As the sun dangled overhead, we crested a final hill. It was then that we saw it, the city of gold, the imperial capital.
"Oltin Shahar" Kona mumbled at the sight.
That was the city's true name. It was sprawling and endless, even atop our earthly perch; it reached onto the horizon and swallowed the world. It was not tall with towers like Vilta that stretched high into the sky, but wide. The city was boundless, endless. As I looked across the horizon, the limit of the city had a subtle circular curve that stretched away from us the further you went. The city was the shape of a circle, a perfect circle of rock and mortar strewn upon the earth's width that even the saints might see it clearly from the great wall.
"It's the largest city of them all. I passed through here once. I've never been to the middle though."
"What's in the middle?"
"The palace, of course, where her majesty Empress Fi resides. The poor live on the outer ring, the rich on the inside. I prefer the middle ring."
Palaces, empresses, rings, it was all foreign to me, quite hard to grasp, coming from a palace that had lords that answered to a court. In the south, there was no singular ruler. To think that one person controls all of this, how is such a thing possible?
"What did you call it? Just now."
"Oltin Shahar. It's the old name, old language. Nobody calls it that anymore. People just call it the Capitol or the city of gold."
"Why?"
Kona pointed to the left, in the far distance, there sat a tall mountain perched lonely on the horizon. "That's why. The golden mountain. That made this city rich, and with great money comes great power. That's how they won the wars against my homeland and the other surrounding countries. We're all just empire now. To pay our tithes and do trade."
I felt a resentment coming from her voice. The Godi were historically rulers of the north when it was its own country; I suppose the pain of defeat runs through their blood. The wagons crawled closer and closer to the city, where there was no wall, no defence, just the sudden beginning of building that got closer and closer.
The closer we got, before one could even hear the bustling voices of thousands of people, you could smell its stench. It was a smell I knew, living on a farm, but one we did our best to rid ourselves of as much as we could, a smell that one would never expect when entering the main road of a large city. It was the smell of shit.
The roads were cobbled and pressed smooth, but every so often, there was a side road that branched off that was simply mud and dirt. The houses are crude and poorly built, and the people are thin and hungry-looking. Was this what the city was like?
After another two minutes of travel, we came to a stop. There was a stone building along the road with men in armour with a sword at their side and a long metallic thing across their back held in place with a strap. They approached Nigel in the front wagon and spoke with him. I saw him and their book over, and the guard took it, walked to the back of the wagon and climbed in, looking at the cargo. He exited and repeated the process with our wagon, but as he passed, my eyes were locked on the item on his back.
Noticing my curiosity, Kona bumped my shoulder to get my attention, leaning in and whispering. "Don't stare at his gun."
Gun? I had seen a gun once before, but it looked nothing like that. This was long, sleek and well built. I thought they were small and looked more like a tiny cannon; that one looked different, very different.
The guard came back and waved us through, ordering us to move along. Kona continued to follow behind Nigel's wagon as he led us somewhere.
We rode deeper into the city for what felt like an hour, and the deeper we went, I noticed the building turn from wood to stone, the smell from shit to a less pungent smell. The roads got wider as we passed by other wagons going the other direction on the same road. Nigel pulled off the side and tied the horses to a post, and we pulled in behind him as he approached us.
"I asked the guard where I could sell this stuff. I'm going to go inside and talk, stay here and guard everything, okay."
I answered with a salute as I remained seated next to Kona. Nigel dissipated into a building, leaving the two of us along with the wagons. Kona reached back and grabbed her axe, resting it on her lap as she turned her head to look at everyone passing by. She had been here before. Was this place really that dangerous that you had to brandish a weapon openly to deter theft?
I got up and walked, started to pace the length of our wagon, to ensure nobody was taking anything from the back without us noticing. A few moments later, Nigel came out with an elderly man with a cane, who approached and started to look into the wagon at its cargo.
The old man held his hand out, and Nigel gave him the book, looking at it and then at the cargo over and over again. He gave a swift nod and turned his head, ready to move to the rear of the other wagon, but he stopped. He started at Kona for a moment, looking at her leg. He raised his bony finger and pointed at her. "How bouts a walking aid for thisin ere?" He muttered through chapped lips.
