Chapter 4: Chapter 4 – Silmia

The trip to the city was exhausting, but Grayson didn’t dare take any breaks, as he was unsure if he would be able to arrive before nightfall. That didn’t keep him from noticing the incredible sights from his first arrival in the world had disappeared. The farther away he moved from the area he first arrived, the fewer strange sea plants and animals he saw. It wasn’t long after when they completely stopped. Almost like some invisible line had been drawn into the ground. It had been quite some time since he had last seen anything of the sort. After tromping through grass fields, he had eventually found his way to a road leading toward the city. He was walking past farmland now, but the crops he could see looked suspiciously like corn, and the wildlife was now rather mundane in comparison. He saw a few birds winging through the sky, but that was it.

Grayson almost felt bad for the first person who had time to answer his questions. The thought brought a smile to his lips, and looking inward, he was surprised to find that he was happier than he had been in a long time. Worry and concern were there as well, but the happiness outstripped them easily.

The past few years of his life had been tedious. Working full time while taking college classes to try to avoid student debt had been draining. The major he had ended up with was business, but he would hardly call himself passionate about the subject. After high school, he had felt aimless. Nothing had interested him, and he simply didn’t know what he wanted to study. Business had seemed like a suitable option that would help in whatever profession he finally decided on. The problem was that he never really figured it out. Eventually, he just decided he had been studying business long enough that it wasn’t worth changing anyway.

It had just been a grind, and after graduation, all he had to look forward to was trying to start a career in a space where he had absolutely no passion. So, while he knew this experience on Selenya would be hard if not downright impossible, he would try and enjoy what he could out of the experience. No one on Earth had seen what he had today, and he couldn’t help but be a little thrilled every time that thought crossed his mind.

Night had nearly fallen when Grayson finally drew near the walls, and he was in awe at their size. He had thought they looked large from a distance, but now they looked downright imposing. From where he stood, they soared into the air and blocked out the entire horizon.

Looking downward, Grayson was relieved to see the road he was on led to a gate that was still open. Grayson paused a moment and took a deep breath before walking up to talk to the guards manning the gate.

Ten guards were wearing chain mail and domed conical helmets. Six of them held spears, while the other four had swords belted to their waists. They looked completely human to Grayson, though they didn’t seem happy to see him. One guard ran through the gates, while the others either reached for their swords, or pointed their spears straight at him. Which wasn’t too surprising in hindsight.

He must have stuck out like a sore thumb. He still had on the same clothes he was wearing when he had been stolen away from earth, which was a plain t-shirt and jeans. He must look like nothing they had seen before. Furthermore, underneath their helmets Grayson was able to see that all the guards had caramel color skin and black hair, while Grayson himself had pale white skin, only exacerbated from far too much time spent indoors recently. His own light-brown hair didn't help him blend in either. And even over the distance between them, he could tell he was taller than every guard. On earth, he was on the taller end of average, but it looked like he was tall here. It was hard to say for sure since these were the only people he had met so far, but it didn't seem like the city would make a point to employ shorter guards.

Grayson stopped where he was, dropped his walking stick, and raised his hands in surrender, though he wasn’t sure that was a sign they used on this planet. He figured showing them he wasn’t holding anything would be good enough.

Unfortunately, it only seemed to agitate the guards further, and one of them shouted out to him at the movement.

“Put your arms at your sides! Don't move, and wait to be detained.”

Great, Grayson thought as he lowered his arms, here on a new planet for a few hours and already getting arrested.

In all honesty, he really didn’t know what to do. Would the best thing be to try and convince these men that he meant no harm, or cooperate and wait to be detained and try to explain later. By the grim looks on their faces, trying to convince them that he was harmless was out of the question, but being detained for some unspecified amount of time was distasteful.

He weighed the options in his mind before remembering one of the gifts Velos had given him. He really needed answers, and the sigil might expedite a quick and easy entry into the city. There was a temple here, so hopefully the sigil would help convince the guards he meant no harm.

Through his thoughts, he heard one of the guards quietly speak to another.

"How did a Valintian get all the way to Silmia?"

The only response the man got was a pointed look by the guard who had first spoken to Grayson.

