There is something amusing about watching the fully geared, fully armed and highly capable mercenary dance around and visibly struggling to be tactful. Imani had very quickly agreed to take them to Doeta, and the leonid had been just as fast to offer to load everything up into the three wagons.
Even the slag of gold.
Was it a little petty that he felt some marginal vindication after she’d attacked him while under the influence of the pendant? Yes. Was he going to stop? Also probably yes, though only once Imani had relaxed a bit. The leonid was like a coiled spring around them, anything and everything would get her to answer in a rush.
Just implying he might be thirsty had her bolting to the lake shore to refill their waterskins.
“I think this is getting old fast.” Liam thought out the words, aware of the spy currently poking into his mind as he frowned. He watched Imani run off ahead so that they could have camp set up as the trio of wagons continued steadily forward. The city wasn’t that far off, they would probably reach it the next day.
“You say that as if there’s an alternative.” Bunny languished in a pillow, munching down on a carrot. “Your attitude around my divine self and the boss is the odd one out. If only we could guarantee such adequate treatment all the time…”
“Keep getting ‘adequate’ treatment and you’ll get fat enough you’d make a proper meal.” He flicked at her ear. “Despite what you might think, people don’t habitually go as far as Imani has without good reason.”
“A fragment of a deity being within her presence isn’t a good reason?” Her tone was offended, her ears canted in irritation at his physical transgression. “Mortals have been killed for lesser crimes than the lip you’re giving right now.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “Only the truly stupid deities are so full of themselves they’d smite someone because they didn’t scrape the floor with their tongue.”
“Are you implying you would not scrape before one of them if one showed up?”
“I’m not suicidal, I’d scrape and even offer them a toe massage. My life’s worth more than… something like 85% of my pride.”
“That sounds strangely specific.”
“Let’s just say that, for a time, I had to pick between starving and ass-kissing, and I ended up discovering how empty flattery is a great way to disguise malignant compliance.” His lips curled into a grin, but quickly dismissed it. “Anyway, my point was that mortals don’t typically go about scrapping and bowing like this. At least not without either being a sycophant or from having at least second hand experience watching a deity doing some smiting.” He poked her head, scratching her between the ears. “And I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but deities have attempted to minimize contact with mortals for a very long while now.”
“I know, I’m just being tactful and trying not to divulge her secrets.” Bunny declared with a shrug.
“Oh?”
“I might not be the Goddess of Secrets herself, but I’m still her aspect.” The lagomorph commented idly, ears twitching to point towards Imani’s figure as she was preparing a campfire further ahead. “That kitty’s secrets flare out every time she looks at me.”
Liam blinked rapidly. “Should you… be telling me about this?”
“I won’t say more, but in case I do say too much and you think I overstepped, you can just erase the memory.” Her ear twisted in a very non-ear way to slap his boot right on the knife’s handle. “Also, this way you now have no option but to go talk to her while I happily go off and be mysteriously gone.”
“Wait, you didn’t-"
She was gone.
He frowned at the cushion she’d been occupying, tentatively poking the spot to make sure she hadn’t just made herself invisible. What was her deal? Trying to figure her out had become increasingly harder, so much so that Liam was starting to have some suspicions about Bunny being more than just your run-of-the-mill aspect.
Placing those thoughts aside, he led the wagon towards the camp Imani had already set-up. The leonid hurried to lead the wagons so they’d carefully lock into place as a three-sided wall around the camp. This effectively made their camp a very tight space, but it also doubled as one easy to protect from outside attacks as the wagons would provide easy cover against anything ranged.
“Would you like me to cook an easy dinner… sir?” Imani’s overly demure tone felt like a stab in the gut.
Liam winced, as he sat down next to the fire. “You haven’t accepted my job offer yet, I’m not your boss.”
The leonid shifted, glancing at his empty shoulder, and then at the empty cushion. She swallowed. “But contract or not, you are still… important, no?” She emphasized the word as if she was precariously hanging from a tight-rope, paying closer attention to her surroundings than to him.
Liam regarded her for a moment, the tension was impossible to miss, as was how it practically bordered on terror. What was his end goal here? Though he respected Imani, she was a mercenary. If someone paid her enough gold, she’d do her best to put his head on a platter. By pretending to be Maridah’s Chosen, he was effectively guaranteeing Imani would not willingly cross him without bumping the price-tag by several zeroes.
There was a tricky part, however, in that he had to be extremely careful to toe the line of plausible deniability. Otherwise, Maridah’s plan involving this little trip to Doeta could very well turn into a disaster.
