Chapter 183: Welcome

Chapter 183: Welcome

Rain shifted from foot to foot anxiously, watching Emerton soaring overhead. The Aeromancer was using a linen wingsuit, having gotten the initial elevation through skyfalling with Jamus’s assistance. Air Manipulation gave him some measure of control above and beyond what he had through aerodynamics, but it was far from full flight. For that, he’d need the wings Staavo was still tinkering with—or a higher level, of course. With just the wingsuit, he would be coming down eventually; it was only a matter of how fast. That wasn’t the source of Rain’s anxiety.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.

If I can see him, so can Three Cliffs.

They were close now, camped at the edge of what was clearly a tree farm. The trunks were aligned in even rows, and the soil was a far cry from the dust beneath their feet only meters away. Likely as not, magic had been involved in reclaiming arable land from the salt flats, but that didn’t matter now. What mattered was what had happened to the city. Three days ago, when they’d been only halfway across the plain, a cloud of smoke had appeared on the horizon.

“I still think you should have gone up this time,” Rain whispered, turning his head so Ameliah could hear him. The two of them were standing with Vanna, Samson, and Tarny at the edge of the trees. Subtlety had been parked nearby, the wagon train extending out behind it into the flats, bustling with activity.

“I can’t do everything,” Ameliah whispered back softly. “Emerton can do this, so he should. You have to let them leave the nest, Rain.”

“And if he gets shot down?” Rain countered, lowering his tone further as Vanna glanced at him.

“By who?” Ameliah asked, arching an eyebrow.

“The Empire, obviously,” he hissed. “Maybe they didn’t pursue us because they knew they wouldn’t have to.”

“If they captured the city, we’d already know,” Ameliah said. “They’d have seen us coming. And besides, how would they have even gotten here?”

Rain looked at her, not doing a good job of hiding his anxiety. “Maybe they learned to make ships like the Bank’s. Or maybe they captured one or something. You don’t know. And if they saw us, so what? Who’s to say they’re not just biding their time?”

Ameliah rapped him between the eyes with the tip of her bow, surprising him out of his agitation. “All the more reason for me to stay right here with you, dummy. Relax.”

Rain shook his head, about to say he was trying when a gust of wind made him look up. Seconds later, Emerton touched down, his boots landing smartly on the hard dirt. He stumbled slightly, but it was practically graceful in comparison to one of Rain’s landings.

“Well, it wasn’t just a fire,” Emerton said, working his jaw as he raised the brass goggles from his eyes. He gestured to the spyglass strapped to his belt, safe in its case. “This thing is amazing, especially with the acc—“ He coughed, catching himself, then clearing his throat. “Anyway, I’ll give them back later. I might go up again to get another look, but there was definitely a battle.”

“Survivors?” Samson asked.

Emerton nodded, and Rain breathed a sigh of relief. “Hundreds, but they were like ants from up there, even through the telescope.”

“And the city itself?” Vanna asked. “Are there ships docked?”

“The city is...well, it varies,” Emerton said, rolling a shoulder as best he could with the linen flap of his wingsuit restricting the motion. “It has three tiers, built on shelves carved into the cliff face. That’s why I couldn’t see it from where we stopped yesterday. Bad angle. Anyway, the damage is worst on the lowest tier. It looks like it got flattened by a giant, then set on fire. Not a single building left standing. As for ships, same story. Nothing floating in the harbor except splinters and barrels.”

“Fuck,” Vanna cursed, looking over Rain’s shoulder at the bustling caravan.

“That’s what I said,” Emerton replied. “The second tier of the city’s in better shape than the harbor. It’s only partially burned down. You can see where the Fireballs hit, coming in from the ocean. It’s all wooden buildings on that level. They must have had some way to stop the fire from spreading beyond just the reservoir I saw, or it’d all be ash, just like the harbor. The third-tier buildings are mostly stone. Their noble district, I expect. It seems more or less untouched, other than what must have been the stairs to get up here to the top of the cliff proper. The stone is all scorched where they were. Whoever did this went out of their way to stop anyone from escaping.”

“How big of a city are we talking about here, anyway?” Tarny asked.

Emerton glanced at him. “The second tier is probably as big as Vestvall on its own, and the harbor would have been twice that size if there was anything left. The third tier’s small by comparison.

Rain frowned. “What about on our level?”

Emerton shook his head. “There’s a big lumber yard there, but that’s it. I didn’t see anyone around. If there are any people up here, they probably saw our dust and are hiding under cover.”

Rain nodded, taking a moment to digest. He looked up as Vanna caught his attention. She glanced again at the company behind him, then spoke in a low voice. “What now?”

Rain chewed his lip, still thinking. His tension had faded, and he was quickly transitioning into problem-solving mode. He kept his voice low to match Vanna’s as he thought aloud. “Well, if it was the Empire, they didn’t stick around. Their ships would still be in the harbor if they were here.”

Samson shook his head. “No one has ever sailed up that coast, Rain. There isn’t a safe channel past the badlands, and if the Adamants had ships that could brave deep water, they’d never have bothered marching overland to Fel Sadanis in the first place. No, I would wager this was a squabble between the pirate factions.”

“What about Lightbreaker and his army?” Tarny asked. “Could they have come this way and burned the harbor?”

