Luke enjoyed the sun; the warmth felt foreign after his near-exclusive time in cold and dark places in this world. The ground was covered in verdant grass and a few unidentifiable plants. The tower guards began to wave at him before he could decide whether or not to approach. It’d be far more suspicious to run off than to greet back by now.
“Wayfinder, you probably don’t need to be told, but you and Xera need to stay quiet while we’re in earshot of anyone new,” Luke said.
“Why? I like seeing new places and meeting people,” Xera asked.
“You’re a sentient artifact, lass. The criminal crowd may kill for a rare item, let alone a talkin’ one that can evolve. Not all of them will know only a Reaver can use you. If the wrong set of eyes figures out I’m one of the numbered, well, the lad here will have another reason to look over his shoulder.”
“But I’ll still get to meet others, right? And those guards don’t look like criminals.”
“Silently, you will, and verbally if we think they’re trustworthy. For now, quiet.” Luke closed the conversation.
Luke strolled toward the tower guards at an approachable and non-threatening pace. The lot of people could just be well-armored bandits or mercenaries, but he didn’t think so. The various banners around the tower indicated the group served either nobles or royalty, possibly a mix of the two. As he drew closer, a trio came out of the building and met him with a guarded body language.
The shortest of the three, with an additional symbol over their right chest, initiated with a greeting and questions. “Been a while since we’ve seen someone come out the forest from the eastern side, alone. Where’s your group? Or are you one of those ungrateful ferus the Duchess allows to exist?”
He didn’t know what a ‘ferus’ was, and Luke didn’t have a party from the start, at least not in the sense that it had other people. As such, he stared briefly and then answered, “I’m not in a group. I’m sure people can enter a forest alone.”
Luke didn’t ask about a ferus, it seemed to be common knowledge, and he didn’t want to give away the true extent of his ignorance.
The same guard responded to Luke, as the other two watched him closely, “Sounds like a ferus to me, alright. You fools don’t even understand how dangerous it is to enter a place like this alone.”
Luke agreed the forest was unsafe, but not to the extent these guards seemed to think of the place. He asked them, “What makes you say that? The forest wasn’t too treacherous.”
Another guard with average height interjected, the coat of arms over his tabard different from the group’s leader, “Hah, the Sarg was right. You lot are stupid to the extreme. That ruined forest is only less dangerous on the eastern end. You don’t even know how lucky you are, do you?”
The sergeant kept up with the inquiries without giving Luke time to speak to the different guards.
“Tell me, how long were you in there? Couldn’t have been a short period, with half your armor in disrepair like that. Not to mention, you reek.”
The Reaver knew he didn’t exactly smell nice but didn’t appreciate being called out on it. It’s not like he had a reasonable place to bathe yet. Nevertheless, he came up with a half-truth for the sergeant.
“I spent a few weeks in there, ran into too many undead, and nearly died a few times. On second thought, the forest isn’t as safe as I said.”
The sergeant relaxed slightly at the answer, with Luke ‘switching’ his opinion to agreement, their tone underwent a subtle change.
“Well, as long as you understand. We’ve had a spike of people undertaking incredible foolish trips into the forest ever since a new round of transfers started to appear three years ago.”
Luke’s heart began to speed up. The time frame mentioned by the guard matched when the vanishing started on Earth. To rule out any coincidence, he tried to think of some questions a transfer may be allowed to ask and not be suspicious.
“I’ll prove the stereotype then. The Interface said something about being a transfer when I first came here. I ran off, scared out of my wits. I’ve not been around people so much in the past year.”
The third guard spoke up, his symbol etched into his armor like the sergeant’s, “A true ferus then? Most of your type died. You’ve got to be at a decent level if you’ve survived this long alone.”
Luke moved his feet into a more comfortable stance. The soft grass felt more pleasant on his boots. He gestured to Sooty, “Not alone. This crow is my companion. Her name is Sooty, and I owe her my life. Say hi, Sooty.”
