DreadWolf

◈ Chapter 117:

"No it really is! Mother gave me the bag and it's really powerful and magicy!"

"It's a dimensional bag, yes, I come across them often enough. Let me see inside."

"Well gosh, if it's really that important to you."

The shuffle of something moving was heard, then the rattle of coin as the apparent dimensional bag was looked into.

"...Miss are you aware you have a dead Kobold in your bag?"

"Oh no, Reddy is just sleeping!"

"...Right. In any case this is clearly not the cause."

"Really? Well I did try to expand it, maybe that makes it more magical!"

There was a moment of pause.

"I'm sorry, you did what now?"

"Yes! I couldn't fit all my furniture inside so I took this knife-

"Woah! What do you think you're doing! Where the hell did that come from!?"

"Oh this? It's just my magic knife, it's super magic. Anyway, I took my magic knife and I poked it into the stone inside the bag a few times and wiggled it around. It went in really easy!"

"I... see," came an increasingly rattled voice. "Do you not know why that is a bad idea?"

"Mmm, well Reddy kept screaming about nightmarish creatures dwelling on the other side trying to claw their way through and eat him but I didn't believe that, it's probably fine, he's just a big Kobold baby. Why is there a reason?"

"Well, I've heard things, and- look, I... highly advise you to take that bag and get it repaired as soon as possible."

"You think so? I've heard it creaking and groaning sometimes like there's something trying to break through, and there are these cracks in the stone getting bigger and bigger as every hour passes, but that's just normal right?"

"NO! I- I- look you silly noble, you need to get that thing to an Artificer, as soon as you can and- Just, just follow me okay, quickly now. You move out of the way! Guard on business coming through!"

Rain settled back, not quite sure what was happening. Lyra had clearly tricked the guard into believing that the source of magic she had sensed was emanating from the bag and not her wool space, and the guard seemed decidedly unsettled by that, scared even, and was now giving them a personal escort through the tunnel gatehouse and into the city.

He tried to think why, well, maybe that wasn't that hard to imagine. A space that caused nightmares when slept inside? That would give birth to endless rumours and creepy stories that would spread and spread and especially spread to a guard's ears who regularly came into contact with the bags due to the sheer number of people passing into the city.

The guard could have heard some truly disturbing things and... Lyra had apparently calculated and played into that?

Not bad.

The sound of the crowd echoing in the tunnel slowly softened to his ears and he realised that they had passed into the city proper. He almost looked through then and there in his eagerness to see but managed to restrain himself, at least for a moment.

"Wow, thanks! All that queuing was soooo boring!"

"I didn't do it for your convenience Miss, you need to get that bag-

"Aww but I wanted to have a spa day!"

He heard the Elf making a sound of agonised frustration.

"No, no spa day. Go immediately to the Artificers district and get that bag fixed!"

There was a long sigh, followed by what sounded like Lyra flipping her hair. "Fiiiine. I'll go get it checked out or whatever, I am doing this as a favour to you you know, it's such a bother, you should honestly be grateful."

Rain wouldn't have been surprised to hear the Elf's head explode, as it was he was fairly sure he could hear her actively grinding her teeth together.

"Well, bye bye guard person! Have a nice day doing guard things!"

"Justgo!" came a strangled Elven voice in reply.

Rain waited a moment, then unable to stop himself he peeked through the darkness.

Light, and crowds, and tall white stone buildings half a dozen storeys tall rising all around, they were inside of Florens!

"That went well," he heard a whisper from Lyra. "I'll go a little deeper where it's less busy and find an alley, I should be alright to hold the space open until then."

He blinked in reply.

Then he got back to city watching.

He wasn't the only one, Opal was staring with her mouth slightly parted, eyes wide, apparently still lost for words.

