This book of untranslated wonders is now within the hands of Nikolay and Shen helping them navigate this strange world. It’s incredibly strange just how foreign yet familiar it all feels. Another planet with breathable air and harsh winter conditions is the familiar part. The humanoid beings out of fantasy worlds feel strange. They’ve come across demons and Dream Catchers, yet this feels far less real. They have yet to uncover the aspects of this world that will shatter their views.
“Awfully nice of them to include a map and everything,” he says with as much sarcasm as he can muster. “All these magical things and still no translator.”
“Hey! Hellfire can navigate this world seemingly without issue. Two grown men should be capable of that!” Shen is quick to dismiss Nikolay. “This is the closest thing we’ll get to an unexplored wonderworld. Make use of that chance!”
This blistering cold is keeping their hands apart. Yet, despite that, Nikolay lightly leans towards Shen as they awkwardly shuffle through the snow. They are new to the concept of relationships. Neither have had too much time to consider what that may entail.
“Any exes?” Nikolay asks as he realigns himself to walk normally. Shen doesn’t quite grasp what Nikolay means. “Any ex-boyfriends? Or girlfriends?” His eyes are constantly shifting away waiting for an answer.
“Well… there was this one time…” Nikolay cannot believe what he’s hearing. Aghast, shocked, and befuddled he has a short moment wherein he’s facially lost his composure. Shen begins to laugh as he pulls in Nikolay. “You’re the only one I’ve dated so far and I don’t want to change that.”
“Awfully honest, huh?”
“Yep.” Nikolay’s attempt to gain the upper hand doesn’t have quite as much effect as he thought it would. Shen however isn’t completely unaffected. That attempt at brushing off Nikolay’s jeers was supposed to lead into a cocky rebuttal. Yet all Shen could do was utter a one-word-answer.
As they walk towards their destination, they gaze at the unlit shops, storefronts, and stalls unattended. No one seems to fear any kind of theft as the attendees and owners just prance around at what seems to be community hour. Most are huddled up in the cabin that connects to this pair’s home world or standing at the one bar, and the only restaurant still open to customers. Since they don’t have it in them to impose on the merry ways of this foreign occasion, they continue dragging themselves towards their goal.
A lonely man past his prime is walking home struggling to wad through snow. Every once in a while he’d stumble and trip. Hunched over with a walking stick in hand, he is heading straight towards what seems to be an abandoned home. Worn down, dark, and gloomy… nothing speaks of an invitation for this man covered in cloth from head to toe. The wooden horns sprouting from his forehead feel like more of an ominous infestation rather than a quirk of his.
As Shen walks towards the old man, Nikolay spouts, “Don’t waste your energy on that. Ignore him.”
Shen is taken aback by the sudden hostility. He decides to just dwell on it for the time being and help the old man back up. The man whispers in some sort of tongue ineligible not only to Shen but also many others. The moment he’s back on his feet, he pushes Shen. This old man’s strength could only force Shen into stumbling.
“Fucker! No wonder you’re a decrepit old fuck with no family!” Nikolay shouts as he pushes the old man.
Shen pulls Nikolay away and drags him to their destination as the few onlookers laugh and cheer at this scene. This place suddenly has its own air of darkness shrouding Nikolay once again. It has happened before when they faced Two-Faced. Believing Nikolay to be under some sort of spell similar to the one Two-Faced had put him under, Shen is forcing them to sit down not too far off from the scene that had just occured.
Shen slaps Nikolay. “What the hell is wrong with you??”
“Huh?! Fucker deserves to die! That’s-” He comes to a sudden halt. Utter hatred on this level for just one man is ridiculous. Realizing that he’s full of animosity due to some magical circumstances, he waits a few moments to compose himself.
“This place is… unique. You’re not sensing any demons, right?”
“Right.” Nikolay takes a deep breath. “I don’t know what happened. I…”This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Shen holds him tight. It was supposed to be a fun little adventure that would last for not even half day. Now they’re exploring with mental turmoil and great fear of whatever lies hidden within the fabrics of this world. After a short moment of recuperation they finally come across the library, the place of answers they’ve been yearning after. Now that they’re facing the library in person, they can’t help but wonder why they ever believed it to be a library.
“It’s a stupid church. A church!” Nikolay has come this far for nothing. Once again time feels wasted on what feels like absolutely nothing.
