Aethernea

by Cloe D Frost

Father invited their four leaders for a private dinner with our family. Apparently, the four of them were from the same family which held a high status in their land. It definitely showed in their elegant eating manners and sweet words. I could totally see them as princes and princesses from the fairy tales, it made me feel rather awkward to have them show interest in our plebeian way of life.Apparently, we have many different customs they found interesting or strange. Like how father chose to marry an elibu. They were surprised at how many marriages of mixed races we have in the village. Apparently, in the place where they are from argel and elibu rarely marry. They also praised the strength of our familial bonds and how united all the villagers were.

  There were several additional points they found fascinating, but to be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation. I was more interested in Cammy’s strange behavior. She kept giving one of them strange looks…and I could feel some kind of fuzzy, warm feeling coming off of her. If I didn’t know her any better, I’d say she felt… shy?

  Ok, alright, I admit, the guy she was looking at was very handsome. And in fact, I am also guilty of staring at that stunning goddess-like female more than was appropriate. But shy? When has my sister ever felt shy? I don’t remember ever seeing her blush either. I always used to tease her that she acts like a grandma instead of a young virgin.

  When I brought the matter up later, she deflected the question and told me that I should give up on wooing the goddess I’ve been staring at. Apparently, she already has someone else in her heart…

  It’s not like I’ve fallen for the girl just like that! I wasn’t really thinking about courting her… And even if I wanted to court her, I wouldn’t really care whether she has a previous lover or not. I’m nothing if not persistent.

  …

  Father, Cammy and I brought the visitors on tour around the village. They were really surprised by the spells used in our craftsmanship. They said we are blessed to have so many mana purification artifacts in our possession.

  I’m not quite sure what a mana purification artifact is though? If they do what their name implies, why would we be very blessed to possess such things? I can see how they might have some use for children to play with but… other than that, aren’t they…redundant?

  Well, whatever the case, the visitors invited us to go with them to this blessed land. They are talking about how advanced their own crafting is and how there are many academies of magic, warlock arenas, mage guilds and many other incredible things in their land.

  I have to admit that their descriptions of the place do sound very enticing. At one point I even felt like asking father to let me go with them to this place of theirs. But then I remembered that I’ve been having this bad feeling ever since they arrived and my feelings are usually quite accurate.

  My sister continued acting disturbingly unlike herself. Instead of a wise older sister, she seemed like a normal, love-struck, teenage girl, although she is too old to be one.

  I didn’t even need to see how that man and her kept blushing up to their ears, and giving each other sneak glances and gentle smiles, I could feel her emotions clearly dripping onto me. I did my best to shut her off and mind my own business, but it is only a temporary measure. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to continue with it.

  …

  I confronted Cammy about her sudden interest in that man and didn’t let her change the topic this time.

  She admitted she likes him very much. She said he is different from the rest. He is very handsome, smart and capable, yet not arrogant or selfish. He treats everyone with kindness, thinking of his men like they were brothers. Always thinking about feelings and desires of others before his own.

  She says that some of the visitors are looking down on us because we aren’t as advanced as them and their society, but not him. He respects our tradition and doesn’t look down on us in the slightest.

  She said she noticed him at the celebration when she was dancing. He was stunned by the beauty of her dance but had no indecent thoughts or desires about her. It was an innocent admiration and respect without any impurities or ulterior motives.

  I suppose that is rare among men. If she has to like someone, I suppose it’s best she likes someone who isn’t a chauvinistic pervert?

  …

  Cammy stayed up all night talking to him. I’ve never seen her so excited, so happy. I suppose I should be happy for her. He is a fine man, in fact, both of the cousins are fine men. Too fine actually. It makes me feel unsettled at how perfect they seem. Still, I trust Cammy’s judgment. If there was something wrong with them and their motives, my sister would be the first one to notice.

  My love life is not going nearly as well as hers. After meeting that goddess, other women are even less attractive to me. Even though Cammy told me to not entertain any hopes, I think I involuntarily developed a crush. I wonder what she thinks about me? Does she even notice me at all? I should probably ask Cammy about it, but then, I’m afraid to find out.

  …

  I can’t believe Cammy actually encouraged the girl to pursue her love! She knew I liked her and she went and set her up with someone else!

  Cammy tried to comfort me by saying that the bond between them ran too deep. It was just a matter of time before the two of them finally confessed their feelings to each other. She just helped speed it up. She says that she got tired of all the angst they felt. She says I have no idea how it feels to have to pretend to love another like a sibling while internally yearning for them in every way possible.

  She spewed a bunch of romantic nonsense about wanting to hold each other and never let go.

  I almost puked. This romance stuff is disgusting.

  …

  Those two now share heated gazes and hold hands whenever no one is looking. They also sneak out alone every night and return only at dawn.

