Koyl looked back and forth between Vaozey and me a few times, then took a deep breath and began muttering quietly. The coin in his hand twitched, then jerked up into the air above his palm. As if it was held there by a single string, it began to rotate about the center, then it fell back down a moment later. Koyl, exhaling and relaxing, glanced back up at Vaozey then flinched when he saw her expression, or what little he could see from behind her mask.
“Is that supposed to be impressive?” Vaozey snapped. Koyl looked at me, wide-eyed, then back to Vaozey.
“I just want to make sure you don’t… uh,” Koyl stumbled. “I’m not a, uh, Yuwniht, help me out here...”
“She’s not a Rehvite,” I said, causing Koyl to momentarily freeze as he processed the information.
“Oh,” he mumbled. His brow furrowed, then recognition passed over his face and he took a step back. “Wait a minute, no… Tell me you aren’t just standing in an alley with-”
“You recognize me, good,” Vaozey interrupted, resting her palm on the handle of her mace. “If you stand still, I can make this quick. I promise. Won't even make a mess.” Koyl reached for his weapon, and I stepped in between the two of them.
“Koyl, I would recommend you don’t start a fight,” I said to him. “Vaozey, this is Koyl. He’s traveling eastward, and has been looking for caravans to join. We came here together from Pehrink.” Vaozey narrowed her eyes at us, then took her hand off her weapon.
“So that little trick with the coin was intended to impress Rehvites?” she snorted derisively.
“Enough to make sure I don’t get half my face melted, yeah,” Koyl jabbed back. The look he got in return was murderous, and I recalled that I hadn't told Koyl about the extent of her burns under the armor, only that people were being branded in a general sense.
“Must be nice,” Vaozey growled ominously. To my surprise, she backed down and moved to a more relaxed posture. “You still a ngoythyihjh coward though. If you were a real man you wouldn’t play their games, you'd be fighting them like I am.” Koyl also relaxed and let go of the handle of his sword, not rising to the provocation.
“I see you're just as crazy as I expected you to be from the rumors,” Koyl retorted. “There’s such a thing as self-preservation, but I doubt you'd understand it, madwoman.”
“Whatever,” Vaozey muttered, “you two go do whatever it is you’re going to do, I have better uses of my time than putting up with this.” She turned on her heel and stormed off down the alley, vanishing from sight after turning a corner. Koyl grunted disapprovingly a few times, shaking his head, then turned back to me.
“Where’s your sword?” he asked, gesturing to my waist.
“Getting fixed,” I replied, “in the smithy we’re standing behind. I figured I would just wait outside.”
“Well hey, I’ll wait with you,” Koyl said. “You need somebody armed in case that woman comes back.”
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Koyl regaled me with the story of his day as we sat on two crates behind the smithy. His mission to find us employment was still a failure, but to just what extent I couldn’t have predicted until he told me. Apparently, the majority of caravans that ran between Owsahlk and Kahvahrniydah were owned by Rehvites, and every Rehvite caravan had a policy of only hiring Rehvite guards. Most didn’t openly announce the fact, but Koyl managed to irritate one enough that they blurted it out.
Then, like me, Koyl looked into joining up with the Rehvites. Unlike me, the barrier to him was different. While he was Luwahriy, and thus not barred from membership, the rituals required to join were allegedly very magically strenuous. As well, mandatory contribution to the temple was part of the process, be that through monetary means or service of some kind. The nature of the service was usually working for no more than the cost of room and board for a local Rehvite-owned business for a period of time determined by the temple. Koyl didn’t get an exact answer as to how long that was, but the implication was several months at a minimum.
The last piece of investigation he did was into exactly how one verified their identity as part of the temple. The information he obtained was vague, partially because nobody would tell him and partially because people in the richer parts of town didn’t like being watched while they went about their business. From what Koyl could work out, higher-ranking Revhites had a trinket, and possibly documents to go with it, that identified them as being legitimate. What exactly the trinket was, Koyl couldn’t determine, but it was small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. Those adolescents didn’t have anything like that on them, I thought.
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“So basically we’re screwed unless we can find a caravan like Zoyvrao’er’s,” Koyl summarized. “Also, he’s already headed back to Pehrihnk by ship, so we can’t depend on him. I thought maybe he was Revhite, but considering he didn’t show any identification at the gate, it’s possible Dkehpmz just set something up.”
“How long do you estimate it will take before a caravan we can join arrives in Owsahlk?” I asked. Koyl sighed and kicked the ground, then pulled out some of his medication and took it.
