When they restarted their journey going farther east into the region, Rieren decided to sit closer to Mercion. They had quite a lot to talk about. Or well, that was what she thought.
“What do you think happened to the missing one, my lord?” Rieren asked.
The flapping of the lizard’s giant, batlike wings made a lot more noise closer to its head, where Mercion had taken a seat. Rieren had to raise her voice to be heard over the rush of the wind and El’s beating wings.
“There are a great many possibilities,” Mercion said. “We ought to wait until the search party finds whatever they might discover and postulate from there.”
Rieren understood a deflection when she heard one, but she wasn’t about to let the subject go. “Of course. But if we consider the various possibilities, we can prepare for them before we discover which of them is the truth.”
Mercion looked back at her with a frown, the wind making his brown hair slap his face. “What would you even prepare for?”
“What if the missing one has been successfully possessed by one of the Stiflers?”
“Then it will be quite obvious. Your account mentioned how the monster’s possession left very clear marks, yes?”
“For a C-Grade Abyssal. The one we killed at the end was a B-Grade one. I would not be surprised if their possession is much more subtle than their weaker variants.”
“I suppose that is a concern. Perhaps we should have discussed beforehand.”
“We cannot simply dash from objective to objective, my lord,” Silomene said.
Apparently, she had come closer to them at some point. Mercion’s retainers were still the closest ones to them, and they eyed Silomene, and Rieren even more so, with a good deal of suspicion for getting too near to Mercion. At Silomene’s words, one of their eyes flashed with a spurt of anger.
But she wasn’t wrong. Rieren didn’t fully grasp why Mercion intended to hurry, but it was true. They couldn’t leave any jobs half-finished.
Mercion didn’t argue with Silomene’s statement. It made Rieren wonder what the relationship between the two of them was. They clearly had known each other long enough to be familiar to the point where one could offer up criticism without receiving any backlash.
Since no one was talking, Rieren decided to speak up. “And what will we do if it turns out to be one of the Avatars?”
“Then we will take direct action against them.”
For just a moment, Rieren considered whether she ought to reveal that there were indeed Avatars already taking action. She had seen them via Batcat’s memories. But then, with how overt those actions had been, a part of Rieren suspected that they knew about it. Or at least, they pretended not to know about it. The situation might be troubling, but they weren’t that ignorant.
If that was true, then Rieren would have to be more circumspect. As much as she didn’t want to hold onto her paranoid self, going the complete opposite direction and revealing all she knew would be drawing unnecessary attention to herself. So, she held back, for now.
They didn’t meet anyone else along their journey. The winged lizard flew fast and true, rushing onwards so quickly that the land below them blurred. There might have been more sites of battle and destruction, more places where meteors had struck down. But if there were, they didn’t stop to check.
Rieren didn’t truly mind. Let the people of the region handle their problems. She had to reach Falstrom as soon as possible.
The city itself started to appear out of the horizon as the sun began to fall. Rieren was entranced by the sight. It had been a long while since she had seen a city from such an angle, and the vista that opened up before her was definitely awe-striking.
Falstrom was nestled in the valley between two mountains. The edifices that tapered to a spiring point were entirely artificial. This far away from the ranges, it would have been odd to see any more mountains.
It didn’t look that way, of course. The slopes were carpeted with trees, the blanket of deep green rising all the way to the tree line, beyond which the peaks were swathed in snow. In fact, most residents of the Elderlands weren’t aware the mountains were fake. But Rieren had learned over the course of the previous timeline how they had been erected by the original Archnobles who had settled in the area.
A silly competition. Both the originators of the Stannerig and the Ordorian clans were determined to stand taller than the other without actually shattering the peace treaty the Emperor back then had enforced. Thus, they had bent their powers to proving their superiority.
At least their people had been able to use the valley between to construct new homes, farm the land, and essentially prosper. Falstrom had grown quickly, so much so that both Archnoble clans soon took notice and did their best to take direct control. Of course, with the Emperor watching like a hawk, there hadn’t been any conflict about it.
