We walked to the docks the next day. Arya and Alex hanging in the back, chatting and sucking faces. Next was Noah and Val, and then, Cassie and I, and in the very front Sam and Illia. She was sitting on his shoulders while he grumbled at her.
“So, do you know what your mission is going to be?” I asked.
“I do, we will be going to the nearby city of Sanctum to investigate the murder of eighteen men. I believe that we will be accompanied by Professor Patch,” she said the last part with a slight grimace.
“Well, at least you know what you’re doing, even if it is with the good professor.”
“You don’t?”
“Not in the slightest, I checked my pad multiple times and I didn’t receive anything.”
“That is problematic.”
“Yep, so we’re just going to go with the flow and hope we don’t end up stuck here doing work with Ms. Mallory.”
“That would be unfortunate, to say the least.”
“You don’t need to tell me that, I think that’s Port. You should get going, I don't want to hold you up.”
“Good luck on your mission Ryze, try to keep my brother alive will you?”
“Thanks, you too.” She gave me a brief hug before walking over to the portly man. She was quickly joined by the rest of her team and they climbed aboard one of the many ships.
“So what do we do now?”
“I’m pretty sure we just wait until our guide finds us, it’s not like there’s much we can do.”
“Great.”
I sat down on one of the benches, leaning my head against the wall, and closed my eyes. For almost thirty minutes we waited and the entire square emptied. We looked around awkwardly before blessedly a man ran into the square. He scanned the docks swaying from side to side. His maroon cloak fluttering behind him. He took a massive swing from a flask at his hip and noticed us. The man stumbled over, obviously drunk and slurred, “Am I sup-supposed ta felp you guz?”
He had a voice like a man who chain-smoked cigars and gargled gravel and sand every day.
“God I hope not,” I muttered under my breath, “I guess so since we’re the only ones left. I didn’t receive a message about who was going to be our guide so I wouldn’t know.”
The man frowned, his brown eyes narrowing in thought. He scratched his five o’clock shadow, “know that I think about it, I was supposed to have a chat with M-”
“Silver Baldwin!” a sharp voice demanded, “what did I tell you about being late!”
The man named Silver spun around, unkempt grey-silver hair covering his face. He flicked it up and smoothed it with one hand. On his back was a massive greatsword, its pure white blade glimmered in the light. “Mallory, it’s good to see you again.”
“Cut the shit Silver, what are you still doing here?”
“Can’t a man talk to his girl in peace?” the four of us looked around at each other, I couldn’t believe it. The domineering and intimidating Ms. Mallory was dati-
“I am not your girl.” she hissed in a deadly low voice, “I never was and I never will be. Now I want you on that ship and out of this city in the next three minutes or I’ll hang you off of Leviathan Peak by your balls.”
“Kinky,” he said with a wink. Mallory’s face turned red.
“OUT!” she roared pulling out her wand, Silver paled and turned back to face us. We had gathered our gear during their confrontation and were all ready to go. He clapped his hands together, “So kids, how about we get out of here before the wicked witch of the west castrates me with a shoehorn.”
Sam leaned over the side of the ship, “Oh not ag-hrrgh.”
Silver took another swig from his flask, at this point I was sure he was just doing it for show. There was no way that a flask that small could hold that much alcohol. “Is he ok?”
“I doubt it.”
“Should we do anything about,” he waved the flask in his direction, “that?”
“Be my guest.”
“He is your teammate.”
“Yeah, I’m his leader not his fucking mother,” I said, looking the man over. He wore a leather greatcoat not dissimilar to the one that Noah wore. Except this one was black and covered in some sort of oily black scales. Inside the coat was a steel chest plate. On his head was a peaked cap with the white silver eagle.
“Well, it would be nice if someone shut him up.” Noah muttered scratching a line out in his notebook, “I’m trying to write something here.”
“What are you writing, is it a love letter to Val?”
“Nope, it’s a memo I promised I’d write for my little brother.”
Silver perked up at this, “You write?”
“He does,” Sam said wiping his mouth and walking over, “don’t ask what he writes about ‘cuz we don’t know but he spends about an hour every night doing it.”
“At least I’m quiet while I write,” Noah muttered glaring at Alex. He was sitting on the mast of the ship strumming a guitar.
I shrugged, “it’s not half bad you know.”
“It sounds like someone beating a bag of wet cats with a half-dead toddler.” he grunted closing the book, “so when do we arrive at wherever we’re going?”
“I don’t want to explain it more than once so I’m going to wait for the prince to get his shit together.”
“Alex, get your lazy butt down here,” I shouted waving my arms, Alex looked down and sighed. He slung the guitar over his back and slid down the mast.
