The Ins and Outs

       “Can you walk a bit faster?” Sylvarien whispered to Corbin. “The creatures around here are quite fast as you saw.”

       “Sorry.” Corbin picked up his pace. He tried to slip his hand out of Sylvarien’s, but she had a tight grasp on it. “Where are we going?”

       “Somewhere safe,” Valerith said into both of their minds. “We have a secret hideout around here where we keep all our knowledge and findings about the old tale.”

       “The old tale?” Corbin asked curiously. “What’s that?”

       “You'll see,” Sylvarien said. “We’re almost there.”

       They walked at a brisk pace for a few more minutes before arriving at a cave leading underground.

       Sylvarien guided him into the cave and through the tunnels until they reached a solid wall.

       “Is this the base?” Corbin asked. “Sorry if I seem blunt, but this is very underwhelming.”

       “This is just the entrance,” Valerith said.

       Sylvarien let go of Corbin’s hand and went up to a section of the wall that was sticking out. She put her hands to the side of the wall and pushed, moving the large rock effortlessly.

       Corbin’s mouth dropped in awe and shock.

       “How—”

       “Come on, quickly.” She hurried Corbin into the room behind the wall, allowing Valerith to follow too before shifting the rock back into place, closing the door. “Welcome to our hideout. This is where our information is stored.”

       Corbin walked around the medium sized room. The walls were the same as the cave, bare, unrefined rock. What appeared to be shelves and desks with paper scattered all over lined the walls. The only thing that wasn’t shelves or paper was a few small rug-like items that were scattered on the ground. 

       “Now, it’s time for you to answer our questions.” Sylvarien sat down on one of the rug-like items and patted another next to her, inviting Corbin to sit on it.

       “Before that, can I ask another question, please?” He accepted her invitation and sat down.

       “Go ahead,” she said.

       “Is there any way to get back to where I came from?”

       She thought hard about it for a minute.

       “I am not sure. My best guess is that you could claim The Throne of Sin,” she suggested.

       “What’s that?” Corbin asked.

       “We will get to that later. For now, we will give you some information on this world.”

       Valerith pulled a short desk full of papers in front of where they were sitting and found a spot on the other side of Corbin.

       “Sorry for distracting you, what did you want to ask me?” Corbin asked.

       Sylvarien cleared her throat.

       “First, did you come from a different world than this one? You don’t seem to be a human like the ones here,” she asked.

       “There’s humans here too?” Corbin asked excitedly.

       “They’re not like you. We’ll explain everything, don’t worry,” Valerith said.

       “Sorry.” Corbin redirected his attention to Sylvarien. “Yes, I think I’m from a different world. Originally, I thought I might’ve died and went to Hell, but with all the stuff you’ve been talking about, it’s safe to assume this is a completely new world.”

        “Hell?” Sylvarien tilted her head slightly. 

       “Ah, it’s a place under my home world where sinners go once they die. It’s really bad and horrifying from what I’ve heard. Of course, no one knows if it actually exists or not since no one’s officially found any evidence,” Corbin explained.

       “Intriguing,” Sylvarien said. “You mentioned ‘sinners’, does that mean you’re familiar with the cardinal sins?”

       “Yes, I am. They have those in this world too?”

       Sylvarien shuffled through the pieces of paper on the desk while Valerith talked to Corbin.

       “There are seven different types of beings in this world. Each one is based on a different cardinal sin,” he explained. “The Sivkeths that you saw first, are gluttony.”

       “They are the easiest for us to kill of any other race,” Sylvarien interrupted.

       “Why is that?” Corbin asked.

       “Valerith here is an Aurevireth. They are envy and can create anything they want out of nothing; however, they can only create things that other beings want,” she explained. “But, Sivkeths always want everything because of their hunger, meaning that Valerith can make basically anything to fight them.”

       “Woah.” Corbin’s eyes widened. “That’s such a cool ability! What are the other five races?”

       “There’s the Thrumvaks that are sloth, the Morkir are wrath, the Garvgarin are greed, the Varren are lust, and the humans are pride.”

       “Each race is bound to their corresponding sin, meaning that they can’t defy it no matter how hard they try,” Valerith added on. “Their sin comes before natural instincts and desire, forcing them to think a specific way.”

       “Do the races get along well like you guys do?”

       “Not at all,” Sylvarien said. “They have been in war for over 2000 years with each other. That brings us to our next topic, the old tale.” 

       “Woah, wait, you’re skipping through a lot of stuff and it’s confusing,” Corbin said to Sylvarien. “If they don’t get along, why are you guys together? What do all the races look like and do? And what does this world look like?”

       “I’ll go get those papers so we can explain all of that to you.” Valerith got up to gather more papers.

       “To answer your first question,” Sylvarien started. “We have broken free from our sins. We are not fully sure how it happened but luckily, we found each other, and we’ve been exploring this continent for a few years together.”

       “Are there other continents in this world?” Corbin asked.

       “Yes, there is two in total. Although, they do not have common names, so most people refer to them as the east and west continents. We are on the west continent,” she explained.

