The obnoxious song of a thousand cicadas looking for love filtered through Sulika’s open window, but that wasn’t what woke her up. It was the incessant banging that slapped her across the face before dragging her from dreamland and tossing her face first into a hangover induced migraine.
She opened tired, bloodshot eyes and sighed while pushing herself into a sitting position. The urgent banging continued, each hit was like an electric shock to the brain and caused a considerable amount of pain.
“That’s it. No drinking for a while.” Sulika muttered to herself. She climbed out of bed and stumbled to the front door in an old gray shirt, and a pair of white pajama pants with small foxes embroidered into each thigh- They started out as a joke gift from Faeyra, but the joke was on her, because Sulika actually fell in love with them and wore them all the time.
Sulika reached the door and pushed it open to find Faeyra standing there with an unimpressed look on her face. “Get dressed. There’s a problem.” Faeyra said while pushing past Sulika and entering her bedroom.
“Who died?” Sulika asked while hiding a yawn behind her left hand and slowly closing the door with her right hand. It was a serious question, but Sulika didn’t have the emotional or intellectual bandwidth to reach that level of concern right now.
Faeyra emerged from the bedroom holding a pair of blue cotton breeches and a black tank top. She thrust the clothes into Sulika’s hands and urged her to quickly get dressed.
Still majorly confused about what was happening, Sulika went along with Faeyra’s request and stepped into the bedroom to change. “What’s going on?” Sulika shouted through the open door. Faeyra’s behavior was making Sulika nervous: Her friend was never this serious, I mean, she hadn’t made a single joke or flirtatious remark yet.
Once Sulika was fully dressed- and looked slightly less like a motion sick corpse- Sulika returned to Faeyra’s side and repeated her earlier question. If Faeyra ignored her a third time, she’d tie her down and- “A group of sentinels was waiting for me to open the door this morning.” Faeyra said, taking the wind out of Sulika’s sails. “Apparently, someone attempted to arrest Aldritch this morning.”
Feeling like someone injected adrenaline directly into her brain, Sulika’s mind became crystal clear in an instant. “...They did what?” She asked, now concerned that her first question shouldn’t have been ‘who died?’ but ‘how many died?’
“Relax.” Faeyra said, holding up a hand. “He wasn’t hurt-”
“Wasn’t him I was worried about.” Faeyra sighed at the interruption and gave Sulika an ‘are you done?’ look. “Sorry. Continue.” Sulika said and motioned for her to continue.
“As I was saying: He wasn’t hurt, and neither were the sentinels who brought him in. But since there’s no record of him living in the city, we need to go down and talk to them before they’ll release him.” She explained, leaving her irritation at the situation on full display.
“That’s… Actually, not as bad as I thought.” Sulika admitted. “What’d they arrest him for?”
Faeyra smirked humorlessly, “Dragging a demon through the streets.”
Sulika’s brain short circuited. It must have, right? There was no way she’d actually heard what she thought she’d heard. Aldritch wasn’t dragging a demon through the streets, he’d said he was going to watch the sunrise while gorging on chocolate milk. How does that turn into him dragging a demon through the streets!?
Sulika finished getting ready in a flash and the two women stepped outside, where they found a dozen sentinels waiting for them: Their dark helmets and uniforms always gave Sulika the creeps. There was just something… off about them.
Eleven of the twelve sentinels stood in stoic silence, completely unmoved by the presence of the onlookers that stopped and stared. The last sentinel, who Sulika believed was the legion commander, stood at the front of the group with his helmet tucked under his right arm. He was an attractive elf: Long black hair, a statuesque build, and eyes the color of molten iron.
Once Faeyra had locked the door behind them, the commander stepped forward and offered a hand to them. Faeyra gracefully accepted his hand and quickly moved down the four stairs to the street. Once she was on solid ground, the sentinels moved to surround her while the commander offered a hand to Sulika- Who wanted to wrinkle her nose at the thought of being helped, but also didn’t see the point in being rude. “Sorry, what is this about?” She asked while taking his hand and copying Faeyra’s movements.
“The Governor and the Guild Master of the Hunter’s Guild are waiting for you at the Roost.” The Commander replied before lowering his helmet back into place. The helmet hid his face from view and gave him the same artificial stillness the rest of the sentinels possessed.
Sulika was extremely uncomfortable. She already disliked the idea of being escorted somewhere against her will. But that unease was only multiplied by the fact that the sentinels looked more like golems than people.
“Wait- why are they waiting for us? I thought we were just going to vouch for our friend Aldritch?” Faeyra asked, redirecting the commander’s attention to herself.
“Ours is not to reason why: Ours is but to do and die.” The Commander replied. He gave the order for the sentinels to begin moving, forcing Sulika and Faeyra to either start walking or risk getting pushed along.
