> âThe Aeseri were not the only ones to pass through Ascension; their Engella servants also transcended the mortal plane. These two, and these two alone, reside on the Astral Plane.â - Aeseri Doctrine
Athena began to walk, taking a route at an angle from the direction the old woman had indicated for the Market so as not to appear to be ignoring her advice. But, despite her warnings, Athenaâs curiosity was too great. If this talk of Cages and Market was just the ramblings of an insane old woman she had nothing to worry about. If there was something there, she had to find out what it might be.
The alternative was to walk the Wasteland alone, avoiding everyone she might see along the way, with solitude as her only protection. But what kind of an existence was that? To remain alone out of fear, cowering beside rocks. She had never done anything out of fear before and she was not going to start now.
The Aeseri had no need of food or water so there was no problem of survival, although Athena wondered how long it would take in the Wasteland before one wished death were possible. And, despite everything she knew, and everything she had ever been told, she harboured a single hope: that there must be some way out of here. Some way to return to the mortal plane; some way to rekindle her religion, to build her followers, and to grow her powers once more. There had to be a way.
She looked up. The sky was definitely darkening. She hurried, hoping to find some kind of defensive position to wait out the night. There was sense in the old woman squatting with her back to a rock, although she looked too frail to defend herself from an attack from any direction. Well, she thought, if someone stumbles upon me then weâll see how they fare against me single-handedly.
The light was failing fast and there had been no sight of hill nor valley nor any landscape feature which might offer a better vantage point. It was almost dark before Athena found anything that could be called shelter: a large rock, jutting out from the ground at an angle and forming an overhang just a few feet high.
Ever since leaving the old woman Athena had only heard the sound of her own footsteps, crunching and slipping across the rocky ground, yet now that she stood still there was something else. Distant, barely audible, but distinct, a sound like metal scraping against metal, but at a higher pitch. Athena peered into the darkness.
The sound came again, but louder. Louder meant closer. Athena ran towards the rocky outcrop and ducked beneath it. Just because she was immortal it didnât mean she shouldnât be cautious in the face of the unknown. Her time with the Horde had taught her that. But this was the first time in a long while she had felt fear like this, fear for herself rather than fear for the future.
The sound came again, this time directly overhead, and this time it was clearer. It was not metal upon metal, it was the scream of something. She peered out from beneath the overhanging rock, glimpsing a shadow, barely made-out against the sky, fast moving, like a large bird, or a bat, but much larger.
She made herself small beneath the rock. If she couldnât see it, then hopefully it couldnât see her. She jumped at the sound of something landing just a few feet away. It let out a screech and a shudder ran through Athena. She had seen many strange things on many planets, and she had fought against many of them too, but she had never been in any real danger, not there. On the mortal plane she had the power of her followers. She was immortal and had the power to raise mountains and move oceans. Nothing could harm her.
Yet here on Aeserus, the place that had been the home planet of the Aeseri in the mortal plane before the Ascension, she had no more power than the rocks around her. It wasnât known outside of the astral plane, but she and her people, treated as gods on the mortal plane, were as powerless here as mortals were in their dimension. They were immortal, but they werenât powerful. If that fact was known outside of Aeserus then it was unlikely the Aeseri would be revered in quite the same way.
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She peered into the darkness, making out the bulky figure of the creature that had landed close by. There was just enough light remaining to make it out and, despite her initial assessment of it being some kind of bird, its form was distinctly humanoid. What she had taken for wings were torn clothes that hung over a wiry, desiccated body.
Its hooked nose was almost bird-like and long fingernails resembled talons as much as claws. It crouched, a drooping head on a long thin neck moving from side to side and peering into the gloom, and Athena pressed herself back against the outcrop. If she could see it then it could surely see her. Slowly, carefully, she picked up a rock by her right hand, ready to use it as a weapon.
Yet the creature had not fixed on her and continued to sway from side to side. It lifted its head, as if sniffing the air, and as Athena stared into its eyes she saw nothing but white. There was no iris, and no pupils. It appeared to be entirely blind.
How, then, did it know Athena was even here? Was it even her presence that had attracted it? It was too much of a coincidence that it had landed right beside the spot she had been standing on just a few moments before. It must be the noise she had made as she walked, Athena thought, the creatureâs hearing compensating for lack of sight. She held herself still, taking deep shallow breaths; a reflex that was nothing more than a relic of the Aeseriâs mortal past. Her lungs still took in and expelled air, even though her body didnât need it.
The creature reached out a long, thin, arm, strands of black cloth hanging from white skin and dragging over the dirt as a bony finger tapped the ground in a broad circle. It took a step forward, closer to Athena, and repeated the motion. Its nails rattled against hard stones and dry dirt, first left and then right, and Athena feared that with one more step it would be upon her.
It turned, and repeated the motion. It was probing the ground around the point where she had been standing when she had first heard it, searching for any trace of whatever it had sensed. Athena remained still.
The tapping stopped. The creature whirled in a half circle. It seemed as if it were staring directly at Athena, unseeing eyes boring a hole through her. Then, suddenly, with a bound, it took to the air, springing high into the sky and out of sight, its shriek piercing the air and sending a chill through Athenaâs body.
She let out a quiet sigh of relief. What was that thing? She had never heard of its kind, or creatures of any kind in the Wastelands. She had been told the Wasteland was home to fallen Aeseri and masterless Engella, and nothing more.
It was obviously not true, or at least not the whole truth. The question was: had they been lied to for thousands upon thousands of years, or was it just that nobody knew? Or had the Aeseri once known and long since been forgotten? Like so much physical science that they had no need of, the Aeseriâs store of knowledge had diminished ever since the Ascension. They had increasingly relied on their power on the mortal plane, so much so that there was no reason to pursue knowledge on the astral plane.
Whatever the case, she was certain that she did not want another encounter with one of those things. She huddled beneath the rocky outcrop and pulled her overshirt close around her. She had never felt cold before; she had never thought it possible. But, like fear, it appeared that the Wastelands were opening up a whole range of experiences, none of which, so far, had been pleasant.
The last of the light disappeared from the sky and she had yet another new experience: the terror of being alone in near complete blackness. Even the hand in front of her face was little more than a grey shape on a dark background. She curled herself tighter and tried to sleep - yet another vestige of the Aeseriâs mortal form, but this time one they still needed - but with one ear listening out for distant screeches and the other alert to any sound of rock or stone under foot very little sleep came.
Night seemed to last an eternity, and as soon as she deemed the sky to be bright enough she climbed out from beneath her shelter and set off. Whatever might be in the Market, or the Cages, or whatever else might be out there, it was certainly better than spending another night cowering beneath a rock. It had to be.