Alan woke up to the sounds of growling. He jumped up to find Lyra standing near him, holding the map with the worst scowl he'd ever seen in his life.
"Uhh…" he started. "Good morning?"
Lyra's eyes twitched. "Did you have fun sleeping?"
"Only a little?"
"Useless," she muttered. "This map is useless! If we just keep heading north, we might miss the town!"
"Calm down," Alan said as he got up. "If we find a river or something, we'll be good."
"I thought of that too, but it'll be hard to find one. The trees cover most of the ground, so even if we go up the hill, it'll be hard to find a river."
"If we go up the hill, then won't we be able to find the town?"
"Town's on the other side. We'd waste too much energy," she said with a sigh. "Honestly, we're screwed if we don't find it."
Alan scratched his chin. "Give me a berry," he said.
Lyra reached into her bag and handed him a single berry, which he chewed on.
"Water flows down, no? So why don't we go up the hill? This river current can't be too fast, so why don't we just find it and ride down it. You swim well."
"Yes, that's a great idea!" she beamed. "Let's risk hypothermia for shits and giggles!"
"Fine. We can build a raft."
"It's not as easy as making a log float, you know. You need to account for the center of gravity, displacement, and-"
"Okay, fine!" Alan conceded. "What's your idea?"
"Let's see," Lyra hummed. "How about we say 'screw it,' and waste our energy? I'm feeling pretty pumped."
"So we just walk? Well… That's not a terrible idea." His eyes trailed down to a few scratches he had on his arm. Would they get infected?
"Right, right. Follow Captain Lyra," she said as she started to walk north.
As they made it further in, Alan frowned. 'No insects yet,' he thought. 'I'll mention it after we're both out of here.'
But eventually, the forest started to thin out. More importantly, birds were chirping all around them as they walked through the thinner forest.
Alan paused. "Hey…?"
"I hear it too," she said as she looked to the side. "Water," she said plainly.
"Very fast water, by the sounds of it. Aren't you glad you didn't listen to me?" he chuckled.
"Let's just move on," Lyra said as she continued on their route.
Eventually, they saw a wall. However, there was no gate on that side of the wall, so they moved to the western wall, which did have a gate.
"What do you know?" Lyra mumbled. "It really was just about walking north."
Alan raised his eyebrows. "What are you talking about? I thought you were following those footsteps?"
"What footsteps-?"
The sudden sound of a gateway being opened stopped both of them from continuing their conversation. They hadn't made much noise, and yet, the gates were being opened.
They didn't open fully. Instead, they opened just enough for the short figure of an old woman to walk out.
"Good evening," she said in an even tone. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"Pleasure of what?" Lyra asked after a pause.
"Babysitting," she said immediately. That made Lyra gape.
Alan stepped forward. "I am Alan," he gestured to Lyra. "This is Lyra Ferris. We come in peace."
"Where did you come from?" the lady asked.
"Magnes," Alan replied after a pause.
The woman's eyes went wide. "Magnes…? But…" she let out a sigh. "I am Claire, the Elder of Cadmia. Come."
Claire gestured for them to follow and began walking into the city. The gates closed on their own right after Alan and Lyra entered.
This was the first time Alan and Lyra saw civilization after the incident. While it had only been a day, the sight seemed… foreign.
The houses were mostly made of wood, and the land was full of green grass. The logs were made of coniferous wood, since the region was hilly.
The city itself was small. It didn't even seem to house a hundred people, but those who were there seemed normal. Children chased each other outside, adults worked, and the only elder they saw was acting like a tour guide. A very quiet one.
Claire led them into a lodge around the outskirts of town. Once they were all in, she closed the door behind them. Strangely, her eyes were fixed on Alan's arm. "Show me your arm, Alan," she said.
Alan held his arm out. "It's nothing much. Just a couple of scratches."
"Really?" she asked with a raised brow. Her hand reached out and lightly touched one of them.
"Ow!"
Her wrinkled brows knit together. "You young ones really have to learn how to take care of yourself," she sighed. Her hands began to glow green, which reflected off her eyes. "Stay still," she instructed as she touched the wounds.
The wounds slowly started to dissipate from Alan's skin. "Thank you," he said softly. "I didn't know you were a Conduit."
"How did you get it?"
"I tripped when I came face to face with… whatever that thing was."
"Thing?"
"Yes, thing," Lyra scoffed. "It had weirdly long arms and horns."
