"I thought about it."
"The longer we walk, the less it makes sense."
"It has been a while since I last heard it."
"It could be nothing."
"It could be all in my head."
He kept his eyes forward.
"That is what I have been telling you."
We walked a bit more.
Then I noticed something ahead.
Far in the sky.
"What is that?" I asked, pointing at the small colorless shape floating in the distance. Barely noticable.
"The Octangula".
"It has always been there."
"No one knows what it is. People stopped questioning it long ago."
"That means we have almost arrived."
The city became clearer.
Broken buildings.
Collapsed walls.
Few people scattered here and there.
Upon entering, a strange man stood still in the middle of the entrance.
Standing still.
Just staring straight at us.
His worn clothes hanging unevenly from his thin frame. Torn fabric exposed parts of his arms, where dirt mixed with scattered scratches and dried blood. His face was hollow, his lips slightly parted.
His crazed eyes did not shift.
"Do not make eye contact," Kaelum said quietly.
We kept walking.
After we passed him, I spoke.
"He is following us."
"I know."
"There will be a few like him here," he said.
"If you look scared, you give them a sign that you have something valuable to lose."
"Just keep looking forward."
Another thing I noticed was that people never interacted with each other.
They passed by cautiously.
Each one on their own.
However, there were a few exceptions.
Three people in face-shaped limestone masks stood in an alley.
They raised their hands, as if performing some kind of ritual.
I could hear them sob.
"Who are they?" I asked.
"Cultists."
"Small groups form under certain beliefs.
The ones you are seeing are Remissionists."
"They believe the world we are living in is some sort of divine torment. They call it hell. And ignorance is part of the punishment."
"And the only way to salvation is to beg for mercy every day until they are forgiven."
"I have not thought about that possibility."
"Do you think there is truth to it?"
"I think if that is true, then we will never know."
"So there is no point."
"The rituals are just their way to keep living."
We stopped at a small window.
He knocked.
A voice came from inside.
"What do you have?"
He poured the junk inside.
The man handed over what appears to be beans wrapped in a small piece of cloth.
Before we could leave,
A child ran past us.
Fast.
Holding something.
A man shouted behind him,
"Thief!"
The child did not stop.
He ran straight ahead.
Two men stepped into his path.
They grabbed him.
One struck his face hard.
He fell.
The other kicked him while he was on the ground.
Once.
Then again.
Then again.
The child tried to crawl away.
One of them stepped on his back and forced him down.
The other took the bag he had stolen.
"Please..." the child said.
Another hit.
He cried out.
Another hit.
His voice broke.
Then he stopped speaking.
A man wearing padded armor and holding a sword approached.
He seemed to be a guard of some sort.
"Knock it off!"
One of the attackers turned to him.
"Or what?" he said as he pulls a dagger.
"We are the men of Nethraim. So keep walking."
The guard hesitated.
Then looked away.
So did the man who had been chasing the child.
They kicked the child again before leaving.
Then they were gone.
The child stayed on the ground.
Not moving.
A woman rushed in.
"My son..." she said, her voice breaking.
She knelt beside him.
Her hands trembled.
A quiet sob escaped her.
She lifted him and held him close.
Still sobbing.
Then carried him away.
He looked at me.
"Nethraim is one of the major bands of thieves,"
"They are far more powerful than the guards of the puppet king."
"It is the Riverans' way to keep Apiru without order."
"Puppet king?"
"Riverans?"
...
Heavy steps can be heard from the north.
People started to appear.
They began gathering around the center, where the sand was stained dark red.
Six armored men entered.
One pushed a wheelbarrow filled with chains over burning coal.
They seemed larger than anyone else.
Their armor was made of heavy, segmented iron.
"Those are the Riverans," he said quietly.
"They are the foreigners who conquered Apiru ages ago."
"They installed a king and made this place their subordinate state."
"Coming from a land beyond the northern castle."
"We hear stories about their advanced civilization."
"But no one knows what it is like."
"No one is allowed to go there."
"Anyone who tries to cross the northern bridge gets killed."
The guards of Apiru approached them.
Lowered their heads and spoke briefly.
Then someone was brought forward.
A tied man.
Struggling with his eyes covered.
"He must have done something horrible." I wondered.
"They do not take people for crimes,"
"The Riverans occasionally come to perform sacrifices under the Octangula As they believe it brings harvest to their lands."
"Their rites demand a life be given in so the blood given beneath it is returned through the soil."
"And to them, the people of Apiru are no more than descendants of slaves."
"Therefore, they see them as natural offerings."
"They claim they choose criminals."
"But no one believes that."
"The choice is random."
"So people remain afraid."
"Waiting for their turn."
The man heard the chains.
He started crying.
"Please no..."
"Please..."
"I did not do anything..."
"Someone help me!"
Two of the knights grabbed him.
Held him in place.
The third took a hook from the burning coals.
The metal glowed.
He attached it to a chain.
Then,
Drove it upward under the man's chin.
Through flesh, out through his mouth.
The scream tore through the village.
They began to lift him.
Slowly.
The chain tightened.
Pulling his body upward.
His jaw stretched.
Blood ran down his neck.
Dripping onto the sand.
He tried to grab at the chain.
His hands burned.
His struggling screams never stopped.
I looked at the crowd.
No shock.
Only dread.
The sound of his voice changed.
Slowly turning into broken gasps.
To a wet whistle.
One of the knights stepped forward.
Drew a circle in the sand beneath the hanged man.
Then raised his sword.
And finished the ritual with a fast, deep cut across the man's midsection.
His stomach ripped open.
His guts spilled onto the ground.
The chain still held him.
What remained of him hung.
"May the sacrifice be accepted."
The knights left.
Then it was over.
Just like that.
The people dispersed.
Everything slowly returned to how it was.
Kaelum looked disturbed.
"Come on. Let us leave."
I did not move.
I stood there.
Trying to grasp what I had just seen.
Then,
A decision was made.
"Come with me to the ancient temple."
He sighed.
"Is this your final decision?"
"The temple lies atop one of the highest mountains in the south."
"And the south is empty."
"No one goes there."
I nodded.
"Before we entered the city, I thought it had been too long since I heard the voice."
"I was almost certain it was nothing."
"...And I still am."
"But after what I have witnessed..."
"All this madness.."
"It made me crave an answer."
"There has to be something beyond this miserable existence."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Then it is settled."
"May this journey be of use."
And so, our path turns south.