Chapter 224: Labyrinth Cities

Author’s note: Hey everyone.

A bit of an unplanned Wednesday chapter. Yesterday, after I posted the chapter, something came up and I won't be able to post tomorrow on Thursday. Thankfully, it didn't take much work to finish this one.

Enjoy!

Chapter 224: Labyrinth Cities - link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/124197510

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Chapter 224: Labyrinth Cities

"Fuck my arse," Ashe swore under her breath - not for what had happened at the gate, but for the sight ahead.

Nothing like Munca City. There, narrow, twisting roads wove through mud-brick homes, built close and low. Here, a broad, straight road cut through the city, lined with grand stone houses etched with wealth. No fortress loomed at the center, no shadow stretched over the skyline to remind folk who held the leash.

'Is this really a Labyrinth City?'

But before she could seek the answer to that,there was something she had to - no, wanted to - do first. "Come on, you hack, time to get rid of you," she muttered, yanking the reins of the scalehoof mare that had carried her all the way from the south.

The right place wasn’t hard to find - not if you knew where to look. And so, before long, she was free of the menace.

"You sure about this, ma’am?" The man she had just sold her mare to for a few gold pieces shifted uneasily.

"As sure as I can be."

"Just making sure. I like my head where it is. You know..."

"Then don’t push it. Just take care of her. She's… a good scalehoof."

"Sure thing, ma'am," said the stablemaster, taking the reins soaked with her sweat from her. Ashe knew she might find herself needing a scalehoof again before long, but better to cut ties now - fewer things weighing on her mind.

Back on Main Street, Ashe took her time. The meeting at the entrance to the labyrinth their group agreed on wasn’t until sunset, and the sun still hung bright over Eleaden’s rooftops. She had time - time to see Castiana for what it truly was.

After speaking with merchants, listening to passing conversations, and watching the ebb and flow of city life, the picture became clear. This place was nothing like Munca. At least on the surface. Castiana seemed to be a city at ease, its people tangled in mundane troubles, some foolish, some foreign to her. What caught her attention most were the Terr’dens. They strolled the streets, mingled with the humans, even ran businesses. Yet for all their presence, the city’s natives didn’t complain about them exactly. No, what soured their mood was the jobs they lost to them. And, apparently, them shedding fur everywhere.

All in all, though, Castiana seemed thriving - big, bustling, and packed with refugees from the Terr'den Federation. A perfect place to bury shady dealings under the noise. Only one hitch - the guards. The few she crossed weren’t pushovers, and worse - people seemed to put a lot of trust in them. Especially their captain.

'Note to for later: dig up more on this… captain. A woman, it seems.'

For now, Ashe’s thoughts were fixed on something else. The heart of every labyrinth city. The labyrinth itself. Or rather, its entrance.

Had she been in Munca, she would be standing in line at one of the six gates to the fortress right now. Here, she stared frozen in her tracks on the threshold of a vast hexagonal square.

It stretched as wide as Munca Fortress, packed with stalls whose tented roofs jutted high above the sea of people swarming between them. Behind them, buildings stood tall, their façades richly decorated, with massive diaglyphs rising above their rooftops.

The way seeker companies and merchants flaunted their wealth - every sign, every shimmer of gold meant to draw the eye. First impressions counted, no matter what anyone said. And Ashe? Ashe was damn impressed with the Labyrinth Square.

Not just for its riches, but for the people moving through it.

'This isn't going to be easy.'

Back in Munca, boasting 235 sigils meant something. She may not have been the strongest there - Zander, the Fortress Master, and his Munca Knights saw to that - but it earned her respect. Here? Every third merchant seemed to carry as many. An exaggeration, perhaps, but not by much.

“The world sure is wide,” Ashe muttered, venom lacing her words. Out here, she was just another face in the crowd. Good enough for the work, sure. Didn’t mean she had to like it.

Even more annoying was the strength of the city guards present in the square. Theirs was comparable to the best the Munca Fortress and its stationed troops had to offer. Made sense, given the strength of the people crowding the square. Still, far from ideal.

'All right, let's see the entrance.'

Moving slow, Ashe worked her way to the center and stopped at the edge of a gaping pit. Looked like a sinkhole at a glance. She knew better.

"This sure is different."

The teleportation platform to Hero’s Sorrow back at Munca Fort sat flush with the ground floor. Or maybe it was better to say the fortress sat right on top of the labyrinth. Not the city, just the fort. A wall ringed it like a dry moat, with steps dipping down at each gate.

She hadn’t given it much thought before. Seeing it like this, though, the entrance, the labyrinth - they felt different. So did the chaos unfolding on the teleportation platform. No disciplined lines, no soldiers keeping order, no inspections for whatever treasures - or horrors - were hauled from below. Just raw, untamed chaos. And, at first glance, freedom.

"That looks promising," Ashe murmured, lips curling.

The moment her outer domain brushed the heart of the teleportation platform, she went rigid. Instinct. Etched into her bones from her experience with Hero’s Sorrow. 

In the heart of the Munca Fort, at the centre of a teleportation platform not unlike the one she was looking at right now, stood a statue of a man, sitting on his heels, surrounded by tombstones, names etched into stone. Every one marked with a date of death - except his. Haspan Kingsguard. To see him was to feel it. That grief, raw and endless. The sorrow of one who had outlived all he held dear.

The memory curled around Ashe like an icy hand. That damn statue always left her cold, heart gripped with longing for death. If you weren’t careful, it could pull you under. In fact, every year, Munca Fort counted its dead.

'Was that the case here too?' Ashe mused. 'Time to find out, I guess.'

A slow breath. A step forward. Eyes down, she descended the stairs and stopped at the platform’s heart. Only then did she dare to look.

This statue was of a woman brought to her knees in battle. Her armor bore the wounds of battle - four arrows, one broken in her chest, three lodged deep in her back. Blood trickled from the wounds, thick and glowing like molten silver. It slid down her armor, pooled at her knees, then seeped into the runes carved into the black stone, lighting the hexagonal patterns in an eerie,

The woman wasn’t dead. No mistake about that.

Helmet at her knees, sword still clutched tight, she sobbed - hard. White tears streamed down her face, glowing like the blood tracing her cheeks. Yet, unlike the fresh drops falling from Ashe’s chin, hers never touched the ground.

[Traiana] That was the name carved into the battered helmet, plain and unadorned, but it said enough. A mark left behind so she would be known, even if death claimed her. Wanted the world to remember she stepped onto the battlefield ready to die.

And yet, she had survived. The battle had ended, but she remained. So she cried, not for herself, but for those who had fallen instead. For the friends she couldn’t save.

[Fallen's Cry.]

The Lattice’s familiar tingle burrowed into Ashe’s skull - an echo, a melody that refused to fade, two words looping over and over. A memory carved deep, frozen in time, just like the woman herself.

"Fuck!" Ashe spat as the timeless moment loosened its grip. Then she drew a sleeve over her eyes, jaw tight. "If Zander saw me like this, he’d laugh his arse off."

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Author’s note: Next chapter on Friday. :)

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                                                     Glossary

                                                   Korra’s Grid

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