"You…" Claire trailed off. "You came from the forest? Who made that decision?"
"Why? Was there an easier way?"
Claire's mouth hung open. "Yes. You could walk around the forest, you know. That would add maybe a day's worth of walking, but it'd be safer."
"Frankly, we just wanted to get to Auren as quickly as we could."
"Auren? To do what? File a complaint?" she chuckled.
Neither of the two's faces changed even a little, which made Claire's eyebrows shoot up. "Don't tell me you want to become Conduits?"
"I do," Lyra said. "I need to find whoever did this."
"For what?"
"Revenge, of course."
Claire stared at her, then let out her longest sigh yet. "Revenge, Lyra, never works out." She sat on a nearby chair. "Is that your motivation?"
"It is," she replied as she sat opposite Claire. "Is that wrong? Wouldn't they want that?"
"Would they, Lyra? You'll never know. And how will you even achieve this? From the report, the person who did this was a Resonator like me. That's as high as you can go."
"There was a report?" Alan asked.
"Of course. We leaders were briefed on the collateral of a fight that happened nearby."
"Collateral?!" Lyra gaped. "What the hell does that mean?!"
"That means that the destruction of a city doesn't stop the world from spinning, Lyra."
"What the hell do-!?"
"And," Claire continued. "How will you defeat a Resonator? You haven't even gone through your reflection yet. Even if you did, what is an inexperienced teenager to someone who killed an entire city because of a stray shot?"
"I-!"
"You will get yourself killed. And even if you don't, what does revenge achieve? Peace? They're opposites, Lyra. And what if you do get your revenge? You'll be left with no other motivation to keep going. As a Conduit, you need that."
"And…" she continued quietly, "aiming for revenge is aiming for your downfall…"
Neither Alan nor Lyra spoke.
"Rest, you two. I'd offer you a home here, but I get the feeling that you don't want my refuge. We can discuss your future in the morning."
"Thank you, Elder Claire."
"Just Claire is fine," she waved off as she left the lodge.
Alan sighed softly. Quite frankly, his mind was barely on what happened between Lyra and the elder. After all, he had found a time-stopping album.
It seemed like the temple was more of a prophecy than anything, and he wanted to learn more. Starting with the dark figure.
"I'll take a walk," he muttered.
"Don't be long," Lyra replied.
He stepped out of the lodge. The sun had started to set, which made the sight of the village strangely therapeutic.
'The sun… It was a star, was it not? Had the Goddess of the Stars been captured? Was that why there was a star atop the mountain?' he thought.
'Unsealed at sunrise? No, it was Sunrise. Capitalisation was key.'
He paused.
'How… How had I read that? That wasn't in a language I spoke! I know I'm not that brilliant!'
"A penny for your thoughts?" an old voice mused behind him. "It must be interesting if you're glaring at the ground you walk on."
Alan turned to find Claire looking at him with a bemused expression.
"I wasn't glaring."
"It's fine, Alan. I know the resurrection of your entire village hurts."
"I wasn't thinking about that, though? Well, not fully. I'm kinda shocked because of what I saw in that temple."
Claire did not speak.
"Uhh…" He pursed his lips. "What's wrong?"
She took a deep breath. "What temple are you talking about?"
"The one in a cave in that forest?"
"Where…?" She paused with wide eyes. "Did you come from the forest south of here?!"
"Yeah… Why?"
"That… I need a minute," Claire muttered.
After an agonizing minute, she placed a hand on her chest. "That forest… how did it feel?"
"Something was off. It was totally silent. I didn't even hear insects."
"Right. That forest… we don't know why, but nothing that went in came out."
"Huh… that's probably why that creature stopped following us. Wait, how'd we get out, then?"
"Back to the temple, please?"
"Oh yeah. So I was keeping night watch, but noticed that time hadn't passed. Also, I heard whispers coming from a cave. I went in and found a temple, where…"
"Where…?" she prodded.
Alan frowned slightly. "I don't know… I seriously can't recall anymore. I was thinking about it just before we talked! All I remember is that there were a lot of murals, so it looked like an album."
"Well… fine."
"Do you doubt me?"
"No," she replied quickly. "My parents told me about a temple in that forest when I was a kid. I thought it was just a fairytale, but… Honestly, you just fulfilled a dream of mine."
"How so?"
"I always wanted to know if it was true. That there was a temple in the forest, I mean. And since you could only enter the forest once, I planned to do so just before I died."