“What is it now Ryze?”
“We’re going to be going over our mission once Sam’s done regurgitating his lunch.”
He sat himself down on one of the chairs and continued to play notes at random.
“Can you play us a song?” Silver asked, taking yet another swig from his flask. I was slightly concerned for the man’s health.
“Sure why not, give me a moment,” he said before a copy materialized and ran off into their cabins under the deck. It came back with three other instruments, a saxophone, trumpet, and some kind of flute.
Silver looked over the instruments in confusion, “what are you going to be doing with those?”
“I’m going to play them,” he said like it was the stupidest question in the world. I sighed shaking my head, “We were told to bring essential items only, and you brought three musical fucking instruments?”
“Hey, you brought your spices and that pot. Noah brought his books and ink, and Sam over there brought his art supplies.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“He did? That little shit!” I swore Alex’s copies had finished tuning their instruments.
“Eh, the other option was boring ourselves to death for however long this trip lasts. Anyways I’ll play a song that’s pretty popular with the laborers.”
Alex began thumping his hand on his guitar. The copies nodding to the beat, as one they lifted their instruments.
Cold, the air and water flowing
Hard, the land we call our home
Push, to keep the dark from coming
Feel the weight of what we owe
This, the song of sons and daughters
Hide, the heart of who we are
Making peace to build our future
Strong, united, working 'til we fall
Cold, the air and water flowing
Hard, the land we call our home
Push, to keep the dark from coming
Feel the weight of what we owe
This, the song of sons and daughters
Hide, the heart of who we are
Making peace to build our future
Strong, united, working 'til we fall
And we all lift, and we're all adrift
Together, together
Through the cold mist, 'til we're lifeless
Together, together
As the last note of his song quieted, the sailors cheered and clapped. Alex stood up and bowed, the quartet putting away their instruments.
“That wasn’t bad kid, actually that's pretty impressive. I’m assuming that’s your trait you’re using to do that.”
Alex nodded, “yeah that’s my trait so what’s yours?”
Silver chuckled, “can you do that again?”
“Sure.” he shrugged and made a copy that picked up Noah’s book much to his protest.
“Hmm ok, I think I got the hang of that,” he said and we turned to look at him. My jaw dropped, standing beside him was a perfect copy of Alex.
“Uhhh, Alex did you do that?”
“Nope.”
Silver furrowed his brow in concentration, veins bulged across his face as he slowly started turning red.
“What’s wrong with him?” Sam asked walking over, “looks like he’s shit his pants.”
The copy disappeared and Silver gasped for air, “how?”
“How what?”
“How do you make those things move?”
“That is a very complicated question, my good sir.” Alex rubbed his hands together, “first you need to understand how people move. You need to have a pretty good understanding about how each individual muscle and joint interact with each other. Then you create a series of movements that result in a copy being able to move and talk. Took me close to three years to figure it all out.”
“That also doesn’t answer the question of how you did that,” I said.
“It’s my trait, I can imitate people's traits if they’re within eyesight.”
“That can’t be safe.” Noah looked concerned.
“It most definitely isn’t.” Silver agreed, “can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost kicked the bucket because of some aftereffect.”
“So now that we’re all here, are you going to tell us what we’re going to do?”
“Sure why not,” he took another long swig pulling a map from his pack, “right now we’re riding down the Atriox Canal,” he said pointing at the impossibly straight canal that bisected the entire Empire from the northeastern fief of Castile to the very bottom of the Shield Ridge mountains. “We’ll be staying the night on the ship before docking in Rosegarden, the capitol of Rose fief” at the name, I wince, but no one noticed, “From there it’s an eight-day hike to the remote town of Pitzer. Any questions?”
“What are we doing in Pitzer?”
“Around three weeks ago, something began attacking the town garrison. It has at last count killed thirty of the town's guards. A rather unsustainable number for a town of that size. It leaves no eyewitnesses, only shredded limbs and mangled corpses. Our job will be to investigate this anomaly and exterminate whatever is causing it.”
“Why didn’t they just hire a guardian for help?”
“First of all, guardians ain’t cheap and they’re also in high demand so if you can’t pay enough most of the time no one will even bat an eye at you. And second, they did pay for one. Then no one heard from them again.”
“They died?”
“That is the most likely scenario
“Great so this ‘anomaly’ as you put it, has already killed one guardian. So now they want to send a team of untrained teenagers against it?”
“Now that is not true, in fact, I would bargain that the four of you have more training than most 'guardians’. A lot of them are really just peasants with traits. Meaning they’re too valuable to their town's protection to let them leave, and not strong enough to warrant a mentor going out of their way to train them.”
