The grimy streets of the city shuddered and shook. I looked out of the dirty window of the shop that I was minding and sighed. The streets will soon be filled with panicking people visiting the city for the first time, yelling at the top of their voices wondering what had happened. The tremors subsided for a time, generations ago after the Great Earthquake that destroyed most of the city and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. Since then, the buildings that survived has been fortified with more timbers, and new buildings had to conform to a strict building code.
Many in the city had thought that it had been caused by the relative closeness of of the dam that supplied water to the close to half-million inhabitants of the city, as well as the other dams supplying fresh water of the mirroring cities on the other side of the borders.
Others thought that more sinister events were the cause, but I dismisses most of them as pure fantasy.
Most. But not all. There are some that does have credits to them, such as the theory about it having been caused by a powerful magic-user, or the one about having been caused by a powerful entity imprisoned inside the Black Fortress.
I looked down and continued reading
“…a scribe witnessing the earthquake described the commander of the fortress and 9 mysterious figures standing around a circle of unimaginable power, keeping a sole figure inside. This account has been verified by others, although the presence of the figure is often disputed.
Supporters of this theory are often quick to point out that the tremors resumed after the presence of a second prisoner, brought in not long after the fortress was rebuilt following its destruction…”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
I shut the book with a thud and glanced outside again. The faintest whisper of a shout had drifted into the currently vacant bookshop. It wouldn’t be long until full fledged panic occurs, after people finished picking themselves off the ground and take stock of their belongings. Especially at this time of the night where everyone had been drinking. Once again, the usual questions were being asked; what happened, does this usually happen, etc.
Making sure that the shop was still completely empty, I went back to my book.
It’s not my book per se, but one of the advantages of working in a book shop is that you have access to most of the books, provided that you don’t damage them. The Manager, as he is known, is rarely seen, and I’ve only ever seen him once, and that was with a mask on. In comparison to other shop owners, he gives me almost the free run of the shop. There are only 2 things that I am not allowed to touch. The books on the history of the shop, as well as a black case in the back room. I’ve been told in the past that as long as I keep the shop well maintained, and never touch these two things, I could do whatever I liked. I always followed these rules.
People who crosses the Manager don’t tend to live very long.
A sudden leaping motion jolted me out of my reverie. An aftershock, they should be fine, as long as they don’t coalescence to something more. I hurriedly placed the book I was reading back onto the bookcase, and lashed the doors of each case together with rope. Thisway, there’s no chance of them sliding out of the cases and making a pile on the floor. That done, I filed away everything on the desk. The procedure in such cases is simple, vacate the property as soon as possible. Given that the shop is located in one of the city’s oldest districts, I thought that it was a fair bet to leave.Hurrying out of the shop, I shutted and locked the door behind me, and although vandals and thieves do not tend to rob places while a tremor is happening, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Another shock. This one stronger now. The streets are starting to fill up with people stumbling from doorways and a deep rumbling started to fill the city. Uncertainly, I glanced from face to face, trying to pick out familiar ones that I might rely on to tell me what is going on. There were non.
The sky lit up like it was day.