As the travelers approached the city, they saw that it was surrounded by camps and tents, all of which were surrounded by Vastusarian soldiers wearing glowing armour and helmets. Sneaking past the camps was easy enough, and when the travelers entered the city, they all noticed one striking thing. Nobody was on the streets, even though it was late afternoon. Light and voices came from the houses, but not a soul could be seen on the streets, aside from more Vastusarian soldiers here and there. Everything above was black, but the permanently burning long ropes hanging from the airships above provided enough light to at least see something, but the lack of light left many corners unlit, which was useful for avoiding detection.
"Have the Vastus completely taken over the city and everybody has escaped into the academy or something?" Varma asked.
"Or perhaps there's a plague going around." Nofa worried.
"If that is the case, we'll need to handle our matters here quickly." Venamo said and went ahead.
"Don't you all think there's something just a little bit suspicious about this?" Yilka asked.
"We already lost Bloodmist. We have to at least bring the other person to the Road of Blood." Venamo said to the others as he turned around.
"We should likely also pipe down a bit." Varma stated.
Right as she said that, she saw somebody's head popping out of a window hole and looking at her. She immediately went quiet and just followed along.
Venamo led the way and stuck to the shadows, as did the others. But in the shadows it was hard to know what might lurk in there. In a dark alleyway where there was not a bit of light, and only a pyramid of wooden barrels, the travelers were surprised by a trio of men in black cloaks, silver masks and maces.
"You've made a bad mistake coming outside. If you stand down now, you'll make for good ransom." The middle one of the silver masks said in Vastusarian.
"We will not surrend..." Venamo was about to reply when he noticed that he didn't have his sword with him.
"I know what these fellows are about." Yilka said and charged forward with his weapon ready.
He managed to catch one the silver masks by surprise and hit him in the head with his Beast Slayer. The two others swung their maces at him, but he ducked low and caused the maces to hit one the wooden walls that surrounded the alleyway. The maces sunk into the wood of the wall and got stuck, allowing Yilka to take down one of the silver masks with a blow to the head. The remaining silver mask shoulder tackled Yilka to the ground as he yanked his mace free. He raised his shining mace and prepared to land a killing blow, but then he fell to his knees and collapsed under the weight of his own weapon. Yilka sprung up and looked at Nofa.
"Can't believe I had to save you the same way again. You're welcome for that." Nofa said and closed her book.
Yilka then looked down at the silver mask who was desperately trying to stand up but simply lacking the strength to. Yilka took the mask from his face and picked up the enemy's mace from the ground. He flattened the mask with the mace and dropped the mace too.
"Let's leave him there to think about what he's done." Yilka said.
"And let's keep our eyes open for things lurking in the shadows from now on too." Venamo said.
"I never heard a Thank you." Nofa reminded.
"Thank you." Yilka said coldly.
Once the travelers had snuck on a road that directly leads to the academy, they finally saw a person who was actually outside. A tall pale shirtless man with black trousers and boots, a chest of black hair, a tall head with thinning black hair, mismatching eyes and a wide mouth was sitting against the wall of a house. As the travelers approached him, they saw that he didn't seem to be all there. Venamo didn't even give him a second look, Yilka looked like he wanted talk but he knew he couldn't communicate with the man anyway, Varma gave the man a small wave of the hand and Nofa tossed him a small coin. The lonely man caught the coin and put it in an empty pint he had by his feet. He said something to Nofa that she couldn't understand, but she understood his thankful tone and replied to it with a polite smile and then followed the others. As the travelers made their way towards the academy, they still heard the lonely man shouting something from behind, but none of them could understand the language he was speaking. But when Venamo heard him mention the name Lapis, he stopped walking. He turned around and walked back to the lonely man and looked down at him.
"Lapis Timishwar?" Venamo said to the man.
The man frantically nodded and said something that Venamo couldn't understand.
"You know him?" Venamo asked him in the Vastusarian language.
The man processed what he heard and then nodded again.
"Yes. I know." He said slowly in the Vastusarian language.
"Where is he now? Is he in the academy?" Venamo asked.
"He always in the academy. Never comes out. Never sees me." The man complained.
"Can you take us to meet him?" Venamo asked.
"I am not... welcome in the academy. They don't lets me in." The man complained.
"I see. Well, have a good day." Venamo wished and continued his path towards the academy.
