Travel Abroad Takes One On An Endless Path Deeper Inside Oneself
In such circumstances as that, with an easy road below, a clear autumn sky above, and to the sides much work being done to remind him he was on vacation by contrast, even a traveler as desirous of speed as Ritualist Dirant Rikelta could hardly help but enjoy his journey. Laborers in the fields he passed brought in this harvest or that while other plots waited for their turn. Dirant knew little of the intricacies of farming, though his Stadeskosken work was giving him a better sense of what grew when. In the towns along the way he saw, through windows covered with that wondrously thin mabonnpaper which came in tints to delight those inside, plenty of activities more familiar to him as people corrected labels, made entries, and endeavored to satisfy their superiors. He wondered how much of what was being done needed to be, how much of what needed to be was not, and how to judge which was what. The gods' instruction, he supposed a pious person would say, and yet Holzd did not give him the impression of a deity interested in clearing things up for anyone. “He who yearns for complexity,” did he not say?
Dirant switched horses three times and reached Klintk late in the day. The map's assurance that the town of Klintk sat approximately halfway between Fennizen and Wessolp encouraged him to give up on traveling farther for the time being, put up at a hotel, and count how much money he had saved by virtue of his unreasonable discount. The post fees alone had cost him 80 ezolas rather than 140, more than a silver dommiskhanen less. Granted that the room cost more than that by itself, but a hill is no less a hill for all that the mountain is a mountain. He counted coins till he fell asleep.
The next morning pressed upon him the limitations of Horse Riding (Basic). Dirant waddled down the stairs, leaning on the railing in the way the architect hoped someone one day would without any real hope for it, and navigated his sore lower half into a chair to wait for the promised breakfast. The other guests, ten or so, came in with less evident trouble, and partway into the cornbread Dirant felt sounder himself. He decided, in the arrogant optimism of youth, that he had enough in him to travel on at the same rate as the day before.
> Ability Horse Riding (Intermediate) gained.
And there was the proof. Dirant's mood reached vacation optimums, and he engaged in lively conversation with his fellow travelers that became livelier when the hotel staff brought in the morning broadsheets.
“Today's governments waste no time in going to war, is it not so?” An Ottkir from the far south of Greater Enloffenkir who was touring the drier parts of the north on his doctor's orders reported the news as he read it in that excited manner tourists relieved from the burdens of public respectability for a short time often adopt. “Patkaodotenlilk's hired mercenary captain has already offered siege to Wessolp, so soon into the controversy. Oh! And it's that man, Istent!”
That spurred some talk. Istent Aradetnaf, the most famous condottiero in all Greater Enloffenkir, whose dazzling exploits not just the condottiero followers knew, and not only the typical workplace gossiper either, but even the academics who preferred to have as little awareness of the vulgar as possible, inevitably made a stir if he accepted even the most mundane contract.
“That son of his, Kelnsolt, is the besieger!” Oh. Never mind. Only the deepest enthusiasts cared about him, and their affections ran in an unkind direction. In other places where that news was being read, people were already taking sides against Patkaodotenlilk for hiring that particular mercenary captain regardless of the matter under contention. “Wessolp for its part sent a message to Ganarant Pneklig with the intention of retaining his services, but it's gotten itself surrounded already like a turtle afraid to put out its little feet. That's the fate of the sluggish in all times and places you must agree.”
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They did agree. Dirant picked up his legs from the floor to imitate the turtle, since he felt as slow as one, and asked, “And what is this controversy? Or should I have kept my silence and pretended to false sagacity?”
“That's my policy,” the Rik architect on his way to Heweker territory said to some chuckles.
The health-driven Ottkir seized the chance to give his view on the matter. “The thing stood this way at first. The lord mayors of Wessolp and the seven councilors of Patkaodotenlilk have had their disputes and their rivalries, the usual strife that keeps all our states interested in one another's affairs. Now the current lord mayor, whose name I recall as Odinol Emmofoken, may his parents forgive me if I disfigured it, made overtures of cooperation. The result was to be that Patkaodotenlilk would bring Wessolp in as a partner in some copper mines, and with the new capital they would expand the operation to the profit of both. They sealed the deal with an agreement for His Honor Odinol to marry the daughter of one of the councilors, and everything was settled. Peace, profit, what more could be desired?
“A little hitch came up, a little wave in the pool, an itch in your new shirt. Patkaodotenlilk listened to an offer from Tabiligdum to buy the city out of the mines altogether, which would free it up to pursue other financial opportunities. The thing was done just like that. Everyone was happy. Did we forget someone? Ah, Wessolp, of course. The mayor complained. A breach of contract, a violation of trust, Tabiligdum is not even a signatory to the confederation. What do we think of a man who favors a stranger over his brothers? We all love to hear speeches of this kind, but as far as action, he was without recourse and could assay only one deed of defiance. He broke the engagement. The deal was off so the deal was off, was it not? But the councilor whose daughter it is, I will say Sintaf Aomalptig though I fear he will hire condottieri against me if I get his name wrong, shouted blood and wept poison as he urged Patkaodotenlilk to go to war and force the marriage through. And so it did, well, the war at least.”
The guests who did not have to worry about entering Wessolp on the orders of a god who had warned them some such event might increase the difficulty of the task appreciated the account fully, and Dirant partially. He thanked the Ottkir man for explaining the situation while internally he added the fulfillment of Holzd's prophecy to the score for his being an actual god. That score was becoming embarrassing for the other side, which gratified Dirant because he had already jumped over to support the winning team like the worst sort of fan.
He set out again, stopped at another three posts along the way, and deep in the evening saw the mercenary army camped before the walls of Wessolp. It was fortunate for the lord mayor that his city did have walls. Fennizen did not, unless one counted the stretches in the old quarter that no longer surrounded anything after the period when the government allowed citizens to buy licenses for knocking chunks out for housing material, though the shade they still provided on a summer day made them a popular recreation spot. Wessolp's fortifications looked strong and distinguished on account of their stones of regular shape and size piled to a height greater than Silthree on Dirant's shoulders, according to the estimate he made while wondering how many stacked Rikeltas it would take to sneak inside. At least three but more likely four, he estimated.
As for the mercenaries, Dirant called upon his experience in counting troops to determine the number of soldiers. A thousand? He had no idea. At any rate, there were enough to conduct a standard intra-GE siege wherein they stopped anyone attempting to enter the city, checked for weapons or military communications, and wished the traveler a nice day. Dirant returned the compliment and rode to the gate, where the guards refused him entry on the basis that only known persons, Wessolp's citizens in particular, were permitted inside for reasons they hoped did not require further explanation, as much as they understood it complicated his affairs. An employee of a company dealing primarily in transportation? That put him in the second-highest priority category for exclusion, right after Kelnsolt Aradetnaf's mercenaries.
Enterprising farmers around the city had converted their houses into lodgings for stranded travelers. Not only did guests get the full rooster-waking experience, but the prices were lower than at the Klintk hotel. Possibly the farmers had not visited it and therefore suffered from a skewed sense of pricing. Dirant took advantage of the convenience after he returned his horse to the previous post.