       “What races live in each continent? Or is it just a mix?”

       “The Sivketh, Gravgarin, Varren, and Aurevireth all live in the west continent. The humans, Morkir, and Thrumvak live on the east continent.” Valerith came back with a stack of papers. “These are depictions of the races and world. There’s other information here too, but we’ll get to that later.”

        Corbin took some of the papers and scanned through them, realizing that he couldn’t read the symbols.

       “This is embarrassing,” he said sheepishly. “But I can’t read any of this. Would you guys mind just telling me the basics of each page?”

       Sylvarien and Valerith took the pages from Corbin and lined them up nicely.

       “To start, this is a Sivketh.” Sylvarien showed him the page with an illustration of a long black snake made of shadow. Its face was eyeless but still had a mouth with large fangs. “They devour everything in their path and are constantly hungry for new foods. Once they eat enough of one item, they get bored of it, and look for more foods, forcing them to expand their territory by taking from the other races. Their main way of hunting comes from their ability to pull things into them; the closer they get, the stronger the force becomes.” 

       Corbin shivered slightly, reliving that feeling of running as hard as he could but barely making progress.

       Valerith showed Corbin the second paper with what looked to be some kind of golden dragon.

       “These are the Gravgarin. They are the greediest race, and each one has their own stash of treasure that they keep hidden from the world. They also breath molten gold, but we have seen some use other powers too. We’re not too sure how they do it since it seems to be different each time,” he explained to Corbin.

       “This is my race next,” Sylvarien announced. She showed Corbin a drawing with a humanoid that looked similar to her. “This is the Varren, and they are lust. They feed on someone’s love for anything. To do this, they sink their fangs into your skin and extract the memories of things that you love.”

       “Ah! Like vampires, sort of,” Corbin said.

       They both looked confused.

       “I am not sure what a vampire is, but sure!” she said.

       “Do you have to feed on people’s memories?” he asked her.

       “I only have to very rarely,” she confirmed. “Valerith offers me some of his not very loved memories since he does not want them anyways.”

       Corbin looked around the room, slightly embarrassed.

       “If you want, you can take some of mine sometime.” He fiddled with his fingers. “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be bitten by a vampire. Sorry, I guess Varren in this case.”

       Sylvarien drooled slightly from her mouth before wiping it away quickly.

       “No, no. I could never take anything precious from you.”

       “It’s fine, really. If you change your mind, just tell me,” he reassured her.

       Valerith interrupted the tension by showing Corbin another drawing. 

       “Here’s a Thrumvak, they are sloth and don’t really do much,” he explained.

       “It looks like an orc!” Corbin pointed out. “Well, it seems a lot bigger than the stories from my world.”

       “They’re very tall, the average height for one is about seven meters. They’re also powerful but lazy, easily the strongest of the races but they don’t use their strength much.”

       Corbin laughed a little.

       “There’s a lot of people in my world who are like that too, minus the insane strength part.”

       “Fascinating,” Valerith said, not getting the joke Corbin made. “Does your world also have things that represent the cardinal sins?”

       “Not really.” Corbin thought for a moment. “Well, I guess there’s some things that people automatically correlate with them, but it’s not like this world’s correlation. Anyways, what’s the next thing?”

       Sylvarien showed Corbin a drawing of a generic looking ghost.

       “The Morkir are wrath. They are ghosts of any race that died with some kind of lingering regret or grudge that happened to them in their life,” she explained. “They can pass through objects about a meter in length. We do not know a lot about them since we haven’t visited the east continent much.”

       “Now I get to talk about my race,” Valerith said. “We, the Aurevireth, are envy. As Sylvarien said before, we have unbelievable power, but we can’t make things that we want. We also don’t have a heart like the other races, instead, we have a core that powers our body with the four elements.”

       “What do you look like under the robe?” Corbin asked. “This drawing doesn’t show what they look like under the robe.”

       “Oh right! I’d forgotten that I still have my hood all the way down.” Valerith took his hood down and revealed his face. A combination of fire, earth, wind, and water all circling around a hardened core made up of all four elements, like he described.  

       Corbin jumped a little, not expecting him to look like that.

       “You look so cool. How do you see and why do you wear the robe over your head all the time?”

       “We sense the things around us using the four elements. As for the robe, it’s just our attire. We are all naturally envious of the other races for having bodies that aren’t just blobs of elements, so we hide our faces out of shame. I can show my face though since I’m not envious of much anymore.” Corbin didn’t see any facial expressions from him, but he could tell that Valerith was proud to be able to show his face rather than hiding it like the rest of his race.

       “And finally, we get to the humans,” Sylvarien said.

       “Oh yeah.” Corbin almost forgot. “They’re pride, right?”

       “Indeed,” she confirmed. “They will do anything to make their reputation higher, no matter the cost. They are cunning creatures with no regard for life and no sense of purpose besides looking at themselves and thinking that they are the best. Even though all the races are in constant conflict with each other, the humans are also in conflict with each other. New kings constantly appear in their kingdoms because the old ones keep getting killed.”

       Corbin’s eyes widened.

