ChiarOscuro Book Two - Episode Four - Welcome Back
Page 3
“There's nothing you and I can do about it Koatsu” said Koshin as Koatsu raised his head “Better not to think about these things, get some rest, we've still got a long journey ahead of us.”
Koatsu leaned his head back on the seat. Sure enough, they were still only inside the Ninth ring, with another eight to go until they reached the proper Capital. Urok's title as the capital was pretty misleading as it was pretty much an entire province divided up by the walls which surrounded the city, growing larger and larger the further from the centre you went, with the ninth wall kilometres away from the centre of the circle and kilometres in length.
It had been said that all nine walls had taken over a thousand years to build and millions of people had spent their lives building the nine walls which surrounded the capital, going round plains and fields, smaller villages, rivers, streams and hills.
He had only ever been within the ninth ring himself, the poorest one and the largest, home to fields and small wooden villages where crime and robbery were an everyday occurrence. There was a saying and ambition in Urok for people to 'claim the Nine Rings'.
By moving on up through hard work and success you could reach the first wall and live inside it, where you could live the rest of your days doing bugger all, with nine rings stitched into your clothing. Koatsu had given up trying to win the Rings long ago and had left the city along with Skora many years ago now.
He shut his eyes and tried to think of something other than Omion but found himself unable too and opened his eyes to see Koshin dozing off and Skora already fast asleep. He couldn't blame him, sleep hadn't come easy for them in recent times and they'd been in this cramped compartment since before sunrise.
'If only I could stretch my legs or move my fingers' he said looking down at the casing on his hands and shook them for the dozenth time, hoping they'd slide off. He would have liked to have his red jewelled pendant taken off his neck, the chain weighed heavy on his neck but he worried that if he asked Koshin to take it off, Himachi would know about it somehow and see to it that he'd never see it again.
Skora had been able to help him conceal it when they had first been apprehended and he was thankful for that, for it was the only valuable thing about him in this life and the only thing that he had held since he was young enough to walk, so he definitely wasn't going to give it away just like that. It was probably worth something but his personal attachment was worth enough for him.
He slumped back and looked out the window, to a purple streaked sky. A mist had picked up along the plains and fields inside this region which they called Nevarin though when he and Skora had lived her, he had called it the Ninth Ring of Hell.
He tried to see if he could recognise any of these lands or villages as they passed over them from all the way up here but he found himself unable to recognise any of it.
It was dark outside, the full moon shining brightly down onto them with no stars to be seen in the sky as the train drew to a halt just outside the eighth wall and Koatsu kicked Koshin's leg, waking him up just as a pair of officials slid open the door and Koshin promptly handed them the document on the table.