Chapter 10 - The True Zanako

Inside a coastal tea house a ridiculously fat man comically sat at a ridiculously small table, sipping on a cup of three herb tea. Across to him sat a small, black robed boy who covered his face with a hood.

“Rumors say the city lord, Helvet Aster, is planning on naming his first son the ‘Zanako’ which means prince of Zanas.”

“So basically he’s naming him the future city lord of Zanabo?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Thanks, Jerrei. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“I’ll be sure to bring you some good stories tomorrow.”Jerrei said as Arnest nodded and got up from the table. He walked into the crowded street.

For the past few days since he had gotten Cirqa Efatos to become his own personal information broker, he had learned a lot about the situation here in Zanabo. There are four main factions that are stationed here in the great city. The first is the Aster clan, who rules over Zanabo. They create the laws here and enforce them through a mercenary army. The shopkeepers and traders would be considered the second faction who consolidated their power through the Merchant’s Guild. And finally the last two factions are the people from Ralom and Crul, the two other great cities who stationed their own merchants and armies there to protect their trade.

All four factions were about equal in power however the Merchant’s Guild could be considered the strongest. The three great cities have not always been in harmony. In the past they waged wars against each other that caused typhoons and waves in Lanex. But the Merchant’s Guild had remained neutral for a long time during the previous wars and amassed a large fortune. With that fortune their own hired mercenary armies and pushed their own officials into the great cities to protect their business interests. Their power at best was able to rival any great city but it was their treasury that was peerless.

It was only fairly recently, within the past forty years or so, that they had seemed to have created an alliance with the Aster clan. The daughter of the previous guild leader was married to the Aster clan’s current head, Helvet, thus cementing their relationship. There were also rumors that the current guild leader’s youngest daughter would also be betrothed to the next Zanako.

The guild leader also had an eldest daughter however everyone disregarded her as a possibility. No one has seen her in years but when she was younger, she was famous for having demonic red eyes, aged white hair and being fatter than a pig. If she was this horrifying as a child, one could imagine how horrible her current looks were. Due to this ugly appearance, no one thought that any of the sons of the Aster clan would agree to marry such a woman. Although the youngest daughter was not an earth shattering beauty, she was surely at least considered normal looking.

It was a little past noon and the four suns were still hanging at the zenith in the sky. Arnest eagerly moved through the crowds towards the northern part of the city. This was the area where the Aster clan members lived, along with other officials of the government. The city lord's manor also resided here at the very northern tip, a small barred land in between the city and Zanas shelled walls. Eventually reaching the beach area near the mansion, he saw a few guards sitting by petite and yet extravagant boats.

“So that’s where the banquet is going to be held. Now I just need to find a way in.” Arnest thought to himself.

He sat there scouting out the beach, looking for an easy way to the mansion. However there didn’t seem to be a bridge of any kind or underwater passage nearby. The only way that seemed possible was either swimming across or using one of those fancy boats. Arnest continued to walk along the beach still looking for a possible entrance.

But one of the guards noticed him and yelled, “What are you doing? You’re not allowed to be around here without permission!”

The guards walked closer and saw that it was just a young boy under the hood. They frowned in anger. Their job was fairly simple but if anyone was allowed to just trespass, the first to be punished would surely be them the shore guards. Knowing that a little brat was causing them trouble, they felt no sympathy.

“No one is permitted to be near the Zanas Mansion. Trespassers are to be detained and questioned.” one of the guards said as he grabbed Arnest’s right arm, dragging him away so he could ‘question’ him.

“Wait!” Arnest yelled.

The guard ignored him and continued to pull him across the beach but Arnest pulled out some copper coins. “I’m really sorry! Please take these so I can show my sincerity!”

Now the guard stopped and looked towards Arnest’s outstretched hand full of copper. His eyes were glinted with greed and he smiled. “I’ll accept your sincerity.” he said while snatching the coins and counting them.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

When he let go to grab the coins, Arnest fell headfirst and ate a mouthful of sand. He started to immediately cough out sand but the gritty feeling against his tongue and sides of his mouth remained.

