Shades of Grey

CHATEAU DE MAUVAIS— FEBRUARY 1844

“Close your eyes and be very still,” Verrilius instructed, pointing to a spot on the cold marble floor. I obeyed, continuing to ignore my growing sense of uncertainty. He then extended his right hand and I felt every part of my body freeze as his magical energy enveloped me.

“There will be no doubts or remonstrations on your part. You agreed to my task and therefore you agree to my rules, understand?”

I gave a confirming grunt, for I could not nod or speak.

I felt a wind suddenly whip around me, rushing faster and louder until I had to close my eyes to shield them from the intense cold. Over the howling wind I heard Verrilius chanting a transportation spell, his voice beginning to swell and echo into one mindless stream of inaudible syllables. The wind blew faster and his voice grew louder until I thought my mind would collapse from sensory overload.

Just when I thought it might become too much, everything stopped as suddenly as if someone had turned off a great switch. The restrictions on my limbs were lifted and I fell to my knees, coughing in exhaustion as I examined my new surroundings.

I knelt on the side of a muddy road in the middle of a torrential rainstorm. The road was surrounded by thick forest near a colourless metropolis made of tall, twisted metal and circular shapes I had never before seen used in architecture, even in the dizzying construction of Tournesol.

I stumbled forward and slowly made my way through the rain towards the city, clutching the edges of the thin robe that still clung to my frail body and trying to ignore the cephalic pounding in my ears.

There were no guards at the city gates — there was merely a great, solitary wrought iron doorway. I leaned against the bars, still weary from the spell, and jumped in surprise as the gate swung open suddenly, further revealing the blandness of the black and white city before me.

I continued forward amidst the oddly empty uniformly constructed city when I noticed the tallest and most out-of-place building standing erect in the centre of the geometric sea of structures. I stopped, transfixed by its magnitude amidst the smaller more uniform rows of buildings in the city below.

The trapezoidal building stood at least twice as tall as the rest of the city skyline. Made of red bricks and white marble, it was a boulder of colourful normalcy amidst the beige chaos of the river Phlegethon around it. In the centre of a courtyard surrounding the building there stood a tall statue of a man whom I presumed to be the founder of whatever the trapezoid edifice must have been, erected with a strong authoritative and almost dictatorial hand. I wrapped my robe around myself as I felt chills of apprehension cover me.

I turned around a corner into a cul-de-sac and saw a small girl race through a growing puddle of rain across the street. She quickly retrieved a small toy and began to race back towards one of several identical houses in the cul-de-sac. She raced up the steps and I watched as the front door of the house swung open just wide enough to let her through before slamming shut once more.

Confused, I emerged from my corner and slowly approached the house, eager to ask someone what was going on. How could a city this large be so empty?

I had not taken three steps towards the house before a great iron hand clamped itself around my neck and slammed me into a wall.

My captor appeared to be a giant man made of iron with two luminescent black eyes. It stood at least seven foot tall and was flanked on either side by five identical iron men, all clad in identical gray coats with a large F on the front. I took them to be the reigning law enforcement of the city.

“Identify,” one of them ordered in a monotonous almost mechanical voice. It was strange to hear over the sound of rain pattering on their iron bodies.

“Grey Echo.”

There was a pause and a strange whirring sound as all of them looked slightly to the right of me, as though they were all trying to remember if they had heard my name. Then, all in unison, they snapped back and leaned over me.

“You are not a citizen of Murias. What are you doing here?

I frowned. Murias…Murias…where the devil was Murias?

“Where?” I queried when I could not come up with the answer.

A hush fell over the men.

“You have never heard of Murias?”

“Never,” I choked through the grip of the iron man.

“Never heard of the mighty Formorii, the reigning protectors of this great city?”

“No.”

There was a beat of shocked silence.

“Who are you?” asked a Formorii agent.

“I am a Creature Hunter who has been sent to save this city.”

There was another beat before they all laughed uproariously. I felt a swift kick in my side before I fell from his grip into a huge puddle. The Formorii agents surrounded me.

“You have never heard of us and yet you dare to come here and say we need saving? You dare to challenge our ways?! You wait, Hunter, wait and learn all there is to know about Murias!”