Dong!
The Bell at the centre of the city rang for the Eighth time for the day, signalling mid night.
People started to thin out , as the day has ended. Going back to their respective homes.
Lanterns on the streets dimmed slightly, night watch roaming the streets.
Creeeeeak
The door of the tavern room creaked open, a knight in broken armour , Rael entered.
When he opened the window,the smell of alcohol and body fluids swated through the window, floors and beds creaking loudly echoing from other rooms.
The room in which he was staying had cabinets ,a small half broken desk and a clean untouched bed.
Rael ,still in full armour, crouched in one of the dark corners of the room. His back against the wall, buttocks on the cold floor. One hand on the handle of the broadblade, another on the sacbboard.
He was ever ready for battle or ambush.
"I am Rael , I...am Rael.....you are Rael.... remember...I am..."
Rael shoftly murrmered , repeating the same words again and again like a broken record.
Dong! The bell rang for the first time in a distance.
Only after a long while of murrmering did he fell asleep.
.
.
.
Dong! The bell rang for the second time.
The body of the motionless knight twitched. Rael was awake.
He glanced outside of the window, the light in rooms across the street have begun to light up, people were waking up.
Cold winter winds entered the room, as chills spread across his body.
Smell of bread baking and smoke from chimney entered his nose.
Growwwwllll
Placing a hand over his stomach, he sighed. Then turned.
Creeeeeak...
****
"Quick up lads! We got to mine up the western mountains today,Ya'all aren't going home till we fill the daily quota! Kiss your wife's ass goodbye and get going! Antony where the fuck are you!"
The old bearded miner screemed orders at the other junior miners.
"C-careful there! One wrong move and w-we would get shredded by the drill! Oy watch your fucking steps!" A young miner cursed while transporting the mining drill.
Large machines running on cogwheels moved through the small temperory station at the edge of the city bordering the merkwood mountains.
Clank Thud Thud
Miners and other workers ran around, getting ready for the expedition in the western merkwood mountains. There expression tensed.
Thud Thud Thud
A Knight in broken armour strolled through the chaos of minimum wage workers.
"Huh? What are you doing here? We don't need your 'help'." One of the miners recognised and questioned him.
Just as Rael was about to respond, krivos approached and cut in-
"Don't ya worry, Antony. This bud is with me, extra backup, from my own pockets. Afterall, it never hurts ya to be extra careful." Krivos replied with a con artist like grin.
He wore a black rounded hat, pointed at top. A black tinted circular glasses on his nose. Paired with long wornout black overcoat. Overall,he wore a full black outfit.
Antony was a bit taken aback due to the fact that someone remembers his name , so he just nodded and went back to his business, not offering any more words.
After the miner was gone, krivos turned towards Rael and added-
"Well ain't you a master of getting in trouble, you are better at it than I am, and that's supposed to be my daily occupational hazard!"
Rael only shook his head.
"It's not my fault that trouble seems to love me dearly."
The he added in a cautious tone-
"So what's the plan? I don't think this expedition is going for conqu-"
"Shhhhhh" Krivos silenced Rael while putting his index finger on his lips.
"There are too many eyes and ears here, we will talk about it inside the mountains." Krivos said while sudely looking around, making sure no one was evesdropinng on their conversation.
Rael nodded his head and changed the topic.
"How did you even get in? I didn't take you has a mining person." Rael asked sceptical of krivos.
Krivos just flashed his signature con smile and replied in an understanding.
"No,But i would have if it paid well."
"They needed a Educated worker to do the stuff with numbers and tedious paperwork. The previous one called in sick, and I just so happen to hear about it and grace them temperoryly with my boundless intelligence."
Rael being accustomed to krivos's narcissistic tendencies, simple rolled his eyes beneath the helmet and asked.
"So, what is my role in this 'mining expedition' , a guard?"
Krivos nodded his head , stepping back ,he added-
"You are almost right, but you aren't an expedition guard but my personal guard, makes things easier."
Rael understood that those other Light bearers will never let him on there team, so this was the best choice - both for his efficiency and sanity, Creature of darkness were already enough.
"Quick! Rap up the tents! We are leaving by mid-day bell! I swear if someone explodes another drill, I will make you sell your wives up for prostituition!" The old beared miner barked orders to wrap things up, cursing few of his junior's wives.
'Jokes on you ,we are single for life.' few junior miners snikkered inwarldly. Seeing there definant
Glint , the old miner added -
"The city prostituition halls are always need of men dressed up as women."
The faces of young miners went pale, as they started working more carefully.
'How does he know?' Rael sent a sceptical look at the old man, he knows but he can't prove it.
Krivos nudges him and wispered in an cheeky grin.
"You can top that field as well, no women dress needed. How about it? It's a business venture worth exploring."
Rael did not bother reacting to krivos's jester.
"You are not fun, react atleast. Girls don't like aloof men." He sighed exaggerately.
Cough cough
"Ahem! anyways, how about I give you the possible scale of our operation?"
Rael slightly tilted his head and gestured krivos to continue.
"Look over there." Krivos pointed at the gathering place of guards.
There were many men with standard leather and metal armours. welding spears, bows, sheilds and swords.
They were the normal residents of city. There were about 200 of them gathered, which was the standard.
What caught Rael's attention was the fact that there were 13 Light bearers.
Twelve of which were Lanterns.
They wore white robes , polished armour , dark robes. All enchanted by artifacts, as seen from the slight magical glim on them.
The wore a sun crest amulate around there neck or cape. The symbol of the Church of Augustus.
Having a light bearer was standard for a large scale Expedition outside of settlements. This didn't bug Rael, it was standard protocols.
For an Expedition going to a low classification danger zone not far from city , it's normal for them to hire 3-4 Lanterns to escort them for protection measure.
Lanterns usually frown upon working for low pay , lower class jobs but still accept them once in a while for extra pocket cash and beautifying there record. Maybe even get lucky enough to find a Tier 7 resources in the wild.
But it's unnatural for twelve Lanterns to gather up for such a low class escort duty, as obviously the pay and merit will be too divided to even bother working for.
One can only think they found rumours of a rare resource or orders from the department.
Rael thought that it was the latter.
"Are we infringing on Department duty?" Rael wispered to krivos cautiously.
"No, we aren't. What,You scared?" Krivos replied.
Rael shook his head slightly.
"Then why is he here?" Rael gustered krivos to look at the man in middle of the group, the one commanding them all.
He looked like he was in in mid 30's , wearing a full enchanted silver armour that covered everything till his neck. A blue royal cape with golden sun pattern was present on his back. He had sharp features and even sharper beard.
The man was mael , The Acolyte that directly serves the vice City lord.
He was an Acolyte that worked for one of the 2 Sanctus of the city.