Empyrean 19: Enter the City (Patreon)

Amelia, here :) please enjoy a new chapter of Empyrean's Flight. More to come tomorrow and over the weekend!

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It didn’t take me long to reach the end of the sewers. And, thankfully, now treading the known path, I didn’t run into any more trouble. My mana lasted long enough to let light’s fury show me the way, but there were a few times where I had to stop and stand in the dark, waiting for others to pass. I could not let my status as a player be known to strangers. Not now, and definitely not here.

As I reached the grate to the new city, I pushed it open with ease and walked into the moonlight. I climbed through the grate and looked to my left and right to see no one moving in the streets. I pushed myself up and onto the stone road, catching a very welcome breath of fresh air.

Wow, I thought. Even the roads are better to walk on here. The streets were solid—no mud and no debris, almost like people cleaned it every day. It was difficult to see properly in the dark, but from the moonlight I noticed the brick-facedbuildings were well-kept and… pretty. It was much more lavish than I remembered.

I trudged forward toward Odenna’s shop. Her place was close to the city’s safe zone, and for the sake of my own safety, I decided to give the area a wide berth. It added around five minutes to my journey, but it was still dark by the time I reached her shop.

Before knocking on the pristine wooden door, I looked around once more. Still, there we no people to be seen. It made sense in a way, since it was quite late in the night, but it also proved to be quite ominous. This was still a city, after all—where was everyone?

Shaking off the nervous feelings, I lifted my hand and knocked three times. There was no answer. I knocked again, this time a little harder and a little more frantically. I held my ear to the door and heard some shuffling inside.

“Who is bothering me at this ungodly hour?” a muffled voice asked. I said nothing, keeping still and continuing to listen.

There was more shuffling, and I heard something fall over, followed by a “Blast it.” Then the lock of the door clicked, and a small part of an elf’s face peaked through the crack. “Who is it?” she snapped.

A light turned on above my head, and I smiled softly. “Odenna, it’s me, Elana. Do you remember me?”

“Oh, my stars,” the elf said, closing the door again. I heard the soft pop of the lock inside move out, and the door opened fully to reveal the old elf. The maroon mess on her head had not changed over the years, but she had grown older since I last saw her.

“Come inside, child,” she said gently. “What are you doing here at this time of night?”

I walked into her shop and brushed past her earthy green dress. I took a moment to study the woman and noticed that she had a sword sitting across her back. Her face was more wrinkled than I remembered, but her pale skin still shone brightly against her green eyes and mop of curled hair. “I needed some help,” I said simply. “You were the only one I could turn to. Things in the poor quarter are bad.”

“Well, we should talk then. Come upstairs, I’ll make us a pot of tea,” Odenna said.

I followed her through the shop to the back. The shelves were lined with herbs, jewelry, and spices of the sort I had never seen before. It was a simple parlor, but I noted how it could have become an important place for players. Shops inside the safe zone would, as I understood, charge astronomical amounts of gold for items, and Odenna took advantage of her position to help players out for a cheaper price. It’s how she kept herself going all these years.

We came to a stop at a simple wooden door. She took out a crooked-looking key, turned it in the lock, and opened the way to a small staircase. Huh, she must have been awake when I came here, then, I thought. Especially if she still had to unlock the way to her home, which sat on top of the shop. I let the elf up first and followed in her stead. The staircase was cramped, and I didn’t trust it not to fall into itself at any given moment.

It didn’t take us long to reach her home. Turning right at the top of the stairs, the path opened into a large room adorned with candles and comfortable furniture. There was an array of plants lined along a massive window facing the street, and there was a single bed in the right back corner. It was simple, but Odenna had clearly made it hers.

“Please, take a seat,” the elf said as we walked into the room. “I will get the tea going, and you can tell me what’s going on.”

I looked around and spotted a faded green couch. I sat down, immediately sinking into the old material. It had clearly seen better days, as the cushions behind me were of many different colors that didn’t suit the green—something merely placed there to protect from the hard back of the couch. The comfort, though, was unlike anything I had experienced. I had to fight to keep my eyes open.

“So,” I started, “the Devils are getting stronger now. And it seems like they have players on their side, too.”

“Players?” Odenna asked, clearly shocked. She poured hot water into some mugs. “What on earth are players doing in the poor quarter?"

