Chapter Ten - Black Bliss

The headlines were truthful.  They said that the Judge had been murdered in his hotel room, naked.  They didn't mention our war proclamation yet.  We traveled along quickly; in a couple of days we had traveled through a checkpoint.  Raven said we were going to a new capital to hide until Basil gave us the okay.  When we arrived in the city, only days after the murder, we received a letter from Basil.

"What does it say?" I asked.  I bit my bottom lip.

"The Judges have gotten the letter and the Seventh City is in a state of panic.  Basil's troops are marching towards Seventh City and I'm to join them." Raven said.

I wanted to cry.  I wanted to scream.  This is not what was supposed to happen.  Raven isn't getting away from me.  But... "Don't go," I said, keeping in my tears.

"I have to."  Raven was solemn and understanding.

"You can't...die.  What am I going to do without you?  While you're fighting?  Where will I go?" I felt tears.

"I..."

"I'm coming with you."

"That's a 'hell no.'"

"Either you're not going, or you're letting me come with you." I said firmly as the tears attempted to break through.

"I have to.  You can stay with Basil until the war is over."

"And how long is that going to take?  Years?" I cried.

"Listen...I love you...Claire." Raven said gently.

This hit me like a bag of bricks.  I tried to stay casual.  "I know.  Ditto."  I laughed to keep from crying.

"Basil had more instructions in the letter.  We're to meet a man who is leading the resistance here."  Raven suddenly turned business-like.  "He's staying down the road from here."  We went to the place he was staying.  This city was extremely overpopulated before the cataclysm.  There's also a huge statue here.  It fell during the cataclysm, face down into the ground.  The city has built around it, however.  As I would soon learn, this city is characteristically shady.

We arrived where the informant was staying.  We had to pay a toll to enter.  I was shocked as I did so.  "Raven!  Is this a...brothel?"

"It seems like it." Raven said nonchalantly.  "Mind if I stay here after our business is done?"  Then he laughed. It was good to see his lightheartedness back, although that isn't something to joke about.  "He's upstairs."  We ascended some stairs and met him at the top.  (At least he was clothed.)

"So we're to head out towards Seventh City?  About time."  He took a swig of a drink I could only assume was alcoholic.  "We'll ready and out by the moonrise."

At this point we exited.  "That was faster than expected."  I said.  "Mm" was my reply.  Raven said we should head for the hotel.  By the time we arrived, it was already dark and the resistance was already heading out.  We laid in our beds preparing to sleep.  I thought about how he was leaving for the war...  This could be the last time...

I went over to his bed and got on top of him.  Slowly, silently, I started to unbutton his shirt.  His breathing slowed to a calm beat and he said "yes" sublimely.  His shirt came off and I felt the warmth of his bare muscles touch me.  It gave me a grim reminder of the man I had murdered, but I quickly shook it off.

I lowered down his body and started to slide off his pants.  When they were off, he was completely in his manhood.  Then it was his turn.  As he took off my shirt, I slid into a state I had never felt before and the world faded into a black bliss.

Chapter Nine - Silence, Noise, and Daze

Quite soon we arrived in Seventh City.  It was grand and huge and everything that was expected.  It felt tropical with a bit of old world influences.  I didn't have time to take in the scenery, I had a mission to complete.  We had to deliver the letter and kill a Judge.  Oh joy.  "It's actually going to be pretty easy to get my old man," Raven said.  "He should be in the city.  I just need to find out where he's staying and we can kill him before their meeting.  I could go in on him, talk him up, and then you kill him?"

I didn't like that idea.  "You can't kill him?"  Raven's answer was that he couldn't.  He was too fond of him, apparently.  "Well, alright."  The idea of killing someone didn't sit well with me.  "You're sure you won't do it for me?"  I looked at Raven.

"...Alright," he said.  I was proud of Raven.  It must take a lot of guts to kill your former boss.  As Raven explained to me, he was more like his father than his boss.  Raven departed to find out where his Judge was staying, while I was to turn in our letter to the Judges' box so it could be reviewed in a few days.  I went where Raven instructed me to, and I found a small office.  It was similar to the post offices I had seen in other cities.  Your mail here can go to anywhere in the empire.

This one had an extra function: you could give items to the Judges for review.  Not many people had the guts to do it, and even though I was starting a war by doing it, I dropped it into the box.  "Thank you for your concerns about our nation!" the postmaster called as I exited.  I waited outside of the office for Raven.  He reappeared and laid out our plan after a while.

