The heralds a couple of days after his and Skora's escape had announced that Governor Hichami from the south, aboard the train, has survived and he had listened in stunned horror as the herald had relayed what he had told the people in his conference in the First Ring of Urok.
'We will keep you updated day by day as we work hard but what happened on the train was an act by bandits, thieves, crime families and Magi, working together as one in a daring mission to halt the infallible train service and abduct every passenger aboard the train” he had told the people.
“We are not clear on their motives but are waiting on a ransom yet these low lives have assured us that their hostages are alive and well and we work by the hour, waiting on further demands, though let it be known we will not give in easily to such petty and despicable groups of terror” he had declared and Koatsu had almost found it impossible to believe what he was hearing. This story was almost as outlandish as people riding giant things called dragons, Demons or a good meal in this Ring.
“We have the identities of two of those involved in this despicable act. I was escorting two high level prisoners myself, two Magi, who fled the scene and are believed to be on the run inside either the Seventh or Eighth wall. My brave colleague and close friend, Koshin, tried to reason with them but they took abducted him too, laughing as they fled the scene along with their comrades” he had further proclaimed and he remembered at that moment, feeling as if every eye was on him though that was impossible and his body growing hot as he had gritted his fists and clenched his fists
“We will be raising security and patrols inside the walls in question and we will work with The Scales and The City Guardians to provide details and sketches of the two scoundrels, who go by the names of Skora and Koatsu, as soon as possible.”
'I should have left him in the hands of those creatures' he angrily thought to himself as he took a right and pulled the hood tighter over his face as a group of soldiers walked past him. He waited until they had past completely past him and walking up to the wall in front of him, he checked that no one was looking his way and quickly tore down the poster that had been hung up.
He looked down at it. He couldn't read what was written but the sketches looked up to him and he saw himself in one box, Skora in the one beside it and he saw numbers underneath them. He stuffed it inside his cloak, crumpling it to a ball as he walked on and as he took a left down the slope, he chucked it into a puddle, the ink running and paper covered in mud.
It was only one poster but now there was one less poster hanging about.
Despite the official story having convinced most people, who now called for Magi's heads and damned the low lives of this world, during the nights when he sat in the corner of tavern, inns and pubs, he had heard the whispers of the people who voiced their true opinions.
Most of them had heard from a friend of a friend who's friend had heard screams and strange noises coming from the tunnel the night in question and how they hadn’t witnessed anybody leave the tunnels, not so much as one bandit.
Eyebrows were raised further when the entire area had been declared off limits for a full day, with high order people coming down all the way from the First Ring as they met with other high ranking officials and the train service had been suspended for a week, causing a lot of losses and a food shortage during that time, which was still felt today.
There was even a rumour that the Overseer himself, had been down to the site of the incident.
He knew what he had seen that night but what he didn't understand why Hichami or Aludin were lying about the events that had transpired.
He wasn't going to start shouting out from the rooftops the truth, yet, since that day, he had been constantly looking over his shoulder and had slept so little, his joints ached and large bags had fallen under his eyes. All this time he had dreamt of freedom yet now that he had it, he felt as imprisoned as he had back in that carriage, worrying about the soldiers apprehending him but worse things worried him. What he had seen in that tunnel, what he couldn't explain, that worried and terrified him the most.
He had told Skora that they would have to leave Urok for good to be safe yet the added security had made such a notion virtually impossible.
And the thieves and even the more dangerous people he wouldn't normally associate with, had been harder to find than a good meal. If only he could contact one of them, they could have arranged a safe passage or as was more understood amongst such people 'Clearing the house' but he had no contacts here and the places which he thought would be attended by them had turned up nothing. They all seemed spooked by the recent events.
He reached the end of the slope and found himself before the Temple. People were coming and going, their numbers growing more frequently by the day as faith seemed to grow and the Seven Gods and Goddesses as well as the Almighty seemed to give people that feeling of safety after the confusion of the last fortnight.
He joined the people walking up the stone steps before he shrewdly leapt down, jumping the fence and pushing himself against the wall of the Temple. Like a shadow, he crept along the walls until he reached two large stone doors, one slightly ajar, just how he had left it. He pulled it slightly open before he slid inside and slowly pulled back on it, leaving it just open so it wouldn't completely close.
He was in complete darkness and he fumbled to the side where he had left the candles and reaching into his pouch, pulled out one of the little 'Fireballs' as he called them, casings containing a trace of water and in this case, wood and concentrated his energy. The casing burst and he directed the small flame that he had produced and light up the candle.
