As we approached the city wall I spotted people trying to enter and exit the city. Many were on foot, but some on horses or on wagon, all of them got stopped by the person in armor at the gate though, I suppose it was his job to check the people coming into the city?
My brother, me and the knights however didn’t line up behind the people, the knights simply led us past the waiting people without saying a word and we followed. When they noticed we were skipping the line some people started getting mad at us, but apologized and stopped speaking as soon as they saw the knights with us. I wonder if people are afraid of them?
The same happened when we approached the massive stone gate, the gatekeeper person, as my brother informed me he was called, took one short look at the two knights leading us and simply waved us in.
We strolled through the gate without break and a whole world opened up in front of me. The city was full of all types of people, short to tall, skinny to fat, young to old, male or female, no matter where I looked there were people. On the left side of the road people were walking around, on the right side of the road people were walking around, while wagons pulled by horses traveled next to each other in the middle. I didn’t even know where to look first, this was like a different world to my village. I felt like I could live my lifetime here and still not know all the people.
“Oi, get a move on.” The older knight pushed my back slightly.
I must have gotten so overwhelmed I stopped walking. Truthfully, I did want to stop and take in the sights, go around and talk to people or buy food from the stalls that were selling various foods, but the knights weren’t stopping, so I guess I had no choice.
“Hey brother, can we go around a bit after we are done at the castle?” I said, while walking up to him.
My brother looked exhausted. Far more exhausted than I was, I guess he didn’t take too kindly to our travel pace. Nevertheless he forced a smile when he looked down at me.
“Sure, since we are here already. But we don’t have the money to spend on souvenirs, so no buying, only looking, you understand, Mira?”
“Thank youuuuuu.” I hugged my brother.
The younger knight turned to us talking amongst ourselves. When he looked at my brother's face his face turned into another one of those eerie smiles he had been showing from time to time.
“I feel bad for you, having to make this trip out of nowhere, but it’s not long now. We are almost done, so just hold out a bit more.” He spoke in a soothing voice. I guess he was trying to comfort us, well mostly my brother I think; maybe he was actually just a good person?
“Haha, I am glad to hear that. And here we were worried about Mira making the trip. I hope I didn’t slow you down, sir.”
“It’s all good, we are well within our schedule, enough so that we don’t have to sprint to the castle, but the king doesn’t like being kept waiting, so we should probably not dawdle too long either.”
"Understood." My brother answered. The knight nodded, turned his back to us once more and started leading the way, walking up next to the grumpy older looking man, who was leading the horses and we once again made our way to the castle, this time through the bustling main street of the capital I later learned the name of: City of Ruin.
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Our pace was considerably slower than outside the city, on account of the many people around us, giving me some time to look around. The variety of people I saw was so great I didn’t even know where to begin describing them all. I saw an old man with a gray beard buying something at a stall, I saw a bunch of people carrying wooden crates from here to there, a bit further down the road I even saw a girl, who looked to be slightly older than me, steal a loaf of bread. The man at the counter tried chasing her down while shouting something or other, but the girl ran into an alley I couldn’t see into and after the man followed her in, he walked out with a confused look on his face not long after. As we walked up to the height of the alley I understood why the man was confused, the alley was a dead end.
How did she do that? I wondered at the sight of the disappearing girl. Of course the knights paid no attention to that and certainly didn’t bother stopping to investigate, so the alley quickly left my sight and new things occupied my attention.
There were a lot of scary looking people in this city and although none of them approached us, probably because of the knights, I could see a lot of glares coming our way. They seemed to be looking at the grain we were transporting. I decided to ask my brother about it and he said: “They are probably poor and struggle to afford food. You don’t have to worry about it though, once we drop off the tax at the castle the stares will probably lessen.”
I was a bit sad at the idea that these people all struggled to afford food, but then again we weren’t exactly rich either, so it wasn’t like I could help them.
As we made our way through the city and closer to the castle, the scenery started changing. The houses were bigger and more colorful, and the people stopped looking at us strangely. The people we saw were wearing more intricately designed clothes too. I once again turned to my brother to satiate my curiosity and he told me that the richer people probably live closer to the castle, meaning that the areas closer to the gate were probably poorer by comparison, but he wasn’t sure either.
The roads were a lot better maintained and the closer we got to the castle the less people there were, so our pace naturally picked up somewhat and there were less things for me to observe too, so the time passed by quickly and soon we stood in front of the gate of the castle.
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The castle was surrounded by a circular wall with spikes at the top and towers at regular distances. I could see men with crossbows standing in these watchtowers, looking down in front of the wall. The gate itself was a big metal grate, flanked by two soldiers, one left and one right, once again. The whole castle exterior was gray and looked uninviting and cold. I couldn’t quite make out what the castle itself looked like yet, since I couldn't see over the wall, but I was expecting it to be just as gray and imposing.
The older knight with us went to talk to the guard for a bit and soon I could hear the guard shout “Open the gate!”, followed by metallic clicking and soon, the gate slowly opened itself.
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Once inside one of the knights turned to the other and spoke in a voice loud enough for us to hear as well.
“Well, I am gonna go stash this in the storage. You take these two to the king.” The older knight told the younger one. I wonder if he is his superior?
“Oh great. No chance we can swap jobs?” The younger knight didn’t seem to like the idea.
“Just get going.”
The younger knight shrugged his shoulders at that and sighed. Giving a quick “Alright” and with that as the signal the older man took the horse drawn carriage and left us.
“Well then, you two come with me.” He gestured for us to follow him and started walking in the direction of the castle.