He had located the Judge's position.  We were to meet with the Judge and silently kill him, and then run.  Fast.  If we didn't, we would surely both be executed, courtesy of the Judges.  Raven said we would go by nightfall.  He had rented us a room in a nearby hotel.  "I suggest you rest.  It's going to be a trying few days."

So that's what I did.  I went to the hotel and slept.  I don't think Raven did.  Perhaps he was preparing his mind for what lay ahead.  At one point, I heard tears.  Maybe I was dreaming, but Raven certainly didn't seem happy about something.  At night, we headed out to a large building where the Judge was staying.  We entered and climbed up many flights of stairs.  Raven was silent.

We reached the room with the Judge in it.  Raven knocked.  "Who is it?" a voice called out.  My heart leaped in my chest and I quit breathing.  What are we doing?  I don't want to be an assassin...

"It's Raven.  I brought a friend too.  We'd like to see you." Raven called out.

"Alright, come on in.  I was just getting ready to sleep.  This is a pleasant surprise." the Judge said.  I heard a shower running in the distance.  A squeak and it stopped.  Then footsteps came over to the door.  "What are you waiting for?  Get in here!"  Raven opened the door and I almost screamed.  The man was stark naked!

"Hello, father," Raven said.  The Judge walked over and hugged Raven.

"Oh, son!  It's been so long!" the man whispered something to Raven, who nodded.  "Come in and sit by the fireplace!"  We did so.  The fire was very warm.  (I guess it has to be when you wear no clothes.)  The man wasn't very old.  I expected he was about forty.  He was old enough to be Raven's father, at least.  He had a whiskery face that had a kind aspect to it.  He looked like an okay person if you only looked at his face, but his dark agenda as a Judge stood him out from the nice crowd (not to mention how freely he lets it all hang out...).

They went into the usual jabber, I suppose.  "So Dad, have you gotten any women lately?"

"I'm actually expecting one, right now.  I suppose you wonder why I'm not covered up in the slightest." the man said jovially.

"I'm not the least bit concerned about that, father.  I'm used to it." Raven said, smiling.  In a pause he whispered to me: "I can't do this.  The dagger is hidden in my back pants pocket.  Do it soon."

I gulped, but it had to be done.  I decided to make myself known in the conversation.  I grabbed the dagger slowly so as to not arouse suspicion and hid it in my pocket.  Then I spoke.  "Excuse me, I have to use the restroom."

"This building isn't connected to the sewers, so you can't really."  the Judge said.

"But that's not why I'm going to the bathroom."  He gave me a look that said "oh," and I stood up and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door.  I took a deep breath and steadied myself.  I put my hand on the dagger and waited a minute or two.  Afterwards, I exited.  The bathroom was positioned behind the Judge so that his back was to me.  Raven was across from him, facing me.  Both of them glanced my way.

"Welcome back," the Judge said casually and turned back to Raven to continue his conversation.  His bare back stared at me and I gulped.  It was now or never.  I took out the dagger and slowly walked toward him.  His body sat, leaning forward, and moving a bit as he talked to Raven.  I was going to kill a man, Raven's dad.  I was prepared.  I had reached the point where I was a foot or two behind him now.  I raised the dagger and plunged.

I shut my eyes upon impact.  My ears rang and I couldn't hear anything.  I felt Raven grab me and we exited the scene.  I was in a daze.  Raven had the dagger and slipped it into his pocket.  We ran continuously until we reached the carriage.  We galloped into the night with my conscience punctured.  Raven was crying silently.  We had done it, though.  We had started a war.  I think I fell into a sleep.

Chapter Eight - Wavering Loyalties

I woke up to a brisk morning breakfast and soon we were in the carriage, prepared to leave for the Seventh City.  We said a few words of farewell to Basil. (I noticed Raven seemed more submissive than usual today.)  Finally, we headed out.  The journey was long and tiring.  The travel was quite boring when you were awake.  There was nothing to look at but wasteland, and of course Raven wouldn't talk to me.

I noticed the food was dwindling down and so did Raven.  We eventually stopped in a checkpoint town between the border of two sectors and there we replenished our supplies.  Raven was absent for a period of time during this pitstop - What could he have been doing?

Eventually he saddled up and left through the gate opposite the one we had entered through.  We were now in a new sector, but somehow I knew it wasn't the Seventh Sector yet.  The carriage continued on at a monotonous pace.  We only stopped to use the restroom.  (Which most of the time was for Raven.  He pees a lot...not that I watch him or anything.  I, on the other hand, go a little more discreetly and hidden.)

