The sunlight from above was harsh, blinding to the point of pain. The heat from above was unbearable, the sensation of being cooked from all sides. The wind couldn't help, even with the force it struck them from somewhere to the west. The wind carried the scent of orchids and something far darker from that direction. She had attempted to look towards the wastes, tried to see something out that way, but the fear that struck her was overwhelming. Something awful was hiding, and she didn't want to think about it. She had nightmares from the proximity to whatever it was.
They stood in the middle of a wasteland, with jagged rock and sand coating most surfaces. The wind was harsh, kicking up clouds of sand and debris. The rock was a harsh red, like an infected boil. Holes and cracks lined the ground, from which wisps of mist emerged. It went on for many miles, past any number of buildings. Eventually, the conditions got so bad that nothing could be built there. Aerea was aware of a few parties that wanted more civilization, and they ended up dead because of it. Not only were the winds, weather, and heat terrible things to contend with, there were the monsters that waited in those places. The Carran had just become a part of Alaris, with each region having its own way to deal with them. It became a real problem in the warmer weather, where they were much more plentiful. Here in Atrisea, these beings were more common than people in small cases.
Valura began to cough as the dust inflamed her lungs, hacking and choking. Aerea cast out one hand, speaking a harsh command word. With a single word, she began to generate large quantities of magic. By speaking the command for it, she could direct all of her energy into a single source. She could free cast, though using the verbal component strengthened her magic. The command was for a barrier. Her specialty was spatial magic, though she was only decent with it. Magic was new to her on some level, having had to rely on brute force for many years.
The spell roared to life, beginning as a small sphere no bigger than a pearl. She cast it forward, watching as it rapidly wrapped both of them and expanded to the size of a small room. The storm started as a careful caress on the barrier, but very rapidly it began to exclaim its presence. Rocks and loose sand began to spin in circles, collecting into small tornados. In the distance, the sand almost made out a massive hand in the incoming storm that reached for them, but it just as quickly broke apart.
It came quickly. Waves of sand surged across the ground, so solid they almost looked like rock moving along the ground. Sand and wind battered the shield, roaring as it struck over and over again. When they looked up from having to protect themselves, they noticed that the outside of the barrier was completely dark. It briefly went pitch black in their sanctuary before the harsh sunlight broke through once more. The wind only picked up, almost shoving them off their feet against the barrier. The ground heaved in some horrible nightmare, knocking Aerea to her knees. She held on so hard she was digging her nails into her palms in fists, doing everything she could to hang on. It felt like something wanted in, and Aerea began to sweat. Each glancing strike weakened the barrier, considering the force that each had. Each burst stripped her concentration.
Valura hugged her, clinging hard. It was in Aerea's nature to comfort her, but the dust storm that had caught them was slowly beating down their defenses. Aerea didn't ask her for help, nor did she expect it. She understood better than anyone how truly frail Valura was, even if her magic potential was insane. The two huddled together for a moment, closing their eyes. Valura screwed hers shut, but Aerea had to watch, had to know what was happening. Aerea was paranoid to a fault at times, and that made it very hard to process information. If not for Valura, she wouldn't have been so functional at times. Her job was very demanding of her, almost constantly. She could never admit that she needed anyone to her friend.
Sooner or later, the storm stopped. The last grains of sand rolled off the shield, and one could see deformations in the barrier where it had been repeatedly struck. Aerea leaned over Valura, patting her softly. "I wasn't going to let something harm you," Aerea said softly, and Valura nodded softly. "Thank you." She gasped out, still catching her breath from the coughing fit. Aerea rose from her knees, panting as she stared at the rapidly moving wall of sand that had turned towards the empty wasteland to the north.
"I can't believe that those are so common. C'mon, we have to move before more come to find us." She murmured, holding her friend to her chest. It felt like the sandstorms were getting really common out here. She almost didn't want Valura surfacing for very long because of it, but she couldn't control the Vivaisir as far as she could throw her friend. Some selfish part of her didnt want Valura to leave, because it surely meant Aerea would be alone. Nobody else could get close enough to even talk to her. Nobody wanted to. It was a consolation; it meant she was safe.
The Underworld was a trek across the desert, but they were able to navigate through Akava to get to it. The small outpost was visible as it got closer, showing how much in disrepair the structures were. Small chunks were missing from the wear of hot sand on the sandstone, chipped away from years of exposure. It didn't help that Carran attacks were so common. "How long do you think its been since something attacked?" Valura whispered to her as they got closer to the crowds that frequented Akava to survive in some capacity.
