Sheila

“I swear it by the Gods themselves, Mathew, that something fishy is happening near that u…u…un… that school thing.”
Mathew looked up towards Alek and watched the old man’s face curiously, awaiting an explanation from the man. Alek however remained silent for a while, before he gave a slow nod in thought, and ran his rough hand over his unkempt face repeatedly. Finally, he placed a heavy mug of ale against his lips and took a long draught of the bitter liquid.
“Ye know, the Elders are up to something. They have to be! First opening that school thing and letting all those foreigners to come here, then them accepting all those foreigners to become students there and now that hole!”
Mathew blinked repeatedly. Normally he would have leaned forward and covered his uncle's mouth to prevent further talking. They said that the Elders had ears all around Umbra and that rumours were not wanted. Now however, while they were sitting at Hanse’s Hostel, far away from the dark buildings of the City of Necromancers, he was merely confused with the latest bit of news he heard. He immediately leaned forwards, eagerly asking what the old man meant.
“A hole you say??!! What kind of hole?!”

Alek glanced at the young boy. The enthusiasm of Mathew was a little worrying at times, as well as his curiousity. After all, everyone knows the classic proverb that curiousity kills the cat.
But in the case of the Elders, it could also mean that the dead cat was revived and forced to serve the Elders for eternity. Not exactly an encouraging thought.
Yet, when he looked in the boys eyes, he knew he spotted something familiar. And as he continued to watch, it was almost as if he was staring in a mirror, or at a reflection of what he has once been… he had, after all, been an inquisitive youth himself, and had traveled around Umbra, always eager to discover more. He had stopped with such things however after an accident with a massive earth elemental in the Dead Woods. And though it had been an Elder that had saved his life, he still could not resist to spread his gossip when he had the chance.
Tonight would prove to be no exception.

“Well… ye know… ye remember them earth shakings some months back? Well, during one of those, they said that the earth itself was cracked open like an egg shell!”
The youth gasped in amazement at those words. The thought of the earth itself cracking open and having a huge lizard, snake or chicken work its way out through the soil briefly surfaced in his mind before he dismissed the idea.
“And and and… what happened then! Have you been there, uncle Alek?!”

The old man grinned to himself. He was an old man now. He had worked for the City for many years as a simpleton, and he had accepted that. However, in his stories, he was always a hero or adventurer. And though he had never been to the chasm before – as a matter of fact, he had heard about it from the local drunk – this did not discourage him to tell his rich tales.
“Aye, me boy! I have! And ye won’t never believe what I saw there! There is a huge crack there in the earth, but ye cannae see the bottom! There is gasses everywhere, there is! Thick green fumes, that smell like rotten eggs or uncle David after he had yer mums bean soup!
Now… lately, em Elders in Umbra have been busy there. Seems they got the slaves to make this huge thing around the crack, and even placed a statue near it! It looks almost like some altar of sorts!”
Suddenly the man moved further forward towards the boy as he lowered his voice to a soft whisper, possibly out of fear to be heard after all, but more likely to add something dramatic to his words.
“And, me boy… that statue… it looks ghastly… it seems shapeless, like all details have melted like candle wax away from it. Ye know, like that woman who walks around there with em molten skin?”
The boy gulped and nodded quickly. How could he have forgotten that awful creature? Her skin a faint white, with veins crawling all over the face, her cheeks missing. The only thing that was left of her that looked like a normal human being, were her hair and eyes, which seemed ablaze with fire. Perhaps it had been her own eyes that had caused her body to melt?

“Well, me boy… it looks just like her, it does! Terrible! Awful! ..and gets even worse”
With those last words, the man raised his upper lip in a snarl. “Ye see, me boy… some claim that them crack got there because of the Elders own doing! Something about a black rock or sumthing… Others however have told me that there is even more! That em world is falling apart and that, because of that, that crack showed up.”

With those words, he leaned back and watched the kid. It was trembling clearly, afraid of the story that the man had told him. In some way, the man was satisfied. That way he hoped the kid would never go towards the school itself and find out more. Or perhaps, that it found out the truth. That some things that his uncle had told him, were not exactly true.
Or, that in this case, there was more to the statue. After all, he had deliberately not mentioned that some claimed that, at night, soft voices could be heard from the stones themselves at night. Nor that the Elders were seen at night talking to the green featureless statue, and that some could swear that the statue talked back.

No, he would never tell his nephew about that thin line between the world of the dead and the living, which seemed even thinner around that ancient black city. In the end, the kid would find out, one way or the other. But for now, the child would go to bed and dream innocent dreams about the rest of their trip to Luna.


Far away, back in Umbra, a tall woman smiled as she watched the vapours caress the featureless statue. Another interesting night of conversations lay ahead of her.