All she could feel was pain, with every breath a fire was stoked in her lungs. The last thing she remembered was the smoke filling up the room and the heat that was permeating the air. Every part of her body hurt, her joints were stiff and her tendons were tight; her head was throbbing with every beat of her heart. She slowly opened her eyes, only to see nothing but darkness. After a brief panic, she understood that she wasn't blind, it was just night time and was pitch black outside.
She tried to sit up only for her body to scream out in pain, it was so bad that she let out a groan as she clamped her teeth together. As she lay there in pain, she could hear movement in the room with her. Being unable to move terrified her, she tried to call out, but only a dry, gravelly noise escaped her throat. The noise was coming closer, a soft sliding noise, then she felt pressure on the bed. She tried to recoil from the presence only to have more pain from her unused muscles stream into her brain.
She moved her eyes to look down the bed at whatever was there. She saw two golden orbs glowing in the darkness looking up at her. Clair immediately recognized Sif's golden eyes. Clair let out the breath she was holding, she slowly moved her hand and placed it atop Sif's head, eliciting a happy coo from her. Clair swallowed what little saliva she had in her mouth and tried to speak.
"What… happened Sif? Is… Mark here?" Clair asked, pausing in between words, not recognizing the hoarse voice she was hearing.
Sif shook her head back and forth, making sure that Clair understood.
"How long have I been out?" Clair asked once she understood that Marcus wasn't around.
Sif let out three coos.
"Three days?" Clair asked.
Sif shook her head.
"Three weeks?!"
Sif nodded.
Clair didn't know what to think, this was a much better outcome than being dead, but she was still very confused about everything that was going on. At least she wasn't alone, she had Sif by her side, that was a huge relief. She tried to sit up again, after a few failed attempts she was finally able to with a little bit of Sif's help. Next to her bed was a table with a pitcher of water on it along with a cup. Clair slowly and shaking quite a bit, managed to pour herself a cup of water. Sif looked on helplessly, she wanted to help Clair, but she didn't have any appendages to do so.
After chugging the cup of water, with a little running down her chin, Clair felt her stomach start to cramp up. Someone must have been helping her drink water, but she was unable to eat anything while she was out. After not having anything in it for so long, her stomach was protesting in the way of pain, a lot of pain. Seeing as it was night, and she didn't know where she was, Clair thought it might be some time before she was able to eat anything.
"You don't happen to have anything to eat on you do you?" Clair asked Sif jokingly.
Sif shook her head again, then slid off the bed and back to her spot on the floor. Sif hadn't gotten much bigger over the last three weeks since she only ate what the first doctor had given her. After Clair was moved to this manor no one fed her anything, they all ignored her. She hadn't gone out to hunt anything, Sif had stayed true to Marcus, not leaving Clair's side once. Although she was hungry and a little weak, she could go several more weeks without any food.
Clair was still very tired, she knew she couldn't stand on her own, so all she could do was wait until morning and someone came to check on her. She slid back down to a lying position, closed her eyes and went into a dreamless sleep.
..............................…..
They were almost to Rosevalley, everyone was in pretty high spirits. In about half an hour they should be able to see the city walls. After a one night stayover in Layette, they've been on the road for a week and a half. They were going to spend two days in Layette, but wanted to get to Rosevalley sooner rather than later.
The days were getting shorter and colder, fall was fast approaching. The leaves on the trees were just beginning to turn different colors, but haven't started to fall yet. A cool breeze was blowing, keeping everyone cool on the dusty road. After the battle with the goblins, nothing worth noting happened. Riley pretty much kept to himself, only pestering Sylvia during the day, thankfully leaving her alone once they set up camp for the night.
Marcus was walking along Sylvia's carriage like always, kicking rocks as he went. Sylvia had her head out the window watching the scenery as it passed by, her golden hair flowing along with the wind. Riley was riding a horse a little bit ahead of her carriage, every now and then he would look back and stare. Whenever Marcus would catch his eye, Riley would quickly look away, seemingly afraid of him. Marcus would always chuckle at that, he didn't care one bit if Riley tried to woo Sylvia, he just didn't like the way he behaved.
