The Heavens Shall Fall

After spending two days on the road, Siu realized that his trip, which took about two years in itself, would have benefited greatly from having a carriage like this. It was so much easier to roll through the wilderness, trotting through the pine forest, down its rocky slopes, and out into the open with Cinna than what he had to do on foot. Sometimes they passed old waystones marked with glowing Hollow Song symbols, and Seloryn had told him that those could only be perceived by people at the Blood Resonance stage. Anyone else would have seen nothing but just a pile of rocks.

As they kept traveling and neared the borders of their target region, the road began widening, and the dirt trail became a packed gravel path. Soon, he even saw drainage ditches, actual boundary stones, fenced grazing lands, and small shrines built beside the way. The forests were gone by now, giving way to farmed fields, faraway logging camps, and tall, multi-story-high watch posts, as they reached civilization. As for what it was, Seloryn simply called it the outer borderland of Kavernacht. It was then evidenced by the road sign they had just passed, one bearing the crest of Kavernacht: a crowned black stag over three silver bars.

“Feels cleaner than I expected,” Siu said from the driver’s bench. "Where I was born was much... Khm. Different."

"Oh?" Seloryn sat beside him, her cloak drawn tighter against the wind that had been blowing strongly since morning. “I'd like to hear about that. I guess it was an outer region? Well, this being a core one, the roads near the border are maintained because there is heavy traffic coming and going through here.”

As if listening, Cinna chirped sharply, showing her happiness that she no longer needed to trot through mud and spend a good amount of time somewhere, wiping her clawed feet in a very much human-like annoyance. Luckily, she was not impossible to manage, but she required attention, because the moment Siu forgot to guide her properly, she began making decisions on her own. Even if some were good, like when she avoided some potholes, there were times when she decided she could go faster and almost throw the carriage over.

"Yes, we noticed," Arya said, something Siu caught as she was talking to Cinna, standing on the front rail, probably discussing the state of their route.

Marly, on the other hand, was in his lap, curled up and still asleep. Behind them, Joren was also napping, as he was usually the guard staying up late while Ruben... Well, unfortunately, Ruben turned out to be useful. Very useful. In a material sense, because he had cooled drinking water by the touch, helped clean mud from the wheel joints, or Cinna's legs, he even created a light mist around the carriage one afternoon when the air turned way too dry to Cinna's taste, placating the increasingly grumpy bird.

Finally, by midday on the second day, the road had led them to a proper border station. It was built where the hills flanking it narrowed, forming a natural passage between two lines of dark woodland. A stone wall crossed the road, not high enough to stop a real cultivator but more than enough to control the flow of mortal traffic. Two squat towers stood on either side, with the kingdom's banners flapping in the wind. Beyond the wall, Siu saw more open farmland and a village in the distance, probably what would be their first proper stop.

He had to realize that Seloryn was right, and this was a core region, because even here, the border gate itself was busy. As they joined the queue, he saw farm carts, carrying grain, sandwiched between merchants and their boxes. He even picked out a group of hunters with bundled pelts on their carts, explaining something to two soldiers in steel breastplates and dark wool uniforms.

"What are those?" He suddenly asked, looking towards the towers, from where some weird sticks were pointed down at the crowd, including them.

"No idea. Some kind of mortal weapons." Seloryn shrugged, making Ruben's head pop out from behind, taking a look.

"Oh? Those? Those are fun! They can't really hurt you if you trained your body well, especially if you can use your essence to reinforce yourself. Anyway, those are mortal weapons, shooting small balls at each other... what was their name? I remember the mortal who invented them named it after himself... Arc... Que... Arue... Arquebus! Yes, yes. That's it."

"You know a lot, huh?" Siu asked with a smile, looking at him.

"It is fun to see them copy spells that we can use, and try to mimic them without any cultivation whatsoever." He nodded, keeping up his smile, "It can be inspiring, you know. Anyway, against low-level cultivators, it can be useful and could even hurt them. I think even some lazy outers would feel the sting if they get shot by a handful of those."

As he said that, Siu spread his senses, trying to get a feel for the people here. The fact that none of them reacted reassured him a lot. After a few moments, he could tell that the regular soldiers were mostly mortal. Some had a bit of thin essence within them, a faint trace of who had trained their bodies and perhaps absorbed a little from the air, but not enough to truly be called a cultivator. But then again, the more he looked, he caught that a few of them felt stronger, roughly somewhere around Marrow Cleansing, or near it.

However, the officers were different.

After they got closer, at the gate’s center stood a captain in a dark coat over his light armor, a feathered hat tucked beneath one arm and a sword at his hip. He was definitely in the Blood Resonance; Siu felt that clearly. Two others near the inspection table had the same strength too, though their presence was thinner than he expected.

