The approach to the towering gate saw a concentration of foot traffic, dozens of travellers clad in myriad styles coming to and from the gate. Wagons, both enchanted or otherwise, plodded along under the steady gait of hitched horses with the characteristic clopping on cobbles that struck a familiar chord to any who travelled the roads. Compared to the exceptional numbers he’d seen within the city proper, the area before the gate was almost barren, which he assumed was a result of the restrictions barring access to much of the eastern Regnal Road.
Those who continued to travel were a dichotomous sort. A wealthy few who commanded caravans of trade, adorned in fine garments and glittering jewellery, seemed distant as the sun to those shouldering burlap sacks and clothed in rough-hewn tunics not unlike his own. If there were one common point of unity among them, however, it would be their visible reaction to the tokens displayed proudly around Alex and Ellie’s necks.
Alex didn’t like those looks. For some, like the wealthy, it seemed a mere curiosity; a novelty, something to occupy the mind with theory and pontification throughout what was sure to be a lengthy and mundane pilgrimage. Others, however, wore their envy plain. Many of the younger men visibly took in their forms, frowning in particular at Ellie’s short and thin stature, a calculating note in their eyes. The more seasoned of the poor absorbed the token's presence with little more than a flicker of eyelashes, a brief moment of surprise, before returning their attention to whatever burdens they carried. For Alex, it was an assurance that Arrius’ prior warning was to be taken seriously - these tokens were an oddity, perhaps even a rarity, and the weak didn’t get to hold on to such things for long.
Thankfully, the stalwart forms of soldiers atop and before the gates deterred even the most foolhardy of youths from making their move. It was also an important distinction to Alex. These were not the lightly armed guardsmen of Seaport, nor the hirelings that Arrius kept at hand. The formal, identical garments that covered armour in a range of functional forms spoke to a greater degree of organisation than that, not to mention the insignia that occupied the centre breast of every one of them. Every bit as intricate as their tokens, the sigil of the Kingdom of Orius blazed brightly in embroidered silver or gold thread, matching the rank-plates of their wearers. These were not mere guards, but soldiers of the Royal Army.
As Alex approached the open gate, Ellie walking beside him and taking in the sights in her own way, one of the soldiers at the gate raised her hand.
Clad in a black surcoat over silver plate armour, silver embroidery bared proudly beneath her rank-plate, the woman had chosen to forego her helmet. She was pale in the porcelain way, serving to contrast the deep black of her silken hair that she permitted to flow freely to the upper arm, framing a pair of light-blue eyes and lips flecked with only the barest tinge of red. This soldier was young, Alex noted, perhaps even of an age with himself. His heart caught in his throat for a moment before he forcefully swallowed.
Seriously, Alex? He thought, rebuking himself. It is not the time to be developing a crush.
While he’d inspected the female soldier, she had been doing the same - though rather evidently in a much more professional sense. Her eyes flicked across Alex’s face, then form, hovering briefly over the silver-token displayed on his breast before she turned to look at Ellie. Her expression was remarkably controlled until she caught sight of Ellie’s own golden token, a glimmer of interest briefly manifesting in those light-blue eyes until it was, he thought, brutally subdued.
“Papers.” the woman commanded, locking eyes with Alex.
Alex rustled through the travel satchel at his side before producing a sheaf of documents, those his mother had kept aside in her workshop back home. He took a moment to flick through them - making sure everything was present, something he was only now realising should have been done long ago - before handing over the bound papers to the woman. She reviewed their contents with a casual, practiced ease, before pausing.
“Refugees from Seaport. The site of the invasion.” she said, eyes glued to the documentation.
“Uh, yes, ma’am.” Alex said, nodding. “Seaport was our home.”
From the corner of his vision, Alex watched as Ellie’s eyes widened in alarm, before shooting furtive glances at the soldier handling their paperwork. A few of the girl’s glances were aimed at him, apprehension evident. He wasn’t sure what was bothering her. These were supposed to be soldiers of the army they were joining - why would they be dangerous to them, right now?
“Your birth certificate lists your eighteenth name day as having taken place approximately three weeks ago. Seaport’s invasion was one week ago. Care to explain?” the woman asked, staring at him with an expectant look.
His breath caught, again, although for an entirely different reason. Desertion, Alex thought, a stab of panic lancing his gut. While the guilt of his escape hadn’t left him, the fear of the implications had been swept away by the tumultuous events of the past week; it hadn’t even occurred to him that they’d question him at the gate. His mind raced to find an answer, some explanation, but help came from an unexpected corner.
“That’s my brother for you.” Ellie said, pasting a grin on her youthful face. “He would never shut up about joining the Royal Army. Always with the ‘I’ll be a soldier one day’ this, and ‘serving the Kingdom is the highest honour’ that. We were just leaving for Solaris when the ships landed, miss.”
