Year 4094 since the Great Assembly
Today was the last day of a six-day Luna week. Upon a quiet village in a corner of the Ponian Empire, metallic silver rays of light shone in the way of a little kid who got himself a flashlight to play with. So, he did, swinging his little arm around to point at every object in his view.
The light originated from a moon much smaller and cratered than the one that hung in the sky on the night of Avah’s arrival. This world had six moons under the six Archangels’ authority, each making an appearance in order of the days in a Luna week at the end of which awaited a moonless night. This brought up questions regarding how this world’s six moons of varying sizes, some even bigger than the Earth’s moon from appearance alone, affected the world itself. Even if someone knew very little about the effects of multiple moons, they could at least guess that the moons would mess up tides and greatly impact nature and its inhabitants.
Any research or studies on space and seas were absolute taboo in this world. But still, if someone had given up their sleep on searching about what reasonings or theories people had come up with regarding the Sun and moons that stood above them throughout their life, or whether people believed the world itself was flat or round. Or, maybe some people would argue that the world is, in fact, square like Goddess Pfanya’s crimson moon. For 4094 worth of years since the Ponian Empire had been founded, there had to be a little kid who asked, ‘Mommy, where do the moons go to when the day comes?’. There had to be a curious young man who questioned how the entire world saw the same moon on each night of the week or how other moons just seemingly disappeared after their nights had passed, right?
But, no, disappointment would be the only thing that finds the silly person who should have just gone to sleep instead. The most someone could squeeze out about this matter at the cost of one night sleep would be the fact that there were two high tides and two low tides on most days, the very same cycle as a planet called Earth.
As if the six moons were sharing this world, each owning one day of the week…
Tonight’s moon was that of God ‘Doorkeeper’. To anyone who was used to the idea of a perfectly round moon, this moon of a squashed bean shape was even more oddly unsatisfying compared to Goddess Pfanya’s square moon.
The light from the awkwardly-shaped moon had actually been lingering on one particular spot in the village without drawing notice from anyone. At the center of the village stood a tree older than any man but younger than the village itself. The bench built around the stem of the tree generously offered plenty of seats, yet, at this moment, a young man whose grayish-black hair merged with the sky of this world’s starless nights sat alone thoughtlessly gazing at the unescorted moon.
He wore a simple short-sleeved tunic with long trousers as most villagers did but his aristocratic temperament got many passersby to take a few sneaky glances though no one came up to him. Well, at least until now.
“Young lad, never have you heard of ‘Primeval Teaching’?”, said an old man with a cane that appeared to have been used for the past few years, “Look no up, dig no beneath. For wandering eyes and carefree feet shall bring forth deceased.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Of course, Avah had heard of the very first thing everyone in this world is carefully taught; even orphans from the slums had these two sentences memorized, letter by letter. “Haha, I’ve heard of it so many times…that it’s started to sound like a dare in my ears.”
“Ho! What a blessing to be young knowing all the things you could accomplish with just determination! But, what a curse to be young having so many things you could lose at your boldest moment. Say, young man, how about you let this old man distract you with a conversation?”
“Gladly! I was just starting to get sick of how quiet this night is.”
“So, how come you find yourself in our remote village?”
“Ahh! Right, I came here for this..”, Avah said before pulling out a small book, half a finger thick with the width of half a hand span. It was an unremarkable book with a simple cover on which it said ‘I gave my legs’. Apart from the weird title, the book cover did not have what it took to get a special reaction out of anyone. It was just another book that would be shoved in the back of the shelf or maybe it would have been used to fix a wobbly table.
That’s why if a third person was sitting with them on the bench, they would be so confused as to why the old man abruptly dropped his cane from his hands looking as if Avah had brought out the corpse of someone he had buried with his own hands.
“I came here for the writer of this book. Nice to meet you, sir.” Avah said as he picked up the cane off the floor, dusted it off, and handed it back to the old man.
“As I thought, you really are a nobleman. I spread 300 copies of that thing across Ponian, 299 of which were retrieved and burned. You still having it in your hands could be no coincidence.” The man drew a prolonged sigh as he continued, “Listen, young man. Here’s what you do. Go to the nearest church, hand yourself and the book in. Then, you pray. Pray to her faithful lady that your time here will not be cut short.”
“Old man, there’s something I need to know-”
“No! There is nothing you want to know! Why do you think that book caught the sentries’ attention so quickly? People died no matter if they had read the entire book or they had only taken a casual glance. All within 24 hours, without exceptions!! So, don’t think it would not end the same for you!!”
“That’s where you’re wrong, old man, There is one, right in front of you. This book had been in my hands for quite some time. Would you believe I had come all the way here to find you without even reading your book once?”
At his words, the old man, Corbin, finally calmed down a bit. Right, that would not make sense. It didn’t make sense how Avah was alive but there were not just two or three things that didn’t make sense since the day Corbin lost his legs, his job as a Moravor miner, and almost his life too. Even after his legs were regenerated by a sentry, they had not felt the same as before just as he was no longer the same man.
“What did you see?”
Avah’s question made Corbin recall that day making his heart beat as fast as it had at that moment something had dragged him deep under the water. He sank at a speed so quick that he did not even get to see the panic on the faces of his coworkers. Strangely enough, it was not just pure fear that turned his blood cold.
Even after he was rescued, losing his legs in the process. Even after he wrote this book without including what he had witnessed beneath the depth of the ocean, even after two young sentries had come knocking on his doors telling him about all the people who had drowned, some even in their own homes. A sense of excitement lingered in his very soul, no matter how he shamefully tried to hide it.
“There was nothing.”
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“Nad,” Avah said to Nad who was following him down to the first floor of the inn they were staying at, “I heard there’s a famous place that sells coconut jelly but I’m feeling a little worn out. Could you please go and get me as many as you can carry? We are going back soon.”
Seeing Nad’s slight nod after a beat, Avah handed over a piece of simply drawn map along with a pouch of coins. The shop was quite far away, it was the farthest shop that sells coconut jelly from the village. It should keep Nad away long enough for him to carry out his main purpose of this little outing. Nad could have never imagined for something to happen in such a small, peaceful village as Maswell. Or else, he would not have moved an inch away from Avah even at the cost of his own life.
To anyone's dismay, not just Nad but almost everyone on the surface of this world had no way of knowing that today would be referred to as the day of first unsealing; the day everything had started.