"Maybe" Nigel said, gesturing for him to go to the back to inspect the other wagon.
The old man inspected Nigel, and I walked to the rear of the second wagon, only to find that there was a young boy, a bit younger than me, who had crawled into it and was trying to lift a box. The kid saw us and jumped down from the wagon. The old man twisted his cane and pulled up, revealing a blade that he held out as the child jumped. The edge of the blade sliced up the child's side, causing him to collapse to the ground and writhe in agony as he bled. The old man placed the blade back into the cane and stepped forward, kicking the child.
"Little fuckin shit. Twasn't even that deep a cut. Fuck off, for I kill ya"
The child scurried back, clutching his bleeding side as he ran to a dark alley. I looked at the old man's face who had just done that act, but it was content, as if he had brushed away a fly.
He looked over the cargo and turned to Nigel. "Toss in the horses and I'll get that big woman a new leg."
"We need the horse-"
"Deal." I interjected, stepping forward and holding out my hand.
The old man turned to me and smiled. "Now there's a good businessman." He grabbed my hand and shook it firmly.
After a few minutes of standing around outside, several men returned alongside the old man and started to offload the cargo from the wagons and take them down a side road. Nigel and I helped Kona off the wagon as we grabbed our personal belongings and went into the store and into a room in the back where we sat Kona down on a chair. The old man entered the room with what looked like a leg made of metal, though it was devoid of flesh and muscle.
He held it out and displayed how it worked. "No real power hind it, just a swivel that canne extend past what a normal leg can do." He demonstrated by having the leg straightened. "Other than that, sall just gravity. Some clever egg head from Quimy made it."
He held out the wide part that wrapped around the stump of Kona's leg. He pressed it against and turned a dial, tightening it to the skin. Several straps wrapped around her waist to hold it in place. Once the artificial leg was attached, Kona placed a hand on the chair and pushed herself to her feet. She took a few steps with a bit of a wobble. I noticed she couldn't balance on it too well and had to walk with a limp, but she could walk; that alone was enough to put a smile on her face.
The old man left the room and came back a few seconds later with a cane, handing it to her.
"This'll help wit balance. Yee can't fight nor run, but ye can walk."
As she took the cane and started to use it while walking, her balance improved, and her speed increased. She was able to walk like normal. "If I practice, could I walk without the cane?"
"Course. Ye seem strong nuff."
He paid us a large sum of coins, and we left the store. Each of us walked out as we started to travel north along the road with Kona leading the way.
"We're heading for the middle district. We can figure things out from there."
Even just a few hours in this city, I thought of it as an evil place, but even in evil places, there can be wonderful things. That's what I thought, seeing Kona walk, something I thought I might never see again in all my life.
After walking for hours on end without rest, we finally reached a large wall that separated the outer and middle rings. Within the wall was a large gate with many armed guards. We entered a queue of people waiting to enter. One by one, people were either granted entry or turned away.
The person in line in front of us was a smaller girl in height and build with long raven hair and surprisingly revealing clothing. She also had throwing knives on her belt and a gun, the kind of gun I recognised, seeing that next to the types of guns the guards have. It looked as if the two were made a century apart. She was turned away at the gate, but rather than leave, she instantly offered sex to let her pass. When rejected, she groaned and asked if the guard knew who she was.
"You're Revy Argal. Known criminal, swindler and a man. Now fuck off."
"Cunt!" Revy yelled before storming off, bumping past me and glancing at me. That was a man?
"Next!"
The three of us approached.
"Names."
We each said our names in turn, Nigel, Kona, and then men. Once I said my name, the guard stopped writing, he looked at another guard and then back at me. I knew the look in his eye all too well; he knew exactly who I was.
"Alright, see that inn right there?" He pointed just beyond the gate to the building on the road corner called 'across the wall inn'. "You're to lodge there, and by tomorrow morning, you'll receive instructions. You've got a summons order to the palace. Go through."
We all stood there for a second in shock. "Go through, fuck off already."
We stumbled through the gate and towards the inn as all the guards stood, staring at us to make sure we went where we were told. I had a summons order to the palace? How, why? It would have to be something to do with my bounty with the church, no doubt, but would they kill me, pardon me, or something else entirely?