Zoya walked through the battlefields of the Colonial War with her silver, flame-enchanted hatchet. They were silent and motionless. The soldiers fighting and dying there were frozen in time. There were Legionnaires of Astros crouching behind their barricades with their Sevorgradian assault rifles, standing against the soldiers of Skaola with their rifles and khopesh swords. Guardians also took part in the war. Squads in leather jackets, black, gray, and blue, all either twelve or ten. Guardian Knights in silver Defender armor, mostly with two-handed weapons for aura blades, Rangers in their leather armor, all armed with lighter two-handed weapons such as staffs and spears or single-handed weapons in both of their hands, and Sorcerers and Sorceresses in their long robes with single-handed weapons in their dominant hands, while their weaker hands were blasting fire, ice, or lightning. Zoya had seen this before. The Fold of Artemisa had shown the Huntress visions of wars that have passed through history while she slept. Most of what she would see, though, was all the same. War, destruction, and death. First, there was War of Light and Dark, then the Dragon War, then the First Great War, then the Second Great War. After that was the War of the Dragon Riders that occurred in Aetherian eight decades ago, then the Battle of Light and Darkness in the Middle World, and then the war between humans and epsilon in Torriban. Finally, the Colonial War. Zoya knew that it was only a matter of time before she would see this one. A giant fortress with soldiers of every colony fighting Skaola's soldiers, and dying at their hands. Zoya walked through the fortress. There were Guardians, Skaolans, and colonials. The colonial soldiers wore a different outfit than that of the countries that founded their colonies, though. They were all wearing a green outfit with a leather jacket that had a strange symbol of an autumn tree with hardly any leaves sewn into the back. They were all armed with both rifles and blades. Zoya walked through the portcullis of the fortress. There, the battle was more intense. More colonial soldiers, and more Skaolans fought and died on fields of dead grass, with dust choking the sky around them. Through the dust, though, Zoya's blind eyes widened at what she saw. She saw herself fighting in this battle. The Huntress was sinking her hatchet into the top of a Skaolan soldier's head, and a familiar face was standing beside her, swinging a gladius at another one. A Guardian in silver Defender armor with dark hair that she met barely a month ago.
"Alexius?" Zoya gasped. This wasn't a war that had happened in the past. It was one that would happen in the future. From the devastation Zoya had seen in this vision, it would be even worse than any other war that had struck the colonies. Suddenly, a familiar voice called to her from across the battlefield. She remembered the voice from when she was only a toddler, but she couldn't believe who it was. It was Artemisa, the Goddess of Huntresses.
"Do you see what I see, Huntress?" the goddess asked.
"Yes," Zoya answered. "But why is Alexius here?"
"The Guardians are warriors of light," Artemisa reminded. "And servants of justice. King Aziz, the King who calls himself a god, seeks to destroy justice. I shall tell you more, if you would come and see me in person."
"Where?" asked Zoya.
"There is an ancient sanctuary not far from where you are," Artemisa answered. "Follow the sunrise, and you will find it." Zoya woke up. The sun was just rising over the jungles, and the Huntress followed it. She drew her hatchet and cut through vines and branches that stood in her way. The dense undergrowth took hours to cut through, and the Huntress was wary of whatever she might run into. Something could come at her from the trees, or even from right under her feet. Zoya spent several hours hiking through the dense undergrowth until the next step she took sank her foot into the ground. Her entire foot was stuck in thick mud. She tried to pull it out by pushing up with her other foot, but she didn't move. That was because her other foot was also stuck in the mud.
"Shit," Zoya cursed. She armed her hand with fire, then blasted it between her feet, hoping to burn the mud away. Instead, the mud hardened, and Zoya was more stuck than before. The Huntress rolled her eyes under her blindfold, then drew her hatchet. She hacked at the ground around her, cracking the hardened mud. Suddenly, though, she sank a little more. Zoya's heart began to race. She then began wildly swinging her ax at the ground below her. She sank even further, but remained stuck where she was. She then swung even faster and harder, and she sank further. The hardened mud around her feet then crumbled, but the Huntress fell through the ground right as she started to jump out. She screamed as she fell through a dark space, crashing on the ground with a loud "thud".
