People Lived Here

Chapter One: Tanner. Present Day.

                                         

          Daniel quietly walked through the great ruins, weapons clutched in his fist just as it was during the time of the Great War. Droplets fell from the broken walls and caved-in ceiling. This was once a grand place that he thought he had held close to his heart, at least until the truth of the rotten secrets were revealed. The steady beat of the rain created a drumming pattern as it fell into the many gatherings of water already covering the ground. It was soothing, any way to calm the infuriating need to run from what he had already decided to do was comforting. Downpour is common these days, but if the skies wish to incessantly weep over battles centuries ago let them, he muses. Only the earth and himself know how much he has wept for those lost so,long ago. He is unaware if this plan shall work, but it was necessary. The bloodshed of the war was done yet the guilt of surviving it is too much for him to carry. He intended to reverse the effects of his immortal curse and perhaps reverse time itself to bring back what once was.

Once he had reached the center of what once was a grand dining hall belonging to a group of immortals who established the cult but died out, leaving him the sole survivor from that group. In this world, immortals could be killed. It was just extremely strenuous and difficult but not Daniel because he survived, no matter what he just couldn't die, even when nature itself killed off the rest of them. Daniel drew his sword from his scabbard and was digging runes into what was once sacred grounds when he heard something that froze him. The noise he had heard was the faint notes of a Vielle drifting through the air. It was a simple tune yet one he had not heard since he was a young boy, A dancing. Daniel arose from where he was kneeling on the cracked stone, leaning against one of the few walls still standing of the ruins. Lost in thought he found himself remembering the laugh of a brother, secrets whispered in the moonlight, dancing in the square, spinning in circles, and not just being alive, he remembered living.

Where was that familiar music coming from? Maybe he was being a sentimental man that day but as he stood and closed his view to the world Daniel could almost smell the sweet scents of the bakery next to his childhood home, could hear the celebration of a special occasion and merry shouts of people in the streets. People who were long gone now.

The music which had graced his ears moving farther away now. Almost as if the memories of it were desperate to escape. What once was a slow walk was a sprint as the last resort to find the source of the song and then he reached it. Just a few feet further was the border of the village, his village. Or what was left of it? He hadn't realized how close he was to his former home. The rain seemed to halt instantly as if something had been right or it was poetic in his mind that it did as he stood staring at what was the village he once knew.

The original village, Safahav, had been demolished during the Great War. It had been at least a decade or two years since the citizens and rebels were attacked by the Empire. Some say the empire was hunting down magic users or just wanting the gold and silver underneath the other lands, again speculation. All he knows is that they came and made a bloody massacre of what was a growing water-side village. Perhaps it is the day he remembers with the most clarity, watching the fires consume his home, the village people running in the streets as he is unable to help, his brothers- who he had not seen again- separated in the crowd of panicked fleeing. Daniel was still mortal back then and naive about the horrors that war would bring. Yet he shouldn't dwell on matters of the past, considering those he had grieved are long gone.

Though, Daniel pondered, looking toward the bustling town once more. It wouldn't hurt to halt his plans and join in on the celebrations he witnessed occurring below. It would be one last hurrah before he broke his curse of immortality.

As he moved closer to the town, Daniel converged with a group of people walking in. He was good at that, blending in despite him being much older than he appeared. It also helped that he could change his appearance in the blink of an eye. With his youthful face, He appeared like a normal twenty-year-old to most, but if someone was to examine him closer, they would notice his eyes, devoid of anything. Someone had once compared them to the eyes of elder men, though he cannot recall who as remembering years upon years of things were difficult for those doomed to live evermore. But there were some things he would never forget.