‘Anite, your King asks for you.’ Said Clementine.

By then, Tess had also found our little party. I looked around my cheerful company, who by now had finished all the good jokes and had started telling the bad ones. They presented me some rueful smiles, and continued the conversation. Ignoring these utterly rude implications, I stood up to leave my company behind. I had wanted to see the big guy anyways. Clementine followed me through the entrance to his room. Something I had had forgotten, was how long the passageway to the next room was. Once I got through, I saw four eyes staring at me.

‘Anite, good to see you.’ He said.

‘Hey.’ I replied. ‘It’s been a while.’

‘Yes, well, we’ve been preparing something for you. It was just a small project, but I’m sure you’ll like it.’ His monster like jaws grimaced in arrogant anticipation. ‘Here you go Anite.’ He smiled, and had Clemy hand me something. I took it and saw a grey oblong object, roughly the length of an arm, and the width of a wrist. It was… a sword! Complete, with scabbard and it was precisely the right size for my posture! Dumbstruck, I looked at Clemy, then at him, then back to her. ‘Come on, take it out.’ King said and I took the wooden grip to slide of the leather scabbard, revealing a perfect, lean, grey stone blade.

It was all I ever wanted. And now I had it!

King continued to speak. I felt tears of joy welling up and put the blade back in the scabbard, before the waterfalls really started crashing down.

‘I worked the stone into a blade with magic and reinforced it. It’s as durable as steel and arguably sharper. Amethyst crafted the wooden handle, quite a capable individual that one. And Tess made the scabbard.’

‘I’ll never forget this. Thank you, King.'

‘However, the gift was not the only reason I wanted you here. You have neglected your magic lessons as of late, sleeping and adventuring.’

‘We were still doing that? I thought you only needed me that one time.’

‘It’s probable that I’ll need your assistance, still.’

‘Well alright, as long as you don’t expect me to spend my time on redecorating.’

‘Then let us begin.’

According to Clementine, the big guy was asleep when we arrived home the other day. I had a hard time believing that. This night, he spend till long beyond the last tick, teaching me to improve my grasp on the manipulation of the earth. Apparently, there’s a lot more in my future than just moving earth and stone around. For example; make it float, if only a small stone at the moment, but seeing I was already able to do that, was a good sign for me. He scolded me for not exercising my soul, which apparently, is the key to be faster. It still eluded me how one exercised one's soul. From now on, he expected that I came to him for magic training on daily basis after coming back from a journey. That was fine by me.

---

Eventually, Clementine came in to check if everything was alright, since I was still there and the hour was late. A hunch told me the secretary resented me for both things. Or she might just be tired from staying up so late. The time came for King to send me away so he could sleep. With a humm on my lips I exited his quarters to walk through the recently ornate hallways. My apartment was just around the corner. I put my sword by the entrance. Fluffy blankets covered stone seats, my bed loomed large in the corner. A soft behemoth. Mother's fur was soft and tall, rising far above my small stature, effectively hiding me from the rest of the room. The blue light coming from the stone in my room had since long faded to a low glow, but with the night vision it wasn’t difficult to see. I didn’t close my eyes. I didn’t want to sleep.

I got out of the furry bed, still fully dressed except for the hard leather caps lying on the ground. I grabbed the sword and took it outside. I still hadn’t gotten the chance to practice with it, and my room was much too small. I threw the scabbard over my back. It was the same brown leather as the shoulder guards, but more flexible with strap I could hang from a shoulder.

I took out the blade and caressed the light wooden Y-shaped handle. The wood seemed so natural, as if holding the stone blade was its nature, the way it swirled around, but if you looked closely you could see the hole in which the thin blade was injected. The big guy had mentioned that Amethyst made it, truly a brilliant woman. Slowly, I started to swing the sword, trying to find proper form to move along the swirlies edged into the floor. A few swings and lunges were all it took and before I knew it I was at the end of the hallway in one of the larger spaces that connected the hallways.

I was about to make my way back when a sound caught my round ears, a ticking sound like stone hitting stone. I followed it into another passage and heard it getting louder until I reached an unknown room. Strangely, it was the only room in the whole hallway, probably because of the noise, but what could possibly be in it? Creeping, I drew closer and slipped a peek. The room was big, much bigger than our bedrooms and in the middle stood a really big slab of stone, bigger than even King. I was reluctant to say rock, because a lot of it was perfectly rectangle, except for the top piece. And besides the stone stood Belial. The small male rat stood on a crude wooden ladder. With a stone hammer in one hand and a stone spike in the other he was chipping away at the chunk of stone. I walked further inside and saw the walls were covered in carvings and symbols. The other rat seemed to notice my presence as he regarded me with an expecting look and waited for me to do something. For a bit, I just looked around and saw walls filled with carvings.

‘What is all this?’ I asked with honest curiosity. Belial opened his mouth, but hesitated before speaking weakly.

‘It’s… art.’

‘Is this what you’re always doing?’ I asked, remembering all the times he was hacking at a wall. I never looked at it after all.

‘I also eat.’ He commented dryly from his place up high. I nodded, not really taking in his words as I took in the pictures on the wall.

