ALL NOVEL Chapter 92: Awed
"How far?" I asked my little guide, my eyes darting around the shops lining 5th Main Street. There were so many, each quite different from the last, offering goods and services of all kinds. And then there were the diaglyphs, magical holograms of this world that were hard to miss. The further into the city center we went, the more and more shops used them to catch the attention of customers. As the street grew busier, so did the size and complexity of these rune-light constructs.
"Not much further," Ria piped, the disappointment of Enola telling her to wait a little longer to hug Sage all but gone. Instead, she teemed with eagerness to get to Labyrinth Square, a place I didn't get to see yesterday, a place I had heard so much about and where I had promised her she'd be allowed to hug my tail.
'Not much further, huh?'
Well, it turned out she really knew the city well. Before long, as we walked on, the buildings lining the street gave way to open space. The crowd rushing in and out of the square thinned as the space opened up, and I got my first glimpse of the city's beating heart.
"Labyrinth Square," Ria called out, her arms outstretched, doing her backward walk.
Speechless, awed, and a bit freaked out by the size of the place and the number of people in it, I gaped all around, not sure where to look first. One minute, I was counting the hundreds of stalls whose tent roofs towered over everyone's heads; the next, I was staring at the massive diaglyphs of the surrounding buildings rising above the rooftops.
"Are they all seekers?" I asked Ria like some country bumpkin as soon as I recovered from the shock while trying not to shout over the noise that came from the square to my ears. It wasn't as bad as the City Hall, but bad enough for me to keep my ears down and for them to twitch in pain from time to time.
The little kitare shook her head. "There are a lot of merchants and ordinary people, too."
"I see." I breathed, not really sure what to say. The place was unbelievable - I actually had a hard time understanding how a city with such a busy downtown had trouble funding its city guards. Castiana should be rich. But I kept that thought to myself. That was my take on it, someone's who didn't belong in this world and had little understanding of how things worked here.
'I was a stranger here, an alien actually, no sugar coating that.'
Even after all the suffering I went through, I was still sticking out like a sore thumb, moving through the crowd like an ugly duckling through a swan dance floor.
You see, it wasn't just the little details I missed, unspoken etiquette and all. For instance, it wasn't until I managed to block the noise destroying my ear canals, to some extent, that I realized what was bothering me about the seekers here in the square. Unlike the ones at City Hall, the seekers walking past me were armed. Sure, that wouldn't have been strange in itself, since every other person in the city seemed to be carrying some sort of weapon at their waist. But they were armed to the teeth. Seriously, their weapons looked menacing, their armor impenetrable. Even mages wore some instead of linen gowns.
Most likely a naive thought, but perhaps if I had one, just a tiny dagger, the thugs would think twice about messing with me. At least, that's what the sight of the armed and armored seeker on the square made me do.
'I'd have to be stupid to try messing with them.'
And that was without even considering the number of their sigils.
There was hardly one among them that was within the range of what the Lattice allowed me to see. Some, the sight of whom sent shivers down my spine, were so strong that all I actually saw was the two Obscures as with Captain Rayden and Marcus. In no way did that mean that they were matching their strength, though. At least Rayden was in a league of her own - so my instincts told me.
'I better stay on that woman's good side.'
If there was one good thing to come out of seeing all those seekers, it was that it made me realize how much I underestimated the Captain's job, the job of the Castiana City Guards. There were so many seekers flashing their weapons and armor. Seriously, if I hadn't known better, I would have thought the army had taken the day off.
And that wasn't all of them.
I didn't dare guess how many seekers were under my feet right now, in that ancient structure Ria had described to me yesterday, fighting the beasts trapped there. The mere thought of it gave me chills.
"You alright?" my little guide piped, noticing my pale face,
"It's quite a lot to take in."
"It's amazing, isn't it?"
'It sure was something.'
But definitely not the place she saw. Not to me. This wasn't some glamorous playground to have fun in. What I saw it as was a battlefield. Granted, this was coming from a gal who had never been to one in her life.
'Thankfully.'
Perhaps calling it a showplace of power, strength, and wealth would describe this place better.
'Well, whatever. I was just here to look.'
Observing for a while, I noticed that seekers, and not just them, moved around the square with a goal, some heading to the stalls, others to the shops that lined the square, the square which was the same shape as the city itself, a hexagon with six main streets branching off from its corners.
"What do all these shops and stalls sell?" I asked my little guide as I followed one of the seekers with my eyes to enter the building over whose entrance towered a diaglyph of some horned monster's head.
'Beast parts, perhaps?'
Ears raised in question, Ria looked at me strangely and shook her head, "Those are not shops. Those are the buildings of the companies, their headquarters!"
'The what now?'
Not the first time I had heard of companies operating in the city. The not-quite-elf clerk, Welkes, had mentioned them more than once, and the little kitsune herself had told me about the Seeker Companies. The problem was that, at that point, I wasn't paying much attention to her anymore. That strange feeling on the back of my neck was to blame. And it was still there - even now. Only unlike yesterday, I knew not to fear the main source of it. Well, kind of. Somewhere out there, from the distance, my tail was being watched by a city guard.
'How did I know it wasn't another thug?'
Well, that was it. I didn't - at least not quite.
There were so many eyes on me, so many looks that made the hair on the back of my neck bristle. But knowing that would be the case, I made sure to remember the stare, the vibe I was getting from the city guard before leaving the barracks. And as odd as it sounded, there were differences. When I knew what to look for, I could "see" it.
Just like with the Tender Way.
Looking around at the buildings enclosing Labyrinth Square, their ornate entrances, gables, and diaglyphs showcasing the prestige of the place, my eyes inevitably fell on the one I had seen once before. It depicted a road winding up into the mountains and a traveler wandering along it. However, this diaglyph was much larger than the one on the business card lying in my spatial storage. And it was more detailed - almost too detailed. The lowlands were overgrown with forest; the traveler was wrapped in a hood, hidden under a cap, and peaks in the distance concealed behind a misty haze.
"Are you really alright, Korra?"
I couldn't blame the little kitare for worrying. One minute I was as pale as a sheet, the next my face was as red as my fur.
"Yeah, I am. It's just... it's not just the companies that own the buildings, right?"
'What kind of stupid question was that? I knew that it wasn't the case.'
Well, I had to take her attention away from my awkwardness somehow, didn't I?
"No, there's a couple that belong to merchants or craftsmen," Ria beamed, her eyes lighting up. "You want to visit the Hammer and Anvil? They have the best weapons you'll ever see. Or do you want to see the Gilded Feast? They have the best chefs in all of Castiana. Just the smell wafting from there is...I've heard that once you taste their food, you won't like any other anymore."
Sadly, I had to shake my head no matter how good it sounded. Looking as I did, I was sure I wouldn't be welcome there, let alone be able to afford anything.
'One day, perhaps,' I thought wistfully, wiping away my drool.