Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Evin stood inside a metal cage with his family and watched it slowly go down into the underground. At first, he only saw the dirt surrounding the elevator, but soon, the underground city under Khuutam city revealed itself in all its blinding splendor. The City of Nevernight. 

Sorbothium ores filled with Lumiaris's energy were shining from all around Evin, forcing him to cover his eyes. They were lodged into the earthen ceiling above, some of them natural, some of them artificial. They were the undying source of light that gave the city its name. 

Evin felt it weird that the ores which were endlessly mined from Khuutam city above were scattered so abundantly in the underground city, but Sorn explained that the miners could only dig down to a certain point. Any more than that, they risked being executed. 

Khuutam city's nickname was the Prison of the Eight-limbed Godling. First hearing the name, many assume that it's a place that has a Godling sealed in it, but the name was much more literal in its meaning. 

The city was a prison, yes. But not for containing Lord Kena, the Former Aspect of Earth. It was a prison that contained the various criminal mages of the North, and Lora Kena was the supervisor of that.

Evin didn't know why the former Aspect decided to build his own city below a prison containing the most dangerous men and women in the entire North, but that was none of his business.

The light from the Sorbothium subsided and Evin could see the city looming below. Most of the buildings were bigger than what Evin was used to seeing, some of them even twice as tall as Lora's. There were also an awful lot of them built in the walls, the only way to get inside the being the handrails lodged into the walls of the city. 

The reason for these oddities were walking around the streets below. Tall humanoids with four extra arms filled the city, all wearing a mask and covering their bodies completely. The Cobfolk. 

Beneath the mask, Evin would see vaguely human faces with large jaws and eight pearl-like eyes… but due to the Cobfolk being a vassal race to the Ivari, they were forced to cover their heads for looking too monstrous. The rule persisted even in their own city.

But that didn't mean they lived a bad life. 

From a glance, Evin could tell the underground city was much hospitable than the hell above ground which was Khuutam City. The civil architecture of the city was well-planned, the streets were cleaner and the people livelier. It felt like heaven compared to the rot, filth, despair and death filling the city above.

It truly was eye-opening, seeing mages living like that.

The elevator stopped and Evin's family walked off it with their 'offerings'.

"Welcome to the City of Nevernight," the Cobfolk accompanying them, Sorn, said in a husky, drawn-out voice. "Lord Kena awaits you in his manor."

The Cobfolk's mask was simple. It had a white base and only had eight dark-purple beads arranged symmetrically. There was no mouth, no ear, no nose. 

Under Parslo's guidance, Evin sent a letter to the former Aspect before leaving, describing some of the devices he'd gotten from the Otherworlders. They were going to visit the city regardless, but it wasn't good to come unannounced. On their way, they met Sorn, who explained he was to act as their protector and guide.

Evin's family walked through the city streets, hearing about the local historical buildings and monuments from the guide. Evin was not very interested in these bygone stories but he made himself look interested in fear of offending the former Aspect's servant. Thankfully, the tour did not last long. 

Lord Kena's house was a rather modest three-story building located in the outskirts of the city. The materials and style of the building was exactly the same as all the other buildings. The only difference was that it seemed somewhat taller than the other buildings. Also, there were no other houses built over it on the walls. 

'I guess it's a bit awkward to build your house over a demigod.'

"Come on in," Sorn said, leading the group to a guest room inside the house. "I'm sorry to hurry you, but master Evin and Mister Redheart, please follow me. The others can wait here. Help yourselves to anything you wish."

Lora and Theor were left behind, looking confused and tired. Lora was holding Sasha's sleeping form in her hands, bags under her eyes and new wrinkles on her face. No doubt a product of her non-stop flying through the air for the past two days. Theor also looked similar, but at least the tiredness was concealing his fear. 

They did not look like people who just ended up inside the house of a demigod. 

'Perhaps to them, every mage seems like a demigod…'

<Don't think too badly of them,> Endra said. <Every mage must seem like a demigod to them.>

<I guess… But how can people live so differently? It feels like there are two completely different worlds, one for mages and one for the rest. Isn't something like that impossible?>

<You'd be surprised at how differently people can live. Did you know, back on Earth, the richest 1% of the world had more money than the other 99% combined? As actual numbers, it means that 80 million people are richer than 7 billion 920 million people. 