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Once the travelers were finally in a place where the guards don't dare to go, at the gates of the academy, they saw the electric dome up close and could even hear the electric crackling of it. The dome was supported by tall and arching metallic pillars that were in the shape of a dome, and the electric walls filled the gaps between the pillars. Everybody who got close to it noticed their hair pointing towards the sky. Also at the gate they met two gruff looking men who did not seem like students. Especially because they were holding crossbows and looking at the travelers very seriously. Nofa especially. The guards were on the other side of the barrier, and Venamo approached them bravely and listened to them ask him something that he couldn't understand.
"I am sorry. We do not speak your language. We are from Uhmakas and we wish to meet Lapis Timishwar." Venamo said to them in the Vastusarian language.
As a response he got two crossbows with stone arrows pointed at him.
"Out of here, spy." One of the guards said to him in poor Vastusarian.
"We are not spies. We do not work for the Crown. Yes, I can speak Vastusarian because that's largely the world's language these days, but I am not of their kin." Venamo promised.
"So you're Uhmaks?" One guard asked for confirmation.
"We are. And lying is against our rules." Venamo assured.
"Lapis Timishwar can speak Uhmakian. Speak your language to him, and he can tell if you are who you say you are." One guard suggested.
"I'll need a Haimanaika to check if I'm really an Uhmak. Fine. So be it. Bring him here." Venamo told the guards.
One of them went inside the academy while the other one remained. During the wait, the travelers got a good look at the impressive academy building. It was a wide and stony building with detailed carvings on its walls and pillars. It had a tall belltower on the roof of it, and on both sides of the academy were two wooden houses that were three floors tall and the width of about eight average huts. On the front yard of the academy were young men and women who all had different clothes, but everyone's clothes were worn out.
After some waiting, a man with a long black coat with grey details on it walked out of the main door of the academy, and everybody on the front yard turned their attention to him and cheered. He did a little dance, stamped his feet, banged on his chest and wiped his slick black hair and spread his arms as he walked past his admirers and supporters. The Haimanaikas shouted words of respect and admiration as he walked past them, and he soaked it all in to feed his ego. The guard escorted him to the gate where he came face to face with Venamo. The confident man stroked his short and sharp chin beard and examined the band in front of him.
"When lilies of spring bloom under the rain, and the song of the morning crane resounds across the lid of the sky, a new morning rises above the plain, and a new life is nigh." The confident man sung like a lullaby in the Uhmakian language.
"Pardon?" Venamo said, not expecting to hear what he heard.
Varma then stepped forth and cleared her throat.
"Away retreat the forces of night, their threat banished away. The brightness of dawn conquering the shadows' might, and lighting yet a new day." Varma also sang like a lullaby.
"Hm. Impressive." The confident man said to Varma.
"Hih. Thank you." Varma replied and blushed.
"What was all that?" Nofa asked.
"That was a lullaby that Varma's mother sang to her when she was tiny and feared the night. Didn't expect it to be known all the way here." Yilka answered before anyone else could.
"Odd that I never heard it." Venamo commented.
"Perhaps because you were always doing chores by the time Varma went to bed. She sure went to bed early back then because she feared the night so much." Yilka said and shrugged.
"Th-that's not true! I was never scared of the night! I just... Nofa, you believe me, right?" Varma defended her honour with.
Nofa only giggled.
"Regardless, we wanted to meet Lapis Timishwar. Are you him?" Venamo asked the confident man.
"Who else? I am the founder and president of the Academic Haimana Society, a hero of the tribe, and the tamer of thunder!" Lapis answered in fluent Uhmakian as he posed with his black cape.
"Marvelous. May we come in?" Venamo asked.
"Certainly. If for no other reason than I want to know why you folk are so far away from your homeland." Lapis replied.
"Well, you're easy to convince." Nofa said to Lapis.
"If a pretty Rarhean lady is in a group, I feel inclined to let them in." Lapis replied.
Nofa chuckled at the comment. Yilka grit his teeth and squinted his eyes at Lapis' comment.
The guards lowered their weapons and let the travelers in. The sensation of walking through the barrier of electricity was unlike anything they had ever felt before.
"I was expecting that to hurt a lot more." Nofa commented.
"It won't hurt anything organic. Not at least until I've developed it a bit further." Lapis replied.
"Seems like a flawed defense." Venamo commented.
Before any of the travelers could get a word with Lapis, he was being surrounded by students of the academy. Some of them asked serious questions, some of them just wanted to flirt with him. After Lapis has answered to all of the students, he stood himself right next to Nofa and gave his full attention to the band of travelers.
"So. What do you think of the fine city Decuti, the jewel of the northern coast of Haimana? I know it's not what it once was, but to us it's still precious. And am I really so famous that my name is even known in the Uhmak lands? What do folk say about me there?" Lapis asked Nofa directly while standing next to her.
