Chapter 9: Kalsin

Approaching the city, they joined with the other traffic moving towards it from the countryside as people returned from a day's work in the fields. Entering the gate itself posed no issue as, whilst the guards eyed the two manipulators warily, no one came to stop them. However, Kira did notice one guard tap a comrade on the shoulder who went running into the city, and this first guard then proceeded to shadow them as they moved inside. Noticing it too, Sadis simply said, "Well, they know that we're here, so we better find someplace to wait for them to come and get us."

The streets were busy with merchants trading goods with passersby and Kira was forced to wait behind Sadis and Thea as they had to politely decline the various offers made to them with the traders being drawn in by their distinctive blue robes. More than once, whilst hanging back and watching these proceedings, Kira found himself reaching out to stop an occasional vagabond from stealing out of people's back pockets as they talked, causing him to wonder how prevalent thievery was among the general population.

At the sides of the streets, buildings were well built with lower floors mainly constructed from stone and upper floors made with wooden beams. The streets were well designed, being built from stone with a slight rise in the centre so that water would run off into gutters should it rain. With the city also being ordered in a system of blocks, Kira was already confident that he could navigate around it despite never having been here before. He guessed that it must have been more recently built than most settlements that were really just Marxan constructs with confused extras added on.

Arriving into a circular clearing in the buildings, surrounding a gnarled old oak tree, Thea pulled Sadis and Kira aside and towards an Inn at its edge. Like the other buildings within the city, the lower level was made with stone, and inside the floor was covered with grey flagstones making it somewhat less homely than The Lost Lion had been with its warm, brown tones of wood. It was also a lot larger and was populated by several groups of people sitting and drinking around tables with occasional games of cards being played and gambled upon.

Moving up to the bar, Sadis and Thea began conversing with the owner, leaving Kira alone to lean against a wooden support beam for the roof. Being mostly forgotten, he once again tried concentrating his aura around his hand with similar results to the last times, but, just before he could try again, he stopped himself when he noticed a woman looking between him and the manipulators and sitting alone in the corner of the room.

It seemed that Sadis had also noticed her because, once Thea had handed Kira a pint of the local ale, he took the two of them over to sit at the same table as the woman. She seemed to be about middle-aged and didn't possess any particular stand-out features, being dressed similarly to the rest of the women in the town with a blue cardigan draped over her dress.

"So," began Sadis, "What's a manipulator like you doing here, Alys?"

Realizing that if this woman was a manipulator, she could easily tell Sadis and Thea that she had seen him secretly working on his own aura control, Kira sat still and tried sipping at his ale to act naturally but ended up nearly spitting it out, silently cursing his own lack of tolerance of the stuff.

"That's an odd question!" she replied, "I'm able to do as I please, am I not?"

"I think what he is trying to get across is that it's strange for you to be here when your work would likely be getting much more appreciation in Krinestadt," said Thea.

Not wanting to draw attention to himself, Kira had to hold back a multitude of questions and waited to see where the conversation would lead. "I'm just working for my family's business, we might not be as profitable as some places in Krinestadt, but we still make a decent living for ourselves," explained Alys.

"Oh, I didn't know that you had family in…" began Thea before being cut off by Sadis.

"We've heard of trouble with banditry."

"Always to the point, aren't you, Sadis," commented Alys, "Well, we've not actually had much trouble – as I'm sure that you'll be relieved to hear – because we're based pretty close to the city walls."

"But there is a problem?" pressed Sadis.

"From what I've been told, they've taken up residence in a quarry to the west," and she smiled over at Kira to continue, "If I were a fighter like your two friends here, I might have gone to deal with them myself but, alas, I have no such ability."

"We're not friends," Sadis told her, "We're travelling companions."

"Don't be so harsh," mumbled Thea, probably unheard by Sadis, as Alys continued.

"But then, where could you have possibly picked up such an interesting little companion? You'll introduce us, right?"

Realizing that neither of his 'friends' would do it for him, Kira finally had a chance to speak, saying, "I'm Kira; I've been travelling east with them."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Kira. You can call me Alys."

Not wanting to wait to ask Alys some questions any longer, Kira responded straight away to not allow Thea or Sadis to take back control of the conversation, "If your ability isn't for combat, but instead its useful in a family business, then what actually is it?"

This attracted glares from Thea and Sadis, but Alys laughed them off and said, "Well, I've never been good at combat, and abilities are unique to an individual, so my ability isn't about combat at all. Instead, it allows me to project my aura over plants and help their growth, it's nothing incredible, to be honest, and this really helps around here given that my family's business is a farm!"

"How quickly can you make things grow, and can the plants then grow anywhere, even in adverse conditions?"

"I can't make them grow fast enough for you to see them grow if that's what you mean, and the resources for growth all have to be in place, so I can't just make a desert green. Plus, it takes a lot of energy…" she was cut off there by Kira with another query.

"But exactly how much quicker can you make plants grow?"

"Normally, when growing wheat, it takes around eight months but, with my ability, it can be cut down to four, so we produce about twice as much as a farm of comparable size."

