Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Two — Final Destination
Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Two — Final Destination The Little Atlas flew into the busy port on the eastern end of Goldenalden with short, jerky motions. I didn’t notice on the flight over to the capital, but the ship didn’t fly with the sweeping grace of a ship like the Beaver Cleaver but instead moved with careful, nearly robotic precision.Once we were within the port, a large mechanical arm rose from below, metal fingers longer than the Atlas coming up on either side where the crew tossed ropes out and hooked the ship into place. Then the arm folded itself back and pulled the Little Atlas into an empty berth where another crew flew over and tied everything up.The berth was exactly the right size for the ship to fit into. A glance above revealed a sign that read Little Atlas, along with a bunch of numbers next to it. So this was a space specifically designed for this one ship. Neat!“And there we have it,” Captain Galebane said as she stepped away from the helm.I clapped politely. “That was some very nice flying,” I said.“Ah, it’s hardly a challenge here,” she said. “Goldenalden is one of the premiere ports in the world. Plenty of tools to help a captain guide their cargo in.”I nodded, but in reality I wasn’t paying all that much attention. It was rude, true, but there were so many things to see! The sounds alone were making my ears twitch left and right. Ships coming in to dock and leaving, engines thumping away, cranes moving with hydraulic hisses to grab and unload cargo. Teamsters leading huge horses around with wagons loaded up behind them.I flinched as a trio of teeny-tiny airships roared by above, leaving a faint gaseous trail in the air behind them.It stank, like a highway with a traffic jam.The mountain air swept in a moment later and washed all of that away, though it brought a shiver-inducing breeze with it. I grinned. It was the nice kind of cold, dry and fresh. Awen’s clacking teeth suggested that she wasn’t as ready for it as I was.“We should go get our things,” I said. “Awen, you might want to grab a sweater to wear under your coat.”“That sounds like a great idea,” Awen said. “Bye captain.”“Ah, I’ll be here to show you off properly,” Captain Galebane said with an easy smile. “I do hope you enjoy your time in Goldenalden. It’s the greatest city in the world for a reason.”“We’ll do our best,” I said.The whole crew were running about, hard at work, which meant that Awen and I had to be careful not to get in anyone’s way, especially those carrying stacks of stuff so high that they couldn’t see over ahead of them.We arrived at the passenger quarters to find Amaryllis stuffing her book away in a bag. “Ah, you’re finally back,” she said.“Yup! The city’s really pretty!”“I’ve heard of it, yes,” Amaryllis said. “I look forward to judging that for myself.”“I bet you’ll like it,” I said. “Do, ah, you know where we’re going now?” I looked to her, then to Bastion who was tugging on his armour.The paladin was the first to reply. “Technically, your group are diplomats. There are inns specifically for diplomats and richer merchants in the Purple District. They are expensive, but their proximity to the city centre and to the Gold District makes them worthwhile, at least if you intend to travel to both frequently.”“That sounds perfect,” I said. “We’re still a bit behind schedule, aren’t we?”Amaryllis nodded. “We are, though I don’t think it matters as much anymore. Did you notice if the harpy ship is in port?”“I didn’t, but there’s more than one port, and a lot of ships out there.”“Then we’ll need to see if we arrived first. If so, then the amount of time we have before us will determine a lot in regards to what we can do.”“You know, I don’t actually know what we’re supposed to be doing. Other than warning people about the war stuff,” I said.“Leave that to me,” Amaryllis said. “Once we have a place to roost, we’ll draw up a more proper plan, one that’s informed and that takes into account the lay of the land, so to speak. Learning about local rumours and the like will be part of that. I don’t suppose Goldenalden has a newspaper?”