Book 2 Ch 15: Civilization

It was only a few hours of walking before there was a fork in the main road that they were on. Earlier in the morning they had already loaded Lance up with supplies. Even Marcus was generous with him, giving him a handful of silver that he’d had squirreled away.

Michael embraced him, briefly squeezing tightly enough that their armor started to groan a bit in protestation.

“Be safe Lance. I hope to see you again someday.”

Lance nodded, the certainty from the previous night still clear on his face. Michael remembered what he’d looked like when they’d first met. Clear eyed, focused, not a mark on him, as full of sureness as he was of uncertainty. Now his face had scars, his eyes were sunken, but his expression was more true. There was less bluster to him now, even though he was weaker without the Titles he’d inherited.

When he began to walk away, Michael felt dread. It was similar to when he’d watched his own kids walk up to their dorms when they’d moved out, though this time he wasn’t crying his eyes out. Michael held up his hand toward him.

“Seras, Nykas, and all the rest of the divine, please look over and protect Lance. Let him reach his destination safely and find what it is that he’s seeking.”

He heard their whispers in his mind as he lowered his hand, and felt as if he’d done something, given something from himself to Lance.

~protection~laughter~guidance~granted~

Michael nodded and turned around to follow the others as they headed East. Marcus was fairly certain that they were within less than a week of Swandia. They’d started to encounter other travellers. Some were merchants, wary of unruly looking men like them until Michal healed their donkey’s hurting shoulder or their wife’s hurt foot. They passed a few groups of mercs as well, but when it was clear that they were deserters, they were ignored. There were also some Svict soldiers on horseback here and there, but they mostly seemed to be messengers. The roads were certainly less patrolled than those of Stent had been.

At the end of the day they were starting to look for places to camp when a town came into view. Not a village full of sheep, but an actual town with buildings taller than Ollie, paved streets, and windows lit by candlelight and magic.

They opted to continue travelling in the hopes that they’d be able to find a place to sleep and eat. As they got closer it became clear that the town wasn’t of Svict. The buildings appeared to mostly be made of brick rather than the wattle and daub or dugouts they’d seen up until this point, and Marcus pointed out that the map he’d looked at had no major Svict towns or cities along the road that they’d been travelling on.

“That means that’s a Swandian city,” said Ollie.

Marcus smiled. “We fucking made it.”

They had a lot more pep in their step as they made it to the town, realizing that there were a handful of guards watching the road in and stopping people as they made their way inside.

“Let me do the talking,” said Marcus as they got closer.

Pyotr laughed. “Would you even give the rest of us a chance to try?”

The guards stopped them immediately on noticing that they were wearing armor and had weapons belted at their waists.

“Welcome to the town of Stad, the gateway to Swandia. State your business.”

“We are here to look for mercenary work,” said Marcus.

The guard chuckled. “I could have guessed.” He squinted and looked them over. “Deserters? From Stent?”

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Marcus nodded.

“Well, you might have trouble finding a mercenary company that’s not headed to Tusinia to fight your former countrymen, but with that army in the northeast and the new rifts to the south, I’m sure you can find something.”

The guard looked at another of his number standing behind him and they exchanged a quick nod. “Don’t start trouble, and don’t be a fool. It’ll cost one silver for each of you to enter.”

Marcus clenched his jaw, but pulled a silver out for himself and then looked at the others.

Michael pulled out a silver of his own, but Francesca shook her head at both of them.

“I’ve got it,” she said, somehow pulling a small cloth sack from somewhere and drawing six silver from it. “You all got me here safely, it’s the least I could do.” She handed them to the guard who frowned.