Chapter 109: Chapter 109: The road is long and it will take us more than three days to traverse it.

In some instances, Hineni has found it hard to let go of the past. This was the case during his initial anxieties about entering this new stage of life, together with these people that he finds himself surrounded by. It was the case during his stubbornness in opening his house to others and then to admit that it was theirs as much as his own. But this thing, this new thing, this move, it feels right.

 

The wheels of the carriage rattle as it moves down the wide, stone roads that lead towards the south.

 

Everyone is asleep, leaned sideways against the cart or over each other, wobbling as the carriage rides over an odd bump now and then. Hineni wonders why none of them wake up, but then he removes that question from his mind.

 

It’s because they feel safe.

 

Sleeping out here on a moving carriage is no different than doing so behind four walls, in a house. The context matters and in this context, what matters is the people and they’re all here. The walls of community are stronger and sturdier than any walls of wood or stone.

 

Hineni stands in the back, holding on to the edge of the cart. He’s not tired and not really ready to sleep yet.

 

Instead, he stands there, watching the night that trails on behind them. The lights of the city had become invisible many hours ago and out here, out in the depths of nature, darkness is resolute. When it is dark in the city, there are still lights and shadows. Glows from lanterns and pinpricks of magical spells being cast by drunkards and the shine of many hearths and flames.

 

But when it is dark out here, there is just… nothing.

 

Hineni stares at the darkness, at the nothingness. He had never realized how much nothing there could be in one place.

 

The only thing worth looking at are the stars. It’s crazy how bright they are out here in contrast to how bright they appeared in the city. Because of the absolute darkness of the wilderness, the intensity of their dotted light is so much greater, so much brighter. They feel like a hundred eyes and then some odd few hundred more that belong to a clutch of great spiders, all gazing down upon the world with jewel pupils.

 

— Or maybe the exhaustion and excitement of this new step of life is making him a little overly poetic.

 

Hineni sighs and sits down on the bench, leaning back against the wooden wall behind himself as the carriage rattles on, rolling through the night.

 

---

 

A day passes, the carriage has stopped at a meadow for the anqas to rest and to be allowed to drink from a stream nearby. Hineni lays down on the grass, staring up towards the blue sky.

 

He had thought that being out here, out in the open, would bother him somewhat. After all, he had lived his entire life in the closed confines of the city. But honestly, all of this open space feels good. It feels refreshing, to be away from the city air. From the smoke and the people and the noise.

 

It’s just quiet out here, in the middle. The city to the north might be a chaotic and thriving hub and to the far south, there might be a brutal, violent war raging. But right here, in the middle away from both of those things, it is peaceful.

 

He wouldn’t mind setting up right here, actually.

 

But Sockel already had the property paid for, so it would be a waste. They might as well keep going. Besides, maybe it’s nice down there too?

 

A shadow looms over his head, cruising down towards the grasses.

 

Hineni watches as the giant owl obscures the sun for a moment as she careens down towards him, before swooping and making a graceful landing down next to him, transforming at the same time into her humanish form.

 

“Hey. Missed you,” says Hineni, laying an arm out to the side. Obscura lays down in the same movement as her landing, looking at him and then up to the same sky that he stares at.

 

“I missed you too,” hoots Obscura, holding his hand as they gaze at odd clouds. “The middle-city is very lively,” says the owl-god. Hineni sighs. “Thousands of little feet scamper and trod the roads towards the north, towards us.”

 

“Really?” asks Hineni. “I guess people are still trying to get away from the war,” he says. “Did you look at the property? How is it?”

 

She nods, the back of her head rubbing against the grass. “Obscura chose her Hineni well, who chose the sock-elf, who chose the land.” The owl-god hoots, her chest puffing out. “Wise Obscura.”

 

Hineni raises an eyebrow. “Yeah. Good job,” he says, letting her have the moment, despite it perhaps being unearned.

 

They lay there for a time, just waiting for everything to be ready so they can keep moving.

 

He rolls his head to the side, looking her way and catches her doing the same. The two of them hoot, but instead of quickly looking away as they might have done in younger times, simply stare at the new thing to see that is far more interesting to them than any clouds in the sky — No matter what shape they might take.