“It does,” Bastion said. “A few of them, at that. There are a few political parties and groups of some import in the capital, they’ll usually have their own papers. There’s also the state-funded paper, which is mostly dedicated to well-researched news.”I was really looking forward to walking around and just exploring the city now. Seeing new cultures, eating new foods, meeting new friends. I was holding back the giggles. I was so excited!I grabbed my bag and my spade, then made sure all of my gear was properly cinched up. I came out of my little cabin to find Bastion looking me up and down. “I should warn you, while in the provincial towns and other cities it’s fine to carry a weapon, it’s not legal to carry an unsheathed weapon in the capital. Though that law in particular isn’t enforced all that well.”“But we’re strange and foreign looking,” Amaryllis said. “So any law officer might decide to make an example of us.”“You will certainly attract a lot of attention just by appearing to be different than most,” Bastion said. “As long as I’m there you should be fine.”“Ah, but... you’re not going to be with us for very long, will you?” I asked. I couldn’t help but feel a twinge in my tummy at that. I didn’t want to lose a friend just yet.Bastion nodded. “I’ll be returning to the garrison tonight. I can still escort you to a safe place and fend off any trouble until then. I have... a lot to report. But I’m certain we’ll be seeing more of each other.”I nodded. “I’m warning you now, there’s going to be a whole heck of a lot of hugging when we say goodbye.”Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.Bastion chuckled. “Certainly.”We grabbed all of our stuff. Amaryllis grumbled a bit as she stuffed her dagger away into her backpack. I didn’t know what to do with my spade, but Awen helped by wrapping a cloth around the blade.The advantage of a Makeshift Weapons Proficiency was that it didn’t really harm my ability to use it if I needed to. I could still send magic into the spade until it glowed with Cleaning magic. Not that I expected to need it.I led my friends back out of the ship and to the topdeck where I found Captain Galebane speaking with someone that looked official, clipboard and all. I didn’t want to leave without saving goodbye properly, so I waited around just a bit for her to finish up.“We’re heading off,” I said as soon as she was done.“I see that,” Risa said. “It was an honour to have you aboard the Little Atlas, Captain Bunch. And you as well, Sir Coldfront.”“What are we, roost feathers?” Amaryllis muttered too low for the captain to hear.“Goodbye hug?” I asked.“Pardon?” she asked.So I pulled her into a tight glomp and squeezed her good and proper before letting go. The captain was a bit red in the face after that. “We’ll see each other again, I’m sure! And by then we’ll have even more awesome stories to tell about sky captaining!”“Ah, y-yes, I’m sure,” she replied.The bunch of us walked over to the docks. There was a gangway over the ship’s rails where sylphs were unloading crates. We waited for a moment where it wasn’t as busy and hopped over to the docks.After that we walked to the edge of the port. My head was on a swivel, turning this way and that to see as much as I could. It was giving my poor ears whiplash.“No harpy ships,” Amaryllis muttered.“Where do we go now?” I asked.“I’ll bring you to a reputable inn,” Bastion said. “It’ll be a good place to base yourselves out of while you’re in Goldenalden.”“Neat!” I said.I crossed my arms behind my head and enjoyed the walk.Goldenalden reminded me-out of all the cities I’d seen so far-of Fort Sylphrot in the Harpy Mountains. Unlike that city, buildings here were built tall rather than long. The roads below were mostly, it seemed, used to carry stuff, with wide paths where carts could roll by on either side.There was only a thin sidewalk to one side, one where older sylph and those with big packs that prevented them from flying were moving along with easy efficiency. It seemed as if there was something of an unwritten-or maybe it was written and I just hadn’t read it yet!-code that let older people and pregnant sylph ladies pass first.I craned my neck back as we walked. “What’s at the top?” I asked. I could see sylph flitting by above us, quick shadows that passed faster than I could follow.“Most homes have a small garden and greenery above them, as well as a small outcrop where they have their roof access. That’s generally the main entrance to a home or building,” Bastion said. “Mostly it’s a small staircase and a place to change out of your boots. I should add that it’s considered impolite to walk into a house wearing your outdoor shoes, with some exceptions.”“Huh, alright,” I said.“Most homes will have a greeting room on the topmost floor. If the building has multiple homes, then it’s likely to be a communal area. Shops will use the space for displays.” Bastion shrugged. “Once you’ve seen a few, you’ll see what I mean.”