Chapter 5 - Saffron Helm
Over the next week, Liesel traveled west along with Auram and Fur. The spirit had taken the honor of naming the moonblessed bear. Fur was surprisingly adept at hunting. He had his violent moments, though he was too scared of Liesel to act on those impulses.
Liesel was not sure whether that was just his natural disposition or if he was under a curse or sick in some manner. Regardless, it would bear itself in time.
Liesel stretched her back, yawning. The weather was already colder than anything she had experienced in Inceptius, the Imperial Capital. But the capital was built over the most dangerous Volcano in the known realms, which, when it erupted, would melt the entire realm. It was the hubris of the Laks Empire that it wanted the inception of the empire to be built atop something that might consume its ever-expanding borders. And for a millennium, their hubris had only been emboldened. As things stood, it may stretch for another.
On the daybreak of the eighth day, Liesel woke up on the cliff's edge. It rose from the ground like a blanket raised from the side. Beyond the curving beak, the land stretched flatly, covered in yellow grass and reeds. The river that they had been following their entire journey cut through the middle of the town. They had veered over to the cliff, as it was the first vantage point Liesel had found to get a better look at her surroundings. Now, it felt like a day wasted. She should've followed the river and trusted Auram to get her to safety. Of course, in hindsight, she knew what she should've done.
The city was massive, so there was a hope she could get back to her home through the Shade Passage. The boundary walls of the city were built like a crown, and at the back end, two warm, red horns protruded from it. She could see many high-rise buildings towering over even the horns, which meant it was a human settlement. No other race cared enough about tall buildings as humans did, and that might be because of their relatively small stature compared to any other Ascendant race.
She patted Fur. Since she didn't have a bed or even a blanket, she slept leaning against basically a living pillow, which was the giant bear's belly. It was his best against Liesel cutting his life short if he went berserk someday. She owed him at least a hundred second chances.
The moonblessed growled.
At first, Liesel had been cautious, but now she was confident the animal didn't have the courage to attack her.
"Just another day, Fur," Liesel said. He didn't understand her. She had been able to train him to follow simple instructions with whistles and apply force with vine reins. Auram helped with most of the more complicated tasks.
Liesel had been under the impression that Auram could converse with animals, but that was not the case. Only because Fur was a moonblessed. A normal animal was pacified by her presence, but they were not really able to understand her. Of course, it did open a new possibility for hunting that Liesel decided against employing. She couldn't imagine Auram agreeing to it in the first place.
She had to wake up Auram first, who slept on her belly. Though Auram had healed the wound on Fur's stomach, the scar remained. It made him look battle-toughened, though he was barely worth a pinch against anyone with an ounce of training with a weapon.
They descended back to the river and trudged down the meadows towards the human settlement.
Liesel had seen other towns than the Imperial Capital, but they were rather lackluster in their grandiosity.
"You should hide," Liesel said as they neared the entrance of the city.
"Hum?" Auram blinked.
"I do not know what kind of attitude the people of this place have towards spirits, but in general, nowhere in the empire are your kind fondly regarded."
Auram blinked, her expression somber as a flash of pain crossed her golden eyes. "Are humans still hunting us?"
"I cannot say for sure. The spirits are supposed to be extinct in the Inceptius, and someone like me cannot know the general attitude in the other realm. But given our history, I don't think it would be positive for either of us if you are seen at the gates."
"You were so nonchalant about me, I thought humans would've moved on from their fixation."
"I am a very poor benchmark to gauge the imperial society."
"Are you asking me to leave for good?" Auram asked.
Liesel considered for a long moment. "If you can teleport inside the city once I am alone, that should be fine. But... you won't be able to wander around inside the city. That's just the blunt reality of your situation."
Auram looked back at the forest. "Then... I am gonna go. Maybe we can meet again someday."
Liesel nodded. "Possibly the next time I am summoned by the Custodian."
"I don't think I am going back to the Library."
Liesel blinked. She remembered Auram saying something to that effect once before. "Why?"
"We had a deal, and then he broke it," Auram said. "I can't keep my head high and take shelter in his library. I am not his pet."
"Regardless of how you feel, it is the safest place you can fly around freely in," Liesel said. "And his strength and lack of animosity towards you is an assurance you'd never be forced to act against your will, so long as you simply ignore him.
