Grandmeister Karum Road Within the Second Ring

Annabelle felt drained. Her feet hurt from trudging through the snow and her lips chaffed from the cold wind. She had also suffered through the short-lived idea to get used to her armor by wearing it constantly – it lasted all off five minutes. Metal in direct contact with skin had been a remarkably stupid idea in the apocalyptic frost. Her fingers hurt immensely from the cold. In short, she was miserable.

At her side was Tharia and the girl hadn’t shut up in hours either and as much as she loved her, sometimes enough was enough. Pass a dress shop – learn all about cuts and sizes. Walk by a cartographer guild, learn more about the world than during a lifetime of flying above it in a god palace.

While her lover was off in her own world of monologues, Annabelle felt herself drift into darker places. While Tharia dealt with her emotional mess in her own way, there was dark abyss deep inside of the goddess. Lately, the Dreamreaper torture had come back with a vengeance. She opened and closed her fingers, in her mind, blood dripped from them.

“I will never hurt you”, Annabelle said out loud and Tharia paused her monologue for once. The smaller girl snuggled up from the side and smiled towards her.

“Can’t promise the same, but I’ll try”, Tharia replied.

As they walked up to an inclined road, she kept looking at her hands. They were clean again but her mind still saw the images of Tharia dying in hundreds of variations.

Tharia suddenly jumped and let out a loud squeal. She pointed at a nearby wall. By instinct, Annabelle had brought out her scythe and dashed in for an attack, only to realize that the girl had painted at a poster.

“A Track-Carriage!” the girl said as if that was an explanation, “This changes everything. Says here they completed the iron road.”

The thing Tharia pointed at looked like a stylized painting for a strange metal monster. It looked like a black worm with an iron carapace, bound to a road made of iron. In the front, a barrel spewed forth white hot breath from a cylindrical muzzle on top while the thing bared the teeth up front. Most curious of all were the depictions of happy people seemingly half stuck in this nightmare machine. Annabelle wasn’t a fan.

“How is this thing going to help us?” Annabelle inquired.

“You’ll see. It’s not far from here”

Without waiting for a reaction, Tharia ran towards Annabelle and grabbed her hands. Sudden warmth spread into the bones of the goddess and she let out a contempt sigh before frowning. This wasn’t just normal warmth but healing magic woven into it. She looked down and saw blue light seep into her aching hands.

“The spark isn’t a fireplace”, Annabelle said with a flat tone.

“No, but warmth heals the cold. This cold? It kills”, Tharia said with a sudden sternness. The goddess tried to pull her hands away but her fairy held on tight.

“Hush. I’m working”, the small woman snapped and brushed her delicate fingers along hers until the frostbite receded. Annabelle had to admit, her fingers hadn’t just been cold but hurt as well. As the warmth removed the discomfort, she looked up at Tharia and saw her with a concentrated look on her face. Black choke marks suddenly appeared on the neck – but only for a second before they were gone again. The goddess quickly pulled her hands back.

“You’re awfully touch shy today, Annie”

“Just focussing on the task ahead. Let’s find your track thing”

She didn’t mean to brush Tharia off. Her mind had deduced the root cause of the problem. These things the Dreamreaper had made her do – and that she had done willingly in the end, she had never confronted them. Tharia needed to be part of the solution but Annabelle lacked the words to communicate this well. This wasn’t the time, Annabelle decided and put it off to later. She would bear the flashbacks for now. She had to.

Avenue of Greater Halls Second Ring

Tharia was giddy with anticipation. The Greater Halls of Knowledge and the Track-Carriage! She had a spring to her step as she followed Annabelle up the road. It soon spread into a wide avenue with a central strip of now dead greenery. The broad streets on either side were large enough to deal with three carriages at once while the middle-strip featured large pagodas in shrill colors, crowned by large trees to either side.

She accelerated her step and almost immediately was swamped with hundreds of life flames in the buildings to either side of the avenue.

“We’ve got company. The buildings are swarming with things. Maybe humans, maybe monsters”, Tharia said and closed in on Annabelle again. Her eyes caught the glimpse of motion in one of the larger windows. She saw Scientis – students – walk through the halls, dressed in the gowns of their profession. This wouldn’t be a problem if they hadn’t walked on the walls and dragged past them the carcass of an unknown monster.

