It took us about an hour or so, but we finally reached the border. The region has turned arid by the minute, characterized by a lack of trees and shrubs and bushes at max. Before I could even see the encampments or border security, I felt it.

A feeling of ancientness.

The one I’ve started becoming familiar with over the days appeared here too. It was there somewhere, ahead of the border. And around it.

It was like a wall. A wall so tall and grand that I thought I could almost see it. Of course I can’t, but in my head there existed a grand wall of shimmering energy, stopping everything and everyone outside.

I looked up and yet I couldn’t find its end. I believed it to be taller than even the Vault and I almost feared whoever built it. How did someone even build it?

‘Is it really possible?’ I looked upwards at the clouds, and I felt the barrier dip a little. As if enclosing us in a bubble of sorts.

I almost fell off, but the guy beside me helped.

“Are you okay, Sir?” Shouted the knight from the front. He looked at me with a frown and I wondered if he felt something suspicious. “I am okay, but why are you looking at me like that?”

The knight took a moment to reply, but he eventually did, his frown still on his face “I was wondering if you feel any ill-effects?”

“I do not feel ill. Why do you ask?” I asked, trying to gauge more information.

He did not reply for a while and as I waited for the man to reply, we reached a checkpoint of sorts. A hastily erected watch tower entered my vision, barring a military encampment behind it.

The encampment was an open camp extending wide with watch towers in every cardinal direction just like the one in front of me. The encampment consisted of hundreds of tents neatly arranged in rows.

Two men stood in front, ready, each draped in a beige camouflage robe and chainmail inside it. A spear in a hand and a firearm hidden under their robes. I felt a prickly sensation on my neck and found a man aiming a crossbow at us from the watchtower.

From my memories, I knew that borders weren’t a fixed construct in this world. Hence border security is nothing more than a few watch towers and tents some distance away from the city at fixed intervals around the city.

So seeing such an amount of military strength in this certain area tipped me off as odd. I ascribed it to the invisible wall in front of me.

We steadily trotted towards the tower and stopped 50 paces before it. The knight got off his horse, and so did I. The man didn’t wait for me and hastily walked towards the guards.

I too followed behind, but he reached earlier. I can see him show some identification and talk about some “situation oyster” and my name. The guard looked at me and frowned.

I wondered if they were badmouthing me or planning to bring me oysters. Do they even have oysters here?

By then I had reached them and the guards saluted me before welcoming me in. One of them said, “Welcome sir, I believe you are here under the Viscount’s orders?”

“Yes, I am. Although I hardly know what I am meant to be doing here.” I replied as we walked in. The encampment wasn’t as noisy as I would expect it to be, with soldiers looking tense and on guard all the time.

“I’m sure everything would be made clear to you by the major general, sir.” He said and led us towards one of the larger tents. It was quite, unusually so.

“Please wait outside for a minute.” He said as he walked into the tent. Finally, some life returned to the tent and voices echoed inside.

It gave me a bad feeling. I looked around me and almost everyone looked a little tense. The passing soldiers looked at me for a moment longer and something in their gazes looked weird.

Were they… angry at me?

“Please come in, Sir.” The guard lifted the flap, walked out and invited us in. I entered the tent with the knight while the others stayed out.

The inside was a little colder. The tent had a table at the center with a map and lantern on it. Rows of chairs on both sides of the tent were filled with military personnel of various ranks.

The major general stood by the table, his uniform included a cotton shirt, jeans, and black boots. The camouflage shirt had no opulent or ribbons decorating his position yet I could tell who he was.

He had a gentle face, shaved clean of beard or hair. His eyes shined bright blue as they scrutinized me. His eyes didn’t give away what he thought of me.

“Conor Servouz, I assume? Glad to meet you.” He looked at me and greeted me with a clear crisp voice.

“Glad to meet you too, Major General Waside.” I had asked his name from the knight while we were on the way.

“When do you plan to take action?” He asked. ‘A man of no bullshit, I see…’

“I am ready right now. Although I’m unsure what I’m exactly supposed to do.”

“Your specialties as an Artist are what we require the most. I’m sure you can already sense the wall that towers over us here.

“This morning we felt a shockwave of energy brush the wall. It rippled, if I must say so bluntly. It was like the space itself was rubber, and that has spooked all of us and the Viscount. We want you to tell us what you make of it and if you can find something new that we can’t.” He explained.

“You flatter me, Major General. I have but started on this journey and know hardly anything, definitely not something as high level as this.” I frowned. This looked way too out of my league.

“Which still amounts to more than all of us combined. Don’t look down upon yourself.”

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“If I may ask… why did the Viscount not send someone more experienced in the arts?” I asked.

“The other Artists have been spread throughout the borders to map the wall and identify any other such ripples. The shortage of men and the Viscount’s desire for you to take a more active role in such matters led to you being here.”

He explained it very well but I keep feeling like it was not enough. Some things did not fit and the bad feeling around me clouded the environment like a… mist of bad luck?

‘Wait, is my specialty already influencing me? When did it start?’ I thought over it quickly and thought of all the times I had a supernatural intuition of bad luck and such.

‘Very fascinating… but what am I supposed to do here!?.’ I cursed myself at finding this now. I should’ve explored it more. Thought over it more. Now I’m stuck in a camp filled with, very likely, a hostile military.

It’s like a… it’s like a… it’s like a fucking oyster!

‘Dammit! Okay calm down, calm down. Maybe things aren’t that bad. Maybe it’s all just my paranoia. Yes yes, that could be it. Why would they hurt me even? I haven’t done anything wrong.’ I reassured myself and it worked a bit.

