On the sides of the main road, in a medium-sized building with a “Roadside Kitchen” written on it. It was what its name would suggest, a restaurant with a big hall inside. With well-spaced wooden chairs and red cushions at the top, and a decorated dining set on the table. If that’s not enough to relax a weary traveller, then the exotic smell from the colourless flower just beside it would. However, it failed to calm the tense bodies of the three persons sitting on the table. Well, that was the case for the relatively young-looking male and female concerned. They were none other than the Gold Keepers from Oasis.The oldest among them, John looked at ease like on a family trip. Even his voice sounded like a person on some tour when he said to his companions. “ I always heard my friends say this restaurant is the best in Easparton. Even the water has a sweet taste to it.”
“ Sir.” Mike kept looking at the door when he asked. “ Are you sure we should be here?”
“ Why not? And stop looking at the door. People would mistake us for criminals.”
Mike wanted to say more, but a waiter came close to their table, dressed in pure white with red linings that ran along the sides. On his head was a hat with a large fin-shaped cloth reading towards the ceiling. He said with a little bow. “ Respected Sirs and Madam, what do you like to order?”
“ How about you get me a Shahi Dosa?” John said with a glance at the menu. “ Also, get me a plate of idli too. What about you guys?”
“ I think I would have idli.”
“ Get me a Masala Dosa.”
Mike and Margretta said respectively. But the waiter looked a little embarrassed and said, “ Sorry Sir, but we are unable to serve Shahi Dosa at the current time.”
“ Why not? It’s your signature dish, no?” John was a little surprised that he was not able to get the dish his friend talked about.
“ That’s right, but we currently lack paneer. ” The waiter sighed at him. Paneer was one of the main ingredients of Shahi Dosa. “ In fact, we lack many other things too.”
“ Is the business not booming these days?”
“ No, no sir, you got the wrong idea.” The waiter looked sideways and only after confirming that no one else was watching did he say more. “ Actually, they were supposed to be brought here, but things got messy in the middle.”
“ I don’t hear Easparton having trouble with bandits,” Margretta said.
“ Not bandits, Madam-”
“ Miss.” Margretta said as she didn’t want herself to be addressed as old. Besides, she was still single.
“ Of course, forgive my slip of the tongue. The beast on whose back our things were supposed to be got out of control, again.”
“ Again?” John raised his eyebrows at him.
“ Yes, and so the city lord banned the beast from entering the city.It also increased our cost.” Here, the waiter looked particularly cautious and turned his words into a whisper. “ Actually, there is a rumour going around in the city.”
“ Oh? What kind?” Margretta got her interest up and her tense body due to last night's raid eased some.
“ Well, you know how Lord Guardian controls the beasts of Thar? Over the years, not only the beasts are going more and more out of control and not only that, but the beast tide too is getting more and more tough to handle. The last one even continued for half a day more since the end of the tide.” The Waiter didn’t want to end his words here for them to interpret by themselves and continued. “ This is not a normal phenomenon and is happening in all other regions of Thar. Words have it, that the Guardian is at her life’s end. That she can't even maintain her true form and now lives solemnly by herself in Oasis. That's why her control over the beast is getting lower as time passes.”
Others didn’t notice, but when the waiter said this, John’s eyes dimmed for a moment. As an official with a high position, he knows more about it. It’s not out of reason that Oasis was getting more active just before its new heir could take control. In the truest of senses, one could say that Oasis is at its strongest at this moment, but the more it waits, the weaker it gets. For when the Divine war reached the doors of Oasis, it was the Guardian beast that took the full brunt of Church’s Sacred Artefact.
Ignorant of John’s inner thoughts, the waiter continued. “Some say that soon she would be dea-”
“ We would have three Masala dosa and two Idli.” Mike cut him off with an annoyed look. The waiter seemed to understand and left after taking their orders. Mike then did a quick spell that prevented their voice from getting heard by others and asked John. “ Sir, what is our next course of action?”
“Isn’t it eating breakfast?” John also got back to himself and said as usual. “ Don’t worry about the knights, I bet even they didn’t think we would take a detour mid-way.”
“ Sir…”
“ Ai, it’s good to be young, so energetic.” John sighed and asked back. “ Since you want to work, who am I to say no? But let me ask first. Why do you think Oasis sent us here?”
“ To search for tax evasions?” As Mike was thinking, Margretta answered first.
Mike took a minute before answering. “ If I am allowed to be a little rude. To create trouble?” When he thinks about the recent relationship between Oasis and Easparton, and how the latter openly threatened to not accept the rule of the new lord, the answer comes quite clear. But still, he felt it should not be so simple, for they are just three people, unless they plan to openly fight in the city, the trouble they could cause was very limited. But even so, with a High Mage rank leading them, he can’t fandom themselve anything other than living targets.