“So why did we even go to the Academy in the first place?”
“Now unless one of you four are a mind reader, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. Everyone had their own reason to join and the benefits are immense.”
Alex nodded, he had joined to regain some of the prestige House Taylor had lost in the past. “So why did you join?”
“That is a story for another time,” Silver said with a sigh, “Now go make yourselves useful and keep watch for an attack.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to sit here and drink,” he said, kicking his legs up onto one of the seats.
“Shouldn’t you be helping us?”
“I’m not the one getting graded on this. I already went through that.” we muttered to ourselves as we walked off, behind me I heard him sigh, “you know, I’m starting to get why Mallory became a teacher.”
I stomped to the bow of the ship and spat into the water, “Rat bastard.”
“You should not do that young lord.” a voice said, I turned around. The portly old trader who owned the ship brushed his long eastern style beard, “you will anger the water spirits if you continue and we wouldn’t want that now would we?”
“My apologies,” I grunted, turning back to the water.
“Such polite behavior, how, unlike a Varus.”
“What was that?” I asked coldly.
“I was just commenting on the barbarity of your kinsmen.” The trader said calmly.
My fist clenched together, “I would suggest that you choose your next words carefully if you wish to keep your head on your body.”
“There it is,” the man said, nodding his head, “so it seems to be as genetic as those demonic red eyes of yours.”
“What is your problem man?”
“My problem,” he asked, “My problem is that your family’s enslaved tens of thousands of people to work in the Red Ruby Peaks!”
“We have done no such thing, the miners are there by their own choice, working for the betterment of not only themselves but also the greater empire as a whole. They could leave whenever they want. I am sure that there are thousands who would want to take their spots.”
“Spoken with such arrogance, you clearly have never seen the squalor and poverty that those in the mines live under.”
“Ryze, is fatty bothering you?” Sam called from the starboard railings. The fat merchant turned around to face him.
“How dare y-!” he cut off, noticing the glowing blue eyes, “B-b-bright prince, it is an honor to meet you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he snarked, waving a hand, “bask in my eternal glory. Quit the yapping and leave my team leader alone.”
“Yes Brightprince, at once Brightprince,” he said and scurried off.
“People these days.” Sam shook his head, “don’t worry about him, he’s talking out of his ass.”
I shook my head, “No, that is how the common folk see us. How they see me, to them we’re just the dogs of the Brightking. Whenever there’s a revolt, we stomp it out. To them, Varus is just the cruel callous hand of the empire. I’ve accepted it by now.”
A hand clasped me over the shoulder, “that is a dark grim way to think about it, eh?” I flinched spinning around, Silver stood there, one hand over my shoulder. The other shook his flask at me, “Sounds to me like you’re in need of a drinking problem. It helps, trust me I’d know.”
I grabbed the flask, it was surprisingly heavy, “thanks.” raising it to my lips I downed some of the liquid… and immediately spat it back out. “Fuck me! What is that? Paint thinner?”
“Close enough,” he said, snatching the flask back, “what you don’t like the taste?”
“Who likes the taste of paint thinner?” I shouted.
“Who has red eyes?” he shouted back.
“I do!” we shouted in unison.
There was a pregnant pause, “Hey guys, you uh… might want to take a look at this.” Alex said from the crow's nest. The crew began to shift uncomfortably and alarms began to ring.
“Just my luck.” Silver sighed, “Alex what do you see?”
“Something’s kicking up a lot of dust on the port side, looks like a tortoise. Just way bigger.”
“An Enki, well then Ryze do you happen to have a magician on your team?”
“Afraid not, we don’t have a healer either.”
“Why can’t I get the easy missions?” he asked no one in particular.
The Enki thundered along closer and closer for more than four hours. The deck shook with each massive step it took as it came into view. Its dark green and brown shell gleamed in the sunlight. Trees and bushes covered its back and partially camouflaged the demon.
Silver sighed a breath of relief.
“What do we do?” I asked.
He looked over, “not much we can do, if it wanted to it could stomp us down like tent stakes. But that thing is big enough to be sentient. It won’t attack us, it knows that we’ll hunt it down if it does.”
“It’s sentient?”
“Yep, most demons that live past a few centuries achieve sentience,” he said, the giant tortoise thundering towards the canal.
“I really hope you’re right, otherwise this is going to be a distinctly unpleasant event,” Noah said.
The Enki took three final ginormous galloping steps before it leaped over the hundred and fifty-foot wide canal. It landed on the other side with a thud, sinking all the way to its armored belly before pulling itself out and continuing its impressive run.
“And that right there is a reminder that the walls you see around the major cities weren't built to defend against humans. They were built to keep those behemoths out.