On a particularly hot day Arken had come across the unglamorous parts of Andluri.
The homeless, slum dwellers, unprivileged, poverty struck citizens.
It was far away from the better maintained parts of the city and less guarded too.
As he knelt down near to an impoverished child struggling to breathe properly and tilted a pitcher to give him water, he asked Kalni who was accompanying him.
"Why doesn't anyone do anything about the poverty here?"
Kalni seemed hesitant to answer. "It's just how different cities and noble lands are governed. Andluri is a shared home of many noble houses so there's no individual responsibility. Especially as this falls under the Royal Kingdom's jurisdiction. If this was any other duchy or established sovereign territory ceded to a particular noble's authority they would be penalised for this."
Arken wiped the cheeks of the child and tilted his head, "kid, how you feeling?"
The kids eyes were tired, "hungry."
Arken looked up to see a small crowd of children slowly gathering to them and stood up. "Next time, I'll get it for all of you."
Kalni paced up with him as they entered the slums further. There were barely any shops in sight and the ones that were present barely had anything to sell. Only stragglers and starving people thronged the steps.
"What are we doing here?" Kalni hissed.
"This place, it's all in neglect. No buzz, no soldiers, heck even the desperate are barely even thieving for themselves," a sudden thought irked Arken.
Did the author make crime nonexistent in his dumb novel?
[The Author is furious that you're blaming this on them]
"What else am I to take away from this then?"
"There he goes," Kalni muttered, "talking to himself again."
Arken walked to the center silently and looked around.
[The Author insists that crime exists, but in a muted fashion]
Even the freedom to commit sin is affected.
He came to the most insane conclusion. That there was no organized crime in Andluri. At least that he knew of.
It brought a strange smile to his face and he regained his old color back.
"Come on Kalni, I think we found a gold mine."
[The Author is hugely doubting your intentions]
☆
As a passerby one would be forgiven to entirely miss it but such was the way that particlular alleyway was built.
Diverting with a sharp right it led into a small entrance which later expanded to a vast network of closed off buildings on both ends of the alleyway.
Well it was more of a marketplace now as people moved busily to and fro among the shops on either sides of the street.
Most of them had the same stark look of the outliers Arken had just passed through but it seemed even in the depths of despair there were clear demarcations among the sections.
Even the way the buildings were made and held together had a very distinct sacred feel than the main city block.
Little flags fluttered above their heads, tied between opposing buildings and houses of both sides, looming over the people below.
"Everyone's staring at us," Kalni said with a soft whisper. Even the kids from earlier had stopped trailing behind them.
"Shh, I think they mean no harm. Do you know what this place is?"
Kalni glanced around a few times, "this is probably the Monastery road. A sect of monastical societies live here with their people."
Arken spun to her excited, "there's a Monastery? Where?"
Kalni sighed and pointed ahead, "they usually build it in the center of their settlements."
They found it soon after. In the more quieter parts.
A huge looming roof greeted them whose ends curved upwards while a small spire stood in the middle.
From all directions, mumbling monks in red and orange wrap around robes milled together. Some going in and some getting out.
Arken walked in without hesitation.
"Whom do they worship?"
"Someone they refer to as the Sun Monk. They revere him as a deity but this is not an accepted belief by the Holy Temples. In fact," Kalni lowered her voice, "it's sort of banned."
Arken nodded. His eyes fell on a small doorway which was illuminated by faint lights from candles and he heard bells chiming.
A shrine?
Kalni's eyes widened and she tried to stop Arken but he was already gone. She reluctantly followed him after keeping her sword outside.
Inside, she saw Arken sit with bent knees as he fixated on the sculpted figure of the Sun Monk. Clad in black with black stone carvings, his eyes were half closed and in a meditative state.
What Kalni thought would last mere seconds turned into hours upon hours.
When it started to rain she excused herself and waited outside for sometime before finally leaving after he nodded for her leaving.
He intended to stay longer and she had no idea why.
☆
At first Arken's presence in their Monastery was seen as a sort of amusement by the child monks in training.
But gradually, as the rains intensified and the lights flickered, requiring constant relighting the adults grew wary.
Who was this boy? Why was he still here in the late night doing nothing?
Curiosity became suspicion. Suspicion fomented questions upon questions.
They seemed to relax a bit when he agreed to the kids invitation to play but when they were tired he came back to his spot and sat still.
A day passed. He was provided bedding and lodging in one of their guest rooms which was just a minimalist version of a hotel.
Soon he began to fraternize with the monks openly. Getting close to the kids and even closer to the senior monks.
The head monk met with him the second day. A man called Huma. Like all the residents of Monastery road he was bald but had a smile on his face.
"Our residents have begun to have a little worry over your presence son," he spoke with a baritone voice that commanded polite respect.
Arken sipped the local tea and smacked his lips before making eye contact, "I have so much to discuss with you. So call me Arken. You may also have heard of me by another name."
He enjoyed the stupefied look on the old man's face, "now before you throw me out, call me names or sound an alarm. I want you to hear me out very carefully. Just once. Your Monastery won't fall if you hear words."
Huma still struggling to grasp what or who he was sitting in front of could only cough in indecision. "What do you want?"
Then Arken began to talk. Throughout the afternoon, making Huma even skip lunch altogether.