At the door of the interesting looking house it was Nofa who made the first move and knocked on the door when nobody else would. After she had knocked, two little doors opened within the door and a sign was revealed from behind each little door.
One said "Customer" and the other said "Thief" on it.
Nofa tapped the sign of the Customer and shortly afterwards, the locking mechanisms of the door could be heard opening.
"I suppose we are welcome." Nofa said and pushed the door open and walked in with the others behind her.
"Nobody seems to be here." Venamo commented inside the room where there were two workbenches, a door to another room, a fireplace, an anvil and a forge and shelves of mysterious bags and jars.
"Anyone home?" Nofa called.
"I am famished. It has been sixteen cycles and fourty four beats since I have been fed. I crave chimkin." A voice said from the end of the room.
"Who said that?" Varma wondered as everyone looked into the direction of the voice.
"I am famished. It has been sixteen cycles and fifty beats since I was last fed. I demand chimkin." The same voice repeated.
All the travellers now saw where the voice was coming from. On a table at the end of the room was a large bullfrog, about twice the size of an ordinary bullfrog, and it had a constant grumpy expression on its face. It repeated its demand to be fed once again, as the travellers approached it and looked at it.
"Never seen a talking bullfrog before. I didn't know it was possible." Nofa wondered.
"I didn't know any animal was able to talk." Yilka added.
Right then a person fell down from the ceiling right behind the travellers, almost scaring them out of their shoes. But the person who fell from the ceiling was connected to a flexible rope, so no contact with the floor was made.
The person who fell down was a girl about Varma's size with a messy and short black hair and a leathery apron.
"How did you get past the door?" The strange girl asked.
"It was rather easy, actually." Yilka answered on Nofa's behalf.
"Ugh. So Kateva still hasn't installed the new one. Of course. So what shall it be?" The girl murmured to herself and untied herself from the flexible rope.
"We need some Rarhean mushrooms and enough desert root to warm up a beakmount that has eaten four Rarhean mushrooms." Nofa answered.
"Sounds like quite the situation you have there but... wait. Do I know your voice from somewhere?" The girl asked Nofa.
"Well, if you've ever been to the village of Kalekanka and went up the hut on the tallest hill, you may have spoken with me without seeing me." Nofa answered.
"Yes! You're who the locals there warned about! Why is that anyway?" The girl asked.
"For foolish reasons. But do you have the things that we are looking for?" Nofa answered and asked.
"We should have them somewhere here... Kateva!" The girl answered and then shouted at the ceiling.
Everybody looked up at the ceiling where they saw two hammocks, one on each side of the room.
"What is it now?" A girly voice shouted back from one of the hammocks.
"Where do we keep the chilly billies and the hot roots?" The apron wearing girl shouted up.
The other hammock up at the ceiling began descending with the help of a rope mechanism. Once the hammock was down, Kateva, the girl on the hammock got out of the hammock and stretched her limbs. She also had an apron, but on her head she had a leathery cap, and she was slightly taller than the other girl.
"Who did Aemo let in this time?" Kateva asked the travellers.
"Nobody let us in. We just walked in." Yilka answered.
"Where are the damned mushrooms?" Varma asked impatiently and angrily.
"It's a bit urgent, you see?" Nofa added.
"I understand. I think they should be in the attic. Aemo, where are the springheels?" Kateva asked Aemo.
"They're up there hanging from the ceiling." Aemo answered and pointed up.
"Thank you." Kateva said and picked up a rod with a hook at the end and a reel on the other end.
She pointed the rod at where the springheels were hanging and started pulling the reel, making the rod long enough to reach the ceiling. She took the springheels down and then put on the shoes with springs on their heels. She hopped in place and each jump was higher than the last. Then she made one powerful vertical jump that sent her all the way to the ceiling flying through a hole in the ceiling that leads to the attic. All the travellers only looked on in confusion.
"Here they are!" She shouted from up there a little while later.
Two bags fell from attic and then Kateva herself jumped down from there and the sprignheels bounced her to the nearest wall, making a nasty thud.
"I keep telling you about that fatal flaw. The wall that you always hit is starting to crack." Aemo commented.
"I'm working on it." Kateva replied with a weak voice.
