Wandering aimlessly through the dark swamp while trying to avoid sinkholes and any creature that may attempt to eat me was difficult enough. As I wandered the burn on my hand itched and ached but I dared not to set it in the water in hopes of bringing any form of relief. By morning I was thankful to be alive but the lack of sleep was getting to me. My sense of balance was affected and I couldn’t focus. The only thing keeping me awake was the fear that I might be killed, eaten, or drowned.

“I hate this. No matter what they say, this punishment is inhumane. That said, sure beats getting the death penalty.” the thought of that horrific form of torturous death sent a chill down my spine. Being stripped, beaten, possibly raped, and then tied to a wagon that you are forced to walk behind while being mercilessly attacked by any passerby until you die was the normal death penalty. A traitor’s death penalty had to have been far worse.

To be honest, I was glad that I had made it this long out here. Had I not had my staff then I doubt that I would have survived past that beast’s attack. Now if only I knew where I was going. If I started at the border of the old Imperial capital and I have been heading somewhat towards the rising sun then I should see some ruins eventually. However, this was practically no man’s land. They had most likely sunk under the swamp by now.

Just as I was thinking that all this wandering around was hopeless and that I was going to die, a boat trudged by me. It was a simple boat with a driver who was using a long stick to push himself along. The driver himself, however, was a fairly tan skinny man wearing a thin brown vest and brown pants. Despite looking only a few years older than me he was completely bald and didn’t have a single hair on his face.

“What are you doing out here? You’re gonna get yourself killed.” the man asked as he approached me with his boat.

“Please help me. I’ve been wandering around this swamp for over a day. I’ll give you some of my rations just please let me on your boat!” I pleaded. The boat driver seemed confused but started pushing his boat towards me.

“Now, now. I’m coming. I was gonna offer you a lift whether you paid me or not.” the man said as he brought his boat up to the soft swamp grass-covered patch of land I was on. The man braced himself as the front end of the boat skimmed up against the grass and stopped right in front of me.

“Thank you. I was beginning to feel like I was going to die out here.” I said as I climbed into the boat.

“Of course. Though let me guess, you were cast out of Alsenia for one reason or another?” the man asked as he pushed the boat back away from the patch of dirt I was on with his pole.

“I was. How did you know?” I asked.

“I saw your hand. I have the same mark.” the man said as he showed me his left hand. On it was the same mark that was burnt into my hand. He was an outcast like myself.

“Why were you cast out?” I asked with a curious look. The likelihood that I would find someone who was an outcast like myself out here in this wasteland of a swamp was low. It was surprising that anyone could survive out here.

“I used to be a soldier. One day my commanding officer raped and killed my fiance and so I killed him. He was a lesser nobles son so I received no representation and was thrown out here.” he said with an emotionless face.

“Sorry, I didn’t know.” I replied with a saddened tone.

“Don’t worry about it. The past is the past. Though, how did you end up out here? What was your crime?” the man asked.

“I was a student at the magic academy. The noble in charge of my village sponsored me because I showed promise. Next thing I knew a noble framed me for practicing necromancy and I was sentenced into exile.” I said before burying my face in my arms.

The man chuckled a bit as if he found it amusing. “I guess we are similar. Those nobles hate it when we peasants get any form of power. Makes me wonder why we even gave them power in the first place.” he said with a somewhat happy look.

“So what’s your name?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s Marcus. What about you?” Marcus said as he stopped pushing the boat and extended his hand.

“Nero.” I replied as I shook his hand. “I’ve been meaning to ask. How did you even survive out here?” I asked.

“Oh, there are plenty of us out here. You see, the remnants of the Empire have been slowly building upon what was destroyed sixty years ago. When Alsenia started throwing its criminals out here the remnants began helping them survive in exchange for their aid. Mainly building and hunting. However, there are a few who have been sent into the labyrinth to go hunt monsters for food.” Marcus said.

“Labyrinth?”

“Oh, right. Alsenia doesn’t have those. Basically, because the swamp keeps sucking whatever gets built on it down, they have been building new levels to live in. when those get sucked down they build a new level. This has been going on for over two thousand years and a new level is sucked below every ten or so years. To simplify it, there is a large number of cities that have been stacked upon each other underneath the swamp. Most of these cities are still intact and are used to farm and hunt subterranean creatures and plants.” Marcus explained.

I had never heard of anything like that. Was this something that only the empire knew about or was it just kept from the general public? Either way, it was amazing if they were capable of sustaining this labyrinth as he called it for so long. Alsenia’s buildings usually had to be maintained every so many years but for something to last underground for nearly a thousand years was beyond believable.

“That’s amazing.” I said with an interested tone.

“I know. It’s a work of art and they mainly use it to grow medicine and farm the animals that live down there. If it wasn’t for the fact that every nation hates them to the point that trade is impossible then they could easily rebuild their nation. It’s rather sad that such an amazing work of engineering might be lost to us because the nations are so pigheaded.” Marcus stated with a bit of anger on his tongue.

“Yeah…” I said as I felt like my tired body was finally catching up with me.

“If you want to sleep then go ahead. We’ll be at the remnants city in about an hour.” Marcus said kindly as he recognized the drowsiness in my voice.

