The wanderer, in the brown overcoat, dazed walked forward. In the direction he had seen someone. Someone he didn't expect.
Cheal.
The wanderer several paces and turns later, still didn't find Cheal. But he wasn't mistaken, he believed it. Cheal was in Rigac. And he was here way before the wanderer arrived.
Shaking off his upcoming thoughts, he traced back. A left, a right, not turning into two consecutive turns for a straight path for half a league, then another left. He was back on the main street he had left. The guard gate on his right, the city's main wall several leagues away on his left.
The wanderer started a jog. He looked around at times in the outskirts. These didn't look much like outskirts. They were being transformed. Changed.
Into a city borough. That was what the outskirts were evolving into.
The noise closer to the area of the guard gate was silent, more traditional outskirt–like buildings. But some were different. Made of hardened bricks and rock paste.
Noise rose as he walked a league straight. Some older languages hawking sounds were splashing his ears.
"Adiho! Adiho!"
He knew that meant 'welcome listeners, viewers, respected well wishers, and more', that was the meaning of that simple word. 'Adiho'.
Another voice assailed his ears softly, "Beans! Peas! Beans! Peas!"
He thought 'must be a farmer'.
The wanderer's ears had to adapt faster to the noise of the outskirts. But there were times when the noise died down, it was weird.
He didn't look around for the why. Yet, it showed itself. A different colour vested guard. Parading with a drawn out blade. A longsword, it's point downwards.
The wanderer saw a similar scene again but with a pair of guards. Each holding a spear at the ready.
The outskirts was suppressed.
It was apparent. But this suppression allowed several other things to happen.
He only knew of it's result, the one he could see. A change in building materials that makes the buildings of the outskirts. A simple change.
But a thought did pop in, 'is this change welcomed or forced? Or manipulated?'
He didn't knew. For him, the main task was to reach the main wall. And he just had.
The main wall guards again went through the same procedure as the outskirt guards. At the end one of the guards warned, "when a Skyact Guard asks you something, answer honestly. Answering more will even be more beneficial for you. Rigac Assembly for Adventurers, Pioneers and Hunters is the same as Rigac Cathedral. Go there."
The wanderer in the brown overcoat nodded. As he went away from the main wall guards, the ones in black vests and grey armour, he put on the four colored rings back on his right hand.
He had taken it off his hand before even restarting the wagon to evening's horizon's direction.
Now, he was as prepared as he could be.
The wanderer still followed the directions to Rigac Assembly. He crossed it, and went further into Rigac. The cathedral was big, ancient and pious.
Light graced it, while the darkness searched for the wanderer. Him always being one step ahead, stayed in the light.
The city of Rigac worthiness as a capital is always on display. The market was enriching, people of every age mingled around checking the utensils, items, and dishes on display.
He, on the other hand, searched. Not checked in a cursory look. The wanderer was thorough but carefully. His eyes remained unstrained, his body language free of tension.
But his mind was over-analysing. Finding the patterns he needed to know of. This wasn't Ashtrim the city. This was Rigac. He told himself that.
The city was prepared to its teeth, for an attack as well as a celebration. A pair of guards at two leagues distance of each other was a pattern he found on the main streets.
But what he wanted to find was the dark in the light. Not weak spots. But intentionally left gaps. The wanderer thought to himself, 'it's too much for a day.'
So he turned into a side street. Covered some distance by turning in several directions. He had heard footsteps trailing him at times. But they also vanished when he stopped and cursory glanced at desert shops.
He welcomed himself in into one of such shops. Came back out, his bag a bit empty. His brown overcoat had a few more orange Riga coins. He didn't exchange them for the Beret coins, but the enhancing mixes.
His pursuers checked that shop. That gave him time, but he didn't rush it. The wanderer only entered another main street. Only removing his four colored rings before doing so.
He had created an interest in him, in the city. The guards wanted to know of him, he was warned, the people now knew of a boy with special mixes.
He was walking among the light. Always in it, always surrounded by the righteous acts.
Two more shops on this main street's markets had exchanged a few orange Riga coins for an enhancing mix or two. He did sell enough.
The wanderer only needed to find a place to live. He circled back, not the path he came from. A crossroad from this main street went to the main street of Rigac Assembly.
His business venture had been approved unofficially. For he did pass the same guards after three hours. He believed they must have heard of a boy in a brown over coat with two bags with him.
No guard approached him. And his entry into the Rigac Assembly went uneventful.
A habitual adventurer there tells the wanderer of the local hostels. He didn't believe the words. So he asked around again in the same assembly, if that did prick that adventurer. The wanderer didn't knew of it today.
"Hmm, a hostel or lodgings huh? You could stay here too, that will be better." A lady pioneer answered his query, she was with her group of two more pioneers, and another man who claimed he was a hunter.
"A clerical job? You swindling this boy? Look at him!" the hunter replied.
"It's still better. At the very least, he'll get to know of Rigac better here than roaming around the city. I do think that's one of the things you wish to get done first, right kid?" the lady pioneer claimed.
The wanderer showing a bit of hesitation responded, "yeah, but first I'll Like to get some sleep and place comfortable enough for these bags."
After a few more back and forth, the wanderer was reintroduced to the receptionists. And they offered him a clerical temporary job, and a room.
In his room in the Rigac Assembly, the wanderer set the bags down as soon as the receptionists went away and locked his door. Taking out a container, he said, "I am sorry, buddy. I couldn't get you to settle down earlier."
He opened the container, and a dying leafy plant was in it. The container just big enough to fit the plant with only bending it a bit. No leaves had fallen off it yet.
The wanderer straightened the plant a little by little.
His room was simple. A desk, a lampshade, a window facing outwards into the back alley way, a corner bed, and two wardrobes.
The desk had a few drawers of its own. And he remembered what was told to him, "the desk has most of the things he will need as a cleric. So take good care of it and if you need to read or learn, go out of the Rigac Assembly through the main door turn right and walk for until you have crossed 5 buildings. Then you will arrive at one of the libraries of Rigac. Read and learn there. But pay close attention to the rules there."
He remembered them well. "5 buildings", he repeated it to the leafy plant.
The wanderer opened the window. A silent gust caressed him as the dark after the light silently climbed from every direction.
He carefully placed the container containing the leafy plant and readjusted the window to make sure it doesn't shut close due to some wind.
Taking out a few enhancing mix bottles, he emptied it into the leafy plant's container.
"Partner, this is now your post. Watch my back, while I—I—I try? I guess." He exhaled, rubbing his face.
The wanderer wasn't just exhausted. He felt like dying. The repercussions of two straight travel, and worries about the partner he chose to believe in settled in. 'A leafy partner', he laughed to himself.
Crashing down onto the bed he wondered. 'Why is this place so choked?'
He felt it not in the faces. But the tendencies. The rhythm that people tried hiding.
It was all over. The city had held its breath more often than it should.
The city was becoming slowly but surely aware of the dark in the light.