CITY OF THE GODS: FORGOTTEN Read Online Free PDF

about how the City of the Gods was run. “I see. So it’s a title you earned?”
    D’Molay looked down before he answered, as if he were about to say something he would rather forget. “Yes. I earned my title when I helped a god escape from Purgatory. That was many years ago.” He paused at this, as if nothing more needed to be said on the matter.
    Aavi looked pleadingly at him. “But how did you get here?”   She truly wanted to know.   Perhaps if she knew how he got here, it might help her learn something about her own situation.
    Looking back at Aavi’s perfect, yet anxious, face, D’Molay could not refuse her an answer. “I’d been in Purgatory for quite a while, and as one who had always traveled the roads, protecting others, I was driven to explore that dreary land fully and see all that it contained.   I saw all its empty grey splendor and sad inhabitants, all filled with regrets and sorrow. Just being there drains one’s soul, and there is no way out for any mortal sent there, not until the final judgment day, assuming there ever is one.” D’Molay paused as if he were trying to decide something. He looked out over the grassy hills, the pond, and the fluttering fairy folk going about their carefree tasks of gathering dew and pollen. “In my travels there I found three huge iron gates that led out of Purgatory.   One of them led to where we are now, the City and its realms.”   He held his arm out and gestured in a circle to indicate all the lands around them.
    “So you came through,” Aavi assumed as they traveled down the dirt trail. A thin wisp of flaxen hair blew across her face as she looked at D’Molay.   From time to time, Aavi would attempt to brush it aside, only to have it blow back across her face once again.   It seemed to be another of the sometimes enjoyable and often annoying aspects of rediscovering what daily life was like, although she had no real memory of such inconveniences.
    D’Molay gave her a woeful smile as he looked back at her. “Not at first. I tried to open those gates for many years, with no luck. Finally, I gave up and took shelter in a broken down hovel outside of one of the cities of the dead.   I accepted my fate and tried to live in the dark ennui that permeates Purgatory like a fog of gloom. It is an empty existence where nothing happens and nothing changes.” A flock of swans suddenly took flight from the pond they were passing and D’Molay watched them fly off into the distance.  
    Aavi watched them too, but turned back to D’Molay. “So how did you escape Purgatory then?”
    He gestured with his gloved hand as he continued, as if he had forgotten that he hadn’t finished the tale. “Ah yes. Well, a few years later, someone brought a young godling to my door. He was trapped there due to some kind of teleport accident and he was looking for a guide to lead him out. Word had gotten round about my explorations so I was the natural choice. I knew where all three gates were and which one led to the realm of the gods. The gates are far apart from each other and it is a long journey. Should you go to the wrong gate, it would take you many years to travel to the next one. If this god could get to the right gate, he hoped that he might be able to open it and leave Purgatory. I felt that it was my duty to escort him, but had no real expectation that his efforts would even open the gate.   After a long, perilous journey we arrived and he actually was able to open it.”
      D’Molay guided the cart around another bend. They could now see a small wooden dock jutting out into the lake in the far distance.  
    “We had traveled together for so long that I think he felt honor bound to offer me the chance to leave with him. I gladly accepted, of course, but told him I could not pledge myself to his service.   I had long before decided I would never pledge myself to anyone or anything ever again. Luckily for me, he was glad enough to escape Purgatory and he