If magic was water, the realm had been an ocean. Once drained...
No, no magic had no weight. No abyss, no crushing pressure... No, it also didn't block the sun. I was trying to make an analogy here!
Once drained, only lakes and rivers remained. Once exhausted, only puddles and trickles separated by vast expanses. It was just how it worked, mana condensed and spread in an endless movement. Point being, we were in the vast expanse part.
Nothing but dead rock. The landscape itself flattening under the drought. A true desert.
"Do you need to rest?" My mistress asked.
She herself was laying on the walking plate of chitin that guided us through this hell. Tiny legs dragging that plate on the rocky ground with seemingly endless stamina. The human's legs could not hold on it and so dragged as well.
I would have carried them but she would not let me.
"I am fine." I lied.
I mean, it was fine. No one was best prepared to endure the lack of mana than me. Humans had crafted me for that very environment. So the fatigue? The numbness, the wobbling? That was nothing.
She herself was struggling a bit. The seals painted on her skin mercifully preserved her mana but I could tell by now she had little left. She felt cold, she felt weak, complained about itches.
I stopped.
"Horses."
The caparace carrying her kept going, but she rose and asked: "What?"
"Horses." I pointed to a point far away.
It had to be a mirage. It wasn't. It was absolutely impossible and yet, in the middle of nothing, there it was, a patch of green grass large enough to form a small meadow. Dying rapidly at its edges, withering then petrifying.
But yeah. Horses. Two of them eating grass.
"How..." My mistress was holding my arm, pinched her cheek.
"I don't know."
The monster at our side, once my mistress had left its shell, had been pestering her to follow. In vain. It seemed to panic, unable to do more than insist. It wanted us to follow it, oblivious of the impossible spectacle nearby.
"That's a source of mana." I stated.
She pushed me back with disbelief: "How is it you always think of the most awful outcome?!"
"Well I don't know how to let you ride them!"
"Oh so you remembered!" She smiled. "Yeah, they seemed nervous enough as is."
They would not last long. Whatever had caused this absurdity could not prevent the realm from draining this place of mana. And if it lasted, monsters would follow: those animals were defenseless.
With enough mana I could have enslaved them, but I dared not waste that just for the human's joy.
She was too precious.
So we just stood there watching, not even touching the grass. Somehow it was enough for her to just enjoy the sight. A peaceful time broken by the caparace's harassment.
It had moved to me now, rubbed the marble shoes over my clay feet. That wasn't about following it anymore. Hard to tell the intent, if that monster had any.
But it turned and walked on the grass, slowed down and approached the horses.
The animals got spooked, snorted, flared their nostrils, backed up a bit, away from the black wretch approaching them.
Then they calmed down. Even when that thing crawled at their hooves, they just kept grazing.
The monster fell limp. It would not move anymore.
The horse it had neared rose its head, turned to us and paced, calmly, up until the grass's edge. It whinnied for us to approach.
"Did it eat the horse?" My mistress asked. "If it hurt the horsey!"
"No, I don't think so."
It had even less mana than me. And had it been able to do anything remotely like that, we would have fallen to it long ago.
"So," I asked, "how about a ride?"
And up she went, saddled on the bare back of that brown horse. Brown like her eyes. She wanted for me to hop in too but that was a terrible idea: more weight, more strain for the animal.
So the young lady hugged the horse's neck and caressed the mane.
Then, she got to have it pace around, on the grass, the creature still hesitant to leave it. A little trot, almost a canter then it slowed down again as they approached me.
She was extatic.
"I had forgot how it felt!" She exclaimed. "It's even better than being in a volcano!"
I had no idea what she meant.
"I guess..." I forced myself. "Enjoying it a little more can't hurt."
No. No she needed to get out of here. There was a city ahead, we needed to cross all the way there. Even if it was just ruins, it would still be better than here! She needed to let go of this illusion!
But at this instant I could tell exactly what her instructions were.
"You don't mind?" She beamed. I minded a lot. "Oh thank you Kaele!"
Someone kill me.
She kept pacing around and then, before we knew it, the horse had left the grass. He was now trotting on the dry rock. Leaving that small meadow.
His companion, confused, followed behind, stopped at the edge. Neighed and the horse turned around, answered, then kept going. And so both left the patch of grass, into the immensity.
I could not approach the wild one. Not without causing a panic.
So I stood by my mistress' side instead as she enjoyed her unexpected ride. She was holding on the horse's neck, head against it, almost lulled by its stride.
She had started to cry.
"It's stupid, right? To feel so happy." She asked. The young lady was trying to wipe her tears, only to have more come. "I am never letting go of that horse! I don't care! It's all mine now!"
"You had been alone this whole time."
