Chương 50: The Garden

"Spirits are our friend," Drahk said, "We merely honor their memories in small ways that we can." Pushing for a more elaborate answer might have been her goal under favourable circumstances, but for now, she could only nod.

"My healers can look at your condition," Drahk said, "If you don't want the time to rest, at least accept this small gesture." What would a healer assess of her? She hadn't even allowed Garol Borran to have a closer look at her body. It was more than just the unnecessity of their input. She was worried about what the potion contained, and if a healer could perceive it by some method she didn't know. She'd rather avoid that possibility.

"My team has already accepted a lot from your healers. I will not burden them further. I am aware of my situation, and if necessary, I will ask for help." Drahk reluctantly resigned.

"Am I in this situation because I am unwelcome, or did I become a pawn in your inter-faction schemes?"

"Saaranam's intention eludes me. I will confront him soon." Liesel could see the lie, even if Drahk spoke with confidence. It might be more than just inter-faction war. Regardless, he's not going to answer my questions honestly, so no point wasting any more time.

"If you wish to help me, there's something you can do," Liesel said.

"Can we talk in private?"

It was morning, no different than the night had been. The dawn of the desert was the same as midnight. The night sky remained unchanged, so did the gloomy heat. The long, flowy clothes warded off the heat. Fiya stared at Liesel's back as she trailed her shadow. She had been woken up from her sleep, and then asked to tag along. I am an adult now. Fiya reminded herself. And yet, she felt like a child, not just because of the vast gap between her own experience and her captain's, but also in the treatment.

She was following Liesel, but she didn't know where or why. She was following, just like she would follow her father when he asked her to, and she'd trail behind him, unable to calm her quaking heart to ask him the same question—where and why. He was a gentle man, perhaps nothing like Liesel. He was scary only because of what he could do to others, and yet, perhaps Fiya had been exposed to the violence a mage could enact too young to ever grow out of it. But she did. Initially, she dared to ask Liesel questions.

Being a mage, being sought after by the Seer for the expedition, and being already contracted to a Shade Entity gave her confidence an unimaginable boost, but that had been sheared by the never-ending onslaught of the wasteland, of her own powerlessness, and the fact without Auram's gift of food, she would have been abandoned—again, Fiya felt like the girl hiding in her room, practicing the spell weaving over attending her house's matters.

A part of her was beginning to loathe her timid personality, and cognizance of that fact did little to help her out. Why couldn't she be as confident as she had been on the first day? Why couldn't she take two steps forward and ask Liesel where they were going and for what? Fiya had been asked for, so it must mean she would be helping Liesel out. Just ask her. Liesel will answer, and she will do so... But Fiya was afraid that if she whispered a wrong word, she might... N o! Liesel wouldn't kill me.

She is nicer than that. I am only alive because of her. Yet, her skin crawled when she remembered Liesel's eyes that day. Ever since she had referred to Auram as Liesel's, she hadn't been able to shake off the realization of how close to her the reaper was. Having rested, her mind had the time to process that lingering fear even more lucidly. While wrestling with her inner turmoil, they reached the entrance of the village.

The leader of the Pathstriders and another Rakamel were waiting for them there with a pair of their steeds. Fiya initially stood a step behind Liesel, as if she were a child who shouldn't participate in the conversation between adults. Then she made an effort to take a step forward and stand beside Liesel. Her heart began to race, very cognizant of the fact that Liesel's eyes flickered in her direction for a blink of an eye. Is she asking me to stand behind her? Fiya shook her head inside her mind.

"Is he joining us?" Liesel asked Drahk.

"I must have at least one Strider with me if I am to march into the infested territory," Drahk replied.

"Garhalik is my most trusted partner. He will keep everything a secret. Though it may not mean much anymore, you have words no one will hear about our trip."

"I must trust you," Liesel said.

"What about her?" Drahk asked, peering at the mage. Fiya's muscles involuntarily tensed. She knew he was not an enemy, and yet that did little to ease the memory engraved into her body. Every moving thing that was not the ten familiar faces felt like a demon that she must be prepared to kill at a moment's notice. It was barely a week... She reminded herself. Yet, the shortness of the time seemed like a lie. It had felt more than just a week. Years, if Fiya were to be honest.

