Sweating is a biological process that helps humans cool off. It can also occur when someone is nervous. I don’t sweat. My body was mostly human but it had stopped producing sweat. The only reason I knew about the substance was because of the memories of this body.
Sarvad’s memories, as I had come to realise. The knowledge that I shouldn’t have, the visions, everything was his. The shock of my fight in the mindscape had worn off but when I tried to communicate with Sarvad, he wouldn’t answer. I had thought about asking Pecta for advice but had decided against it. This just felt too personal, like something I had to deal with on my own. Anyway, I hadn’t thought a lot about sweat, but now, as I was walking towards Seran I was very grateful for the lack of it. Otherwise, I would have been a sweating wreck.
Back on the dune, I had been able to overlook the entire settlement and what I saw had amazed me. The city of Seran was made up of hundreds, no thousands, of rectangular buildings in varying sizes, with wide streets leading to the center. Even from here, I could make out the small moving figures of humans that crowded the streets and moved in all directions.
The entirety of Seran was encased by a wall thrice my size that was patrolled by even more humans. Most of the city was made out of yellow sandstone (Pecta told me), which made the green gateway even more prevalent. It was flanked by two giant statues of winged humanoids that both held crossed swords over their chest. When I asked my companion about them, he explained that those were guardian angels, meant to protect the citizens from harm. How that worked I didn’t know. Maybe they could come alive or something similar to that? I didn’t dwell on that question as something else caught my eye: the palace.
It was surrounded by another wall, this one much bigger than the outer one, and looked much more opulent than the rest of the city. It had four towers at each corner and one gigantic one in the middle that stretched into the sky. Unlike the rest of the city, it wasn't simply built from sandstone, but also a variety of metals that gleamed in the light. I didn't need to ask Pecta about the purpose of this construction. I vividly remembered his rant about human society when we were fleeing from the sandworm. The palace was most likely reserved for the nobles.
Despite that harsh reminder, I was excited. This was the first time I would be around so many other sentient beings and the thought of that made me giddy. So many people with different views on life and varied experiences. Maybe I could even find some answers to the many questions that had been plaguing me since the start of my journey.
Before I could signal my lamec to continue Pecta stopped me. “Whow, wait a moment. You can’t enter the city looking like this.” I looked down at my body. My clothing covered all the sensitive bits, even if it was a bit more red than at the start of the journey. “What do you mean?” I asked. My companion looked uncomfortable as if he didn’t know what to say.
“Well, most humans don’t have a very good opinion on… monsters.” I frowned at him. “But I’m not a monster.” The mage had called me a monster but I assumed that was just because he was evil. I was nothing like a sandworm or a Click. “Of course, you’re not,” he hurriedly reassured me. “But your appearance could cause some confusion.” Nodding, I looked at my claw. You could definitely tell that I wasn’t completely human.
“Guess, I have to live with some people being mean to me. But I can take it.” Pecta shifted uncomfortably. “To be honest… other people being mean to you will be the least of your problems. You will most likely be attacked on sight.” I stared at him in shock. “Wait, what?” The human scratched the back of his head. “Humans don’t live with monsters. Most of us are afraid of them because a lot of them are mindless beasts that would kill you without hesitation. The only reason I wasn’t freaking out when we met was because I know some shapeshifters and even an Ilokai. They can seamlessly blend into our society but you can’t. If the guards see you they will hunt you down and sell your body parts to an alchemist.” My mouth dropped open. “That’s barbaric!” “Don’t worry!” Pecta said while raising his hands to calm me down. “I have a plan.”
As soon as we got close to the city, the giant green gate swung open and two humans emerged. “Halt! State your business in Seran,” one of them called out. Both of them carried spears and wore full leather armour. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that we had garnered quite the attention from the other guards on the wall.
Seeing only two people in a caravan probably wasn’t normal, much less them looking like they had just lost a fight. Most of our gear was in ruin but luckily we had come out of that fight alright. Pecta had to use the last healing potion, while my wounds healed on their own. The parasite had somehow changed this human body to be more resilient, one of the few positive aspects of its existence. Hopefully, I wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore, something I truly doubted.
As we had agreed, Pecta started talking for the both of us. “A pleasant day to you, honoured guardsmen. I and my companion were part of a caravan owned by the Merchant’s Union that was traveling from Farwick to Pyremere when a group of bandits attacked us. We managed to fend them off, but it cost us the lives of everyone else. Our supplies are running thin and we desperately need shelter.” I nodded my head along to his story. Pecta was a talented actor, managing to sound respectful while lacing his words with a twinge of desperation. From what he told me, this story wasn’t far from the truth.
The guard that had spoken squinted his eyes and looked at us suspiciously. “You two were the only survivors of a bandit raid? That doesn’t sound very likely. Bandits here in the Scorching Barrens are tricky little bastards that rarely let their prey escape.” Pecta nodded his head. “Your suspicion is warranted. The bandits were tough. However, we had the luck of running into a relatively small group that underestimated our strength. We two were hired as guards and managed to defeat the last remaining bandits.”
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His explanation sounded plausible to me but the human still had doubts. He pointed at Pecta‘s sword. “You being a guard I can believe.” His eyes shifted to me and he glared. “But don’t tell me that the Merchant’s Union has fallen to the level that they hire scum like him.”
I glared right back at him. My disguise made it so that the guard couldn’t see that I wasn’t human but he still insulted me out of the blue. Well, disguise is a very strong word. Pecta had cut the clothing of the dead mercenaries into ribbons and wrapped them around my head, to hide my face. I asked him why we needed to hide my human face and he answered that it looked very unique, which I didn’t know how to take.