"I... umm... don't know much about you. I've heard your name mentioned... by these fellows behind me." Nofa answered nervously.
"Well, enough about me then. What can you tell about yourself? And what do you have to say to me?" Lapis then asked Nofa.
"Enough about you, you said. I don't really have anything to say to you, thank you." Nofa answered coldly.
"Ouch. Hard one, aren't you?" Lapis said.
"It was we who wanted to talk to you. And we'd prefer to talk about it somewhere less open." Venamo said sternly and finally got Lapis' attention.
"Hm? Ah. Of course. You came here for a reason. Me and the pretty red lady can talk later somewhere less open as well." Lapis replied.
"You're not who I want to be alone with anywhere." Nofa said.
"You really want to make me work for it. Then I will do my best. But in any case, what do the rest of you have to ask from me. I have faith that you aren't spies. Spies don't usually know lullabies. Their spies are more obvious than this." Lapis said.
"And how do you know an Uhmakian lullaby, or the language for that matter?" Varma asked curiously.
"I've studied all the tribes of the land and read everything there is to read about them. I've also tried to learn their languages to the best of my ability. Though I'm a born and bred washproof Haimanaika, I can somewhat speak the languages of the Vastu, the Uhmak, the Kyranaipa, the Lehreans and the Rarheans." Lapis bragged.
"Impressive." Nofa said in the Wicked people's language.
"I know." Lapis replied to Nofa in her language.
"So the rumours about the thunder wall are true. But was it really you who invented it?" Yilka questioned.
"Of course it was me. I have mastered the arts of thunder! And this barrier isn't the only thing I've created. I have more to show than this." Lapis spoke excitedly.
"Your inventions are the reason why we are interested in you. Have you ever heard of the Road of Blood?" Venamo asked Lapis.
"I'm afraid I haven't. I've only seen roads of blood in ladies' knickers." Lapis replied.
Everyone looked at him with either raised eyebrows or gaped mouths.
"Not a good joke? Noted." Lapis said.
"So you're not lying when you say that nobody else here speaks Uhmakian?" Yilka asked Lapis.
"Do you see the way these students are looking at us? They can't understand a word." Lapis assured and gestured at the students around who were looking and listening curiously.
"The Road of Blood is a group that is interested to work together with you because of your inventions. Can you show some of them?" Venamo asked.
"With great pleasure. And after that I can show the pretty red lady something else that I have." Lapis replied.
"Just shut it and take us there." Yilka said while his face was twitching.
"And my answer is no to that proposal too, Lapis." Nofa clarified.
"I'll keep trying then. But follow me, and I will take you to my greatest creation." Lapis said and began leading the way.
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Lapis led the travelers inside the academy building. It seemed to be break time since the hallways were full of students in similar looking outfits. Some were loitering around in groups, some were napping alone on benches, and many were fistbumping Lapis as he walked past. The travellers who hadn't cleaned their clothes in a long time stuck out.
"How come these students have such clean shirts if the academy is isolated inside this bubble?" Varma asked Lapis.
"There is a small pond in the premises, behind the main building. Very useful. Feel free to use it yourselves. You smell like you need it." Lapis replied.
"Rude! I bathed just the other day. Though It's been a bit since my tunic was washed. And wearing this cloak over it gets hot, so you know. Especially when we were in the desert." Varma explained.
"The nearest desert from here is in Kyrasar. You've been on quite the journey. But why do you wear that ugly cloak?" Lapis asked.
"It's because... I just think it looks nice." Varma replied nervously.
Behind them Nofa pinched Yilka's shoulder to get his attention.
"I saw how bitter you looked each time that Lapis bloke tried to flatter me. You still care. So what gives?" Nofa asked her favourite man.
Yilka exhaled deeply.
"Can we talk about this when we're alone?" Yilka requested.
"You have nothing to talk about with her." Venamo chipped in.
"No, I think I do." Yilka replied while looking straight ahead.
Right then Lapis cleared his throat.
"Just behind this door is where you will see my greatest creation! Behold!" Lapis said and opened a door he was standing by.
Behind the door was a room where fork-shaped staffs were standing upright on a shooting range.
"Was I wrong for expecting something a bit more... spectacular?" Varma asked in confusion.
"Just wait until you see what they do. Come in." Lapis said and stepped through the door.
The travelers followed him into the large room. Lapis grabbed one of the staffs and aimed it at a dummy standing at the end of a shooting range. A lightning shot out of the staff right at the dummy.
"Woah!" Varma commented.
