[Edanian Journey] Aphrodon

Chapter 3: Fivefold Fever

The Altars of Agris held the desires, losses, convictions, and deaths Agris had witnessed over the ages.

The hunger of those who struggled to survive even after their harvest was taken. The greed of those who sought power and defiled a sacred forest. The souls of warriors denied rest after battling the black-blooded dragons. The bodies of those who harmed others in the name of misguided faith. Even the deaths left in the wake of a fallen Blackstar fragment.

The altars remembered more than the joy of harvest.

The abundance Agris had watched over had always gone hand in hand with mortal desire. Some sought grain simply to survive, while others coveted the land to claim ever more for themselves. Abundance was a blessing that nurtured life, but also fertile ground for greed.

When I made the offerings, faint voices echoed from the altars. They sounded like prayers for salvation, yet also like the resentment of those who had never found it.

When the last altar caught flame, Illezra smiled quietly.

"Well done. All five altars are burning. This much <b>fever</b> should melt even a frozen heart."

A deep rumble rolled beneath the ground, as though something vast was churning below. Agris must have felt the fever building around her.

Illezra said two emotions were likely battling within Agris: fear of the one who ruled over her, and hope that someone might have finally come to save her.

Illezra spoke coolly of exploiting that turmoil to force the door open. But after everything Agris had endured, I could not help wondering whether it was right to stir her heart by force.