It was a blur of harsh lights as he was ushered out of the Shining Capitol City, Lamelia. Countless nameless faces passed in succession as his father’s guard led him through the brilliantly reflective streets.
The famed ‘bejeweled’ roads, each of the glazed cobblestones gleaming like a gem in the setting sunlight. Hours ago he had almost tripped over himself, Wayne had been so glued to the majestic thoroughfare. Now, he barely paid it any mind as he methodically plodded over it.
Wayne passed countless famed works of art, and historical sites that would normally inspire awe. If this was any other time, Wayne would have been gawking around at the sights of steel and stained glass. Right now, the shining lights in his eyes were simply an annoyance as they interrupted his thinking.
“Don’t blame the Regent, kid. He’s doing his best to keep you alive, and give you a better life. Right now I’ll be able to keep you alive but… it would be best for your health to have you in Light’s Reach, under the watch of the Legion.” His chaperone said.
“Yes sir. I understand.” Wayne replied back absentmindedly.
The other man let out a short sigh.
“You will, eventually.” At that, the man grabbed Wayne’s arm and dragged him through the crowds.
Wayne didn’t know what the man meant by that, but he was in no mood to ask. Thankfully, the conversation trailed off there, and they just drifted through the crowds of well dressed residents of the capitol. He felt out of place, like he didn’t belong here.
When he had been an orphan at Saint Lewiana’s orphanage, they were told to be good and pray daily so that they could have a sponsor. If they could just have a sponsor, then they too could pursue an honest trade or craft.
Once they went through their Awakening at eighteen and gained their Shaping, they could learn a Form for baking, smithing, or tailoring. Even a farmer could learn enough Shapings to live an easy life with their partner as they grew old together.
Wayne had always thought that had sounded nice, a peaceful place with just him and the people he cared about. Not that he didn’t care for the others before… It had just been hard to have so many people around, new people joining and others leaving. Always leaving.
If they didn’t find a sponsor by adulthood, they would be forced to set out on their own, to scrounge up whatever they could on the streets or in a remote village. It wasn’t usually a great option, but some of the girls and boys over the years had wound up as wealthy spouses, or successful merchants.
The other option was to join the Legion as a volunteer, when they were too old to remain under the orphanage’s care. Everyone knew that the volunteers were given little equipment, little training, and little chance of survival. Any Monster that reached a high enough tier could and would tear through the low ranks regularly. Only a similarly high tier Shaper could hope to contest them.
And those were the only fates Wayne had ever even dreamed of. That his father would be the Emperor of the Empire, that he would see the capitol, all of this was out of the bounds of his imagination. Wayne felt numb, his sense overwhelmed.
So it was no surprise that when his chaperone finally stopped, Wayne stumbled into the man’s back. Casting a quick glance around, Wayne realized they had stopped in front of a fancy stable house, gates large enough for a stately carriage shut ahead of them.
“Is this where we are going?” Wayne asked.
The other man just grunted in response.
“Alright then, let me-”
Wayne was interrupted as his chaperone’s extended arm now blocked his path.
“Open the gate and face us. We know you are there, assassins.”
What?!
After a moment the gate swung slowly open, revealing an armed man and woman waiting for them, savage grins on their dirty faces.
“Should’a take the chance to run, corpse. Now you’ra get it.”
The woman spoke, the greed and desire for violence heavy in her voice. The two attackers unsheathed chipped swords from the sheathes at their waists. His chaperone let out another sigh. An awkward silence stretched out for several seconds.
“Do you even know who I am?” The man his father entrusted to him finally asked.
“O’course we ain’t care abo-” The man answered, before suddenly looking down.
His severed head fell to the ground, an incredulous look still on the man’s face. The woman looked shocked for a moment, her exclamation loud and confused.
“Anton-”
Her head slipped from her shoulders, and bounced over next to her partners. No blood oozed from the clean cuts, as if the bodies didn’t yet realize they had been decapitated. The man hadn’t made a single motion Wayne could see to kill the both of them.
Wayne’s chaperone stepped over the separated heads, opening the door of an ornate carriage that waited in the courtyard, two horses already strapped in.
Suddenly, his words from earlier came back to Wayne.
‘...It would be best for your health to have you in Light’s Reach, under the watch of the Legion.’
Swallowing audibly, Wayne carefully stepped around the corpses, and climbed into the vehicle. His journey had begun, whether Wayne was ready or not.
* * * * *
Several days later, Wayne rode in the back of a carriage, doing his best to find a position that would minimize the soreness that was inevitably waiting for him come the day's end. Although he had initially been thankful that he wouldn’t have to walk all the way to the country’s border, the firm wooden cart he found himself in was in some ways a worse fate.