“You know, I’ve heard you sentinels say that line before, and I’ve been wondering what it meant. Mind enlightening me?” Faeyra asked while she and Sulika walked in tandem with the sentinels. But the sentinels remained silent; despite numerous attempts to engage in conversation with them, the sentinels never ceased their march nor engaged with either of them.
As far as the legion was concerned, they weren’t ignoring Faeyra to be rude. Their orders were just to escort a package from point A to point B, then get back to their usual duties. Nothing more, nothing less.
But the silent soldier act did nothing to endear them to Sulika. In fact, she was actually growing more nervous by the minute. The way they walked in perfect harmony, the odd stillness in their postures, the lack of casual conversation, all of it only added to their artificial appearance. Leading Sulika to wonder if they actually could be Golems inside those faceless helmets.
Thankfully, for Sulika’s mental health and Faeyra’s patience, they arrived at the Sentinel’s Roost a short while later. Sulika half expected the building to be nothing but rubble, so she was pleasantly surprised to find nothing amiss. And judging by the lack of interest from the people walking by the Roost, nothing serious had happened in the time it took them to get here.
Faeyra had heard correctly. Apparently, Aldritch had allowed himself to be taken in without a fuss.
“Enter through the double doors and talk to the woman waiting behind the desk. She’ll guide you the rest of the way.” The Commander said, holding out his arm and guiding the two women away from his legion.
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“Uh… Thanks for guiding us, I guess?” Sulika said, still wondering why such a thing had been necessary.
“Just doing our duty. Have a pleasant day.” The Commander replied, dipping his head to Faeyra, then Sulika. He turned on his heel and returned to the legion, before leading them away back towards the market.
“Those guys give me the creeps.” Sulika muttered. Now that the sentinels were no longer looking over her shoulder, she couldn’t repress the shiver that left her with cold bumps along her arms and down her back.
“I admit even I’m a bit unnerved by the whole ‘Golem’ thing they have going on. But I don’t think my reaction comes close to yours. Are you alright?” Faeyra asked while looking Sulika up and down.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Sulika sighed in relief. “I just really don’t like certain golems. They freak me out.”
“Since when?” Faeyra asked incredulously. “We had a Golem assistant at my grandmother’s house, didn’t we? You never had a problem with it.”
“Hey, Dixy was not an it. She was a girl, and she was also shaped like an adorable purple trash can. I don’t have a problem with those…” Sulika glanced over her shoulder at the Sentinels fading into the crowd of pedestrians. “It’s the humanoid shaped ones I can’t stand.” She looked back to Faeyra and shrugged. “I also can’t stand undead for a similar reason.”
“Fair enough, I guess.” Faeyra replied and moved towards the door- but she stopped just before opening it. “Oh, but if that’s the case, then you probably shouldn’t come into my lab anytime soon… Just saying.” She opened the door and stepped inside, leaving Sulika to stare after her in shock.
“What's that supposed to mean?” Sulika whispered before following Faeyra into the building.
The main lobby of the Sentinel’s Roost was much smaller than the lobby of the Hunters Guild and was sparsely decorated. The term ‘bare bones’ came to mind while looking around the room.
The lobby was shaped like an upside down ‘L’; with high ceilings, a thick concrete floor, sturdy stone walls, and a large wooden door set into the wall at the very back of the room. Just above the door was a large sign that read ‘See receptionist for entrance.’ in glowing white letters.
The only furniture Sulika could see was the four rows of wooden benches that had been magically anchored to the floor. Each row contained three two-seater benches, allowing only twenty-four people to sit inside the lobby at any time.
Faeyra led Sulika to the back of the lobby and turned left, bringing them to a stop at the top of the upside down ‘L’. There, blocking off a portion of the room, they found a wall-to-wall stone desk that was so tall it came up to Sulika’s chin.
Starting at the leftmost wall, five-inch-thick stone bars protruded from the desktop and merged into the ceiling some ten feet overhead. The bar was followed by a four-inch gap, before another bar protruded from the desk. This pattern continued across the entire desk, save for a single two-foot gap at the very center of the desk.
It was there that Sulika and Faeyra spotted a gnomish woman with vibrant purple hair and metallic purple eyes. The woman was watching them both with a bored, but professional smile across her handsome face.
Faeyra approached the woman without hesitation, while Sulika trailed behind and continued to observe the various people waiting inside the lobby.
“Hi, maybe you can help me?” Faeyra started, her own professional smile locked in place and on full display. “My name is Faeyra Silverowl, and this is my friend Sulika Wysarie. We were asked to come in and speak for our friend Aldritch.”