       “Like we said, you’re not like them.” Valerith took the papers on the races back to the shelf where he got them from.

       “You can say that again, they sound scary.”

       “Since that is done, let us get on with talking about the old tale,” Sylvarien said.

       Corbin perked up and snapped his head in her direction.

       “Yes please! I love talking about these things!”

       “Alright then.” Sylvarien laid out a large scroll onto the table. “This is everything that we have discovered about the secrets of the old tale. Are you ready?”

       “Yes ma’am!”

       Sylvarien cleared her throat before talking. 

       “About 2000 years ago, a tale spread about a throne that had the power to make the first person to touch it ruler of this world and every sin. Ever since then, the races have been in conflict with each other to try and be the first to reach this throne,” she explained. “However, somehow, in those 2000 years, no one has ever been smart enough to decipher the entire tale. For one, Valerith and I have figured out that to even qualify to touch the throne, one must have the essence of every race. Second of all, the tale tells of someone coming into this world from another land. That was the reason why we were so interested in you. If you want to have the possibility of getting home, that is your job to touch it.

       Corbin listened intently to the details of the tale.

       “So, what you’re saying is I need to possess every sin in order to take the throne?”

       “We do not think so, we found another script in a sealed room underground in the Varren’s territory a while ago that told of an ancient temple in the Sivketh’s territory. That is why we made a hideout here.”

       “How long have you guys been looking for this ancient temple?”

       “Quite a while,” she said. “We are not sure if it is underground or not. The scroll didn’t give exact instructions. Just that it was tall temple that towers over everything else in the area with a city below it.”

       Corbin thought about something for a moment.

       “I’m not sure if this is correct, but when I was falling from the sky, I saw some ruins on the horizon.”

       Sylvarien’s eyes lit up and she grabbed his shoulders, getting almost face to face with Corbin.

        “Which way?” she asked excitedly. “We must leave as soon as we can!”

       “I know that it was to the right of me when I was falling,” Corbin said slowly, trying to remember.

       “Great! You can lead us there!” She stood up and went to the door. 

       “Wait,” Valerith interrupted her movement. “It’s nearly nightfall. If we go out now, it’ll be harder to detect the Sivketh and they could ambush us.”

       She looked anxious and impatient all off a sudden before reluctantly sitting back down.

       “Fine,” she said, upset. “We leave tomorrow at sunrise.”

       “Is it time to sleep?” Corbin asked. “Or... do you guys sleep at all? And if so, what do you use as beds?”

       “Sylvarien sleeps,” Valerith told him. “I don’t need to sleep; I just need to rest and absorb the necessary elements that I used during the day.”

       “I see,” Corbin said.

       “As for where to sleep,” Sylvarien butted in. “I sleep on the desks. The papers give nice padding.”

       Corbin shivered at the thought of not having a nice bed to sleep on.

       “You’re not worried about crumpling the paper if you roll around in your sleep?”

       “Most of the paper in this world is made from a hard but flexible tree type,” she explained. “If it does crumple, you can just bend it back into shape easily.”

       “Do you use the paper as a blanket if it gets too cold too?” he asked curiously.

       “Yes, exactly,” she confirmed. “Would you like one for tonight?”

       “Yes please!” Corbin said excitedly, knowing that he would at least get some of the same comfort as a bed, even if it’s just a fraction. “Do you have any tooth care products by chance?”

       Sylvarien went to set up a spot on a desk for Corbin to sleep.

       “Tooth care products?” Valerith asked, curiously.

       “Oh, that’s right!” Corbin exclaimed. “You can make anything, right?” Can you make it for me? It’s a type of paste that has stuff to clean your teeth.”

       Corbin smiled and pointed at his teeth, showing the slight yellowness of them. 

       “I apologize,” Valerith started. “Since I was even slightly curious about this tooth care product and want to learn more, I can no longer make it myself. If it helps, I always see Sylvarien using her nails to scrape the yellow stuff off her teeth, so I would think that you could do the same.”

       Corbin sighed, upset that he would never be as clean as he once was.

       “I guess I’ll just do that until I can get back to my world.” Corbin started scraping the gunk out of his teeth like Sylvarien does.

       “I got your sleeping area ready.” Sylvarien waved him over to the once desk, now bed that she prepared for him. “It looks good, does it not?”

       Corbin looked at it, unsure of what to think. The paper she talked about was just a thin layer on the wood with the blanket not being any better.

       “It looks great,” Corbin lied. “So, do we just... go to sleep now?”

       He looked over to Sylvarien for an answer but instead found her taking off her red dress.

       “What are you doing?!” he exclaimed.

       She looked at him with confusion, now wearing nothing besides her shorts.

       “I am getting ready for bed, no? I can’t get my clothes dirty while I sleep.” She folded up her clothes and set them on the far desk. “Do you get your clothes dirty when you sleep?”

       “In my world, we typically wear different clothes when we sleep.”

       “Interesting,” Sylvarien said. “Well, good night.”

       She hopped onto her desk away from Corbin and laid down.

       “Good night.” Corbin got onto his bed and closed his eyes.