“Maybe,” Samson said, flexing his hand on the hilt of his sword as he thought. “I can’t see a reason for them to do that, though. Plus, the damage Emerton described isn’t consistent. Another theory: maybe a Citizen finally got fed up with pirates raiding their shipping lanes and decided to do something about it. More than a few use fire. Then again, the city’s still mostly standing, so maybe not.”

“We need to know more,” Rain said, scratching at his beard. He let his hand fall, decision made. “I’m going down.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Vanna asked. “Couldn’t Ameliah go?”

“I should stay here to protect the company,” Ameliah said, shaking her head.

“And I don’t want to risk anyone else,” Rain said, continuing where she left off. “I’ll be fine. I have to leave the nest sometime.”

Ameliah smirked.

Vanna nodded, smiling as well. “Take a team with you, at least. I’ll get everyone else set up here for the night.” She shook her head. “What are we going to do about ships, though?”

The man let out a startled yelp as his crablike flight sent him bumping into the back wall of the alley, which seemed to be a dead end. “A—Adventurer! I— Wait, I...”

The man paused, then looked down and gasped, panicking again as he scrambled at his stomach with frantic hands. His fingers found a thin hole in his tunic, then froze in wonder.

Rain grimaced. Clearly, the man had been stabbed in the gut, but the only remaining evidence of it was the sliced fabric. It was a long moment before he looked back up, and it took longer still for him to speak. “I died. I’m dead, aren’t I? This is a dream.”

“You aren’t dead,” Rain said, having waited patiently. He took a careful step into the alley and was relieved when the man didn’t immediately cry out in fear. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut, his lips moving.

Counting?

Reaching three, the man opened his eyes. “You’re still there...”

Rain smiled and extended a hand, “Here, let me help you up.”

“Stay—Stay back!” the man shouted, pressing himself against the wall and kicking with his legs to keep Rain away from him.

“Easy,” Rain said, retracting the hand. “We’re here to help.”

“Adventurers don’t help,” the man muttered, glaring at Rain suspiciously for a long moment before he began patting at his trousers. “Especially ones that look like you. What’s with the helmet? Afraid to show your face?” He let his hands fall with a defeated sigh, having inverted his pockets and found them empty. “Shit.”

“Robbed, clearly,” Jamus observed. “And left to die.”

“Salted fish guts!” the man spluttered, only now seeming to spot Jamus standing there. He pressed himself against the wall again. “Where’d you come from?! Gods, you’re orange!”

Rain grinned, holding up the empty potion bottle. “Take a minute and think. If we wanted to hurt you, we wouldn’t have fed you a potion. We just want to help and to ask what happened to the city. We just came in from a mission on the flats, and we were a bit surprised to see the damage, to say the least.”

Every word, true.

The man blinked, then licked his lips. He blinked again. “I—“

Whatever he had been going to say was cut off by a booming shout from back in the square.

“COME OUT AND FACE DEATH, ADAMANT BASTARDS!”

Rain whirled. Out in the light of the square stood a man in full plate, more like Carten’s than his own. Unlike Carten, this man’s armor was painted garishly in red and yellow. He held a surprisingly-normal-sized longsword in a two-handed grip over his head. He had no helmet, with only a stubbly beard to protect his wide-jawed face. That marked him as an idiot. The silver Guild plate dangling from around his neck, however, marked him as something else entirely.

Hurriedly, Rain stepped forward before the man could shout again, placing himself in front of Nails, who’d lingered at the mouth of the alley. He let the empty potion bottle fall from his grip, spreading his palms to show that he was unarmed. “Hello, we’re—“

“Awwww, shit,” the man interrupted with a resigned sigh as he let his sword fall from its guard. “Just a pack of bronzies.” He turned, muttering loudly to himself as he began walking away. “I thought when I saw...never mind. Fuck.”

Rain shared a glance with Jamus. Jamus shrugged. Rain then looked at Nails briefly before loudly clearing his throat. “Um, excuse me.”

The silverplate ignored him, still walking away and muttering, swishing his naked sword around at invisible targets as he worked out what was quite clearly a number of issues.

“Hey!” Rain shouted, and the man stopped at last, turning to face him.

“What?” he demanded. “No, before you ask, I won’t train you.”

“Why did you think we might be Adamants?” Rain asked, cutting straight to the question he needed answered the most.

“What kind of a dumbass question is that?” The silverplate asked, sheathing his sword with contemptuous force. “’Cause there’s fuckin’ Adamants around, bird skull. I wouldn’t be out hunting em otherwise, would I? No, I don’t know where specifically, and if I did, I wouldn’t bloody tell you. Not that you’d have a chance at stealing a bounty from me. You’d just get yourselves killed, like as not.” He jabbed a thumb at his chest. “You find out where one’s hiding, you come find me, got it?”

“And you are...?” Jamus asked.

The man recoiled as if slapped. He huffed in offended disbelief, not once, but three times, each exclamation more vigorous than the last. “Unbelievable!” he finally said, turning and marching away.

Rain reached out, grasping at the air. “Wait, I just have one more qu—“

“Fuck off!” The man roared, then vanished behind a building as he left the square.

Rain let his arm fall and turned back to his companions. He opened his mouth to say something, then paused. The formerly-injured man was still there. He’d gotten to his feet but was still trapped in the alley behind Jamus and Nails.

Seeing that he had Rain’s attention, the man cleared his throat. “Thanks for saving me, I guess. Not to be ungrateful, but can I go, or...?”

Rain just stared.

What the HELLS is wrong with this town?