In the dark veil of eternal night, five carriages moved as the sails on top of them swayed with directional winds. Only illuminated with the pale light of several lanterns, the way ahead seemingly stretched out very far.
August was sitting beside the window inside one of the carriages as it continued moving forward with rocking noises. The journey was long and the destination was nowhere near.
Actually it wasn't even a matter of when they would reach there but simply if they would reach there at all. The reason for it was the summary provided by the saint, it was about various kinds of abominations that dwelled in the depths of night.
She described some of the most dangerous creatures of this place which were known to the world but never seen, and there were still many creatures left which remained unnoticed to the day for they were able to conceal their presence. This was enough to make August feel uneasy.
Not that known creatures were less frightening of course.
However, August and the maidens weren't the only ideal meal for these creatures. By the definition, they lacked moral sentiment and normally ate other creatures, even if they belonged to the same species.
That was why horrifying screams never stopped here.
One wheel of carriage stumbled on a rock, making August snap out of his dark thoughts.
He shook his head and sobered up. Why was he feeling so sleepy? Maybe it was exhaustion from the constant journey now catching up to him.
Beside him, warrior Miles was already asleep. Some of the maidens in the carriage were asleep too.
August with a yawn turned his head towards the window. He wondered how the scenery would have looked if this place wasn't shrouded in eternal darkness.
'I guess we'll never know'
At least not until one of the stars manages to burn itself enough to replace the Sun of course. Even though wishing for a glint of light in this dark eternal hell sounded like a dream, who knows what future might hold.
There was still hope.
While hope certainly wasn't an excellent thing it also wasn't a bad thing either.
Territory of the night seemed never ending. It has already been several weeks since they entered this lightless place. August was already beginning to forget how the outside world with light looks like. Even though after living under the sun his whole life it was proving difficult for him to even imagine the sun in this dark sky.
On the bright side, he seems to have become familiar with the darkness, or maybe he already was.
The only thing he was unable to forget was his responsibility.
'I have to return back quickly'
Since it was night all the time here, it was hard to anticipate if it might be day or night outside. Which worked in their favour in a unique way, like not caring about the nightfall and being able to cover as much distance as possible.
It was about two days ago the armada had set up its last camp and it feels like they will not stop moving for another two days.
Surprisingly August got forcibly snapped out from his dozing state when the carriage abruptly came to a halt. August rubbed his eyes with a yawn and stepped out of the carriage.
He walked to the first carriage and asked the maidens in-charge about the situation. With one hand on the hilt of his sword because he could never be too cautious in a place like this.
However the answer he got from them wasn't what he had expected at all. Taking a lantern in his hand he followed behind the saint who was already some steps ahead of him.
After a few steps the saint stopped suddenly.
"What seems to be the problem?" he asked slowly, approaching her. For some reason August was getting bad vibes from this place even if there wasn't any dark creature around.
When she spoke, saint's tone seemed a bit hesitant,
"It's… its water"
Indeed, August saw clearly when he reached where the saint was standing. There seems to be water blocking their path. And it wasn't some shallow stream either.
August moved the lantern to get a better view of the surroundings. And it seemed there was a large pond of water in their way.
"It …it's not possible" the saint spoke in confusion as her hand was dipped in the ominous dark water, "how can it be. There is not supposed to be a pond or lake in the night's territory."
August pulled her hand from the water suddenly as he realised where he had seen this same exact view before. The large body of water that stretched afar, not only that the water wasn't moving but lay still in an ominous tranquil manner. He may not be completely right about the situation but the coincidence was too important to be ignored.
Maybe he knew where they were or at least what that massive body of water was.
'Tranquil ocean of conscious realm'
Indeed, August had a suspicion judging by the strange behaviour of water that this was nothing but the large ocean on which he had spent most of his time.
However, the possibility of him being wrong was still there.
"You're right I should not touch the water," the saint spoke, "seems like we have to take a roundabout route which means adding several more days into our already long journey. Come, let's decide what to do."
Saying that, the saint left the shore of the tranquil ocean but August stayed there for some time. He wondered what might be actually happening here, not to ignore the strange feeling he was getting from this place.
August thought about the possibilities while staring at the dark ominous and eerily calm water below. It would have been easier if only there was sunlight present, not to mention the lanterns weren't the most effective source of light in this darkness.
Not that he could blame the lanterns, there was something ominous about this whole place, the darkness seems to be attracted towards the lanterns and devouring the light in them slowly. But again, what else he had expected from a place like this after all.
