Chapter 28 – Galtea and the Auction’s Location

Getting out of the carriage was a lot more daring an affair than getting in. Sarka made sure to listen carefully to the outside surroundings as the ferry reached the busy port. She felt the vibrations of the docking beneath her feet, but she had to trust Sarka’s verdict for everything else. The carriage rolled out down a slight slope and started moving somewhere less busy.

Sarka let her know the sort of place they were in when the horses were removed. It was spacious, likely a warehouse. She was afraid of someone inspecting the cargo soon, and she phased out with two Terminate commands again. She chained them closely such that if anyone saw her, they would only see an apparition for a split second.

It was a warehouse, just as she thought. She caught glimpses of men dressed in gray overalls hauling things from other carriages while she used Wind Step and a third Terminate command to phase out of the warehouse wall. Visual artifacting was getting worse by this time. She stretched the last one as far as she could, reaching a fairly deserted direction that Sarka had already informed her about.

It was a narrow alleyway next to the warehouse, and she immediately sank ankle-deep into greasy, blackened mud as the monochrome world faded.

“Eugh! disgusting!” She had to wade out of it into a back street and round back to the front of the warehouse, where she found Seris waiting nervously next to a tower of discarded wooden boxes.

“By the light! I was worried!” she said, clinging to her arm at once. “Don’t take risks like that again!”

“Wait till you see what I looted!” Darya said with a giggle.

“That was treasure in there after all?”

“A lot of it!” Darya said as they began walking back to the main street of the port.

She had to pause and stare for a bit. Vulture Point was a sight to behold. It was a tiny rocky island repurposed as a port with a sturdy stone foundation. Everything about it looked like a historical site.

She remembered a work trip during early Vainfall development where she accompanied a design team to tour ancient archeological sites for inspiration. They used their experience, photos, and textures to replicate the look and feel, but nothing they made back then could compare to this RLP marvel with so much life and activity.

Vulture Point had eight large piers that poked out of the port island in eight forward directions. Two of those piers on the opposing ends were the largest. Huge steam sail cargo ships were being unloaded on them, with a queue of at least ten more of them idling all the way to the horizon waiting for their turn.

This port was the main point of distribution for the whole archipelago. Resources unloaded here had to reach four regions of civilization and every settlement in between. It was fascinating to see how this all worked in a terrain feature that didn’t exist on Earth near the equator.

This is like a what-if scenario on steroids. I wonder how many years it took for people to build things I’m seeing here.

She knew the written history spanned more than 9,000 years. Taking that into account, some of these had to be built on older ruins. She was no archaeologist, but she was fascinated with worldbuilding and lore.

Seris tugged her arm, snapping her back to reality. They wove their way through the pier and the port. They passed at least three newspaper stalls, which seemed to be the most popular pastime for hardworking men. Everyone who wasn’t working at the moment was idling under whatever shade they could find. They were smoking, drinking, or gambling. Darya saw everything at every level, all at once. Handrolled cigarettes, hookahs and white clouds, beer with shiny labels, tanks of moonshine, piles of coins and torn cards, missing teeth, and blood stains on the stone pavement.

Seris was an expert at slipping through these unsavory crowds. She was quite confident for someone who had to bind their pointed ears flat. Elves were a rare sight near the equator. Darya was sure that if any of these rowdy men saw a young elf girl, things would’ve been a lot harder for them.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Eventually, they crossed the land bridge to the Galtea mainland and walked through the main archway.

The city was overflowing with activity. Too much was happening at once, and Darya felt her brain turn to sludge trying to process it all. She was never comfortable in crowded, noisy places.

After a quick stroll through the main street, they arrived at an old hotel that Seris knew. The name had been erased from the banner over time, but the place didn’t seem to have any problem drawing customers.

They managed to reserve a room on the corner of the third floor for one gold and eight silver coins. Passing by the main hall, both their stomachs rumbled when they caught a whiff of hot food. The hotel only had three meals, likely perfected over decades or centuries. They picked the one that most people were buying in droves.

The meal was steamed fluffy rice, some oily greens, and an oversized portion of braised spicy pork. Everything was hot enough to cause third-degree burns, but it was undeniably delicious once cooled. Darya ended up eating three times as much as she thought and devoured two cups of pudding that filled her up to her throat.

Undressing in their bedroom, Darya dropped all the treasure that she had been hiding. Seris’s mouth hung open, out of words to say.

“By the light! How much is that!” She asked, sifting through seven bricks of gold.

“More than a thousand gold,” Darya said, dropping the dagger as well.