"Welcome to our world. Do you like it?" Thork introduces me to their home base as we walk around a crudely constructed building. The wood half made up of rotten damp decomposing wood, and the other half made up of fresh new wooden planks.
As I walked in I saw a girl, sitting on the floor made of stone pebbles barefoot, chewing away at hunk of bread holding a large burlap sack.
"How did your little adventure go?" Thork asked the girl.
"I just got back and as you can see, I got this sack full of carrots, and I stole a couple of loaves on my way back-" The girl takes out another bulging sack from behind her back. "And I even managed to snatch some of the meats." The smell of raw meat and blood wafted through the air as she showed off the contents of her sack.
"Nice job Gleek, that's pretty good considering you went to that transport solo." Thork enters the room."Who's that guy behind you by the way? He doesn't look like someone who lives here." The girl looks up while eating her meal.
"Oh him? Well it's a long story, actually, no it's a pretty short story, but his name is Cain, and uhhh… he's a Tetsudo, going to be staying with us for a while."
"You know... I'm sure I don't need to say this but... doesn't that paint a massive target on our backs?" She said, not looking particularly surprised.
"Don't worry don't worry, just leave everything to me. Hey- take your shoes off when you enter." Thork reprimanded me as I walked into the house. I look down to see that everyone here had taken off their shoes.
"We might be living in the garbage can of the city, but there's no point in making it any dirtier."
"Apologies." I said quietly as I hurried to take my shoes off.
"Alright! Everyone, lets all introduce ourselves to our new friend!"
Silence. I noticed this earlier and never brought it up, but so far, Thork has been the only person to directly talk to me. Everyone else has been keeping their distance from me this entire time, eyeing me suspiciously.
After a brief while, "hey Thork... Gleek is right. You say you have a plan but. I don't see how taking in the most wanted man in the city is going to help us out at all. I'm sure he's strong, but..."
"Hey, hey, whatever plan Thork has come up with, I'm sure it'll work out, just trust him." Gleek said in a muffled voice, her cheeks stuffed full of bread.
"Anyways, my name is Gleek, I live here, and yea, that's really all there is to it." Gleek then shoves one of the other members motioning for him to introduce himself.
He looked around, hesitated, and then simply said. "Rigone." Before walking away nervously.
Five minutes of silence later. I decided to speak up for myself as the silence in the room was becoming mind numbing.
"You don't have to introduce yourselves to me if you don't feel like it. My name is Cain, and yes, I did come from the other half of Rai. If you know the names of our cities before the split, I resided in Zona before I came here. Feel free to ask me whatever you want about our side of Rai if you're curious." I said, opening the invitation for conversation.
"Excuse me sir, I have a question!" Gleek raised her hand with a somewhat playful seriousness.
"Wha- Yes, ask your question." Taken aback by her friendliness, I stumble my words a bit.
"I don't know much about the history, all I know is that you guys have something very different from Anku. I think it was called Tetsu? Am I correct?"
"Yes, you're correct. We cannot increase the power of our body with Anku, but instead we can create natural energies with Tetsu." I wasn't actually expecting any of them to ask me a question. I just wanted to appear friendlier and more approachable.
"I see, natural energies. What does that mean?"
Gleek began wholeheartedly asking me questions. Maybe it was an attempt to get the others to join in. Maybe she was just curious about our world. Either way I appreciated the communication.
"Hmm, how do I explain it… Well, technically practically everything is natural energy. It's theoretically possible for me to recreate a living, breathing, human from every single little detail, head to toe right now. But, it's simply impossible for my mind to conceptualize the existence of something as complex as a human, if you understand what I mean."
She closed her eyes and furrowed her brows in thought for a little bit.
"That sounds confusing... What can you do with it?"
"Well, the simpler the concept, the easier it is for the person to wrap their mind around it. While recreating humans isn't possible, simple things like fire and air can be understood and then created." I hold my hand out and light my fingertips on fire.
