There was barely any traffic at the gates of the city, so we made it to the front in less than a minute. Why we were waiting in line, despite the implied urgency, only Yero could tell.

“Guard Jux.” Yero shook one of the guards’ hands, “Escorting a suspect to the Hold.”

“That’s alright, Yero.” The guard eyed me, “Why is he half-naked?”

I flushed with embarrassment.

“Found him naked. This was the best I could do.”

“Ah. Well...” Jux signaled one of the guards at the back, who came jogging, “We have some spare clothes in the gatehouse. Please get him clothed before you enter the city proper. You know how the City Watch gets with outsiders…”

We waited patiently, while she spoke quietly into the ears of the guard, then turned to us, “He’ll guide you there.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Yero nodded at the other guard,” Please, lead the way.”

“Yero!” The lady called after us, “Don’t try to warp to Bastion, take a carriage. Something’s got the Watch riled up.”

Yero froze momentarily, his hand clenched, but he nodded without turning back and nudged me after the guard.

We were led past the gates into the lowest level of one of the two towers bordering the gates. I was frankly flummoxed. Not by the architecture, not really. I mean, I’d seen skyscrapers.

What I hadn’t seen was an entire tower made with nothing but polished marble! The walls, ceiling and floor of the tower were marble. Thinking back, even the entire city wall seemed to be made of the same material in a different color!

Who approved this egregious waste of fun-

I was distracted from my internal rant when we entered into a large hall, tables scattered throughout the room. People sat at the tables doing myriad things, most of them were wearing the teal guard uniform. It was honestly surprising how much activity there was within, given how little there was without. A few people stared at us, but we were largely ignored.

The guard we were following led us into a side door, leading to a short corridor with four doors on each side. He opened the closest one to the right and gestured at the interior, “The clothes are in the drawers, some sandals too, I think. Help yourself. I’ll be in the main hall when you’re done.”

“Thank you” I said, already looking through one of the many drawers of the floor-to-ceiling shelf, “I’ll try to be quick.”

The guard nodded and left for the main hall.

Yero stood outside the doorway, his hand on the door handle, “I’ll give you some privacy, but be quick, we need to get to the Knight Barracks as soon as possible.” He said, then he shut the door.

“...”

My hands trembled.

I leaned against one of the shelves and shut my eyes, trying to keep the tears in.

What an absurdly horrible day…

----------------------------------------

Sometime later, composure regained, and fully clothed, I left the room. Finding the corridor empty, I went to the main hall, and saw Yero standing in front of one of the tables framing the wall, speaking into a scroll, like a telephone.

Either that, or he’s muttering to himself, scroll in hand.

I start towards him and as I get closer, I hear the last of the conversation, “-range for a gathering… Yes, I’m serious!” He glances at me, “I’m bringing the suspect in now… Check the life signs again, please… Aye.”

He put the scroll away, and turns to me, “Let’s go. There’s a carriage waiting for us outside.”

I notice his eyes are red, like he’d been crying again. I would have asked how he was, if he wasn’t arresting me, or if he didn’t look like he was also looking for someone to bludgeon.

He steered me outside, where a gray carriage waited, two huge black horses hitched to it. We boarded and while I was taking in the oddly comfortable interior, Yero knocked on one of the walls.

The carriage moved soon after.

We sped through the city. The two of us studiously ignoring each other.

At least for a while.

Unable to endure the silence anymore, I met Yero’s eye, “Can you tell me what’s going to happen, now? Where we’re going? W-What exactly happened back at the forest?”

He stared at me for a few minutes in silence, and it wasn’t until I’d started sweating from the awkwardness, that he began to answer, “We’re going to the Knight Headquarters, Bastion. There, you will be interrogated before a Truth Icon. It detects truths and lies, and to what degree, in case you didn’t know.”

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Crap…

He saw my expression and shook his head, looking away, “As for the forest, I suspect all my colleagues on patrol with me are compromised… likely dead.”

I was appalled at first, until another thought wormed it’s way into my mind.

Please GOD, don’t let this be my fault, somehow.

Yero’s expression grew haunted, and he rubbed his face with his hand. Clearly not noting the rough metal gauntlets on them.

He continued, “The ritual I performed, with my blood on the medallions showed me their last moments. Just the last twenty seconds or so… Nothing. Nothing about how they died, or if we were still in danger, so I retreated here to gather reinforcements, just in case… and to get the truth out of you.”

Lacking a proper retort, I just said, “Okay.”

I looked out the window again, “Thanks.”

I felt his gaze on me, but I tried to ignore it. Eventually, I felt his eyes turn away and my body relaxed marginally. Without that distraction, I belatedly noticed the city in view.

It was in a word, breathtaking.

The marble-like material used to build the walls and the towers by the gate, was clearly also used to build most of the buildings in the city, especially the larger ones. All the buildings of this type had a theme: blue, white and black, used in unique variations from building to building.

