Filaspera was silent. The city was sheltered under a cave so large that you couldn't see the ceiling. The ceiling lit up from time to time with small bright butterflies ... A starry black sea.
The houses were all in place, illuminated by the curious stones that reside in that area. Attached to a string, the lights passed from one house to another. Nobody was on the streets, and there was an air of heaviness in the city.
"Greetings?!" Oskah yelled. His voice echoed through the openings of the dead houses, among clothes and various objects scattered on the streets. Frost and empty.
Emptiness and death.
"I thought I heard someone." Oskah said.
"'Something' is more appropriate ..." Dulkah muttered.
Zen was dismal and looked around restlessly. Every now and then a shiver assaulted him, his body involuntarily vibrated.
"What do you have?" Dulkha asked. Zen didn't look at him, didn't even answer.
HEY??? WE ARE RECOGNIZING FROM ANATOLIA, IS ALL GOOD??!???!?!?
"Don't yell in my ears." Dulkha said.
No reply.
The two scouts, and Zen, went down the long stone stairs that reached a point where the horizon could not be seen.
Modest houses, showy houses, taverns, all hollowed out of the luminous stone, passed by them, echoes of a life that seemed to have disappeared into thin air.
The adventurers knocked on every door available to them, peered through the few windows that were there, until they put their hearts in peace and came to a conclusion.
"There's nobody here anymore."
Dulkha nodded to Oskah. Zen still looked strangely troubled.
"We should check further; we can't go back empty-handed ..." Oskah said.
"To make your girlfriend happy?" Dulkha said.
"Idiot! The Division Chief is not my fiancée yet- Er, I just wanted to say that Filaspera is one of our most important contacts, one of the few that still remains. We should dig deeper."
"All right."
They arrived in front of a large castle, covered with pointed luminous stone. Inside the castle, a long corridor that led to a large door. The door was heavy, but ajar.
On the other side was a huge room with a desk and a throne.
"This, if I'm not mistaken, must have been the Room of Filaspera's duke." Oskah said.
"There are documents scattered everywhere." Dulkha answered.
"Yes, there will be useful information, I bet. Zen, can you help us find it?"
Zen nodded silently as he stared into space.
Oskah, Dulkha and Zen checked the numerous records.
The latest was two months ago. Most of them were inventory records, accounts, personal notes.
There were some documents different from the others. They featured almost coded language.
[Verse 614. Imported: Positive; Major Load: Failed]
To be sent to external affairs. Permission level [Vision].
...
"What does it mean?" "I have no idea." "The fact that everything has vanished into thin air gives me the creeps."
Oskah accidentally bumped into the throne desk. A leather booklet fell from it. It looked very old. It was a diary. Oskah opened one of the last pages and began to read aloud. While the boy read, Zen sat at the corner of the wall, still looking at that indefinite point.
"It's been 120 days since the last load. For one reason or another, the Dead Eyes continue to haunt the passage. We always try to vary and find new ways, but They, as if attracted by the load, always find the way to sabotage everything.
We have lost five body builders, while two are seriously injured.
We haven't had such a strong crisis for about twenty years, when an entire load was lost, along with the two body builders. "
"Load?"
"..."
"Wait there's more ..." Oskah turned the page. "Lately we hear strange voices coming from outside. The inhabitants are more and more afraid, and the light of the stones becomes more and more clear. It reminds people of the outside world, and as a result they become nervous.
Lately, as if that were not enough, I have been plagued by nightmares so black as to whiten the horrible reality in which we find ourselves. I think it's the feelings of guilt, which surfaced after years. The Guardian is still alive, although I think a new brood will arrive shortly. "
Oskah, increasingly confused, quickly flipped to the last page. The caligraphy became more and more shaky, until it was almost illegible.
"The cargo ... The children, they are getting stranger and stranger. The experiments are all too good. We are doing all this only for the fear that afflicts us. Dying. A fear so trivial, yet so lethal. It makes us do horrible things. . The most horrible thing is that I think most citizens know that. They know about the horrible things that happen in the Tundra. Under their feet. And the world ... The things that reside out there ... They know it too, and they are screaming, crying, in response to the strange sing that the children, as if hypnotized, sing without rest. They're coming, I feel it ... The angels of sin, they're ... "
Oskah put down the diary. There was nothing left. The last sentence was abruptly interrupted. "The Tundra ...?"
Zen stood up. "I-I think I know."
"What do you know?" Dulkha asked.
"Where is the Tundra. Follow me."
Zen continued in an unknown direction. His did not seem like the pace of someone who is sure where he is going. Or who is sure they want to go.
"Are you sure you know what you are doing." Dulkha asked.
"Yes ... No ... I don't know ... I have a strange feeling, since we entered this city. As if there was something I don't want to remember, like a dream, but I know for sure that it is reality."
"..."
"And I feel a constant feeling of nausea. I would like to leave, but now that I'm in it, it would be worse to leave things unfinished."
Dulkha and Oskah didn't know what to say. They just followed Zen.
Zen came to the outside of what looked like a temple. He entered in silence. He wasn't too surprised when he found a huge door leading into the underground. The door was made of steel, and it didn't seem to be part of that place.
"T-The door ... Sure, the door ... WHY THE FUCK I REMEMBER THIS FUCKING DOOR?"
"He's back."