We had traveled for weeks.  When we finally reached the next checkpoint, I had lost a lot of weight.  We had had to ration our food, because I had under-judged the amount we would need.  Raven helped me shop this time, but he still was gone most of the time.  When he finally came back I asked where he had been.  "Why do you keep wandering off at these stops?"

"No reason, really.  A few drinks here and there, a few meetings with acquaintances, the time adds up quickly."  For some reason, I accepted this.  We loaded back up onto our cart and headed into the next sector.  I asked Raven if we were in the Seventh yet, but he said no.  "However, that's the next one we will arrive at."

I muttled through every boring hour.  Time seemed to pass fast.  One evening, dusk was upon me.  I wasn't planning to go to sleep any time soon.  I had just napped during the daytime.  I sat there calmly...

That's when Raven kicked the horse.  I'm not sure if that's what happened.  I didn't see it, but due to its reaction, that's definitely what happened.  I fell off onto the ground.  Raven jumped off of the carriage right before it toppled over.  Raven was a few yards away from me, and he was pointing a pistol at me.  My eyes ignited with fear.  "Where did you get that?!" I screamed through the tears.  Raven had betrayed me.

"You had wondered where I was during the checkpoints.  Now...you know."  Raven said as he prepared to fire.  "Any words?"

"Why?"  The tears were soaking in through the cuts now, along with the dirt.

"I'll admit it.  I'm a double agent.  I work for the Judge that mans the smallest sector." he said, almost arrogantly.

I cried and awaited the inevitable.  I heard sounds.  He was going to shoot...  "Raven.  It's me, Claire..."

My eyes closed, I hear two things hit the dirt.  First a small, quickly followed by a large.  Then came the tears and I kept my eyes closed.  "I'm so..." Raven said through muffled sobs.  "I can't do this..."

I refused to open my eyes.  His sobs didn't yet convince me.  The second I came to him, I would be dead.  "Please...Claire."  A sob.  "Kill me..."  He pitched the abominable device towards me.

"If I kill you, I don't survive.  So you must stay alive...for me.  I will be happy for you when you're not.  I will share the pain when you are hurting."  The words rang true for Raven, whose weeping sounded painful.

He reached towards me.  "Claire...Claire."  I held the gun, just in case.  I had a query: "Whose side are you going to stay on?  There's only one available.  Pick."

"I think...you know."  The truth was, I didn't.  But I assumed this meant Basil.

"I will go with you...As long as the Judge that you work for is the one we kill."

We headed into the night.

Chapter Seven - The Plan

I woke up in the daylight.  We had made it to Basil's house, which was situated on a hill at one end of a town that seemed to be devoid of life.  I asked Raven where everyone was.  "They're underground, preparing."  I didn't know what this meant at the time, but I soon would.  I gazed up at the beautiful green hill that was host to Basil's house at the top.  Flowers dotted the lush hillside.  I took in the beautiful scenery as we traveled up the hill towards Basil's house.

Then I saw her house.  It looked different from her past two houses.  While the first one conformed to the design of the other houses in the little village, and the second one was a cottage hidden in a forest, the third was surprisingly different.  It looked like a mansion, albeit a modest and old-timey one.  However, it fell into the design of the other buildings in the tiny town while remaining unique and solitary.

When we entered, I knew this was the real Basil.  She was immediately ready for action.  She explained to me that the Basil that we had seen in the forest was a faux copy of the original, made using the advanced technology Basil had access to.  It was used as bait to test and see if the campaign was burning down everything, or just areas with human life.

Her experiment also featured a second forest fairly close to the one her copy had occupied, while still the same size.  Only the inhabited one was burned down.  The Judges weren't burning down the environment, but just the dwellings outside of the capitals.  This is what was believed before, but the Judges' intentions are becoming foggier every day, according to Basil.  Raven was in on her plan the entire time.

It was also explained who she really was.  After the village had been burned, Basil had moved to a town that refused to burn.  She set up post and started preparing for a rebellion against the Judges, which she hoped would turn into an all-out war until the Judges had been disposed of.  According to her, she had more numbers than the Judges would be able to scrape together.  The Judges kept a small army, but not enough to protect themselves from a war.  Raven and I's job was to do two things:  First, we would head to Seventh City, the capital of the capitals, and send in a letter to the Judges.  The Judges were forced to go through all letters sent in by the citizens during the meetings, but there never were very many from what I've heard.

