Zemeria: The Final Sanctuary

Chapter 3: The night

   "Whooah!" Liam exclaimed as he looked around while walking with Fia through Zemeria.

  It was dusk and as the night fell, everything started to glow. The leaves, the plants, the rivers, and lakes, they all gave off a soft tranquil colorful radiance. It was as though everything was alive and breathing. And then he turned to the sky, and he gasped in awe. The stars and moon shone warmer and clearer than he had ever seen before. And colorful bright lights twirled through the sky. It was as though the sky, the moon and the stars, were all dancing.

 He came to a halt to take it all in. "It really is something else," he said admiringly to himself.

 Fia paused for a moment. She turned her head and saw his face completely in awe while looking around, like a child who saw stars in the night sky for the first time in his life. "I'm guessing the Outside doesn't look this?"

  "Oh, definitely not. It doesn't even come close! And here I thought the forest surrounding the village was magical."

  She shook her head irritably. "Of course," she said bitterly, "the Humans corrupted all the magic out there."

  His smile died down. "What do you mean?"

  "Humans are the reason magic and magical creatures are gone from the world. Long ago, this," she gestured around her, "was how the whole world looked. Magical creatures lived everywhere. But then the plague called Humans came. They started slaughtering any and every creature that was the slightest bit different from them, calling them monsters." She gritted her teeth. "Thanks to them, magic then started slowly disappearing from the world, and magical creatures can't live where there is no magic." She sighed. "Many made sanctuaries in places they thought were far away from Humans, but nowhere that was far enough, they still reached them all eventually. Bringing destruction and death wherever they went, and so depleting the world of all its magic. As far as I know, Zemeria is the last magical sanctuary left in the world."

  "I... never knew," he said desolately.

  He was looking down, not shamefully, nor guilty, but rather irately, disappointedly, at what the world could have been, should have been.

  "I'm not surprised, though," he continued with a mournful, humorless smile.

  Fia narrowed her eyes on him.

  But his attitude changed quickly, just like when they first talked. "Oh," he said as though a realization had hit him, "wait, then how could my mother and I live there?"

 "Mages are a bit of an exception. They will be extremely weak where there is no magic, but... they'll survive. Also, I believe the previous Guazeria used to suppress the magic of any mage who choose to leave, making them almost Human, so the Outside didn't affect them so badly. Still," she added quietly and loathsomely, "if Humans find out they are mages, they are killed instantly. Ruthlessly." Her hands tightened into fists.

  "But I never felt particularly weak," he said, pretending he did not hear the last part.

  "Hmm...," she glared at him then turned around and started walking. He was too annoying.

  Nevertheless, she answered, "That's probably because your father was Human. Being born from the same corruption surrounding you probably gave you some immunity."

  Nothing is without a cost, though, she thought but did not say.

  "I see," he said as he followed.

  They walked on peacefully for a while, and as happy as he was to have moved on from the topic, there was still a question he really wanted to know the answer to, so, despite his better  judgment, he asked, "Why is Zemeria the only sanctuary left?"