The story follows the adventures of a historian traveling through battlefields |
I woke what felt only like several hours, but Davlamin insisted was a day later, in a white, orange and green room. It smelled like phica tallow, ash and clay. It was a cleaning mixture, called mountsapu, used in hospitals. The only noises to be heard were groans of pain and nurses rushing to patients. Davlamin stood over me and explained the battle and how I was in a war hospital in the capital of Spirituality, Domus Spiritus. It is in an old language dated far before the date system, it means House of the Spirits. A nurse walked and checked things over, my pulse, cetera. Then she asked me a question, “Okay so what’s your name?” I had no idea any common names in Spirituality, though Davlamin answered for me, “His name is Desteros. You may ask me any questions, he is still a little woozy.” “So where are you from?” “We both come from Monk’s Timbervasser” “Okay you may go back to your town if you want. Or you may stay in the city and help with the next battles. You both are quite famous for holding that last stand against Mentality.” Thank you. I think we are both well enough to fight the next battle. Do you guys have our papers yet?” Yeah here they are. And we are quite full of wounded soldiers, so if you don’t mind moving soon.” She handed him two piles of papers full of writing. Then she left to the next patient. Davlamin quickly explained the plans in a hush tone, “You’re probably wondering what the papers of for, eh? They pretty much are needed to do almost everything in the city as soldiers in the battle, but most importantly; with them we can get into the parade as heroes of the war. I got us signed in to be part of the Golden Spirit. It’s like a giant costume with about a five people under it. And it follows the Great Spirit Speaker in the Parade. So here’s the plan, we get to be in the Golden Spirit, then in the least populated part of the Parade audience, we capture the Speaker. We carry him to the tuatara Krisiana has waiting outside of the capital, and into the safe burrow a little ways from the city. We interrogate him and get the answers. Afterward Markus will brainwash him and send him to one of the may search parties. He will then convince Spirituality that his kidnapping was by Mentees and through the power of the Spirit Gods, he escaped. He will also convince Spirituality to join with Synergia, to help stop the war with the other nations. You ready? My only answer was a nod. Though expressionless outwardly, on the inside I felt frightened by the huge holes in the plan. So many doubts rushed past my head like how would we get the most powerful person in Spirituality outside the capital? Isn’t he at least as powerful as Desera and can fight against brainwashing? Can we even overpower the guards surrounding him in the parade? What if they follow us to the safe hole? This plan will never work. But the small glimmer of hope brought by the plan fueled me to agree to endanger my life for the hope of an alliance of Spirituality and Synergia. We left the hospital (If one could call that windowless box with only nurses a hospital) and were walking through the city. Both of us agreed to see the cultural history of the city. We started at the Great Temple Of Spirituality. The Temple alone took up one fifth of the entire city. It housed all high ranking member of the religion, including the Speaker and his advisers. The city was crowded with people, who were all in a rush. More than just the ground was crowded, up above there were hundreds; maybe thousands, of spirits. Each of the spirits were rushing from place to place, just like the people. Even though there were huge crowds, it was quite an easy task to get to the Temple. Almost all the people were heading in its direction, including the waves of spirits. The architecture of the city was like no other village or town in Spirituality. Many of the building were old, dating back to the Renaissance. Each one exquisitely different than the next, yet they had a resemblance. Each building were shaped in great detail. Many of the buildings were multicolored. Orange, green, white, blue and gold buildings all around as far as any one could see. Towering over all buildings was the most beautiful and majestic form of architecture I had ever seen. Its giant blue pillars, with swirls of green, held the great architectural genus up for tens of thousands of days. The walls curved and waved around creating a circular base, though it was so big; I could barely tell it was a circle from my view. The walls were mostly white with shades of gray. Each curve wrapped the structure around and ended in a loop and swirl. The Temple had a giant golden roof that sparkled in the sun. It had thin swirls of oranges that gleamed even brighter than the gold. Many spirits swirled around the roof making it look like a glow of white, gray and gold. The interior of the Temple was equally as majestic and well crafted as the exterior. Dark orange plush walls. Though there were many more windows than there was wall. The windows were stained glass with glossy colors. I was told each told a story of Spirituality history. The golden ceiling stood high above our heads, though the ceiling was tough to see, for all the spirits drifting about. The flooring was tiles of a dark shades of green and white. In the center of the Temple was a staircase that circled around to the next level. Not many people came down or went up the stairs, though they were wide enough to fit many people. Those that did walk up and down