Truth

  Many people believe that such the cure is worse than a disease. Many fear the Iron Rain more than its causes. Many think the Griffon Armada is scarier than the Dragon Guard or northern horrors. And they're right. "A Month Among the Padins by Victor the Researcher".

  As Gloomeye finished his tumble he saw the giant cws of Simurgh flying towards him, close to the ground. But Grassy got in Simurgh's way (not on purpose, just recovering). Almcatcher tried to move her alm away. She succeeded, but one of Simurgh's wings hit the ground and he whole colpsed.

  Gloomy flew into the city with the alm and his rider, but unlike them, he didn't get stuck in the gate, but kept flying. He tried to get up, but it was harder than usual. Drat ran over to help him.

  The Mourneer was not badly hurt, as she jumped easily from her riding alm. Gloomeye noticed that under her raised veil, instead of a face, there were twisted tree roots or muscles, each covered in white human skin. They went down and pretended to be necks. For some reason, Gloomeye wondered how she spoke and how such a body allowed her to control alms.

  The answer to the st question was not long in coming: from the side of the Almcatcher flew one of those, what do you even call them? A body rope? A tentacle? It bumped into Simurgh. He stirred and pulled back into the passage, then soared over the city wall.

  "Who treats their pegs like this?" Mourneer hurried over to Gloomy, who was still trying to get up.

  The gatekeeper and Splinter, leading Raven and Grassy by the head ropes, entered the broken passage.

  "It was the elf," Gloomeye said.

  "What elf?" Almcatcher stopped in front of him.

  "The one who cut up your pseudo-hounds," the guy expined.

  "You broke the pass protocol," the guard said, sounding offended. Splinter stood behind him and watched.

  "I'm a Mourneer, and I'm hunting a dangerous - him," the Mourneer pointed at Gloomeye.

  "Here..." but the guard didn't finish, for there was a cng of metal behind Gloomy. Everyone turned at the sound to see Valkali pulling her sword from her shoulder. Her face remained calm, but the hand holding the hilt was shaking violently. Her sword of many ptes began to bend like a whip. Valkali's companion stood beside him, his head in his hands, eyes and mouth open in horror.

  A nasty, sharp voice rang out:

  "I'm all for murder, of course, but your little page-boy has been talking about breaking the w in this city for so long, he's going to have a stroke."

  The face-shaped hilt of her sword said so. At the moment, it was moving with a richer expression than its owner.

  "No!" the guard cried in despair. "This is the first degree! Even zero, if you use that sword! You can't! At least go outside the city walls."

  The heroine, meanwhile, drew her flexible sword fully, and it fell around her in rings that rippled.

  "Valkali, stop!" Almcatcher put an arm around Gloomeye's shoulder and pulled him upright. The tangles of her body ropes could be felt under her clothes. "I don't know why you're not happy, but there will be no conflict in this city. We're in Truth, remember?"

  The general panic was passed on to Gloomy. He didn't understand what was going on, but he wanted it to stop.

  "Don't," he said, looking at the silent heroine.

  Valkali returned his gaze calmly, thought for a moment and swung her sword in one motion. With a disappointed sigh, it immediately retreated behind its owner (like a good, non-possessed-by-mind sword).

  The heroine went to her peg and led it out of the city. Her page hurried after her, dripping sweat on the pavement. She arrived earlier than we did. Did something stop her on the way? Or had she been searching for information for so long? She wasn't expecting us, was she?

  "Let's just do your business in city and leave, fine?" the guard said as he went to his post.

  Gloomeye turned his face to the head of the Mourneer who was still holding him, and decided this was the right moment to ask:

  "What do the Mourneers need me for?"

  "I don't know and I don't care," Almcatcher replied, looking at the guy and then, catching herself, pushing him aside.

  " I told him that Slizvert doesn't report to us," Splinter said, coming up to them.

  ***

  " Wait for Alm, then we'll trash you together," Almcatcher had been following them for half an hour. "Oh, good tavern! Too bad it doesn't sell booze, like all the other taverns around here. The city has only one way out, and you have nowhere to run from us."

  They left the pegs in the peg stables after feeding them. In the caravan, Gloomy learned that pegs only eat pnts. Now the company went around the city and examined it.

  The city was made entirely of silver metal: walls, pavements, multi-storey buildings. Huge banners depicting an alm with a bird's head and wings and a beast part swayed in the wind. It didn't seem right to Gloomy - without rocks or trees, the metal city was absolutely human, and it didn't seem alive. And the whole city should be warming up from the daylight, even though the guy only felt cool. The sky was dark blue, Dayorb was hidden behind clouds. The wind brought freshness and ruffled hair and clothes. There was no ruin like in Capital - clean people walked everywhere, there were no affairs in the streets: no bazaars, no fights, not even public quarrels. And what do the inhabitants do here? Have they hidden their affairs in their houses?

