It was evening when Iskal and his quiet companion reached the East Gate of Asta, The Velvet Mountain, under which Embestour resided. Due to what they were informed was a 'breakdown in administration', the large crop of guards stationed at one of the Eastern Gates were not expecting their arrival, and had a good many questions to ask regarding the cartload of dead, ice-packed Collosean soldiers. Eventually they were granted ingress, and they meandered down the wide, gloomy tunnel that was the eastern inner cave road.
Iskal leaned back and solemnly watched the rivets that ran in threes along the ceiling. The Pilot informed him that they were carved not long ago to allow for the channeling and expulsion of undara serum fumes, but Iskal already knew this. The tunnel walls were a cinnamon-brown in the low light, turning to a lighter red when they passed the torches holstered into the old iron sconces. The pilot then chattered on about how there were men whose entire job was walking back and forth, relighting the burnt-out torches. He seemed to be a lot more talkative now that they'd crossed the boundary of Embestour.
Iskal said nothing, he just carried on following the rivets with his gaze.
After an hour, a new source of light began to creep into the tunnel, this time from in front of them. Slowly they journeyed into it, until eventually they came to the end of the ceilinged road, and before them stood the noble city of Embestour. They merged onto the main ring road - a groove in the domed space which wrapped the entire city at an elevation, with incline roads that descended at intervals into the five districts, known as the subtowns, making up the base of the city. Embestour was the largest city by both population and area in all of the 3 realms. The width was so great that, from their vantage on the ring road, it was difficult to see the far side due to the haze of smog that rose from the central populous during the night. From their entrance to the east though, Iskal could spot the long spiked iron-red wall of The Palisade, the home of Collosea's government, peering through the mist like the flank of some colossal ship.
Below them at this eastern position were the Fighting Pits of the Scrimmage Town - vast arenas built downwards into the stone where combatants clashed skin and steel in the bid for wealth and glory, and just to the south, the black tar buildings and steaming chimneys of the Spirits Town lurked in the corner. The cart ambled due east in a clockwise trajectory around the ringroad, passing several of the gridded subtowns before eventually turning right down the side road into the Materials town in the West, which lay before the main entryway to the city, and the Chaingate that protected its inhabitants. The Coach Pilot dropped Iskal at the doorstep of his thin, cosy home, before it headed on to the mortuary in the Ruling Town.
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Iskal stood there for a few minutes, statuesque and shadowed under the gaslamps of the side street. It had reached the early hours of the morning and he was exhausted. And yet, he moved not. His partizan stood next to him, some marks blood still on it he hadn't previously spotted, probably Bilman's. It was a deep purple in the low light. He felt a weight to his travel pack. Maybe it was because he hadn't lifted it all day, but in his heart of hearts he knew it was the featherlight flowers that pulled at his back. Could it be that he wanted the deaths of his unit to be worth something? Or was it greed? Or a retribution against authority for his discreditation all those months ago. It was questions like these that kept him out in the cold.
Eventually he turned the brass nob on the door and stepped in. Viella was asleep on the grey cotton lounge chair in their front room. She was dressed in day clothes. She must have been expecting him home and stayed up. He leaned his partizan against the wall and walked over, taking care with his steps, and kissed her forehead. She woke slowly, not knowing where she was at first, and then, upon looking at the face of husband, the face she hadn't seen for over a month, she jumped into his arms and embraced him tightly.
'Oh my love' She spoke into his shoulder, tears in her eyes. 'Your letter arrived just yesterday. I'm so sorry. Are you okay?'
'Aye, I am now.' He said wearily, but with love deep in his words. 'Let's talk about it tomorrow. My own bed with my wife beside me is what I need. The next few days are going to be hell.'
He slept in Viella's arms that night. Later that morning he was roused awake by a Palisade guard knocking heavily on the door, with a summons to meet with the High Ministry, the Leaders of the realm of Oros.