“Too long,” Koyl said. “Probably a month or more. We’d have to wait for a Kahvahrniydah-based caravan to arrive, want to hire more workers, and be willing to take unaffiliated mercenaries. We could get lucky and one could show up tomorrow, but knowing the trade routes…” He trailed off into a displeased sigh.
“What about joining up with a mercenary company?” I asked.
“If you can find one that’ll take us, tell me,” Koyl replied flippantly. “As far as I can tell, most of them only have small branch offices for payment and deployment here. The only ones with a major presence are, as you might already be guessing, Rehvite only.” I shouldn’t be surprised, I thought.
“What if we just walk?” I suggested. “How long is the trip? How dangerous, compared to the last one?”
“It’s about twenty days on foot one way,” Koyl said. “There’s more banditry, but less in the way of bears or other large animals. Not that there aren’t dangerous animals, just not of the extremely deadly variety.” So we could walk it if we needed to, I thought, but it would be a rather extreme risk since both of us have to sleep. Awsriyah was dangerous enough, and that was just due to wildlife. Human bandits would be looking for lone travelers, and while I can fight them off when rested, the risk of being caught unaware is high. Sleeping in shifts would only increase the time spent, up to forty days or so if we halve the travel time to allow proper sleep cycles, increasing the overall risk from just being out there.
“Then we’re stuck for the moment,” I concluded.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“For the moment,” Koyl echoed. “I’d say we get comfortable and wait it out, but this money isn’t going to last forever. We could work, but any job that pays well requires you to be a Rehvite. I don't think your manual labor skills will get us far here.” Very effective incentive to join them, I had to admit.
“Then perhaps we get an identification,” I suggested. “I can’t pass as Rehvite, but you can, so we’ll just have to do that.”
“I don’t know what they’re using, but it’s almost certain that it's unique to each person,” Koyl said. “I don’t think we could just steal identification from someone and use it. If that were the case, there’d be a market for fakes, and as far as I can tell there isn’t any. Though, I might be wrong, I don't know this area as well as Kahvahrniydah or Vehrehr.”
“You know who might know something about this?” I asked. Koyl frowned at me.
“Don’t say it,” he grumbled.
“Vaozey has some experience with Rehvites, and she likely has some kind of black market connections,” I said. “That suit of armor she has is decent quality, even if it is a patchwork. I doubt she bought it on the open market. If there is a way to get a fake identification, she might know it.”
“The gods really hate me,” Koyl muttered to himself. “Of that, I am certain.”
“Once I’m done here, we’ll go find her,” I said. “Let me do most of the talking, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t like you.”
“I’m not raiding any wawjhjhaayjh temples,” Koyl stated flatly.
“Ideally, you won’t have to,” I said. “Worst case scenario, you’ll help me break into one and steal a few things while Vaozey does the raiding.”
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After telling Koyl about what had happened to me during the day to pass the time, I got my sword from the smith and paid him his requested rate. Even though he insinuated that he wasn’t going to polish up the weapon or repair any cosmetic damage, he still did a bit of buffing of scratches on the blade and handle. He also recommended some oil to help the blade avoid rusting, since despite the fact that whatever alloy it was made of was resistant to rust, it wasn’t entirely immune. I bought a small vial of oil from him, thanked him for the advice, and left the smithy.
Koyl and I set out for the slums to look for Vaozey once the sun had finally gone down. The streets got very quiet in the richer parts of town at night, but the slums were as active as ever. Koyl and I both drew stares, but Koyl moreso. It seemed that a foreigner was a less unusual sight than a somewhat clean-looking Luwahriy, and we were given a wide berth when moving from place to place. I lead Koyl to Vaozey’s home, but a quick knock and some checking around the back indicated that she was not inside. We searched the nearby alleys, finding nothing.
“You know, both times she showed up there was a fight,” Koyl recalled from my story. “If we can’t find her, maybe we should just start a fight in one of the places you saw her before. She might hear it and come rushing in.” That’s a decent observation, I thought, I didn’t think of that. It might even work.
“Alright, let’s get to around the center of the slums,” I nodded. A few minutes later we reached our destination, then ducked into a nearby alley and found an open spot. “Okay, you ready?” I asked.
“Ready for what?” Koyl asked, turning to face me. Using about a third of my strength, I punched him in the face, sending him back a step.
“Starting a fight,” I replied. Koyl spat some blood on the ground, then scowled at me.
“I meant we start a fight with someone else!” he shouted.
“Yeah, I know, but this is easier and has less risk,” I smirked. “Come on, it’s not like we don’t heal from it quickly enough. Hit me back. I won’t use magic or anything, this is just for show.”
