Week 2: Broken oath - Part 1

About a week after they began their journey the landscape changed abruptly as the fence indicating the edge of a farm field gave way from the brown uncultivated dirt to the oranges and yellows of deciduous trees and bushes. The road changed from being paved in white irregular stones to large rectangular grey slabs.

“Looks like two different people painted the land on each side of the line.” Lu said.

Helvia chuckled lightly. “The border between Galaras’s Hold and Dolorosa Victoria is specially noticeable.”

“The border from East Plains was barely noticeable, only the road changed slightly. At least where I crossed.” Lu got off the wagon to stretch their legs and see the new vegetation up close. “I think I only noticed the distinct lack of cow shit all over the fields once I crossed.”

“Dolorosa Victoria I believe has to pay tribute in gems and metal so they don’t need to have the land covered in farms.” Explained Helvia rummaging through one of her pouches for a moment. “Can you take the reigns for a second? I need to get something.”

“Sure.” Lu replied, jumping back in the cart and sitting in the front. The soldier moved to the back of the wagon and pulled a key to open one of the chests. “I thought you didn’t know what they contained and you couldn’t open them.” Lu said, very much not looking at the road.

“I lied so you would not get any ideas.” Helvia took something shiny and fist sized out of the chest and went back to the front to sit with Lu again.

The item was a hexagonal piece of metal about the size of Helvia’s palm, covered in inscriptions and with a faith crystal glowing slightly in the middle. She rubbed a finger across the edge causing the engravings to light up as moved across. Once the item was fully lit the almost opaque image of a map appeared a few centimetres above it, depicting the entirety of the empire and, vaguely, some of the surrounding land in a very similar way to how Nauzet’s book did. Helvia twisted her wrist clockwise and the map became larger and more detailed and tilting the item in different directions caused the image to react, shifting its focus as if the parchment of a real map was being moved over a table. They looked in awe as Helvia used the map to find their current location and check the roads ahead for about half an hour. Once she was done she flipped the hexagon upside down and the glow disappeared along with the map.

“I didn’t know you had any magical things like that.” Lu mentioned as Helvia walked back to lock the map back in the chest.

“I have a few, but since we are not going to stop in any city with a Lighthouse where we can’t charge them so I would like to keep their use to a minimum.” Helvia locked the chest and sat back on the front next to Lu. “There is a garrison within a few kilometres from here, we can stay there for the night. Tomorrow we head south until we reach the road that runs parallel to Goltos’ Tears and then we just follow the river until we reach The Wall. Once we get there I will have to check again to see where the passage is exactly.”

“What is in the other chests? Do you have keys for them as well?” Lu asked, ignoring Helvia’s explanation.

The soldier sighed and pointed to the chest that she had just opened “That one contains all my valuable things, which I have to give to the paladins at the island because I am not allowed to use them anymore.” She pointed to the second one, the heaviest. “That one has some other magical artefacts, wands, gems... A lot of small things that need to be sent to the mages. The last one has materials that they need to build wands and other things, special woods and reagents like that I imagine.”

“Oh, can I take a look?”

“Weren’t you arrested for stealing?”

Lu squinted her eyes, staring at Helvia “I am a reformed citizen now, I haven’t stolen anything since. Also is not like I can ran away and sell it.”

“Let’s keep the temptations to a minimum, just to make sure.” The Dragonkin said tying a double knot on the pouch that contained the keys. “If you have any good reason to open the chests I will be willing to listen.” She stated taking the reins back from Lu.

As the surrounding woodland became denser with trees and bushes, Lu’s eyes and thoughts got lost in the tangled canopy that gently covered the road about six metres from the ground. The delicate tapestry of green, yellow and brown seemed almost to breathe, moving with an hypnotic rhythm; the light slipping through the cracks was starting to turn red when they wagon took a for in the road, moving away from the forest and into an open field and towards a cluster of large wooden buildings. In the middle, a watchtower almost three times taller than anything else presided over the land with imperial flags hanging from its six sides. As they approached they heard the shouts of drill sergeants as a group of cadets ran around the buildings with heavy step. The instructor, riding a horse and wearing a full set of perfectly clean armour, noticed the wagon and galloped to intercept it.

