Chapter 9: Sacrifice – Chapter 7: Winging It

Aperio's first steps into the sunlight were accompanied by a wooden groan. The tiny bits of greenery that peeked through minuscule cracks and gaps in the wooden flooring tickled her bare feet, a welcome change from the hard stone and marble that had been so prevalent in that forsaken place.

A look around revealed that she had emerged in a big hall; some kind of ball room if she had to guess. While all the floors she had traversed were broken to some degree, none were as ravaged as this place. The light that had brought such joy to her poured in through a part of the roof that had caved in; the walls that supported it had been undermined by the roots of a tree that stood proudly just outside the building. 

The rest of the floor had long since been reclaimed by nature and now sported full stretches of grass that served as a home for a handful of tiny, colourful flowers that basked in the sun’s warm light. Even the door – the thing she had half expected to still stand – had been forced open by thick vines that now framed the crumbling doorway, making it look almost like a painting. A painting of an abandoned town.

A small noise caught her attention and, while at first she couldn’t quite make out what it was, it soon revealed itself to be a flock of chirping birds that flew over the broken building she stood in. While the birds’ happy melody belied the corpse-filled place that lurked beneath her feet, it did help to brighten her mood.

Her times in the Imperial Gardens had been few and far between, but they were always nice. Even if her old masters did whatever they saw fit, it had never failed to calm the dejected Elf. The smell of flowers in full bloom, the dirt pressing against her feet and the happy song of a few birds. It was all so familiar that, for a moment, she considered if it was part of the collar’s magic, but as her hand brushed against nothing but her own skin she dismissed that thought. 

She was free now.

That was something she would never give up, even if that meant she had to reduce more accessorising mages to piles of flesh and bone. The thought of another fight stirred something within her, some part that craved it. To show everyone that she was weak no more; to take whatever she saw fit, kill all that stood in her way. Make the world quiver in fear.

Aperio closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming herself. Was this how she would’ve been all the time if not for the years she had spent with the collar? Or was it because the malevolent thing had kept her in check all those years? 

Unclenching her fists, she opened her eyes again. The scenery remained mostly the same, save for the circle of withered plants that stretched a few steps in every direction from where she was standing. Tilting her head to the side she bent down and plucked one of the dead flowers from the earth. That was me? She hadn’t felt the warmth that accompanied the use of magic.

The wilted flower crumbled between her fingers, having lost every last bit of life that had once sustained it. Finding someone who knew what had happened to her was going to be important, but that would also mean visiting a place with other people, all of whom might be hostile to her. It was not an issue she had to confront right now however. First she would have to find out where she actually was. 

It didn't seem to be inside the Empire's borders. If she was anywhere near the capital where she had spent the majority of her life, the Humans would have understood her. Given that the architecture was so familiar, though, there was another possibility that seemed increasingly likely. More likely than Aperio wanted to admit. It could very well be that she was still inside the Empire, but her stay in the Void was vastly longer than she had first assumed.

Elves lived longer than many species – a few centuries, if what she had once read was correct – but, like all others, they too would succumb to the ravages of time. Aperio herself had never seen a truly old Elf, but she had always assumed that they would carry the skin creases of age as older Humans did. If this was indeed a building that had once belonged to the Empire, its state indicated that she had been in the Void for a long time. Long enough to develop wrinkles of her own, but what she had seen of herself only showed that she looked even healthier than she had been before being sacrificed.

Leaving the small circle of death she had caused, Aperio made her way out of the crumbling building. Once she had stepped past the vine-covered doorway, she had to shield her eyes from the bright light. Compared to the dim torch-light of indoors, the sun was full of blinding majesty. Luckily it only took a few breaths for her eyes to adjust and she could properly see the space she had walked into.

The center was dominated by a huge – but empty – fountain. The sight suddenly brought to her attention the dried blood that still clung pervasively to her arm, and she felt saddened by the lack of water. Being clean would be simply wonderful, as would the ability to see her own face, healthy and scarless, for the first time.

Sadly, the statues that should have been dispensing the life-giving liquid had been reduced to chunks of broken stone and the runes that would normally be found on any proper fountain were also absent. Surrounding the open plaza were a few cobblestone roads that lead into what she could only assume was a town. Surmising from the multitude of chairs and tables she could spot through destroyed windows, Aperio concluded that the particular building she gazed upon had once been a tavern. She could see other tavern-like entities scattered around the plaza, which made a certain amount of sense. The rest were designs she had not seen before, but were close enough to ones she did remember to guess that most of them had either served as private quarters or had once housed one of the numerous guilds.

Walking closer to the cluster of presumed ex-guild buildings Aperio’s shoulders slumped a little. She had hoped to find something that would at least provide a bit of information. Maybe a library or Scribe’s guild if she was really lucky, but all she could see through the windows, or a hole in the wall, was trashed furniture and a variety of plantlife. No books, notes or anything that could provide a clue.

A look down one of the roads only revealed more of the same, nature reclaiming the broken houses where it could. Maybe I should have tried for another of those rifts, she thought. This place is certainly not where I wanted to be. Annoyed, she gave a small rock a light kick, sending it spiraling through the air. 

