Chapter 183

The next morning, I sat with Cecilia in the coach seat of the carriage as we approached the capital, Torlimal City. The trip had been almost entirely peaceful which was kind of strange given the circumstances. Other than a few wild monsters that showed up during watches at night, the trip had been quiet the entire time. We had been anticipating bandits or something on the way here but the only other people we had passed were transporting food back to Goldenhearth. Every carriage we passed had no shortage of guards protecting them. They had seemed prepared to fight, so passing them on the road had been a bit nerve-racking for both sides I assume.

It was mid-afternoon when we finally reached the capital city. Giant white stone walls that doubled the size of Goldenhearth towered into the sky with enormous banners that shone with bright colors even in the shade. An enormous shadow from the walls bathed much of the last stretch of the path in shade as we approached the giant city. As we got closer we realized that the walls were ringed by refugees that had a roughly put together shanty town. According to Cecilia, this was very strange to see because those outside of the walls wouldn't be able to protect themselves from monsters as easily. Even in a relatively protected area like this, sneaky monsters could slip in and kill children or the infirm unless they were guarded at all times during the night.

We eventually stopped in line with the carriages that were trying to enter the city. I do mean trying because it seemed like more than half were being turned away at the gates. Anyone who didn't have significant cargo or official-looking papers was being turned away much to the dismay of many of the carriage drivers. They were being led to a separate path that traveled around the city where industrious people in the shantytown had stalls set up to resupply the carriages before they left for somewhere else. There was a second large gate where foot traffic was let through. Many of the people traveling through it were wearing large packs or carrying crates both in and out of the gates to supply the people outside the walls. This seemed far less contentious, few people were refused access, but every person and their cargo was being individually checked before entering. Compared to Goldenhearth the security here was much tighter.

"This is strange," Cecilia commented. "I've never seen Torlimal like this."

"Do you think this is in response to what happened in Goldenhearth?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, this looks like it's worse than that. Something else must have happened, maybe Torlimal was attacked directly."

I frowned, first Goldenhearth now the capital? Why does it feel like everywhere we go things are a disaster?

Eventually, we reached the gates where a human guard on horseback approached the coach seat from the side. Nikka and Landa were well behaved and quiet but I could tell they were stressed.

"Do you have an entry document beastkin?" the guard asked me.

I pulled the sealed letter out of the larger envelope and handed it to the man. "I have a letter of introduction from the acting lord of Goldenhearth to the Captain of the guard."

The man scanned the outside of the letter before nodding and pointing off to the side. "Pull your carriage over there for now and I'll have this delivered to Sir Noreth. Shouldn't take long." The man turned the horse away and moved out of the way for Cecilia to drive the carriage into the space set aside for us.

"Do you think that letter will be enough to get us in? Things look tense here," Cecilia asked me.

I shrugged. "Not sure. Nathaniel, the man I was primarily dealing with in Goldenhearth, told me that letter of introduction should be enough to get me in without many questions. I don't know if he anticipated what's happening here though."

A short few minutes later, the guard that had taken my letter of introduction returned with two paladins wearing blue and white. Tamin Paladins. "This is her sir," the guard gestured at us.

The higher-ranking paladin of the two stepped forward and squinted his eyes at me. "A demonhunter beastkin? Seems you animals are good for something after all." His mouth twitched in disgust as he rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. A tense silence loomed for a moment as he searched for something. Finally, he nodded. "The demonic miasma on this one does suggest it's a demonhunter after all, fancy that." He turned to the guard who was standing there quietly. "You can tell your commander that I have confirmed it. As much as I dislike animals, this one may prove useful. The church has no objections if you let it through." Without waiting for any reaction or reply, the two paladins turned and walked away.

Clearing his throat the guard turned back to me. "You're free to enter the city with your carriage, beastkin. My commander has given me permission to give you and all of your comrades permanent entry permits if the Tamin paladins did not object to your entry. The guard captain would like to meet with you tomorrow at the sixth bell, however."

Raising an eyebrow Cecilia leaned forward. "Since when did entry into the capital require permits?"

The guard turned to the woman and frowned. "Two lords have been murdered within a month, first a baron and now a count. You said you came from Goldenhearth, are you surprised the capital has tightened security?"

Cecilia's eyes widened. "A count has been murdered? Which one?"

"Ah, you must have still been on the road when word was sent around, my apologies. Count and Countess Korland were murdered and much of their castle was burned down six days ago. There isn't a lot of information about the situation yet but it's linked to a cult the Tamin Church has been hunting for a while now."

"Did they summon demons in the city there?" I asked.

The guard squinted at me, seemingly annoyed I was asking. "No, the situation is not as dire as the one in Goldenhearth. It was only the nobles and most of the castle staff that were attacked. Currently, the town is under the control of the local Adventurer's guild master. Now, have your companions come out of there, we need all of you to sign some paperwork before I can give you your entry permits, beastkin." He gestured at the carriage before stepping back to wait.

I climbed down to get the others while Cecilia calmed the uunas before we moved on. I opened the door and stuck my head into the carriage. "It seems all of us need to sign some paperwork to get entry permits into the city. Everyone's going to need to come out for this."

The group filed out of the carriage and all of us headed toward an office just inside the castle walls. The process was boring but thankfully simple since all of us could read and write other than Mimi. I had to help Mimi write her name but she was a master of copying my movements so it wasn't difficult. It was a good reminder that one of us needed to teach her to read and write though. I was a bit surprised Raya knew how to read and write but she told me that Grace had taught her a few years ago.

