The sun began to rise over the horizon on the seventh day of Kael's journey.
The trees around them has increased. Their horses maintained a steady pace. Kael sat beside Rell in the carriage's driving area, watching as the he held the reins.
"You've been to the capital right? What's it like?" Kael broke the silence, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.
A wide smile crossed over Rell's face. "The royal capital of Regalith? It's beyond anything you could imagine. The walls there reach toward the sky, the buildings tower over you like mountains. The streets are filled with advanced machinery, and there are so many people it feels like the streets never sleep."
Kael listened to him, in his mind, he tried to create an image of the place. His experiences were limited to his small village. The outskirts of Ravenhold was the most advanced place he had seen.
"And the people?" He asked, "are they different there?"
"What do you mean by different?" Rell glanced at him.
Kael hesitated, not knowing how to put it. "You know... more... refined, somehow?"
Rell's laughter echoed through the forest. "Oh, you'll see plenty who think they are. Nobles are always parading around, looking down their noses at everyone else. But most?" He shook his head. "They're just like us, fighting to survive another day. Especially after the corrupted's attack on the Capital that night."
"Did they do much damage?" Kael asked, "I'd imagine the guards there could've handled it."
"They sure did." Rell said amusingly. "Their walls suffered significant damage due to them being taken by surprise but the guards and knights there are top notch."
"I see," Kael thought of Lira, he hoped she had reached the capital's walls safely.
The sound of their horses neighing snapped him back to reality. Ahead, a wagon driven by one donkey sat on the path in front of them. Rell pulled their horses to a halt, his previous amusement was gone.
"Something's wrong here," he muttered while looking around the area. Kael was already getting off the carriage, his hand instinctively held Ignis.
"Don't move," Kael said, but he already knew that Rell would follow. Sure enough, Rell jumped down right after him.
Although Rell was just a carriage driver he claimed to have gone through some form training in order to protect himself on the road, so he tends to act tough and refuses to be taken care of.
Kael approached the wagon cautiously. As he rounded the wagon, on the edge of the path, he saw footsteps headed into the forest.
He looked at Rell, who looked back at him, "should we follow them?"
"Yes, let's follow the mysterious footsteps deep into a dangerous forest." Rell responded sarcastically.
Kael, being a sucker for jokes began to to follow the footsteps. "You know, I expected you to be more formal." He said, disappearing into the forest.
Rell signed then followed after Kael, "I don't get paid enough for this."
A few minutes in, they stumbled upon the cause of the footsteps.
Kael's blood ran cold. Two pale corpses lay on the ground, they had no visible wounds, just splattered blood in front of them and foam on the side of the mouths.
"Dead," crouching beside the nearest body, Rell confirmed as if it wasn't already obvious. "They're not fresh either. They've been here for a day or two, at least."
Then a nearby tree trunk caught his attention, where fresher blood was on the ground and smaller footsteps let to the tree and seemed to round the bodies and head back to where they came from. "This blood's different," he said. "Someone else was here."
Rell rose, his eyes sweeping the surrounding area. "They could be the killers. Or..."
"Or someone fighting back," Kael completed the thought.
They went back to search the wagon and it's contents to figure out who these people were.
On the wagon, Kael reached down to retrieve a familiar dagger. It looked exactly like the dagger he had found in the wolf's body. "This... This is the other dagger from Lira's pair."
"She was here," he muttered, surprised.
"What did you find?" Rell stepped closer, but Kael barely heard him.
He frantically searched the other belongings to find out who the other two men were. In one crate tucked away in a corner, he found two sacks. In them were a couple of hand cuffs and... slave collars.
"Slavers," he spat then turned to Rell, gripping the collars as if he was trying to destroy it. "My sister was here. And those people... they tried to enslave her."
Rell's expression turned cold. "Then whoever ended them might've been helping her," he suggested. "Or she fought her way free."
Kael clenched his fist, "they seem to have died from poisoning. So it should have been her."
-----
Four days before Kael's discovery, Lira had ensured her own survival or rather, her own freedom. With careful thinking, she had laced the slavers' entire food supply with rodent poison, then waited quietly until nightfall when the poison took effect.
She took one of their donkeys, her belongings and what she needed most from the wagon, which included the slave traders fifty silver she had found, and some food and water. Then she rode away
When the forest finally came to an end, She stopped at the edge, taking in the view. The meadow seemed to go on forever, with tall grass swaying in the breeze. In the distance, huge buildings could be seen faintly, making her heart race with excitement.
She retrieved the map from her bag, confirming what she saw. The settlement ahead could be none other than the capital.
"Regalith," she murmured, a smile appearing on her face. "I made it."
The sight filled her with enthusiasm as she slapped the donkey's behind to move forward.
As she approached, Regalith's walls came into view. "Why is the wall being repaired?"
Judging by areas that looked new, she concluded that the wall had been heavily damaged, but it was almost completely repaired. 'Hmm, maybe they're just renovating... But why only certain parts?'
The large settlement ahead come into view completely, noise could be heard from inside, its towering walls were packed with scaffolding used for the walls reconstruction.
Lira slowed her pace as she approached the gates.
She stopped just short of the entrance, staring up at the massive wall. The gates were wide open, despite the world's current panicked state, people were flowing into the gates and few were going out.
"Finally," she whispered, over three weeks of travelling and she had finally arrived.