"Will you look at that!" Sylvia suddenly chirped out.
Marcus looked up from the rock he was kicking to see mighty ivory colored walls raising up in the distance. Rosevalley's walls were much larger than Jakarta's, in width and in height. Being so close to the frontier made the city very prosperous, but with the amount of magical beasts around made it dangerous as well. Buttresses lined the massive wall, allowing the guards to see all around the area if need be.
True to its name, Rosevalley was located in a valley. The city was nestled between two tall mountain ranges. The mountain ranges separated the Frontier front the settled areas of the Empire. This made Rosevalley the gateway to the Frontier, anyone wanting to explore had to pass through it, after they paid the fee of course.
Marcus looked, and he could see villas built into the mountain side, taking advantage of the natural terrain. The villas weren't massive, but still very large. Marcus couldn't imagine the engineering required to build them there. Sylvia noticed where Marcus was looking, she smiled then said "See that villa to the left, the one with the large tree in the back. That's my family's villa, that's where we'll be staying for the two months we're here."
"Very impressive Miss Sylvia." Marcus said honestly. The villa was very beautiful, he was genuinely impressed.
"How many times have I told you to just call me Sylvie." She said with a huff.
"Many times, Miss Sylvia." Marcus said with a laugh as he emphasized the last part.
Before Sylvia could say anything back, Kelly spoke up. "Lady Sylvia, we're nearing the gates, we should prepare to enter the city."
"Ha, I suppose so. We'll talk about that later Marcus." Sylvia said with a sigh.
Kelly was right, they were almost to the city gates. Many people were lined up entering and exiting the city. Entering the city didn't take nearly as long as it did to leave, they were double checking every carriage leaving, making sure that they weren't trying to smuggle anything out without paying the proper taxes.
The main gate was quite large, able to have five carriages lined up side by side with room to spare. There were two lines going in and two going out, a fifth line was set up for the nobles that would come and go every once in a while. Riley's troupe led the way to the line for the nobles.
The line for nobles was vacant, there were only so many nobles. Two guards walked up to Riley's carriage, talked to his head guard and quickly let him pass. There was no inspection, no taxes collected, the only real reason the guards were even there was to make sure not just anyone used the speedy entrance.
Once past the gates, the scenery changed drastically. Rosevalley was what you could call a modern city, at least in this world. It used all the latest engineering and architecture knowledge. The roads were wide, clean, and paved; the buildings organized and in good repair. Whoever designed this city pulled out all the stops and spared no expense.
Many adventurers and mercenaries roamed the streets, along with a few regular citizens. Many of the inns and shops were located closer to the city gates, making it easier for the people who go out into the Frontier, while the residential area was more towards the middle.
Their first stop would be the Bishore family's villa to unload their luggage and to rest. Their little convoy only garnered a few stares, it wasn't everyday you saw nobles out and about, but it wasn't so rare to never be seen. Marcus himself was probably the real reason to get any looks at all, he was at least a foot taller than ninety-nine percent of people, so it was like looking at an exotic animal as he walked by.
It took another hour to get to the villa, it was high above the city, the view was spectacular. The carriages pulled to a stop in front, some of the maidservants that kept up the property came out and started to unload the luggage from the carriages. The guards helped as well, some took the horses to the stables to get cleaned and shoed. Marcus opened the carriage door and helped Sylvia and her two maids down. Riley had already left his carriage and was waiting for Sylvia, a fair distance away from Marcus.
Once Sylvia was out, Riley mustered up the courage to approach.
"We've arrived safely Miss Sylvia. It's a lovely villa your family has, if I must say so. I only wonder if it's as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside." Riley said, slightly bowing his head with a creepy smile on his face.