Once we were finished with that Cecilia was able to pull the carriage into the city walls and head toward one of the nearby stables. Once we found a good spot it meant even more paperwork to check the carriage and uunas in for a while too. Cecilia already had the gold for that prepared though, so I didn't have to pay any more for it. She knew the exact stable she wanted to go to and with the increased security in the town, there was plenty of room for us there.

The inside of the city looked nearly as grand as the outside, at least architecturally. The buildings were a lot more uniform looking than the previous cities I had been to. The rows and columns of buildings looked extensively planned and the only thing that broke up the uniformity was the occasional building that took up two or four plots compared to all of the other single-plot buildings. I didn't stop to gawk at things this time because while the architecture was beautiful, its citizenry was... not.

All of the public spaces and streets were crowded with people and the obvious distribution of wealth between the average citizen and the beggars on the street was stark. A rough estimate was that seventy percent of all the people I could in this part of the city were human and the other thirty percent were a large variety of beastfolk. Roughly half of all the beastfolk I came across were wearing very obvious slave collars, a large portion of them were beggars, and only a handful were wearing well-made clothing and buying things at the shops.

It wasn't difficult to tell the people in well-made tailored clothes apart from the beggars wearing rough spun cloth. Unlike what might be expected, despite all of the beggars on the streets, the people and environment was clean. The cleaning ritual magic I was first taught was likely the cause for that. Some of the people still smelled bad, the cleaning ritual wasn't perfect, especially for large garments like pants and shirts, but the squalor wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Rather than a lack of cleanliness, the real issue looked to be malnutrition. All of the beggars, and a good portion of the slaves, looked emaciated. Not to the point that they were in danger of dying from starvation, but they were clearly too thin to be healthy.

"Things have gotten worse here," Cecilia quietly said under her breath. "This place has always had a problem with beggars but things look like they've gotten out of control."

"Perhaps that's why there's a shantytown being built outside. The city has stopped any more refugees from coming in," Sibyl added.

Cecilia motioned for us to stop as a group of four Tamin paladins and two priests walked through the street. The people hushed around them and the group passed by without incident. They didn't slow or stop but they did look over everyone they passed, one of the priest's gaze lingered over our group but after a moment, realization came to his eyes and he nodded to me respectfully. Caught a little off guard I nodded back and he turned to continue onward. The moment the priests got out of earshot the people around us started loudly chatting again and going back to whatever business they were conducting.

"Those were demonhunters, you could see the symbol on their pauldrons," Morrigan whispered to me.

I gently patted her and nodded. We had been over the etiquette in public repeatedly over the last few days. She couldn't openly talk to us without causing offense but whispering into her 'mistress's' ear was perfectly fine. Small touches of affection were allowed as well but thanking them in public was also frowned upon. I hated it but this is how things were here. I would have to put up with it for now, hopefully our stay in the capital wouldn't be too long.

When we reached an intersection Theo stopped me. "It appears that we're headed in different directions now. I need to bring the book back to the library to complete my quest for Sorsette." He pointed off in the distance to a large spire second in height only to the castle built on a plateau. "That spire is the Great Library of Sorsette. I'll make sure the head librarian knows of you, you can ask for me when you get there but I have a feeling she will let you in regardless."

"How much do you plan to tell her about me?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Theo laughed. "I don't hide many secrets from my boss but I'll keep yours close to my chest if you wish. That woman has a way of finding things out on her own though, so don't think I've betrayed you if she turns out to know too much. I don't know how she does it frankly."

"I suppose this is goodbye then," Raya said. "Thank you for your lessons in magic Theo." Raya bowed respectfully, it seemed a bit uncharacteristic but I suppose that just showed how much the magic lessons meant to her.

He smiled. "You're welcome budding mage." He turned to look at me and Morrigan. "It was also a pleasure teaching the two of you on our trip. Rarely have I come across such intelligent students. I hope to see you all again soon."

Our group watched as Theo walked off on his own through the city. It was a bit bittersweet. The guy had grown on me a little even if his sarcastic attitude irritated me from time to time. He had mellowed out a lot when he started teaching us though, settling into that role turned him from snarky jerk to snarky-yet-wise teacher.

After that, we headed to an inn Cecilia liked. We stepped inside and walked up to a small counter with keys lining the walls, much like the one in the Ruby Vixen. A middle-aged human woman with greying black hair looked over us and frowned. "We don't house beastkin anymore. You can't stay here."

Cecilia's eyebrows shot up and her mouth gaped. "What? This place has always been friendly with beastkin. Where's John? Can I talk to him?"

The woman sighed and shook her head. "Things are different right now, none of the inns in town will take beastkin except for in the southern quarter. John has no say in it."

Cecilia suddenly looked livid, her hands curled into fists until her knuckles went white. "You're saying the only inns in town that will take beastkin are in the slums?"

The woman signaled some guys who stood up and came over to the counter. "I'm afraid that's how it is. I wish I could be more accommodating but I cannot." Her eyes trailed along our group. "If you wish for a room I can provide one but none of your friends are welcome here."

Most of the people hanging out in the tavern part of the inn looked tense. The men standing up trying to look intimidating... weren't. None of them were as strong as us, not even close. If we tried to fight them it would have been a bloodbath but... what would the point of that even be?

I put my hand on Cecilia's shoulder. "Thanks for being angry on my behalf but it seems like we don't have much choice here. Let's just go somewhere else."

She met my eyes, clearly unhappy with the situation but her anger simmered off and settled into resignation. "Alright. I... might know another place that will take us."

I nodded and our group followed her out much to the relief of everyone there. I smiled wryly as I heard one of the 'big intimidating men' let out a sigh of relief and sit heavily back onto his chair.

Off to the slums I guess.