Walking closer to the town center, Reed suddenly felt sick. Normally he would ensure he had one or more traces of chaotic energy just in case. Yet he couldn’t foresee any major problems he could possibly run into which couldn’t be solved by the 11 gold coins he had in his pocket.
Perhaps… Turn back and wait for tomorrow?
Reed looked to the sky and shook his head. He just wanted an excuse to lie down and do nothing all day. There wasn’t any reason to wait for tomorrow.
Soon, Reed came upon the part of town where he had stood out before. Yet now, with his new clothes, nobody seemed to pay him any mind. Even the guards in front of the town lord’s estate didn’t so much as bat an eye at him.
With renewed confidence, Reed stopped and looked around.
There were a few interesting places around, now that Reed took the time to look.
The right side of the road near the city lords estate appeared to be occupied by a single walled estate. With a large plaque reading ‘Mangrove’ over the main entrance.
There were no guards in front of the gate though. Reed felt they could definitely afford guards though, owning such a large estate in the town centre. He wondered why they didn’t also post guards in front of their estate.
On the left side of the street were an array of stores.
Indigo Exotic Animals.
Green bottle Alchemy Hall.
Blue Rock Central Herb Station.
Bright Thread Pavilion.
“Hey! Get him!”
Reed’s head snapped from the shops to the city lord’s estate. His neck went cold and his heart skipped several beats.
A man in yellow, sunset robes and wearing golden jewelry, dashed out of the estate, the large black wooden double doors shattering as they were rammed through.
Reed watched as the yellow robed man charged straight at him at seemingly inhuman speed, frozen to the spot.
“Arghh!!”
Just before reaching him, the yellow robed man screamed and fell to the ground, a sword piercing his ankle from behind.
Reed watched as the two guards from the town lord’s estate jumped, covering easily ten meters to land on top of the yellow robed man.
The guards grabbed the man by the hair, mercilessly ripping their sword out of his ankle in a spray of red as he roared in pain, trying to escape their grasp.
Yet, the two guards just stabbed him in the other leg and one of his shoulders, ending all resistance despite his wails.
“No! NO! Please! I can offer you money! Just look the other way for today! Please! My family will avenge me if you do this!” The yellow robed man, now bleeding profusely, pleaded through snot and tears.
The guards looked at him in disdain, forcing him to kneel while a guard with golden wings on their helmet came up to their side.
“By order of the lord. You are sentenced to immediate execution.” The golden winged guard spoke indifferently, before raising their sword.
“NO! PLEASE! I—”
The man’s plea was cut short as the sword fell.
Reed was glued to the spot, unable to look away in time.
The head rolled across the floor, its eyes and mouth still moving for a few moments.
“Apologies for the disturbance.” The gold winged guard turned, facing Reed, bowing deeply for a few moments before turning to his subordinates.
Ba-bum. Ba-bum. Ba-bum.
Reed finally looked around. Others were also watching the scene, yet they seemed to lose interest a few moments later, continuing to walk or do whatever they were doing.
Reed couldn’t move. His legs both felt like jelly and like thousand pound weights. Yet, as his mind returned. A screaming urge to get away finally arrived. Far too late.
Instead of going to the Blue Quilin paper shop, Reed went straight back to Middle Bridge Inn without stopping or looking around.
“Oh, Sir. About today’s fe—” The waiter Reed had first met bowed deeply when he entered, but didn’t even get to finish his sentence. He stumbled back as a gold coin bounced off his head while Reed rushed past him.
Right up the stairs, straight into his room, slamming the door behind himself
Reed threw the new, gold embroidered robe to the ground and jumped straight into bed, pulling the covers over his head and curling into a ball around one of the pillows.
Ba-bum. Ba-bum. Ba-bum.
??????????????
“The town lord wants his body hung over the walls.” Golden Feather spoke, turning from the man in red and gold.
Dusty Sword looked at the headless body, then at the head which had rolled a few meters away.
“There's no head to hang it…” Dusty Sword said.
Smack!
