Week 1: The soldier - Part 1

Lu woke up to a knock on the door of their cell which made them jump up, barely conscious still. “What?” They shouted back while clearing their eyes and stretching their limbs.

A deep and smooth voice spoke from behind the metal door. “Greetings, is Lu in here? May I open the door?”

“Yes it’s me.” They replied.

“May I?” Asked the voice again, after a few seconds of silence.

“Oh, sure, of course.”

A woman opened the door and walked in, holding a scroll and another restrainer. “Thank you, I am Commander…” She sighed, and then continued. “Forget that. My name is Helvia Pax and I will be your custodian for the time being. I have been instructed to, before we travel, put on this new restrainer on you and take away the one you currently have.”

The woman had an imposing frame and impeccable posture, wearing armour similar to that of the paladins of the Order of Noon, with the ornate symbols and runic patterns that would belong only to the highest ranking officials. It was covered in small scratches, holes and bends which had been fixed with various degrees of success and devoid of any essence crystals. The sockets where these would usually go had been filled in and the usually shining runes were dead and cold. Looking up to meet her gaze Lu realised that the woman was not wearing her helmet which let them see clearly her short light brown hair, the green scales covering her cheeks and neck and almost reptilian amber eyes.

After a few too many seconds of Lu staring, as if to prompt a reaction Helvia handed them the new restrainer. “If you need me to, I can leave the room to let you get changed.”

“Oh… I am sorry.” Lu said, turning their head away “I just haven’t seen many dragonkin and took me by surprise… I Hope I am not being disrespectful.” Lu put the new restrainer around their neck, as instructed. Even though it was definitely bigger and heavier than the old one, as soon as it clicked around their neck it became light as air, almost as if it wasn’t there.

“No need to apologise, I am used to it.” Helvia answered with a sigh. She took out the golden amulet that controlled Lu’s old collar and commanded it to release, picking up the open metal ring as it fell. “I was also given this letter. Highmage Nauzet has instructed that it should be given, to Archmage Xherez’elbes’kiir and that he will guide you in your studies. He also wanted you to know that he will personally go to Dragon Island as soon as he is available to meet with you.” She put the scroll in a leather tube and closed it. “As your custodian, I will be keeping it safe.”

Lu clicked their tongue.“Alright, thanks for letting me know I guess.”

The Dragonkin rolled their eyes. “We can depart as soon as you are ready.” She turned around to leave the room. “I will be waiting outside, in case you need privacy to finish getting ready.”

“No, it’s fine, I am ready to leave now.”

“Excellent, follow me then. We have a wagon waiting for us at the west gate.” Helvia walked away with marching pace and Lu followed suit through the grey stone corridors to the elevator.

This time they stopped on the third floor, where Helvia gave the old restrainer and the corresponding amulet to an old woman dressed in imperial colours before taking the stairs back down to the ground floor. Walking out through the gold-engraved oak gates of the Lighthouse gave Lu a great view of the city below, very neatly divided into trapezoids of approximately the same size wit the main streets in between radiating from the central hill, covered in greenery only broken up by lamp posts. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the night was gone, under the light of the dawn the blocks of buildings themselves seemed like almost monolithic structures of wood and stone, the alleyways that Lu was more comfortable traversing too small to be noticed from a distance. The people of the city were waking up and as the pair walked down the hill towards the west quarter they saw may businesses and workshops open up. The gates had just opened and a long queue of farmer’s carts was starting to fill in the streets, clogging them as a small army of street cleaners stood ready to wipe away any manure or dirt that happened to stain the impeccable white roads. A low familiar humming sound subtly filed the air. Lu and their warder turned around to face the central structure of the city just as the sound became higher pitched and the air filled with static. Atop the white needle that was the Lighthouse there was a burst of light that for a split second eclipsed the nascent sun, about three seconds later thunder followed.

“Praised be the light.” Both of them said in unison almost reflexively.

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Their prayer was quickly matched by those of the passer-by’s and the citizens looking out of their windows. The Faith that Lu had stolen not too long ago belonged to the Dragon God Shimuri and it was distributed every day to each of the most important and populated cities where the Lighthouses would receive and store it to be used by all matter of commodities and contraptions. If the city was prosperous enough, it will also be enough Faith to provide things like water and light to its citizens and even individually to some of the most affluent business or important institutions. The provinces of the empire needed Faith to prosper, and the Lumino served as a daily reminder of the benevolence of the Dragon Emperor.

