Chapter 25: Ch.0025 – Unpleasant

Ash strode through a field of crimson flowers, a chill breeze at his back. He was unsure of just how long he’d been walking, but then again, time was of little consequence here. 

What mattered more was his goal. His duty. 

What was it then? He stopped dead in his tracks and spared a moment to consider the question. 

What was he even doing here again? Again? 

Had he been here before? He surveyed the scenery and found that it struck him then as a familiar sight. It took him another moment to finally recall but he realized that yes, he had visited these fields once before. He’d come seeking someone. He again searched the landscape. 

Where was she? He’d found her eventually, had he not? 

Yes, he had, and there she was, stood right beside him. Her hair the colour of blood drifted lazily in the breeze and her gaze captured his in the very moment her attention turned towards him. In her eyes and their dark red depths he saw a thousand different thoughts and motivations lurking and warring, all apparent and obvious as if she were made of glass, and then in the next instant he saw nothing but his own reflection staring back at him. 

She was like steel, rigid and impenetrable. But her gaze was warm as she smiled at him then and then turned away. Her focus shifted to the man stood before him. Unlike them, the man was a blurry figure of shifting smoke and haze. Still, there was something familiar to him that he couldn’t quite place. 

The woman spoke something to the man and he seemed startled, though whether it was because of her words or she herself, Ash wasn’t sure. The man tried to say something back, or at least Ash thought he did, but no words left his lips and he rapidly started to fade away. Mere seconds later and the man was gone entirely, leaving them to each others’ company. 

Ash stared back towards the woman, but her eyes still remained turned away from him. He followed her attention into the distance and found the ruined, smoking silhouette of a city cast against the horizon. 

“It had been beautiful, once. A jewel upon this world.” she said, and Ash startled at her voice, expected as it was. It was melodic, like the softest whisper of wind, and yet steeled by an undeniable authority that laced its every letter. She turned to face him then, her face calm but resolute. Her smile returned and her hands rose to grasp either side of his face. 

“It will be so once again. Not yet, but soon. Yes, there isn’t much longer left. Until then, wake.” 

He blinked, and then he was awake again. 

The orange-red light of dawn peeked into the room, casting away the shadow that still clung to its furthest corners. Ash sucked in a deep breath and shifted the cover off himself. He was naked and it took him a moment to remember why. Myr laid beside him, as naked as he was, with her head rested on her hand as she stared openly at him. 

“Were you watching me sleep?” he asked drowsily, a small smile on his lips. 

“Just a bit.” she admitted. “You know that you sometimes fart in your sleep?” 

He snorted. “So do you.” 

It was the woman’s turn to snort. “Ain’t no thing to say to a lady.” 

“A lady? Where?” 

A playful jab poked at his ribs and he laughed and Myr joined him in his moment of mirth. The two laid like that for a few moments later as a comfortable silence descended, and Ash mused that he wouldn’t mind spending the rest of the day like so. Hell, it sounded like the perfect day to him. Well, with some magical training mixed in, of course. He couldn’t afford to lag behind in his growth. 

“What was your home like?” asked Myr suddenly, snapping him from his thoughts. He eyed her, an eyebrow raised. 

“Your world, I mean. Occurs to me that I ain’t never asked you about it.” 

She hadn’t, he supposed. 

“It's... different.” he answered after considering the question. “There’s no magic for one, and no monsters or goblins or non-human races for another.” 

The woman startled at that, taken aback by his casual revelation. “No non-human races, really? No, forget that. I can believe that, but no magic at all?” she asked, her disbelief evident. 

He nodded. “Not a bit. There are magicians around but they don’t have any real magic: just tricks and sleight-of-hand.” 

“That’s... somethin’. Can’t even consider how people live without magic. How do ya’ll get anythin’ done?” 

“With science.” 

“Whazzat?” 

“It’s a philosophy, I guess. It represents the study of the world and everything in it so that we can better understand how and why things are the way they are. Like, why is the sky blue? Why is the sun hot? Why do we feel pain or why does it rain? Science asks these questions, and then we spend years and years studying these things to find the answer.” 

“Weird. Sounds like a pain.” 

