Chapter 19

The Streets of Aroster

Sani and Aren

Aren trudged uneasily behind Sani, continuing to look around at each and every passerby as he muttered under his breath. “This is a darned fool’s errand, Sani,” he said. “We’ve talked to plenty o people, both the right kind and the wrong kind and all anybody ever tells us is that “Kraevos is everywhere,” What in the name of the sea wind does that mean?” He kicked a rock in front of him and sent it flying down the nearest alley. “Nobody can be everywhere, I don’t care how much bloody magic you know!”

“Age has not taught you more patience I see,” Sani said as she turned around to face Aren. “Look, complaining about it won’t get us anywhere and it doesn’t keep us from wanting to strangle each other either. Besides, what possible reason would Dracyr have for sending you two here if she didn’t firmly believe Kraevos was here?” Aren’s eyes shot down to his feet telling Sani that he had not shared everything he knew with her. “Alright, spit it out, you’ve never been able to lie to me. Tell me what’s going on!” She grabbed him by the collar and locked eyes with him. She stared at the stormy blue of his eyes waiting for him to say something.

After a few tense moments, Aren brushed Sani’s hand aside and with a heavy sigh voiced his concerns. Fine, you wanna know, I’ll tell ya.” He took a seat on a crate stacked near the backdoor of one of the shops lining the alley and started to collect himself. “So the whole reason this mess started is cause Emeria has a rat somewhere in her court that she don’t know about. The rat reached out to Dracyr and gave her information that scared her enough that she sent an assassin to try and kill Emeria. Not that I gotta say it, but the assassin failed and now the whole thing has gone completely belly up. Unsurprisingly it has Emeria out for blood, not that that’s a hard thing to make happen.”

Ok, I’m not exactly going to call myself an expert in kingdom politics and their inner workings, but I’m failing to see how this leads to you and Vella getting mixed up in all this,” Sani replied.

“We got tied up in it by mistake. That old Wyvern came to Vella, must have been bred there a while back. Vella tried to return it and got me roped in as well,” Aren said shaking his head. “ This is what I get for doing the right thing.”

“So you found a dragon, big deal, what am I missing,” Sani said impatiently.

“Well since we found all this out by mistake it means we ain’t supposed to know. Nobody is supposed to know. If word got out about this, that Dracyr started all this and brought Emeria and Sacrotia down upon the kingdom, well it wouldn’t be good. Morale would plummet and the people might revolt against Dracyr.” Aren started rubbing his knuckles, an old nervous habit Sani had seen him to many times. “So there’s been this thought in the back of my head, that maybe, just maybe we’ve been sent on a wild goose chase. That maybe Dracyr sent us out hoping we’d disappear along with the knowledge of what she did.”

“That’s abominable!” Sani blurted out. “The people of Draeton deserve to know what she did. They need to know she’s to blame for this. How can you trust a leader like that? How can you trust anyone who so clearly doesn’t trust the people they are supposed to serve?” Aren could only reply with a weak shrug. “I think I can speak for the rest of us in Draeton and say that we can’t! This is why so many of us hate the royals, why we hate Dracyr. She doesn’t understand or care about her people. She just looks at us like her livestock being led to the slaughter.”

“No she doesn’t,” Aren replied. “I know this doesn’t cast her in a good light, but I swear she doesn’t feel that way about the people of Draeton.”

“Of course, you would come to her defense,” Sani spat back angrily at Aren. “She snaps her fingers and you’re there to help. We’ve all heard the rumors about the queen and the oafish knight she keeps on the side.”

Aren stood up clenching his fists tightly at his sides. “That wasn’t called for.”

“Tell me I’m wrong,” Sani said as she met his angry gaze.

“I’m no kept man. I’ve never been…” his voice trailed off. “Never mind, it’s not important anyways.”

“You’ve never what, go ahead Aren, say it,” Sani pushed.

