The chamber door closed behind me as I gleefully raced out to the entryway of the assembly hall. Having sent my companions away hours ago, I was on my own to make my way back to the Triple Monarch.
Both Consular Gracci and Lord Adellin had offered to arrange for a guard detail—after I declined Lady Elin's insistence that she make a call to the Astral Knights to send an escort. I declined the three of them as I wanted to spend some time around the city myself.
A shiver ran down my spine as I crossed the room at the thought of the scolding I'd get from both Hailey and Julius if they knew I was going to trounce off on my own.
Better make sure they just don't find out!
I pushed open one of the double-doors, preparing to meet a bright and sunny day. Instead it seemed the day was already well into the evening. Not realizing just how long I'd been conversing with the elven council members my arm instinctively reached up to scratch at my cheek.
Ah, they're definitely gonna kill me when I get back to the inn…
"Heh." I let out a nervous chuckle and stepped down the stairway, disappearing into the winding streets of Umbraedomis.
My destination was a market district that was in the direction of, and pretty close to, the Triple Monarch. Unlike the shopping we'd done at the shops near the canals yesterday which were on the far south-eastern end of the city.
Rounding the corner of what was likely an alleyway, I emerged onto the main road that opened up to the main market.
Stalls were scattered all across an expansive white-stone terrace. They ranged from smaller one to two person outfits, to larger ones that housed a few dozen people browsing merchandise. Most of the stalls were flashy, with bright cloth and shiny trimming.
One such garish stall caught my eye, as they had two posed mannequin figures sporting beautiful cloaks. I found one that met my preference, that it be in a red that matched my uniform. Of the possible choices, it seemed to be around average, between being too overly gaudy or awfully plain.
I approached a woman seated at a table near the front.
"Excuse me," I inquired in elvish, "Do you accept imperial coinage for sales?"
The woman lifted her head up with a puzzled look, likely wondering why I had asked such a weird question.
"Of course I do, what other payments would… Oh, by the stars! A human at my shop? My husband will never believe it."
"Ah, well my apologies for the trouble. I've only recently arrived and wasn't sure if everyone accepted them."
In truth, we'd purchased our swimming wear and a few other necessities when we were with Lira yesterday, but she had handled the purchases and I didn't even think to ask what sort of currency the people here used.
I gave the woman a single gold coin, and received a dozen silver in return. The price wasn't too far off what you'd pay for something similar in Axio, so I was satisfied.
The shopkeeper remarked that I looked rather well armored for a traveler, her gaze lingered on my circlet and chron… chromiansteel?—my armor. She had a few questions about how many humans were in the city I came from, if I was some sort of adventurer, and if other humans knew about their city.
I tried my best to answer her while also trying to deflect and not tell too much, since I had just agreed to the Consular's request that we hold off on any sort of announcements to the Aestori population.
After managing to sate the woman's curiosity, I set off through the market again clad in my new cloak with its hood raised. With any luck I'd avoid any more conversations about humanity's fate tonight.
-✵-
Sitting on a bench at the edge of the market, I gently chewed on pieces of some kind of salted nut that I'd purchased from a nearby stall.
I watched as people made their way through the shops, my heart ached with a mix of guilt and jealousy.
If I could give the people back in Tolin even a fraction of the serenity found here—Huh? What was that?
A blur of motion interrupted the peace in the square. One figure came racing through the main street, being chased by half a dozen bulky figures. Probably city guards, judging by their tight formation.
I dropped my interest in the guards and tried to spot their quarry, if they were chasing someone through the city there must be some sort of reason. I was still snacking on my salty treat and was curious to see how this would play out, so I quickly took off after them.
The figure being followed was much more nimble than their pursuers, but not faster.
One of the guards nearly grabbed them, a hand flailed through the air as their prey rolled to the right and leapt towards a nearby narrow alleyway.
I was trailing behind the group to avoid suspicion, but as I peeked around the corner I saw an unbelievable feat of athleticism.
The person being chased jumped at one of the walls, kicked up off on the smooth stone flinging themselves higher to the parallel wall, and with another graceful thrust pushed themselves up onto the roofs above.
Anguished shouts echoed down the alleyway and the guards raced to follow them from the ground.