Riley was basically trying to get himself invited inside. Not only was it creepy, to say the least, but was a little taboo as well. Sylvia was a young single woman, so inviting a man into her family's home was frowned upon, at least in this world. In Marcus's old world, some people's mores would align with this one's, but for the most part was socially acceptable.
Sylvia didn't miss a beat, over the last couple weeks she'd gotten used to dealing with Riley.
"I'm sure that it is, but seeing as we just arrived after traveling so long I would like to rest. Maybe I can take you on a tour on a later date?" She said with her charming smile.
Riley was naturally a little disappointed, but after glancing at Marcus, decided no to press his luck.
"That would be wonderful, I'll have to thank you in advance. I'll leave you to rest then, if you need anything, I'll be at the Prancing Mare, a local inn." Riley said, almost embarrassed.
"You're staying at an inn? Does your family not have it's own villa?" Sylvia asked in mock confusion.
She knew well enough how expensive a villa in Rosevalley was, she just couldn't pass up an opportunity to make him uncomfortable. He and his family had pushed himself into her plans, she didn't really appreciate that, so she'd take any opportunity to drop him down a peg or two.
"Ah, no, not yet, but we're in the process of securing one." Riley lied through his teeth with a grimace on his face.
"Oh really? In that case I would very much like a tour of it when you have purchased it." Sylvia added, then turned to go inside before Riley could respond.
Marcus saw his face turn red and he had his lips pursed. Riley noticed Marcus's stare, Marcus just smiled at him then turned around himself to follow Sylvia inside. This seemed to really upset Riley, Marcus could hear him stamp his foot in anger, then hurriedly ordered his guards to take him to the inn.
Once inside, Marcus marveled at the exquisiteness of Sylvia's villa. Everything was made of marble, from the floor to the staircase in the foray. Marcus wasn't considered a home designer, but he could tell how well the villa was laid out. Classy furniture dotted the main room, with pieces of art on the walls and on pedestals. A bust of a beautiful woman was the main focus of the foray, it was made of marble and was very life-like. Marcus walked up to it to examine it, for some reason it looked like he had seen this person before.
"That's my mother, she passed ten years ago when I was still a child." Sylvia said from behind Marcus. She had a somber tone in her voice.
"I'm sorry to hear that. She's very beautiful, you look a lot like her." Marcus said.
For some reason Sylvia's face turned a little red and she looked away from Marcus's eyes. She then quickly changed the subject.
"I would like to explore the city tomorrow, first light, if that's alright?"
"Of course that's alright, what else am I going to do?" Marcus said with a chuckle.
"Do you want me to inform your chauffeur?"
"You do that and I'll never forgive you!" Sylvia exclaimed, wide eyed.
"Alright, alright, I'll see you first thing tomorrow then." Marcus said, laughing even harder.
Sylvia just nodded her head once, then took off upstairs to her room. A maid soon came and retrieved Marcus and showed him to his room as well. It was a very large room, almost three times the size as Clair's whole apartment. It even had its own bathroom with running water, that was a very opulent luxury. A balcony was on the other side of the room, Marcus stepped out into the fresh air. He looked out over the city as he placed his hands on the railing.
Taking a deep breath of the crisp air, he smiled. He thought to himself that he could really get used to this lifestyle. He turned to go back inside, when he did he noticed that Sylvia was standing on the balcony of her own room, doing the same thing that he did. They caught each other's eye, she smiled and waved at him, like she hadn't seen him in a long time. Marcus smiled back, then returned to his room. He kicked off his boots, removed his armor and informed the maids that he would like some hot water for a bath.
Even though the room had running water, it wasn't heated so it still had to be heated manually. He would usually not bother someone else with carrying water, he would do it himself, but he was tired and just wanted to relax. After his bath, he basically jumped into bed. It was as comfortable as it looked. The sheets were tightly woven and the blankets extremely warm. The bed even had a floral scent, although he wasn't able to place the flower. It wasn't long before Marcus was sound asleep.