17 Tagsibol, 891 ED

Oraw, 11:23

Plains of Gorteau, Empire of Tyrman

The Tyrant’s Peak, that domineering crag of black rock that jutted out of the ground and pierced through the clouds, was nothing more than a small bump on the horizon now. Milagre was less than a day away from us. We’d made good time from the site of our battle against the thunder lion, and while we had encountered a few other creatures, even one that was steeped in chaos as the lion had been, they were all minor threats that were dealt with quite quickly.

We were all exhausted, though none of us mentioned it. It was the kind of tiredness that couldn’t be cured by a night’s rest in a bedroll beside a fire. We were quite tired of the road and the many threats it carried, and longed for a night with a warm roof over our heads, not to mention a chance to wash away the mire of the dusty plains. This close to our goal, the toll of the journey was even more evident.

Though, as it always seems to happen, the last stretch of the trip, which was by far the safest, seemed to pass in a flash. By continual glances over my shoulder, I could watch as the Tyrant’s Peak became smaller and smaller. Soon, I knew, we’d encounter the sprawling farmlands that surrounded the capital city. But first, we had to rejoin the Queen’s Road, which was curving into sight toward us from the south. The same road we’d have taken from Shiinor if we’d preferred the long way.

“Nearly there,” I said to Gogo, on one of our short rest breaks. We didn’t make a fire or eat. We set our packs on the ground and sat beside them facing each other, retrieving our water flasks. “If we keep our pace, we should get there just after night falls.”

“Were we particularly fast?” She asked, peering to the northeast as if expecting to see the city. But as sharp as her eyes were, she couldn’t defeat the curve of the planet.

“Hard to say,” I replied, after draining the rest of my canteen. Only one of those left, I thought. Not that I had to ration it. “It’s a two week journey on foot for the average person. But nobody who takes the path is an average person.”

“We did it in less than two days,” she pointed out. I nodded slowly in agreement. “Just eight days, right?”

“Near enough.”

As tired as we are, it was nothing compared to Reiner’s state. The Welsik trader was lying flat in the grass, his chest heaving to catch his breath. His confident bravado of the first week had faded, as his body’s limits showed. The past two days, he’d talked little and passed out the instant that he’d gotten the chance each night. He was strangely out of shape for a traveling merchant, I thought.

“Still alive over there, Reiner?” I asked, doing my best to hide the dry amusement I felt at the sight of him. I enjoyed watching him struggle more than I thought I would, but I felt no guilt about it. I still caught myself entertaining the thought of attacking him, but only refused because it wouldn’t free the brothers.

“Ask me in another hour, and I may not be sure,” came the weak reply. At last, he pushed himself up into a sitting position and drank greedily from his own water canteen. Wiping his mouth, he added, “I know this was the shorter of the two routes, but did you two have to drive the pace so hard?”

Gogo and I shared a quick glance, and I could see my humor reflected there. “That was hardly a tough pace, my Welsik friend. Tough is when we start running.”

Reiner’s face paled slightly at the thought, and I couldn’t suppress a laugh. “Don’t worry. We’ll be in the city soon, and you can relax on a cushy bed.”

“After he pays us, of course,” Gogo put in.

“Right. After that.”

Reiner threw a look at us that was almost a glare, but not quite. Either way, his displeasure with our comments was obvious. It was also ignored. Beside him, Anko and Liber sat in silence, seeming to take no interest in our conversation. They were unfazed by the stress of the journey, taking it even better than Gogo and I. They shared a water canteen in silence, chewing on sticks of dried meat.

“Have you considered how we’ll afford the entrance fees to the College?” Gogo asked me. “They’re not free. Or cheap, for that matter.”

“There are ways we can earn our stay through work,” I said. “They’ve partnered with Issho-Ni, the Adventurer’s Guild, and half a dozen other groups. We can work when we’re not in class, and it will cover our tuition.”

“I know that,” Gogo said, rolling her eyes. “But what exactly will we do?”

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To that, I could only shrug. “I haven’t given it much thought. There’s a lot of options.”

“Is working for the druids of Grimr an option?”

Again, I shrugged. Normally, it wouldn’t be. “Maybe through the new teacher. But we’d have to ask about that when we get there.”

Gogo fell into a thoughtful sort of silence, peering in Milagre’s direction again. For my part, I leaned against my pack and closed my eyes, letting myself doze off for a short while. Sleep had been a little more difficult than usual the past two nights for me. I hadn’t had any more bad dreams or encounters with otherworldly beings, but I’d still tossed and turned, unable to get true rest.

There was still no evidence of Chaos and Corruption’s ‘powers’. They’d sworn to have shared them with me, but I felt no different. I didn’t mind the thought of being one of Chaos’ conduits in Ahya. That would be a good option for any future conflicts. Chaos interfered with magic at a basic level, disrupting anything but Ancient powers. But Corruption? No way in hell did I want to learn how to use that. Quite apart from liking nature by default, Taking such an action would make more enemies than would be worth it.

