Near the border of the Urchski clans, there was the massive Kezl river. Fish swam over each other to cross it, but the perilous curves and thick foliage of the Megaden made it difficult for fishermen to pull more than a few at a time. Bridges sporadically covered the rivers thicker portions, though the quality varied between the ones found upon the country's discovery and ones the Urchski fashioned themselves.
Over one made of wood, Twenty-Two was making her way through a small crowd of traders heading to the western area. Guards on both sides held their traditional spears tightly, keenly observing each traveller. Humans and Masked were stopped and questioned one by one as they passed.
Her clothing and face were obscured by a dark brown cloak hung over her body. The outfit turned some heads, but only on account of the fact she was by herself while wearing it. Most who looked at it might assume she was wearing such obscuring clothing to avoid the hands of petty thieves while within the mash of people.
Why was I even sent out for this job? She thought to herself. All these people around me are making my sensing ability go insane. Feels like I’m standing on a bed of nails. I bet Jason couldn’t take me complaining and just sent me out here to get out of his hair. If any of them bump into me I’m going to jump into the river.
She reached the edge of the bridge and was stopped by one of the guards. Before he could speak, she held up a trader’s badge. It had been given to the by the Underking as part of this mission. Even though the information was accurate, the guard hesitated to let her pass. When she eventually did, she tugged the hood down further and stared at the ground.
The rest of the group hurried forward, but Twenty-Two separated from the pack. All of them were moving further into the Eastern side, but she clung to the river’s edge. Once away from the crowd, she let out a sigh of relief. Her attention was briefly drawn to a bird resting on the shores edge, dipping its beak into the water to drink.
It was a mountain trail-tail, a creature native to the place Alzholme had rested on the old world. Aside from chickens and some other novelty birds with a low population, it was possibly among the last birds left. The bird finished drinking and stretched out its dark grey wings wide. Its raptor eyes briefly locked onto Twenty-Two before it flew away. Only once it had left did she start walking down the path again.
This whole place feels too earthy for me. I feel like I’m going to get a disease with all these animals moving around and above. Not to mention all the eyes poking at me, little Urchski’s thinking they can pick my pockets. I can practically feel my sword arm twitching. She thought to herself, nervously glancing around as she walked.
She eventually found herself in front of one of the rare few stores near the waterfront. It was easily spotted, with a small garden of multi-colored flowers blooming around the base of the tree. A winding path led from the road up to the door, but no sign was visible. Twenty-Two looked from side to side furtively, making sure the coast was clear before she headed inside.
The inside was a massive column with stairs that rose up a level around the side every time it passed the opposite end of the entrance. In the center was a slight depression with a desk, hewn from the wood of the tree itself. Behind it was a young woman with red hair.
Twenty-Two took a step inside and looked around cautiously. There was no one in the immediate range she could see, but the tree’s insides rose dozens of meters upward. As she drew her attention downward, she got a good look at the woman behind the desk.
She seemed like a normal human, with a slightly plump body. Her clothes were plain, but matted in spots with bits of tree sap. On top of a black smock she was wearing, the image of a blue rose was sewn. Imperfections littered the stitching of her clothes, a sign that she might’ve made them herself. Silently, Twenty-Two approached her while she worked on some paperwork. The moment her light got disrupted, she glanced up and let out a small yelp.
“O-Oh! Sorry, I wasn’t really expecting anyone to visit yet...” The woman answered. “I’m Caroline, and you are...?”
“I’m looking for the Enterus who runs this shop. Do you work for him?” Twenty-Two answered, keeping her head tilted slightly to avoid letting her face be seen properly.
“You mean Volruun? I’m sorry, he’s a bit wrapped up in studying some plants near the top. He’s actually making some really nice progress in integrating the blood sap into plant soil. Hopefully we can use it to help grow greenery in the—"
“Can you get him? I have rather important matters to discuss with him, and I don’t want to wait for very long.”
Caroline started to speak up, but Twenty-Two let her glimpse part of her face. The many scars across her features sent a chill down her spine. She quietly excused herself from the desk and hurried up the stairs.
In the meantime, Twenty-Two walked about the shop. Most of the shelves contained bottles labelled with tonics to treat various ailments, as well as dosage instructions for each race of Alzholme. All the bottles had a similar shape to them, implying some form of mass production. She reached forward and grabbed a bottle filled with a thick red liquid.
Sleep tonic to prevent paralysis during night time. She read inside of her head. It must’ve taken a lot of experimentation to get a concoction that specific. If I was here on better terms, maybe I’d ask for something to help with nightmares. That or something to stop Olivia snoring.
A loud series of creaking came from above, and she placed the bottle back on the shelf before turning around. While Caroline was still using the stairs to head back down, a massive potted tree was inching its way down the floors. A thick root latched onto the railing of one layer and lowered the pot below before hooking itself on the same one and repeating the process. For how much weight must have been lifted each time, the speed was remarkably impressive.
