Walking out of the small cozy room, I’m greeted to a flurry of activity and movement. With various Divine walking hurriedly throughout the surprisingly grandiose hallway.

  The walls and floor are much the same as the previous room, that being large, gray stone bricks, but rather than coming of as bland or utilitarian, the hallway way appears rather vibrant and colorful. This is because the litany of paintings and floating orbs of light give the place an almost whimsical feeling, though the various Divine rushing through the place kind of ruin that feeling a bit.

  Not knowing where the hell to go, I decide to just pick a direction and walk, and as I do, I note that there are literally only Divine and not a single human, Janin, or any other race in sight. It’s really rather jarring as I just barely got used to the seemingly infinite diversity of the Temple of Archania.

  I also notice the looks I’m getting from the said Divine, and I’ll be honest most of them seem either overtly hostile, or belittling.

  ‘I guess the people around here aren’t too fond of newcomers…’ I think to myself.

  Eventually while walking, I come across a large courtyard where I see a hundred or so soldiers doing various types of training. Some absentmindedly swing a sword, others sparring with wooden swords, and others still marching around the perimeter of the courtyard in in groups of ten.

  Seeing this, the desire to practice rises up within me, though I know I can’t. My body is too sore and to be honest, I’m too exhausted, mentally and physically for practice of any kind.

  By now the sky is various shades of blue and purple, indicating that night is coming soon.

  ‘Maybe tomorrow.” I sigh to myself before beginning to turn around back towards the courtyard entrance.

  Before I can even fully turn around, I run into something metal, causing me to falter backwards a few steps. Looking up I see a Divine woman in full plated armor and short, cropped hair that stops just below her chin. Her gaze is cold and suspicious as she looks me up and down.

  “Uh, sorry about that.” I say, confused as to what her deal is.

  As I begin to walking around her, her eyes narrow to icy slits as they follow me. Finally I’m around the intense woman, and just as I’m about to breathe sigh of relief, a gauntleted hand grips my shoulder tightly.

  I turn my head in confusion.

  “Can I help you?” I ask, trying to be polite.

  “Yeah, who are you? Why are you here?” She says coldly.

  “Uhm, I’m Rowan. I got picked up in the forest while fighting off a Chaos scout.” I say quickly.

  I don’t know how, but her eyes somehow narrow even further.

  “Uh huh…” She says with suspicion.

  “Yeah… so can I go now?” I ask.

  She pauses to think for a while before releasing my shoulder. I breath out a sigh of relief.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “I suppose, though you wouldn’t mind if I followed you, would you?” She says, smirking as if she had just foiled all of my plans.

  “Sure? I mean, I need someone to show me around this place anyway.”

  At this, her smirk fades into a slight frown at my lack of resistance, and she nods coldly.

  I then begin to once again make my way towards the courtyard entrance and into the large hallway.

  “So, anywhere cool to see around here? Some cool sculptures or landmarks? Really just anything interesting?” I ask in genuine curiosity.

  She remains silent, and instead just elects to keep her eyes locked onto me, watching my every move.

  “Uh, okay. How about your name at least?” I ask awkwardly.

  Once again, I receive radio silence for my effort.

  This causes me to sigh in defeat.

  ‘If she’s going to follow me like this, I wish she’d at least make some effort to, I don’t know, tell me about her culture or something. I mean seriously, she’s staring at me like I’m a damn convict. She Doesn’t even know me! What the hell are these people’s deals?!’ I ask myself as I once again receive a flurry of clearly negative gazes and looks from not only the woman following me, but the surrounding people as well.

  Unwilling to let these people get to me, instead of going silent much like I’m sure she wants me to, I decide to just talk until she gives in.

  “So what are the divine like? How many people live here? What’s this fort called? Is there a town near us? You know these lights are beautiful, what are they? What do they run on? How do they work? I’m asking because I’ve never seen anything like them. Also what are the paintings on the wall? Are you a solider? Clearly, considering that armor you have on, you’ve got to be. Are you high ranking, or are you more of a regular soldier? Hey nothing wrong with that if you are, I’m just asking because I’m curious. Also what is…” I spit out, rapidly sending question, comment and concern her way without caring what she thinks of it, all the while I continue my self-guided tour of the place.

  I can see her face grow more and more irritated with each passing second, until eventually, she pops.

  “Would you shut the hell up already!” She screams out.

  “Oh now you wanna speak?” I say slyly.

  She pinches the bridge of her nose, trying her best to calm herself down. Eventually she looks up at me and says coldly.

  “Listen HUMAN, I don’t trust you, none of us do. We put up with Dmitry because he’s a healer, but your inferior race doesn’t deserve to walk on this planet with us. None can hold a candle to the Divine, and the mere fact that Selaria is so kind to outsiders is, quite frankly, repulsive. I don’t know what your up to, but I’ll find out soon enough. Any whose not of Divine lineage are untrustworthy snakes who seek nothing but selfish gains.” She says with a large amount of spit and vitriol in her voice.

  We stare at each other in awkward silence.

  “Uhm, you done?”

  This causes her to grit her teeth in anger, but she nods nonetheless.

  “Listen lady, I don’t know what you asshole’s deal is, but if your going to keep following me like a fan, at least answer my questions about this place would ya?” I say with a small amount of mirth at her irritation.

  She thinks for a few seconds before begrudgingly nodding and replying,

  “Fine, but I’m not answering anything that can be used against me or my fellow soldiers.”

  I nod at this and finally I begin my perusal, of the place with much less awkwardness than before. As we walk, I ask her various things about their culture, their art, and what kind of people they are.

  Apparently those floating light orbs are a type of fungus called a illumination spores that can only be grown by a specific class of botanist.

  Another thing that I asked was why she, and by extension the rest of the people in this place, seem so distrustful of me.

  She then proceeds to go on a long-winded rant about the superiority of the Divine and how evil any other race in comparatively.

  I ask her how many other races live on this planet, and unsurprisingly, she says two, the Divine, and the Decadent.

  ‘So there only other experience with other races are a race that they have been at war with for decades now. It’s no surprise they hate other races, though it’s surprising the Order, with how large and powerful Selaria made it seem, hasn’t sent any other people here… I wonder why that is.’ I ask myself.

  ‘Either way, by what I’m seeing now, I shouldn’t be so quick to judge the Decadents, for all I know, they could be the good guys and the Divine the bad guys, though I’d be surprised if things were that black and white.'