The letter would be a proclamation of war.  This would give both sides ample time to get as many warriors as possible.  Basil, of course, gets the advantage, as she has been gathering forces, and will continue to do so until the Judges' army begins the war officially.  Secondly, we were taxed with doing the impossible: Basil said that to make the war proclamation real, we had to kill one of the Judges.  She said any would do, so long as we don't kill the Judge of Seventh City.  That would be overdoing it.  It would happen in time however, she assured us.  Or me, rather.  Raven certainly knew all of this already.

Basil then rolled out a map of the seven sectors with their capital's past names labeled.  These names were no longer used except to identify the capitals.  Apart from the Seventh City, each city (nor sector) had any official titles, except for those given to them in the far past.  Hundreds, thousands of years back then, a large and devastating event had caused the world to fall into ruin, pushing landmasses previously far apart back together again and taking away technologies and lives.

Essentially, the entire world had been decimated.  Before the cataclysmic event, there had been hundreds of billions of people, but afterward, the number had dwindled to the low millions or even into the thousands as the world scrambled to rebuild.

What they made were tiny villages where major cities had been.  But these cities grew.  And grew.  Government was eventually put into place.  It was welcome at first, but soon enough, it was questioned though.  But not aloud.  That would earn you a hanging.  Consequently, citizens moved out of the cities and created settlements for themselves.  The government wasn't going to extremes at that point, however.

Time passed, and the government created the Judges.  More time passed, and the Judges created the campaign, although they eased towards it, after several events that were a bad influence to the welfare of society.  Basil said she often wondered what happened to the few lost souls on the small landmasses that hadn't joined together.  Where were they now?  Lost in the ocean?

Day passed into night and Basil began to give us ample supplies to make the long journey from her current sector to the Seventh City.  We slept, although Raven kept a silence that unnerved me.  I thought back to the times in the past when he had gotten very close to me.  His wonderful dreams of grandeur, and his delightful disposition.  It was all gone now.

In his sleep, I heard him mutter a word.  My name.  I smiled, my heart warmed.  "Claire.."

Chapter Six - Feeling Fragile

Tired.  That's all I remember.  I lied in Raven's arms for days.  Weeks.  I couldn't get up.  Weak.  That's the word for it.  The hospital hadn't cured me.  I was constantly coughing up blood.  It was an awful existence.  I couldn't fall asleep.  I don't remember why not.  There must have been something important my mind had created for me to stay up for.

But I couldn't.  All I could possibly do was be alive, lying on Raven.  And the rain.  I almost forgot about it.  It rained all day.  It was a miserable kind of rain that would not wash the pain away, but push it back into your body.  I writhed.  How much could I take?  Raven never moved or spoke.  He just sat there as I laid there.  He made me feel fragile.  Fragile is a delicate term, but almost a powerful and miserable one.  I felt like I was boxed in and couldn't move.

Or maybe I was paralyzed.  That was a better explanation.  But I wasn't.  Why was this happening?  Despair is all I could feel.  I wanted to die.  Or scream.  Or make someone else feel the pain along with me.  They deserved it.  This world is messed up.  I made a wish that everyone would die.  Why should I be the only one to die a slow death.  Certainly that is what this was...

I fell.  I don't remember what point this was, but I was bleeding and writhing in black dirt, alone.  I screamed.     The pain was immense.  I heard the clashing and banging of metal.  We had been attacked.  The horse was really scaring me.  It was running around everywhere.  Its screams frightened me.  I didn't want to die by getting trampled to death.

I screamed as the horse ran inches away from me.  I looked up and saw Raven and a man dueling.  The other man was bloody.  The next minutes went swiftly as Raven killed the man.  I was shocked.  I didn't know Raven was so... prepared for murder.  He picked me up without a word.  I tried to mouth "it hurts," but I don't think he noticed.  Even if he did, he didn't care.  Blood was on his hands now, and he wanted to visit Basil to wash it off.

I noticed I had woken up.  When I fell asleep is a mystery.  I had the strength to talk.  "Raven..."

"Hm?" he gruffly replied.

"How could you kill somebody?  Do you regret it?" I inquired weakly.

"What's done is done.  These "regrets" will eat you alive if you decide to keep them as pets."

I wanted to be happy.  Why can one not find happiness?  My life is miserable.  "Raven...Are you happy?"

He cleared his throat and his faced showed an expression I wouldn't expect from him.  "Yes.  I am happy.  I will be happy for you when you're not.  You have to promise to do that for me as well, correct?"

