Further Beyond: Ascension

Sabatsday, 1st of Septimus, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

"Abang! Abang! Wakie wakie! Wake. Up!!"

"Eh-..!! Who, what?! What's happening?! Did something happen?! Are you okay, sunshine?" Josias awoke in a panic as he was still groggy and half asleep.

He immediately grabbed the little Tiur and brought her close to him. He looked around the cabin room and saw that it was still dark. Only a sliver of morning light was shining in from the crack of the opened door. Most of Josias' other companions were still asleep, but some of the women were already out.

"Hahahahahah!! Abang's silly. I'm fine!" The little girl gave a mischievous laugh and Josias finally managed to get his bearings.

"Oh my God, my precious ball of sunshine, you shouldn't surprise your brother like that." Josias sighed out in relief as his heartbeat slowed down. He ruffled up Tiur's hair before giving her a good sniff, eliciting her laughter. "But why are you up so early, and…"

He noticed specifically that his wife wasn't there next to him and neither was little Tigor.

"Kak Serena told me to wake you up! Come on, abang! You have to see it, you have to see it! Get up already. We can see the city from here, come on. It's so big and sooo pretty. There's huge statues too!"

Tiur was so excited as she practically pulled Josias up off the carpeted bedrolls. Just how amazing could this sight be for her to be so spirited. But, from what she said, Josias could gather that they were already close to port. They'd already been sailing for days, it was about time they made it on dry land.

"Wait, if what you're seeing is so exciting, we should wake everyone up as well." Josias grinned mischievously at the little girl.

"Good idea, abang!"

Josias wasn't willing to be the only one woken up this early. If he had to suffer not sleeping in, so did the rest of his companions.

Tiur excitedly ran around the cabin that was specially given as lodgings for them. She energetically shook the bodies of her beloved older siblings. Maria was woken up easily enough. In fact, she had already sat up before Tiur had approached her. Maria immediately got to waking her husband, Johannes.

Tiur's older brother, Reverend Timotheos, on the other hand, was given a rude awakening. The spry little girl basically jumped and landed herself onto his stomach. He shot up from the bedroll gasping for air.

Sadrach and Helena weren't on their bedrolls so Josias safely assumed they were already up. He approached Mateus and kicked him up. It actually took several kicks before the big bull of a man decided to groggily open his eyes. Arta was already gone and Mateus panicked for a bit before Josias kicked him again telling him to come out.

The last ones who were still laying asleep were Hesekiel and the two Hutabaru ladies. Ruth was sprawled out, snoring and sleeping in a very unladylike manner. Josias scoffed before he gave the young woman a kick.

"Huh- What?" She got up, her eyes still half opened.

"For a girl, you sleep like a pig, pariban." Josias said. Ruth, still with her face half-covered by her messy hair, frowned and showed Josias her middle finger before laying back down to sleep. Just where in the hell did his cousin learn the audacity to do that. He shook his head before going over to Hesekiel and Safira.

Safira was snoring almost as loudly as Ruth, but she was tucked well into Hesekiel's embrace. The two were still under their covers and looked like they weren't going to wake up anytime soon.

Before Josias could even think of kicking them awake, Hesekiel had grabbed his leg out of nowhere. He opened his eyes before he glared at Josias.

"...Don't you dare." Hesekiel quickly closed back his eyes, not yet letting go of his grip.

"Alright, jeez. Go and sleep until the second coming for all I care." Hesekiel only let go of Josias' leg after it was clear Josias was going to leave them alone.

Tiur had already started walking towards the door with Bang Timo in hand. She quickly grabbed Josias' hand as well before pulling them out of the cabin. For a little girl, she too had quite the grip.

When Josias got out and saw what Tiur was obviously referencing, his jaw felt like it dropped to the floor. Whatever the little girl said to describe the sight of the city, they didn't do it justice. Josias could scarcely believe human hands made what he was seeing.

A large, seemingly endless sprawl of stone and marble-like buildings could be seen upon the horizon. And that was for the buildings outside the walls. They must have still been miles away from shore, but already the colossal monstrosities could be seen towering over the sea. Judging by how small the buildings and houses were compared to the walls, they must've been at least a hundred feet tall. That wasn't even counting the towers and keeps along the walls.

But the walls themselves weren't the most impressive sight, rather the huge cliffed headland and the grand palace perched atop it. The promontory stood tall, dwarfing even the colossal walls beside it.

