and the open road

They didn't speak any more of the cave, once they were outside the torch was broken and dropped in the entrance. Alex wasn't sure if the next person would know this was a quick marking method the dwarves used to make unsafe tunnels when they had to abandon one in a hurry. It didn't automatically mean goblins, unsafe collapses and other subterranean dangers were also reasons that dwarves would abandon a tunnel if they had time later the dwarves would return and give a set of warning marks into both sides of the tunnel entrance to clarify, but Alex didn't want to spend the time carving "Danger Goblins" into the wall with a dagger when they had already spent enough daylight underground.

The goblins probably weren't the reason why the quarry had been abandoned, but they were certainly going to be a problem building a settlement right here at the base of the Giages mountains. Scaling the mountainside and looking for a water source that could be diverted down the cliffs was an option, but that would be at least as problematic and possibly worse if there was a nesting dragon in the vicinity.

But water and the quarry were a problem for a different day; today's problem was to make as much of the remaining daylight as possible.

It had taken almost two days walking directly west from the city of Tut' Tel to reach the cross roads of the road that ran north and south skirting along the fringe of the the Giages mountain ranges. This road was a major trade road and was built in a time long forgotten, but still used to this day. Made from stones that defied erosion and encompassing all the main centers of civilization these roads were the primary means of trade, although here in the sands of the desert as in the soft soil of the swamps the roads tended to be more intermittent, sinking into the earth in places.

In the far north the roads extended into the untamed wild lands, and the same could be said going into the south. The extension of these roads was evidence that Myrioth was a small part of the world cut off, but the Orcs of the steeps, the lizard-men of the swamps, the frigid ice of the north, and the sheer dryness of the deserts made exploration not only difficult, but also highly unprofitable.

From somewhere beyond the maps of Myrioth the dark lord Xendromus came here to challenge a god, failed, and never left again. But that knowledge of hers was very closely guarded and wasn't even something she spent time wondering about, so Alex was as clueless to the wild beyond as anyone else he knew.

The road south along the edge of the desert had another, bigger reason for remaining unexplored. Built into the Giages cliffs was the fortress city of Jenida. Here the church of chaos resided, and the avatar of the chaos god himself resided. The city was protected by the blood sphere, a globe of red mist that extended over 10km in all directions from the city was a barrier that no mortal creature would enter uninvited.

From the crossroads and quarry where Alex, Demon and Raven were standing it looked like a small red pearl on the horizon. But up close is looked like a red fog wall. The legends tell that Ryu-Shi made this barrier from the blood of a great army that came to crush the tiny cult that had taken over the fortress city. Demon didn't know that story when she first came to this land convinced that she had the power and followers to challenge the god and avatar, but she hadn't even made it inside the blood sphere before she was overcome and imprisoned.

Alex on the other hand had heard the story many times, usually treating the avatar as some sort of boogeyman who would kidnap the souls of naughty and violent children to add them to the army of souls that haunted the blood sphere. Even if the legend was untrue, or that the avatar stole the souls of child bullies, it was a confirmed fact that for centuries there was an army of blood wraiths wandering the blood sphere.

The knowledge to trap and enslave a soul that could later be used as a blood wraith was a closely guarded secret known only to the priests of the church of chaos. These priests also carried a personal talisman on their person that would prevent the wraiths of the sphere from coming within a dozen or so paces of their person. Which meant that only a chaos priest was able to lead a non-initiated follower inside the barrier to the safety of the city.

Beyond the walls of Janida Alex had never seen a church building dedicated to the chaos god, not even once had he encountered an alter either. Chaos priests and devout were a great rarity in the world despite the obvious reality of the god himself.

Perhaps it was the undeniable reality of the god on earth that made service to him as unappealing as were the many taboos the other gods placed on his worship. The servants of Pyrotheo spent the daytime when the Summer Tyrant was assumed to be watching in strict and public obedience, but at night when it was believed that he wasn't watching those very same priests indulged in any and all perversions available to them. For the followers of a god who liked to show up unannounced such duplicitous devotion would be inadvisable, and probably downright fatal.

There were a few exceptions. Devotees to the goddess of violent deaths, like Raven, were apparently also able to serve the god of chaos. Similarly the Elven Goddess of the Moon and Hunt didn't list the followers of chaos as targets of inquisition, but she did forbid her followers from invoking his name.

However, there was never a god or goddess who called their followers to challenge the god of chaos directly. Because there was no way that another army of mortals would become anything beyond more souls trapped in eternal slavery to the blood sphere. Demon had even said in passing on occasion that getting a divine favor from Shershi, the god of choas might have saved him from being possessed because for as wild and crazy as the chaos god might be, he was very active in protecting the few followers he had. She only fought him once, and yet he was the only being in the world she feared.

This close to the blood sphere the mountains were pretty clear of bandits and dragons too. So there was mostly just a quick march to the ever looming ball of ominous red hue. But being this close to their destination didn't make the spirits of Alex or Demon any less Anxious about their impending meeting.