As villages went this one was poor. Very poor. Every building was broken down in some way, whether it be rotting wood doors barely hanging on their hinges or roofs missing entire sections. And yet somehow this place was huge. Alistair wondered how poverty could have extended this far.
On the streets themselves there were a lot of people in rags sitting around. Most didn’t even regard them as they entered. Some had cups for coins but most were just there. Defeated in a lot of ways. John walked to one, a child with skin clinging to their bones. He dropped a few coins into the cup he held and he didn’t even react.
“What is this place?” he asked not looking away yet.
“The name of the village is lost to time really. But its colloquial named The Pit. People and things come in. They rarely find a way back out,” Shina said gliding down the street. “I wouldn’t linger. Pitying these people is an exercise in futility.”
“No place deserves to be written off,” John said standing again.
“I disagree,” Alistair said continuing forward.
“What else is new,” John snapped off.
“The poverty here is only one of the reasons that this place is written off,” Shina told him. “If we’re lucky we won’t find out about the other any time soon.”
“What’s that mean?” John asked glancing back.
In that instant, the child got up quickly. A flash of steel and suddenly John’s load was a little lighter. He looked down and saw that his bag was suddenly gone. Looking back, he watched the child sprint away.
John was stunned for a moment and Semperius pointed, “I think you just got robbed John.”
“I can see that!” he started running after the child but it became obvious that he wasn’t going to get far with his limp.
Alistair overtook him quickly as he leaped past. He landed on the rooftops and raced forward Semperius giving chase on the ground. Shina stopped beside John as he swore again bending over slightly. “It’s a wonder how someone can move so well in a fight and yet struggle so much to catch a child.”
“It’s. The training.” He said between breaths. “God damn leg.”
The monk and the knight ran together barely keeping track of the boy. It didn’t help that much of their footing wasn’t consistent. More than once they almost stepped in holes or it broke apart under their feet.
“We’re not going to catch up like this,” Alistair grumbled. “We need to do something different.”
“I’ve got an idea. I’m gonna get ahead of him. You catch him once he’s down.”
“What are you planning?”
But Semperius didn’t respond. He made a hand sign and thrust his hand down sending a gust of air beneath him. He flew over the shacks and rundown buildings and seeing them from up here then didn’t do much to improve the environment. There was a shoddily put together windmill that looked like once upon a time it was going to be the center of the village. But like everything else it was in disrepair.
From up above he could see lines in the dirt and buildings. Some things were marked with colored shapes, bright red bulls on one, a weird maroon salamander on the other. The kid was running toward the maroon side of things. Flipping around Semperius crashed into the ground and thrust his hands forward. He went air first, slowing down his descent. He landed in front of the boy who slid across the ground startled out of his mind.
He tried to turn on his heel and run back when a sharp whistle echoed down the street. A knife flew at the boy and he jumped on instinct. But the knife wasn’t meant to hit him. It wrapped around his leg quickly and suddenly he was being dragged along the ground.
Alistair scowled coming forward and reeling the child in, “You really gave us the chase. I hate kids.”
“Come on. You don’t mean that. You love your daughters,” Semperius said. Alistair glowered at him and that just made the monk laugh. “You’ve got something that belongs to our friend. And only we get to bully him like this.”
“Get your shit off me,” the boy shouted scrabbling and pulling at the chain. “Your friend shouldn’t have got his shit taken!”
“Well we can say the same about you,” Alistair walked toward. He rested his hand on the sword and raised his eyebrow, “You shouldn’t have gotten caught. Now give it back. Or else I’ll have to start convincing you.”
The kid stared at him wide eyed and then looked past him to the row of shacks in front of him. He looked between Alistair and Semperius quickly and then jolted to his feet, holding the bag, and running again. Semperius jumped in front of him but the kid just screamed and something in it jarred the monk.
The kid ran right past him and dove going to the other side, rolling as he crashed into the ground. Semperius shook, hitting one of his ears as Alistair rushed past him.
“What the hell was that? You let him go right past you.”
“Fuck if I know.” He hit his ear again. “That scream hurt.”