"Um, I also have a question!" A nervous voice popped out from group.
"Yes, next question!"
"Doesn't that feel hot? Aren't you burning yourself right now?"
I smile, the icy wall that once separated me from everyone else gradually melted. Once the first person had gone. The rest had followed one by one and before I knew it, I was talking naturally with everyone like we were friends, and it was all thanks to Gleek.
Many members shared stories of running away from war, being abandoned in the 5th district when they were a child, etc... Thork in particular was actually a very respected and well known figure in army, quickly rising up in ranks until he got defamed by people who were jealous of his success, he was kicked out of the army and then lost everything.
I got to know more about Gleek, who apparently actually served in the war alongside Thork despite her age, but got let go due to perceived mental issues after a deadly incident. She joined the group 6 months ago.
"I'm not actually crazy… I think. It was just a good excuse to get out of there." Gleek said. "All I had to do was be a good actor."
After a while of friendly conversation, I finally ask the question that's been on my mind since the very beginning.
"Thork, from start to finish, I want you to tell me your experiences with the war, and what you think I should do after we part ways."
"Hold on a sec, what's going to stop you from leaving once I tell you all this? What about upholding our end of the deal?" Thork said.
"Nothing. Nothing will stop me. I can't really say anything other than to ask you to trust me." I said.
Thork looks with a strange look. "If you were any other person, I would probably call the deal off right now. Saying 'just trust me' is beyond stupid around these parts. Actually, it's stupid to say that anywhere, how did you even grow up-"
"I know! I know it's dumb! I just don't know any other way." I interrupt him.
Thork looks at me while tapping his foot in deliberation. "Well, screw it. I'll tell you everything I know."
I begin looking at him expectantly, Gleek also seemed to have an interest in what he was going to say.
"Well, it all started 10 years ago. King Mallefard was in the city of Kaldros at the time hosting a meeting with representatives of Oliviand, and then the next day, I don't really know the specifics; however, the entire city was under flames and the king was dead. Guess they somehow managed to plan surprise attack of that caliber under our notice. That's how the war started."
Thork stops for a bit, recalling a memory. "Oh yea, they also got most of his family who were traveling with him at the time, leaving only two survivors that still had the king's blood in them, Princess Yesenia and Prince Hanafin. Anyways, this meant that there was no leadership, and Kaldros was a major center of commerce and trade, a lot of cities got cut off from supplies resulting in this shitty situation ten years later."
…
"That's it?" I asked as I realized that he had already stopped talking.
"I guess so, I'm just one of the common folk after all. Can't expect me to know too much about what happens around the world."
"What about me? What do you think's my best choice of action?"
"I dunno, just go kill some people. I'm not too good at thinking in the grand scale." Thork shrugged.
"If you don't mind, I'd advice you to join Oliviand's side after this." Gleek suddenly spoke up.
"Wait why? After what I heard Oliviand seem to be the bad ones here." I said.
"Yea, they are, but you know what. I can tell you that no one here wants the war to last a second longer. If you join Lyster all you will do is prolong the war for God knows how many more years." She stares at me intensely.
"That does make sense." Thork nodded his head. "that's what I'll go with as well then."
"A- I- I'll consider it." I stammer over my words as the two of them reject the conclusion I was preemptively coming.
"And with that over… Alright! Everyone, listen up, it's time to reveal the master escape plan I've been working on for the past couple of months. Now that we have a guy like Cain on our side, it should be foolproof."The friendly chatter quickly subsided as Thork stood up taking everyone's attention.
"Before I start, does anyone have family, friends, or belongings that they don't want to leave behind?"Everyone shakes their heads. To them, this group was their family.
