Author's Preface
Shaking his head, Cairo woke up, standing alone in a narrow alleyway. Pale white walls stretching both forward and back with a small door by his shoulder leading into a terrace.
Immediately he let the temperature of his finger raise slowly, concentrating a low ember dancing on the tips. There nearly zero light reaching this dark corner of whatever place he was in.
Leaning against one of the walls, Cairo held his head, trying to remember what lead him here. Where exactly he was. And what he was doing. Yet nothing came to him.
And it was like that for a long drawn out minute as he heard the distant sounds of childrens laughter and chatter. Chatter in a language that he couldn't quite understand.
Each second that lurched forward made him all the more nauseous. Grappling his head, he began running his fingers through his temple, trying to sooth his headache. Until he reached the right side.
Caressing over a pair of crude bandages, Cairo felt a sort of solace in the absence of his second eye. Solace followed by a painful memory: An infernal dance charading around a city and a sickly bloodied woman standing before him. While her skin burned, she continued smiling holding his small feeble hands. The hands that burned endlessly.
"Unhand me!"
A sudden childish voice broke Cairo out of his trance.
Lurking up the alleyway, which split into several branching paths each turning and narrowing into their routes, Cairo caught sight of a little girl being trudged along by two hooded figures.
The girl's dark hair was tidy, as was her sailor uniform as she tried pulling back from the hulking man covered in a black shrouded guise.
"When Naren hears of this, he'll...he'll surely kick your butts!"
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Naren sneezed, standing in the middle of the clearing of foot traffic. The pale white plaza underfoot left spotless and devoid of any trash as he found himself closer and closer to the stone-cut statue that stole his gaze.
Crowds of people walked passed, none coming close the statue, as if there was an unspoken rule against. Though, Naren couldn't quite tell how all those passerbys thought of him. Not only because of they all wore wooden masks, but also due to the strange language they all spoke.
A hushed slithering set of words that seemed to sprout out of their throats in a way Naren couldn't quite replicate.
But that was only on his mind for a second.
His eyes traced the chiseled outline of the humanesque statue. Deciding it would be far more accurate to compare it's vastness to a continent. Mountains erupting from his shoulders as rivers etched through his arms like veins.
Its head was sunken into the skull. Eight hollow holes, reflecting nothing but emptiness, acting as eyes. Its jaw split open as two arms stuck from each cheek.
Shackles adorned every part of the creature, its neck, legs, arms. As for arms, it had four more sticking out from it's abdomen. Two of them clenched together as if holding something not there anymore. The other four raised up into an open palm.
Though, the sheer outlandish shape of the statue didn't catch his attention. Nor was it the numerous arms, eyes, mouths. No, it was just a single eye. The middle left eye was slightly different from the rest. It was carved just a little different from the others, reducing the perfect statue into something more human. The middle left eye held regret.
Naren gazed at it for a second longer than he should've. The eye was strangely human and drawing. Like the feeling of meeting an old friend after a long time apart. Something nostalgic.
He took a step closer, crouching down to read the base of the statue:
HOLD UP THE SKY.
What an odd message.
"Interesting right?"
The sudden legible voice caught Naren by surprise as he stammered to his feet.
Flipping his head around, a hooded figure stood in a brown cloak enshrouding her whole figure. A bit shorter than him. At least he thought it was a girl from the voice, but he could make out nothing from the hood itself, save for a strange white wire that slightly protruded out before going deeper into the cloak.
As if everything that was caught by the shadow of the hood simply disappeared into nothing. And Naren would've believed it too if not for the slight breathing and heartbeat he could still make out.
The hooded woman pulled her hands from within the cloak, a brown jacket sleeve pulled along with it, sticking out two fingers in a V shape. Her voice spilling out of the hood with no mouth to accompany it:
"You're here again."
Naren titled his head, raising an eyebrow.
"Who're you...again?"
The woman pointed a finger at her chest, leaning over and looking up at Naren. The shadow of the hood unpenetrable.
"I am your princess...That mean's you are second to me, therefore I—"
Before the princess could finish her grand reveal, Naren was already walking away, his gaze returning to the statue once more. Not even noticing the princess trying to get his attention once more.
"Ya!"
Something about the statue was so alluring, but Naren couldn't quite put his finger on it. He felt drawn to it, soothing his headache whenever he gazed upon it's eight eyes. What a beautiful piece of architectural splendor.
Naren didn't know them, but whoever made this statue must've been one great man. Or woman. Or multiple great men and women...Or was it all women?
While going on his tangent, Naren didn't realize the crowd that was forming around him. Nor did he realize the thick rope that bound his hands along with the rest of his body.
"What the hell?!"
The princess didn't respond, instead finishing tying the last knot, completely ensaring him.
"Hey! What're you doing you crazy—"
"Don't speak to me in such a trivial tone."
The words of the princess cut deep even though they shouldn't. Something far more unpleasant than authority stolen from his grasps just like that as the shadows of the hood wisped in his direction.
For just a second, Naren felt completely at her mercy. His hairs standing on end as his whole body screamed at him to run.
However, it only lasted for a second. A second before his witts came back again.
Scrunching his face he winced back.
"Who the hell're you , ordering me?!"
The princess didn't pay attention to him, instead facing the larger crowd that had gathered. Her voice slithering out of her mouth in an ineligible language that resounded from the throat. This was then quickly followed by the cheering and applause of the crowd.
"Hey. What'd you just tell them."
The princess turned her gaze to Naren once more, her tone filled with disinterest.
"Just that...you'll be dead in a couple days."
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In a dim, forgotten alleyway, Vera wriggled her arms free of the brooding cloaked man in front of her. Immediately turning to run in any which direction gave her face.
Yet, after only two steps, she tripped over herself.
'Why...always...'
The shorter cloaked figure grabbed her hand. This one gentler as she felt the black feathers of his cloak brush against her hand. His voice sounded accentric as words bounced off a completely void hood.
"No no no — I wouldn't run, honey. We need you...You're our beautiful, brilliant—"
Suddenly, sparks of a low orange light flew out from one of the dark corridors. Embers dancing in the dark as they licked the toned forearm peering out of the shadows.
A sharp voice spoke from the flames:
"What gives? I got no clue where I am, but..."
Slowly sparks of embers flew off as the flames grew more palpable in nature, illuminating a single grey eye.
"...I sure as hell see no honey here."