The flame flickered and light up the crypt, the headstones and stone tombs had been eerie and intimidating at first but he realised there was nothing to worry about here, the dead couldn't hurt you, not physically anyway.
“Skora, it's me” he called out and he heard rustling in a corner and Skora emerged from behind a statue of an elderly man. He pulled out what he had stolen from the market place and they laid it out on a tomb, splitting it between them and digging in, filling the emptiness in both their bellies.
“What's the word Koatsu?” asked Skora as he bit into some bread, ripping it apart with his teeth.
“Same old, same old. It's like everyone's become a good Samaritan all of a sudden. Maybe they have, maybe we'll actually be stuck here forever” he said angrily “If only in the opposite bloody wall, then I'd know where to go but this place, it's all new and strange to me and I don't know who to trust when anyone could sell us out for gold.”
“I'm sure we'll find someone who can help us. Remember how long it took us the first time we left Urok? Not many people are that brave” said Skora.
“Or stupid because it is a stupid thing to do” he said, laughing dryly “If only we could get more food, remember when we used to pull the old 'He's my brother and I'm his brother?'”
Skora laughed at that “Yeah, though I was always the dying one. We slept in many beds thanks to that and I still remember the Maillies family's feast. Mmmm.”
“Oh yeah, they were great people, all of them were once they heard our woeful tale and sometimes they'd even give me a job or two” he said.
“Do you remember when we accidentally returned to that family with eight kids? When the father opened the door and saw me beside you and he was like 'Wait, shouldn't he have died three months ago?' I've never ran as fast in my life” said Skora.
“Hey, how was I to know we'd been to that house before. I can't keep track of everywhere I go” said Koatsu thinking about that night and how it seemed they hadn't stopped running until the break of dawn and that's when he chucked an apple at the wall, the juices exploding across the room.
“Even if we could find someone, how could we pay them?” he cried to himself as he held his face in his hands for he knew there was something that could possibly pay for their freedom if the opportunity presented itself and it weighed heavy on his chest.
“And
we can't make any money, we can't even do it the honest way, for if anyone recognises us and tells the soldiers, it's all over” he said in despair and for a while nothing was said as Koatsu pouted, unable to look at Skora.
“I've been thinking Koatsu” said Skora and Koatsu turned round to see him rubbing his hands together.
“What is it Skora?”
“Well, we don't know anyone here, that's true and we're wanted. Even if we find someone who could help us over the wall might be that they think handing us in is less of a risk than getting us across the walls, especially now that they are guarded and patrolled all day and night with more men than ever” said Skora.
Koatsu nodded in agreement, the possibility of being back stabbed, had always seemed the likely scenario.
“But that's it” said Skora “They're guarding the walls, not the tunnels of the walls.”
Koatsu looked down at his little friend. He sometimes came up with both the strangest and most intelligent ideas at times but this was, this was...
“Pure craziness Skora, that's what you are, what are you talking about?” said Koatsu.
“If I'm not wrong, you told me that that they've reinforced the walls but they're not patrolling the tunnels now are they?” he said.
“Right. But they've now blocked the entrances of each tunnel and now they only open them twice a day, once when the train enters and leaves a city” he replied raising a finger in the air “Not only that, they're only operating one train at the moment from what I've heard and they've got Soldiers on the train now.”
“Yes but we don't have to get on the train, we have to just get through the tunnel and not the seventh tunnel let me remind you” he said.
'He was right' he thought to himself 'The seventh wall was the thickest, that is why they had taken so long to escape it but all other walls, well, they were normal wall thickness' he told himself and he recalled how they had passed through them in a matter of a second or two when they had been on the train.
That was on a train though and to run from one end to the other, with a train moving at full speed and before they closed off the tunnels, that would be difficult to do and pull off...
He turned to Skora “Brother, you've given me an idea.”
ChiarOscuro
Book Two – New Destinations
Episode 5
XIV – KOA/POTP/TQOT/TSOH/THOBS&P
MANNY
Manny woke up to the roaring of winds, opening and closing his eyes as he felt grains of sand fly into them. He felt his eyes sting and winced before covered them with his hand and opened them again. He went to get up and banged his head, groaning as he cursed loudly at his memory as he then rolling out from underneath the carriage where he had spent the night.
He got up to his feet and saw the winds blowing strongly around them so he could only see a couple dozen metres in front oh him. The sky was clouded and the quite world of last night was a distant memory as the howls grew louder, the carriage rattling and he hoped it wouldn't fly away.
He saw the camp-fire had died out, with two people sleeping by it wrapped inside sleeping bags and as he walked around the carriage, he saw Wulf deep in slumber, snoring loudly and Isa sleeping beside a wheel of the carriage. He spotted a mound of sand in the form of a human body up ahead and went to it, pushing the sand off to reveal Dakar.