Instead, there had been a peaceful divide of the city itself. Now, one side of Falstrom was overseen by Mercion’s family, while the other side was under the control of the Stannerig.
They didn’t fly right over the city and straight to where they were supposed to quarter. That should have been the simpler way to do it, and possibly the traditional one too, but Mercion informed them that it was impossible under the current circumstances.
“We have set up defences against aerial attacks,” he said. “These monsters are relentless.”
“Not just flying monsters, I imagine,” Rieren said.
“No. We are working against the meteors as well.”
As they arrived closer, Rieren thought she caught a faint cloud hanging over the entire city and its surrounding areas. She squinted, pouring some Essence into her eyes. A large net of light-gold Essence hung over the entire area, just as she had thought. The energy was bright and flickering, reminding Rieren of the same lightning that Mercion used.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Ah, of course. Lightning and its varieties were the favoured Aspect of the Ordorian clan.
There was more, though. Within the net, there were spikes of pure white energy with a light, reddish-gold tinge. Some were too bright to look at. Signs of the Stannerig clan.
It made sense that the two Archnoble clans had combined their arts to protect their most important city. Though, this was a remarkable turnaround, as far as Rieren knew. The first thing she had heard in the apocalypse was how the eastern Archnobles were refusing to cooperate with each other and with the imperial court.
Now, it seemed they had regained their senses and were working together against the monsters invading their homeland. Rieren wondered how much it had to do with the matrimony between the clans.
“Is this the first time someone from the Stannerig has married someone from the Ordorian clan?” Rieren asked Silomene after they landed almost a league from the city gates.
A group of patrolling guards had accosted them, and Mercion was handling the administrative aspects of their passage. One of his retainers was taking care of the flying lizard.
“There have been some marriages before,” Silomene said. “But only in branch families. I do not think anyone from the head family of the clan has ever married anyone in the opposing clan, much less anyone in the other head family.” She paused, then smiled in embarrassment. “I suppose I should not call them opposing clans.”
Rieren paid no mind to the little gaffe. “In that sense, the recent matrimony allying the two clans is quite historic.”
“Yes! Not only did the scions of the two clans marry each other, they also took the reins of their own clans.”
Rieren started. “So, the clans aren’t just united in name and in blood ties, they are also being run together?”
“Yes. That is one of the chief reasons why there is such contention.”
“Contention?” Rieren had heard that not everyone in the Archnoble clans looked upon the union favourably. In fact, there was significantly strong opposition from contingents of both clans to the marriage. Ironic, how they were united even in opposition. “I have heard some things in passing, but I do not know the specifics.”
“Well, it is a bit of a long—”
“Come!” Mercion called, beckoning them to hurry.
Silomene paused the conversation to hurry to Mercion and follow the Ordorian scion towards the city. Rieren shuttered her curiosity for the time being. She made a point of learning the exact specifics of the situation before long, though.
For now, her eyes trailed over the exterior of Falstrom. There were many fields and wooded areas, beyond which cultivated farmland stretched out into the distance on either side of a wide central highway.
All of which were guarded well. Patrols jogged along with ceaseless energy. Even though the day was dipping into dusk, there were no indications they were about to slow down. In less dangerous times, she supposed there would have been other people peacefully walking. Sweepers cleaning the road or farmhands tending to the crop fields. Not so, now.
The gate had opened wide by the time they reached the city’s limit. Mercion didn’t pause until he had reached the nearest waywagon station.
Being an Archnoble’s son, there had already been one prepared for him. Waywagons were reserved for the rich and the powerful. Had Rieren come here alone, she would have been turned away.
But even for those who could afford the rides, they still needed some time to be prepared. Apparently, the station masters kept one forever-ready in case an Archnoble, one of their scions, or even a powerful retainer of one came along. Thus it was that Mercion simply had to walk into the long, low building of the waywagon station before one was brought up to him.
