Ashtium: City of Sun
Cat and Mouse

GRETA

It’s an odd feeling. Walking around with no particles of grain assaulting my eyes constantly. No sand squishing between my toes.

I do not know where Enoch went off to, but I know it was with a woman. I remain on the ground, behind the same picky round thing growing from a short clay pot. I know it is a plant, but in the desert, there were rarely any as grand as this one...or the even bigger ones hanging above me.

The material of my tunic is much softer to the touch than my mother’s was. It smells strange too.

I wonder if Enoch knows why the people working out front are chained together. No one else I passed earlier was.

I pluck the head of a plant off rubbing its petals between my fingertips while looking up through the potted plant’s foliage to the sky. I know the sky here is made of stone because it’s completely black, like the stone of the fountain, and the ground. I do not understand how there can be light in here that I cannot see myself. This is enough though.

Even without color, I can still see so much. Besides, with all the nice plants in here, I don’t really notice the gigantic stone sky above.

I’ve been so carried away in taking in the different kinds of mysterious plants, I did not notice a human standing behind me. I look up from the ground twirling the head of a flower in my hand.

They are tall like Enoch, but something shiny and grey rests on top of their head. It glows slightly and my eyes widen as I scramble to get in a respectable position. Trembling, I get on my knees to bow. My heart races, at having seen the god of the sun for the first time. My parents had spoken of our god’s divine appearance. A shame I can only see their silvery form. Tears stream down the corners of my eyes as I remember the things I’ve done.

Will he shame me for my sin? What can I do to earn his forgiveness? I pray in my head desperate for his mercy.

“Do not look away from me, filth!” I tremble hearing the command in my god’s tone.

Hesitant, I look upward. A rough, sweaty hand grips the side of my face pulling me upright in one thrust upward with their arm. I’m met with a slap when I stand on my feet. Shortly after, I fall back onto the ground gripping the side of my face they struck with a whimper.

I hear him spit and scrunch my nose feeling bile rise in my throat when the liquid hits my face.

This is not my god.

I recoil away from him seeing a familiar wound up rope snaked around his arm. “This is holy ground! Do not sit on it like a load. Off with you!” he shrieks.

The world becomes a sea of black and I’m no longer lost in a strange utopia, but back in my homeland where the solitude of the sand mounds surrounds me. Not this wicked tormentor. I can’t keep my eyes closed though.

“Leave, now!”

He lashes his rope dangerously close to my head.

I scramble to my feet, unable to avoid the second lash when it grips my ankle. This pain is only temporary though and I’ve known far worse – starvation. Something I doubt this man has ever endured.

Coward.

I grab the lithe weapon wrapped painfully around my ankle and pull with all my mite. The man stumbles toward me meeting my fist. He yelps in pain and I laugh watching him hit the ground face-first on top of his instrument of torment.

“You wretched woman!” he screams while standing up.

I laugh louder, running away with a freeing feeling.

In a hurry, I run out of the plant-filled area and toward the big structure Enoch first found me near. I jump up onto the elevated surface and hide beneath the strange standing human-shaped decorations underneath its covered roof. I see an opening in the wall of the structure and a big room inside that is dimmer than out here.

The false god yells again behind me. “Stop her!”

Another human stands ahead of me now in the direction I had hoped to run. They are much bigger than the false god and block my path of escape into the room ahead. I hear the vile man somewhere behind me crack his whip again. Its sound echoes around me.

It’s too late to hide.

He’ll see me standing here soon. I don’t know where to go. All the tall strange rock carvings around me seem to be watching me too.

To my great relief, the stranger steps to the side allowing me to run ahead before the screaming lunatic behind me catches up and strikes me again with his sharp rope. I race into the room behind them and hear the false god’s footsteps just outside. The tall human moves swiftly back in place blocking the entrance to the false god.

“Did you see them?” I hear the pretend god ask of the person.

I relax a little hearing the calm in the new stranger’s voice. “Who?”

It’s as if the false god is trying to make them hate me too when he shrieks incredulously, “Th-the street whore!” Then he lowers his voice. It drips with suspicion and unperturbed rage, “She ran right by here...”

I turn around as fear consumes me. At the other side of the room is a similar doorway. I hold my breath listening to their discussion and wondering why the false god is not using their whip to get answers out of the other person like they did to me. Doing my best to be quiet, I tip-toe over to a large empty stone seat in the middle of the room. It’s the biggest object I can see in here, so I hide behind it.

The two men enter the spacious room. I hold my breath seeing the bigger human’s silver form sit down on the large stone chair I cower behind.

