Chapter 11:

The Privilege of Carrying the Burdens

Lotian, City of Light


Part 1

“So, your brother gave up on both you and your father?” Orim asks

“Yes,” Franklin confirms, “there will probably be news of an investigation to uncover my father’s motivations then after they uncover more fake evidence they will execute him, i don’t believe they will come after me though.”

How can he say that so casually? Orim thinks, watching Franklin closely.

“Are you alright with this?”

“What? Of course not. It’s just that. I don’t know what to do.”

“So you’ll do nothing?” Orim says, crossing his arms.

“Do you have any idea on what to do?” Franklin says,anger in his voice and eyes.

“I’m not the one you should be directing your anger towards,” Orim says, “your brother is the one that did all of that.”

Dix still remains silent, sitting on the bed, back against the wall hugging her knees.

“My brother is not at fault here, whoever plotted all of this is. And he just won.”

“And you will not try to fight back?” Dix asks, “doesn’t sound like you at all.”

“Give me some time to think.” Franklin says, getting up and leaving the room.

Part 2

Purple wakes up early, the day before Gyles Dawnlight announced that his father and his brother were the true culprits of the Brownstone Tragedy. Purple puts on his clothes, pays the innkeeper for one last meal and heads out to the stars district streets, something is not right, i need to investigate this further, he thinks while walking with no attention being paid to where he is going.

He stops to check the newspaper, “Previous Lord Dawnlight to be judged by the destruction of Brownstone Keep” Purple reads it out loud to himself, they sure work fast. He proceeds to take a lift and descends to commons and after that, takes a second gate directly to South Whisper.

“Don’t you want to take a charriage sir?” An old man with a thick mustache and wearing common clothes says to purple as he passes the outer limits of the city towards one of the hallways, “it is quite a long walk till the next room, sir.”

Purple stops and looks the old man in the eyes, then he puts a smile on his face and strikes an heroic pose.

“But of course, i’m never above helping those in need, even if it’s simply giving coins in trade for services. Take me there.” Purple said loudly.

Part 3

Franklin walked between the trees that looked like stone, no place, direction or person in particular were in his mind at the moment, which meant that Rel Jorgun would take him exactly nowhere at all.

He just walked and walked, step after step, thought after thought, why did i acted like that? I should be the one shouldering it all, it’s not for them to lift me up out of bad moods, Orim should be upset that he lost everything due to something so out of his control. And Dix, she says she’s fine, but i’m sure she still feels the deaths of Sige and Lipa. I have to do better, not only for myself, but for them.

Franklin turned around, though a pointless act giving the place he was currently in, some habits are hard to get rid of. He walked with large steps and a clear image of the Radiant Elk in his mind.

Part 4

The charioteer annoyed Purple the whole way with his chit chat.

“Do you have business to attend there?” The old man asks.

“Business? You certainly could say that. I actually work there.”

“Ohh… so i’m transporting one of the bigshots uhh?”

“You certainly could say that too.”

“I never seen one of you using a sword, are you a guard?” The old man eyes Purple carefully.

“I’m one of the reavers.” Purple replies.

The charioteer’s expression abruptly changes as if Purple had pulled a knife on him, distancing himself a little. Boredom immediately gets stamped on Purple’s face, what an original reaction, he thinks with sarcasm in his thoughts while deciding what to say.

“Don’t worry,” he reconforts the man, “you aren’t in danger.”

They continue to travel, this time in silence until they arrive at their destination, the charioteer watching Purple carefully from the corner of his eyes. Not long after, Purple gets out of the chariage, pays the man and heads toward the Canton of Peace, for his appointment with his master.

“The eldritch eater, master’s favorite pet.” Comes a voice of scorn from the top of the stairs.

“Spare me the sarcasm Red, i’m just here to speak to master, i’ll get far away from you and from here as soon as it’s over.” Purple says in a conciliatory tone while climbing the steps to the front door.

Red, a woman that, like Purple, appeared to be no older than sixteen, short red hair and eyes and sharp teeth. Today she was wearing a simple white shirt buttoned all the way up and if not for the pair of tight light brown pants accompanied by boots of the same color, one could mistake her for a boy with feminine features.