Taking a gamble, Grayson brought his hands into the position Velos had shown him. Two fists together in front of him, his arms making a triangle with his head as the point. This agitated the guards, and several shouted at him to stop moving, but Grayson called out Velos’s name in his mind.

Light burst out above Grayson’s head, and he couldn’t quite cover up the smile that broke out on his face at the looks the guards were giving him. Shock was written all over their faces, and a couple had even fallen to one knee in front of him, which was strange. Slowly, they all fell to one knee, leaving Grayson feeling awkward. He had no idea what to do now.

Fortunately, he was saved from the situation when two more guards appeared at the gate. One of them looked older and was wearing a plain green uniform with a clamshell embroidered on the shoulder. The shell had three clear lines running from the base to the edges. Grayson assumed this was some kind of rank insignia, but he had no idea what it really meant.

The man raised his eyebrows at the sight of Grayson with the sigil floating above his head before bowing.

“Greetings emissary, and welcome to the great city of Silmia I am Guard Captain Shier, how may I help you today?”

Wow, Grayson thought, Velos wasn’t kidding when he said that the sigil would open doors for me. This is a lot more effective than I thought.

On the outside, he tried to keep a straight face.

“I would simply like to be admitted into the city.”

“Certainly, Emissary,” the captain replied. “Would you like a guard escort?”

Grayson hesitated, before declining. He wanted to be able to at least explore the city a little before going to the temple, and he thought it might get awkward wandering through Silmia with some guards in tow.

“No thank you,” Grayson said, “But I appreciate the offer.”

The guard captain once again raised his eyebrows, but used both hands to gesture Grayson forward.

“Very well, Emissary, just be careful that you do not find trouble for yourself. The repercussions would be serious. If you are stopped by the city patrols, simply show them your sigil, and that should sort out any… misunderstandings.”

Grayson smiled, but inwardly he was starting to wonder if he made the correct decision to not accept the escort. He didn’t know his way around the city, and what the guard had said was somewhat ominous. It wasn’t helped by the short walk through the massive gate of the city. All the fortifications surrounding the gate put him on edge.

He had already made his decision, though, and he wasn’t going to go back on it. Instead, he turned to the captain with a question.

“Where is Velos’s temple in the city?”

Guard Captain Shier’s face had been relatively impassive if somewhat respectful until this point, but for a moment, he looked truly surprised. The man bowed quickly, and when he stood straight his face once more had the same respectful cast to it.

“If you follow this road straight, you will find yourself on the main thoroughfare. If you follow it deeper into the city, it will lead you straight to the temple. It’s straightforward to find, you can even see it from here, the man said, pointing at some spires rising above the rest of the buildings in the distance. Though I must say, if you intend to visit the temple tonight, make sure to move quickly. It closes not long after nightfall.”

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“Thank you.” Grayson said, giving the man a nod of thanks, and hurried away. He tried not to feel too embarrassed by what the guard captain probably thought was a dumb question.

Grayson made his way to the main thoroughfare as the guard captain had explained and was surprised to find that what should have been the most heavily trafficked place in the city had very few people on it, and the streets branching off the main road were almost barren. Looking at the sky, Grayson didn’t think it was that dark yet, but perhaps because there wasn’t good lighting in the city, it was best to be inside well before dark had truly set.

Of the few people still in the streets, all of them were women, and after only ten minutes or so of walking Grayson was starting to feel grateful that there weren’t many people out because everyone who noticed him stared at him in shock. Some of the women simply ran away as soon as they caught sight of him. He had to assume they were terrified because he looked so different from the city’s population. He couldn’t think of any other real reason people would be so scared of him.

As for only women being out, he had no clue. One possibility was that there was simply a higher ratio of women to men on this world. That didn't seem right to him, though, so the only other thing he could come up with was that it was some cultural thing he was ignorant of.

For a while he just walked, taking in the different shops and stores as he made his way down the street. Signs in front of the different shops advertised everything from food stuffs to horse tack. And still, he only saw women in the streets. The only men he saw were in contingents of guards patrolling the city.

Grayson was stopped twice by these patrols, each time the men who stopped him looked shocked at his appearance. Luckily for Grayson, the sigil allowed him to avoid anything serious.

