The Allegory Of Triberias: The Call Of Destiny .

Castaway

BETHESDA,
2420 AA, After the Great Ascension.

 
It was quiet everywhere and whatever way she turned, there was not a soul in sight.
Havillah turned around again, this time to survey her surroundings, but everywhere i looked, the buildings towered over her blocking her view of the rest of the path and the areas beyond it.
She looked down to her feet and thought of hovering, but even before she tried and failed, she knew that it was utterly impossible. Now that she had been stripped of all her power and her means of getting around. 
How would she survive? She wondered, feeling oddly empty even as she flexed her muscles to test for the Virtue but nothing came of it. 
She could not continue standing here, she also concluded even as  she finally picked a direction and followed the path, watching to see where it would eventually lead her.
It must have not yet sunk in or her mind was still in denial. That was the only reason she could give for her brain still being able to function. After all, was she not the one who had wished for an adventure? For the short life of a mortal? Here it was and yet, there was no soul to be seen anywhere.
Still she followed the path and soon, she came to realise that the huge stone edifices were placed in such a way that they created a huge concrete maze. And as one continued to move towards the inside, it appeared that they formed a circle around a central Building, one that looked somewhat familiar even to her very new eyes. 
It was not in its appearance per se, but in the strange and yet familiar vibe that seemed to emanate from it. Where had she felt this way before? She thought even as she drew closer to it, her feet being pulling in as if by some sort of strange magnetism.
Havillah drew closer and observed the huge round pillars. Grey Pillars that rose up high above her. Culminating into a high domed roof of a portico that protected a great and mighty entry way from the elements that were the rain, the wind and the solar. Unlike the other structures, the walls were circular, going around in each direction and further than her eyes could see. Around the outer wall was a wide pathway and following it, she soon discovered three other great entry ways that seemed to face each of the directions of a compass.
If only she could hover, she thought wistfully as she gazed down at her feet and then at the high walls that completed a perimeter around this great edifice. Yes, it was great, by the standards of the other buildings which she had come to surmise were actually residential places. But by Triveria standards though, it was quite small and lacking in the same lusture that made the Sanctuary sparkle like a gem at the very heart of city. After all, it did carry the Hope and all shr could see here was a golden rooftop that shone mildly in the evening sun.
 Despite this, something was calling out to her inside those walls but in her present state, it would seem that it was impossible for her to breach those gates. Now that she thought about it,  this place seemed to be in a better state of repair than the rest of the buildings. She thought as she turned around to survey the area. Maybe because there are no windows and the doors were gilded? She questioned in her mind even as she took in the golden domes and the turrets that marked every great entry way. What did it remind her of?  She scoured hrr mind for an answer.
"That's it!  The Sanctuary!" The words left her lips in a whisper even as she turned to stare back at the familiar and gilded architecture that made up this building. There was no other way around it, she finally decided. She had to find a way to get in. Starting maybe with great entry ways? Maybe, she could even find shelter there. She just had to try the doors right? 
Havillah raised up a foot t and began to ascend the stairs that led up to the great eastern entry way.
He had told her to find shelter, the Lord Chamberlain that is and this was the most convenient place that she could think of right now.  Another step forward and she continued to advance upwards. Having no Virtue, it felt like she was exhausting more effort than usual. She was heaving and sweating too, where this situation had previously been unheard of for her. Were it not for the secret scrolls she had exhausted her days reading, she would have thought herself to be in trouble. To be in a dangerous bodily situation, but this was what it meant to be human. To live. To exert effort to the point that no breath was left within you.
Having been lost in her thoughts, she soon found herself standing before the gilded doorways trembling even as her hand grazed the gilded pattern that now seemed so familiar to her ever watchful eyes.
How would she open it? She found herself thinking.
Her eyes trailed up the huge double doorways, all the way up to the ceiling and she almost lost her footing and fell back as she did so.  Thankfully there were doorknobs and she quickly reached out a hand and steadied herself.
To push or pull?  She wondered as she steeled herself to perform the action. Push, she finally decided after studying the wear patterns.
"There are no skid marks swinging outwards therefore the doors, have to open inwa-?" She stilled as the hairs on her back stood upright, alerted by the presence  that had just appeared behind her."Hey! You! What are you doing here?" a male voice startled her. Havillah turned her gaze to search the lengthening shadows for the human she now knew was concealed within them.
Who could that be? She turned to gaze down the stairs, but could not make out anything in the diminishing sunlight and the shadows casted by the massive buildings.
"I..." What was she doing here?  She thought as she sort to defend herself. "I...I was just looking..." she stuttered, trying hard to find her way out in this foreign realm.
Had she just committed yet another crime? How much more unlucky could one person be? She grumbled in her heart. "Is it forbidden?" she called out to the shadows.
"It depends on whom you're asking." The voice replied and her eyes widened at the dark figure in a black armoured suit that had just emerged from out of the shadows.
"Killion?" she could not help but croak out. What were the odds? Her feelings grew lighter. Was she possibly getting luckier? She took a step down the stairway and approached the figure.
"Killion?" he sounded puzzled. "No, but who is asking?" The voice answered even as the visor was pulled back to reveal the face of a young man or was it a boy? Havillah could not tell which for his face was quite deceiving.  
For one, he looked awfully young for the suit. What with his beautiful face and the lack of facial hair that made it hard for her to guess his age let alone his gender. He was quite tall though, and his voice was definitely masculine. That she could manage to tell even though she was also quite aware that a female person could also have a deeper voice.
"I am..." What was she to say? She trailed off not knowing how to introduce herself to the man.
"Well,  I can take you to him. However, you will have to wait until the morning. As you can see, the sun is already setting and you know what that means...?