  "We are Mourneers, we are legions, you will not hide from us," Almcatcher continued without pause.

  "What's with the ws in this city?" said Gloomeye over his shoulder, trying to put a stop to the unnerving chatter.

  "Don't you know? It's all written on a huge sign at the entrance, oh right... Here the only punishment for breaking the w is death. And the city itself will attack the intruder."

  "And why degrees?"

  "The speed and pain of the attack depends on the degree. But the result is always the same - death."

  "So Valkali was bluffing, and you believed her," Gloomeye said, finding something to tease the Mourneer with.

  "Where were you before?" Almcatcher was surprised. "I thought everyone knew heroine Valkali."

  "He grew up in a hole at the edge of the world," Splinter expined kindly.

  "She is the Chainsmith of the Southern Ocean, the Ravager of the Ruins of Zazar, the Executioner of the Dirty King, the Destroyer of Holes in the Shapes of People of the West. I think she's crazy."

  "And here's another question: she has an obviously magical talking sword, and the Mourneers are after me, who only has magical patience," Gloomeye continued, building on the success of the Mourneer's distraction.

  "And an apparent magical talent for comparison," Splinter said.

  "We have a truce. Five centuries, five hundred men, have tried to take the sword from her. The score: five centuries - zero in her favour," Almcatcher caught up with everyone (it makes it easier to hold a conversation).

  A monument appears in front of them, showing a man in Aigo armour standing on a pile of people. One man in particur stood out due to his vastness and angurity. On the pedestal was the inscription "There is only one God".

  Standing next to the monument was an old man with dishevelled hair and shabby clothes. When he saw the new audience, he brightened up and shouted:

  "Repent, you who have forgotten the gods! The gods have only gone to test our faith! They will return to reward the faithful and punish the unfaithful!"

  "Heresy," said Splinter. It is not clear to whom she was addressing herself: the preacher, the monument, or all at once. Or perhaps she was just remembering her new swear word.

  "It is ironic that only in the only city where religion is preserved can this man preach about false gods. In other pces he would have been torn apart," the Mourneer commented.

  "Sinner! Bsphemer! The gods are not false gods, they are true gods!" the preacher replied in his loud way.

  "Let me guess, the Mourneers have a truce with this city as well? You choose your enemies by their strength," Gloomeye said. Almcatcher didn't understand, or pretended not to understand.

  After walking a little further, they came to a crowd blocking the passage and looking towards the centre of the street, where a strange procession was taking pce. People wearing white masks that didn't show any emotion were moving slowly, pushing ptforms on wheels with tall poles on them and people standing on them. A strange animal (also wearing a mask) moved slowly on its six legs. The crowd watched the parade in silence, some carrying children on their shoulders, while armoured men stood at equal distances.

  "Today is Equality Day? It is clear why there is almost no one on the streets - everyone is here!" Almcatcher was pleased with her discovery.

  "You know a lot about this city," Gloomy said.

  "Yes. I was born and raised here. I wanted to be a padin, to wear the Armour of Strength, but they won't take women there. They say it's unfair for a weak woman to take the pce of a man. But I wasn't too offended," but the tone of her voice betrayed her words.

  They walked back to the tavern the failed padin had recommended. On the way, Drat suddenly turned into an alleyway that was cleaner than the main street of Capital. From there he returned, carrying in his paws a magerot-like mass the colour of the starry sky.

  "Oh, I didn't know there were cats here, or whatever they're called now?" Almcatcher crouched down in front of the rat and began stroking the cat. The cat lifted a column from its mass, ending in two protruding triangles, and a sound was heard, like the sound of trees being cut with a special tool - a saw. The creature flowed from Drat's paws to the ground and from there into the hands of the Mourneer. Most of all, it looked like water coming to life.

  "I've never seen creatures like that before," Gloomeye admitted.

  Drat pointed at himself, then followed something moving on the pavement, pointed at the cat, and caught the air in his cws.

  "Catching little rats? And you like it?" the guy doubted his transtion.

  The rat started to eat, then missed the food, watched something swirl on the floor again, and finally rubbed his stomach.

  "You don't like small rats because they are competitors for food?" Gloomeye suggested.

  Drat nodded and began to pet the cat as well. Gloomeye joined them, and then Splinter, pretending to stroke the cat ironically, as if to say, "Look what you look like from the outside". The sound of sawing trees grew louder across the street.

  Entering the tavern, Almcatcher (still holding the cat) sat down at a table and began to stuff her face with the bread that was on each table. Her face ropes worked just as well with food as a normal mouth (maybe even better, as the crunching sounds and flying crumbs filled the space around her).

  "I don't have any money, by the way, so pay for me," she said, crunching her bread cheerfully.

  Gloomy had just noticed that her braids weren't hair, but twisted ropes that made up her body, only they were very thin and small.

