Stood in the middle of a battlefield, Aedan fell into a state of taciturn and fright from the visual of blood, death, and insanity. Two armies, one far less than the other, charged toward the greater as in the last struggle for survival.
The cavalry charged into the defending, far more sizeable army, as one after another ramed into the glowing purple spikes in front of the lines of the kite shield wall. One by one, they just charge mindlessly into the otherworldly stakes, while the sword staffs slaughtered the ones that got past one by one.
The foot soldiers followed after the cavalries. For them, most would be swept down by the rain of arrows pouring down on them. The cavalries would even trample some of the unlucky few, as they shout in desperation as if it would scare away the wall of death which stood between them and life.
One after another, body dropping left, right, and centre; only the moans of the injured and the screams of the perished was all that could be heard.
It was a massacre.
Aedan did not understand where he was or what was he witnessing. He was rightfully frightened, but he felt a sense of familiarity and was unable to move his sight away from the battle happening.
From the smoky sky, the bloody war, the ruin of the town in the yonder, it all felt so beguiling, so enticing. Aedan had never seen lives perished until now, and even now, he could not distinguish whether it is reality or fantasy.
Why were the calvaries storming toward imminent death? Aedan did not understand the meaning of these nugatory charges; perhaps he did, but he wasn't willing to accept the bloody truth.
After maybe an hour or two, the size of the smaller army had almost entirely died out. As the shield wall began to march toward the remaining of the army as victory was in sight.
That was when Aedan noticed the man in white, as the sky had darkened even from the smoky texture before and became complete void.
It was then that the sky opened up, and an ethereal shriek of a mythical creature trembled the heavens.
Aedan found himself blackout in the middle of the cafe, with Ailis the andynol casually having a cup of coffee on the side.
"Wait ... wait, miss Ailis?" Aedan was understandably confused by her presence, "why are you here, did you stay here overnight?"
"no," Ailis answered jovially, "I usually come here for breakfast."
"Breakfast?" Aedan instantly recalled the events of the day before, "wait, what time is it?"
"It is six in the morning on the seventeenth."
"So I slept on the floor?"
"I would appear to be so," the star pattern and her blitheful tone made it clear to Aedan that she was chaffing him, "I asked Germod about you, he said to leave you alone."
"Ok, I guess?" the lad slowly got up from the ground, still feeling the pain of the pommel striking his forehead, "where is Germod?"
"He said he was going to check on a few friends of his," the andynol replied, "an A'nie was found inside the city."
"An A'nie!"
"Don't yell," the symbol turned to one of a downward triangle, "I thought you came into contact with one yesterday, at least that was what Germod told me."
"I did?" was that scythe-wielding girl an A'nie?
"From my sources, this A'nie is far more intelligent than most, so she probably already left Tangille after she got what she wanted."
"I see," Aedan breath a sigh of relief. He had never seen an A'nie in real life until yesterday, and he had heard terrifying stories of those creatures of A'nid and the destruction they brought.
"Don't worry about the A'nie too much now," Ailis got up from her table and handed Aedan her empty mug, "since Germod isn't here right now, can you get me a cup of coffee please?"
"Sure," the lad held onto the mug and went back to the bar where jars of coffee beans and a metate were already sitting on the counter.
There was a moment of silence, where the only sound audible was the sound of the coffee beans crushed between the stone mano and slab. Ailis watched the human grind down the coffee bean as she rested her cheek against her palm, feeling rather bored.
"Do you know what you are in for?"
"Huh?" Aedan was perplexed by the question, "what do you mean?"
"Do you know what Germod do for a living?"
"No," yeah, what DOES he do for a living? Aedan completely forgot that question which he had earlier. There is no way Germod just ran this almost run-down cafe and be able to dress like a nobleman, "no, I don't know what he does."
"Ok," Ailis nodded slightly, "well, I will give him the honour to tell you personally then."
"Do he do something ... illegal?" Aedan asked while he poured the finished coffee into the mug and brought it back to the andynol.
"What made you ask that?"
"It is just that he seems to make a lot of money, and I don't get how he does it from running this cafe."
"Who said he just ran this cafe?" Ailis chuckled.
"Well, what does he do then?"
"Again, I will let him tell you himself," Ailis took a small sip from the steaming mug, "although, I can assure you that it is entirely within the laws of Tangille and the laws of the empire. He does something unusual, but that does not mean it is felonious, I want to make that very clear."
"I see," Aedan still have doubts, especially after what happened yesterday with the guards and that girl's bellicose reaction after hearing the word Eglsol, it all just seemed suspicious.
"Well, I need to go now," Aedan realized the andynol had already got up and was by the exit, "school will start soon, tell Germod that I will pay later."