It didn’t take much longer before curiosity finally got the better of him, and he decided to move off the main road to take a look at the rest of the city. He was met with more stores at first before he found some housing, but there was very little to see. The streets were just as barren as he had seen from the main thoroughfare.

He wandered a bit longer without seeing anything of interest before he decided it would be best to get to the temple of Velos to get some answers. He had wanted a chance to learn something on his own about the city, but it didn’t seem like he would have much chance tonight, and he needed to get to the temple before it closed.

Hopefully, it isn’t closed already.

He turned down an alleyway he thought would lead back to the main road, but was met by a dead end. Grumbling to himself, Grayson turned around to try and find his way back, but came face to face with a woman who had been walking behind him. He must have been more nervous than he thought after hearing the guard captain's warning because he yelped in surprise, and fell back. The woman must not have been able to see Grayson well in the gathering dark because she didn’t show the same terror that everyone else in the city had. The woman held out a hand to help Grayson up. Grayson accepted the hand and was brought to his feet.

“Careful there,” she said, “You best be off to your home now. Being out this late is dangerous.”

“Yeah,” Grayson replied, giving the woman a smile. “You scared me there; I thought you might be here to rob me or something.”

Perhaps the woman noticed Grayson’s skin in that moment, because she grew visibly nervous when at the remark, and a look of pure panic crossed her face.

“Rob you? No, no, I would never.” She said, edging around Grayson like a skittish animal before bolting to a nearby house and vanishing inside the door.

That was… different. Grayson thought.

He sighed, but started walking back to the main road. It had been a very long day, and the longer it went, the more questions he had. A small amount of the enormity of his task was really starting to sink in. He knew nothing about these people, but apparently, he was supposed to save them

He was still engrossed in that line of thinking by the time the temple came fully into view. What he saw looked like a full-on gothic cathedral, complete with towering spires and flying buttresses. The building looked far more ornate than anything else he had seen in the city, and Grayson was once again reminded that Velos must have a lot of pull on the planet.

It turned out that Grayson’s worry that the temple would be closed had been for nothing, as he saw lights shining from within.

Grayson made his way into the building only to be stopped by a priest in blue light blue robes. The man gave him a long look, clearly taking in his strange attire before speaking. He looked surprised by Grayson’s appearance, but not nearly so much as everyone else had been.

“How may I help you?”

Instead of responding, Grayson assumed the pose and called out Velos’s name in his mind, and once again the sigil appeared above his head.

Grayson looked up at it, but when he looked back at the priest, the man was practically groveling on the ground. If Grayson had thought the guard’s had been affected, this was on another level.

“No need for all that,” Grayson said, but when the man remained prostrate on the floor, he just sighed and continued with what he needed. “Please stand up, I need to be brought to the statue of Velos.”

The priest got to his feet slowly before bowing to Grayson several times. Even after he finished bowing, the man kept his head down. Grayson rolled his eyes at the treatment, but didn’t comment on it.

“Yes Emissary, please follow me.” The priest said, moving farther into the temple.

It was fairly dark inside the building, though there were enough candles lit that it wasn’t too hard to see.

They made their way quickly to the center of the temple where, behind a short barrier, a large statue stood. It appeared to be made out of some kind of white marble that sparkled in the light from the candles. The statue stood around four times taller than Grayson, and surprisingly enough, it looked exactly like Velos, to almost the exact detail. The only exception being the dead portion of the face, which wasn’t included. The statue depicted the god with one arm extended, as if offering to give a helping hand to someone who had fallen.

All around the room, priests wearing robes in various shades of blue knelt as if in supplication. Directly in front of the statue, a man in ornate dark blue robes with golden trim was leading some kind of chant.

Grayson just shrugged at the sight and decided it was time to get this over with. He marched past the finely dressed priest, hopped over the barrier and up to the statue. Stretching out his arm, Grayson reached out to grasp its hand.

Just before contact, a he heard a loud gasp.

While reaching out, Grayson turned his head to see the look of horror on the finely dressed priest's face.

“Don’t-” The man shouted just as Grayson made contact with the statue.

A jolt ran through Grayson’s body. Instinctively, he pulled his hand away, but It felt almost like an electric current running through his body, even after he had stopped contact with the giant hand. That was the last thing he remembered before falling unconscious.

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