This was a living hell.
This whole place was a creature born out of darkness in his opinion. Maybe it really was a monster, it could be that just like the creatures populating it, the real blessed lands died and these lands were born out of darkness as well.
One can never be so sure.
Meanwhile a sudden thought emerged in his mind while he stared in the depths of dark lightless water below.
It was said that if you gaze at the abyss it will gaze back at you.
August was now testing whether this statement was really true or was it just a metaphor.
The results he received were rather disappointing. No, it was more like reality. Even after staring at the ominous water for a decent amount of time, nothing looked backed at him.
'Reality is disappointing'
Which for now ruled out the suspicion that this water was hiding some kind of dangerous creature within it.
For now.
Well it made sense, there would surely have been some ripples if there was even one abomination living in its depth. Abominations weren't famous for remaining calm after all. If there were any, they would have attacked by now, he thought.
Which meant there was no other way but to take a roundabout trip to their destination which not only meant more time but more danger also on the way. However it doesn't seem like the saint was too worried about the safety of the route.
Apparently the route they were about to take now happens to be crossing through the manor of night which automatically improved the security of the route. Now the only disadvantage of the route seemed to be the extra time which was about to be added on their journey, which honestly doesn't seem like a big issue anymore.
However, as it turned out, most of the maidens were already feeling exhausted from their two-day journey due to which the saint decided to set up a camp for resting. Obviously at a considerable distance from the water. Which was all but given due to the nature of the place they were at.
The saint knew well, even if the water seemed harmless at this moment their safety however wasn't guaranteed if they stayed too close to it.
After about hours of journey away from the water they decided to set the camp. Already tired maidens started to do their individual work. Some prepared meals for all, some did the heavy work like setting up the tents, and some stood wide awake resisting their urge to sleep and guarded the place.
August was feeling quite sleepy himself but he insisted on staying awake. He simply did not feel tired enough to take a nap just yet.
Slowly his eyelids began to grow heavy but he snapped out of his sleep realizing that he was about to doze off just now. The sudden urge to sleep did not feel natural to August. Therefore he resisted it continuously.
When his sleep seemed to be catching up to him, August decided to head inside the camp for a stroll. The ominous feeling was still there. For some reason it was proving difficult for him to keep his mind at ease.
Something that he could not explain with words but he felt like there was something really wrong …something definitely was.
Therefore, he thought about confronting the saint. And he was on his way to her carriage when he realized something. There was no sound coming from anywhere. No screams anymore and more importantly no one was talking in their group which never happened before.
August grabbed a lantern and started to look inside every tent. What he saw there left him nothing short of terrified.
They were all asleep.
Every maiden, the ones who willingly decided to remain awake to keep guard and even the ones in charge of preparing food for them all. They had all fallen asleep.
The situation was very unnatural, not to mention eerily sudden. August for some reason knew he would've also fallen asleep if he hadn't strongly resisted the unnatural urge.
Even now, he was feeling exhausted. August had a suspicion who or what was behind all of this. Maybe there was another creature in the vicinity.
August shook his head shaking off the tiredness washing all over him and ran with all his might,
'Saint. I have to look for saint'
This was the only logical reason he was able to come up with at that moment. With exhaustion trying to catch up with him, he did not have the time to figure out the cause of this strange phenomena by himself.
Not to mention Saint knew way more about this place than him.
August opened the door of the saint's carriage only to find her lying there, already asleep.
"No" he shook his head again and tried to wake the saint up but she had already fallen deep into slumber.
'Dammit'
August started to think about some solution but the strange urge to sleep never gave him time to think.
With the world already blurring before his eyes he heard saint mumble in her sleep,
"Nnnn… Night …iiii its the nnnnight"
'Night?'
For some reason August remembered his earlier conversation with the saint when she was giving him a summary about this place. She said there was a way to defeat all of the night creatures and when August asked what it was. The answer came as vague as it could get.
It was the same strange sentence that she was mumbling now.
"Night, it's the night. The reason is night and that's why the solution is also night."
August did not know what it meant and he surely did not have the time to figure it out. At the moment he was happy to be awake but now the urge to sleep seemed to be finally taking over him.
At last when the strange urge became insufferable, he fell on the floor of the saint's carriage and the last thing he saw before falling prey to the unnatural slumber was the matte black blade of his sword, The Fallen Star.
Then, all that remained in the camp was only the silence.
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