A New Malice

As we approached the fortified city the walls only got taller and taller. I was amazed by how lacking in blemish the white walls were. Even-more, the blue tiled roof which adorned the allure seemed to reflect back a similar rainbow color to my robe.

“Tiaria, are the blue tiles on the wall magic resistant like my robe?” I asked with a hint of curiosity.

Tiaria looked up at me with a slightly amused look.

“They are, I am surprised you noticed.”

“Well, they reflect light in the same way, I guess.” I trailed off towards the end of my sentence, not sure how to really explain what I was seeing.

Tiaria seemed to pause in thought for a moment before giving an approving nod.

“You must have the ability to see the flow of disturbed magic.” Tiaria lifted her index finger as if to make a point. “Those blue tiles are made out of an alloy which separates magical formula, you are probably able to see that disturbance.”

“Aren’t you able to do the same since you could see that my robe was magic resistant too?” I asked.

“Not exactly, for me it is more of a feeling.” Tiaria seemed curious about this difference between us as well.

As we came closer and closer to the walls I was able to make out a large gated area with, what appeared to be, guards sitting out front. I started to subconsciously pick up my pace, slightly getting ahead of Tiaria. I noticed that every time I would inch ahead of her she would quicken her pace to get back ahead of me. I found it quite amusing. We quickly found ourselves within speaking distance of the guards, who had stood up some time ago when they saw us walking towards them.

“Morning, Regional Pass please.” One of the guards said with a very professional tone.

Tiaria reached into her bag and pulled out a small bronze metal card. She flipped it over and showed it to the guard. The guards gave a nod and then looked over to me. I slid a quick side-eye towards Tiaria, who seemed to suddenly remember that she had assumed I was a demon just a few hours prior.

“Ah!” Tiaria looked towards the guard and began to speak. “This is Yu, I found him in the forest, it seems he was attacked and lost his memory. I think he lost his pass as well.”

The guard shifted his stance slightly. “Little apprentice, even for you I can’t let someone in without a pass, they could be a demon for all we know.” The guard gave me an accusatory stare. I simply stared back.

“No no! It’s fine I cast Demon’s Bane on him already.” Tiaria put her hands on her hips in a proud stance.

“It’s strictly forbidden to use Demon’s Bane on a human, so either you broke the rules or you thought he was a demon.” The guard said with a monotone voice.

Tiaria had a look on her face like a child who was just caught stealing cookies. I swear I could almost see a bead of sweat going down her forehead.

“I mean I found him randomly in the forest, I thought there was a chance he could be a demon so I used it on him just in case.” Tiaria didn’t seem convinced by her own words, although what she had said was technically the truth.

The guard gave a tired sigh, I could guess from his general demeanor that Tiaria was a common trouble maker. I looked over towards Tiaria who was already glaring at me. Could she read my mind?

“Fine, but go report the visitor immediately to the city hall Ti.” I was slightly surprised by the casual nickname.

“Thanks uncle!” Tiaria gave a wave as she walked by. I started my pace behind her.

“Thanks uncle.” I said to the guard as I passed. He didn’t seem pleased, although I could hear a stifled laugh coming from in front of me.

As we passed through the threshold I was able to see the entrance of the inner town. The first thing that caught my eye was the absolute cleanliness of the town. I couldn’t see any trash as I scanned the area with my eyes. The roads were made of beautifully laid brickwork interwoven with larger stone pieces. The sides of the roads were lined with fine crafted, hand placed, brick. The stones all seemed to be made of a yellow-tinted limestone. From the road my eyes lifted to the beautiful masonry of all of the buildings that sat along the edges. All of the buildings were painted in pastel pastes of pink, blue, and yellow. Placed in patterns to the side of the buildings were ornate metal-work light stands. Every light stand seemed to be made of different shapes. I was absolutely enchanted by the beautiful city before me. My heart beat faster and faster as I imagined all of the amazing places I was about to visit, all the amazing architecture that I was going to explore. Tiaria had stopped walking a moment before and came back towards me.

“Come on, we need to get to the tabernacle to get your arm looked at.” Tiaria seemed insistent as she looked at my arm. I gave her a smile and shook my head in agreement. As we walked towards our destination I couldn’t help but notice that despite the beautiful and clean city the people seemed worn down. Much like Tiaria everyone’s clothes seemed battered, and many of them had expressions of hopelessness.

“Hey.” I spoke out towards Tiaira.

“Why does everyone seem so tired and beat up?” I innocently asked.

Tiaria gave me a side look and then looked back in front of her.

“Things aren’t easy right now, just be happy the lord works hard to upkeep the town itself.” Tiaria seemed to almost be repeating something that she had read a hundred times.

I decided not to press Tiaria any further. I had the obvious sense that there was a lot more going on with both her and this town, but at this point I was a new face to both and I had no business poking around. It wasn’t too much longer of a walk before we reached the bottom of a large staircase which headed up to a massive building built of brown granite. The building had several large towers and many people congregating outside.

“Let’s head in.” Tiria said to me.

Tiaria started quickly moving up the stairs and I followed suit behind her.

I noticed the many people who were outside of the large building seemed to be staring at Tiaria with a look of reverence. As we reached the top of the stairs a larger man in a robe near the door spotted us and waved.

“Young apprentice!” The man glanced towards me, “You brought another lost soul to us?”

“You know me, fate drives us towards those in need of help.” Tiaria had switched to a quite unexpectedly mature tone.

The larger man gave us a slight bow with his head and motioned us inside the building. As we entered our footsteps began to echo on a beautiful white floor that appeared to have a massive hand carved mural of something that I could not quite make out. The inside of the building was extraordinarily ornate, with a mix of the brown granite and gold leaf.

“This is quite nice.” I said with a matter-of-fact nod.

Tiaria looked over towards me as we continued to walk.

“Indeed, this place is quite blessed.”

I stared at Tiaria for a moment.

“Who are you?” I asked with some sarcasm.

Tiaria simply glared at me before looking forward again. A moment later arrived at a large door which had another individual with a robe standing in front of it. He gave Tiaria a smile before opening the large wooden door.

After a momentary pause we both walked through the door together.

“Tiaria.” An older man stepped forward towards us and started adjusting and dusting off Tiaria’s clothing.

“I know you are drawn towards helping people, but an apprentice god-candidate really shouldn’t leave the city walls.

“A what?” I accidentally said out loud instead of in my head.

Tiaria gave a long sigh and the older man looked at me with a curious smile.

Tiaria will soon make the journey to the divine realm with lord Halbert.

“What does that mean?” I gave a questioning blink.

Tiaria gently pushed away the older man’s hands before turning to look at me.

“It means I will sacrifice my body to transcend to the realm of the spiritual.”

Once Tiaria said that something seemed to twist inside of me.

“Let’s not let that happen.” The words slipped out of my mouth with a dark malice that sounded natural to me but seemed to startle everyone in the room including Tiaria.