Chapter 17 - Return

The sounds of raw Ficium bouncing along the road hid Pia’s sniffling well. She had stopped crying, but she hadn’t said anything since they snuck back onto the carriage. They sat on the floor of the carriage now surrounded by crates filled with rods of chalk, and bars of Ficium. The carriage had already been returned to the knight from Alvania, so now it was just a matter of waiting to return.

Tetsuo peered over to see Pia staring at the ground with red eyes. Once again, he found himself unsure how to talk to her.

“Are you okay?”

She remained unresponsive and motionless. Tetsuo looked away and went back to staring at the crates in the carriage.

“...sorry.” She whispered. “I’m… sorry.” Her voice was coarse and brittle. “I won’t do this again.”

“Well…” As much as he wanted to scold her, he felt as though she had already gone through far worse than she deserved. “It’s okay. When we get back, why don’t you just take it easy for a while.”

“Okay…”

The two rode in silence the rest of the way back.

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Alvania’s eastern gate remained abandoned per usual. While guards are meant to be stationed there, it’s generally ignored given how nobody actually uses it. Most merchants avoid doing business in Tervana, resulting in the west side not usually getting much traffic. While worried about being spotted, Tetsuo was relieved to see the guards had skirted their duties as usual, allowing them to enter without much issue.

They walked through the main road together silently. Tetsuo stopped by an Earthen bakery and bought Pia some bread to eat while they made their way over. The bread seemed stale, and the shop was filthy, but compared to Remes, Tervana could have been paradise.

“Do you have anywhere you need to be?”

Pia shook her head.

“Alright. I’ll escort you back to where you were staying. Veera is still supervising you, right?”

Pia nodded.

“Does he know what you were up to?”

Again, she shook her head.

“Alright.”

As a knight of Alvania, Tetsuo was obligated to report this incident to the capital, and have her punished accordingly. However, given her probation-like status and the state of the people in Remes, he decided he’d rather keep this under wraps for the time being.

After walking some more down the street Tetsuo spotted Veera frantically asking Wilbur about something. He seemed exasperated and nervous, a trait unbefitting of his usually confident demeanor. Wilbur spotted Tetsuo and pointed at him, Veera turning quickly to see them both. He ran over to him and Pia, his beard bouncing with each step.

“Lass! Where’ve you been!?”

Pia looked down dejectedly.

“You leave without sayin’ a thing? I’m supposed to be keepin’ after you and you go behind my back when I’m asleep? You ain’t been talkin’ to them rebels again have ya?”

Pia remained silent, seeming to worry Veera further. He looked to Tetsuo for an explanation, but he could only offer a wince as an answer.

Pia began to shudder, trying to mutter out some words. “I-’m so…rry…” Her voice trembled as she spoke.

“Lass, yer shaking…” Veera closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened them and switched to a more calm and confident cadence. “Well, let’s go home fer now. Yer here now and that’s what matters the most.” Veera reached out an arm to her, as she ambled towards him. She joined him at his side, and with a quick pat on her back they began to leave.

“Er… You want a piggyback ride. My lil’ lass loved those when she was feeling down”

Pia shook her head, but leaned against his arm as they walked away.

“Well, alright then…”

Wilbur said his goodbyes to Veera as he made his way to Tetsuo, eyes filled with concern. “Hey, um, I heard part of it from Veera. But um, what happened last night?”

Tetsuo sighed. “It’s a long story. My fault for trying to do knights work off-duty.”

“You were there for the meeting right, is this related to that?”

“No not really, just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time.”

“I see…” Wilbur seemed like he wanted to ask more, but dropped it as he moved forwards with a different question. “Well, what about the meeting? Did she accept the proposal?”

“Oh yeah. It went really well-” Everything that had happened with Pia had caused Tetsuo to nearly forget about what Eleanor had told him. “Well, it was good, but she still rejected it. She seemed open to talking about other… uh… options though.”

Wilbur sighed as he and Tetsuo moved to the side of the street. “I had a feeling she would. When it comes to Ficium and Remes, her family is the only one who deals with that sort of stuff.” Wilbur pulled a note pad out from one of the pouches of the bandolier over his chest and began flipping through the pages. “Maybe if we keep the research up we can make a more solid proposal, and put her in a scenario where she can’t say no… Or a forced compromise could work too..?” Wilbur began to mutter to himself as he looked through his notes.

“Um, Wilbur?” Tetsuo asked. “What do you know about Earthens and other kingdoms?”

Wilbur stopped his muttering and quickly responded. “There’s nothing to know.” Tetsuo seemed taken aback by this. “What I mean is, there are no Earthens in other kingdoms. Alvania’s summoning phenomenon is unique and nonreplicable. No one knows what causes it. Other kingdoms consider the land to be cursed, and avoid it. Earthens are the dead spirits born again is one running theory, although we have nothing to back it up. Alvania is pretty rich with natural resources and defenses, but because of our status as ‘the cursed city of the dead’ most other kingdoms are too scared to try to trade or invade.”

“What about Remes though?”

“Remes is an exception. It was formed around the same time the kingdom was, and although it exists as its own place, you could say Alvania and Remes were effectively founded together, since they were both established as a response to the summoning phenomenon. Even so, the kingdom doesn’t really rule over them and prefers to keep information about Remes very private. Allegedly, they aren’t as fortified as us so it’s a way of protecting it.”

Tetsuo thought back to how easy it was to sneak into the kingdom. The comment about Remes being self-governed brought back images of the gold robed leader towering over them chanting. He hadn’t noticed until recently but churches in Alvania rarely had much of an influence over anything. While there were a few belief systems in practice and a few inherited from Earth in Tervana, Alvanians seemed to treat it with an air of casualness that was unfamiliar to Tetsuo.

“Oh yeah! I wanted to ask. You know that knights vow we have. Erres vol itura. You said Earthens know the language here by default when arriving, but none of those words exist for me. Is it from a different language or something?”

“Sort of. It’s from an ancient language used by the founders of the kingdom. It’s become lost to time by now, but we know it meant something along the lines of ‘no loss.’ We’ve kept it as the slogan for the knights as tradition, since we, you know, prevent losses of life. In theory.”

Tetsuo paused and reflected on what this meant. Another question rose to his mind, although he felt hesitant to ask. He looked up at Wilbur, who seemed to be genuinely enjoying their discussion. “...what about ‘viera al vivicium?’ Do you know what that might mean?”

Wilbur repeated the phrase to himself. “Where did you hear it?”

“Oh well… I heard some kids shouting it while playing, I didn’t know it so I didn’t know if it was from an Earth language or something from outside Alvania.”

“Sorry, I can’t say I know. I can assure you, it’s not from outside Alvania though. Like I said, kingdoms avoid us, so we really don’t know much about others aside from what some travelers and vagabonds would have to say. Those kids probably made something up while playing a game.”

“Right…” Tetsuo tried to judge if Wilbur had been telling him the truth. His expression remained the same, and his stutter seemed to have faded the way it normally did when he was enjoying a conversation. “Alright well, thanks anyways.”

For now, what was happening in Remes, and whether Alvania had any part in it would remain a mystery. Despite how kind Alvania had been to him when he had arrived, the illusion of a perfect magical kingdom distorted with each question he found an answer for. He became a knight with the pretense of serving the kingdom and helping its citizens. Although he had other reasons for doing so, he was beginning to wonder if the oath was all that much more of a truth.