“Thanks…” I said before closing my eyes and giving in to my desire to rest.

When I opened my eyes again I was lying on a bed in a small stone room with one window and a cloth door. An oil lamp sat on a small desk on the other side of the room. Beside the bed laid my staff, iron sword, and all three bags of rations and water that I had. As I groggily got up Marcus came through the cloth door with an older woman following behind him.

“Nero, this is the city Elder, Rocshalla. Although she isn’t the leader of the remnants, she is the one who is entrusted with being the closest aid to our leader. She came to see if you would be any help to us.” Marcus said, giving an introduction for the woman.

The woman herself was only around five feet tall and was hunched over a large walking stick covered in decorative feathers and animal teeth. Her skin was tan and wrinkled from years of being in the sun. long braided grey hair flowed down her back over her densely woven fur shawl. Unlike Marcus, Rocshalla wasn’t wearing any shoes.

“It’s nice to meet you, Rocshalla.” I said lowering my head in respect.

“It’s nice to meet you as well, dear.” Rocshalla replied with a respectful but kind tone. “What can you tell me about yourself? Skills, strengths, knowledge, anything that may be of use to us.” she continued with a more serious tone that was still kind.

I thought for a second. The only thing I could really think of was my abilities and knowledge involving magic. Other than that I didn’t have any major skills. I wasn’t all that strong either. Yeah, I knew some basic martial arts from the guards stationed near my village but that was it.

“I know a decent amount about magic and runes.” I said.

Rocshalla’s eyes grew bright as if she had just discovered something great but quickly returned back to normal as if she didn’t want to get her hopes up. “How much do you know?” she asked.

“I was at the Alsenian Magic Academy for three years. Another year and I would have graduated.” I replied.

“We shall take you to see the Emperor at once! He shall be most pleased to hear this.” Rocshalla said as she did a little dance in a circle as if she was summoning something from beyond.

“Are you sure about this, Elder? Marcus asked.

“Of course I am. What does doubting me usually lead to?” she said to Marcus inquisitively.

“Bad things that most of the time lead to pain and suffering of various kinds.” Marcus replied as if he was being forced to read a script despite not wanting to.

“That’s right.” Rocshalla said with a mockingly happy tone before going back out the cloth door.

“You should probably go with her.” Marcus said with a defeated sigh before pulling the wick out of the oil lamp and following her out the door.

Since there was no point in not following her I let her lead me out of the room and through a road that was made purely out of flat slabs of stone. Oil lamps and brush lamps lit up the paths we walked. It looked like a huge castle. Along the roads were small waterways flowing down the streets. Stairs on the other side of the flowing waterways led up to a second story that could be seen from below were many more houses were. Each one was the same as the other and all of them were so similar that it was hard to tell whether it was one long house or many connected homes.

Every so often there would be a gap in the houses where another street would intersect. After passing two of the intersections Rocshalla turned left down one of the intersections. This led us to a sort of public square. There were only a few people here and no there were no stalls or vendors like one would normally see in a square like this. The only thing here was a waterfall that came directly from the ceiling into a pool. The pool drained out into the various waterways that spread along the streets. It was beyond impressive.

Passing by the public square Rocshalla led us to a large bronze door that was currently wide open. Once we passed through we were led up some stairs to where another doorway was. Beyond it was the open air, sun, and swamp. The bright rays of the sun contrasted the fire-lit city we just emerged from and the reflection off the water made it blinding. Wooden docks extended into the swampy lake beyond the stone foundation that we stood on and broken stone structures were randomly scattered among the water. Had I have seen it from above I could have probably made out a small cityscape of stone but from where I was it looked random.

“Up here.” Marcus said as he and Rocshalla walked up some stone steps to where several wooden structures stood between half-broken stone walls. Following behind them I saw beyond the wooden structures were around fifty people working in several large man-made fields. In total there were four different fields. Three of them had different vegetables and the other was holding animals called Ragest. Ragest are strange animals that produce both milk and eggs. Their bodies can be twice the size of humans and can be used for meat. Docile they may be, their size and capability of being stubborn made them difficult to farm. The fact that they were farming these creatures in such a small space was beyond me.

“Emperor, this is the man I found last night. Apparently, he is capable of understanding the runic language.” Marcus said as we approached the field of workers. One of the men, a man in his early thirties wiped the sweat from his brow as he stopped hoeing the field. He was a muscular tan man that stood around six feet tall. Like Rocshalla, he wasn’t wearing any shoes but unlike her, he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Instead, all he had on was a pair of shorts that were held up with a tightly tied ribbon.

“And what do you have to say about him, Elder?” the man asked.

“If he can read the runes and understand its magic then he will be of great use to us. Though, I will say it is far too early to know whether we can trust him,” Rocshalla said.

“I see. Then we will have to put it to the test.” the man said as he approached me. “Hello, I am Emperor Nekhasha.” he said as he extended his hand to me.

“It’s pleasure to meet you. I am Nero. though would never have thought to see an Emperor working the fields.” I replied as I shook his hand.

He laughed for a moment. “I can see how that would be a shock to you. I am only doing what I can for my people. Nothing more. If I must toil away in the field or hunt great beasts to allow for my people to survive then I shall. This is my job as Emperor.” he said humbly.