I throw my bag down next to Mackenzie's. He looks about as tired as I feel.
"You look like shit," I tell him bluntly which gets the intended reaction of a forced chuckle out of him.
He takes a moment to scope out how everyone else seems to be setting up camp for the night before replying, "Well not all of us can match your charm and good looks."
For all things have changed in the last year it felt good to still have Mackenzie. He began setting up our makeshift tent as I rooted around our bags to see if we had anything left to put together for a halfway decent meal.
"What would people say if they could see Rossfield's most eligible bachelor trying to ingratiate himself to the village black sheep with empty flattery?" I ask him in the most dramatically scandalized voice I could muster in my exhausted state.
He huffs in response, "They'd probably roll their eyes and say business as usual."
He finishes his task and looks down at me and my sad selection of cornmeal and hardtack.
"And I wish you'd stop calling yourself that, you know nobody really thought of you like that," he told me as he sat down next to the fire I was starting.
I snort and hand him some hardtack, deciding against attempting alchemy on the cornmeal to change it into something more appealing.
"Caleb did, Francesca did, I got into more than one fight with half a dozen others-" I began to argue but was cut off.
"Caleb was a drunk and an idiot, Francesca's mother was a drunk that beat her and until you finally stood up to her she was just looking to find a way to feel big," he sighed at the repeated argument, "Besides, you use big words like 'ingratiate' have you ever stopped to consider that you intimidated people because you made them feel stupid?"
"Mostly I figure they were more intimidated by me being taller than my father at 13 and ready to lay anybody out flat by 17," I say with half a smirk.
When it came down to it I was still a fighter. The same could be said for anybody left in our camp at this point. When this ill fated campaign had began there were over 200 of us. Now, only a year later there were 26.
When the war had been lost and the land we lived on was officially occupied by the invading forces of our neighboring kingdom we had stupidly assumed nothing would really change. We were only farmers after all, in a small village. There would be no point to bothering us and none among us really cared who our taxes were going to. It made no difference who leached off of us.
But then the proclamations began. The Blue Hordes as we called our new dictators had a different way of worship than we did. Ours was a more personal way. We had no specific "holy people" and weddings and funerals were the only true ceremonies we preformed. We prayed not to one god of the full pantheon but any a situation could call for.
The Blue Hordes made illegal worship of any deity but their two favored; Many Winged Mother and He Who Tends the Hearth of All. They claimed that they were the only purely good gods and the only worthy of prayer.
We ignored this. We who had no gathering of prayer outside maybe the immediate family anyway, nobody would ever know. But then began a list of new rules to go into effect. That only men and women were allowed to marry was the first. A proclamation that disobedience was punishable by death. We had gravely misunderstood, we had thought the distinction was that no marriage was to be allowed until both parties came of age. Some parents looking to get rid of extra mouths to feed were displeased but offered no real argument.
It was only when a wedding was interrupted by the enforcers that the true meaning was made clear. By end of the night the meeting house was set ablaze and one of the young grooms was hanged. That was the only catalyst Rossfield needed to take up arms against our oppressors. I was told later of many other barbaric laws put into effect in the region but only after being driven from my home.
We had attempted to continue fighting and offering support in villages that hadn't yet been destroyed after ours was razed but it had soon become clear we were fighting a losing battle. Our land was given to the upstanding citizens who fell in line and land we'd worked for generations was lost to the traitors.
"What are you thinking about with such a serious expression?" Mackenzie asked after finishing his share of our pitiful meal.
"Nothing that matters now," I tell him simply.
He looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing, "Have you thought about what we're going to do after all this?"
I blinked at him, "I didn't think there was going to be an after for us."
"I was talking to Julian, he said him and his husband were going to make for the border in a week after we pass through these ruins," he told me in a whisper that was unnecessary. It wasn't as if we were in the army, there was no punishment for desertion.
"Well I wish them luck but you know as well as I do that even if the Hordes don't kill them, there's no way they'll be granted entrance to the city and they'll just be stuck eating their boots with the rest of the refugees," I tell him.
He looked more conflicted before continuing, "Ethan and Tia said they're going to go back and live with her uncle's family."
I can't stop the ugly judgmental expression that crosses my face.
"Yeah, I guess it's not like they'll be strung up as deterrent for their neighbors just for being together," I limit myself to saying despite feeling hatred coiling in my gut.
Mackenzie looked like he would say more but the voice of our defacto leader cut across the clearing, "Does anyone here have any practice with Old Common?"
I raise an eyebrow in question to Mackenzie who matches my confusion and shrugs. Most of us barely had any schooling, I used to read for entertainment and bartered for books but mostly just fiction or recipe books. It made me one of the most "scholarly" people here but I by no means understood the near dead language.
Ruby surprised us by raising a hand, "My aunt used to teach me a little of what she learned from when she was a sailor."
Our leader put a hand over his face and groaned, "Fine, Anya, come and give us a hand, we'll need someone who can read to help with what we're trying to translate."
I dust off my hands of crumbs and get back up despite my feet protesting.
Matt brings Ruby and I to one of the ruins near the edge of the crumbling city. The building was probably extravagant a hundred years ago, built into the side of the mountain the valley was cradled in. Now it was ominous, it had partially broken statues of deities I didn't recognize guarding the entrance. I didn't like the look of them, too many sharp-teethed mouthes on one and too many eyes on the other.
We entered the building regardless and once our eyes adjusted to the low light I understood immediately why Matt wanted to investigate. He lit a lantern and walked closer to the object of curiosity. Built into the wall of the mountain was a stairway, magical lit with eternal burning torches. Along the outside of the wall seemed to be some sort of text.
"I figure if it's a warning I want to know what's down there before anyone tries to sleep here. And if it's some sort of old safe house, maybe for whoever lived in this temple, we should go down and see if there's anything useful," Matt explained to us as he tried to decipher where the text began.
He seemed to make his educated guess and held the lantern out in front of it. I instead gesture for him to pass it to me. So began a long session of me sounding out what sounded like nonsense while Ruby did her best to translate.
"Before you leads to a demon. To be bound by way of ritual. Ongoing. To fail is to die. To succeed is to have his strength. We have sent 36 temple priestesses to complete this task. All have failed. Any challenger coming after be warned. You must outlast him until-" Ruby threw one hand up in exasperation, "I don't know!"
"It's either midnight or sunrise... Maybe twilight?" She tapped her fingers against the carved letters impatiently, "I'm doing the best I can here, alright?"
Matt held a hand out placatingly, "I know, you're doing great."
He sighed and finished the reconstruction from the past attempts to decipher the words, "Outlast him until sunrise and he will be bound to your will."