  He also began to explore the tavern. It was small, with a narrow passage between leather-covered tables and chairs lined up against the walls. The innkeeper was rubbing the long bar with a towel (they all definitely enjoy doing it). There was no one else in the room except the company that had come in.

  "We could have run away now, and you wouldn't have paid for the food, and then the city would have killed you," Gloomy said, sitting down opposite the Mourneer.

  "Na-ah. First, I could pay with work. People of Truth meet each other halfway in frivolous crimes. Secondly, this bread is free. It wouldn't be fair to starve in a settlement full of people," Almcatcher expined, dropping crumbs.

  "Okay. But I could, although I definitely won't, pretend to attack an alm, for example, this cat. You love alms, don't you? You were worried about the pseudo-hounds, and you chose to colpse rather than hurt my peg. You would have tried to stop me. And then the city would have punished you," Gloomy said.

  Almcatcher stopped eating or moving, just pressed the cat closer to her body. After much thought, she said:

  "That pn won't work now that you've revealed it."

  "Yes. I liked you precisely because of the love of alms. I want you to like me too, by honestly admitting that I could have easily stopped you, but didn't. Perhaps you will stop following us in a nice way? How do you like this offer?"

  Almcatcher looked at the cat that had spread out in her hands:

  "I think it will take me a while to find good hands for Droplet. And to make sure they're really good. It might take a day, maybe three. But then I must do my duty, for I have sacrificed so much for it. And I can't stop Alm, or rather I can, my power works on him, but I won't. He's my friend.

  They ordered food: soup made from long, thin pnts in a deep bread bowl with small pieces of dried bread. Almcatcher told them how to get to the city library, and Gloomeye, Splinter and Drat said goodbye to her and went there.

  "Let's hurry. Who knows, maybe she'll find good hands very quickly," Gloomy said.

  "Yes, the less time we spend in this city, the less likely it is that something not ours will stick to my hands. How am I going to expin to the city ter that it wasn't me?" Splinter supported him.

  "Squeak!" Drat squeaked, gging behind because of his short legs.

  The library turned out to be a long, unadorned building (like all the others in this city), except for the sign "Library" above the entrance.

  A Northman emerged from it (not Worldedge's Northman, just a man from the North, with blue skin and white hair (and the name Northman can cause confusion if you know more than one northman)). He wore close fitting white armour with a fur colr and also had a predatory, clean-shaven face and aggressively bright blue eyes. What was he doing in the library with that expression on his face? Perhaps he was looking for a book called "How to Kill. Just Kill".

  Inside, immediately from the entrance, there were endless shelves of books. Gloomy was impressed. And every thing is like Storyteller, just a thing. I could pass the time better grazing Meat and Giggle if we had a library. And if I could read.

  Then Gloomeye remembered that he could read. Regent must have given him this gift not only to sign the contract, but also to look for clues in such books. But (as it turned out) there are a lot of books in the world.

  A dry old woman and a young man were sitting in armchairs by the window. The woman stopped looking at the wall, slowly turned her head and looked at Gloomeye, but not at his face, but somewhere in his chest.

  "Meat," she said, and, losing interest, went back to the wall, where there seemed to be something very interesting to her. Or behind the wall.

  "Yes, yes, dinner is coming soon, mother," the man said, putting down his book and touching her hand. There was a square on his clothes with the words 'Head Librarian Justin'. "Can I help you?"

  "I need some information about... er... there is such a thing..." Gloomeye suddenly realised that he had forgotten the name of the thing he was supposed to fix. "Did Valkali come to you? We need what she needs."

  "Yes, she did a few days ago," the librarian said. "She needed some information about the Maginarium. This is a free library, and I have no right to forbid you to seek knowledge, but I want to warn you. Warning in the basement. Once you have it, talk to me again.” The man picked up the book again. On the hard cover was the inscription 'The Great Chronicle of the World'.

  "That doesn't sound very sinister," Splinter said.

  The basement was accessed by an ordinary spiral staircase and a heavy but unlocked door. Inside was a small room with a single bed in the centre. Windows circled the room, showing the sky through long wells. The light of day came through one of them.

  Approaching the bed, the guy was horrified to see a skeleton on it, covered with a rag up to the colrbone. The skeleton was covered in cracks, and some of the bones were chipped and shattered. It turned its head towards them, green lights lit up in its eye sockets. Gloomeye and Splinter jumped in fear, and Drat ran from the room.

  "Don't be so afraid of me, you can see the state I'm in, even though I'm a goddess," the skeleton said. Her jaw did not move, and it obviously could not. "Or what do you call us now - a false god."

  "The g-g-god of d-death?" Gloomy began to stammer.

  Laughter erupted from the skeleton, and the gleam in her eyes turned into crescents, the corners pointing towards the rest of her bones:

  "Death is dead. I am Life."