Red positioned herself in Purple’s way, he promptly deviated from his path to avoid colliding with her, and as he sidestepped his fellow reaver, she moved in to attack. He quickly turned ninety degrees and used his hand to stop a punch coming straight for his face, his pivot foot sunk on the ground, raising stone shards and cracking the steps under him. Purple jumped backwards.

“What was that all about?” He demanded, more annoyed than angry.

Red returned to a casual pose before replying.

“Just felt like it,” she said in dismissal, “you know, see if i could punch some teeth out of your mouth, nothing special.”

Purple grunted and entered the building, Red didn’t make any other efforts to stop him from doing so.

Part 5

Franklin stormed inside the room, a wide smile on his face, two wide strides took him from the door to the bedside, where Dix was still sitting.

“Where’s Orim?” He asked.

“Whent to his room, said he would continue to work on his project.”

“I see.”

Franklin knocks hard on the wall to his left.

“Orim, i’m back, come here.” He shouts.

A hundred taks later, Orim was once again sitting on the table of the room, Franklin took his place on the chair and Dix remained on the bed. The markings on the tak glass indicating twenty seven thousand taks had already passed, it would be half morning on the outside.

“That certainly did not take long.” Orims says to Franklin, “are you sure you are all better?”

It’s not a matter of getting better, i must push forward, i mustn’t give in, Franklin thinks before replying.

“I’m fine, i just needed to better organize my thoughts.”

“So,” Dix says, “do you have a plan?”

“Unfortunately no, i came here so we could figure something out.”

“Let’s first start with what we know, then break it all down in smaller portions.”

Dix and Franklin nod in agreement, Orim proceeds.

“What do we know about all of this?”

“My family was framed by the destruction of brownstone keep.” Franklin says first.

“Do we have any solid proof of that?” Orim questions.

“If i had, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“There’s what happened with Lipa and Sige.” Dix adds, an almost imperceptible trembling in her voice as she says it.

“You two said that Cyne was the one responsible for that right?” The two nod, “And that’s why the wispshapers came to my shop that night.”

“Yes. And the fact that Dix's employer was Wisym, must mean that both situations were connected in some way.” Franklin suggests.

“The problem right now is to figure out how they are connected and to find a way to use that knowledge to our advantage,” Orim says, “anyway, i think it is safe to assume that even if we were to hide, i doubt that the ones responsible would want to leave loose ends.”

“Agree.” Dix and Franklin said together.

“One thing i’m sure,” Franklin continues, “we need to find Ardyn.”

“That the servant that sent us to North Whisper, right?”

Franklin nods.

“Wait, who is this Ardyn?” Orim questions.

“He interrupted our fight and used some strange magic to send us to North Whisper.” Dix explains.

“You two fought?”

“Didn’t we tell you that?” Dix asks.

“No! Why did you fought one another?”

“A chance meeting when i was doing my job.” Dix explains casually.

Realization comes to Orim, leaking out to his expression.

“That’s it!” He yells triumphantly.

“What is?” Franklin asks, confused.

“If both your situations are connected, what Dix was meant to steal should be important right?” Orim says leaning forward, “Do you know what it was?”

“No, they only told me that it was a small ornamented box and where to find it. That Wisym guy sure seemed really eager to get it.” Dix notes.

“Alright, but what about it?” Franklin asks, not sure where Orim plans to go with this chain of thought.

“Simple!” Orim says matter of factly, “Why don’t we steal it for ourselves? It will probably have some hint of what their plan was.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Franklin says, “not only is it too risky, but it could not even be there anymore.”

“It’s our only lead.” Orim notes.

“It’s still too risky, we should find Ardyn first.”

“He’s probably in your family estate, we can’t go there, what if they give us to the authorities. Also would be a waste of time and resources.”

“But--”

“I can do it!” Dix interjects, “the wispshaper’s citadel, that is, if you go with me in case i need some help escaping it, i believe i can do it.”

Part 6

The Canton of Peace was a large square building surrounded by towers connected by covered hallways that gave it an appearance similar to a castle, numerous bureaucrats, secretaries and runner boys moving with haste all over the place. The white noise of conversations was enough to make at least three people go insane each year, still, a position in the canton was sought out by many in all of Lotian, since one wouldn’t need to be dispatching troops to earn a lot of money, the hazard bonus due to the noise was enough to make even the runner boys paycheck value go through the roof.