"That would come in handy when assaulting a palace." Yilka pointed out quietly.
"Does it work against enchanted armour?" Venamo asked.
"I still have to test that to know." Lapis replied.
He then did another trick with the staff, shooting four bolts around the dummy. The four bolts then formed a dome of electricity around the dummy. The dome then sparkled so brightly that the entire room was filled with blinding light. Everyone covered their eyes and by the time they uncovered their eyes, the dome was gone and the unfortunate dummy that got trapped under the dome, no longer existed. Only a pile of ash was in its stead.
"I'll take ten." Varma said.
"Sorry, sweetie. These things are not leaving this academy unless I'm also going. These are our best defense against an attack, and they still wouldn't be that useful against a full-on assault. We only have a handful of these, and they can only be used a handful of times in a short time. When they run out of power, they need to be recharged." Lapis explained.
"And how are they recharged?" Venamo asked.
"Quite easily. Like this." Lapis said and rubbed the end of the staff into his clothes really hard.
The tip of the staff sparked with new power, and was ready to be used again.
"That doesn't look too inconvenient. It'd be a great defensive weapon." Nofa commented.
"It only took such a short time to do that because I only fired it twice. Rubbing it into my clothes over and over again would get exhausting if the enemy has great numbers. It still needs development, but it is still my greatest creation." Lapis explained.
"And how is that weapon used?" Venamo asked.
"And why do you need to know that?" Lapis asked right back.
"Well, this is as good of a time as any to tell you why we're here and what the Road of Blood is." Venamo said.
"Please do." Lapis said and sat down on a chair where he leaned back and touched all of his fingertips together while his staff rested on his lap.
Venamo explained to Lapis what the Road of Blood is and what their goals are and why they are interested in Lapis.
"I must admit. Giving up my duty of being the president of the Academic Haimana Society and dedicating myself for the defense of this great establishment in a desperate attempt to take it to the Crown directly isn't the most attractive offer." Lapis said.
"Isn't it the Crown who wants to take this place over? Destroying the Crown would mean you no longer have to defend this place." Yilka pointed out.
"My friend, do you not understand that even if the entire royal family went missing at sea tomorrow, somebody would take their place, and the armies of Vastusar would loyally serve their new lords still. And if those new lords want to subjugate Haimana and its great tribe, my battle here will continue anyway." Lapis argued.
"Don't you want to free the rest of Haimana from the rule of Vastusar?" Varma asked.
"The rest of the Haimanaika are fairly comfortable under Vastusar's rule. You'll understand once you travel around here, if you haven't already. See, unlike your tribe, mine hasn't really rebelled and the Crown holds no grudge against us. In fact, our kin hasn't really done anything good for Vastusar either, and they are indeed quite bitter about that. We're a lazy bunch of folk, outside of this academy of course. The trees that grow here can grow fruit and mushrooms even after they've been chopped, and that's what the Haimanaika have always made their houses of. Food literally grows in our walls, so most folk see no point in labouring. When Vastusar took over this land, they wanted to build big stone cities and railroads across the land, but the natives couldn't be convinced to build those things. They had to bring in workers from other lands to get those things built. In hindsight, we shouldn't have let them. You saw how black the sky is here. That's all because of their damned Continent Crosser. It runs on cavemoss that gets burned in its furnace, and the smoke of cavemoss is thick, black and takes a long time to fade away. When the Continent Crosser had passed by these lands a few times, the sky was as black as it is now, and it's not getting any cleaner as long as the Continent Crosser keeps moving. At least they had the good courtesy to send those light boats into our skies to give light." Lapis ranted away.
"So I was right about why the sky is so black here. The Vastus think they can make obsolete all that Leri has created, and they even saw the sun as competition to them, so they had to block it and provide light with their own means." Venamo commented.
"If the Haimanaika are so lazy, then was this academy also built by workers from other lands? It's a really nice stone building." Varma asked.
"You are right. The building wasn't built by our folk, and it was funded by the Crown at first, but obviously their funding has now ended. But the students who are here are anything but lazy." Lapis assured.
"And once they've finished their studies, where will they go?" Nofa asked.
"Out." Lapis answered.
"Right, but where in there?" Nofa further questioned.
"Doesn't concern me. As long as they don't go work for the enemy. Because of this siege, we haven't gotten new students for a bit, and most graduates still remain here because "Out" doesn't sound like a nice place for some." Lapis answered.
"Does that sound like something you can defend forever? At some point you'll have to destroy the enemy." Yilka argued.