“ That’s right. Oh, the service is a little quick here.” John said as the waiter put the dishes on the table. It was after he left that John continued again. “ You know, politics and all, it's messy to get into. Leave that aside, and we are here just to grieve people. Now another question comes to mind. Can you tell me how to grieve someone?”
This question was a little tough for Mike and Margretta to answer. They were, after all, not talking about a person, but a system that governed over the many people under it. Normal things didn't matter and bigger things just got worse. It also didn’t help that they already seemed to be under constant eyes.
“Should we try to unearth the corruption of some Officials?” This time, Margretta’s words were in sync with those of Mike. Since it looked more logical to just do things under their power and find some financial mismatch to create an issue. This was the safest bet they could think of. Any other direct confrontation, and they could either be detained or killed depending on how strong of a reply Easparton wanted to send. In either case, that was not the outcome they wanted for themselves. But John seemed not to hear it and took a bite from his whistle idli dripping with sambar, a reddish-brown lentil vegetable stew. Seeing it like that, Mike and Margretta also started to eat.
“Pretext, do you know about it?” John said as they all ate half of their food. “In my batch, we used to call them the stairways of moral high ground. Get it ready first, or choose one at random at the start, but having it is a must.” He had seen it with his own eyes, no one starts a fight without having a moral high ground to stand on. Be it the historic right to land or some old grievance of them getting a cold coffee when they asked for hot. It ranges from logical to complete garbage, but almost everyone searches for them. Almost everyone. ‘If she was here, pretext or not, this city would be burning now.’ Such a thought passed through his head, but another voice brought him back.
“Should we look for one, sir?” Mike asked, but John shook his head.
“Why should we? We have it in our name. The thing we need next is intent.” They are the Gold keepers, the one responsible for keeping track of all money that moves around Thar, they lacked many things, but not the pretext.
“Griefing?” Margretta said after wiping her mouth with a cloth.
“Yes. Then Mike, what is next?” To John’s question, Mike took some deep thoughts. What did they need next? The answer, he knew it, and so he said. “Target.”
“Nice one. Let me help you with one.” John pointed his finger to the man sitting at the centre-right. Mike and Margretta followed his finger and found a man around his fifties with long green hair. A golden chain could be seen on his luxurious dress. “Can you tell me who he is?”
Margretta and Mike shook their heads. John also sighed a little at them. “Next time, before you go to your next location, do a sweep of old files about that reason. For the time being, he is Jacob, the medium-sized trader.”
“Why would a trader be our target sir? Is he a relative of some higher up?” Margretta asked.
“No. But he deals with the most important treasure of Thar.” Mike and Margretta quickly got what John meant by this. Others might be confused, but when it comes to the treasure of Thar, few things come to mind. One is water, the other one is food. It turned out that for a nation under constant clouds of war, getting it to the path of development was nothing short of impossible. Even if someone tried to, defending it from the next beast tide was a difficult task, thus no lord even bothered to develop any industry. Food, the lifeline of civilization, requires a large spat of land. A fertile land, or at the very least, soil that could be made fertile with magic. But all that Thar had was nothing but sand. So people of Thar could only do three things, catch fish in the ocean from its shore, import from outside, or if they happened to be unable to do a second due to some reason, for say due to being a pariah of the world, they smuggle.
Smuggle they did, on a rather big scale at that. Big enough that despite fish being the staple of Thar, a decent-income family could still get food that included other things like green vegetables. But the food’s value became even more important when something big like war happened. “Tell me something,” John asked with a smile on his face as Mike and Margretta finished their breakfast. “Surely, it would be grieving for lords when they found themselves lacking in food during a war, no?”
“Are we going to steal from their granaries?” Mike felt he got the gist of it, but John seemed to have other things planned.
“You need to think a little bit. For now, why don’t we take our friend with us and chat a little.” John took out a small bottle, about the size of his finger with some liquid inside. He then placed it on the table and opened the cap. And from the bottle, black smoke rose at an astonishing speed and enveloped the whole hall. The moment smoke started rising, everyone in the restaurants started panicking, and chaos spread everywhere. It didn’t help that the smoke was strong enough that no light could get past its cloud, and amid the panicked sound from scared people, everyone started to run out. The guards at the door tried to use wind magic but the smoke didn’t move. Only after half an hour did it disappear, and a mess of thrown food as well as chairs came into view of others. For the ones who were keeping a watch on the three gold keepers, only a table with empty plates and some silver coins could be seen. Sadly enough, when they did a count of them, they found that the customer paid in full, but didn’t leave any tip for the waiter. But those knights and mages could care less for him.
****
“Alright, put him here.” In a somewhat dark room, John told Mike to put down the struggling body of Jacob. But Mike was not gentle with this and what came out was similar to throwing a bag onto the ground, the impact seemed to be painful enough just from the loud thud it made.