“I look forward to it!” I said.“It might be tricky for non-sylphs. The air is our home, and it means that a lot of construction isn’t designed for those destined to only travel in two dimensions.”“Hey now, I can jump around with the best of them,” I said.Bastion chuckled. “Fair enough. Most places should be accessible from the ground, at least public spaces. We need to account for the older and those who are injured, not to mention the pregnant.”“So, sylphs don’t lay eggs,” I surmised.Bastion turned to stare at me. “No, no we don’t.”“Good to know!”Amaryllis trilled in happy laughter. I think she was enjoying Bastion’s confused look more than anything else. That set Awen and I off, both of us joining her with a chorus of giggles.Bastion shook his head. “The city is divided into districts. See that?” He pointed up to where a wide banner hung on a pole that stretched way up and over the tops of the nearest buildings. There were two banners, one hanging from both sides of a “t” shaped post at the top. One had a fancy symbol on it, white cloth with gold gilding. The other was entirely red.“We’re in the Red District now. Mostly housing, some small family-run shops that have been around for centuries. You can navigate the city by looking for one of those. They should be easy enough to find.”“Oh, that’s neat,” I said. “Like roadsigns on corners.”“The roads are numbered here, unfortunately due to the age of the city and the shape of the mountain it’s built upon, it’s not very useful for navigating,” Bastion said. “Most will just name the colour of the district they’re in and then directions from there.”“Alright,” I said. That sounded like a cute way to get around.“Any places we should avoid?” Amaryllis asked.“Every road and alley is well-patrolled and quite safe,” Bastion said. “You’ll find no poverty on the streets here, or many muggers for that matter. Not in the capital. Land here is too valuable to allow for any of it to go unused.”Something told me that wasn’t the full story. For there to be rich people, someone had to be poor. At least, I remembered my dad telling me as much once. Maybe the poor here were fortunate, or maybe they were just tucked away very well.“Come on, let’s get to the inn, I could use a snack! And then we can do some proper plotting!”
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Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Three — See Ya Later!
Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Three — See Ya Later! “Welcome!” the man said with a spinning twirl that ended with a bow. “To the grandest inn in all of the capital: Dewdrop Inn.” Little magic whirls and sparks took to the air behind him, flipping and twirling like teeny-tiny fireworks before they burst apart and transformed into pretty flowers.I clapped.“Greetings,” Bastion said, obviously not as impressed by the manservant’s display. “We’re looking for some rooms for a few days. I was hoping that I could speak with Jared.”“Certainly, sir Paladin,” the manservant said as he rose from his bow. He took in my friends and I at a glance, then nodded as if to himself. “I’m afraid that, while spectacular in its own right, this lower entrance is not as fabulous as the one above. I only hope its meager splendor is enough for such esteemed guests.”We were standing on the ground-level of what Bastion called the Gold Gistrict. We were close to a big wall, one of the many that we’d crossed so far while navigating the city. This one had purple banners on it, so I guessed that it was the Purple District where the castle and a bunch of other important places were.The Gold District was filled with businesses. Every building we crossed had an understated entranceway with a plaque telling passersby what they might expect within. The topmost floors looked a lot more interesting, but I couldn’t reach them without abandoning my friends and I wouldn’t do that.