Even if the soldiers' cultivation was at the same level as his, their thickness, the quality... it was abysmal. Compared to the Blood Resonance disciples of the Hollow Song, these people's presence felt very shallow. Naturally, Siu did not say that out loud and didn't let it show on his face, not until Arya decided to deliver her assessment too.

“They are at Blood Resonance? Hm. Weak!”

“Quiet,” Siu glanced at her warningly.

“But they are!”

“I know, but we don't need to grade them now, do we?”

"I know what you are thinking of," Seloryn whispered to him faintly. “Do not look too surprised. Mortal-ruled kingdoms and their cultivators often have weaker foundations. It is perfectly reasonable, because they have much less access to proper chambers to gather the natural essence of the world and absorb it. Not to mention their usually subpar breathing techniques to utilize it. Then their poorer manuals are no help either, and finally... They have much less time to practice.”

"Mhm..." He nodded, watching them, scanning the people, realizing how lucky he was, because if not for his Old Man... he would not only be a cripple by now, but most likely dead, not even having a chance to become someone like the officers here.

While lost in his thoughts, the line moved faster than Siu expected. A merchant cart ahead of them was stopped for inspection, its papers checked by a clerk, then by the officer. Another wagon was pulled aside because the crates inside did not match the listed weight. Throughout it all, the soldiers remained professional, and the formation plate embedded in the inspection table in the main officer's hand flashed whenever a seal was verified.

Finally, after half an hour of waiting, their turn came. Cinna stepped forward, chirping annoyingly, talking about her boredom as per Arya's translation. In the middle of it, one soldier took a step toward the carriage, opened his mouth, then saw their sashes around their waists. Like he was zapped, he closed his mouth at once. As if hearing it, his captain turned to them, and his eyes moved over Seloryn first, then Siu and finally their carriage. The moment his gaze settled on the Hollow Song marks, his posture changed, and he hurriedly came forward and cupped his hands in the cultivator fashion, though his military bearing made the gesture somewhat stiff.

“Honored disciples of the Hollow Song,” he said. “I am Captain Gerhold Vask, overseer of the eastern border station under Kavernacht authority. May I ask your purpose of entry?”

"The honor is mine," Seloryn answered in a sweet tone before anyone else could speak up. "We are here on a sect mission, heading towards Mirebell," she explained as much as needed, while gently nudging Siu, who tapped his sash that reacted at once.

The captain only looked at the tablet in his hand before lowering it, bowing his head.

“Welcome to Kavernacht Kingdom. Do you require escort?”

“No,” Seloryn said simply. “We will stop briefly nearby, then continue; that is all.”

“Understood. The border village of Feldren lies just ahead. The Antlerlight Inn is clean enough, though not luxurious; please do excuse us for it. My last reports tell me that the road to Mirebell is open, with no official warnings posted as per this morning.”

“And any unofficial warnings?” Siu asked, without thinking, his mouth moving on its own.

The captain looked at him as he did so and for a moment, Siu thought he might dismiss the question. But then, he glanced around, lowering his voice.

“Some reports of noise in the northern woodlots two nights ago did trickle down to us. They reported lights in the sky, but we had no time to properly investigate them yet. Also... Keep in mind that the locals exaggerate such things, almost always. I had sent two scouts, but when they returned, they told me that they found no bodies or any confirmed beast movement, so I hadn't sent any request for a military response.”

“Maybe two cultivators clashed there?” Ruben asked with a chuckle.

“Possibly,” the captain nodded. “I also thought of that, but it also could be drunk charcoal burners, smugglers, or young nobles wasting talismans to impress one another. I have sent riders to ask questions, but no formal report has been returned to date. I can't jump to conclusions, nor can I spare more than I can on chasing some northern lights.”

Joren, who had woken up sometime before, finally appeared as he frowned slightly. He didn't say it, but Siu had noticed what he was thinking of, along the same line as what Ruben had asked.

“Thank you,” Seloryn said in the end, and the captain bowed his head, stepping away from their carriage.

“May your road be smooth.”

Cinna chirped as if accepting the blessing personally, and the moment the soldiers opened the gate, she trotted forward, and they officially entered Kavernacht. Their first stop, Feldren, was exactly what Siu imagined a border village in a kingdom might look like. It sat beside a small river, with timber-made houses, steep roofs, stone foundations, and narrow streets packed around the main road. It reminded him of home, but the buildings in his memories were not so luxurious. Who would have the money to build stone foundations when the ground would work? And who had the money to use proper bricks for some of the houses?

