As the exsilver touched her flesh, Lilith’s screams intensified and she began shaking violently as if she were having a seizure.
‘Get going before she recovers,’ screamed Mai.
I snapped to attention. Mai was right. It was time to go. In Lilith’s current state, I couldn’t even approach her. I had no choice but to run.
“Don’t think that I’ll forget this,” Lilith screeched. “I’ll get you back for this, just you wait.”
I made a break for the city. I was exhausted, but the added fear inspired by Lilith’s true form gave me all the encouragement I needed to dig beyond what should have been my breaking point and make it the last few miles to my destination.
It wasn’t until I was in the city, amongst other people and the security provided by a crowd, that I felt the tiniest fragment of relief. I’d had an exciting previous day beating a land siren, a run all night through the dark, and poisoned a daemoness in the morning. Moreover, in my exhausted state, that little bit of relaxation was enough to put me to sleep.
My only regret was realized later, when I woke up and my brain processed Mai’s final words as I fell unconscious.
‘Watch out for that first step, it’s a dookie.’
It took the better part of an hour for Lilith to dissolve the poisonous substance Isaac had shoved down her throat and break out of the exsilver he had encased her in. She didn’t know what it the poisonous substance was, only that it possessed a nasty ice-based essence whose severe coldness worked in perfect opposition to her fiery demonic nature. There was a reason why they’d chosen to make their home deep within the bowels of the earth even before all of daemon kind had been entrapped. Only there it was warm enough for demons to live without the need of spells or hazard gear.
Once Lilith recovered, she marched for the city. She didn’t care that there were a ton of people there, didn’t care that they’d see her that they’d try to stop her, but it didn’t take long for her to run into the problem she had expected. Out of nowhere, Lilith collided with a hard invisible barrier. It was as other scouts had reported. A large spherical boundary a couple of miles across encircled the city, preventing any daemon from advancing.
Lilith placed a hand on the barrier and reached for her specialized mana senses to better gauge what she was up against.
Lilith sighed. It was exactly as reported. The barrier was old magic, dating back to before the Recession, formed during the Great War. No human mage could ever hope to construct a barrier of such size and magnitude. Besides, what purpose would they have for it? As far as she could tell, the shield only repelled daemons. They’d only broken out to the surface recently and after a hundred generations, the humans barely remembered daemon kind at all, what use would they have for such a thing.
It was only because of the geography that Crystalpeak was inside the barrier. The city must have been built over the ruins of some other long lost site. All magic-wielding civilizations would have placed a settlement on a ley line nexus of such magnitude and time, even millennia, had little effect on the placement of ley lines.
Lilith paced nervously just outside the barrier, debating what she should do next: wait for the rat to climb out of his hole or report her failure to her superiors. Lilith didn’t like the prospects of either of these options.
In the end, Lilith waited outside of Crystalpeak for nearly a week, hoping that Isaac would venture back out of the city and the safe confines of the ancient barrier. But he never came, and she was regretfully forced to report her failure.
Chapter 21: Crystalpeak
I awoke on excrement.
“Uggh,” I groaned as I tried to wipe myself down, but the substance’s weak constitution and the long hours I’d been laying there, recovering from my ordeal, insured it had seeped through all the layers of clothing.
“What happened?” I asked Mai, who thought it was the perfect time to make an appearance.
‘Someone’s losing his memory I see, hmm. Well… first, you finally figured out the bitch was a bitch,’ said Mai.
“I remember that,” I whined. “Last thing I remember… I was entering the city and then… what?”
‘You got to the city. You were exhausted to the point where you practically fell asleep on your feet. T-Too b-b-bad you d-didn’t tho-ugh,’ she sputtered amongst fits of the giggles. ‘I-instead y-you f-f-fell asleep on a pile of s-s-shit.’
“Don’t you think I know that,” I grumbled, as I tried in vain to improve my sorry state by scraping off the excess. “Why didn’t you warn me?”
‘I did,’ Mai replied. ‘But you didn’t seem to care at the time.’
I balked but didn’t argue, I couldn’t remember.
“What was shit doing in the street?” I whined, giving up on the shit stains on my clothes to get a better look at my surroundings. “Don’t people know how to take care of their pets?”
‘You wish it was from a pet,’ said Mai.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
‘It’s human.’
It was dark out. The sky was still grey, still waiting for the moment the first slivers of sunlight to crest the eastern plains. In my exhaustion, I must have slept a whole day.
I was finally in the city but found myself underwhelmed. The houses and buildings near me were in even worse condition than the ones I’d seen in the small villages I’d passed on the road. Windows were broken, roofs were topped with makeshift patchworks from whatever scrap lay nearby, and the few people I could see were pale and malnourished. The latter made apparent by bony protrusions jutting out from the grungy rags they draped their bodies with. I guess that wasn’t all too surprising these were the same types of people who shit in the street and had let me lie in their filth for nearly a day. I was only thankful that most of my possessions were safely stored away in my inventory. Otherwise they would have surely been stolen.
