The long hallway I traversed had massive floor-to-ceiling windows on one side, which gave me an uninterrupted view of Blesswood. It was a huge estate with multiple buildings. There were also all the trees, plants, and water features—which, to be honest, still kind of freaked me out. So much water everywhere. What did they do with it all? Why couldn’t they share with the villages who were desperate for more? A male dweller pushed a cart past me, and I could see his double take at a female on this side of the building, but he didn’t stop to ask me what I was doing. Luck was on my side, for once. The sols in my assigned dorms better request a dweller change. The tension would kill me otherwise.
The long hallway opened to a room that jutted out over the grounds, giving an uninterrupted view of the Sacred Sand arena—a massive, circular, open-topped stadium. I paused for a beat, taking in the grandeur of it all. I knew a lot about that building now. I knew that sols with gifts for barricades would put a roof over it in inclement weather, I knew that it could seat twenty thousand and that there was a special boxed area up high for the gods, I even knew that on occasion, Original Gods would grace the sols with their presence and watch the battles. There were always some secondary and minor gods there, of course, but the Originals were the big draw card. So yeah, I now knew more than I’d ever expected to know about the training stadium, courtesy of the over-achiever who always slept next to me. What I didn’t know was the point. How did battling—sometimes to the death—show the gods anything of real worth?
Why would the Original Gods want to recruit the strongest sols in Topia?
It always struck me as odd, that they would invite in the very beings who might be strong enough to overthrow their positions. The very beings who might end up more powerful than they were themselves. What evidence did the sols even have that they would go to Topia when they died? There was so much faith going on in that scenario, and frankly, the gods didn’t seem the type to throw all your hopes at.
Footsteps shook me from my thoughts, and I turned from the view and continued toward my dorms. There was a cart sitting outside the storage facility, and it looked to be well stocked, so I grabbed it. It would save me having to waste more time when I was already late. Eventually, the dorms came into view: a door on either side of the wide and well-lit hall.
The numbers started at 500, and started working down. Of course they did. I would expect nothing less than to be assigned the furthest possible rooms. I sucked in my sigh, tucking my chin to my chest while I pushed ahead with my cart. If there was anyone in my path, they were going down. They’d have to get their asses out of the way, or else. Luckily, I didn’t encounter anyone, and I made it to Room Number 5 without incident. I didn’t bother to pause and check the name. I didn’t care which spoiled, sacred sol resided within. Not unless they were going to write me into their will and leave me a bunch of tokens when they died so that my mother wouldn’t have to …
Best not think about sex-for-token favours so early in the sun-cycle. Save the hard thoughts for after lunch.
I knocked on the door, waiting a few moments without an answer before pushing inside. Wow, these rooms were even nicer than I had expected. Tall, rippled glass windows displayed a warped mirage of the mountainside past the arena, to the back of Blesswood. I didn’t actually know what was beyond the academy, beyond the mountain. I left the cart at the door, stepping over scattered clothing and dropped books, passing by the massive bed, with ornately carved, matching bedside tables. I passed it all without blinking, reaching the glass and walking alongside the windows, my fingers tracing the rippled surface. It followed along the entire length of the room, ending in a small, attached sitting room, separated from the bedroom by a stone archway. Shelves lined the walls, two stuffed armchairs facing the glass. Glass which wasn’t rippled anymore. I gasped, stepping into the room and pressing both hands against the window.
Beyond the mountain … was nothing.
Miles and miles of nothing. More mountains, tipping and reaching, piercing the skies with uneven peaks, some of them even appearing white-capped. There wasn’t even a discernible road weaving through the mountains. I felt my nose bump against the glass, and knew that my breath was fogging it up, just the same way the mist was fogging up the base of the mountains in the distance. I’d never seen anything like it. Anything so vast and empty all at once. It was technically nothing; no more towns, cities, settlements. But it was everything; it was beautiful and proudly formidable.