— Months after Calirium's Fall —
News spread across Eternitus like wildfire. Many people from different sects couldn't believe what happened—Calirium falling in under a day, let alone to two inferior empires, was something unheard of. Many other empires took advantage of their fall.
And amongst all else, the Knights of these respective empires were leading crusades as if they never forgot how to destroy.
*****
During this time, the Azure Empire, Islidia, shared the spoils of war with their neighbor and its helper in Calirium's end, the Verdant Empire.
Having split the territory between themselves, new cities and towns were constructed, terraformed into their respective elemental affiliations. As more people populated these new cities, business and even trading became affluent in these towns, with a well-known cartographer setting up a shop in one of these Azurian cities.
"Seems like people really need maps for this region, huh?"
The man sat behind a display desk of not only the many maps he had drawn up but also of the many trinkets and treasures he had come across during his travels.
He spectated the crowds of people packing his store, having never seen this many people interested in merely understanding the layout of a territory. In a way, he was happy, but somewhat distraught at what it took to get to this point.
His shop was quite small-scale, nothing too fancy despite the amount of riches he had acquired in his life from all his travels. That wealth sat with his wife and children back home in the centre city of Islidia, as he found his new form of work in a wetland-esque city that featured numerous waterways bordering streets and houses.
I wonder…what caused Islidia to want to break the peace like that? The kingdoms were all so…perfectly aligned before, but now, I don't even know if I'll be able to freely travel anymore. He thought, kicking his leg up on the display case.
He watched the people chatting in and outside of his storefront, admiring the architectural majesty that Islidia had managed to craft so easily that it felt like a perfect symmetry between water and manmade creation.
Yet, he knew what existed before all of this, the lives that had been massacred and traded for this kind of expansion. A pit was forming in his stomach, one that in a way, he was somewhat playing a part in—willfully or unwittingly.
He shook his head quickly, trying to dismiss this new sense of guilt.
Whatever, it's not like I wanted this. Whatever the royal family does isn't on me.
The bell attached to the front of the Cartographer's shop sounded, pulling him from his thoughts. While at first, he didn't think much about who had entered his store, the air in the room noticeably grew hotter. People within the store felt this change too, sweat now appearing on their brows and evaporating just as quickly.
All their attention turned to the person who had just entered.
A man stumbled into the shop, draped in a black cloak that had red-stained patches in its linen. A massive sword was strapped to his back, scaring many of the citizens into running out of the store immediately.
The cartographer stood up from his seat, watching the patchily clothed man slowly stalk towards him. His hood covered his eyes, face lacerated with scars, matching his unshirted nature that showed his chiseled physique.
Who in god's name is this? I know I've been to a lot of places and made enemies, but this is the last person I would make an enemy of. The Cartographer thought, debating with himself whether he should even dare to ask them questions.
But as the black-hooded figure arrived at his front desk, dropping his heavy-handed gauntlets of hell-red upon the display case with a crack! he felt his heart jump within his chest.
"Give me the most detailed map of Eternitus that you have."
The man spoke with a gruff, dull, low, yet commanding tone, each syllable drawn out as if at any second he wasn't careful, everything would be engulfed in flames.
"Um…Sir," The Cartographer replied, voice shaky at best, "I can't really just do that…I don't have a full map of all of Eternitus; no one does. The world is just that big, you know?"
"Then I require your services differently."
"What—?"
The next thing the Cartographer knew, the man gripped his bicep so hard that it felt like his arm would be snapped in two. He dared not make a sound, not with how ruthless it seemed this man was. The black-hooded man then dragged him to the back workspace of his shop, pushing slightly to put the cartographer right in front of him.
Oh, God. He's gonna kill me, isn't he?
But to his surprise and bewilderment, the man simply slipped off his hood.
The cartographer seemed to recognize the man instantly—it had been such a long time since the two had met.
"Law–Rykard?"
*****
"So that's it, huh? All of Calirium is just no more, not a single survivor?" The cartographer asked, having taken a seat on his workbenches, "I thought some of you would have survived or something…there's no way you're the only one?"
"That doesn't matter, Edge," Rykard replied.
"Yes, it does. All of that history, how powerful you guys were, yet friendly to other people. I–I don't understand how all of this even happened. What did you guys do to piss Islidia and Verman?"
"Are you deaf or trying to annoy me?"
"No, okay, yeah, nevermind. I guess they didn't really need a reason—other than to want the world to go back to what it was."
A weird silence then hung in the air. The last thing Edge wanted to do was anger the new version of Rykard he saw before him.
He had seen and even come in contact with the man during a time when he journeyed around Eternitus, trying to map out all the lands like Rykard wanted a map for. This was probably the reason why Rykard ended up coming to his shop first out of any Cartographer.
But this new version—he had never seen it before. Using what mastery of his Deviation that he knew of to try to see Rykard's soul, only terrified the man more. He instantly regretted looking into the unknown being before him.
"Listen, Rykard, I know this is horrible. Hell, I don't know what you are now—."
"Then let it stay that way. All I need from you is to help me get to where I need to go."
"So what? So you can get yourself killed? Sure, you're powerful—maybe more powerful than I saw when you were a royal guard—but you're literally asking me to lead what would be classed as a fugitive into my home country's borders. Which you're already in."
"Then no one has to know. I need the fastest way in there, and I will also need you to show me the fastest way to get to every empire."
Edge narrowed his gaze at Rykard, his scarred face not denoting any sort of readable emotion to the man. It was worse than what he thought.
Rykard already had a plan, and all the empires were a part of.
"Rykard? I don't think that would be in your best—"
"Oh my God! It's Lady Cordelia!" a citizen shouted from outside the store.
More and more shouts came from the storefront and back, piquing the interest of Edge, but eliciting a weird reaction from Rykard. Immediately, he turned away from Edge, perplexing his acquaintance.
"Hey, where are you going?!" Edge said, rushing after Rykard.
They both exited the store, seeing the sidewalks to the waterway packed with joyous citizens, screaming the name of one woman who waved at all who came to see her.
Cordelia.
Edge knew the name and who it belonged to. But Rykard had no such clue, until seeing who was walking down the waterway, no need for a watercraft vessel or even the usage of a Deviation or power.
Rykard's eyes were instantly fixated on her armor and the sword that was attached to her waist. They were the same ones that claimed the lives of those he loved in Calirium.
A crazed look entered his eyes, Edge was helpless to do anything but watch the raging man twitch like a rabid animal wanting to break its leash.
There was nothing Edge could say to stop what would come next. Calirium had not been the end—only the beginning.