A Tale of Two Cities

“Aghhhhh, more blastin’ nothin’!” The troll hurled the crumbling vase across the decaying chamber, shattering upon impact with the old bricks. 

The young man that sat behind him whipped around as soon as he heard the crash and clatter of the antique. 

“Delrik, those are ancient artifacts!” He said.

“They’re rotten lumps o’ glass, Elias, that’s what they are!” Delrik grumbled, dusting his old tunic off. “You said we would find riches! Instead, we’re diggin’ through garbage!”

“No, I said we might find riches,” Elias replied, “but you’ve got to admit that this is just as good as treasure, right?”

The troll didn't answer as he grumbled off to another spot in the room, while Elias simply chuckled and shook his head. He almost hated that he was torturing the old grump, but he couldn’t just pass up on this grand opportunity! All across the village, rumors recently began to spread about long-forgotten cities that used to be grand empires, but there were oddly no records of their existence anywhere. All that proved their existence were two names—Ahglos and Irvirahs--and some journal entries about where they supposedly were.

Elias' mind was interrupted as he abruptly focused on something he saw out of the corner of his eye. He looked closer at some odd-looking vase, supported by a wide base with an extremely thin funnel for a top. However, when he looked into the funnel, it appeared to be a corner of a stone slab. 

“Oy! Where’s your head at, lad?” The troll snapped. 

“I think I found something! Come look at this!”

“Oh, finally!” Delrik grunted.

Elias raised the vase up, angling it to where the funnel faced the ground, and whacked it against the ground. Nothing. The human tried again, but the vase would not yield. 

“Oy, weren’t ye tellin’ me to respect these stupid things?” Delrik asked as he trudged over with their lit torch.

“There’s something in here, Delrik! But the vase is too narrow, so I’m trying . . .”

Delrik snatched the antique out of Elias’ hands and thrust the funneled top down onto the concrete, shattering it in an instant. 

“Ye have terrible muscle strength,” Delrik dryly chuckled. 

Elias annoyedly seized it back and dug into the now accessible vase, pulling out a small, stone square. 

Elias took Delrik's torch and held it close to the stone. It was very faint, but he could tell something was written on it. 

"This slab speaks of a great war it had with Irvirahs, but it cuts off at the end, here.”

“What are ye talkin’ about? I mean, aside from the crumbling mess around us, I don’t remember seein’ weapons, scorch marks, anythin’ that showed killin’.”

Delrik was right. Throughout the couple days they’d spent in Ahglos, all they found were what remained of a church, and many other ruins. But there was absolutely no sign of a struggle in or outside of the city, not even a scroll indicating as such. So, what was this war, then? Was it, perhaps, a psychological or religious one? Then why make such an effort to hide it? And how would it even lead to such decay and destruction? 

“I’ll bet the answers we’re looking for are in Irvirahs, so that's where we're going to go.”

Delrik threw his head back and groaned so loud, it echoed throughout the chamber. 

“Okay, fine!” Elias snapped. “Look, if we go there and don’t find treasure or anything, I promise we’ll go home! Happy?”

Delrik turned his head, mumbling to himself and began to pace. Finally, he stopped and said, “Alright, but this is yer last chance!”

———————————————————————————————————————

The buildings of Irvirahs looked just as crumbled and demolished as the ones in Ahglos, but the large foundations and most of the structures were still intact. In the square, they found the remains of another church, with a half-destroyed fountain in front. Elias knelt down and dug through the rubble until he found a symbol carved into one of the bricks, depicting a figure with the body of a man but the head of a gentle bird, who clutched a book in one hand but an olive branch in the other. 

“This is the same symbol as the church in Ahglos,” Elias muttered out loud. 

“Great, can we go, now?” Delrik grumbled.

Elias ignored the troll’s complaints and continued, “This means that Irvirahs and Ahglos must’ve had the same religion, so it couldn’t have been a war of faith. But before we try to find anything else, though, we should find a spot to make camp. Who knows how long we’ll be here.”

Suddenly, both of them whipped their heads to the sound of a thud right beside them, only to find an arrow lodged into the ground in between them. The duo hit the dirt as another arrow struck where Elias’ foot would’ve been a second earlier. Delrik sprung to his feet and yanked Elias off the ground, quickly pulling him toward a half-ruined building as more arrows threatened to get closer with each hit. 

Once secured behind the safety of the bricks, Delrik screamed, “What madness have ye brought me into this time?”

“How was I supposed to know about this? Who in the village would even care enough to come on the same quest as us?”

Delrik immediately put a finger to his lips, signaling for silence. Elias looked up as he strained his ear to listen for whatever Delrik heard, but couldn’t hear anything. No sound of arrows. Not even a yell for surrender.

Delrik's eyes widened and his skin turned pale. Elias wondered what was wrong, but then the answer came almost instantly as he felt something cold and sharp press against his cheek. With his heart dropped straight down to his feet, Elias slowly but shakily lifted his hands up. 

“What are you doing here?” A female voice demanded. 

“W-W-W-We . . . we were just . . . e-e-exploring! I swear!” Elias stuttered.