 

---

 

It is another day.

 

The carriage rolls on and rain pours down all around them. As they travel, Hineni notices how many more other people they begin to see. Travelers and merchants and carriages and even full caravans of people all pass them by. But all of them, despite their varying ability to travel by carriage or by foot, are all heading away from the direction that they’re moving towards.

 

The rain apparently doesn’t bother them as much as what they want to get away from.

 

Hineni shrugs.

 

It’s probably fine.

 

People often tend to have dramatic reactions to situations like this.

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---

 

“Surprised that nobody is trying to assassinate us,” says Sockel.

 

Hineni sets down the card in his hand, looking at her. “What a strangely random thing to say,” he says. “Three.”

 

Sockel rolls her eyes, looking in her hands for a matching card. “I’m just saying. If I was an assassin, which I’m not —”

 

“- Uh huh.”

 

“— Then I would have used this chance to go after us,” she says. “We’re out in the open, no walls, just a few guards, near to the border. It’s an easy mark.” Sockel lays down a card.

 

Rhine takes his turn. “I mean, it’s not like they know we’re moving, right?” he asks. “They can’t be watching us all the time.”

 

“You have a lot to learn,” replies Sockel. “They went through the effort of traveling hundreds of kilometers to stage a massive distraction on a suicide-mission just to try and kill him,” she explains, pointing at Hineni. “They aren’t just watching us day and night, they’re listening to us and probably smelling us too.”

 

Rhine rubs his lip with the back of his thumb. “So…”

 

“- So,” starts Sockel. “If they’re not trying to snatch us on the road. They’re gonna try to snatch us when we get there.”

 

“So, it’s a trap?”

 

“The first trap was paying property taxes,” says Sockel. “This is the next trap, though.”

 

“Wait, what’s wrong with property taxes?” asks Rhine, looking at them. “You guys are always awfully distrustful of government systems,” he notes. “They’re there for a reason.”

 

“The reasons are gold-plated,” says Sockel, waving him off. “If the gods made the land, then why am I paying some noble to live on it?” she asks. “Instead of just giving the money to whatever god made it?”

 

“…Uh…”

 

“- Exactly,” says Sockel. “The game’s rigged.” She pulls out another card and tsks, seeing it.

 

“Should you be talking about things like this in a caravan of soldiers?” asks Rhine, looking around them at the few guards walking alongside the carriage. He lowers his voice. “It sounds very… subversive.”

 

“’It sounds very subversive’,” mimics Sockel in a high-pitched tone.

 

Hineni clears his throat. “Maybe we should get back to the topic at hand?” he suggests. He looks towards Obscura. “Did you see anything weird at the property?”

 

The owl-god shakes her head. “I saw nothing that I did not expect to see.”

 

“What are the chances that we got moved to the ‘unimportant’ list?” asks Hineni, looking back towards Sockel. “Maybe the war is going bad for them and they need to focus?”

 

“Boy, do I have some news for you,” replies Sockel. “They’re winning.”

 

“They’re what?”

 

Sockel nods. “The forest hasn’t lost a bit of land, barring some stupid hills that nobody cares about. “Defender's advantage is a big thing down in the south, because of the density.”

 

“Wait, then where the hell is the front-line?” asks Hineni.

 

Sockel points with her thumb out of the back of the carriage. “About twenty minutes back that way.”

 

Hineni blinks, setting down his cards. He gets up and walks to the back of the carriage, grabbing out and leaning to the side as he looks on ahead of them.

 

On the distant horizon sits a city with an ocean of emerald green far beyond it, stretching for as far as the eye can see. Fires and smoke rage in clusters in the distance. Broken siege weapons lay scattered on the road.

 

“Hey!” says Rhine, getting up and running next to him. He grabs Hineni’s sleeve and pulls on it as he points at a heap of wood, stuck in the road. “Isn’t that one of our ballista arrows?” he asks.

 

Hineni looks at it, sure that Rhine’s right.

 

“Well… hell…”

 

The sounds of screams and skirmishes come into earshot, ringing out from the distance as they carriage moves towards the burning ruins of a besieged city.

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