“Oh, it's just him” he thought moving back and he spotted the smaller camp-fire up ahead with Hekriam sleeping beside it but Daygon was nowhere to be seen. He made his way to the mound of rocks which the desert and went behind one to relieve himself.
He closed his eyes, wondering why he had gotten himself into this situation. All he had dreamt about were strange twisted Demons such as the ones back at the Sanctuary and he had woken up many times in the night, his head still bruising for that pain was real unlike the ones in his dreams.
'Why didn't I leave that house alone?' he thought to himself for that had been the moment everything had gone terribly wrong, from battling Demons to Decabia invading to being abducted by some Nephlin agent.
'Maybe this is my punishment, maybe this is the way the Gods have decided to make me pay being the boy light on his feet' he thought to himself.
“Hey.”
“What the..” he said, his eyes springing open and he fumbled as he looked back to see Daygon behind him and he quickly pulled his pants up.
“What do you think you're doing, sneaking up on someone like that? There's plenty of other rocks to pick” he said as he turned round “
“I'm sorry, I couldn't go to sleep and I saw you woke up before everyone else” he said.
“Forget about it” said Manny as he walked up to Daygon “Hey, thanks by the way, you know, for saving us and, I'm sorry, you know, the whole Baruto thing.”
“It's okay” said Daygon as he resting his back on one of the rocks, folding his arms and Manny did the same beside him, though Manny never knew what to do with his arms and hands and constantly fidgeted
“Master Baruto...he was my teacher, my mentor, but, he was also my friend and more than that, he was like the father I never had” said Daygon.
“You never knew your parents?” asked Manny. It was ten years ago since he last saw his own yet the time he had with both of them he could never forget.
Daygon shook his head “I think they died a long time ago, for I don't remember ever having someone to call mum and dad and I was never told who they were, though Baruto said I was the luckiest orphan. All I've ever known was being in the Nephlin family. Maybe they were Nephlin, maybe they died, whatever the case, I'm sure Baruto was looking out for me.
“Although” said Daygon “That's not true. Sometimes I hear a woman's voice, one I've never heard as far as I can remember but I must have heard before, it sounds so familiar and this” he said looking down and tapping his blue sword which hung around his waist “Whenever I hold it, I don't know, I feel like I'm close to home...it's stupid isn't it?”
“Nah” said Manny “At least you have something that reminds you of home, all I've just got this” he tapped his noggin' “to remember my home and family.”
“I'd trade my sword any day for a memory of my family and home” said Daygon.
“You don't know where you come from?” said Manny.
“No” said Daygon with a weak smile, hanging his head low and Manny shuffled uncomfortably on the spot. He wondered how it felt to not know where you came from and who brought you into this world. Daygon was like him in a way, lost in this world though Daygon had had a few people looking out for him. Unlike him, it had been Manny for himself for ten years.
“Can I ask you something, the real reason I wanted to talk to you?” said Daygon.
“Uh, yeah sure, fire away” he replied.
“Do all of you hate me?” said Daygon and Manny was about to reply but he continued “I saw how you all looked at me and Master Hekriam and I heard most of the other's, what they said.”
“Oh you did did you?” said Manny feeling even more uncomfortable now than before “But Hate? Nah, of course not. My granddad once told me that 'hate is a stronger emotion than love because'... I never really paid any attention to him or his quotes, wish I had now. Though I don't love you man, no offence but you get what I'm saying?”
“Not really” said Daygon.
“Hey, you might want to talk to me but I never said I was good at conversating” said Manny “These kind of serious discussions, they aren't me.”
“So what can I do? To get the others to feel safe and accept me and Hekriam?” asked Daygon.
“What you can do? Nothing” said Manny “Look, they're just scared, they have families probably worried sick about them, wondering where they are. Some of their family are probably fighting the Decabians right now. Plus, the only home they've ever known is probably gone for good and Hekriam really forced them into a situation they knew nothing about.”
“Oh, and Demons”
said Manny “Just give them some time and they'll start to face reality, that's when they'll be more ready.”
“And you don't need any time?” said Daygon.
Manny shrugged his shoulders.
“I've never had a home, not really. Nowhere to be and no one waiting on me, so it doesn't bother me where I end up going, though I would like a say next time” said Manny “I'll tell you what though, those Demons, they didn't scare me as much as the Decabians did when they attacked my village, in Omion. Don't get me wrong, they still terrified me but the Decabians...well, they're Decabians, let's leave it at that.”