“That's what I’d like to know,” I said. “Three of them have already tried to kill me.”

The elf eyed me suspiciously as I mentioned this. Walking toward me with the hot drinks, she handed mine over and took a seat across from me on a leather armchair. “Why would they want to kill you?” she asked, blowing on her tea.

“Uhm, we’ll get to that,” I said, sipping on my own drink. The aroma of the tea hit my nose as I lifted the mug to my mouth—cinnamon and vanilla swirled around my nose, accompanied by a strange, herbal smell I couldn’t recognize. It calmed me a bit, and my jaw relaxed slowly as I drank from the brew. I hadn’t even realized how tense I was.

“Thank you for this,” I said, smacking my lips. “I wanted to know if you had any idea why there were players in the poor quarter.”

“This is the first I have heard of it,” the elf responded, a little curtly. “It makes me worried, though. If there are players in the poor quarter, that means something important about the Game lies there.”

The Adjudicator has allocated you a new task: The Devils in the details. Your objective is to discover the reason for the player presence in the poor quarter.

Good guess, I thought. If I had been allocated a task to do with this, Odenna’s suggestion made a lot of sense. But I wasn’t ready to tell her that I was a player myself—not yet. “That’s a good theory,” I said. “I wonder what it could be…”

“You shouldn’t bother yourself with such things, child,” the elf said. “But, if I had my say, it’s most likely to do with that dungeon underneath the Devil’s base.”

I furrowed my brow slightly. “How do you know about that?” I asked.

The elf chuckled slightly, sipping her tea and setting the cup to rest between her knees. “I am old, little one,” she said. “And I have been in this city for longer than you can imagine.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t want to make any guesses.”

Odenna gave me a warm smile. “I am not insecure about my age. For an elf, I am not even close to my elderly years,” she paused for a moment and twirled a lock of hair in her finger. “But, from your perspective, I may as well be considered ancient.”

I didn’t respond, sipping at my tea and resting on the back of the couch a bit more. It was nice to have a conversation that flowed a little beyond my safety. As much as I appreciated my brother and Alon’s concern, I sometimes felt like a child in their presence. And here, with this old elf, I simply felt like a person.

“I was considered old among your people even when I met your parents all those years ago,” the elf continued, interrupting my thoughts.

I tensed up a little again at the mention of my family. “How did you meet?’

“That is a long story. One for another day, I believe,” Odenna replied. “There is another reason you’re here, one you haven’t told me yet.”

As she finished up her drink, I sighed a little. The elf had known my parents for a long time—a time before Soren and I even came into the world. If anyone could give me a true account of their lives, it would be her. But, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, she was right. There were more pressing matters I needed to attend to—no matter how much I wanted to find out more about my history.

“You’re right,” I said, sitting upright again. “I need to find health potions. And I know you can help me in that regard.”

The elf met my eyes with suspicion and raised her brow. “I can. But what do you want with such a thing?”

“Well,” I said, fiddling with my fingers. I took a pause before continuing. I felt I could trust the elf, and I needed someone besides Soren and Alon to confide in about my new life.

“Well, you see,” I started again. “I am a player.”

✵ ✵ ✵

Odenna’s mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”

“No, it’s nothing bad,” I said. “It’s a long story. See, I had to—”

“I don’t care about your reasonings,” the elf interrupted. “You need to leave. Now.”

She stood up, and I could see her hands visibly shaking. She pulled on my left arm, helping me up and off the couch. “Come, you need to go.”

“Wait,” I said, pulling my arm out of her hand. “Can you at least tell me where to get health potions?”

The elf sighed. “There is a civilian player, just north of here. Seek him out—a gnome—and he will help you. I cannot tell you much more.”

“Odenna, I’m not going to hurt you,” I said gently.

“Stop, Elana. Please leave now,” the elf pleaded.

Not saying anything more, I followed her back down the stairs. The elf rushed toward the front door of the shop and held it open for me. As I stepped outside, I turned to say goodbye, but she had already closed it.

What was that all about? I wondered.

“That was strange,” Adalinda said, listening in on my thoughts. “I thought she worked with players. Why would she chase you out like that?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I hope she isn’t scared of me. I couldn’t even introduce you to her.”

“And she didn’t even ask any questions.”

