The ship docked in Jasodar just before noon. After bidding the crew members of the Tidescreecher farewell, the trio of travelers made their way into the town. Cobal and Mana both took in the architecture and the way this city felt since neither of them had ever been here. Eliana had been here before and led them to one of the better taverns. With Cobal’s money and Eliana’s treasure combined they were guaranteed comfort and good food wherever they went, they were probably some of the richest people in town right now. Not that they looked like it at all. They wore clean clothes with minimal holes in them, but none of them looked much more than a well-off sailor. That fit their mission though, since getting too many unwanted eyes on them would only slow things down. They wanted to get to Marsolin as fast as possible. “This architecture reminds me of home a little bit.” Mana said.
“Oh?” Cobal looked at the strange way the roofs were designed, pointy but not completely. “How are they similar?”
“You see the facade of this building?” Mana pointed out the strange way the roof was almost built like a stairway. The building in question seemed to be a traders warehouse. People were walking in and out and someone was unloading a cart full of wares in the front. “We’d call these ‘stair facades’ where I’m from and they’re quite common in some of our bigger cities.”
“It’s interesting that we have similar architecture here. Could it be that Might influenced it in some way?” Cobal asked.
Mana shook her head. “That’s not possible, he was from a part of our world where this architecture isn’t really a thing and from everything I’ve understood he was also not around in the same era as I was. It’s probably just a sensible way to build these things and different people in different worlds came to similar conclusions.” She looked wistfully at the canal that they were walking by. “There’s something about this city that just makes me feel at ease. I feel like I’ve walked through this street before, or seen it through a bus window. I remember when I was working one year, and the rain and wind were quite bad. It was near the end of the day in fall, so the leaves were all red and orange. I remember listening to music, reading on my phone and then out of the window seeing the red leaves float away in the canal as we drove by, the sound of the rain hitting the window just barely audible over the sound of my music. That was a good day.”
Cobal noticed the beginnings of a tear in her eye but when he blinked it was gone. She looked at him and Eliana, who had both stopped walking to listen to her. “Shall we continue on? I’m starving.”
The inn that Eliana brought the two to was a fairly nice establishment. Cobal expected a sailor’s inn that was more rugged but instead they were pleasantly surprised. The sign hanging above the door read The Wanderer’s Waridin. Cobal had no idea what it meant, but it didn’t matter. He was happy to be back in a city. They quickly found an empty table and sat down.
“Good morning and welcome to the Waridin, what can I get for you fine folks?” A young man in bright purples and pinks walked up to the table.”
“We just docked but a moment ago and haven’t had anything to eat since an early breakfast, so whatever you have that’s filling will do. And some ale for each of us to complement it.” Eliana said.
“Right now we have some freshly cooked rice and even fresher steamed salmon.”
“That’ll be lovely, enough for all three of us please.”
The server nodded and left again, leaving the three a moment of quiet at the table. The rest of the establishment wasn’t busy, but it also didn’t look deserted by any means. There was a couple sitting at one of the tables, in the middle of arguing about something. A group of city guards were on their break having a drink and in the back of the establishment was an older woman, sitting alone eating her meal. The server came back shortly with their drinks and food. Eliana paid for it.
As they ate the food, Mana spoke up. “We’re in foreign lands now. We talked a little bit about our general plan which is to get to Marsolin as quickly as we can, but how do we do that?”
Eliana swallowed her bite before replying. “There’s a few options, but I’m not going to bore you with the bad ones. I think a more practical approach would be better. First we stock up in Jasodar. It’s a trade harbor so anything and everything we might need can be found here. I suggest we take today to sort that all out and then find a place to spend the night. We’ll need things like tents, bedrolls and a few other things, but I know where to find most of those. The two of you should figure out anything else you might need, like paper and ink,” she looked at Mana, “or maybe a new weapon,” she looked at Cobal. “I also would like the two of you to get us some food that is suitable for a long journey. Then tomorrow morning we set off eastward. We’ll go around Rildar following a northern road. I don’t think anyone will recognize you, but if there is one place in the country where you would be more likely to find someone who knows your face, that’s the place. Afterwards it should be smooth sailing to the Marsolin woods and then the town itself.” She smiled. “Sounds good?”
“So, now that we know what to do, one question remains,” Cobal said.
“What’s that?” Eliana replied.
