“Marke, could you tell me why we’re here? Master Vestigio already told you no.”

“Red, you had no questions, while I had two. It is not fair he tells Ach who his future wife is, while I’m not allowed to know who will kill me.”

“Why ask that in the first place?”

“Because, if I get the answer, I’ll be able to dodge that Truth.”

“Marke, you know that it doesn’t work like that.”

“Ha! I’ll manage. I’ll break a Truth with no difficulties.”

“I don’t doubt that. I’m just wondering if it is worth master’s wrath. He’ll know, and he won’t be happy.”

Marke grimaced. “To be honest, I don’t know if it is worth that either. But how to know that for sure? It’s the chance of a lifetime!”

“Really Marke, you…”

“Ah, shut up, you’re just jealous because you’re not allowed any questions.”

“Continue with that tone, and I won’t hold back next time we train together.”

“See? Jealous.”

“…What is going to be your second question?”

“I don’t know, like what’s going to be my biggest achievement?”

“By Ja, why ask something like that?”

“Well, I hope he’ll tell me something so great, even you won’t be able to ever match it.”

The blond young man passed his hand through his hair and laughed joyously.

“You know very well this will never happen.”

“We’ll see. We’ll see.”

Past. Year 97.

The city was far from beautiful. She had her back to Pattie, and as such, she was discovering the city in reverse, as if she were walking backwards from the entrance. Despite its first impression of grandiose with the ochre summit, once inside the town, the first thing Nay felt was the smell and the number of insects. The flies were everywhere, as much inside as outside the houses, if that was the right way to call them.

They were navigating on a sand road, and the houses neighbouring it were horrible piles of unsteady stacks of wood, nailed together on uneven floors made from decrepit planks. This was a slum of the worst kind. No light posts, no real buildings, just empty squares of wood laid on sand.

“Keep your hood on and try to stay discreet. We won’t have any problems, not while I’m here, but I’d rather avoid delays.” Achid said.

Nay did not really listen to him, submerged by the ambient Rreico. People here were sad, apathetic. Especially the women. Dressed in rags, Nay always saw them carrying one, two, sometimes three children on their backs and belly. Passers-by looked miserable, in lack of everything. A few beggars sat next to the road, weakly shaking a clay bowl in their hand.

No one dared come closer to Pattie, but Nay could still feel her guide’s vigilance increase. She met one of the beggar’s gaze and was suddenly assaulted by disgust towards her.

“Soily bitch!” He whispered loud enough to be heard.

“Dont look at them.” Recommended Achid. “Female travellers are frowned upon here.”

Nay pulled down her hood. In any case, she did not want to look around anymore. The constant distress given out by the surrounding Rreicos was hard enough to bare, she did not need images on top of it.

Pattie slowed down a bit, and Nay understood why when she saw the carriage they just crossed. It was passing next to them, pulled by a vivid blue Lesardo, quite smaller than their own mount. Considering the size of the road, it was a rather tight squeeze.

What seemed to be a merchant seated on the back of the blue Lesardo waved at them, and Nay saw Achid’s hand rise as well.

They continued their way, at a slower pace, crossing more and more vehicles, all in a style Nay had never seen before, and it took more than ten minutes before they finally exited the slums to enter another part of town. Nay felt her body being pulled forwards a bit, letting her know they were currently climbing up the hill. This deeper district was much nicer than the previous one. The road got a bit larger but was still made of sand. Sidewalks were made of stone though. Buildings, still only one story high, were much better than the ones Nay had seen previously. They were made of white stone, and were quite aerated, with no glass windows. They were decorated with numerous banners. The avenue they were taking was littered with side-alleyways, hidden in relative darkness. Between the roofs, the sun was blocked by large extended coloured scarfs. Light was filtrated through the fabric protection and was hitting the numerous shops with vastly different colours. It was like dim rainbows were covering the stalls.

