Voices from the past

Arja was walking for weeks, she followed the wind as Clyss told her to do. She started to think that, maybe, she took the wrong direction. Maybe she was in a dream and she didn't feel the difference? Maybe she was dead? After all, she had jumped from a tower...

Everything could be only in her mind. After the recent events, she would not be surprised to have lost her mind.

She was a bit despaired, she was exhausted, and she only wanted to rest somewhere for a while. The general took her for dead. She was sure that if he knew she survived she would see teams waiting for her at the entrance of the desert and she would probably be attacked many times already.

For now, it was peaceful but she was paranoid and kept continuing to walk without resting, just in case of...

She finally reached the mountain path of the East. This was a line on the map made of mountains. It was said that Gods did a natural border to protect the people of the East as they were their favorites. To thank them for their devotion, the gods gave them natural protections to dissuade anybody from attacking them. And what mountains!

Most of them were in reality volcanoes and could erupt at any moment. For now, nobody dared to cross the mountains to see the other side and came back to say how it was, but even if nobody ever came back from this region of the world, Arja walked without fear.

She saw a little village and decided to take a break there. It was probably the last trace of civilization before the big ascension. She was determined to find her brother as fast as possible and didn't take the time to rest for too long. She didn't even remember when was the last time she took a bit of time for sleep.

She entered someplace that looked like an inn. Of course, they had no visitors from the outside and the only room at the disposal of the public was extremely dirty. Arja didn't care, she paid for the room with the last coins she had. After fleeing, she had not had time to pack what she needed and was in a difficult situation. She took a bath and ordered a hot meal. The waiter gave her a bowl of soup with meat and a jar of alcohol.

Arja ate her dinner in silence before drinking the jar. She had the feeling that the alcohol was not strong, her time with the Jessadians made her quite resistant and she got used to drinking a lot with the men of the tribe. The men in the inn watched this woman drinking like a man and started making comments.

Some of them had sinister laughter. Arja could easily guess that they would try to abuse her after she became drunk. She decided to finish the jar in her room. She took the time to put a knife in balance with a thread on the door in a way that if someone would open the door from outside he would be sliced in the face.

She sat at the window watching the night, in the desert she learned how to enjoy the lights in the night. She was a bit dizzy after finishing her jar and smiled at the little star.

The night passed, it happened that her suspicions were false. Nobody entered, nobody wanted to harm her. She realized that she may be a bit anxious. After a while, she finally could sleep. She threw an eye for the last time at the little star through the window before closing her eyes.

****

In her dreams, she found herself in Faranza's capital in the abyss. She felt dizzy and realized that the alcohol may have influenced her in this dream but she was still very conscious. She walked straight ahead, curious to see what would happen.

Walls all around were falling, some of them were rebuilding, and the world was chaotic. Stones were constantly flying all around and the wind was extremely strong. She had to jump a few times to avoid projections. She finally stepped into the palace. She heard someone crying behind the curtains in front of her. She knew who would be hiding there.

As expected, after pushing the fabric she saw her childhood friend Altraya. At first, she was surprised to see her appearing in this dream. Arja sat in front of her and placed a hand on the shoulder of her friend.

"What are you doing there Altraya? You left the capital right after the attack."

The young girl in front of her shook her head desperately. Arja was baffled. How was it possible that her dream would show her such a thing?

"You left, right?"

Altraya started to cry and threw herself in Arja's arms, at the moment her body touched Arja she became mist and evaporated in the air.

Arja fell on the back, she was shocked by this vision. She would never think that, maybe, Altraya didn't have a nice life in the countryside and she would never think of searching for her. After all, she never knew what happened to the Kingdom after it fell. Arja was separated from the outside world in the base, only following instructions and having access to specific information, then, she left for Rika's desert.

She realized that maybe she hadn't wanted to know. She had wanted to leave that life behind and forget about it. Typhon was there for her future and being a princess was pointless. She didn't need to care about anything from the past. Now, things had changed and since she had started looking for her brother, she was concerned about this forgotten past.