The Last Hope

18 - Artefact

SONG FOR THIS CHAPTER - Mr Sandman, SYML. Linked above! This is an absolutely amazing cover of this song! If you enjoy the chapter please vote, it means a lot. Also, I actively encourage commenting and am trying my best to reply to any as quickly as I can. Want a chat? Don't be shy!

________________________________________________________________________________

Birdsong wove through the air, complicated and sweet. Both cacophonous and harmonious. The longer she listened the more complex the melody became. The pitch rose and fell with the rise of Mercy's chest as she lifted her head off the cold stone floor.

This was a place she'd never been.

Mercy sat up quickly, ignoring the spinning in her skull. Shaking out her glacial limbs, she looked around the room. The walls were made with the same stone as the floors, large slabs of dark charcoal stone, cold beneath her bare feet. In front of her, along one wall was a ginormous four-poster bed crafted from dark wood and etched in silver patterns. Midnight silk sheets were half spilling onto the floor, pooling on the stone like a puddle of shadow, a void. On the adjacent wall was a humongous mirror, gilded in gold and spanning from floor to the high arching ceiling.

Mercy spied herself in the mirror, wearing the clothes she'd borrowed from Mona to sleep in, loose-fitting pants that ran to her shins and a dark coloured camisole. She wrapped her arms around herself to fight off the slight chill seeping up from the floor. A fire burst to life in the hearth behind her, her hand flew to her heart as she leapt away. Logs snapped as flames licked up them, the sound bounced off the ceiling. She watched the flames in the mirror, before twirling to survey the rest of the room.

On the wall opposite to the bed was a great stone archway leading out onto a balcony, twice her height at least. Mercy crossed quickly to peer out, standing on the balcony, trying not to baulk at the distance to the jagged rock face beneath her. The icy floor was already warming beneath her toes. Her breath caught as she surveyed the land far below.

Sprawling green hills spanned for miles and deep in the distance stretched an azure sea. It twinkled and winked where the sun caressed it. Mountains slouched in a wide arc to both sides, to the east they reached crooked fingers of obsidian into a cloudless sky, their snow-kissed peaks glinting. To the west, they were formed of a lighter, paler rock, smoother and weather-worn, almost as white as the snow gleaming at their rounded summits. From those mountains, streams and waterfalls ran, crashing to the ground below and flowing to the coiling river, which twisted out of sight beneath a copse of trees.

Everything was so vibrant, so flush with colour. Something glinted blue, catching her eye. A small group of stone and wooden buildings, fanning out from a central fountain, all with swaying signs hanging from their windows. Storefronts painted varying shades of cobalt, navy, and cerulean. She recognised it in an instant. Sapphire City. The art district.

The city spread out in every direction, large extravagant townhouses and in the centre; simpler, smaller buildings towards the outskirts. Some built from brick and mortar, some carved from the strange dark rock of the mountains, some erected from wooden planks. A large building sat centrally amidst the rest of the architecture, crafted from pale stone. Its towering spires caressed the sky, cutting through swirling clouds like butter. A temple.

This was Ellyheim, before Cressida.

Tears pricked at her eyes, and Mercy sniffed, fighting them.

"The mines are over that mountain to the east, there's a path that cuts straight through, carved by settlers long before any of our kingdoms had risen."