Letter to Versi (#13)
(Written after visiting the Hall of Heroes.)
Versi, my love,
My heart was filled with hope when I woke today; but, yet again, Thylea has proved just how troubled it is. Perhaps it was too much to wish for a day without problems.
The morning and afternoon were pleasant enough until Helikaon, after exploring on his own for a few hours, came to us with a revelation: it would seem slavery is live and well in Mytros (if not the rest of Thylea too.) And not just slavery but sacrifices, mortal sacrifices, too.
The war was meant to stop this. To stop the Titan’s favoured folk from trampling over those weaker, less fortunate, different… but it turns out that, 500 years later, the characters might have changed, but the story is the same. The settler races are just reconstructing the Gygan Dynasties in their own image.
The Gods claimed not to know that this was going on. I want to believe that is true: and looking in Vallus’ eyes, I do not believe she was lying… but I have to wonder if her ignorance was borne from not wanting to see it. From not wanting to know. Theo (though perhaps he has the excuse of being mortal) admitted as much for himself.
Of course, I’m not any better, am I? I too have been alive all this time, doing nothing...
But, regardless of the past, we are going to do something now. Tonight we are meeting a minotaur Helikaon saved today, Bullbug, to try and come up with a plan. In the meantime, we went to the Academy where things… well, they didn’t exactly get better.
It started off well enough: dragged into a fairly good-natured (though honestly, seemingly kind of pointless) debate with some of Theo’s old colleagues. But then we got an insight into Theo’s pain as they mocked him for his ‘fake’ family.
I cannot blame them for not believing him when their own minds are telling them that what he says cannot be true. But their cruelty in the face of his suffering is unwarranted. I... might have snapped at them a little for that, chastising these grown men like they were children. It must have been an amusing sight for all of the students gathered in that hall! Though I was less amused. And Theo… well, I can see why he hasn’t been back in such a long time.
Regardless of its inhabitants, the Academy itself is magnificent. The buildings are expertly crafted, the grounds are beautiful, and the whole place has a sort of… gravitas. I can see why Theo says that he barely left the campus in all his time here.
We soon found ourselves in the Hall of Heroes in search of Nyx, Theo’s old... colleague. (I’m not sure why I’m dancing around her relationship with him: something tells me you probably already know the truth.) But she wasn’t there. It turns out she went missing a number of days ago and, through searching her office and talking to Alke, we think we might know how: The Lady of Coins. Though exactly why she would be keeping her, if that is indeed what has happened, is anyone’s guess… but I suspect we will soon find out.
I’d wanted to see more in the Hall. I thought I might be able to find out a little more about the Dragonlords there after the difficult truths that were presented in the Necropolis. But it is hard to navigate and, with all of the troubles before us, now is not the time to go searching the past. Theo did, however, take us to see one thing: a statue of me. A ‘minor hero’, by all accounts, though I do not remember the deed the carving was made for. So who knows if it is true?
I guess you might. I suppose you can tell me when I finally get to see you again. At least that is one good thing I know I can look forward to, no matter what this city of false hopes throws at us next.
Yours eternally,
Calliope