City stroll

The next morning we were rudely awoken by my father stomping up the stairs. We managed to give him an unenthusiastic greeting when he came in to open the curtains, despite our tiredness.

“Another beautiful day has begun for Indestria, rise and shine!”

We went downstairs for breakfast, eggs with sausages and bread, and were quickly kicked out of the shop after we’d gotten some pocket change and new provisions. Dad also gave us a change of clothing to make us blend in better. He gave me a hat to hide my blond hair, and Chiyo exchanged her blouse for a white button-up shirt with short sleeves that she tucked into her skirt. She also put her hair up with a hairpin.

“A man’s gotta find his own place in the world, you can’t expect to leave everything to your parents!” he laughed as he shut the door behind us.

The start to our stay in the city hadn’t exactly gone as planned, since we’d hoped to be able to stay in the workshop a little while longer. That being said, we were still grateful that we’d been allowed to stay at all. Even if I was his son, allowing us to spend the night wasn’t a given with how many eyes were on him at the time.

As we left dad's shop I let Chiyo in on an idea I had been developing ever since our talk from the previous night.

“Chiyo, why don’t we take a day off today and just explore the city? We’re a bit more incognito now so it should be fine, right. Those Inquisition books or the Thieves Guild aren’t going to run away any time soon.”

She should've been focusing on trying to get home as quickly as possible, but instead Chiyo got giddy at the prospect of a city tour, and immediately started listing off all the things she wanted to see.

“The castle! I wanna see the castle! And also a souvenir shop and a little coffee house perhaps and what if we went to the Cathedral as well and walked around the old town and…”

She kept on rambling about things she wanted to see but a day is only so long, so I had to cut her short.

“Don’t get too excited now. Why don’t we make a list of the things that we absolutely need to see? Indestria is famous for its little canals running through the city, so maybe we could rent a boat and take in the view that way? I think it would be more fun than simply walking around.”

I could’ve sworn I saw stars appear in her hypnotizingly black eyes.

“Canals? Like in Venice? I want to do that! Let’s go and rent a boat, the rest can wait. But I also want to see the castle, it looked just like something out of a fairy tale from afar!”

“I can’t say I know what Venice looks like but I’m sure it doesn’t hold a candle to the water infrastructure of Indestria. Maybe we can also visit the western grand square and do some preliminary scouting of the Inquisition headquarters.”

Chiyo went pouty. “Huh? I thought you said today was a day off? I don’t want to be anywhere near that place until we absolutely need to be.”

“I see, but what if I told you that this particular square also has a coffee house that doubles as a cat shelter?”

Chiyo was torn. Apparently I had hit the mark.

“I haven’t had any coffee since I arrived here, and I’d love to pet a kitty… But did they really have to put it next to what I can only describe as the scariest place on the planet?”

“Now, now, it’s not that bad. And you know what they say: they never expect you to be right beneath their noses. But let’s put that off for now and decide after we’ve had our boat tour and castle visit.”

Chiyo, excited to get started on the boat ride, made me lead the way to the closest canal and from there on out we went looking for a boat rental. I knew that there were a few around as this was one of Indestria’s big tourist attractions. People from all over the continent came to the city to see its waterways that snaked through the city.

Soon we found a boat, paid the owner, and I started rowing while Chiyo took in the many sights that surrounded her. The canal gave views of lush shared backyards, quaint little squares with churches, parks full of fruit trees and exotic plants in orangeries, and remains of the ancient city wall and its pointy towers here and there. All of this was connected with dozens of stone and brick bridges spanning the canal.

We sat in silence, only the gushing of the water could be heard, interspersed with little gasps and wows from Chiyo. Every now and then she turned around to beam me a smile and tell me I was doing a good job of rowing, or to tell me off for going too fast. Seeing Chiyo have so much fun made me happy as well. I can't deny that I'd started falling for her. Last night's forehead kiss still lingered in my mind, I couldn't shake the thought that there had been more to it than met the eye.

After about an hour we had circled the outer canal, which used to be the moat of the old city, and went back to the boat rental shop. I got out first and helped Chiyo disembark. She almost slipped and fell into the water but managed to correct her balance right on time.

“Aah~ that was nice! This really is an amazing city. But Venice’s canals are more impressive! Though now that I think of it, I’ve only seen Venice in pictures. So I guess this is my greatest experience with a canal-city after all.”

She had clearly enjoyed herself, even if she was trying to downplay the canals.

“Don’t reduce Indestria to a canal-city, it has so much more to offer. I bet that Venice doesn’t have a lavishly decorated royal palace for instance!”

“It does.”

“Oh.”

Feeling embarrassed and hoping she wouldn’t be let down, I led Chiyo into the inner city, towards the royal castle. We crossed a busy bridge over the outer canal, and entered the old town.

It was immediately apparent that the architectural style had changed. While the outer quarters were mainly made up out of timber frame houses, here the buildings were made of stone and some even out of wood. We came across a medium sized square lined with guild houses, some up to seven floors tall.

“Those are guild houses? Are they all competing Adventurers’ Guilds perhaps? I’d love to go on a quest!” Chiyo ran up to one of the buildings and tried to look through the windows. How rude of her.

“Stop staring through the window, that’s the Fishers’ Guild. You can tell by the fish mosaic above the door. If you’re looking for the adventurers’ guild, it’s somewhere else. It’s in a dilapidated old house on the edge of town. It used to be a big thing in the run-up to the Great Holy War and during its aftermath, but these days there isn’t much use for adventurers in Scaldis. It’s a real shame. But we can carve out our own adventure, isn’t that right?”

Chiyo didn’t respond, she was too busy trying to look through the hazy glass to listen. I pulled her away from the guild house by the collar and dragged her to the royal castle.

                                                                              *

The square in front of the royal castle was surrounded on two sides by aristocrats’ city estates. A broad canal ran to our right, with the palace before us. It was an enormous white building with a black roof. Towers and chimneys cropped out from it at regular intervals, and behind it rose the staggeringly tall inner tower.

“This is so cool, I feel like a princess already just by looking at it! Hey, why don’t we book a guided tour and see the inside as well? I bet it’s filled with art and gold.”

I had to keep myself from facepalming at this question. “It’s not some museum you can just walk around in. It’s where the actual royal family lives. You won’t get in there without an invitation, and I don’t think it’s very likely we’ll get one considering our situation.”

Instead we went to sit on a bench under a tree, taking in the palace from a distance. On its steps behind a golden fence I could see some ridiculously dressed aristocrats in deep conversation with each other. I wondered what these rich parasites could be so invested in.

Chiyo, after she got done angrily stomping around over not being able to enter the palace, came to sit next to me. Our hands touched. I stole a glance at her right as she was doing the same, our eyes met and she couldn't help but start giggling. The day so far had been the most fun we’d had, and I was sure it would continue to be that way. This was our little day off.

 After she had stopped giggling, she made a decision: “Okay, if we can’t go into the palace, I guess we’ll have to check out the kitty café. I’ve been too hung up on it, but what could honestly go wrong?”

As it turns out, a lot.