Disappointed with that answer, as the ability wasn't quite as interesting as he had hoped, he slumped back into his chair and allowed attention to swing away from him again. About half an hour and a quarter of the ale later, several uniformed men entered the bar making any conversation go quiet. They then approached the manipulators being led by an officer, identified as such by a golden coloured badge, who took them aside leaving Kira alone with Alys.

When Kira glanced back over to Alys, she took his attention by telling him, "Eyes are more important." and swiftly getting to her feet, grabbing his drink, downing the remains, and then storming out of the bar.

Trying to think what she might have meant, Kira was startled for a second time by Thea calling back to him, "We're going to be a while." whilst throwing over a pouch full of coins, "We'll come back here later." and leaving him with instructions for replenishing supplies and buying his own sleeping bag - provided that he would be willing to carry it. Once Sadis and Thea had left the Inn with the officer, he hid the pouch in his front right pocket and, keeping his hand on it, left the establishment.

The first thing that he would be likely to need would be a way of carrying everything that was to be bought and so, upon receiving directions from a random citizen, he headed towards a nearby marketplace. It was densely populated with people moving by one another and filled to the brim with their voices and the calls of merchants flogging their wares. Stopping by a stall selling clothing and some fabric bags, he asked if they had anything bigger and exchanged three silver coins for a rucksack that looked to have a decent capacity.

The rest of the day then became a blur of hurried movement as he was swept up by the crowds and had to compete with his fellow buyers to get at the best produce before it was gone, which was no easy task as he had joined the whole game late. Not only this, but he certainly wasn't as savvy a shopper as the majority of the people on the streets and felt overwhelmed by the deals that often turned into bidding matches with other customers. Without wanting to be forced to return empty-handed, he was constantly aware of how he was most likely overpaying for everything.

Eventually, he was able to cross all the items off his mental list, and he bought himself some local meat-filled pastry to sit down with on a bench back by the tree outside of the Inn. Here he had more time to reflect back on Alys' words and he repeated them incessantly within his mind; eyes are more important. Why couldn't she have just told him what she meant and not left a riddle, he lamented as a young boy sat beside him on his right side.

The boy was missing his index finger, which caused Kira a vague amount of concern because removing the finger was the Krinestadt punishment for theft. Sensing that the child was uncomfortably close to where he was storing the remainder of his coins, he got to his feet. Going to lean against the entrance to the Inn with his newly filled bag on the floor beside him he, unfortunately, did not get to see Alys again, so there was no opportunity to question her further.

Soon enough, the manipulators returned to get him. Whilst trailing after them, heading towards the west of the city, they explained the situation to him. It seemed that Alys had been right, and the group that they were after had indeed taken up camp in an abandoned quarry that they would go and check out later before removing the threat.

"So," asked Kira, "Why can't the city guards just deal with it?"

"We're more expendable, for them at least," replied Sadis.

This response didn't make much sense to him because surely it would have been easier for Kalsin to deal with them itself without waiting to call in manipulators from Krinestadt, noting this he tried getting more information from Sadis, saying, "Do you think that there might be manipulators with them?" sensing that this might be a practical reason to call in manipulators of their own.

"We don't know for certain," he replied, "That's what we'll just have to find out tomorrow."

With night closing in, they arrived outside of a walled compound within Kalsin that contained the city's barracks and headed in under the watchful eyes of several guards. Inside was an expansive training yard, and Thea led the way into a single-story building off in one corner, which contained several rows of unoccupied beds. "We should have this place to ourselves," she stated without offering any explanation. Choosing the bed that seemed the farthest from where Thea and Sadis were sleeping, Kira lay down upon it, still thinking about Alys' advice.

The following morning, they got dressed in fresh clothing and left their heavy packs by the beds to make the coming day of hiking slightly easier. They then exited the city by a gate on its western side and followed a lightly trodden mountain path up towards several hills looming in the distance. Despite autumn having barely arrived, the track was still finely covered in needles and pinecones from the surrounding trees. Wary that there were very few bushes for cover, Kira initially kept scanning the horizons to ensure that their progress was not being monitored by hostile scouts. However, it seemed that this worry was unfounded because, from Thea and Sadis' lack of concern, Kira guessed that the enemy camp would still be quite a distance away.

Taking that idea to heart and knowing that this was meant to be a scouting mission so he wouldn't be expected to fight anyone, he decided to get back to working on his aura manipulations. When he began to move his aura to concentrate it around his outstretched hand, he had an idea. Remembering that Alys had mentioned his eyes and knowing that he was unlikely to make much progress with what he was attempting anyhow, he instead tried to concentrate his aura around his eyes to use it like a sailor might use an eyeglass.

Initially, nothing seemed to happen except making his light blue aura more obvious to him but accepting that he would just have to be tired for the rest of the day, Kira increased the concentration of aura there further. Upon doing this, when he looked at Sadis and Thea some way in front of him, their physical form seemed to fade slightly and become augmented by a yellow halo that was visible surrounding Thea, and a purple one was visible around Sadis.