"Ow," Zoya groaned, as she pulled herself to her feet. She drew her hatchet and armed fire in her hand so she could see. She was in an ancient corridor with stone bricks for walls, and only darkness down either way. Zoya could only see because of the fire in her hand. The corridor slowly became brighter as she began to walk through it, but she felt a gust of wind blow past her, and a tiny, white light flash above her head. It was a wisp, a guide sent by the gods to show people the correct way to where they were meant to go. This flew past Zoya. She was going the wrong way, so she followed the wisp. It led her down the tunnel, to the top of a staircase leading into a huge chamber that only had darkness in it. The bottom, the walls, and the ceiling, couldn't be seen, even looking through the Fold of Artemisa. The endless darkness brought unnerve to Zoya, and she brightened the little flame in her hand. There was still only darkness.
"Artemisa?" the Huntress called, her voice echoing throughout the chamber. No one answered. The wisp led Zoya to a small, arched doorway at the bottom of the stairs that led to a smaller chamber. It was held by wide, stone pillars, and supported by arches on the ceiling that stretched to both side walls, and lit by ancient hanging braziers. In the center was a large altar with two dozen statues around it. Some were of men, and some were of women. They weren't men and women, though. They were the gods. Zoya stopped at the statue of a woman that wore a cloak over a leather cuirass, with a hood over her head, and armed with a longbow and a dozen arrows in her hand. That was the style of shooting bow and arrows before there were quivers. Ancient archers would hold their bows and arrows in the same hand, allowing them to rapidly loose arrow after arrow, uninterrupted. The statue was of Artemisa.
"You know, the ancient sculptors who built this place almost had that exactly right," the goddess herself suddenly said, approaching from the same doorway that Zoya had just came from. The Huntress remembered exactly what she looked like from seeing her all those years ago. Like her statue, she wore a leather cuirass, and over it, a long cloak. Like most of the other gods and goddesses, she had long, silver hair, and she stood at twice Zoya's height.
"You have grown since the last time I saw you, Zoya," the goddess complemented. "I believe you were only six."
"That's right," said Zoya, then she pointed to the band over her eyes and added, "When you gave me this." Zoya remembered that night. She didn't remember what she saw, because she couldn't see, until she suddenly could. The Huntress remembered the view from the mountains of Esturg that surrounded her. Nothing brought Zoya more joy than being able to see the world around her for herself. Artemisa was the Goddess of Huntresses, though, and like every god, she gave Zoya the Fold of Artemisa for a reason. Since then, Zoya always thought it was so she could become a Huntress. Since the goddess had never visited her again, she assumed it was the right path for her to take.
"You know, my brothers and sisters have frowned upon me for giving that to you," Artemisa admitted. "But I did bequeath my signature artifact to a little blind girl who became separated from her parents, and lost her way in the mountains. Seeing what you have become, I realize that there was no one else I would rather have given it to. I gave it to you because you needed my help, Zoya, and now, someone else needs your help."
"Alexius," Zoya guessed.
"Correct," said Artemisa. "You know that Huntsmen and Huntresses are meant to fight creatures of darkness, and defend the innocent against monsters. Alexius and his family are under threat from servants of darkness. The Shadows of the Abyss. You must find them before the Shadows do."
"What about what you showed me?" Zoya wondered. "The war. It's never happened before, has it?"
"Not yet," the goddess answered. "But it will. Both you and Alexius will have a vital role to play against the Empire of Skaola."
YOU ARE READING
Blade(Part 1): Dawn
AdventureA boy who becomes an assassin, a draconian princess whose country is at war, and three Guardians trying to rediscover their paths. They struggle to live in their colonies on the continent of Orathan, where oppression, corruption, and murderous inten...
