The City to the South

Camden and Maya were sat atop a grassy hill, the light breeze blowing against the branches of the tree. The leaves swayed in the calming wind, and the crickets chirped in the soft glow of the moonlit sky. The gentle humidity of the summer’s night washed over them, one of the final times before they both entered the 6th grade. Their bikes were perched against the tree trunk, one last stop before they had to head home.

Maya took a deep breath, in and out.

“I’m going to miss this.” she said sadly. Her eyes were set staring off into the distance, at the town on the horizon line. “It won’t be the same without you, you know.”

Camden took a look at her, her dirty blonde hair moving from the breeze. The feeling of having someone who was always there for him, no matter what. He was going to miss her too.

“Yeah, I know,” was all he managed to reply with. “I wish I could stay.”

Silence between them. The both of them knew that it wouldn’t be possible. Not with how adamant his parents had been about moving. Something about getting a fresh start or whatever. Camden, however, didn't want a fresh start. Everything he had, everything he wanted, was all here already. To desire a fresh start would be to throw it all away.

“We can still keep in contact though, right?” Camden asked, his voice only slightly uncertain.

“Yeah, of course!” Maya replied joyfully. “Just call my house, tell my parents that you’d like to talk to me.”

He’d never get tired of her can-do spirit. “Same for you, I guess,” he said in turn. “You’ve got my parents number, right?”

“Never forgot it.”

Camden watched the leaves blowing across the grass. If only he could be as carefree as they seemed to be.

“Hey,” Maya said, drawing back his attention. “Best friends forever.”

Camden looked at her kind smile, and smiled back in return.

“Forever.”

The wind picked up slightly, the leaves and branches blowing faster, the chill of the nightfall slowly setting in. The stars twinkled a perpetual shine, shimmering in the darkness.

Levo’s voice broke through the silence. “We’re here.”

Camden woke from his daydream. The vessel slowly came to a stop, pistons hissing with steam, the room jerking slightly to the side from the sudden halt. He grabbed his backpack, standing up from the crate he’d been sitting on, and shaking the circulation back into his legs.

Madam Cecilia and Levo were already prepared, having gathered their bags before arrival. The Madam had her canvas bag hoisted over across her body diagonally, having packed it with bits and bobs, some gadgets, some supplies from the forensics division, a map of the surrounding area, and her notepad and pen. She was prepared for an investigation.

Levo had his backpack on and at the ready, chalked full of weapons, extra Valos Alnovarium for ammunition, a couple of knives, and some bandages. He was prepared for a battle.

Camden’s bag was also a backpack, albeit smaller than Levo’s. It contained some rations, medical supplies, and other miscellaneous items that he found around the vessel. He was prepared for… well, he was prepared for either everything, or nothing.

The three of them all wore the standard issue jackets now, if only to protect them from the elements. Camden had been given one a couple of days ago, in preparation for their mission.

Not to mention it would undoubtedly help with him not seeming like a complete stranger to the rest of the citizens of the vessel. He’d also been given a few extra pairs of clothes, since he hadn’t exactly brought along any luggage for his highly unexpected teleportation.

The large cargo door opened slowly, its hydraulics hissing with age, whining against the mass of the metal it carried, and revealing the pathway to the city that laid ahead. The brisk outside air filled the room, smelling faintly of dried leaves decimated twig matter. The three of them exited the vessel, which then closed its substantial metal door, and proceeded to drive away. The plan was to have it parked about ten kilometers out, in order not to draw any suspicion in case some drones came by to sweep the area. Once they retrieved the necessary information, the three investigators were to return to the vessel, and then to head to wherever the info left them.

The three of them began their trek down the pathway, its stone bricks covered with dirt and grime. The trees that surrounded it were all long dead, their trunks and branches reaching up into the sky, jutting out in unnatural seeming directions. The wind blew through the foliage, carrying whispers of a forgotten time.

“It sure is creepy out here. Gives me the chills, y’know,” Levo said, taking in the foliage around him. “Thinking about how this used to be a bustling capital city, of all things.”

“Indeed,” replied the Madam. “This city was once the heart of The South. A central hub for all things commerce, trade, education, entertainment, you name it. Though the chills are probably also from the wind. It’s certainly colder in this country, especially with the current climate. Based on the weather patterns, it seems that the season would be autumn.”

That certainly explained the lack of leaves on the trees. Though it also made the way there feel like a path to a ghost town. However, that wasn’t entirely inaccurate, was it?

“Do they have autumn where you come from, Mr. Valaraki?” the Madam asked. Camden hadn’t really considered that this place could have different seasons to his home, but frankly it was stranger that they were exactly the same.

“Yeah. Yeah, we do,” he replied. “Leaves change colour, temperature cools down, you know how it is. It’s actually pretty cool. Makes for good photographs.”

Then again, it wasn’t like Camden took many photographs.

“Or so I’ve been told,” he added, not wanting to be accidentally deceitful.

Camden turned to look at Leo, whose hands were stuffed in his jacket pockets to fend off the chilly outside air. Much to his chagrin, as Camden’s roommate, he was significantly more likely to be assigned on missions with him. As was the case here.