When the pot finally rested on the floor, Twenty-Two could make out more of the feature unique to the Enterus. At first looking like stunted and warped trees, there was a large brown face plastered on one side of the trunk. The tree itself seemed to hunch over to emphasize which side had the wrinkly features on it. Out of the pot itself were only a few small roots, and the one massive one that he had used to climb down. Leaves shook to the floor as the Enterus let out a drawn out breath before pulling itself closer to Twenty-Two.
“Strange to see someone wearing a cloak in this weather.” He said, his voice long and drawn out. “I am Volruun-oak, if you did not know that. Did you have a specific need for me? Caroline is already trained to handle sales of the tonics. Unless you had a question about their contents?”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“I’ve heard that you’ve been in the Megaden for quite a while. In fact, there’s supposed to be one of the old buildings that got too overgrown with vines and people thought that it got buried. Trouble is, that sort of thing isn’t really possible naturally.” Twenty-Two said as she moved a little closer to him. “Would you happen to know anything about that?”
Volruun’s face furrowed like a twisting knot. “That is a rather suspicious question. I am afraid you are mistaken if you seek to imply anything of my doing being involved in such rumors.”
“No, as a matter of fact, I’m not saying that at all. What I am here to do is to ask you about the access tunnel that was made shortly after that. You had something to do with constructing it, didn’t you? There was something wrong with the structure because of nearby tree roots, and you had to be brought in, right?”
He glared at her intensely as she kept talking. Caroline took a step away from him as the pot started grinding against the floor. Twenty-Two glanced down at the thick root moving him forward and smirked. Pulling her cloak aside she brought out her blade and spun it around confidently.
The root shot forward at an astounding speed. Its fibres screeched out with crackling noises as it moved to wrap around the intruder’s throat. Instead they only grasped at open air. Twenty-Two managed to dodge to the side and was racing along the edges of the building. Volruun’s root gave chase again, the effort of moving it so fast making him grunt in frustration. He cut her off shortly, but she deflected the strike with her sword.
Pox, it really is oak. A hardwood like that is just going to dull my weapon, and I’m not going to have the stamina to dodge him for as long as it takes to cut through. Have to find a distraction. Her thoughts raced as she contorted her body to avoid the sweeping wood.
The shelves of potions caught her eye again and she moved towards one as fast as possible. Making sure to watch where he was aiming to strike her from, she reached the shelf she’d been looking at before. Rather than grabbing one, she hooked her blade behind a whole row and yanked them all towards him.
His root snaked around a few of them in the air, but most just crashed helplessly to the ground. As he set the safe ones on the wet ground, he turned back to get revenge. Before the root could strike again, he found his assistant with a knife against her throat. His branches shook in anger for a few seconds, but he remained silent.
“Good, I was hoping to avoid any bloodshed, so I’m glad you’ll play along. Now, answers; What was it that you found in the old building that made the Urchski want to pull out of there?”
He was silent for several moments, and then began to speak in his slow voice.“I believe it was... old technology. Artifacts of Alzholme’s original occupants, I believe.” He answered begrudgingly. “Why would you even wish to know something like that? That building is a nest of thick roots.”
“What I want is not why I’m here, I’m here on behalf of an interested party somewhere higher up. Now, how do we gain access to this tunnel that you created? Is it still being used by anyone?”
“How would I know whether anyone is using that thing anymore? It’s not my life, nor my concern what they are doing. I’m working here to help the city with mixtures made from Megaden flora. Release my assistant and leave me to my work immediately!” He demanded, the gnarls of wood in his expression creaking with every word.
Twenty-Two took a step back and glanced down, noticing already the root that was snaking towards her ankle. It quickly retreated as she looked, but she pressed the blade harder against Caroline’s skin, cutting into the surface enough to bleed at the edge. He let out a grunt of frustration at his failure.
“Fine... you win. I still don’t know anything about whether it’s being used or not. To the east of the building is a massive iron grate. Last time I was there, it had a massive grate on it. No guards though, I’m guessing they wanted to keep it a secret.” Volruun said with a deep sigh. “Is that enough for you? Let her go already and get out of here!.”
She released her grip on Caroline and shoved the woman forward. Volruun’s root wrapped around one of his assistant’s arms and helped keep her upright.
“There, was that so hard?” She said, lowering the blade to her side. “Don’t trouble yourself with trying to send guards after me either, got it? Just treat it like this little exchange never happened and we won’t need to run into each other again.”
“Wait!” He called out as she turned to leave. “Why do you even need this information? That place... it had an unnatural feeling to it. Structures like that don’t belong here in the Megaden. Whatever the person you’re working for, whatever reason you have for heading in, you should drop it.”
