The stone gate into Portsmouth city yawned open at the end of the road as Dei and her group joined the thin line of people making their way into the city. When they had finally come within eyesight of the wall earlier that day, some small part of Dei was disappointed that the flat nature of the swampland prevented her from really getting a view of the city until it was right next to them. Instead of looking down on uniform rows of wood and stone houses over the edge of the towering walls, they were instead greeted with nothing but a plain line of unending stone that seemed to block out the very horizon. Even more surprising was the fact that the very trees continued growing right up until they almost touched the towering stone edifice, clearly leaving nothing in the way of farmland directly outside the city walls.
Her group now milled around waiting for the line to move as John and Charity talked about their plans for what to do in the city proper.
“First things first, we have to find something good to eat! I've barely had anything other than jerky and cheese for the last couple days.”
“Oh, but what about a nice long soak in the public bath-houses? They have those around here right?” John looked over at Mathhew with his question, clearly hoping the man would explain the lay of the land, but Matthew merely looked back at him with a smile.
“Asshole. You'll tell Dei anything she wants to hear but I can barely get a peep out of you.” John shot a joking punch into the older man's shoulder which held stone solid despite the light power behind the jab.
“Perhaps she just asks more important questions than you do.”
John huffed in place as the line started moving once again, thankfully letting people pass through far quicker than the extended speech they gave people at the border town. The group had to pass over a small drawbridge that lined up with the mouth of the road as the wetland pooled into a deeper looking moat that followed the length of the wall. For the most part the guards here merely looked over entrants to the city with a wary gaze before letting everyone through without a word. As Dei and Xei approached with their masks, they held up the line a bit to ask some questions that Matthew easily answered, and the guards waved them through.
On the other side of the wall Charity's face showed the same surprise that Dei felt as they looked out on an open field of crops stretched out a good half mile ahead of them before another wall blocked their vision. The strange part wasn't that they had built a second layer of walls, but rather that the land around them wasn't submerged in water like everything else they had seen for the last couple weeks. Deep furrows lined the earth as wheat, carrots, potatoes, and pumpkins could all be seen growing in different fields separated by raised platforms.
A hundred people walked up and down the rows gathering the fall harvest, while others tilled the land behind them, and another group followed them all deliberately planting more seeds below the ground. A handful of guards were even trailing the group with long pikes held towards the sky, warding off a small flock of birds circling the seed group watching for a chance to steal from the busy workers.
For Dei's companions who hadn't seen more than ten people at a time for such a long journey, it was a sight to behold as the massive group of farmers worked in tandem. But after turning to look down the edge of the wall, Dei soon realized this was only one group of many as she saw similar blobs of people working their way up and down fields to the left and right.
Mathew waited for the rest of them to catch up as they followed the flow of travelers down the main road to the next gate and a similar situation. More curtive glares at the masked duo, more explanations by Matthew, and a hesitant acceptance by the guards. Dei was at least thankful that she hadn't chanced fate by bringing Nathan into the city with them, considering she wasn't quite sure how well known his little bandit group was around the area. She had left him in the forest surrounded by a large group of skeletons armed with a simple command to ‘OBEY’ him, as she gave him two simple guidelines to live by. One, don't get caught letting anyone know about the skeletons he had under his command. And two, bring her one new follower per week if he wanted to continue living.
She was up to three juggling balls of green light in the darkness of her void space, and while that was better than what she had for the last while, it wasn't nearly enough to fill the girl's heart. She wanted more, and this little test with Nathan the briggand? Well, lets just say she was finally feeling ready to branch out and see how far things could really go.
This time as they went through the gated overhang they finally reached the city proper as a strange mix of wood and stone houses lined the city streets. One would think that a stone building would be the more high class variant of the two considering the materials, but as Dei looked out on the uniform stone blocks carved in with the same doorway placement and front window as every other building, it certainly didn't seem like the pinnacle of grace. Dirty children ran between the stone buildings chasing after a dog as Dei and her party continued deeper into Portsmouth, step by step.