The false god blabbers on about me supposedly trying to kill him. Minutes pass and it’s hard for me to hear their discussion over my pounding heart and the doubts swirling in my mind. By the blessing of the god of the sun, the fake god shuts up and both men leave the room together.

***

ENOCH

Mother holds her knife and fork properly while cutting and dividing up her generous portion of meat. Her table manners are impeccable, unlike my father’s advisors who surround us. Father’s seat is at the other head of the table across from mother’s. It’s empty and so is Urdmin’s.

I sit by my mother’s end of the table on her right-hand side. The lettuce on my plate is fresh and warm. My thoughts drift to Greta. I wonder if she’s ever seen this much food all in one place. She never saw food like this out in the desert I’m sure. My glass of fresh spring water is probably more than she managed to gulp down in mother’s fountain.

The doors to the dining hall open suddenly as father strides inside. His gaze, as usual, is set on no one in particular because he considers few things worth his undivided attention. He replaces his seat with Urdmin nagging next to him.

The old advisee seems to be quite aggravated by something. My father narrows his eyes while beginning to cut into his own steak when the old man behind him continues to pester.

“She hit me and got away! I will not stand for such civilian behavior to be tolerated,” Urdmin huffs while watching the emperor expectantly.

Father raises his hand, indicating for Urdmin to be silent. The old advisor listens with a grunt. Then he proceeds to turn on his heels and storm out of the dining hall probably to replace a slave to put his anger out on in the meantime.

“What happened?” one of father’s empirical advisors asks while stifling a laugh.

Adler appears disinterested in Urdmin’s leave. “A citizen attacked him. He was unprepared and the assailant got away.”

I nearly choke on my food knowing it had to of been Greta Urdmin encountered.

“Citizen? He spoke of a girl,” Mother corrects with a light laugh, but her eyes are hard. “Do tell more.”

The thought of him hurting her makes my blood boil. Urdmin jumps at the chance to torture slaves no less unruly city dwellers. Mother is usually in charge of hearing out such cases involving the wrongdoings of our city folk though. Urdmin should have known better than to be attacking people around the temple.

Does he know there is a Krexbin in our city?

Father sets down his fork. “I do not wish to repeat myself.”

Mother raises her chin at his words. She scoots out of her seat, silently taking her leave too. Her personal guards follow her on her way out leaving just me with father and his men.

Another guard approaches our dining table. “Supreme ruler, Adler. An envoy from the Harlong Kingdom has arrived. Where shall I send them?”

“Escort them here.”

The guard inclines his head with a doubtful look. “You do not wish to partake in the meeting?”

“Enoch will stand in my place...if he wishes.”

“I do not.”

Father chuckles while watching his wine splash around in his goblet as he rocks it back and forth slowly in his hand.

“Then I suppose they have no business here. Strip them of their weapons and kill them out beyond our walls. The desert demons can feast on their carcasses. Enoch will take his turn watching the stables tonight and give you your horses.”

A sick feeling grows in the pit of my stomach. Father sips his wine and gives his advisees a small smirk. As a young teen, I always questioned his coming to power. He was not always a city dweller like mother. Mother grew up in a wealthy home here. She was pampered and educated within these walls.

Father has never spoken much of his past. From what little mother has told me, I know his family is from another kingdom. He was a great warrior and still is. He has lived to see many other cities, but he boasts ours is the grandest. No other city has light like ours. I suppose there is a sense of pride that comes with knowing that and how much our empire has accomplished.

However, aside from our thriving community, there are greater faults that need taken care of.

Our city has been stained by the greed of our rulers and their brutality to achieve what they desire – power. My father is different from the other rulers though, he was not born into wealth. At a young age, mother had told me he planned on freeing the slaves and much more.

Never has it happened.

Father has had to fight for everything he’s wanted. The only reason he came to power was that he killed the royal family like many before him did to previous rulers. There is something else different about him though. I just don’t know what yet. He wasn’t always so blood thirsty and reclusive. I think, at one point, he did fall in love with mother.

He was so used to everyone praising him as a warrior under the previous emperor back then. He still lives off that praise.

While the emporer chats with his lapdogs, I get up. I admit I’m put off by his turn of heart for our supposed allied kingdom. There is something else more troubling on my mind, but I have already been given instruction to aid them in the slaughter of the innocent.

I can only hope Greta still is hiding somewhere safe. It’s a miracle she escaped Urdmin’s wrath. I still can’t believe she got away from trouble a second time on her own.