Prologue-Part 4

So I deleted the previous story posts. They were just in the way to me. So here's the ending of my prologue. I'll start writing Chapter 1 on Monday probably. By the way, this part took me way too long to write. I'm not really sure when I started. It was intermitten with numerous breaks though including; television, youtube, forums, blogs, chats, and video streams. I just finished typing this up right now, it's 2 am here. So here you all go.



Prologue-Part 4


As Ivan stepped through the gate, his eyes were instantly drawn to the grand double doors ahead of them, just as large as the gate he had passed through. He only took a second though to imagine what could be behind those doors. They were on a straight path heading towards the double doors, rows of pillars, made of the same material as the wall, lining the path on either side of them, each reaching out towards the high ceiling. Beyond those pillars lay a bed of various flowers, a mass of colors that was sorely missed among the greenery outside. Looking upon the walls, Ivan found it odd that a palace this size wouldn’t have portraits or some extravagant designs upon its walls, as most palaces do. Besides the door and the garden, the inside of this place was far from the majesty he expected. It felt more like a fortress that had decided to spruce up its entrance with a few flowers here and there.

As the guard reached the double doors, the group watched on as he knocked and shouted a greeting. What was previously thought of as a lock for the doors, which is understandable considering it was designed that way to fool outsiders, pulled back and revealed a sight hole, peering eyes of soldiers on the other side could be clearly seen through it. With a quick jolt as the fake lock snapped into place, the double doors pulled back revealing two more soldiers standing in a long corridor, multiple doors on either end. As the group continued on through the gate, they followed the guard through a complex of array of door after door; entering a random door to the right, which entered into another long winding corridor with even more doors, walking through another doorway, this time leading to a winding staircase upward, yet another door, more hallways, more corridors, more staircases. Ivan found himself losing his bearings, unsure of which direction they were going. The whole palace just seemed to be a never ending array of corridors, a maze of sorts to confuse any attackers.

For the most part, the group was silent the whole time, the silence only broken by Aryl, unable to hold in her complaints. She would question the guard about how much longer it would be, how many more doors to walk through, where they were actually going, if there was food awaiting them, but all her questions were ignored by the guard and the group. Aryl was the only one without sense enough to just follow along and not bother the guard. Ivan, along with the three others, had figured out that it was important to remain quiet. He realized that if he interrupted the guard with some small talk, the guard may lose his bearings as well, becoming unsure of which door to head through next. There was no way Ivan was going to risk making their guide lost and consequently making themselves lost as well. After yet another complaint from Aryl, Ivan found himself wanting to grab hold of her and tell her to just be quiet, but his curiosity got the better of him. Even though he knew better than to interrupt the guard himself, he still wanted to know what was going on, and even if he wouldn’t voice his own questions, there was always a chance the guard may answer Aryl eventually. He never did though.

After a final staircase and entering a door at the bottom, the group saw before them a massive town. There were houses in every direction, all similar in construction to those Ivan grew up in. There was a Spiritua temple off to the side, recognizable by it’s ivory bell tower with a mural of Martel adorning its walls. Looking up, Ivan could see a massive blue sky, unobstructed by the ceiling they had seen earlier. Aryl seemed to notice it at the same time. Turning to the guard, she asked , “How is there a sky in here? When we saw this place from outside, there wasn’t a hole in the ceiling.”

For once, the guard actually answered her, probably because he no longer had to focus on where they were going, “The ceiling is there, it has just been enchanted to be invisible. That way the villagers can feel as if they are actually outside in the world.”

“Doesn’t something like that require a daily casting?” Maia asked. “Keeping an invisible barrier over the whole town would require a constant flow of mana after all.”

“Well it’s not really a barrier though. We didn’t create a magical wall, we just enchanted one already there. You’re right though. For something that large, the spell must be recast every week. A small price for the benefit of the whole town.”

The guard hadn’t stopped while explaining this and neither did those following him. They walked down the main path for a while, sometimes winding down alleyways and emerging on the same path yet again, the guard must have been taking the quickest route possible, even though this path would lead them to wherever they were going. The whole time, not a single person was seen nor were there any dogs or cats that are quite often seen lounging around randomly in towns. It seemed as if this group were the only life left in this town.

After a few more alleys, the group found themselves on the outskirts of a farm, a massive farm. It was unconceivable that a single farm’s family could manage this whole land, leaving Ivan with the only alternative. The whole town must work be working together on this single farm. Ivan had never seen anything like this. Everywhere they had gone, and even in his hometown, each farm had been separated and tended to by it’s own owners, each farm being able to provide for themselves and then marketing any extra. His childhood had actually been spent on such a farm, helping his father and brothers tend to the animals while his mother and sister took care of the vegetables. They had never had to rely on any other people for sustenance and they had only grown what was necessary, not bothering with growing extra to market. So for someone that had grown learning to look after himself only, the realization of a whole town working together was incomprehensible. So he voiced his question to the guard, completely doubting what he had deduced, “Why is this farm so big? It’s way too much food for a single family.”