Once I looked around, I realized there was really only three carvings of faces, all with three eyes. In the background Belial seemed to be over my presence as the sound of stone on stone continued. On the left of the wall there was, seemingly, a man’s face with two open eyes and a closed eye on his forehead. In the middle, the face of a woman with her main eyes closed and the eye on her forehead open. And on the right, a woman with all eyes closed. None of the faces had a mouth, nose or ears. Only eyes, hair and in the man’s case also two horns sprouting from his head. I remembered what Clemy had said before, about the third room King made for the little rat.

‘How did you do this in one day?’ I asked, knowing well that Amethyst too performed inhumanly fast results, but this… this was impossibly fast.

‘King moved it for me.’

‘Eh? Moved it from where?’

‘From the green room.’ His meek voice sounded a bit annoyed. I remembered seeing him hacking away at the walls. Back then he might have used a claw from mother. Did he also get the hammer and spike from King?

Something about the flawless, simple carvings and symbols swirling around them was mesmerizing. It had a familiar feeling to it, something I couldn’t place, but the inconsistent ticking in the background was just disruptive enough to take away my concentration. That, and a feeling of mental tiredness I guessed. But then suddenly it clicked into place.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

‘These are the same swirlies as in the hallways!’ I exclaimed, turning around to look at the sculptor.

The other rat stopped hacking at the stone and looked up before speaking inanimately.

‘Yes, I designed them. King copied them magically.’

‘How do you do all this?’

‘How do you do anything?’ He asked. ‘The visions showed me.’

‘It’s amazing, the floor here even has a different pattern.’

‘They’re just swirlies.’

‘No, the faces I mean. Can you tell me what they are?’

The ticking stopped for a bit as Belial regarded the question before answering.

‘They’re depictions of gods, the Trinity. The man is called Ragon, god of evil. The woman in the middle is Gloria, god of good. And the last woman is Ashe, god of neutrality, or god of indifference as some call her.’

‘That seems like a quite straightforward religion.’

‘Not at all, that’s just how they’re called, but they aren’t truly good or evil. See the difference between their eyes and mind’s-eye. Ragon’s eyes are open, but his mind’s-eye is closed. Meaning he is focussed on the physical. He’s actually the god of destruction, sex and prosperity among others. Gloria on the other hand doesn’t value earthly possessions, but values the ungraspable, like beauty, war and victory. And Ashe…’

‘Ashe doesn’t care.’

‘That’s about right. Yet, Ashe is also the goddess of love, acceptance and death.’

‘That’s… beautiful really. Do you think she’d even accept a rat like us?’

‘I don’t know. I really don’t.’

‘Still, it’s nice to see something looking so human.’

From the angle I was staring at Ashe I couldn’t see Belial’s face, but him dropping the hammer and spike from his ladder. Got him my attention. Weirdly enough, both tools didn’t shatter. perhaps King enchanted them like my sword. I turned around to see the sculptor staring at me with wide eyes and doubt carved in his face.

‘Could you… tell me what you mean?’ He asked, trying to keep his composure. I shrug.

‘It’s just so human. I don’t know, it feels like I’m losing myself a bit as of late. Well, we have armour now, but that isn’t exclusively a trait of our race after all.’ I said, possibly venting a bit, but the sculptor didn’t seem to care an awful lot as he interrupted me.

‘You know about humans?’ He asked, with something that seemed like hope resounding in his shaky voice.

‘Don’t we all? From the visions I mean.’ I ask, clearly not understanding the emotion that seemed to well up in the other rat, who suddenly looked faint.

‘No, Uhm, could you help me down the stairs? My knees appear to be shaking.’

So I rushed to his aid and gave him my hand as he slowly descended the stairs. I lead him to a wall where sat down and leaned against it. I took off my sword and sat down next to him as I confusedly waited for him to regain control of his breathing. Meanwhile, I had a nice view of the magical face with closed eyes and felt an unexplainable sense of comfort in my chest. Then Belial asked me a question, seeming suddenly very down to earth.

‘You can’t sleep?’

‘More like… don’t want to sleep.’

‘Yes, me too.’ He waited a second before speaking again, voice still weak. ‘Remember how it was to wake up? The uncertainty and confusion you felt?’

Caught off guard by the question, I blinked a few times, but nodded after thinking back to the thoughts that crawled through my mind back then. “Who am I? How did I get here? What do I do?”

He continued to speak.

‘I remember when you had your first vision. You had a name and you shouted it to the world, full of pride and glory. I was jealous of you, you know? “He doesn’t doubt anymore.” I thought and was so glad after realizing we were all getting a name, because that was all I thought it was at the moment. The vision wasn’t what I expected. Even though I had a name, it came at a terrible price.’ He looked at me with a sad glimmer in his eyes. ‘I found out I'm a sculptor, dedicated to depicting the trinity, the three gods of humankind.’

‘Those three?’

‘yes.’ He looked grim.

‘I don’t understand what’s bad about that.’ I stated, but he just smiled forlornly.

‘The gods of humans, Anite, but what are we?’

‘Oh.’

