Chapter
1 – From the Ashes
In the ashen wasteland of the
world, a lone girl wanders in the armor of an old order. She comes across a town
filled with few people. It struggles to survive as people farm what little they
can from the ground that brings up barely edible food. The people in the
town look at her as she walks in and through the town wary of her intentions.
She finds a small house with a sign that has a sword and shield on it and goes into
it. In the house, she finds a boy in a steel mask who’s working on swords,
daggers, axes, bows, and shields. There’s a large broken sword in the back of
the house that’s partially covered.
The boy turns around and puts his
work down before saying, “Hello. What are you looking for?”
“I need my blades sharpened and
fixed,” the girl says as she puts down a bag of coins.
“Sure. Let me see them.”
The girl takes the two blades off
her left arm and her legs and gives them to the boy.
“I can work with these. It shouldn’t
take too long.”
“Thank you.”
The boy takes off his hands and
replaces them with a sharp pair of hands.
As he works on the weapons, he
says, “So, where are you from?”
“Nowhere special, why?”
“That’s a fancy set of armor you
have. Metal is hard to come by these days since most of the earth is ash. I actually remember seeing it before.”
“Where?”
“There was an order of soldiers and
assassins who protected the next couple who were supposed to present their love
to God. I think the order was called the Order of Divine Swords and Love or
something weird like that. Their love was supposed to be an acceptable
sacrifice to Him to take away one of humanity’s many weaknesses to sin, but that’s
not what happened. Do you know why that is?”
“No, why?”
“I don’t know. I’m asking you. I
can only guess that the sacrifice was offensive to Him because the entire world
burned as a result. Your armor and weapons make me think that you are one of
those people from those soldiers of legend.”
“What if I was?”
“Then I hope you could answer my
question instead of asking me more. It’d be nice to know why the world the way
it is and why everyone got burned.”
Silence fills the house until the
boy reaches for a dagger and tries to slash the girl with it. The girl defends
herself with daggers that come out of her right hand.
“You are from the old order. An
assassin to be exact. No one else uses or can even make a hand that daggers come
out of,” the boy says before backing off, “I’m sorry if I scared you. Why didn’t
you say who you were to me?”
The boy goes back to fixing the
girl’s weapons.
“Because people attack me if they
know where I’m from. They think the order failed them and they hate us for
that.”
“Can you answer my previous
question now? Can you tell me why God burned the world?”
“No, but I can tell you that I need
your help.”
“What does an assassin like you
need from a blacksmith like me?”
“I need your help to get back to
the place where the couple whose love was supposed to keep the world safe. If
we get there, I think we can fix all of this.”
“But why me?”
“Because I’ve asked other people and
they’ve either tried to kill me or denied me. They think God abandoned them and
there’s no reason to try to be good anymore.”
“And you think we can fix all of
this?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Just trust me. I had a vision that
God gave me of the world being fixed from there.”
“The order did supposedly have a
special connection with God.”
“Please, can you help me? I’ll-”
“Sure.”
“Really?”
“I’ve got nothing better to do than
starve and slowly die of thirst. It’s not like the town needs me or anything
when I’ve already made all the weapons they need. Let me finish with weapons
first and get my essentials.”
“Thank you so much.”
“Don’t mention it. Life was getting
too boring here anyway. What’s your name?”
“Silva.”
“My name is Lucus. Heh, both of our
names mean wood or forest in Latin. Did you know that?”
“No.”
“Well, it’s an interesting detail. Do
you think our meeting has anything to do with God’s plan?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hmm. I hope it does.”
After Lucus finishes up his work on
Silva’s blades, he gives them back and gets his stuff that includes another two
pairs of hands and the large broken sword in the back.
Silva asks him, “Why are you
bringing that with you when you have so many other sharper blades?”
“Don’t let its appearance fool you.
It’s my best blade. I only need to fix it up a bit.”
“How long have you been working on
it?”
“I work on it a little bit every
day.”
“That’s surprising since you got my
blades done pretty fast for how dull and chipped they were. That blade isn’t
cursed by your sins, is it?”
“Is your armor cursed by your sins?
Is that why you haven’t changed it to keep your past a secret?”
“Okay. I won’t mention it again.”
“Thank you.”
Lucus locks the door behind them
when they leave and tosses the key to a neighbor as they walk away.
“Watch the shop for me. I’m going
on a bit of an adventure,” Lucus says to the neighbor.
