After getting an account from other patrons in the eating area, the innkeeper reluctantly let us off the hook and put the bill on the tab of the rough and rowdy crew. Constable was irate that one of his Drath was so disobedient that he actually put hands on a human that was not an enemy of the empire. Thornton defended him, saying it was his duty to defend my honor in addition to my well being, calling the smelly bunch ‘blasphemous heathens’. They bickered with each other on the matter until we were setting off from the inn, even getting the horse broker they purchased from involved.
The one horse they bought was for me, an expense that Constable also loudly complained about but that Thornton said was an invaluable asset; my Drath would be better suited to protect me with free hands than carrying me. Constable retorted with, “What the hell are these other imbeciles for, then? Am I training them to be pillars for the temple??”
“The skill of an initiate in a dire circumstance pales in comparison to one of a seasoned warrior who has trained his entire life to serve,” Thornton answered.
The journey was long. While I had always been a fan of camping, the degree of camping that we endured over the next several days was not at all what I was used to. Thornton and Constable had bed rolls, no one else. There were no tents. We slept in the open. The Drath, aside from Valthorix, hunted and gathered the food for us. Thornton offered his bedroll to me, but I felt that it wasn’t fair for me to have one. I ended up being perfectly comfortable curled next to Valthorix, who was an excellent space heater and not too terrible a pillow if needed. I also discovered that his sweat (or natural scent, whichever it may be) was absolutely enchanting. The further it got from the time he had bathed, the more aromatic it became. It was a sweet, fruity scent that I could hardly believe a body would produce naturally, and I envied it. If only humans could produce such a wonderful smell! Part of me wondered if he doused himself in some sort of perfume while I slept, but I tossed it aside seeing as Drath seemed to be unable to have any such possessions around here.
I also subtly inspected the scents of the other Drath out of curiosity, and they all smelled quite nice as well. Their scent wasn’t as strong, even though they seemed to work harder than Valthorix and therefore should have had a stronger odor about them, but they were all a wonderful symphony of scents. It made me spend more time on their side of the camp than over by Thornton and Constable, who were in fact becoming slightly smelly.
Valthorix remained by my side always, and tried his best to make sure there was a certain distance between myself and the other Drath. My time trying to speak to the others and get them to respond was always cut short by him inserting his body between us and ushering me away. The only time I hardly got any peace was when either of us had to use the restroom. I had to convince that man that I would not simply vanish into a puff of smoke if he took his eyes off of me for a moment, even to just have him stand on the other side of a small tree when either of us had to take care of business. If he had his way, I would be in his lap using the restroom. Needless to say, that was not really a kink of mine.
I learned more about the history these people called theirs, and discovered Drath were supposedly the offspring of humans and ancient dragons, who fought a war together millenia ago and prevailed. I also got to know Valthorix better. I got permission to call him Val, and got him more used to speaking to me with other humans around. He still refused to utter any words if Thornton or Constable were in any way a part of the conversation, but he would at least speak quietly to me even if they were nearby.
Val was a sweet soul. He liked small animals, rabbits his favorite. He enjoyed being around children when able, amused by their whimsical games. He liked to cook, and was actually very good at it when you gave him the ingredients he needed to season it; he knew what herbs compliment each other and was able to put the right amount into what he was making to make it just right without being overbearing. By the second night, I refused anything that Constable or Thornton put over the fire and made Val take care of my food. This seemed to please Val, and it definitely pleased my stomach.
I, in turn, told him about where I came from. I was still convinced it was the world just on the other side of those mountains, where I drove to my work in a car and sat on the couch at home on a cellphone scrolling through useless posts on how to train your cat to press buttons. I told him about society there, about how it should be for people–for everyone. I told him about how the country I grew up in fought a civil war that resulted in slaves being liberated, which was one of the first dominoes to fall in the fight for everyone around the world to live free. He listened, almost mesmerized, about all the technology we had. TV, trains, motorized boats…the more he awed over everything I told him, the less sure I was that this was some secluded society hidden behind a mountain.