“I was never with her,” he let out with a sigh. “Her father helped me to join the knights, so yes, I was close with the family for a short while, but I was never hers or anyone’s. I don’t belong to bloody anyone! When Dracyr asked me to be more than just a knight I turned her down. I couldn’t have said yes. I took the lowest post that I could have short of running away with my tail between my legs. I couldn’t get involved with anyone’s royal family. I know all too well what happens then.”

Sani wanted to press further, but she felt pity for Aren. His eyes had welled with tears, his pride being the only thing stubbornly holding them in. “You wanted to say yes didn’t you” she asked. Aren didn’t reply, he just sat back down and put his head in his hands as the two stayed in an awkward silence for several minutes.

Finally, Aren broke the silence. “I ain’t asking you to believe or agree with the politics of what is going on. Darned if I even do, but what I am asking you to do is just to help me and more to help Vella. That girl doesn’t deserve to be mixed up in all o this. All we need to do is to see if Kraevos is here. If he isn’t, well we will deal with that mess o questions then.”

Sani started to rummage through her satchel and pulled out the coin and the map that they had attuned hours earlier. She put her fingers to the map and began. “Look,” she said as she pointed, “We’ve checked here, here and here. That is still maybe a quarter of the places that we should investigate. I know Aroster pretty well, but there are still plenty of places even I don’t have easy access to.” Aren let out an exaggerated, disgruntled sigh. “Look, there are more ways to get information than shaking down street thugs and asking people in shops, it may cost us a bit of coin, but I’m sure we can find what we need.”

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Aren stuck out his tongue, “My way is more fun though.”

“Yeah, I know subtlety and conversation aren’t exactly your strong points big guy, but it’s what we have to do.” Aren’s eyes went wide and he grabbed the map from Sani. “Hey watch it, I don’t exactly have another one of these lying around.”

“We have a problem!” Aren said excitedly. Sani looked over the map to see what in the world he was talking about, but everything looked correct as far as she could tell.

“Aren, what do you mean?” She pointed down, “All of the buildings that should be here are and they are where they are supposed to be. The magic is still working, look, there we are,” she said pointing at their names on the map.

“That’s exactly it, we are on this, but where is Vella?” Aren said frantically. Sani looked over the map and couldn’t find Vella’s name anywhere. The only names on the map belonged to Aren and Sani where it should have been able to tell the location of all three. “This is bad,” Aren began to berate himself. “this is all my fault. I shouldn’t have brought her here, poor girl isn’t made for a place like this, I barely am!”

“Aren, calm down, she’s more capable than you give her credit for, she’s not a child.”

Aren kept ranting, ‘She shouldn’t have been on her own. This is your fault too, why did you tell us to split up? I should have gone with her!”

Sani could feel her temper rising as Aren blamed everything he could. “Funny, you didn’t seem so concerned when you left me on my own!”

Aren spun around and faced her, “I thought you said we were done with that, leave it be!”

“No Aren, you said we would leave it be, why should I? You left me out of the blue to go chase a dream and a girl. You left me on the street, why would I drop that?” She pushed Aren away, feeling like this whole trip had been a mistake.

“Fine, you want to hold onto that you be my guest. You never wanted to hear my side o things anyway. I didn’t have a choice in the matter anyway. If you want to leave and never see me again go ahead, but at least do it after we find Vella.

Sani took a deep, slow breath trying to regain her composure. At least this once Aren was right, they did need to find Vella. “After we find her I don’t even want to hear your name in my part of the city,” she said. Aren nodded tersely. Sani began to trace her fingers along the outer edges, lighting a glow across the map. As she connected the outline the whole map began to hum and flicker with magical energy. “Alright, if Vella were outside of this area the map would have told me. That’s good at least, she is still in Aroster. This means someone with some really strong magic is shielding a location and that’s where Vella must be. I don’t think I could pull that off honestly. It means the map is useless to us now, but it doesn’t mean we can’t find her. It just means we have to use different methods.”

“Alright, so what does that mean we do,” Aren said looking puzzled.