“This is a bit of wisdom I’ve read in a book, once.” He sat down, carefully keeping his tone neutral. “There’s basic respect, and then there’s respect to authority. So when you greet someone with authority, you’re expected to bow and scrape after them, and to not do so might be seen as disrespecting them.” He shot her a meaningful look. “I’d much rather not have others scraping the floor after me.” Immediately he raised his hands. “And before you ask, the rabbit doesn’t mind either. She just enjoys carrots.”
Imani did not relax, but she did give a very tentative nod. “I… will endeavor to keep this in mind.” Her eyes were focused on him, but her ears were swiveling every which way, tail perfectly still.
Liam grumbled inwardly. It seemed like this would take more than just one conversation to pull off. His only consolation was that, unless something derailed their plans, then there would be plenty of time to build some rapport.
Unseen and unheard, hidden within the shadows underneath the wagons, Bunny felt a bit bad for what was to come, but everything was going as planned.
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The city of Doeta had, on a map, nothing particularly interesting about it.
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It sat at the very edge of the Caliphate, occupying that fuzzy place one might call a “border”. The definition wasn’t quite so stringent in this part of the world, not when there was little else but mostly wilderness in all directions but one. Similarly, there were no resources within the area that might make it attractive to trade, and there weren’t any routes from it other than to the Caliphate itself, making it a metaphorical cul-de-sac. Historically speaking, Doeta once did hold great interest, as it was one of the dozen or so fortified cities on the northern side of the Grand Lakes. Near the start of this very Age, a “few” million years or so ago, it had been built with the express purpose of holding the line against the monsters pouring out from the Blue Mountains and the Twilight Jungle.
In short, aside from being the local trade hub, there wasn’t much that would’ve drawn anyone to give the little dot on the map more than a cursory glance.
And yet Liam could not look away.
There was a gigantic beak sticking out of the ground, colored a deep ochre and at least two or three kilometers tall like a mountain in its own right, and its width being two thirds that. The monstrosity teetered at the edge of being nearly closed up, being just open enough to have perhaps a few hundred meters of separation at the widest point.
Doeta was inside that beak.
The beak was as if a state-sized creature had been frozen right before breaking out of the ground and swallowing up the city in a single bite. And during this unfathomably long time since it’d remained unmoving, the Caliphate had built its fortifications within it. After all, with the beak being nigh indestructible, who needed walls? The only fortifications were sandwiched between both halves of the beak, narrow but tall, effectively looking more like dams nestled deep within a canyon. The northern entrance was connected to the road they were currently traveling through, while the southern one was annexed to a bare-bones port just a hundred meters past the safety of the beak’s wall.
“Do you know of that monster?” Liam called out, drawing an interested ear from Bunny, and a jumpy if brief headshake from Imani.
“I heard it was killed by the Gods, but not much else.” The leonid hastily commented, trying to not stare at Bunny as she spoke.
“It’s not dead.” Liam grinned as his eyes lingered over the ochre smooth walls. “The monster holds the power to expand and compress space, itself alongside it. But so long as it’s not at its original size, it can't be harmed. This was a bit of a problem, because the Gods didn’t know what size that was, and thus couldn’t risk wasting energy in dealing blows that could potentially just get shrugged off.” He gestured at the gigantic beak. “The Celestial Sentinel came up with a solution: to let it starve to death. He and the Weaver worked together to design a way to keep it physically immobile, while the others worked together to make sure it couldn’t use its powers, and basically left the thing to rot. This being back in the day when the pantheon was still on friendly terms with one another.”
There was an intense feeling of Bunny’s gaze boring holes into the back of his head, but he ignored it in favor of the confused look Imani shot his way.
“What happens to the city once the monster dies?”
“It’s a very slow death.” He commented excitedly, bouncing a little on his seat, marveling at the city’s exterior as they got ever closer. “The monster and its beak is shrinking ever so slowly as it goes, in a dozen million years or so, it’ll be the size of a thimble. By that point it’ll be truly and fully dead.”
Imani regarded him for a moment. “That… has to be a huge pile of dung.” She quickly turned to look ahead. “Who’d ever believe you would know the designs of the Gods?”
"Yes, Liam, what insane person would believe such claims from a mere mortal?" Bunny threw the words at his mind with a glare.
Ignoring the personal attack, he did the very adult thing of crossing his arms and pouting. “Maybe I’m just insane, then.” He grumbled a little, shaking his head. “Once we get there, how do we proceed? You’ve got to drop these wagons off, right?”