After five days, our group finally crested a hill that overlooked vast plains of golden wheat. In the distance, a city filled the horizon as far as the eye could see in either direction. It solidified my belief I was no longer home. This wasn’t just a small group of backwoods hillbillies trying to bring back the nazis. This was a different world, or a different plane of existence, and I was going to have to give myself a crash course in the customs of a society no one had ever experienced.
As we approached the main gate, Thornton began spouting as much information as he could about the city of Hearthspire. The concrete wall that encased the city was over 100 miles long, making the city itself span over 850 square miles within the perimeter. It was the largest city in the world. Everything within the walls took centuries to build, and it continued to expand still. Within the outer wall we were entering were farms and plantations. Many miles in was a secondary gate and wall, and within it were homes, businesses and recreational parks. Then, many miles within that, was finally what they called ‘The Gate’. The Gate had been a collaboration of all neighboring and far away countries that followed The Divine Practices to showcase the capital of their religion. Many decades went into its construction alone, not even including the wall encasing the temple.
It took another entire day just to reach The Gate. It was the southernmost part of the city, where the temple and its grounds extended out onto a peninsula and was backed by an ocean. The Gate itself was as grand as Thornton boasted; many of its decorations were made of gold and iridescent gems, causing it to glint brightly in sunlight. Atop the center of the entrance was a diamond that, at sunset, caught the light just right to cast the entirety of the city into glitter.
A small man met us just inside The Gate, and we handed off the horse I had been riding to him. Behind him trailed a group of particularly hideous (I felt bad at the repulsed feeling I got when I spotted them) women collected what meager items were being carried, and they ushered me up a grand staircase that led into the front of the temple. Inside, grand marble statues lined either side of the entryway for quite some time. All were of different people with different accents; one had a man in what looked like the fields of wheat just outside the city, another clad in magnificently intricate armor, there even was one in a huge alcove atop a ship made of wood. One that caught my eye was the one that was centerpieced above an altar that was set in front of hundreds of rows of pews, and spanned the entire stage it sat on. A man and a beautiful woman held hands staring at one another, like you’d see when a couple were being married. Behind the man were hundreds of people carved out of marble in a mural, and behind the woman was a magnificent dragon, its tail wrapped around her legs protectively.
“That’s the very first Divine,” one of the women said when she realized I had stopped following her to gawk. “He allied humans with the dragons and made our nation strong enough to win the war of calamity.”
My eyes lay fixated on the woman, whose beauty was captured so perfectly in the stone. Her dress was heavily decorated in gemstones, and her jewelry was intricately sculpted. “That’s the queen of dragons,” another of the women said quietly. “She led her dragons alongside the Divine in glory.”
They pulled me along, and I recessed into my own mind in thought. If the Drath were all descendants of dragons, why were they treated so poorly? It sounded like without them, this society wouldn’t be here today. If a war was called a calamity, everything could have been wiped off of the map if it weren’t for them.
I looked up at Val, who was continuously scanning the area, not paying much mind to any of us. I smiled at him, thinking how lucky I was to get to know him, and how other humans were missing out, let alone how wrong they were for treating them the way they did. He caught my grin and looked down at me quizzically, and I just widened my smile and thread my arm around his.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The temple was huge, and it took some time to come to a hallway lined with several doors. It was just as grand as the rest of the temple, and entering a door led us into a gigantic suite. The bed was a large and regal four poster bed, like you’d see in a royal room from a movie. It was painted gold, with deep purple bedding. I was nearly drooling at being able to sleep in it after having slept in the dirt for almost a week.
The rest of the room had matching furniture and decor; a couple of dressers, an armoire, a vanity desk, padded antique chairs, and several decorative plants. A doorway on one side of the room led into what these people called a bathroom; it had an actual bathtub in it grand enough for several people, but no pipes attached anywhere for water save for what was clearly a drain plug that ran into the floor. So no running water. There was also a ‘toilet’, which was a nice decorative bench against a wall with an endless hole in the center. When asked where the hole went, one of the women said there was a tributary made from the ocean’s water that ran beneath the temple, and all of the toilets in the temple deposited their waste into this tributary which swept it away and fertilized the lands they used to feed livestock. One of my predecessors had come up with the toilet concept to combat a sanitary crisis, and a later one used it to fertilize livestock crops to help with a food resource issue.
