A Dance of Two Worlds

The Ruins

Chapter Seven

The Ruins

Not all noble ideas yield worthy results

Elisium

The Fifth Loop, Year 371, 1st January (5L/371/1/1)

"Andrews the Explorer is now about to explore another world. What will I be called now? Andrews the double explorer?" Andrews tried to find a silver lining in his predicament, but his heart wanted to murder his mind for putting them in this situation.

The farmer was still giving him some incredulous looks. "You don't look from this side of the world. You are one of those rich merchants from upstream who just know drinking and dancing."

"No, you idiot. I didn't wash here from upstream. I dropped from another world." Andrews wanted to yell but he went with the flow. "Yes, I got a little drunk and fell into the river."

"Thank your stars that I was passing by, or else you would have got lost in the Unending forests. Come to my village and then find your way back home once the Days of Adversity are over."

That seemed like a good option. Getting lost in some unending forest of an unknown world wasn't Andrew's idea of adventure. "Sure. I don't know how will I thank your generosity."

"No need for thanks but at least try and respect nature's omens next time."

During their whole journey, the farmer hardly kept his mouth shut. In the beginning, this non-stop chatter annoyed Andrews, who was still shaken by his fall, but then he realized that this might be a good way to gather some basic knowledge about Elisium. Andrews started to pay attention and ask questions, and the farmer, despite his annoying stares after every seemingly stupid question, was more than happy to help his drunk guest.

From all his studies Andrews had deducted that Elisium would be somewhat like Aden but even he was surprised at the similarities. The landscapes, the river, the weather, the flora and fauna, almost everything was the same. Nevertheless, there was one major difference, the ever-present gloom. A looming shadow that made everything appear dull.

Andrews stayed in Droster, the farmer's village, for a few days. He talked less, listened more, and learned whatever he could. However, it took him some time to discover that the Elisian whirlpool appeared once in a decade, just like Aden, but by that time the portal had closed and he was stuck for ten years. With nothing left to do, he decided to explore Elisium. He traveled to the far ends of this world, visited different settlements, met countless people, and in a couple of years, knew more about Elisium than any Elisian.

During this journey, Andrews discovered that although Aden and Elisium were physically quite similar, they were a world apart in terms of development. This glaring difference mostly overshadowed the unmistakable similarities.

It was futile to compare a world stuck at oil lamps to a world of electric lights, or horse carts to engine-powered vehicles, or telephones to pigeons? The similarities dropped dead then and there. Aden was futuristic, Elisium was stuck in the past. They were like two twins who had vastly different upbringings. One dressed like a princess and lived a lavish life, while the other was covered in rags and struggled to make ends meet.

But what created such a huge gulf? People gave Andrews various reasons for the disintegration of this once flourishing civilization, like the absence of a true leader, fragmented society, and a dearth of enlightened men, but everyone singled out one event as the root cause — The Catastrophe. While Aden transformed itself into a highly developed society under the Solomon kings, Elisium failed to overcome the shock of a catastrophic event and went into a tailspin.