Realizing that he was observing their aura, he looked around and saw that there seemed to be faint wisps of it practically all around him, following around various small creatures that would have been difficult to notice before. There also appeared to be soft shimmers in the air itself and, wondering if a higher concentration of aura would allow him to view it properly, he began attempting to increase it in front of his eyes. However, as soon as he did, he realized how much this whole process had been tiring him and immediately stopped, recalling the stories of manipulators going too far and killing themselves with similar experiments.

Despite the effort that the process had required, Kira thought that he would like to try it again over the coming days hoping that it too would become slightly easier, just like the initial step of reaching for his aura had done. He also concluded that higher concentrations of aura seemed to require an exponential increase in energy. This would make improvement a slow process, but at least there seemed to now be a greater opportunity to improve his understanding of aura thanks to Alys' advice.

As they continued, the path grew steeper and branched in many directions. At each such juncture, Sadis confidently strode down his chosen direction without ever seeming to need to pause to try and determine his location relative to the hills. With the paths climbing higher, a short cliff appeared on Kira's right side and at its base snaked the overgrown remains of a road. "That was for the quarry," remarked Sadis, noticing Kira looking down at it.

Feeling somewhat relieved that they were headed in the correct direction, he increased his pace to draw level with the two manipulators. They then took a path around to the left and, as Sadis casually explained, this was intended to bring them around behind the quarry so that they could attempt to overlook the enemy camp.

In response to this, Kira asked, "Isn't it quite stupid to have a base in a place that's easy to surround and shoot down into?"

"Their base's entrance is within the quarry, but it's really an underground copper mine that extends a little way down, and it probably has multiple hidden entrances serving as escape routes. Plus, an enemy can't really enter without being spotted; all you'd need would be a couple of guys at the entrance."

"Fair enough," he replied, as they scrambled up a particularly steep and muddy slope that he managed to slip on and plant his knees into several times.

At the top, Sadis and Thea were waiting for him and looked disapprovingly at the dark patches over his legs before explaining that they would have to be more cautious and keep looking out for places to hide now that they were approaching the base. Despite having said this, they kept striding ahead with the same swift pace as before. Curious about what they were doing that gave them such confidence, Kira again focused his aura in front of his eyes, hoping that the way back would be easier as it was downhill.

From what he saw, in the brief time that he maintained the manipulation, they were also concentrating their aura before their eyes. This was probably so that they would notice any human auras up ahead, allowing them to take cover when necessary and advance quickly when not. Again, this made him marvel at their stamina to perform manipulations whilst tirelessly marching on for days without even making any heavy breathing.

Up ahead, it seemed that the woods did not extend any further, and Sadis gestured at them to slow down. Attempting to move forwards in a crouching position, they arrived at the top of a ridge and found themselves looking down into the basin of a quarry. Lying down onto their fronts, to minimize their silhouettes against the sky, they attempted to observe the happenings below.

To Kira, there looked to be very little activity. He could clearly make out the quarry base and the track leading into it, from the other side, which they had happened across before. He could also spot the entrance to the copper mine that appeared to him like it was deserted because plants were overgrowing it, and no light came from within. However, his companions either didn't or had greater patience with waiting than him as the apparent emptiness didn't seem to concern them, and they kept carefully watching. Time dragged on and nothing seemed to happen except for Kira's impatience slightly increasing.

Just when it seemed that the quarry was certainly deserted, and when he was about to try and communicate this with Thea, a faint voice could be heard, which was quickly joined by others. Out of the entrance to the mine then came three men. They were all tall and dressed in animal hides that could have camouflaged them in the various shades of brown that coated the surrounding forests. Stopping outside the entrance, the group then stood around and gestured at a spot above them. A short while later, they returned inside.

"Well, that was useless," whispered Thea, "We would have to get inside the mine itself to be certain that they don't have any manipulators, not to mention that this doesn't exactly help give us an estimate of their numbers."

"We've confirmed their location." retorted Sadis.

"Which we knew before!" responded Thea before adding, "You're still too careful. We could have finished this up today; even if they had a manipulator, they probably wouldn't have more than one, so we could take them."

"We'll take them tomorrow," grunted Sadis angrily as they retreated from the cliff edge with Kira in tow.

Kira knew that manipulators were rare in Anadora. After all, Arkadia's capital had only been home to three of them, and two had been trainees. However, by asserting that there would be no more than one in the bandit's group, Thea had reconfirmed this to him. Trying to see if he could get any more information out of her, he asked Thea, "How many manipulators work for Krinestadt?"

She glanced between him and Sadis but still responded, "Less than a hundred that are any good. The rest will be in training." and seeing his surprised response to such a low figure, she continued, "Yes, Krinestadt does go out of its way to train up more manipulators, but they're still rare as, given how dangerous the initiation ceremony is, not many people are firstly willing or allowed by family etc. to go along with it. Not just that, but they have to be the right sort of person to do it in the first place."

"A lot of manipulator trainees tend to be orphans that not too many people will miss…" added Sadis and, from his tone, Kira wondered at the man's own past.