#[Memoirs of the Halberd || Drabble]

[alfida]

Perhaps you've seen it; a city of pure bliss with none to walk it's streets. Long has it been as abandoned as the fire in the sky, which gradually grows dimmer and dimmer. Statues of glories long past litter the streets, many crumbled from the fights fought here. The smell of burning flesh fills the air, though no bodies litter the streets. Perhaps you walk these streets, self-proclaimed 'seeker of truth' that you are. You wander its labyrinthine streets, imagine the glory and life it once commanded, no little more than a skeleton picked clean of all flesh. Constantly, you expect to find someone, something, to tell you what has happened here. Perhaps you can guess, perhaps not. Marks of battle cut deep into the otherwise masteful stonework, yet you never find a body.

Eventually, you try to gain entry into a house. It happens easily enough, and as you pass through its door that is much too large for you, you find it ransacked... but all its valuables are piled, ever so neatly, in the center of the room. A thief had second thoughts, you reason, but that doesn't feel quite so true. You pick your way through many houses, all of them the same. Ransacked, yet with the valuables placed in obvious places. Perhaps you take some, or perhaps respect for the dead stills your hand.

That's what the city feels like: a mausoleum lacking corpses.

You decide to try more grand buildings. Temples are safe havens, you know this, so perhaps survivors are huddled in one of them. Yet each temple is frustratingly similar to the houses: ransacked, yet two key differences emerge to you: the valuables are placed back in what you can assume is their proper place, and there are more signs of conflict. Pillars shattered, glass at your feet, scorch marks on the pristine material used in the temple (each one is different, you notice; perhaps the gods worshipped here had favored stones?), ashes and gashes are scattered throughout the temples and cathedrals. Yet the silent mausoleum remains tight lipped about its secrets...

Until you enter your sixth cathedral, the sixteenth building you've entered.

Here, corpses are piled by the door. Here, the presence of divinity remains. Here, you can almost hear a light noise on the wind. The building is immaculate, though clearly constantly undergoing repair. New stone work is almost clumsily placed beside the old, pillars made of rough stone supported by wood. The windows, too, are new and made by an amateur's hand. You realize that whoever has taken up residence in this temple loves it, and desires it to be flawless for a reason unknown to you.

So, you walk through the cathedral's rooms. More bodies line the walls; some in pieces, some burnt to a shriveled up corpse. You become apprehensive at the sheer destructive power this divinity (if divinity it be) can bring to bear, the cold accuracy of the cuts and stabs you notice on the bodies. The bodies stop by the stairs in the rear of the cathedral; leading upwards to the answers you seek, no doubt. The stairs reverberate each step you take. At the top of the stairs, you see the first living being you've seen since you arrived: a tall knight, clad in golden armor and a cloak fit for royalty. At her side is an impressive-looking halberd that radiates an unspoken power. Kneeling as she is, it is hard to get a handle on how large they truly are. They have their hands cupped in communion to the serene, untouched statue before her. There are a few moments before she takes notice of you, so seemingly enraptured in her prayers that she does not move until they are done.

"Another defiler?" She asks, her voice hollow as she lowers her hands, "Or perhaps the one to free me from mine doomed existence. You kneel not 'fore mine Lady of Sunlight and Hope, yet neither have you attacked a woman in prayer. I shall not tell you what to do — long enough have I dealt with those who wear curiosity like a crown. Instead I shall ask of you: what dost you seek of the Dame Alfida Wyrmlende, last resident of Upper Fyrsburg?"

[alfida]

Tag Dump / Character Based

[Spear of Lyria || Muse]

[Alfida || In Character]

[Whispers of the Aesfyr || Mun & OoC]

[Aesfyric Decree || OoC Answer]

[Missives || Inbox]

[Another Soldier || Promo]

[A New Mission || Prompt]

[I am Alfida Spear of Lyria and I have never known these feet || Crack]

[In my repose time passes slowly || Queue]

[Memoirs of the Halberd || Drabble]

[We are not the weight of our memories || Saved]

[Let There Be Fire || Wishlist]

[Let Us Begin || Starter]

[Observations || Dashboard Commentary]

[Legend of the Sunlit Halberd || Headcanons]

[Playing Hero || Dash Games]

[A Halberd Forged from Sunlight || Art]

[In Darkness I Shall Fly Anew || Spoilers]

[Lands of the Aesfyr || Worldbuilding]