“For the last time, we bought legal passage from Awsriyah,” Koyl enunciated in his most exasperated tone to the guard who was blocking the gangplank. The two of them had been arguing for nearly thirty minutes, and neither showed any signs of backing down.
“Oh yeah, on a ship known for smuggling various goods including human cargo, sure,” the guard snarked back.
“The captain can-” Koyl began.
“The captain told me the same story you told me, but I’m not convinced and neither is the city of Pehrihnk,” the guard interrupted. “Now if you would come to the nearest outpost and register with-”
“Oh go seyt yourself,” Koyl huffed. My own level of annoyance was also rising, and a tapping noise from behind me drew my attention. I turned to look and saw one of the ship’s crew carrying a wooden box, gesturing with his eyes for me to move out of the way. Koyl, the guard, and I all stepped aside to let him pass, and the man carried the box off to its destination. “You know that box could have been filled with blue leaf or something, right?” Koyl snapped. “You just let that guy by, isn’t he working for a ‘smuggler’s ship’?” That's actually a good point, I thought.
“Nobody harvests blue leaf during bear season on Awsriyah,” the guard retorted, and I suppressed an amused facial reaction. The guard met my eyes for the fifth time, and instead of looking back to Koyl he focused his intent on me. “And then there’s the matter of this one,” he said.
“Yuwniht Lihyveyz of Yahn Gwah,” I said, repeating my previous identification.
“That’s nice, I don’t believe it,” the guard growled. “You look like the kind of man who causes trouble, and I’m not keen to let you-”
“This is harassment,” Koyl said, for at least the third time since the conversation had started.
“If I was such a man, why would I not simply dispose of you in the water right here and escape into town?” I asked pointedly.
“Well because if you did that you’d be arrested,” the guard replied smugly. I walked up onto the gangplank, taking deliberate steps towards the guard, and stopped just a third of a meter from him. Like most Luwahriy, he stood almost a full head below my height.
“Yuwniht-” Koyl began.
“Look at the pier,” I instructed. “Of all the people there, do you think a single one besides your partner would report me? Do you think I could not, if I wanted to, dispose of the both of you? How long do you think it would take for your fellow guards to find your bodies? To link your deaths to me? Would I still be in the city by that time?”
“You can’t threaten me,” the guard snapped back shakily. I stared into his eyes, reading his expressions for just longer than would allow him to be comfortable. I already have, I replied silently, but I am really trying to keep a low profile here. I need to be smart.
“You’re right,” I said aloud, “and I would not do such a thing because I am not such a man. I worked for my money and paid for my passage on this vessel legally, despite the fact that it would have cost me considerably less to travel illegally. I did this because I am attempting to avoid conflict with enforcers of the law. However, if there is to be conflict regardless, I will commit to it fully.”
“What my friend means is-” Koyl interjected quickly, trying to find a path past me on the thin plank to put himself between the guard and me, “-if we were criminals we wouldn’t have been stupid enough to come out and greet you, and we certainly wouldn’t be trying to resolve this with words.” I finally broke eye contact with the guard and stepped back, letting Koyl take his desired spot.
“How much?” I asked.
“What?” Koyl and the guard both said at once.
“Perhaps the guard requires additional motivation,” I suggested.
“Yuwniht, this isn’t Awsriyah,” Koyl chided.
“How much do you have?” The guard asked. Koyl froze, winced, then sighed.
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Twenty ngoywngeyt later Koyl and I were let onto the pier and advised to make ourselves scarce. Koyl agreed quickly and gestured for me to follow him with his newly grown hand, leading me between the crowds with ease. As we walked, I looked at the other piers and ships which were docked. The flurry of human activity at the pier was something to behold. Men worked chaotically, carrying all manner of cargo to all manner of destinations, like a hive of termites assembling and disassembling mounds of boxes piece by piece. To our immediate left two workers strapped into strange roped contraptions worked to patch a large hole in the bow of their ship with wooden replacement boards. Guards patrolled about, milling around lazily and occasionally stopping random men.
At the end of the pier, my nose was reminded of the smell of human cities: a combination of feces, urine, rot, and smoke. I had grown used to the much fresher smell of the ship during the weeks spent traveling, a milder smell of saltwater and fish broken only by the occasional twinge of sweat. I have no idea how humans can stand this, I thought, at least I can choose to ignore my nose, unlike them. The ground below us turned from wood to dirt, then rapidly to stone.
Pehrihnk looked superficially like Vehrehr from a distance, but from the inside the two settlements couldn’t have contrasted more. Everything in Pehrihnk was stone, from the roads beneath our feet to the buildings to our sides. Not just stone either, but hewn stone joined with some sort of smooth cement, a far cry from the more primitive styles of Vehrehr that used rock fragments and a much rougher mortar. More than that, the streets were clean. As Koyl led me further I saw numerous humans wearing uniforms of sorts sweeping and mopping up messes, and concluded that they were most likely employed by the local government.
“I’m starving,” Koyl finally said once we got out of the town square, “moreover, I’m tired.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“You’ve been laying around for weeks, how can you be tired?” I asked. Koyl shot me an annoyed look, then reached into his tunic and pulled out some znahdeyvtih. A quick nasal inhale later he cleared his throat and I watched as the drug took effect, muting his expression.
“Probably from being hungry,” he said more flatly than before. “It’s been a few years, but I think I know a place we can get some food. You still have your money, right?”
“Yes,” I nodded, “Thirty ngoywngeyt left.” Koyl’s eye twitched.
“Maybe we should have just beaten up those guards and ran,” he sighed, “Still, that’s enough.”
