Chapter 11

The outskirts of Aroster

Vella

Vella stretched her arms out and put her fingers to the sky, she closed her eyes and felt the wind against her skin as she flew. One slow deep breath in at a time and she had to keep thinking “This is real” to herself. A part of her was still in a state of disbelief over the circumstances around her. Not only was she soaring through the sky on a magnificent wyvern, but she was doing so while on a quest. These were the kind of things she would spend her days dreaming about, never really thinking it would have happened and yet, there she was. “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” she mused as slowly took in all the different sensations of flight.

Aegis let out a squawk that stirred Vella from her thoughts. She gazed out in front and at the edge of her sight she could barely make out what she had to assume was Aroster. She looked down at Aren and Sani, they plodded along on horses, scarcely saying a word. Aren had given some detail into his relationship with Sani, but Vella had to assume he was leaving more than a few details out. She would have been more concerned if she hadn’t been busy enjoying herself. She looked back up at Aroster as they approached. It was a harbor town formed from lots of different-looking small buildings. The whole town had a sort of haphazard design to it from afar. Vella couldn’t help but smile as this was how she’d always imagined places like Aroster to look. The buildings sat atop a hill that dipped into a bay, creating a protected harbor that was lined with long docks filled with ships of all different origins. Vella couldn’t make out much more at the distance they were at, but she was happy nonetheless. Was at a midday height and the ocean sky beneath it seemed to go on forever. For a place with such a bad reputation, Vella was impressed by what a beautiful, peaceful image it created. With another deep breathe in Vella smelled the ocean air and the salty waters ahead. A small tear began to form on her cheek, “I never thought I’d get to actually see the ocean,” she mumbled. She brought Aegis lower so she could talk to Sani and Aren. “Aroster is just over the next hill,” she said happily.

“Good, I’m gettin’ sore from this darned saddle,” Aren grumbled.

“Really, I would have figured you’d be used to sitting on your behind all day long,” Sani snapped at him. Aren turned as if to say something nasty to her, but instead, he just took a deep sigh and said nothing.

“So where do we go from here?” Vella blurted out, hoping to cut off any further arguing.

“Well, first things first we need to go to a stable. We can’t exactly bring that wyvern into the city and the horses would only slow us down,” Sani replied. “Not to mention the wyvern will draw plenty of unwanted attention.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinkin’ bout that,” Aren said. “More I think about it we might be better off leavin’ Vella out here, just you an me go in.”

“Not a chance!” Vella said angrily. “I thought we already went through all this, you’re not ditching me. You didn’t manage to in Draeton, you won’t be able to now.”

“I’m just lookin' out for yer safety, this ain’t anything like Draeton,” Aren said.

“She can make her own choices Aren, besides, you don’t get to protect anyone, you gave that up, remember?” Sani said sarcastically. Again Aren sighed rather than responding.

They rode along for another minute or so silently before Vella dared talk again. “So Sani, can you tell me a little about Aroster? I mean I know the rumors, but you’ve been here so you’d have a lot better information.”

“Of course,” Sani said with a smirk. “Whatever you’ve heard, it’s wrong, well at least partially. Aroster is a home for rogues, crooks, and the like, but it’s also full of a lot of good people who just can’t be a part of life in the kingdoms for one reason or another. It’s a place of shelter for a lot of people. The whole city started when a smuggler found this protected bay and set up shop. It didn’t take too long before it became a settlement with docks and eventually, the city spread out from there. People from all over come to Aroster and put up buildings. It’s one of the most culturally diverse places in the world. Unlike Lazzure it’s a port that isn’t controlled, so you don’t have some greedy arbiter dipping into your profits every time.”

Aren cringed, “That’s one thing even I like about it. Can’t say I have any fondness for Lazzure.”

“There are a couple of different groups that make sure order is kept within the city. They all have a pact to keep the peace. You get outside city limits you can steal or do whatever, but within these lines, you follow the code. You don’t steal from each other, any loss in gambling is square, and if it’s found that you rigged anything you aren’t let back, ever. A couple folks make the mistake of getting brave every year and they get thrown out, that’s pretty much enough to spook the rest.”

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“You’re workin’ awful hard to make Aroster sound like a perfect little safe haven for all of us,” Aren said sarcastically.

“Well compared to what a dung heap the kingdoms have become it sure seems like it is,” Sani said back defiantly.

“You’re leavin’ out how many stolen goods go through here and the whole wild order mess,” Aren said.

“I did say crooks and rogues, besides, it’s not stolen from people in here. Anyways, it’s generally not stolen from anybody nice. Nobody sheds a tear if you steal from the pompous and rich,” Sani said with a smile.

“Cept for the pompous and rich,” Aren replied quickly.