As he looked around, he realized that his birthplace was centuries back from this village. The only similarity was that chickens scattered from the carriage path when they rolled past a small chapel near the main square. Soldiers lounged near a barracks shed close to it, watching as two merchants argued, probably deciding if they should intervene or not. But they stopped, just like anyone else, as they stared at Cinna, because most mortal carriages either used horses or oxen... not by a massive, talkative bird.

As for the local people, they wore wool, linen, or leather. Although they mostly carried and held simple tools, Siu did notice the presence of the Hollow Song's influence even here. For example, the streetlamps were clearly working off a formation, fueled by CC. A water pump with glowing runes at its side was another giveaway. It was everywhere if one knew where to look, being a subtle mix of both worlds.

"That should be it," Joren said, bringing him back to the present and noticing the inn nearby. It was easy to find because it had a glowing pair of antlers as a sign. “It looks clean enough,” he added as Siu parked Cinna down next to it.

“You can tell from outside?” Siu asked with a smile.

“As an innkeeper myself? Are you joking?”

“I retract my question.” He chortled, getting off with a moan, stretching his tired limbs.

Which then turned into a ten-minute fight to get Cinna to stay, tied to her post, while they went in, because the bird almost dragged the whole cart into the building. Inside, the inn was warm and filled with the smell of bread and onions, most likely from the stew being cooked in a massive pot behind the counter. Joren was right; it was indeed very clean, and when they all got in, the innkeeper nearly dropped a cup when looking at them.

Without question, a side table was cleared for the group, and, before even ordering, fresh stew appeared before each of them. Siu saw someone send a boy running to make sure the stablehands did not overcharge the honored disciples, which seemed unnecessary since Siu wasn't sure if Cinna would let any of them get too close to the carriage. Not refusing the hospitality, though, they ate without reservation, and when the bowls were empty, Siu had to flick the head of Marly and Arya.

“You already had your bowls, pipe down!"

"That was only good for breakfast." Marly looked at hers, her mouth still full of potato pieces.

"Yeah, and I don't think they heard of second breakfast; it is right between breakfast and lunch," Arya added.

“This was lunch,” Siu argued with them, wanting to moan.

“That is even worse!” Arya complained.

“Yeah, that means we missed more food, so ask for seconds!” Marly agreed, so Siu gave them both a piece of leftover bread to wipe the bowls clean with, to quiet the two.

It was then that voices from the next table caught his attention, as he heard someone mention 'cultivators.' Was it about them? To listen without giving himself away, he stretched out with his essence, subconsciously using the same method he used against Seloryn. However, instead of covering his ears with essence to block sounds out, he was sharpening it to hear better.

The two men who were talking sat nearby, and at a quick glance, he noted that both of them were dressed like woodcutters or charcoal workers. One had a bandage around his forearm, the other a beard full of wood chips. A third man sat with them, older, listening with intense focus and a bit of worry on his face.

“I’m telling you,” the bandaged man said, “that wasn’t lightning. Lightning goes down; this went sideways. Have you ever seen something like that? Because I haven't!”

“Sideways?” the older man asked.

“Sideways, up, then sideways again." He nodded, "It was blue-white, then red. Lit the whole place up like sunrise for half a breath; it almost made me go blind!”

“Cultivators,” the bearded man said with certainty.

“Aye, had to be. Who else could it be?”

“Could’ve been noble boys.” The old one offered.

“Noble boys don’t come this far away from the capital. Their silk pants would get dirty! We were at the north logging site." He continued, "Past the old ash stand. I know that the night watch saw lights first... My cousin is with them, and he told me they thought it was poachers with lantern charms. Then, the wind picked up.”

“Wind?” The others asked.

“It was no wind." He snorted, "The trees got bent like grass. I went back to check; half the logging site was ruined. Two sled tracks crushed, three stacks split open, one shed burned to the ground, yet nobody saw fire.”

“Cultivators,” the older man whispered again, looking delighted and frightened at once.

“Aye, but no bodies were found. That’s the strange part. With that kind of fighting, someone should’ve died!”

“Maybe they carried them off?”

“Maybe. Or maybe they were too strong to die.” The old man offered.

“That’s what I said,” the bandaged man added. “Could’ve been sect people.” He muttered, throwing a glance towards Siu's group, being very suspicious as they had shown up at the perfect moment.

"Sssh!" The bearded man reprimanded him and quickly looked around, lowering his voice even more. “Don’t say that so loud!”

"Well..." Ruben chuckled, apparently also eavesdropping, just like Seloryn and Joren, who looked at each other at the same time, "Are we going to take a look?"

"Do we have the time for that?" Joren asked, glancing at Seloryn, who thought for a moment, gazing at Siu.

"Let's hear our designated driver."

"We have a schedule to maintain." Siu said after a brief pause, "But if our road takes us close to the place... we can give it a look."