They both crossed the threshold and for some reason that startled the kid. He crawled backward as Alistair drew his sword swiftly. But before he could get far a bolt embedded itself in the ground in front of him. His eyes widened slightly as he looked for the source.
It made itself clear very quickly. People appeared from around the shacks, within homes, all armed with weapons. Alistair took a step back while Semperius looked around making a face. “Yikes. This isn’t what I saw coming.”
“Yeah no kidding.”
A man came forward holding a large axe and glared, “I don’t know who you guys are but you’re in our territory. So get lost unless you want to get sent back to cow territory in pieces.”
“What the fuck is cow territory?” Alistair asked.
Semperius shrugged, “I have no godly idea.”
Rolling his eyes, Alistair kicked the bolt out and drew his rapier pointing both at the man who spoke, “I don’t know who you are but your kid there stole from us. And we need it. So give it back or you’re going to have to do a lot of clean up very soon.”
“Oh really?” the man laughed. “You think that you all are gonna stop us?” The assembled laughed in a chorus and Alistair growled ready to fight when a hand rested on his shoulder.
He looked over his shoulder and saw John and Shina finally having caught up. Shina stepped forward and waved her hand, “I don’t know who you are. You seem like some kind of gang and that’s annoying. Assuming that’s your turf right?”
“Yeah.”
“Interesting. And you’re the leader, right?”
“What of it?”
She looked at her nails slowly and shook her head, “Oh nothing. Just keeping track of who I have to kill.”
She swung her hand out and the spectral chains manifested from her wrist going straight for the man. It wrapped around his throat tightly and she pulled, dragging him forward. He choked loudly as the others jumped forward getting their weapons up.
“That is not what I thought she was going to do,” John said raising his cane quickly.
The man on the ground said something that was muffled by the dirt in his mouth. Shina glanced down at him for a moment and shook her head. She looked down at him then back at the others, “Come on then. Who wants to be first hm?”
Despite their raised weapons none of them looked ready to make the first move. Alistair however was not the type to wait. He took an aggressive step forward waving his sword back and forth slowly and going to the boy.
He only took a couple of steps when a woman came running forward screaming murder at him. The knight narrowed his eyes and ducked low. Her swing was clumsy and easy to read. Reversing his grip he hit her with the hilt of the weapon sending it wide. Rotating his wrist he stepped forward and thrust the rapier straight through her chest.
He watched her gasp, watched her eyes roll back, and then shoved her away. As she fell, her blood soaked his blade and turned it into a bright red weapon. His eyes glowed the same color and that seemed to put fear into all of the assembled. Continuing forward he glared at the boy that stole but then at all the assembled. “Who’s next?”
No one spoke up or moved. “No takers? Good.” His footsteps echoed on the ground as he walked toward the boy. “Now about what you stole.”
The boy’s eyes widened and he hastily held the bag in front of him, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know he was with you and house Cerise. Please. Don’t kill me.” The boy was actually crying.
Alistair stopped raising his eyebrow, scowling. “House Cerise?” he mouthed but didn’t finish it. Instead, he nodded slowly and took the bag. “That’s right.” He snatched the bag from him and lowered his blade at his throat. “Hey bag boy. Catch.”
Turning he tossed the bag and John fumbled but managed to secure it. John checked the flap to make sure the contents were all there. “I ain’t take nothin. I swear.”
“Shut up.” Alistair glared and glanced back at John. “Well?”
“It’s all here. Let’s go Alistair. We still have work to do.”
He started to say something but paused. Turning around he looked down at the boy and then at the proclaimed leader. Shina still had him pinned down by the spectral chains. Drawing his katana this time he flipped it around and stood on his back, holding both weapons at his throat. “Hey there leader of this gang. I’ve got some questions for you.”
He tried to say something but it was hard to hear through the strangled gasp from underneath the chains. He looked up at Shina and tilted his head, “Do you mind?”
“Hm? Oh. My mistake,” She rotated her wrist slowly and the man was able to breathe and through his horse voice make out words.
“Anyway, we’re meeting with a few of our friends here. I know they’ve already arrived but where? You or your gang see anything?”
“Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Hey George! You saw them right?”