Off in the far distance behind many streets worth of houses, Dei spotted a grand stone keep that rose high above the rooftops surrounding it.
‘Now that, is where the rich people live.’
—
“They've just entered the city ma'am.”
The messenger cut a clean salute to the Major as he made his report in a lightly furnished office room that overlooked Portsmouth City. Major Connely dismissed the boy with a short wave as she had already been expecting this situation to come her way for about the last week or so. Sure, she wasn't sure what was about to happen exactly, but what she did know was that someone fairly powerful had just entered the capital without any sense of allegiance to the Golden Kingdom.
She clicked her tongue, turning around to look through a perfectly cut window sill that gazed out over a thousand houses that spread from the palace in all directions. A couple of larger stone buildings stood within view, marking the local heads of noble families and their dwellings, but most of the nearby buildings were wooden by design, in the style of the old architecture before the Monarch had given the world earth mages. Further out she saw stone blocks forming routine lines of houses with a certain sense of symmetry only broken up by oblong shaped buildings that marked the placement of public offices, shops, and workplaces.
Something about the cookie cutter building design the earth mages used disappointed the Major as she knew full well they could do so much more with just the barest amount of effort. Still, when the same mage had probably built more than a hundred of those small dwelling blocks in a single day's work, perhaps there was something to be said for the efficiency of their craft. She gazed over the uniform house tops that spread in a sea before her eyes, looking at the small moving specs that represented humans moving about in the far distance.
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Two of those people were her problem, and she was going to stop them before they did anything to harm this city. She was sure of it.
Major Connely did a tight about-face despite the lack of anyone else in the room with her, and started walking out of her office as she called for her staff. They had some masked devils to find.
—
The group had found a small inn close to the docks to call home base before everyone went their separate ways. John had sworn he had passed a place with a bath-house sign on the front of it that he was going to find, and Matthew disappeared into his room at the inn to likely dive into his book again. Meanwhile Charity had taken Dei by the hand and started pulling the young skeleton along as Xei followed them through the city streets.
Dei was a little bit annoyed by the strange behavior from someone claiming to be her head priestess, but when she overheard the woman mumbling something about, “Not gonna let them get into trouble under my watch again.” she settled in for the journey as Chastity led them to a nearby food stand. A quick flash of coins between the woman and the merchant, and Charity was holding a lightly fried fish on a stick as she dragged Dei further and further into the city market.
The sights were only a little more overwhelming than the market street in Camp Miller, mostly due to the number of merchants as opposed to any difference in quality. In this city the focus was a little bit more narrowed in on maritime goods such as a wide variety of fish, crustaceans, and maritime tools. Still, the objects on display drew Dei in as she tried to whip her head from one stall to another to take it all in as they passed.
Charity was pulling her deeper into the press towards a shop they had passed earlier in the day, but then something finally caught Dei's eye, or rather ear, and stopped her in her tracks. Charity continued on for a couple of steps before looking back to find the skeleton standing stock still in the middle of the street as she looked into the open door of a wooden shop. Unthinking feet drew Dei into the building as a somber melody swam out onto the air of the open street.
Both Xei and Charity caught up to Dei at the same time, squeezing through the door behind her to enter the small bar area cloaked in a smoky haze that filled the room. Several diners looked up at their entrance from behind large devices set into the center of each of the tables like a lightly boiling pot of water attached to a metallic tube. Uneven footsteps fell through the room as Dei angled her way up to the bar top even as her gaze remained fully fixed on a single woman standing within the corner.
Soft notes of a violin placed under tension were released into the room with an even tempo as the singular musician let her fingers dance along the wooden bow of her instrument. Her curled brown hair whipped up and down as the girl swung with the music, lost to her own focus as she looked at nothing but the violin within her hands. A lacquered bow traveled up and down the length of the device in quick succession calling to mind memories of something Dei had lost within the last couple of weeks. Echoes of a life she once lived.
