Vivien and the Scoria

Chapter 13: Cellmates and familiar faces

2nd day hour

Central Tower

Aernir city centre

4th Year of Lord Tante's rule

The streets are empty as the Scoria clan marches me through Aernir to the Towers. It may be early morning, but merchants and some stores should already be open in order to prepare their goods for sale during the day. However, just as there were no people in the streets or looking out of windows, there were also no merchants moving their wares nor where there any stores open. It was as if we were walking through a ghost city.

Twister's shop, what remained of it, wasn't exactly near the Towers, though it was by no means on the outskirts of the Aernir city centre. This meant that the Scoria clan marched me for not quite an hour before we were in sight of the Towers. Outside, two more clans of Scoria with their Fellan clan leaders waited for our arrival. The Scoria guards standing at my shoulders stepped aside in order for the other Fellan to take their place. One of these Fellan I recognised as the one who had drunk Lacey Armra's blood on Mount Api. I wanted to fight him, but couldn't move very far in the manacles that still encircled my wrists and ankles. I settled for glaring venomously at him, but this seemed to have no effect.

"This is the Fellan Killer? The one the Wraith obeyed?" The other new Fellan asked. Her voice was quiet, but her hand that soon clamped down on my shoulder was hard and I could have sworn that I felt the bones there crunching as if about to break. I winced but kept my face turned towards the ground, not wanting them to think I was weak. The Fellan who had brought me this far nodded, and all three turned to stare at me with hatred in their eyes.

"Lord Tante is dealing with matters down in the barracks at the moment, so she is to be put into the cells until he returns." The Fellan who killed Lacey stated. The three Scoria clans that were now hovering around us four began to move restlessly, and the Fellan who had brought me here stepped away from me to deal with them. The other two took me by the shoulders, hands clenching hard enough to almost break a bone, and led me into the Central Tower, Tante's personal Tower. The other four Towers were used for administrative purposes, most of which I didn't know anything about.

The Central Tower was built of impressive red stone, mined from the Badlands near the Other-World Portals. The other Towers were built of pale yellow stone from beneath Mount Air. All had been built in the months after Tante's first arrival in the city and announcement that he was taking over as sole ruler of Merasa. They had been built by the Scoria and conscripted Merasans as the Fellan sought to establish themselves as the soldiers of the city. Most of the city's soldiers had been dismissed, only keeping the very best as an elite force that was forced to live and work in the barracks with the Fellan and Scoria.

The stone for the Central Tower was not mined during those months, however, as the yellow stone for the other Tower was. No, the red stone came from a temple that was pulled down to make room for the construction of the Towers. This was the first sign that Tante was not going to be the Lord that Merasa needed to survive and regain its previous glory. The temple had been the main place where the bodies of the deceased were stored for five days after death in order for their souls to leave their bodies and become Wraiths before the bodies were cremated according to Merasan burial practices.

With the temple gone and the Towers built in its place, the smaller temples dedicated to the same purpose that had stood for hundreds of years on each of the mountains were put to far more use than they were ever designed to. The question of how to respectfully deal with our dead and ensure that their souls have time to leave their bodies and become Wraiths is one that has not yet been answered in the years since Tante came to the city. The best that can be done is holding the bodies for three days instead of the five that they should be held for. With no Wraith Lords or Masters in the city besides Tante, there is no way to tell if three days is enough time for the souls to become Wraiths. However, it is the best that we can do. Tante has forbidden the construction of other temples to serve that purpose, so we do our best.