"If you ask me, not very long. Those mutated creatures must not have much food out here. Pay attention to the feeling in the air. Something has visited in the near past." She spoke of the Carran. The Corruption hung in the air like a curse, small, inky purple veins weaving through the ground beneath their feet in some way. It clung to the clouds until the pale yellow vapor was tinged purple. "Do you think it may be a Greater variant?" Valura asked simply, not knowing any other way to ask. "No. I don't believe so. I haven't heard a word about Sog'Lothal, which we should be thankful for." Aerea shuddered at the thought of the multi-faced woman who wandered the wastes of Atrisea looking for prey to torture.
"I guess so," Valura whispered. Sog'lothal was a Greater Carran, a being who had overcome the madness of Corruption and regained their sense of self. It came with certain perks, including a form of sentience that set them apart from other living beings. It was almost omniscience through intense sensory input that only the tragically insane or the mentally dead could handle, and it just so happened that the Carran were the latter before their transformation. Animalistic beings that served only hunger and craving for pain in others.
The buildings got closer in distance as one traveled closer to Akava, making tighter alleyways that blocked out light until it was hard to see who was lurking in wait. Aerea grabbed Valura, spinning the girl around to her other side and catching her companion. "Stay away from the alleys." Aerea's voice was sharp and hissing. She could see the warm bodies that leaned on the walls, who watched with contempt from where they stood. Hunger was rampant here, it occurred to them. Greed was also fairly common.
Akava was made mostly of cobbled together buildings and the main market, which was the draw of Akava to begin with. It was a black market, completely unregulated from all other sources besides the guards that occasionally wandered around. They saw a great many things in the stalls that they approached from the south road. Valura approached a few of the stalls, marveling at the vials of Niali venom. Aerea lifted one of the vials, looking at it. This color wasn't from a living Niali; she quickly realized and herded Valura away. "That's pretty neat, I didn't know Niali had that color of venom." The smaller girl said softly. "They don't." Aerea was quite firm.
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The Niali were a kind of jellyfish people who each had unique venom. The problem with the Niali and the venom in their jellyfish tendrils was the effect that occurred after a Niali had died. Their venom often concentrated itself after death, making it both an extremely potent weapon and an euphoric drug that often killed the imbiber. Magical items tended to have different effects after the owner or creator of that material had died. Mana had a way of twisting itself when death was involved. Aerea understood it to be a quality of the energy itself, to be an indicator of life. These things were often stronger but more dangerous once the veil of death passed over a being's living energy.
They saw plenty of illegal enchantments, spare organs for sale, magitech firearms that couldn't have been safe, and many, many drugs. "Do you think these actually sell in plain daylight?" Valura lightly poked her friend's side. "More than you'd think," Aerea said sharply, a bit more sharply than she intended. Valura flinched slightly, but she quickly recovered before she made a scene. "This place puts me on edge." Aerea didn't offer an apology; it wasn't in her nature. She could only hope her friend could acknowledge that. She had to wonder if Sargiso was willing to treat this place like he did her people. It would be all too easy to strike everything down. She often wondered if anyone would actually stop him if he went too far. The sad part was he already had.
They found no shortage of eyes on them, even here. "Dirty creature." Aerea heard it whispered to her under the breaths of those they passed. She heard a few beings mutter, "Coal fingers." Which was mundane to most. It meant something more to her. It was a mockery of the way that the Elunari concentrated their venom under their nails and in the tips of their fingers. It was just another impact of the Grand Arbiter's cruelty. She briefly felt some of the passerby lightly strike her as she passed, and it took everything in Aerea's power not to spin on them and lash out. Valura gripped her every time, grounding her.
"They aren't worth it. None of them are." Valura held her friend close. "It doesn't matter. I'll rip their hearts out all the same." Aerea growled.
"And what would that solve?" Valura whispered, squeezing the Elunari's hand softly. She avoided the nails instinctively, knowing what would happen if she got nicked by them.
"Satisfaction." Aerea finished her thought.
The two of them wandered through more stalls for a while, seeing more edible materials, alcohol, street food, and even some candy that was brought from other places. It always puzzled Aerea how someone thought street food was a good thing for a place such as this. She entertained their adventure through the market, as Valura wasn't commonly here. Akava was a bit of a walk. The most they traveled was to the ports to venture off to new places for work. It was not uncommon to see Aerea traveling to deal with some awful man who would try something in exchange for extra money.