“My contract is to hand them, and their cargo, to the client. But I must also report on the fates of the others to any next of kin.” She spoke with a heavy tone, though eyed him as if to confirm neither of those things would cause needless friction. With no comments from him, she gave another nod.
Liam felt like poking Bunny just for whatever game she was pulling, but the rabbit was pretending to be just a well groomed animal. Their approach to the city meant that there were a few other people traveling as well. Very few had horses or beasts of burden to pull on their wagons, instead they would typically be pulling on their own, or travel heavily loaded.
“Is it just me or are there a lot more people than a city like this would warrant?” He commented, frowning at the literal crowd of people waiting at the gates. Some of them had even set-up at the side of the road, presenting their wares, and bartering with one another.
“There must be a celebration of some kind.” Imani commented without commitment, moving closer to their trio of wagons, grip tightening on the handle of her blade.
“I can go ahead and ask while you guard the wagons.” Liam hid the little bubbling excitement at the prospect of having arrived at a time when some sort of local festivity was about to start.
Imani glanced at him, and then at Bunny.
“She can help guard the things too.” He quickly added, earning a betrayed look from the lagomorph.
The mercenary relaxed slightly, nodding in affirmation. With her blessing, he jumped off of the wagon while she maneuvered to take the reins of the leading horse. Liam walked ahead, paying close attention to the conversations around him.
The locals weren’t talking in the accented Caliphate-common that Imani used, but rather some variant of the same tongue that’d been spoken in Torum. Liam wasn’t entirely sure on the name of the language, though he suspected it was related to Bellemian since that was the more common tongue at the other side of the Blue Mountains.
Once the translation-blessing kicked into full gear, he began to pick up on the general tone. There was clearly an important event, and the mood was definitely a festive one, but there was also an undercurrent of concern. Rumors of monster attacks were spreading, and some of the people swore of having seen a few themselves. Fortunately, nothing major seemed to have transpired, as the rumors would be mostly argued against by the rest.
Liam knew there was truth to the rumors, monster activity was on the rise, and would continue going up from here on out. It wouldn’t be too long until everything went to hell with the meteor, and after that point things would just push further down the drain. He had some plans on how to mitigate the impact, but there was only so much one could do in the face of something at that scale.
Reaching the gate, he found at least a hundred guards, easily recognizable by the flimsy and worn brown tunic depicting the beak on the coat of arms upon their chests. They were spread about in groups of two or three, inspecting wagons and interviewing the people leading to the gate.
One of them spotted Liam and approached, his steps were light, and there was no clattering of metal armor, but he did have a spear, and what appeared like leather armor. “Halt.” The volar commanded in Caliphate-common, fins twitching slightly. “Don’t see many humans around these parts. Purpose of visit?”
“I come for trade and to spend a few nights, my companion is protecting the goods, and I wanted to make sure we had everything in order.” Liam used his most professional tone, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb. “I heard there’s a celebration going on?”
“Yes, it is the day of the Claw,” the soldier nodded.
“...” Liam blinked. “Claw?”
The fish-guy looked no less confused, turning to look at the sheer wall of ochre that rose high into the sky. “That one.” He pointed.
“But that’s… no, nevermind.” Liam sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Maybe all of this was some sort of mistranslation, maybe the word for ‘beak’ in their native tongue meant ‘claw’ in some different tongue and the blessing was messing things up. “Can anyone join in the festivities or is it local exclusive?”
Kind of like how the “Grand Lakes” actually had a more exotic sounding name, but was getting jumbled up.
Yeah, that had to be it.
“It’s open to everyone.” The soldier didn’t look particularly excited about that fact. “And there’s even a contest. Anyone that can climb to the tip without cheating their way there gets to meet the Emir in person.” That part did seem to get some enthusiasm out of the guy, he was all grins. “There are betting pools, if you’re interested.”
He could’ve held some interest in the contest, and he certainly wanted to try it out to test how much his physique had improved, but he wasn’t particularly interested in the prize itself. After all, he and Maridah had hashed out a good strategy for him to get some one on one with the Emir.
“That sounds nice.”
The guard was probably trying to find if the stranger could be scammed, and Liam didn’t mind one iota. It would make passing the gate smoother, and it would help him learn who was who amongst the participants, as well as where the money was flowing from.
Cracked Bay was in desperate need of labor, and the main objective here was to hire as many people as they could. A cult wasn’t built in a day, and it was always better to get your hands on good talent from the get-go.
The things he did for a friend.
Still, he felt like he was forgetting something.