldn’t he be a better choice?” The old man asked as he looked with his empty eyes behind the second wall where all that remained was rubble.
Without an answer she pulled the rope and brought the old man closer, she then grabbed his head and brought it closer to the corpse of the woman.
“I choose her.” She answered with a slight anger in her tone, pressing her fingers a bit harder against the man’s head.
The old man let out a sigh, showing his few remaining yellow teeth. He raised his thin arm with skin barely hanging onto it and many dark spots on his pale white skin and placed his hand on the corpse’s head. He then closed his eyes and chanted something silently. The woman observed him as he did that, tightening the grip on the rope and ready to punish him if his answer didn’t please her.
“I will be able to finish the job…” The man opened his eyes for a moment and looked at the woman’s face, waiting to see her expression.
“Good…” The woman smiled lightly for the first time.
“But it will take some time before she reaches her strength because I don’t have enough energy-” The old man slowly answered and suddenly the woman pulled the rope, choking him a bit before letting him go. The man fell to his knees and rubbed his throat.
“You need to have enough energy to strand them in the world.” The woman whispered threateningly to his ear.
“You better pray they don’t find the truth about…” The old man whispered hoarsely, with hostility in his words but the woman ignored his threat and waited for him to continue his job.
The old man grunted but did as was told. He placed one hand on the head and the other on the stomach, slightly beneath the hole in her chest. As he began to chant the wound slowly sealed itself, her skin began to turn normal and her flesh rebuilt. The empty and dead eyes had glow in them once again and her chest began to move up and down.
He then suddenly fell prone to the ground, the woman let go of the rope for a moment and walked toward the center of the road. She picked up the sword and a dagger that lay there. While the dagger looked well enough to be used the sword was in a much worse state. With dents and cracks all around it that could break it after one hit.
“How poetic. You’ll wake up as frail as this sword…” The woman whispered as she placed the sword in front of the woman. “And will start from zero with a simple dagger.” She then placed the dagger next to the frail sword.
The woman walked up to unconscious but breathing Navia and whispered to her ear in an unknown language that almost sounded impossible for a human to say as if she was saying that while being under the water.
“Don’t disappoint me… Navia.” She whispered before walking away, dragging the old man by the rope and disappearing in the thick fog that enveloped the fallen city.