He made a face. "You really like history that much?"
"Of course, I want to learn more about my god. It was dedicated to darkness, no?"
"Yeah. Black walls and all that. But… I remember that it wasn't just him. There were more. An elder from Magnes used to tell us about how Time, Space, and Power made the universe and that the Stars joined later."
"And…?"
"And I think they're connected." He made a waving gesture. "Also, your god is the god of Darkness? Seriously?"
"Darkness, Fear, and Death," she corrected.
"Even better. Shouldn't you be… I don't know, not worshiping him?"
"Alan, do you believe in a God?"
"No, why?"
"Thought so," she hummed. "We don't worship the gods. They simply symbolise something. For us, we use the God of Death in our traditions and wishes."
"Isn't that just worship?"
"Some do worship him, but most don't. Don't you hope that it'll rain on a hot day? We don't pray for rain, but we do hope for it."
"And what do you hope for from the God of Death and Darkness?"
"Peace," she said easily.
"How…?"
"We have a story we tell children here. Would you like to hear it?"
Alan nodded without a moment's passing.
"Well…" Claire started. "Right here, in this very village, lived a woman. She had nothing to her name, except for a small shed, where she and her daughter lived. She had to work for hours on end daily just to make ends meet, but she was happy. And her daughter's smile made it worth it."
But a disease that only affected children started to spread, and the girl contracted it when she was just eight. The woman ran around the entire village, begging for help.
But no one, not even the doctors, would help. They didn't want to risk infecting their children. There was a treatment, but someone of her class could not afford it. So in the end, they told her to sacrifice the child to the God of Death."
Alan raised his hand. He didn't want to interrupt, but he still said, "Would the God of Darkness like that? I don't think Gods would like ailing sacrifices."
"I doubt anyone would," Claire smiled. "But what else could she do? Seeing no other choice, the woman walked through the forest just south of the village. She walked until she reached a stream, where the dead stump of a tree lay.
She slowly placed her child there and walked away. She… she could not watch her child die. It was the dead of the night when she got back to the village, but it was quiet. Too quiet at that time of night.
She turned around to see a male stag right behind her. It had wide white horns, and fur as dark as the night, save for dark blue accents.
The stag led her further and further into the forest, just above the tree line. It led her to the stump where she had left her child, where it stood proudly.
But she drew her gaze away from the stag to see the dark figure of a man, holding a child in his arms. The man looked up at her, and she could feel the blood trying to rush away from her.
The darkness of his body slowly faded away to reveal the man's pale skin and his lean body, with eyes as dark as the night around them.
The darkness of the night had moved to be with the man, and as a result, the sky turned grey. A smooth, but audible voice resounded, "Are you afraid?"
The woman could not move her mouth. Not even her tongue or her eyes would dare twitch. The man looked back at the child. "Your child is afraid as well. Not for herself, but for you."
The woman could not move her tongue, much less her head to nod. So she remained quiet.
An owl landed on the man's shoulder, spreading its wings slightly, and the stag stood beside the man, its head bowed in reverence.
"Do not be afraid, my child," he said, walking up to her. "Your offspring will never die." Placing the child in her arms, the man started to walk away. "I have given your child a gift." He cast a look over his shoulder. "Make sure she uses it well." And in a flash of darkness, he was gone.
The blanket of fear that she held had disappeared in favour of an overwhelming sense of courage. Slowly, the darkness of the night returned like a relieved breath."
Claire let out a sigh. "Gosh, that was a mouthful."
Alan stared at her with wide eyes. "That was... Do you really tell this to kids?"
"Maybe you just aren't good with horror," she shrugged. "We've been telling this story for centuries. But tell me, do you think the story is over?"
"...Not anymore?" He said, his voice pitched slightly high at the end.
Claire remained silent for a moment before muttering, "Generation after generation of village heads, we've passed down bits and pieces of information. Though some might be small bits of context, the meanings they have are… quite amazing, really. And one of the bits I have inherited is that the story I just told… It is real."
Alan's eyebrows raised slightly. "Oh? So the God of Death really came here?"
Claire nodded, now staring into the distance. Over the course of the story, they had reached an area of the village where no one else was. "Yes. And that dying child… You may know her by her alias."
Alan flinched slightly. "How would I-...?"
Claire took a deep breath. "That child… Her name was Cynthia. But you, and perhaps the rest of the world, know her as the Grim Reaper."