“Maybe things have changed around here,” I said. Granted, I hadn’t seen Odenna since my parents’ death, and what I knew of her was from that time. Overall, it was a strange interaction. Her demeanor changed within seconds. Clearly, something was going on in the new city as well, and I had left with more questions than when I arrived.

“Well, she at least told you where to get health potions,” the celestial added.

“True,” I sighed. “At least we have that.”

I shook off my nerves and turned north, where the elf said I could find the alchemist’s house. It was still dark, but now that I was in the city, there were dim streetlights that showed me the way forward. I started walking slowly, looking around to still see no one. As much as I found it strange to not even see a guard in the middle of the city, the silver lining was that I wouldn’t run into any trouble.

Odenna’s shop was close to the northern border of greater Mesina, which meant that it did not take me long to reach the area she had spoken about. But, with no description of the house I was looking for, I was forced to knock on multiple doors.

I was met with hostility from some homeowners, who were clearly not gnomes. Other homes were clearly empty, and others just didn’t answer to my calls. After I had three separate doors slammed in my face, I slumped down against the wall of the nearest house. How am I going to find this man in the dark?

“Maybe we could take a break,” Adalinda said. “There is no one around, and we have a little bit of time.”

“Okay, what do we do?” I asked.

“Tell me a story,” Adalinda suggested.

“What?”

“Tell me a story,” she repeated. “Something simple, just to take your mind off things.”

I frowned to myself. I wasn’t sure what the celestial was trying to achieve, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to oblige her request. “Alright,” I started. “There was this one my mother always used to tell me as a child. It was about a princess who had so much love for her people she would give them food from her own garden if they went hungry.”

“She sounds lovely,” Adalinda said.

“She was. But, one day, a plague had taken a grip on the land, and her people started dying. After the princess did nothing to help them, they took to arms and stormed her palace. They rushed in with pitchforks and torches, and they ended up burning the garden where she gave them food from.”

“How greedy,” the celestial mused.

“Seemingly, yes. But, when the leader of the mob entered the palace, he found mounds of rotten food all over, and the princess was nowhere to be found.”

“What?”

“It turns out,” I continued, “the princess had actually died years before, and the palace had been taken over by a sorceress who was feeding the people rotten food which had been enchanted to look and taste fine.”

“Goodness…”

“I know, it’s a little grim,” I said apologetically.

“What is the point of this story?”

“Well, in the end, the sorceress was caught, and the people were able to break free from her rule. That was the ending my mother always gave me, something that was meant to be full of hope. But I always had a feeling there was more to it.”

“Maybe you will find out one day,” Adalinda said.

“Hopefully,” I said. “But let’s continue our search. We can’t sit here forever.”

I stood up, looking forward across the street I was standing in. I scanned the houses along the side and saw a sign that intrigued me: Tommin’s Herb Emporium. I grinned to myself. Taking a moment to breathe really did help. A herb emporium sounded exactly like the place Odenna was talking about.

“You were right, Ada. I found the gnome’s house,” I said.

“Of course I was right,” the celestial chirped.

I giggled at her response and walked swiftly toward the signed house. After knocking on the door, I waited for a few seconds, but there was no answer. I knocked again, listening closely as I did at Odenna’s shop. Yet, there was no noise coming from inside. “Damnit,” I mumbled to myself. “He must be a heavy sleeper.”

I stood aimlessly at the door, unsure of what to do. If I continued to knock, and loudly enough, I could alert the whole neighborhood to my presence. But I couldn’t just stand here.

I tried to open the door, but it was locked. Sighing, I realized the main challenge of making this journey in the night. Getting access to the places I needed to go was proving difficult. No, I can’t give up, I thought. I knocked again, a little louder this time. Holding my ear to the door, I finally heard shuffling. “Yes!” I exclaimed, thinking the gnome had finally woken up.

I waited a few seconds, and the shuffling topped. Thinking the gnome had reached the door to open, I stood back. But there was no click of a lock, and no turning of the handle.

I moved forward again slightly to inspect the entrance. I had barely taken two steps, when I heard a loud shout; “Now!”

Turning to face the noise that had come from behind me, I could barely react before a club hit me hard on the side of my head. I dropped to the floor, reaching out to the dark figure with my hand. “Who are—” I started asking. But no answer would come, and I wouldn’t finish my question. With a swift kick to my face, I was left unconscious.