I giggled.  This was stupid.  I didn't have any time to think before I realized I was asleep.

Chapter Five - Heat

The set of stairs stared back at me.  A long corridor in a depressing angle.  It was rather depressing if you think about it.  Cobwebs grew in crevices on the walls.  I stared into a deep (yet shallow) abyss.  Was Basil down there?  She had to be; I saw her go down there.  But I couldn't hear a sound from the basement.  The lights were  off, so she couldn't see...

All of a sudden, it happened.  It was fast and unexpected and it all happened in a matter of seconds.  Ear-piercing crashes filled the house.  I turned around and saw in a split-second what I had earlier feared: the campaign.  The windows shattered as torches flew through them.  A group of men burst through the door with angry expressions.  Their faces held a message: "You were warned."  One of the men pushed me down the stairs and locked the door.

I eventually reached the bottom of the steps, although I was bloody and bruised.  I could hear Raven from the top of the stairs.  I couldn't see anything, though.  I screamed for Basil.  Perhaps she could help me.  And herself...

A light flickered on and I immediately saw Basil - her face hollow and gaunt.  She looked horrific.  Basil fell to the ground.  I rushed to her side and immediately drew back.  Her body didn't feel...human.  It was hollow and light, like a snakeskin.  Perhaps she came down here to shed...  I brushed off that thought and wondered if she was dead.  She had to be...

The smoke was starting to suffocate me by this point and I knew I would choke to death soon if I didn't get out of here soon.  The struggle upstairs must have moved to the forest outside, as I could no longer hear anything.  Or... They hadn't killed Raven, had they?  I had two reasons to leave the house immediately.  It wasn't until I started to climb the steps that I truly realized how injured I was.

I must have had multiple broken bones, not to mention that I was bleeding heavily from several places on my body.  I was covered in blood, and the floor was too.  I had to get help.  I crawled up the steps slowly and reached for the doorknob.  It was locked.  I cursed the government.  Not only were they destroying villages, they were purposefully stealing the lives of their residents!

I breathed heavily - I could almost feel the ash lining my lungs.  I seized all the power I could and bashed my shoulder against the door.  One two three four five six seven eight nine tries and the cracked door yielded.  Now I was out of the pan and into the fire.  I still had to make it out of the house.  Fire greeted me like an old friend as soon as I peeked out the new opening.  I mustered up strength and headed through.

I felt myself burning.  I made it to the door.  Perhaps it was just an opening created by the flame, but I took it anyway.  The forest offered no respite - it was burning as well.  I couldn't make it.  Pain overtook me and I fell into darkness.

Moments later, or either days later, my eyes opened to the sight of Raven.  We were on a carriage, and we rode through the night.  "Did you...save me?"  I let out a cough.  Everything hurt - no, burned - as I moved.  Raven nodded.  I mustered up the strength to file another inquiry.  "And did Basil...die?"

"Yes.  And no.  I don't think that was Basil after all.  I've received a letter telling me to go to a certain sector."

"More travel?"  I tried to fake a grin.  I must have fallen asleep, now content.

The next time I awoke I was in a strange building.  Raven said it was a "hospital."  They did something over the course of a few days to rejuvenate me.  I felt completely normal afterwards, albeit a bit drowsy.  We set out again to Basil's house.  Or were we?  I'm not very sure anymore.  Will this person be Basil?  I was doubtful.  Basil was becoming more and more a myth with every passing moment.  Had I noticed her before my return to the village?  No.  Perhaps she was an illusion conjured up by my mind wishing for my little village to not be all gone.

Chapter Four - Butter and Basil

As we made the trek to Basil's house, we passed through the city I had once found shelter in, back before the village was burned down.  Raven and I rented a carriage to take us the rest of the way to Bel-air Basil's house.  As we rode through the ruins of a once thriving ecosystem, I thought about the government's "campaign."  This campaign that started with burning down has escalated to burning down everything that isn't a megacity.  The world is slowly being reduced to a charred mess because of the government.

After I had talked to Basil about the village being burned down, everything else is a blur.  I do know I went back to the city eventually.  I started to learn about the government.  Most of my studies have been forgotten between then and now, but I do remember I learned of the heads of the government - the Judges.  There are seven sectors of the empire.  Each sector has a capital city and a few dotted cities like the one I was sent to.  (I hear the government's after them next.)  Each capital city is headed by a Judge.  I'm not sure of their role, but I do know that they jump-started the campaign.