The question seemed to be directed at her, but Fiya didn't know how to answer it. She could guess why Liesel needed her. There was only one useful thing Fiya had to offer, after all. But for what reason, perhaps the stranger they met yesterday knew better than the mage.

"I feel I should have someone with me too," Liesel said.

"I was expecting the other lady to be your second in command," Drahk said.

"She is better used as my extension here with the rest of the crew. This is Fiya, one of the mages of the expedition crew." Liesel approached the lizard-like creature as she spoke. Fiya hadn't seen something like this before. It shared similarities with the centipedes. Their bodies were made of stone, but that was where the similarities ended. It was closer to a crocodile, though very docile in nature. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

When Liesel patted its head, the lizard purred, which reverberated in the air, sending another wave of tension into Fiya's spine. It's just like the Centipede.

"We call them Farikam," Drahk said, "Tamed over the course of centuries from a mindless monster into a docile animal." Liesel climbed onto its back. The saddle was built like a seat, well, a pair of seats. The front was wide enough for a person to sit with their legs folded.

"Her name is Tiran," the Farikam purred again. Drahk gestured at the small wire connected inside the seam between the joint of its back and its head.

"It is a receptor nerve, attached directly to her internal nerves. We use it to guide them, but it requires training, or you can hurt her. Tiran will follow our lead, so leave it be for today. If necessary, I will show you how to talk to the Farikam." Drahk withdrew after giving a few more instructions and showing how to stop the Farikam in case it went out of control. Once he withdrew, Liesel finally shifted her attention to the mage.

"Come on up." Fiya also climbed up on the steed's back. There was less space for her in the back, but more than enough to be comfortable. As she sat there, observing the woman in front of her, Fiya couldn't help but feel Liesel seemed a little lost. Drahk rode his steed with Garhalik in the back, and Tiran followed behind them. These creatures were not running on the sand, but rather swimming through it. Their bodies released a vibration that eased the sand, and then they crawled through it without a single bump.

And except for the quiver of their abilities, it was impossible to feel their movement.

"Where are we going?" Fiya asked, finally gathering enough courage to disturb the woman. A part of her tensed as if she was about to receive a scolding.

"The outskirts of the Primordial Vein's influence." Fiya bobbed her head. She was under the impression that the Primordial Vein was beneath the village, because it had been unaffected by the Ash Storm. That would mean they were using barrier magic to keep the village safe from the storm. Fiya found that a marvel because of the sheer necessity of energy to sustain the barrier. Where do they find so much energy without building it atop the Primordial Vein?

"Wouldn't it be dangerous?" Fiya asked. The Primordial Vein's influence breathed life into every demon inside the Necropolis. While Fiya had her questions about the nature of this Necropolis, it was undeniable that it did possess the qualities of one, which would mean the Primordial Vein might be the second most dangerous place in the entire realm, just behind the location of the Soul Heart. The Primordial Vein was the origin of all energy.

It lay dormant in the abyss beneath the Shades of Reality, in the same place where the Shade Passages were forged and where the shade creatures lingered. The Primordial Vein existed everywhere simultaneously, woven into the fabric of reality like an invisible thread, but it was never exposed. A Necropolis's boundary was one of the only instances it did.

The reasons were hard to quantify beyond the fact that something had damaged the Shade of Materiality, exposing the veins to mortal eyes, and there exists a Soul Heart at the core of the Necropolis that the Primordial Vein wants to guard, so it would birth demons and wrap the realm to hide itself and the Soul Heart. The phenomenon was studied at great length, but so far no one has been able to replicate the creation of a Necropolis on its own.

It required something beyond human understanding—the creation of the Soul Heart.

"Isn't your fight tonight?" Fiya asked. She had heard it would be at the next Ash Storm from Yehia.

"Should you be wasting your time going to the..."

"I am cognizant of my undertakings," Liesel said.

"At the same time, I do not have the luxury to spend an entire day preparing for an insignificant endeavour."

"Are you confident you are going to win?" Fiya questioned. She wanted to believe that, but Liesel shouldn't be anywhere near her peak, and as someone who fought with a weapon, she'd stand no chance against a genetically superior opponent.