It was large, imposing and gray, just as I expected it to be. It gave me the impression it was built to be sturdy and nothing else. The gardens were nothing but grass and some wild flowers, barely any color found its way into my line of sight as we walked the straight, paved way to the castle.
I always thought that the castle would have been more exciting, but I guess not. I was thinking as such while walking along the knight.
Soon after we made our way to a door. It wasn’t quite big enough that I would call it a gate, but it was big and looked sturdy. It was heavy, heavy enough that the knight seemed to put some actual weight behind his hand on the door. It had some basic golden lining on it, but it wasn’t extravagant, like the rest of the castle. He beckoned us inside and shut the door behind him.
“Follow me and don’t stray, got it?” A smile that would have seemed friendly and inviting on another person somehow gave me the complete opposite impression.
"Right. Stay close to me Mira.”
I nodded.
My brother began walking down the castle hallway, me in tow. Soon, after walking through the sparsely decorated hallway, we arrived at a door. The knight opened it without waiting. Inside of it were a few pieces of furniture, including a sofa and table.
“Wait in here, I will inform the king of our arrival. I will call for you once he is ready to meet you. Absolutely do not leave the room until then. Otherwise you are free to do what you want.”
The young knight didn’t even give us room to agree or answer and walked off. Me and my brother on the other hand went inside and sat down. On the table were two cups and a large mug of water and I was quite thirsty by now, so I immediately went to drink some, after of course pouring one for my brother too.
“This castle isn’t very exciting.” I said after having finished my drink.
“What did you expect, Mira? It wasn’t built to be exciting I am sure.”
“I mean yeah, but it’s so… dull. It’s big and sturdy, but not pretty at all.” I frowned.
“I suppose you are right, it does not look very inviting. I guess it was built with little else besides defense in mind.”
“Defense?” I didn’t know what he was talking about.
“You remember the wall and the watchtowers, right? It seems like this castle was built in a way to give the people inside the ability to fight off people who would attack it.” He mused.
“But who would attack this castle in the middle of the city?” I couldn’t imagine why all this was necessary.
“I wouldn’t know. Perhaps it’s for in case other countries try to invade or perhaps to prevent those with special abilities from easily accessing the castle, but it didn’t really look like there were any recent damages to the wall or castle, so I guess it must not actually happen either way.”
“But then they don’t need those ugly walls after all!” I complained.
“Haha, perhaps you are right, but the castle was built ages ago, long before I was born and changing it in any big way would be a massive undertaking. I guess everyone just leaves it the way they found it, save for repairs I imagine.”
I wasn’t quite satisfied, but my brother was right, you couldn’t just rebuild the castle all the time because you found it ugly, so I accepted it and instead voiced another thought that had been swirling around in my mind for a bit.
“What do you think the king of this castle will be like?” I was excited at the thought of it. Surely even if the castle wasn’t very exciting a meeting with the king would be, right? Would he be an old man with long hair and a long beard? Or will he be young and handsome?
My brother gave me a reassuring smile. “I am not sure, accurate information is hard to come by where we live, all I hear are some rumors, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up either way Mira, he is probably just going to ask us a few questions about the land and the farms. After all, the king won’t have time to waste with us.”
“What kind of rumors?” I was intent on finding out more about the king.
My brother however brushed me off. “They’re not nice rumors, but that doesn’t matter, they are just rumors after all. We will meet him soon.”
I guess he didn’t want to talk about it. I bided my time looking around the room, observing what I could, little as it was, until we heard a knock at the door, accompanied by the knight’s voice.
“Follow me.” He said.
Now it was time to meet the king.
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The knight - whose name I still didn’t know, I realized - led us through the castle, not speaking a single word. I couldn’t see his expression from behind him, so I didn’t know if he was annoyed, but I decided to ask him regardless.
“Hey Mr. Knight?”
“Yes?”
“What is your name?”
He stopped. He stopped so abruptly I almost ran into him.
“My name doesn’t matter. I am but a humble knight in the king’s service.” He spoke with his usual reference to the king. However, he still hadn’t turned around.
“It matters to me! I want to know.” Now I was curious. Did he have a girl’s name and was embarrassed about it? Or was he really famous and didn’t want others to know? Okay, it probably wasn’t that, but I wanted to know.
He sighed and turned around, looking me straight in the eyes.
“My name’s Jeremiah, kid.”
“ ‘Jeremiah’? I have never heard that name before, I’ll remember it!” That name sounded cool! I didn’t understand why he didn’t want to tell me.
His usual kindly yet somehow unnerving smile vanished and his face took a solemn, almost concerned look as he looked straight at me.
“Don’t. You’re better off forgetting that name and me along with it…. We’re both better off that way.”
He mumbled the last part under his breath, but I could still make it out. What did he mean forget him? Why? Why would that be better?
Just as I was about to ask him what that cryptic answer meant he turned around again and announced.
“This next door leads to the king’s audience chamber. The king is waiting for you. He is not as particular about manners as you’d expect from someone calling himself king, but please do try your best to be courteous.” He gave us a little moment of realization and my brother nodded at him, then looked at me.
“We’re about to meet the king now, Mira. Remember to be polite and don’t randomly speak over him or me.”
“Yes, I understand.” I nodded to him, and then to the young knight I now know is called Jeremiah.
He didn’t speak anymore, simply turned to the door, held it open for us both and waited for us to walk in. Once we walked through the door he followed and closed it behind us.
The, at the time exciting sounding, fateful meeting with the King of the Land of Ruin that I would end up never being able to forget, for the rest of my life, began.