The Lost Doctor's Soul - Chapter 36 - A tense moment of peace

 Looking up at the dark clouds as we walked, I noticed the world was a shade of purple I didn’t quite notice before, even as the light of dawn struggled to break through the clouds. It was strange to me, but no one spoke a word of it as I silently trudged along with them through the cold rain. The arrow wounds from the chase ached from the cold, constantly reminding me of the events I had been through,

As gloomy as it was trudging through windy rain in the faint morning light, there was an odd sense of… etherealness in the purple glimmer of the wet rocks and trees. These were colours I never saw before back on Earth, reminding me just how foreign this land was to me.

“After a convergence, the victor bathes the world in their light.” My confusion must have been apparent, as Arashi finally broke the silence to say that. I straightened my face and half turned to her as we walked, interested in any information. “The colour shows the domain. Purple is the domain of death.” Those ominous words sent a shiver down my spine… was it a coincidence or an ill omen? Did gods actually exist here? Magic might exist here, but I only half acknowledged the idea that there are actual gods on this Earth.

“Are there… actually gods here? As in, can you meet them?” I asked. It felt like a stupid question, but Arashi seemed to listen seriously. That, or she just didn’t emote much. “There are gods, but mortals cannot simply meet a god.” she replied. “Some people receive power when they pray to gods, those become clerics and priests, but only an oracle can hear the words of a god. Is it different where you’re from, given there’s no magic?” she asked back as she pushed wet hair away from her face, her eyes as black as the abyss unreadable in the dim purple light.

I hesitated. I believe in God, but I couldn’t help but question how I could even explain it to someone who lived in a world where the powers of gods can be witnessed. “We believe God exists. Depending on the religion, people believe God to exist in different forms and do their work in different ways, but there is no magic and one cannot just see God.” was what I ended up saying. My Earth is a different world and works under different rules from this one. She didn’t show much of a reaction to that, she just seemed tired like she always did, just replying with a “I see, I can’t imagine it.”

“If gods give priests power in this world, then doesn’t that mean the priest was on the side of the law?” I asked, unable to fully accept everything I’ve done in this world. “We killed people who work for the temple of law to take back a stupid sword for a devil. Regardless of anything else, that was a dire crime, wasn’t it?” I asked, looking up to the purple sunrise in the distance. Why were they so calm about this? Just how different is this world?

There was a moment of silence, before Kanako spoke up. “If she was really obeying the word of her god properly, she wouldn’t have started violence. Don’t forget she murdered the guy whose body you’re in now.” There was a hint of spite in her voice, which caught me a little off guard, but I could understand it. “She was probably on some kind of secret mission, hanging out in this random corner of the world. If she reports us to the temple, she’d have to explain everything about why she was here… she’ll probably use backhanded means like putting out bounties or using underground guilds instead.” she added, and I didn’t think she’d think things through that thoroughly. It felt like a whole new side to the innocent kid I thought of her so far.

“But what about the crime of us killing people? Is that not a big deal here?” I asked, unable to wrap my head around how they just ignored that part. “Death is nearly inevitable when people fight. As long as both sides aren’t related to the local government, it’s only a problem if it’s tied to another crime. At least, that’s the law here in Vetus Memoria.” she explained, and it felt like such an alien idea that I didn’t understand. I was surely missing something, but that was probably something I had to look up later at my own pace… or ask Starlight, but she was still in a horrible mood.

We continued walking in silence after that. Even if my body was in incredible condition, my mind felt heavy, though the gloomy weather was slowly improving.

Still, the scenery was incredible. When I first left the ruins I woke up in, I was in a forest, then moving forward I found myself in a jungle, and now I was in a forest again. I don’t know enough about ecology to explain why this is strange, especially with everything growing out of the basalt ground, but none of it looks proper. My only assumption is that magic has something to do with it, like they’re being sustained by something even without the proper soil? Or maybe there’s soil under the surface and I just don’t see it?

“I lived under the ground, then a desert. I never saw trees grow out of rocks before.” Nisha replied when I asked him. “Ame no Tochi is called ‘the land of rain’ in Merydian. The land and culture were shaped around an eternal rain… but it’s more of a drizzle compared to the storms here.” was Arashi’s answer. “My hometown was under one of the floating lands above, so we didn’t get much rain. I didn’t get a chance to see a lot of my country when I was on the run, sorry…” was all Kanako could say. So in the end, this was a new and mysterious land for all of us.

We spent some time travelling  across this annoying but beautiful stone forest, before we found suitable terrain where Kanako could climb up a tree and find the mountain range between the northern and southern halves of the island. We spent several hours moving north based on that till Nisha, Kanako, and I found a proper road. Arashi couldn’t keep up with the party’s pace and had to rest in the waiting room. It was a strange feeling, knowing that the most archetypal warrior in the group had the least stamina. Given that she couldn’t even carry her own armour without magic, it was odd she managed to cultivate fighting skills above most of the trained temple warriors we faced. We also found out no part of the hospital cleans itself other than the rooms.

After another hour of uneventful travel, we eventually found a cliff with an overhang on a small hill. From there, we could see the edge of a rock wall far ahead of us, proof that we were moving in the right direction! It looked like a wall of basalt pillars, but as tall and wide as a mountain range. With this small bit of makeshift shelter, we decided to take a small break with our first goal in sight.

