"The Shorebringers? Why do you bring up that name?" asked the cute brown-haired girl as she leaned back on the wooden boarded floor.
"I want to know about them!" I responded back.
I turned to the skinny man as he responded to my question by shaking and rattling in fear.
He said in a fearful voice, "you shouldn't speak that name around these parts. They are-"
"Bro, bro, shush!" The bushy-haired girl leaned forward, her brown soft eyes glancing at mine as she smiled. She then said in a loud commanding voice, "I know everything about the Shorebringers! The name's Ceauli, and this is my brother Lin."
I knew just from the inflections in her voice that she only wanted to help me so that she could get with me. But again, I didn't really care about any of that, information was information, and this is the first person I've met who's actively wanted to help me on my quest.
Lin slowly leaned back in the corner of the wagon as his ears listened in with disgust and fear. Ceauli on the other hand was open and not scared to explain every little detail about the Shorebringers. And as she spoke I pulled out my notepad and started writing down every word she said, word for word for word.
"The last time I heard about the Shorebringers was probably back when they were big in the Hell War. But now they're sorta underground."
I continued to nod my head as she spewed out valuable information.
"But I guess I'll start from their origins. They started off as a band of mercenaries who traveled across Kingdoms fighting in wars and battles. Their band of strong warriors consisted of I think eight members." He turned to Lin who shook his head in disgust, "chill bro, it's fine. Someone has to tell her eventually." He turned back to me, "so they're very very strong. At one point they were the strongest mercenary group in the six Kingdoms combined. And their leader Sariel was the strongest of all the warriors in all the lands. He was handsome and powerful with a Sword of Feun in tow. But... This is where I'll have to wield cation."
I leaned in intrigued, as my curly red hair bustled up in front of my eyes.
She said, "one day, one of Sariel's men, the famous Killer of Kings, Tusk, killed an entire village all on his own and killed a... Well, it's in the name. He killed a King. And afterward, he was hunted down by the six Kingdoms as the most dangerous man in the world. But ever since that day things escalated with the Shorebringers... I only heard about it from legends and passing tales, but the Shorebringers started doing some very... Very bad things... And in the end... You know the Kingdom of Stofentall? The place where-"
"Just get on with it!" I pressed.
"Fine fine... Basically, on one fateful night, four years ago, the entire Kingdom of Stofentall vanished into a river of nothing but bodies and blood. And the man standing on the precipice of this death was none other than Sariel and his eight Shorebringers."
I read over what Ceauli said at least five times. And every single time I read it, I couldn't get that image out of my head. The image of his face, his warm smile, how much joy he brought me that day. And the man who killed my master, the man behind him. Was he Tusk, the Killer of Kings? That day keeps circulating through my blood and bones. And it all felt... It felt like I was a part of his destiny, that I was destined to meet this Sariel... But after hearing what Ceauli said, I don't know if he's the same man who saved me so long ago.
---
A sand-filled Kingdom, with roads leading from tents to houses to monasteries, the Kingdom was bustling with traders and people alike. Their faces hidden in hoods and turbans and their eyes glazed in glasses and googles. Everyone in the Kingdom of Forr was an outsider from a far-off land. No one lived in Forr, no one loved Forr, no one died for Forr. It was simply a land for trade and trade alone. With money passing through from multiple Kingdoms, no one owned Forr, and no one fought for Forr. It was owned by no one and everyone. And since the Kingdoms all used it as a place to trade with each other, it was seen as a holy land of God instead of a haven for the rich.
I arrived at the Kingdom of Forr many many days later, its small towns littered about, with passing villages filled with merchants and shops. The whole Kingdom was spread out into two sections. The Outer Lands, where people lived or traveled between Kingdoms and villages. And the Inner Lands, a walled-off city where merchants and traders traded for all types of things. It was a world of money and power, where the poor are cast out into the sands of time, and the rich live in the castles and towers of wealth and prosperity. But on the other hand, Ceauli and Lin told me that anyone from anywhere can go to Forr and make it big. They said that it was the only truth in all of the worlds and that's why they left their lives in Elisese to go there.
Eventually, after our wagon passed through multiple towns we eventually reached the massive stone wall that surrounded the City of Forr. It was much about the same size as the wall from Eilsese except unlike the one back from my land, it wasn't a pitch-stained blackness of no escape, nor was it a bridge to freedom. It was more like a friendly inviter. With posters and banners strung across its many lined edges, the wall was beautifully crafted in colors and designs.