The Gnomish woman’s face subtly shifted: her smile grew larger, her eyes met with Faeyra’s eyes instead of looking only in the general direction of Faeyra’s face and shifted slightly in her seat. It was clear the woman was excited, though neither Sulika nor Faeyra could understand why.
“Ah… You’re the ladies the Governor is waiting for, yes?” The Gnomish woman asked. Without waiting for a response, she reached beneath the desk and pressed a small black button that could only be seen from her side of the desk- there was an audible *click* from the big door that drew both Sulika and Faeyra’s attention to it. “Please go through that door. I’ll meet you on the other side and take you to your friend.”
“Oh! Thank you.” Faeyra replied, smiling at the small woman.
“Yes, thank you.” Sulika said, echoing her friend’s sentiment. She and Faeyra hurried over to the door. Sulika extended her arm to pull the door open- and was surprised at how light the door felt in her hand. The front door was as heavy as it looked, requiring a considerable amount of strength to even move the thing. But this door swung open almost without effort, and even more surprisingly, it did so while remaining completely silent.
Sulika took the lead this time and stepped through the door ahead of Faeyra. Once both women were inside, Sulika released the door and watched it swing closed just as silently as it opened.
Fifteen seconds later, the Gnomish woman emerged from somewhere nearby and beckoned the two women to follow her deeper into the Roost. She led them down a few barren halls, passing numerous sentinels who were either returning from a patrol or were getting ready to start one.
Passing an open door that led to what Sulika assumed was a locker room, Sulika saw something which surprised her: two human males, a female elf, a female dwarf, and a male elf were hanging out in the locker room. The neatly folded sentinel armor laying nearby gave her the impression the five of them were sentinels… But they were all laughing at something the male elf had said.
That was the first time she’d ever seen a sentinel laugh- Hell, that was the first time she’d realized there were women among the sentinels. She’d thought they were all men beneath those helmets.
“Here we are.” The Gnomish woman said as the three of them arrived at a door that was completely identical to twenty other doors Sulika had seen on the short walk here. She didn’t understand how anyone could find their way around here. Everything looked just as bleak as everything else, with no identifying marks or doors to give you a sense of where you are.
The Gnomish woman opened the door to a small, but surprisingly decorative room. The walls were painted a calming blue, while a light-colored carpet covered the floor. An elegant wooden chandelier dangled precariously from the ceiling by a simple copper chain- Its eight glass orbs cast a delicate white light onto the room, illuminating the large square table placed directly beneath it. Of the six chairs surrounding the table, three of them were already occupied.
Max: The Guild Master of the Azuris Hunters Guild sat alone on the right side of the table.
Sulika didn’t immediately recognize the Gnomish man sitting in a chair at the ‘top’ of the square. But it only took a few seconds before the face clicked, and she realized she was staring at the Governor of Azuris Island.
The Governor was a portly Gnome with dark purple skin, bone white hair, large black eyes, and a long, hooked nose. Joolbic Zalbess was a Gnome who was descended from a long line of Gnomish nobility. Thanks to his family’s connections that spanned multiple centuries, and the best schooling his family could provide. Joolbic could’ve had almost any posting he wanted.
But instead of staying within the relative safety of the main line, where he was all but guaranteed a lofty position. He’d instead opted to become Governor of a little frontier island, whose previous governor had recently retired without an heir.
A little island known as Azuris.
No one knew why he risked it all to come this far outside the safety net of the gods, but the people of Auris were surely indebted to him. In the twenty-five years since he’d taken the mantle of Governor, the island had finally experienced its first golden age… Now, if only they could convince the other islands of that fact, maybe Max wouldn’t have as much trouble recruiting hunters.
The last person in the room was Aldritch, who looked exactly as he had the last time Sulika saw him- he even had the damn barrel of Chocolate milk sitting beside his chair. But aside from that outrageous amount of milk, Aldritch was alone- Except he wasn’t.
Kneeling on the ground beside him was the largest Demonwolf Sulika had ever seen: With fur as black as a moonless night, a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs, claws that shined like obsidian tipped blades, and crimson eyes that… Well, they really took away from the whole ‘intimidation’ factor he had going on, since his right eye was swollen shut and his left eye was so fixated on the floor, Sulika wondered if he thought it would eat him- movement out of the corner of her eye drew Sulika’s attention to Aldritch’s chest.
She realized he was holding something; his right arm was, somewhat awkwardly, lying across his chest and a small, clearly malnourished, gray puppy lay on her back with her head facing the door. Though the puppy had been sleeping prior to Sulika and Faeyra’s appearance. The moment the door swung open, the puppy opened the brightest amber eyes Sulika had ever seen and gave them both a sleepy look.