Chapter 48: Jantok Sky

How can people in heaven be happy when people burn in hell? Easy, just don’t think about it!

“Oh my stars…” Vega’s eyes full of delight, moved past the gate and into the realm of Jantok Sky.

Splendor all around, as the green waters of the Yutai Basin was the entire horizon. If Jantok Rock was a city, Jantok sky was a dense country. Towers and intersecting highways, purple and pink trees in waterparks, and artworks on almost every non walked on surface. A name like Jantok Sky fails to capture the incredible life of this city.

Rich folk were all around, of happy color in their skin and eyes. A mixture of race and species, like the ones that happen in faculties and love stories, except that it was unremarkable here.

Men and women walked together in the parks that rained ornate leaves, drank exotic teas in the seaside parlors, and played sports in the many flat fields. So majestic. So serene. How could it be possible?

“You have only an hour’s time to stay. All transactions are done with silver and gold only. Enjoy it. You won’t be returning.” The watchmen and guards said clearly as the opening of the gate closed behind them, as if sealing off a world.

Florato was utterly enamored. Never in all of her life had seen a place of her dreams come to life. If there was a heaven on earth, this should be it. There could be no competition.

“This seems… gilded?” Much to their surprise, Skaldi’s emotion was unmoved. Perhaps it had been the alcohol, the faint bruises on his arms, or the arrow wounds that numbed his reaction. But as Vega stepped beside him, he had never seemed more sober than before. The candle in his head lit.

“Gilded? Never thought ya would use that word.”

“What does it mean?” The actress worried that somehow the drunk one was being stoic in such a place.

“It’s like… false look? Thin gold but wood underneath.”

“That’ll be-be it. But, I get ya mean.” The scarecrow understood the feigned nature of the city.

Everyone was so full, not one person of skinny frame. Most had a mass of toned muscle on their shoulders and waists. They were of muscular build, not that of soldiers, sailors, or any working laborer. Their bodies were sculpted like that of gladiators and bodybuilders, forms to impress. They were not of strength but mass. To look strong without being strong.

Not to be shallow, but the Kai Ren men there were very charming to… admire. Yeah… admire.

“Come on guys, look! It’s wonderful.” Florato spun around, as a mint smelling wind blew around.

Painted white walls of temples with sloped unturning roofs of yellow and green tiles, streets full of laughter and talk, flowers of splendid beauty roamed and climbed whatever surfaces they could. To be fair to the actress, how could one detect anything wrong with such a place?

I suppose I should answer. It’s wrong because there are no wrongs.

“Something isn’t right. A facade.” Skaldi held his forehead, feeling another headache come on.

“Ersatz.” Vega remembered the word from a book she read one time.

“Guys, you think you’re forgetting that we just came from the most crime ridden city.”

“No-no. We’re precisely remembering that. A couple hour-hours ago we saw dudes fighting on the beach and yet that doesn’t exist here.”

She understood Florato’s position, better than anyone else could. Florato didn’t want to forget all that happened, but put it off for at least an hour. Let the weights fall to the ground so that they can be more easily carried later.

“Vega, do you want to talk about how you're feeling now? I don’t want the stuff to mess with this awesome place.”

“It’s not that. But thank ya. I think Skaldi is right on this.”

“Ha. That’s a first.”

“I’m not sure, but I know there’s more to this place. Ya can go have fun without me, but I know there’s something.” Vega turned back to the gate, and at its immense scale. Although she stared at the gate, she wasn’t seeing it. She was seeing past it, the rooms of the Kaliber’s tower along with its note. On the track, she couldn’t lose that focus.

Florato sighed and wrapped her arms around Vega’s neck. Even if she went alone, she couldn’t even begin to have fun here. Heaven isn’t the same without the ones you love.

“You have a way of making people feel a way, huh?”

“I try-try to.” Vega patted her forearm twice before taking out the black box and the plans. “We have an hour to look around. Ya guys stay together and hold onto the stuff.”

“Why us? You can hold that shit inside you.” Skaldi protested, having to hold the many scrolls of paper in his arms while Florato had the easier to carry box.

“Aren’t you the one that’s supposed to deliver too?”

“Yes, but I have to check out one of those towers. There’s one in here and if some bad-bad guy takes me, I want the stuff to be with ya.”

“You say that like you’re deliberately going to get yourself in trouble.” Skaldi managed to tuck the scrolls under his arm awkwardly. He saw that Florato just put the box in the pocket. “Hey, you mind?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“No, I really don’t.”

“Haha, very funny.” Skaldi overdramatically groaned as the actress took a few scrolls in her hands.

“Skaldi, I think we’ve been enough sit-situations that the trouble tends to come to us-us rather than we get into it.”

“Sure, but how do you know that there will be something in there?”

“Found a letter in the one we’re in, but it doesn’t say much. I’m hoping this one here will. Is that fine with ya guys?”

“Ehh, I can still enjoy this place even if I’m snooping around.” Florato took an optimistic approach, that beauty can exist in the search. “Still, there is so much to explore here.” The actress looked out to the eastern horizon, where farmland and water nested close to the wall.

“I’m not fond of rich folk, but I can stick by blondie here.”

“Can I call you redie?”

“Hmmm. How about Cherry?” Skaldi liked the taste of the nickname in his mouth.

