Chapter 68: Cathedral
It seemed all the roads in Belgrave led around in circles, crowded with a gray density of high buildings, pointy-towered churches, wide and giant factories, smoke-belching chimneys, and pits, and more chimneys further ahead, paved roads, unpaved roads, construction sites, priests, busy-looking men, fancy-dressed women and ladies, and little children with soot-marked faces running about holding their little hats to their tiny little heads.
There was a rush to life here, a certain heat in how everyone carried on with their days. A certain panic that suggested something terrible might happen if even a single person from this gray crowd were to ever be late to whatever appointment or job or work they were trying to catch up on.
They all take their time to sneak a glance at us, though. I guess that’s something.
The golden carriage must’ve been sparkling like a gem jutting out of mud here in all the grayness, and Valens crossed eyes on more than one occasion with people who stood agape at the mere sight of it, which obliged him to adjust his new set of clothes in hopes to match the grandeur of the company beside him, yet failed as wool could only be so further smoothened.
I’m terribly in need of some fancy clothing, as well.
To fix himself a wardrobe of new clothes, hats, coats, or even scholarly robes like the ones the Magi wore in the Empire, however, he would need a pocket full of whatever currency they used here. That brought a sense of normalcy to his mind, the sudden consideration of money which had been a trifling, worldly presence long forgotten in the face of crooked monsters and shadowy creatures.
But now that he found himself in what seemed like a somewhat passable civilization, Valens was reminded of his lacking qualities and other possibilities.
If the ritual had flung him right here rather than the depths of a Rift, with no prior preparation and not even a bag of clothes, then he would have had to carve a new life out of that desperation by relying on his skills, which possibly would’ve ended up with him being locked in some prison by the Church, or driven to insanity by the sheer paranoia of the religious folk on account that he might have a revelation being concocted in the stretches of his mind.
Coming across Nomad and the following experiences he had with the Duality Guild, then being taken gently by the Templars, though, gave him at least something to work with since he’d be a part-time employee in the Church’s evil-fighting campaign, with people whom he could barely trust, and a host of mysteries waiting for him to be unraveled.
Still, he peered out from the carriage's window like a kid fresh out of the academy, marvelling at the new sights and new horizons that awaited him, clicking his tongue now and then at the novelty of this world. All things considered, he managed to stay alive and find his way to the heart of the Melton Kingdom.
The real work starts now.
He smiled. He had a good feeling about this.