  And no, the two I’m talking about aren’t my sister and her new boyfriend, though the two of them have been getting more and more lovey-dovey. I should probably pity the fool. If my sister set her eye on him, he’d have no choice but to fall for her. It makes me wonder, is she being herself or is she being the person he hopes she was? Does he truly love her for who she is or for who she pretends to be?

  * * *

  Soon enough, even their only source of entertainment was taken away.

  One day, after reporting the translated contents of the diary, Nelaira was issued an order to dispose of the diary without further translation.

  To say that it took her by surprise would be an understatement. She stared at the command for hours, and then she proceeded to stare at the clear night sky for several more hours unable to fall asleep.

  She was just a lieutenant within the Purge. She had to obey the commands of her superiors without question.

  But she couldn’t do it. She was never the type to follow commands blindly. She was always the type of person who put a lot of thought into reasons and consequences.

  And this time her conscience just didn’t let her put the matter to rest. A weak and quiet voice that sounded incredibly like Luki whispered at the back of her mind: Why? Why do they want it destroyed so badly? What is it that they wish to hide?

  She shouldn’t question it. She should follow the order.

  But she didn’t want to. She wanted to know what happened next. What made her superiors want to destroy this little booklet.

  If she destroyed it just like this, the mystery would bother her for the rest of her life.

  In the end, Nelaira decided to delay the execution of the command. She would read the diary till the end and then destroy it. It would make no difference if she knew of its contents. She would keep quiet and no one would know that she had read it till the end.

  However, the command did forbid further translation, thus she had to explain to everyone the change. Their archaeologist should not continue to translate the diary and spread it around.

  She chose to keep the order of destroying it a secret and instead t
old everyone that their superiors wanted to contain the spread of confidential information and didn’t want the diary translated among the squad.

  They were devastated. Especially Luki, who couldn’t sleep at night not knowing what was inside that little booklet. (Imagine what scandalous stuff the big bosses wanted to hide!)

  * * *

  Coming up in the next episode:

  I thought that someone was intentionally spreading false rumors, but Cammy confirmed that they were indeed the descendants of that man. But she claims that they are good people with good intentions that shouldn’t be condemned due to the sins of their predecessors.

  Father is seriously considering sending the young towards their blessed land. They said that they could teleport us there, without us being in any danger from the Tainted.

  They are more afraid of Ink than the prospect of being ambushed by an undying monster. They seem to think that even a little contact with Ink would taint them and doom them to a miserable fate of turning into a Tainted. How did they survive all this while if they don’t even know how to purify Ink?

  We didn’t separate on good terms. I was too mad that I had to stay behind. Too mad that she was leaving me behind.

  The last remaining entry in the diary she had yet to translate was short and hastily written, which made it more difficult to identify the runes used to write it.

  I can feel Cammy running frantically back to help us. Yet, I fear it is too late.

  * * *

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  Episode 129 – A. O.

  Episode 129 – A. O.

  Previously:

  While writing a letter to her fiance, Nelaira thinks about the events that led to her current predicament. She remembers how her squad of ten found a hidden entrance to a long staircase climbing through the mountain, first discovered by Zor Arite. There they find a green valley filled with wildlife and ruins of a village. Nelaira uses her day off to explore the ruins and finds a diary hidden inside a pillar. While picking herbs Luki finds a patch of land where a large quantity of ash is buried under the soil. He finds it suspicious but his comrades disagree. Nelaira stumbles onto a hidden cellar in the ruins of the village that contains food that is 16 years old. Nelaira gives their archaeologist the diary to translate. The writer of the diary is the village chief’s son and he talks about his life. It seems the diary was written after the mage wars, which makes everyone wonder what destroyed the village if not the wars.

  Nelaira wanted to investigate the possibility of survivors but her superiors ordered her to proceed towards the Valley of Eternal Snow. The diary speaks of outsiders that came to the village one day from a utopia without Ink. The outsiders were capable, beautiful people who were welcomed with opened hands by the natives. Both the writer of the diary and his sister set their sights on an outsider.

  One day, Nelaira had been ordered by her superiors to stop translating the diary and to destroy it.

  Episode 129 – A. O.

  The diary was returned to Nelaira’s possession, and now she had to find a way to translate it without anyone finding out about it. She did study the subject of ancient runes in Muni so she could understand them somewhat. However, she doubted it would be enough to translate the diary.

  Thus, she came up with a plan. She started to volunteer for night guard duty often, so she could translate the diary when everyone else was sleeping. And so she could secretly sneak a peek at the ancient rune dictionary carried by their archaeologist when he was asleep.

  It took her considerably more time and effort to translate the remaining diary entries than it would have taken their archaeologist, but it helped that there wasn’t much left of the diary to translate. After about a week worth of sleepless nights she was confident that her translation wasn’t far off.