“O-okay. You got it, Lucus,” the
neighbor responds.
“Who’s that? A friend?” Silva asks.
“Not really. Just a neighbor.”
“What? Don’t you care about your
house?”
“No, not really. I could build
another one if I wanted to.”
“O-kay.”
“Now, lead the way.”
Silva leads Lucus out of the town
and into the ashen wasteland.
“Man, I haven’t stretched my legs in
months, Lucus says.
“Do you miss being in the wasteland?”
Silva asks.
“No, I just miss having a reason to
do something different. It gets boring cleaning and fixing weapons in a town
where nothing happens. Sure, troublemakers come every now and then, but they’re
not much trouble.”
“Do you have any training in using
a sword?”
“Of course I do. My parents taught me.”
“Where are your parents?”
“Dead, unfortunately. I’d rather
not talk about it.”
“I understand. My parents are dead
as well.”
“Okay, let’s leave the sad talk
there. The world is sad enough as it is. It’s better to be hopeful. Let’s play
I spy. I spy with my little eye something black.”
“Ash.”
“No.”
“The sun?”
“Nope.”
“The sky.”
“It’s kind of black, but I’d say it’s
a dark grey.”
“That’s basically what black is.”
“But it’s still not what I spy.”
“Okay, then let me think…”
Lucus and Silva play little games
and make idle conversation as they travel across the ashen wasteland. In their
travels, they come across the ruins of a small city with a castle in the center
surrounded by small houses and walls.
“Wow. I knew some places burned to
the ground, but I didn’t think a place like this would,” Lucus says.
“All of the towns and cities with
castles I’ve passed by are burned to the ground,” Silva says, “Your town was
the most intact place I’ve been to.”
“That’s surprising to hear because
that place is falling apart. Let’s see if this place at least has some water.”
The two search around the ruins and
find a small pond where they refill their water canisters with what little water
they can.
“We’re blessed to find water here.
Maybe God did put you up to this task if we found water here of all places,” Lucus
says.
“I hope so,” Silva says before she
hears a noise that gets her attention.
“What is it?”
“We’re not alone.”
Lucus readies his sword as he says,
“If anyone is out there, we’re leaving now. There’s still enough water here to
quench your thirst if you want it.”
“We don’t need that water when you
have something else we need,” a man says as he leads his group of ten people to
where Lucus and Silva are.
The group is all wearing armor
like Silva’s and masks that barely cover their burned and hollow faces.
“And what might that be?” Lucus
asks.
“That assassin you’re traveling
with is responsible for what happened to the world. I think she needs to pay
with her life.”
“What makes you think that will change
anything?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.
All I want to do is see her suffer for what she did.”
“Lucus, these are some of the
people I told you about,” Silva whispers.
“Yeah, and? Maybe I can negotiate a
deal,” Lucus whispers back, “How about this?” Lucus addresses the group, “How
about you let us go and let the wasteland kill us, eh? We’re already running
low on food and water and there are many more people out there more dangerous
than you. Just assume that we’re dead when we leave your sight.”
“Why would I even consider that
when I want to kill her myself? How about you help us in killing her and we can
pay you with whatever you want? Do we have a deal, boy?”
“Eh…”
The ground starts to shake around
them. When the ground stops shaking, a large arm reaches out of the ash and
pulls a person from the group into it. Other arms start reaching out for people
and pulling them down until it gets slashed enough. That is when a large black monster
emerges from the ash with several arms and mouths on its body. It has four legs
and a large mouth in the front of it that makes it look like it has demon
horns. The group starts attacking the monster as their members are being eaten
and tossed around.
“Come on Lucus!” Silva says as she
leads him away.
“Have you seen monsters like that
before?” Lucus asks.
“Yeah, and too hard to kill. One of
them was the reason my weapons were in such bad condition.”
“Then let’s hope this is the last
time we see one.”
“I doubt it.”
“Then our adventure is going to be
an even more exciting one.”
“If you say so. I’m surprised you can
be so positive.”
“Like I said before, the world is
sad enough as it is. It’s better hopeful.”
“You have to teach me your mindset.”
“We have enough time and we’re
finally far enough from that monster, so let me give you some tips on how to
keep your head up high.”
Lucus begins to tell Silva of how
to be hopeful as they continue on their adventure.
Check out this amazing new song by Red that shares the name of this chapter. I'm listening to their new album as I write this story.
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