the stairs were dressed in the clothing of royalty. The Temple grew quiet instantly as the Speaker of Spirits walked down. Each step echoed into a loud boom, for the ambiance was so peaceful. The crowds of people separated as he walked to the pedestal of the room. Even the spirits overhead moved out of the path the Speaker was going, even though they were not in the way. As the Speaker went on top of the platform the pedestal was, he began to speak in a strong powerful voice, “I am grateful so many Spirits and commoners alike came here. I am also grateful for those Spirits and commoners that fought in the battles against the other nations. And I must beg those that may have hate for the other nations to forgive them and release your hate. They have caused much chaos, destruction and death, but they have only lost their way. It is not in the nature of the Golden Spirit to keep grudges. When peace is restored and the era of tranquility and prosper has returned, then we will begin converting all people to our way, so the peace and tranquility can continue. One person must lead, or chaos, war and destruction will come. If it is necessary for one to lead, then shall it be me. Though I respect the other races and nations, they create meaningless violence. The Physiques have killed off many of their own leaders, the Mentees have manipulated their people to the point where no one has freedom of their will, and the Synergians have given all their trust to a huge, complex system that slowly tries and fails to make any decisions. If the world was run by any of them, then rebellions and hate of their own government would be in all the people's hearts, save the leader's hearts. To obtain another ear of tranquility and peace, we must contain the nations to their borders; like Synergia. Though unlike Synergia, we will use that time to slowly make people realize why our system is the best of all the nations. Brutality, Slavery, and Waste can not be part of a government that rules all the nations. Spirituality is the greatest of the nations and we must unite the world under a common government to spread our peace and prosperity. We shall conquer through peace and...” Davlamin and I sneaked out the front doors by drifting through the crowd. We were completely unnoticed because everyone was paying attention to the lies of the Speaker. I looked at Davlamin, his face showed complete disgust at the lies. Once we were away from all the people, Davlamin turned to me and asked, “How can people believe even a word of all the driveling lies coming out of that man! They think they’ll be helping nations by destroying culture and replacing it with their own. They probably kill all Mentees and Physiques! They don’t care about anyone else but themselves. Just so, so... stupid!” He immediately stopped when the speech ended and the crowds of people and spirits poured out of the Temple. We decided to go to the Spirituality culture museum, which was only on the other side of the Temple. As we passed people we heard bits of their conversations, “Such a great idea...” and “It’s about time to unite the nations...” There were no disagreements to the destruction of the other nation’s cultures. But there were a few that were listening with faces of disapproval, barely shown though. And those that did disapprove never spoke up. The museum had the same exact decor as the Great Temple, though it was much smaller. Few spirits and people were here, but there was a small group of younger children. They were apparently going through the tour for the first time, so we decided to follow them. The tour guide leaded the group of children, with me and Davlamin tailing behind. She said, “Here is our oldest relics from when the Golden Spirit came down and imbued our people with the power of the spirit and in return, we worship and train with our spirits. Every year we celebrate the Golden Spirit by the Parade. A few of the most important people get to go into the Golden Spirit costume in honor of that time. Are all of you going to the Parade?” The children all cheered in agreement. The tour guide looked toward us like we were insane or creepy. Davlamin decided to act and said, “Did you know us two are going to get the honor of being the Golden Spirit in the Parade.” All the children got excited to see, then one snotty boy said, “What gives you the honor of being the Golden Spirit?” “We are only heroes of the battle that just happened a day ago. We held the line against the final strike of Mentees, my friend here Desteros, held of marsupial riders.” They just stared in amazement at children fantasy heroes. The tour guide’s stared changed to admiration and adoration. She came up to Davlamin and whispered something so silent that no one else could hear. This brought a grin to Davlamin, but he just walked out. Davlamin never told me what she said, but I believe that he blushed at it, though it may just be the sunburn. We went back to the small room that Spirituality provided veterans of battles. He showed me a detailed map of how we would go east through the city and out. He showed where Krisiana is waiting and that we travel further eastward to get to the burrow. Once I memorized each detail, we went ate a quick dinner and fell asleep, though the sun had just set. I was awoken for the first time of being fully rested and happy to see the dawn of day. Davlamin was just as well rested and refreshed as I was. The Parade was to begin in about three hours and we had to get there two hours before. So after a quick meal of milk weed, we set off to the beginning of