“The human forced me to come along,” Delrik added.

Elias would’ve rolled his eyes if he wasn’t worried about getting stabbed through the face.

“Lies!” The woman spat. “I saw you two come from the East! The direction of Ahglos! Why? Unless you’re from there! Has Ahglos finally declared war on us?”

Wait, “us?” Was she . . . no, that can’t be possible!

“Answer me!” She roared.

“Listen, listen,” Elias soothed. “I promise we’re not from Ahglos. We’re from Zharov, it’s a village far away from here. We heard rumors of these cities and have come to explore them, it's the truth.”

It got so quiet that Elias could hear his heart thundering each beat into his ears. After what felt like hours, Elias finally felt the sharp object lower away from his cheek. He turned to face the assailant and found that the sharp object was an arrow nocked into a bow, which she placed onto her back. 

The woman wore a mix of grey and navy-blue clothes that tightly hugged her whole body, as well as a hood and mask that covered all but her orange eyes. She quickly thrust the hood and mask off, revealing her soft skin and short, red hair. 

“I will cut you both down if I find out you’re lying,” she said coldly.

—————————————————————————————————————--

Elias and Delrik couldn’t help but stare across the campfire and at the strange woman as she ferociously dug into a rabbit she caught only a few minutes ago, not even bothering to skin the poor creature. 

“So, um, what did you say your name was, again?” asked Elias.

“Kaida,” she replied, her mouth still full of meat. 

“Right,” Elias said as he desperately tried to hide his disgust. “So, Kaida, you’re from this city, right?”

“Well, sort of," she said. "This story was passed down through my family, but long ago, two of my ancestors were sold by our people into slavery. Supposedly, this was for their protection. But years later, when my parents were on the brink of death, they made me promise that I would escape our master some day and return to our homeland to seek my people out."

"So, have you been able to find any clues?" asked Elias. "Any records of your city’s history, or anything?”

“No. The books in the archives are all but dust, and any stone tablets have been ground to powder. There’s nothing left of my people’s history.”

“We couldn’t find anythin’ in Ahglos, either,” said Delrik. “Just cheap pottery.”

“But . . . there has to be something we missed! We couldn’t have come all this way for nothing!” Elias said. 

“Elias,” Delrik sounded oddly grim, “there’s nothin’ more we can do. I mean, we haven’t even found any evidence of a war. At some point, lad, ye just got to accept . . .”

“Wait!” Kaida said, her eyes lighting up with life. “I haven’t been able to scope it out yet, since I’ve spent so long covering this whole city, but I remember my parents mentioning a vast field their people often spoke of. I’ll bet, if there was a war, it would’ve been fought there.”

Elias could feel life returning inside his own eyes, and he didn’t even realize he’d already sprung to his feet. 

“Brilliant! Then that’s where we'll go, first thing in the morning.” 

———————————————————————————————————————

After Kaida led the group to the supposed battlefield, which they found was overgrown with weeds and other foliage, they spent half the day searching with no success.

“Oy! I found somethin’!” Delrik gleefully shouted. 

Elias and Kaida popped up from their spots in the tall grass, before they bolted over to where Delrik knelt. In the troll’s grubby hand, he held a massive sword with delicate, almost flower-like patterns carved into the blade. The sword’s handle was also very elegant, inscribed with patterns that made Elias think of vines.

“I wonder how much of a pretty price this can fetch,” Delrik grinned as he examined the weapon. 

“I don’t believe it,” gasped Kaida. “I remember my parents would tell me about a weapon like this! Supposedly, my people would create weapons with these markings in order to draw them closer to nature.”

“Wait,” Elias said, kneeling down beside the troll. 

Upon a closer look, Elias noticed very faint but clear traces of dried blood near the tip of the blade. 

“Looks like a battle did take place, after all, but we still have a lot of unanswered questions.”

“He’s right,” said Kaida. "A few rusted weapons with dried blood doesn’t explain the sad sights of those two cities.” 

“Well then, let’s get goin’! The sooner we find the answer, the sooner we can get ri—I mean, er, find the truth!” 

Delrik leaped to his feet and was about to run off, until he almost immediately tripped and fell flat on his face.

“‘You okay?” Elias asked. 

“Ugh! Blasted rock!” Delrik complained, dusting off his tunic as he got back up. 

Elias walked over to Delrik, but soon found an oddly white color from beneath the grass. Parting the tall plants aside, he noticed that a smooth, curved piece of rock peeked out from the dirt, almost like the slab from the Ahglos vase. Elias quickly dug at the dirt, desperate to unearth whatever lurked beneath. 

“Delrik! Kaida! Quick, help me clear all this away! I think I found what we’re looking for.”

Not needing any further explanation, the two got on their knees and also dug furiously. After about an hour, they finally uncovered a large, circular, white stone with intricate symbols carved into it. However, one symbol appeared to be on a piece of the stone that looked more like it was attached to it, rather than being carved into the rock. 

“Some of these symbols are in my people’s writing!” Said Kaida. “But, I don’t recognize the others.”