The true beauty however came from what I was calling ‘districts’ in my head. Each district had its own unique theme. This was evident in the design of the storefronts, kioks, restaurants, inns, workshops, hotels and even scaffolding artfully set up on the marble buildings themselves.

These themes ranged from variations of textured and polished wood-like materials being used as the main construction material or for scaffolding, a greenhouse district, a steampunk-like district with glass panes, gears and pipes in gold and silver.

There was a district with an overabundance of stained glass; cathedral-like architecture, and a seemingly normal district with beautiful, hopefully waterproof fabric, somehow weaving in and over a good number of the buildings.

More interesting than the environments, were the people themselves. What looked like at least, seven distinct races populated the districts without much rhyme or reason, and these were only the majority. Even stranger races than elves and dwarves, heck, I saw a man(?) that looked entirely made out of coloured glass laughing with a woman(?) that looked a cross between a goblin and a squirrel.

Since I was held spellbound by the city, I counted fifteen districts in view, even as we continued to travel in a straight line along the wide main road. We probably spent less than twenty minutes on it, Yero rapidly tapped his feet on the floor of the carriage the whole time.

We stopped before a high-walled compound, an unadorned tower peeking above it, at the center of a crossroads. The gates opened due to some unseen signal. When we entered, I noticed the place was in disarray, people in full or partial armor were running about. It seemed a large mobilization was happening.

Of course, the neutralization of any significant member of their number would send the Knights into an uproar…

People ran from huge stables, I saw gigantic horses and other exotic creatures through its entrance.

I did a double take.

Is that an owl-bear!?

Men (not necessarily human, or male probably) in full plate were lifting armor that looked fitted for the animals above their heads, towards the stables. It was a huge barn like structure, flush against the walls of the tower.

No one paid us any attention as we stepped out of the carriage and Yero guided me into the tower. As soon as we entered, a woman wearing white robes spotted us, or Yero rather. She called to him and gave a hand signal to him. In response he suddenly pushed me up a staircase close by.

“What’s going on-”

“We’re taking another route to our destination.” Yero replied, “Try to be silent from here on.”

Yero led me up and down an increasingly convoluted path. Sometimes, we backtracked along the same path we just followed.

As time went on, I began to have a sneaking suspicion that we were running from or trying to avoid someone.

Eventually, we stepped into a hallway that was completely different from the rest. It had an open balcony, which showed a view of the city from a surprisingly high vantage. I hadn’t realized we had climbed so high.

Yero cut my gaping short, “Come, we’re almost there.”

I heard a gasp behind us. I turned to see a man in blue-green robes standing in the doorway we just came out of. He pointed at us, “Sir Knight, I-”

“Greetings, Sir Seeker!” Yero interrupted while he literally threw me towards the single doorway at the other end of the corridor, “Just a moment!”

I hurtled through the air towards the door, bracing my self for the inevitable impact.

“MA-DAN!” I heard Yero call, and the door blew of its hinges before I went through it.

Mid-air I was caught by an invisible force.

And I lost it.

NO! Not aga-

“Peace, friend” A man voiced, and I stilled my thrashing, panting.

Right….

Well, we clearly don’t have time to be traumatized….

“Please put me down…” I managed.

“Alright.”

I was dropped gently onto a plush rug. I picked myself up, trying to look as dignified as possible doing so. I looked behind me, and saw Yero kneeling outside the doorway threshold. The Seeker guy stood behind him, visibly fuming.

“Yero? Some help here?” He refused to answer, or even look up.

Well, he obviously won’t be of any help…

I reluctantly turned to look at the source of the voice.

He was a well built man in a simple gray shirt and pants, he stood behind a wide table, he was handsome and would look like a young man if not for the crow’s feet at his eyes. His thick handlebar moustache gave his face an affable affect rather than a ridiculous one, as one would tend to expect.

His posture was non-threatening, but the steel in his eyes betrayed him. Unable to look him in said eyes anymore, I looked around at the room we were in. It was very plain. Beyond the tasteful rug and the table, there was only a suit of black armor set on a rack and three chairs before the table. The walls were gray and the windows behind the man and on the leftmost wall lacked curtains.

Finished with my perusal, I chanced a glance again at the man behind the table, who was now seated.

I took a breath, “Good day, sir.” I pulled myself straighter, “Apologies for the manner of entry. I didn’t have much of a choice and honestly, I don’t even know why I’m here, nor why I'm in your office specifically.”

He looked at me for a bit, then smiled, “Please take a seat young man, you too Yero.” Yero stood and stepped in, and while Yero sat, the man raised his voice towards the robed man in the hallway, “Sir Midian, please come and have a seat.”

For a moment it looked as though he would refuse, but perhaps due to the potential awkwardness of being the only one left standing, he acquiesced.

The office man sat back, his hands clasped loosely on the table, “Now! Little Yero, please enlighten me.”