“It’s been over ten millennia and there is no infant of reality. Let it rest.” Current Seat of the Beyond to Jovae Chanthel

  Hugh had been following around Jack and Koel for a little over a week now. At first, his whole body ached from walking quickly to keep up the pace throughout the day, but as the week progressed most of the muscle soreness went away.

  What replaced it was blisters on his feet from shoes not meant for travel and a few cuts and bruises from falling on a misstep or two. Luckily, Jack noticed and did slow their overall pace for a while some days.

  Koel never seemed too happy with the situation and a grumble would escape his lips from time to time. Hugh didn’t miss that but there wasn’t much he could do except try his best to keep up.

  Jack had mostly asked him to gather wood, or small things whenever they stopped. He got used to it pretty quick and was just relieved when Jack said they would be reaching town tomorrow.

  Koel, on the other hand, was stoic as ever, maintaining that brooding silent type air about him. Hugh was reminded of the smith, Beff, by the way the man carried himself. The thought was always cut short as he mindlessly took step by step over the days and often wondered what Gris was doing. He felt a little bad for leaving him behind, but he could go back once he learned a little magic and go get him.

  Luckily, even though his mother didn’t know much about magic, she had told him that people would take the energy into themselves and store it. He didn’t know how, but over the preparatory weeks, he had often laid awake at night, trying to envision pulling energy into himself.

  Although Hugh knew it wasn’t exactly the right way since it didn’t seem to do anything, he had to try. He wasn’t sure, but it did seem like he recovered faster from the days fatigue the further he got away from his little village, but he didn’t know if it was real or if it was just imagined at this point. It didn’t matter too much though since they would get to town tomorrow and he would be able to start figuring everything out.

  -

  Hugh looked up at the sky through the trees as the rays had shifted from horizontal to more vertical. The light that filtered through the foliage told him that morning was on its way out and it would soon be mid-day.

  Long accustomed to not asking questions by now, he stayed his tongue when the thought of asking when they would reach the town appeared in his mind for the 37th time today already. Instead, he just looked around some more, attempting to see if he could spot any change in the surroundings. Not ten minutes later, he could finally see a small break in the trees, and he couldn’t help from cracking a smile.

  Jack slowed his pace to which Koel and Hugh matched. Looking over at Hugh, he said, “Alright kid. We’re almost to the last stretch. It will be on the road. Let us do the talking at the gate and nod along. After all, we’ll be answering with the truth.”

  Hugh didn’t care how he got into the town, he just wanted to finally be in one so he couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice as he replied, “Okay!”

  Moments later, the trio stepped onto the cleared path and turned to follow it in one direction. Hugh couldn’t help but feel a little lighter on his feet as he made step by step, even seeing a couple of people off in the distance on the path heading the same way.

  Shortly after leaving the more dense forested area, Hugh finally saw a couple of houses that looked about the size of the one he had lived in during his fourth life and slightly smaller than the village leader's house. While they were new for him to see, the novelty hadn’t waned. What really caught his attention so much that he ended up tripping, only to stumble forward a little before catching himself was shortly after when they crested a large hill.

  Hugh had laid his eyes on the vast valley that was in full view from where they currently were. He could spot parts of a river that wound through it, with farmland on either side lined up to take advantage of the water source more easily. Even the small blobs that were obviously the houses of the farmers outnumbered the size of his village.

  What caught his breath and made him stumble was the unworn rock beneath his feet as they traveled on the side of the now widened path in case a carriage were to pass. That and the sight of town that lay in the valley. Sprawled out, mostly along the river path and at one portion, perpendicular to it as well.

  Hugh could tell that was the main part of the town by the taller walls that encompassed over half of all the structures there and how the paths all seemed to flow into one as people, not unlike the chickens his fathers took care of, congregated around a gate that he could barely make out in the distance.

  Hugh had lived in a town in his fourth life but he had never known just how big it was. He had never seen it from afar like what he was witnessing now. Not able to help himself, Hugh said in amazement, “It’s so big!”

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  Koel frowned and Jack said, “I’d imagine it is to you. This is just a smaller town. It can’t compare to Seigmond. The capital even makes Seigmond look like your village. Get it all out of your system now, so when we reach the gates and get inside, the commoners won’t mock you for being an unblessed churl and us by association.”

  Hugh knew what unblessed meant. Since he came from lands that weren’t filled with energy, he technically was. But that didn’t change whether he liked the association with the known curse from his own in his village. While he didn’t know what a churl was, he was sure it wasn’t any good. Especially paired with the other words that people would mock you for.

  Jack had turned his head when he said that so Hugh nodded and gave a simple reply, “Okay.”