“Decision time”, Tharia said, “The Track-Carriage will get us to the observatory in two maybe three very comfortable hours of calm. That sure beats days in the blistering cold. However, we’ll need to cross these monster-infested halls. Plus, it might not even be there anymore or work at all. Either way, we can use the iron roads.”

“The alternative?” Annabelle asked.

“Saint Ilina’s ward. An entire section of the city dedicated to healing. Good place, great people, really. Yet all the sick and injured will have been brought there when this all started. Lots of people mean...”

“Lots of monsters”, Annabelle finished the sentence.

“Precisely. It also means sickness and disease”, Tharia added, “Truth be told, we should skip the ward. Monsters we can deal with but if some disease decides to go Godbeast on us, we’re dead.”

Tharia waited quietly. She couldn’t fend off the feeling of being watched. The flames of those creatures inside the halls of knowledge moved in steady patterns as if drawn by invisible chains. None ever took a moment to stop and look at the two girls outside.

“Let’s not get sick”, Annabelle finally answered.

That was the answer she wanted to hear and not just because the idea of riding the Track-Carriage excited her. She rubbed her hands and then spun around to examine the nearby buildings. Her eyes finally locked with a particularly large one a bit off. The letters Greater Hall of Letterievalism weren’t just put on a banner but engraved into the very stone itself.

“We’ll find the iron road there. We should prepare some torches too, the first part of the iron road will be a tunnel before it goes back up”, Tharia added.

Greater Hall of Letterievalism Second Ring

What a proper mess this place was. There wasn’t a single soul nearby aside from her and Annie. Up close, the legendary building looked like ruins barely held together by spite. The large double-winged door had been broken with an actual battering ram. Tharia had to hold in her last meal when they walked past a half-decayed human corpse nailed to the wall with a dozen arrows.

The entry hall was a battlefield. Not a single piece of furniture was still standing. The wooden stairs leading up had been burned down. Unarmed men and women were strewn about in broken poses that looked like they had fled from something. Most of them had long cuts on their back. No matter where Tharia looked, there were dead humans.

“Doesn’t look like monsters”, Tharia said.

“Not that type of monster”, Annabelle added.

It felt eerie to walk past long dead people. Some of them had been killed while eating, others while reading. Several humans had been hammered to the table with iron rods. This had been an act of unleashed humanity showing its ugly side with glee.

Tharia suddenly perked up. At the very edge of her perception, she suddenly noticed a handful of life-flames. She waved towards Annabelle to stop for a moment. Whatever it was, it was just at the edge of her extrasensory perception.

“We’ve got company”, Tharia said, “Let’s keep going. The Track-Carriage will be near the auditorium, most likely.”

The human girl unslung the crossbow from her shoulder as they paced the long hallways of the former Halls of Learning. At the best of times, this would have been an impressive sight. The long hallways were decorated with images of the press, that one invention which gave the Dalman Theocracy its power but also brought it to its knees. Now all that remained were corpse filled halls in the dark.

“They’re keeping their distance. Small group, might be humans”, Tharia tried to relay what her senses picked up. All she had to go on was the movement of tiny flames in her perception. By the time they passed the third hallway, Tharia had become numb to the scenery around her. It no longer disturbed her to walk on bones. The suffering became background noise when the hallway opened up into a large dome structure.

Snow had drifted in from two large holes on either side of the auditorium. There were circular rows of seats that pointed toward a central podium. One side of the dome was curiously snow free. A large brass tank creaked under the pressure. Intense heat radiated away from it and melted the snow.

“Is that your machine?” Annabelle asked and pointed towards one of the two holes in the dome. It had frozen over with a thick layer of ice. The Track-Carriage was stuck inside of it.

“Says here it’s a train”, the goddess added and pointed towards a brochure on one of the benches. Tharia bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders. A train it was then. She quickly made her way to the machine, while Annabelle followed with a lot more skepticism and reluctance visible in her gestures.

