Chapter 10: Chapter 10: The walls of Eternity

Wolstan and Esta made their way to the plaza in front of Leyford castle in total silence. Wolstan was still processing everything Esta told him and she didn’t seem to want to talk anymore. He tried to preoccupy his mind with thoughts of what his father might say but Esta’s stories of what Drenids dealt with kept racing to the forefront. He wondered if things had to be that way.

He knew there were certain groups that fought for Drenid rights, but Kesta would never approve of him joining one and the thought of joining people labeled terrorists was frightening. And if he didn’t want to join those groups was he any better than Laurette or the Gelians around him who thought of him as lesser too?

Looking around the crowd for distractions he spotted a father comforting his crying child. Esta said Dremods were taken from their families when they were caught, he hadn’t even thought of that when he got Rania. Did she have a family somewhere in the recesses of Zertold forest? Did he take her from them?

Thankfully Esta nudged him in the ribs so he was spared from thinking about that horrible possibility. She pointed at a raised platform in front of them where men and women were gathering with powerful-looking Drenids. They stood at the ready as they scanned the crowd for potential problems. The ceremony must have been starting soon.

More men and Drenids followed, making a perfect barrier between the crowd and a podium atop the platform. An older, grizzled man stepped to the side of the podium with a Drenid sporting black armor and a long saber at his side. The grizzled man’s eyes swept over the knights in front of him with hawklike eyes before looking into the crowd.

Everyone around Wolstan exploded in applause and he joined them though he only had an inkling of who the man was. If his hunch was right, he was Conrad, the stalwart leader of Pluveria’s armed forces and supposedly the strongest hunter in the kingdom. There were stories that he once fended off fifteen wild Drenids by himself before he joined the army.

Wolstan glanced at Esta. She glared at Conrad so hard he feared she might attack him. She even forgot to cover her sigil.

He tapped her shoulder and she jumped out of her skin. “Everything alright?”

“All good… I think it's starting.” Esta said and pointed back to the podium. 

Horns resounded all around them and the crowd exploded twice as loud as they did for Conrad. They all looked and pointed to their left where a procession of Knights flanked a single man with a fox-eared Drenid that had many tails. The procession stopped at the podium but the man continued climbing it with the Drenid at his back. He waved to the crowd and they all went wild; the knights had trouble keeping the surging crowd back.

Wolstan held back. His insides squirmed and churned as it finally dawned on him that he was looking at his father. He knew it was an illusion cast by the Drenid beside him but it was a good one.

Rail-thin and boyish one wouldn’t normally have confused ‘Evrouin’ for a king. He was draped in fine black threads and cerulean jewelry that sparkled in the sunlight. A mop of jet-black curly hair fell down his shoulders accentuating his crystal blue eyes.

“Not getting cold feet are you?” Esta whispered.

Wolstan snapped out of his trance. She watched him with intuitive eyes. “No, it just feels real now I guess. We’re really in the capital. I don’t know how we’ll talk to him but I’m actually looking at him.”

“Leave that to me. I was Evrouin’s Drenid for over twenty years, unless the absolute worst comes to pass I can get us into Leyford easily. You just worry about what you’ll say to him.”

Wolstan nodded. Her words comforted him but thinking about it now the only proof of his claim was Rania’s sigil and she was still recuperating in Diamond Hill. And that only mattered if the jester cap sigil ran through his family line like he assumed it did.

He looked back to the podium and saw Conrad making direct eye contact with him. If it had only been a glance he would have written it off as the man watching the crowd but the old man wasn’t blinking as he stared Wolstan’s way.

“Good morning, good people of Gelia and visitors from afar!” Evrouin called. His melodious voice rang out around the plaza amplified no doubt by a Drenid just out of sight. The crowd roared but Conrad’s eyes never darted from where Wolstan stood. It made Wolstan’s insides curl.

“As you all know we’ve been endorsing this speech for some time now and for good reason. So without further ado let’s get the big news out of the way and assange some of the fears of our friends at the Gelia Gazette shall we?.” Evrouin continued with a wink. Shutters clicked rapidly from the right of the crowd. “For a while now we have more than tripled our recruitment efforts for Pluveria’s army, gathering strong hunters from every corner of the country. And some within the press have already guessed at the reason behind our efforts.” He paused and lowered himself closer to the podium. “We’ve received intel on a Terrotian attack that could come within months.”

The crowd erupted into anxious whispers and fearful glances. Wolstan would have joined them but something felt off about that and Conrad wouldn’t stop staring.

“People, people, there’s no reason to fear, that’s what they want! I assure you we have everything under control and we’re doing everything within our power to keep you safe. Whether it be from Terrotian savages or Astrophilus invaders your government is here to protect you. In the meantime, tell your neighbors who may not be present what you’re hearing today. Tell them to do their patriotic duty and enlist. And on a semi-related note, talk to your Drenids. Ask them if they know anything about the so-called Drenid religion and report it to your local knights. This will help us keep you safe more than you could possibly know.”

The crowd nodded their approval, quite a few of them still seemed shaken by the thought of a Terrotian attack. Others whispered about what he meant about talking to their Drenids or the Drenid religion.

Evrouin cleared his throat and everyone fell silent again. “Now, while we’re talking about unpleasantries I’d like to speak on the dangers lurking within our own walls. I’m of course talking about the vile degenerates known as Whitefla-”

Conrad leaned over to the king and whispered something. 