“Thank you,” Mercion said to the obsequious station master as he got aboard, signaling at Rieren and Silomene to take their place as well. “Send the bill to my household.”
The station master bowed low. “Of course, young lord.”
Rieren took a second to actually take in the waywagon. She hadn’t been on one in… a long time. Even in her last lifetime, she had only ridden one once or twice.
The vehicle was a boxy contraption driven by an ingenious engine invented by a famous artificer called Onorim a few decades ago. She had been a powerful cultivator, one who had given up on ascending to higher realms in favour of academic—and often esoteric—pursuits. One of those pursuits had been invention, and waywagons had been one of her more famous ones.
Rieren quickly boarded the boxy carriage before Mercion got impatient. As soon as she had taken a seat beside Silomene opposite the Ordorian scion, the engine rumbled to life.
A small-scale runic formation had grown to life on the cubic hunk of metal at the front of the carriage. Cranks and gears shifted, steam pulsed somewhere, and then the waywagon began moving. They were on their way.
Rieren was always surprised how smooth the journey by waywagon turned out to be. She had expected it to be bumpier. But the axles were greased and the roads of Falstrom were tended well. That had not always been the case. There were a few horror stories of the bumpiness causing some of the first waywagons to fall apart. This smoothness was a sign of good progress.
It was comfortable inside as well. The first waywagons tended to get overly warm in the summer or too cold in the winter. As they were approaching the colder months, now was as good a weather as any to take rides through them.
But even if it had been a less ideal season, they wouldn’t have been in too great a discomfort. No rich customer wanted to suffer on their journey, so they had replaced some of the structure with polished wood, introduced larger windows, and allowed some more airiness and space to make it more comfortable.
It was interesting to think how running mortal affairs had also had a backflow effect on cultivators in general. In yesteryears, most cultivators would have far preferred using their own innate abilities to traverse distances with great speed. Waywagons were too slow in comparison.
However, they were far more comfortable.
Running mortal affairs had resulted in great accumulation of wealth. Material, mortal wealth that wasn’t very meaningful to other cultivators, but it had to be spent somewhere.
This resulted in the wealth flowing back into mortal matters such as the development of waywagons.
It was all a bit beyond Rieren’s circle of care or concern, but she did appreciate that it made cultivators have a greater vested interest in the wider civilization around them. Albeit, that was often ultimately a monetary interest, rather than an altruistic one. Still. It was effective nevertheless.
The journey allowed Rieren to get a good glimpse of Falstrom. It was as subdued as she was expecting it to be. People were keeping themselves indoors. Lights were kept minimally lit. Guards patrolled nearly every street. This wasn’t a city of people.
This was a city at war.
“Is this your first time here?” Silomene asked. She was trying to be conversational despite the gloomy setting they had found themselves in.
“My first time in this timeline, yes,” Rieren said.
“Ah, of course. I imagine you came here for the Enlightenment Locale in the last timeline as well.”
Rieren nodded. She wasn’t wrong, though that wasn’t the only reason. There was a blade of legend here as well, one she would have to find soon enough.
It didn’t take them long to reach their destination. The city was divided by a deep river cutting through the centre of the valley. They crossed over to the southern bank and reached the slopes of the Ordorian clan’s mountain, where the buildings were sparse. The area that was reserved specifically for the retainers and those favoured by the Ordorian clan.
Rieren was led to a manor that she was to share with Silomene. They had their own servants to attend them, a garden with a little lake to relax in, their own bamboo woods to stroll around in, and even a yard where they could spar.
Wealth that past Rieren would have gawked at.
“This must be your first time in a place like this,” Silomene said with a small smirk that was not unkind. Mercion had left, promising he would return later with details for their next assignment. Until then, they could relax. “Come, I’ll show you around. Just wait till you see the baths.”
Answering with nothing but a smile, Rieren followed.