The Tragedy of Renya

1.1 A Very Special Mission

Third day of the fifth month, Ostia

Professor Sother’s office was a mess. It had always been a mess, and for as long as he’d continue to inhabit this office it would remain a mess. There were stacks of books on the floor, ranging from academic magazines and papers to four-coin novels. A few maps were hanging on the walls, each with different scales and different projections. Pins were pinned on the maps on seemingly random locations, in many different colours. The bookshelves that lined one wall were not filled with books as they should have been, but instead there were many pots and miscellaneous items on them, all of which had a tag in front of them. In the corner was a movie player buzzing, its screen showing a fifty-year-old adaptation of a play by Viusi. It was nearing the end, the dramatic scene where the lovers were torn apart as the Goddess disappeared. The part of the Goddess was played by Dame Pres, an actress which Professor Sother had been in love with when he was younger. Professor Sother’s desk was lined with loose papers; essays and letters he had received from students and colleagues. The Professor himself, a tall but skinny man, who looked as if he’d been forcefully stretched up, was marking one of the essays, hunched over the white paper with a blue pen.

He barely looked up when a young woman entered the room. She stumbled her way between the many towers of books, making her way to his desk using the only clear path that was available; one that led past all the walls and nearly all the stacks of books before it would finally end in the clearing that was around Professor Sother’s desk. The young woman stumbled over a pile of books, making most of them fall off the pile. She put them back, looking at the titles. “Gems and Myths: Creatures and their Attributes”, “Wyndri Sightings: Insanity and Visions”, “Why Wyndri Exist”, “A not-so-short Catalogue of Mythical Beings”, “Future Telling Wyndri Style”, and “Temporal Anomalies: They are Out There”, an analysis from Professor Sother’s predecessor. She saw the professor glaring at her, although she could not tell if it was because of her mistake or because the old man was getting blind and had a near-permanent glare when looking at things further away than his desk. She carefully stumbled her way through the many other piles of books and papers, making sure she didn’t bump into anything. Finally, she reached Professor Sother’s desk, where the man himself was sitting copying a few lines from one of the essays. She tried to make out what they were saying, though she couldn’t read the man’s handwriting and didn’t know which lines exactly he was copying. She looked at the essay and saw it was about the existence of Wyndri in tragedies, and attempted to explain why Wyndri were a favourite subject for many when it came to tragedies. She nodded, remembering the short essay she’d written a few years ago on a similar topic.

She frowned and sat down on the chair opposite Professor Sother. He was once again ignoring her, as if he’d already forgotten she’d entered. He continued his note taking as if he was the only person in the room. The young woman waited for a few moments before her eyes wandered off to the wall of shelves. There were a few skulls, one of which had a typed note saying it was a Wyndri skull, and two more which had notes identifying them as skulls of people who were killed by Wyndri. A few cases filled with gems in all the colours of the rainbow with notes identifying the kind of gem and stating that they could very well have come from a Wyndri. A rolled up map which had no label on it but was most likely to be put on a wall at some point in the future to be filled with pins. She looked at the maps on the walls, noticing one of the area. It was a fairly recent map, but it still sported the same layout as many of the older maps. In the middle of the map was Renya, or, to be accurate, the ruins of Renya. Around that central point were five other large cities, including Ostia, the place they were right now. The University of Ostia was also on the map, as a large shape that appeared to be made of many different blocks that were just randomly connected to each other. There was a pin just left of the west wall of Renya, and a few more inside Renya. There were pins at seemingly random locations through the other cities, leaving only Ostia as a pin-less city. “WHY” was written in large capital letters on the map. It was not a part of the print; Professor Sother had written it down there himself.