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“You marked it with the scent of roses?” she said and smiled as the red light faded, but the scent remained.
“A little romance never hurt anyone,” he said and winked at her. Despite his dusty appearance, he looked himself again now that he was out of the air well—cheery and inquisitive.
“Come on then, charmer.”
A few minutes later, they merely looked dusty rather than dirty and the bland asphodel was doing its job once again. Harmiston conjured his protective shield and they could not be heard while they carefully made their way down the rocky hill.
Everything was as Nadia expected when they reached the gate. There were tracks on the ground, but they were halfway erased by the wind and told her nothing of what might have happened here weeks ago, let alone that same day. What they did learn, was that the air was harder to breathe in the lowlands. If they needed to make camp and sleep at some point, it was best done up on a hill.
They both put on the gas masks and immediately breathed easier.
“Where to?” Harmiston asked, his voice muffled through the mask.
“I want to start with checking the area outside this immediate one. The hybrids we saw earlier might still be here. Or more might be on their way. We need to be far away from this gate.”
“Sounds like a plan. Besides, there’s something odd about the gate.”
“How so?”
He shrugged and canted his head, looking at the gate through the large eye holes in the mask. “Something magical. I’ve never encountered it before, but it seems powerful … and witch-like.”
“Probably something Lerah did then,” Nadia concluded. It wasn’t something they could ask the witch about since she was dead.
They walked on, toward a nearby valley. From what they could see it was void of people—hybrids, humans, or others. Despite the poisonous clouds above, sunlight did filter through because, after an hour of walking, darkness descended upon the surface. In a sense, this helped them remain fairly hidden in addition to their other means of concealment. Nadia pushed the strain that had befallen her body to the back of her mind and focused on watching and listening for anyone so much as breathing the foul air near them.
Hardly anything was. They saw bushes and small gnarly trees with hardly any leaves on them. Down in the city, they followed a traditional yearly calendar of three-hundred-and-seventy-four days a year, but the seasons mattered little under the ground. Still, it was supposed to be late summer in the Agartha Realm, and that likely explained the small and dark leaves they saw at all.
They came across a few streams too, but like the subdued thunder above, the burbling of the water was hard to hear, even for Nadia. It was like all energy that remained was severely weakened no matter what form it took. Like existing on the ash-covered ground took too much.
“What is that?” Harmiston said after they’d passed through the valley and entered a more uneven landscape of larger rocks, boulders really, that had fallen from the surrounding hills, causing a harsh and brutal-looking environment. “Is that … an animal?” He hesitated in using the word.
“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” Nadia said. She’d had the little thing in her eyesight a while, noticing movement the moment they rounded the first jagged boulder. Lightning flashed above them, but they’d noticed fast that it never shot downward, merely within the clouds.
The tiny creature, no larger than a house cat, began moving again, halfway in their direction. It was likely curious. Humans or similar-looking species had not been part of the surface for centuries. It might not be aware of them as potential threats.
“Oh I’m sorry, but that isnotpretty,” Harmiston said, grimacing at the sight as the lightning above helped him see the scraggly and bony creature. “Whatisthat?”
“I have no idea.” Nadia shook her head in bewilderment. “Not a rat judging by the tail. Some sort of …? No, I don’t know.”
“Life will prevail, that’s for sure,” Harmiston said when the creature jumped at something in the ground in front of it and then shook its head ferociously, obviously killing something.
“Yes. I suppose that sight means there’s hope,” Nadia concluded and shook her head. The animal gulped something down, turned dark and beady eyes at them, and then scampered across the ground, away from them. At least the surface wasn’t as lifeless as they’d believed it to be.
Unfortunately, there was death there too.
“Here’s something,” Nadia said. She’d turned to go, but spotted a dark shape, hidden below one of the large boulders nearby.
“I don’t see anything,” Harmiston said. “Oh wait, yes.” Nadia heard his steps falter a little before he sped up and followed her.
She reached the boulder first and knew before bending down that what she saw was a dead body. She momentarily lifted the gas mask from her face but smelled little rot in the air. Of course, the air smelled more of sulfur than anything else.
“Someone died here?” Harmiston asked, sounding like he found it sad to die in this desolate place. Nadia was more worried about the how and why. The body lay beneath a boulder, on its stomach, under a small outcrop of the large rock. It if had rained, no drops had landed on the deceased. She bent down to have a closer look and Harmiston stopped right next to her.
“This is bad,” she told him without looking up. She recognized that clothing. The dead body, once a man, judging by build, wore a long, dark coat. Nadia reached out and touched it gingerly. She knew the feel of the fabric which was interwoven with wool. The garment would have served him well up here, hiding him, keeping him warm.
“A Wraith?” Harmiston asked.
“Yes.”