The human girl placed her hands on the large boiler. To her surprise, it felt slightly warm. Tharia ran her hands along the metal. There was no doubt about it. This machine was still alive. Barely, but the train breathed and groaned as she touched it. The large section up front looked like one of the warm-water boilers her family had in their houses, except much larger and painted black. Large and strange appendages jutted out from it and when she held her hands close to these, they were glowing hot.

Soon, Tharia had moved to the frozen in section. The machine was cold here as well but it stood to reason that if they could rejuvenate the train, it would move again. She rubbed her hands in anticipation.

“Fairy? I found this”, Annabelle shouted and lifted up a strange collection of metal rings that held a leathery tube and ended in metal teeth.

“Great, bring it here”, she answered and looked back the machine. Her knowledge of it was limited, mostly related to stories she had picked up as a child. The principle was simple enough. Build up the pressure, use the pressure to move a machine. It stood to reason that there were various ways to go about it.

“One way would be to put it under pressure in special stations”, she said and looked at the strange tube Annabelle had brought over and then towards the large brass tank.

“That would do the trick. Annie, this is amazing, we’re going to drive a Track-Carriage”

“Train”

“Whatever. Let us...”, Tharia began but changed her tone instantly a moment later, “Company. They’re here.”

For a moment she considered the option that they might be humans. After Shal-Rin, her brother, Mayleen and so many in her life, all this realization did was to speed her up. She put down the crossbow and then placed a bolt into it. Using the crank of the oddly named windup-cocker, even she could get it ready in no time.

She used one of the benches for stability and then took aim for the central door. No matter what walked through it, she would put a bolt through its head. The grim expression on her face turned into one of hatred as her emotional turmoil swamped her with all the abuse she had been subjected to in her life. She noticed Annabelle walking up the side of the dome. The golden light had escaped her attention but the armor she wore made it obvious that her love too was ready for combat.

“We mean no harm”, shouted a voice from outside.

“Neither do we”, came Annabelle’s answer. The goddess stood right next to the large door. With her scythe, she pushed the door shut, while Tharia covered her with the crossbow. The flames approached the large door. They were five in total, one of which flickered as if it were sick or weak.

“We just want some food”, the same voice added.

“Nothing to share”, was Annie’s reply. Tharia gave a grim nod. No food here for anyone but themselves. Her senses picked up a slight change in the flames. The four in front suddenly started glowing just a hint brighter. At a guess, they were getting excited about something.

“Then let’s just talk. Barely any humans left, are there?” the stranger kept going, “We’ll just open the door and come in.”

The flames were absolutely bursting with energy now but nothing happened yet. Tharia suddenly noticed the fifth flame circle around outside and growled. She gestured her hands in Annabelle’s direction and pointed towards it. Annie nodded and refocussed on the door.

“Go away. Now”, Annabelle insisted. The goddess held the weapon to the side, ready to strike it directly at anyone entering the auditorium.

“Woman, we’re not going away”, the man outside shouted, “Give us food, if you don’t have any, no problem. We’ll just eat you instead. So, open up, give us your supplies and we’ll be on your way. What can two women do against all twenty of us?”

Tharia answered Annabelle’s look with a shake of her head. She didn’t feel any more of them. Yet the smaller flame outside had started to move up. It would soon reach one of the windows up top. Tharia turned along with the crossbow and then used the flame to pre-aim where her target would show up.

“Last warning!” the man outside shouted. Then everything happened at once. The shape of a young woman in wide clothes appeared behind the window. Tharia saw her lift the butt of a rifle to smack the window.

“Fucking monsters. All of them”, the human girl snarled. She crooked one of her fingers. The crossbow bucked and hurled its projectile through the window. It got stuck on their attacker and easily lifted the body a couple of meters into the air. The scream echoed all the way until it ended in a gutwrenching sound of broken bone and flesh.

At the same time, the main-door crashed open. Annabelle leaped into motion. Her Scythe cut a horizontal swathe but got stuck on a table that had been used as a shield. The impact got her off balance and their attackers used the moment to strike. A rusty sword was pushed past the table and aimed directly at Annie’s chest. The goddess twisted to the side and the weapon just scratched over the armor instead.

