The convoy drove through Aoka. Since the passageway, it felt as if you were in a city.

The houses stood side by side. There were only a few individual buildings and when there were, they was usually the largest in their street. There had been many houses before the wall, as if the city had grown out of the wall, but from what Meia had been able to find out so far, the city had more likely shrunk down to this size.

The streets were mostly paved and had lanterns. Many streets were narrow. Some streets were even narrower. Some were just gaps between houses. Some simply ended at a house or a wall. At some corners, stone steps led up or down, but it wasn't always clear where they led.

Occasionally there were trees between the houses. Sometimes they stood so close up that they only had three quarters of a crown. Some of the trees looked as if they had fought for their space with sweat and tears. There were no large green areas to be seen. The maximum were patches of grass under the trees that were enclosed by the pavement. But small plants grew everywhere. Moss grew in many places. Ivy climbed up many of the facades. Many of the houses had flower boxes on the windows. All the houses looked inhabited. There were curtains in the windows. In front of some of the houses there were garbage cans or bicycles. In one street, there were washing lines hanging across the street and one of them even had laundry on it. You couldn't do that in Kiras. At the end of the day, everything would either be gone or destroyed. Even garbage cans were not always safe and were therefore often chained or fenced in.

The convoy took a main road through the city. Meia suspected this because the road was wide and appeared to be one. Despite everything, there were surprisingly few people out and about. It was weekend, but even for that there weren't many. The commander and Minister Schoppe had both indicated that it was a quiet city. It had not been an understatement.

Meia could hear the splashing of water all the way. The town truly deserved its title. There were wells on many corners between the houses. Next to some streets were canals with clear water. Time and again, the convoy had to take a bridge. In a cross street, which looked like a shopping street, there was a channel with a watercourse. The channel did not cross the main road, but ran underneath it. The water disappeared under the pavement on the left and came out again on the right. The city sloped slightly to the east. You could see that on the streets. On the left side, they tended to go uphill and on the right side, they tended to go downhill.

Most of the building material Meia saw was stone. The houses were brick-built. The roofs were tiled. The streets were paved. Bridges, wells and the rest were also made of stone. There were certainly beams in the houses, but you could hardly see any wood. All the houses were similar. None of the houses looked like the houses in Kiras. In the center of Kiras there were many houses with brickwork without plaster, but they still looked different. They were stronger and differently decorated, but above all it was different stone.

Meia didn't know much about stone. She would claim to know what a brick was, but in reality she didn't really know what a brick was. Presumably a brick was made of loam or clay, but she didn't know what loam and clay were either. Stone was therefore either natural stone like sandstone, natural stone like fieldstone, brick or stone. Every stone was one of these. Of course, there were also gemstones, but unless you were running a trade house in the capital, you certainly didn't consider them to be building materials. Meia knew a lot about gemstones, by the way. It was an inevitability when everyone around you was always talking about jewel pendants.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Meia attributed reddish colors to bricks, but neither the bricks of the houses here nor those of the houses in Kiras were reddish. Meia knew that brickwork could be washed and bleached to make it lighter in color, but at least here, it didn't look like it. Aoka was gray with blue and green. Kiras was in colors in the range of beige and ochre. The palace, the city walls and many buildings had these colors. The colors from here were not often seen there. Kiras and Aoka were as different as night and day. In Kiras, the streetlights were also black, but that wasn't a similarity either. In Kiras, they were old gas lanterns. The varnish was pale and cracked. The light was dim and the streets were shady. Everything was dirty. There was a stench of smoke everywhere. The only major exception was the city center, but... If you went down the wrong street at night, you'd better walk fast...

"Why are you with the city guard?"

The commander hesitated for a long time by his standards. "That's a good question... I was drafted back in the days, then often enough promoted and switched to the city guard here because I had the chance. Or do ya wanna know why anyone's in the city guard in general?" He pointed to his men with his gaze. "He's here because he's good. - He's here... Why are ya here?"

The young man replied energetically, as if he were at roll call. "My application had been accepted." The only thing missing was the salute.

The commander shook his head at his hopeless recruit.

"Aoka's a small city. Nothing much ever happens here. The citizens are old and rich or young and rich and not at home."

~Like in Wiestahl.~

The taller man added: "But there are often marital quarrels. Just the other day, one of them threw half their house into the street and her husband was downstairs begging, haha."

~Also like in Wiestahl.~

"The best part was when he tried to climb in through the window." the young man commented gleefully.

"Yeah, lucky he didn't hit his head, but do you really think it's funny? Isn't he your uncle or something?"

"Yes, but by marriage. None of the family can stand him. My grandpa only allowed it because he's rich."

"Ah, I see..."

"It's a shame you weren't there, commander."

"It's not that important. It probably wasn't his last trouble for the week..."

"What do you mean?"

"Ahh, nothing that concerns you."

"What do they do in such a case?" Meia asked out of curiosity.

The taller man answered first. "Yes, nothing at all. We patched him up and then he had to wait until she'd cooled down. Took a few hours, then she took off and left the door open." Next he turned to the recruit, "What actually became of that? Is she back yet? Do you know that?"

"My aunt is with my grandmother in Minden. I don't think she'll come back, but it's possible. It wouldn't be the first time."

"And ya wanna join the city guard?"

"No." Meia shook her head a little so that it didn't seem too dismissive.

"Ya wanna become a wife?

Meia wanted to shake her head again at first, but... "Maybe..."

"Just maybe? Then why work as a queens maid?" The commander glanced conspicuously at her hands. "Or are you unhappy with the snobs at court?"

Meia fell silent. "I don't know yet." In reality, that was probably not the case. It was more the case that, unlike her colleagues, she didn't get any offers.

"If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's to always do what you find and eventually you'll find what you wanna do, haha."

Meia smiled, but maybe it was obvious that it wasn't real. Still, it was a probably a good advice. Thinking too much was pointless.

Meia had only asked the initial question because she had remembered something. The second night in Kiras, a man from the city guard had escorted her back to the palace because she was in the wrong street. The man said he did his job for nights like this. It must have meant to protect the weak. Meia hadn't asked. He had told her of his own accord. He was just as talkative as the commander. Only later had Meia found out that he wasn't actually from the city guard, but from the kingsguard. Meia had asked the question because she wanted to know what the commander would answer, but it was probably natural that different people had different motivations.

.../ End Part