“Hey guys! You’re not going to believe this! Avar is gone! I thought I was the only one who got out, too!” Gyrus shouted down at them, smiling and waving brightly.
“You know this kid?” Wimbleton asked, cocking his head to eye their little group from his peripherals.
“Kind of,” Leo said, scratching the back of his head.
“Weren’t you stationed at the gate!? How’d you get out?” Trenton shouted back.
“I was on my lunch break! Thought I’d get a breath of fresh air and eat outside! But when I turned back around, it just wasn’t there anymore! Anyway, I managed to find a new job here! You would not believe the last couple weeks I’ve had!”
“I think I would,” Leo said, shaking his head.
“Oh hey! Redhead! You’re back! How was your vacation!?”
Leo stopped dead, slowly twisting his head and squinting over at Trenton and Kiva, “Vacation?”
“Garrote’s doing. Just roll with it,” Trenton said.
“It was uh…great! Very uh…calming!” Leo shouted up, scrambling for the right words to say and ultimately coming up empty handed.
“That’s cool! I’m happy for you!” Gyrus paused for a moment, looking back over his shoulder at something atop the wall before looking back down at them. “Hey, where’s the other one!? He said we could go out to lunch sometime!”
Trenton glanced over at Garrote’s unidentifiable, unconscious form slumped over Wimbleton’s shoulder. How Gyrus managed to so consistently have no idea what was going on and also ask the most pointed questions really was incredible.
“He’s uh…a little tired at the moment! Long day of traveling!”
“Oh…yeah…that’s fine…some other time, then…I’ll just…get the gate for you,” Gyrus quietly said, immediately shrinking back into himself and disappearing behind the parapets.
He didn’t reappear, but after a moment, the great gate began to shift. It lifted from the ground in uneven patterns, stalling for one moment, then rising the next. It looked less like a mechanical construction and more like a manual one, but that was an absurd thought. Gate guards manually lifting some thousands of pounds of iron? Ridiculous…right?
“Alright, well, stay out of trouble, be safe, and don’t kill too many people while I’m gone,” Wimbleton said, stepping into the city main and vanishing amidst a surging crowd of common folk leading further in.
Together, Sodrue in the lead, Trenton and Leo just behind, with Millie atop Trenton’s shoulders, and then Kiva, Karfice, and Evai bringing up a close rear guard, they pushed their way into the city. Unlike other places he’d seen, Korak, had very simple architecture, simple stone buildings which only slightly tottered either way as the mass of wretched men, women, and children clambered their way forward, shoving each other out of the way for even the slightest step closer to the celebrations further in. Something had everybody excited, although it was hard to tell what.
In the distance, trumpets blared, strings rose and fell in the tempo of a song unfamiliar to Trenton, and people shouted with joy. Through the ground, Trenton could feel their celebrations, the volatile buzz of their dancing, drinking, and laughing. Even miles before them, the crowd never thinned, parting only slightly here and there as people tried to shift their way towards some sort of square a ways off, in the center of which lie some gargantuan, round object that seemed to hold everyone’s attention. But trying to focus on everything that touched the earth was starting to nauseate Trenton, a subtle pain behind the eyes and a slight dizziness that wouldn’t fade. It was too new of an ability, and he was far too inexperienced to parse the unbelievable wealth of information presented to him. For now, he’d have to settle for simple senses, all that he could hear and see, which happened to be not much.
Overhead, there were streamers and magical lights wrapped in colorful string stretching from building top to building top. Around them people were staring at Trenton with horror, giving their group a wide berth, but not enough to actually let them through. Just then, seemingly out of nowhere, Gyrus appeared just next to Leo. Whatever had pained him before was gone, replaced instead with a dazzling, genuine smile.
“Turns out my shift ended an hour ago, so I’m officially a free man,” Gyrus said, beaming at them. “Hey, I like your cloak,” he said to Sodrue, who still wore his pristine, perfectly white guardian cloak.
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Sodrue smiled, “Thanks, I do too.”
“Were you not paying attention to the time? It’s a little late for a guard shift,” Kiva asked. Sure enough, it was quite late. The first strands of moonlight were already appearing to their right.
Gyrus shook his head, “I don’t have a clock, too expensive. Usually I gauge the time based on the sun, but I’m not very good at it.”
