The reddish city walls rose to great heights in front of him, stretching far to his right and left.
Bright sunlight raked across the reddish wall, highlighting every rough grain.
At the wide gates, earlier arrived cohorts stopped as they were being checked in.
The sun shining on his neck was gentle.
I can't wait in line too long. They'll catch up soon.
He thought of the cohort he'd stolen the horses from.
If I was patient, I would not have needed to steal the horses. Would have taken me longer to get here, but I would not be worried about this. Hehe, I do stupid things sometimes.
Thinking this he heard a screech overhead.
He tilted his neck back, looking up at the sky where a black shape moved past into the city walls.
Not stupid. He thought. I've struggled most of my life. If I have the means to make sure I achieve something in the most comfortable way possible, then I will.
The smell of the cohorts' hunts were heavy in the air. It didn't really disturb Hadrian considering all the things he'd seen and smelt so far.
"What are you doing?" A balding man interrupted Hadrian's thoughts. "Dont stand here like you're with us." With a sigh, his eyes studied Hadrian and the covered up Alia. "You lot have been through something, huh? No hunt and down to five members? Use that." He gestured to the right side of the wide road.
Hadrian pulled the reins of his horses and snorted. "Thank you." He said as he guided, or pretending to, the horses to the open part of the road that led straight to the gate.
To his left, as he rode past, were the cohorts and their hunts.
A rank two mage checked them in. Like he was smelling, he could sense the presence of a more powerful mage nearby though he could not locate them.
Travelling alone now, it only took him an hour and half to make it to the inner city walls.
By this time, the familiar stench of the city was already stinging his nose.
I don't intend to repeat the same with the mother.
He meant the cohort vessels and their previous relationships. He wished to avoid them.
Having obtained most of his money back, Hadrian went and bought them all new clothes and cloaks that covered their faces.
Ah, yes, this doesn't look more suspicious.
Thinking this he sent them out in different directions. Of course, they could only be within the hundred metres range to the main vessel Hadrian.
It was only his teenage male vessel that he identified as himself that was not covered up.
He made his way to that damaged inn where he'd died. Along the way, he turned some rats into his vessels.
The space path.
He thought back to the pieces of memories of the hunters.
They had a "carry" ability that allowed them to store things in an extra dimensional space. There's practically no surprising them with their senses and at higher ranks they have the ability to teleport.
While he didn't think the mage who'd caused his death was of a high rank to have such an ability, he was considering the possible paths.
The other was an elemental technique path which was very clear and direct.
Initially, he'd thought there were only two possibilities for the second mage. The space and force path who, like the beast he'd encountered, abilities revolved around augmentation and force.
He had not seen the second mage use any abilities, but now, a third possibility could be the fate path.
In any case, finding out is the only way to proceed.
In a familiar scene of a hawk baited by the newly obtained rat vessels, Hadrian once more obtained a winged vessel.
At the inn, he found it being rebuilt. Seeing some of the familiar faces from when he'd been here as a rat, he waited for the inn owner.
After an hour of waiting, the inn owner finally passed by. He did not stay long and Hadrian followed.
It was almost two hours past noon and the sun was hot on his skin.
The inn owner went into a tavern. With his rat vessels, Hadrian followed. The inn owner was drunk, not really talking to anyone and had a rather sad atmosphere around him.
If he wanted, Hadrian could turn him into his vessel right now. However, he needed answers which he did not want to take a chance of luck on that they would be part of the fragmented memories he obtains.
Also, the inn owner, as of Hadrian's current knowledge, had not really played that much of a direct role in his death, ignorant or not.
At most, he'd spoken rather disrespectfully of Hadrian's corpse.
Eh, who am I to judge others for not burdening themselves with others problems, especially when they are already dead?
The man left the tavern after another hour.
His other vessels spread out, Hadrian followed with his main and rat vessels.
Two hours later, Hadrian followed the man back to what seemed to be his home.
Without the inn, is he also jobless? Another victim.
Rat Hadrian squeezed himself into the moderately sized wooden house.
While still in Calos district, the poorest in this city, the man lived in the wealthier part of it.
As his small legs scurried close to the walls, Hadrian saw a small girl in the house playing with rocks.
A daughter?
New hawk Hadrian perched on the first floor window of their chambers. The wife, and probable mother of the girl, was taking a shower in their washroom elsewhere in the house.
The man entered the chambers, ran his hands through his short brown hair, let out a heavy sigh and threw himself on the bed.
After thirty seconds staring at the ceiling, he let out another sigh, got off the bed and began untying his pants.
It was then he noticed a shadow on his partially carpeted floor move. His head rose and his eyes met a large red feathered bird on his chamber window, its yellow eyes peering at him.
The man took an instinctive step back, his heart jumping to his throat.
"Williams." Hadrian spoke. He'd heard his name in the tavern and while following him around from others.
This was a matter of him wanting to speak and his authority enabling him to. Otherwise, Hadrian would be incapable of the precision of substituting to rewrite a hawk's throat to enable it to speak.
The man's eyes widened, his lips parted and he held his breath. Looking into those yellow eyes, he brought himself down to his knees.
"Please…. " the man pleaded. Hadrian could hear him swallow. "Please…. " He said, "whatever it is you wish for… "
Hadrian let a pregnant moment of silence pass.
"The Mages who fought at your inn, their names." Hawk Hadrian's sharp voice resounded in the chambers. You could hear a sliver of Hadrian's original voice.
Hearing the question, the man raised his shaking head for a moment, his glance landing on the red hawkl. His heart raced.
He trembled and his gaze fixed onto the floor once more, "Trustan and Haldon." The owner muttered, wondering what a spirit would want with two rank two Mages.
"Where can I find them?"
"Dorans street…. " he said, his voice shaky.
Both of them? Are they of the same gang?
Hadrian wondered.
Hawk Hadrian flapped his wide wings, leaving the window. The man flinched when he saw the shadow disappear. His wife walked in two seconds later, a towel wrapped around her with her hair wet. She looked at her husband on the floor and her lips parted.