“Halt!” He continued to shout with raspy voice. “State your names and intentions.”

“Helvia Pax.” She replied, extending her arm in front of her chest performing the expected military salute. “I am escorting my ward, Lu Lowfield, to the Dragon Isle University as well as transporting some items to the same destination. We were intending to ask to spend the night here, we will continue our trip early in the morning.”

The instructor scratched his chin, looking at Lu’s restraining collar. “So you are responsible for this convoy then?” He asked back at the soldier.

“Not much of a convoy, but yes I am taking responsibility.”

“Very well then, follow me.” He turned his horse around, leading the wagon for the remaining of the trail until they arrived at the stables.

The instructor gestured at Helvia to follow and Lu was left behind to take care of the mules. They untied the animals and led them to one of the larger pens where they rushed to the tub of water on the opposite end. After dumping some hay next to them using a pitchfork, they walked next to the beasts and gently petted their heads as they ate. “Thanks for taking us along.” Lu said. “I think you are more responsible for the convoy than miss stick-up-my-ass, but let’s let her have a moment, wouldn’t want her to look bad in front of her friends.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

About twenty minutes later, Helvia arrived back to the stable. “We will have to stay here for a day or two...”

Lu jumped up from where they were sitting. “What?” They interrupted. “You just want to waste my time don’t you? I should just keep walking on my own at this point...”

Helvia clicked her tongue. “You are stuck with me whether you like it or not.” She spoke on a gentle tone. “Take a deep breath and let me finish with what I was going to say.”

“Don’t treat me like a child.”

“Then stop behaving like a child.” She barked at Lu. “I understand your peril but if you are going to throw a hissy fit every time any minor inconvenience happens you are just going to not get there any sooner and also be miserable the whole time.”

Lu frowned. “I am not throwing a fit and giving that my literal life is on the line I think my upset is more than reasonable. Why are we even stopping anyways?”

Helvia sighed and rubbed her eyes. “If you had not interrupted me you would know already.” Helvia answered, taking off the heaviest parts of her armour and carefully piling them in the back of the wagon. “We are both tired. Let’s have dinner and continue the conversation there.”

She jumped down and walked out of the stables, Lu sped up to walks beside her still with a frown in her face. They walked through the dirty corridors full of people and noise towards the dining hall, where most people were already midway through their meals or about to finish. Both of them took an empty bowl and a spoon from a table nearby the door and approached the servers who were standing around a metal pot big enough to fit a person in, placed on top of a black slab with golden engravings and two faith crystals on the side that seemed to keep the pot hot as the stew inside was still steaming. “Lentil stew with deer meat.” One of them said while filling the bowls. “If you want seconds you are going to have to eat quick, this is the last batch.” Lu and Helvia nodded, took some pieces of bread from a tray on their left and sat down to eat on one of the least busy corners of the hall

“We can leave the chests and everything out, it should be safe.” Helvia said, breaking the silence between them.

Lu didn’t answer.

“The reason why we have to wait is because there is a mage also traveling to the academy and she will be joining us.” She continued. “I expect this mage will be able to teach you some of the basics, so that the time on the road is not completely wasted.”

“Well you should have led with that.” Lu rolled her eyes as they continued to eat.

“It was the next sentence that I was about to tell you when you interrupted me.” Helvia laughed.

They were about to stand up for seconds when a group of five cadets, who looked no older than sixteen, walked to them and stood around looking nervously and murmuring to each other.

“Can we help you, gentlemen?” Lu asked.

“We have a few questions for your companion, actually.” One of the taller ones answered condescendingly.

“And are you planning on asking them today or are you waiting orders?” Helvia asked, putting down her empty bowl and crossing her arms over the table.

“Well... Is your name Helvia?” A short dark-haired girl asked from the back of the group.

“It is. Who is asking?”

The girl stepped forward. “My name is Mildred Thornmill. My father mentioned in one of his letters a dragonkin of green scales named Helvia... Did you know...”

“Allen Thornmill? Is that your father?”

“Yes!” She smiled and her eyes lit up. “How is he? Did he cross the desert yet?”