“Not bad. We’ll take care of it, Vega. Let’s meet back here in fifty.”

“Cool-cool! Don’t get caught-caught!”

Even for the scarecrow, the ugly scribbling of the words on the map got on her nerves. Like an irritating nitpicking in the mind. That’s not how you spell the word even if you sounded it out. This letter doesn’t even exist in the Iozian script. Upsettingly, Vega knew from the size of the words that it definitely wasn’t written by a kid, this had to been the work of someone of remarkable dislike of following the rules of writing.

“What the hell-hell were they even trying to write here? ‘Graa raannnd’? Is that ground?”

“Move it!” A beefy toga wearing man pushed her aside.

“Sorry sir-sir. I thought this place might have made-made people a tad kinder.”

“Ew. Another Rock tarang.” A teenage girl stopped in front of her on a street between two restaurants. She was drinking out of a giant cup of tea and waved her hand at her.

“Uh, miss? Can ya tell me where Kaliber’s tower is-is?”

“I don’t what Kaliber is, but is he hot? And rich?”

“...nevermind. Have a good-good day!”

“Eh, whatever!”

“Jeez. I bet the other two are having it easier.” Vega increasingly felt weird about Jantok Sky. She wasn’t treated like a talking scarecrow, she was treated like some wet rubbish grown feet. She’d been treated poorly, evenly hurtfully, but never this mundanely. Like opening a window to toss out a bad drawing, that’s how they acted to her.

Yet further she went, the less clearer it had all gotten.

If Jantok Rock was contained in the Thrakian Sea, Jantok Sky was imprisoned by the mountains. Two separate mountain ranges from the west and the north formed a horn that was Jantok Sky, with clouds of orange mist flying down the peaks and making the city breezy.

Dammed, the Yutai Basin wasn’t a natural feature. Having been built some two hundred years ago, the Hydro Naga dam formed a red snake between the ranges, with the water having formed the basin. From where she could see, the dam rivaled the size of the walls.

Why, why was there a wall between the peoples? It wouldn’t make sense for efficiency to have such a gigantic divide for productivity. Never even in the sense of class, everything appeared so inconvenient.

“Hmmm. Defense is not the answer.” Vega thought aloud, tracing with her hands to a star shaped building on the map, roughly to her left. She looked with her eyes, seeing a clue to her side.

A palace with towers on the extending flanks, much like the reeds of a cattail, bobbed in the wind. This bobbing came from burning lights within the highest windows, like stars warping in the night sky. Attached to the back end of the place was a heavy looking rectangle. From the high roofs protruded three horns that blew out black gas, and an additional facility on the side powered by a water mill.

“Industrial, that’s it.” Vega discovered.

The palace was a citadel, holding whatever this factory connected to it was producing. This could not be the reason alone, but it could be a reason among others.

“Water is available for everyone but from different sources. Everyone here is healthy and-and even fat. Yet back in Rock, most folk are thinner. I knew there was something to this place.”

Have you found your answer yet?

“Do ya have this much time-time on your hands?”

Yes. That’s something I have and you don’t.

“Ya are such a dic-” A muffled cry came out from a doorway. To her left was an oddity. A ruined temple, with toppled colemns and no lights. Not sparing any expense, Vega rushed into the darkness.

Dust spiraled in a small tornado in the room, as Vega had to step and climb over the toppled debris. Dark red, there only appeared to be a bleak flash stick, only emitting a cold glow.

“Where was that noise?”

“MhhPH!” Turning her head up, there appeared to be two shadows fighting atop the upper floor. Not wanting to waste time looking for a staircase, Vega ran up, pulled her pickax out of her body, and slammed it against the upper floor. Swinging like an acrobat, she launched upwards and landed in a crouch.

“Hey tarang! You’re not supposed to be here.” The voice was that of a guard.

“Ouch…” The person behind her was wounded, their blood shining like water in moonlight. Vega turned to the shadow, reaching out a hand to it. “Hey you… please. Help me.”

“And gotcha!” The watchmen stabbed Vega in the back with his short sword, crying proudly as he did it.

“Got-got what?”

“...You’re not dead?”

“Oh, ya must have misplaced this.” Vega reached over her back and took the blade out and tossed it to the feet of the guard. He fell back, spooked that she survived the attack.

“Holy… hey! Help me and kill that guy!” The wounded person demanded.

“Ya sure?” Vega wasn’t against the idea, entertaining it like the wounded person was choosing a color on a dress.

“Y..yes?!”

“Doesn’t sound con-convincing.”

“He literally just stabbed you and me!”

“To be fair, I did just do that.” The guard agreed with the wounded person, totally on their side that it would be reasonable to kill him. Yet the scarecrow needed a little more pushing.

“Kill him! Pretty please?”

“Okie dokie.” Vega bowed, the urgency of the voice was enough for her. Simply taking a brick from the ruined wall, she proceeded to beat the guard’s head in. With… a brick. She whistled as she did it, as blood splattered on her face. The brutal efficiency of the killing surprised the wounded person, even they couldn’t have predicted Vega’s joyful and rhythmic work.

Wiping the blood on her forehead as if she had sweat on it, she got up from the dead body and skipped over to the wounded person.

“Another job-job well done!”