Chapter 01
Words Of Hope
They spent all morning crossing the forsaken tablelands. The day grew warmer and warmer the more they moved towards Lindon's Gutter. The rugged terrain began losing its dullness by the time the sun mounted the world. The jagged rocks were transitioning to gravel. By the time they reached the edge of the plateau, the gravel had become fine rocks crunching beneath their feet with each step. They paused there, gazing down at the land that stretched ahead of them.
The four of them were panting, tired and sticky with sweat from the long walk. Luna put her weight on the walking sticks in each of her hands, these hiking sticks were sharing the load of the weight she carried, the backpack hanging from her shoulders, and great at protecting her knees from the impact of walking as well as increasing her travelling speed.
She frowned deeply and gaped at the landscape that lay ahead. "What is that! Just what exactly am I looking at here?"
"Behold, the land of rot and all things abominable," Raven - the leader of their little party – replied gravely. "That is Lindon's Gutter. Our destination lay somewhere in that wetland."
Luna's frown deepened as her gaze shifted from Raven's somber and dark features to the wetland. The landscape beyond the plateau was entirely covered in grayish fog that seemed to seep out of the ground like some horrible pus from rot affected flesh.
Damien was drinking out of a waterskin. When done, he wiped his lips and resealed the mouth of the waterskin. He offered it to Marcus who accepted it with a nod of appreciation.
Damien said, "We've reached the end of the tablelands. Yes, I know, Luna. Those lands do not look appealing at all. And those are dangerous grounds to tread. Even more dangerous than these forsaken tablelands that we are leaving behind as we speak."
"Do we really have to go in there?" Luna whined, with a disgusted expression.
Her companions laughed in amusement, except for Marcus. He looked infuriated. He snapped at Luna, "Are you kidding me! You're the one who brought us here!"
Luna shouted back. "Well, I didn't know we were going to hell! It's your own damn fault for listening to me!"
"You begged us till we caved in!" Marcus cried.
"All my plans are terrible! Haven't you learned that already?" Luna said. "Are you an idiot?"
"What the hell did you say to me!" Marcus barked.
Raven chuckled, and Damien roared with laughter, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "That's enough, you two," he said through his laugh, "Save your energy for the animals inside the forest."
Luna and Marcus calmed, shot each other stink eyes and looked away.
Between them, and over their shoulders, Damien said with a grin, "For the record, it was the best plan we had. Sure, we could have chosen a safer path and stay away from this wild goose chase, and be on our merry way. Go find some mercenary jobs and earn a lot and live in wild fun. But, Luna, it was our choice to follow your plan. It is fraught with danger, and I mean real danger, but it's the only lead we have on finding a cure for the illness that's gnawing on the life of this continent." Damien looked at Marcus. "Do you understand, Marcus?"
"Why are you looking at me for?" Marcus muttered. "She was the one who was complaining."
Raven began moving down the slope. "Alright, come along! We need to find a safe spot to camp before the day dims into nightfall." He said after a pause, as if he'd just realized, "Not that the sun will be much useful in those thick fog anyway."
Damien moved ahead with Raven.
Luna made a face to Marcus with a victorious glee in her eyes. Marcus gritted his teeth in response. And the two of them were following after Raven and Damien.
As Raven led them down from the rugged towering tablelands, the world around them underwent a dramatic transformation. The once endless expanse of rocky grounds and stony protrusions gave way to a shadowy, fog-shrouded swamp, a pace of unsettling unpleasantness and disturbing tranquility.
The descent was proving treacherous, with each step leaving them further down the craggy slopes. Loose stones and gravel crunched beneath their boots, echoing in the stillness of the damp air. The sun was slowly becoming a distant memory, its midday rays struggling to pierce the thick blanket of fog, casting a pale diffused light that brought out weird characteristics to the surroundings.
Raven led the party of four deeper into the wetlands. Visibility was low, and what little Luna could see were twisted trees and their gnarled roots clawing at the earth. Their branches spreading far and wide, creating a suffocating canopy overhead. Vines were heavy with dew, and they hung like slimy and hairy snakes from the trees in a bunch. Luna shuddered with genuine fright as their tendrils brushed against her shoulders as she walked next to Marcus who was growing pale like her, and followed the back of Raven.
The ground beneath their feet grew progressively softer, transforming from solid rock to spongy, soggy earth. Patches of emerald moss clung to the ground; their colors muted in the dim illumination. Each of their steps sent ripples through the murky waters that pooled in the low-lying areas, their surfaces disturbed briefly before settling back into the calmness. The air was thick with moisture, and Luna could practically taste the dampness on her lips. A chorus of creatures filled the wetlands, creatures that she could notsee. Their noise was ghostly, moaning and creaking and snapping and giggling, contributing to a grand symphony that played in her nightmare. She could only tell apart some creatures, like frogs croaking in the distance. But those other things, whose creepy calling she had never heard before in her life, their calls echoed around in the mists. The occasional splash told the presence of unseen organisms crawling beneath the wet surface.
To Luna, the fog itself felt like a living entity, shifting and swirling in unnatural whisps, obscuring her vision and making every step a leap of faith. This kept her on the edge of her nerves, not knowing what she was going to step into. The mists clung to her like cold, wet clothes. Making the trees and vegetation growth around her look like wavy phantoms.