But all songs eventually come to an end and the girl's head drifted away from her instrument even as the patrons of the lounge gave her a scattering of applause from their deeply cushioned seats. She smiled slightly, dipping her head in thanks as one patron threw a coin into the open instrument case by her feet.
A single hand grabbed Dei by the shoulder, trying to shake her from her focus on the girl, but she hardly paid it any mind as she waited eagerly for the woman to start the next song. She wanted more. Needed more.
Scattered conversation could be heard from behind her as the barkeep started asking someone for their order, but Dei pinned the girl on the stage under her gaze like she might escape at any moment. Thankfully, after far too long of a break for the budding goddess, the girl began to play once again. Short melancholic trills ran through the air from as she caressed the instrument into a new song for the room, lulling Dei into a trance.
—
Charity had hardly ever seen the Herald act like this before. Sure, she could be a bit mischievous at times, but the single minded fascination that Dei placed on the musician seemed like something different to the priestess in that moment. To her own appraisal, the music coming from the girl was certainly talented, but Dei was reacting like she hadn't heard a solid tune in years.
Charity thought about it for a bit before realizing that that assessment may indeed be true. Who knows how many years the girl had been dead before she came back to life, especially given she didn't seem to know anything of the current events of the world. She had caught the girl staring multiple times whenever the group had decided to reminisce about the old days, a feeling she assumed the Herald was joining in with them on. But what if she wasn't reminiscing about the past, but trying to learn about the world through the scattered conversations of others?
Even after she had picked up the writing slates, the skeletons within the group still hardly spoke with the rest of them. It was hard to imagine that both of them were merely shy, so was the real reason they stayed so quiet because they were struggling to keep up with the conversations? Because they didn't have anything to add other than the occasional question?
The priestess allowed herself to watch the bartender as he shuffled up and down the bar grabbing a thick mug then reaching over to pour her some mead from a suspended tap. The faint music of the sole violinist as well as her own distant thoughts about the Herald distracted her until a frothy mug seemed to appear in front of her without warning. The bartender flashed a grin at Charity that was just a little too entertained when she momentarily flailed her arms and rocked back on the barstool unsteadily. Xei caught the back of the chair and guided it back to the bar, before resuming his entranced stare at the musician in the corner, matching Dei to Charity's other side.
She was just about to thank Xei for catching her chair when a soft wall of smoke rushed past the trio like something had moved behind them. Turning around, Charity soon realized that it wasn't just something, but a group of five people with softly glowing gemstones standing behind her.
“By the authority of the Monarch you are to come with us immediately.”
The music faltered and everyone in the lounge stiffened at the command. To her left Dei slowly moved her head away from the musician for a moment to take in the group of arcanists before her. Her gaze passed over them steadily as she shrugged nonchalantly and reached down to her belt.
The arcanists tensed immediately as water erupted from several open vessels throughout the room and metal gauntleted hands were raised into fighting stances. Dei had the wherewithal to pause for a moment before she gingerly raised up the piece of slate that she had reached for just a moment ago. No one let their guard down even as the girl started to scribble onto the black surface while the entire room held its breath.
“I'll just be a moment first, then we can go.”
The arcanist at the head of the group noticeably slouched, uncertain what to do in the situation even as Dei hopped off the stool and strode calmly over to the musician. Her gloved hand wiped away the writing from the slate and she stopped in front of the nervous musician.
“What is your name?”
“U-uhhh. Stella?”
Dei pointed at the word “name” a little more pointedly this time as she continued looking at the violinist.
“S-Stella Flint?”
Dei’s hand's practically jumped up and down as she started writing again in a big enough font that Charity could still just manage to make out from the bar.
“I'd like to hear you play again Stella.”
Stella had already looked stressed by the situation unfolding at the bar, but something about the masked character speaking to her via a chalkboard made the girl recede into her simple stool up on the stage. The mute skeleton seemed to take that as enough of an answer, because she turned around and returned to the arcanists. Firmly planted between the group of mages and Charity, the skeleton wrote a single word on the slate and raised it above her head for everyone to see.
“Ready!”