“Sir, how did you find this place so soon?” Margretta looked at the room, it was not big but not small either. It was a little distance away from the main street and most importantly, she saw John using a keystone to open the door of this place. It means a formation was protecting this place. These houses don’t come cheap.
“I don’t, but I happened to have some friends among Sableclaws.” Margretta shut her mouth with wide eyes when she heard it. Sableclaw, the most prominent intelligence-gathering agency of Thar. People don’t ask questions about their work or them. If Gold Keepers could question anyone, then Sableclaws could kill anyone.To this day, no one was clear just how many had died under them.
“Now then, Mike, remove the binding on his eyes.”
“Ummmhh…”
“His gag too.”
“Ha, ha..w-who are you guys, why did you kidnap me? Do you know who I am? I am…”
“Sir, Jacob, can you please ask one question at a time, I am quite old, you see.” John looked at the struggling man in front of him, but his voice didn’t change a bit. “We didn’t kidnap you. But officially took you in for an interrogation for a crime. Please choose your words carefully, for they might be used against you.”
“You think I would believe that? You might not know it but I got…”
His words got cut short as Mike kicked him in the stomach. As the burning pain distorted his face, he heard the voice from the one who kicked him. “Shut your traps. How dare you talk to a High mage like this?”
“H-High mage?” Jacob’s face distorted again, but it was difficult to say if it was due to pain or the talk of the High mage. Mike was going to kick him again, but John stopped him with his raised arm.
“Easy, Mike. He’s just shocked.” John could tell that his juniors were under some stress. After all, they just picked a man from the restaurant in the daylight from many eyes. It would be strange if he were not panicking inside. John pulled his badge out and said, “Sir Jacob, let me introduce myself. I am John, an official from Gold Keepers and also a High mage. My other two juniors are Mike and Margretta.”
His words, or maybe the revelation about the people he was talking with, calmed Jacob a little. He asked with a cautious voice, “Why would gold keepers be after me? I did no wrong.”
“Sir Jacob, please, lying is not good for your health.”
“I- I didn’t lie.”
“That’s no good. If one of the richest people of Easparton lies like this, what can I expect from others?”
“Richest?” Panic took hold of Jacob’s face with large beads of sweat forming on his head. “Sir, you made a mistake. I am only slightly rich.”
“Sir, Jacob. Though we smuggle food from outside, that doesn’t mean we don’t keep a record of things that land in the ports of Thar.” John's eyes stretched with a smile on his lips. “You have been in our crosshair for a long time now. It’s just that we have some beef with some people here, that’s why we never told anyone about you here.”
Margretta came near the window and closed the curtain, leaving only a little gap for her to peek outside. As the light in the room became less, Jacob only became more nervous as he said, “Mistake, there’s definitely a mistake somewhere. Let me go so I can help you find them. I think we can reach mutually beneficial terms if you allow me.”
“Ai, my job forbids taking gifts, what can we do?.” John just shook his head at him. “Anyway, let me get to the point since we are short on time. I want the locations as well as keystones of granaries where you have illegally stored food stocks.”
“What locations and keystones? I told you somewhere a mistake had happened.”
“Sir Jacob, don’t you understand your current situation? Over the years, you bought lots and lots of food that you bought from other cities and then smuggled them here.” John had looked deep into the records, but there was doubt as to why Jacob brought such large quantities of food over the years. A small section believed it was for war preparations, but they never found any strong relationship between him or the city lords. In fact, for some reason, even the file of Jacob was below all the others. John was not sure if it was the result of Jacob’s bribes, but he felt something was big on this one, so he looked some more. In Jacob’s file, it was mentioned that he smuggled food that was enough for thirty thousand people for six days. Big? Sure, but not enough to annoy someone on a scale. But when John looked more and collected data from different sources, some values didn't add up. Whoever was it, the work was extensive to keep Jacob away from the lens of Gold Keepers. John was not sure about the scale or the person as time was less, so he decided on Jacob as his target. “Sir Jacob, you know I am low on time. That’s why I will give you two options.” John turned to Mike and said, “Go get his wife and son, his house is two streets away and should have his name written on it.”
“Wait, what do you mean by this?!” Seeing Mike nod and leave, Jacob shouted with panic. John looked at him trying to untie himself on the ground and thought about something as he gazed into the amber eyes and said, “By the way, about your gift, I think we can do something about it.”
His words made Jacob pause, and even Margretta looked over. Then, as life came to him, Jacob said with an excited voice, “Of course, of course. We can all be honest with each other. We are all good people after all. We should look out for each other.”
“In the files, it said you brought a cumulative of thirty tonnes of pink sea shells from the western region. I want fifteen percent of it.”