"I will say this much. I've heard rumours that all over Haimana, the Vastusarian authorities have been trying hard to get the Haimanaika to abandon their traditional lifestyles and customs, and even the use of our language has been cracked down on. I can't do anything about that if I stay here. Protecting and preserving Haimana's culture and language was the founding principle of the Academic Society, and I'd be betraying the principle if I only hold the fort here. I will join your cause only if I know that whoever replaces the King will pull their forces out of here and leave our land alone." Lapis explained.
"It's not our decision to make who replaces the King. Hopefully no one. Their entire kingdom can collapse for all I care. As long as our tribe is freed." Yilka said.
"It doesn't work that way. Somebody will always fill the void left by a fallen kingdom. I don't think you lot will get anything out of me. You'll have to tell your friends at the Road of Blood that my answer is No. If I wage war against the Crown directly, they'll want to eradicate our culture even faster. You can stay in the dorms for the rest of today, but tomorrow morning I expect you to leave. I'm sorry. The pretty Rarhean can stay however." Lapis told them.
"So you'd rather choose a certain but slow death for everything your tribe is. That's not our loss. We'll fight, with or without you. King Pushkrilleri and his power will fall, and your land and tribe will be remembered as those who did nothing to aid in the fight. Whoever replaces the King will have no fear or respect for Haimana, but they'll know that it was the tribe warriors of Uhmakas who destroyed their unbeatable rule. This land and its people will be remembered as scared little do-nothings who accepted their own eradication. Enjoy ruling over your castle of paper while your kin gradually forget who they are. Cowards the lot of you." Yilka said and left the room.
All the other travelers looked in surprise at how passionate Yilka seemed to be about what he just said.
"You can all stay in the east side dorm. There is one available room there for all four of you. It comes equipped with a wash bucket so please do use the pond behind the school before you leave tomorrow morning. That is all I have to say to you anymore. Now please leave." Lapis told the rest.
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Back at the dormitory, the travelers had found the one available room. The first thing anyone noticed was that it only had one bed, but that was not what worried them. On the wooden walls, cherries and mushrooms grew. Just as promised.
"And now we have to tell Vakevata that we failed to get this guy too! But I meant what I said back there. We don't need him. We only need his weapons." Yilka told the rest while sitting on the only bed in the room.
"You're occupying my bed." Varma told him.
"Are you suggesting we steal them? But we don't even know how to use those weapons of his." Nofa said to Yilka.
"I need the bed. I can't even sleep on my back because of these wings and I don't want to sleep on my belly on the floor!" Varma kept complaining to Yilka.
"We can learn how to use them. If any of us had gotten the power of the Stormress, we wouldn't need Lapis' weapons, but someone had to make sure that nobody gets those powers." Yilka complained.
"Stealing those staffs may not be a bad idea. We don't need the power of the Stormress if we have those. And if someone at the Road of Blood can find out how to replicate the staff, it can be a great advantage in the fight." Venamo reasoned.
"Fine. Since nobody listens to me. I may as well go ahead and wash our clothes. Throw whatever you want cleaned into the bucket. If you don't, you can clean it yourself. If you're even listening to me." Varma said to the others.
"Great initiative. This shirt needs a cleaning." Venamo said and handed over his white shirt to Varma.
"And so does my shirt." Yilka said and handed over his shirt.
"And so does my robe. Thank you." Nofa said and handed over her robe.
"Oh, so now they hear me. Well, argue in peace over here. I'm heading out." Varma said to the others and shoved the clothes into the large wooden bucket.
She walked out of the dormitory and found the pond behind the academy building. She set the bucket and her cloak down next to her and jumped in the water to wash her own tunic while wearing it. After that was done, she began washing the others' clothes in the water of the pond.
"Vena sure likes to talk about how we should all be on the same page. And what he means by that is that we should all just do what he says. And I can tell that nobody wants to do what he says. I swear if our ship has been stolen with my stone with it, I'll fly off to retrieve it back no matter what anyone says." Varma spoke to herself while scrubbing Venamo's shirt into the washboard that came with the bucket.
As she was doing that, she noticed something about the shirt that caught her attention.
"Blood? In Vena's shirt? We've only gotten into fights with mace wielders and when Yia and Bloodmist fought the spearmen, Vena didn't get involved much. When did he get cut? And more curiously, there's no cut in this shirt at all. It's perfectly intact." Varma wondered.
She then squinted her eyes and wondered some more.
"Or is it blood at all?" She asked herself.
She sniffed the stain properly and raised her eyebrows.
"It doesn't smell like blood. It smells like..." She said and sniffed the stain again.
"It smells like ink."
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