“Follow me, if you please,” the sylph who was guarding the bottom-floor entrance to the Dewdrop Inn said.We filed in after him and found a small, but well-decorated, waiting area. There were sofas and some potted plants, freshly painted walls and a couple of bookcases filled with interesting books. It was spotless, and I could only imagine that they must’ve had a couple of people with Cleaning magic on the staff.The far corner of the room was taken up by a spiral staircase that rose up and up, with spinny wrought-iron rails and magical lanterns casting an eerie-white glow onto marble steps.The sylph paused and bowed to us again. “Would you do me the honours of allowing me to carry your belongings to the topmost floor?” he asked.Amaryllis gave him her bag, but Awen said she wanted to keep hers. I did give him my spade, mostly because I was worried I might bonk one of the lanterns on the way up. As it was, the room might have been downright opulent, but it felt a bit... cramped?The ceiling was tall for a sylph, but for a bun it was a tiny bit on the shorter side. The stairs were worse, with my ears batting against the steps above with every step. “Who’s Jared?” I asked Bastion as I hopped up to be next to him.“The owner of the Inn,” Bastion said. “I’ve stayed here before. Twice, but I suspect that’s enough for him to remember me.”“Why would you stay at an inn when you’re in the capital?” Amaryllis asked. “Don’t the paladins have barracks?”“We do. An entire keep in the Purple District, as well as barracks within the royal castle and estates. And it’s not unheard of for a paladin to sleep in a guardhouse. Both times I was here, I was escorting someone.”“Oh, diplomacy stuff?” I asked.“Something like that,” Bastion said. “Keep it between us, but some members of the royal family like to spend time outside of the castles and palaces. Less stress, I suspect, and they get to see things that they wouldn’t, otherwise.”I noticed Awen and Amaryllis nodded, but I didn’t quite get it, not really. I had never really been stuck in any one place for that long. It was usually very much the opposite. I could sympathize still, but not from personal experience. “So they’d stay here?”“For a night or two,” Bastion said. “With a complement of guards, regardless of how safe they thought they were on their own.”“The city seems pretty safe,” I said. It was definitely one of the more protected places I’d ever seen. Lots of big walls, plenty of guards.“Goldenalden is a very safe city,” Bastion said. “But people who are looking for trouble tend to find it.”We reached the top floor with just a bit of huffing and puffing. It was a good thing we were all so active or else I think the stairs would have been too much.The top floor was very wide and tall, with a corner dedicated to a small garden filled with bright flowers in full bloom, and there was even a small tree, its trunk bent over to skim near the roof with a bench tucked below it.Round tables dotted the room, with comfy chairs next to them, and at the far end was the kind of reception counter that I expected to see at an inn, though this one was a lot fancier, with a stone top and wooden sides.“Ah, Mister Jared is right there,” the manservant said with a gesture to the counter.A sylph was behind it, sitting on a stool and examining some papers with glasses perched on the tip of his nose. He wore an apron over a clean shirt and vest. His head rose when we approached. “Ah! Greetings and welcomes. Dewdrop Inn-there’s always a seat for a new friend.”I decided that I liked Mister Jared.“Hello sir,” Bastion said.“Paladin Coldfront! It has been some time,” the old sylph said. He bounced off his seat with a flutter of his wings. “How can I help you, sir paladin?”Bastion gestured. “I have a few... guests for you here. Travellers from all across Dirt. They’re looking for a place to stay, and I gave them my solemn word that your inn was the greatest in Sylphfree.”“Ah-hah!” Jared cheered. “That it is! Now, what sort of accommodations are you looking for?”Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.“We’re looking for a room with at least three beds,” Amaryllis said. “I don’t think we require your finest, just a place to rest for the next week.”“We can certainly accommodate,” Jared said. “I have a fine suite on the third floor. Four modest rooms and a shared common area. We can include meals at your discretion as well. We have some of the finest chefs in all of Goldenalden here. Though if you want to test your palate beyond what we can provide, then I of course have some suggestions to offer as well.”“That sounds nice,” I said. “Are there any neat things to see in Goldenalden? I want to play tourist!”Jared laughed. “There’s plenty! If you tell me what you enjoy then I can direct you that way, but you must see the Orange District’s parade. It’s held every day at noon, rain or shine. And of course there’s the museum next to the congress, which is itself a wonderful building to admire.”