“What, fifteen percent? It’s daylight robbery.” Jacob said with the intent of refusal, but he noticed the narrowed eyes of John and the thought of his family being brought over here came to his mind. Thus he decided to give up his struggles. “OK, alright. Fifteen percent and not a point percent more. How about you guys untie me first.”
“Um, sir?” Margretta asked with doubt. She didn’t understand why John, who was known to be quite upright, would do this. But John was silent; he seemed to be in thought, even though his eyes got eased. Seeing his request being ignored, Jacob could only shut his mouth,
With an unsettling feeling that tightened his nerves when he looked at the eased eyes of John. In such an uncomfortable silence, time passed, and only when Mike came with an unconscious woman and a ten-year-old child, did some sound return to the room.
“Sir, did something happen?” Mike asked as he noticed the change of atmosphere in the room.
“This case looks more interesting than I initially thought.” Said John as he gleaned over the two additional newcomers. “He’s not the guy we should be searching for.”
“What?” Mike and Margretta both have a confused expression. Even Jacob seemed panicked at his words; he wanted to ask about this but felt his mouth being sealed by some force. In the meantime, John didn’t let his juniors in the dark.
“Mike, have you heard of pink sea shells?”
“I did.” Mike was unable to understand John's meaning, but that didn’t stop him from answering questions. “They are the speciality of the local mermaid tribe in the southern port.”
“Wait, they are not from the western region?” Margretta asked as she remembered John’s words a little while ago. Mike shook his head at her and explained some more. “ No. They are only available at the shores of southern regions and only when you meet someone from a mermaid tribe can one get them.”
“ So, the things about earlier..?”
“ Was a lie. Jacob didn’t seem to even know much about what he was smuggling.” John added to her words. Mike was still confused, but Margretta whispered to him about the convo he just missed while John asked Jacob. “ Who do you work for?”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“ I-I don’t know what you are talking about. I work for myself.” Jacob said as he felt the force blocking his mouth disappear.
“ Earlier, your body relaxed when I asked for pink shells. Looking at your eyes, I don’t think you have received any training for resisting interrogation either. Your replies also show a lack of situation awareness. Not the qualities of a smuggler.” Though John was looking at Jacob, his words were meant for Mike and Margretta.
“ I was in a stress. It was a slip of the tongue, and nothing more. Believe me. I am telling the truth.”
“ By the way, were they not allowed to enter the granaries? Did they even tell you their names?” John ignored him and kept asking more while he observed every motion of Jacob’s body.
“ Look, what I am saying…”
“ Listen, I told you before. I don’t have time to play around. I think this should bring your memory out quickly.” John motioned to Mike and he grabbed the child and brought him closer. With such, panicked shouts of Jacob filled the room.
“ I believe this is something you should be familiar with?” John had a purple crystal in his hand, and when Jacob’s eyes fell on it, his face started to become white with pure terror.
“T-this…y-you…”
“ That’s right, it’s Pantheon’s Dust.” John introduced its name. A potent drug made by the Circles of Life. Its addictiveness is such that once even a little enters one’s body, the person can’t live without it. But there is more to its name than just some drug, for there was a time when it smuggled not only within the territories of Alliance, which one Thar was a member of but way beyond it. Its addiction spread like wildfire in dried grasslands. Just one year and more than thirty percent of the human population was under its addiction. Circles of Life may have existed for years, but it was this drug that put its name on the eyes of Alliance.
Its speed of spread also resulted in an equally strong reaction from the Alliance, but in Thar, it was draconic. The tribes of warriors cannot stomach the truth of their proud warriors being addicted to such a simple drug and a massive crackdown followed. But instead of treating those addicted, they ordered completed sterilisation. Jacob knows it well, once someone takes even a little of it, no one can save him from being fed to the beast. His struggle against the robe became even stronger as John put Pantheon’s Dust closer to his child’s face. “ I would say in a single line. Tell me the locations of the granaries and give me their keystones to open them.”
“ Please, listen to me. Aren’t you guys from law enforcement? Why are you doing this?”
“ Five minutes.” John was not interested in his plea for mercy. “ I don’t care about your back handlers, so just tell me the location you know.”
But Jacob seemed to have thought it was just a pressure tactic, and still tried to negotiate. Mike and Margretta thought the same too. But when the five minutes ticked in the middle of Jacob’s attempt to dissuade John, his eyes, along with that of Mike and Margretta, shook to the core. John didn’t bother to even look at the sleeping face of the boy, and just opened his mouth and put a tiny bit of purple crystal into his mouth.
“NO, Stop!!!.” Jacob shouted but he was pinned by Mike. He could only look helplessly as dark blue lines started to spread from the throat of his child, with an expression of bliss on the child’s face.