“Out of curiosity, how long do photographs take to develop back where you’re from?” the Madam inquired.

Camden chuckled. “Develop? Nah, we’ve moved past that in terms of technology. Most photos are stored electronically nowadays. Just click the button, and boom. Photo.”

“Really, now? You’ve gotta be kidding. Next thing you’ll be saying that you can get halfway across the world in less than an hour,” Levo responded, sarcastically.

“We haven’t quite gotten there, unfortunately.”

The trio continued down the path, the crunching of the leaves beneath their footsteps being the only audible sounds save for the blowing of the wind and the occasional chirp of a Laaki-bird here and there.

Eventually, they reached the gateway of the city, much like the one that Camden had come across before the ambush happened. It stood tall, though much like everything he’d been exposed to thus far, had seen better days. The gate itself was slightly ajar, and the trio, working together, were able to push its substantially thick metal form just enough for them to make their way through.

The city, at least on an architectural level, wasn’t all too different from the one that Camden had first seen, the same general aesthetics of brass and copper making up the numerous skyscrapers. Only this time, it really was abandoned. The wind blew through the hollow structures like that of a ghost town, and it sent a shiver down Camden’s spine. The buildings were in various states of disrepair, char marks lining the once pristine brick. Gears and scrap metal were scattered amongst the streets, along with various automaton carcasses laid in a disorderly manner on the cobble. Both were constant reminders of the destruction that this world had had to endure, but also of the people’s resilience. Remnants of a battle hard fought, even if they ended up losing. One could only hope that the trio wouldn’t have to come across any actual human carcasses from the fight. Though it wouldn’t exactly be unexpected if they did.

Madam Cecilia walked up to one of the less broken looking automatons, crouching down to get a closer look at it.

“It’s a shame,” she said, wistfully. “Seeing such… marvels of modern engineering tossed aside like nothing more than scrap.”

Camden looked a bit closer. “Huh. I think my grandmother had one of these back home.”

“That does make an amount of sense,” the Madam replied. “It stands to reason that an inventor of her caliber would have visited this land quite often, if not taking up residence here.”

Levo jutted into the conversation. “Memory lane’s real fun and all, but can we get back on track? We’re here to find the blade-thing, remember?”

The Madam looked at him with a stern expression. “I’m aware.”

Madam Cecilia pressed a couple of buttons on the fallen automaton’s torso, releasing a latch that held the chest plate in place. Removing it revealed a set of pipes and gears, all intertwined with each other. She then rummaged around in her canvas bag before pulling out a small metal canister with a valve on the top. There was a thin window in the side of the cylindrical container, revealing the unmistakable pink glow of Valos Alnovarium. But there was another liquid contained within it as well, some yellowey green oil. The two were separated along the horizontal axis with what appeared to be a thin layer of glass. She looked at it briefly, before throwing it forcefully at the ground, shattering the internal glass and surprising both Camden and Levo. The two liquids began to react to each other, a light pink mist and steam began to leak from the valve’s seal as she quickly unscrewed an inlet cap on one of the fallen automaton’s pipes. With haste, she screwed on the canister's valve, turning the lever to release the steam into the pipe.

It took a few seconds, but soon the automaton sprung to life, jerking and convulsing about, its head looking around frantically. It appeared to be panicking, which should have been expected. After all, its last memories would have been those of when The Iron Hand razed the city to the ground.

Levo was in shock. “What the hell? Did you just…”

“...You’ve just performed mechanical necromancy,” Camden stated, finishing Levo’s sentence. He too, was equally in shock.

The Madam, on the other hand, wasn’t surprised in the slightest. Though she did seem slightly nervous. “I suppose you could call it that. But we don’t have long.”

And there’s why she was nervous.

She hurriedly turned back to the fallen automaton, steadying its head with her hand. “Hey. Hey, snap out of it. You were broken by a faction called The Iron Hand. They’re not here right now. They can’t hurt you. We won’t hurt you. You're safe. I need you to answer a question, and we don’t have much time. Can you do that for me?”

Her voice was uncharacteristically gentle, almost surprisingly so. But it seemed to work, as the fallen automaton weakly nodded its head.

“Good,” she said in return. “We’re looking for a blade. The one from the Ancient Prophecy? Where can we find information about it?”

The fallen automaton took a second to respond, taking a moment to process the request. But then it seemed to understand, using its one good arm to point to the right, a road that led further into the city. But then it moved its hand into a different position, pointing downwards. Of course, Madam Cecilia was able to put it together in an instant.

“Instructions. You’re giving us instructions, right?”

Another nod, this one weaker than the last. It was running out of time. The canister was almost empty.

Madam Cecilia smiled. A kind and gentle smile. “Thank you. You’ve been of great help. You can rest now.”

The fallen automaton looked at her, shakily putting its hand onto her shoulder. The canister ran dry, and the automaton fell to the ground, its hand slipping off of her shoulder, as its lifeless shell clanked against the cobblestone.

The Madam stayed crouching for a short while, before standing back up, turning to face the other two. Her hands were behind her back once more, her composure attempting to mask the sadness that seemed to leak through.

