Chapter 57: City Gates

Leo didn’t tell Allan or Spade about the dream. He was still grappling with it himself, half convinced it was a paranoia-driven nightmare. He didn’t want to worry Allan needlessly over something that was ideally either entirely fake or a one time scare.

The only real tangible proof he had of the dream’s existence were his drained mana reserves.

[Condition: Mana Fatigued]

Leo winced and rubbed at his forehead with his uninjured hand. It had taken him a long time to fall asleep again after getting out of [Dreamscape], and any rest he’d gotten afterwards had been fitful. He’d woken up in the morning with a piercing headache and an accompanying dizziness similar to how he felt when he was dehydrated.

Leo wasn’t unfamiliar with mana fatigue, but it had been a while since he’d last experienced it.

He gritted his teeth and stepped a little harder to try and keep himself steady. It would go away eventually as his mana reserves refilled. He only had himself to blame.

“—reckless even for you,” Allan was saying as they walked. “I mean, your reserves were fine yesterday. You could’ve waited to practice.”

It was times like these when Leo wished party members couldn’t view each other’s stat sheets, because of course a single glance had made it clear what the problem was.

“I told you, I just went a little overboard with my new spell,” Leo said with a huff. “It’s fine, my reserves’re already halfway back now anyway.” He would have to wait for his mana to completely regenerate before the mana fatigue went away.

Allan looked doubtful. Leo carefully kept his eyes focused on the road ahead in an attempt to avoid further questioning. The [Healer] definitely suspected he was hiding something.

He did feel a little guilty for keeping the encounter a secret. But, he reasoned, this was also a precautionary measure. He didn’t know yet whether making others aware of Sol’s existence might endanger them.

Leo’s current theory was that Sol had first used an extremely advanced tracking spell to locate [Fragmentholders] by using his own fragments as initial sources. Once he’d located them all, he activated [Dreamscape]. If this was indeed the case, then Sol wouldn’t know about Allan or Spade, and Leo intended to keep it that way.

Then again, given how out of his depth Leo was, nothing was certain.

Up ahead, a smaller path branched off from the wide dirt road. In the center of the fork stood a worn wooden sign. Leo squinted at it, and sure enough, the arrow pointing right was labelled “Alnwick.”

He sighed in relief and straightened his back. “Finally,” he said. He nodded to Allan and Spade. “We should be there soon. Then we can finally sell these.” He patted the pouch containing the remaining stolen crests for emphasis.

The road leading to Alnwick passed through a line of trees planted on either side. What was formerly plain dirt transitioned into carefully laid stones packed down into a winding path. If Leo had had any doubts about their directions, they were now appeased. Only large cities like Alnwick could afford stone paved roads.

The canopy blocked out much of the sunlight, and Leo appreciated the shade while simultaneously wishing the trees didn’t obstruct so much of his vision.

“Wait.”

Spade abruptly stopped walking just as they neared the edge of the trees. She nodded ahead.

Immediately alert, Leo ducked behind a trunk and peered out.

Beyond the line of trees, the road curved forward towards a city bordered by a high, thick stone wall. From the distance, Leo could make out a few flags hanging down from evenly spaced watchtowers displaying Avel’s crest and an unfamiliar one he assumed was Alnwick’s.

The wall obscured much of the view, but he could see the tops of a few buildings poking out—slanted shingled roofs and smoking brick chimneys.

Sitting on top of the wall, spaced sparsely around the city’s perimeter, were what appeared to be glass spheres. They gleamed in the light, but when Leo tilted his head, he could make out swirling, vibrant colors within them that twisted and swayed like a living pulse.

“Are those the wards?”

Leo glanced at Allan, whose dark eyes were fixed on the spheres with a sense of wonder. He realized the former [Rickshaw Puller] had never visited a city with wards before, and he couldn’t help but smile.

“Yep,” he said, pronouncing the ‘p’ with a pop. Alnwick was big enough to warrant them, lest a single appearance of the Silence completely destroy it.

The spheres preserved various forms of barrier magic within them. At night, those swirling lights would glow and the protective ward would drape itself over the city, fending it off from Echoes.

Leo’s eyes shifted down and landed on a group of guards standing in front of the city gates. A few travelers stood in two separate lines in front of them, and even from a distance Leo could see the weariness in their slumped shoulders and worn, ragged clothes.

The man in front of the left line waved his hand and pulled up his stat sheet while a guard appeared to be questioning them. Based on the man’s increasingly sharp gestures, it looked like it wasn’t going well.

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Finally, the man threw up his hands and stormed away in a huff. The next person moved to the front.

“…Are they scanning classes?” Allan asked quietly. Leo thought back to the letter on the prison warden’s desk, and his brows furrowed.

“I think,” he said slowly, “they’re checking for fragments. Council said to turn them in. They’re probably extra paranoid with the bandit attacks, too. I don’t think the gate’s usually closed like this.”

“It’s not,” Spade confirmed. “It’s a trade city. You’re right that this is likely a recent protocol.”