“ It takes upward of two minutes till a person becomes fully addicted after taking it,” John said, ignoring the eyes of fear from his juniors, he pulled out another bottle with red colour. “ I happened to have something that could stop that, but whether I do it, is all in your hands.”
“ Please, I don't know who they are. I am telling the truth. They would murder me if I said anything about the location.” When no one replied to him, Jacob felt his throat becoming dry as with his lips, his heart drummed in his chest and eyes, fixed on the body of his child. The silence of the room enhanced the breathing sound from the bliss-faced child, uncaring about the blue lines that completely dotted his face, contracting with his fair skin.
“ One and a half minutes.” The uncaring, casual tone sounded much like a grim reaper to Jacob’s years. It seemed a routine for that old man. Without even an ounce of sympathy. Jacob looked up from the boy and found the old man gazing back at him. Again there was no guilt in those eyes. At this moment, when every second felt like hours, he knew this man would not save his child. His words came through from his face, now fully soaked with sweat that ticked down to his throat. It contained a plea from a father towards his child, for once these minutes passed, he could never save his boy’s life. Even if he did save his life, the future would be gone. He just couldn’t face himself if that happened.“ Three blocks away from here, is a building with a hole in the lower left side of the wall. I was only supposed to open the door for people coming in. I know nothing else. I swear. Please, save my boy..”
“ And the keystone?”
“ The necklace on my boy’s neck.” The blue lines had spread through half of his body, but John didn’t look at them. He shifted the collar of the boy and found the necklace, with a red stone on it. He ignored the thumping web of blue lines that spread around the young child’s chest and took out the necklace. Then under Jacob’s pleading eyes, he opened the red potion bottle near the boy's face and red smoke entered his nose. The blue lines significantly eased the bulging blue lines, but not completely.
“Let’s go.” Hearing his words, Mike gulped and asked back. “ Sir, about him?”
“ Untie him. He’s useless for us now.” Mike untied Jacob who crawled to his son. Margretta opened the door and walked out first, Mike followed after her. John was the last one, he looked at Jacob holding his son, while also going close to his wife and a knife appeared in his hand. He threw that knife near the foot of Jacob who looked at him with some tears in his eyes. “ You are really a disappointment towards the Great Mother,” John said. The moment such words left his mouth, Jacob seemed to panic, and in his amber eyes, a green light started to emerge.
“ NO. No. I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it.” Jacob seemed to forget the child in his arms as he dropped his son and grabbed his head and screamed the words of denial. Jacob lost his ability to hear anything after that, as he just kept screaming about the words from earlier. “ No, I didn’t. It’s not my fault.” The green light in his eyes became stronger as he kept screaming such words. Then his eyes landed on the unconscious bodies of his child and wife, and then on the knife. “ Yes, it's their fault I disappointed her. Yes, I did this for them, not for myself. I did no wrong, they did.” In the unknown dark, with his amber eyes now completely turned green, his hands reached towards the knife.
****
“Let’s move to the place that Jacob mentioned,” John said the moment he came outside. But seeing no reply, he looked at his juniors and found their bodies stiff. A closer look revealed their eyes also turning green. He narrowed his eyes and took out a bamboo stick with a silver bell at the end. He shook it a little, and the bell strangely didn’t make a sound like it should. Instead, it lit up with colourless mana, sweeping over Mike and Margretta, who jerked and felt cold all over their bodies. “I said let’s go. I don't want to run from knights at such an age.” John didn’t give them time to think more and moved to the front. Seeing him getting away, Mike and Margretta shook themselves and followed him.
On the road, they spotted many knights and mages searching around the streets, but John, being a high mage, had covered them with an invisible spell. Not only that but also some other spells that his juniors were not sure about. As they moved, people made way for them, and despite so many mages being present, no one found the situation strange. It was such that when the sun went past its midpoint, they arrived at their designated location: a somewhat normal-looking building that one couldn’t distinguish from the surroundings. Before entering, John again took out his magic dish and checked something before a smile appeared on his face. “They are really courageous.”
“Sir, are there many people guarding it?” Margretta asked, while Mike silently took out his anchor.
But he was bound to be disappointed as John shook his head and said, “No. In fact, not even a single one.”
“Are you sure about that, sir? Would they really leave such an important thing unguarded?” Mike asked with surprise. This situation seemed unlikely to him.
“As I said, they are courageous,” John replied, starting to move towards the building. He came near the door and found the lock to be the simplest one. When he was about to open it, Margretta stepped forth and said, “Sir, let me do it.”
“Sir, I don’t want to doubt your judgement, but are you sure about that thing working correctly?” Mike asked John.
“Don’t worry. That thing was made by the greatest golem master of our time. There is no way it would malfunction,” John reassured them while thinking.‘If it malfunctioned, it would just explode anyway.’ Margretta didn’t take much time, and soon the door opened with a click. Inside was nothing special, just some old, dust-covered furniture. But it didn’t sway the three Gold Keepers; getting dust to cover something was just a spell away.
