Big City Life

They entered the gates. Olaf and other higher ranked knights reported to the city guards, the caravan was let through for free.

At some point most of the knights and one of the wagons split off to the nearby barracks. The remaining civilians followed the knight with the dark blue soul. They were brought to an empty workshop, which they had to use as accomodation for the time beeing without work.

Alya spent her free time working on a small project in the in the workshop. She took one wheel of the wooden cart they had travelled in and started to cut it into two thinner wheels. She also sawed off the end on which the wheel had previously been on. Halfway through, a few of the people she had fled and lived in the workshop with approached her.

"Do you need help? What are you building?" A man in his thirties with short black hair walked in front. Behind him followed a young man and woman with silver hair, a colour children between the typically black haired commoners and widespread bright blond nobles were often born with. The hair colour was not always a sign of status, but many judged using it.

"You're the green soul." Alya recognized the older man before her. "What magic do you practice?"

The man was bewildered, "You know some people get really sensitive when you ask that question." He smiled. "But, I practice herbal healing and medicine. I have a book on botanical magic. My name's Rauper."

"I'm called Alya, and you two?" She tried to look somewhere in the direction of the very similar pair.

"Alex."

"I'm Sowa." She smiled.

Alya smiled back, "I'm building a wheeled chair. You can help me if you want."

Two pieces were cut off of a wooden beam, and the sides were sawed carefully until they had two somewhat round pieces. Starting with an armed chair, they nailed part of the large round axle from the wagon to the chair, followed by a smaller one. Alya had also cut a wooden panel into two larger and four smaller squares to secure the wheels in place. Before and after putting the wheel on, each one got one square. One of the large wheels even used the old ones from the wagon. Once they were finished, they had a wheeled armchair, wheelchair for short.

When Olaf visited the shop the next day, Alya was nowhere to be found, "Excuse me, do you know where the girl with grey eyes is?" He sounded worried.

"She's out in the city. Don't worry, we build a vehicle for her." A man answered.

"What? Alone?" Olaf looked at the large cart, a single wheel was missing.

"Calm down." The man said.

"How is she going to get back? She's blind!" Olaf shouted.

The man's eyes widened, he turned to the blond siblings next to him, "What?" He whispered. The two shook their head in disbelieve.

Olaf turned and ran outside the door.

The city was busy, Alya had never seen a place like it. She drove around the streets, but they were clearly not made for her passage. She had no way of entering one of the many shops, since all of them had steps at the door. She rolled around the large paved streets until she stopped in front of a large building.

"What are you doing here?" A tall, blonde man approached her. He wore an expensive-looking black coat, it contrasted his light skin and blue eyes.

"Can I not go here?" She asked.

"Not if you don't work here, but especially not if you look like the fruitful soil we sell every winter. It's a shame for your nice face."

"Okay, sorry." Alya felt the sudden urge to take a bath and put on new clothes.

"Alya!" Someone shouted.

Olaf sprinted down the road, then stopped before them, leaning forward to breathe.

"Are you her caretaker? Get her out of here." The man ordered.

"I'm sorry, she's blind and doesn't know what she's doing." Olaf straightened his back.

Alya felt insulted, but shut her mouth. Olaf wanted to bring her back directly, but she wanted to continue driving around. Together, they discovered the small city. The buildings were mainly constructed of wood. They amounted to about three hundred buildings inside the stone walls. It was not huge, but the biggest city in the province.

Alya had found out where she had woken up, they were in the south-east. The southern parts of the Kingdom bordered the sea, which is why there were so many slaves there. In the west, north and east of the country, three other big Kingdoms surrounded them. Uul was the country Polia and the city Alya now lived in was apart of. It was the biggest of the four. Alya wanted to learn more, but Olaf shut his mouth when she started talking about politics.

Alya still pretended to be blind, but she decided to mention clothing right near a small appropriate shop. Given her circumstance, it really was necessary, especially in the city. Also, she had newly lost legs, during the loss of her legs, the clothes she had worn were not spared either. She decided against pants, Olaf was nice enough to pay for the long skirt and the black blouse, he handed over three small coins to the shopkeeper.

Secretly , Alya had watched him. Three whole gold coins, she had never even held a silver coin in her hand. If she had been honest, she would have told him to put the clothes back, but she planned on staying 'blind'. The eye in her hand still creeped her out a bit, so she had no way of saying that she saw how much he had payed. She stayed quiet.