Leo leaned over to Trenton, muttering to him while Gyrus had his head turned, “Aren’t clocks cheap?”
“Yeah, they’re like 20 silver,” Trenton whispered back. “Hey Gyrus.”
“Hm?”
“How much do you get paid for guard work?”
“Oh, practically a fortune! I get a bed, at least two meals a day, and warm showers sometimes!”
“Do you get money?” Kiva asked.
“No, they said I wouldn’t make a wage until I could lift the gate by myself.”
Kiva, Leo, and Trenton shared a knowing look. They were ripping this kid off, and they could do pretty much nothing about it. They weren’t exactly in the business of fixing people’s lives. They did happen to collect a lot of damaged children, but that was a faulty pattern sure to falter any minute.
“The whole gate by yourself?” Millie said, stilling her hands, which had been absentmindedly pulling at Trenton’s hair this whole while, to look over at Gyrus. “Woaaaahhhhhhhhhh!” She cried, eyes full of wonder.
“Yeah, all the guys can do it. Course, they’ve also been guards much longer than I have. Guess it comes with the job description,” Gyrus shrugged. He looked out over the unmoving crowd before them, struggling to see over anyone's heads due to his notably short stature. In fact, he was barely even taller than Millie, a remarkable feat. “Man, this crowd’s going nowhere. I was really hoping to see the catch, too,” he looked over at them, eyes suddenly sparkling with mischief. “Hey, I’ve got an idea! Let’s take the roofs!”
“I don’t like this idea,” Evai said, looking around at each of them for anyone of a likemind.
“I like this idea!” Millie shouted, drawing a couple glances in their direction.
“Come on,” Gyrus shouted behind him, quickly vaulting up a several story building and leaning over the edge, waving at them to follow. He may not have been the brightest light bulb in the box, but he was fairly athletic at least. All the guard work must’ve been really rubbing off on him.
One by one, they ascended behind Gyrus, the common folk below looking on in awe at their clear display of athleticism. Once they were all together again, Evai securely in Trenton’s arms, they took off across the roofs, leaping around stray towers and across flat topped buildings with remarkable precision. A slip at this height would mean a rough fall down, but they were confident in their steps. Their many months of constant fighting had substantially increased each one of their respective toolsets. And now that they were working with a new level of presence control, shifting the flowing mass from leg to leg, arm to arm, across the chest and into the abdomen, they felt, collectively, almost unstoppable in this moment. It was remarkable, almost freeing.
The last time they’d run like this was back in Wyrm’s Perch when they fled from the Bloody’s soldiers, but now, they had nothing to worry about. For a moment, Trenton could forget about his woes, embrace the gentle lapping of the cool winter air against his skin, feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins. Was he happy? No, he couldn’t afford to be happy. But he was content, of that much he was certain.
“Could you slow down lad!” Raligoth called out to Trenton. “You’re lucky I don’t have a stomach, but I can still feel queasy.”
Trenton looked down. Sure enough, Raligoth was completely on display, open for the world to see. No wonder the people earlier had been so scared of him, a foreigner walking into town with a freshly severed head at his waist. Were it not for the festival, he almost certainly would’ve been stopped by guards. Well, better late than never. Trenton slowed down a bit, shifting Evai in his arms and throwing Raligoth underneath his coat. It was thick and puffy all around, so it disguised him decently well for the time being, only a small lump visible where he was hiding.
“Hey Trenton, you coming?” Kiva called out from the next roof over.
Everyone had stopped dead just ahead of Trenton, leaning over the ledge towards what looked to be a massive clearing in the messy building clusters adorning the city. Trenton leapt over the edge of the last roof, taking a spot saved for him in between Kiva and Leo.
“Wow,” Trenton breathed.
Below them, a celebration unlike anything he’d ever seen was unfolding, thousands of citizens, rich and poor, stomping across the ground to the rhythm of the music, drinking tonics and ales which flowed seemingly for free, and laughing, jocose shouts which poured over the rooftops. It was bright, hundreds of magical lights of every color gleaming in every corner, banishing all darkness from this night. In the center of it all, was the mutilated flesh of a gargantuan beast, a pyramidal head of black flesh and scales. And atop this head, arms splayed wide, was a handsome man dressed in light cloaks of gold and red woven together, messy brown hair thrown every which way from the wind spilling through the enclave.