“You know I don’t particularly care about that. They have more than they need or could even spend and there are hungry mouths. I see it as a necessary balancing of the scales. Besides, the only reason none of the kingdoms have ever tried to take Aroster is because they all run their less savory business through the port.” The three reached the top of the hill and Sani pointed out to her left at the edge of the city. “Now that’s where we are going. That’s a stable we can use and more importantly, I know and can trust the owner. He won’t sell our rides while we’re inside the city.”

The stable Sani was taking them to was rather large, there were stalls and several barns all over the grounds, though there were very few people moving about. There was a large black iron gate at the entrance. The gate was very ornate with different spiraling designs of metal, the most noticeable of which was a large circle with a hand containing a star in the palm. They went through the gate and as they approached what seemed to be the main building Sani motioned for the others to stop. She hopped off her horse and approached a rather frail-looking old man who was walking over to them. Sani began talking to the man, though Vella couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. After a minute Sani came back over to Vella and Aren. “Alright, you two take the horses over to those stables, the wyvern goes in the barn for protection,” she said.

Aren grabbed the reins of both horses and began walking off. Sani pulled a small black coin out of her pocket as she was turning away. Vella caught a brief glimpse and saw that the coin had the same symbol as the iron gate. Vella hopped off Aegis and led the wyvern into the barn. As she tied up aegis reins and assured the wyvern she looked around the barn and noticed the same symbol was on the walls. “Maybe that’s Aroster’s symbol?” Vella said aloud.

As Vella was coming out of the barn she almost ran into the old man. “Sorry,” she managed to say as she dodged past him.

“Oh no miss,” he replied. “I must apologize, I should have been a little louder so you knew I was there. Please, I do hope you find what you’re looking for in Aroster. So many come to visit the city, but I find only a small few find what they seek.”

Vella took in the man’s words for a moment, “Well I have to hope I am part of that small few. Even if I’m not this is still the greatest adventure I’ve ever been on, so I can’t complain.”

The old man chuckled, “My, the way you young people are able to see things. I wish I could see things that way, but the centuries have taken that perspective from me…” The old man kept walking and Vella couldn’t help but think he was a little bit crazy.

Vella trudged out of the barn over to Sani and Aren who were already waiting for her. “That old guy is a little nuts,” she said.

“Yeah,” Sani replied, “But he’s also about as trustworthy as they come, so who cares.”

“So, we’re in Aroster and we have you,” Aren interrupted, “How exactly are we gonna find Kraevos? Dracyr said he was a pel-something or other.”

“Pelliverto,” Sani corrected.

“Sure, that,” Aren grumbled. “How are we gonna find him?”

“Well, obviously it’s not like we’re gonna be able to just use magic to look up what he looks like. If this were anyone else I could. But this is the original mage after all. He would know how to mask himself from such simple locator spells. So we have to go back to the basics honestly.” Sani pulled three more black coins from her pocket and pressed them into her hand. Her tattoos began to glow and she began to mutter words Vella couldn’t understand. As she opened her hand each of the coins was glowing green like her tattoos. “You two each need to take one of these, press it to your mouth, and say his name. It’s a simple charm, but an effective one. If you’re within ten feet of the person it will begin to glow again.”

Vella and Aren both grabbed their coins, pressed them to their mouths, and said “Kraevos.”

Sani then took her coin and pressed it to her lips, “Invenietto Kraevos,” she said. The three coins all flashed bright green and then the glowing stopped.

“That it?” Aren asked.

“As odd as it seems, yes,” Sani replied. “Magic is a complicated and fickle thing. Sometimes it’s the really simple spells that are the most effective. Kraevos can change his form, but he can’t change the fact that he is still Kraevos. There’s power in knowing someone’s name, that’s why a lot of us in the magical world go by different aliases.”

“Great, so does this mean we can go into the city now? I really want to see what it’s like!” Vella said eagerly.

“Hold yer horses Vella,” Aren interjected. “So what do we do if we do find him?”

Sani pulled three pieces of paper out of her bag, held them up, and said “Tabulus Aroster.” With a brief green glow, maps showed on the paper. “If you find him you place the coin to the map where you are and it’ll show that to the other two maps.”

“Right, seems simple enough,” Aren said as he turned to head out the gate of the stables. “We’d best head off then. Sooner we start sooner we finish.”

“And the sooner you get to go back to your little queenie crush right?” Sani said as she darted past Aren out the gate.

Vella heard Aren mutter several unsavory things as he ran after Sani. Vella chuckled as she took one more look at the stable as she began to walk out the gate. She saw the old stablemaster standing back at the barn and gave a wave as she left.

The stablemaster took a heavy sigh, “Peaceful times are gone I suppose.”