While they were riding through the city, Alessia took a nap. Yes, she woke up late, but she was not going to give up on the chance to get some more sleep while they still were on regular paths. Once outside the city the roads would soon turn bumpy and she might not be able to rest until the night.
Joan took advantage of the silence to start reviewing the materials at hands. He wanted to familiarise himself with the history of this particular site, maybe he could even get some time with Berel to discuss it. Suspected to be on ancient buried ruins, the site was chosen because it could provide insight on how people of previous eras might have lived. It was also slightly larger than usual sites to maximize the chances of finding what they came looking for. Ideally the National institute of Archaeology hoped the buried ruins were older than a thousand years, placing them in the Era of the Great Floods. The last news they had received at the university was the transport demand. Tesla had not consulted anyone on the team when he decided to send Alessia, Joan had learnt that while they were waiting for her.
Joan turned his his gaze to the city outside of his window, Margen was lively at this hour of the morning. This was typically the time at which shops opened and a lot of people relied on these shops to provide them with food for the day. As for breakfast, bakeries opened an hour before sunrise. In Margen it was usual to see people buy food everyday, with the humidity brought by the proximity with the sea, food would go mouldy quite fast and the common people could not afford the cost insulation or a food drying box.
Alessia had fallen asleep as fast as her eyes had closed. Joan realised that even when she was asleep she would make noise, the young women was snoring, that's why he had abandoned his work to instead, take in the picturesque scenery.
He mentally made a list of everything they would need during the upcoming week of travel, so from Margen to the site in Andora, but he soon realised it was useless as he was unable to remember anything after the first day. This was going to be a ride. The driver supposedly had everything he needed to make the trip to San Vale but due to the last minute nature of Alessia's involvement in the trip, she had just enough provision to last her two days, at best. Fortunately, two days down the line they would arrive in San Timo, there, she could buy some more. He would share his provision if her bag didn't make it to the smaller city.
He would complain, of course, but he wasn't going to let her go hungry. Unless, of course, she prove to be exceptionally annoying as her snoring was already hinting toward. He resisted the urge to nudge her a bit to wake her up and tried to get back to his work. He had a wealth of things he could do to occupy the time, like correcting two thesis, continue to write his own, his second since officially graduating, maybe also rewrite some of his lessons to make them more appealing to the younger generation,...or practice meditation and self calming technics, he thought, as his train of thought was once again interrupted by Alessia's snoring.
It was gradually becoming louder until, Joan couldn't resist the urge anymore. He shook her shoulder in an attempt to wake her. In vain, but the snoring lightened until it became barely audible. Satisfied with this outcome Joan went back to his work. At this point they had arrived at the city gates. Quickly he produced the documents for both him and Alessia as well as for their luggage. Once he had proven that they were not, in fact, trying to smuggle stolen merchandise out of the city, the guards let them through. They passed through the old North gate and officially left the city's ground. While passing through professor Archebus couldn't help but recall his own words on the edifice, from his lesson on the beginning of the current era.
Built in the year 1522, the fifth year of the New Dawn era, the North gate held the blason of the city circled by Olive branches at its apex. It represents the city's triumph against th e king Charles' III armies during the secession war that made Suloo an independent country. The city had three other gates like this one, each at a cardinal direction, although the East gate faced the sea and served a more symbolic role. All of the visitors from the sea had to pass through to be able to enter the city as the immigration desk as well as every port affair offices were located in front. Since it's inauguration, on the 13th of August 1523, it's heavy wooden doors and metal reinforcements had served only once. It was during the battle of Ingris Field, the region the carriage was now passing through, to avoid the civilian inside of the city to get injured by the bellists armies. That was in 1534, more than two centuries ago.
Stolen novel; please report.