At this point I feared I'd lose them as well so, hoping that they'd have enough magicka for me to sense them, I channeled part of my mental focus into tracking their magicka signature.
Since only a few entities were moving quickly through the nearby area, it was simple to isolate the person being chased from the pursuing guards.
I ran through the streets, following the mental blip as it ran east, clutching at my hood to keep it in place.
The market square was separated on its eastern edge by a cliff-faced drop off, and soon the one fleeing had ran out of roof tops to bound from. Along the elevated terrain were a series of stairways and walkways that led down the cliffs or across them to other hilly outcrops.
One of those walkways was a fairly wide bridge that spanned a valley overgrown with tall grass and unkempt bushes.
I stared in awe as the figure jumped from the last row of buildings down to the bridge, sliding through a break in the railing, and disappearing into the foliage below.
Expecting them to continue running, I quickly began my descent to follow—but came to a stop on a ledge about halfway down, as the mental blip remained stationary.
Maybe they hurt themselves during the slide and fell?
I had no way of knowing if they were a criminal or some sort of wicked-minded person, but if they were injured and left down there on their own they might die. I waited until the guards passed by and then starting climbing down again.
After nearly losing my footing on the last rocky ledge I landed on solid ground and stumbled awkwardly towards the magicka signature.
Between the setting sun and the wild brush around me, there was no way anyone could've spotted them. Which probably made my emergence from the tall grass that much more surprising for the person trying to hide just a few feet ahead of me.
Sitting in the dirt clutching her arms close to her chest was a small and slender girl. She looked no bigger than a child not quite into adolescence. A tattered white cloth was draped over a gilded black bodysuit. Her arms were wrapped in what looked like a leather cloak.
She pushed herself back against the cliff walls in surprise, trembling in place.
"Hey, hey, easy there. I'm not here to hurt you." I raised my hands up slowly with my palms out, "Are you hurt? I can take a look and heal any injuries you have."
The girl turned her head erratically to both ends of the valley, though only for a fraction of a second before focusing back on me.
Realizing I'd just tried to calm the poor girl down in common I switched to elvish and repeated my offer to help her, though her stare remained unchanged. Undaunted, I crept forwards slowly while making myself as small and nonthreatening as possible.
The mental blips for the guards had all left the immediate area and I was certain nobody would be scaling their way down here immediately, so I quickly channeled a small amount of magicka to cast AURA OF LIGHT on myself.
Soft golden light radiated around me, illuminating both myself and the girl as I approached—revealing that my initial judgment was off. By quite a bit. I'd assumed that she would be an elf. A bias formed from her delicate size and graceful agility she'd shown while escaping from the guards.
Dark horns about six or seven inches long stuck up through her messy pink hair. What I'd thought was a cloak covering her up was actually wings that extended from her arms and hands, like a bat's. Curled up around her trembling body was a slender tail that came to an end in fine translucent strands that looked like fur.
And to top it all off, glistening in the glow of my aura, were her uncanny orange eyes. An orange I was very familiar with… The same vibrant and eerie color as chaos magick. The color of Capricorn.
There's no way. Right? No. No way this is the rebellious child that Capricorn was talking about.
But it was hard to ignore the similarities between them. Though the other two I'd met, Mors and Vita, both looked so much more similar to each other; Feathered wings and human-like features. It was possible not all of Capricorn's children look that way.
Regardless, she was covered in scratches and bruises all over her legs. I reached my hand out to the frightened girl, but she flinched and clung to herself tighter.
Broken by her shuddering, a small voice came out from behind her bat-like wings, "Rek'Vari Sig! Yan Si Xe'Auhn!"
She spoke in a language I've never heard, but the emotion in her voice was clear… She was pleading for me to stay back. To not hurt her.
I hope this earns me just a little bit of trust.
Channeling my healing magick, I tugged at the internal thread that tied me to Capricorn and did a quick mental adjustment to the sigils that made up my HEAL spells to increase their range so that I could use them outside of touch range.
"Divine light, Heal!"
Golden light washed over the girl, who grimaced briefly as the healing magick took effect. Her pained face softened once the wounds had sealed and a barely audible sigh of relief escaped her lips.