“Jacob didn’t say much about what was inside, so I think we would need to look for the entrance ourselves,” Mike said.
“I think we should look from the ground,” Margretta said. “Most likely, there is an underground route from this building.”
“Now, now, lad. As much as I would love to look at your investigative skills, there are some people on our tails,” John said as he pulled out a bronze coin and tossed it up. What followed was a burst of light that momentarily blinded them. When they opened their eyes, they saw the ceiling glowing with many magic circles. Mike then looked at Margretta, who in turn looked away with red ears. John was more direct; he threw the pendant up to the ceiling, and when the red stone touched the biggest circle, a black hole appeared. Before the three could think of how to enter, the black hole fell towards them, and they all got swallowed by it.
“Wow… where are we?” Margretta asked. Around them, rows upon rows of boxes could be seen. The ground and ceiling were made of stone, and the place was illuminated by lamps dangling from the ceilings. They realised this place was much bigger than they thought, resembling a small village in terms of pure area. Mike moved closer to one of the wooden boxes. With a flip of his anchor, the box opened, and his eyes widened. “Sir, we caught something big.” His surprised voice drew the others closer. Inside the box, they found swords.
“Search everywhere,” John said with a deep frown. This seemed like a big catch to him. Soon, they unearthed the smuggled grains and many types of weapons: enchanted spears, swords, armours, and more.
“This looks like an armoury. So much for granaries,” Margretta said as she examined a small gauntlet-like anchor in her hands. “Model no-3301. I've never heard of such a series being used before.”
“Sir, how should we proceed?” Mike didn’t feel good about it. Such a big cache of arms, right under the shadow of war. It was clear to him who these things belonged to. He moved to the side of the crate and found a big 'Y' written on it. “It seems this is some code word,” he said.
“That seems to be the case,” Margretta said, as she observed other crates.
“Perhaps. During my time serving in special forces, we used to write the first letter of our target on the supplies or the weapons to strike fear in our enemies,” John said after a little thought.
“But I don’t remember any big city or higher officials having names starting with ‘Y’,” Mike said, with Margretta also nodding in agreement.
“In any case, we can’t have them be used by Easparton,” John said. He had too little information at this moment; he was just here for grains but found weapons instead. No matter who was the owner of this place, he didn’t plan to leave it intact anymore. “Margretta, Mike, take one thing you have a liking for, then we will leave.”
“No, sir, it's not like that,” Margretta said as she hastily put away the shiny anchor she was just polishing, but John paid no mind to her action.
“Consider it an official benefit for working within the system,” John said. Mike, unlike Margretta, directly took an anchor for himself, while Margretta followed, trying to be a little sneaky but failing.
***
“You don’t know where they are?” Outside the roadside kitchen, the vice city lord, Adrina, looked at the messed-up interior of the restaurant with a frown on his face. It’s not that he wanted to come here to personally oversee such things; he had no time for that. But the person in question was a High mage, as well as from a little troublesome background. The background he only came to know about this morning.‘If they had done their job better, I would have changed my approach.’ "He thought. He couldn’t help it; it was after John's performance last night that Adrian ordered a deep background check on John. And when he got the new information, he knew trouble was coming. He turned to his assistant in the back and said, “Send a show-cause order to whoever is responsible for doing a preliminary check on the Gold Keepers. Suspend him till further investigation.”
“I understand, my Lord.” The assistant, Heron, was around middle-aged, with light maroon hair and a small beard. He wore the standard official dress and carried a notebook in his hands, on which he was constantly scribbling on.
“Who was responsible for keeping watch on these guys again?” Hearing his lord's words, Heron knew that if he didn’t mention anything about the investigation, many people would be suspended today. So he took the notes from the knights responsible for the investigation and said to Adrian.
“My Lord, about those Gold Keepers, I think we found some clues. It seems that along with the Gold Keepers, a merchant was also missing from the restaurant. We are currently on the lookout for that merchant’s whereabouts.”
“Then let’s go to his house. It’s better than staying here and blocking the traffic,” Adrian said, glancing at the blocked street with mages and knights bustling about. If nothing else, he wanted this street to be unblocked soon. “Speaking of merchants, wasn’t there a meeting with their union leader today?”
“Yes, my Lord. It was about recent food supply disturbances.”
“Right. Call him there too. We can talk at the scene.” With that said, they started to move closer to the house where Jacob was supposed to live. Halfway there, a knight came and whispered something to Heron. Adrian looked at his assistant's distorted face and raised an eyebrow. “Something new to add?”
“We found Jacob, but he seemed to have gone mad.”