Curious, Elias touched it, and surprisingly watched it sink into the rest of the circle. The ground quickly started shaking, prompting the group to run away from the stone. Then the white stone sunk into the ground, before rotating sideways until it disappeared into the side of the hole, revealing a spiraling staircase below. 

“This could be it!” Elias couldn’t help but laugh excitedly. “We’re finally going to uncover ancient history!” 

“Let’s get going!” Kaida chimed in. 

“Wait, let me get a torch ready,” said Delrik. Quickly digging through their bag, Delrik pulled out an unlit torch, which he soon had lit in a few minutes. 

And with that, Delrik led the trio down into the unknown. 

“Why would my people make such a structure?” Kaida pondered aloud. 

“Maybe it’s a vault filled with gold!” Delrik giggled. 

“Or, maybe they were storing something else down here. Like, a library or maybe even an underground shelter.”

“Maybe,” Kaida agreed. 

“Oy, watch yer step,” Delrik said as he stopped. “We're here."

Carefully making their way down, Delrik held up the torch, only to jump back upon the sight of a skeleton sprawled out on the floor.

“Looks like we aren’t the first ones down here,” Elias nervously chuckled. 

“Uh, fellas?” Delrik asked. 

As Delrik held the torch higher, the room was now fully illuminated to reveal hundreds of skeletons scattered throughout the room. Most of them were piled on top of each other, while only skulls remained in other piles. Bookshelves lined up around the walls of the room, but there oddly were little to no books in any of them.

“What in Xi’lor . . .” Kaida gasped. 

“Okay, now I’m wishin’ there was anythin’ else down here,” said Delrik.

Elias could only nod, as he was utterly appalled at the sight of all these bones. He gently gestured for the torch, which Delrik obliged. Moving the torch around, he tried to find something to make this venture worth the grisly horror, until he finally spotted something. 

“There! At the far end of the room! Can you see it?”

A skeleton lay slumped against the wall and, clutched in its hand, was a large scroll. Unlike everything else, this seemed to be the only thing that seemed to stand the test of time. 

“Indeed!” Said Kaida. 

“Ah, good job, lad,” said Delrik. “But, um, can we please grab that thing and go back to the surface?”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Elias affirmed. 

Elias cautiously stepped over each pile of remains after another, trying not to focus on them as he went. After he finally reached the skeleton with the scroll, he couldn't help but sigh with relief. Careful not to touch any of the bones, he slipped the scroll out of its fingers and quickly backed up. Elias took a deep breath before continuing the journey back, and then following his companions back up the winding stairs. Never had the group felt more at ease than when they reached the top of the stairs, collapsing onto the green grass and allowing the sun to temporarily blind them. 

“Alright,” said Elias, “hopefully, this will all be worth it.” Elias turned toward Kaida and held out the scroll. “Would you like to do the honors? I mean, this could be your people’s history.”

Kaida stared at the parchment for a moment, but accepted it with trembling fingers. Then she slowly opened it and began to read:

“All this destruction, all this death, all for a plot of land for our crops? 

Is this how all wars are started?

No goals are worth it anymore, not if they can’t bring back the good men, women, and children that were lost on both sides. 

That is why I, the Great Scribe of Irvirahs, am relieved that both our people have come to a rather unconventional truce. 

It’s better we are forgotten.

We burned the bodies, all of them.

Those of us who remained decided to lock ourselves in this tomb, and both peoples would wait for the sweet embrace of Death.”

No one spoke or even breathed. All eyes were fixed on Kaida, hands shaking so much that the scroll eventually but finally clattered to the ground. Kaida sunk to her knees, tightly gripping whatever grass she could feel. Elias knelt beside her to see her teeth clenched so tight they could break, eyes squinted shut as if to prevent tears from bursting forth. 

Not knowing what else to do, Elias reached a hand onto her shoulder. The moment his fingers made contact, she grasped his arm and pulled him into a tight hug, wailing as she finally allowed herself to cry into his shoulder. Taken aback for a second, Elias soon reciprocated the hug, but had to blink in surprise as Delrik joined in the hug. 

“I was told my people were strong! Fearless! Indomitable! But they were cowards! All of them!” Kaida sobbed.

Elias rubbed her back, unsure at first how to respond.

“You’re right,” he finally said. “All of this . . . it was unnecessary. I can’t even begin to understand their intentions. If they can’t live with the guilt, they really are cowards.”

“But what can we do?” Kaida cried. “What are we supposed to do with this?”

“Be better,” Elias replied. “That’s how we handle this truth. We just . . . be better, and hope for a better tomorrow afterwards.”

“Hear, hear,” Delrik gently affirmed. “If we wish to prevent tragedies like this, we inspire the nations to turn out better than these two cities.”

“Now, when did you get so wise?” Elias smirked. 

“Well,” Delrik sighed, “after seein’ these people fightin’ over farmland, I figured . . . this treasure is good enough, eh?”

Elias nodded, and Kaida backed up to nod as well. Elias wasn’t sure what to tell everyone back home, but one thing’s for sure, he wouldn’t allow his village to become another Ahglos or Irvirahs. The three of then nodded at each other, making a silent pact that they would all work to prevent such a tragedy from happening again, or die trying.