Animals - despite their overall stupidity, and inability to communicate with humans, they really seem to know what their masters tell them.
Maybe due to their familiarity with the person speaking, or general emotions the orator emanates, or maybe they slowly adapt to human language - vaguely remembering the meaning of certain words. Either way, while they seemed to understand humans to an extent - humans themselves have trouble guessing what's on their pet's minds, most of the time.
But this was not one of those times, now,- both Adam and Derek clearly understood the feeling of their cats.
For the last couple of days, the animals stuck together, even Parcas abandoned Adam's pocket - in favour of spending time with Frank and Suzy. They played, slept and ate together, the two other cats pampered Parcas, as if they knew it was their last meeting in a while.
Now, boys and their mother rubbed heads against each other, in an act of affection. Between the rubs, Parcas and Suzy looked worryingly in the direction of their masters, who talked with each other by the table. As if expecting their separation to occur at any time.
By the table, Adam and Derek hadn't been alone - Ms. Daria Gertel was with them. She was the wealthy widow, which Derek befriended in the capital.
Derek used the opportunity to acquaint his nephew/adopted son with his dearest friend.
"So, you are heading into the empire? Be careful, my late husband always told me that dealing with them is dangerous - hatred between our nations runs deep,... and they are quite ruthless." The widow warned.
The conversation was going on for about an hour now, and the company already started to be somewhat comfortable among themselves.
"Ho so?" Adam asked in puzzlement. "I haven't even heard what their empire is called, not to mention bearing a hatred towards them - and I am sure that my stance represents most of our country."
"Here, we see an example of the royal court's incredible ability to control information - while the common people don't bear any remorse towards our southern neighbours, the royalty hates them so much that they erased their existence out of their subject's minds." Ms Gertel explained with sparkling eyes. "Though, this particular example might not be so good as I thought a moment ago - we were, and still are, a very closed-off realm, where news from the outside world rarely reach. Erasing someone's or something's existence from common folk's minds is a simple matter of not spreading knowledge about them." She added with slight disappointment.
"Oh, that would make some sense. But what about the reason? Do you know why the nations hate each other?" Adam asked.
Sitting in between them, Derek couldn't quite follow their conversation, and he was getting irritated.
"Unfortunately, no. But I might have an idea about who, apart from royalty holds such knowledge." The widow raided Adam's curiosity.
"Who do you have in mind?" He asked.
"You see, from what I know the main guardian of yours and Mister Algier's will be Fenfallal Abedy the Royal Swordmaster - which I am quite surprised was deployed on the mission, instead of defending the king. But I digress, mister Abedy comes from an ancient noble lineage, comparable in age to the royal bloodline. He probably knows much more than us, about Derdania's history." She enlightened Adam, who in turn fell into silence, thinking about how to get information out of him.
Coercion? - would that work on a royal swordmaster? No, Adam's best bet was on the warrior to tell him willingly, so he planned to ask in the most boring environment possible - raising his chances.
"I am sorry to interrupt, but can we change the subject?" Derek asked, trying to hide his irritation. "I can't quite wrap my head around the whole matter." Which was probably a lie - possibly, he was just bored.
"Okay -so, what do you two plan to do in the coming months?" Adam asked, giving his uncle what he wanted.
"I will help Daria to set up a room and dine businesses in the new city." Derek boasted.
"You mean, a tavern? Who would use it?" Questions buzzed in the young mage's head.
"Yes something like that, but as the travellers will start to arrive in two years at the earliest - the establishments will be more focused on being a restaurant or a bar, with few rooms available for rent." Ms Gertel explained.
"Oh, that makes sense. But - don't get offended uncle - why is he necessary for you? I'm sure you could handle it yourself." Adam asked the widow.
She smiled in response, casting a brief look at Derek - and answered:
"I won't leave a space for competition to rise, so I need to cover both the new city and Breakwater City at the same time - I have the funds, but I still need a representative. Luckily, Derek offered himself as one. Considering his experience at assessing meat and vegetables he gained as a hunter - he is a solid candidate for a restaurant administrator." She praised.
"I... didn't expect that, but I guess that's right - he will do well in a semi-wild area, building a restaurant business." Adam half-joked, half-praised.
"But aren't you afraid of the competition? There must be many ex-restaurant owners who came from either of three lost cities."
The widow thought for a moment before answering.
"Not really, I have hired most of them already, or rather their staff. they have experience, and I have the money and connections. Thir ex-bosses aren't as good at politics and wouldn't be able to compete with me in the aspect of setting the restaurants quickly - and they know it, that's why some of the smarter ones asked to administrate my locations." She explained.
Hearing that, Adam got slightly confused - if she had those capable and experienced people under her already, why hire his uncle?
"So, you fear they might try something funny, and made my uncle overseer them?" He guessed.
The widow's eyes widened in shock, but she quickly composed herself.
"Wow, I didn't expect you to figure that out. That's right - he is more of a policeman and a spy, than an administrator" The widow said unbothered as if the man in question wasn't sitting at the same table.
"Yeah, that makes much more sense - I bet they will fear him," Adam commented, looking at his uncle's physique - he was a behemoth of a man even while sitting. A two-metre-tall man with broad shoulders would cause every mortal to be at least a bit scared.
