Chapter 9

The Lower Circle of Presidia

Vella and Aren

Aren and Vella walked down the streets of the lower circle of Presidia in a tense silence. Occasionally Aren would grumble something under his breath, but not enough that Vella could guess at the words. What little she could understand was mostly cursing. They had taken the cart back down into the city, though this time they were brought to the shady backside of the city. Due to the nature of the mountain like Presidia one side was more perpetually in the shade than the other. The rich and powerful chose to live on the sunny side of the city, believing that the light was shining down upon them as some form of privilege. In the case of Presidia the shady side of town was indeed where any dark and less savory dealings went down. The streets despite being the same stone that lined the nicer parts seemed to be dimmer, dingier, and more worn. The shadows that the spires cast looked like great fangs tearing down upon the buildings. Vella felt less comfortable than before as she saw the cloaked figures passing by as she walked. Each one seemed to make a face as they walked on. The only calming thing to her was that she was at least still with Aren. At last, Vella felt the need to break the unnerving silence, “So where are we going Aren?”

Aren shook his head as though coming out of a trance, “A pub, the dancing wyrm.” He stopped and turned to Vella, “Look, I’m sorry you’re caught up in all this now, gods above I’m sorry I’m caught up in this too.”

“Cut it out Aren,” Vella interrupted. “I chose to stay with you and to go to Aroster. Nobody made me, no the queen, not you, and not that jerk of a general.”

Aren cracked a small smile, “Yeah, I s’pose that’s so.” He scratched his beard before continuing. “Well, may as well give you a little more information then. The dancing wyrm is where we are gonna get our mage.” Vella was excited at the prospect of meeting a mage. She was still in a sort of awe after the magic she’d seen at the castle, she was hungry for more. That said, a few things were nagging at her.

“Ok, that’s great, but I feel like I’m missing something, you’re a knight, why do you know a mage who didn’t go to the academy?” Vella asked.

“Well… Ya see that’s a little complicated…” Aren stammered, “Not the sort of stuff you need to know.”

“Uh oh, Aren is this a girl thing? Did you date her?” tauntingly.

“Gods no,” Aren grumbled. “She’s very different from anythin’ like that.”

“Then what is it?” Vella pleaded.

“Look, its history, nothin’ romantic but also nothin’ that concerns you right now. So quit being nosy and listen to me.”

Vella stuck her tongue out defiantly, “Fine, but you’re gonna tell me eventually.”

“She’s the best mage I know, academy would love to get their hands on her, but she can be a bit well, reckless to say the least,” Aren said. “Best to keep your head on a swivel 'round her too, she’s quite the pickpocket.”

As Aren finished his sentence a passerby bumped him forcefully, knocking him over. The passerby extended his hand to help Aren up reflexively, but upon seeing who it was pulled back his hand. “Traitor,” He spat out as he turned and walked away.

Vella grabbed Aren’s hand and helped him up, “What was that about?”

Aren began to dust himself off and with a sigh answered, “That was the other thing I wanted to warn you about. People down here don’t necessarily take kindly to me nowadays. I spent a lot o my younger years here and they see me as a traitor for joining the knights. They think I sold out and joined the bad guys.”

“But the knights are protectors, why would they say that?” Vella replied.

“Not everyone sees it that way. Knights have done plenty of bad things and gotten other people blamed, especially down here. I been trying to be better than that, but it don’t change the minds of people down here” Aren answered. “Either way, it’s my job to protect people, to protect Draeton even if not all of it wants protectin’.” Aren grabbed a dagger and sheath from his belt and stretched them out to Vella. “Speakin’ o protectin’ you’d be better to have somethin’ on ya for your own protection. You do know how to use a knife, right?”

Vella grabbed the knife and strapped the sheath onto her belt. As a dragon breeder and farmer, she had used plenty of knives and had forged her own on many occasions, but it wasn’t as though she’d used one for protection before. She put on a strong face and replied, “Of course I have.”

“Good then,” Aren replied. “I can’t have you gettin’ hurt on my watch. I don’t want to have to take care of your wyrms.”

“You won’t have to, I’ll protect myself.” Vella smiled reassuringly, trying to calm her own nerves. “Now, you still haven’t told me enough about what we’re doing. Who is this mage and how come they didn’t go to the academy? After all, I thought the academy was the place all magic users dreamed of.”