“I suppose working for Issho-Ni wouldn’t be bad,” Gogo replied, breaking me out of my thoughts. “They’re supposedly a very good organization.”

“Depends on what you’d do for them,” I said. “If you’re one of their students, then you’ll be required to join patrols. You’d hate that.”

Gogo tilted their head to the side. “I thought Issho-Ni did bounty hunting.”

“They do. But it’s not their most common activity. They only go after criminals that have a specific reputation for harming the innocent. If you want to do bounty-hunting, your best bet is either to join the Adventurer’s Guild or get contracts from the Crown.”

“Are there a lot of those kinds of contracts?”

“There probably is right now,” I guessed. “What with all the criminals involved in both the attack on Milagre and profiteering in the temporary absence of the crown? Quite a few criminals cropped up.”

“Sounds right up our alley,” she said, grinning. “What do you think?”

I shrugged, opening my eyes and sitting up. “I don’t know. All I know right now is that I want to learn Spellblade techniques. Tuition is cheaper if you’re not enrolling in general studies.”

“It’s also harder to get in on those conditions,” Gogo pointed out. “Stormsong told me.”

“That’s true. But that just means that we have to impress the teachers. I can manage that.”

And indeed, I’d already begun thinking of a way I could impress Samuel Bragg. I knew him well, having written an entire trilogy about him. I had one magic he didn’t know, and not only that, I could tell him about secrets that he didn’t know. That kind of knowledge would make him my ally very quickly. I just had to be careful enough to not let him realize who I was. If that was possible.

The city of Milagre was, in some ways, just as I expected it to be. I’d written the entrance of it and my characters’ reactions to it enough times to have a clear picture in my head. Even after the city had been invaded and reclaimed, including all the damage that came with such trauma, it still satisfied all the expectations I had. Then again, there were many factors of the experience that I never thought to picture.

For one, the city held millions of people. That was only logical, for a city that stretched more than five miles from the center. I hadn’t expected the legitimate crowd of people that was flowing in and out of the city, however. The stream of people that we’d joined on our way in was over two hundred strong. It was made of everyone from farmers to nobles accompanied by their guard. Measured against the two dozen guards that manned the entrance, posted in case of attack, they seemed a hoard.

The gates too were beyond my expectations. The way I’d written them, they were wide enough to allow six wagons to pass, side-by-side, without issue. But that was an abstract measurement. The reality of it stopped me in my tracks for a moment. I would have been knocked flat by the press of bodies behind me and trampled if Gogo hadn’t seized me by the arm, dragging me back to stability.

“Are you insane?” He asked, his voice a little more tense than before. Not even properly within the city, and he was already displaying himself as more male than female. “Are you trying to get yourself hurt, you idiot?”

Nearby, a guard noticed the disruption to the flow of traffic and stared at me pointedly. The man wore a silver breastplate stamped with the dragon’s skull emblem of the Maravino, that special force that was under the direct command of the Ciayol Clan. Not wanting to draw his attention any further, I put my head down and moved forward with the crowd. Only once we were inside the gate and the crowd began to diver down the various side roads around us did I lift my eyes again, taking in the city sights.

I knew we were in the lower ring of the city, more commonly known as The Commons, but for a medieval city, it was still on a scale so massive that it was daunting. Even in the poorest section, there were many multi-storied buildings. Taverns, warehouses, restaurants, blacksmiths, clothiers, and general stores. Each with people entering and exiting.

“I thought you’ve been to the city before,” Gogo hissed in my ear, annoyed at my strange behavior. “Why are you acting as though it was your first time?”

I realized at once that my behavior was indeed odd. Even someone who had visited the city for the first time wouldn’t gape like this. Everyone in Milagre had a goal in mind, or at least a destination. They didn’t hang about staring as I was. Thankfully, there was a viable explanation I could use, and I wasted no time seizing upon it.

“S-sorry,” I stammered. “I just didn’t expect to see it rebuilt so fast.”

Judging by the current time and date, I knew that it had been less than a year since the city had been reclaimed. There were still signs of damage here and there, of course, but for the most part, the city was rebuilt. Each building I could see was either fully rebuilt or at least had a sturdy temporary shelter put in its place. I tried to steady my heart and brain, telling myself sternly that I would have plenty of time to take in the city later. For now, I had other business to attend to. As if to remind me of this last fact, Reiner’s voice broke into my thoughts, preceded by a polite cough.

“I believe you are owed your payment,” he said. “If you’d be so kind as to accompany me to the Trader’s Guild Bank, I will gladly fulfill my end of our deal.”