“How do you get water for the tub?” I asked.
One of the women grabbed a crevice in a nearby wall and demonstrated that it pulled down into a spout long enough to hover over the tub. After a moment water began gushing out and into the tub, and she pushed the spout back into the wall.
“There is a reservoir above the temple that houses heated water. When you pull down the spout, the suction pulls water from the reservoir into your spout, giving you water. Just make sure to shut it when the tub is full, we have had many overfill the tub and cause damage.”
She also showed me to a little table that had soaps, towels, wash clothes, and a small metal decorative bucket that I could fill with water from the spout to do quick washes or wash my hands.
“If you need refills on anything, your room attendant will be more than happy to get you whatever you need.” She motioned out the door for someone, and a gorgeous young Drath woman sheepishly walked in, her eyes on the floor. She did a curtsy for me, then stepped aside to let the other women exit. “The council have to ready things for the exchange of power, which will take a week or two. They will keep you in the loop about the timeline, and will make sure you have everything you need for coronation when it comes. In the mean time, relax and enjoy yourself with free roam of the temple grounds.” With that, the escort I entered with left, leaving me with the Drath woman and Val.
“You’re really pretty,” I said stupidly to her.
She blushed beneath her raven hair, and she nervously tucked some behind one of her pointed ears.
“Oh, right. My name is Suzanna. I, er, give you permission to speak to me and prefer that you do. What’s your name?”
Finally she looked up at me, her ice blue eyes flicking nervously between Val and I. Val curtly nodded his head at her, and she shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “My name is as you wish it to be, Your Grace,” she nearly whispered. Her voice was soft and melodic, even in hushed tones. She was so cute! I was sure she had all the guys fawning over her.
“No, no, no, no,” I sighed. “I want your real name. And call me Suzanna, please. I’m not someone special.”
Her eyes flicked back to Val with uncertainty, who nodded again. “I was once called Zythera,” she replied quietly. “Forgive my question, Lady Suzanna…but are you not a Divine?”
“Oh, that,” I said, rolling my eyes. “They say I am, and even if I am, I’m not like them. Where I come from, everyone is a friend, no matter where they come from. You have SUCH a pretty name, by the way, I bet you have many boyfriends.”
She shifted awkwardly again and averted her gaze. “Drath are permitted only to mate with who they are given to.”
I made a face. “What, so you don’t, like, do a courting thing?”
Zythera shook her head meekly. “We simply procreate with who we are told, to keep our population up and supply households with needed help. Most breeders have Drath with desired qualities copulate to produce an offspring with a particular trait.”
I looked at Val with an open mouth, appalled. He nodded his head. “They treat you like livestock!” I shouted incredulously.
“We live to serve,” Zythera said. “As the Sanct and the Divine wish.”
“If I am truly this Divine person, I do not wish this at all,” I nearly growled. “This society treats all of you worse than dirt, and from what I have seen you are all so strong and talented. You could wipe these people off of the face of the planet! Yet you take all this crap from them!”
“We have our own edict we must follow,” Val finally cut in. “It is written in our souls from our ancestors, and we must obey it.”
I snorted. “What, so someone from a million years ago said you had to listen to humans, and now you let them walk all over you?”
They both nodded in unison.
I rolled my eyes at them and put my face into my hands. Everyone was so backwards in this place, I doubted anyone would be able to make a change.
We were interrupted by a young man in a nice suit, who stated he was to take me to be ordained, which he explained was a process that was to verify if I was the divine or not.
“How…how is it that you find that out?” I asked him uncertainly.
“It is quick and simple, Your Grace. No worries. There is an artifact we keep in the relic chamber. When you hold it, it will either react to your touch to verify you are the Divine, or it will not. That is all.”