"Why's it so colorful?" I asked Ceauli.
She looked up and smirked, "their advertisements. You don't see them in other Kingdoms. Companies and merchants can only get away with them here in Forr, cause the regulations are so lax."
"So they put up banners to do what, exactly?"
"It's complicated for beginners, but it's how Forr makes money. They pay for spots on the wall or advertisements in town. The bigger the money, the bigger the banner. Simple as that."
"Ohhhh... Wow..."
The wall was littered from head to toe, with colors ranging from green, to brown, to blue, to red, and even the color purple which I only saw in my ex-masters wardrobe.
She turned to her brother, "but... Hey Lin, it's only been five months since we were last here right?"
"Yeah," replied Lin as he leaned back on the other side of the wagon, his face still staunch from the last conversation.
Ceauli looked up at the hundreds of thousands of banners, "it looks like there's a lot more than last time. And look around the place, it's expanded out... Strange... What's happened in the last five months?"
Lin sat up, "don't know sis. We should go check out the administration offices when we get the chance."
"Agreed."
Again they were talking about stuff I didn't really understand, but still, I found a relaxing nature to their conversations like they themselves found comfort in talking and explaining the economy of the world.
---
Once at the spiked metal gate that was drawn up from below the wall, we were asked to exit the wagon and enter the city through our own means.
At first, I was prepared to head out on my own and make my way to a pub or logging cabin, but the two siblings who were with me eagerly insisted on me going along with them to their place. I said no over and over again, but once we were in the city there was no escape, every turn I went, every way I tried to escape, even with my stronger legs and more versatility, these two siblings always knew where to go, like they knew the layout of the cityscape inside and out. There was no path they couldn't find and no building they didn't know. By the end of my short-lived escape, Ceauli and Lin stood across from me, their heavy mouths out of breath and barely able to speak.
"Sis, why did we run so much?" asked Lin, his hands collapsed to his knees as his head swaying back and forth in the sunny evening heat.
Ceauli leaned over and whispered into Lin's ear before turning back to me, "I... I want you to join our party!"
"Huh?" I replied in confusion not even short of breath.
She looked back with a smirk, "look at you. You're barely out of breath, and we just ran all the way around the city. You're the perfect guy for our Trader's Party, I bet you'd make an amazing porter. So what do you say? We make a lot of money?"
"What? No, I was a porter back in Elisese. And I'm not here to join your party, or whatever."
She turned back to Lin and smiled back to me, "how about I explain a little bit more. We're Monster Traders. We sell Monster parts from the Badlands. But more importantly, we got an inside scoop on the Mercenaries Guild, since they do all the heavy lifting and killing. It's a great way to..." She leaned in closer, whispering, "get some info on the Shorebringers."
She winked and I scoffed back before recoiling into an opportunistic stance. I'm not an idiot and I know this girl's just trying to get with me. But to bring up a proposition like that. And plus I know nothing about anything in this city, and these two siblings seem to have a lot of info on a lot of things. It wouldn't be wise to not take this deal.
"You know what. Sure, I'll do it."
Lin looked with confused amazement at Ceauli who stood in a cocky unbelieving power stance. I just walked past them while looking out at the city before me. I didn't have much time to really look at the place. It was so big, yet when I ran around it, it felt so small. The alleyways and markets were always so jampacked with people all over the place, I never had any time to really sit back and look up at the surrounding walls, or the elevated buildings that got bigger and bigger the further you moved into the city.
Ceauli walked past me with her hands on the back of her puffy brown hair, "so first things first, let's get to our place. We got some people to introduce you to. They've been dying for a new coworker."
---
As I walked through the kingdom with these two siblings behind me, little to my knowledge, a man would appear from the depths of the Badlands. He stood outside the city, his black boots dusted in crusted blood and bone as his black cloak hung over his head and shoulders, ripped and cut at the ends. His arms were laced in lined black cloth as so were his shirt and black metal armor underneath. He was a man of mystery, but a man I forgot to not know. He was a man with red eyes and the wielder of a sword black and golden. He was a man filled with rage and hatred, but also a man lost to his own journey and past. A man with no time to look at the sunset behind him. He was just a shadow, but not just any shadow.
He was the shadow that saved me that day five years ago.
He was the shadowed man, his sword black and gold, his eyes red as blood.