"What is making those sounds?" Marcus said. But Luna wasn't fooled, he was obviously trying his best to hide the fact that he was unnerved.
"I have no idea," Damien replied honestly.
"You don't?" Luna said feeling an unease settling in. "But I thought you came here before?"
"I did," Damien said. "But these regions are mostly unexplored. I'm not sure even the Sages studied these places. So, we don't know what sort of creatures live here. Well, except for those annoying frogs croaking all the time... I wish they'd fucking shut up already!"
They rounded a rather large tree that rose in their path. It looked as if a giant had wrung it like a wet cloth. The four of them were making wet clop-clop sounds as they moved forward.
"Damien, check your bearings again if you could, my dear friend," Raven asked. "Are we on the right course?"
"Hold on, let me check again," Damien lifted his right hand, and a thin white branch no longer than the length of his entire arm appeared in the grasp of his palm. Something like a compass seemed to materialize from the tip, hovering in the air. Damien watched it a few seconds, then broke the spell. "Yes, we are indeed on the right course."
"Damien, on your last visit, did you encounter any monsters or beasts in here?" Marcus asked curiously.
"Sure did," Damien said. "If you go through here without drawing any attention to yourself, then you're either a super being who even the monsters want to avoid, or an insanely good mage with absurdly specialized masking skills, like some sort of legendary thief or assassin or something like that who is able to turn invisible and erase their presence to the ultimate level."
"None of us are either of those things, if it needs to be said aloud," Raven said from the front. "So, it would be wise to prepare yourself both mentally and physically."
"Great," Luna muttered miserably. With low visibility, and horrible noise coming from who knows where, the fog seemed to choke her, adding to the fear that a hideous monster could pop out of the fog any moment.
Their breathing had grown heavy in the damp, rotten air of Lindon's Gutter. They had to be careful as they progressed through the graying fog, gnarled trees all around them cast weird shadows upon tangled undergrowth. Their boots squelched in the mud as they walked. The immensely annoying frogs and their continuous chorus of croaking kept them in ill company.
Luna had been following her party for – she wasn't sure for how long, but she was growing fatigued, so it had to be a long time.
"Hey Raven, will we be able to find the shrine in this hell today?" Luna asked from behind. "Do you think?"
"I will not lie to you, but our chances look slim," Raven replied. "Whatever the case, it seems that we will have to spend the night here. We'll have to stay here until we find that shrine."
Luna gasped, and Marcus too. Luna said incredulously, "Oh, you can't be serious!"
"We are serious alright," Damien said. "We are dead serious."
Luna and Marcus groaned.
"You two need to have patience," Raven said. "If you can't observe the nature present around you, then you will fail to unearth the subtle truths hidden everywhere. And our dreams of peace will forever remain a dream."
"What do you mean?" Luna said desperately, on the verge of breakdown imagining herself having to stay here for any longer than a few hours.
Raven looked at them over his shoulders, a rare smile – though merely a hint – on his face. He said darkly, "The name of this place may be Lindon's Gutter, but it is a special place. It is drowning in mana, the property of magic. Because of the abundance of worldly mana present here, nature is able to thrive. This fog, this flora, even the creatures here are steeped in mana. For this special condition here, nature has been able to birth new life forms, whom you might call abominations or monsters. Yes, the mana here is twisted in character and rather chaotic, but nature can sometimes be like that. Just as the flowers and honey are a part of nature, so too are terrible diseases and hurricanes."
"I understand all that, but why in the world do you think it has anything to do with us?" Luna asked, shaking her hands.
"Tell me, Luna, do you feel a tingling sensation on your skin?" Raven said through a grin. "Do your fangs want to burst out of your gums for no reason whatsoever? Have you been feeling an uncomfortable feeling ever since you walked in here?"
Luna paused. She really was experiencing an uncomfortable tingling sensation on her skin, as if an invisible person has been touching her lightly. But Luna has dismissed that sensation as mere nervousness. She looked at her companions in shock. "I – uh – I do! Do you guys feel that too?"
"It's the mana in the fog in here," Damien replied, inhaling, looking up. "Its almost sentient, like that abomination we encountered back on the tablelands. It senses you, your vampire blood, and it wants to wake you up. That sensation? Yes, it's the fog calling."
"Woah!" Luna and Marcus said in unison, breathing in startling wonder, looking at the surroundings with renewed respect in their eyes.
Marcus frowned, "That still doesn't explain-"
"If we're going to find the shrine of a god," Damien explained. "Then this place has shown most promise, so far. A true shrine of a god transforms the land around it, the pure mana of the deity influences everything, including life. And that's exactly what's happening here."
"Yes, indeed," Raven nodded in agreement. "I had once been to a shrine of a god in the far west, and I have witnessed the same thing there. The land around the shrine had changed."
"Did it become a swamp too?" Marcus said.
"No, I'm afraid it was much worse, this place is a heaven compared to that," Raven said, lowering his head. "If you were a sinner man, travelling on your own, and you entered the forest surrounding the shrine, then you'd be lost, and you'll never find your way out. The only way to survive is to bring someone innocent with you, someone who has never committed any sins."