“Goodbye, alchemist. I’ll pass on your superstition along with the information you’ve given me.” Twenty-Two answered.
She left the building and flipped the hood of her cloak completely over her face again. Once out of the winding garden path, she stopped in the road and glanced around. A few Urchski scampered in several directions, but none were within hearing range. Feeling alone, she let out a heavy sigh and clutched at her chest.
Pox upon me, I shouldn’t have cut her throat like that, even as a threat. Whatever, he’s an alchemist. They can probably patch that wound easily. Still, feels so strange to not just attack someone outright. She thought to herself, flexing her stiff fingers a few times.
A quick movement caught her eye towards the river, as she saw another mountain trail-tail. Unlike before, this one had a severely injured wing. Twenty-Two took a few steps closer, and noticed that the bird was carrying for a single egg. It hissed at her as she approached.
“Relax, I’m not going to take your baby.” She told it pointlessly.
The bird continued to stare at her intensely, fluffing out the feathers on its good wing to appear more intimidating. She looked past the hen, spotting a small lizard sneaking towards the nest.
“You know there’s something coming from behind you right? Too busy trying to scare me off that you’re not even paying attention.” She said, sitting down on the ground. “That thing is going to snack on your egg and all you’ll be able to do is kill it. Don’t think you’ve got the brains to do that without harming the egg in the process. I’ve got a code about getting revenge, you know, but I might be willing to break it for you... if you were nice to me at least.”
Twenty-Two folded her arms up on her knees as she tucked her legs in, smirking at the bird. A few more seconds passed, with the lizard crawling closer by the second. Eventually the bird made an effort to spread its hurt wing, cooing softly in agony. Twenty-Two could tell there were a few broken bones in the wing, presumably from an earlier fight. Beneath the twisted feathers, fragments of other eggshells were scattered about the nest.
Standing back up, Twenty-Two picked a rock off the road and chucked it directly at the lizard. The blow knocked on its hard hard enough to bleed, but not enough to kill. As it scurried off, the mother bird looked about in confusion. Eventually she settled her eyes on the more distant Twenty-Two and settled down out of her tense pose.
“There, that’s my good deed for the day. Least you’re thankful for it, unlike—"
“I hope you’re not going to say my name.” Came Jason’s voice.
She flinched back and stumbled as she spun around. Jason was standing in the road, dressed in a similar cloak to her own, but with his arms out of the sleeves and held behind his back. He looked over to the alchemist’s shop and then back to her.
“Did you get the information we need? I only saw you go in.”
“What, didn’t think I could go and get a simple few pieces of information out of an old tree parasite? I thought you were supposed to be helping Olivia, not out here eavesdropping on me.”
“Olivia fell asleep. Another night long study session seems to have gotten the best of her. I was hoping to come by and help you out, but you went in before I could join you. Didn’t seem like you were in there for long though. I didn’t think even an Enterus would be much trouble for you.”
Twenty-Two brushed past him and started walking down the path back home. Jason followed suit, but kept quiet as they moved about. He made sure to stand between larger crowds, but didn’t mention it. Right as they crossed back over the bridge and were out of sight, she grabbed his arm.
“Why aren’t you talking? Are you waiting for us to meet back up with Olivia before you mention the bird?” She hissed at him.
“No, I wasn’t planning on talking about it at all. I mean, I did have a small curiosity about what happened, but you’re not usually the open type.” Jason said, cocking an eyebrow at her. “Why, did you do something?”
“You saw me save the egg, you already said you were watching me before I even entered the alchemist’s shop!”
“Well, it’s true that I was curious, but I wasn’t going to bring it up. You used to be a member of the maskless, right? The Erudine peacekeepers. As far as I know, they’re not the type to prevent a crime, just to mete out justice or revenge.” Jason said before pulling his arm free. “I was wondering if you still believed in that sort of thing.”
Twenty-Two glanced down at her hands and flexed them. Her hands were calloused from years of training and work. Across her arms were thin lines of pale skin that just barely stood out among the rest of her body. Because of her ability, most of the scars were nothing more than just light slashes. A small number were deep and wide, mostly across her forearms. Looking at them again made her clench her fists tightly and look to the ground.
“I’m not their puppet anymore. They abandoned me when I needed saving the most. If I can work against their wants, that’s all the better for me.”
“Hm... well, just be sure you don’t lose your moral code entirely. You’re working for the king now. We’re expected to be strong protectors and executors of his will.” He said, but gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t hesitate to come to me if that sort of thing is causing you conflict though, alright? You’re better than me in a fight, and we’re going to need you to be in top shape if things go wrong. That includes your mental health.”
“Spare me your pity, Jason.” Twenty-Two replied, brushing off his hand and moving back towards the road.
He shook his head as he watched her leave, having to jog to catch up with her.