She turned to Leo, an eyebrow raised. “It seems you’ll have to use that illusion spell of yours again.”

Leo watched as the man in the right line was allowed through. A few seconds later, the small family of three in the left line turned around, eyes filled with defeated resignation as they were turned away from shelter.

“Looks like it,” he muttered.

—

The plan was simple. Leo would go in one line while Allan and Spade went in the other. This would hopefully minimize the number of people looking in Leo’s direction when he used [Visual Illusion] since it only worked on one person at a time.

He was lucky he was traveling with them, Leo thought as they stepped up to the gates. Most of the guards’ attention immediately turned to Spade, wariness and suspicion in their eyes. Her stature, extensive scarring, and the sword sheathed at her side made her the biggest threat in their eyes.

Leo and Allan stepped up to the front of their respective lines, Spade coming up behind Allan.

“Good morning,” Leo heard Allan say, a pleasant smile on his face. “I see you’ve been busy.”

The guard looked somewhat surprised at the friendliness. She raised an eyebrow. “You could say that. What’s your purpose in Alnwick?”

Allan’s expression shifted subtly to one more downcast. “We’re from Clearside,” he said, nodding to Leo and Spade. “We…our town was destroyed. There was this flood and—” his voice caught and he swallowed, pausing before continuing as though he needed a moment to compose himself. “We were hoping to find shelter here.”

The guard glanced at the others for confirmation, but Leo could tell from the way her expression softened that she’d bought the lie.

“The watch did report a tidal wave on the lake two days ago,” one of the guards standing to the side said. The woman nodded thoughtfully.

“I see. I’m sorry for your loss.” She cleared her throat. “Unfortunately, due to recent Council orders, Alnwick is only allowing a select few inside the city walls. Only those of Tier 1 and above may enter. It’s a precautionary measure.”

That explained all the people turned away. Leo felt a surge of indignation rise up, but he squashed it down.

He couldn’t afford to make a scene right now, and this wasn’t all too surprising. Tier 0s were still “unreliable” to most, and for a city paranoid about bandits and fragment hunters, they probably weren’t willing to risk letting in people whose classes weren’t fixed.

That didn’t make the former [Thief] any less angered by it.

“We’ll need to see your name and class,” the guard continued after a pause. She’d probably expected an argument.

This was it. Leo tensed as Allan nodded. The guard in front of him peered down at him expectantly.

Slowly, Leo raised his hand to pull up his name and class. He activated [Visual Illusion] and projected the altered class just as the screen appeared.

Name: Leo

Age: 24

Level: 22

Class: [Farmer, Tier 1]

The guard leaned forward, squinting as he inspected the screen. Leo’s eyes shifted subtly to the surrounding guards standing around them, silently praying none of them looked over.

Thankfully, most of them still seemed to be watching Spade. A scrawny, undernourished traveler didn’t warrant as much suspicion.

The guard finally nodded and stepped back, and Leo almost sighed in relief as he quickly shut the stat screen. He saw Allan waved forward in his peripheral vision as well.

Leo shot him a grin as they stepped up to the gates, which Allan returned. They paused, waiting for Spade to get through. As expected, the guards looked much more dubious about her.

“You’re an executioner?” the guard who’d spoken to Allan questioned. Spade nodded.

The guard frowned. “And you’re also from Clearside?” She sounded doubtful, probably aware that Clearside wasn’t big enough to warrant a full time [Executioner].

“She’s my sister,” Allan said. Leo almost snorted and barely managed to catch himself in time. To his credit, the [Healer] looked completely sincere, and Spade didn’t even react to the blatant lie.

The guard glanced between them. “You don’t look much alike.”

Spade chuckled at that and casually brushed a few stray grey hairs out of her face. “The scarring does make it harder to tell.” She cocked her head. “I travel around a fair bit for my job, but I was near Clearside when the flood happened. Had to make sure my family was safe.”

Another guard’s eyes suddenly lit up, the same person who’d mentioned the tidal wave earlier.

“Hang on, I thought I recognized you! You’re the one they hired for the Gillis case, right?”

Leo’s eyebrows rose. He hadn’t known Spade had been to Alnwick before.

“I am.” She nodded at the city. “It’s been a while since I’ve been here,” she remarked. “I assume you found a permanent executioner.”

Leo could almost visibly see the tension in the air loosen. The guards relaxed now that Spade had been confirmed as, presumably, reliable, and it only took a few more minutes of questioning before the woman was allowed through as well.

The three of them stepped through the open gate, a wide arcing opening cut into the wall.

Overhead, Leo could see a metal gate that would slam down with the pull of a lever, permanently cutting the city off from the outside. It was more apparent than ever how thick those walls were as they walked through.

“I can’t believe you said you were siblings,” Leo said once they were out of earshot. Allan shrugged.

“It worked out fine,” he pointed out with a small smile. Leo snorted, but he couldn’t argue with that.

Turning to face ahead, Leo kept walking, and the three finally entered Alnwick proper.