It wasn’t as if I was surrounded by thieves, but desperate people would resort to nearly anything. And if these people were anything, they were desperate.
“This is Crystalpeak?” I muttered. From everything I was told, this city was supposed to be flourishing metropolis, a center of knowledge and commerce, a place filled with magic and wonder, but all I saw was filth and decay.
‘Yes, this is Crystalpeak. Sort of. Remember the view from the hill,’ Mai reminded. ‘The most developed parts, the areas filled with skyscrapers, were in the center of the city, behind those massive walls. Beyond the walls there was a more ordinary looking portion and beyond that in the outermost portion the slums. That’s where we are now. When you got here you didn’t go far before collapsing.’
I looked into the distance, where I could see a couple of the magnificent buildings I’d seen from afar poking up between soot billowing chimneys. In opposition to the sense of awe and wonder the gravity defying skyscrapers were meant to evoke, I felt profound melancholy. With all this place’s amazing accomplishments, the force of magic and all of the possibilities it brought, it still didn’t change human nature: those with wealth or power still horded it.
‘So, we going?’ Mai asked, regaining my attention.
“Yeah,” I said. “We need to finish the quest, we need to warn everyone so that such horrors won’t reoccur.”
‘So, you’re just going to start running around and warning random people on the street?’ Mai inquired.
“No, even if they believed me, these people are in no condition to do anything about it,” I realized, looking at the squalor around me.
‘Then what are we going to do?’ Mai wondered.
“Start at the top,” I said. “I heard this city is run by an Archlord Quewel. We’ll find him and explain what’s going on. With any luck he’ll do the heavy lifting of spreading word for us.”
‘And you think you can just walk in and see him?’ said Mai.
“I guess we won’t know until we try,” I finished as I started making my way deeper into the city.
‘One recommendation. Consider cleaning you
rself off first because you stink,’ Mai suggested.
I took Mai’s advice and stopped buy a clothing store on the way. There were no stores in the slums, at least not ones that would be selling anything legal, but as I made my way deeper into the city, the quality of the neighborhood improved. Shanty housing was replaced by something more upscale and I started to see a spattering of other structures, a school, a hospital, and the like. It didn’t take long for me to find a decent place. The store clerk gave me a dirty look when I entered but a flash of coin quickly put him at ease.
I cleaned myself up and proceeded further into the city until I reached the wall. The wall was 50 feet tall and towered over everything outside it. I followed along it until I found a gate leading inside, watched by a handful of guards.
“What’s your business?” one of them asked.
“I have an important message for the Archlord,” I said. I didn’t want to mention the beastmen attack to just anyone. Panic could be as dangerous as war itself.
“Do you have a pass?” another guard asked.
“Pass?” I gulped.
“All visitors to the inner city require a pass. No pass, no entry,” said the guard.
“Is there any sort of exception? This is an emergency,” I pleaded.
“No.”
“Can you tell me how to get one?” I tried.
“No.”
“Can you tell me why not?” I said.
“No.”
I could tell this was getting nowhere but before I could leave Mai took the opportunity to interject.
‘I know what to do,’ she beamed sweetly before taking on a deep raspy voice and started pointing a pair of fingers at the guards head. ‘This is the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off. So, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky?’
“I’m not going to start blowing people’s heads off.” I said it to Mai, but the guard had no way of knowing that so I had to scuttle away quickly before he mistakenly took it as a threat.
‘Humph, why didn’t you just kill that annoying guard?’ Mai whined.
“Because killing him won’t help me,” I stated. “I wouldn’t get inside and the other guards would lock me up if not worse.”
‘That’s exactly the point,’ Mai proclaimed.
“And how would getting locked up help me?” I asked.
‘Think about it. You get locked up. It gets reported up the chain of command. You get to talk to a judge or someone with actual power and deliver your warning,’ Mai explained.
“I guess that could work,” I admitted. “But if it’s all the same to you I’d rather not try something that could so easily kill me.”
‘So what are we going to do now?’ Mai wondered. ‘This place is famous for its mages. Why not find someone to teach you?’
“I already tried that,” I replied, remembering my last magic instructor and wincing at how it ended up.
‘Well… find one that isn’t a succubitch,’ Mai suggested.
“Maybe later,” I said. “I’ve come all this way. It would be a shame to give up so soon. I’ll find a way to see the Archlord.”
‘So where do we start?’ Mai purred.
“Already did,” I answered.
‘How?’
“I need more information. I need to learn about the inner city and how the passes work. I need an inn.”
‘Yes you need inside information, but how are you going to get it,’ Mai piped.
“I didn’t say I need an in, I said I need an inn. Look there’s one right over there,” I said, pointing to a large brick building down the street.
I paid the innkeeper a week’s stay in advance and settled in the tavern downstairs. Taverns, especially ones inside of inns were always packed with a myriad of people from all walks of life, from traveling merchants and craftsmen to mercenaries and vagabonds. Someone had to have an idea of how I could get past the city walls and it didn’t hurt that many lips were pre-loosened by a steady stream of ale.