<Well, as a more positive example, there also the cultural differences. While some people live in carved ice blocks, others live in huts built out of mud and straws. The same thing's apparent on Alvox too. You'd never see a yurt in the kingdom, but in the North, half the country lives in it.>

Evin pondered on the numbers and the difference between mages and others, shook his head, and pushed at the pile of devices floating next to him. 

Sorn came in front of a large tall door and knocked on it. "Your guests are here, my lord."

"Let them in," a staticky, artificial-sounding voice said.

"Please don't take his kindness lightly," Sorn opened the door, let Evin and Ssatsko inside, and closed it behind them.

The former Aspect of Earth was twice as tall as Ssatsko, standing in front of a desk, a mess of notes and books behind of him. His dominant pair of hands were holding a book open, while the other two pairs were hidden under a white cloak.

'He definitely doesn't look like what I first imagined…' Evin thought, though he didn't really know what he imagined. 

"Welcome," the staticky voice said again, his head still facing down. "You must be the guests from the kingdom."

The voice was coming from the mask Lord Kena was wearing, a featureless, blank white mask which only covered his face. His silky white hair was hanging loose from his side, and his glossy grey skin could be seen around his long, slender neck.

"Yes. As we've described briefly in the letter, we found some very interesting items on the bodies of three unusually pale men and wanted to offer them to you."

Endra was speaking with Kena. The two decided that the conversation was too important for Evin.

"In exchange for protection," Kena added.

"In exchange for protection for my family, yes." Endra said. "My mother, her husband and son. Perhaps my grandfather when he's inside the City of Nevernight."

"Of course…" Kena said and finally faced Evin. 

Evin could not see the Cobfolk's eyes behind the mask, but he could feel himself being eyed all over. He felt like a rabbit trapped inside a pit with a snake, and a terribly bad feeling filled his heart. Was it really correct for him to come here? It wouldn't be weird for someone so strong to find a random fault with him and kill him, right? I mean, who was there to enforce laws on a former Aspect of a World? The Empress? Something told Evin he wasn't in the Empress's list of important people.

The ominous feeling intensified when the former Aspect cocked his head to the side and started humming to himself. 

"Is there something wrong?" Ssatkso asked. 

"Hmm… yes," Kena said. "…But we'll talk about it later. First, show me these devices of yours."

Evin exchanged a quick glance with Ssatsko and found the other sweating on the forehead. He noticed he was sweating too. 

'We're not gonna get robbed or something, right? Someone so powerful shouldn't be someone so petty, right?'

"Well, go on."

Endra pulled the devices out one by one and described what they did. The jetpack, the cloaking device, the forcefield barrier and the gun. Sadly, aside from the gun, Endra could not make the other devices work. Unlike the cloaking device they found from the first man which turned anyone invisible no matter what, these ones refused to function.

Lord Kena glanced at the objects, gave one a sniff and murmured something. "Smells like Orgone… Hmm, what happened to the people who had this?"

"They melted when I took off their clothes. It looked like it happened because of mana."

Ssatsko gave Evin a look from the side, but Endra decided ignored it.

"As I expected…" Lord Kena murmured.

He then pulled out a Storage Ring and pulled a flask from it. There was something blue floating around in it. It reminded Evin of mana, but there was something terribly wrong about it. He almost felt the thing was life-threatening to him.

But Lord Kena uncorked it without worry and held it underneath the forcefield generator. The device started glowing with a blue sheen before creating a barrier surrounding Kena. The same exact one that the three men had around their bodies.

Evin looked upon the scene, confused but mostly worried. 

<Isn't that bad?>

<Yeah…> Endra replied. 

Lord Kena was familiar with the organization that Evin was fighting against. How? Perhaps he was a part of them

<What should we do? Run?>

<No,> Endra replied. <We hope and pray.>

Endra sounded calm despite the situation. He was much more panicked when they were fighting against the three otherworlders. The two situations were completely different in scale, but somehow, Endra was calmer in the more dangerous scenario. Seemed like it was the right thing to do though, as Kena was not at all paying attention to Evin, instead trying out the devices one by one. 

Kena then tried out the cloaking device. He gave up on using the flask's contents on the jetpack and the gun, calling them works of engineering. 

"Hmm," he murmured after finishing. "You've done well. Bringing this to me."