If he played his cards right, the historian could be back in Margen to enjoy the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of their victory. Maybe this year will he be nominated for the speech, it would be one of his greatest achievement if he did manage to get it, the most prized of them all. He wouldn't be able to shut up about it if he did, maybe that's why he never got the opportunity. His colleague would try to kill him if he suddenly couldn't stop talking, they would believed he had been replaced by a fake!
Joan was so absorbed in his daydreaming he didn't even notice Alessa wake up. The woman looked around for a while before remembering where she was and why. She gazed outside the window, the day was sunny and bright, the countryside looked radiant. The fields were still green, the long wheat strands swayed lazily in the breeze, cows grazed and bird skipped merrily from wooden pole to wooden pole. She let out an audible sigh which startled Joan.
"You are awake! I hadn't realized!" He tried to say it in an engaging way to hide his surprise.
"Did I give you a fright? I apologise." She looked amused but didn't continue on the subject, instead, she turned back at the window to look at the passing fields. "We are travelling relatively fast, we are already at Redfield!" she pointed at the small village. "At this pace we will have to stop before the end of the afternoon!"
"The driver has orders, I trust him regarding the roads we take and at what pace." Nevertheless, Joan opened the little chat window between the interior of the carriage and the driver, to ask him.
"Do not worry esteemed clients, my horses are quite endurant, we will stop not long before sundown and will depart after the sunrise tomorrow morning. They are more than capable of sustaining this pace for the entire week, I wouldn't want to make you arrive late at your rendez-vous!" he added cheerfully, before starting whistling a tune.
Joan closed the window and got bak to his papers after exchanging a meaningful look with Alessa, she smiled at him before extirpating an old book from her bag. She thought 'He really is petty!'. Unbeknownst to the historian riding with her, she had also started educating herself on the subject of ancient eras. As a matter of fact Alessia hadn't been a student at the University of Margen for a long time, before this year, she got her bachelor degree at the Natural Science Institute in San Vale, that's where she met Tesla who then extended a formal invitation to follow his and Zayiks class on geography and geopolitics. To avoid getting behind due to the gap in her history knowledge, the woman took auxiliary classes under the supervision of Miss Abe, another history teacher and senior to professor Archebus.
She opened the old book at the page concerning the Great Floods era. Tesla had briefed her about the theories concerning the site before she had accepted to participate. Those theories seemed completely crazy at first but the more she learned about the geography and geological context of the soils of the area she realized that there might be some truth in them, or at least some realism. To her knowledge the ruins were in a zone characterized by the erosion of the eons old mountains of Suloo, therefore the only thing that could have buried them would have been an earthquake. But if it had been the case she would have found remnant faults and fractures in the stone, yet she found none of it. Moreover there was no other evidence of violent activity in the region at any era she could look at maps of. So what was it? What had buried the yet to be discovered ruins? After careful examinations of the old maps of the region, some being a couple centuries old, she discovered that there used to be some evidence, sediments and soil displacement that were later erased, hidden under new fields and towns.
An so, just like that, the idea seemed to make much more sense.
They spent the first day in relative silence. At diner, Alessa took the opportunity of the three of them being sat around the same campfire, to try and introduce herself in a les formal way, in an attempt to make the upcoming days slightly less awkward. In an equally desperate attempt to hide his poor social skills, Joan used his fatigue as a way to avoid the discussions. The driver of the carriage was named Alexis, he was happy to get someone to talk to. Alessa learned from him that he never married and that he had always worked with horses. He used to be a racer in his younger years, and despite having a confortable retirement plan, he couldn't just sit idly and do nothing, so he joined a transport company and got to work. They soon separated to go to sleep and Joan awoke to be on the look out for the night.
*****
"We should try to find a place to stop for the night, the horses need rest." Joan said to Alessa as they were watching the sun set.
"I'll take first watch, and professor, please put that letter away, staring at it is only going to hurt you more."
"I just..."
"It couldn't have gone any differently, stop blaming yourself, you did all you can." Alessia had a deep sigh, "He wouldn't want you to self sabotage like that, he died a hero, let him rest."