“This isn’t a single family’s farm young man. This farm belongs to the whole village. All the food grown here is distributed to the whole town.”

“What about the extra food?” Ivan asked, not able to grasp the idea of so many working together without greed getting in the way. “Is it all taken to market?”

With a chuckle, the guard replied, “If there’s extra food after a season, it’s all used in a town feast during the harvest festival.”

“Why not sell it to another town instead? I’m sure a town like this would be able to use the money for something useful, like improving these roads, or the houses.”

“We have no need for money. We haven’t even had contact with another town in ages. There is no currency in this town. Everyone does their job and food is distributed by the guards. Don’t even go thinking that the food is our currency either. The farmers, the tailors, the builders, the blacksmith; everyone gets the same amount of food at the end of the day. Everyone works because they know that what they do contributes to the town. This system has worked for centuries and there’s no need to change it now. We’re here.”

Ivan looked around, but all he saw was a simple cottage in front of him. He hadn’t even realized they had been walking across the vegetable patches. Opening the cottage door, the guard motioned for them to go inside. Following Adan inside, Ivan scanned the contents of the room, which wasn’t much. The inside was completely plain. It wasn’t a cottage at all really. The walls were bare except for a single lamp across from the door. In the center of the small room was another staircase. “Not more staircases!” Aryl said exasperatingly. “Haven’t we walked around long enough. I’m tired of all these doors and stairs and having no idea where we’re going. I didn’t even ask you where the all the villagers were, even though I really wanted to. So come on, at least tell us where we’re going.”

The guard replied as he entered the staircase, “We’re going to a place where you can eat.” As the rest of the group blindly followed their guide yet again, Aryl began to imagine just the kind of feast she was heading to. It surely couldn’t be as wondrous as she had imagined earlier, especially since the guard had said all the food in this place grew on that farm. As she started to imagine an extremely small feast, in comparison to her imagery earlier at least, Ivan grabbed her arm and took her down the stairs. This time, Ivan had been handed the task of making sure Aryl didn’t stay behind , mostly because Maia refused to go back for her this time. At the bottom of the staircase, he led Aryl through another door, opening into another corridor. This one was different than the previous though because there was only one door at the end of the hall. The two quickly walked over, hoping they weren’t missing anything important already.

As they walked through the door, they found their comrades gazing at their surrounding. They were in the opening of what seemed to be a true palace. The confining plain walls were no more, now replaced with walls filled with intricate tapestries. The pillars they had first seen when entering the first gate were back, in fact, the whole room seemed to be completely the same, adding in the tapestries. If it weren’t for those tapestries, Ivan was sure he would’ve have suspected that they had merely wound around in a circle. They followed the guard across the room to a familiar looking gate, where the same process as earlier commenced. Passing by another pair of guards, the group found themselves in another corridor, but there was an obvious difference this time. Now there were paintings along the walls, many doors were open on either side revealing multiple rooms full of bustling people. Everyone seemed to be in a rush though, each person they passed busy stuffing bags full of belongings and each bearing clothes unfit for a palace. Surely, these people were the missing villagers, apparent from the leather and cotton clothing they all sported. No one seemed to even notice their arrival. After a few more corridors of the same, the group found themselves alone in a dining room, filled with lavish paintings on the walls, sets of tables and accompanying chairs, and a set of musical instruments set aside in the corner. The guard beckoned them towards the nearest table and told them that he would have food brought immediately. As he started to leave, Maia called after him. “Wait. We need to speak with Johnny.”

“He already knows of your arrival, he’ll come to meet you here soon enough. Until then, just relax and rest.” The guard then left, leaving the door open so that the group was able to see the rushing people pass by.

“So anyone mind explaining this place to me?” Aryl asked, looking to the others to explain things that she had missed.

Maia was the quickest to respond, “Right now we’re in the actual palace, underneath the town, at the end of the maze of halls, inside the outer wall. Not really much to explain.”

“Not much to explain?” Aryl gaped at Maia, unwilling to accept that she was the only one confused by all this. “How about you explain why it takes so much effort just to get in this palace then.”

“A precaution against invaders. It could be that there was some sort of war here that destroyed the original town. So after the war, the palace and town were rebuilt and along with them came the layers of protection. That guard said there hadn’t been contact with another town in ages, probably to further protect themselves, you can’t have enemies if you never meet anyone.”

