Edge

A large gate stood before me. It sat over the road preventing access without a check. While there wasn’t a wall that ran the whole length, there was a generous stretch that went to nearly the end of my sight. It was enough to be a discouragement.

The barrier was a rather ornate structure of granite and marble from what I could see at a glance. A pair of statues carving to the stone surfaces looked like supports for the doors. I didn’t recognize their rendering, but they were two women thinly robed with their arms up for the huge gate. Heavy wood doors rested open to all passage.

I could only guess how many of the guards were necessary to open them. But this was the Ject and Yste border. While a peace existed right now, relations between our kingdom and theirs remained strained at the best of times.

For my understanding, Yste made claims and held the lands on the other side of the wall. They were sacred to them as they believed that Ministra blessed the land centuries ago. Ever since they became a force to be feared, they insisted on holding it. We were all Her children, but Yste saw themselves as descendants of Origin.

And now that I had read that book, a lot of it made more sense now. They saw themselves as the inheritors of Ganiza. While Ject previously held the land and lost it in a war nearly two centuries ago. And ever since, the two kingdoms have fought border wars for it.

This gate Yste constructed to mark the declaration of their claim and territory. It was fiercely contested land, but Yste never surrendered it. Rumors say the grass’s slight red hue is because of all the blood that’s tainted the earth. Though now that I see it, it didn’t look that red, but it was certainly a different shade of grass too. I guess imaginations got the better of people.

But I had to cross into Yste to reach Ganiza, if the records were accurate. Still can’t believe that I made it this far. I lost track of how many days it had been already since I left home. I knew it had been a month now, but still it felt less than that and more than that. And the journey back would be just as long.

For now I focused on what was in front of me. I had to get through the checkpoint, which during peace times shouldn’t be a problem. But I still was nervous nonetheless, because if I couldn’t get in then I’d be in trouble. And I didn’t want to add to my record.

There was only one other person in front of them as I arrived. I couldn’t imagine there was a lot of travel with the state of things. Though maybe there were more families like Clena and Youwa. But I didn’t even get to think about what I would say before two soldiers walked up to me. My eyes shifted between them. I look suspicious, don't I? They think I’m a criminal or something, right? Why aren’t they still checking the merchant in front of me?

Oh, they had more guards. They could check multiple people at once. Just stay calm. You have nothing to hide. It’s just a kingdom of people that don’t like you. Nothing could happen.

“Announcement! State your name and business!”

“A-announcement!” I don’t think my voice made it very far to them. Their expressions tightened up a little as they approached closer. I swallowed tightly trying to pretend I wasn’t sweating. “Announcement! I’m Speaker Eshikra of Linoth on pilgrimage.”

The soldiers drew in even closer to me as though I said something that offended them. “A Speaker? Got proof, Miss?”

Shakily, I withdrew my Ministra symbol to bear to them. They stared at it for a long time, probably trying to confirm its authenticity. But once they did, they immediately knelt to me as though I was some king. “We’re sorry, Speaker. We didn’t know. Ministra’s love and reason be a beacon on your journey.”

I blinked a little at the swift change of manners. They became polite, revenant towards me. I knew that Yste deeply followed and adhered to Ministra’s teachings, but I didn’t know it was this powerful. Perhaps I won’t have as much trouble in Yste as I thought. “Thank you, Ministra watches over you and blesses your understanding.”

After a few awkward exchanges, they straightened up and escorted me personally to the other side of the gate. Others curious about what was going on tried to approach, but they pushed them back. It was a bizarre treatment. I might have been part of the Order, but I was just a Speaker. I heard Her voice, but I wasn’t the most important person. Even though for me it was more important than anything else.

The gate quickly rested at my back and I walked now on foreign soil. It made me a little uncomfortable knowing I was in even more unknown lands with a people that might see me as a threat. But their faith in Ministra might be enough for me to get through without incident. I hope.

All I could do now was follow rumors and an ancient accounting. Each night I read the text again hoping to glean more from it than the last. It spoke of the discovery of the Pillar, but more in a mythological and tale format rather than one of fact. I had learned the text themselves were written about four hundred years ago while the Ganiza Kingdom had long since collapsed by that point. By the time they recorded anything it had to have been oral history or other records discovered.

It didn’t know the exact location of Entif. The best it could give me was in the Holsa Wastes, or rather Esthera Plains. The book knew them as the Plains, as that was the region from the Ganiza era, but also surviving their dissolution. However, through the breaking of Ganiza and numerous wars, it became renamed. It held the name Holsa from the last major war fought for the land two centuries ago for the military commander that burned the fertile lands to cut off the advancing army.

At least, stories claimed they were still fertile at that point and blamed Holsa for the destruction. Logic would say that the land probably wasn’t healthy already from the constant fighting. His last strategic move sealed the fate of the lands, but wasn’t the only cause.

But the Wastes was a vast territory between mountains and several rivers, which I heard ran dry from the damage. The area was supposed to be more like a desert than a green paradise the texts proclaimed it to be. My biggest fear was finding water if I had to trek the Waste for days or weeks searching for some ruins that treasure seekers tried in vain to find.

All I had to count on was Ministra’s blessing and my book. And She would say trust the book more than words from Her. Logic and reason would find my answers. Logic and reason, searching a dustbowl.

Crossing Yste into the Holsa proved to be surprisingly straightforward. The few stops I had to make for supplies were warmly welcomed. Yste had strangely great hospitality for someone of Ministra’s teachings.

And before long, I approached the Holsa Wastes. I could see the Esth Mountains far in the distance. However, to my surprise the Wastes looked less like their rumors. It wasn’t a verdant paradise like the text painted, but it wasn’t devoid of life either. Trees and wild grass grew around in patches. But it had a haunting quality to it as some of the flora twisted in unnatural ways like they grasped something. It felt like whispers of history everywhere.

Yet that was far from the worst thing I saw. The cliff I stood at overlooking the region, afforded me sight over the stretching lands. Ones that people still seemed to be fighting over today. Campfires and many of them lifted smoke into the air with tents for as wide as my eyes could see becoming a white blanket nearly.

Who were they fighting? Am I going to have to hide from soldiers while hunting for the lost city of Entif? Ministra give me strength.