As the three stepped out of the ruined temple, Zay's eyes swept slowly across the destruction. The stone walls were shattered, broken into uneven chunks littering the blackened grass. Pillars once proud and towering now lay splintered, collapsed in crooked heaps. The grass surrounding the ruins was scorched, its edges curled and black. Even the trees nearby looked deformed—melted and cracked, reduced to stumps and ash.
A lingering golden aura shimmered faintly in the air, rippling like heat waves. The air smelled of burning wood, and blood.
Zay said nothing. His bare chest rose and fell slowly, his skin streaked with dried blood, bruises, and fresh scars. His eyes were sunken, duller than usual, with the faintest tremble in his hands. He stood motionless, looking off toward the east as if expecting something or someone.
Rei crouched beside a fallen tree, brushing a hand over what remained of a branch. In the center of it was a faint, dark ring, perfectly smooth, unnaturally precise. It hadn't burned through the wood. It had marked it, scorched deep like a branded memory.
'I don't know... I really don't know.' His thoughts wandered in circles, trying and failing to assemble any clear understanding of what had happened. The logic he'd once trusted was slipping through his fingers.
'That woman... her face hidden in fog, the blizzards weeks ago, the city that was attacked, these ruins, the violet bands, all of it...' He stood up and turned to face Zay, who still hadn't moved. 'What the hell is going on?'
Everything he thought he knew felt fractured, unstable, like a dream rapidly unraveling the more he tried to hold onto it. He wanted answers. He needed answers. But looking at Zay now, hollow-eyed and blood-stained, something in Rei's chest tightened. He knew better than to push.
Naomi remained silent, her eyes lowered. She looked only at the scorched grass, occasionally glancing at Zay, then back down again. She hadn't even once looked at the destroyed temple behind them.
Some time passed and a carriage rolled to a stop in front of them, pulled by two dark-coated horses. The coachman leapt down from his perch. He wore a long, brown trench coat, its fabric faded with age and dust. Black boots peeked from underneath as he approached.
His eyes moved quickly between the three. Then they narrowed slightly on Zay. "Where's your shirt?" he asked bluntly.
Zay's voice came low, quiet, like something dragged up from the depths. "It was torn to pieces… in a fight."
The coachman stared for a second longer, then nodded slowly and moved on, walking toward the carriage door. "There are assignments for all of you. Direct orders from the Queen of Red Dawn." He opened the door, motioning for them to enter.
"Naomi, you'll be dropped in the Territory of Beasts, in the west. Your task is to find and return with the artifact known as Midon's Chalice. Rei Alvor, you're being sent to the east, Grave's Valley. You must retrieve a book called The Book of the Dead. It's extremely important, so treat it as such."
He paused before turning to Zay. "You've been given a separate assignment. You'll be stationed in the south, assisting the Order of Restraint. The Queen has made a deal with them. I won't go over the full terms, but your role is to act as a bodyguard and a mentor to several of their students. You'll remain there for eight months. Understood?"
Rei and Naomi exchanged a glance, both visibly confused. They were being sent into danger, into an unknown territory, and a valley that Rei could only assume was something related with death, while Zay was being told to mentor students? It didn't make sense but neither of them dared question it out loud. They knew better than to challenge orders from a Queen they know nothing of which knew them quite a bit.
"Understood," Zay replied, his voice flat, almost lifeless. He stepped into the carriage without another word, moving as if weighed down by something invisible.
Rei and Naomi followed behind. The coachman closed the door and climbed back onto his seat. He gripped the reins tightly and gave them a sharp crack. The horses reared and neighed before charging forward. The carriage sped off, heading south across the bloodstained landscape.
The coachman didn't speak again. He kept his eyes forward, the reins held taut in his hands. Zay sat in silence, his head turned toward the window, watching the shattered temple drift by in the distance. He didn't blink often. He didn't seem to breathe deeply. Everything that had happened lingered in his mind, the memories of torture, the scalding pain of his heart being crushed, burned, frozen, his body twisted into ice, his eyes bursting from their sockets.
He had tried to move past it all, burying the pain, pushing it as far from his thoughts as possible. But now, after the temple, after what he had seen, after what he had endured. 'Maybe I should go see him… after all,' he thought as he blinked slowly, his chest rising and falling with shallow breaths.
...
After several days in the back of the carriage, it was now the third of March, Monday, 2nd year of the Draconic Calendar.
Zay had been silent throughout the entire journey, trying to sift through old memories from different lives. It was difficult. Many memories were mixed up with random fragments, while others were simply too far in the past for him to recall clearly.
He spent the entire trip deep in thought, staying within his own space, combing through every memory he could, even those he didn't want to remember. But in the end, he found nothing about the bands of violet. He tried to remember the Goddess of Falling Light, the one he had once prayed to, but even then, those memories seemed absent, as if they had been erased.