“It should be more than enough,” I replied. “Food is not expensive.”
“In Pehrihnk, everything is more expensive,” Koyl explained. “A lot of money flows through this city. You can expect to pay double what we were paying in Vehrehr for the same meal.” I frowned to show my displeasure.
“So the food is more scarce here,” I intuited.
“No,” Koyl replied curtly, “people just have more money here.” So instead of around twenty-five days of expenses, I have around twenty, I thought. “Inns also cost more,” Koyl added, and I exhaled sharply. Of course they do, I grumbled, mentally adjusting the number down again.
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The restaurant Koyl was thinking of was a shack tucked into one of Pehrihnk’s small corners. I noticed as we were walking that Pehrihnk also didn’t have alleys so much as it simply had smaller streets. When we entered, a young woman seated us and within ten minutes we were served food. While the food was of good quality, the price was extreme. By the time we left, I had spent nearly four times the amount I usually spent on a meal in Vehrehr, and once again had to mentally adjust my expectations of my currency’s value.
“So…” Koyl said suddenly, stopping and leaning against a nearby wall.
“So?” I inquired.
“I realized something on that boat,” Koyl continued. “There’s no real reason for us to stick together at this point. Knowing you, you probably plan to vanish in the middle of the night and sleep outside or something, so I just wanted to give you the opportunity to tell me beforehand. I'd prefer if you announce your exit.” Through the veil of psychoactives hiding his emotions, I could see faint hints of sadness in Koyl’s eyes.
“You aren’t wrong,” I replied, “not entirely at least. I would prefer to sleep outside and save money, especially after that meal.” Koyl snorted, the barest hint of a laugh he could manage.
“I never asked, but what are you even planning to do now that you’re here?” he asked. “I figure you’re going to kill someone, right? It’s sort of what you do.” You have only the slightest of scraps of an idea, truly, I thought with a half-smirk. “Can you at least tell me who? Just so I know to stay away from them.”
“Do you know what a noypeyyoyjh is?” I asked. Koyl’s face instantly darkened. Even through his numbness, he looked as though I stepped on his heart with my words. I didn't expect him to react that strongly, I thought, maybe it's like the people in Suwlahtk: he's assuming something that isn't true.
“If you’re about to say what I think you’re going to say-” he began.
“I don’t follow Rehv,” I said, “I need to get to the eastern noypeyyoyjh.” Koyl’s expression didn’t shift much, but I knew he was curious. “Does it really matter why?” I asked after a pause.
“Yes,” he said gravely. Both Koyl and I knew he was no threat to me, but his tone was enough to tell me he would react badly if he didn’t like the answer. Perhaps not violently, but as angrily as he could muster.
“To repair it,” I said. Koyl waited for a second for me to elaborate, but I said nothing more.
“Repair it how?” he pressed.
“Truthfully, I have no idea,” I replied. “I was told that I would know what to do when I arrived.” Koyl inhaled, then let out a low growl with his exhale.
“Sounds like the cult of Rehv to me,” he said quietly.
“Even if it was, do you have a problem with it?” I asked, “I wasn’t under the impression that you cared much about religion.”
“You should watch what you say about that around here,” Koyl advised quietly. “On Awsriyah Island it wasn’t a big deal because the cult of Rehv has next to no presence there, but around here you might get a knife in the back if you speak to the wrong person about that.” Interesting, I thought, sectarian violence. I remember being trained on it, but I don’t believe I ever encountered it.
“As far as I know, I am not working in the interests of Rehv or its followers,” I stated clearly. “I don’t know for sure, all I do know is that I have to get to the eastern noypeyyoyjh and repair it through unknown means. If that means killing members of the cult of Rehv, I will do so. If that means working with them, I will do so.” Koyl winced at the last statement and looked around nervously, then met my eyes once more.
“So who are you working for?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied truthfully. I can't even begin to explain the circumstances of how I got here to him, I thought.
“What are they paying you?” Koyl prodded, “Why were you so broke if you were working for someone?”
“Are you thinking of coming with me then?” I asked, prompting a sigh from Koyl. He briefly looked up at the sky to check the time, which was just before sunset.
“We’re going in the same direction, at least for a while,” he replied. “I think we should talk about this a bit more, but not out here. I know you, and I know you’re dumb enough that you might not realize what’s going on with your job, but other people won’t think the same. We need privacy for this.”
“That answer isn't exactly conclusive,” I noted.
“Let’s just find an inn,” Koyl sighed.
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“Price is two ngoywngeyt per night, per room,” the gruff man behind the counter announced. To my abject displeasure, it was the best price I had heard in the last hour. Koyl and I had covered around a third of the entire city looking for inns and the vast majority wanted between four and seven ngoywngeyt per night, a price which was completely insane in my opinion.
“We’ll take i-” I started, but was interrupted by Koyl tapping my shoulder. I looked back to see him eyeing the ceiling nervously. The interiors of Pehrihnk’s buildings were mostly wooden like Vehrehr’s, and the boards that made up the ceiling of the first level of this particular inn were old. Someone walked around above us, causing them to creak.
“Not this one,” Koyl said quietly. I looked at him with disbelief.
“This is the cheapest we’ve seen so far,” I stated to him, as though he didn’t already know. The footsteps above us moved again, and I saw Koyl’s left hand twitch and jaw clench as each creak found his ears and worked its way through his body.
“I’ll pay the difference,” he muttered quickly, “please, just... not this one.” I exhaled, my body feeling emotions that I quashed, and my mind accepting the solution to the problem. If he pays the difference there's no reason to refuse, I thought.
“Okay,” I nodded, “we’ll find another one.”