Advent of Eternity - Chapter 114 (Patreon)

Once they got into the city, not a single person paid them any mind. The streets were crawling with men and women, most of whom bore some sort of weapon at their side. Despite the rather rundown appearance of the town, the energy within it was vibrant and confident. Children wandered around the streets, only supervised out of the corner of a parents eye. Evidently, they weren’t very worried about trouble.

Knell couldn’t place exactly where they were, but he could also feel that there were Scions in the area. The people of Apton didn’t seem like the type to wait around for a Scion to save them, though.

“Is this a fortress or a city?” Cyll asked in a conversational tone, keeping his voice just low enough to avoid projecting. “I swear we’ve watched at least half a dozen people two times Stix’s strength walk past us.”

“Why are you using me as a baseline?” Stix asked, squinting at Cyll.

“Because Maya the rest of our party is two cripples and a withered old man,” Cyll replied with a wry smile. “Or perhaps it was because it isn’t exactly simple to measure my strength.”

“Okay, fair point,” Stix admitted. A little boy darted in front of them and Knell shifted his staff, rapping the child on the chest right before he stumbled straight into the path of a towering warrior.

The man strode past them, completely unaware that he’d nearly squished someone. Before any of them could even say anything, the kid was scampering back across the street, laughing the whole way.

“It’s almost unsettling. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been somewhere so… at ease,” Knell said, curling the corner of his lips. “I can’t say if I like it.”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll bugger that all up pretty soon,” Stix said. They all looked at her and she gave an exaggerated shrug. “What? Don’t tell me it isn’t true.”

“I am now going to make it a point to avoid buggering Apton,” Knell said. He paused for a moment. “Well, provided circumstances allow it. I won’t make any promises. Those never end well.”

“Now you’re basically just asking for something to go wrong,” Maya said. The crew reached the town square. The inn rose up over it, a large sign depicting a faded cauldron propped up above it by half a dozen metal poles.

It was early in the day, so the inn was largely empty when they entered. Aside from a few drunk men and women sitting in the back corners, hunched over the wooden tables and nursing their drinks, the only person there was a stocky man with a bushy moustache and beard. He sat at one of the tables near the front door, idly staring off through the window. He gave them a small nod as they approached.

“Food or a room?”

“Both, provided you’re the barkeep.”

“I am,” he said with a grunt. “Furgus at your service.”

Furgus rose to his feet, forcing Knell to crane his head back. The man wasn’t just tall. He was towering. Knell hadn’t realized the man’s height when he was hunched over the table, but he was even taller than Cyll.

The massive barkeep ambled over to the counter and leaned over it, pulling out a bottle and four tankards. He returned to the table, tossing the tankards down and filling them with a flourish. “What brings you to Apton?”

Cyll picked up one of the mugs and sipped at it. His nose scrunched. “Apple Cider?”

“Half of you look like you’d collapse with the smallest sip of anything hard, and this is on the house. Want something better, pay for it.”

Knell raised his eyebrows. He picked up one of the mugs and took a small sip from it.

Quite pleasant, actually. Especially if it doesn’t impair my thinking.

“Ignore my crewmate’s rudeness,” Knell said. “He has the manners of a savage.”

“Doesn’t bother me, so long as you’re actually buying a room.” Furgus gave Knell a shrug and sat back down, leaning back in his chair. It creaked, threatening to shatter under his weight at any moment but miraculously managing to stay in one piece for the time being. “I’ve dealt with worse than pirates.”

“How much for a room?” Stix asked. “Two, actually.”

“We’re busier than normal. You care much about quality? If not, I can get two for four silvers. Otherwise, I’ll be needing six. Per day, mind you.”

Knell handed him a golden coin. “Just for today. Include food.”

Furgus grinned and took the coin. “I knew I liked you lot. You didn’t answer my question, though. What brings you to Apton?”

“Travel, mostly. Treasure seeking. Typical pirate behavior.” Knell sat down across from Furgus, and the rest of his crew followed his lead. “You said you’re busier than normal. Why?”

Furgus jerked his chin toward a thick wooden board hanging from the far wall. It was covered with papers pinned in place with everything from daggers to forks. Many of the papers depicted drawings of monsters or just had simple writing that was too small to read from where Knell sat. However, a few of the papers had fairly detailed drawings of people.

“Hunts?” Knell guessed.

“Those are always here,” Furgus replied. “Apton is right on the border of the Wildlands. We get a whole lot of people swinging through here looking to make some good coin killing a powerful monster, forget that it chewed up the last four teams that came for it. Also a few good dungeons in the area. There’s a lot of coin to be made if you know your way about a fight in Apton.”

“And none of that has anything to do with why you’re busier than normal.”

“Right-o,” Furgus said with a snort. He pulled several furled papers from his pocket and slapped them onto the table. “These here are the reason. Adventurer’s Guild released their new bounties for the most wanted men and women in the Shattered Sea, and a few of them have been sighted near Apton.”

Knell pulled the papers over to himself and fanned them out on the table. Each of them had a detailed black and white drawing on it, with a bounty listed below. Just below the bounty, it read Wanted Dead. He paused, his eyebrows raising as he saw the prices the Adventurer’s Guild was paying.

“Twenty thousand gold?” Cyll asked, choking on his cider. “What in the Sixteen Seas did that bloke do? Kick the Guild’s dog?”

Furgus followed Cyll’s gaze to the paper. It depicted a bald man with a massive grin plastered across his face. It stretched almost too far, making it more than a little uncomfortable to look at. If a baby had been scaled up into a man without aging in the slightest, this is probably what it would have looked like.