In the meantime, Tharia had loaded up the crossbow again. She heaved it onto the bench again. By instinct, she aimed for the flames behind the table. One of them was particularly close to it. Tharia decided to risk it. Once more, the force stored in her crossbow threw the bolt towards the table. With a loud thud, it pierced through. A gargling scream confirmed her hit. The flame started flickering but didn’t go out. A slow and painful death then, she assumed and shrugged her shoulders.

Up above, Annabelle had regained her balance. She used the superior reach of her weapon to bat away the next attack from the sword, whirled the weapon around in one swift motion and hammered the blunt end through the gap. Some man grunted but this obviously wasn’t enough to kill. That was the job of the War-Fan Annabelle summoned that moment. While it still formed, the goddess rotated her hand and then let go. Like a lance of golden light, it dove straight through the table and whisked out two lights at once.

“Where are your twenty men?” Tharia shouted. Her voice tinged with seething anger. How dare they attack them. Pieces of flesh. There was no reply. The flame of the one nailed to the table still hadn’t gone out but the last one had turned tail and was running away. Tharia grunted.

“Not today”

She got up and ran towards the table. With another bolt nocked on the crossbow, she pushed Annabelle aside and then stuck her weapon into the hole made by the War-Fan earlier. She took aim for the flickering flame and let loose her bolt. There was the familiar punch from the weapon. A woman screamed her last down the hallway and that was that.

“Four dead, one slightly alive”, Tharia said and nodded towards the table that had turned out to be a deathtrap instead. She moved towards the bolt still stuck in the wood.

“I know you can hear me”, she said, “Who are you really?”

“Fuck you”, a weak voice croaked. Tharia shrugged her shoulder and then tugged on the bolt until the flame went out and the screams stopped. Annabelle stared at her with a pale face.

“What? We’ve killed monsters before”, the human girl said.

“But they were...”

“Cannibals, brigands, thieves and murderers”, Tharia finished the sentence, “What’s the matter? I know for a fact you’ve killed humans in cold blood too.”

“I’ve never seen you do it”, the goddess said, “you’re kinda scary sometimes.”

Tharia gave her an odd look. What was Annabelle on about? It wasn’t until she noticed that her emotional chaos had made room for a cold and uncaring numbness, that she realized she had inched closer to the merry end of all things. She exhaled and sighed.

“You’re right. This was wrong. You know what’s most confusing about all of this? It felt good. I enjoyed doing this”, Tharia said and put down her crossbow. She turned around and looked at the train. At least they’d be out of here in no time.

That so-called period of no time at all turned out to be a couple of hours. Tharia stood inside the main-cabin of the train and stared at a scale that slowly inched forward. It was marked with colors and made in a way that even a numbskull like her could grasp it without problems. Those colors told her it would be a way still until the boiler had enough pressure.

She leaned out and looked towards Annabelle. The goddess was busy cutting out bits and pieces of ice while the sheer heat of the train melted the rest. The human girl leaned back in the comfy chair again and resumed her stare.

“How am I ever going to get my chaos under control”, she whispered and put a hand against her chest, “Looking back is easy but at the moment... I just lose it. It’s not fair”

“What would you do, Tharia?” the human girl asked herself with a chuckle, “We would have ended it like we end all things.”

The scale kept climbing until the boiler started groaning. It wouldn’t be long now. Already, the train was hissing and bucking with the power stowed in its large metal body.

“All things will have ended. It’s a solace in itself”, she added with a smirk.

“It’s bullshit is what it is”, Annabelle said from right next to her. Tharia shrieked by instinct - she hadn’t noticed her coming.

“Don’t show me that self-indulgent grin”, Tharia said with a pout, “You just surprised me.”

“Yes, while you were talking idiocy”, Annabelle said and rubbed sweat off her face, “How far along are we?”

“Just about ready”

“Then let’s go now. There’s a nasty storm coming on the horizon”, Annabelle added.

Tharia leaned out the window and looked to the back of the train. It was true. The sky had turned pitch black. Lightning cracked in the distance at the pace of a heartbeat. Trouble was brewing.

“Good thing we’re on our way to the stars then”, Tharia said with a faint smile.

End: Per Aspera Ad Astra | Coming up: On the iron road