Divide

We walked our way towards the town square's edge, the details of the buildings ahead much clearer now. Their designs were the same as other structures we had already passed. I focused on those details, rather than dwelling on what had transpired. We walked in silence through the strange looking trees, passing us slowly with each step. I could not bring myself to ask about what had happened.

"It's okay to ask." Tradaeya spoke deciding to finally break the silence.

"Then... what was that all about?" I asked in a semi-angered tone.

"Apologies for my behavior, but what she said was disrespectful to the divine." She said ominously.

"I thought you said the gods are gone?" I rebutted.

"Ha, I did say that didn't I." She said, not answering the question. 

I stayed silent, still in fear of what I had learned about Tradaeya. I feared that bringing it up any more could lead to me receiving violence by Tradaeya's hand. I wanted to ask about it and I wanted to trust her, but for my own safety, I moved on, and slowly allowed my trust in her to dwindle.

"Do you have any idea what the festival is about." I asked after a quiet moment.

"I have yet to witness it myself, but I hear of it from the talks of the residence. It's why I choose to stay in this god forsaken place... but thou needest not to hear of such things." She spoke.

She did not clarify, and I did not ask, but something was certain now: this festival is something of great importance. I hung on the words of the old lady about her being reborn and what it could mean. I grew more silently impatient, feeling as though Tradaeya knew exactly what the old lady was telling us, yet refuses to tell me. Just as I was beginning to tempt myself into asking her for more details, we met the end of the town square and entered into an array of buildings. It was a short road ahead, a small view of the castle atop the hill was framed between two buildings. I stared down the road, only to notice that it just ended in darkness, like the world was missing a piece. We walked the road in silence until I began to see the cracked edges and destroyed stone handrails at the very end. I was met face to face with the desolate scenery of a high castle shrouded in dust and ash. The buildings below it seemed minuscule compared to it, the castle's towering height casting its shade upon the lower town. It was clear that it was once a sight of utmost importance, and the only thing separating us and the castle was a grand moat. Just at the crumbled edge of the road, where piles of discarded pieces of the tan-ish gray handrails laid, was a deep dark. A large moat wrapped itself around the entire center of the kingdom, creating a divide held together only by a few, large arching bridges across some parts of the moat. Some of these bridges have been completely destroyed, leaving only their ends remaining, however some still stood, their firm brick foundation standing the tests of time and battle.

As I stared across to the other side, I noticed the movement of something shiny sluggishly trekking along the roads. I squinted, my sight clearing up enough to recognize the bronze figure in the distance. It was one of the knights I had seen dead along the roads here, this time alive, though something was off about them. It was hard to tell from this distance, but they seemed bigger than the dead knights I had seen. The bronze knight continued making laggardly progress, patrolling the perimeter of the moat from their side. As I scanned the area across, I saw a few more knights, all of them in the same worn out looking condition. Some dragged their weapons across the ground, others were slouched over in an unhealthy manner, some were limping, and a few dangled their strangely long looking arms like they were completely broken.

"Is this what you wanted to show me?" I asked. "I mean it's..."

Tradaeya suddenly interrupted me. "By the way, from whence haft thou came? After all this time I could never figure out that accent of yours."

"I..." The words would not leave my mouth. I began fishing for answers in my head, trying to figure out a way to answer without revealing where I was truly from. "I'm from somewhere far... very far." My response and tone could not have been further from trustworthy. Nevertheless, I carried my answer with a prideful expression, knowing that even though I hid my true origin, my answer was technically not wrong.

"I see." Tradaeya muttered, her eyes somewhat cold.

We stared off into the other side, watching over the silent castle and the tired soldiers below. As we stood along the moat's edge, Tradaeya spoke.

"I find it funny, watching the rot veil knights from here. They patrol from over there, thinking that what they guard is sacred, ignorant to the fact that they bow to a blasphemous thing as well... just as this side of the moat does." She spoke as if I should have known what she was talking about.

I responded with a blank stare and she did not look back at me, but spoke again.

"They weren't always known as rot veils. Twas a title given to them by those behind us, for they have fallen from grace, such as all of those in this world." Her words grew colder by the second. Finally, Tradaeya looked over to me. "If thee hearest anymore of false divinities, thou too shall fall."

I thought about what she had said, realizing once again that this world was not always like this. Are all good things here fated to this kind of state? Suddenly, I came to a question that I had not asked with all the new information that had been dumped onto me. It was the namesake of this kingdom yet I had almost forgotten.

"Hey, can you tell me about the angels?" I asked aloud, letting my mind speak freely.

"Angels huh..." She said as if deeply saddened.

I felt her hand rest upon my shoulder, then within a split second, I was enveloped by the dark and staring up at Tradaeya's silhouette, the black sky making her outline barely visible. My back made contact with a gravely surface while the back of my head felt nothing but air. When I turned, I saw that I had landed on a ledge jutting out from the side of the moat. I looked back up, Tradaeya's cold, non-reflective eyes shunning me from above. She was maybe ten feet up, but that ten feet felt massive from where I laid. I tried to move, but a sharp pain washed over my leg.

"You know, I have a knack for sniffing out people such as thee." Her voice echoed from above. "This ruin piece, and the stench that cometh off thee... it's vile." She said as she held up the engraved stone relic.

I looked to my left to see my bag missing. She must have taken it just before I fell in.

"Thou haft no need for such an unholy thing." She spoke with disgust.

"What are you doing? Let me back up!" I screamed, my agony echoing around the steep edges of the moat.

"I have given thee much knowledge, so make of it what thee will. That's what this all depends on, whether thee remains steadfast or fall to insanity, we will make use of thee... in worship or flesh." Her tone was eerie.

"You hear me? Get me out!" I yelled.

Then, she spoke her final words before departing. "Be not afraid, for one day, all paths shall lead back to the dark... Grace upon the new world my friend." With that, her shadow left behind the cover of the moats edge, and I was alone with nothing but blackened walls and an equally black sky.

Anger riled up inside me until it burst out into words I never thought I would say. The raged scratched its way out of my throat.

"TRADAEYA! I'LL KILL YOU!"