  "We were told there was a warning here. Is that you? Will the librarian do the same to us if we continue to search for the Maginarium?" Splinter recovered more quickly than Gloomeye.

  "Justin is better than that. He sent you to me to tell you how the world was destroyed. I destroyed it."

  "Oh, you. I can see why you're still under house arrest," Splinter wagged her finger at the goddess. It was unclear whether the girl had become fearless, disbelieved, or valued a joke above possible consequences.

  "With the Maginarium? Can you tell us why the Break occurred?" Gloomy pulled himself together, though he doubted it was the right time.

  "Listen carefully," Life said gravely. The lights in her eye sockets became dots again, and Gloomy heard Storyteller's tone. "Our world is one of many. We found that out when we learned how to open doors to other worlds. A very long time ago. The era of prosperity began. We immediately received knowledge and technology that others had spent millennia to acquire. Otherworlders also came to us, for example, dragons are people from another world of giants, mad winds and animals with six limbs.

  We should have stopped when the Old Empire tried to take us over, but they were still affected by magic, their world is very interesting, and we are greedy. Then something changed for them: outsiders from there began to nullify and prevent magic, magbeasts began to colpse alive under their eyes, flying cities fell. Then we realised something important about the nature of magic. Just in time, we thought, as we continued to open new doors, one of which led to a world of the Unthinkable Ones. They tried to destroy us."

  Gloomeye suddenly remembered his familiar arch that tested whether a person was thinking or not. The atmosphere in the room began to grow eerie, and Life began to feel like a mad Storyteller.

  "We would have lost if we hadn't created the Maginarium. It gave us the answer: the living gods. The people's faith gave us incredible strength. Ask Justin's mother, if you like, why the moon is scattered across the sky.

  The process of creating a god was called Covering, we covered ourselves with the guises of personifications of processes and things. We defeated the Unthinkable Ones, but continued to create gods to fight each other. When all the good and neutral gods were created, it was the turn of the evil ones, and then the real perversions began. What do you think of the god of Pointless Animal Torture? Syphilis? Desecration Of Memory? Infanticide?" the lights of Life's eye sockets turned red. "I have shown the people their gods. That they are not gods, but humans, in the worst sense of the word. In all the skies of the world. The power that powered magic and gods, human emotions and faith, break the world. Why do you think everything has changed, except for the people?"

  When Gloomeye and Splinter came out of the basement, Justin was already pouring cups of dark liquid. He pulled out three more chairs, one of which was occupied by Drat. He sat down and drank from his cup, his little finger sticking out.

  "I see you're scared of Life," Justin said, pushing Gloomy into a chair and handing him a drink. There were a few specks of dust at the bottom of the cup, but the fvour was pleasant. It was the same drink that Decimus, Capital's scribe, gave him.

  "You don't have to believe her implicitly about breaking the world," the librarian said, setting Splinter down and sitting in his own chair. His mother sat up straight and stared at nothing, as if detached from the reality. It didn't seem appropriate to ask her about the moon.

  "We don't know exactly what happened. Humans are cynical and cruel. Do you think they would be disappointed in the same gods?" Justin looked out the window at Titus and took a sip from his cup. "Don't you think it's strange that a giant has been sitting there for fifteen winters? Ah, well, you didn't experience the world before the Break, for you all changes are just normality. I was there with Life, in the Tower of Myths, during the Break," the librarian continued, still looking at the giant." And we are not the only ones. We still underestimate outsiders. Well, or the world broke in a completely different pce, who knows?"

  It seemed to Gloomy that Justin was thinking out loud rather than talking to them, jumping from topic to topic too quickly. The drink was delicious (but not better than bittersweet water).

  "You still want to fix the Maginarium? For Regent's sake? You can be useful to your family without serving numbered demons," Justin said, looking at Gloomeye.

  "If we break the world again, what's the big deal? Maybe it'll return to your normal," Splinter said, sipping her drink loudly.

  "I've already made up my mind," the guy said.

  "The Maginarium came from the Flying Academy. They also dismantled it there and scattered its parts all over the Central Patch. This is the Fallen Academy now, but the records should remain," Justin said resignedly.

  Gloomeye looked at Drat, who nodded to confirm that he knew the way.

  "Be careful, it was a centre for the study of magic and now it's a source of magerot," the librarian warned.

  Unnecessary author's note: Gloomeye was supposed to carry out his pn with Almcatcher, but he just snatched the story out of my hands. Do written characters really have such power over the will of writers? What have you done, Gloomy, this city's Chekhov gun won't fire! Well, maybe some other time.

  I wanted to fit the arrival in the city and the new knowledge about the history of the world into one chapter. Now it is called "Truth" in honour of the city and these revetions. Or just in honour of the city? This is not the first time this has happened. For example, in the chapter "Serious Talk”, there are two serious talks.