As the cart went over another root that had overgrown to the center of their path, Wayne let out a silent curse. Having already been riding for several days without recovery time, his legs felt like someone had drained all the blood from them, leaving sensation from them blurry between the painful jostling, which of course wasn’t muted at all.
Absently, Wayne pulled up the Order again. Although he was still Mortal, he still had access to the complicated Divine gift that would allow Wayne to have an overview of his abilities condensed into numerical statistics.
Luminos welcomes your subservience, and graces you with his power.
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Name:
Wayne Clive Aouris
Tier:
Mortal Tier (0)
Element(s):
Light, Fire
Open Statistics and Skills? (Yes/No)
Mentally selecting [Yes], Wayne once again pulled up his Status Sheet.
Statistics:-
Strength:
1
Speed:
1
Spirit:
1
Skills:-
N/A
It still rankled Wayne that he was so deficient in every area, days after finding out. As far as he knew, it wasn’t possible to get a 0, so his own total of 1 was the worst possible result for his Statistics.
And in Spirit as well… Wayne may not have always paid attention to all the sermons and scriptures much while at church, but he knew that the Spirit Attribute came with some connotations. Mostly, in that it represented an individual's faith in Luminos’, so having a ‘1’ in that statistic might not be received well by some of the more fervorous people.
As such, Wayne had decided it wouldn’t be ideal to inform others too much of his situation. If word of his predicament got out. He had certainly seen people burned as heretics for less. Especially with where Wayne was headed… Well, the reputation the Legion had was legendary in numerous regards.
About a day ago, his supervisor had finally informed Wayne he would be arriving at Light’s Reach upon his journey’s conclusion. It was a mythical location, as not only was it believed to be the Prophet Elwin’s birthplace and the furthest point of civilization towards the center of the continent, it was also the Legion’s main stronghold and base of operations.
It would also be where he would enter basic training now that he was enlisted. Probably as soon as tomorrow he would be out on the parade grounds being tested and honed to Legion standards.
Wayne sighed, and wondered when his life had become so complicated, even though he knew the answer.
“Young lord, we’ll reach Light’s Reach promptly. Prepare yourself.”
The older guard spoke to Wayne from his driver’s seat, not turning around but speaking firmly through a small window.
“Thank you for the warning… I appreciate it sir.” Wayne replied, though the other man had not responded to his charge previously.
“The people that gather in Light’s Reach all have power to wield and all of them can be dangerous if given the opportunity, while many will not need a reason to strike. Be cautious and careful who you trust during your stay.”
Wayne was slightly stunned, as his nameless steward spoke more in the last minute than the previous three days. Still, he managed to stammer out his appreciation again for the advice before the two of them once again fell into a silence marred only by the noises of horses clopping along, occasional birdsong, and the rolling of carriage wheels.
* * * * *
For miles now, the foliage had been growing thicker and thicker as the carriage rolled westward. Trees that had been similar to the ones by the orphanage gradually gave way to twisted and stringy trees that seemingly could grow at any angle. They extended from the ground like the grasping hands of the dead that never found their way out from the depths of the jungle.
At some points, the trees were growing so thickly together that a second layer of the trees were growing up from the ground layer’s canopy. When Wayne saw that he shivered, because he knew they must be close to Light’s Reach. And close to the Western Wildes.
The Wildes were a lawless jungle that everyone in the Empire heard horror stories about. Part of the reason the Holy Prophet Elwin’s word of Luminos spread so fast here was because the Light and Fire the God offered could protect Humans from the rapidly growing jungles.
Inside its dark tangles, even the bravest and strongest Legionnaires could fail and die. Monsters of all varieties were lurking in the depths, waiting for their next meals. As Wayne stared out into the endless sea of brown and green, he tried not to imagine himself finding such a fate.
It wasn’t long later that the carriage crested a small hill, Wayne finally got sight of the city. It had taken until they were almost at the location for it to be visible, because of the density of the surrounding greenery and the city’s overall compacted design. Other than a massive tree with its branches extending almost to the wall’s perimeter and its trunk rising from the center of Light’s Reach.
And that wasn’t to say the city walls were unimpressive. Circular, slate colored stone walls of easily thirty feet surrounded the city, with periodic towers dotting its exterior. The smooth hewn towers extended higher than the rest of the walls, and had bridges built between them and the branches that reached out that far.
But comparing the towering height of the central tree to any man made structure made the latter seem insignificant. Gazing out his window, Wayne still struggled to comprehend the size of the tree even as their carriage pulled up the eastern gate. Within a minute of seeing the city, they had arrived at their destination.
As Wayne dismounted, he got a chance to take in Light’s Reach’s towering walls from up close. The fortifications stretched beyond his vision from so close, forcing him to crane his neck backwards as he gazed upon the crenelations the guards manned.