Purple successfully ignored the noise of human conversations that was almost omnipresent all the way up to the second to last floor. He could have used the lifts up, but he wasn’t exactly looking forward to the meeting, so Purple decided to take his time going up.

The steps to the meeting room on the top floor were covered in a purple and golden carpet that went all the way up to the tall wood double door with the image of some of the gods carved on them, where two guards stood, and continued inside the room. Purple opened the door, shelves of books decorated the side walls and divided the large room in numerous smaller rooms, a second floor was built so that one could more easily have access to the books that were higher up, reading tables were positioned at the center of the smaller rooms all illuminated by the same glass spheres common in the hallways of Lotian. A corridor connected the door to the windows at the opposite end of the room, where all the truly important meetings took place.

As Purple approached, the two ends of the long table became visible and the voices became more clear. His master was talking with two other men that Purple didn’t recognize.

“As we previously discussed over the farvoice, our Darkeyed are currently on rotation on the battlefield.” Said a scrawny looking man with grey hair and bony hands, wearing orange and brown robes, a black circlet on his head.

“And you came here to request help from me and my reavers.” Purple’s master said.

“The situation is quite grimm, over thirty wispshapers have already been killed.” The second man on the right side of the table said, black lead colored clothes with white lines on it and a white circlet on his head.

Purple stopped near the table and bowed, waiting for his master to finish.

“Grimm indeed...”

“Please, we beg of you Lord Alard, we won’t be able to maintain the creature away from the towns nearby for much longer.” plead the man in orange in brown.

“We are sending our wispshapers to our deaths every day.” Said the man in grey.

The man called Alard, Purple’s master, made an apologetic gesture with both his hands toward the two men sitting opposite to him.

“You got me wrong, i do intend to lend a helping hand on this matter, i was just trying to figure out a suitable payment.”

“And what would you have in mind, Lord Alard?” The man in grey asked.

“Why don’t we settle for a favor?” Purple’s master said, a malicious smile that did a poor job of hiding his true intentions, “to be claimed on a later date.”

The two men shared a look of apprehension with each other.

“We were hoping to pay your lordship in hard currency.” The old man in orange in brown said hesitantly.

“You two seem to be running low on resources, giving the current predicament. What i offer you is a way to pay back my kindness without having to spend even a meager earth piece.”

“Wouldn’t you reconsider the terms and accept our coins instead?” The man in grey said.

“I’ve already got enough coins as it is? Why would i want more?”

The men exchanged looks once more, they knew they had no other choice, they just had to accept the deal and hope for the best.

“Alright...” the man in grey sighed and lowered his head, then raised it again, “we accept your terms.”

“Good, give me some time to select my best and pass on the orders. Expect them to be arriving in two days maximum once the writ of vows arrives.”

The two men got up, and then bowed towards Alard.

“We thank you for your generosity.” The old man in orange said.

“When you two get back, i want you to send me all the information you have on this beast.”

The two men bow once again and leave the room, passing by Purple, but paying him no mind, Alard got up from his chair and looked in Purple's direction.

“Still with that purple cape?” Alard says, as he passes by.

Purple looks at his cape, confused, i’m quite sure this is black, what is he talking about?

“I assume you came here to report on the gravity spirit matter.” Alard said as he climbed the steps to the second floor.

Purple rushed to follow after him.

“Unfortunately, sir, i’m still without any cities.” He said approaching.

Alard’s hand moved with unnatural speed as if pulled by an invisible set of strings, combined with Purple’s guard being down, finds its way to the reaver’s chin. Purple gets a back hand fisted across the face, which sends him spinning across the ground.

“Don’t come here to inform me of how much of a failure you are, come when you get results.” Alard said, his unchanging voice making Purple wonder if he was angry or getting some twisted pleasure out of doing that.

“Yes sir...”

Interlude

Emily Dawnlight was sitting in her small camp in the Hornwilds, in the shadow of one of the large trees. The strange plants that grew with horn-like shapes were the same one could find all over Lotian, the only thing that was different was their size and form.