  * * *

  When they offered to help us move into their blessed land, many villagers wanted to go, yet soon after, a rumor started spreading.The word on the street was that the outsiders were descendants of the madman that doomed us all.Now many villagers are vehemently opposed to leaving and are even proposing we kick them out of the village.

  I thought that someone was intentionally spreading false rumors, but Cammy confirmed that the outsiders were indeed the descendants of that man. But she claims that they are good people with good intentions that shouldn’t be condemned due to the sins of their predecessors.

  I’m worried that even Cammy can’t see into their deepest, truest self. I fear that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…

  …

  Cammy took her boyfriend to the Lands of Eternal Snow.

  I feel happy for her, but also, kind of bitter. She used to only go there with me. I used to be the only one to admire her snow sculptures.

  And now…gods only know what the two are doing there… alone… together…

  Gods, I hope morphing snow is all they are doing…

  …

  The outsiders received new orders from their superiors. They split into two groups. My goddess, her man, and my sister’s new boyfriend were ordered to move north towards the Valley of Eternal Snow, while the fourth one was ordered to help us move to their land.

  They claim that they can teleport us there, without us being in any danger from the Tainted. I volunteered to come with the group going towards the Valley of Eternal Snow because I am familiar with the place.

  They told me to stay close to them and avoid spreading my mind so as to not come into contact with Ink. What kind of instructions are those? If I don’t spread my mind, I’d be effectively blind to mana and magic.

  Are they so afraid of Ink they’d rather run around blind? Apparently so. They are more afraid of Ink than the prospect of being ambushed by an undying monster. They seem to think that even a little contact with Ink would taint them and doom them to a miserable fate of turning into a monster. How did they survive all this while if they don’t even know how to purify Ink?

  …

  Surprisingly, father didn’t veto my decision to lead the outsiders through the Valley of Eternal Snow. Probably because even if I didn’t volunteer, Cammy would have begged him to let her come.

  Usually, he would vehemently refuse to let her go anywhere even remotely dangerous, but I suppose he felt assured that her new boyfriend would protect her from any potential harm. And also, the fact that Cammy could hear the trouble coming from a mile away surely helped with his final decision.

  …

  I was supposed to go with Cammy and their group towards the Valley of Eternal Snow, but the other group expressed their desire to reunite with Cammy’s group of outsiders after they finish teleporting us to their land. Apparently, not all of them were needed for the teleportation.

  Some of them would have already left with the other group, but they had to supervise the transport.

  Thus, instead of going along with Cammy’s group, my departure would be delayed for several days until the other group was done with their business. Then I would lead them towards the Valley of Eternal Snow and reunite with Cammy.

  …

  Cammy left towards the Valley of Eternal Snow today.

  I didn’t see her off. I hate goodbyes, and we would see each other soon anyway.

  Also, I didn’t want her to notice what was bothering me.

  I didn’t want her to feel my irritation, annoyance that I had to stay behind.

  It might be irrational and unfounded, but it felt as if… as if she was leaving me behind. As if my place in her life was taken by someone else. As if she had replaced me…

  * * *

  Nelaira finally reached the last untranslated entry in the diary, still unsure of why her superiors wanted the diary destroyed. She doubted that perhaps purifying Ink had something to do with it. If there really was a way to purify Ink they wouldn’t be so helpless against it nor would the forbidden zone be so… well… forbidden.


  But how would her superiors even know that the diary spoke of such a thing? It had never been mentioned before in the translated entries she had sent their way.

  Another possibility entered Nelaira’s mind. Perhaps it was the lines about a madman who doomed them all? If these outsiders were indeed from the Lands under the Shield, then the mentioned madman would probably be Aegis Arite who had created the Shield of Aegis?

  But why would they refer to him as such? Could it be that the portrayal of the history books that glorified him as their savior wasn’t as accurate as everyone thought? Could it be that he could have saved much more people than he chose to save? Could it be that he intentionally left some to rot outside the Shield? Only saving those that chose to submit or those that were the closest to him?

  It wouldn’t be surprising if that was the case. After all, it’s the victors that write history. It would explain why her superiors were afraid of writings left by the survivors. Any such writings could potentially reveal that they had been discarded by the Arites and left to die.

  They certainly wouldn’t be willing for their virtuous and saintly image to take such a serious blow.

  Perhaps she was thinking too much into the matter. Perhaps she will never know the real reason behind it. There wasn’t much left in the diary, and she doubted those last few words could explain the matter. After all, the last remaining untranslated entry in the diary was short and hastily written, which made it more difficult to identify the runes used to write it.

  * * *

  They are burning down everything. Houses, people, books, parchments.Their superiors ordered them to wipe out our entire village, leaving not a single building standing, not a single person alive.

  Nelaira stood under the full moon with a pale face and shaking hands, staring at the piece of paper with the translation of the last diary entry she had just finished.