Alma 171 A City Of Shattered Dreams and Hopes

Eons in the North's unforgiving permafrost hell had done little to damage the buildings that had not been destroyed in the fight against the Infestation during the Great Barrier War. They still stood magnificently as the day that they had been built, if only a little bit weathered on the outside...

Reed quietly observed the Itroch's many murals, statues, and oddly-shaped buildings and said, "What purpose did this city serve back in the day? Was this a civilian city? Perhaps a noble city? There's always an underlying theme, intention, or belief behind everything the Ancient Mulians made."

Astor shrugged his shoulders helplessly as he looked around and said, "...Does it matter? See any Ancient Mulians who'll answer your question? This city might've been something of interest when it thawed out of the ice, but right now it's nothing more than a slumberingmenace to the North."

I guess I should have expected that sort of answer from him. It's not like I was born here, nor do I hold any particularly strong attachments to this land and its bitter history. It's a different story for him, though...

Thankfully, the true recipient of his question spoke up and said, "Itroch is the name of an ancient god-spirit that the Ancient Mulians used to worship back when they were nothing more than a primitive people of stone, wood, and fire.

It was a mixed-diety, who was half-man and half-woman. Itroch was a representative of the duality of the sexes and the relationships that formed between them. Think of it as the divine arbiter of all affairs that involved both a man and a woman."

"So Itroch was the god of love?" Reed said, "But what does that have to do with this city? Why name an entire city after an obsolescent god from an era when people lived in religious ignorance?" 

Lu'um sighed and said, "It's not about abandoningthe gods, dear. Of course, they eventually realized that Itroch wasn't real, but that didn't matter to them. What mattered to the Ancient Mulians was what Itroch meant to them during that period of youthful ignorance when their civilization had begun to sprout.

Though they did not worship Itroch anymore, the old god was still an important part of the cultural makeup that made their culture what it once was. The Ancient Mulians did not throw out their outdated traditions and gods because they no longer served their original purpose. 

More than often, they repurposed them and in doing so, gave them a second life to live. It was a part of a great—"

When Reed recognized that Lu'um had entered, 'professor mode,' he forcibly coughed and pinched his blabbermouth on the ass, startling her out of the hour-long explanation she would have given Reed and Astor.

He pulled her toward himself and whispered, "Save the cultural anthropology lesson for when we're alone, babe! Look at Astor, for crying out loud! He looks like he's about to go comatose any second! I understand, I really do, but now ain't the time or place for this level of discussion..."

Reed had completely forgotten not to set off any of Lu'um's lecture triggers, which obviously included anything Ancient Mulian in origin. As much as Reed enjoyed hearing her enthusiastic voice and loved to learn more in lengthy discussions with his blabbermouth, it was clearly not something for everyone.

Astor's dull, glazed eyes were proof enough of that, despite the polite smile he had plastered on his face...

It turned out that Itroch was a part of an experiment to create a brand new method of education that would revolutionize how future Ancient Mulian pupils would have been taught. They would have been instructed and cared for by the greatest scholars of the past. 

Deep beneath the city itself, a complex web of light-speed communication arrays had been built to house an information system beyond anything the universe had ever seen. The Quetzal Collective.

The brightest minds of the multiverse would have had their very souls flash-cloned, converted into a digital format, and then stored in permanent stasis underneath Itroch for use in the Quetzal Collective.

Their unique talents would have then been preserved indefinitely and allowed to teach hundreds of thousands of students on an individual basis by merit of the cutting-edge communications infrastructure that had been built to support it.

"Imagine having the brightest souls in the universe as your personal mentors! Commoner or noble, rich or poor, it would not have mattered a single bit! Every single child would have been taught by the most brilliant individuals in their fields of expertise from childhood to adulthood in a fully personalized educational program geared toward polishing their strengths and removing their weakness! 

The Quetzal Collective was designed to wring out every single drop of potential within a growing child! To, in a very literal sense, make them the very best that they could have been! Entire generations of enlightened children from all races across the cosmos would have flourished right here were it not for...!" 

Reed comforted her and said, "A city for the enlightened, huh? ...I would have enjoyed visiting this place during its heyday. I'm sure this place must have had some pretty nice libraries, right?"

Astor sighed and said, "It's a pity this place fell during the Great Barrier War, then. We could have used that information during the Unification Era. Relying on ancient artefacts has only gotten us so far in the pursuit of understanding the Ancient Mulians, their technology, and the Infestation..." 

Itroch was entirely devoid of life, for one reason or another. There was no sign of wildlife present in the city, no matter how much the group searched. Ophelia originally hoped to catch a couple of animals within the city to identify whether or not a certain animal had been the host of the plague, but the group had come up short in that regard. 

They were unable to even find flora within the city, despite their laborious efforts. It seemed that not even plants dared to cross into Itroch's borders, which secretly unnerved Ophelia. She had determined the composition of the soil and air herself the moment they stepped into the city. The place was more than habitable for life and yet, they had not run into a single living thing...

When the group reached the downtown district of Itroch, they finally stumbled onto something that made them all stop. 

There was something blocking the road or rather, littering the road in abundance to the point that it had caught everyone's attention. Large, crystalline spires had taken over the main street downtown after a certain point.

They had a mysterious appearance to them— glowing in a myriad of soft, beautiful colors as if they were exotic strobe-lights. 

The moment the group saw them, they knew that they had finally found something of interest. 

Ophelia squealed in delight and ran toward the unusual crystalline monoliths pulling Horatio along, apparently having the time of her life. Horatio shook his head in disapproval and but let it happen, nevertheless. 

Reed, Lu'um, and Astor let them be on their own. They understood that this was likely one of the few opportunities where they could be with one another naturally without fear of getting caught.

Truth be told, Astor himself had been the mastermind for the entire operation. He was one who had reached out to Velvund for assistance in getting an operation within Itroch underway after he heard that Reed and Lu'um had come back after fixing the fissure in the Silvermoon Grasslands. 

It was really a two-part act of his own making. He knew that Horatio and Ophelia had been under careful surveillance for the longest by their families. Were Astor to help them out, he would have to make a justifiable excuse to warrant them meeting each other on official business. 

In that sense, the mission in Itroch had been a stroke of brilliance. Of course, they would need a qualified lifeweaver to enter the city to recover samples on the ground. And here he had a beautiful mademoiselle with the qualification for the mission — Ophelia. 

The girl had worked her way up to a commissioned position with the North's military as a lieutenant commander in the medical corps. She had even been awarded the Tear of Sacrifice by the royal household for her outstanding efforts during her tenure in the Shadowlands as a combat medic.

And Horatio? Well, his noble family, the Restus family, had long since been bestowed the privilege of raising the only Chosen allowed to be silverlines — personal bodyguards — for the North's royal family.

Naturally, if Astor were to volunteer himself to join the mission in Itroch, his personal silverline would have come along, too... 

Everyone benefited from this ingenious arrangement. Horatio, Ophelia, and Astor, each for their own personal reasons. 

But truth be told, none of it would have been possible were it not for... Reed and Lu'um. 

Their actions at the Silvermoon Grasslands along with Velund and... Haydn's support were what had allowed him to persuade his royal father. The credit, in truth, did not lie with him at all...

Astor coughed awkwardly and interrupted the academic discussion that the two incorrigible lovebirds in front of him had gotten into again and said, "Hey, I just wanted to thank the two of you... You know, on their behalf and... my own, too." 

Reed and Lu'um eyed each other smiled and said, "...You're welcome." 

Not that they even knew what they were being thanked for. As far as they were concerned, if it made their friend feel better, they would smile and play along. 

Chapter end