“You’re partially right dear.” The group turned to see a matronly women standing in the doorway, an apron draped around her waist. A few servants followed her into the room, each pushing a cart full of food. The servants silently set the carts, along with the food atop them, next to the table the group was sitting at, and left just as quietly. The women remained though, eyeing them all, and said, “There wasn’t a war. The creator of this place was a man of great power, power that was feared by all others. This man became ostracized by all of society and created this palace to seal himself away from the world because he realized the danger in his power as well, and even though the world outside these walls hated him, he wanted to make sure that he did no harm to any of them. Over time, individuals like him, those who didn’t belong in society, those who didn’t have a place to call home, found themselves attracted to this palace. They say it’s because the creator was unable to fully control his power, and that he unintentionally was beckoning those of similar souls, those who had lost their way. The creator allowed them into his dwelling, but over time, too many had gathered within these walls, so he created the town outside. The people that had come to learn the protection of these walls from the outside world though, weren’t willing to suddenly move out of it’s protection, so the creator created the outer wall and the intricate maze within it. At least that’s the current story. Everyone here are descendants of those who came to live here, no new people have been let in in centuries. All we know are the stories passed down to us, and what truth behind them is unknown. We’ve lived our whole lives uninterrupted, at least until you came. You all are the first unfamiliar faces we’ve ever seen, at least you would be if anyone around here paid any attention. Everyone else is too busy packing their things and rushing out of here to who knows where, but I’ll wait it out until the end. There’s no way I’m leaving this place until I really have to. Once I leave, I doubt I’ll ever find my way back…..” With her voice trailing off, the whole group had a single question brought to the forefront of their minds.

As expected, it was Aryl who voiced the question first, “Why is everyone leaving?”

The women turned to Aryl with a sudden expression of disbelief spread across her face. “hasn’t Alin already told you everything? He is the one that brought you isn’t he? The whole town just assumed it was him who was going to retrieve you all since we all saw him leaving the palace. Where is Alin anyways? Did he go to his room already? He really should eat before he has to leave though. He shouldn’t be sent out into the world without at least a homemade meal of mine.”

Ivan spoke up, interrupting the women’s mutterings to herself, “Alin isn’t with us. We really need to talk with Johnny though, he said that Johnny would be able to bring him here.”

“Johnny? Yes.” The women spoke more to herself than anyone else. “Yes, Johnny can bring Alin back safely. If anyone can, it’ll be Johnny. Now where is that Johnny? Last time I saw him I think he was down near the armory. I should go get him immediately.” As she walked out the doorway, completely oblivious to the group still in the room, she let out a sigh of relief and rushed into the corridor.

Hearing voices outside of the room, Ivan stood to head toward the door, but before he even took a step from his chair a man entered the room, followed by the matronly women. This man wore extremely elegant clothing, at least in comparison to all the people they had passed earlier. His clothes were made of a fine silk, dyed a deep blue, a blue on the verge of turning to black, and which in a dim light, resembled as much. On his left hip lay holstered a sword, similar to the one Alin had. At least, it was assumed they were similar. This sword was sheathed as well, and the true contents were well hidden from view of this group. He spoke quickly and harshly, obviously a man of many duties who couldn’t dare to spare any more time than necessary, “Martha has told me that you left Alin behind. Where is he?”

The direct bluntness of the man shocked the group, who had already grown accustomed to not answering any questions, mostly because where they were, everyone seemed to know all about them already. Maia quickly responded though, “He’s over at Manos.”

Before she could explain anymore, the man was already leaving. A portal opened up directly behind the man, quickly sucking him in. Maia had no time to peer into the portal, all she had glimpsed was a window of pure darkness before it closed in upon itself just as suddenly as it appeared. His sudden arrival and departure left the party flabbergasted. Recognizing their loss of speech, and utter confusion, the women consoled them, “Don’t worry. Johnny will bring Alin back. Why don’t you all just eat now, when they get back I’m sure you won’t have any time to rest. They’ll want to leave with you as soon as possible.” As if that fully explained their whole situation, Martha left yet again, a wide grin on her face from a false sense of accomplishment.

Yet again, the group found themselves alone and unknowing as to the current situation. Ivan began to imagine various reasons for all the people leaving this place, this place they had lived in their whole lives, all leading back to an assumption that it must be their fault. Why else would all this be going on right after they arrived? Before he could delve more into the reasons their arrival had sparked this commotion, a plate was shoved in front of him by Aryl. “You seemed to busy thinking to get it yourself, so here.” Ivan looked down to see a multitude of meats and vegetables heaped on his plate. He wasn’t much of a big eater, so it was a bit off-putting to see so much food in front of him at once. Seeing his discomfort with all the food in front of him Aryl spoke, “You don’t have to eat it all. Too much is better than too little. Anyways you should eat now, you heard Martha. We’re going to be leaving as soon as Johnny and Alin get back. Any idea where we’ll be going now? They don’t seem to like explaining these things around here.”