After finishing counting, the guard looked towards the coughing Arnest who was lying on his side. “What are you waiting for? Get the hell out of here kid.” he said while spitting onto Arnest’s face.

Arnest slowly got up and gave the guard a deathly stare before walking off. “I’ll make sure to get you back.” he muttered while walking back into the city, covered in sand.

Later in the afternoon, after cleaning himself, Arnest headed back onto the busy streets. He took a detour off the main road and into a narrow side street. Turning right and left at seemingly random points, he finally arrived at a dead end. There was a thick wooden door with a metal slot closer to the top.

He walked up to the door and knocked twice quietly then three times loudly. This area was far away from the markets so it was eerily silent. No one responded to the knocking but Arnest stayed still for a while longer.

“Is this the wrong place? I’m sure Jerrei said two rights, a left and then another right at the well…Maybe it was two lefts then a right?” Arnest said to himself.

Suddenly the metal cover on the slot was slid open and two giant blue eyes peered through. It looked for a while but didn’t see anything and was about to close the slot when Arnest called out “I’m down here!”

He paused for a moment, with the cover closed halfway and looked down with now only one eye. The blue eyed doorman saw the top of his black hood and then shut the slot closed. A series of metal clicking sounds could be heard and then the door flung open.

“Welcome to The Pits.” said the doorman as he moved to the side for Arnest to pass.

Arnest walked in and heard the screams and shouting that were no longer being blocked by the door. There was a spiraling staircase which Arnest went down. When he was about halfway down he could see where the commotion was coming from.

In the center of a large underground room was a raised platform with a giant iron cage. Inside of the cage were two naked men, fighting with their bare hands. One of them was clearly getting beaten and was panting heavily, trying to defend his face with his arms. The other, who was extremely muscular, kept wailing on him until his knuckles were purple. Around were mostly people jeering at the fighters and smaller cages with more naked men inside of them.

“Kill him! I bet all my coppers on you!” screamed one of the onlookers.

The man who was being heavily beat fell to the ground and the other jumped on top of him. But when he raised his fist to send out a punch, the seemingly weaker man grabbed with his arms. His skinny arms exploded with power, biceps pulsating and he snapped the other’s arm in half until it bent the opposite way. A blood curdling scream was let out. The prey became the hunter and he jumped on top of the crippled man and squeezed the his throat until the man stopped moving.

The crowd whined and moaned at the sudden upset. Most of them had bet on the stronger looking guy yet he was beat by a guy three times smaller than him. The only person in the room who seemed to be happy was sitting in a leather chair, drinking red wine. He had disheveled black hair and wore a heavily decorated gown.

“Congratulations on the win, young master.” said a butler who was standing next to the smiling youth.

“Yeah! You’re amazing, Talas!” said another youth who was sitting next to him.

“It’s nothing special, Ralo. I just felt that he was a bit stronger so I bet a few coins on him.” Talas said.

The youth sneered. “Your family personally trained that slave. There’s no way he would be weak.” Ralo thought secretly.

Arnest could see Talas from the stairs. “That must be him.” He made his way downstairs towards Talas.

Talas also noticed Arnest’s mysterious figure coming towards him but didn’t seem to care and continued to drink. When Arnest finally arrived next to him, he didn’t even give Arnest a glance.

A while passed by, enough time for some of the slave workers to clean up the arena for the next fight. As the next fight was starting, Talas asked impatiently “You’re clearly here for me. What do you want?”

Arenst remained silent which infuriated Talas even more. “Are you deaf? Or perhaps mute?” Talas angrily asked.

People started placing bets and the room got louder and rowdier. Arnest moved towards Talas’s side and quietly whispered so only he could hear, “There can only be one true Zanako.”

Talas’s expression became grim. “Did my brother send you here to kill me?”

“No. I wouldn’t dare hurt the Zanako.” Arnest said grinning.