“Well. We have a direction now,” she stated, her voice curt. “Let us depart once more.”

Camden was hesitant. “Are you… okay?” he asked, the Madam’s general attempted calmness giving him pause.

She sighed, a long and deep sigh. “Transparently, no. I’m not.”

The fallen automaton was still lying on the ground, and the Madam turned to look at it. “They’re sentient, you know. The Valos Alnovarium gives them life, in a very literal sense. Without it, they’re no more alive than a car, or a rock. So to have them tossed to the side so haphazardly… it saddens me.”

She looked back at her fellow crewmates. “But sadness and loss are something one learns to deal with during a war. I’ve learned to live with it. Now, we have a mission to complete. Let’s not let the Captain down,” she stated conclusively.

With that final remark, the three embarked back on their journey, Madam Cecilia in the front, the other two in the back, all together heading off to the right. Their path was laden with more mechanical carcasses, wrecked vehicles, and the occasional Laaki-bird that hopped around curiously. It wasn’t exactly clear what the fallen automaton had been pointing towards, now that Camden thought about it. What were they even looking for? A building? A statue? A vehicle? When would they know when they found it? After about an hour of walking, they reached the edge of the city, having run into the wall that surrounded it.

Camden was the first to speak. “Alright, this can’t be correct. Maybe that automaton was pointing at one of the buildings we passed along the way?”

“Or maybe it was wrong,” Levo countered, looking back towards the center of the city. “Can’t guarantee that it actually knew where it was trying to lead us.”

“I’m more inclined to accept Mr. Valakari’s point,” Madam Cecilia noted. “That automaton knew something, we must have simply interpreted it wrong.”

“You’re the boss,” Levo said, motioning to the route that they’d followed. “Lead the way.”

The trio began to walk back the way they came, an arduous task considering they’d be checking every building, vehicle, and scrap that they encountered on the road. That is, until as he was heading out, Levo stepped forwards and felt the cobble shift slightly beneath his feet. He looked down, confused as to what happened. He stepped back, then forwards again. And the ground shifted once more.

He called out to the other two, who were already a little ways ahead. “Hey! I think I found something!”

The two looked at each other. Camden shrugged, heading towards Levo. The Madam, reluctantly, did the same. They came back to find him crouched on the ground, brushing the dried up leaves off of the moving spot of cobbled roadway. He dug his fingers into the deeper sections and grooves where the rocks met each other, and shook from side to side. A roughly one meter by one meter square of the cobble shook in unison as if adhered together, but separate from all the rest of the pathway. Could it be a trapdoor?

Levo placed his backpack on the ground beside him, and pulled out what appeared to be a small explosive. He looked up at Camden and the Madam. “You’re gonna want to stand back for this.”

They both complied, taking a couple of steps back, hiding behind the wreckage of a car.

“Levo, what are you…” Camden began. But he received his response promptly, as Levo pulled the pin, ran off behind the wreckage to join them, and watched the bomb detonate. It cracked the cobbled path into numerous individual rocks, which it sent flying, some falling to the ground, others clattering against the metal chassis of the wrecked car. Stepping out from their shelter, it turned out that Levo’s discovery was quite promising.

The explosion had revealed a trapdoor built directly into the ground, cobblestones adhered on top to hide its positioning, and have it blend in with the surrounding road. This city was just full of surprises. Had Levo not stepped in that exact spot, it’s likely that they would have missed it. There was a chunk missing from where the bomb had gone off, but other than that, it was a near seamless transition.

The trio slowly walked up to the trapdoor, not entirely sure what to expect to find within. The Madam took the initiative of grabbing the edge, and pushing upwards bit by bit, her strength just barely able to then throw it open. The door’s hinges creaked as it opened, then heavily crashed to the stone floor.

The way down was long, and in the evening light of the two suns, one was unable to see the bottom. Camden pulled out a flashlight, shining it down the descent. Still no bottom in sight.

“Creepy,” Levo said. He didn’t need to say anything more.

Camden glanced at him, then looked back down the tunnel. “The automaton did say we’d have to go downwards. What do you think we’ll find?” he asked, to nobody in particular.

Madam Cecilia was the one to respond. “Hopefully exactly what we’re looking for.”

The ladder was worn from both years of use and disuse, but having been constructed out of copper rods, stood just as strong as the day it was built. The rungs were cold to the touch, not only because of the climate, but more primarily to the depth that they were descending to. It always got colder the further down one went back home, Camden recalled. And it was almost reassuring to know that that remained the case here.

They took the ladder down, one by one, Levo electing to go first in case there were any traps to set off. But there weren’t, and soon they all reached the bottom, feet landing on the stone floor beneath them.

“Did you guys find any…thing…” Camden asked, his voice echoing off of the cave walls as he got off the ladder. Yes, yes they had found something.

Before the trio, laid an ornate looking building, with a statue carved into the form of a book for all to see. The walls were composed of polished copper-like metal, the ceiling held up with elegant beige pillars sculpted to the finest detail. Where the architecture ordinarily was composed of boxes and hard lines, the building that stood before them had more curved shapes, adding to the historical feeling atmosphere.

They had found it. They had found the archival library.