Above the Earth, Below the Sky

I

Nazeir spends his time with Toro in the snowy mountains. The border, which was normally guarded by the Brindorian army, was now left behind. The checkpoint is just a piece of junk, filled with used goods and thick dust.

Nazeir and Toro have each other, living their long and lonely journey with him.

Starting from the mountain winds that blew hard to the dangerous roads covered in snow, they both passed together. No one can help except themselves. The inquisitor begins to like his traveling companion.

Upon entering the mountainous region, Nazeir saw the remains of the former southern and northern empires. And of course, a statue of ice that hasn't melted for hundreds of years. The statue is carved into a giant iceberg. Two people holding a young woman's shoulder. The two people were a man and a woman, both of whom had magnificent crowns on their carvings. The two of them smiled and faced the rising sun with the young woman in the middle.

Toro neighed softly a few times, and his head spun a few times. Not wanting to continue on his way, made the inquisitor pause for a moment.

"Why, Toro? We just got here."

Nazeir looked at the surrounding area. There was no place to rest. He got off his horse, holding Toro on the leash. He looked around while guiding Toro. The soft sound of boots stamping on the snow could be heard, and Nazeir could feel that what he was stepping on was soft. Nazeir stomped the ground again, cracking sounds he could hear. Nazeir stopped to stomp on the place. The cracks sounded louder and spread faster, like dominoes falling apart in chains.

Nazeir ran quickly towards Toro. He hit the horse's back and Toro immediately ran without a definite direction. Nazeir saw Toro running fast by jumping in the snow. Nazeir heard a loud sound behind him, like an earthquake. The ground he stepped on crumbled in a large hole.

Nazeir could see Toro standing in the distance. He was waiting for the inquisitor there. He ran as fast as he could, beating his heart to beat faster.

"Come on! Beat fast, come on!" Nazeir said when he wanted to get his adrenaline out.

Finally, a safe ground was before his eyes. Unfortunately, the inquisitor couldn't make it at the right time. He fell into the hole with other rocks. He felt himself falling very high. In the end, he felt his body hit the ground.

He lost consciousness, his vision turned gray. Nazeir with all his remaining strength, took out a needle that was on his waist belt. He stabbed the needle in his chest, and in an instant he could feel his body returning to work. His vision returned to color, his heart was racing with adrenaline.

He saw in front of him there was a stone ruin blocking. With the force of his legs, he forced the heavy rock away from his body. Gradually, the stone was lifted. Nazeir grunts as loud as he could, using his strength to lift thousand kilos of piles of rock. He could feel his legs swelling as the muscles burst out and expanded.

The boulder finally gave the inquisitor some room to stand. Nazeir positioned his body upright with his hands touching the stone debris. He pushed the rock away and pulled himself out of the rock trap.

Nazeir fell down exhausted, and his heart ached as if he's having a stroke. He fell and lay on the rocks and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and let it all out. Repeated many times until he did not feel the pain in his heart. However, Nazeir could still feel his heart beating fast. He still felt the adrenaline.

He stood up quickly, then set his sights on the exit. The only way to his safety was at a height of forty meters above him. He was initially unsure that he had just fallen forty meters and still alive. In the end, he didn't think about it and went back to looking for a way out.

Nazeir saw the high cliff and walked to it. He saw a crack in the cliff wall. He put his hand on the crack and started climbing himself as best he could. At the start, he fell after several meters of climbing. The inquisitor repeated his experiment from the moment he could see the sun above the hole until the sun was invisible. He spent hours, and at last he made it.

His hands were bloody and red. He was exhausted, there was no warm place. This makes him look for Toro. He walked in the thick snow, wandering in search of his beloved companion.

"Toro? Toro!" he shouted.

Nazeir paced in the middle of nowhere in the snow. The horse was not there. He couldn't smell or hear it when this strong wind was always blowing. The inquisitor was searching for him. No trace, no comrade. He was stranded in these mountains alone.