“They’re probably just too busy right now, especially with everyone leaving.” Ivan said. “Anyways, I’m more interested in why they’re leaving than where they’re going.” A murmur of agreement rippled through the group. They all ate in silence, each pondering to themselves what was actually going on. Everyone except Aryl, who was too focused on the food in front of her to think of anything else.



A few moments later and the rest of the group was done, each had moved to separate tables to avoid watching Aryl’s ravenous nature. Aryl had just started to slow down in her eating, when a portal appeared near the doorway, Johnny falling through it, landing face down on the floor. As the portal began to close upon itself, the group quickly got up from their chairs and rushed over to Johnny, who had already begun getting himself up off the floor. There was a small gash on his side, a blood stain forming on the parts of silk around. Parts of his once elegant clothing were now singed, apparent souvenirs of a fire fight. The rest of his clothing was now spotted with patches of green blood, which was also on his sword, now in his right hand. With his sword unsheathed, underneath the green blood that had started to dry, the group could see parts of what appeared to be an intricate dragon engraving along the length of the blade.

Johnny spoke in a straining voice, obviously in some pain, but not enough to stop him from doing what he set out to do. “We have to get you out of here right now. Just follow me and I’ll explain things on the way.” Moving as quickly as he could with a limp on his right leg, an unseen wound, he led them out into the corridor, and began taking them down a path of doors, corridors, and staircases. There were no people to be seen as they moved quickly through the halls, it seemed everyone else had left while they were eating. As they moved down another staircase, Johnny delivered on his word, and began explaining the situation. “Alin went to save you all. He was supposed to escort you here personally, but something must have happened that forced him to use extra mana.”

“Yeah, he had to set up this ice wall to protect us while he got us out of our bindings.” Adan added.

“I see, well if things had gone as planned, he would be leading you down this very path himself. We had already begun evacuating the city before Alin had left. We knew the danger we were putting ourselves in by helping you and everyone accepted it.”

“Danger?” Cecil asked. “Why are you in danger for helping us. The Shadow can’t possibly know that we’re here. We don’t even know where we are.”

“The Shadow. So that’s what you call him. What he’s called doesn’t matter though, what does matter is that he knows where you are. Alin used a teleportation spell to bring you here, while efficiently getting you here, it leaves behind an invisible mana trail. Normally, that wouldn’t matter, but this 'Shadow' is powerful enough to see this trail. He followed you all here, and is outside the town walls with an army of his minions. I’m sure they’ve already broken down the gate, at least the maze should slow them down for some time.”

“So what happened to Alin?” Aryl asked, obvious worry on her face now, but Johnny didn’t stop to look back at her.

“They took him alive, and I’m sure they’ll keep him alive until they capture you all again.” There was a hint of doubt in his voice though and the whole group felt it. As they all reflected on what this whole town had gone through just to help them, they found themselves in a final room. It was a plain room except for the massive arch erected across from the doorway. Inside this arch lay what seemed to be a sheet of shimmering water, the reflections of the group could be seen through it. “When you step through, you’ll be transported to one of thousands of way-gates spread throughout the world. In times past, this used to be the controlling way-gate, able to teleport it’s user wherever they wished, but now, it’s power has severely faded. Once you step through, you’ll be at a random way-gate and this is a one way trip. Even if you step through together, you will inevitably be separated during the teleportation process. I know it seems absurd to just walk through a way-gate with no idea of where you’ll end up, but it’s the only way to escape.

“Wait!” Aryl exclaimed. “You can’t possibly expect us to accept being separated like this with no idea of where we’ll each end up.”

“This gate leaves absolutely no trail, you’ll be safe. Everyone else has already passed through and hopefully, each has found a place to live for the time. You all have to live no matter what. Even if you’re separated, you’re all destined to meet again. I’m sure of that. We’ve gone through all of this to make sure that you survive so go.” With a hard shove, Aryl was sent through the gate, her figure vanishing in the watery sheet.

Before the rest of the party could even react, Johnny took hold of Adan and Maia’s arms and hurled them through as well. Cecil backed away and tried to fight him off, but he was forcefully thrown in as well. “No need to throw me in, I know we have to do this.” Ivan said, calmly stepping towards the way-gate.

“Wait.” Ivan stopped and looked back at Johnny, who was walking up beside him. “I have to go through as well. I’ll try my best to find all of you again, I promised I would.” He turned to Ivan and reached out to the sword hanging on his waist. He fingered the raven encrusted hilt and said, “It’s up to you though to gather your comrades together again. You have to find everyone. You’ll be the one to lead us to our freedom.” With that final word, he grabbed hold of Ivan’s arm and they stepped through the gate together.