‘I gained a name, a great one even, but it felt like I lost any hope for the future, my purpose. Now I don’t even know if my art, my prayer, is received. I wish I were a knight, like you.’

That struck a chord with me and thought back to the pain I had endured before then.

‘You think being me is easy? I have to…’ The picture of the bull shaped beast flashed behind my eyes. I gulped back the words, and looked away from the smaller rat. 'It’s dangerous out there, that’s all.’

‘But are you ever truly in danger? From what I remember, you're a hero.’ I felt him look at me, doubt ringing in his voice. But his voice was clear.

‘It’s not dangerous until I make a mistake. I… I can’t make mistakes, because I’m a knight. Knights are supposed to be perfect.’ Even though I whispered those words, they hurt my throat. Belial had no answer, so he asked another question after a moment of silence.

‘I suppose being a hero comes with a lot of pressure… Do you dream of the lost kingdom too, Anite? You don't have to answer, I know you do. Being as close to King as you are. I suppose we're in similar situations.’ He said. His words filled me with anger, but I was unsure as to why. ‘All of us do, did you know that? Somehow it’s like catching a glimmer of the past, isn’t it? This is something Bart, Tess and Amethyst talked about while you were away or unconscious, those earliest days. You know, I asked them about the sky? They didn’t understand what I meant. When they looked up in their dreams they saw only the rock ceiling. I tried to illustrate it through the symbols I carved into the floor, but they couldn't comprehend.’

He stopped talking and looked at me waiting to see if I would say something, but I didn’t, so he did.

‘We all have memories, but we dream of different lost kingdoms, Anite, even though they’re parallel, flipped sides of a card. Their dreams reveal but the back of the card, a half truth. The other rats see an underground city, inhabited by rats.’

‘You mean that Bart, Tess and the rest aren’t… human?’ I asked, my voice shaking.

‘Yes, maybe Brynn and Clementine too, but they don’t talk much about personal stuff, so I don’t know.’

‘You’re wrong, Belial. Brynn told me she knew me from before all this. And Bart told me about his vision, how he stood guard outside for days.’

‘They’re just memories, altered, not their own. They understand what happened, but they can’t picture it and the brain fills up the gaps. Did any of them talk about being human or seeing the sky?’

'They didn’t, but then how do I remember having been human? And how do you?’

‘I believe, because you're real and not just some copy.’

I looked into his eyes and saw a determination stronger than mine. I diverted my gaze to look at the carvings and stare in disbelief.

‘But they’re still people.’ I muttered, thinking of Bart’s fear while fighting the Orcs, Tess her disappointment after I didn’t remember her name and Amethyst her worry when her friend stood wounded at her doorstep.

‘They’re still people, but a different kind.’

‘I… believe you. I think.’

‘That’s reassuring. I was wondering if I had lost my mind.’ He stated with a weak chuckle and I believed him still. ‘What will you do now you know?’

‘Nothing, they’re still my friends. I think.’ I say as I stand up. ‘Does King know?’

‘Probably, but he’s hiding… things. Maybe something about the true nature of all this, but who knows if he understands everything that happened.’

I turned to walk away, but asked one last question.

‘What will you do?’

‘What can I do?’ He shrugged and pointed at the stone. ‘Sculpt statues.’

The both of us yawned and I picked up my sword before heading to my room. After lying in bed it didn’t take me long to fall asleep. I had a lot to think about, but it was also late and I was tired.

So, soon enough I found myself in that city again and several warriors rushed at me. In an instant they lie defeated at my feet. This time I didn’t turn around, but looked up at the sky and saw a beautiful woman with closed eyes smiling down on me.

I smiled back.

---

---

---

Within a dark space, hidden deep within everwinding tunnels, down at the very center of a cavern spanning countries, a rat drank from a radiant green goo. It had just been born, but it had felt the power calling for him. Rejecting his newfound shape his greed and arrogance pushed him to take it for himself. As multiple souls surged into his tiny frame, he expanded, misshaped into a hulking behemoth, paralized by his own weight.

Now a week later he hides away, secluded in a darkness of his own. Although he is by himself, words ring.

‘What are you really trying to do here, King?’ Says an unknown voice, ethereal in the shadows.

‘The same thing I tell you every night. These are my subjects now. I keep them safe.’

‘Well, can we at least kill of the pagan girl?’

‘I am not killing Brynn over your religious views. I’m not even sure she remembers.’

‘Sure she does. She’s still a filthy pagan. Who denies the truth deserves to die.’

‘I said no, Allister!’

‘Come on, King, you feel my fury too when you see her, when she speaks. Don’t you want it to end? You know I can take over for you to ease the burden. Don't you feel my power surging through you?’

‘Your petty temptations will not sway me, Allister. I will contain you, forever.’

‘Oh, but it was one of those petty temptations that brought you into this world, was it not? I saw the liquids true potential and I took it. If not for me, you would not exist.’

‘For one of Gloria’s worshippers, you sure are greedy.’

‘Just don’t forget to keep your eyes on the prize. Your body is unstable.’

‘…’

‘And may it once again belong to me. Or to of one of the other thirty lovely souls that hold us company.’

End of book one