"Damn, damn, damn!" Nazeir hit the earth. He finally gave in, sitting alone as the snow hung over his face. He is now without equipment, his sword in Toro's saddle, along with food and drink.

When Nazeir was silent, he accidentally saw a small hole under an enormous mountain. Even though it was snowing heavily, his eyesight could see objects silhouette that were quite far away. The inquisitor walked strenuous steps into the hole. He could feel his body weaken, tired from all this. Not afraid of the cold, Nazeir was worried that he didn't have any provisions.

He fell on his way, his body got very heavy. His arms could not be lifted. He could feel his whole body instantly shutting down. Nazeir tried to hit his heart with the earth, but it didn't work. Shortness of breath, double vision. He was confused about what had happened to him. He could only see the sky as his chest pumped up and down.

He could only wait for himself to die.

II

"Who is there!" a voice was heard.

Nazeir couldn't turn his head, he just lay there trying to open his mouth. When he tried to answer, the sound of shoes dragging on the snow sounded above his head. He only sleeps with his eyes open. He can feel someone nearby. His collar was pulled, his body was dragged. The man snorted at Nazeir, struggling with the inquisitor's weight.

"Shit. You're heavy," he said when he stopped resting. He immediately pulled back to the inquisitor when he could feel his body being pulled on the soft snow plain. Now he felt his body being pulled over the rough terrain like a rock. Nazeir who was supine, saw himself enter a place. Like a cave, but not really. He saw that the ceiling of this place was made of ice. The place is lit with lanterns hanging from the ice roof. The floor was cold as ice and felt like ice.

Then he could feel his collar being removed. He could not move. His head could feel a fire burning, but he couldn't see where it was or where the person pulling it was. The echo of tapping feet could be heard bouncing across the ice wall. Nazeir could feel his body being sitting upright. He was pulled by his armpits and propped against the ice wall.

Nazeir saw a large iron bowl that looked like a bowl, and above it was a burning bonfire. Nazeir could feel the heat of the distant bonfire on his face. An old man blocked the bonfire, facing the inquisitor in front of him. He was dressed in bear fur and trousers of cloth. It was as if he had lived in the wild for a long time.

The man had long, tousled hair and a bushy beard. His skin was already wrinkled, he smiled and gave his teeth that were disappearing and were porous. He smirked, then laughed non-stop. He was jumping up and down and making loud noises in this ice room.

"You are alive. You are alive!" he held the inquisitor's head. He ran around the bonfire excitedly and stopped in front of Nazeir. "It's been years since I met... you."

Nazeir who was exhausted, didn't know what he was thinking. He simply leaned against the wall and looked around this vast icy room. This place was only filled with a circular wall of ice. In the middle of this room, there was only that bonfire that lit up the void.

"Who are you?" his mouth moved weakly.

"Me?" he pointed to himself. He looked around at himself, holding his tousled face and hair. "I don't know," he paused with a frown on his face. "What about you!" the man's tone rose immediately.

"I am... Nazeir. Inquisitor."

"Oh!" he approached the inquisitor. "What are you investigating?"

"Demens to man."

The old man opened one of his eyes, took a closer look at Nazeir.

"You investigate people? Am I your research material?" he held back the grin that swelled in his mouth.

"No, sir. I'm not investigating anyone. This Nazeir is a mercenary," he pointed to himself and spoke in third person. "By the way, where are we?"

"Sure you know where we are," he circled around with his arms outstretched. The head was pointed at the cold cave sky, acting like a manic person. "We are above the earth! At the same time, below the sky," he ran and surfed the ice in front of Nazeir. "The place where all the world's troubles should disappear!"

The inquisitor looked at the man with his fast, stiff movements and wild speech patterns. When that person saw Nazeir who was spying on him, he immediately jumped back. He raised his trembling finger and pointed at the inquisitor with his eyes wide open.