"We will see," Liesel said.

"I would hope they do not ask me to fight Drahk, as his faction seems to be the only one friendly to outsiders, but if he must, we might cut our rest short and escape into the Primordial Vein's Domain. Considering that, I want to glimpse our path of escape, and that means stealing their rides and killing the rest of these animals, so they wouldn't chase after us, while also understanding what kind of place the Primordial Vein is."

"And Drahk agreed to it?"

"Why would I tell him any of that?" Liesel tilted her head in confusion.

"I thought... since he is helping us."

"For a reason," Liesel said.

"He needs something from us, but we will have to wait until we are fully reliant on him to know what it is. Perhaps this entire charade is to create that situation. But it would also mean we are useful to them in some manner, and I am unable to see what it could be except for some kind of ritual where they need humans specifically."

"You think they are going to sacrifice us to their divine?"

"We should not rule it out. My duel tonight is an outcome of a demented hag who cannot be wrong, while she believes and is acting on an outright lie, because of traditions," Liesel shrugged.

"It could be as simple as that. Or it could be anything. All I care about is accounting for our way out, should the necessity arise."

"What about..." Fiya shook her head.

"I hope Drahk is on our side."

"So do I," Liesel said.

"But he would fight to kill me if the old hag commanded him to, so it means nothing regardless." Soon they crossed another curtain of reality, and beyond it, the world was alive again. The sand melted into soil, and there was green grass as far as the eye could see. Fiya inhaled the humid smell of the grass, reeling with a sense of overwhelming relief. The sky seemed bright. As she involuntarily began looking up, Liesel settled her hand on the mage's head and pushed it down.

"Same law as the Shade Passage," Liesel uttered.

"We do not know where we might catch a glimpse of the Primordial Vein, but we must never see it. Eyes ahead."

"Yeah," Fiya uttered. Her heart was thumping as she realized her mistake.

"I-I'm sorry." How could I have forgotten?! While the exposed vein shouldn't itself be dangerous, sometimes things lurking at the bottom of the Shade's abyss glimpse into Necropolis, and that could mean hundreds of horrifying things. She could lose her mind. She could invite and free the creature trapped at the bottom, unbound and unrestrained, to destroy realms uncontested. Or it might make her its pawn in its scheme, whatever that may be.

'Some say there are demon gods at the bottom of Shades, seeking an unsuspecting eye they could control.'

"We have been in the wasteland for a while. It's nothing to worry about. Keep your head straight; it's better to just keep your eyes closed." They changed the direction once and entered a forest-like area, though the trees were all so large, like a place created for giants. And the foliage covered the entire sky, so they were safe to look around. Once they had crossed the sand, the Tiran couldn't swim and was instead walking with eight pairs of centipede-like legs. It dug into the ground and pushed them forward.

It was not steel like the Sand Centipedes, but they bothered Fiya. They didn't go deeper.

"Why not use wood and trees from here?" Liesel asked as Drahk approached them, "Instead of weaving every single thing you must use."

"They are just dense Materiality given form. If we bring it outside the Garden, everything beneath the sand will hunt us, and it would keep attracting them until we seal it or it is destroyed."

"Is that not true for what you use to weave the threads?" Liesel jumped off Tiran's back. Fiya followed behind her.

"It is our creation that gathers different kinds of energy from the veins. Pure energies do not have the same lulling effect," Drahk said. His friend was somewhere deeper inside, though.

"Auram," Liesel said. And the spirit manifested over her hand, carrying a small pouch. Fiya's soul shivered from the energy emanating from it, and it was not just her. Drahk's reaction was equally as strong. He even hopped a few steps away.

"What is that vile thing?" Drahk asked.

"Dominion Jewel, I call it," Liesel said as she dropped a crystal gemstone onto her hand. It seemed so condensed with power that it was twisting the air around it. Faintly, but Fiya could feel that effect. I have felt it in the base too... The trees began shaking. Fiya dragged her attention away from the jewel and onto the massive beast rushing towards them. Garhalik was guiding it towards them.

"Chain it," Liesel said, "When I ask you."

"Why?" Fiya asked.