Entwined in This Infinity

12. Clouds - Lucius

You’re one of those typically heroic half-breeds everyone despises in real life and roots for in novels. Spurned by the asinine encouragements of such stories, you are making the no doubt treacherous journey up the regulated and regularly patrolled Stepping Stones to the cretinous cloud kingdom. There, you will be embraced by the loving arms of prejudice and cruelty.

If your head isn’t mounted on a spike at some point, you will have to go home and preach about all the similarities the two cultures had. Greed and bigotry, oh what a lovely common denominator! They’ll be sipping spirits in celebration well into the night, so joyful they can unite their banners under one tyrannical system of oppression.

Ah, how beautiful. You’re just so keen to get there.

You don’t have this big meaningful reason for going. You’re not trying to experience the homeland your father came from, because really, your father is a stuck-up moron, much like your mother. (They are the literal physical representation of the kingdoms united by a common love for greed and bigotry.) You’re not going for the charming company either. If so, you could have stayed home, as judgemental mites are everywhere, regardless of species.

You want to see the view. The cloud kingdom has the monopoly on beautiful sights. The best ones were used to punish criminals for their crimes or for sacrificial purposes to appease the gods in space, the so-called Sky Demon in particular, which involved throwing people thousands feet to the ground below in both cases. Though that’s to be expected. What kind of civilization worth its salt, with access to dangerous drops, hasn’t kicked a couple crooks to their deaths?

You’re fine with that. You’re numb to violence, having been the target of well-aimed stones and death threats since you were an infant. You don’t shudder when standing in the place where hundreds have lost their lives. It’s not as if ghosts exist. The land may be tainted by death, but it’s not haunted. And the view is still pretty.

“So, why’re you migrating up to the clouds?” a chipper traveler asks. A fellow half-breed, though he shows more traits of the lower kingdom. His upper canines stick out of his mouth, and in general, his teeth are sharper than yours.

“The Demon monument,” you lie, then smirk. “And the long fall.”

The half-breed frowns at the latter.