The Legends of Kartas | Ongoing

11. STIEFFERA

The days Jimin took traveling to Stieffera felt like years.

When he left Hiemura, he didn't even consider taking the safer route along the Frozen Trail to Medeia. Instead, he crossed the River of Ash and rode directly north to Stieffera. It was a gamble risking overexerting his horse Telayna, but those words the thief—demon had said still echoed in his head.

The Demon Days are approaching.

It was impossible, but he needed to know the truth. And if anyone knew, it was Elkii, the last Oracle.

Ages had passed since Jimin had last seen her, but she had helped save thousands during the Crimson Death and the Great Southern Wars. So as far as Jimin knew, she was his only hope.

He was closing in on the Alta Mountains as the air turned brisk and light. Flurries of snow whirled with the wind, decorating the evergreen trees with a sparkling, white sheen. Clouds veiled the sun as Jimin whipped the reins of his horse, flinching as pain twinged in his elbow.

The mountain pass was ahead, diverging into two roads: a longer, safer route and a shorter one that adventurous children had paved. Everything was a blur of colors, but Jimin's eyes still caught the gloomy entrance of the short route as he passed it.

It wasn't safe for Telayna, who was slowing down from fatigue. He did take small breaks along the way and gave her enough water from his waterskin, but this was a strenuous journey. He didn't need to add more strain to it.

Telayna trotted up the trail, Jimin encouraging her until they reached the end of the mountain pass. Jimin's breath billowed in the air as he pulled Telayna to a stop, and squinting his eyes, he saw the first gate of Stieffera peeking over the tall pines.

"Come on, girl," he said, whipping the reins. "We're almost there."

When they arrived at the first gate, Jimin dismounted Telayna and led her to the entrance, but she pranced and struggled against his hold.

"Calm now," he said, petting her muzzle. "It is okay, Telayna."

But she refused to enter Stieffera no matter how much Jimin tried, so he tied her reins to the nearest tree, grabbed his waterskin, and continued by himself. It was oddly quiet as he stepped through the gates. Usually, guards stood at their posts in the towers on the mountainsides, but today, they were empty.

He was nearing the second gate when his stomach twisted and churned. By now, he should have heard the laughter of children and the chatter of people, but it was silent. Not even a single bird chirped, and above the town, there wasn't a single cloud of smoke, which was weird since—since it was nearing autumn. . .

Breath hitching, Jimin sprinted through the second gate and was about to race to the third when he was balked by the horrendous sight before him.

Stieffera was covered in ash. The log cabins were charred, dead bodies were strewn everywhere, and the great fire at the center of the town was extinguished, Stieffera's heart degenerated to impotent wood. Cinders rained from the skies like black snow, tainting Jimin's silver hair and shrouding his vision with a thick haze.

As he desperately searched for survivors, he noticed all the bodies were scorched and covered in soot as if scalded to death by fire. He glanced at two bodies hugging each other, the bigger one protecting the smaller, when he noticed something glinting in the rubble. Dusting the ash away, he picked up a shattered stone—an elemental stone.

Sacrilege. No one ever smashed an elemental stone or even tried to remove it from the body in the first place. This couldn't have been the work of humans or elementals, and this wasn't a raid by some bandit group. It was a massacre, and whoever did this knew damn well what they were doing if they could pinpoint the exact location of an elemental stone.