Adrian wanted to see for himself before asking more questions. The knight led the way, and they soon found themselves in another blocked-off area. “Has he also gone berserk?” Adrian asked as he noticed knights moving tenants away from their homes.
“I don’t know, sir. The knight didn’t seem to be informed about the actual situation,” Heron replied with some doubts. But those doubts didn’t last long as they almost reached their destination. A single-story building with a mud and brick exterior, guarded by more than ten fully armoured knights and robed mages. Their armour and robes bore the white scorpion mark, a symbol of Easparton’s special forces. They all saluted as Adrian and Heron approached. One knight stepped forward and said with respect, “My Lord, the captain is inside waiting for you.”
“ Heron, wait here.” Adrian too found the situation more serious than it seemed. And that thought was verified the moment he entered the room. The first thing he was hit with was a staunch, pungent acidic smell, mixed with the smell of urine. This smell made him almost puke his breakfast out. Only when he used his sleeves to block off the smell that he got some respite. But the next thing that followed was the sound of hitting a puddle. He looked below and found his left led into the small pool of blood. His eyes shook a little at such a sudden shift of scene, and his breathing became rapid. It took a great deal of his will to calm himself back.
“ I thought you would puke.” a voice sounded in Adrian's ears. He looked at the side and found a guy covered with heavy armour, along with a helmet that hid his face. Behind him, was a long, heavy sword. His name was Kevin, the head of Easparton’s special forces.
“ You could have warned me beforehand.” Adrian said after swallowing his vomit back.
“ But that would not be fun.” Kalvin sounded casual in his tone. Adrian knew about his attitude and didn’t want to argue about such. He instead looked at the scene. It was no less gruesome, with splashes of blood on the walls, as well as the ceiling. Two mutilated bodies, one big and one small. Calling them bodies was a stretch as only their pieces remained, and that too scattered across the room. The only one intact was lying at the right-most corner of the room, with both hands holding a dagger that was plunged into his own heart.
“What in the sands happened here?”
“Soul riot,” There was a small silence in the room.
“Who was courageous enough to use her name?” Adrian asked. He understood why the area was suddenly emptied off. The name, once mentioned, could set off waves in Thar. Adrian, being the vice city lord of Espaton, knew very well about it. Once that name was mentioned, a reel of madness took hold for whoever heard it, there was nothing that could not be done for that name. No hatred that couldn’t be melted anew. No friendship that couldn’t be broken. No kinship that couldn’t be abandoned. Even the word, Great Mother was much like a trigger to make an ordinary person into a raging beast. Only when one became a High Knight or High mage could the effect somewhat lessen. For people like Adrian, who was only at an Official Mage rank, it was the badge of a scorpion on his chest personally given to him by the city lord along with a simple warning. ‘Never leave this badge away from your body, lest the madness consume you.’
“That Gold Keeper, I think you know about it too, right?” Kelvin said, not caring about Adrian’s pause. “He’s from Batch 32. You know what this means, right? There is nothing they dared not to do.”
“It looks like Oasis really sent their best,” Adrian didn’t need Kelvin’s reminder, The Batch 32, the legendary batch of its time. Legendary, for it was the batch which was personally led by the Great Mother herself. Unafraid of pain or death, detached from family or friends. They were the ones who unleashed terror upon anyone who ran afoul of the Great Mother. In a sense they were similar to Wizards, for once they locked on to their target, no price was too steep for them to pay. “I want them to be found soon.”
“Oh? You have something planned?”
“I think a little ceasefire was much needed between us.”
“Tch. I don’t really like this part of you.”
“I am not here to please you,” Adrian looked at the knight for the last time and then left the room. “Clean this place and find-” He didn’t get to finish his words as the sand beneath him shook and he had to use the side walls to stop his fall. “What now?” Fortunately for him, the turmoil stopped after just a few seconds. When he heard the smirk from Kalvin.
“Looks like we don’t need to search anymore.” Kelvin looked to his side, he could tell the location of the source of the turmoil.
***
“Well, there goes my plan of resting,” John looked at the now demolished building and the cloud of dust rising into the sky and sighed a little. He neve thought that the building would be gone too when he destroyed the armoury. He could feel some strong people coming towards them and knew they couldn't run away. He looked at his juniors and found them tense, and so said to them, “Put down the weapons. We don’t want a losing fight, do we?”
“But sir, we just...” Mike wanted to say, they just made such a big move, how could they still be carefree? If this happened in another region, being labelled a terrorist with a kill-on-sight order was not strange.
“Don’t worry. If push comes to shove, I am a master of running away,” John’s words calmed his juniors and they somewhat relaxed their bodies. Soon with rapid sounds of footsteps, rows of knights in full armour surrounded this place, followed by the flying mages who landed on the distant buildings. At a glance, there were more than twenty knights and mages surrounding them.