"Should that make it any better?" Auram's voice was a pitch higher. "If he doesn't respect me as a person, then I am not going to hide in his home."
"It is your decision," Liesel said. "It takes tremendous courage to ask for dignity over safety, but if you don't have the tools to survive, that dignity is nothing more than a lightning in a dark storm. What you presume as a guiding light will strike you to death. I cannot ask you to return to the Library when I took a shorter and painful life just for the faint replica of the life I had imagined as a child. But if you throw your life away, the Custodian wouldn't blink twice, let alone feel guilt for your demise. So what even is your destination, Auram? Beyond the fact, you are childishly frustrated over a borderline divine entity not holding his end of the deal when you have no power to enforce it. The fact that he was even willing to entertain your game shows he might have some fondness for you."
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"Like I am his pet!"
Liesel leaned forward, staring at the tiny spirit intently, "Perhaps. What he thinks, I cannot tell you. He's an evil being, willing to slaughter hundreds of people for no discernible reasons. What he thinks of you is immaterial. Only the fact that you are safe should matter. Auram, you are complicating your life. The first thing that you should care about is safety, and only when you have it, can you worry about dignity."
"It's not secondary!" Auram huffed in frustration.
"When you lack the strength to demand it, it is. I will again suggest that you return to Qirarth."
"Strength has nothing to do with it."
"So is what every child of the empire is taught, Auram, and then we learn that it is a lie. We live in a world where strength dictates law and structures the hierarchy. In that world, dignity is not a right, but a privilege earned through blood."
Frustrated, Auram grumbled as she sat on Fur's head. "Fine. I will go back and make him apologize. That will show ya my might." Despite her attempt to sound jovial, her voice resonated with a lack of hope.
"Don't be discouraged when he doesn't," Liesel said. She wished she could offer a more tangible assurance, but this was just the reality of the empire.
"See ya. I will stop by to see you again."
Liesel nodded.
"You want me to come back, right?" Auram stared at her with her big, round eye.
"If you want to see me, I don't mind it," Liesel said.
"Would you prefer if I don't come back?"
"For your own safety, yes," Liesel said. "I prefer to keep others away from me."
"Oh..." Auram seemed sad.
"You can say that's why I didn't succumb to the Mindeater's magic, just after losing all my colleagues ten minutes prior. I'd like to think I am incapable of growing fond of others, but it is not true. I simply loathe the feeling that losing my mother left me with, and I don't want to feel it again. So, I wish you would keep your distance from me." Liesel said. She felt she owed at least this much honesty to the spirit who had guided her to safety over the last week.
"I see. Well then, farewell, Lis." Auram flew down to Fur's eye level. "I will come by to see you at night, okay?"
Fur hummed.
"Don't you hurt him!" Auram vanished into a puff of smoke.
Liesel exhaled a breath of relief. She was not too attached to the spirit, and she'd prefer to keep it that way. She still remembers how painful it was when she lost her mother. Compared to that, she felt nothing when she watched the Seekers die. She'd prefer to remain at that point forever. She knew some people would call it wrong, but why would anyone be willing to feel that pain again?
"What's up with this sword?" the guard asked, eyeing the slightly purplish-black blade of the sword.
The sword's been changing lately, but Liesel still wasn't sure why that was the case. Auram was even less knowledgeable on the subject matter.
Liesel was not sure either. The blade's steel had darkened over the course of the week, now almost identical to the shade of the Mindeater's blood.
"It's enchanted," Liesel said, unable to think of any material that might shade the blade in this unique hue.
"What kind of...?" He was reaching for the sword, but stopped as Liesel narrowed her eyes at him.
"Reinforcement," Liesel replied.
"And it broke?" He snorted at the idea.
Liesel was sure it was sturdier than before. Sturdier than even her Enforcement would've made it. "Yes."
"How did you get here again?"
"I entered an unknown dungeon as part of the Rand Company of the Soul Seekers. The demons overwhelmed our team. After destroying the sealed entrance, I woke up close to the Ruins," Liesel said. This was the fourth time. She didn't know how much of it was procedure, or if they were expecting a bribe to let her go.
The other guard observed the Captain's crest. "You were the company's captain?"