Helvia took some moments to answer, her gaze lost in the distance. Under the table Lu felt her leg start to tap nervously. She lowered her head, looking away from the girl. “Nobody has crossed the desert yet. It extends for thousands of miles and in some areas the air is poisonous. There are also demons hiding in the sand, and if we so much as get close the Felnythians have powerful magic that can destroy an entire legion from beyond the horizon.”

“How did he die?” The girl interrupted. Her smile was gone.

Helvia sighed. “We were on the Wild lands before the desert and we were ambushed at night.” She turned her head back to the girl and looked into her eyes as she spoke. “We were ambushed and your father was on watch, he alerted us all and fend off at least twenty demons by himself while the rest of us got ready. He killed many and died a hero, you should be proud of him.”

The girl nodded and bit her lips. “We had not heard anything from him in so long. I knew he was probably dead, but I am happy that he died serving Shimuri.”

“Blessed be his name.” All of those present in the conversation prayed in unison at the mention of the emperor’s name.

“Thanks for your time.” The girl saluted, and so did her friends. Helvia returned the gesture and the cadets left.

Helvia and Lu returned their bowls without saying a word. None of them felt like having seconds that much anyways. Afterwards they went to the washrooms and got ready for bed. They had been provided a bunk bed in one of the rooms on the lower floors. Helvia took the bottom bed and Lu the top one. Both of them laid in silence in the mostly empty spare room they had been given, listening through the wooden walls how the activity on the halls slowly died down as everyone finished their nightly routines. It was not as cold as it had been the past few nights.

“I lied to that girl.” Helvia broke the silence with shaking voice, nocking out any traces of sleep that Lu may have had.

“I noticed.” They reached to the side of the bed to look down at Helvia. “Do you... want to talk about it?”

“It was such a horrible night.” She turn around, as if trying to hide from Lu’s sight. “He was on watch duty. I was woken up by screams and when I walked out... It was chaos, tents were set ablaze... It was only one of them, one single Vestari form the wild lands riding one of those monstrous birds. The vestari was shooting fire from his bow while the bird... It stomped on Allen and was ripping his limbs off with its beak like he was no more than a worm...” She shuddered. “We were fifty people on that camp, thirty of them were killed. And then it just left. We did not fight, we didn’t have time. It just showed up, burned our camp to the ground and ran away in the blink of an eye.” Her voice broke.

Lu climbed down and sat on her bed. Seen their large and strong companion curled on the bed and silently sobbing made them, even if it was just for a moment, forget that Helvia was meant to be her jailer and see them for the wounded person that she was. They reached with their hand towards the dargonkin and rested in gently on her shoulder. She flinched at first, but then returned the gesture.

“It was the first time it happened, but not the last.” She continued, sitting up. “We became more alert, camped on areas with better visibility... But even then, when I thought we were safe, they came again and again and again.” She snorted loudly and cleared the tears of her face with the blanket. “I apologize... I shouldn’t be crying like this. I am just a bit tired.”

Lu smiled and held her hand for a moment. “It is fine, I also get tired often. Maybe taking a few days to rest is not too bad of an idea.” They climbed up to their bed. “If you are ever tired again let me know. Talking helps. Sometimes. Or so I am told.”

Lu laid back on their bed, covered themselves with the provided blankets and tried to sleep. Despite the bed being more comfortable than most places they had slept on during their journey and the blankets acceptably soft and warm, they had trouble falling asleep. There was something on the environment that reminded Lu too much of their days as a teenager in the army. Was it the familiarity of the uniforms? The noise of the cadets talking past curfew in the adjacent rooms? Or was it the way in which, despite having spent almost six years in an environment not much different from this one, they were treated as an outsider? A feeling of bitter nostalgia had taken root in their heart, a nostalgia they never thought they could feel for an era of their life that in the moment fell so alienating, dull and empty. Now, being here, it felt like they were looking at those same memories from the outside, seen all these kids and teens behave in ways so familiar that to Lu it felt weird the same rules did not apply to them anymore. Just before they fell asleep they thought that perhaps when they woke up they would be on their own barracks again, back in Dalia’s crown and everything would have just been a long, pointless dream.