The woman regarded Ellie with an assessing gaze as she spun her tale, features hard like granite, before turning to Alex and slightly cocking her neck. He recognised the opportunity for what it was: his wonderful, genius little sister had seen this coming, and invented a yarn that might get them out of this.
“Uh, absolutely. That’s me. I’ve been a Royal Army man since the day, uh, that I found out about it. Love some fighting and… guarding, me.” he got out.
The soldier looked him up and down and raised an eyebrow.
“Indeed, you very much look like the type of recruit that has dreamt of this day. Why, most of our recruits turn up at the gates after their homes were invaded, looking like they’ve been beaten half to death, and apparently Bronze-ranked. Practically regulation, honestly.” she said.
He cringed internally. He wasn’t a terrible liar, but it hadn’t ever been his forte, and Ellie has surprised him with her approach. The woman didn’t buy it, obviously, and he was scrambling to think of ways to sell the falsehood when a male soldier poked his head out from the guardhouse positioned just behind her. A Gold rank-plate hung from his neck, and the man’s eyes quickly landed on his token.
“Private Evenil, stop harassing the new recruit. Light duty doesn’t mean you get to natter with the travellers.” the Gold said, shaking his head.
“But sir, he’s a-”
“I don’t care if he’s a bleedin’ invader himself, Lyra. He’s got the token, so he’s Headquarters’ problem. Honestly, stop inviting more paperwork to land on my desk. You’re a zealot.”
The woman bristled at the rebuke, but snapped off a crisp salute regardless, returning her attention to Alex. With one last look at the papers, she carefully sorted them back into their original ordering, before handing them back to him. He stashed them back into the pack under the woman’s careful watch.
“So we’re free to enter, right?” Alex said, somewhat cautious of the woman’s irritated expression. It quickly passed, though, and the professionalism returned to her face in a matter of seconds.
“I don’t know how it worked in the little town you grew up in, but as a warning, the Royal Army doesn’t tolerate deserters.” she said calmly, a tinge of venom slipping into the last word. “Nevertheless, orders are orders. You are permitted entry, travellers. Welcome to Solaris.”
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As if from nowhere, the memory of his disastrous encounter with Amelia at the Ocean Dance rocketed into his brain. It was entirely unfitting for the situation, the danger that they had just escaped, but rattled around in his skull nonetheless. A nice boy. He could still hear her voice and his own dramatic heartbreak. An impulse rocked his brain.
As the female soldier stepped to the side, allowing them passage, and they stepped forward toward the city - he paused for a moment, locked eyes with the young woman, and winked.
“Thanks, Lyra. See you around.”
He opted not to stick around and witness the woman’s rapidly darkening expression as he and Ellie entered the city proper, at a slightly faster pace than might be considered a normal walking speed. Alex couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, though mostly to ignore his internal cringing.
A nice boy, huh?
***
Alex felt uncharacteristically giddy for a few minutes as they walked through the city, proud of himself for taking such a social risk even if it hadn’t been the smoothest thing in the world, before he caught sight of Ellie’s growing annoyance. The girl had taken to levelling him with a flat stare at regular intervals. He knew she was right. Now wasn’t the time for him to be celebrating the first step on a new path - it was the time for keeping eyes wide open, fixed on the road ahead.
The street they walked down was as wide as the Regnal Road, with plenty of space to support Solaris’ traffic. It was mid-morning, the sun lingering midway through its journey to the sky’s peak, and the buzz of activity was a constant pressure. As they rounded a corner, both were forced to stop in place. Seeing the sheer number of people in the city from afar was one thing, but being directly confronted with the truth of it was another.
Never had Alex seen so many people, not in one place or otherwise, not even at the most raucous Ocean Festival in memory. Hundreds of people walked in plain view beneath the morning sky, talking to one another, meandering through the streets, taking a brisk walk to their destination, ducking into and out of buildings adorned with colourful signage featuring artistic depictions of various trades; it was an immense, bustling gathering, where social class and clothing mattered little to those traversing the streets.
Traders who had forfeited the luxury of four walls touted wooden carts by the roadside, hawking their offerings that were as plentiful as they were diverse. These entrepreneurial sorts stocked everything he could think of - from delicious cooked meats and pastries, to assorted arms and armour bearing the wear of use, to weathered clothing and children’s toys. A market road filled to the brim with an inventory of which Alex could put a name to scarcely half, it was a cacophonous explosion of the senses; a cavalcade of noise drenched in succulent aroma, and a feast for the eyes.
The sight sparked a sudden recollection. Quickly gathering the silver token in his hands, he thrust it beneath the material of his white tunic, indicating that Ellie should do the same. With their valuables hidden, Alex secured the travel satchel at his side closer to the centre of his body, recalling tales of pickpockets and thieves from friendly merchants that occasionally made a pit-stop in Seaport.
“Solaris,” Ellie breathed, neck swivelling as she attempted to absorb the wholeness of the view. “So many people. So many things. Where do we even start?”
