Chapter Ten - The Temple on the Bridge

  Atalanta stared into the crystalline waters of the river that flowed alongside the cart. It was the river Auriton, she’d been informed. Which – if Bradley was to be believed – flowed all the way from the Silessian mountains in the west and, after joining various other rivers on its journey, filtered out into the ocean of the south. From the sounds of it, the river split Ulssia, Elland, and all the other local villages, away from the rest of the continent.

  “It’s a strange old river.” Bradley, started. Her ears twitched, picking up his words. Even if it was a whisper, she would have heard him, but she didn’t speak. Instead, she just watched the water flow by, with the odd stick or stone carried away by its gentle current. Of course, there was also the occasional fish. Eels that sat on the riverbed, their beady little eyes staring up into the water. The occasional bream browsed the surface, snapping up the odd patch of algae that flowed by.

  “The people that live on it don’t pray in the way you or I do.” Bradley continued. Her gaze turned to the riverbank. Herons perched on the mossy banks, their eyes focused on the water, their bodies poised to strike and gather up their chosen prey. Birdsong carried from distant trees, picked up by her new, much keener, ears. They looked weird. They felt weird. Yet Atalanta could already tell just how useful it would be for her. What was the phrase? Every cloud had a silver lining? She supposed this was hers.

  “...There aren’t many people on this river.” She eventually spoke up, lifting her head off of her palm. She figured that, if there were strange people that lived on the river, she would have seen them by now. Either in the form of a boat passing by, or a fisherman out looking for tomorrow’s lunch. Yet there was nothing. No sign of civilisation.

  “Well, that’s what makes them so strange, isn’t it? This beautiful river. All these fish. They’d never go hungry if they fed off the river alone. But they don’t even touch it. They take us traveling folk and rinse us for all we’re worth. Food and coin both, they don’t care.” He made it sound like such a strange little village. Though, surely, having already been here fairly recently he’d have no trouble passing through. She didn’t need to worry. All she did was turn her head downstream, waiting for the village to come into view.

  It didn’t take too long. As the sun reached its zenith up ahead, the village of Aurichove became clear to her eyes. The entire village was settled upon this one bridge. It was large an imposing. Supports of stone in the centre, where the bridge had initially been built, she assumed, with wooden spurs and outcrops having been built to support the growing population. The furthest they went inland was the two guard-towers that sat on either side of the riverbank. Atop them, a banner flew, carrying three colours. A stripe of sapphire, flanked by fields of emerald. There was a figure embroidered upon the banner, too, but she couldn’t quite make it out from their distance.

  By the time they got any closer, the banners were long hidden from sight, atop the battlements as they were. They stopped, just outside the towers on their side of the riverbank. Directly in front of them was a large iron grate, polished with an uneasy sheen to it, as if it had never known the battle it was meant for. The cattle all herded around them with a blow of Bradley’s whistle. Once silent, it pierced her ears and caused her to hiss. No wonder they all fell in-line if they didn’t want it assaulting their ears all the time.

  “Hold.” A guardsman said from behind the gate. With a low groan, the gate rose. Higher and higher until it was out of sight. She looked upwards and grimaced. If they were passing through and they just wished to drop it on them... That’d be a fine mess. The guardsman stepped out into the sunlight. Unlike the people of Elland, he was fully equipped. A kettle helmet, a trident, and the way his green and blue tabard rested against his body, there was likely a strong cuirass underneath him. He looked more like an equipped Ulssian militiaman than a village guard. The whole place felt larger than a village ought to be, even. It was leagues grander than Elland was, even if more tightly compact to fit on this solitary bridge.

  “Twelve cattle. Goods. One rider, one passenger.” The guard spoke, making a note of everything in their cart. He stopped when he saw Atalanta properly, however, frowning at her. His eyes were narrow, as if appraising her. Her heart hammered against her chest, her ears reflexively flattening out. What did he want from her? Why was he looking at her like that? He sighed and turned away, continuing to count and take inventory of the cargo that they had.

  “Make your business here brief, and sell not a grain of your accursed cargo. Auritia is not one to welcome land spirits.” He stepped back, planting the butt of his trident into the ground. Atalanta nodded, the jingle of the horse’s reins driving them onward into the bridge-bound village.

  If Elland was a nice warm stew, warm, inviting and comforting, then Aurichove was like a slice of undercooked bacon. Slimy, stringy, not quite going down right. Every block of houses that they passed had at least one person staring at them as they went. Children hurried back inside. Mothers glared. Fathers found one hand hovering just above their knives. It was so strange. The whole village was the picture of affluence – everyone’s clothes were new, everyone was cleanly washed, they seemed happy. Up until the minute that the cart passed by and they saw. Her. She couldn’t help but feel the piercing gaze of everyone as she passed them by, boring into the back of her head.

  “Would you care to go and collect our friend, Adda? I was planning to stay here for a day or so, but I think we’d best make our exit sooner rather than later.” Bradley spoke up, coming to a stop in what must’ve been the central square of the village. She turned her head to look either side, and the watchtowers looked to be roughly the same distance apart from each other.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Is it smart for me to go alone?” She wasn’t threatened by any of the villagers – she knew her own capabilities, exactly what she was capable of – but still. The last thing she wanted was to draw Balmung in her defence and find herself in the centre of a murder case. She just wanted to get out of here.