the Parade, the Great Temple of Spirituality. After inquiring, a Spirit told me the Parade begins and ends at the Great Temple because that is where the people of Spirituality are born and are buried to move on to their next stage in life as Spiritual power. We met with three other men, noticeably the only women in the Parade were the wives of the male officials. Not a single women held a powerful enough role in Spirituality to be in the Parade. The other men held the simple golden silk costume decorated with shimmering jewels of green, orange and silver. After going through simple routine walk throughs of using the costume with the other men, we were ready to begin. Crowds that had been waiting for hours before began to loudly cheer at the first people that walked by. Leading the front were the veterans of the wars dressed in uniform. Following them were guards and service people of the officials. Then in a prestigious, golden, floating... float. It was carried by thousands of spirits, which glowed a brilliant white, was the Speaker. We trailed behind him as he waved to the loud crowds of both people and spirits. We all moved in unison and did circles and curves. Every once in awhile shimmering white spirits circled us and few outward. This caused the crowds to cheer even louder until my ears felt like they were about to bleed. Soon the crowds got softer to a dull roar, and the crowds grew thinner as we moved further away from the Temple, eastward. Davlamin, who was just behind me, poked me and whispered softly, but with eagerness, “Okay were just a few hundred feet from position, and the plan is just right, there are only a few people in the crowds around this area. Hold on to me as I do the distraction, okay?” I simply turned and nodded to tell him I was ready. His body went limb, and to my amazement I was able to carry him without any slowing. His spirit jumped out of his body and flew out the Golden Spirit costume. Though I never saw this, I was told later that Davlamin’s spirit flew over and set off the explosives that shot into the air. They glowed into many different colors and nearly forced people’s eyes to be glued to the light show. Once I heard the roaring sounds of the air explosions, coupled with the “oohs” and “aahs” of the crowd, I used an anesthetic, which Davlamin stole from the war hospital, that paralyzes and makes people unconscious on all the other members of the Golden Spirit costume. I quickly threw off the costume, knowing that the explosions would end in only minutes. I went forward the Speaker’s float and quickly used the anesthetic on him and his guards. They all fell over numb and I went back over to Davlamin’s body. His spirit had just returned and he helped me carry the Speaker’s body eastward. We walked through the crowd completely unnoticed by everyone and we were heading the East Gate of Domus Spiritus. I stayed behind with the Speaker’s body in a dark alley, while Davlamin went over to the guards and told them, “Quickly get over to Parade! The Speaker, I think he’s in danger!” The guard was skeptical saying, “You’re not getting out of here that easily. Now don’t tell phony lies any-” The guard was cut off by a loud scream, then the crowds started to panic. The colored explosions had ended, and they all noticed the unconscious guards and the missing Speaker. The guard immediately changed his attitude and started to run off to the Parade. The rest of the guards followed, but none noticed me in the dark alley with the Speaker. Davlamin waved to me that the coast was clear and I quickly sprinted toward him. Davlamin helped me carry the Speaker out of the city and into the desert. Behind us we could he panic, rage, and cries of grief for the missing Speaker. He was the people’s connection to their gods; he was the icon of Spirituality; he was their leader. Only about a mile out, there was a trench, where Krisiana was waiting for us. It took us only a few minutes, but soon there were search parties in search of their beloved leader. They were riding tuatara, so they were easily covering ground and coming near us. We ducked into he trench, where three tuatara and Krisiana were, in fact, waiting. Krisiana took the Speaker and started to ride out along side me. Davlamin held back and told a search party that us three were going eastward, and the other search parties should head more north and south. Davlamin’s plan worked perfectly and he soon caught up with us. After about ten minutes of hard riding, we arrived had a small burrow, with Alluvia and Markus peeking through the entrance. Once Markus told us mentally there were no people of Spirituality looking this way, we all entered including the tuatara. The anesthetic would wear off in a couple minutes, but it left the Speaker woozy and unable to concentrate. Meaning he could not use his spirit or body to fight us, and he could not call for help. As we waited, we could hear the search parties rushing through and looking for the Speaker. Calls, cries and screams, to no avail. Then all of a sudden the parties began to rush by, just overhead. Then they stopped just on top of us, the party began to mumble something in low tone to each other. Thankfully the burrow did not collapse, because below the sand is rock, which Alluvia broke right through with ease. Then noise started to be made at the beginning of the entrance. Someone was entering the burrow, we were bound to be discovered. Then just as the figure loomed before entering the burrow, the Speaker woke up and was bound to cry for help. And we were all cornered in a cave. |