“Thomas the Forgiving doesn’t exactly sound like a very dangerous man,” Stix said. “Why does his bounty paper only say he’s wanted dead? Aren’t these normally dead or alive?”

Furgus shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I don’t know anything about the bloke, but they wouldn’t stick a bounty that big on just anyone. I’ll be steering nice and clear of any of the people on these papers. That’s what half the people are here for, though.”

“Thomas is supposed to be in the area?”

“Not him. The creepy woman.” Furgus tapped on one of the other papers. It depicted a woman, probably around Knell’s age, with a thick head of hair that fell around her face like stringy seaweed. It covered one of her eyes, but the artist had done a very good job at making the other one seep hatred.

Her bounty was just a little lower than Thomas’ at fifteen thousand gold. Like Thomas, her paper listed her only wanted dead.

“Nyra. She doesn’t get a cool nickname?” Cyll asked. “Lame. Do they take requests for these bounties? I feel like I could glare way harder than this kid could. If that’s all it takes, I should be swimming in gold.”

“That’s what you and everyone else passing through seems to think,” Furgus said. “Hence, lots of people passing through. Everyone wants what they think is an easy bounty.”

Knell cocked his head to the side as he studied the barkeep. “The Adventurer’s Guild wouldn’t give a random woman a bounty that large for no reason. How was it known that she passed through town? Does the rumor have any grounding?”

“Sure does. Saw her myself,” Furgus replied. He shuddered. “Damn near scared me to death. She showed up to my inn in the middle of the night. I thought a demon had come for me. Didn’t realize she was worth anything at the time, though. Just fed her and she went on her way.”

“How long ago?” Knell asked.

“Three days, mayhaps. You don’t strike me as a bounty hunter, though.”

“I’m not,” Knell said. “But I do prefer to avoid massive fights that I have no stake in, and anyone that manages to actually get their hands on her is probably going to start a huge brawl between the rest of the bounty hunters.”

“Wise man,” Furgus said, taking a long swing from his own drink. Judging by the acrid smell of the frothing liquid within it, it was most certainly not just cider. “Don’t let me stress you lot too much. Apton may not have an Adventurer’s Guild, but we’ve got a militia and more than a few powerful Path users to defend us. The city is fairly peaceful, and we don’t tolerate troublemakers.”

“Good to know,” Knell said. “Perhaps we’ll have a look at some of those other bounties later. Do you mind if I keep these papers, just so I know who to avoid? I’ve got no interest in doing anything with the Adventurer’s Guild if I can avoid it.”

“Help yourself,” Furgus said. Knell folded the papers up and slid them into his pocket. Stix and Maya both sent him a desperate look and he chuckled. “How about that food? I think my crew is going to mutiny if we don’t eat soon.”

Furgus drained the rest of his drink and rose to his feet, wiping his mouth with the back of a sleeve. “Right. Relax for a span. I’ll have it out shortly. Welcome to Apton.”

***

Thomas’ forehead creased in concentration as he carefully stacked the small spheres. The miniature pyramid he’d formed on the wet ground before him slipped apart, sending the orbs skittering across the ground. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly as he lowered his head to the ground, pressing his forehead to the stone before rising once more.

He rose to his feet, moving with steady, deliberate motions as he went about collecting all of the spheres. Thomas brought them all back to his spot and sat back down.

“This is a good exercise,” Thomas explained to his rapt audience. “This is life. Many moving parts, and none of them want to work with one another. Life is a struggle, my dedicated students. It is difficult. We must endure. The world would seek to change us. It would say, perhaps we must build a cube, or a simple circle on the ground. But that is the wish of the world. It is not mine. It is not yours. We must be ourselves. And so, I ask you, how can we do this if we cannot change ourselves?”

Thomas paused for several moments. Nobody spoke. He smiled.

“It is okay to be wrong, my students. Life is error. We cannot survive without mistakes.” One by one, Thomas stacked the spheres back into the pyramid. This time, somehow, the pyramid stayed in a single piece. There was nothing apparent that would have let it remain standing. All of the orbs should have rolled apart, but stand it did. However, the pyramid was incomplete. There was a single missing orb at the very top.

“We must change others to achieve our goals. The world will not conform to our wills, so we must force it to bend. Do you understand, my student?”

Thomas raised his head, looking up to the bound man hanging from the ceiling of the cavern. A thick cloth was wrapped several times around his mouth to muffle his screams and his eyes were wide in terror. He jerked, swinging from the ropes as Thomas rose and clasped his face gently with his massive hands.

“You, my student, are the world,” Thomas said. “Go unto the abyss enlightened, and know that you served a greater purpose. Be at peace.”

He squeezed his hands together. Blood splattered across the cavern, covering Thomas’s face and clothes as he let the man’s body swing back. He reached into it, pushing through muscle and organs, and pulled out a small golden orb. A massive grin stretched across his face and he knelt, setting it down on the pyramid. It fit perfectly.

“To err is to live,” Thomas said, rising back to his feet and turning to the swinging corpse. He lowered his head in a bow. “You have made your last mistake, my student. May your journey be peaceful. The gift you have given me will be used to teach many, many more students. Rejoice.”

Thomas raised a hand and the Boons flew into the air, spiraling into a pouch at his side. He tied it shut and strode out of the blood-covered cave. There were far too many students waiting for his tutelage to sit around spending his time on a failed pupil.