The palace itself – made of pristine, glistening white marble with blue trimmings and intermixed with peach-coloured limestones. Whatever the Feldonian's used to give the roof tiles its blue hue, it splendidly reflected the sun's golden rays.

The palace itself was placed within a walled enclosure with various keeps and towers protecting it. Even from this far and early in the morning, Josias could see dozens of soldiers already marching about upon the battlements.

Something else that caught Josias' eye was a structure upon a smaller promontory below the marble palace. It was similar enough in architecture to the palace, but it had a striking difference. Its walls were lined with countless tall windows with various marble statues and sculptures in between.

There was also a beautiful dome-shaped roof. The roof's basic structure was coloured in gold but it too was mostly made of glass.

But what was even more splendid to look at were the statues carved into the cliffside of the palace. They depicted warriors clad in armour atop of griffins. The statues – that were more like reliefs – even extended off of the cliffs and into the ocean.

At its furthest edge was a mixed marble and gold statue of a warrior riding a gryphon with a crowned helmet. The statue had a serene expression as it held out a sword – seemingly made of bronze – pointing towards the sea.

Josias was so mesmerised by the spectacle of the view that it took a while for him to realise Tiur was still pulling him along. When he fully came to, he was already standing beside Serena and the others. His wife looked just as mesmerised as he did viewing the city.

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She had such a serene look to her. Her awe-filled face like a child, coupled with her long auburn hair blown by the sea breeze. Josias' moved from being enchanted by the city's view to being in rapture of his own beloved. Instinctively, Josias placed his hand around Serena's waist and brought her closer to him.

"It's beautiful… More than anything I could imagine…" Though she returned Josias' embrace, her gaze did not falter for even a second from the view of the city. "My God, I never thought I would be able to see anything like it in my life. Did human hands truly make that?"

Josias didn't answer her. He couldn't, really, as he was just as awestruck as her. He took a quick gander to his other companions' faces and each and every one of them had the same expression as him. The city was marvelous. It felt unreal. Seeing this made something dawn on Josias.

"Oh, I do love it every time I bring people here who've ne'er seen it in their lives." Captain Farnaby chuckled "The looks on yer faces all remind me of my wife when I first brought her here. She'd been born in the colonies and had never stepped foot in the capital neither. Her jaw was dropped to the floor the entire way to the port."

The old captain stood near the front of the deck, his hands behind his back. The wind breeze was blowing his greyed hair as well. His tone softened as he continued to speak. "But I don't blame her. Nor do I blame any of ye for that matter. Even being born in it, I still think she be the finest pearl in all of Archior. Maybe even Terradome. I've seen this view a thousand times over, but even I'm still well pleased by it. Gentlemen, welcome to Skysea."

How envious it was. To be born in such grandeur. But Josias was still thankful for something. Being able to experience something beautiful for the first time was still a blessing. The awestruck feeling inside of him, it wasn't bad at all.

"I couldn't believe the stories at first." Josias said his thoughts out loud "I genuinely thought the missionaries were making things up, blowing things out of proportion. The old stories of our people told of huge cities made of stone, but not a single trace of evidence or even old ruins to show for. I had thought the westerners had much the same fairytales. But seeing this… I've truly come to understand."

"Hmm? Understand what, dear?" Serena's eyes perked up as she finally glanced at him.

"How small and insignificant we are." Before Josias could answer, Timotheus had chimed in as he leaned on the ship's taffrails. He wasn't in his usual clerical clothing, only a simple shirt. "No wonder the westerners would call us savages. If this is what they grew up with. What they're used to. What settlement in all the Halaklands comes even close to this grandeur? Nothing. Our realms might as well be a sad collection of hovels."

Josias frowned at his brother's assertion. It was a derisive conclusion, to be sure, but it wasn't necessarily wrong. He couldn't refute his brother's words in any way. He put it far more bluntly than Josias would've, but it was indeed a shared sentiment. But even so.

"No settlement in the Halaklands can compare. At least not yet." Josias said firmly "We're small, yes, but we're not savages. And we sure as hell aren't hopeless, abang. If there's yet nothing of comparison within our lands to this, we'll make it."

He was firm in his statement. Seeing all of this wasn't something to despair over. It was something to be excited about. They shouldn't be dismayed, they should be glad. What lay in front of them wasn't just a city. It was an opportunity.

Josias saw his companions turning their focus on him when he said they'll make something like that city. They had bemused expressions, like he was talking crazy. Even his wife had laughed. At least at first. When Josias didn't join in laughing, they stopped. Instead they looked at him with intrigue.