The Judges have meetings every few weeks in the capital city of the empire, which is also the capital of the Seventh Sector.  Seventh City is said to be the grandest city in the world.  The seven Judges have a special hall in the Seventh City that they lock themselves up in.  What they do in there is a mystery, but after every meeting, papers come out of the hall that are called decrees.  What is decreed must be done.  One of the decrees was the campaign.

If I had one wish, it would be to rid the government of the corrupt Judges and replace them with just officials. But that will never happen.

"Raven," I said.  "Where does Basil live now?"

"In a different sector.  I know where it is, but I'm not sure of its title.  I do know that she doesn't live in this sector anymore."  Raven explained.

The weird thing is, I don't know the name of my home sector, either.  It's almost like it's a secret..

We arrived at Basil's house after an indefinite amount of time.  She was knitting inside of a cottage that must have been hers.  Basil still didn't live near society.  This time, she was living in a serene forest clearing.  But with her living in a forest, she could get burned up with it when the government's campaign extends to this forest.  "You're finally here!"  She welcomed us in and insisted on letting us eat some of the meal she had prepared.

She sat down her knitting project and headed into the kitchen, which was almost a part of the living room.  She put a glob of butter into a concoction in a pot on her stove.  Basil's dish was smelling very good and I couldn't wait to eat it.  "So, Raven, what has taken so long to get yourself here?"  Basil inquired as she stirred.

"I had...complications gathering together the party you requested."  Raven said.  He must have been talking about me...

"I see, I see..."  Basil's stirring was rhythmic and mesmerizing.  As I stared at her spoon spin, time seemed to melt.  Before long, Basil proclaimed that dinner was ready.  Everyone sat at her small table.  A kitten in the corner purred and stretched onto the armchair I had just occupied.  I changed my gaze to the plate.  I don't remember what was on it, but I do remember that I ate it and it was the best thing I had had since I was a child in the village.  "What do you think?"

"It's wonderful," I said through bites of food.  Raven and I had had to ration food during the long journey to visit Basil.

"I'm surprised I still have that magic touch.  I hardly notice how good it is anymore, myself.  You're the first person other than myself to eat my cooking for years."  She turned her attention to Raven and changed the mood.  "Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" I wondered, perhaps aloud.  Raven nodded.

"Excellent, it's down in the basement.  I expect to see you both down there promptly as you finish."  Basil exited the dining table and headed through a door.  She hadn't so much as touched her plate.  Raven and I finished several minutes later and followed her through the door.  We were greeted by a long set of stairs going down.

"Let's go see what she wants," I muttered.

Chapter Three - One Foot in the Past, One Foot in the Future

The comfort I felt as I traveled alongside Raven was immeasurable.  I knew why he had been in the skyboxes; I had figured that one out soon enough.  But there were other sides of his appearance here that didn't add up.  I decided to worry about the future, which was what really mattered, instead of the past.  "Raven," I began.  "I thought Basil would be dead by now."

"She's not that old."

"You're sure?  You know what's happened."  Raven's sarcasm didn't sit well with me.  Something about him seemed off.  He was never sarcastic before...

"The elders were spared," Raven said, surprisingly nonchalant.

"Basil is the only elder..."  I realized the true weight of the past.  I used to live in a small village, far away from the castles and kingdoms of the empire.  The village was completely secluded.  It was a month's worth of travel away to the nearest city, and even that city was fairly far away from anything with a high population.  The empire's population is pretty spread out.  A small percentage of its citizens live in tiny villages like mine and the rest live in huge megacities that surround the capitals.

Our village did for ourselves.  The farmers gave food to everyone in the village and the housewives provided clothes.  There was no concept of trade; everyone helped each other out.  Everyone mostly fell into an archetype, though.  The fisherman fish, the fortune tellers told, and everyone got along.  Raven was different.  I couldn't describe it, although he felt different.  He was never one of us.  He wanted to go away from our meager village and live in a sparkling castle of the capital.

I was never very close to Raven, but one day he all of a sudden became close to me.  He wanted us to leave the village and take the trek to a better place.  It was fun to dream of grandeur, but I never would have actually left.  But Raven did.  One day I woke up and he wasn't there.  Nobody knew where he went, except for me.  He must have left for the cities.

Time progressed very slowly after that.  Days became normal when you didn't have dreams to dream, and I soon realized something was amiss.  The townspeople were getting antsy.  One day when I was still young, my mother gave me a month's worth of travel supplies and told me to go to the nearest city.  I was scared at the time, but did what I was told.  The city was much larger than my village.  While my village was just houses and farmland, the city had so much more.