“Oh,” I oh-ed. “That sounds neat! What’s the parade?”Bastion was the one to answer. “The Orange District is on the far side of the Green District from here. It’s where the local branches of the armed forces are stationed, at least the more bureaucratic part of the army. There’s also a training camp, and every day soldiers practice marching in formation. It draws a bit of a crowd.”“There’s a somewhat mean-spirited tradition involving civilians trying to make the soldiers in formation laugh,” Jared said. He looked like he was working hard not to smile. “The officers encourage it, and people tend to enjoy seeing some poor cadet being berated for failing to keep a straight face.”“That sounds mean,” I said.“Traditions are often unkind,” Awen muttered.“Shall I show you to your rooms?” Jared asked. At our nod, he flew over the counter with a buzz of his wings and quickly removed his apron to toss it behind him next to a fancy brass till. “Come along, gentleladies.”Jared walked with a skip in his step, arms gesturing grandly as he spoke about the great meals they had on offer, the wonderful wines, and the spectacularly soft beds.I couldn’t help but grin as we went back down the stairs until we reached the third floor. A corridor bisected the floor, with doors on either side of the wide passage. Jared fetched a key out from his pocket and unlocked one. “Here we are,” he said with a flourish.The suite was exactly what we needed. A wide room with some comfy sofas and a table surrounded by seats. There was a desk in one corner, next to a happy potted plant, and four smaller bedrooms, with windows overlooking the street below the inn. We had a big washroom too. It would have been annoying to share it, but I think we were all used to it after the Beaver.“This will do,” Amaryllis said with a satisfied huff. She immediately started negotiating with Jared, whose smile never wavered as Amaryllis deployed all of her trickiest tricks to lower the price. The manservant that had greeted us at the entrance brought our bags in and set them off to the side, then left with a bow.I spun around, then sighed. The next step wasn’t going to be fun. Still, we could put it off for just a little bit longer.Once Amaryllis forked over the gold and Jared bid us a good afternoon, we were left with just the four of us in our little quarters.“So,” I began.Bastion nodded, very solemn and serious. “I should be returning to report and to announce that I’ve returned. I imagine that the demand for paladins is quite high at the moment, with so many important diplomatic events occuring in such close proximity.”I pouted. “It still sucks that we won’t be seeing you much,” I said. “If you have time off, you have to come and visit.”He chuckled. “I will. I promise, as long as you’re in Slyphfree, I’ll make a point of visiting when I can afford to.”When he could afford to. That meant that he probably wouldn’t have all that much time. “Alright,” I said. I’d take what I could get. “You were a great crewmate, and there’s always going to be room for you on the Beaver. If you ever get tired of being a Paladin, then I’m sure there’s plenty of adventuring to do, and we could always use one more friend.”“Thank you, Broccoli,” Bastion said.“I... will, with some reluctance, admit that my initial impression of you was wrong,” Amaryllis said. “You are as honourable as your reputation entails. I hope all of your comrades in arms are as just and level headed.”“My initial impressions were also quite wrong,” Bastion said. “For all of you, I think. You’re a kinder soul than I would have imagined, Awen’s delicate nature hides the spine of a true adventurer and I suspect she will have just as many songs as her uncle one day, and Broccoli, I think your unique morality is quite eye-opening.”Amaryllis huffed the huff of someone who didn’t know how to take a compliment.“Hugs?” I asked.“Certainly,” Bastion said.I squeezed him tight-tight. I’d miss Bastion. He was stoic and hard to read, but he was a nice person, dependable and strong, and willing to help others just because it was the right thing to do.“I don’t know what you’ll be up to next,” I said. “But make sure to make plenty of friends, and keep them close.”“I’ll be sure to take some of the lessons I’ve learned to heart,” Bastion said. He sighed while glancing at the door. “I think this is goodbye for now. I would ask that you three stay safe, but I don’t think you’re capable of that, so I’ll instead ask that you watch out for each other, and try not to burn down the capital while I’m here.”“We’ll do our best.”
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