"I know what that means?" She looked upto the sky and for the first time she noticed that the sky was really darkening. As she did so, her mind went back to what Killion had told her and what she had witnessed before she had swooped down to save the man in question.
"The dragons? Are they coming back?" At her question, the man turned from his observations of their immediate surroundings and began to study her with a curious expression in his deep blue eyes.
"Who are you really?"
Havillah's brows furrowed for a moment, even as she frowned back at what she felt was an awkward way of posing a question. Why was he asking her this? And why now? 
"I am Havillah, daughter of Jaykob and Tamaar, el..."she trailed off as her recollections of her last encounter with human flooded her mind.
"Havillah. I am Havillah" she finally rectified.
"Havillah?"
The man seemed to be thinking about it for a moment and then, he suddenly perked up. "Havillah! I know! I have heard of that name before. You're that girl who saved our captain, right?"
"Your Captain?  You. Mean Killion. I just... Well,  I couldn't... " she began to explain herself and the reasoning behind the action of saving him when it finally hit her! How did he even know about her?  He was not supposed to know that. She thought even as she watched him take in her appearance as if for the very first time.
"There are some differences from the description. For one, your robes are black and not red but the majority is-"
"Wait! What?" she roared. "He told you? That...That..." she started ranting, offended as she imagined what that other human must have told him. How many others had he spoken to?  Didn't he know how to keep serious things a...a... She trailed off as a nerve-racking roar shook up the heavens leaving her numb and dumb for quite a while.
***
So, this is how one felt when you were right close by? She thought, scratching her nose at the suffocating darkness that had just flooded in. As she did so, several balls of red - orange flames flared up into the evening sky, brightening it up for just a moment, before finally letting out to the thick darkness that had wafted in once again.
An eerily silence followed and a cold that chilled her to her bones. Numbing her nerves with so much dread that it was quite impossible for her to move from her spot without some external form of persuasion .
"What is this? What is this overwhelming sense of dread? The air, the air... The air is so stifling!"
"Come! Come on! Let's go!" The man shouted as he rushed up the stairs and grabbed a hold of one of her hands. He pulled her down the stairs and dragged her into a darkened alley, where they hid behind the pieces of thr crumbling outer walls.  
They ran and she stumbled. Her eyes that had never known darkness before struggling to adjust in the shadows of thr darkened street, and as she stumbled for what must have fekt like the millionth time, a dark shadow swooped down, sending down a gust of wind that sent them crashing down into the hard cobbled pathway. 
The shadow swooped up, but as Havillah rose up to stand again, the human soldier tackled her, pinning her down with his weight to prevent her from rising up.
"What… What are you doing?" she whispered angrily.
"Aaargh, I forgot!" he seemed perturbed for totally the wrong reason. "You don't have a suit to cloak your heat signature." he replied in frustration.
A suit? Havillah mulled it over for a moment.
"They can sense me?" she finally whispered realising in horror, that their blacks armours were not a fashion statement.
"Of course. They can! From what hole are you from? How do you not know these things anyway? Everyone in the Bethesda, heck the whole of Erydria knows this." he answered brashly.
What did she do to ever deserve this? Havillah lamented her woes. Tears threatening to fall down as she finally realised her situation.
Who had she wronged in order to deserve this? She could not help but wonder, even as the image of one Elder Lionel snaked its way into her thoughts, causing her to shudder in her darkened Triban coated boots. No way this was divine retribution! That man was a snake! And it was all his fault.
"I am not from around here." she resulted in telling him, whimperimg as she struggled hard to hold back an ocean of tears.
"And where are you from Havillah?" the man replied snakily. "Maybe, we can all go to that paradise and escape these terrors that having been plaguing us for several centuries!" he sneered but she could not fault him for remarking that sarcastically. After all, she really was from a paradise. She had had the good life and she had sneered at it for this...this... what had she even been thinking?
"I do apologise..." she looked down at her hands sullenly. Which was quite had to do considering that he had her pinned for her own protection. "It no longer matters for I am not welcome there anyway." she added albeit more softly, but the human did not get to hear her through the gust of wind that had descended.
He was alert. Prompt to move as yet another dark shadow, swooped in and attacked them once again. The man was quick to act, though the same could not be said for her, even as he sprinted up still attempting to drag her as he ran away from an oncoming onslaught of attacking claws.
Despite this, Havillah was too slow. Without her Virtues, she was utterly powerless and as a third shadow lunged down at them, she tripped on her own feet and fell down allowing for the wyverns to grab her by the back of her robes before lifting her up.
Havillah had never known such terror in her life. Terror and pain as sharpened claws pierced through her flesh. She screamed even as the young soldier tried to reach for her but what could he do when the wyvern was pulling her up and further away from his reach?
This was it. This was how she would die. On her very first night of banishment. She thought as defeated tears continued to stream down her now dirtied cheeks.
"Oh Light, is this how I was supposed to go? Is this my destiny? Help! Save me!" she cried bitter tears as she thought back on her foolishness even as thick clouds of sulphur and darkness overwhelmed her from every side.
This was it. She thought as she begin to lose her consciousness. Her eye lids closed, but it was not dark all.Maybe she was hallucinating. She thought as she looked into the small spark of light that was quickly growing.
It soon became a fire. A fire that warmed her heart. Peace soon flooded her and suddenly, a bright explosion of light enveloped her and she opened her eyes surprised to find that she was still alive.
All around her was bright. Bright as day even as the dragon above her screeched out in pain and then, she was finally free. Free and falling but devoid of pain. If anything, her wounds had closed up and she could feel the tingling of her healing skin.
She was free! Yes, free but falling, and yet, for some reason, she could not panic while in this sea of white.
Had they come to save her ? Was she being restored? Was she being taken home? At this moment, she felt was reassurance. Reassurance that everything was all okay.