Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Two — 5«
Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Two — 5« "Whoa!" I said as I leaned way forwards on the railings and squinted my eyes to take in Deepmarsh. It was about midday, so the sun was almost directly overhead and shining down with a bright light that made the entire world feel vibrant and colourful, for all that the world below was filled with a lot of browns and greys.Deepmarsh the country was known for its marshes. Deepmarsh the capital city? It was smack in the centre of a massive swampy space.A dozen small rivers from the north and east and west all came together to meet in the same spot, forming what looked like a shallow inland sea.I'd seen some maps of the region, so I knew that it wasn't actually a sea, just a really, really big river, one that ran from the capital all the way down to an estuary that met the ocean to the south.Still, even from so high up, the lake was wide enough that it felt like we were hovering over a sea.The water didn't look super inviting, being mostly brownish and sluggish, and it was covered in huge mats of greenery that seemed to slowly float along. Small, squarish boats bobbed atop the lake, moved by pole-welding grenoil. More impressive were the larger floating docks and platforms, some of which had entire small town's worth of homes and buildings sitting atop them.And then there was Deepmarsh itself.Unlike the boats and platforms all around, the capital was built of stone.It was a five-by-five grid of gargantuan buildings. Each one ten times longer than the Beaver and probably three times as tall as the ship was long. They stood in the waters with just enough room between them that two of the smaller barges could float past each other in the grid of waterways between the buildings.Some were topped by massive greenhouses, and others, especially on the edges, had wooden towers that rose up with docks and airship ports for incoming ships.The buildings were lined by balconies and linked together with a confusing array of bridges and what looked like zip-lines that had boxes shooting past."It's huge!" I said.Each building probably had as much stone as a decently large castle, and there were twenty-five of them! Some, to the north, were larger than the rest, with gilded pillars rising up around them and domed roofs that glinted in the noonday sun."That's the palace," Caprica said as she came to stand next to me."It is?" I asked. "Have you ever been here?"She shook her head. "No. But it was covered in my studies on Deepmarsh. And Deepmarsh is an ally of Sylphfree. Or at least, not an adversary. The palace over there took a century to be built. The entire city took twice that. It's one of the engineering marvels of the world, really."The city was two hundred years old? I couldn't tell from above, but it was certainly impressive. The palace reminded me a bit of images I'd seen of the Taj Mahal, only a bit blockier and sitting atop of a swamp instead of dry land."Why is it built like that?" I asked."I don't know, exactly," Caprica said. "I think the first home pad-that's their name for these square buildings-was a proof of concept, and when it proved successful, they built more of them. Some are housing, some contain factories." she pointed to one off to the side that had several chimneys belching smoke atop it. "And some are schools and living spaces and markets. I imagine that over time, some have taken on many tasks."That was cool! But... why? Deepmarsh had some dry land to build on. They didn't need to build a whole city over the swamp like this. Though I supposed it would make invading pretty difficult. The grenoil were a semi-aquatic people. Their neighbours were either harpies, cervid, or humans, and none of them would be well-suited to assaulting a city sitting on so much water."Are they floating?" I asked."Dirt no," Caprica said. "They must weigh millions of tons. They're anchored to the bed of the lake far below, I believe. The stone is quarried from... ah."I heard a click-click of talons on wood as Amaryllis approached. "The foothills of the Harpy mountains. About two hour's flight north of here," she answered. "Cutting and bringing all of that stone here was a chore. But it's a tough, durable material. The rivers pouring into the lake are all damned now, with the amount of water flowing in carefully regulated. If the grenoil want, they could flood all of the lowlands around here. It would be disastrous."This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.Why would they do that?" I asked."Well, they need to flood the land every few years to make the grasslands wet and to irrigate their crops... and it's a great deterrent. Can you imagine marching an army across ground that could be swept away at any moment? Aerial warfare is truly the worst thing to happen to the grenoil, all of these defences are rendered nearly obsolete by the invention of the airship."Honestly, I thought Amy was being a little too cynical. Not every giant building project needed to be a cold-blooded preparation for a future war that might never even happen! Couldn't they build a capital like this just because they wanted to? It was pretty, and I bet it was a cool place to live in!I had to stop staring as we came in closer. It was time to pilot the ship in towards the docks. Fortunately, Clive had been here before, and he knew enough to warn me that the docks around Deepmarsh were a little tricky.We had to slow way, way down and signal with a few semaphore flags to the port authority tower that we were looking for a berth, then we were carefully directed to join a line of incoming ships.Smaller ships, like