With a quiet sigh, he lifted his head from where it had rested against the small window and looked outside, taking in the view of a large mansion. He assumed this was the Order of Restraint, the place he had been ordered to go and act as a mentor and bodyguard.
A few minutes later, the carriage came to a stop. The coachman leapt down from his seat and opened the door. "This is your stop," he said simply, stepping aside to make room.
Zay stepped out of the carriage. He still wore no shirt, the bands of violet having destroyed it and torn it to pieces. Dried blood clung to his skin, and scars marred his chest and shoulder. The scars on his back had faded after several uses of [Unholy Regeneration], but the scars on his shoulder and chest had remained. They were completely immune to the regeneration effects.
He turned back to face the carriage, his eyes settling on Rei and Naomi seated inside. A faint smile curved his lips. "Do your best to live, the both of you." Then he turned away, facing the mansion that loomed ahead. It was a towering estate of black stone and pale marble, its high-arched windows gleaming with sunlight and its many spires clawing toward the sky. Ivy clung to its walls like veins, and the heavy oak doors stood half-open, as if waiting for him to arrive.
As he began to walk away, he blinked slowly and raised his left hand to shield his eyes from the harsh beam of sunlight overhead. It was nearing noon, and the light was sharp against his vision. Behind him, he heard the loud neighing of the horses, the carriage door thudding shut, and the quiet shifting of the coachman settling into his seat. The reins snapped in the wind, and the wheels creaked as the carriage began to move, turning onto the dirt road and heading east, drawn steadily away by the horses.
Zay walked toward the half-open oak doors that guarded the large mansion within the gated grounds. As he approached the gate, he noticed a guard stationed outside, clad in full silver armor and… holding a shovel?
'A shovel?' Zay narrowed his eyes, studying the lone guard standing just beyond the gate, gripping the tool in his left hand. It seemed odd, but he didn't question it and continued walking toward him.
The guard turned to face him, his eyes locking onto Zay's bloodied figure as he approached. He tightened his grip on the shovel. "Who are you?" he demanded, raising the shovel as if it were a sword.
"I'm, uh… here to be a mentor? A bodyguard? Both," Zay replied casually, stopping a few steps away. "Let me give you a tip. A shovel won't help much in a real fight, especially against men in armor."
Zay eyed the man's broad frame, noting that he was taller than him and had wider shoulders."You'd be better off with an axe. More specifically, a battle-axe or great-axe. That would suit you far more than… a shovel."
The guard swallowed hard and held the shovel tighter before a voice interrupted them.
"Ah, you must be the mentor from the Red Dawn, correct?" said an elderly man from behind.
The guard quickly stepped aside as the old man emerged from the gate. He gave a small bow."Welcome to one of the Order of Restraint's outposts. Had I known you would be arriving so soon, I would have made sure things were… better prepared."
"No need to apologize or anything for the mess. What even is it?"
"It's nothing to concern yourself with. It was simply a rogue priest."
Zay nodded slowly, unsure of what to expect once he walked through the large, heavy oak doors.
"My name is Roland Richfield. It is lovely to meet you. I am currently acting as the leader of this outpost."
"Zay. Zay Yuso, member of the Demons of Red under the Red Dawn. It's a pleasure," Zay replied with a slight smile, then offered a small bow, mirroring what Roland had done.
The old man nodded, ignoring Zay's bloodied appearance, then turned and began walking through the gates. Zay followed behind him. As the two walked in silence, Zay took in the sight of a garden filled with watermelons. To the left of the patch was another garden, sectioned off with wooden borders, filled with green flowers. Beyond that stood another wooden enclosure containing small trees that were still growing.
"I was informed that I'm to be a bodyguard, or some sort of mentor to students, correct?" Zay finally spoke, his gaze fixed ahead. He saw a fountain in the distance and stairs made of stone leading up to the mansion.
"That is correct," Roland replied with a nod. He added, "You'll be responsible for students, while also serving as the bodyguard to the priestess. If I may speak freely, she is quite... something, to say the least."
Zay gave a slight nod, already feeling a hint of irritation at the details. 'Teaching students, and being a bodyguard for a priestess? I didn't think I'd ever be doing something like this. What could I even teach them, anyway?'
"I must ask, for I do not believe I possess the qualifications to teach students of an order. It feels as though you are requesting something beyond my capabilities. I hold no formal education to serve as a teacher, nor do I wield divinity like a priest or priestess."
Roland chuckled as the two came to a pause halfway up the stairs. He turned to face Zay, a smile forming before he spoke.
"My child, I mean no disrespect to a man of your standing, but I must ask, do any of your senses truly function as they should? The scent, the aura, the presence of the divine radiates from you. So heavily, in fact, that if I did not know who you were, I would assume you to be a high priest of an orthodox church."