Arcanium Veilstone

Aurelia

On the southern border of Chronovate are the Everglade Peaks and the Silvershade Woods. In winter they are the most ferocious areas to explore. Winds so fast they'll sweep you away and snow so deep you'd fall through its delicate top and never be seen from again. If you could get past both there's a city of ruins that has been touched only by time. Tree roots break through the concrete of old buildings and vines wrap around old pillars. It's a beautiful sight to behold if given the chance.

I've been here a few times before. My parents give little care to where I run off to during the day as long as I am out of their way and home in time to cook dinner for them and my siblings. One day I wandered here and I had to find myself never wanting to leave. Each time I visit I feel the pull of this place getting stronger and stronger. It's like it's called out for me. There's a voice in my head that beckons me here time and time again. I just wish I could figure out why.

Rocks crumble under my feet as I trample through the ruins, searching for the source of the voice calling for me. In recent months the call has gotten stronger. A cold gust of wind blows over me and I try to ignore the shiver that runs over me. Winter is closely approaching. I'm sure it's only a few months away by now based on the cold chill in the air and the silver clouds that hang above. The ruins always feel colder than the rest of Chronovate.

I find myself entering into one of the only still majority-standing buildings. It has not yet crumbled completely to time. Inside the ceiling is missing and it smells of sea salt and the walls are sticky with it. The ocean isn't much further south. If I keep going through the ruins I'm sure I'd come to meet where the ocean licks at the grassy and muddy shore. I've never been in this building before. I've never been this far in before.

The call just keeps going, louder now than ever before. It echoes in my ears and my head. My head pounds with the sound of my name.

"Aurelia. Aurelia. Aurelia," the voice calls out. I go further into the ruins, rocks moving underneath my feet as I take an unsteady step forward.

I've tried to find what history I can on these ruins. I have searched every library and tome in my city and outside of it but I can find nothing. Nothing explains the haunted ruins I stand in. There is no explanation or history of the people who lived here before it became this empty and haunted ground. Maybe the source of this call, this voice that echoes too loudly in my head, will have an answer. I need an answer to this all.

"Aurelia. Aurelia. Aurelia." The voice beckons me closer. I turn a corner.

This part of the ruin is more collapsed than the rest. Bricks and stone are in piles on the wet Earth and the hair is heavy with the smell of smoke and copper. Someone has died here. Recently. The smell of their blood hangs heavy in the air and it chokes me with how strong the stench is.

I move in closer. There's something hidden under a piece of rubble. I can see a brown cloth poking out under the moss-covered stone. It stands out in such an area. I move closer and kick at the loose rubble, it moves easily with each tap of my foot. I was right. It's cloth but there is something underneath it. With the tip of the sword that has been hanging at my side, I nudge the brown cloth aside.

It's a book.

The voice that is calling me finally stops. I guess this is what I've been meant to find. A book buried under the rubble of a town no one has ever heard of before. The sun is setting. There's an orange haze casting over the more southern part of the ruins. If I'm out here much longer my parents will grow angry with me. I pick up the book and the cloth it was wrapped in and hurry from the ruins.

"Aurelia!" The voice calls out, louder than ever before. I can hear rocks crumbling behind me as I make my way back to the Silvershade Woods. My house lies just beyond the borders of the forest and it won't take me more than an hour to get there from here.