Chương 32: Beneath Amber Skies

It was not just an enormous underground space. Before them stretched what looked like a vast valley, hemmed in by colossal walls of rock. Grass and trees grew there, and in the distance, both animals and strange creatures could be seen drinking from the various rivers that crossed that land. High above, the crystals, which in this place gave off an amber light, shone like an artificial sky, illuminating everything.

"This is incredible..." Sae clasped her hands in front of her chest, unable to look away. Beside her, her grandfather Thaelor, archon of the visiare, was rubbing his eyes, unable to believe what lay before him.

"Well, this is the largest valley we've found." Cerys walked over to the edge of the ledge at the cave mouth and planted her hands on her hips, satisfied with her exploration of the underworld.

"I don't know if 'valley' is the right word, but I have to say the underworld is packed with gigantic underground spaces full of all sorts of curious things..." Nerez also approached the ledge and took a deep breath. For some reason, the air was extremely pure despite being in the depths of the earth.

"This certainly seems to be the most habitable one..."

"Lord Nereziel! Lord Nereziel!" Thaelor hurried over with tears in his eyes.

"Can we truly live here?"

"If you don't live here, that will be a problem. I don't have many Skytree Nuts left..." Thaelor gave a deep bow, then turned to the rest of the visiare to organize the descent along the narrow, steep path that led from the cave down to the valley.

"I don't mean to offend, but rather than the lord of a powerful city, the archon seems more like a grandpa worried about his family..." Nerez was speaking to Sae, who had come up beside him. For her part, she let out a small giggle.

"That is not offensive at all, Lord Nereziel. My grandfather has always been more of a grandfather than an archon."

"Archon meant city lord, right? But specifically? A king? A baron?" Sae tilted her head in thought as she rested one slender finger against her chin.

"In our world, a king refers to someone who rules over more than a single territory. On the other hand, archon is the title that describes dominion over a single city-state and its surrounding lands. In our case, that was the island where Atlenia was located."

"Interesting. If an archon could hold more than one city-state, maybe the word would have been translated as 'baron' in my mind, or something close to that." Sae watched curiously as Nerez muttered to himself about things only he could possibly find interesting, until she could no longer hold back her question.

"Translate? I thought gods knew everything. According to Lady Cerys, at least..."

"What? Me?" Cerys turned her head for a moment, but soon returned her attention to the valley in search of something worth fighting against.

"Well, Cerys gave a fairly simple explanation, but not an entirely wrong one," Nerez explained.

"Basically, because we are gods, we have the ability to understand what others say to us and express our intentions, even if we don't actually know the words themselves." Well, in truth, it's the Godscript that handles the translation, from what I found out after our encounter with Mireia, but I don't want to get into explaining what the Godscript is...

"Oh, I see! I apologize for troubling you with my ignorance!" Nerez could only smile awkwardly. He had been trying all day yesterday, but it was impossible to convince Sae that she did not need to treat him with such formality. It was like telling Mireia she did not need to pray in his name every night...

"Enough blah blah! Let's go down to the valley already!" This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Cerys, finally bored of staring at the scenery, stepped between Nerez and Sae and urged them to join the line of visiare already descending the rocky wall.

"If I may ask one last question..." Sae began to fidget with her fingers, nervous.

"What exactly is the relationship between you two?" Cerys looked at her without understanding what she was talking about, but Nerez did not hesitate for even a second.

"It's like having a pet, only much more aggressive. And she has no problem biting the hand that feeds her. Literally." At that moment, Nerez raised his hand just in time to intercept Cerys's head as she lunged at him with her mouth open. Sae let out another small giggle, but her gaze soon drifted toward her friends, who were helping the archon with the descent. A faint blush colored her cheeks, but at the same time, a worried expression formed on her face.

Fortunately, the valley was full of fruits and nuts of different kinds, so Nerez's already dwindling rations did not take another hit. All in all, it was quite a long journey. Even after the descent, several more hours passed. However, there was no change in the light as time went by, since it came from the crystals embedded in the stone ceiling rather than from any sun.

By the time they finally reached the fork in the largest river in the valley, Nerez had spent a good part of the journey wasting time thinking about how thick the curtains would need to be for him to sleep in that place. For the visiare, who could regulate the light entering through their barriers, it was an irrelevant concern.