"I won't lie. I feel exactly the same way you all felt seeing that. The world we left already felt so huge, but this? Nothing prepared us for this. But even still, I don't believe we have to come to such a pessimistic conclusion. We're here, aren't we? Did the Lord Ephorus not send us to this city with letters of recommendation, to enroll us within the westerners' academies? Do you not know what that means? It means we were sent here to learn.

"And by God, that's what we'll do here. We'll learn everything we can from the Bontarmata. Study their ways, their architecture, their technology, their martial arts, their style of warfare, their music, everything! All of that we will learn, all for the purpose of bringing it back with us to our homeland."

Josias didn't know where the feeling was coming from, but the more he spoke then, the more he felt a passion and a fire he had never felt before.

"I will not content myself to being ridiculed by these westerners. Nor will I allow them to deride our peoples as 'savages' just because we have yet to attain the knowledge that they have. I refuse! Our people are just as noble, hardworking, and honest as any other folk.

"In fact, I also feel a sense of joy rushing through me. Yes, Joy! Joy because I know this is a God-given opportunity afforded to us. A chance to bring our people out of darkness and into splendour! Over there lies our future. A future where one day, our lands too shall be a beacon of grandeur and greatness.

"If not by us, then by our children, or their children, or their children's children. Regardless, I feel within me a flaming will. A will to better our condition, to bring our people to the world's stage. If before we were small fish in a small pond, let us then transform ourselves into monsters of the ocean.

"...But even with all these aspirations, I can not do this alone. Alone I am weak. Brittle. Easily broken, easily swayed. A flame still needs to be tempered, else it breaks the metal forged in it. I thank God everyday that He had provided me with so faithful and so beautiful a companion."

Josias held Serena's hand and kissed the back of it in front of everyone. She blushed but Josias paid it no heed as he continued, "And I believe my wife will also continue to support me in this will. I do, Hasian? (Right, my love?)"

"... Sahat ro di saleleng ni lelengna (Forever and always)." Serena answered him firmly. God, Josias loved her so much.

"But with that, I ask once more to all of you, My dear companions, are you with me?"

Josias cast his gaze upon all his companions there. His heart was still pounding from the excitement, his breathing unsteady from the impassioned speech.

His companions fell silent, their gazes becoming somewhat unreadable. They exchanged glances with each other before smiles started appearing on their faces. Josias was worried that his heartfelt speech would just be met with teasing and laughter.

It was. His companions did indeed laugh. Josias gave a wry smile. That was the most embarrassed he felt in his life. He couldn't blame them though, as in hindsight, even he felt a bit silly. Josias quickly turned his face around. He couldn't face them like that.

He wanted to find a rock he could bury his head under. Unfortunately, being in the middle of the ocean made that quite difficult. Should he just jump overboard and swim away?

All of a sudden, he felt a touch on his shoulder. The hand felt rough and a little broad. There was no way it was his wife. When he saw who it was, he was surprised. Johannes was there, putting his arm around him while smiling.

"You are an actual idiot sometimes, Josi." Johannes shook his head.

"...How so?" Josias tried his best to recompose himself.

"What kind of insane idiot would follow a person halfway across the world, away from everything they've known their entire lives, willingly, if they did not trust that person?"

Josias widened his eyes at Johannes' question. He straightened his back and saw that all of his companions were there, looking at him with a familiar look of determination.

"There is so much I want to learn here, so many adventures to be had." Sadrach said excitedly "When we come back home, they aren't even going to believe half our stories."

"I see in my eyes hundreds, maybe even thousands of ships heading towards the great harbour." Mateus pointed towards Skysea's port and myriad of ships coming to and fro "I wonder what kind of wood they used and how much labour is needed to make ships like those. Our land is rich and has plenty of forest. An entire fleet of warships, all flying Gorian flags. Now that's a sight I'd die for."

"Books. There must be lots here." Hesekiel said as he stood stoically besides Captain Farnaby, his hands also folded behind his back. "Lots to learn here, as well."

Josias gaze finally landed on Timotheus who gave him a smile. His brother approached him before giving him a bear hug.

"...I see in you the highest of potential, anggi (little brother). You will make a splendid king and it would be my highest honour to aid you, each and every step of the way. As I always have, and always shall."

Josias couldn't hold it in anymore as the tears finally broke out of him. He truly was blessed with such devoted companions. They were his family, and there was nothing he wouldn't do for them.