Fading Echo

Chapter 4: Lumiel

They continued their way in silence, after Mildred's summoning had failed.

Kelsu pondered how he could make Mildred understand that she was dead and that they wanted to help her.

He imagined that it would be difficult for him to understand that he died, too.

But from his perspective it was incomprehensible why she was clinging to life. She had lived in the tomb without food and water, she was insubstantial, without a heartbeat. She didn't breathe. She should have noticed all of this, but it seemed that the human psyche was capable of amazing things when it came to creating its own reality.

Kelsu suppressed a yawn. He wouldn't be able to find a solution for his problem today.

The sun disappeared slowly behind the horizon and he was glad that they were traveling again on the main road to the city. This way was safe and there were no negative consequences when they were tired and absent minded. They had been awake since the night before, with only the herbs, they had taken in the evening, keeping them on their feet.

The street was deserted. The only ones still outside the city walls at this time were traveling fighters like them.

They could already see the city in the distance when the first blood-soaked crosses appeared on the roadside.

They rose high into the sky and cast no shadow on the flowery meadows that lay between the main road and the fields. The remains of a wide variety of creatures were still bound to them. Werewolves, some of them even killed in mid-transformation were nailed to the cross as a warning. Fey and demons were rotting at the crosses and were only taken down to make room for the succeeding condemned and dead.

In between, they kept seeing withered heads of vampires, their skin stretched tightly across their skulls to reveal pointed teeth. Magic kept them from crumbling to dust. They hung in clusters from the crossbeams, swaying lightly in the wind.

The wood, as well as the iron and silver nails were marked with sacred symbols that kept them from breaking free. Today however, only dead people were hanging from the crosses.

It was silent, except for the rustling of the fields in the distance.

In the falling darkness the magical lights along the way ignited, bathing their surroundings in a pale orange light. The closer they came to Lumiel, the capital of this region, the more he felt the exhaustion in his bones.

The winding towers and peaked roofs of the city were the first things travelers noticed, before they were close enough to see the magic rising from the moat as a shimmering blue mist. Kelsu felt somewhat comforted by this sight. Lumiel was the epitome of their victory and their future.

When they finally reached the moat and the drawbridge he took a deep breath. Guards stood outside the iron gates and on the battlements of the wall he could see others on patrol. From the massive towers with their small windows shone a bright light across the city walls. These towers were a striking contrast to the slender and delicate structures within the city.

The two warriors passed through the mist, the magic inside it felt warm around them and for a few moments their fatigue disappeared. The guards outside the gates nodded to them and they plunged into the colorful nightlife of Lumiel.

As quiet and deserted it was after dark in the surrounding countryside of the city, as noisy and chaotic it was in the city itself. Here not only the gifted ventures the streets, the warriors, shamans, witches and priests, but also the untalented people. The helpless, wo depended on people like Jerud and Kelsu and all the others like them to protect their homes and fields with their magic.