I found a house that allowed me to stay the night, but only if I cleaned for them.  I did, and it was okay for a while.  Eventually, I got what was called a "job."  Doing this, I earned money and bought a small room to stay in.  I must have stayed in that city, alone, for years.  I know I grew a lot.  One day, I decided to return.  Whatever trouble the village had must have fixed itself, right?  I gathered supplies and made the tiring journey back.

Nobody was there to greet me.  Nothing was left but ash.  Everything was gone but one house situated at the far end of what was once our village.  I entered it and I saw Basil.  Basil was the town fortune teller and was very elderly by the time of my original departure from the village.  She sat calmly in her chair, sipping tea, when I entered.  I don't remember our conversation exactly, but she was very sympathetic when she explained what had happened.

I was told that the empire is on a campaign to thin the population to where it only lies in the sprawling megacities.  This campaign would begin with every small village and move onto every average city.  A group of men on horseback would enter the village carrying a bunch of supplies unfamiliar to us in the village.  They would give out a proclamation: If you didn't leave the village within one week's time, you would be burned down with it.  The village was given a couple of years's notice.  The population thinned out a bit and I was sent away during that time.

The village's people were very protective of it, and so, most of them stayed put.  They wanted to put up a fight for their little village.  The entire remainder of the village and surrounding farmland was burned down, save for Basil.  They didn't see her as a threat.  So after that point, Basil began to live in solitude.  It has been years since that date, but now I'm going back to my lost village.  Or so I thought.  I began to realize that we weren't going towards the village.  Raven told me Basil had taken up residence at a different address...

Chapter Two - Flight and Fright

It was beautiful.  I only had seconds to suck in the serene wonder of this new world I had stepped into.  It was unlike anything I had ever seen before - indescribable.  If I could go back today, I would.  The trek up here was worth it.  I had a few seconds of perfection before it was shattered.  I gazed into the next compartment over and in it stood a ghostly silhouette.  It seemed pleased that I had made it up here.  It must be the master of the arena.  But the figure in the other box felt familiar...

As the misty figure slowly started to take form, I broke into a run.  However, I had nowhere to run.  I couldn't go down.  There was no way down.  The room I was in now had no escape, either.  You could see through either side wall and the wall facing into the arena was completely open.  What would I do?  Before I could think of an escape, the figure in the other box broke into a run towards me.  Terror overtook me, but I couldn't do anything but watch in horror at the acts committed next.

The wall between the two boxes smashed.  It was the biggest shattering, ear-wrenching sound ever.  My terror turned to pain.  My ears hurt so much that they could be bleeding.  All of a sudden the figure came into focus.  It looked like a man, but at the same time it looked eerily like a... bird.  The long, black cloak led up to its face where there sat a mask that cemented the possibility of it being nonhuman.  All of a sudden I realized I knew this person, from a time a long time ago... "Raven," I gasped.

"I'm surprised that you remember me, friend."  I couldn't move.  I was petrified.  It was him.  I had to get out of here... But how?

"You seem scared.  Is it me that you're scared of?  Why ever would you be scared of me?"  I could feel the sneer below his mask.  Then it happened.  All of a sudden, all of the boxes were gone.  They didn't just disappear, either.  They crumbled quickly and violently.  I, along with the debris from Eden, was falling.

Raven regained his title.  He seemed to be flying towards me.  His flying always had an elegant and mystic sort of feel to it.  Way back then, when I didn't know him as personally, everyone believed he practiced dark magic.  Looking back, they were probably right.  His flight seemed to last hours, but it couldn't have lasted longer than a few seconds.  I was, after all, falling towards my doom.  He eventually grabbed me.  I felt safe with him.  He had a higher authority with the world than I did.  "They tried to kill us..." he murmured.

I knew he wasn't going to allow himself or I to end our lives just yet.  The falling became gentle as soon as he grabbed me.  We calmly blew over to the side of the stadium, like a leaf in the autumn.  We landed on of the seats I had so desperately been climbing just a bit earlier.  "Safe..."  I said what I felt.  Honestly, I don't even remember if I said it aloud, but there was an intense feeling of that word.  Safe.

"You are always safe with me." Raven said.  I felt happy.  I didn't feel the joy I had felt for those few precious seconds in the skybox, but at that moment, sitting on the seats of the arena with Raven, I felt legitimately happy.  "Are you ready to go?" Raven said after a moment or two.

