Argus pushed a massive branch out of the way, beckoning for everyone behind him to pass.
Siyah threw her arms up and did a little spin as she took in the open air around her. Beyah gave a long exhale as she clutched onto Hamlet's reins, and her shoulders relaxed.
It had been a couple of days since they had fought with the Nightspawn, and a little over 3 weeks since they had stepped into the Forest of Terror.
And now they were leaving it behind.
After the group stopped to take a rest, Pandarus held his hands out to either side dramatically, and said:
"Welcome to Attica, everyone. I hope you all enjoyed the journey here." Siyah and Beyah frowned at him, and Mathew managed a weak snort.
"Let me share my gratitude for your services, sir guide." Said Argus with a respectful bow. He hadn't interacted with Pandarus much during their journey, most likely due to his prejudice against the Dovkin.
Mathew followed suit and gave a quick bow as well. His first instinct was to offer a handshake, but he had no gauge on how normal those were in this world.
"I wish you the best." He said to the guide. The Pandarus smiled at him, then shook his head.
"I appreciate the gestures, but I don't think we are quite finished here." He looked at Ophelia. "Is that correct, my Lady?"
"Whatever could you mean?" She asked him, her expression unreadable.
"I have been thinking this entire time about the contract we made. A duration of an entire year? You must have some plan that requires you to keep me around. It seems like you are gathering an interesting group of people, and perhaps you were testing to see if I would be of any use. But that matters very little now, as once we learned only Dokkebi could hold the strange lantern, my fate was sealed."
"If you have discerned that much already, why not confront me earlier?"
"I wanted to do my job the best I could. Besides, I don't mind staying with you for a while… This group intrigues me."
"I see. Then I will maintain our contract for now." Ophelia said.
"Even if you didn't, I would probably still be curious enough to follow you. Where are we headed next, anyway?"
"Thalassa, the city of craftsmen."
"The city built on the river Lethe?"
"The same." She affirmed. Pandarus nodded slowly and rubbed his chin.
"I suppose we best be on our way then." He said.
With the decision seemingly made, the two of them began to move once again. The rest of the party followed, albeit reluctantly.
It wasn't long before the group went from tired to straight up miserable. Mathew held his hands to his neck, trying his best to warm his flesh. Beyah hugged Hamlet tightly, and Siyah was hunched over as her teeth chattered violently.
The wind was so bitter that Mathew half expected frost to start forming on each of his companions.
"When I asked about the weather in Attica the other day, you said it would be warm," Mathew said to Argus, who was walking at the rear.
"The weather is quite warm during the day, but traded in for cold weather every night." He replied.
"Well, that's just perfect, isn't it? We have to freeze to death during the night, and then roast every morning."
"I h-h-hate this s-so m-much." Groaned Siyah. She flicked her still bowed head to the side and noticed Era Belle out of the corner of her eye. She frowned when she saw the young girl's stoic expression. "Era Belle… A-are you r-really not cold? At all?"
The girl stared back with indifference and gave a simple "No."
"You don't have to put on a brave face." Pushed Mathew, though he didn't believe she was.
"I'm not. It's really not so terrible. In fact, I find the night air pleasant." Mathew didn't say anything further, but he held his questions in the back of his mind.
"If you do start to get cold, let me know," Siyah said. "I will ask the Lady to allow us to rest and start a fire."
"Thank you." Said Era Belle.
"It really is cold though." Said Mathew after a moment of silence. "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it snowed… What is that?"
As he had been talking about snow, he looked up to see if there were any clouds in the sky. It turned out to be a perfectly clear night, with thousands of stars perfectly visible. But that wasn't what had given him a start.
Directly above, where a moon would usually be expected to be, was a dozen large glowing shapes sitting clustered together. They shone with the color and brightness of the moon, but did not have its round shape.
"What is what… You mean the moon?" Siyah asked.
"That's the moon? Why is it in pieces?" Mathew said. Siyah looked at him with wide eyes.
"Are you making a joke right now?" She said.
"He is not." Said Argus, coming to the rescue. "Dread lived locked up inside a temple for his entire life, and with Doria being overcast most of the year, he would have precious few opportunities to see the moon even if he had ventured outside at night."
"Really? That's… Very sad actually." She said, her voice dripping with sympathy. "And I guess after leaving Doria we were in Deimos Forest for weeks, where the sky wasn't visible. If that's true, then this might really be the first time you have seen the sky, Mathias."
"Yeah, probably," Mathew affirmed. "So is someone going to explain the moon to me?"
"It was fifteen years ago." Surprisingly, it was Ophelia who answered him. She spoke without turning her head, so Mathew had to move closer to hear her properly. "I was a child, perhaps eight years of age. My brother and I were in the observatory, and we witnessed it with our own eyes. The moon was whole, and then a brilliant light of magenta, blue, and violet illuminated the heavens. When the light dispersed, the moon was as you see now and has been ever since."
"That's insane… Why did that happen in the first place?"
"No one really knows. Perhaps it was some divine battle we are not aware of?" Pandarus offered.
"What about the Covenant? I thought the gods couldn't fight each other."
"Perhaps not on this world, but the moon is its own realm, is it not?"
"I guess it could count as one…" Mathew said. "Were there any big side effects from the moon's destruction?"
"Who can say," Argus replied. "I do not believe I have observed any. I must admit, however, that I was much less attentive to the matters of the world in my youth."
"That figures," Mathew said. "I guess everyone was quite young when it happened, besides maybe our Dovkin guide."
"Don't ask me. I was most certainly asleep when the moon-break occurred." Pandarus said
"If you say so," Mathew said. "Not sure I trust you though. Maybe your minister knows."
"What would a simple politician know about such a cataclysmic event?"
Mathew shrugged and said: "I feel like governments like to hide things, especially things related to the moon."
"What a strange thing to say," Pandarus said with a chuckle. He seemed to think Mathew was joking around, which was at least partially true.
"At least I can look forward to gazing at this novelty of a night-sky on the trip to Thalassa," Mathew said.
"If we don't freeze to death first." Grumbled Siyah.
"It won't be long," Pandarus said. "Unlike the Forest of Terror, our path to the city of craftsmen is only a week by foot, and without any hills or trees blocking our vision, we should be able to see Nightspawn from kilometers away."
"Comforting," Mathew said. He gave a long sigh as he thought of the miserable week ahead of them. He was not excited to discover how uncomfortable the iron mind would be when superheated by the sunlight.
He gave a quick glance at the terrain around him. Doria had been endless craggy hills of rock and weeds, the ground perpetually uneven, and the roads only marginally better. In contrast, Attica was incredibly flat everywhere he looked, and the soil was a soft mixture of sand and clay which had its own challenges of traversing.
Then his eyes landed on yet another peculiar sight, one that seemed to him even more strange than the shattered moon.
"Is that…?" He whispered. Off in the distance, he could pick out what looked like a person, standing and watching him. He couldn't quite see it clear enough, but it seemed to be the silhouette of a woman, and she was holding… a large umbrella?
"Siyah." He said quietly. "Do you see that over there?"
"See what?" She asked, and he tried to direct her gaze with his finger.
"That woman over there."
"Mathias, it's too dark for me to see." She replied.
"Oh… right." He said. When he looked back in the direction of the woman, she had vanished completely. He shook his head a few times, and then checked again, but the result was the same. He scratched the back of his metal head and muttered to himself:
"Am I just going crazy?"