“I always hear that anyone would run, but not the 32's,” Kelvin came forth from behind, followed by Adrian to his left. “Would I have the honour of knowing their fierceness too?”
“Sir Knight, you sure joke a lot,” John moved towards them with a smile and said. “How could such an old man be fierce? I am just waiting for my retirement.” He finished and gave a small salute to the knight and the person beside him. “Name's John. Others are Mike and Margretta.” When he said their names, his juniors also performed a little salute but otherwise remained silent.”
“I am Kalvin.”
“Ah, the bright student of Sir Lord Arcturus. It’s my honour to meet you,” John said. He then looked at the person beside Kelvin, who was still silent, but he got an idea of who he was. “Who might this person be, perhaps the architect of the East?”
“Sir John seemed to know me,” Adrian glanced at the kind-looking old man, and couldn’t help but feel how deceiving the look could be.
“Who has not heard about the man who can make gold from the rubles,” John said with genuine respect. Many lords had come and gone through the time in Thar, but few could have made their region prosperous under the constant cycle of beast tide. But Adrian did what once seemed impossible, instead of being trapped in the cycle of building what was broken after beast tides, he developed the eastern region into what it is today. The economic as well as industrial powerhouse of Thar. Never had anyone imagined a day would come, that Thar’s region would be associated with the word, industrial. That’s why Adrian was the vice-city lord of Easparton, while being just an Official Mage.
“I wonder if I could have a walk with Sir John, I wanted to have a little chat with you.” Adrian was not flattered by his words. He just decided to get to the point.
“No, no. It’s my honour.” John didn't mind and said, John beckoned his hand to Mike and Margretta, and left with Adrian. The mages under Kelvin casted a spell on the street that made it difficult for others to enter it easily, thus they got an empty street to walk on, despite such a big commotion being caused. One old, another slightly older than young, walked in the street. Until John decided to ask first. “Sir Adrian, you seem to have something on your mind.”
“I was just appreciating the hard work you kept doing despite such old age,” Adrian’s eyes looked at the pile of rubles in the distance, and just remembering the shake he felt earlier, he felt the work being thrown at him above his pay grade. “I wonder if I can ask Sir John a question?”
“ If I can answer, I sure will.”
“ Why are you working so hard for Oasis?” Adrian couldn’t understand why the people under the Great Mother, the people personally trained by her, would accept the rule of someone, who never led any war. “ I have deep respect for Lord Bardar’s achievements. None can match him for golems. But I don’t believe he was suitable for leading a nation like Thar.”
John gave a deep look at Adrian, he didn’t expect him to be this direct. “ I think you are making a mistake on something. I only give my life and loyalty, only to the Goddess of War. Her words are a divine degree to me. If she says her grandson would be the lord, then that’s all I need to know.”
His words put Adrian into deep thought. The loyalty to the Greatmother, rather than her grandson, these words meant something could be done. There was still scope for negotiation. He was arranging his words when he heard a question from John.
“ Sir Adrian, you don’t look like you were born in Thar.”
“ What makes you think that?” Adrian was a little surprised at him, but his years of work allowed him to reply in a calm voice.
“ No one questions the way of life here, they just accept what it is.” He looked at the lit houses and thought of the changed Esparton which kept reminding him of something. “ This city seemed to be made with love. I asked around, and you seemed to spend much more time patrolling the city, rather than sitting in an office.”
“ Is that so strange? That’s just my work.”
“ No.” John shook his head. “ If it was for war, then I have seen various lords do much more than this, but few put such efforts in building something that would be gone next year.”
“Right,” In a sense, Adrian found himself a little lost for words. Sometimes, he does wish the peace to last longer, such would allow him to do much more, but reality doesn’t allow such dreams. He got his words together and asked his real question. “ Have you ever got time to rest, in between your busy work?”
“It’s not like that, I just want to leave a good record before my retirement.”
“It pains me to see you work so tirelessly,” Adrian didn’t lie, the pain was real. “I think you should take more care of your health.”
“Ai, I understand your words,” John sighed, with an understanding look. “But I just can’t find a place or time to rest.”
“I happen to know some people around. Maybe, I could arrange a place you might like.”
“Hm... it’s not bad to rest sometimes,” John said with a nod. “But I am still a workaholic. Old habit, you know.”
“Of course,” Adrian also nodded at him. “I think we could try to make your work easier somehow. Just have to pull some levers here and there.”
“Well, if Sir Adrian insists so much, I have no choice but to agree,” John said, having reached a deal, he offered a salute to Adrian. “Since it is such, I would be leaving. The night is already upon us. You should rest too.” John then left Adrian, who looked at the three moons up in the sky, one big, two small, and fixed his collar before leaving too. He had a lot of work to do tonight.
***