Chapter 54: Ch 53 “Star of the North”

  Iris helped Kia to walk off the barge onto the Firmusan port. The port looked much humbler than the Marinya's which never ceases to rest from loading and unloading the many cargo ships coming day and night. 

Nevertheless, Iris did not expect the port of a major city to be almost empty with barely any native dockworkers working around them.

The two passed rows of empty warehouses and houses closed tightly shut.

 

  The undead adventurers followed the widest street which led to where Iris thought the gates to Firmusa were. The port narrowed into the single street blocked by a wide but quite low-standing gatehouse made from the bleached stone guarded by soldiers wielding long polearms with a strange shape axe head mounted on them with a long spike mirroring it.

 

"Stop!" The guard stood up from leaning on his unusual polearm. "Present valid identification." He demanded.

 

"For the love of the gods above, shut the fuck up." A burly soldier sitting in a chair under a makeshift shelter, his arms folded in front of himself with a metal helmet with a large circular brim covering his face. "Just let them in and let me sleep, mister guard."

 

"There are no gods above the divine Aspects, get that fact into your brick of yours and let me do my fecking job you disgrace." The soldier in front of Iris said, turning his attention back on to them. "Identification?"

 

"Here." The elf pulled out her necklace presenting it to the city guard.

 

"Adventurers!" The guard yelled with disbelief.

 

 Iris quickly stepped back dodging the axe blade aimed at her neck. "Adventurers!" He presented the sharp point at the end of his weapon trying to gain distance between himself and her. 

From the corners of her eye, the risen spotted Kia's arm moving under her cloak, as her slender arm peaked through her clothes ready to unleash a deadly spell.

 

"Calling you a 'Gor would be an insult to that daemonic bastard." The second soldier suddenly appeared beside his fellow human, firmly holding the polearm in his hand, the standing man towered over everyone, even standing an entire head above the tall elf. 

The nordling pushed the weapon back causing the normal size human to stumble backwards until he hit the gate behind him.

"City guards," The nordling said with disgust before turning to Iris and Kia. "Show me the badge, for sake of my faith in Pruina please don't be the biggest idiots out there." He sighed heavily before looking at Iris's badge.

Upon seeing her badge the giant could only shake his head as he straighten his body back.

"Good news idiot," The soldier turned to his companion. "You are still the biggest dumbass out there." He concluded before slowly walking back to his chair.

 

"Can we go in?" The elf asked watching the nordling sit back in his chair, her hand motioning Kia to lower her arm.

 

"Yea, you are happy to enjoy the parade *Phff* Supposed to be behind the High Marshal himself in the parade but that fox replaced me with her men." The high-level soldier lamented, reaching under his chair and pulling out a bottle of alcohol.

 

[Inspect]

 

[Human {Nordling} Level ???]

 

"Level 131 knife-ears. "The nordling lazily spun the liquid inside the bottle, not bothering to stand up, golden liquid ran down his beard as half of the drink disappeared in a few gulps.

 

  The gatehouse's door opened allowing Iris and Kia to pass through it into a long tight corridor squashed between two stone walls. Tightly hugging the wall rough looking buildings lined the left side, through a small barred window she could see barrels and sacks stacked up to the ceiling undoubtedly a section of garrisons food reserve. To the elf's surprise, she was sure she could hear water flowing inside the wall.

The gate at the end was wide open with a guard standing behind battlements at the top. Just below the human, a set of heavily worn letters were carved into the stone. Iris could only manage to read two words. "...against...stand" 

 

  As soon as the two adventurers entered the city proper, they were greeted by a city dressed for celebration with flowers decorating every window sill in sight. People around them were in a cheerful mood as they walked the streets. Their smiles disappeared as they stared at Iris.

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"What's happening?" Kia asked from under her hood.

 

"To be honest, I truly don't know," The elf answered pointing at the flowers. "The guard said something about the parade but this looks more like a religious festival to me." 

 

"What's a festival?" 

 

"It's...like a big party." The elf tried to answer.

 

"Ohh, will there be food?" Kia's eyes sparkled under her hood, and a smile grew on her pale face.

 

"I suggest we find somewhere to stay first." Iris attempted to rein in the ever-hungry undead's expectations.

 

  The girl made a face but did not attempt to argue with the tall elf. They walked through the paved streets trying to get to the centre of the city.

 

Unlike in Marinya or any other city, Iris was in, streets in Firmusa weaved between houses with sharp turns at each corner. The tall buildings of what the elf assumed were one of the residential districts were built like small fortresses with the ground floors being made from stone with small vertical slits acting like windows.

Where two streets meet a white fabric was hung on a pole with a black triangle at the bottom, a yellow star was woven in the centre over the ominous triangle.

Iris furrowed her brows at the strange banner, was the street in front of them a part of a noble's domain? She did not want to attract too much attention, especially with the petty blue-blooded humans with nothing better to do than entertain themselves with others suffering. But on the other hand, human nobles paid great attention to their precious coats of arms, woven with the most expensive fabrics money could buy and she could not imagine a noble simplifying their coat of arms to such extent for the sole reason to present it to the masses.

Iris glanced at the humans around her walking casually not paying the attention to the banner. She shrugged her shoulders and took Kia's hand, walking past coloured fabric. 

The street suddenly widened to a ridiculous decree, even Havenfall's pilgrim district with its ocean of people trying to make their way to one of the grand temples every day did not have a single street wide enough to rival this one. The tall elf turned her head, seeing the wall dominating the skyline to her right. To her left, the wide road continued until it hit another wall.

 

"That's a second wall." Iris thought out loud as she watched the tall towers standing behind the stone separator. 

 

"Are you lost, sweetie?" A kind sounding female voice behind her said.

 

"Possibly," The risen turned. "We are looking for Adventurers Guild." 

 

The woman wearing a grey dress with clear signs of repair made a face of utter confusion her eyes searching Iris from head to toe. Her eyes stared at the necklace hanging around elf's slender neck. "Butchers! Hope you die in agony!" The woman screamed at Iris, her body moved to strike her but she quickly stopped herself as a spearhead shined in the sunshine.

 

The undead hoplite moves her arm blocking Kia from casting a spell. "That answers a lot." She said hiding her and Kia's necklaces.

 

"Why do you allow them to insult you?" The undead girl asked Iris.

 

"I am used to it, does not bother me too much." The elf whispered softly to the girl's ear, gently pushing the mage's back as a small circle started to form. "Let's just leave."

 

Humans in front of Iris quickly separated letting her go, the mage's hand tightly gripped hers. As she organised her thoughts, trying to think where would they sleep. Her idea was to visit the guild first but the locals seem to not be too fond of adventurers, her second idea was to find a tavern but she had not seen one yet. They could sleep outside the wall it was not a problem for Iris and Kia but something in her mind told her the woods around the city were unsafe. A bell suddenly sounded from afar, a crowd of people suddenly came from around the corner and forced Iris and Kia behind her to find a new path.