A Fractured Land (Working Title)

Part 2

Leah tiptoed forward, as if worried that her footsteps would disturb the sanctity of the collection of art we now beheld.

"It's beautiful," she said, absentmindedly.

"I don't understand." I said, more to myself than to her.

Leah glanced up at me. "What?"

I took a few steps to join her, trying to wrap my head around the situation. "This is not what I saw. What I saw was a pit, just a bottomless pit. I know that this is the same pit that I found, but these pictures, this mosaic, it wasn't here before."

Leah didn't respond, redirecting her attention to the artwork. "What does it mean?"

I observed the pictures, and immediately wondered if it told a story. "These ships are built by the Kalast."

"The Kalast?"

"Fishermen. North of Velstand; but these are warships. The Kalast are peaceful people." I returned to my previous state, "I don't understand."

"These mountains," Leah elected to move on to something that we may be able to make sense of, "this looks like the Western Pass."

She was right. The pieces of silver and glass formed a series of peaks and valleys that paralleled how our father described the mountains to the South. Nestled in those mountains were tiny towns with plain but sprawling structures.

"If that's the Western Pass," I wondered, "what if—"

"Velstand." Leah interrupted. "It's Velstand!"

On the shore of what I assumed to be the Western Sea, we saw a depiction of the great city, complete with the famous towers and the dockyards that hold trade routes across the land.

"It's a map," I concluded.

"And a story." Leah amended, moving to the opposite side of the picture, "This castle—what is it?"

She was looking at a castle under siege, on the opposite side of the picture. The fortress was in flames, and soldiers fought among the castle walls. Some wore red, others wore white. "I'm not familiar with this place."

"Maybe it's part of the story," I proposed.

"So far, the map has been accurate. Why would it become inaccurate here?" Leah had a point. So many things here didn't make sense. I walked to my pack and pulled out a piece of parchment, beginning to scrawl what I saw in rough detail.

"What are you doing?" Leah asked.

"I'm going to ask father." I answered, "He fought with the Soturi. He might know."

"Drevyn, father has never told us anything about the Soturi." Leah said.

"The Soturi aren't here." I'd moved to a specific spot on the map, nodded downward for Leah to make her own observations, "every other major people are detailed on this map. Even the Rölnik. Look, there's Velstand, above it are the Kalast, and there are the Ipar, the Votar, but right here is where the Soturi should be, and they're not here."

"There's no Ruin." Leah gasped, wide-eyed.

I looked again, and realized what she meant. The Soturi guarded the borders of the Ruin, and there were no Soturi to be seen in the picture. In their place was an expansive valley, and within that valley was the castle that neither of us recognized.