"My sister is hopeless. But here's what you needed." Aemo said and picked up the bags from the floor.
Nofa was about to accept the bags but Venamo snatched them from Aemo before Nofa could touch them.
"How many are in each bag?" Venamo asked.
Aemo retrieved a log book from a desk and checked.
"Twenty five chilly billies and three hot roots. But only one hot root should be needed to reheat the body of a beakmount that has eaten five chilly billies." Aemo answered.
"Why do you call them that?" Venamo asked.
"More fun to say." Aemo answered.
"The one is all we need. And if one mushroom keeps Varma cool for one day, and we don't know how long her sickness will last, perhaps we should take ten. I don't think we can afford twenty five." Venamo explained.
"This stuff is hard to get, so you have to understand that I won't give it away for cheap." Aemo warned.
"Just say how much it is!" Varma demanded impatiently.
"Three large ones for each chilly billy and four large ones for one root." Aemo told them.
"Deal. Here." Nofa said and handed the girl the exact amount of money that was mentioned.
Yilka, Venamo and Varma looked at Nofa with bewilderment.
"How do you have such money?" Yilka asked.
"Usually the traders who come from far away give me coins in exchange for what I give them. Back home I don't need the coins but I always accept them in case I ever need them." Nofa explained and gave Varma a mushroom.
"So you really are the Wicked witch of the hill." Kateva wondered while inspecting Nofa closely and touching the locks of her hair.
"Umm. Yes. That is me haha. Except I'm not a witch. I'm working to become a wizard like my father was." Nofa said back nervously.
"I've never seen red hair in these parts before." Kateva said in wonder.
"Well, my folk tend to stay in their homeland. I'm surprised that nobody here has given me rude looks." Nofa replied.
"That's because many of these folk have travelled to far away lands before. They've seen you Wicked folk before most likely." Aemo intercepted with.
"Huh. Well how about that..." Nofa commented.
"Thank you so much." Varma said to the sisters with a satisfied voice as her body had cooled down.
"You are most welcome." Both sisters said in unison.
"Now that all has ended well, we were wondering what is the story behind the city's name." Yilka said.
"Did you see the odd shaped stone by the shore of the lake?" Aemo asked.
"What stone?" Yilka asked.
"I saw it." Varma said.
"Well, I can tell you the story of it by a hot cup." Aemo said and started pulling a rope.
As she pulled the rope, a table rose from floor along with two long benches on both sides of it.
"So many ropes in this place." Nofa commented.
"Do we really have the time for this?" Venamo asked.
Before anybody could answer Venamo's question, Varma, Yilka and Nofa had already sat down.
"Well, I suppose we have to." Venamo said and also sat down on the long bench.
Aemo pulled yet another rope and hot beverage poured from the ceiling into a cup on the table. She then sat down on the other side of the table and took a sip.
"So, that interesting looking stone at the shore, it was once a person." Aemo started with.
"A person?" Varma said with curiosity.
"Yep. When this city was a tiny fishing village, it was once visited by a beautiful Holy lady who liked to spend her time on the shore. She wouldn't talk to anyone who approached her. She just liked to play her eleven string instrument and sing poems while the sound of her strings and her voice carried through the waters from shore to shore. Folk travelled from far and wide to see her. She became the village's attraction and made the village wealthy, all without ever talking to anyone. It was a time of famine and discomfort, but she helped the village greatly, not only by attracting travellers, but her beautiful poems and tunes helped all the folk who lived on the shores of the lake fall asleep. Many had eyes on her and made offerings for her, but she ignored all of them. But one day, a young man from this village decided to be bolder than the rest. He walked up to the poet while she was playing her one of a kind instrument, and he put a silver necklace on her without her permission." Aemo told.
"And what happened then?" Nofa asked.
"The young man confessed his love for the poet, and for the first time, the poet spoke. She told the young man, that becoming one with her isn't as easy as giving a gift. She took off the necklace, and tossed it into the sky. A lark caught it, and flew far away from the shore before dropping it into the lake. The poet told the young man that if he finds the necklace from the lake, he would have proven his dedication and earned the right to become one with her. The young man dove into the lake, and was never seen again. However, the poet patiently and silently waited at the shore, sitting cross legged with her instrument on her lap. There she waited for days that turned into seasons that turned into years. So long she waited, that layers of stone formed around her, and that strangely shaped stone at the shore of the lake is her. That is what the legend says." Aemo told.
