Thud. A log slams into the seabed near the evening's horizon edge of the Tide Breaker wall.
Patnos pats the wanderer on his shoulder, "good job, kid. Keep doing it like that, and make the Tide Breaker's sea section branch out in curved patterns against the tide."
The wanderer, sweating, nods to Patnos's words.
"All good, I'll see now if Talia is delivering on those 'hires' she coaxed."
The wanderer nodded once again. No words out of his mouth.
He understood the plan behind the Tide Breaker's extension into the sea. It was a simple one, extend all four concentric circles of wood for until only a twentieth of the deepest one's height is above water following the original Tide Breaker's circular structure.
That was the easy part. It was straightforward. The harder one was what this wanderer in a brown overcoat was working on for the present moment.
The wanderer wondered to himself, 'I get it, I get that flowery structure. That's understandable, it breaks tide over distance one layer at a time. And why for it each time the inner circle needs to have branching out curving part.'
He exhaled as he pulled on another floating log towards him and beyond. 'But why am I doing this here?'
Patnos was a few paces away from the wanderer looking over the 'hires' Talia had coaxed. She was eyeing and smiling at everyone as if trying to please them, but for Patnos the eyes spoke only annoyance.
Patnos spoke with triumph, "Kikren. Remembrance is forbidden. And Tide Breaker. Two are our enemies, outskirts or within the city, the other is a divide. A divide that is outliving its purpose. We still remember vaguely the people; the people who guarded us. Tide Breaker is weakening, it will become our enemy too."
Silence is what he expected, but Patnos's worries were proven wrong. There were murmurs.
The wanderer also had wonderings that murmured, 'why should I be doing this? I…I should just relax. It's just noon.'
'No, I can't relax, not yet. But why shouldn't I?' A wondering thought resurfaced within him.
The crowd in front of Patnos and Talia settled their murmurs as Talia spoke out. "Look at the kid! He is not from here, or is he? We don't remember! But he is here. Giving Cleaving a chance, a chance to change."
"A change that needs to happen not over a week or a month, but a day. I'll dare say hours! This change needs to happen in hours. For 'Remembrance is forbidden' and time washes away anything memorable always. We are facing a triple threat if we take too long. Our city Cleaving will not be able to cleave it's way to survival then." Patnos fumed aloud.
The wanderer's wonderings were also affected by Patnos's words. 'But change is what I was seeking, was I not? Or was I seeking a different thing? What was it?'
"So to break tides, tides of the threats that are coming or are already here. I ask of you people, help us. Help yourself, to break the tides of our enemies! Come and you'll be pioneers." Patnos spoke so loud, that the wanderer imagined even the water may have reacted to it.
The wanderer's brown overcoat couldn't be caressed by the sea breeze, but his thoughts wondered, 'what is up with that old man? Does that enhancing mix also increases his insanity? How does he expect to fight off a beast like Kikren! But what does it look like?'
The wanderer slammed his hammer down, the one he got from Patnos. 'This is heavy. Uhh, just get here people, I just want to rotate out. But why did I agree to this? What did I decide on before starting? Uhh, stupid! Stupid!'
He hammered down splashing the water around as the log slowly embedded itself from it's other end into the seabed.
"Even if we do…Let's say we do, help. What then? We will still be just outskirts people!" A voice rang out of the crowd of a few hundreds.
There were quite a few people here compared to the thousands that live in the outskirts. But every single one was just as old as Talia. Only Patnos looked older out of all.
"You are right. Your question has the truth behind it. But I dare remind you, look at the city. Look at how empty it is, the guards are gone. The city is a desolate ramshackle of its past, and yet you live in the outskirts. Why? Because Tide Breaker has protected you from coming under the effect of 'Remembrance is forbidden'." Patnos answered, his voice a whisper in the air. Loud enough for everyone, but not loud enough to drown the ocean's call.
'Why did I ever gave away the Beret coins! They….they…they…they were non-deserving of holding onto those coins!' a huge splash of water and another log embedded itself. The wanderer exhaled.
His brown overcoat for the first time since he started on this long task, fluttered against the opposite sea breeze.
'I burned every mark of me before Ashtrim, so why am I now leaving a mark?' The wanderer asked himself.
"The city may not remember you. Your descendents may not remember you. But if you are a pioneer, you aren't one because you wish to be remembered. You are one so that the next one who walks on the roads you made, feels it. Feels the shadows of your glorious deeds whether they know your names or not. I can't give a promise that you'll be remembered. But history will never be able to truly hide away the deeds you make by making this extension of the Tide Breaker." Patnos thundered.
Talia eyed him, thinking to herself, 'he could have just did all of that hiring within a minute so why such a big commotion. Just end this already!'
Patnos waited.
Talia waited.
The wanderer wondered again, 'why do I need to go opposite the morning's horizon? What is there? What have I forgotten? Does this city make people forget before they arrive here? But I need to go, don't I? Opposite the morning's horizon…But why!!'
The curve, wanderer in the brown overcoat made, breaks tide. He walked back on the extension to the beach. To the logs and Patnos.