  “Do we have a choice? You’d be alone either way. ‘Sides, I think you’d like our new friend. Her name’s Tatiana Faean.” Tatiana. Tatiana. She nodded as she committed the name to memory. She grabbed Balmung, because there was no chance of her leaving her blade here when there were people looking for it, and hopped out of the cart. As she did, it began to trundle along again, leaving her alone in the village square.

  Luckily for her, the temple wasn’t hard to find. It was a grand building, wholly different to the one in Ulssia. It was built from stone, with wide high arches allowing light in. There were no gardens. No space separated from the rest of the village, houses rested either side of the religious building. The most notable thing about it was that it was a long building, compared to every other building in the area. It stretched from the square all the way to the eastern edge of the bridge.

  Two statues stood, flanking the door. One of them was familiar to her. A young boy in flowing temple robes. It must’ve been a young temple, as the statues still bore their paint. His light blue hair glimmered, the golden trim of his robes a stark contrast to the otherwise bare stone that made them up. In his hands, he held a most curious staff. Its focus was black, with a crown of golden light peering out from behind it. It was a symbol unlike any she’d ever seen, at least in the Ulssian temple.

  The other statue, however, was entirely new to her. She was “resting” upon a ledge built into the wall of the temple. Her lower half was that of a fish. Each individual scale was hand-carved into her tail. Painted in an array of colours that made it seem to literally shine in the light. Her tail was wrapped around the lower half of a silver trident, the top half held in her hands. She evidently didn’t care much for her modesty, her sapphire-blue hair being the only thing to cover her chest from the outside world. Though, that area of hair was quite notably more faded than the rest of the statue was. Presumably, nobody wanted to touch the paint up. Unlike the rest of the village, her eyes looked kind. Nurturing, even. If she was a betting woman, she’d guess this was the ‘Auritia’ that didn’t take kindly to... land spirits. Was she committing sacrilege just by entering this church? No. No, surely not. She stepped up to the door and knocked once, twice, three times... before grabbing ahold of the door’s handle and pushing it open.

  It was quiet inside. Too quiet. That must’ve been a feature of all temples, Atalanta thought. Despite being so close to the hustle and bustle of the streets outside, the walls of the temple held a thick, heavy, quietness in the air. The only sound that pierced it was that of running water. Unlike in Ulssia, where the centre of the floor was dedicated to a large firepit, the church instead opened up to the river below. There weren’t any statues in the centre, either. Not a collection dedicated to the ecliptic gods, nor a statue dedicated to their Auritia. Why would they need a statue, however, when they seemed to have the real thing? Sat by the hole in the floor there was a woman, surrounded by four servants. They held bowls with various fresh fruits in them, the woman picking out various berries and simply staring into the water. Her piscine tail rested alongside her, still, but glistening all the same. Luckily for Atalanta, her human-half was indeed fully clothed, wearing a lavish emerald coat. As the door closed, she looked up and tilted her head.

  “You are bold, to enter the domain of the gods, cursed as you are.” Her voice cut through the thick quiet like a knife, sharp and commanding. Atalanta knelt and bowed her head. It was times like these that she had to choose her words carefully. If this truly was a goddess incarnate, then one wrong word could spell any number of foul punishments.

  “I apologise. I would not have come through your home, if I had not needed to. I come seeking one of your followers. A lady, by the name of Tatiana.” She glanced up, and the fish-woman waved her hand. She relaxed ever so slightly. She remained kneeling, it felt like the right thing to do, but raised her head to properly look at the temple’s local deity.

  “Tatiana... Tatiana... Now where have I heard that name before?” Auritia’s cadence dropped a little, her commanding certainty dropping as she burrowed through her memories. Fortunately for her, one of her assistants came in to help her.

  “I believe she is in solitary, goddess.”

  “Solitary..? Oh, yes, I remember now. Her. It is no wonder that she has sinned, if you are the kind she communes with.” Sinned? Hadn’t she just been taken to the temple so that she could learn and study from them? She wasn’t even aware that they had solitary in these temples. Perhaps that was an Aurichove original.

  “Well. Can she be released from solitary? I’m sure you are eager for me to leave. The people outside... certainly seem to be.”

  Her words caused Auritia to fall into thought once more, a finger curling its way through her hair, a gentle hum filling the air. She turned to her attendants, as if seeking them for counsel, but their faces were stony and unforgiving.

  “I suppose you could... However, I shall not return her to the hands of a sinner. You see, there is something that I desire of you. My mighty trident. I was purifying the waters, and a great monster, evidently aware of my power and seeking to rid these waters of its holy light, well... stole it. Straight out of my hands. If you wish for Tatiana to be returned to you, then you must do some work for me. Travel downstream and enter the lair of this beast. Then, and only then, will I deem you to be innocent.”

  Atalanta blinked, her shoulders sagging ever so slightly. She couldn’t afford these detours. Who knew how long it would take for her to find the trident. If she was so mighty, then how would she have lost it in the first place? Or, better question, why couldn’t she just get it herself? How was she going and getting another divine relic? At least this would make a perfectly fine trial run for her actual quest.

  “Of course. Your will shall be done.”

  “Excellent. And if you could get it done by midnight prayer... My endless boons would be yours.”