"What a sad story." Nofa commented.
"I bet we can find that necklace." Varma said like she had just gotten a great idea.
"The story may not even be true, and the ice just melted so the water is still deadly cold." Venamo reminded.
"Do you happen to have any attractistone at hand?" Nofa asked Aemo.
"We have a chunk of it somewhere in the attic." Aemo answered.
"Have you tried to fish the necklace out of the water with it? Is silver one of the metals that it attracts?" Nofa further asked.
"It does attract silver but we don't have a boat. And we don't even know if the legend is true. Renting a boat is not worth it." Aemo answered.
"I know somebody in this city who has a boat! Maybe they can lend it for a bit!" Nofa suggested.
"Well, you can go fish for necklaces but me and Yilka have to go see if a certain group has any presence in this town." Venamo said.
"Am I not welcome there?" Nofa asked.
"If you don't have weapons branded with the Vastusar's royal seal, they likely have nothing to say to you." Venamo replied.
"Aww. I wanted it to be a fun group activity." Nofa said.
"We are not here to have fun." Venamo coldly reminded.
"Vena is right." Yilka admitted.
"Hmph. Fine. We'll just wait in the carriage while you go take care of your matters." Nofa complained.
"We got what we wanted. Thank you for the goods. Let's get on with our matters." Venamo said and got up.
The rest also thanked the sisters and got up.
29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1YK0OzRRYT
"I suppose we should look out for any red stripes we may see here. If you see them on any doors or clothes or anything, tell me right away." Venamo told everyone as he controlled the carriage riding through the streets of the coastal city.
"You mean like that red stripe on that stone over there?" Yilka said and pointed at a stone by the shore.
"Is that the famous poet herself?" Nofa asked.
"That's the stone that I saw on our way here." Varma added while laying on her back on top of the Pfelo, even though both of them had a normal body heat now.
"Why didn't you say anything about the red stripe on it?" Yilka asked.
"It would have just distracted you." Varma answered.
"So they do have a presence in here. Let's go take a closer look." Venamo said and stopped the carriage.
They all got down and made their way down a hill to the shore of the lake to look at the stone. Up close it was easier to see its slightly humanly shape, as well as all the carvings that folk had made on its surface throughout the centuries.
"That stripe sure is blood red like a robin." Varma commented.
"Disgusting to see the profanities that folk write on a piece of legend like this." Nofa commented.
"It doesn't exactly tell us where we can find their location, but maybe the stripe points to the direction of their place." Venamo speculated.
"Worth a try." Yilka added.
"I suppose I'll just wait at the carriage." Nofa said.
"I'd want to keep you company but I really want to be let in on the secrets of the Road of Blood. Sorry." Varma said to Nofa and shrugged.
"No, it's alright. I won't get lonely." Nofa said and petted her butterfly with one finger.
"And what makes you little girl think you are fit to join their fight?" Venamo asked Varma.
"Come ooooon! I won't get in the way!" Varma pleaded.
"She makes a good case." Yilka added.
"We showed two arrows to the Road member back in Reutsa. They expect two members to join the fight." Venamo explained.
"Speaking of arrows, I do still need more arrows than just the one I have." Varma remembered.
"Let's go get those then while they take care of their matters." Nofa suggested to the girl.
"Please don't run away from us." Yilka said to Nofa half jokingly.
"Of course not. We'll follow you to the right door and we can reunite there when everything is done." Nofa assured.
"Let's not waste time then." Venamo said and led the way.
Venamo imagined a red line on the ground that starts from the mysterious stone, and followed it with the others behind him. To others in the city streets he looked odd looking at the ground like that with his band following him. He was not concerned about that. A bucket of filth was thrown out of a window, almost hitting him, but he didn't flinch, only stepping over the disgusting pile that landed in front of him.
"Do the folk here not have outhouses?" Varma complained behind.
"There." Venamo said sternly.
"What? An outhouse?" Varma asked.
"No, a house at the end of the street with a red stripe on the door." Venamo answered.