"You woke up, ay?"
Aedan was dusting off the furniture when Germod returned, "Ailis told me that you just left me on the floor."
"Oh, don't be a baby," Germod smiled as always as he took off his cloak, "you almost got me in trouble with the Sentinels yesterday."
"What are the sentinels?" it was the first time Aedan had heard the term.
"Oh, that is what the city guards are called, they are all very proficient fighters, especially the Head of Sentinels," Germod went to the bar and looked around, "do you have some leftover coffee?"
"No," Aedan still remembering the girl confronting him the day before, although he remembered more of the fear than the actual conversation and how she looked, "was that girl a sentinel?"
"The one that came to me yesterday?"
"I don't know; I was knocked out."
"Are you talking about the girl that knocked you out?'
"Yeah?"
"That is the one," Germod slightly shook his head; she will be a pain in the ass to speak to, "she is a mage from the capital."
"The capital?" Aedan was shocked.
"Yeah," Germod glanced back at Aedan and saw him standing awkwardly in the middle of the cafe, and chuckled, "Hey, stop standing in the middle of the room like a god damn scarecrow."
"You said the girl came from the capital?" Aedan still cannot quite interpret the meanings behind those words, "as in the capital of the Empire?"
"Yeah, Cyfala, the City of Kings, the birthplace of the Bren'gi the enlightened, that place."
"So that girl is noble?"
"Yes, so? Didn't you beat up the Baron's son? Why are you so scared of a noble all of a sudden?"
"Because ..." because Baron Owen was reasonable, and the girl wasn't? The idea that if the girl did kill him on the spot the day before, there probably wouldn't be any reverberations for her actions. Aedan didn't want to continue down that chain of thoughts.
"Nevermind."
Aedan took a deep breath, stopped his dusting process and watched Germod grinding the coffee beans, and then remembered the conversation he had with Ailis that morning.
"Germod?"
"What now?" Germod was growing tired of the constant questioning.
"What do you do exactly?"
"What do you mean 'what do I do?'"
"I mean like what is your actual job?"
Germod turned around to look at his cousin; his hand didn't stop the grinding process, "did Ailis say something?"
"She didn't tell me what you did exactly; she just said it is legal."
"Well," Germod chuckled, "that actually depends."
"Wait ... what?" Aedan almost dropped the broom, "what do you mean by it depends?"
"Ok," Germod put down the metate and walked over to Aedan, and looked directly in his eyes, smiling as always, "you see, what I do is entirely licit under the laws of the empire and Tangille, except for one thing ... "
A loud banging on the door stopped his sentence halfway, as Aedan quickly hastened to the door and opened it, as he sees four tall beastman outside the door. All of them clothed in an article of old eastern clothing called the Dagua, which is a robe, jacket, and tunic hybrid. They seemed to have catlike features, making them homofelis, a term created by the remarkably scientific Kinsen Kingdom which was taught to him when he was still in school.
The most noticeable feature of them was a strange crow shaped tattoo on the back of their left hands, which instantly made Aedan think they were a local mafia.
"Who the hell are you?" one of the beastman scowled when he saw the human in front of him, "where is that god damn Germod."
"Eh ..." many different things went through Aedan's mind, as he were prepared to fight the bellicose guest in front of him.
"Hey, Aedan, who was knocking?"
The tallest of the beastman heard Germod's voice and simply pushed Aedan aside, who was still debating about the possibility of combat and just walked in.
"Hey Germod, is the thing done yet?"
"Take a seat, Sammo," Germod smiled as always and pointed to one of the tables near him. The rest of beastmen were going to follow their leader, but the beastman named Sammo signalled them to stay put.
"Do you want some coffee, Sammo?"
"Get me some beer," Sammo sneered, "don't know why you always drink coffee when you have such good beer."
"Well, I am trying not to be a sinner," Germod chuckled while getting the drink.
"Classic," Aedan was astounded to see such a casual conversation between a beastman and a human, which only convinced him more that Germod probably does something dubious.
"Anyway," as the drink was set on the table, Germod took a seat in front of the beastman, "now Sammo, I reckoned you heard what had taken place yesterday at Eglsol."
"Yes, I did."
"Ok, that makes it much easier," Germod's smile widened, "I examined today, the object did not finish forging. I went to a different blacksmith this morning, they will finish the item in two days, and by then I will do my work."
"No, don't wait for two days," Sammo paused Germod and waved one of his goons to come in. It was then Aedan realized that the beastman was carrying a large cloth shrouded bag with them.
The beastman brought the item to the table and unwrapped it.
"This is a mace made out of Duremium, do this work?"