Her eyes followed the stone’s path until it hit one of the more intact windows and vanished inside the building. A part of her hoped that something would happen if she did that, no matter how stupid that idea might be. Sadly, the universe was not so kind and all she could hear was the shattering of glass followed by the shards hitting the floor.

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Since the answers did not want to present themselves she had would have to look for them herself. As she could, at best, guess what used to be inside any of the structures, she simply choose the one closest to her.

The door groaned loudly as it swung open half-way before falling to the ground, the rusted nails and old, rotten wood simply giving up in their attempts to be functional and unbroken. Waving away the dust that had been kicked up, Aperio stepped into the crumbling house. She paused as the wooden floor creaked deeply beneath her feet, fearing that it would break and send her back down to that forsaken place. Her worries were unfounded as, despite their rather vocal protest, the planks held firm. 

One careful step at a time, she made her way through the desolate room. The broken chairs and tables were the only signs that anyone had ever been here, though that had been a long time ago if the amount of dust that had settled on everything was any indication. The rest of the house was much the same: a thick layer of dust, broken furniture; nothing that would actually be of use.

By the time she had searched the rest of the buildings that surrounded the fountain, the sun had already begun to set and all she had to show for it was a light coating of dust and a frown that had engraved itself on her face. She could scour the rest of the ruined town, but she seriously doubted that she would find anything useful. Most of it was in an even sadder state than the already pretty beat up buildings she had previously searched.

There was nothing for it but to look elsewhere, and as she came to that conclusion she found herself beginning to smile. Finally, an opportunity to try the very thing she had wanted to do since returning from the Void.

With a slight rustle she extended her wings to their full length, easily dwarfing the width of the fountain. While having them folded behind her was not uncomfortable, being able to stretch them out simply felt better. Aperio hesitated for a moment. She knew she could fly – she knew how to do it – but a tiny bit of herself doubted that knowledge. With a shake of her head, she banished the small sliver of uncertainty and kicked off of the ground, leaving behind a web of cracks on the ground. 

Nothing she had done previously could compare. With every push of her wings she felt the air being forced away, propelling her to even greater heights. A pleasantly warm updraft caught her, created below by the darker color of the surface of the plaza. She spiraled upwards, reveling in the effortless lift. It was like being wrapped in the essence of a summer's evening, and it was glorious.

A sudden gust of wind shifted her off of her updraft, but before she could even begin to mind the disturbance she found herself relaxing into a friendly air current, high above the abandoned town.

Enjoying the caressing feeling of the wind, Aperio flew higher and higher until she disappeared into a cloud. In stark contrast to the dark blankness of the Void, she was surrounded by a fluffy whiteness, one that proclaimed its presence on her skin by tiny droplets of almost frozen water.

Emerging from the other side she shook her head to clear the damp strands of hair from her face and, after moving away from the fuzzy looking cloud, took a moment to admire the world beneath her. Below the spotty blanket of clouds was a giant forest, bathed in the gentle light of the setting sun. In the middle of it stood the ruins she had just left and, from her new vantage point, she could see just how big it actually was. 

Should she have chosen to look through all of it, she would have been there for weeks, if not months. What she could not see, however, was a palace or other grand structure that could have helped her figure out where she was. The remains looked like they were built by the Empire, but that did not really mean much. She had never visited other countries; for all she knew this could have been built by any one kingdom or empire.

As she was unable to divine any more clues from the ruins, she directed her attention to the surrounding forest. The treetops formed a thick blanket that defied all her attempts to see what was underneath, the only visible part being a well-traveled dirt road that lead away from the city remnants. Unwilling to return to the earth to see what was hidden below the trees, she opted to follow the road. It has to lead somewhere, right?

She had only flown for a little while before the path below connected with a broader, paved road. In one direction it looked like a river of stone that flowed through an endless green towards the setting sun, the other soon left the forest and lead towards a small village. What really piqued her interest though was not simply that there was a village that looked to be more than just a ruin. No, it was the veil of haziness that surrounded it.

Every time she looked just slightly past the small encampment, it would drift from her sight and look like just another patch of trees. Intrigued by this weird phenomenon, she circled overhead, coming closer with every round. The haziness became less pronounced as she approached, and she found it easier to make out the details of the houses. She could even spot the tiny forms of people hurrying about.

Aperio paused her approach, simply maintaining her position in the air as she inspected the inhabitants. While most of them were Human she did spot a Beastkin mixed in between, one of which bore a striking resemblance to what was once her closest friend. She had the same mottled brown fur, the same crooked ear that flopped up and down as she walked slowly in between the rows and rows of houses. 

But it wasn’t her; couldn’t be her. 

Her friend had died long before Aperio herself. But I came back, maybe she could too? No matter how unlikely it was, she would not know unless she went and talked to the person in question. The only problem was how to get inside a village that had such obvious magical defences without triggering – or breaking – them. Nodding to herself, Aperio moved to land a little ways away from the village, just to be safe. The wards in the underground ruins might have only reacted when she was close, but she would not make a fool of herself and assume that was the case for them all.

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