Helvia and Lu stopped next to a five story stone building nearby the gate, which Lu recognized as the same building they had chosen to hide some nights ago while waiting for an opportunity to escape. How ironic. The dragonkin asked Lu to wait on the road outside while she walked in. A few minutes later she walked out alongside a young boy who guided her to the back of the building where a carriage was waiting, tying two mules to the wagon and handed the reins to Helvia. The boy stood straight and with a wide grin on her face performed a military salute, posing with her right forearm directly in front of her chest and straightening her left arm besides her torso. Helvia, with the slightest hint of a frown on her face, returned the salute with the same posture before guiding the animals out of the stable.

The soldier gestured to Lu to get in. “Get comfortable, it will take us about four weeks to get to the island.”

Lu jumped in the back. “Four weeks? I have only like six months to prove I am a worthy or something and I am going to waste one of them just to get there?” The old wooden transport was barely big enough to fit two people, but half the space was already occupied by three chests.

“Maybe less if the roads are clear and there is good weather.” Helvia responded without looking at her.

Lu frowned, getting close to Helvia and almost shouting at her. “Can we send a message to the Judge? Maybe I can get some extra time or something?”

“I highly doubt you will even be allowed to send a request to the judge, much less that you will be able to question or amend her decision.”

Lu let out a loud groan and pulled out a blanket from her backpack, laying it over the available space at the back of the wagon. “This is bullshit, I am already getting barely enough time to learn and I have to waste like half of it.”

“You are pretty entitled for someone that by all accounts should have been executed on sight.” Helvia answered with neutral tone. “I don’t know the full details about your situation, but you are the first rogue mage I know off that is still alive so be a bit more grateful.” There were a few seconds of silence. “Also, one is not half of six last time I checked.”

“OnE iS nOt HaLf Of SiX...” Lu muttered in a mocking tone. “I know, it is a metaphor.”

“That is not what metaphor means.”

Lu shook their hands in the air in some grandiose theatrical gesture of apology. “Oh my most sincere apology good lady, I was simply attempting to express the fact that in my dire situation every moment feels crucial and having to waste half of it feels like wasting a really large amount.”

“Hyperbole is the word you are looking for.”

Lu turned around and lied down on their blanked, facing away from the paladin. “Hyper my balls-e...” They muttered under their breath.

Some hours of silence followed and despite the uncomfortable setup of having to lie in the hard wood between some chests Lu ended up falling asleep, rocked by the gentle pull of the two mules.

“There should be a town on this road about an hour ahead, we will stop and spend the night there.” Helvia said, breaking the long silence and waking up Lu.

The sun was setting now. They had slept almost the whole day through and they were still tired. “Are we going to sleep in here or do you expect the locals to provide something?” They asked.

“That would be ideal, but I am not counting on it.” She replied.

Lu jumped down the wagon to walk alongside it, stretching their legs and arms. Looking at their companion they took notice to the Solias painted on her shoulder pad: A sun with ten triangles with their bases facing away from it, imitating sunlight rays spreading out. Normally the Solias will have one or more of the triangles be bigger than the others or painted in a different colour indicating at a glance the rank of the individual holding it, however the painting around hers seemed to have been intentionally scratched off.

“Why were you demoted?” Lu asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Your Solias. It is marked like a rookie’s but your armour seems way too good for that.”

“So you just assumed I would want to talk about it with my prisoner?”

“Well I am just trying to do some small talk here so like...”

“Then ask about the weather, or the road, or ask me about my favourite colour.” Interrupted Helvia. “I don’t owe you an explanation, and it will do you good to have a bit of tact when inquiring about personal matters.”

Lu stood still to perform a military salute with a smirk on their face “Yes captain!”

Helvia took a deep breath before talking back. “Alright, my apologies, I should not have talked back like that. It is a source of shame for me so I wold rather not talk about it. Let’s try to keep things civil while we have to stay together.”

“I am being civil, you jumped at me for asking a question.”

“If your definition of civil is being a brat then yes you are very civil...” Helvia took another deep breath. “I apologise again. Long day.”

“Apologies accepted.” Lu said with a smirk. “So, what is your favourite colour? Is it green?”

“Pink, actually.”

They continued to march in silence for a few minutes before Lu talked again. “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to antagonize you.”

“Apologies accepted.” Helvia replied, trying to imitate her ward’s cadence.