"This seems like an ideal place to build a settlement! The land is flat and looks fertile, and this river could sustain a city much larger than our beloved Atlenia." Thaelor paced back and forth in excitement; it seemed this entire adventure had restored the energy of his youth.

"We must give it a name... Lord Nereziel! Would you do the honors?"

"Me?"

"No name you choose could possibly be a bad one!" You say that with so much confidence I'm almost tempted to take it as a challenge, but I'll hold back...

"Bah, this is probably the last valley in Eryndea before the river of death. Why not just call it the Last Valley?" In the end, it was Cerys who stepped in, frustrated that she had not been able to find a worthy opponent.

"Oh, Lady Reaper! What a wonderful name!" She really did get people to call her that...

"I think so too. The name has something romantic to it, and it suits the sunset-like glow of the amber crystals."

"Very well, then, with Lord Nereziel's blessing granted... this valley shall officially be called the Last Valley!"

"That's all well and good, Thaelor, but..." Nerez said, clapping along with Cerys and Sae, their attention focused elsewhere.

"Shouldn't you do something about the beast eating your hair?" Behind the archon stood a massive four-legged animal with golden-brown fur, two bushy white tails, and a white mane; each of its sturdy legs was almost the same size as Thaelor himself.

"I'm going to die, aren't I?" the old man asked tearfully.

"And what would be the problem?" Cerys asked.

"You're already in the underworld."

"It's not the same, Lady Reaper!" Thaelor protested.

"Bah, once we take control of the river of death, it'll amount to the same thing." But Nerez, who had been calmly observing the situation with a hand on his chin, cut into the conversation.

"Mmm, I don't think it'll go that far... Looks like it's just grazing on your hair. I'd say it's an herbivore."

"What a majestic creature!" Sae exclaimed, clasping her hands in wonder.

"If it is as docile and gentle as it seems, perhaps we could domesticate it. It would be a great help with transport and plowing the land!"

"That's my granddaughter, always thinking like a future archon," Thaelor remarked with half his hair hanging from the animal's mouth.

"Your grandpa is proud, my dear."

"They are beasts of the underworld, which means they belong to Nerez! You had better take good care of them!" Cerys declared, crossing her arms.

"Of course, Lady Cerys! You have my word!" I don't know anything about owning these creatures, but I agree with the part about taking care of the animals...

"Sae, since your people are the ones who will be living with them in this valley, why don't you think of a name for the race?"

"It would be an honor, Lord Nereziel!" Nerez had checked with his Godscript that this mammalian race still had no name. However, he had no idea why some things had names and others did not. Is it because they exist in other worlds too? Because something or someone has already named them?

"What about...? Iluk! The iluk race!" Sae finally exclaimed.

"In our ancient language, it means 'omen of good fortune'. In honor of our encounter with Lord Nereziel and this wonderful valley!" [---] [Sturdy herbivorous beast of the underworld. Despite its imposing size, it possesses a gentle temperament and a strong affinity for living in herds] The Godscript still hasn't registered the change... Strange. It seems like a good name to me. But not long after Nerez gave his approval, the change did appear, to his surprise. [Iluk] [Sturdy herbivorous beast of the underworld. Despite its imposing size, it possesses a gentle temperament and a strong affinity for living in herds] How curious...

"Oh, like your friend Ilyra!" the old man remarked, iluk drool already running down his head.

"Right, 'Il' means luck or fortune... though I don't know what Ily would think of sharing part of her name after seeing the iluk sucking on your head, Grandfather," Sae laughed as she watched the animal run its tongue over Thaelor's head.

"Archon...! Archon...! Sae? You were here too...? Ah! Lord Nereziel! Please forgive my intrusion!" A young man had interrupted the conversation, arriving at a run and struggling to catch his breath. Handsome and a sword prodigy, he was one of Sae's two best friends, along with Ilyra.

"Osvel?! What is it, boy?! Can't you see we are in the presence of His Divinity?!" Ah... so we still weren't done with that whole divinity thing...

"It's Ily, Archon! Ily was kidnapped!"... Would it be rude to say this situation isn't doing much justice to her name?