He followed her gaze and found she was looking at a particularly large building that they were approaching, one that the road from the gatehouse seemed to split around and beneath two huge flat metal arms that arched down from the top of the building to the ground, the official entrance to the city? He couldn't say, but that was hardly the only thing he didn't understand, the occasional bronze open bell shaped things attached to the tops of buildings were also a curiosity, the arcing lines of metal that were embedded in the road around the large building too.

The city was filled with strange things and beautiful white stone architecture, that and colorful myriad species of leveler.

He drew back and poked his nose through and then drew in air.

The smell of the city struck, a scent scape larger than anything he had scented before, an intricately complex thing that covered everything from crisp spices to acrid forge smoke to ticklish perfumes to horse manure to tangy smitheries and delicious markets and cookeries to, well, a million other things he had no idea of. It was a lot to take in with his fine sense of smell and he almost wanted to spend forever just scenting the city. He did remain like that for a number of minutes.

But that meant he couldn't see and more than anything he wanted to take in the city's sights.

He returned to gazing through Lyra's wool and found that they had moved deeper into the city and the crowds were becoming... busy, in fact Lyra was being elbowed and jostled and was forced to keep a hand on Opal's shoulder to stop her from being swept away as the moving crowd became increasingly packed in.

"Th-there might be a small problem here," muttered Lyra trying to push past but finding she simply lacked the strength. Levelers who tended to be strong were not pushed aside easily by a sheep girl who wasn't very strong.

She could do nothing as she was swept through the city and pulled into ever larger streets filled with ever larger crowds. The crowd was more than a crowd now, it seemed to have intent, the people cheering as they walked, colourful petals falling from the sky as those atop the buildings lining the street threw them from baskets.

Rain boggled as a full sized longboat suddenly turned into the street they were on. The wooden thing was being lifted by the crowd, their level gifted strength allowing them to hold it above their heads and pass it on, the thing quite literally sailing the crowd.

The boat itself was fronted with a styled wooden dragon head, and its black sail was marked with a white flower. The deck however was filled end to end with black iron cages, cage after cage after cage stacked and layered, and each of them held a person, a leveler.

He felt Lyra move and then heard her voice once more.

"Ah, so this also might be a small problem."

"What is going on here sheepy," hissed Opal, "What are those levelers doing on that huge boat thing?"

They had been moving as they spoke and Rain saw that they had moved beyond the buildings and had passed onto a long bridge that extended over a staggeringly wide river. The sight of a longboat sailing over a bridge that itself crossed water was a strange one to say the least.

Lyra spoke quietly as they walked. "Well, every city or town has its, uhm, well rules really, and those rules are whatever the Ranker of a city or town wishes them to be, whatever they say goes whether that's no rules or lots of rules. Follow the rules or the Ranker crushes you."

"And this?"

"Wellll some Rankers are a bit more dramatic than others with how they enforce their rules, aheh."

The parade continued over the bridge until it eventually reached the end and came amongst tall white stone buildings once more, the distant pyrite growth looming closer than ever over the rooftops. Were they nearing the estates of the family dynasties Rain had to wonder, his blood pumping at the thought.

The crowd was rushing now, practically jogging, buildings flashing by until they suddenly spilled out onto a wide square, rapidly filling it as the longboat was moved from hand to hand,

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crossing the square until it was put down beside a huge gold and marble white throne set high on a wide stepped structure made of heavy black stone. The stepped structure was draped with silks and various scantily clad levelers of various species were scattered around it, male and female. It seemed a place for public hearings that had been made luxurious and comfortable.

The crowd formed around the structure in a ring.

Unfortunately, Lyra found herself near the front, her and Opal both given an unwilling front row seat due to the eager crowd.

Rain could hear Lyra start to breathe harder, struggling to keep her Skill active, exhaustion clearly taking hold. He hoped this wouldn't take long and peered out over the space to the throne and who was sat upon it.

