False Gods

Book IV: Of Princesses and Peons

Chapter XXX

     We ended up following Juliani to her private club in Mor Ardain. She insisted on showing us and Poppi where she'd be staying and how she'd be living if she agreed to stay. However Mythra and Gabriel both agreed that Juliani wouldn't be taking no for an answer.

     I took a good look around Alba Cavanich on the way there.

     Acacia wasn't kidding, this place wasn't a beauty by any means, however it was interesting. Apparently Mor Ardain had moved it's capital up north a few hundred miles, and this was what was left behind. When the once proud empire of Mor Ardain acknowledged itself equal to all of the rest of Alrest and relinquished control of Gormott, the decision wasn't exactly unanimous. Alba Cavanich became flooded in protestors, and Emperor Niall was forced to flee the city. This was five hundred years ago.

     Over time, the riots became more orderly, and gave birth to many gangs and criminal organizations specialized in the art of hate crimes, rape, extortion, and human trafficking. Originally, the hatred was targeted at the Gormotti, but it didn't take long for it to spread to whatever made money. However if you looked away from the pile of trash that was the city, you could see the desert that surrounded it, and the sun glimmering off the sand, as hot as it was, was simply a sight to behold.

     Alba Cavanich of the present was a very packed city that was built upwards. Nobody owned any building or factories outside of the gangs there, and most buildings were large skyscrapers with no windows at all and heavy, metal doors that held residents. The inside of each door was no bigger than a tiny closet and didn't even have a air conditioning, bathrooms, or kitchens. Just a bed. There was one community washroom at the very bottom with about three toilets and showers, out in the open, and were the only way people could use the bathroom in a building of about a hundred people each. It was... disgusting. Large families would have to buy a separate "apartment" for each member, and they weren't cheap. The gangs also made sure each citizen made just enough to be too poor to ever leave and usually killed anyone who tried.

     As anyone could imagine, the people weren't the friendliest, but with the constant threat of theft, rape, and death looming above their head who would be? From what I heard, the rape problem had gotten so bad that even men and the elderly were targeted as much as anyone else.

     All too soon, we arrived at a large building, the walls were shaking and loud noises could be heard from the outside, despite the building being made of solid concrete and metal.

    "Mate," Gabriel stopped me and whispered in my ear. "Don't look anyone in the eye when you get in there, get to your destination and don't stop, I'll stay out here with Kassy, she doesn't need to see what goes on in there."

     I didn't get a chance to ask what he was talking about, he grabbed Kassandra's hand and was gone before we knew it.

    "Oh pity, it seems he had something better to do," Juliani shrugged.

     I felt a my stomach tie itself into a knot, as I now wondered what I was walking into.

     "Where did Malos go?" Acacia asked.

     We looked around to see that he was nowhere to be found either.

     "It appears Malos has the ability to move through space and time, and triggered this ability earlier while you were distracted," KOS-MOS answered.

     "He... what?" I questioned.

     "He can teleport, no need to worry about him, let's just focus," Mythra concluded.

     "Is Rafi ok?" Poppi asked.

     I then looked back to see Rafi drenched in sweat and shaking, he looked absolutely terrified, even almost about to cry.