The next few weeks blurred into one another, a monotonous suffering . Albert worked alongside the other children, his muscles ached. It felt as if his muscles were crying out in pain. His bloody child-like fingers had been split from handling rough and dangerous tools too large for his thin frame.
The overseers abused them verbally, and in the worst times physically.
They watched over us with cruel indifference, but I kept my head low and did my best at memorizing everything. Overseer schedules, tunnel shifts, which guards drank during the night rotation, even where my favorite nutritional paste was stored in the food storage..
I adapted as quickly as I could.
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Adaption was a skill needed for survival and Al was desperate to survive.
Senna noticed first.
The times he would disappear from the housing that the children would sleep in.
His shadow fluctuated from the dying flame in the lantern the dozing overseer was holding.
He wasn't like us.
She didn't ask for more.
Instead, she quietly tucked herself closer beside him, a stable presence in this world.
Senna had found her peace that made the days easier.
Like she had every night since they'd met in the inner mine she followed him like a lost puppy. Her presence had become constant, her loyalty quiet but unwavering.
In her eyes, he had already become important to her..
Incredibly so.
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One morning, while the camp buzzed with demands and harsh language, Albert heard it.
A voice.
No, not quite a voice.
A familiar pulse that had forsaken him for some time till now..
[Akari Fragment Proximity Detected]
[Fragment Status: Sealed – Location: Temple of the Hollowed Thorn]
Albert's body was pumped with adrenaline.
This name was quite familiar to him.
Temple of the Hollowed Thorn.
It was mentioned once by an older child, an older girl with sad sunken eyes who claimed the church was made by god to "purify" the wicked.
Everyone assumed it was just a campfire rumor meant to scare children into working till their last breath in fear of purification.
But he knew better.
This world wasn't merciful enough for its monsters to simply be fictitious.
"Where is it?" he asked Senna the moment they were alone again.
"Where is what?" Senna was startled by the urgency and strength in voice.
"The Temple of the Hollowed Thorn"
She frowned, visibly worried about his mention of the temple. "That's... it's north. Across the red forest. It is a sacred place."
"I need to go there" he said, his eyes steady.
Her hands clenched at his tattered clothes, her eyes desperate and pleading with him.. "They say the faith buries people alive there. People like you."
Al locked eyes with this poor girl, her care evident in her gaze, however he remained steadfast. "That's why I have to go."
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Three nights later, after making preparations they ran.
Al hated bringing this child with him but it was better to have her close to him then have something happen to her if she tried to follow him.
They moved under cover of storm, the dark sky flashing with bright streaks of white.
Watching the sky, Albert rummaged through his make-shift bag looking for what he made.
It was made of sulfur, charcoal, and small crystals he boiled out from bat guano.
Crushed together in this cloth was a combustible agent that would distract the guards.
He was sure Valarie would be proud of his creation.
The rain poured on him as he crawled in the shadows getting close enough to the guard tower to find a dry spot under all the wood.
Lighting the match he had stolen from one of the guards was difficult.
Persistence however, paid in full as a smoldering ember sparked the match, with it lit Al moved it to the cloth fuse lighting it as he prayed it would be enough.
Al didn't have to worry, It was more than enough.
Seconds after Al lit the fuse he sprinted into the forest.
Turning back he saw the fuse run out as the explosive blew the wooden legs of the guard outpost out from beneath it, sending splintering wood in all directions.
They ran barefoot through the brambles of the outer forest, avoiding torch patrols and scrambling guards.. Senna never complained, even when thorns tore into the bottoms of their feet.
She only looked at him, eyes bright with something terrifying and innocent at the same time.
Faith.
Not in the gods that had forsaken her but in him.
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It took them two days to reach the edge of the Red Forest, where the earth glowed faintly with a rusty sheen and the ground smelled of ancient ash.
They had ruined nature bounty in pursuit of minerals for war.
There, nestled between jagged cliff faces, stood the Temple of the Hollowed Thorn.
Time had been cruel to the temple and what was left was far from the original beauty.
The crumbled architecture was more of a ruin.
Vines of blood-colored thorns wrapped around stone pillars decrepit due to time. A single door remained intact, a massive slab of obsidian. It's large frame was filled with scriptures one I couldn't make out to save the life of me.
Senna stopped walking.
"I can't go in there," she said.
I shook my head in understanding "I understand."
"Stay here. If anything happens... run to the forest."
She bit her lip but didn't argue.
Her hand brushed against mine briefly before she stepped back looking at me as I turned to the door.
Three steps is all it took to have approached the temple's threshold.
The divine thread in his chest pulsed in rhythm with the seal.
I knew I was in the right place.
I pressed my palm against the dark slab.
[Fragment Detected – Commencing Interface…]
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For a moment, he felt like his soul was being pulled from his body.
The air thinned.
Then the world vanished.