He was hit over the head by Golden Feather. “You don’t have to hang it by the neck. Just tie some rope around the head and body, or attach the head back to the body with a stake. Use your heads.” He continued, before walking back towards the town lord’s estate.
“Tch. He even broke down the doors.” Golden Feather snorted, looking over the destroyed doors. “The lord’s gonna be pissed.” He turned back to Dusty Sword and the other two, still standing over the body.
“I’ll have more people guard the door while it's repaired, you three see to the lord’s will.”
“““Sir!””” The three of them responded in unison, bowing to their superior before two of them grabbed the body and another grabbed the head, dragging it towards the town wall.
People parted before the group of guards, stopping to watch as they dragged the body for all to see.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Is that Silver Sun?” Someone in the crowd whispered.
“The Jade Merchant Guilds local branch leader?” Another person asked.
“He must have been caught smuggling again…”
It took some time to reach the town walls, where the vice-garrison commander brought them up the wall and had someone bring them some rope.
A few moments later, they found a free place on the wall and threw the body over.
The body caught the rope and smacked into the wall, where it hung among dozens of others who had been executed in the past few weeks.
Dusty Sword looked over the wall at the bodies. “Are they all cultists?” He asked.
“So they say.” One of the other two guards responded, before lowering his voice to a whisper. “Between us though, I heard the magistrate just hung some beggars and slum dwellers since he couldn’t find any cultists.”
The three exchanged a bit more gossip, walking slowly as they returned to the lord’s estate.
??????????????
“I mean. Can you believe they executed the branch leader of the Jade Merchantry?” A fat man spoke, constantly moving despite Green Pond’s instructions to stay still while she marked out what needed to be changed.
Green Pond felt her eye twitching. “Its not that surprising is it? I heard he’s been caught smuggling before.” She responded.
“Yes. But he wasn’t executed for smuggling. My cousin is a constable and heard from the magistrate. Silver Sun was executed for treason against the empire.”
“Treason?” Green Pond asked again.
“Collaborating with the Divine Moon cult.” The man responded as Green Pond finished marking out their sizes, taking the half finished robe off of them.
“Why would he collaborate with the cult though? He’s a branch leader of the Jade Merchantry?” Green Pond asked.
“Who knows?” The man responded. “People like us couldn’t possibly know what those at the top are thinking.” He said as he left the store.
“...” Green Pond watched him go. It was finally getting late, so she changed the sign to closed and locked the door before lighting some lanterns in the store.
“Miss. What do you think happened?” Green Pond asked her boss, Violet Stitch, who had just finished the white scholar's robes intricate embroidery.
“A little girl like you doesn’t need to know.” Violet Stitch responded. “Finish that man's robes. Then you can go home for the night.”
Green Pond bowed as Violet Stitch disappeared up a thin set of stairs.
The clack of leather shoes echoed down the stairs for a few moments as Green Pond was left alone in the shop.
“Yes…” She answered, exhaling deeply as she looked at her fingers covered in bandages after accidentally pricking herself with a needle so many times.
??????????????
A few days had passed.
Reed’s bed was covered in paper planes.
More paper planes covered the floor.
Yet more scattered across desks.
Some were even caught in the rafters of the ceiling.
Ba-bum. Ba-bum. Ba-bum.
Reed finished folding another plane, throwing it.
The plane traced a graceful arc before doing a flip, skimming the rafter and getting stuck on a corner between two supports.
Reed reached for another piece of paper, only to find there were none left.
He called upon one of the 3 traces of chaotic energy, but then slammed his head against the desk at the last moment.
“Hoooh…” Reed exhaled deeply, before looking to the ceiling.
He went over what happened in his head.
Too close… He thought.
He had been too close.
If he had been further away, or only seen the aftermath— Perhaps he could have stomached it.
But it happened right in front of him. Completely out of the blue.
He still trembled when he thought about it.
Reed looked out the only window in his room.
I need to go outside.
Yet, his body seemed to refuse his mind’s command, his legs going numb.
For a few moments, Reed remained unmoving, apart from his labored breathing.