"He died. He entrusted me with his Crest," Liesel could kill both of them should the situation come to that. Not that she'd survive after that.
"Is that how it's supposed to work?" He looked at the other one, entranced by the sword.
"I guess."
"You can connect me to the Seeker's HQ, and they can vouch for my identity," Liesel said. Since she had both her own crest as the vice captain and the Captain's, it should have been easy and mundane work. Instead of the interrogation, she was sitting through.
"That's the problem, miss," the guard smiled bitterly. "Exactly eight days ago, a magnitude-nine shadequack destroyed all communication between the Iron League Realms and the Imperial Core. The Saffron Realm's basically isolated, except for the Seer, and even he cannot make contact with the Inceptius."
Liesel closed her eyes, exhaling. "Am I on the other side of the Celestial Graveyard?"
The Celestial Graveyard was a chasm of dead gods, and Iron League was supposed to be on the opposite side of Inceptius.
"You are on one side, and that's not the Imperial Core."
Liesel swore under her breath. She was at least two years away from her home. Unless the Custodian could teleport her back home or the transport channels were fixed, she'd not be going home. It usually took between a month and two decades to fix the damage from a Shadequack, depending on severity. If all communication were destroyed, it would lean towards the latter. Ten or twenty years was nothing for the empire, after all.
"Yeah. I get the feeling," the guard nodded. "I will write a report and send it to the Seer's office. You can stay at our army quarters."
He was basically imprisoning her without putting her in a cell, which was a dignity that Liesel wouldn't expect in most places.
"What about Fur?" Liesel asked. Her moonblessed steed had been introduced, and the guards did seem to know more about the superstition than she did.
"We'll put him in a barn."
Liesel didn't think that would go over well. "I tamed him in the forest. Placing him in a domestic barn would be a disaster for handlers, as well as other residents of the barn."
"We can send it back."
"He's staying with me," Liesel said.
The guards exchanged a glance. "That's not my place to make any promise. I will report that to the Seer as well."
"Thank you," Liesel replied.
She'd be meeting with the Seer a week later. For now, she was free to move about in the city as she pleased. They wanted to learn a little more about the dungeon, it would seem.
Liesel kept the answer about the strange tome to basically something she found in the dungeon, but couldn't read yet. She was also checked by a healer, though most of her injuries were gone by now.
Of course, money was going to be an issue. She was a pseudo-sword of the empire. They were not going to give her anything but food and a tiny room. It was still generous, and she felt like she could lift herself from here.
When she went over to see Fur late into the evening, Auram also teleported to her side. Fortunately, they had a small shack for him to lie in. They did put a chain around both his paws. Auram consoled him that this was temporary.
For now, Fur was more of a dangerous beast that couldn't be put down because of his status as a Moonblessed. The guards seemed reluctant to even use chains. In this part of the world, the moonblessed was sort of like a positive omen for good times to come.
She even overheard people talking about someone bringing a moonblessed as their pet, so Liesel felt a little hopeful for his situation.
Once Liesel returned to the room, Auram teleported to her side once more. As much as Liesel wanted Auram to keep her distance, she couldn't muster the necessary cruelty to tell that to the spirit's face. Liesel could only hope that Auram would grow tired of her fascination soon.
"This is nice," Auram said as she flew around, observing the woodwork.
"My room is bigger, and I have a much nicer bed back home," Liesel boasted, grinning slightly. The bed was as hard as the ground, but she was sure it would be the best sleep she'd have in a week. Liesel didn't move the curtains from the windows.
"Can I look outside?" Auram asked.
Liesel shook her head. "I... think you should try that tomorrow. So how are you learning when I am alone?"
"Oh, the Custodian has a floating window that observes you."
Liesel blinked. "You can't be serious."
"He's not always watching, though. He's gone to slumber, and I think he forgot to shut it down."
"Like hibernation? Or just normal sleep?"
"Oh, he sleeps for a while. Says that stops his aging, and adds a few years on his clock. He sleeps for years sometimes. He'll probably wake up when you get to whatever you are supposed to do... speaking of which, what are you going to do next?"
"I doubt I would be joining the standing military of this place as I am currently, so I will join the Mercenary Guild. For now, I need money to buy a few things. Not much, so one or two jobs should do it."