"You know, we probably should find our destination soon," Valura said simply. "I think you're avoiding it."
Aerea thought on that for a moment, but shook her head. "I'm not avoiding shit. I wanted to give you some experience outside of the brothel." How true that was was up to interpretation.
"Well," Valura said it matter-of-factly. "I think you're deflecting." She didn't push the point, but it wasn't in her nature to hide anything from Aerea. Valura was the one person who didn't fear Aerea in any capacity.
They eventually followed the road that led towards The Underworld. The building was technically in Akava, though the distance was such that one would have to walk for a good while to end up at the doors of the grand palace of a parlor. The whole thing was wreathed in a vicious, deep mist that curled around its once opulent spires. The corners of the building each had one straight columns that were topped with chhatris and tall points that extended into the sky. It was worn from centuries in the sand, and the once golden exterior faded. It had black stone beneath the worn gold, though it had been clouded and weathered until it was grey. It almost felt like cutting a tree in half and counting the rings.
The two walked in relative silence, Aerea's hand never straying from her short friend. The distance between them was about 2 feet, but she had adjusted to this a long while ago. Aerea was the only person who could touch Valura's head or mess with her hair, and it became a comfort gesture between them.
"Do you miss your loved ones?" Valura's voice caught in her throat as she asked. It wasn't something that she had ever heard Aerea speak about. She didn't want to ask.
"Sometimes. I don't even know if they are still alive." Aerea thought of her mother and father. The hillside cabin, the small village that she once called home. She missed the feeling of cool wind on her face. She began to wander in her thoughts, but quickly she shook herself awake again. In all of her memories of home, there was trauma, each tinged with a kind of imperfection. It hadn't been right in Crisalura since she was a child.
"Does that ever bother you?" Valura coughed heavily from the dust in the air, almost losing her balance as she doubled over.
"Eh. I don't like to think about it. There wasn't anything that made all of what I saw worth it." Aerea had the urge to walk forward and avoid the conversation; it was easier to act like these things didn't happen. So much easier to fight off the nightmares and trauma if you acted like it wasn't real. She put one hand on Valura's chest, giving her a bit of energy to keep her friend going. She wouldn't do that to the one person who had given her any form of solace.
She had seen the blood of the Elunari, the innards, the screams of separated children as they were forcefully ripped from their parents. All to lock most of them in chains and put them somewhere where they couldn't escape. Most were used for slave labor or something equally as twisted, though some found a life in courtesan work, assassination contracts or as black market dealers to sell illegal products. They didn't get the dignity of traditional work. There were some who were worse off, and she couldn't imagine how many were still begging to be untied from the beds they were inevitably chained to.
The crowds of Akava had collected towards the parlor, forming large lines that led up to the double doors. The guards were in no better condition than the rest of the building, scarred and twisted with evidence of mutations from their environment. The guard to the right of the doors was deformed, with an extra eye and shallow pockets in his skin that were hardly covered by a top layer of skin. The other was better off, though the protrusions in his right arm looked like bone was attempting to exit his skin.
Aerea grabbed her friend by the shoulder as they slowly made their way up through the crowd and past the guards. Both of them eyed her with caution and barely hidden disdain, but she knew that they, too, held prejudice. She gripped her sword hilt with a hooked finger, ready to draw at any moment.
"No." The voice was in her ear, though she knew who had given her the message. She examined her friend in annoyance. It was always "No, Aerea. You cant injure these poor bastards because they treat you like trash. No, Aerea. DONT gut this man because he attempted to grope me." It was never an open invitation for bloodshed. Aerea never really intentionally lashed out at others, but she had the feeling to do so often. It wore on a person after some time.
The guards let them both pass, though there was some hesitation with Aerea because of her sword. The look in her eyes made them quickly ignore it, though. Her longsword went everywhere she went. It was one of her prized possessions. The hilt curved upwards at the end of the pommel like an umbrella handle or a cane sword. She often found her fingers resting in the curve of the weapon.
The temperature dropped immediately after entering The Underworld. Goosebumps fired at full speed down Aerea's neck and back. Where it had been extremely hot and arid outside, it felt like an icebox in here.
"What is this place?" Valura wondered out loud, but Aerea simply hugged the girl to her leg. "The kind of place where you don't escape if you wander far." Aerea was stern, but she was also beginning to regret finding this place again. She had almost gotten lost in here once when she first found Akava, and it was the kindness of a stranger that helped her find the lobby to escape. "This is where the innocent come to die."