“And what happens when it doesn’t react?”
The young man shrugged. “I assume you will be escorted out of the temple. If you end up not being the Divine, there would be no reason for you to be here at the temple. A Divine Guardian has never been incorrect in sensing his ward, however, and since we know this Drath is in fact this age’s Guardian, there is hardly any doubt that you are the Divine.”
“Whatever you say,” I responded, unsure. How could I be something in this world if I wasn’t even from it?
Val accompanied me as I followed the young man down several halls and a winding staircase. It took some time, but we finally arrived in a large archive room, almost a library of sorts, that also had many display cases with weapons, trinkets and jewelry. In the very center of the room, behind a 360 workstation, was a display case with several locks on it with darkened glass that couldn’t be peered through. Around the station mingled 12 men, one of them I recognized immediately as Thornton. They all wore Toga-Style robes with gold hems, and were bantering as I assume they waited for my arrival.
When they caught sight of me, their murmuring stopped and they all bowed deeply, and one man broke free and began unlocking the case. As the last lock clicked open, the man backed away and motioned me forward. I uncertainly acquiesced, gently pulling open the front of the case and widening my eyes as I looked at the artifact within.
It was a large Amethyst encased in intricate golden filigree, making it look like the stone was being caressed by golden waves. It was absolutely exquisite! I glanced over at the 12 men uncertainly, and they all nodded and leaned in, prompting me to take it.
Gently, I grabbed the artifact with both hands and pulled it out of the case. Despite being metal and stone, it radiated a fiery warmth and even seemed to have a thrumming pulse, like it was alive. As I marveled at it, at how smooth and perfect it seemed, it suddenly began making an audible, low hum. The filigree on the sides started to move, parting to let a pair of golden angelic wings encrusted with more gems fold out. On the bottom, a golden pole started to extend out slowly as well. When the artifact finally seized, its shape had morphed it into an elegant angelic staff.
Everyone in the room, including Val, then dropped to one knee and unanimously chanted, “Your Highest Grace.”
As a reflex, I made a face. “Stop it,” I said. “I hate that. My name is Suzanna.”
All the men rose, and Thornton stepped forward. “Forgive us, My Lady, it is sacred that we greet you appropriately.” He pulled out his little booklet and began thumbing through its pages. “I will say, however, the artifact has taken a form not listed in the codex. The Sanct and I must gather and discuss what your purpose may be. You are free to take the temple as you please while we converse and ready the power transfer.”
Thornton gave a curt nod to Val, who turned to the side and motioned for me to exit the room.
“Do…do I need to put this back?” I asked, holding out the staff.
“Oh, no, My Lady. The artifact is to be in the possession of the Divine at all times.”
I glanced over my new toy skeptically and shrugged, following Val back to my room in silence. When we returned, I finally took a long look over Val and realized how tense he was. Zythera entered the room from the bathroom and stopped in her tracks when she saw us, her eyes locking onto the staff I carried. Her face turned from shock to concern, which I took as a hint to be concerned.
“Okay, what’s wrong?” I asked them nervously. They held a long look between one another before returning their gaze to me.
“The Sanct may not know what your artifact means,” Val started quietly. “But we Drath know.”
Zythera moved to one of the bedside tables and opened a drawer, pulling out a little book that resembled the one that Thornton carried. She rushed it to me, flipping to one of the very first pages in the book that had what looked like an image of the main temple mural on it.
“Yeah, the first divine and the queen of dragons,” I said dumbly. “The women that escorted me in told me about the war of calamity.”
“Yes, but look.” Zythera pointed a finger to a staff that hovered in between the two of them, slightly behind them. It was a staff that looked exactly like mine. “It is the artifact of the very first Divine, the artifact that had the power to ally the dragons with the humans and overcome the greatest of all hurdles the world can face.”
My heart started to sink. “Does that mean there is going to be another War of Calamity??” I asked, nearly hysteric.
Zythera and Val looked at each other again, holding each other’s gaze for a long time. “We fear that very well may be the case,” Val replied.