Then he had repeated that process with my arms and legs. My claw made everything worse since it would be recognisable even if bandaged, so I had to keep it out of view and hidden inside my cloak at all times. This could be passed off as an arm injury, but still, I had questioned him about the viability of such a... minimalistic disguise. Wouldn’t it be even more obvious that I was trying to hide something?
He reassured me that my bandaged appearance wouldn’t be questioned. Some followers of Noctus, the God of Shadows, concealed their bodies with bandages as a religious practice. He warned me that some people wouldn’t look at me so favourably, since followers of Noctus had a bad reputation. It was still better than being hunted for not being human.
The guard’s prejudices were starting to show, as he stepped right up to my face and scrunched his eyes together. This would have been intimidating if not for the fact that I was sitting on a lamec, which meant that he had to look up at me. “Merchants hiring someone who worships the patron of thieves? Hard to believe.”
Pecta cleared his throat and frowned but didn’t lose his respectful tone. “With all due respect, my college is an excellent guard, who alerted us to the ambush. Without him, we wouldn’t have survived our encounters. Noctus is also the patron of merchants, so the Merchant’s Union wasn’t very opposed to hiring him.” The guard grunted in distaste. “Of course, those moneybags would stoop so low.”
“Are you always this rude to everyone?” I blurted out. The original plan had been for Pecta to do all the talking, but I just couldn't help myself. In the short time I had met the guard he had insulted me and others with no apparent reason. He was just being unnecessarily mean and I wanted to point that out.
Before the rude guard could respond the second one, who hadn’t said anything up to this point, stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are you seriously trying to start a conflict with two people who just arrived from the desert? Just look at them, it is obvious that they need all the help that they can get.”
Turning to us he apologised. “Sorry for my partner’s behaviour. The Merchant’s Union doesn’t have an outpost in Seran but we will relay to them what happened to their caravan. For the time being, you can rest in Seran and recover your strength, but we advise you against leaving the city.” I heard a soft snort from the other guard. The nice one gave him a dirty look before continuing. “We will have to confiscate everything that doesn't belong to you so that we can return it to the Merchant’s Union. I'm sure that they will be thankful and reward you appropriately.”
I was about to protest giving up our hard-earned spoils, but Pecta quieted me with a stare and simply nodded his head. "Of course honoured guardsmen. That won’t be a problem.” He got down from his lamec and motioned for me to do the same. “Do you know of a place where we could stay?” The guard nodded and pointed behind him.
“If you go down the main road for a bit you'll see an inn called ‘The Emerald Drink’. It's not the nicest place, but it is cheap and the beer is amazing.” He pointedly looked at my concealed arm. “I would also recommend you visit an alchemist to do something about that wound. Don’t want it to get infected.”
We thanked him for his advice and were about to enter the city when the first guard stopped us. “You need to give us your names. Need to know who to find if a dead body turns up.” That last statement was thrown in my direction. The other guard rolled his eyes but kept quiet. “Of course honoured guardsmen,” Pecta replied with a smile, but I could see that his fist was clenched in anger. “My name is Pecta and this is my companion Vindict.”
The name Vindict didn’t hold any real meaning to me but if Sarvad would call me that then I could use it as my own. I did like the sound of it.
After that, Pecta gave the reins of our mounts to the guard and we were finally allowed to enter the city.
The first thing I noticed was the temperature. The heat from the desert hadn’t bothered me but here it was noticeably cooler. Before I could ask Pecta my question he answered, “It’s a Blessing. Some powerful chosen of a god or goddess put it up to stop the people from fainting from the heat. From what I heard, it’s very common out here in the Scorching Barrens.” I frowned at the fact that I was becoming predictable but noted that Chosen were very powerful. If this effect covered the whole city then it was truly impressive.
After resolving that question I finally started to truly look at my surroundings. Humans of all shapes and sizes filled the streets, with some simply walking around like we were and some standing at the side doing various activities I couldn't place. Some I recognised, like the game with the symbol cards that the mercenaries had played, but others were completely foreign to me. For example, I saw a group of humans who were busy carrying stones to an empty area where they were placed atop one another. Was that something humans did for fun? Maybe I would try it at one point.
“Before we do anything, let's go to the inn,” Pecta interrupted my musings. His gaze was pointed straight ahead and he walked at a brisk pace through the crowd. “Our money situation isn’t bad, considering what the bandits had with them.” He motioned to a bag that he had concealed from the guards inside his cloak. “As long as you don’t cause trouble, we should be fine. Still, I would much rather leave the Scorching Barrens as soon as possible to get back to cooler temperatures. I doubt that the Merchant’s Union would deign to give me anything for failing at my job as a guard. Despite being some of the richest people in Sanktrum, they are awfully stingy.”
I simply shrugged. “You are the expert on human society.” A lot of questions were on my mind but they could wait. Something about the large crowd made me uncomfortable. I repeatedly bumped into random humans and quietly apologised.
We continued walking in silence, both lost in our thoughts. “Hey…,” Pecta started another conversation and paused when I looked at him. “I just want to say thank you. Without you, I'd be just another corpse in the desert. I know that I'm sometimes not the best person and I don't know if it was simple dumb luck or the will of the gods that made us cross paths, but I just want you to know that I'm thankful for all that you've done.”
I hadn't experienced many nice things in this world, but that statement genuinely warmed my heart. Not in a literal way, that probably wouldn't be healthy, but in a metaphorical one. “No need to thank me. I'm sure that anyone would have done the same thing in my situation,” I responded with a smile. “After all, life should be cherished.” Pecta let out a low chuckle as if doubting my words.