The avenue itself was much less interesting than the alleyways, but Nay noticed one shop that sold strange objects made of propellers. The merchant, protected from the sun under a parasol, was doing an exhibition of his product. Pushing a pump with his feet on the ground, it made the propellers turn, cooling the air around. Nay would have loved to buy one of those for Fredere, who, in his trader’s soul, would have loved such a mechanical wonder. Her thought darkened when she remembered he could be dead.

“Does it bother you if I make a stop to my office? I’ll show you through a nice merchant district, and how to get around the city, but I need to bring Pattie back in her enclosure and put the saddles back in place.” Her guide said to her.

Nay tensed up. She had no desire to go to the place with the largest amount of guards in the city.

“Oh no, you don’t need to do that. Just leave me here and I…”

“No, sorry, I can’t stop here without a good reason. Pickpockets are numerous here, and I have no desire to hit children.”

“Oh…ok. Let’s go then.”

“Don’t worry about your friend. I would advise against crossing the desert during the day, you should stay here the whole day. You need to be aware of some things to avoid problems, and I won’t just abandon Marke’s daughter in this big city without a bit of help.”

Nay grimaced under her hood. “That’s very nice of you.”

Nay continued to observe her surroundings for a few minutes, then the avenue changed radically, suddenly much larger. They had exited the bazaar and reached the hill’s summit. Pattie took a sharp left, and Nay could finally see the city’s central plaza.

It was enormous. Arches of at least ten feet high stood on yellow and black mosaics. Each one of those stone and clay stars showed a different picture, that Nay immediately recognized as moments in Vanni’s quest. Each large mosaic star was the recollection of one of Vanni’s miracles, and the one closest to her was depicting the benediction of the Just. Nay studied the miracles of Vanni, and if this plaza was retracing all of them, it meant at least a hundred mosaics in total. Nay didn’t particularly like those kinds of theological stories, and Fredere found them simply too boring. Still, here, in front of this masterpiece, she was overcome by the beauty of the scene. The Just, considered as the first of Vanni’s God-Touched, was judging the king of Striavie for his numerous crimes. This event marked the end of the monarchy in Striavie, almost three hundred years ago from now. Nay could see the king’s distressed expression, filled with guilt, and weighed down by his sins, she saw the fervour of a crazed and angry crowd, and then the cold, detached gaze of the Just. All of this inscribed into stone and clay. The miracle and its importance resonated in the air. The Rreico expressed reverence and adoration towards the Goddess.

But beyond the mosaics each more beautiful than the other, there was the plaza’s centre, almost a hundred yard away, and its most famous and grand building: Vanni’s Keep. The rectangular structure seemed to almost touch the sky and was as spectacular up close than from afar.

“Wow.”

Nay could feel the smile in Achid’s voice. “Like you said. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It is impressive. What do the arches represent?”

“We don’t really know, to be honest. The architect was a Mage, I mean, he was God-Touched, and his plans were followed with no questions asked.”

“Who was he?”

“His name was lost with time. We call him the Mosaic artisan now. In any case, you can explore and walk around, but don’t get too close to Vanni’s Keep, the priests can be…overbearing sometimes.”

“Which means?”

Achid sighed, but instead of answering, he simply go off his mount. “We have arrived. My office is here, and I need to put Pattie back in her enclosure.”

Nay descended as well, her bag in hand, and immediately felt woozy when her feet hit the steady, unmoving ground. She saw the building that had been hidden from her by Pattie’s massive body. At the edge of the plaza stood barracks, the building not clashing at all with its surroundings, as its style was as minimalist and clean as the Keep. It was much more square-looking than the religious building though.

“Can you wait for me here? Or at least, don’t wander off too much. If someone bothers you, tell them you’re friends with the Vanni guard Filio, and they should leave you be.”

“Why would someone come and bother me?”

He grimaced. “Let’s just say women aren’t welcome here.”

“This is a temple to Vanni! Who’d forbid its access to women?” Nay knew inequalities in Striavie were worse than in the Western Plains, but actually forbidding access to the temple was heretical, and should have come with very grave repercussions.

“Not forbidden, just recommended to stay away. The priests argue that they shouldn’t lose time coming here and focus on the tasks Vanni gave them. And also that they are a distraction to the pious men.”