An enormous black furred Lapine sat on the throne, easily seven foot tall the leveler looked every inch the Ranker he was. Domination and power given form. Muscular body scarred with battle, only wearing a pair of baggy chevron styled shorts that ran to his knees where they cuffed tight, he lazed in his throne, legs spread wide, head resting against one paw curled into a fist, long Lapine ears lolling with gravity. He seemed almost bored.

But then Rain looked closer at the Lapine. There was... something wrong with his eyes.

It took him a moment to understand what he was looking at, the Lapine's eyes had been cut at and sliced, the iris a grey white underneath lines of scars crisscrossing his eyeballs.

The Ranker was completely and entirely blind.

Rain watched in disbelief as he lifted a great paw and fumbled to his side, an oiled human male wearing silks was holding a bowl out for him and swiftly moved it to the Ranker's clumsy paw where he grabbed up the candied contents and lifted them to his mouth and began chewing.

Rain had a burning question.

"Uhm, You're probably wondering how the Ranker is still the Ranker when he's blind Rain."

Yes, that was the burning question.

Lyra continued whispering, "and you're probably thinking that he must have some Skill or magic to work around that, or his other senses are unnaturally accurate, or it's a trick and he can still kinda see." She paused, "There's nothing, he is as blind and as clumsy as a normal blind person, it's just, it doesn't matter, he's so flipping strong that he cannot be killed. I've heard of people trying to take his place as Ranker, using his blindness to their advantage. It didn't matter in the slightest, every one of them died, and extremely horribly. Elzodium has been the Ranker of Florens for over a decade, he is utterly terrifying and I hate to think of how high his level must be."

That... was concerning to hear.

He focused back on the massive Lapine who was lazily running a paw through his ears and yawning.

A tall and particularly slim Elf with long blonde hair and blonde eyebrows and wearing neat all white clothing trimmed with gold stepped from the crowd.

"Ranker, we, ah, have a collection of levelers who went against your wishes for you to look- I m-mean s-sentence!"

The Lapine lifted another pawful of candies to his mouth and didn't respond. The Elf stood in increasingly uncomfortable and agitated silence until finally, he could take no more.

"Uhm, b-bring them out! Bring them out for the Ranker!"

The crowd around the now lowered longboat shifted and guards began climbing up its sides, unlocking cages and then kicking their occupants over the side to fall to the flagstones below, some crying out as they landed badly.

Then, once done, the guards pushed and shoved at the group of prisoners, forming them into a vague line, a very unhappy line.

The tall Elf stepped forward and grabbed the nearest, a broad shouldered man with long hair, he hauled on him and the man was sent sprawling to the ground where the Elf grabbed his hair, dragging him closer to the base of the structure the throne was set atop of.

"Th-this one Ranker! This one you will want to hear of!"

The Ranker paused. "Describe them." came a deep voice in keeping with his size.

"H-human! And with black hair, on the larger side as humans go, oh, and uh, male!"

"Attractive? Does he have an appealing body?"

"Uh," the Elf looked down at the grizzled man below, "N-not really? I think?"

The Ranker remained silent, lifting another pawful of candies to his mouth.

Not sure what else to do and wishing to avoid another awkward silence the Elf lifted a sheet of paper to his eyes.

"This one broke your rules about letting large monsters into the city, he is not of an especially high level or a noble, that uh, might have been why things went, well, very badly."

The Ranker flicked an ear. An order to continue.

"Uhm that is, he took a Panthara into the city-"

The crowd broke out with cries of anger at that, and the Elf had to raise his voice to be heard.

"-T-Took a Panthara in chained with forty three locks, he and his crew assumed they had the thing under control, perhaps they did at one point, but in the night the Panthara learned from scratch how to pick the locks using its talons as best we can tell. It broke free and went on to kill one hundred and sixty seven people before it was found and killed."

"Taking a monster like that into my city? I do not like that, I do not like that at all." gravelled the Ranker. "Cut off his hands and put him and his people, hmmm, as far down in the pit as can be managed. If he likes Pantharas so much then he can visit their hives."

The crowd cheered as the man screamed.