Looking at the world around me reminded me of a hobby I gave up on years ago, sketching. I wasn’t particularly good at it, but I borrowed a pen and paper from Arashi to try and sketch out the path ahead. It helped clear my mind, and hopefully shows the environment better than I can explain with words?

Sitting there as we rested for a bit, I felt a bit calmer sketching. It was a hobby I only touched every now and then as of recently, but it came out better than I thought. It wasn’t as good as a professional artist, but it was decent for a novice. There was a light bit of banter while we rested, and Nisha seemed very interested in learning how to draw. That said, he had zero experience and didn’t even know how to write… and I was definitely not good enough to teach.

Our break finished as the rain lightened a bit, turning into a drizzle with clouds still covering the sky. It would have been nice to rest some more, but there was no guarantee the priest wasn’t actively chasing us down. Kanako had reached her limit by this point and so stayed in the waiting room with Arashi. I was a little worried about how she was recovering from her injury, but she seemed fine other than being tired.

While walking through this fantastical landscape, my mind was flooded with many different thoughts and worries. I worried about what was waiting for us in the city, I worried about if the priest would catch up to us, I wondered if we made enemies of a whole religion. There were too many things I didn’t yet know.

Rather than confuse myself with things I couldn’t possibly know, I used this idle time to learn more about the world and my situation. I asked Nisha, Kanako, Arashi and even Starlight many things, though the last one wasn’t very interested in answering ‘mundane questions’.

I learnt that after a confluence the victor influenced the world a little more. Each of the seven domains had their own colour, and each domain had several gods within them.

There was Purity (Life), Nature (Green), Conviction (Gold), Suffering (Red), Death (Purple), Knowledge (Gray), and Festivities (Pink). Law and Justice were actually two different gods under the domain of ‘conviction’, which blew my mind. There was Akyn, Dealer of Justice, and Verdain, Keeper of Law. I used the nouns law and justice interchangeably till now, but thinking about it, the party always called it the temple of law… though the man I killed, Gorgon Baire, was definitely from the temple of justice. This was yet another thing I needed to look into, and I heard mention of a dragon called Er’Dian, Connector of the Void, who also counted among the ranks of divinity. Given the nature of my powers, looking into him and his teachings seemed important as well.

Another thing I learnt was that Nisha seemed to know very little about the world in general. He knew even less than me, when all I had were general concepts that carried over from my world like how rain worked, taxes and basic government structures.

From the little he mentioned about himself, I thought he was from an underground civilization that had its own language, but his lack of even basic concepts was very strange. He wasn’t particularly slow and understood things explained to him, so it wasn’t possible for him to have just learnt nothing like… some people I’ve seen back on Earth.

“I remember being in big group. Lots of carts. I was small and parents were there, then something attack and I fell? After, I awake and I was in big dark cave. Many many floors, I climbed and climbed, then I found friend Hails and she helped me leave. Helped Hails find her family, now I am here and looking for my family.” he explained in simple words, boiling what sounded like his life story in four sentences, a skill I wish I had. But it undersold how shocking the story was. It took me a few moments to process that he just said he spent a large chunk of his life in a cave alone.

“Nisha… how long were you in the dungeon… the cave?” I asked, slowing my steps without realising. “Years?” Nisha replied vaguely, and I couldn’t imagine living in a cave alone for multiple years. “You were a child when you entered the cave… how old are you now?” I asked, not sure if he could even answer that. “Adult? How old am I, miss spirit?” he suddenly turned his head to look away from me as he asked that to empty air. “Ah, okay. I am a hundred and six years old.” he replied, turning back to me with a smile. At that moment I realised there was so much more to Nisha than I imagined.

“Who is this… miss spirit?” I asked, unable to see anything there. Elves and spirits weren’t a surprising combination, but I never expected him to hide something like that so well till now.. “Miss spirit is miss spirit.” Nisha replied matter of factly. “I met her in the cave years ago.” I asked him a few more follow up questions, but he didn’t give a worthwhile answer to anything. The spirit didn’t have a name beyond ‘miss spirit’, there was no prying any special backstory from him, and I was left with more questions than answers. The only new thing I learnt was that he raised a pack of wolves at one point. This man was utterly fascinating and I decided I’d try to learn more about his life in detail before I get back home to Earth.

And with that, we kept walking even as the sky darkened once again with the day coming to an end, only stopping briefly to eat a meal cooked by Arashi. It was made using travel rations and dried meat and vegetables, but after the horrid day we went through, it tasted delicious, though there wasn’t enough seasoning. With money in our pockets now and a fairly large room I could store anything, we all unanimously agreed to stock up on a lot of ingredients when we could. No one wanted to suffer eating only rations for weeks on the next ship ride, and I could only imagine that being a situation I wanted to avoid at all costs.

After this brief respite, we returned to walking again. While I admired how sturdy Millar’s body was compared to mine, even I was getting tired at this point, but I pushed on into the night since there was no telling when the priest would catch up with us. If they had a wagon or carriage, it was only a matter of time. Looking up at the dark night sky, I saw a vast blanket of dark purple, covered in the glitter of hundreds of unfamiliar stars, and with three beautiful moons laying atop it, just watching us. I was awed by this brief moment, and I could only hope the peace I felt could last a bit longer…

Previous | Index | Coming Soon