“Sometimes you say things that make me question your sanity, you know that?” Koyl scoffed. He wound back his arm and punched me as hard as he could in the cheek. I felt his fist crumple a bit against my bones, and I tasted blood in my mouth. “It’s like hitting a brick,” Koyl hissed, shaking his hand as it healed up. “Are you sure you didn’t use any force magic there?”
“Nope,” I replied. “That was pretty good, but you should do it more like this.” Without using any magic, I planted my feet in a left-foot-forward stance and slugged Koyl’s face with a right hook. Koyl stumbled a full three steps backwards, nearly falling to the ground, then groaned and shook his head as he regained his balance.
“This is revenge for the sword training in Vehrehr, isn’t it?” he huffed. “I never knew you were so petty. Is your ego really that fragile?”
“Do you know why that hit you so hard?” I asked.
“Because you’re more than a hand's span taller than me and twice my weight?” Koyl suggested disdainfully.
“If you have a good stance, you can use more of your core muscle strength in a punch,” I said, throwing the same punch again but slower. “I’ve seen you do it when fighting with a sword, but you don’t even try when you throw a punch.”
“Who would spend time getting better at punching?” Koyl griped. I gestured to him to come at me, and with a shrug he tried to replicate my right hook. My head turned more on impact with his fist, and I could tell he hit me harder than the previous time. “I definitely broke my hand on that one,” Koyl moaned. “Are you made of rocks or something?”
“No,” I replied, “you’re just not that great at throwing punches. You keep pulling your hand back after impact instead of following through because you’re afraid of hurting yourself. You’re also hitting me in the boniest part of my face, which increases the chance that you break your knuckles.” Koyl quickly snapped another punch out at my gut, which caused me to grunt as it forced some air from my lungs.
“So I should just hit the less bony parts,” he grinned. I grinned back, and Koyl took a step away from me. “Oh no, hey, look I’ve already seen what you can do to somebody with those fists alright? I’m sorry, it was a cheap shot, but don’t-” Before Koyl could react, I punched him in the left side of his gut, causing him to double over and cough up bile.
“That’s a kidney punch,” I told him as he groaned and spat on the ground. “The liver sticks out on the other side and is far more painful to hit, but kidneys work well too.” Could I crush a kidney with force magic? I wondered, it's hard to grab specific things that are out of sight, but just making a general crushing force might work.
“Npoyt ngaazmayjh,” Koyl replied, glaring back at me angrily.
“Say that a bit louder, I think if this is going to work she needs to hear some yelling,” I suggested.
“I said, you’re a yeyhhayseytoydh tawtzeytoydh npoyt paam ngaazmayjh!” Koyl yelled, increasing in volume with every word. “You didn’t have to actually try to hurt me, you jhoytshahjh! It’s just a mock fight!” Koyl lunged at me with his final word, feinting a punch to my face and then kicking me directly in the groin. Humans sure do like going for the groin, I thought as the pain from the area blossomed up into my lower abdomen.
“Well, maybe you should learn how to take a fucking punch then!” I yelled back, grabbing Koyl by his gambeson and lifting him from the ground with both hands. With an exaggerated roar, I threw him away from me, slamming him into some wooden boards that were propped up against a nearby wall and snapping them to pieces. Now that made some noise, I thought.
“If you tore my new shirt, this isn’t going to be a mock fight anymore,” Koyl growled. “I paid good money for this.”
“Oh yeah?” I taunted, “I’ve killed men who were ten times the warrior you are, so forgive me if I’m not intimidated.” I swapped to English for my taunt, ending it with a wide grin.
“If you’re going to curse at me you can do it in a real language,” Koyl snarled.
“Then I’ll keep doing it in English, because Uwrish certainly isn't a real language,” I taunted. “Or, perhaps, would you prefer Português?” Just as Koyl was going to reply, metal clanking started to get closer to the alley, and the person we had been looking for entered the alley with her mace out.
“Decent response time,” I commented at her. She must have been nearby, but I didn't see her on the way here, I thought. Koyl took a few deep breaths, then snorted some znahdeyvtih and calmed down immediately. Vaozey, on the other hand, looked furious.
“What the seyt are you two doing here?” Vaozey snapped. Despite her tone, she put her mace away and seemed to relax a bit.
“Gods, I’m too hungry for this,” Koyl muttered, and his stomach growled in agreement. “You said to let you do the talking, right?”
“We were looking for you,” I said to Vaozey. “Koyl figured the best way to find you would be to cause some noise in the alleys since you showed up during fights both times I encountered you. It appears to have worked.” Vaozey seemed to be at a loss for words for a moment.
“So you found me,” she grumbled. “What the seyt do you want?”