Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 127 - Valley of Eternal Snow

Previously:

While writing a letter to her fiance, Nelaira thinks about the events that led to her current predicament. She remembers how her squad of ten found a hidden entrance to a long staircase climbing through the mountain, first discovered by Zor Arite. There they find a green valley filled with wildlife and ruins of a village. Nelaira uses her day off to explore the ruins and finds a diary hidden inside a pillar. While picking herbs Luki finds a patch of land where a large quantity of ash is buried under the soil. He finds it suspicious but his comrades disagree. Nelaira stumbles onto a hidden cellar in the ruins of the village that contains food that is 16 years old. Nelaira gives their archaeologist the diary to translate. The writer of the diary is the village chief's son and he talks about his life. It seems the diary was written after the mage wars, which makes everyone wonder what destroyed the village if not the wars.

* * *

Luki smiled eerily. "Why is it that this food stash hadn't been visited for years? What happened to the survivors? In fact, how come we didn't find any living quarters? Where did they eat and sleep? How was this village destroyed in the first place?"

"Here it comes..." Nelaira sighed helplessly.

"What if these ruins..." Luki's voice lowered mysteriously. "Aren't as ancient as we thought?"

* * *

Episode 127 – Valley of Eternal Snow

Before anyone could interrupt his speech, Luki pointed his finger towards the sky and declared. "In fact, what if this village was destroyed...sixteen years ago? What if Zor Arite was pursued by a herd of Tainted and unwittingly brought them here?"

He gazed into the eyes of his comrades one by one, only to be met with stupefaction, annoyance, and skepticism. "What if they fiercely fought to kill the Tainted and then hurriedly burned their corpses and affected foliage on a large pyre to prevent the Ink from spreading?"

Luki smirked knowingly. "Of course higher ups wouldn't want that story to spread. It would tarnish Zor Arite's illustrious name."

Nelaira didn't even bother to point out the many flaws that could be found in Luki's ridiculous theory. Instead, she turned towards her remaining comrades and murmured: "I'll report our findings to the higher ups and await orders. You should keep this confidential. I don't want any rumors of survivors to spread once we return."

* * *

Unsurprisingly, once Nelaira reported her findings and desire to investigate this village further, her request was denied. Their superiors wanted them to proceed towards the Valley of Eternal Snow.

This all but confirmed that their superiors wanted to pretend that there were never any survivors here in the first place. Whether they were already aware of potential survivors back when Zor discovered this place or if the information was new to them, Nelaira couldn't tell.

Unfortunately, the decision of their superiors only served to increase the intensity of Luki's conspiracy theories. Soon enough even the most resilient ones among his comrades couldn't be bothered to argue with him anymore. Which says something, considering how boring the journey was.

The Valley of Eternal Snow wasn't actually a valley but an endless snowy plain to the north of the mountain. Besides snow and ice, there was nothing else there. Even wind and clouds avoided this tranquil place.

It wasn't that the Valley of Eternal Snow wasn't beautiful, on the contrary, the light refracted and reflected in strange ways creating rainbows and bathing everything in a soft glow. The snow glittered under the sun like it was made from white glitterdust. It was so soft and crunchy under their boots that it brought them a strange satisfaction with each step.