"You.. you're reading me right!? You- you don't believe me. Yes, they think I'm a savage. But I can do better than you. Better than all of you!" the person was walking into a tunnel from where they were both entering, and a club clattered. The man came back with a wooden stick in his hand. He walked over to the inquisitor and showed him the wood. "You see this? I made it myself, the best cane in the entire world. You do something. I'll smack you with it!" He threatened while showing his teeth.

Nazeir could only close his eyes, agreeing with what he said. The old man grumbled, then walked towards the bonfire. He warmed his body as Nazeir leaned back, motionless. Time passed, the two did not speak to each other. The man sat across the room from Nazeir, watching the inquisitor remain silent.

"Do you know where you are from?" Nazeir asked.

The man didn't answer, just kept staring at the inquisitor.

"Unbelievable. You don't know who you are and where you're from," he confirmed, letting out a hot breath of air from his mouth. "Do you remember why you were here?"

The person turned his gaze away from Nazeir slowly. He looked at the shiny ice reflecting off his beard-strewn face. What he saw was a very old man, and full of hair that had never been cleaned.

"I forgot about that," he mumbled. "But I remember one thing. I was in this place. Right where the bonfire was. I was angry but I don't know why," his voice was raised. "Every day I'm mixed with that rage and..." he started quickly, fell silent and stopped. "Sadness? Confusion? Guilts?" he looked at himself for a moment, seeing what had happened to him. Then he glanced back at the inquisitor angrily. "My problem is not something for you to get involved in," he warned the inquisitor. "Why did I save you? I should be here alone," he muttered.

Nazeir took a deep breath. He was panting like someone who had run far. His hands can now move, then his legs and his whole body. The old man turned his gaze back to Nazeir after he stopped muttering. He took his cane and walked over to the inquisitor, placing his cane just below the man's neck. Nazeir raised his hand, and the man stepped back step by step as far as the wand could reach the inquisitor right at the tip.

"Now it's my turn to ask," he glared at Nazeir. "Why... why are you here?"

"I am lost."

"Lost? Be more specific?"

"I want to cross the eastern mountain border to go to the northern continent. Suddenly, I accidentally stood on ice and fell into a hole. I came out of the hole, then couldn't move. That's when I met you."

"Why do you want to go north?"

"Should I answer?"

The old man pressed his cane into the inquisitor's Adam's apple.

"I'm looking for someone."

"Specific!"

"Sorcerers. I'm looking for a witch."

"Sorcerers? You're looking for sorcerers?"

"Yes. sorcerers," Nazeir replied as he pulled the cane away from his neck. "I want to... stop them."

"What do you mean by 'stop them?'"

"They're mining something dangerous. If I'm late, the world could be in harm, the balance of two powers in danger," Nazeir stopped breathing. "They don't know what they're digging yet. If they do anything to this thing without people knowing. Maybe we'll all die."

"All of us?"

"Truly..."

The person was silent for a moment, thinking about what the inquisitor had said. Then he pressed his cane back on the inquisitor.

"I can't let you stop them."

"What?" he is shocked.

"If what you say is true. Then I want them to master that dangerous 'thing'." his eyes started to water. "I've been living in misery and pain for a long time. I've tried to kill myself, but I'm still alive."

"What do you mean!?"

"You can't see it? I want to die! The real me is long dead. I want all of this to end, this pain that embraces me. Make them stop right now!" he shouted filling the room in his loud voice.

"You are crazy."

"No. You're crazy."

Nazeir slapped the man down and immediately ran out of the cave. He shouted at the fleeing inquisitor and rushed after him. He saw the old man behind him with a cane in hand. When he came out of the cave, the sun was already bright since the snow had stopped blowing. Nazeir was running in the deep snow, and the man only saw him running from the front of the cave.

"Come back here!" the man shouted, echoing his voice in every corner of the mountain.

Before long, Nazeir disappeared, and adventured in the mountains on his feet for days.