“Cremate your corpses! By mayoral decree, all dead bodies must be turned in to the fire pits within six hours of discovery. Cremate your corpses!”
Magdala tore her eyes off the largest man-made structure in all of Markosia to tug on the nearest sleeve. “What was that? What did he say?”
Her uncle Lord Kalan turned to her, frowning. “What?”
“What was that announcement about?”
He waved away her question. “Something unimportant I’m sure. Hurry along. We must get to the estate as soon as possible.”
Still curious about the announcement, Magdala returned to following him. She looked up at the giant wall that spanned from the Gulf of Axem in the east to the Ilyon Sea in the west. In the middle of the Golden Era, when the Soura Queendom was still young, hordes of wailing cadaverous creatures had flooded over the border between southern Soura and the Vanurian counties, slaughtering and ravaging settlements as they went. At the cost of many lives, the greatest mages of the age had used magic to cut giant slabs of granite and lay them against fifty-nine red sandstone pyramids, creating a barrier between Soura and Vanuria. At the center of the Southern Line was the largest pyramid, which housed the only gate to Vanuria for hundreds of prinwirs and the main garrison for Soura’s defense. Lying at that pyramid’s base was the town of Walton where the merchants, farmers, and artisans who supported the garrison lived. At the top was Lord Kalan’s destination, Walcrest.
Magdala’s feet twinged. To reach the top they’d have to climb so many stairs. “I’d rather fight that tree again.”
“That would be… less than ideal.”
“Yes, obviously… oh…”
Dwayne, his dark brown skin glistening with sweat, rolled up the magical treatise he’d been reading. It was unfair that he looked so refreshed even after walking out in the hot sun for hours.
Her heart beating hard, Magdala coughed softly. “I just don’t see what the big rush is.”
Dwayne rubbed his chin. “You don’t understand-“
“Maggie, come see!” Nodding an apology to Dwayne and hitching up her rifle case, Mei grabbed Magdala’s hand and pulled her to a grey wooden building that stood just off the main road. She plucked something off a table and shoved it into Magdala’s face. “Look!”
It was a human skull covered with strange runes.
“Is- Is that real?” asked Magdala.
Mei nodded, her eyes glowing while she examined the skull. “First human one I’ve seen.”
“What are you doing with that?” Mei’s brother Huan plucked the skull out of her hands and dropped it back on the table.
Magdala gave the skull a skeptical look, her eyebrows drawn together. “It’s… probably harmless.”
Mei leaned in closer, her eyes tracing the runes. “It’s just a skull. We all have one.”
Magdala laughed. “I’m not sure Huan does. That would imply he has something useful in his head.”
Huan glared at her. “I know nobles don’t.”
Mei’s eyes still hadn’t left the skull.
Magdala sighed. “Well, let’s buy it for her. Where’s the shopkeeper?”
Huan scowled. “Don’t bother. I’ll get it.”
Mei placed her hand on Huan’s shoulder, her eyes now looking at the rest of the items on the table. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
Magdala’s face flushed. “With whose money?” she asked Huan. “I’ll buy it. It’s just a skull.” Just a piece of a human body. Nothing to worry about.
Huan stepped up to Magdala. “That’s not the-“
“This is not progress.” Lord Kalan walked up to them with Dwayne in tow. “We are in a hurry.”
“What are these?” Mei picked up a set of glass beads.
Dwayne tensed, his eyes taking in the items for sale. “Those are prayer beads. I haven’t seen these since…” His eyes caught on the skull. He recoiled. “These are Vanurian. If these are real-“
“If they aren’t, then Mother will be quite angry.” A little girl appeared, dragging a stool behind her. “She chose these items carefully after all. She’s quite proud of her collection.” After placing the stool behind the table, she clambered onto it and adjusted her dark blue cape with its bright red lining and beamed at all of them.
Magdala, Dwayne, and Huan all drew back from her.
The girl’s grin didn’t waver. “Wow, you are all very dusty. Would you like something to drink?” She raised a bottle filled with a bright green liquid and offered it to them.
Magdala’s stomach flipped, and her eyes escaped elsewhere to a small pile of leather bound books with the symbol of a tilted cup embossed in silver on their covers.
Lord Kalan pushed the drink away. “No, we are not stopping here. I swear-“
“You have a Book of Phons!” Magdala grabbed a book off the teetering stack, opened it, and winced. It was entirely in Vanurian.
The girl caught her expression. “I’m sure my mother has one in Souran.”
Dwayne’s lips curled. “That book is full of hate and lies. It’s not worth reading.”
Magdala huffed and held the book up. “I’ve never even seen a Book of Phons before. It’s the primary religious text for millions of people, and they don’t teach us anything about it in school.”
Dwayne looked away. “The things they do in the name of that thing are all anyone needs to know.”
“What things…” Magdala noticed Dwayne’s clenched jaw and shallow breathing and remembered. Dwayne had been a Vanurian slave before Lord Kalan had bought and freed him. To him, Vanurians were not a curiosity; they were a painful reality. Her cheeks burned.
Lord Kalan turned away. “I’ll be walking to the estate now. Don’t bother to follow.” He marched off, muttering under his breath.
Before following his master, Dwayne turned to Magdala. “Just… Just remember. We need people, not words.” He hurried after Lord Kalan.
Huan scoffed. “We need money, not people.”
Magdala rolled her eyes. “And we wonder if you have anything in that head of yours.”
Mei sighed, her eyes back on the skull.
Magdala smiled, patted her friend on the back, and pulled out her purse. “How much for the skull?”
The girl turned to her. “An earl.”
Magdala’s mouth fell open. “What? That’s robbery!”
“My mother says no haggling.”
Magdala pointed. “What about the book?”
The girl considered. “Translated or not translated?”
“Translated.”
The girl’s grin, somehow, widened. “2 earls.”
Magdala grit her teeth. “That is absurd.” She looked into her purse. After weeks of traveling with her lord uncle and his party, she only had a couple of counts left from the money her parents had given her. When Huan peered into her purse, Magdala snatched it away. “Excuse you.”
Huan stretched. “Are you sure you don’t want to haggle?” he asked the girl.
The girl’s grin tilted while it considered the question. “Maybe if you tell me where you just came from.”
Huan rested his elbows on the table. “We just came from Yumma, this ancient city out in the middle of the desert. We saw some things.”
The girl’s grin disappeared, and she leaned in. “Mother told me about that place. It’s full of ghosts, right?”
All three travelers stiffened. If ghosts included animated suits of armor, giant ice otters, and a tree that created small magical worlds, then she was absolutely right.
Huan shook himself and managed a smile. “Yeah, it’s full of ghosts. We didn’t get to see them though. If we had, I don’t think they would have let us sleep.”
The girl leaned back, her chin high. “I’m too old to believe in that stuff.”
“Smart girl.” Huan wagged a finger at her. “You had me going.”
Dwayne reappeared with a book burdened donkey in tow. “You get what you want?”
Mei shook her head.
Huan nodded. “Yup.” He grabbed his sister’s hand and pulled her away from the table. “You want anything else, Maggie?”
Magdala scowled. “Only my friends may call me that.” She took one last look at the far too expensive book. “Yes, we’re done here.” She gave Dwayne a half smile. “So you convinced my lord uncle not to leave us behind?”
He shrugged. “I, uh, mentioned that I didn’t think he’d survive your mother’s wrath if she found out you’d been left behind.” He glanced at the still pale Lord Kalan. “Seemed to work.”
Admaeus Speaks 
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