The Legion’s influence was obvious as their signature gold trimmed armor reflected in the sunlight from above, almost blinding him if he looked too directly. As Wayne went to raise his hand to try and get a better look, he heard someone clear their throat behind him.
His steward, who Wayne was starting to feel consciously uncomfortable for not knowing his name, was standing towards the gate. The man had been handing off the carriage to another guard who had been waiting to collect it. When Wayne looked over, he gestured for his charge to follow and proceeded onwards into the fortress city.
Trailing behind him, Wayne passed between the guards manning the gate without being accosted. Instead, they each shallowly bowed to his steward and moved onto ascertaining the business of the next people in line.
And then, Wayne was in Light’s Reach.
Wayne lost control of his face. He had heard that it was a city built from a single building, but before that moment he had never quite considered what that meant.
He would never have expected the entirety of the city to have a roof, though. Every structure in Light’s Reach was as tall as the Wall outside, and acted as supporting beams. In fact, Wayne saw several locations where the wall was simply a side of a building, maybe even someone's house. However, the awe Wayne felt didn’t come from the ceiling, but what was on the ceiling.
Or more accurately, what was growing through the stonework above.
Giant roots from the trees Wayne had seen on his approach grew through the construction and wove into grand Mana Sigils that cast multiple colors of ethereal light from their arches above. Great friezes covered the areas between, creating a tapestry of human and natural artistry that seemed to surpass the sky for beauty. The ceiling visually melded with the buildings supporting it, leaving Wayne to feel like he was in some sort of dreamscape.
When he roused from his stupor, the sudden noise of the crowd that had been suppressed hit him. Wayne could have sworn he heard his steward chuckle at his slack jaw, but by the time he turned to check, the man was too distant for Wayne to see his face. The young man rushed to catch up, not eager to risk getting lost in the crowds.
And the crowds were heavy, with throngs of people pushing in every which way with no seeming order. As Wayne finally caught up to his steward, they managed to push through the chaos for a few minutes, as the crowds continued to stream past them.
A few shops caught his interests, as shouters out front hawked some of their lighter wares. Wayne was semi interested, but he didn’t have enough time to examine the goods, nor money to buy them if he was so inclined.
So instead, he studied the people in the crowds as they pushed further and further into the castle city. Most were paler than he would have originally assumed considering the warmer climate, but he now obviously understood why. Beyond that, a larger portion of the people he witnessed were dressed in armor and traveling gear than he might have expected, but they weren’t wearing anything to identify them with an organization.
Wayne wasn’t sure, but it was likely that they were adventurers, Empire contractors that investigated the less explored regions of the empire and beyond to deal with local level threats that would be too expensive for the Legion to respond to. Wayne heard they also found most of the confirmed Rifts, but information on the magical scars in the world was kept hard to find for an orphan.
He tried to listen to some of the conversations as he followed through the crowd, but most of the words were lost to the commotion. Still, Wayne heard small snippets of random lives as he continued to follow his guard.
“Did you hear about the Prin…”
“...haven’t got any fish to cook…”
“...stained. No use keeping it any longer.”
“-and Praetor just returned, my cousin Ted…”
Wayne heard all of that and a dozen other conversations just while walking by a single building that seemed to be a tavern. He wasn’t quite sure because people were receiving beverages through a window as they walked by, but enough customers were letting delicious food scents out through the open door for Wayne to believe he was likely right.
Wayne’s steward never stopped moving, the whole time knowing exactly where to go in the city. Soon enough, they were past the worst of the crowds, and now Wayne started to notice more and more Legionnaires among the fewer and fewer people they passed.
Apparently they were in the right part of town.
Then, they turned one more corner and Wayne stumbled to a stop. In front of him was the base of the enormous tree visible from a league outside the city. Its trunk extended down from the roof of the city, before opening up into a great many large tendrils of bark and wood leading down to the soil below.
Somehow, whoever had built the city had created a building from the tree’s base, entangling the root system with elaborate construction to create an awe inspiring fusion of nature and culture, untouched wood and worked stone. It was a monument that deserved to last ages, and Wayne struggled to imagine Human hands fashioning something so majestic.
His chaperone didn’t say anything, just waiting for a solid moment before gesturing the young man towards a gate. Together they walked down the suddenly barren street towards what was obviously the Legion’s headquarters.
Again, the guards flanking inside didn’t say a word as the two of them strolled in, bowing even more deeply than the guards at the gate. And for some reason, Wayne didn’t think they knew or cared that he was the Emperor Regent’s son.
Who is this man my father sent me with?
The two of them continued to walk through the winding halls of the building, guards bowing and allowing them through checkpoints continuously. Wayne was starting to get nervous now. He hadn’t said anything too rude during the trip, had he?