Aren looked around him before replying, “Not quite. Some folks think very highly of the academy, but they also make sure you all do. They control word about themselves real well. They don’t take kindly at all to other magic users. They basically round up any kind who shows any ability and bring them to the academy whether they want to go or not. People outside the big cities don’t really see that. We’ve all heard rumors about the sort of scary stuff that goes on there and not everyone comes back from the academy. Some people choose to go their own path with magic, teach themselves, and learn their own way. The academy does not take that lightly at all. They get the royals to persecute self-taught folk most of the time. Cause the academy controls all their mages a self-taught one can make a lot of money if they are willin’. Always a lot o people lookin’ for magical answers to problems. The particular mage we’re goin’ to see has made quite a lot o money for herself too. Very talented and very in tune with the magic o the earth. Her name’s Sani, but a lot o people 'round here know her as Greenbraid, least that’s the name she goes by a lot in business.”

“Yeesh, is anything I’ve been told true about the kingdoms? It seems like everything you tell me makes them sound worse” Vella grumbled.

“People at the top always like to paint a prettier picture than the one that is, that’s for sure,” Aren replied. “Now, the pub is just around the corner, follow me, stay close, and keep your eyes open. I’ll do the talkin’ and don’t let nobody else lead you off, understand?”

Vella nodded, though she was getting rather tired of being led around in a city she very clearly understood so little of. She longed to get going to Aroster. They walked around the corner and saw the sign for the pub. A faded wooden sign hung in the air, the letters were purple but barely showed at this point. The name though was unmistakable based on the image carved into the sign. A fat wyrm was on its back legs with music notes surrounding it. They stepped into the door onto a small elevated floor that looked in upon the rest of the pub. The air was thick with smoke and smelled of all sorts of magical incense and herbs. Small glowing candles hung on the walls weightlessly floating and moving occasionally. Each table had one small lamp, though the uninhabited tables were dark. Aren and Vella stepped down the stairs to the main floor of the pub. To their right was a long bar with stools all lined up. Several large barrels lined the back of the bar with all sorts of bottles lined on the shelves behind them. Vella couldn’t make out any of the labels on them due to the smoke in the air, but the foul smell coming from the passed-out patron at the bar meant she didn’t want to linger either.

The barkeep standing behind the bar looked like a light breeze would make him crumble to dust and his voice matched his appearance. “Been a while Aren, thought you didn’t like comin’ down to see us peasants no more.”

“You know that’s not the case,” Aren replied. “I’ve always gotten along better with you folk than I ever will with the upper crust.”

“That’s not what I heard,” The barkeep wheezed. “I heard you get along quite nicely with one o them upper-crust folk quite well…”

“Don’t know where you heard that one, but it ain’t true at all. Besides, the only reason I try to stay out of this part o town is to give Sani her space.” There was an awkward pause before Aren asked, “Is she in, I need to see her.”

“Yeah, the usual place, though I don’t know how happy she’ll be to see ya. Just make sure the two of ya don’t mess up my pub,” The barkeep replied. He pointed a bony finger to the back corner of the pub. A few booths lined the walls. Only the ones in the back corner had curtains on them. Vella assumed this meant this was where the business went down in the pub. As they walked to the back Vella couldn’t help but look at the other people in the room. Each one was drastically different from the others and she’d never seen anything like it. Several of the patrons were covered in very ornate tattoos that Vella could see the faint glow of magic on. Every person she passed had some different kind of knife strapped to them. One rather large man sitting alone at a table had an axe leaning against his seat that had clearly seen its fair share of battles based on the chips and dings in the metal.

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As Aren came to a stop at the table Vella walked right into him as she looked at the other people in the pub. “What are you doing here?” Vella heard a voice say from the other side of Aren. Vella stepped to Aren’s side and looked at the woman who’d spoken. The woman snapped her fingers and the lamp at her table illuminated more and the smoke cleared in front of her. She pointed a finger at Aren, “I really don’t want to talk to you” she said. She appeared to be somewhere between Aren and Vella age-wise. She had long black hair that was twisted into one large clump of dreadlocks that fell off her right shoulder, and small green vines twined through the clump. She had dark caramel skin and deep green eyes. She wore a dark purple top without sleeves and that’s where Vella’s attention was caught. Up each arm was a very detailed twisting tattoo of a braid that glowed and hummed with vibrant green magic. The other magic tattoos Vella had seen were barely flickering candles compared to the light emanating from this woman’s arms. “Leave,” she grumbled.