“And you agree with that?” Nay still didn’t know if she was a believer or not, but she could not understand why women could not enjoy the beautiful depictions of Vanni’s miracles the same way men did. She had studied Vanni’s scriptures, and in no way did they mention a task Vanni would have given the women.

“No, not really. But that’s how it is. I’m a guard, not a priest. They know the will of the Goddess better than I do. I’m sorry, I really need to go, I’ll be back as soon as possible.” And before Nay could retort anything, he left with Pattie following him.

The first thing Nay did once Achid gone, was to go look at the other mosaic stars on the plaza. Each one was a true work of art, and they all gave out astonishing Rreico. In Nay’s opinion, the Architect had obviously been touched by Vanni.

She stopped her exploration as she arrived in front of Vanni’s Keep. She then realized how close she had gotten to the plaza’s centre while following the story of the Goddess of Justice. Despite her guide’s warnings, she could not just leave. She had to look at the stone structure. She was well aware it was most likely a dumb thing to do, and that she should probably get back, but she couldn’t. How Fredere would have been jealous of her, how Veridienne would have been impressed by this godly construction. Nay looked at the smooth and coloured bricks. Climbing the facade would have been impossible.

She felt a Rreico behind her.

Nay turned around immediately, completely taken by surprise by this sudden energy appearing from nowhere. There had only been an empty plaza behind her mere moments ago.

A woman was staring at her. Her appearance was nothing special, she was in her fifties, had brown skin and eyes, like almost all other Striaviens.

She was wearing a long religious garb, red ochre in colour, and in all other aspects, perfectly plain.

Nay did not understand what happened next. The Rreico vanished, but the woman stayed present. But even more than its sudden disappearance, it was the feeling that exuded from the Rreico’s short appearance that shocked her. The energy was different from all the others, almost challenging them all, it was like the sun itself.

“End.” Said the woman. Her voice was simple, with a slightly low pitch, she sounded clear and just.

Nay did not say a thing.

“The Leïns have done everything to make this name yours, and then an act of pure justice, no, pure love, freed you from my judgment. Still, you are and will always be the End.”

Nay did not say a thing.

“My city is lost. You are here. This is good, your presence will bring its rebirth.”

“I don’t understand.” Nay had no doubts about the identity of the one facing her. “Your words make no sense; I can’t do anything for you. You don’t exist.”

The woman tilted her head to the right and smiled. “But, you don’t need to do a thing. You are already here.”

Nay felt the Rreico of the sun once more, and the woman disappeared.

Nay was surrounded by priests dressed in ochre robes littered with golden brooches, pearl necklaces and sandy shells. Achid was just in front of her. All of those men were forming a circle around her, keeping some distance between them and her.

Nay understood that they didn’t just appear out of thin hair, she just did not notice them arrive, obnubilated by something much greater.

“Miracle!” Shouted one of the priests.

“Heresy!” Screamed another.

Achid immediately rushed her and gripped her arm. “You really had to get closer to the Keep, didn’t you? You’ve been here for less than an hour, by Ja!” He dragged her outside the circle formed by the priests, who were currently arguing louder and louder. One of them tried to stop them from leaving. “Wait! She need to share Her word with us!”

But another priest pushed him away. “It wouldn’t be Her word! Her word is corrupted now that a woman heard it!”

“Do you insinuate Vanni was misled? That she chose poorly?”

Achid used the distraction to get Nay outside the crowd of ecclesiastics.

“What’s happening?” The young Legio was slowly getting her bearings back.

“What’s happening is that you just ruined all of Vanni’s priests reputation, and while some are too prideful to admit it, the others will try to worship you as the first of Vanni’s touched in a century. If you don’t want to end your life imprisoned as a priestess inside a Keep only housing old lustful priests, you better follow me.”

The threat was highly effective, and Nay followed him as he ran away.

“Stop them!”

“Yes! Stop them! She needs to be burned!”

But the priests did not have the physical capabilities to catch up to a Vanni guard and Nay.