floating skiffs with small sails and no balloons-just powerful gravity engines-zipped around and acted as tugs to push ships into place and keep order.Eventually, after a solid hour of moving at a pace that I could have out-walked, we finally came up next to one of the free dock towers. Ropes were tossed back and forth, and large metal gantries came up from below and were adjusted to fit the Beaver's strange hull configuration.We slowly lowered the output of our engine until we were confident that the dock could hold us, then shut it all down."Well done, Captain," Clive said. He bit the end of his pipe. "I'm going to take a breather, leave the dockwork to the younger folk.""Sure thing," I said with a grin. "Can you keep an eye on the ship while we're off? I think most of us are going to be coming along for this one.""Aye, I can do that," he said with a nod.I grinned, then took a few minutes to make sure everything was in order. Amaryllis argued with the dockmaster over the fee we'd have to pay while our friends that were coming along got geared up for a bit of fun in an unknown city.Once I checked in and made sure the Scallywags knew what they were doing with the ship, I ran down and got dressed up as well. I tossed my captain's hat off and picked up my trusty kettle helm, slipping my ears through.I stepped out onto the main deck a few minutes later in my gambeson and with my breastplate on. It was a bit much, going out all armoured, but... well, this wasn't a familiar city, and there was a possibility that we'd be getting up to some trouble. If we did, then I'd rather do it armoured."Is everyone ready?" I asked as I scanned over my friends. Calamity was adjusting his moustache, unstrung bow on his back, Awen was next to him in her long blue coat, warhammer hanging from her belt, and Caprica was plucking lint off of her militaristic uniform. She had a sword and shield strapped to her back.Desiree was over by Amaryllis, tails wagging happily behind her while she chattered away and Amy made vaguely disinterested noises. Both seemed pretty ready too."Alrighty then," I said as I did nothing to stop a grin from spreading across my face. "Let's go exploring!""And where, exactly, are we exploring?" Bastion asked as he walked over, very much looking the part of the noble paladin in his shiny armour."We'll start at the University Quarter," Caprica said with certainty. "Our quarry is an academic, a 'Mister Celiga.' If he's not there, then the people in that area ought to know where we can find him.""Sounds good to me!" I said. "So... which building is the University Quarter? And why are they called quarters if there's more than four buildings?"
* * *
Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Three — The Scenic Route
Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Three — The Scenic Route I think Caprica really wanted to impress Bastion. More so than usual. She ended up at the front of the group, acting as our guide through a city she'd admitted to never setting foot in, but she had read about it. Amaryllis and Awen both had about the same level of knowledge — they had studied the city in their schooling, and Awen had also heard stories from her uncle — but neither of them had ever actually been to Deepmarsh.We were kinda flying blind."This way," Caprica said as she guided us towards an entrance atop the monolithic building we'd docked at. The entrance was a stone archway, the doors held open with little wooden blocks. As we crossed into the building, air faintly blew across my ears, and I raised my hand up, looking for the source of the breeze."Huh? Is there a spell here?" I asked.Amaryllis paused, then looked up and squinted. "Oh. There is. Look at the keystone of the arch, there's a spell woven into it."I couldn't quite see what she meant, though there were some markings on the stone she gestured to. "What do they do?" I asked."Looks like... a drying spell, and one to pull air in. It's not nearly strong enough to dry all the air, or pull much in," Amaryllis said."It's likely to counteract the humidity a little," Caprica said.That... was probably a good idea. I had my Cleaning magic running as a thin aura around me, but even then I could feel the muggy heat of the day clinging to me. The air was warm, and wet, and kind of thick? The slight breeze helped a little, and I supposed that was the whole point. "I guess even grenoil can find it too humid," I said."It's likely also to prevent moisture from causing issues," Awen said. "Things rust faster in wet places, and there's always mould that can grow if you're not careful. At least, that's what I've heard? It's kind of dry in Mattergrove."Mattergrove was sitting right next to a desert, so that was probably a bit of an understatement."Let's get a move on?" Calamity asked. "This place ain't any good for my fur.""Indeed. My tails will require additional grooming once we've left this place," Desiree agreed. She patted one of her tails, which did look a little puffier than usual already."Yes, let's!" Caprica said. She smiled, glanced at Bastion, who was near the front of the group and standing very still, then she spun on a heel and started ahead."Say, Broccoli," Amaryllis said as she walked next to me. The inside of the building was a lot of wide corridors with low ceilings so far, with lots of equipment and supplies left in crates along the walls. We had entered directly into the core of the building, and there were no windows or skylights. It would've been pitch-black, except that there yellow-burning lanterns spaced every few paces."Yeah?" I asked.Amaryllis squinted ahead at Caprica, then Bastion. "I'd like to think that I'm