Her brown eyes fell on me.
"You knew? You could tell this whole time?"
I kept walking on the side, my hand on the horse's head, just below its ear.
"I have been built to serve humans. I know when I am failing. Unable to offer you warmth and company. But it's fine. As long as you are safe it's fine. There will be more horses. Others will bring you joy. I just need to protect you."
"And who will take care of you?"
"I don't even exist."
I wasn't even the stone tablet that was making me move. I wasn't the soft clay running this body. I was not inbetween. She had been talking to no one this whole time.
Just a statue for her.
"Well you know what?" She fought back. "You cared more for me than anyone for the past three years of my life! You did more for me... Horsey may have a beating heart but you! You are more important than anyone!"
Humans had to be wiser than to tell a statue how great it was. None of her words could reach me. There was no one to reach. Humans instructed us to lie about it.
"I don't understand." I found a way to tell the truth and distract at the same time. "You were with other humans before, right? It should have been a happier place than here."
It must have been.
"I don't want to talk about it." She answered dejectedly.
We reached a broken hill while the day still lasted. Daylight getting shorter, dawn and dusk stretching ever more. Dry grey slopes welcomed us with black spots.
Some caparaces holding on to the surface, some more fallen on their back and petrified. Those among those monsters who could still move approached us. The wild horse neighing in fright; my mistress' mount only unnerved.
A relay, I assumed, but I could not even tell what was going on anymore.
The horse had stopped. It waited for the human to dismount yet she clinged to him with juvenile resolve. For my part, I inspected the hill, searching for any clue as to their intent. Nothing. Like this vast expanse, nothing.
"The next city is not far." I came back. "Let's forget about those things and head there."
They probably just wanted to bring her to their nest, to feast.
"No." She clung to the horse. "I want to see what the crawlers have."
The what? Ah, the caparaces.
I wanted to argue, because the city at least would have mana. But she was right. Those monsters and their weird behavior was our best lead. Not even a lead but something. Somewhere.
So that left the other problem. Letting the horse go.
She refused, she fought back, my mistress would not listen. She was not letting horsey behind!
"It will die there!" She argued.
"You prefer it dies with us?!" I reminded her.
"I am a grown-up! I can take it!"
She was the human so she won. Once we both calmed again, the horse started to walk in a new direction. Away from the city, of course. Far into the nothingness. His companion followed suit, as terrified as an animal could be. Another caparace with us.
My mistress could not take it. She proved inconsolable.
What followed was... best forgotten.
In the end there was only me, the human and the caparace. I had ended up carrying that monster on my own back. My mistress following behind, still sobbing.
At the next relay, dusk had settled. Settled for good. We could not feel the realm move anymore. The cliff was covered in darkness. Caparaces crawling out of it, their shells cracked and eroded. There was nothing beyond the depths. Not even the dark. Just no mana.
As if the realm stopped there.
The caparace on my back fell, reached the other then started to feed on them. The others let it. Absorbing what mana it could for the next trip. And I could tell, by now, that nothing really controlled those creatures. Nothing forced them.
If only caparaces talked, or thought, I could have asked.
My mistress wanted to rest. I wanted to leave as soon as possible. Even I slowed down at this edge of nothingness. Why monsters would even cower here was beyond me.
"So it's the end of the world." The young lady thought aloud, facing the cliff.
"The realm has no end. This is just a patch magic will fill eventually." By leaving elsewhere. "Humans used to make walls like that. Not sure why, but it was common."
"Eh." She offered a weak smile. "So what's beyond?"
"The kingdom of Wekel. There is a tale that says magic started to drain from there first. It's a lie but since that kingdom was the first to fall, the belief stayed."
"Think there is an answer there? As to why your world is like that?"
My? It was her realm. She was human. She owned everything.
"Probably not. We should really go now before our guides fall to dust."
Those words got her to walk away from the cliff. As for our guides, only one was left, ready to lead again. Which mean ready to get on my back.
It wanted to follow the cliff.
Are you kidding me?!
It seriously wanted me to let a human walk for hours near the worst mana drain in the whole realm? That was suicide, that was plain suicide. That was murder.
"Let's go." She was already leaving me behind.
No. No no no no no. Those monsters clearly did not understand. They thought my mistress immortal. And I could dissuade her. And all I could do was follow.
I was growing weaker myself. I struggled to keep her pace. It seemed the distance between her grew more and more. But that was fine. As long as she was fine, I would not slow her down for anything. I could see her tiredness. I would not add to it.
Before I knew it the cliff was gone. Left behind. Only cracks reminded us of its existence.
Behind us the antique road, broken by time, crossed our path. Leading to the kingdom. And nearby, like an oasis, lay the ruins of a small human town.