Both reached the outside of the plaza with ease, and they lost themselves inside the Bazaar.

They caught their breath in one of the colourful alleyways.

“Won’t you be in trouble? Aren’t you supposed to follow and protect the priest’s wishes?” Nay asked.

Achid laughed. “Nay, you just had a vision from Vanni. Everyone saw you being entranced and the red in your eyes. It is you I am now supposed to follow.”

She grimaced. “That really won’t be necessary.”

“As I guessed, and your word is sacred.”

The young Legio observed her surroundings. The alleyway was picturesque, with its lot of spices stalls, refreshing teas and plenty other knick and knacks, and was pleasingly covered under the shadows created by the extended large scarves over their heads. The passers-by were not paying any attention to them, but there was a fruit merchant that had seen them run here that was looking at them with a suspicious gaze. Nay just now realized she was feeling quite hot. She had stayed on top of Makaka’s summit for an hour then ran away, so it wasn’t unexpected, but she should have felt her own limits sooner. It meant that she was still quite disconnected from her own self after her encounter with the woman.

She swiped the sweat of her forehead with the back of hand and drank a bit of the water in her flask. It was lukewarm and didn’t help much.

She repeated Achid’s words inside her head before she talked.

“I had a trance? What does that mean, you didn’t see her?”

Achid forgot he was out of breath.

“WHAT!? You saw Her? What did She look like?”

If she didn’t doubt much he was a rather fervent believer before, she would still have liked it if he didn’t crush her shoulders with his sudden grasp.

“Yes, she looked like a normal Striavien woman, nothing special. Just a red priestess garb.”

He smiled blissfully. “I knew it. I knew the priests were wrong…”

“That’s not what you said before…” She winced in pain at his hands still gripping her shoulders.

“Forget before! What you saw changes everything! I need…I must…” He let her go and looked to the obscured sky.

He had a crazed look in his eyes.

He turned around abruptly. “Nay! You know how to go back to the oasis, yes?”

“…Yes…”

“Perfect, lay low until tonight, then go back to Master. Your presence here will only make things worse. I must go back to the priests and warn my colleagues about what happened today. You had your vision, and it has done its purpose, do not concern yourself anymore than that, you understand? Do not get seen. Vanni chose a stranger just passing through city for a reason.”

He left before even hearing her response.

“…I, all right, sure.” Nay was completely out of her depths. The last twenty minutes had made no sense whatsoever. Why would Vanni show herself to Nay? Leïn. Nay had not heard that word used this way since the Canyon of Sables. In a way that had nothing to do with the Empire’s capital. But the Goddess knew. She knew all, better even than Nay. Which made Vanni’s choice senseless and impossible. Her words had unearthed things that had been put deep inside Nay’s souls and heart. And the young women felt the horror of her past creep back on the surface. She felt it catch up to her.

The real Devil.

A panic attack rose, the kind she usually had when waking up overwhelmed by her nightmares, but a small, exterior Rreico aiming for her shook her out of it.

Her right hand was tightly squeezing the wrist of a young child. His skin was fair, but hidden under layers of sand, mud, and soot. She could not even establish if it were a boy or a girl.

“Lemme go dumb Firante! Lemme go!” The young pickpocket wasn’t alone, Nay could sense it. But his companions were only watching from afar, from the top of a store’s extended roof, from the back of a large wooden barrel and hidden amongst normal shoppers.

She gazed down to the child, who immediately shut up when seeing her eyes. “Wha…sorry m’am, please, I just…”

Nay let the child go, who fell flat on his arse. She picked two gold coins out of her satchel and threw them at him.

“Rise, eat, then go look for the Vanni guard named Achid. Tell him there is no Justice in a child who needs to steal to eat, and that you want to learn. Tell him Nay sends you.”

The child looked at her confusedly. She knew he would remember her words, nonetheless. He rushed towards the gold and ran away after picking it up, followed by his comrades.

If the child would follow her advice or not, Nay did not know.

She wandered the Bazaar’s alleyways for a few hours. Observing the people, observing this new world.