All four of them look to the others and a man with wide eyes pointed at himself. Alistair pointed one sword at the man and tilted his head to the side, “Well? You know something?”
“Yeah yeah. I saw them. They went to the center of the village. Looking for a place to stay before they went back. That’s all I know. I swear.”
“Good to know.”
Alistair stepped on the man’s head walking toward his people. Flicking his sword the blood flecked away against the ground and he looked at the assorted which were still struck by fear. “I’ll make sure my Queen knows you helped.”
Sheathing one sword then the other he continued on and the others hesitated but followed him. They made sure they’d put some good distance between that side of the village and even hid behind a shack before they stopped and consulted.
“Alright what just happened?” Semperius asked.
“We just tricked that gang into thinking we were a part of Cerise?” John messed with the straps of the bag before getting something good enough to hang across his shoulder without it falling off. Succeeding in that he looked at Alistair but the knight’s face was pensive.
Alistair folded his arms deep in thought and nodded, “Cerise. I’ve never heard that name but when he said it. It felt right. It felt like. I don’t know.” He was silent, not sure how to even word what he was feeling. “The point is we’ve gotten what we need. We know that they’re here.”
“The center of this village. Whatever that means,” Semperius shrugged.
“We can investigate. And this turns into a boon for us,” Shina said. “So let’s continue forward. To the center of this village.”
“Yes but. They feared the name of Cerise. Who are the Cerisians and why do they command such fear?” John asked. “I feel like knowing the answer to that is going to be helpful and if we ignore it I fear it’s going to come back to bite us.”
“You worry too much bag boy.”
Tales of their exploits spread fast as they did their best to navigate the city. The rumors of what had gone down in the territory had spread and followed them like a plague but the specifics were muddy. To the point where the number of people that were in the altercation went from only a couple to almost four dozen.
But the consistent thread was, steer clear of the center of the village. John listened intently to each rumor he could find but he couldn’t understand why the Cerisians struck so much fear into the people here. The hushed tones as if they were always lurking in the shadows to catch any that spoke ill.
But they worked their way through the winding streets. The quality of wood varied section by section, the sheet metal almost new in some and heavily rusted in others. A patchwork community that even its own people didn’t want to try and hold together.
The center of the village was different than the rest insofar that the buildings here seemed to be made of stone and was taller. Up close the bricks looked worn and chipped, stained with all manner of things from the passage of time. The primary building was something like a town hall with tall stone pillars in front of it. It was missing most of its roof but within the shadows of it, there was another building within it.
There was a sign on it, some circular sign that had a salamander, a bull, a flower, a claw, and a fish but many of the symbols were heavily faded. John looked around and noticed that there weren’t really any people on the streets here. Not even the lone beggar.
A few people stood in the alleyways and streets that led over but no one was going toward it. John caught the guarded looks people tossed not only to the building but also to them. Shina stood beside John and nodded slowly though, “I see them too.”
John nodded, “You know more about this country than we do. How dangerous is Cerise and its people?”
“Why ask me? I am a simple traveler,” a smile played at her lips.
John was annoyed, “You know that’s not all there is to it.”
She shrugged, “No more dangerous than the Sanctum or Noria.”
“I don’t know what any of that means,” John was impatient, impatient because he was nervous. Things were moving quickly and everything in his instincts said they were moving toward a trap. “Please. Give me a straight answer.”
Shina looked at him amused but her face turned serious for a moment. She motioned toward Alistair specifically, “The Cerisians are very much like him. Just as violent, just as arrogant. This territory, like many others, are under their watch. Not many remember the old times when they were powerful but they are returning to that time of power quickly with the rebirth of their Queen.”
“So if this is Cersian controlled, why would two children of the Free City take refuge here?”
“That’s one question of many that we are going to ask now isn’t it?” Shina smiled and it didn’t reach her eyes. In her grey eyes, there was something removed and almost animalistic. So much so that it startled the soldier. But it was gone like a fleeting thought and she was already walking. “Come along John. Can’t let them get into trouble on their own.”
John sighed and pressed his cane against the ground as he started walking. “After meeting you, I wonder if I’m the insane one for wanting to be cautious.”
The Harlequin Library 