C106- The Ancient City of Jarant (3)

The carriage started to move after the guide from the Euyn Palace arrived. Her name was Terich, a woman with a serious gaze. She was a servant who worked on keeping and collecting historical records. During the Armilat civil war, she was the one who recorded the events of the war. After the war, she worked on the history of the Buthaldi Kingdom.

After a short trip, the carriage reached where they wanted to visit.

The ancient city was mostly made out of white and light grey granite.

Most of the buildings were still standing, but they were worn out and covered with dust. While walking on the streets of the old city, one could see small platforms with nothing on them from time to time, especially on the bigger streets that were connected to the center of the city.

At the center of the city, stood a building in the shape of a crescent. The tips of the crescent were pointing towards the north, and a massive platform was in the middle of the open space. The magnificent building looked incomplete and decrepit, making one wonder how it would look like back when it was newly built.

"Woah, look at that. The city is bigger than I imagined it to be.", said Corvin.

"The City of Jarant was the center of the Thamjul, and the only city of the ancient kingdom we have found to this day.", said Terich.

"Thamjul?"

"Yes, the ancestors of the people living here called themselves the Thamjul."

"I see."

"Why are there no other cities?"

"Well, the city of Jarant is only partially buried under the ground, so it was never lost in the first place. Which is why we suspect it to be the only major settlement of the Thamjul while the rest were small villages that were lost to time."

Noah pulled out a notebook and started to note and draw the things he was seeing. 

"What are you doing, Noah?"

"Oh, I am just trying to write down the things here."

"I can send a copy of our records about the city, if you want Mr. Vyolor.", said Terich.

"Oh no, I am not writing the history, I am documenting the architecture. Because we use more wood than stone in our buildings, I want to replicate some techniques back home."

"I understand. Then, do you want to see the Jarant Palace? It still has some decorations intact, I am sure it will be a great inspiration for you."

"Sure."

They slowly walked towards the center of the city. 

"It feels weird, doesn't it?", asked Amy to Corvin.

"Why?"

"There used to be people living here, but they are all gone now. They were here, and their descendants are still around, but no one lives here anymore. I can't help but think, maybe whatever caused it may be still around."

"..."

"Oh, don't worry about that.", said Terich.

"Hm?"

"Excuse me, I heard what you were talking about."

"Oh, no problem. Actually, I also want to hear what happened to this city."

Terich smiled and talked.

"Actually, the history of this city is also tied to the founding of the Altus Empire."

"It is? Why?"

"You see, we don't know the actual name of this building at the center of the city. We just call it the Jarant Palace, but we aren't even sure if it is actually a palace or just a governing building."

"Why?"

"Being the king of the Thamjul didn't come from blood. We found records of masonry competitions between candidates, and the winner was chosen to be the ruler of the city and the Thamjul Kingdom. The only ruler not chosen this way was King Jarant. He was the one who founded the city and invented a way to cut granite stone using regular copper tools which would be normally impossible. This is why the Thamjul society was centered around masonry and also is the reason the city and the stone is named after him.

And the last ruler of the city, almost like fate, was also a descendant of him, King Ajraq. Have you ever heard his name?"

"Wait. That's the name of the blue stone we used to clean water in the palace, isn't it?"

"Yes. We discovered the name of the last king, King Ajraq, and were surprised to see he had the same name as the stone. Then we discovered what happened to the city after a little bit of digging. The stone was invented by King Ajraq to clean water during a chaotic time on this continent. The Fucapitria hunt."

"What?! Do you mean, that Fucapitria?"

"Yes. The legendary bird-like colossus, the one that the first Altus Emperor and Empress hunted together."

"Wow... Did the colossus attack this city as well?"

"No. It wasn't even close to the city. But, the reason the Fucapitria was such a disaster wasn't only because of it's strength, but also the damage it caused even without attacking."

"?"

"I think you will understand it better if I just read from the only ancient source we found. It is a letter from someone close to the last king.

'Black clouds came from the north and covered the sky, and then rained on the city. The clouds were raining warm ash all over as if the air itself was angry at us. King Ajraq quickly sent someone to ask what was going on in the north. The messenger came back a week earlier than expected. He was talking about a massive blue eagle, flying over the people of the north while spewing black ash between it's feathers.

The ash quickly started to cover everything. The small amount of food we grew quickly all died. Our wells were all filled with dirty water. At first, we thought of sending warriors to help hunt the monster but we needed all of our manpower desperately just to live from the animals we hunted. 

Over time, the number of animals got lower and lower. King Ajraq ordered the the people to run away to eastern kingdoms and sell our skills and arts to survive and feed our families. We all quickly prepared. With the permission from the king, some of the less skilled took the statues from our streets to sell them in case the situation got dire. The White City, once filled with the beauty of stone, was now abandoned and covered in black ash.

Before we left to survive, our tears still on our faces, we asked the king to show us a way. We didn't know where to go, so we turned back to our king for help once again. One by one, he sent away groups to distant lands, with a lonely gaze on his face. After half of us were gone, the king started to shed tears silently, still struggling to show us a path.

And then, a young man by the name of Shuyi, asked the king. Where was he going to go. The king answered. He said, I will not leave this city. As your king, I will stay here and once the hard times are over, I will call you all back. And then, we all got on our knees and swore to the king, we weren't going to leave and swore our loyalty to him once again. The king ordered us to leave, but we refused. He threatened to punish anyone who didn't leave, but we still refused. It took two days and three nights to convince the king to let us help him save the city.

And after that, we worked hard. Every day and every night, we worked to find water not dirtied by the ash, an animal to eat. Until one day, our king came to the center of the city with a blue stone. He called everyone to behold. He placed the stone on the bowl and poured the black, dirty water on the stone. And then, like his sublime light that guided us in these times, the blue stone shone brightly and illuminated the city under the shadow of the clouds of ash. The black water turned clean as it flowed on the stone.

Then we heard our great king once again. Now, you all can leave me here, right?, he asked. Only then did we notice his face. His eyes were sunken and tired. His body had lost weight. Only then, did we realize that our king already knew there was no saving this city. He worked until late at night so that we wouldn't be stuck here with him, because of our foolish decision. While everyone was working pointlessly on finding clean water near the city, he was the only one that actually cared about us over a city that would be empty after we died.

He ordered us to leave the city once again. We couldn't refuse this time because of our mistake before. We all left the city. Our young king refused to leave the city once again. He was too young to be a father and hadn't married yet. The blood of our first and last king, the blood that founded the city also died with the city. 

To anyone who might find this old man's letter after I leave the once beautiful city, please take a lesson from our story. Listen to your leaders, as they are the ones that will care about your lives, even when you stopped caring to chase impossible dreams.'.

And it ends here... Eh?! Are you okay?!"