She found beauty in it but did not like it. Distress, even in the richer districts, the amount of kids without their parents, she even found a dead body in a back-alley, rotting inside a barrel. It had been stashed there roughly, and the head and arms were sticking out gruesomely. Still, no one was stopping, no one was doing anything about it. And Nay was not either.

The sun was reaching the horizon when she finally emerged from her awakened dream state.

A newspaper.

She needed to read the newspaper.

She asked directions to a spice merchant after buying some Torrence herbs from him, and she quickly found the printing shop. She looked at the machine inside that printed all the newspapers, and it was massive, fully metallic. She smelled the odour of Kralmar Ink in the air. She spotted an old man with ink spotted hands, and hurriedly asked him for the paper she was coveting.

“Sorry lass, this’hour, everything is done and sold. Y’all have to wait two days for the next print. Well, could be tomorrow actually, depends if the news warrant it. Sells like hot bread these times.”

“I cannot wait for tomorrow; can’t you just tell me about what is currently happening in Gite?”

“Wha? Of course not! Why’d you buy the newspaper if I just tell you what’s written on it! Get an education!”

“But…you don’t have any to sell me! How does that even matter!?”

“No I said! Go back to your husband, he’ll teach you manners!”

She knew she would not get anything more from the man and left under his fustigations.

Nay tried another newspaper shop, with the same result. Asking the passers-by also didn’t work, as they did not want to talk to a stranger. Each failure brought Nay more and more anguish. She could feel their Rreico, and even if they did not answer her question, she could perceive that something was wrong. Something that was scaring everyone.

The night fell, and people were very ostensibly avoiding her now. So, she decided to leave the city and reach the oasis, walking as fast as she could through the sand dunes.

Because there was a newspaper at Vestigio’s house.

At last, she would know.

One hour later, two times faster than it should normally, Nay saw the Oasis.

She spotted Carle, starting a fire.

He saw her as well, unveiled by the stars.

She almost ran to him. Then she felt his Rreico, saw his expression, and her whole body tensed up.

“Nay. I…I am sorry.”

“What? Why are you sorry!?” She was sweating profusely, breathing with difficulty, but she did not care.

“You didn’t read the…? I…” He extended a crumpled newspaper to her. “It’s todays…”

She ripped it from his hands.

“Nay, you should rest. Sit down.”

She read the newspaper, ignoring him completely.

An Angel in Gite! Jarl the Bohemian unable to face the beast!

The mythical creature exists! Exclusive revelations coming from the journalist Heshin!

After an interview with the decimated forces that came from Leïn, Jarl the Bohemian, most powerful God-Touched of the Empire, revealed that his powers had no effect on the beast! She could not reach him either, but in any case, the Imperatrix’s confidant could not stop the Angel attack on his troops, and two platoons sent by Leïn were massacred. The other platoons were positioned at the bottom of the Duke’s plateau, in an effort to contain the beast, but for now, it seems it is staying on top on its own volition. All the people living on top of the plateau are to be considered dead, and the victims’ families are inconsolable. This is the worst catastrophe since the Firante war! Why does the creature, previously our ally, turn against us? Stay informed and buy the future newspaper to know more about what is happening, every two days, brought to you in Makaka and Leïn directly by flying Hivere!

Representation of the Angel page 2, drawn by the artist Geviel the Bel!

Nay turned the first page, and her eyes fell on the ridiculous drawing of the Angel. The artist depicted it as some sort of twenty-five feet Yaeda with two forelegs covered in spikes.

She raised her head to look at Carle.

“I don’t get it. I guessed all of this already. You know that… Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Nay, please…”

“TELL ME.” She screamed. Because she felt it. She felt his Rreico. She knew there was something else.

“Page five…” He confessed.

In a hurry, she turned the pages to the fifth.

Duke’s daughter judged guilty and sent on top of the plateau.

Nay laughed. “No, that’s ridiculous. They wouldn’t have done that?”

Nay laughed. “That’s ridiculous.”

She read the article; it was only a few sentences long.

Nay stopped laughing. “It’s ridiculous.”

“It can’t be true.”