“I ain’t leavin’ Sani,” Aren replied. “I got business for you.”

“Whatever it is I don’t want it, not if you’re part of it,” Sani replied sharply. She gave Aren a glare that pierced through him, Vella could feel the tension in the air and wasn’t sure what to do so she stood motionless hoping things would get better. “Aren took a large piece of gold from his pocket and flipped it onto the table. Sani’s eyes lit up and she grabbed the piece of gold, examining it. “Sit, you have my attention.

“I figured as much,” Aren said as he took a seat.

“So who exactly sent you here? That’s royal reserve gold, even one piece of it is worth more than I make for most of my jobs” Sani asked.

“You know who sent me, only person who could have given me that,” Aren replied.

“So you really are her lapdog then, aren’t you? I knew you had sold your sold to the kingdom, but I didn’t think you’d sold your heart to her too,” Sani said with a sneer.

“I haven’t sold nothin’ to nobody and if you’d ever bothered to listen to me you would know that Sani.” Aren spat back.

“There was never anything to listen to Aren, you’re a traitor to all of us who came from the street. You protected us until you got a better offer, what more is there to tell?” Sani said angrily.

Aren took in a deep breath and clenched his fists under the table. “This is neither the time nor the place for me to get into this with you. I’m here to talk business, not history.”

Sani cracked her knuckles and the curtains around the booth slid shut. “Fine, let’s talk business.” She looked intently at Aren and looked over to Vella for the first time, sizing her up. “So if that’s what you used to get my attention I have to assume there’s more where that came from.”

“Yeah, of course there is,” Aren replied. “More if you do the job and a whole lot more if you succeed.”

“If I succeed? Really Aren, do you actually doubt me?” Sani said quizzically. “I know we haven’t seen each other in a while, but I have to figure you’ve kept tabs on me. You never could shut off the whole big brother thing.”

“Course I’ve kept tabs on you, I know exactly what you’re capable of and I’m saying if,” Aren said sternly.

“Well, well, this sounds interesting then. It’s been a while since I’ve had a challenge.” Sani’s demeanor changed, she sat forward and her eyes lit back up. Her shoulders relaxed and she had an excited energy. “Give me the details, am I supposed to kill someone, am I going to a lost vault, starting a conflict, what?” Vella took a deep gulp when she heard Sani excitedly say kill someone, but she still didn’t want to interject and become part of this conversation.

“Need you to find somebody actually,” Aren replied.

Sani slumped back down in her seat, “Really, come on that’s nothing exciting or hard. I was hoping for a challenge. I can find somebody without leaving this booth.”

“Not this person,” Aren said with a smirk. “I need you to help me find Kraevos.”

The light flickered back into Sani’s eyes and she paused giving Aren a confused look. “Did you just say Kraevos? As in the great sorcerer, the man who sealed the power of magic? Kraevos the immortal?”

“Yeah, that’d be the one” Aren replied.

Sani began to laugh, “Hahahaha, you can’t be serious. He would be hundreds of years old at this point. Your beloved little queen has sent you on a wild goose chase. Man, you must have really messed up if she’s doing this to you.”

“Cut the act, Sani,” Aren said sternly. “We both know he’s still alive.”

Sani stopped laughing and locked eyes with Aren, “Say I do happen to believe he’s still alive, why would you believe that?”

“Got it on good authority that’s still alive,” Aren said. “That’s all I need.”

“And who exactly is this authority, your precious queen?” Sani asked.

“Yeah, her,” Aren replied. “But I also just got the answer from you too. You wouldn’t have questioned me like that if you didn’t believe it too.”

Sani smirked, “You do know me well Aren. Yeah, I firmly believe he’s still alive, not sure where though.”

“Aroster,” Vella blurted out. Aren and Sani both looked at Vella and she turned bright red. “He’s in Aroster and we need to get moving. We can’t sit here and let you two bicker all day. I don’t even know what you two are arguing about but it’s clear you’re going to agree to go.”

Aren rubbed his temples and Sani let out a chuckle. “Well, I have been waiting to see if she would talk. So what are you a squire or something?”

“No, I’m not a squire. My name’s Vella and I’m a dragon breeder” Vella responded.

“A dragon breeder? Aren why do you have a dragon breeder with you? She won’t help us find Kraevos” Sani asked.

“Cause she got stuck in this mess going on as much as I did” Aren replied.

