Lanek awoke to an increasingly familiar sight, a handful of reward stones sitting next to his pack. He appreciated the efforts of his furry companions, but he still couldn’t help but be a little worried that they were off hunting down threats on their own. When he expressed his concerns to Liv, she had simply laughed at him.
“I can’t imagine much out here that could pose much of a threat to those furballs. Seriously, relax and enjoy the fact that you don’t have to deal with every little threat on your own.” Yuri chuffed from the door to their shelter, seemingly in agreement with his tamer.
“Alright, fine. So, we’ll be passing by Laethon today. Any objections to popping in for a quick look? It’s apparently far smaller than Caelis.”
Liv shook her head. “I don’t mind. Considering this is our third time out this way, it’s about damn time we see what’s left of it.”
With their plan made, the two mounted up and summoned their armor. Despite their protests, the two humans insisted that their mounts call up their barding. It was simply too dangerous to wander about inside a city without any protection. If it was anything like Caelis, then it would be extremely easy to walk into an ambush. To make matters worse, there was a not insignificant chance that the creatures within Laethon would be of a completely different species and variety than Caelis since it wasn’t home to a dungeon. As much as Lanek would like there to still be humans around, he highly doubted it considering the number of gaunts in the area.
As they rode toward the city walls, Lanek spotted multiple breaches and the shattered remains of the gate. They passed under walls that were equal in size to Caelis, which was quite impressive considering that the population and land area of Laethon were probably a tenth of their neighbor’s.
“Damn, they must have put up a hell of a fight.” Liv said with a whistle as she looked around the remains of the city. The city proper had been demolished, heaps of debris and rubble scattered everywhere. No single building remained intact aside from a large central keep and scattered barricades.
“Yeah, this was a city known for their soldier’s, remember? It looks like they may have destroyed many of these houses to make barricades, probably just before the walls fell. Makes sense, they would have had time to prepare for the attack as they wouldn’t have been blindsided by the Depths. Let’s go take a look at the keep.”
The devastation only got worse as they neared the keep as they were now able to spot the defender’s remains. The bodies were gone for the most part, but rusting suits of armor and weapons rested near the barricades. At the keep itself, they found the remains of what must have been the defender’s final stand. They were unable to determine what the soldiers had fought, but there were no gaunt or monster remains. Judging from the number of bodies and the trail of abandoned defenses, the warriors of Laethon had likely slaughtered many times their own number before succumbing.
Entering the keep’s main hall, Lanek and Liv immediately felt like intruders. It took Lanek a moment to figure out why it felt so strange, but it clicked when Liv picked an item off of the floor and held it out to him. He let out a deep sigh as he grabbed the small toy soldier. He glanced around the room and found other signs of the keep’s occupants, a stuffed animal in the far corner, hair pins near the entry, and many other items that were not the possessions of the soldiers.
“No wonder they fought so hard. The civilians were taking shelter in here.” Liv said, a grim look on her face.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
“I doubt all of them would have fit, but still. I don’t like it, but we should keep looking around, see if there is anything useful.” Liv grimaced at his words, but nodded. She knew very well how desperate the situation was and how they needed every advantage they could get.
Lanek ordered Sanguineus and Kazuma to explore the main floor while he and Liv took the upper floors. As they made progress through the structure they could see that the enemy had been very thorough. Unlike Caelis where the doors to the upper floors of many structures had been ignored, every single door had been utterly destroyed and the rooms beyond them ransacked. It was very clear that there had been no survivors of the attack on Laethon, unless they had been away from the city when it had been besieged.
In the end, the pair met with their furry companions at the entrance to the keep and left, having found nothing of note, just signs confirmed that they had just wandered through a massive tomb. While they walked toward their mounts, Lanek felt something tug his vision to the right, toward a pile of armor. Trusting his instincts, he allowed himself to be led to the armor and slowly pushing it aside to find a simple crown. It was little more than a simple band of some type of silvery metal with intricate engravings, but none of the jewels and other extravagances that came to define crowns back home. Next to the remains rested a shattered sword and splintered shield, both carrying many of the same symbols engraved on the crown.
“Good for you.” Lanek said, slipping the crown into his pouch while bowing his head to the remains. He hated essentially looting the corpse of a leader he could respect, one who had decided to join his soldiers on the front line during their final stand in defense of their civilians. However, something had decided that he needed to have the crown and he was long since past the point where he was willing to ignore those feeling.
“What have you got there?” Liv asked, watching him as he mounted Maximilian.
“It’s a crown, looks like the king of Laethon wasn’t content to hide in the keep when the end came.”
“Good man.” Liv responded while nodding approvingly. “Why take the crown, though? There something special about it?”
“I have no idea, something was just telling me that it was important that I take it.” Lanek said, shrugging. “I’m as lost as you are.”
“Fair enough. Can we go now? I don’t like feeling like I’m walking on someone’s grave.”
Lanek agreed wholeheartedly and led the way toward the east gate. Things remained quiet and peaceful, probably due to the cat and wolf disappearing without warning only to return a few minutes later with reward stones. When he reached out in curiosity, the only images that were returned to him were gaunts, so he relaxed. Short of something like the gaunt he had interrogated or the magic user that had nearly killed him months ago, the two had nothing to fear from the gaunts. Besides, he couldn’t begrudge Sanguineus his urge to hunt gaunts, not after the circumstances of his creation. He had been created to kill the damn things after all.
They made it to the coastal town just before night fell, gazing down at a remarkably intact settlement. However, they both knew that no one would be living down there, the signs of neglect were obvious. Since this place had been a part of Laethon’s territory, he suspected that the soldiers protecting this place had been recalled to the city for the defense.
Hmm… Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the adults in this town and the villages had been conscripted. A militarized society like Laethon would most definitely have had a draft system or even something like a national guard. I wonder if their families fled to Laethon as well or if they knew that the end was near and escaped by other means. It is a port town, maybe they took to sea?
“Looks like we will be able to find a secure place to sleep tonight. See that place over to the right of the gate? Looks like a small adventurer’s guild, they’ll have a sturdy door for sure.” Liv said, bringing his attention to the stone structure in question.
“How can you tell from here?” Lanek asked.
“Easy, it looks identical to the ones I’ve seen in the ruins up north. It’s pretty recognizable. Hell, one of the Jarls that got it into his head to try and rebuild society with him at its head built one following that template in his town.”
“Really? Will we be talking to him when we get up there?” Lanek asked.
Liv laughed loudly. “Not unless you are planning on talking to his spirit. His town attracted too much attention and was destroyed by a monster horde. The rest of the Jarls had warned him, but he believed that the strength of his walls would be sufficient.” She sighed before continuing in a more serious tone. “He wasn’t stupid, though. Here’s the thing, the walls would have been enough to deal with the things he and the rest of the Jarls had faced over the years, but things changed when he started expanding his town. It was almost like something was waiting for someone to try to rebuild our homeland so it could crush the attempt.”
Lanek thought back to the gaunts and the Ashen Depths. There was definitely something intelligent behind these rampaging hordes and he would have to make sure that his people were ready for it.