"It might be an outhouse." Yilka suggested.
"It has two floors and it's a room wide." Venamo seriously replied.
"I suppose any house can be an outhouse if you're bold enough." Varma added.
"Let's go knock on the door." Venamo said.
"What if it's occupied?" Varma joked.
Venamo quickly turned around and gave Varma a serious glare that told everything that needed to be said.
"Fine. Bore." Varma said and got quiet.
Venamo went and knocked on the door with the red vertical stripe. Nobody came to open. Venamo knocked again, but louder.
"What road do you follow?" A voice asked from behind the door.
"We travel the Road of Blood." Venamo answered.
The sound of a lock being opened followed, and the door was opened.
The brothers hesitantly stepped in, and Venamo got a cane pointed at his throat as soon as he was inside. He raised his hands and so did Yilka.
"Yilka, do you have the arrows?" Venamo ordered.
The cloak wearing man with the cane then pointed it at Yilka.
"I wasn't going to stab you with them or anything. I just want to show them." Yilka explained.
The cloaked man said nothing in response. Yilka understood that he had permission, so he pulled the three arrows of the Crown's forces from his belt and tossed them on the floor.
"We received a task from the Road of Blood followers behind the Wound. They ordered us to steal weapons branded with the Royal emblem. We have them here." Venamo explained.
The unknown man then pointed his cane at Venamo.
"Who gave you that task?" He asked seriously.
"A man who called himself The Fifth at the hideout by the Wound." Venamo answered straightly.
"You wouldn't know that name if you hadn't met him." The man said and put his cane down.
"So do we get the secrets now?" Yilka asked.
"Secrets?" The man wondered and raised an eyebrow.
"We were told that we'd be let in on the secrets of the Road of Blood once we do the task." Yilka said.
"You think we'll just tell you our secrets after one task. We'll tell you our secrets after you've scrubbed every corner of this house, and after you've scrubbed my boots, and after you've oiled my beard, and after..." The man was explaining.
"Let them in. They've proven their worth." A familiar voice said from the door frame leading to the cellar.
Venamo and Yilka looked over the direction of the voice and saw The Fifth standing there in black robes and a black leather vest on top of the robes.
"Are you following us from afar?" Venamo asked with suspicion.
"The other hideout was found. I escaped. Others weren't fast enough." The Fifth quickly explained.
"Oddly suddenly." Yilka commented.
"It was right under a Vastusarian work camp. It was bound to be found someday." Venamo guessed.
"We won't have to worry about that here. This base is strategically located in home territory but with easy access to enemy territory on the other side of the lake." The Fifth told them.
"How close are we exactly to Vastusar's territory?" Venamo presented a question.
"Come to the cellar and you will learn everything." The Fifth said and went down the steps into the cellar.
The others followed and down at the cellar, The Fifth was standing at the head of a wooden table in the moldy cellar. On the table was a map, just like in the other hideout.
"So, you've earned the right to be a part of the fight. Come look at this map here." The Fifth ordered.
The travellers joined him around the table and looked at the map.
"This map shows the eastern part of Greater Vastusar, as well as the lands of Uhmakas and Rarhea. We are here in Laukiv, on the eastern shore of the this great lake of Kemioe. By sailing parallel to the shore southward, you can dock at at the southern shore and find yourself in Vastusar's territory in the province of Uhmaksar, or South Uhmakas. But if you sail across the lake towards the west, you can dock at the western shore, which is in the province of Haimana. Another formerly sovereign land now under the rule of Greater Vastusar. In both places is a person that we are looking for. A person who could be useful in the fight." The Fifth explained.
"And who might they be?" Venamo asked.
"The first one that I will mention is in the south. We don't know exactly where, but she has been spotted all over the place south of the Wound. She has been given the nickname Bloodmist, for her ability to turn herself into a cloud of reddish mist at will, which allows her to fly at fast speeds, survive projectiles that go right through her, and fit through keyholes and other small gaps. She has been a nuisance for the engineering projects of the Crown, but her motivations are unknown. The development of the Continent crosser was halted by two whole years because she destroyed the machine in the building process several times before the Crown started keeping captured children near the machine, making them collateral damage in the case of an explosion. It seemed to have worked, since Bloodmist left the construction of the machine alone after that and began sabotaging the tracks instead. The continent crosser itself is a self moving massive machine that..." The Fifth was explaining.