“Are you still feeling weird or do you just have some sort of problem with the church?”
“Nope…” he says with his hands covering his eyes. He faces upwards in frustration like a toddler. “Just not a fan of them.”
The entrance they’re faced with bears a grand gate typical of german churches yet there are minor differences in signage and design that lets the gate stand out. Several lions are trying to canibalize on a sun as they are errupting into flames. They’re helpless when faced with the scorching sun even as carved imagery.
“We’ve seen these lions before in your magazines, right?” Shen asks. Maybe answers do lie within this church. The library was marked with an open book atop the map yet they’re met with a church.
“Alchemy. Something about desire dissolving consciousness… heard a few things about madness and the like too…”
They head in even more intrigued than before as the first bell rings reminding them of the limited time they possess. Right next to the entrance, lined up to the cold walls somewhat aged by the flow of time, are an enormous amount of books they ought to check out first. The hall they’ve walked into bears shelves instead of the usual seating arrangements. It’s echoey, cold, and feels incredible hollow and empty.
“Creepy…” Nikolay gazes at the lone librarian at her post. Her eyes are constantly tailing the pair. Her long white hair is almost blinding. Her skin is of a slightly darker complexion. Shen can almost match her. She’s just resting atop her throne barefeet in a fluttery dress. Before they could even attempt to look for clues, the librarian points at a book prompting it to shine in pure white.
Shen nods and dislodges it from its shelf. Her eyes do feel imposing as if she’s prying him open to judge his character. Finally, they’re met with an accurate translation. Though it is in english, there’s nothing a former university student and an explorer into the occult cannot surmise by context clues.
“It’s so thick! Read it!” Nikolay is awfully excited. ‘Awful’ and ‘Exciting’ are fitting words for what they’re about to delve into. Several pathstriders of a civilization long gone have written various letters, diaries, eulogies, and the like. They were translated to highest attainable authenticity to capture the unfiltered thoughts and feelings that were supposed to be felt by reading these grand historical documents by mediation.
One chapter focuses entirely on the short diary entry of a man that had come to this world after the death of his brother:
“It’s no my fault that you’re dead. You don’t get to look up at me from the deepest pits of Inferno chastising me for surviving. You’re a shitty husband, a shitty father, a shitty son, and the worst brother I could have had!
When I told you that we can leave and survive without homeworld, you just sat there and talked about wandering across the empty plains ravaged by Silence. No life survived on that plain and the unfortunate souls that were ignorant of its danger never survived past its boundry. Your foolhardy claims of the Swarm’s survival atop the plain as some sort of outlandish reason why you could possibly survive… Of course I’d beat some sense into you! Let’s not even speak of the Startruck Coast you wanted to sail off of!
You spoke of respecting your wife’s wishes by visiting all the tourist spots that are long gone. Am I waltzing around in warzones playing tag with the Mass of the Disjointed? No you incestous freak! She’d reel at the image of you wandering around on this doomed world even after becoming one of the Disjointed. She’d die of shame had she known the proper man she had married turned out to be an idiot off his rocker falling apart the moment he’s met with hardship.
I can still (scribles that couldn’t be transliterated, translated) …your strength for little Aisha. I cannot imagine myself handling the loss a child. Lilliana could only handle one daughter. Her body wasn’t fit for more and the miscarriages prior to that were cruel. Aisha brought so much light into your eyes. I should have handled mother while you were grieving but instead you decided to be a caretaker again after having just lost everything you cared for.
The Days of Decay were particularly hard on you and I’m sorry for being as harsh as I was(crossed out by the author) such a hardass. But you have to understand that someone has to push you! You can’t fall apart now. Someone has to keep us going. You will eventually realize that mother’s death was sad but still was something we could have survived. We just had to survive.
We just had to survive but you didn’t. I hate you for dying. I hate you for losing that light in your eyes! All I asked of you was to be dumb and curious. I would have handled the rest.
Had I been a better brother, maybe you wouldn’t have hung yourself.”
Shortly after writing this entry, the author had wandered off into the wildnerness never to be heard of again. Theses sorts of tragedies, these kinds of horrors afflict all permanent residents of this strange world. If they hadn’t personally faced these horrors, their ancestors had. Their world’s of origin have perished.