“Sorry folks seems Conrad has something rather important to say, I’m sure it could have waited but-” Evrouin started. His eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. Conrad pointed to the crowd directly where Wolstan stood. He and his father locked eyes.

“Fuck…” Esta said.

“What?” Wolstan asked. But he didn’t have to wait for an answer. The color drained from Evrouin’s face, and beads of sweat dripped down his face.

The king rapidly clapped four times and the knights near him closed ranks around him, cutting him off from the crowd. There was a great amount of shuffling, Evrouin must have been being escorted back to Leyford.

“What happened!” Wolstan asked as everyone around him started talking nervously. He could see one of the photographers frantically snapping pics. Whatever it was it wasn’t good.

“I fucked up,” Esta said and splayed her arms out to highlight her sigil. It wasn’t Wolstan Conrad was looking at. “I hadn’t expected Conrad to still be working for the military. The old man must be in his sixties by now, why hasn’t he retired!”

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“Damn! If that’s the case then we’ll have to get to him another way, we can-”

Thundering bells tolled as Leyford’s drawbridge rose slowly cutting the castle off from the rest of the city. Beams of brilliant electric blue light erupted from the moat around the castle, encasing it in a strange bubbling luminescence. 

“What now…” Wolstan asked.

“Yeah, remember the ‘absolute worst" case I mentioned? This is it.” Esta said, staring wide-eyed at the dazzling walls. “They’re the walls of eternity. They're impenetrable walls the Dregux developed to shelter them, the monarchy, and other nobles that live in Leyford. I’ve never seen them actually go up but now that they’re are the hidden passages into the castle won’t help us, the walls go deep underground. Worse, when I lived there they had enough food to last them decades with the walls up…”

Wolstan stared at the magnificent walls in disbelief. He missed his only chance to meet his father. The man knew the only Drenid alive who knew his secret was waiting outside; there was no way he’d come out.

“So that's it? We came all this way for nothing?” He asked.

“Not exactly... There’s a way to open the barrier from the outside due to an agreement with the six noble families. But saying it’d be hard to do would be an understatement.”

Wolstan raised a brow. The idea of installing a backdoor on a security system perplexed him but he didn’t have time to ponder it. The guards in the front pushed the crowd back and instructed people to leave the plaza. He thought it best to leave before someone came for Esta.

He grabbed her hand and dragged her away when his Dredot beeped and flashed twice. Rania was healed.

That was a light in what was proving to be a dark day. At least she was okay.

They made their way back to Diamond Hill through a haze of confused Pluverians all wondering what happened at the plaza but no one had answers. Knights flooded out of their tower and patrolled the streets in mass; it wasn’t safe to stay in the city any longer.

He made his way to the counter, pointed at his Dredot, and said, “I’m here for Rania.” 

“The Forester, right? Just a moment.” The nurse said and pressed something behind the counter. 

Nothing happened for what felt like an hour, Wolstan started to worry until he heard crashes and bangs somewhere in the back. 

“RESTRAIN IT!” Someone screamed at the top of their lungs.

“SOMEONE BRING A SEDATIVE!” Yelled another as screams rang out and eerily fell silent.

The nurse turned towards the back looking concerned, in fact the entire waiting room looked nervous.

“How much bronze do you want to bet that’s Rania?” Esta said suppressing a giggle.

“Well we did bring her here while she was asleep, if she woke up in a strange place then…” Wolstan said. The loudest crash of all came and he started to fear it really was her. 

Taking the risk of being wrong he held down Rania’s dot and the crashes ceased at once. The green flame he knew to be Rania floated through a wall and into his Dredot. His face went scarlet as Esta howled with laughter.

“Well, that was dramatic…” The nurse said and looked down to a rapidly flashing monitor. “All things considered, you’re bill looks like it will be two hundred and fifty thousand bronze for your Drenid’s treatment, and seven hundred and thirty bronze for related damages to our staff and machines.”

“WHAT!” Wolstan shrieked. He stared at the nurse hoping that was a joke but she didn’t falter. The seven hundred thousand fee sounded fair based on what he heard Rania do in the back but the thought of a simple treatment costing two hundred thousand was absurd.

“Yes well, we can get you on a payment plan if you can’t pay in full but that will come with interest.” The nurse said. Her eyes shined. “There is of course another way you can pay. The military receives a ninety-nine percent discount for their Drenids injuries. We’d even let this visit go, free of charge.”

Wolstan scowled. So that was their ploy. They made getting Drenids healed so expensive no one would want to risk using them to fight; they’d either have to wait until they healed naturally or join the army. Another of his father’s schemes… 

“I’ll take the payment plan…” He grumbled. There was no way he’d ever be able to pay it back. At best he could get in his father’s good graces and perhaps he’d pay it for him.

“Perfect! Please present your Dredot.” The woman said. She tapped a device behind the counter and then tapped Wolstan’s Dredot. The balance on his menu that displayed what was left of the bronze he worked for and what Kesta gave him instantly drained to show -929850.

His knees nearly gave out. Esta had to support him on the way out of the hospital. His journey only just began a few days ago and he was nearly a million in debt already.

He looked back on the walls of eternity as they headed west out of Gelia. He’d get inside those walls if it was the last thing he did.

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