The trees grew all around the colossal room, the floor, the walls, the ceiling, even from themselves. The result of that was that the illusory sky, common in most regions was eclipsed and the trees started to emit their own luminescence, feeding on the sky’s light.

Emily was wearing a simple buttoned shirt that used to be green in color but now looked more like it was made of earth and grass, a pair of loose black pants that went down to half her calves and no shoes to add the finishing touches. She was drinking a generous mug of coffee, a bruise on the left cheek still felt faintly painful, but it was a small price to pay for the black drink she saw in front of her. On her left hand, she was holding the newspaper, bold letters claimed that her father and brother were responsible for the destruction and murder of a large amount of wispshapers and their base of opperations.

Not that she cared for it, she had left the house for a handful of years now, the only ties she still held was her name, even her hair was of a different color, she became the only Dawnlight with blonde hair when her mother died after giving birth to Gyles, her youngest brother.

On her right hand, she was alternating between the coffee mug and a spoon, with which she mixed the beans inside a can while a small fire heated them up. Once the contents started to boil, she knew her lunch was ready, wrapping a cloth around it, she put the can, still wrapped, between her legs and began eating the beans and the coffee while reading the news.

She finished her meal, extinguished the fire, drank the last of her coffee and went to wash the can of beans in the river nearby then returned the now clean can to a large backpack that she left in the camp, now she had some obligations to fulfill.

From the same backpack, she removed her battle attire, a brownish red leather vest with a forest green shirt underneath, she tied her blonde hair in a pony tail and swapped her loose pants with a more tight pair for ease of movement, black boots complimented her outfit and she began to move.

Emily jumped from tree to tree with certainty of where she was going, she felt the wind brush against her skin and changed her path to northwind.

She stopped once the vibrations reached her feet, her target certainly felt her presence, as she felt his. A small hole opened in the space on her right side, Emily put her hand inside and drew a clear glass blade, as long as she was tall.

The handle and pommel were about three handspan long, the guard was composed of a piece of glass in the form of a drop of water that offered little to no protection, a straight double edged blade covered the rest of the length. If one were to look closely, it would see words along the whole blade not just on the surface, but also on the inside, as if the sword was casted around them.

Emily did a test swing, the clear blade that was hard to see while standing still became almost impossible to track when it moved. And then she waited, as the tremors got stronger and she looked up to see why she came here.

A gigantic black and dark grey centipede like monster was descending from the trees, instead of insectoid legs, it had human arms in their place that sprouted in all directions along the whole length of it’s body. The head was disturbingly similar to that of a human, but it’s eyes had mouths in their place that along it’s regular one had dozens of sharp teeth and each three were big enough to swallow her whole. On the inside, a source of light that glowed a dark gold would faintly come out from the eyes and mouth giving the impression of the creature being hollow.

The monster howled, the air shock and undulated by the force generated, even nature shied away and the light dimed around Emily. She assumed a fighting stance as one of the black hands reached down to her.

Part 7

Purple returned to South Whisper, running this time, as it would be faster than taking another charriage, his face throbbed with pain where his master hitted him a few hundred taks ago. He walks the streets of the great city, searching for a specific alley, that one alley that exists in every city that is big enough to have one.

He enters it, proceeding through the narrow corridors littered with trash.

“Gentleman,” Purple says when he hears footsteps coming towards him, “i--”

“Who’s the freak?” A voice comes from further inside the dark alley.

Purple sighs, here we go again, he thinks.

***

Shortly after a brief encounter on the alley of South Whisper, Purple stands inside a room with very little illumination, with another man inside with him.

“Let’s be brief.” Purple says, “what do you know about the recent actions of Franklin Dawnlight?”

“Killed a bunch of people in Brownstone Keep, destroyed the place then ran away and killed himself in the ghost woods.”

The same as the other one, “What about the new Lord Dawnlight?” Purple asks.

“Excellent for business, the wispshapers are mad with his family, they don’t even respond to calls for help that come from business associated with the Dawnlights. A lot of their workforce is also leaving them, unless the previous lord is executed soon, the whole family will collapse.”

That’s new information.

“Well, thank you sir.” Purple threw a bag of coins on the floor, “for the information and the door.”

“The door?” The man asks.

As the information broker finished his question, Purple kicked down the door and walked away.

-june-
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