  No matter how much he wanted to ask, he didn’t want to sour the relationship between them, even with the town so close. He still needed to rely on Jack and Koel to get set up in…

  Hugh wasn’t sure if this was Belford or not, and for the same reason, he didn’t ask. As he trod on with lips closed and eyes glancing around, the time spent on any one thing was often long enough that most would call it staring. It was so bad that as more people were beginning to be nearby and the gates grew ever closer, Jack spoke again, “Stop ogling everything around you and just pretend it’s your village that you see. It’ll get boring fast enough anyway. Remember to be quiet from here on.”

  Those words were the last ones spoken until they reached the queue for the gate. There were a couple of nods or waves Hugh saw, but all the people waiting seemed to keep to themselves. While waiting in line, Hugh saw a couple more carriages ride right up to the gate and the guards quickly let them through before moving back to talk with the groups of people in line, bit by bit.

  What felt like a couple ofhours later, Hugh stepped up with Jack and Koel to meet the guards right outside the entrance gate. Hugh wasn’t paying that much attention though as he was looking up at the wall that towered over him. He wondered how tall it was as the shadow cast by the now evening sun covered the nearby structure.

  Hugh barely caught anything of what was being said until he heard his name from Jack, “Hugh! Comon’ we have to find an inn and we’ll get everything set up in the morning.”

  Hugh followed along as he looked down from the height of the wall to go inside. The path was no longer dirt-covered but was flat and hard, almost like one giant stone showed the way. It was a dull gray though and did not reflect much of the light that met only half the road at this time of day.

  The shadows didn’t give much contrast to the mix of buildings he saw upon reaching the other side of the gate. Most buildings seemed to be built out of either the same kind of rock or wood that somehow uniformly looked the same. The most noticeable though was different signs everywhere, staked into the ground in front of different doorways, on the side of walls, and some even hung freely to swing in the wind from a rope, tied to a pole that led right to where they were referring to.

  Hugh could read a good portion of them, but there were still some words he couldn’t figure out in the short time they followed the flow of others walking from place to place. It seemed so bustling, like the market he once got to visit as Balver.

  Walking for longer than he thought was necessary, making turns here and there, they were finally stepping into a building where the sign out front had a small image of a bed and a cup. Written underneath in a strange red lettering was, Weary’s Respite.

  Hugh didn’t know the words specifically in writing, but he knew what a bed looked like, and he knew what a cup looked like.

  Entering the door behind the others, his face scrunched some as his nose was assaulted by the smell of alcohol that he only knew from when the village had a celebration of the year. Along with that, the noise that struck his ears was just as rowdy as those times as well.

  Hugh was excited by the general atmosphere as everybody always seemed to have a good time. The trio walked up to the nearest open counter and they were soon greeted by the bartender, “What’ll ya have this evening?”

  Jack’s voice seemed to be a lot more serious, much like when he made Hugh swear to him, “We’ll have a room with two beds, and the cooks evening meal for two. Also…”

  Hugh couldn’t hear Jack’s next words over the bustling noises all the other people were making. He didn’t care too much though as he looked around at all the different people eating and drinking.

  Jack soon grabbed his shoulder and said, “Comon’ boy. We’re going up to the room. It’s too loud in here.”

  Hugh reluctantly followed Koel after the light and he didn’t dare resist the encouragement directed by the hand that was on his shoulder. Up the stairs and down a short hall, the sound from below had drowned out leaving them in a much more quiet part of the building. Koel opened up the last door on the left and went inside. Following his lead, Hugh stepped in shortly after to see Koel already sitting on a bed with a contented smile that was rarely witnessed.

  The sound of Jack's footsteps behind him made Hugh choose to move to a vacant part of the room, next to a cabinet, the only other thing in here. The door was closed and Hugh turned around to find Jack walking up toward him with a smile, all too similar to the one Jack expressed when they met.

  Hugh felt a little unease in the pit of his stomach and the way Jack approached. He looked over to Koel only to be met with a smile from him as well, except he looked much uglier, like a mocking laughter as Hugh’s gut was screaming at him to run.

  Jack was in the way of the door and the only window he could see was on the other side of the room, closer to Koel. Thoughts racing, Hugh wasn’t exactly sure of the situation, and he tried to reason out in his head why they would do anything now that they were finally in a town instead of on the trip.

  Suddenly Hugh felt something new, yet old, as a feeling gnawed at the back of his mind, The weight that fell on his body seemed to root him to the spot as his voice failed to comply with his will to ask what was going on. Eyes looked back to Jack who seemed like a blur moving toward himself and it clicked.

  Hugh knew this feeling and the dread that plagued his mind from his past life, all the way until a little over a month ago. It was a feeling he had only felt for an instant, at the same time as he felt like his entire being was on fire. This time though, there was no fire that accompanied it but the grip of overwhelming might still made him incapable of anything but looking around.

  The blur that was Jack slid to the side of his vision and everything went black.