“Are you okay?” The major general asked as he frowned at me.

’Shit I took too long. Damage control, damage control!’ “Yes, I’m fine. I was just thinking about how to go with this.”

The major general hummed in response as we all left the tent for the site. The invisible wall was a little behind where the encampment ended. As we walked there the mist weirdness around me increased and I increasingly felt certain something was wrong.

Soldiers around me had their hands on the hilts of their swords, tensed up and all silent. The camp behind me fell silent and I felt stares boring drills in my back.

As I stood directly near the wall though, I saw the others have stayed a little further. Maybe they wanted to give me space or were just afraid of what I might do.

I think I’ll bet my money on the latter.

With no options at hand, I tried to do the job I was here for.

I looked at the invisible wall in front of me, not with my physical eyes but the metaphysical ones I seemed to possess.

This close I thought I’d be able to make more of the wall. Learn its inner workings, but all I saw was a solid piece of wall like any other. I tried placing my hand on it and it passed through it like air.

‘What even are you here for….?’ I wondered as I almost admitted defeat at finding anything new. Some might say I need to look harder but how is one supposed to look something harder when they can’t even see it?

One can’t feel harder through their hand, much less a metaphysical one.

But as I was about to turn away, I caught something. A pair of eyes. High up, behind the wall, floating in the air. They belonged to a man. A man so pale that he looked like a doll.

He had black hair tied in a ponytail, and a green pair of eyes. He wore a black trench coat with a blue robe underneath it and a pair of black boots. He had a quill tucked behind his ear.

I called him he, but he might as well be a god with the way he stood there, staring at me. I felt an impossibly thick ancientness from this being. Older than mountains, even older than time itself he felt.

Yet that man smiled at me. ‘He’ seemed amused. I don't know why. ‘He’ seemed surprised. I wonder what I did to deserve it.

And then ‘He’ opened his mouth. A sentence itself formed in my head “We’ll meet soon.” ‘He’ told me, before he vanished. Just like that. I just stared at where ‘He’ stood, unable to believe what just happened.

“We’ll meet soon”

“We’ll meet soon”….

‘His’ words echoed in my brain. ‘His’ words were soft like honey. I turned back to look at others, wondering if they saw ‘Him’ and heard ‘Him’ too. And was left shocked at the display.

Tens of guns aimed at me, swords and spears directed in my direction as the soldiers backed away in fear. They sweated buckets and I could see their unadulterated fear towards me in those eyes.

Only one man stood where he stood originally. The major general stared at me impassively and I feared he was closer to ordering a fire.

“Conor Servouz!” He shouted at me “Report what you just did to the wall!! Why did it rippled?”

‘Ripples?’ “Ripples? There were no ripples Waside! All I saw was a man on the side, floating, as he told me ‘We’ll meet again’. Surely you saw him right?”

And I realized I had spoken wrongly. I should not have said that. Cause even the previously impassive general showed fear at the mention as he paled ever so slightly and moved back with his soldiers.

“Conor Servouz! On the charges of endangering the viscountcy and bringing dangerous elements to our city, you are hereby arrested under the orders of Viscount Arnaud Servouz! You’d better not resist!”

‘What! Arrested!? Why, how? I didn’t do anything! I didn’t call anyone. No no no I need to get out of here. Shit shit shit.’

“The Viscount is mistaken, general. I did not do anything. I did not bring anyone. I do not know about this!” I said as I slowly backed away.

“Please do not resist Conor. We’d use force if we have to.”

“No, you are NOT understanding me! I did not do anything” I said as I backed away. I felt a shudder pass through me as my back hit the wall. I could not leave it somehow.

It only ended up spooking the soldiers as the general finally ordered “CAPTURE HIM!”

I ran.

I ran as fast as my legs could, but I was surrounded. I tried to slip by the gaps and despite them being scared of my tag as an Artist, they gritted through and attacked me. They pounced on me and hit me with the shaft of their spears.

My back, chest, and head hurt and so did my legs as they collapsed on the floor. I tried hitting someone but they were too experienced for me. A hit at my temple sent me to the ground. My vision closing on me from the ends.

I saw despair in the face as a foot descended on me and blanketed everything in a dark embrace.

‘Perhaps this is what inside of an oyster feels.’

- - - - * - - - -

The general stood at the back looking at his men beat up the former son of Viscount. He felt a trace of pity at the retaliating man, but they were snubbed by the thought of the calamity he had brought.

He feared for his family and had already ordered some of his men to take them away to the nearby county. There they would be safe. He himself planned to desert his station if it got too dangerous.

He did not wish to sacrifice himself so soon.

The scrimmage had finally come to an end and the boy was handcuffed and taken away. He’d be spending the last of his days in the central prison.

Albert Waside heaved a sigh of relief at how easily it was solved. He wanted nothing to get back to his woman and spend some time alone in her bosom. The thought of which sent him chuckling inside, but he kept a strict visage outside.

But just as he was about to walk away, someone shouted and pointed at the invisible wall. The ripples had returned and he backtracked a few steps unknowingly.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the guy who had shouted. His rifle had slipped from his hands in the chaos. As the rifle collided with the floor, due to a faulty mechanism it fired. The shot, by complete coincidences of fate, fired straight at Albert.

Albert always thought he’d find his family in his last memories, yet at this moment he only thought of the times he took bribes, his mistress, his scandals, and the endless regrets he had accumulated.

And then a jolt coursed through his brain as his vision darkened and he lost consciousness, forever.

Safe to say, Albert was very very unlucky tonight.

- - - - * - - - -