The conversation went on, but the conclusion could be summed up in a few words- Derek will be busy when Adam is gone, and his connection with the wealthy widow seemed to grow at a visible rate. Adam even started to wonder if he should expect some children when he got back from the journey. But he wasn't sure if he should call them siblings, step-siblings or maybe something else entirely.
Having bid farewell to his uncle, and let the animals say their goodbyes, Adam took Parcas and went towards Fther's Burnborns forge - Sylvia's master was tasked with making equipment for the Envoys.
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In the week between the start of the journey and the King's speech, Adam gained a few crucial abilities he would need in the wilderness. Among the various things, the most important one was also the hardest to learn - horse riding.
A basic ability for nobles, and a thing most people eventually learned. It was necessary for travel and work, except when a person had carriages or wagons available - just like Adam had while being part of Max's team. As for before that, the one riding horses and delivering goods was Derek, while he buried his nephew under more unpleasant work.
But now, for the delegation, Adam had to learn how to ride a horse, as the journey would not allow for clumsy wagons.
That's why, while riding to the south - uphill towards the mountains, Adam was seated on top of Los, a young brown horse given to him by the royals.
Behind Adam, the vast valley shined in pristine white as the morning sun illuminated the world. Behind it, Breakwater City's citadel was hidden in the mountain's shadow.
There, Max, Derek, Sylvia, Monica, Cynthia, and others acquainted with Adam stood on the walls, looking at the convoy riding towards the mountain passage. They stood among the crowd of those related to the first settlers or members of the envoy group. Even the king came to bid farewell to his representatives.
Tears were shed as they thought about the separation that was about to happen. Especially emotional were the wives and families of the Envoy's guards, as their husbands and fathers didn't have a choice in the matter, the king's order was absolute.
Unfortunately, Derek was to leave with the second wave of settlers, so the small family's separation happened sooner than it could have.
The grand Fortress gradually became smaller and smaller, until the group reached an entrance to the mountain passage, and the citadel hid behind some hills.
The mountain message, leading into the inner valley of Fire mountains and beyond - further south, was located high, where two mountains collided.
Next to it, numerous small streams fell down the valley, to run down towards the remains of the gigantic forest - where they finally merge with others like them, into a river running through Derdanian plains.
Adam followed behind Algier and Fenfallal, who spearheaded the formation, behind him were the wagons filled with equipment, resources and food, along with those filled with the settlers. After them, the rest of the Royal Swordmaster's squad followed.
As they entered the passage, the path got thinner but was still wide enough to allow wagons to pass through.
On their left, a big lake was easy to find - occupying the bottom of the valley, the path they threaded clung to the mountain beside it, going uphill without a break. The lake was separated from the highlands on which the citadel rested by a small mountain, mended in between two other behemoths. Numerous passages formed in it - letting the water leak and create the streams that fell into the valley.
After a while, the road levelled, majorly easing the journey for both the animals and the people.
Soon after, the lake disappeared from Adam's view, as the convoy entered another gap between the mountains, and the road up started again.
Riding uphill was monotonous and dangerous at the same time, also, those who rode the wagons had to step down and walk on foot. If they didn't, the wagons would either slide on the frozen earth, or would completely lose control, and descend into some ravine.
The journey was terrible, winds smacked the wanderer's faces with loose snow and froze their hair. It was much worse than the travel through the forest a month before, even thou the weather was colder at the time.
Despite the difficulties and troubles along the way, Adam managed to endure. He was clad in custom-made armour - mainly made of blue-coloured leather, with metal pieces in not movable parts, and fur padding. The armour was also equipped with a large number of pockets and pieces of string sticking out - made at Adam's request to store his rune plates if he ever needed them.
Apart from the full body armour that lacked a helmet, Adam had a thick coat wrapped around himself, with a hood hiding his face. The coat was similar in build to the armour - brown leather outside with fur padded inside, but it had only one abnormal pocket. Covered in fur from within, comfy and warm, it was the perfect place for Parcas to sleep.
There was also the saddle, with big compartments on the sides and the back. The saddle also had a bigger, flatter place at the front so that Parcas could sit there, wrapped to the saddle by a spacial-made harness.
Los himself, the horse, was wearing a thick coat, and fur-padded earpads so that he wouldn't get a cold.
Dressed like this, Adam rode at the front of the convoy, just after Algier and Fenfallal.
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They reached the valley only after three days of exhausting journey. And for worn-out travellers, it was no less than a paradise.
Surrounded by icebound peaks from all sides, the valley was somehow filled with lush forest, conifers were green and vibrant, and snow was scarce.
It was as if it was a different world from the everpresent frozen mountains, while the wind was cold - freezing even, the valley located deep below the mountain path was warm. The ground was soft, breathing didn't feel like swallowing needles. Few streams fell to the valley, forming handfuls of ponds throughout the oasis.
The only problem was the light.
Shadow dominated at the site, as the sun had to be really high to break through the barrier of mountains.
Having arrived, the Envoy's and their guards let themselves rest, while the settlers went to work immediately. They wanted to impress the dukes, who would arrive in the oasis with the second wave of Derdanians.