Episode 127 – Valley Of Eternal Snow (1/2)

Episode 127 – Valley of Eternal Snow

Previously:

While writing a letter to her fiance, Nelaira thinks about the events that led to her current predicament She re staircase clih the reen valley filled ildlife and ruins of a village Nelaira uses her day off to explore the ruins and finds a diary hidden inside a pillar While picking herbs Luki finds a patch of land where a large quantity of ash is buried under the soil He finds it suspicious but his coree Nelaira stue that contains food that is 16 years old Nelaira gives their archaeologist the diary to translate The writer of the diary is the village chief’s son and he talks about his life It seee wars, which e if not the wars

Luki smiled eerily “Why is it that this food stash hadn’t been visited for years? What happened to the survivors? In fact, how co quarters? Where did they eat and sleep? Hoas this village destroyed in the first place?”

“Here it cohed helplessly

“What if these ruins…” Luki’s voice lowered ht?”

Before anyone could interrupt his speech, Luki pointed his finger towards the sky and declared “In fact, what if this village was destroyed…sixteen years ago? What if Zor Arite was pursued by a herd of Tainted and unwittingly brought theazed into the eyes of his comrades one by one, only to be met with stupefaction, annoyance, and skepticisht to kill the Tainted and then hurriedly burned their corpses and affected foliage on a large pyre to prevent the Ink froher ups wouldn’t want that story to spread It would tarnish Zor Arite’s illustrious name”

Nelaira didn’t even bother to point out the many flaws that could be found in Luki’s ridiculous theory Instead, she turned towards her res to the higher ups and await orders You should keep this confidential I don’t want any rumors of survivors to spread once we return”

Unsurprisingly, once Nelaira reported her findings and desire to investigate this village further, her request was denied Their superiors wanted them to proceed towards the Valley of Eternal Snow

This all but confirmed that their superiors wanted to pretend that there were never any survivors here in the first place Whether they were already aware of potential survivors back when Zor discovered this place or if the information was new to them, Nelaira couldn’t tell

Unfortunately, the decision of their superiors only served to increase the intensity of Luki’s conspiracy theories Soon enough even thehis coue with hi the journey was

The Valley of Eternal Snoasn’t actually a valley but an endless snowy plain to the north of theelse there Even wind and clouds avoided this tranquil place

It wasn’t that the Valley of Eternal Snoasn’t beautiful, on the contrary, the light refracted and reflected in strange ways creating rainbows and bathing everything in a soft glow The snow glittered under the sun like it was litterdust It was so soft and crunchy under their boots that it brought thee satisfaction with each step

Ice crystals could be seen spread around the flatlands like flowers, so translucent and beautiful that when the ten initially saw the they’ve discovered a new type of precious crystal

But after days of gazing into nothing but endless whiteness as far as the eyes could see, it was enough to row tired of it

Luckily, there were no signs of Tainted, or anything else, for thator dead, in this snoasteland,the horizon for a trace of red, hoping to find that row in this valley

Nelaira was familiar with the story of the flower for her fiancé had mentioned it to her a few years back Supposedly, it was soht back in his expedition, about a Goddess who got separated fro forever separated frorief The warmth of her love turned into icy coldness that froze the flooded valley into never-reen valley into white flatlands She bled out into the snow, her divine blood coalescing and turning into a crimson red flower that never withered

And thus, the Valley of Eternal Snow came to be A place where there was no wind, snow, or rain A place always bathing in the war snow

Such a ical, serene place was naturally a perfect spot to build a shrine, which is exactly what the people of the old did They built several shrines and te the Goddess, where they often came to meditate, pay their respects and utter their prayers They even extended their worshi+p to the flower, nae after it

Not h Supposedly it revealed itself only to those that it found worthy Which is to say that the floas probably just an urban legend – a plant that didn’t really exist

Still, convincing Luki that it was just a myth was a futile effort No one even bothered

All of their days were the same

If Nelaira didn’t keep a diary of their expedition, they would have long lost count of the days spent trying to cross the snowy plain

Initially, they intended to search every corner for ruins buried under the snow, but when confronted by the sheer size of the plans with no end in sight, it became evident that it would take decades to search the entire snowy flatland And that’s under the assu Which, as they soon realized, was a faulty assu into the valley, but now, all their preparations see day, their food reserves diminished with no way to replenish them If they didn’t reach the other end of the plains soon, they would have to decrease their food intake, and going hungry was certainly not a way to make this entire trip more bearable

What did make it more bearable, however, was the strea out every night before sleep

There was nothing particularly interesting about the diary but due to the lack of better entertainold If the ten were told that at one point in their expedition they would find the lives of villagers exciting, they would have thought it was a hilarious joke Yet right now, they couldn’t laugh at this joke at all

This mundane diary portrayed a life that one would expect froer, which while a bit less advanced, wasn’t all that different froers in the Lands under the shi+eld They used the saic spells, raised the same species of plants and animals and dined on the same food

Of course, there were minor cultural differences, such as their tendency to name their children by the na too major so far

So far…

Unfortunately, that kind of ‘far’ wasn’t nearly far enough into the future