“It’s pretty cool actually, and it let us achieve some amazing things. Like machines that can carry hundreds of people through the air like a bird, or space-ships that can leave the world and fly beyond the world itself. Medicine to cure diseases that used to kill us by the thousands, and new materials to keep us safer and warmer and more comfortable. Science gave us a lot.” 

Myr didn’t seem convinced if her expression meant anything, but she nonetheless spent some time quietly digesting what he’d told her before she finally spoke again. “Machines that let people fly, huh. Weird. So, why is the sky blue?” 

He looked to her and shrugged. “Beats me. Science has the answers, but I was just a kid trying to get by. I didn’t exactly have the time or energy to waste learning why things are the way they are when I was too busy working to keep a roof over my head.” 

“That I can get.” she said, and then wrapped a toned arm around his chest and pulled him bodily closer. “Say, how ‘bout we continue where we left off last night, mhm?” she whispered into his ears, and Ash felt his blood rush to all the right places almost instantly in response. She glanced down his body and laughed as his answer was made plain to her. 

◆◆◆◆◆ 

They left Milford not too long after their morning romp, and soon enough its gates were but a distant dot growing smaller behind them. Their next destination was another village not too different from the last, if not even smaller. Ash and Myr found little trouble entering as the guards were well accustomed with her travelling tradeswoman façade, and she conducted her business without much fuss before they were again off scarcely an hour after entering. 

Myr was determined to pass through two more villages before finally ending their day’s journey in the barony’s capital city, Totenstrong. To that effect, she kept their pace quick and efficient, leaving Ash with little time to train or level. Not that he was too bothered. The quicker they went the faster they could eventually return to the Everwatch, and more importantly, the sooner could that he reunite with Calixxa. He wasn’t sure how well she was taking their separation, though the gradual improvement that he’d seen in her demeanour over the week that they’d spent in the goblin village suggested that she’d already started to adapt to her new environment. 

Or so he prayed. 

The third village proved much the same as the other two and so did the fourth. Myr did her business curtly and though he wasn’t in on her dealings, he suspected that she’d made quite a tidy profit alongside gathering whatever it was that the goblins wanted. 

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It was almost nightfall when they neared their final destination. Totenstrong was a massive grey stretch that dominated the far landscape, and though its bulk still paled in size to the great cities of Earth, it was still a sizable cacophony of human endeavour. 

A massive gate adorned with two great statues of paladin-esque warriors on its either side with their shields bared as if in defence of the city behind them barred their way forward, and much like the gate of the Everwatch or Milford, it was of magical making with the stone shifting to grant entry as required. 

Unlike either of those places, however, was the queue of folk lined before it, their figures alive with nervous energy as they pushed for entry. 

“Why’re they so nervous?” asked Ash. 

“’Cuz it’s almost night and they’re outside the walls.” 

He startled at her answer and uneasily glanced around himself. 

“Is there... something to be scared of around here?” 

“’Course there is, kid. Beasties prowl about where-ever they damn well please and they’re the least of the troubles that plague the land. Bandits and crooks are a real worry nowadays. Why’dyou think I keep rushin’ to reach a settlement before nightfall?” 

Ash blushed in embarrassment as her words made his obliviousness apparent. He hadn’t even considered the danger he’d face out here in the plains, which was a far cry from his attitude scarcely a month ago. Had his magic made him so arrogant? 

“Well, not like it’s too much of a worry for us. Most beasties ain’t likely to be a match for two tier two mages and bandits? Even less so.” 

Ash took comfort in her words and focused himself on the queue ahead as they finally claimed a place at its end. The merchant – for that was what Ash assumed the man was – glanced back at them and flashed them a curt nod which they returned. “Cutting it close, aren’t you? Night isn’t a place to be wandering about in these lands.” 

Myr shrugged. “Got here just in time by my reckoning. Queue is lighter during the night, usually.” 

The man shot her a queer look at her easy disregard for the dangers of the land before he shook his head and muttered something under breath. He turned away then and Ash didn’t think that they’d be sharing casual conversation again any time soon. 

The next few minutes passed quickly enough and the youth was grateful for the efficiency with which the gate guards undertook their work. That gratitude quickly died once it was their turn at the head of the line and Myr stepped forth towards the lead guard, a disinterested looking man in plate armour. 

