"This is yours," Mana said, holding out a crude spear to Matt. It was the same one he had used to fend off the bandits the day prior. It was worth some coin, enough to help ease his family's financial status at home.
"You should sell it, Priestess Mana," Matt said, not accepting.
"And if we get attacked again? I admit, I did not expect any trouble on our journey, but now that we know, it is imperative that you are armed," she said, actually pushing the wooden thing into his hands. It felt wrong, as if he had accepted a burden far heavier than he had ever wanted. The weapon itself originally belonged to a man who killed who knows how many people. Matt blanched, but he took it.
"You're right," he admitted, holding the spear cautiously.
"Good," Hecate's priestess said, concluding the sale of the rest of the weapons and armor. It made them enough coin to hire one of the farmers from this town to take them all the way to Highhaven. Matt knew weapons tended to cost a small fortune, but for a farmer to forsake the harvest? The small pouch of silver coins they received from the merchant an hour prior seemed awfully heavy.
Climbing into the carriage, no longer cluttered with a mess of armaments, Matt found himself thankful that he no longer had to deal with the stubborn beasts that propelled the carriage. He could sleep through much of the journey, and look out the window the rest. It was a strategy lifted from Mana, who seemed to be asleep more than half of the time.
He wished he could have brought his book of legends, though. It was a tattered thing, on the verge of ruins, but it had been a gift. The merchant who sold it to him, the same kind man who had sold Matt the reading primers, had been about to throw it out when Matt claimed it. Many of the stories were missing pages, the binding having come loose, but Ulred's… that was complete. A great warrior who wielded lightning through his blade, a man whose name was known by every man, woman, and child in the world.
The rest of the journey was a blur of colors as Matt watched the world pass from his seat. Sure, they stopped at every town and village they could, preferring the inns to the cramped interior of the carriage.
Even with those delays, the month passed in absolute bliss compared to the month he spent at the quarry. They beat the first snow, as Mana had said, but the temperatures were beginning to drop. It would come soon, Matt was sure. Thankfully, they'd be indoors and safe from the biting cold. During the final days of the journey, Matt could make out the outline of a city on the horizon, the hazy image almost impossibly tall, as if it were a distant mountain instead of the city he knew it to be: Highhaven.
On the final day, the twisting spires and imposing walls materialized from the fog. "Holy…"
"It is quite something, is it not?" Mana asked, much less affected by the sight than Matt.
"Yeah, it is," he replied absent-mindedly, wondering how people managed to construct buildings that defied the natural law of the world. There was no way those spires could be as tall as they were, was there? He decided to ask Mana, who knew more than him about almost anything – except driving animals.
"Those buildings were created by those graced by Hephaestus – the god of the forge – and the walls are constantly maintained by an army of construction soldiers bound to Earth spirits. There is no city like it in the entirety of the Grand Empire," she whispered that last bit, finally sounding even the slightest bit amazed. It looked like the sight of Highhaven was something one couldn't just get used to. Not even for one of Hecate's priestesses.
They passed closer to the city, encountering a large amount of traffic as the dirt roads became cobbled. Many of the travelers were on foot, most of them armed and armored better than the bandits had been. Mercenaries looking for work, most likely. Even Mayfeld had a mercenary's guild – a small one – and there was practically no work for them there. Highhaven, despite its apparently militaristic nature, certainly had a larger guild. After all, unlike Mayfeld, Highhaven sat next to the Gorgon Forest, a sea of stones that jutted out of the ground as if they were playing at being trees. Ulred's adventures took him through it, and even he had barely made it through alive.
Matt let his wonder fade as they approached the gate, doing his best to take in his surroundings. Men and women dressed in shining steel armor guarded the gates, blue tabards over their plate armor. The king's crest, a white dragon, sat in the center of their tabards. These soldiers were incomparable to the ones at Mayfeld – it was like comparing a lion to a housecat.
The soldiers inspected all the carts and carriages ahead of theirs, but when it came time for their carriage, the guards simply let Mana pass through the gates. Matt wasn't quite sure how they knew her identity, but he was glad that they wouldn't have to wait for them to make sure they weren't carrying any contraband. The process seemed to take forever for the people that had been ahead of them, and the scrutiny was heavy. Confirming his own identity would have been impossible; he didn't have any papers. With a sigh of relief, Matt's wonder returned as he caught his first glimpse of the interior of Highhaven.
Every building was at least two stories tall, with shops and homes nestled together. The streets were more packed than Mayfeld during the harvest festival – which he missed out on, just barely – and the people more jovial. Soldiers walked through the crowds routinely, evidently patrolling the city. Almost nothing about Highhaven resembled the city life he thought he knew. It made his heart race; there was so much to discover!