Chapter 8 - The living city

It would have been suspicious enough that Janaina had not said anything throughout their last walk or even with the fact that she sent him to his teacher early instead of normally overusing her allocated time and having to get a signal from him to release his pupil, but what had been bothering him the most were the vibrations he could feel just moments before she sent him back.

Rhema could clearly hear a strange strumming sensation, no, not strange, it seemed familiar but he could not place his finger on it. It was almost like a guitar string being plucked and now they seem to be growing stronger and stronger. Some sort of energy was building up.

Now he looked around his chambers, trying to sense where the sensation appeared to be coming from. He stared into the dark until he heard the direction clearly. A single thought kept bothering him. An urge he just couldn’t shake. Finally he obeyed his curiosity and crept out of bed.

Rhema felt his way to the door and tugged at the handle. Locked, as he already knew it would be. It was a measure teacher had put there to ensure his curiosity didn’t make him wander in the middle of the night, just like he was trying to do now. It will be till the early hours of the day before it is unlocked, but he had long since known how to unlock it.

The boy was also sure his teacher knew he must have known and would have set an extra measure, but at this point Rhema didn’t even want to strain his mind trying to out think his teacher.

Rhema pressed his palm to the door and whispered in the ancient tongue, sii.

Locks clicked and the door swung open. Handy trick. Simple, but highly effective.

Outside, the corridors were dark and empty, barely lit by torches strategically placed to guide the passage. He sneaked through the temple in the all familiar route he had been passing for years.

A route with the least guards and obstructions and better odds of not been spotted, he threw an invisibility spell on himself, a variation of the light spell he used against the war god, bending the light around himself this time. This spell needed high technical control.

He was soon out of the temple and into the city, the night was as calm as it normally was, just has it had been hours ago when he took a walk with Janaina. Now that he thought of her, he could tell she was apprehensive when they took the walk, as if she were preparing for something and moments after he started to feel the sensation.

She was definitely linked to it, he thought. How though? He wasn’t sure. He thought to find her first but then realized there was no way he would be able to sneak past all the guards surrounding her. So he focused on the strumming sensation.

The vibrations seemed to ring out from a faraway location, but he traced it and begin to move. Time passed and the boy reached the borders of the city of Ooni. He took a deep breath and ventured forward into the new realm. One he hardly entered and perhaps the most deserted location in Orundu nla. Oyo, the city of the first godking.

He felt the air on his skin rise, somehow he could sense that he was been watched, even whilst still under the cover of invisibility, perhaps seraphs were searching for him already. It was hard to shake off, but he was out now, the only way now was forward.

This city was the most magnificent in all of Orundun Nla, it ground was made of precious stones and its design was beyond imagination. He had only been here once in all his life and that was so many years ago.

The city was dead though, without its ruler and temple, activities in the city faded into obscurity. It never had a residential area, thus people weren't found much in the city and after so many years, no one really ventured into this parts again.

He moved quickly, with each step he took the vibration seemed to fasten, he was getting nearer to the source.

Not long after he reached the city center, a dead end was before him. He stood infront of a very large wall of bluish golden energy. It seemed a blue film was layered over the golden one. A sort of double protection. This wall of energy covered the entire mountain, barring access to the temple of Ochala.

The vibrations were quite loud in his head now, but there was no way to enter, the wall stetched up to the the endless sky and went wide enough to cover the temple in a box like shape.

He was at loss on what to do, he had already come so far, he couldn't just head back especially now that his head was filled with a sound he couldn't ignore. He racked his thoughts for a way in. Even if he could find a way in, does that guarantee a way out? He thought, because if he is eventually stuck inside and the high gods find him here, then not even Teacher will be able to save him from severe punishment. He was trespassing!

Rhema thought for a while, weighing the pros and cons, on one hand he had already come so far and his desire had to be fufilled, but on the other hand, he couldn't really afford to be caught in one of the most restricted zones in Orundun Nla.

While he was battling with his thoughts, he felt an energy so overwhelming and dense, that he suddenly couldn't breathe, it was as if he were carrying 20 tonnes of weight on his shoulders. A golden wave of energy burst out from the temple, breaking the double layer protection around the temple anld then spilled over into he city, turning every living thing into ash and the very groung into molten lava.

The city was on fire for hundred of kilometers. It burned brightly, that one would have mistaken the night for daytime.

The boy passed out from the pressure and was visible once more but the wave didnt harm him, it instead seem to be absorbed into his body. His entire body had a golden illumination. The ripples continued, wave after wave, weakining until the last wave dispersed.

Moments later, a purple robed woman wreath in lighting appeared at the foot of the mountain. Janaina, the Thunderflame looked upon the unconscious boy.

How had this boy managed to still be the center of this situation she mused. Janaina had taken extra measures to prevent him from getting involved in this. She knew he would feel the link between Ochalla and himself and thats why she had sent him home early and just before the energy wave had dispersed, had set up a lightning seal around his room that would have prevented him from going out while the whole ordeal lasted. By the time the seal would be removed, she would have been gone, and his innocence preserved.

But looking at him, unconscious, sleeping like a baby, without a concern for the world around him, unaware of the trouble he has stuck his head into. She lifted him and put him on her left shoulder. Lighting consumed her being and she took a step, launching herself and the boy she carried in a lightning streak breaking the sound barrier multiple times over. She reached the top of the mountain in a flash and gazed upon the temple.

It was the same way she remembered it to be, nothing has changed she thought. The temple had multiple pillars and stairways of gold.

She lay Rhema on the ground just before the temple and she faced the 100 feet double barrelled doors. She touched the doors and they gently swung open, inviting her in.

Janaina hard the strong urge to look back at the boy but steeled her resolve. The boy was a distraction she shouldn't have allowed into her heart. After a few breathes, she walk in and the doors closed behind her.

As the door closed, another wave passed from the temple and washed over the city, the city on fire begun to reconstruct itself.

The fires went out and the molten ground started to reverse to its original beauty. That was what made this city unique, even after so many years, Ochala's residual power still repaired the city after devastation.

At its peak, no one could attack the city because the city was sentient, it was the safest place to be in all of Orundun Nla, the living city, Oyo. Now though, the city could only react after the attack but reversed all damages made to it with blinding speed, even the golden barrier around the temple returned.

Just as the first and second wave passed, sirens blared all over. The air shimmered, the god of war stood at the base of the mountain where the golden barrier was mounted.

"Hmm' he mused.