“We have to head back to the stables and get that wyvern. That will help us find Vella, at least it should.” Sani packed up the map and started off down the alley back to the streets running towards the stables outside Aroster. Aren chased after her, though with a labored wheeze and at a far slower pace.

As Aren reached the stable a few minutes after Sani he nearly fell over catching his breath. “Ya coulda slowed down for me ya know. It’s been a while since I was in good enough shape to sprint like that.” He continued to try and catch his breath, realizing just how out of shape he had become.

Sani put her head close to Aegis’ and began to speak to the wyvern. “Alright, help us find her. You have a bond to Vella, you can find her, sniff her out.” She kneeled down in front of the wyvern, trying to show respect. Aegis hissed faintly and stepped closer. Sani stood and undid the tethering holding Aegis in the stall and the two began to sprint out of the stables back into Aroster. “Come on Aren, we have the scent. You need to pick up the pace!” She wasn’t sure of the specifics of how Aren was cursing her, but she could make out enough words to bring a smile to her face as he began to try and follow.

Aegis darted back and forth through the city following what Sani assumed was Vella’s path. They stopped very briefly at a few locations Vella must have stopped at before reaching the market. Aegis stopped at one particular booth where a smith named Mormyr said he had seen Vella earlier in the day. He explained how he had seen Vella leave the market with another dragon an hour or two earlier. He explained that there had been a bit of a commotion Vella was involved in and that a trader had been crushed. Aegis began to tug on the line in Sani’s hand so they followed out of the market.

Aegis led them to the apothecary and Sani paused. ‘Do you think she saw us when we were here Aren?” Aren gave no reply as he was too busy hunching over trying to catch his breath again. Aegis led them into the alley and stopped to take a long deep breath. It filled its nostrils slowly, taking in the scents around it before it bolted suddenly as Sani lost her grip. Aren and Sani chased after the wyvern as it darted and zigged going from one spot to the next. It crashed past several people, causing a ruckus as it went.

Finally, Aegis stopped in front of a very plain-looking building. It had multiple floors and stood a story or two taller than the buildings next to it, but otherwise, it was unremarkable. Sani and Aren began to look at the building as Aegis pointed and gave the outer wall a gentle scratch. “Alright, good job Aegis, “Sani said. She kneeled down and placed he hands on the ground. With a brilliant green flash, a tree sprouted from her spot. She grabbed Aegis's reins and lashed them to the post. “Now you stay here.”

“So gotta assume this is it then?” Aren asked.

“Yeah, seems to be. Time to find a way in.” Both Sani and Aren began to look over the building. They found several darkened windows along the outside, though they seemed there in image only. Sani noticed that at the faintest corner of each, there was a small insignia for the wild order. “Great, it figures it would be someone else from the order that would be able to do this.”

“Hold up, someone else? That means you’re a part of that crazy wild order?” Aren asked before he could stop himself.

“Yeah, what of it? We’re trying to fix things on this continent, that’s more than your queen can claim, but we can argue about that later. Did you find a door?” Aren just shook his head in reply. “Neither did I and what’s worse is that these windows are just an illusion.”

“So how do we get inside?” Aren asked. “is it time for a little o the smashing?”

They heard a squawk from Aegis and circled back to the front. As they did they could see a large and very ornate oak door where there had not been one minute before. They both could feel the magic pulsing around the building now and there was a visible shimmer of silver around the door. Aren reached out a finger and poked the door, “I would like to just make this clear, I don’t trust no magic door.”

“Duly noted Aren,” Sani replied “I don’t think we have much choice though.”

“Yeah, I figured that, but just in case this is a trap or a portal or some magical nonsense like that, I wanted to make sure I spoke my mind.”

“So in that case you want your last words to be that you don’t trust a door? I would have figured there might have been other things higher on that list.”

“Well… now that you say that I just feel stupid,” Aren mumbled. Aren clenched his fists and let the magic flow through the runes on his arms, girding for a potential fight. “Let’s go break some stuff and find Vella then.” He said as he barged through the door recklessly.