"Alright, then here's the plan. The borders of Lyster have been steadily shrinking, and I don't want to be caught in the crossfire when the war eventually comes to the capital city. However, there is a restriction in place to prevent anyone without proper identification from leaving the city, the gates are heavily guarded, and the walls are much too tall to scale without being seen by nearly everyone in the city. So, my plan is..."Thork takes a second to gather his words. "All of you to join the draft when the next wave comes in 4 days. I can't join along with you guys, since my face is on the blacklist. So Gleek will temporarily be the leader when I'm gone. Don't worry however, as I have a plan to leave the city by myself, and I guess Cain would have escape by himself as well since he can't be seen either. However, once all of us are out of the city, Cain and I will intercept the recruiting caravan. And we will all run away in the chaos. Don't worry about what we need to do after that either. I remember all the terrain and topography of this country from my time as a soldier and know the way to Kaldros. Does this sound good?"
"It's not that I don't trust you, but can you tell us how you're going to get out the city? If there's another available route then we should all take it." One of the men who's name I got to know as Kol, stands up and speaks out.
"Well, I plan to do it through money."
"What?"
"They actually are letting people out of the city, but it's limited to the people in the first and second district who can afford to leave the city. The price is absolutely ridiculous for one person, and with all of the current funds we've saved up, we only have enough for 1 person."
Kol nodded his head and sat back down. They really do trust Thork with their lives don't they? Thork could easily take all the money and run off by himself but those unspoken words never reached the air.
"And for you Cain, I'm sure I don't need to say this, but you don't need any help getting out of the city undetected right?"
I nod my head, since I was good with wind, I knew how to fly.
"Great, you escape first, then meet me by the entrance to the East. We need to act as fast as we can before the caravan gets close to the battlefront."
"Alright, everyone on board?" Thork claps his hands.
Everyone nods in agreement. "Then it's set. Don't forget, 4 days, prepare what you need. We'll be out of here and living free by next week! Go get some sleep everyone."
Everyone leaves the building one by one, nodding to me as they put on their shoes and exit the building, the only two people remaining were Thork and Gleek as they both lived in this building.
"Don't they have families that they're leaving behind?" I asked.
"Most of their families are dead, missing, or their relationship with them are permanently broken, Sim and Yash are blood-related brothers and sisters though." Thork said.
"Well, that makes sense."
A peaceful silence ensues as we relax. It had been decided that I would stay in this place for the next for days as well given my status in the city. "Cain, what are you going to do after you pay off your favor to Thork?" Gleek breaks the silence.
"Tough question, I think I'll hang around the city a while longer. I've got some meetings arranged after all. Then maybe I'll see what I can do to end the war as soon as possible."
"I see." Gleek closes her eyes and lets out a puff of air. "That would be nice."
"Are you okay with that Thork?" I asked him.
"Well, it's not like I care about what happens to this place. Anyways, I'm heading off to bed. Don't make too much noise." Thork lies down in a corner of the room, where it was padded with stacks of hay. The rest of the member slowly filtered out, going back to wherever they were living. Leaving Gleek and I alone.
"You seem to have quite the influence in this group despite only joining 6 months ago. Thork named you the temporary leader while he was gone." I start a conversation.
"Well, I was in the Lyster military for a bit just like Thork was. Plus, I think I'm pretty strong.""But there's more to it than just that right?"
"There is." And then she said no more. I took that as a sign that I was encroaching on delicate subject.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked her.
Her eyes glazes over for a second, then she looks at me and smiles softly. "I appreciate your trying to help me, but I've already come to terms and accepted what happened. All I want now is that it doesn't happen to anyone else." She rests her hand on my shoulder.
"You're an interesting guy, I'm glad I got to know you. However, I'm tired, it's been a long day for me, and it must have been a long one for you too. Let's get some sleep alright?" Gleeks gives me a small pat and walks out of the door, leaving only me and Thork, who was well into sleep at this point.
I nod in agreement then look out in the night sky, the moon was beginning to rise. My first day on this world was coming to an end. I had broken out of the castle, I had made promises with Crux and the mysterious assassin to meet with them and talk about the war. I met Thork and his gang, and figured out the reason for the start of the war, and yet… I couldn't help but feel like something had gone very wrong along the way.