The crow looked at the three new faces for a moment, then let out a loud rattle before she hopped up and down on Luke’s shoulder, occasionally showing off her wings.
The sergeant returned to the conversation and concluded on his own, “A companion class then? I see, certainly explains how you managed to sleep at night without dying on the first day.”
“Right, we take shifts when we can. Means one set of eyes is always watching in case something tries to sneak up on us,” Luke said.
The three guards seemed to approve of that, nodding to themselves. The guard with a different symbol over his tabard coughed and began to talk, less restrained in his speech.
“You’re just an ignorant ferus, not a completely stupid one. That’ll make it easy on us then. Should you or I tell him, sarg?”
“I’ll tell the man, recruit Jeren. No need to rush into it.” The sergeant said.
Luke shifted uncomfortably and prepared himself if things went south. His body tensed, and his posture matched that of fight or flight.
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The change didn’t go unnoticed by the three near him; the sergeant began to mollify Luke, his hands up in appeasement. “It’s nothing like you’re thinking, ferus. The front line hasn’t been doing well; not enough of you transfers enlisted as the duchess hoped.” The sergeant paused, then continued when Luke didn’t speak, “Against her nature, she decreed a few months ago, all of you ferus transfers must register with the dukedom or be escorted to Artum. Her grace is merciful, and the choice is completely up to your free will. A ferus isn’t allowed in Elaria anymore.”
Luke took in what the three men were trying to tell him. A few parts were vague. Before asking further, he scanned the grassland. None of the other guards in the tower moved, and the three before him were firm but not hostile in their tone or actions. He calmed the paranoid side within and said what came to mind.
“What do you mean by register?”
The sergeant breathed out and relaxed his shoulders, “It’s simple: you’ll go to a center, once there, you’ll have to give out your name, level, class, and intent of contribution. Once you do that, you’ll be free to go and be declared a provisional citizen. Subject to the laws of the dukedom.”
With the words out in the open, the other two guards visibly slouched. To Luke, he figured they assessed that he wouldn’t become aggressive once he started to ask about registering.
“An intent of contribution?” Luke said.
The sergeant turned to one of the other guards, “Argel, go up to the tower and get him one of the notices the couriers gave us.”
The third guard straightened and responded to the sergeant, “Right on it, sergeant, I’ll be back.”
With those words, the third guard rushed off and disappeared to the interior of the wooden tower.
“The papers the couriers send us every so often will tell you more about it than I could. In the meantime, if you’re going to register, there's a rough path that leads from the tower to the nearest main road.” He shifted his feet, “Since a few of you ferus agreed to register but ran off after, Argel will escort you once he’s back.” The sergeant said.
Argel, the guard, returned and promptly handed the notice to Luke. He said, “You transfers all come with a slightly different Interface from us natives; anything not runic should be readable to you, but you’ll have to learn to write independently. Go ahead, the notice will lay out more details than we could.”
Luke took the notice and jutted his chin toward Argel before reading it.
In summary, the piece of paper described that the duchess, in her wisdom, had changed policy; the farworlders, which Luke figured was another term for transfers, were no longer allowed to stay in the dukedom without a registry.
Any ferus, or otherwise unregistered were to be either escorted out the dukedom or to the nearest relevant assignment center. A few extra details were described, with the intent of contribution being the farworlder declaring how they intended to support themselves, or the dukedom.
“No more freeloaders, huh? Even in another world, the motivations of the powerful don’t change.” Luke said.
He patted Argel on the shoulder and looked up at the man, “Looks like you’ll be my escort to the nearest assignment center, Argel, wherever that is.”
The guard looked uncomfortable with the body contact and being called by his name, but he adjusted a moment later. He instead looked over to the sergeant, “I’ll be on escort duty then, sergeant?”
His sergeant nodded, “Get the farworlder up to speed, at least enough so he doesn’t make a complete fool of himself. You know how a few of them ran off when the policy changed.”