"Go?  Where would we go, Raven?" I asked.

"We need to visit Basil."  Basil... I remembered Basil.  Why would we need to visit Basil?  "Don't worry about the 'why,' worry about your situation."  Raven was reading my mind, and I knew he was right.  Let's go then.  I stood up and the bird I was beside did as well.  It was time for a new page in the book of my life, but this time I wouldn't be alone.

"I don't want to be alone again..." I said.

"You'll never be alone again."

Chapter One - The Arena

I walked forward at a brisk pace and came to a halt when I entered.  I was in a massive, open area.  It could have been an arena, or a coliseum.  As of right now, I'm not sure what it was.  I do know it was gray.  The most muted and ominous gray anyone's ever seen before.  I surveyed my surrounding and I felt chills as I did so.  Premonition overcame me.  Something bad was going to happen...

The arena was dead.  There aren't too many words that describe it, but I think "dead" is a good choice.  The whole room was slowly, surely crumbling.  It must have been crumbling endlessly at an awful pace forever.  It was dingy and damp and dreadful.  Moss and other plants of muted green littered the walls and stadium-like seats.  There wasn't much to the arena - there were a series of doors opposite from the opening I entered from.  The sky was completely open to view.  Looking up, the abysmal sky stared back.

The more minor details are where things became more remarkable.  The arena reached so high it seemed it could touch the sky.  There were a series of boxes circling the top of the ring.  They must have been where the affluent spectated.  How nice would it be to touch the sky and make life-changing decisions for the people while watching a twisted Olympics and sipping a cup of tea?  That must be what happened in those lovely boxes, millennia ago.  The skyboxes were truly the most elegant part of this arena's dismal façade.

I decided I wanted to reach to the sky - to enter a skybox.  It was childish, yes, but I had to be part of the most royal elegance in the stadium.  How would one get up there, however.  There was no way up, also meaning there would be no way down.  But I had to get up there.  I was drunk on the wonderland that was  the arena, and I had to be on the top of the pack.  I had to be.

So I started climbing.  But God knows how.  There must have been ten feet between the arena floor and the first row of seats, but probably more.  The adrenaline I felt came from the drug that is this arena.  Curse it, I thought afterward, but at that point, I had to keep going.  My life depended on it.

As I hopped up the rows of seating, I felt like I was being watched.  But more than that, I felt like I was being preyed on.  Perhaps this was all some plot to trick people like me into being lunch for a cannabalistic tribe.  Like the animal that is targeted, I continued going, but now at a much faster pace.  At least a hundred rows later, I hit a wall.  The seating had ended, but there was still kilometers to travel before I reach beautiful affluence.

So I grabbed onto the wall and climbed up it.  There were a few tiny cracks up the wall for footing.  It was almost like they wanted you in the skyboxes.  But they weren't skyboxes anymore - they were Heaven.  I climbed forever.  This endless climb lasted hours.  It felt like it, at least.  The higher I went up, the farther I was from Heaven and the closer I was to Hell.  The ground was creeping up on me like quicksand.  If I didn't hurry, I would fall and die.  It was Heaven or Hell, and I had to choose Heaven.  Now I just had to make it there before I lost grip and fell into Hell.

I realized I was nearing the top.  Heaven and Hell were meters away from each other now.  They would soon merge into a ghastly paradise.  But I wanted perfection, not flaw.  I had to make it before they touched.  Corruption would not enter my paradise.  Centimeters away, it seemed like.  I could touch the sky.  I doubled my speed.  Five meters per second and I would beat Hell and claim my prize of untainted paradise.

It felt like it had just begun.  The whole reason why I was here, in this champions' ring.  But hours passed as I made my way up to the top.  Almost there.  There were seconds left before I touched victory.  But I did the worst option.  I looked down.  Hell was about to touch my feet.  I had to hurry.  A little bit faster and I would arrive in Eden.  Two minutes, that's all.  Eden must have decided to defy me.  The faster I went, the farther it moved away.

But I made it.  Somehow I did.  I made it to my beautiful Eden.  It was then that I noticed that I was covered in blood.  Perhaps I'll die in paradise and wake up in Heaven.  Yes...

I woke up from unconsciousness and gazed around.  I realized my journey was over.  I'm in Eden.  I stood up and looked around.  But I wasn't alone.  In the next box over was a dark silhouette staring back at me.  It had an air of victory about it and I knew paradise was lost.