After speaking with a southern tradesman in town to peddle his wares and a local troubadour obsessed with a beautiful woman he’d only seen once before she crossed the city’s stone curtain, I learned that the wall separated the city’s elite from the common man and that only nobles, their servants, and the city guards were permitted entry. I tried to see how I might go about getting a pass, but it seemed that no one knew anything. The nobles remained within the walls, only coming out when they were traveling between cities, and although the servants frequently crossed to retrieve supplies they were always tight lipped about what it was like inside.
To most of Crystalpeak’s residents, the inner city held a certain forbidden mystique. Much was gossiped about but little was known. Everyone could see the gravity defying towers and many could only dream about what it was like inside. The ability to use magic ran in certain bloodlines and generations of consolidating power meant that nearly all nobles were mages and nearly all mages were noble.
On this side of the wall, you might as well be in any other city in Xebrya. The only magic was the expensive magical artifacts available to anyone who could afford them. Other than the buildings, admired from afar, the only grandiose displays of sorcery many of the commoners ever got to see was a yearly tournament held by the Academy. To the people this was an event looked forward to all year and discussed even longer. Many a grandfather would entertain his grandchildren with stories of tourneys long ago. The magic exhibited growing with every telling, filling many of the populace with a sense of awe bordering on worship.
It wasn’t until after I spent half the night questioning a dozen tavern patrons that I finally stumbled upon someone who could properly answer my questions.
Zelus F. Reinstone looked to be in his early twenties, looked to be a common peasant, but closer inspection revealed several details that were off. His pants were two sizes too small and his tunic two sizes too large. His face, oddly enough, was smeared with a couple swaths of dirt. Yet such thin plebeian gilding failed to conceal his perfectly groomed long blond hair and clean manicured hands. And an hour with dirt couldn’t mask the faint smell of perfume, emanating from his every pour, a side effect of a lifetime’s regular use. The truth was that Zelus was a young nobleman from inside the walls who’d left the safe confines of the inner city for a wild night of drinking and debauchery with the ‘heathens’ living beyond.
After loosening his tongue with a few stiff drinks and enduring several of Mai’s homoerotic comments, I got him talking.
“It works like this. Only people who live there are free to come and go across the wall. That’s the nobles, their servants, and the guards,” Zelus explained.
“I understand that. The guard at the gate said I need a pass,” I recalled.
“Yes, you do, they identify who lives inside,” admitted the nobleman.
“And how do I get one?” I asked passing him his preferred drink, an aptly named Bumbly Bastard.
“Only the heads of the noble houses can provide one,” said Zelus.
“What if I wanted to borrow one?” I said quietly. “Would I have any problems with that?”
Zelus chuckled at that. “I knew it’d be fun out in the outer city. Looking to steal a pass, aren’t you?”
“Perhaps,” I said vaguely.
“I’m afraid that’s not going to do you any good. All passes have a portrait of the holder. Here look.” Zelus reached into a pocket and showed me his identification card. Sure enough, it had a portrait that was so well done it could have been mistaken for a photograph.
“Damn, well, maybe it’s for the best,” I added. “Even if I got inside I wouldn’t have a clue how I’d get to the Archlord.”
“You want to speak to the Archlord?” said Zelus quizzically.
“I have an important matter to speak with him about the safety of the city. I didn’t want to cause a panic by gossiping with just anyone, but it is of the upmost importance that I speak with the Archlord as soon as p
ossible,” I said.
“Hmm.” Zelus thought for a moment, which was a bit of a surprise considering how drunk he was. “I don’t know how you’d get across the wall, but I may know how you can see the Archlord once you get in.”
“How?” I asked.
“You said you have to talk to the Archlord about something big right?” said Zelus.
“Yes.”
“Okay then. In the center of the inner city, there is a large bell. Anyone who rings the bell will get an audience with the Archlord,” said Zelus.
“And it’s just sitting there for anyone?” I asked.
“Right out in the open,” Zelus smiled.
“What’s the catch?” I asked. It seemed too good to be true.
“The catch is that if the Archlord doesn’t like what you say, your life is forfeit. The bell was placed when the city was young. The Archlord of the time was dealing with a rebellion amongst the lesser noble houses. He offered a reward to anyone with any information about treachery, placed the bell in middle of a park adjacent to his manor, and declared that anyone who rang it would be granted an audience. This allowed the servants of treasonous nobles a way to speak to him.”
“Tradition has kept the bell around all these years and it can be used for any reason not just to report naughty nobles. Just be aware of the potential cost. If the Archlord doesn’t like what you have to say.” Zelus motioned a finger slicing across his throat.
“So that’s all I have to do. Just slip across the wall and ring a bell,” I said.
“Mostly,” said Zelus. “The people on the other side might take notice and call the guards so you’ll need to be sneaky. If you don’t make it to the bell, the guards will be the ones dealing with you, not the Archlord.”
“How do I get over the wall?” I asked.
“Not my problem,” said Zelus. “That’s not ever something I had to think about.”
“Why are you helping me with all this?” I asked. While Zelus was drunk, it seemed strange that he was so open despite the laws I was about to break.
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