Solgaea, the City of Ruin
~Crescent's Expanse~
Above Grand Mother Earth, he sits in silent slumber.
O Holy One! He of E'er Flowing Tears!
Forgive us, we who live so idly beneath thy Tomb.
Delivered unto us from the Stars, we can but watch.
Watch, and wait in awe for the Day of thy Awakening.
~Unknown Sage, the lost Vale of Atalanta
As the world faded and shifted around them, each member of the expedition would begin to feel queasy. Those sensitive to sound or magic might begin to experience a throbbing sensation in their head as they were all thrust into a space of complete blackness, a void through which they seemed to tumble and fall far longer than the mere seconds it lasted. Then glorious light would meet their eyes once more as they were wrenched from that dark place and into an open-aired area. Most of them were likely to fall down from the force of the transport, and though the feeling of sickness would pass in a few minutes for the moment it remained strong. Anyone whose first thought is to look at the floor would become immediately startled by what they saw there, no matter how well they thought they were prepared for it.
Seemingly a floor of glass beneath their feet, a circle of clarity easily a hundred feet across that showed them everything that lay beneath. The Earth, in all its splendor, the planet they'd all been on just moments before. It was clear that the city's bottom sat perfectly on the edge of the atmosphere. The Earth they saw, though, seemed different from the one they knew. Someone with a quick eye would spot massive landmasses that appeared on no map, no satellite, and in no Seeing spell in all of history. A shocking view soon forgotten, it seemed, as the glass floor faded to opaque and changed to whitish-gold stone lined in lapis-lazuli designs. Isaac, if he were to look at the ground beneath their feet, would recognize the symbols as being similar to those found in the Welgaean ruins.
Aurelus, however, wasn't likely to recognize anything just yet. It was true that in his dimension, Solgaea had become the city of Soltego he'd grown up in. But while some of the buildings had been kept in their original form, most of the city had been repaired or replaced or changed so much that putting them next to each other would yield little to no similarities. The area they were in, for example, appeared to have been some kind of work station in times long gone. There was a machine on the opposite edge of where the glass circle had been, one that was towering and covered in dead-looking conduits and screens.
This city had been dead for a long time.
Those who look up, though, those people would find something truly wondrous. The area they were in was open-air in the truest sense of the word. The whole of the Solar System seemed to stretch out above them, and the rest of the galaxy out beyond that. To the left of where they stood, the sun could be seen clearly. There definitely had to be some kind of shield holding their air in, and it looked like that same shield protected their eyes enough from the glare that they could seen the sun for what it truly was. Not just some bright blur in the the sky, but a burning orb of fire eternal in golds and oranges and reds. The sky on the right side where they stood was seemingly empty, only stars and silence to greet them if they should look up that way. And if they were to look dead center, toward the middle of the city...
The moon. It was startlingly larger than it had been on the ground, and why not? They were quite a bit closer and had no pesky atmosphere to muddy the view. The silver sphere hung inspiringly above the middle building, almost as if that palace of gray and white and gold were pointing directly at it. Sun, Moon, and Stars to light their way in the search for a wayward friend. Or, as a pessimistic person might think; Sun, Moon, and Shadow. Whatever the case, they were here.
Solgaea, the City of Ruin
~Crescent's Expanse~
'And in my dream, I saw a city unlike anything Rome has ever known. It was glorious, gold and gray and blossoming like a sunflower amidst a sea of starlight. It stood so far above the world I doubt even the greatest of the Gods have walked its streets. Surely, I will posses that place one day.'
~Secret writings of Julius Caesar, discovered by the Blackguard
Isaac's examination of the Tear would reveal that as far as could be told, it hadn't lost any of its energy. It was possible that the crystal had many usages before it ran out, or that its charge was dissipated over a long period of time. Whatever the case actually was, for the time being the crystal remained as it had before.
As Aurelus explained that the throne room of the palace was the most likely place for them to go, the expedition members would begin to notice their position and surroundings. They weren't exactly close to the center of the city, but they were nowhere near the outer rim either. The buildings seemed to stretch on for an impossible distance, and far off mountains could be seen in places. Near as the smartest and most observant among them would be able to tell, Solgaea was practically a whole country. To think that having more people along could possibly have pushed them even further away from their destination? An exhausting thought.
Nearer by, though, it seemed they were facing in the direction of some kind of go-around with streets on the side. With the odd crystal designs set into the bright fold track that split into two around where they stood, it was almost certain that this place had been meant for vehicles. Just beyond the work station, the tracks curved back in and melded together once more. The unified road stretched off into the distance between large buildings, definitely in the direction of the central castle-like structure.
The city remained eerily silent apart from their presence.
Solgaea, the City of Ruin
'What peculiarity is this? One of our prisoners was brought in, half-mad, claiming to have set foot in the city of the Sun's Lord. Madness! Am I to believe in an Aztecan spirit, of blood and sacrifice?'
~Lazarus Hoeller, of the Thule Society
~Residential District Ol'fe~
As Alisa, Aurelus, and Nero marched their way across the empty city, the sense of sorrow would grow heavier. This city had been meant for life, hadn't it? Yet as far as they could tell, none of the buildings they'd gone to had ever been used. Alone in this dark place, the three travelers from other times and places were left mostly with their thoughts for the time being. Their conversation had been sparse up till now, thanks largely to Alisa's focus on what she intended to do when they found their quarry. Still, Aurelus and Nero might notice that the tall building they were about to walk past had a covered bridge coming from the top floor which extended to the castle. Along the way it intersected with various other bridges, and there seemed even to be the equivalent of hanging buildings. If they were to open the door to that structure, they would find what appeared to be offices of some kind.
~The Emtre Highway~
Asila's group, walking along the open road, would be the first to feel the slight tremors. Even as Rostislav mused on the origins of the city, everything around them began to whirr and a click. The tall, strangely egg-shaped streetlamps would flicker on and screens set into the sides of buildings would jump to life. Data terminals, information on parts of the city that were and weren't working, odd symbols with no meaning any of them would be able to discern. Jazz's reach into the shadows might be interrupted by her surprise as the road began to glow softly and small machines began to appear out of little hatches in the sidewalk. The little things began to scurry around, presumably to check if anything needed to be repaired.
~Subrail Core Route: Ascate Station~
No sooner had their group finished speaking than the entire station seemed to shudder. Two blazing white lines of light shot out from the far edge of the tunnel and disappeared past the train. One line was attached to the bottom of the vehicle, the other to the top. The mechanical arms holding the train released with a series of creaks and scraping sounds. It had been a long time since they'd been used. They looked like they were in perfect shape, but (for lack of a better term) it seemed almost as if they'd forgotten what they were meant to do over that long period of sleep. The train lurched forward at first, then moved more smoothly until it was sitting in the center section of the open tunnel. The smooth surface split apart as a door opened, and a a pathway covered in green carpeting of some sort extended to the platform itself.
Inside the train, if they decided to enter, everything was just starting to wake up properly. Screens and buzzers were self-testing, and in a few minutes the route information would be coming up. It would take only a small amount of study to figure out that the control room of the 'train' was in the very middle. There were paths around it for passengers who needed to get between the sides of the transport, and doors on both paths which lead into the control. Getting that open would be a little trickier, since it was starting to power up and wasn't quite sure if it needed a password or not, but Isaac would manage eventually. Inside, screens showed them images of the track ahead of them and behind, live video feed of their surroundings including the station they'd just been standing in.
Which, they might notice, was also now curiously alive. The city was no longer dead.
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