“I may be a sheltered little prince,” he looked at Eliana. “Your words, not mine.”
She chuckled.
Cobal continued. “But I’m not as innocent as to think that the cultural lessons of our neighboring countries translate properly into the things we will come across on a journey through the country.” He smiled. “I can – not by my own wishes – tell you a lot about the famous painter Jerafim Darseth, and how he would paint some of the most hauntingly beautiful portraits for the royal family, only for part of the paint to start to fester and change, turning their beautiful portraits into hideous creatures after a few days. I can name you all nineteen of the merchant kings that once ruled Jasodar as the council of kings. I can tell you about how there’s a legend that a dragon lives in the northern mountain range that separates Rilodar from the river kingdom of Naliasa or how there’s a dwarven empire far deeper into this same mountain range that neither human nor elf has ever set foot in. I can tell you the proper way to greet someone from the Rilodar royal family and what honorifics to use.” He thought for a moment. “For the king himself it’s his royal highness, fourth of his name, ruler of the divine kingdom, leader of the Silver Blade Military and father of the kingdom, Sanmalir Rilodar, by the way. Just in case it ever comes up. But I doubt any of this information is going to be particularly helpful on our way.”
“Well said,” Mana added in quietly.
Eliana laughed. “I’m sure it’ll come in handy one day. And there’s more interesting knowledge in there than I expected from your education, but none of what you talked about is new to me. No, to get through a foreign country without any problems popping up there’s other sorts of knowledge that are much more valuable. Now, the Rilodar Kingdom is not a particularly dangerous or complicated place. The biggest thing to keep in mind right now is that everyone is a bit more on edge than normal due to the war declaration. Sure, you won’t notice much of it in the big cities, since people are convinced war will never reach this place, and in my opinion they’re probably right. But once you get out of the city and onto the roads, things do feel a bit more tense. Several bandit groups have been coming out of hiding and I’m sure that those cultists aren’t conveniently confined to one part of the country. There’s a good chance they’re in other places too, and they do have our names and faces, so that might be the most important thing to keep in mind. As for the cities themselves, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the geography. Although Rilodar is a fairly large country, spanning many miles to the north and south as well as spanning the entire distance from the ocean to the Feral Wildlands, much of the population lives in one of the three big cities. There are many small villages all around, and the people there live in relative safety as well, but the country’s three big cities are huge. As you are already aware, the harbor city of Jasodar, where we are right now, is the capital of trade. Ships come here from all over the continent and it has the most people living here out of any of the three cities. A lot of these people live in the working district and the harbor district. To process and transport all of the goods coming through the harbor, we need a lot of people. So many families from smaller towns come here to look for work. The people here keep to themselves and a lot of the town is catered to the day to day needs of the denizens. If you want to find more fancy things, you need to go to the east side of town.
Then the city we go past is the military capital of Rildar. This is where the royal family lives and where most of the royal army and guards live, work and train. There’s not much to say about it. It’s a large town, where people from all over the country mingle. It was chosen due to its location in the center of the country.”
She took a moment to finish her drink before continuing. “And finally there’s Marsolin. Marsolin is at the end of the Rildar road. The Rildar road is the central road that runs through the entire country. It starts in Marsolin and ends here, in Jasodar. The road is pretty safe and well guarded, and I think we’ll be best off taking the main road for most of our journey. We’ll veer off a little bit around the capital for reasons we talked about before, and then we’ll join back in on the main road for the second half of the journey. Then Marsolin is an entirely different story. The city is surrounded by the forests and is shrouded in mystery. Having such a close proximity to the Feral Wildlands made it an interesting place for scholars and artists to settle. Mysterious things are both interesting and inspiring. It was the capital of Rilodar until about a century ago when they moved to Rildar for ease of accessibility. That decision was made by the current king’s great-grandfather. Marsolin has since become home to the aptly named Marsolin library as well as two universities and several arts guilds. There’s the painters guild, which was once home to Jerafim Darseth himself, before they disowned him after his aforementioned tricks. There’s also a musicians guild and some others. Long story short, this is a place where many strange folks and stories gather, which means that if there’s any place where we’ll find what we are looking for, it’s Marsolin.” Eliana looked at both of them. “Sounds clear enough?”
They both nodded.
“Well then, let’s go do some shopping.”
Opal Kaharis 