“Fair enough, care to tell me what this mess is and why we have to try and find Kraevos? Hunting for a legendary sorcerer isn’t exactly an everyday whim” Sani asked.

“I’ll gladly explain everything,” Aren started, “Once you’ve agreed to help us and once we’re on the road.”

Sani smirked, “Come on now, you know I can’t leave a mystery like this. I’m in. I’ll help you find Kraevos. I’d like to meet him myself honestly.”

“Wonderful,” Aren grumbled, “Then it’s about time we get going.” Aren started to stand up.

“Slow down big guy,” Sani interjected. “We still need to finish the details. The gold is good, I get that. That’s not the only term of this particular quest though. If I’m going to do this we do it my way and that means I’m not going to put up with that big brother dung from you. You lost your claim on that when you left me on the street Aren.”

Aren took one more deep breath, “Fine.”

“Great, so when do we leave, and where are we leaving from?” Sani asked.

“We leave as quickly as you can get whatever you need together and we’ll leave from the dragon stables. We can take whatever steeds we need.”

“Oh boy, a fancy ride, how nice,” Sani said with a grin. “Give me two hours and I can meet you at the stables.” She extended her hand out and Aren grabbed it for a strong shake. A green glimmer ran up Sani’s arms. A hum of magic snapped over Aren’s arms and silver runes flickered up his arms. Sani grinned when she saw them. “I knew you wouldn’t remove them.”

Aren pulled back his hand and stood up, motioning for Vella to do the same. “Time to go,” He said gruffly. “I’ll see ya at the stables Sani.” He turned and pushed the curtain out of the way as he left the booth.

Vella stood up a moment later, though she paused as Sani waved to her. “I wouldn’t put too much faith in him, girl. He’ll let you down in the end like he does everyone. He can’t protect you” Sani said.

Vella turned and left with Sani’s words lingering in her head. The people who had been eyeing her as she walked into the dancing wyrm looked away, clearly changing their opinion of her based on the meeting with Sani. Vella stepped out of the door and Aren stood waiting for her. “What’d she say to you?” he asked Vella.

“Nothing important,” Vella lied. “So how do you two know each other exactly?”

“Yeah, I guess I have ta tell ya that now that she’s agreed to come with us,” Aren said. “She’s my little sister, or was I guess. Not like actual sister mind ya. We both grew up on these streets. I’m a good few years older than her and I protected her, I tried to raise her basically. Started out easy enough but then when she showed the spark o magic things got tougher. I’d heard enough unsavory things about the academy that I hid her from them. I tried real hard to protect her from them. I might have tried too hard and made her resent me a bit. Eventually, I left to become a knight and she never forgave me for it. We haven’t talked much since, but I’ve still kept an eye on her much as I could in my position.”

“But if she was your family how could you leave her?” Aren turned and started walking up the street and it was clear from the way his voice wavered that this was still an open wound. Vella thought she had pushed too far. After losing her family Vella couldn’t see any justification for leaving someone who was like family.

Aren turned away and Vella could just barely see him wipe away a small tear. “Been wondering that myself honestly. Looking back things don’t seem so clear, but I did what I thought I had to do at the time.” Vella and Aren walked the whole way back to the stables in silence.

When they finally reached the stable they saw a large mound of supplies all put into saddlebags. A note was laid on top of the supplies. The brilliant purple ink and immaculate handwriting were clearly Dracyr’s. It read “Hopefully you are now prepared for this task. These supplies should be more than enough and give you plenty to barter for information. When you complete the task come back quickly with the item you are seeking and we will resolve this problem. Your Queen, Dracyr.”

Aren and Vella quietly placed the saddlebags onto Aegis and two wyrms, preparing for the trip. Vella didn’t dare say a word after what she had said to Aren on the way up.

Shortly after they finished packing the supplies Sani showed up with a large satchel on her side. “Alright, looks like I came just after packing, perfect,” she said with a grin.

Vella smirked, at the very least Sani appeared to have a sense of humor. Given how generally quiet Aren could be Vella was looking forward to having another person to talk to. Though Vella imagined there was plenty of danger in front of her she couldn’t help but be excited about the adventure ahead. She hopped aboard Aegis, smiling at the chance to take the wyvern out again. With a push of her heels, the dragon sprang out of the stable and into the air. Vella felt the cold rush of the wind against her face and grinned ear to ear as she looked out into the distance.