The Underneath: Saga of Aupolis

Reflections

Growing darkness stretched across the ravine. Daylight never lasted long. The dense, overhead foliage provided extreme protection from weather, but also caused light to be a limited commodity as it strained to reach Beneath.

Sighing, Vesna leaned back against the stone, and immediately felt the cold surface through her tunic. The coolness was welcome and invigorating. Her mind began to race through images from the day, but she intentionally forced her focus off into the distance; past the fields below filled with Comrades training into the evening twilight; past the small wooded barrier cutting off the Temple grounds from the rest of the ravine; past the Garden Residences flanking Gods' Gift. 

Vesna's current location, more than half way up the Temple tower, allowed her an aerial view of the Underneath, which housed the middle and lower class houses and businesses. Those dwellings always looked impressively high from the bottom of the Garden, but from where she sat now, she felt as if she was looking down on the world...until her eyes were drawn even higher to the curtain of foliage arching over the ravine like a natural shield.

"They say the Gods hide us from the evil of the world."

A soft smile came to Vesna's lips as she peered to her side and saw Lyren, whose gaze was trained in the same direction she had just been looking. 

"Ever wonder what it looks like? The evil?" Lyren's voice was soft, almost as if she were talking to herself.

Vesna shrugged. "The old timers say evil has no face. Whatever that means."

"But I wonder if you can actually see it. You know, the way the Mothers can see a Chosen when they're born?"

Vesna tilted her head back up towards the canopy, as if the answer might be lurking somewhere in all of the green leaves and fading sunlight.

"Sometimes I think...just for a moment...I..."

The silence grew as Vesna waited for her friend to finish her thought. When some time passed without comment, and it became apparent no more would be said, Vesna filled the silence with, "You would know more about all of that than me."

Lyren nodded slowly. With a sudden shake of her head, her glazed blue eyes snapped into focus on Vesna. A smile spread over her face, showing off a dimple in both cheeks. "I brought you dinner." She bent forward and leaned her forearms on the balcony rail in front of her. "I put it on your desk," she explained, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder. "You know, because you never showed for supper."

"That was kind of you."

"Want to talk about it?"

"The food?"

Lyren sighed heavily and let her head fall onto her folded arms.

"That bad? Should I even eat it?"

Her friend's shoulders started shaking, and when her blonde head came up her lips were parted and her dimples were all the more distinct.

"Vesna, you're impossible."

"You've convinced me. I won't touch it."

"Impossible!"

The two young women's laughter rang out through the dusk and was engulfed by the commotion of the nearby cascading water.

"Come back inside your room. You make me nervous out on that ledge." Lyren beckoned repeatedly with her arm.

Vesna hesitated. The "ledge" was one of her favorite retreats. She could access it by climbing over the stone rails on her balcony, carefully treading the top of a short architectual rim cut into the rock, and arriving at a natural alcove hollowed out where the tower met the surface of the cliff face. This vantage point gave her the access to look directly out over the entire vicinity of Beneath.