"We know what it is. We saw and heard what it does." Yilka interrupted with.
"We saw this Bloodmist person back there. We saw how she materialised from a cloud of red mist and tried to drop some kind of a bag into the chimney of the big machine. I assume it was the same woman that you are talking about." Venamo added.
"Very likely. So you saw how such a talented saboteur could be useful in our fight." The Fifth said.
"But her motivations are unknown. We don't know if she even cares about freeing Southern Uhmakas. She has red hair, so she's a Rarhean. Her homeland doesn't even share a border with Vastusar. Her goals might be completely different from ours." Venamo then added.
"Regardless, she has a shared foe with us, and a shared foe can unite different folk. That brings me to the other person of interest. He also has a shared foe with us. His name is Lapis Timishwar and he has become famous for mastering the forces of thunder without any sort of magic. His inventions have been used in creating machines for practical purposes, but the Crown is also interested in using his inventions for purposes of war. We can't let that happen. The Crown wants him dead, but he has quite a large organisation behind him. He's the founder and the president of the Academic Haimana Society, a student organisation that seeks to preserve the relative autonomy of the province. They have taken a vow to never let any academic prodigy from Haimana to be sent into the universities in the other parts of Greater Vastusar, and they have demanded that the language of the Haimanaika folk shall be spoken in the university of the province. The Crown founded and funded the only university in the province, but when the academic society made its demands, the Crown stopped all funding. However the Academic Haimana Society had gotten such wide support within the province, that it has become a respected, if not expected gesture for citizens to voluntarily fund the organisation, and now the Academic Society essentially runs and funds the university. The Crown's forces won't forcefully seize the university because the university is surrounded by a barrier that uses the forces of thunder to prevent any metal from passing through it. Anyone who carries anything metallic while passing the barrier gets fried as if they'd been struck by lightning. Lapis invented that barrier as well." The Fifth explained.
"I don't believe that tale for a second. Surely they've realised that they could just siege the place and force them to surrender." Venamo said with doubt.
"If they wanted to siege the university, they'd bring their weapons with them. Their metallic weapons. When the enemy inside can control and weaponise thunder while staying safe behind a barrier, a siege would become a very dangerous mistake. They tried, and they learned their lesson the hard way." The Fifth explained further.
"So you wouldn't get in with your sword but I'd get in with my Beast Slayer." Yilka tauntingly said to Venamo while tapping the cudgel hanging from his hip.
"Another thing I want to ask. South of the Wound we ran into these men who attacked us. They killed the Fire Feather. One of them had a mace and a chestplate enchanted with Holy magic. And they all had silver masks. What do you know about them?" Varma asked.
"And apparently they said that they want the Sisters to destroy each other so that Man will be the lord of the land." Yilka added.
"And later we heard a woman speaking by the Continent Crosser explaining how the Vastu man will yet become the lord of the land. Is this all connected? Is this something that they are planning?" Venamo further added.
"This is all true, and it is all connected. The Crown's forces have joined together with a long forgotten cult to hunt down the Grand Beasts. I can't tell you anything about the cult. We also don't know which one they're hunting next or if all of them are hunted at once by smaller divisions. We do know that the remaining grand beasts are the Father of Water at the bottom of the lake Kemioe, the Stormress in the desert of Kyrasar, and the Crownmother in the Lerhean islands. We have dedicated ourselves for destroying the Crown rather than saving the Grand Beasts, because we know that by doing that, we can put an end to their plans and free our brothers all at once. And you will do the same." The Fifth told them.
"So which of the two people should we seek out first? The saboteur or the prodigy?" Yilka asked.
"I say we go for Bloodmist first. We've already seen her so we'd recognise her when we see her." Venamo reasoned.
"Unfortunately nobody here knows what Lapis Timishwar looks like, so good call." The Fifth added.
"I say we look for Bloodmist too then." Yilka added.
"So it is settled. We have a ship and we can send it to depart tonight now that we finally have brothers with working limbs again. You will find it in the harbour. Its white sail has a red upright stripe. You'll know it when you see it." The Fifth finished with.
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