The Town Before the Wall

As isolated as it was, Edgeton was surprisingly large. What I had expected to be maybe a dozen flimsy shacks was actually a fortress town built against a ten-meter stone wall patrolled by countless armed guards. All that was missing was a European style castle, but even that niche was filled by an imposing tower that stood at least twice as tall as the wall.

"Why's there no wall on this side?" I asked Bixey as we made our way up the road to the town.

"Why would there be? All the 'demons and monsters' are on the north side, remember?"

"Right."

I'd gotten so used to Bixey and Yahime's company that I'd forgotten.

"Now look sharp, there's some shady looking guards at the checkpoint ahead."

Shady was right. Standing on either side of a lone, doorless, wooden gate were a pair of plump looking guards. Their faces were scruffy and greasy, perfectly matching their grimy leather uniforms. Even the chain mail peeking from the bottom of their uniforms was tinged orange. The only intimidating parts of them were the polished halberds in their hands and even that was undercut by the fact one of the guards was leaning against his, snoring.

"Wake the hell up, Keaton," the slightly more alert guard barked. He shoved his companion, nearly knocking the sleeping man over.

"Piss off," Keaton said, yawning. "You mistake another bird shadow for a dragon again?"

"No, we've got a trio of suspicious looking travelers."

"Travelers?"

Keaton perked at the news and looked us over. Bixey was back to her own form and Yahime was covered nearly head to toe aside from her eyes. We were suspicious no matter how I looked at it and I wondered if we should have avoided the town entirely.

"It's the easiest way through," Bixey had said. "Plus I know some people that will make sneaking past the wall a breeze."

"Identify yourselves!" the guard, Keaton, yelled even though we were standing in front of him. "What business do you have this far north?"

"We're on a pilgrimage," Bixey replied. She gave the guards a strange bow that I clumsily copied while Yahime stood still. "From the East to the West, South and now North, we have traversed the entirety of the Empire. This is our final destination."

"The entirety of the empire?!"

"Bullshit. Don't believe a word they say, Gelle. How could this ragtag group of women traverse the entire empire?"

"What does being a woman have to do with it?" I snapped. I hadn't meant to, but something about the guard's tone poked me the wrong way.

"I'm saying," Keaton said, stepping closer, "that there's no way three women made a pilgrimage across the entire empire alone. Especially not ones as tasty as yourselves."

My stomach lurched. Now that he was closer I could smell the soured ale on his breath and the odor emanating from him was like hot sick boiling in a pot.

"We weren't alone," Bixey interjected. She stepped between me and the guard and gently pushed us apart. "We had a retinue of guards that were killed by Seele a few days ago."

Both the guards' eyes widened at the news and their demeanor shifted. Fear consumed arrogance and a moment later they both looked like they were ready to run away screaming. I didn't blame them.

"S-Seele? How many?"

"A pack of at least two dozen," I said. It wasn't a complete lie. There may have been that many for all I knew.

"We need to tell Captain Murus immediately," Gelle said. "If there are more out there…"

"How do we know they're telling the truth?" Keaton argued, though his voice was shaking as much as his knees.

"Will this help?"

I pulled my Seele fang knife from my satchel and held it out on full display. The blood drained from the guards' faces.

"Go, now!"

Whimpering, Gelle turned and power walked through the gate and down the town street. If we were lucky, all the soldiers in Edgeton would be as cowardly and out of shape.

"Can we pass then? We might seem calm but we're exhausted and want to pray for our fallen comrades."

"O-Of course," Keaton said. "Please…"

My heart caught in my throat when he paused and his eyes lingered on Yahime's. We'd hoped to distract the guards enough that they wouldn't pay her much mind and I'd thought we'd gotten away with it.

"Go ahead."

I hid my sigh of relief and waved Yahime to follow closely. I could feel Keaton's lingering suspicion, but fear of a pack of man-eating Seele had stolen any cares the man previously held. So we passed through before he could change his mind.

"Welcome to Edgeton!" Bixey elbowed my arm, grinning. "Bet you were worried, weren't ya?"

"Of course I was worried!" I hissed. "What were we going to do if they didn't buy that pilgrimage bit? Fight our way through?"

Bixey shook her head. "I told you this was the easiest way to get to the north, not the only. If we'd failed, we'd have just run and crossed through the mountains."

I looked at the towering mountains to my left and right. A never ending range with peaks hidden beyond veils of thick white clouds. Edgeton was definitely the right choice. Plus it was nice to be around civilization.

Not that there was much to speak of. Despite its appearance at a distance, the actual town of Edgeton was closer to my original expectation. The buildings were sturdy and made of quality lumber and stone, but almost all of them looked like they hadn't been maintained in decades. Crumbled foundations, cracked walls, boarded windows. The place was destitute and, to top it off, a ghost town. There were only a handful of people in the main street that cut through the town and not a single one would look me in the eye. All of their heads were hung low as if they were trying to hide and their clothes were barely better than the rags I'd been wearing when I'd arrived in the world. Gaunt faced and despondent with no life in their eyes. It was a town of shuffling corpses.

"Is it always this depressing?" I asked in a hushed whisper. "This place feels… off."

Bixey shrugged. "Most of the people who live here are descendants of the people who built the wall. They've never known any other life and just scrape by. Those lucky enough get conscripted into the guard and get to eat three meals a day. The rest get whatever scraps are left."

"That's horrible! Why don't they leave?"

"To where? And with what money? You should know, you almost died trying to get here."

She's right. I should know better than anyone how hard it is. If it had been as easy as just going somewhere else, I would have quit my job and started somewhere new instead of killing myself.

A swell of resentment and regret rose in me. Why hadn't I just quit and started again? Fear? I tried to remember a reason, any reason, that made sense. Why had I chosen to jump instead? Had I really been as trapped as I'd felt?

Or had that been the reason. Had I always had the option to find a better life and not realized? Probably. Between my parents and societal standards, my happiness had felt disposable, like a luxury I would never be able to afford no matter what I did. It didn't matter if it was true or not; I'd been conditioned to believe it.

"Let's just find a place to stay for the night," I mumbled, trying to push down my growing self-loathing.

"I know just the place, but it'll be easier if I go alone first."

"But that's—"

"Don't wander too far, I'll be back soon!"

Before I could protest, Bixey was walking away, hand waving behind her. I could have followed but decided against it. For all her flippancy, Bixey knew how to get things done and if she thought she needed to go alone, there was a reason.

"Now what," I asked Yahime. "Should we go check out those… two stalls?"

Despite there being more stalls lining the street, only two had anything or anyone at them. Even from a distance I could tell they were selling questionably edible produce.

"You're right," I said when Yahime didn't answer. "We've got nothing better to do."

12:01:31