The Old Conquerors

"Supposedly, these are the tombs of the first warriors and their kings," Afina whispered after a long silence had descended upon the two of them. 

Even with the magic lantern, the light wasn't nearly enough to put her at ease, so she walked right beside Edric, gripping onto his cloak as if her life depended on it.

"The school likes to teach us about the old conquerors, to give us the sense that Southport is still the major power it once was. In fact, the current duke renamed himself after the first king. No one calls him by that name when he's not around though, the old conquerors would never have allowed Southport to kneel to the capital," she continued, now staring at a sarcophagus at the corner of the chamber they were currently in.

Edric didn't interrupt, half because the story acted as a mental escape from the rather eerie environment they found themselves in, and half because he was interested in learning more about this new world.

"Even the other kids in my class know our duke is weak. Even though he's the Lord of Tides' son he inherited none of his father's innate songs or dances," she continued, with a sort of disdain in her voice that one wouldn't be expecting from such a small child.

"Papa says that he's a fraud, a false child planted here by the king," she added.

Edric was starting to get the sense that he had misestimated her age by a good degree, either that or she was some kind of child genius. At the very least she was 16, or around the age of a high school kid, despite looking like a 12-year-old.

"Innate songs and dances?" Edric murmured in question, afraid that speaking too loudly would activate the runes on the statues.

"Ah, you're wondering which ones the Lord of Tides had?" Afina replied quickly, not suspecting that Edric had absolutely no idea what the concepts were to begin with.

"As the chosen champion to diety of tides, he had several songs and dances. But the ones they speak of the most are the Song of Riptide and the Dance of Torrent. I heard the first of the old conquerors stole Southport from The Doomed Oceania with the Song of Riptide. Do you think it's possible for someone's song to be that powerful?" Afina asked, now staring at Edric expectantly.

~Hmm, I still don't quite understand what exactly songs and dances are, but I'm guessing they are a different power from the systems given to us champions,~ he thought to himself, before nodding his head in response to Afina's question.

"Have you seen something that powerful before?" Afina asked, her eyes glazed over in awe as she stared at Edric.

~No point in digging a deeper hole for myself by lying,~ he thought to himself before shaking his head.

Afina slowly looked forward, a sort of disappointed look on her face.

"Anyway, Southport used to have two patron deities. The deity of Tides, and the deity of Death. That's why some of the statues hold tridents while the others hold scythes," she continued.

"I understand tides, but why death?" Edric asked, realizing that Afina wasn't going to continue.

"Papa said that it was because of all the wars that used to take place here. The old conquerors weren't a peaceful bunch, I think that's what happens when there are too many powerful people in one area," she replied.

~I suppose these are the Caesars and Genghis Khans of this world. Interesting,~ Edric thought to himself, as he stared back at one of the sarcophaguses they had just passed.

"The deity of Death stopped sending her champions here after we bowed to the capital. And the capital gave the main family a high position within the Temple of Champions. The traitors couldn't even send a few crusaders here," Afina continued, her voice filling with spite for a moment.

Something told Edric that her father was doing a thorough job in indoctrinating his daughter into his political beliefs, because he doubted that a child could be this passionate about such a topic otherwise.

"But at least you're here, Mister Priest. By the way, you never did say, what deity do you follow?" she asked, stopping to look up at him.

Edric considered things for a moment. Before deciding that it was still too risky to expose himself.

"The deity of Want," he lied. 

"Huh, never heard of them, must be a minor deity then," she responded, before walking on.

Much of what she said after sounded more like rumour than fact, most of it was simple girl talk about the duke and his many mistresses.

Normally Edric would've shut her up at this point, however, if he was looking to completely conquer Southport, he would have to learn a bit about his rivals. And though rumours weren't always trustworthy, there was always some truth to them.

"I think this is it," Afina announced, once the two of them had reached a chamber with four doors on each of the walls around them.

"Why aren't you looking at a specific door?" Edric asked, realizing that Afina's gaze kept shifting between each of the doors.

"O-Oh sorry, it's this way," she said hesitantly, before taking a step towards one of the doors.

"N-no, actually it's this one," she added suddenly, before changing direction.

"Or was it this one?" she whispered, stopping in her tracks.

"You're lost, aren't you," Edric asked in a bored tone.

~Just when I was starting to think you were actually smart,~ he thought to himself, before pointing the lantern at the ground.

There was only one door with trails of footprints leading out of it, quite the easy riddle to solve.

"It's this one," he announced, before walking towards the door to their left.