rather observant of others, but I'd appreciate your opinion.""Always," I said."Caprica has the worst crush on Bastion this side of Dirt, yes?""Oh yeah," I said with a nod. "She has it bad. It's pretty obvious.""And Bastion is utterly clueless about it, yes?" Amaryllis asked. "I think you have a better read on the Paladin than I do."I hummed and rubbed at my chin. Was he? "I think so, but it might be that he's choosing to be, ah, professional about it?""That would make a fair bit of sense. He'd be putting his career in jeopardy if he... entertained any of the ideas Caprica may have.""It's also a little wrong, she's technically kind of his boss," I said."Oh yes, it would be quite scandalous in the sylph courts. But Caprica isn't first princess, she may perhaps be able to marry whomever she pleases as long as the choice isn't too... controversial, and in that respect a former Paladin would be a respectable choice," Amaryllis said. "We should be playing chaperon. To keep poor Bastion from being harmed."I blinked. "Not to keep Caprica safe?" I asked."I know what I said."I held off on giggling, even if I wanted to. There was no point in getting the others' attention. They might ask what had made me laugh, and then I'd have to explain things, or make something up, and I was no good at that.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.The corridor we were in opened up into a large, multilevel room. Balconies ran along the edges, circling an open area that dropped half-a-dozen floors below us. Wide metal tubes descended from the vaulted ceiling, each one bolted to support columns. I leaned over the edge of the railing, following the tubes down with my eyes — each one ended in a mirror, angled to fling bright light across a garden-park that took up most of the floor at the bottom of the room.So, they were basically piping in sunlight, huh? I guess the inside of the tubes were all ... mirrorized. Was that the word?Every balcony was teeming with grenoil, and many other races as well. Then again, this was right under the docks, so it made sense to me that this would be the meeting ground of travelers. There were inns on almost every level, and I noticed a few taverns below with magical lights hovering around their signs to grab people's attention."Ah, a map," Caprica said before moving to a large board fastened to one of the walls. The map showed every building in the city marked on it, and next to them, in a teeny-tiny font, a list of what could be found there. There were also lines connecting the buildings, showing how to get from one to the other. "Looks like the university quarter is just three buildings away. It shouldn't be too hard to get there from here."As it turned out, that was a little bit wrong.Sure, three buildings wasn't far, as the crow flies, but it was also three gaps away, and those gaps were covered by bridges, and not all bridges were on the same level. We found one to the building across, but then had to go down three floors for the next one, and then that building was residential, and the next bridge over was in a private area, so we had to climb back up, cross another bridge, then a second, then go down another two floors, then across again.All in all, we might have only been half a kilometre from the university quarter, but it took a solid hour of twists and turns and getting a smidge lost before we found our way over."Okay," Caprica said. She was keeping it together, which was nice. "Now... Mister Celiga is a historian. All we need to do is find the history department and we'll know where he is. Easy as sugar pie."It was not as easy as pie, sugar or otherwise.We stepped into the building, crossing a bridge that had a sign hanging by its middle with 'University Pad' written on it in a very formal-looking script. The inside smelled like old paper and ink, and there were a lot of younger grenoil loitering around the lobby we stepped into.There were bulletin boards covered in flyers stuck to the walls and students milled around, wearing various robes cut in different colours of cloth and in different styles, most carrying handfuls of books and scrolls. I noticed a few of them looked baggy-eyed, even for grenoil."Okay," I said, stepping up next to Caprica and peering down one of the wide hallways leading off the lobby. "Anyone see a map?""I do," Awen said. She pointed to a plaque near the reception desk. It was behind a wall of glass and surrounded by small drawers labeled with letters. "I think that's the directory."Caprica strode over first, with all the authority of someone who had definitely not just gotten us mildly lost for an hour. She stared at the directory for a moment, then frowned. "This is... alphabetical by subject. But not in the Common tongue.""It's in Grenish," Amaryllis said as she leaned in. "I can read it, give me a moment."Desiree hummed. "Would this not be a good moment to ask for help from a local? Perhaps a charming young student? One with a loose tongue and helpful manners?"Amaryllis didn't look up. "And risk being sent three floors up and four buildings over because someone thinks it's funny? Pass."It took Amaryllis a moment, but she had the directory open and plucked out a map of the entire building, with a route from the lobby to the history department marked out. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to just take it, but we... kind of just did.The path led us down two more winding corridors, past a cafeteria that smelled surprisingly good, then up a narrow spiral staircase. At the top, it deposited us at a door made of thick, dark wood with HISTORICAL RESEARCH AND STUDIES carved neatly across the top.This was it, I figured!
* * *