Argel deflated, before he accepted the new assignment, he turned to Luke, “Very well, ferus, although I suppose you’re just a farworlder now. I’ll be your guide to the nearest town. I’ll warn, if you run off, you’ll be a wanted criminal.”
Luke responded, “If you’ll get me to a place with a bath, and this register thing isn’t any worse than it sounds, then I’ll dutifully follow along.”
An expression of realization dawned over Luke, and he asked the sergeant before he left. “Have you met many farworlders sergeant?” Luke referred to the guard by his rank, unfamiliar with his name.
The sergeant didn’t mind and spoke, “Plenty of you, why?”
“Did they ever say where they were from originally?”
“A few of you say this country or that country. I can’t be bothered to remember them individually. But most transfers say Earth.”
Blood rushed throughout Luke’s body, and his eyes widened. His hands began to shake.
“Have you ever met or heard of a man named Paul Wallace?”
“Can’t say I have. You’d be better off finding someone specific at the town, Kelser, that Argel will take you to. If you prove valuable enough to the dukedom, they’d even help you find them.”
If Luke had reservations about visiting a town before, he had none now. The sergeant’s adroit words set the course for his next goal: reaching Kelser.
“Thank you. I’ll do that then.” Luke nodded at Argel, “I’m ready to go when you are, Argel.”
“I’m free to leave my post then, Sergeant?” Argel asked.
“You can leave Argel, stay at Kelser for the night; then you’ll report back within twenty-four hours. Go.”
Argel stretched, then began to walk away from the tower; his voice was loud enough for Luke to hear as he kept going, “If we’re going to reach Kelser before sundown, farworlder, we’ll need to leave now and keep a respectable pace. Hurry up, then. I want a full night’s rest.”
Luke hastily waved to the other guards still standing there and caught up with Argel, who had just stepped onto a rough path. The sun was high in the sky; Luke estimated it to be noon or close to it.
The two men made their way through the rough path; both were initially silent, but Argel talked to Luke once their trail connected to a broad, better-paved road.
“This is one of the main roads through Kelser; it connects to one of the six cities in Elaria, Sylen, our ‘front line’ city, if you will. Besides the Capital, it's the most common place farworlders settle in.”
That was good news to Luke; he’d be heading to one of the best places to find other people from Earth. Now that he knew where he was to go, Luke felt more comfortable. More willing to admit ignorance with only one person around, Luke began to ask the tower guard some questions.
“I’ve only been fighting monsters ever since I came here, mind filling me in on any details you think I should know when we reach Kelser, Argel?” Luke said.
Argel kept moving and walked down the well-paved road they were now on. The man clasped his hand around his chin for a short period before he talked.
“Since I’m not entirely sure what a ferus would know and doesn’t I’ll go with the basics. You did well not to try to use the Interface on any of us. It’s considered extremely rude, and we’d reject the attempt.”
“What? You can deny something like that? Why can I use it on any random monster I see then?” Luke remembered his recent experience in the Night Moon forest, where the Interface didn’t work, “Scratch that. When the Interface decides to work, why is there no issue like that with monsters?”
The guard laughed, “Ha, I suppose it’d be strange to a farworlder, especially one who’s still technically a ferus. You can inspect monsters through the Interface, and they can read you.” Argel turned his face to Luke, “But people, except in special cases, can’t Inspect another person without permission, no matter the strength difference. Always been that way. The priests call it the ‘will of the World Spirit.’ Never thought too much about it.”
Luke walked alongside Argel; he had grown more comfortable around Argel and accepted him as an acquaintance. The main road curved outside the forest, with a considerable distance between the trail and the nearest onyx tree. The path led Luke back in the direction he came from, to the west.
A long but thin stream mirrored the road in most places. A deep slope separated the two. Various flowers bloomed, and bizarre flying insects swarmed the water. The rather idyllic setting eased Luke into further conversation as the two kept a brisk pace down the road.
“Mind telling me more about the ‘Moon Night Forest’ then?” Luke said.