Chapter 15 - Stowaway

“What are you doing here?!” Tetsuo asked in a hushed voice. “Why are you out alone at night? Where’s Veera?”

Pia waved her hands in front of her, telling him to calm down.

“Do you know how reckless this is? They barely let you free and now you go and do this? You’re lucky I trusted my gut and didn’t just tell the guard. Do you know what they would have done if they caught you doing this again?”

The carriage caught a small hole in the road, bouncing both of them with a faint thud.

“Hm?” The guard beyond the tarp seemed faintly curious about the noise. Pia put a finger to her mouth, signaling to Tetsuo to quiet down. Reluctantly he obeyed, listening for the guards next action. Pia quickly turned a dial on her lantern, extinguishing the flame. They both waited for what felt like an eternity, listening to the vacka pressing onwards.

“It’s empty…” Pia silently whispered.

“What?” Tetsuo looked around and realized that aside from them, the carriage was barren. “Oh yeah, I guess so.”

“It’s the same as before…”

“Were you trying to steal weapons again?”

Pia shook her head. “When they leave, it’s empty. When they come back there’s metal and chalk. They said they’re carrying weapons but there are none here.”

“Wrong carriage maybe?”

Pia shook her head again. “They watched it for months before I was here. This is the only carriage that goes for Remes.”

The two of them sat in a confused silence. Tetsuo’s eyes began to adjust to the darkness beneath the tarp, and could see Pia tracing on the floor with her finger. She began scratching her head erratically, growing more bothered by something she couldn’t seem to understand.

“Where are the weapons..?”

Tetsuo seemed a bit concerned by her agitation. “Why do you need weapons so bad?”

“I don’t need them. I need to know where they are.” Tetsuo’s confused look encouraged her to continue. “They keep sending materials for weapons, but Alvania doesn’t give them to Earthens.” Tetsuo attempted to raise a remark, but she caught him before he could. “Yes I know, except for you and the two other Earthen knights.” She raised her hand, asking him to pause and let her finish. “If Alvania doesn’t give weapons to Earthens, mostly, and Alvania doesn’t give them to Remes, where are they?”

The carts prattling began to slow, interrupting their conversation.

“Quick!” Tetsuo lifted up the tarp and silently crept out of the back of the carriage, Pia following suite. The moon above dimly lit the trail, a gravel path that passed through rocky plains with a steep trench off to the side. The two of them dove into the trench, and peered over at the carriage. It was stopped beside a small brick building, with light glowing from within. The knight riding the carriage entered the building. For a few minutes the carriage stood outside, until a shorter robed figure exited the building and assumed the riders position on the coach. A sharp whip rang out and the robed figure resumed along the path.

Tetsuo quickly scanned the area, before signaling to Pia to join him back on the carriage. He figured at this point they’d be better off following the carriage than stranded in the middle of barren land, with no knowledge of how to get back. They both slinked back onto the carriage as it began to pick up speed. Pia moved to turn her lantern back on but Tetsuo stopped her, indicating that for now it would be best not to. She returned the lantern to the belt on her side and they both sat in silence waiting for the next stop.

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A steep incline interrupted their silent ride, as they both tumbled to the back of the carriage. With the commotion they had made, they both quickly dove back out of the carriage to avoid being discovered. Despite the noise, it seems like the driver hadn’t noticed, or if he had then he decided he hadn’t. The nature ahead of them seemed similar to where they had been before, but with more dust in the air, and the hill in front of them that the trail led up. The vacka pulled the carriage up the hill, as Tetsuo and Pia trailed behind from a distance. 

The hill itself wasn’t tall, but it stretched out widely to the sides, obscuring what lay behind. Scaling the hill was more tiring than what he was used to in this world with Ars, surprising Tetsuo. He took in a deep breath, trying to replenish his energy, but was forced to stifle a cough from the dust he had inhaled. He raised his collar over his nose and continued to the top.

The two of them crouched near the peak of the hill, the carriage having already gone past it. They carefully peered over the peak, to find what seemed to be a dilapidated mining community within a massive sunken crater. The walls leading into the crater were long and steep, with several trails that snaked along it. The bottom of the crater was well below surface level, to the point where the town would have been buried if this area was level with it’s surroundings. The buildings appeared to be made of wood but were coated in a thick pale white dust. Many of them seemed to be close to collapsing, and the few that had light coming from them were surrounded by countless ragged tents.

Pia shook Tetsuo’s shoulder to get his attention. She pointed towards a cave in the distance that some people were shambling in and out of. They carried wheelbarrows of large chalky stones, dumping it into a large pile near one of the illuminated buildings. Towards the centre of the encampment a large stone building huffed a white smoke that rose into the air clouding the sky above. Tetsuo motioned for Pia, as they saw their carriage descend through a small narrow passageway leading into the crater. They followed suit, trailing the side of the path attempting to avoid being seen.

Within the crater, they quickly broke away from the path trailing the perimeter of the encampment, lurking behind buildings. A few people in ragged clothing stumbled by, forcing the two of them to duck behind a collapsed wall. They seemed to have noticed, but chose to ignore them, dragging rusty wheelbarrows and dull pickaxes to a cavern. A guard covered in full metal armor, supervised the entrance.

Pia tugged at Tetsuo’s arm pulling his focus away from the guard. She pointed to a tattered poster, held down by a brick that had fallen from the wall. Tetsuo lifted the sheet from underneath the brick, revealing its contents. In the center was an insignia with three stacked triangles, the colors long faded from the sheet. The writing above where it wasn’t ripped was foreign, surprising Tetsuo.

Pena scerva, vivio al vivicium.

The writing on the bottom was more similar to what Tetsuo had become used to in Alvania.

Each step forward, a life towards eternity.