It Is Our Capital, and That Is All

Estille brought us out of the prison. We were left in shackles for the time being, but I hoped they would be removed soon. At least we were out of that cramped cell. If we had been made to return there, I would have been forced to... relieve myself, as breakfast had caught up to me. Thankfully, we were allowed a break to do just that, privately, although their facilities were not at all what I was used to. For one thing, the toilets flushed on their own! And—well, I shan't go on about it.

We exited to the outside through a pair of double doors as tall and grand as those of the courtroom, and I wondered how many doors of that level of craftsmanship could be here in this world—and not just doors! The people of this world were masters of construction and artistry. They were gods, after all.

Through the doorway, we stepped onto a wide bridge, and I gazed out upon the divine realm. It was incredible. We were high, high up, as high as the birds fly, and all around was crisp, open air that smelled of newness and freedom. Below us stretched the streets and structures of a great city. The buildings were massive and had been architected in all kinds of unusual (and assumedly hard to build) shapes. In fact, calling that place just a city undersold it by a large margin; it was a veritable metropolis. Smoke billowed from grated egresses on huge metallic boxes. Carts moved along the streets at high speed, pulled along by neither man nor beast, and some even floated through the air! In the distance I could see the perimeter of the settlement, beyond which a vast crimson plain stretched into the horizon. There were many things I saw that I did not understand.

"What is all this?" I said.

"We stand in the Capital of the holy Order Spathis," Estille replied. "Gaze upon our might. Like the Divine Instruments, this city is a machine. Every building, vehicle, and inhabitant is but a cog in its grand engine."

"Does the city have a name?" said Marigold. I was surprised to hear her speak so calmly after her frustration with me during the hearing, but it was a pleasant surprise, and I was glad to hear her taking some interest in the strange new world we had found ourselves in.

"No," said Estille. "It is our Capital, and that is all. You people delight in giving things more names than necessary, don't you?"

"Our Capital? So is this your home?" I said.

Estille sighed. "Yes, yes. You really don't know anything... explaining it all to you myself will take precious time I simply don't have."

"But, you said you would—"

"I did not say I would teach you myself. Do not attempt to make me a liar, spawn of Ariel! I will have you both join our forces, and you will learn there while serving the Order."

"So we are not free?" I said. I had suspected this would be the case.

"No one is free," said Estille. The wind blew through me, and I shivered. Marigold clutched her hat awkwardly with her cuffed hands, and we looked at each other, sharing in the solemn recognition that our fates were not yet ours to decide.

One of the hovering cart-like things gently touched down on the bridge, and we were ushered on board. Estille called the vehicle a "transport," which seemed like an awfully vague name, but then again, so was "Capital." Inside the transport, a woman sat in front of a panel adorned with lights and levers and other bits. It was similar in a way to the apparatus through which my connection to Alithet had been made, and I thought it must have been an interface for controlling the vehicle. Estille sat up front, next to the driver, and Marigold and I were put in a row of seats behind them. Estille gave a command, and we departed.

Marigold must have been afraid of heights, for she insisted on keeping her eyes closed and would jolt upright and grab onto the wall whenever the transport hitched. I wouldn't say I was completely unafraid, either, but the excitement and novelty of flying through the air was so powerful that I was glued to the window the whole time. Estille was right; the city really was like a machine, and watching its inner workings was mesmerizing.

"About Ariel..." I said. At the mention of his name, the driver twitched, accidentally smacking one of her levers to the side, and the transport turned sharply, eliciting a startled yelp from poor Marigold.

"Calm yourself," Estille said, hovering a steady hand near the driver's shoulder. "You should be advised to avoid speaking that name without warning here. For the people of Spathis, Ariel is a distant, unpleasant memory—one they would rather not remember."

"What did he... do?" I said hesitantly, wondering if I should end this line of questioning lest the driver inadvertently cause the transport to plummet to the ground. At first, Estille said nothing. I slowly wrested my eyes away from the window to stare at Estille in anticipation. 

Then, without turning around, they spoke. "He was a trusted member of the Order Spathis once. He was different—not a true god, but... I suppose you would call him a child. What he lacked in brute force, he made up for in his surprising intellect. He was a brilliant strategist. Still, despite leading us to victory many times, he grew jaded. We should have seen it." They paused, laying a hand against their cheek, and the transport driver shivered.

"He devised a plan to destroy us. He knew that once his plan was in motion, his guise of loyalty would crumble, so he started by assassinating the strongest among us, our beloved leader, Spathos, and seizing his Divine Instrument, Alithet. Clad in our leader's stolen image, Ariel brought nearly two thirds of the Capital to ruin. My brethren and I fought him back, and he fled. He was keenly aware of the limitations of his strength, and so he sought to form an army. That is the purpose of your world, Godwin. You, and Marigold, and all those you knew there—every last one of you was created to fight on behalf of Ariel."

"WHAT!?" I said, louder than I meant to. "Sorry, I mean, what!? That's outrageous! The people of my world are anything but warriors at heart. Of course, there were battles once, in the distant past, but..."

"And yet you call yourself a Holy Knight," said Estille. "All that you are is a droplet, trickled down through streams, rivers, headwaters, from the source: Ariel. His essence may have been diluted or split, but you are still a part of him. You still have the spark of a warrior, however dim."

"Him, sure," said Marigold, "but what about me? What about everyone else?"

"Are you truly without any drive to fight?" said Estille. "I know little of your world or its people, but I doubt that they lack those desires entirely. In any case... Ariel's emanation made him even weaker than he already was. Fortunately, we reached him before he could cross into his creation."

"Emanation—what is that?" asked Marigold.

"It is the process by which we create," Estille said with a sigh. "You did not know of it?"

There was an awkward pause, so out of obligation I responded "no," although I thought that much was obvious.

Estille continued. "In his debilitated state, it should have been simple to defeat Ariel, but alas, he was as cunning as ever. He fused himself with Alithet, giving up his physical form to become one with the machine, and he used its power to escape to some unknown place where he remained hidden for countless eras. His betrayal... it casts a great shadow on our proud history. I am sure now you can understand where Garramat's distrust and Oemenon's diffidence stem from."

I nodded solemnly, though Estille could not see it, and admittedly I felt a bit ashamed. What Ariel had done was nothing short of an atrocity, and to think that my whole world had been born of such a horrible event—that I was, in some way, a fragment of that man's betrayal... I began to wonder if a life like that should exist in the first place.

"I understand that must have been painful," said Marigold, "but I still don't understand—why did Ariel turn traitor in the first place?"

As she finished her question, the transport touched down on the roof of a large box-shaped building, and Estille stood up. "Our time is up," they said. "I've already told you more than I would have liked." They ushered us out of the transport and on into the building, and so began our time as knights of the Order Spathis.