Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30: Decimation

Diven was not shocked, both he and Kresha saw parts of the original Arkyn showing up in the golem. Though they knew this time around that there was no chance all of his old memories would come back.

Kresha didn't share that she was secretly hoping this last design would slowly coax out all of his memories, but it was all for not when she realized it wouldn't work after the incident of turning into her feral form.

Kresha's final project was only going to bring sections of Arkyn back, and that was enough for Diven to know that this variant would follow through on his word. Hearing how sure Arkyn was on leaving, he felt the craving for liquor die down for the first time in a while.

It was like one aching scar was starting to fade.

"Well you are a part of the Afflicted, I said that the moment Kresha brought you to meet us centuries ago. The Ash Keep is always yours to return to so don't think that you must stay out there. This world carries the darkest of beings as well as the brightest of souls.

You'll need to be careful about who knows about your true identity. The Afflicted have only stayed alive so long by being small and secretive. All it takes is one destructive personality with one too many hints about us to unleash hell, especially if they don't favour non-humans."

Arkyn could almost see countless years of bad encounters flooding Diven's eyes. Poor treatment, hatred, and pain were some of the things Arkyn could guess based on vague stories Kresha used to tell him.

There had been several codexes in the library that listed Draconians like they were nothing but animals. On more than one occasion, Arkyn wondered how the anatomy of Draconians were even more detailed than any human based anatomy.

A part of his mind clicked in realizing that only someone with medical training and racist views could have dissected them alive to learn such things.

"Before I leave," Arkyn pulled Diven out of his past to bring back the serenity they briefly experienced just a moment ago. "Do you know what happened to the Isle of Req'tosh? We saw the aftermath, but we don't know what happened."

"Ahh, hold on." Diven began tapping away at the runic keyboard on his end before another projection appeared.

It was a topographical map of Odbrane. The country was in the middle of a large boot-shaped continent, where the bottom sole was sitting around the equator and the top was attached to the glaciers at the northern ice caps.

Five little diamond indicators were scattered around the continent. A few were in the center, but the one far off to the left and sitting on the edge of the West Coast was clearly the Ash Keep.

It was behind the boot's ankle, near the colder regions. Meanwhile the one at the top must have been the Frost Keep, buried deep inside the northern ice caps, farther away from anywhere that would be considered hospitable.

"What is that?" Arkyn asked as another Diamond slowly came into view from the edges of the map. It was gradually moving from the bottom left and towards the top right.

"That would be the Sky Keep. I am sure Kresha mentioned it is the orbiting satellite that makes calls over such distances like this possible.

Coincidentally it was a witness to what happened that day. Silvesh said the event was actually visible from all the way up there."

The map transformed into real life imaging, zooming into the blank section of the sea before rapidly rewinding the images of the waves. Diven was spinning a little holographic dial to the recorded date of the explosion, sifting through the data until the island would reappear.

"You said the Afflicted are to remain secretive, but how is it no one has seen the Keep floating in the air?" Arkyn asked as they waited.

"Well for one thing, you're mistaking the size and altitude the Sky Keep sits at. But mainly the blast radius of the island was simply too big to miss from the air- ahh, here it is."

A white flash overtook the recording for a few seconds before it imploded and Req'tosh was suddenly there and unharmed. Diven let the feed play at normal speed so they could see the event as close as the magic recording could allow.

It was a crescent-shaped plot of land with some sections coated in forest trees. The sandbanks extended to a couple smaller dots of dry land, but were too small to build anything along them. The hologram was just close enough to see the thin lines that were bridges connecting different sections of the island, revealing the top of treehouse-like homes popping out in its mainland.

'They must keep to the higher ground so ocean storms don't flood their homes every time they happen.' Arkyn thought.

Inside the crescent's bay, there were different sized ovals attached to the docks. Arkyn assumed they were boats, but didn't pay too much attention as both him and Diven were more fixated on the irregularity happening on the left side of the island.

A small boat, not much bigger than some of the fishing rafts, was becoming hazy. A static over the view before a perfect sphere of white light appeared. A second later, it expanded rapidly while creating a massive shockwave

It was definitely a strange phenomenon, but their curiosity was somewhat sullied by the idea of all those people being erased from existence. There must have been a few hundred people living on that island, and all those merchants, fishermen, and families were just snuffed into nothingness.

Req'tosh was just far enough out in the ocean, that Arkyn doubted anyone found out what happened until days after. It was an isolated island and none of the nearby boats were out of range to survive and tell the tale.

"Silvesh shared the recording with us shortly after it happened." Diven said while closing the hologram down. "No one was sure what had happened, but we came up with some theories.

Considering that the shockwave was filled with unbalanced energies and the initial cause actually showed up for a second as visible light, we assumed it was a high magic-fueled explosive. All we know for sure is that whoever caused it had failed."

"You think it failed?" Arkyn was surprised that the only thing they were certain of was the source was unbalanced energies, and that it did not fulfill its purpose.

"No one in the Afflicted has been to Req'tosh in a while, but looking back at the previous recordings it became a moderate trading port in the more recent century. The natives never left during the increase of ships stopping, which tells us the port development was allowed to some extent. No genocides or forced migrations, which I suppose is a good thing until the event.

"Boats like the one we saw at the epicenter of the explosion regularly moved to the mainland docks. One that size could make it to a large city about two-hundred miles South of the Ash Keep. I believe Harrow called it Crenbull."

"I think I see what you were piecing together. What would be the point of blowing up a trading post when there are so many more places of higher value? Whoever created the explosion must have lost control or it was let off too early."

"Precisely, but speaking of the explosion and Harrow. There is something you should know."