Bridge

Calm mind and calm body, that was what B preached to me. But it took a little bit more than just saying that to ease my emotions. Talking with him helped a little. It just wasn’t the distraction that he hoped for.

I opened the door to the Chapterhouse looking around for my groceries. It wasn’t at the threshold where I left it. But by the counter was Adelphe. She had a “Come see me” look in her eyes. I did ask her to watch it.

Hurrying up to the desk, I leaned in seeing if maybe she put it behind the counter. But I didn’t see anything. I looked back at her. “Sorry for the trouble. There was a little ruckus outside.”

“I heard. Everything settled?”

I tilted my head considering my answer. “Yes and no.” It really depended on who asked. So that felt like the only good answer I could and still be happy with giving. Yet that didn’t seem to give her much encouragement. I shook my head for her. “It’s fine. Just a me thing. So where’s my food?”

“After you were gone for more than five minutes I had Louise put it away in your room. She said she put it in the fridge for you. So you didn’t lose anything.”

Leaning away, I glanced up the stairs in the vague direction of my room. If it was in the fridge then I’d be fine. “Thanks! I’ll go put things in order and head back out.”

“Back out?”

She gave me a concerned look. I’m guessing after running headlong into public disorder put my actions into suspicion. Fair enough. It wasn’t like I didn’t plan to get more nosy than I should probably, but she didn’t need to know that. “The plan always was to check out your town. I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to learn about what you’re like.”

A slow nod came from her as though she still had doubts about myself. “Sol knows, but people also value their privacy.”

“I’m not planning on intruding on anyone.” I got a raised eyebrow from her as a reply. I couldn’t refute that. I did intrude on her family. She seemed to appreciate that I looked after Louise for her, but it didn’t change that it put her off that I did join them for dinner. Understandable. “I promise I’m not going to make trouble.”

I pointed to the door, turning a little. “That wasn’t my fault. It was some guy yelling at the Basilica. I just calmed his spirits.”

“Calmed his spirits?”

“Yup. He left after our conversation. So the neighborhood’s quiet again.” That all happened, she just didn’t need to hear the middle details. I tried to give her my best assuring face. I had trouble with the small lies more than the big ones. B said it still came through my face. Short of a mirror, I was just going to take his word on that opinion. But it seemed to be enough for her.

“Try to keep it that way for Sol’s sake.”

I nodded and waved to her heading to the stairs. “I don’t look for trouble, only things to learn!” Both equally true, though the context certainly varied. But I didn’t worry over the details. I needed to check on my food quickly.

Louise did a better job than I expected. Though I’m grateful that I didn’t leave B behind. She might have seen him before I had the chance to introduce him. Though the mother was less in favor of me, so I might need to keep him a secret for a while.

She took out the fruit and vegetables that I bought, placing them in the fridge apart from everything else. Some olive oil for cooking, a small loaf of bread and potatoes lay on the counter. I found the beef left in the freezer, though since I was going to have it tonight I moved it to the fridge. Nothing to be concerned over then.

I returned to the street looking about at the direction and my mental note of the map. “Where to start…” The end goal was to get a better understanding of the situation in the town. I already knew I was dealing with the Orthodox, but even they had differing strengths on the values. A problem with interpretative principles. I had to figure out how hardline they were, but I was getting a feeling they might be pretty strict based on the limited interactions I had already.

Tugging on my sleeve, I pulled over the screen to look at the map I downloaded. “Hey B, you’ve looked over the data right?”

He popped back out crawling over my arm to look at the map. “Yes, I analyzed all the information the network made freely available.”

“What are historical landmarks or ones connected with Sciens?”

“Apart from the obvious of the Basilica, which claims to be a thousand years old. There is the Western Triumph Bridge which dates back to 635 AD and the Imperium National Plaza, I guess, former would be more correct.” He tapped on the screen to give me the coordinates and points on the map. Glancing up at the sky, both did appear to be rendered.

I looked around the sky for anything else of interest. It unfortunately only contained other contemporary structures and nothing of historical value. “And nothing for Sciens?”

“Just the Basilica, but if it's as old as they claim, their records might be the best in the entire region.”

“And zero chance of seeing those records as well.” I stared between the bridge and plaza. A memory from yesterday popped up. “He did recommend the bridge. Though he called it something different.”

“Augustus Bridge.”

“That’s right!” I charted a course along my screen. The river I saw when I came to the Corpus didn’t look too far from memory. Though the bridge was a little further away from it than I expected. But if it was a historical landmark, the bridge probably was built where the town originally was founded.

With it still being early afternoon, I kept free of many crowds. So I didn’t grab too many eyes. But since they were on edge about outsiders, I wore my Courier badge on display. It deterred anyone getting it into their head that I shouldn’t be here.

An hour hike to the near edge of Coulen brought me to the Augustus Bridge. And like the Courier said, it was quite a view, from one side. The Corpus sky kept me from seeing the other direction. The river just transitioned into the map fading into ink like the environment was merely a change of artistic style towards realism.

But downstream, towards the Corpus, I could see it wind around molded from white concrete and metal. Organic building spires grew up like trees to the river. With the map in the backdrop of the whole town, it gave an almost preserved in a globe feeling to the whole vista. I forgot for a moment that I was in a town.

It transported me away. I could almost see the outside with its wild and unchecked nature. Endless road ahead and behind with only the sun or moon as guide. A strange feeling to give me such nostalgia from inside. I doubt anyone else would feel that way looking at the view.

I’d say this was a tourist destination, if tourism was still a thing. “It’s no wonder there’s nobody around. It’s just a bridge for everyone else and maybe not even one that they trust.” While the road itself held up to today’s standards everything looked nothing like its neighbors.

The other bridges further down were thin, nearly flat with minimum material. It wasn’t a long distance, maybe a kilometer at most. So it didn’t need to be complicated. New construction materials were far stronger than the ones that dated back to the pre-Imperium era.

Where the new bridges didn’t even need supports, the white stone used for the ancient bridge had more than ten columns for support that I saw. It had spacing near the center likely for when the river used to be for trade, but the river was too narrow for even a few centuries old freight ships. Though with things being flown around, river transport probably was too archaic.

B jumped down to the wide rail along the bridge running up the length. I followed him towards what looked to be a monument out in the middle. It had a bit of yellow projected light banding around the area for caution. This was the part that held the historical value. ‘Just look, no touch’, as the saying went. “Western Triumph Bridge, victory against the Vandals northern invasion.”