Alex pondered the question for a moment. Where did they start? The city wasn’t as flat as it had appeared from the perspective of the tall hill - from ground-level, he could see landmarks rising high into the sky, either through sheer size alone or from their perch atop hills of their own. Many of these were among the more ornate buildings in view. A church, constructed from the same white stone as the walls, appeared to be the closest example. In the distance, snatched a glimpse of the marble buildings he had seen earlier, but it remained too far for details.
“First things first, let’s get our bearings.” Alex said, looking around the market. “We need to make it to Headquarters, but that’ll be hard without knowing where we are. Come on,” he inclined his head toward one of the nearby trading stalls, “let’s ask over there.”
The stall was one of the few reserved for selling food, and was more metallic than wooden as he’d previously assumed. A Silver-ranked man, blonde hair and distant eyes, tended brusquely to skewered meat grilling atop a stove. Alex watched as the man’s expression tightened for a moment, and then the dancing flame was refreshed, growing to twice the size in a single second and eliciting an intense crackling from the meat’s oils. Evoker, Alex thought, noting the external manifestation of power.
Noticing their approach, the man shot them a toothy grin - a few of the yellowed appendages missing from the row. “Mornin’, folks. Got ourselves some tasty sabash here. Give ‘em another minute and they’ll be ready for eatin’.”
Alex nodded, mouth watering at the sight. Their journey had been fueled by hardtack and jerky, the supplies his mother had seen fit to prepare, but it wasn’t exactly a feast. A craving for the soft, juicy tenderness of the sabash filled his stomach, and from the accompanying rumble to his right, Ellie was experiencing much of the same. Food first, directions later, then.
The man hummed, off-key, as he prepared the grilled meats. With ease that came only from years of practice, he tapped two sticks with his middle finger and flipped the sabash over until they faced in the direction of Alex and Ellie, shooting the pair another grin.
“Two silver, my friends.”
Alex reeled. Two silver? Two silver had bought them lodgings for the night at a Waystation, and would have paid for at least a full day’s worth of food back in Seaport. With only eight silver to their name and no guarantees except the tokens hanging around their neck, Alex was inclined to reject the offer, until he caught sight of Ellie. She was giving him puppy-dog eyes, imploring, and as the older brother he could only sigh and hand over two of their precious silver coins. It would be worth it for the information.
“Good doin’ business. All yours.”
“We just have a few questions, actually, if you don’t mind.” Alex said.
The trader raised an eyebrow and snickered. “Aye, thought you lot were new. Come on then, out with it. Don’t know where you are, do ya?”
Alex shook his head. “No, we just arrived in the city. Can you tell us what we need to know, and quickly? We’re in a rush.”
“Oh, quickly, is it? Alrigh’, lad, here’s the basics. This here’s what we call a gate market, you can find one of ‘em at any of the city’s four gates, with this one being the East Gate. This’ll be where the rich don’t mind mixin’ with us poors too much.” the man said, chuckling. “Out there in the city, they’re not too keen on it, so mind your manners and don’t forget ye’ pleases and thank yous. Savvy?”
“Right. Eastern gate market, next to the East Gate.”
“Which puts us nicely at the edge of the Eastern Quadrant. City’s split up into four slices, but it’s got layers, y’see.” he paused, thinking for a moment. “Quickest way to put it - ‘cept for the gate markets, the further from the centre you are, the poorer the area. Rich folks live further in, and then you got the big guys in the middle. That’s where our great King lives in his grand palace, along with the Royal Army headquarters, lordly manors and such. Make sense?”
“That means we need to head deeper into the city, toward the poor area?” Ellie asked, pulling her mouth away from the sabash.
“Dependin’ on where you’re lookin’ to go, aye, that’s about right. Not hard, though. See this big road we’re standing on? Leads all the way to the Royal Circle, so long as you don’t step down any side roads. Those lead into the districts proper, so watch ye valuables.” He chuckled again.
“This road takes us straight to the Royal Army headquarters, then?” Alex asked.
At the mention of headquarters, the trader’s brow furrowed. His posture, previously open and welcoming, clammed up almost immediately. He now stood straight, a slight frown on his face, eyes darting to where Alex’s rank-plate would be. If Alex were Silver or above, of course.
“Uh, yes, that’s right.” The man said, peering at them curiously. “‘Scuse my manners. Didn’t think you were the sort to have business in the Circle. Who did you say you were, again?”
Recognizing a conversation about to head down a path they didn’t want to travel, Alex placed his hand on Ellie’s shoulder and shot the man a smile. “I didn’t. Thanks for your help, sir. Ellie, we should be moving on.”
His sister appeared to agree, wolfing down the remainder of the meat and flashing the trader a bright smile. “Thanks for the help, sir! Have a nice day!”
The pair departed from the stand, merging quickly with the crowds under the inspection of the vendor. With renewed haste, they continued walking to their true destination and, hopefully, the opportunity to rest and lick their wounds.
The Royal Army Headquarters awaited.