“Identification.” he said with an almost robotic tone of voice. 

Myr said nothing and instead reached for her pocket and withdrew a glistening silver coin that she openly handed to the man. He glanced at the obvious bribe and waved them through without as much as another word. 

The duo passed quietly through the thick walls of the city and whatever comment Ash had to make about what had just transpired quickly died as he took in his first sight of what was supposed to be the greatest city in the barony. 

It was not a good one. 

A well-paved stone road stretched ahead into the darkening distance, its stones clean and well-lit by magical lamps interspersed evenly along either side. A few guards and what looked like a barrack lingered near the gate, their attitude careless and utterly lacking in any kind of the watchfulness that one would expect from those tasked with controlling the flow of people in and out of a city. 

And that was about the end of what good he had to say of the city, for after the guards and the barracks laid a stretch of wretched slums and ramshackle housing that brought a wave of uneasiness washing over him. It was a sickening sight and though he had no perception nexus, his gaze was well enhanced enough to make out the sickly figures of the poor and downtrodden lingering within the growing gloom of their pathetic lodgings. 

Their gazes followed him as he want, and he was forced to look away from the unpleasantness. 

That was no way to live, and it brought back memories of some of his lowest points after he’d run away from home. Ash clenched his fists and looked away. Unfortunately, his reaction seemed rather unique for none of the others that had queued outside cast so much as a wayward glance towards the distressing sight to their either side, and those few that did showed little in the way of reaction. 

Even Myr’s face was neutral, though he suspected that it was perhaps a mask fashioned rather than her genuine feelings on the topic. Either way, she glanced at him and indicated that they move on. 

He agreed and it was with a far more sullen silence that the duo made their way further into what he was rapidly coming to understand was a very unpleasant city. 

Their surroundings did eventually improve after a few dozen minutes of walking, with ramshackle housing giving way to homes of a more stable bearing and cleaner standard, but still far from adequate to the standards he believed was demanded of a human home. It was like the upgrade from living in a dirt pit to living beneath a tarp with a soggy mattress as a bed. Hardly the lap of luxury. 

It was only after they crossed an inner wall that seemingly separated the poor from the rest of the city, and through a check-point within which they came under the scrutiny of a far more attentive group of guards, that they finally came upon some semblance of reasonable housing and prosperity. 

But for all that it was an improvement, it remained a far cry from what he’d seen in Milford. The scale was far larger, true, but a suffocating weight of crime and villainy still suffused the very air itself as they continued onwards. As if the city itself was trying to strip them of their sense of surety. 

“The Commons District.” said Myr as they walked on, her eyes dancing around their surroundings though with little interest behind them. “It’s where our merchant lives.” 

“And what we just passed?” 

“The Low District. Obvious ‘nuff the kind of people that lives there. Was always a miserable pit of sadness, even years back, but it’s gotten way worse now, an’ it’ll likely keep gettin’ worse as the days go on.” 

“How can the city allow that? At the least, don’t they care what visitors will think of them? That shithole is the first thing we see when we enter the city!” 

“City don’t care ‘bout much anymore, kid. You best learn that now. Not sure what exactly is goin’ on but the baron is in some kind of trouble is what I figure if he can’t even be bothered to keep his own city well maintained.” 

“A baron.” Ash spat. He didn’t believe that the democratic system was a flawless creation, but it was a far cry better than a system that would allow incompetents to drive a city into the kind of pitiful wretchedness that he’d just seen. 

“Keep your pants on.” remarked Myr with a look of warning. “We’ll be out of ‘ere by dawn so just bear with it ‘till then, ‘kay? Think of the home we’re returnin’ to. We’ll likely be back there by tomorrow night, or even sooner if we hurry.” 

Oh, he would hurry. He would hurry his ass off to get away from this city. Even now, he could feel its wretchedness in the air, and saw further proof of its downfall in every suspicious look and weary glance he received from the local populace, what few of them remained out as night came upon the land. 

There was no air of warmth, or even one of acceptance. 

It was nothing like Milford or the villages they had passed. 

Ash straightened his brow and shook his head. Whatever. They would be done and out soon enough. He just had to bear with it until then. 

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