Then, Reed grit his teeth, pushing himself up off the desk and grabbing his gold embroidered robe before leaving the room with a few gold coins and his room token.
The outside was normal. Crowds of people, loud hollering, the screeching of animals and clatter of horses.
Reed still felt his hand trembling, but he walked into the crowd regardless, towards the artisan district.
Yet as he approached, he paused. The Jade Merchantry building was surrounded by armoured soldiers. In front of the soldiers was a person with long black hair, wearing blue robes filled with silver embroidery. But the most striking feature was a purple and gold sash.
“Is that the magistrate? Brass Fang?” Someone whispered.
Magistrate? Is that a government position? Reed wondered, but he didn’t dare look too long, the sight of the soldiers sending a shiver through him.
Walking into the street filled with stalls, there was an ordinary paper shop along one of the sides.
Reed originally planned to go after trying to get some more information from the Blue Quillin clerk, but that confidence was shattered.
A bell rang as Reed entered. Unlike the Blue Quillin workshop, the place was made of ordinary, though nicely polished wood.
“Good morning sir. Are you here for transcriptions, books or paper?” A clerk in plain robes bowed. Even the other person in the building, wearing equally dull robes, turned and bowed while moving to the side.
Reed glanced at the other person, who didn’t look up to meet his gaze, before turning to the clerk. “Paper. I want a lot. How much is it?” Reed asked.
“It’s 2 silver for a stack of 36 sheets.” The clerk said calmly, pulling a stack from under the counter.
Reed looked at the paper. He took one of the pages. It was roughly the size of an A4 paper, but it was coarse and thick, graining and slightly yellow or brown.
Reed did his best to mask his expression. It only just occurred to him that the Blue Quillin workshop’s paper was smooth and white, close to the kind he was familiar with. Meanwhile, the paper he was looking at… he couldn't make paper planes out of it.
Still, Reed felt too awkward to leave without buying.
“...Is this the only type of paper you have?” Reed asked slowly.
The clerk trembled. “I’m sorry sir. This is our best product.”
Reed looked down. He suddenly realised he was wearing the bright red robe, covered in golden embroidery.
“I see. I’ll just take 5 stacks then.” Reed did his best to speak softly, as disarmingly as he could, pulling out a gold coin.
“I only have gold coins on me. Is that alright?”
“Y-yes! Of course sir.” The clerk responded, carefully taking the gold coin and rushing into the back.
A few moments later, he returned, holding a small cloth bag filled with silver coins.
“Please, check it.” The clerk said, only to freeze stiff when Reed actually opened the bag to check.
Reed suddenly recalled the clerk he originally tried selling mirrors to. They had also had a reaction when he actually went to check.
Still, double checking was a habit deeply ingrained after many incorrect fast food orders.
So, he counted out each silver coin, organizing them into stacks of ten.
Five stacks were ten silver. So there should be 90 silver changes.
After a few quiet moments, Reed finished counting out 90 silver coins, throwing them all back into the bag.
“Do you sell ink and brushes too?” Reed asked.
“Next door. B-Blackies Workshop. Sir.” The clerk answered, pointing in one direction as he rapidly tied up the 5 stacks neatly into a bundle.
Reed nodded, before taking the bundle and heading out.
A similar scene played out in the next store. The clerk wouldn’t stop bowing the whole time while Reed made his purchase.
“...”
Reed walked back to Middle Bridge Inn silently. He felt strange all of a sudden, with everyone trembling in front of him. As if he were capable of doing anything even if they were rude. As if… He was some other person entirely.
Soon, he had returned to his room, still covered in paper planes.
He set down the box he was carrying, filled with inks and brushes, before taking off his outer robe and relaxing back into the seat of the room's desk.
Setting the rough paper and ink up after pushing away a pile of paper planes, Reed attempted to write.
Ink splattered everywhere on the page.
“...”
Reed knew that writing with ink and brush was different to writing with a pen, but this was a bit too different wasn’t it?
Reed grit his teeth and tried again.
And again…
The world seemed to fade into the background. The room filled with the sound of brush and paper…
