After hearing the history that was unknown to most of the world. Clara, Fishy and Ziu could only sit in silence. They listened to every word that was told to them as if they were studying it all for an exam. Making sure never to miss a detail.
"How do you know this?" Breaking the silence, Fishy decided he had to speak.
"We are what little remains of the East." The man told them. "I was there when it happened."
"What do you mean?"
"It all happened only 40 years ago. Ditor is the current king, killing anything that connects Tanba to the east."
The shock of hearing how recent it caused Clara to fall to the ground, collapsing at the horror. The war that the world thought had been going on for hundreds of years, was only going on for 40. And it was far from war. It was a one-sided slaughter.
"We need to get in and get out as soon as possible." Fishy stood up as he turned towards Ziu.
"Agreed."
"But what about…" Clara tried to speak but Fishy interrupted.
"We need to go."
Fishy stared down Clara, hoping she wouldn't say anything. She looked about at him with hopeless eyes, pulling him to the side to speak to him.
"Why don't we tell them?"
"I want the same as you. But if Tanba is trying to kill anyone from the East, then we have no idea what lengths they would go to just to kill them. I'm sorry… but I'm not bringing the village into this."
Fishy moved away to pack the remainder of his things so they didn't have to waste any more time. Clara wanted to pull him back to continue the discussion, but she knew that nothing could change his mind.
"We're heading off."
Their story lasted until the middle of the night. They could still hear the sound of the raging wind from outside, taunting them.
"If we go now, we'll be better off."
Fishy and Ziu stood next to each as they collected their things from around the cowering family that held each other closely. Clara wore her brown coat as she knelt down to the family with bruised faces, staring at them with sympathetic and determined eyes.
"We'll come back for you."
She held the family in her arms close before separating herself from them and joining the other two as they walked through the steel door, back into the storm.
# # #
Walking through the storm, in hopes, they were heading the right way towards the capital, Fishy and Clara were furious with the tale they just heard, whereas Ziu wasn't sure he was still on the right page.
"So it's clear the west killed the east king until they got into power," Ziu screamed over the sound of the blizzard.
"Wasn't it obvious?" Clara said with heavy steps that destroyed the snow. "It must have been planned all along by Ditor. He never cared about Soth either. He probably planned it all."
"Would love to stop and talk more about this corrupt history but we are almost at the entrance. We can't mention anything."
The two of them nodded as to not dry out their throats again. Three of them took one step beyond the barrier that kept the storm at bay, staring once again at the giant wall with guards atop that were being illuminated by the torches they carried.
"Quick, this way…"
Fishy led the others around the wall till they got to a large open area, a gate built that dug through, allowing people to move in or out, but not without talking to the many guards that were positioned outside.
"What do we do?" Clara asked.
"Easy…" Ziu took one step into the open and was spotted by the guards who all aimed for his head with their magic rifles. He held his arms up high and was soon joined by Fishy and Clara.
"We want to enter, don't shoot."
# # #
Inside the concrete walls was a several meter wide resting area for the guards. They would go there to rest and play games to entertain themselves as much as they could during a snowstorm. And, during the off chance that they met someone who wanted to enter, they did a lie detector test on them. The test was done by the head guard, a man who looked the same as the others, except his dark fuzzy hat was red, whereas the other guards all wore blue.
"We will ask you questions." He said as his eyes stared the three of them down. Watching them in their chairs as if they were in police interrogation. "There was a large sign of magic used just outside these walls a few days ago, please excuse us for being cautious. Now, Where do you come from?"
"We came from Fintan village." Fishy spoke directly to the man's eyes.
The two exchanged an intense gaze that would feel awkward for any outsider.
"He's not lying… I can't say where that is… but you aren't lying…"
"What do you want to do here?"
"We are looking for someone, a family friend."
Fishy answered again. He knew he would have to dance with the truth to get passed, as so that's what he did. He knew the head guard used magic to uncover if he was lying or not, which made it easy for Fishy to outsmart.
"You aren't lying again…"
The head guard was getting restless at Fishy answering all the questions correctly. He took his hat off and set it down on the table next to them, before spinning around a chair to which he sat on. And asking the final question.
"Do you know anyone from the east?"
His final question was unavoidable. The worst-case scenario as Ziu and Clara avoided eye contact with the guard, whereas Fishy refused to look away.
"I do not." He said with a slight grin.
The guard looked at him with suspicion. Clara and Ziu didn't say anything and tried to make themselves as small as possible to avoid suspicion, but Fishy's resolve fought through.
"He isn't lying…"
The guard couldn't find a fault in their words. Each time he asked a question he got the answer he wanted to hear. He could only let the three of them enter Tanba, passing them through the gates, into a world that was slowly sprinkling down with perfect flakes of snow.
Tanba was much like the outside; covered in snow. It held a thin layer that was covered in footprints and blood. The snow falling from above was what was leaking through the barrier at the top. Homeless people flooded the streets, hugging together every night just to survive.
"This place is horrible…" Clara said.
"Yeah…"
"So how did you do it? How did you trick him?"
"Huh? I tried not to lie as much as possible. In fact, I told him the truth."
"But what about knowing someone from the east? And the family friend?" Ziu questioned, not that he doubted Fishy's strength.
"His magic isn't that complex, it seems like he can only tell if you are lying or telling the truth, he can't see how far from the truth it is. Plus, it seems as if it reads your mind to get what you're thinking and to decide if that's true or not."
"I don't get it?"
"Basically, all I had to do was tell myself that I don't know someone from the east and that I'm a family friend to the druids and it was believed to be true by the lie detector. As I said, it just kinda reads the current state of your mind, doesn't measure your heart rate or anything."
Ziu and Clara continued walking as they were amazed by Fishy's quick wit in figuring out the situation. Of course, Fishy himself didn't understand how he passed the lie detector. He just assumed that because he was allowed in that he succeeded.
As they continued to walk down the identical mirror streets of Tanba, filled with concrete houses that were piled in snow, Fishy came up with one last plan to get them to succeed.
"Alright, from here we split up. We need to find him quickly and this place is bigger than it looks on the outside. Once you've found him use thought communication to tell the others. Make sure you have enough mana to be able to answer."
Fishy stared at the determination of the others. Clara's adventurous face was ready to fight back against Tanba whereas Ziu was ready to redeem himself from the fight against the colossal marionette.
And, just like that, the three of them split up, in the empire of Tanba.