The Great Crestmaster

The new arrivals were the four young men that took care of the carriage. They came carrying the luggage.

Aldrich and company went upstairs and Ayemon gave Aldrich, Orven and Norge each a key. The four young men came in behind them and distributed the luggage and went down.

"We didn't get anything out of her." Aldrich mentioned to Ayemon.

"We did get something. Now we know the news might not have spread here yet or it might have been blocked."

"I guess that's true" but Aldrich wasn't convinced, "when are we gonna search for Atrio and Keld?"

"Slow down, who said we will? That's too risky. I'll send some local friends to look for these men. By tomorrow morning we'll hear something about it."

"But he works in the bank, we can just capture him!"

"No we can't. We don't even know if what he told you guys at Wakefield is even true. His own name is likely an alias."

"Wha-" this was a possibility that he hadn't thought of. That's right none of what they claimed could be trusted.

"It doesn't matter if its fake or real in the end it'll lead us to him. Besides you saw his face right? if you saw him again you will recognize him easily."

"Then what should I do?" He asked

"Well, first of all go wash up then we'll go get you some decent clothes. Norge and Orven will take care of the rest."

Aldrich looked at his 'clothes' that were in a unrecoverable mess. His baggy breeches and loose shirt were torn and tattered full of grime and dirt, dried blood was obvious on some parts.

Aldrich was in no position to care about his filthy state before now. Aldrich realized that he had been running for his life constantly for the past few days.

Aldrich felt his cheeks burning and ran straight into his room. He must have stood out when he was among Ayemon and his companions.

Aldrich didn't wait long before there was a knock on the door, he opened it and found two girls of his age holding a bucket of hot water. He let them in.

They placed the bucket on the floor and produced a wooden tub from a tiny room that he hadn't noticed. Then they filled the tub with the water and left.

Aldrich submerged himself in the tub, he felt the hot water over his skin and sighed despite himself. The events of the last few days played themselves in his mind over and over.

Aldrich finished washing himself and headed outside. When he got to the reception he found Ayemon and Caldera waiting for him by a table. The reception area was lit by three moss lamps as the sun had already set.

When they noticed his approach they got up. And smiled at him.

"Well lets get going."

When they walked outside the inn, Aldrich noticed that most shops and businesses-like buildings had moss lamps on the outside. The lamps releases pure white light. Even the night wasn't dark in the city.

They walked on the side of the streets, carriages and people all moved in a strange rush as if they all were late for something. All the people were dressed in similar fashion and quality to the clothes of Ayemon and company.

One thing that got his attention was that people were still out and about even after the sun had set. In Wakefield everyone would retire back home at this time.

Aldrich left his sword at the inn, he didn't want to attract attention to himself. He noticed the receptionist giving him a cautious look back in the inn or maybe she was appalled at his terrible state.

As Aldrich observed the carriages in the streets he noticed that most of them had a grand appearance with intricate patterns and many different colors. Some were not even pulled by horses but by blue scaled huge lizards.

Aldrich would have attacked if he didn't know to restrain himself, the people around acted like that was a normal everyday thing.

This made Ayemon's carriage seem insignificant. And perhaps that was by design. Probably no one can expect that four Crestmasters travelled on such an unassuming carriage.

The more he thought about it the more plausible it seemed. Even in their choice of clothes and the inn they chose they made deliberate actions to blend in.

Aldrich marveled at such thought process, indeed these guys knew what they were doing.

They came to a stop and Ayemon raised his hand in the air, shortly afterwards a carriage stopped by the side of the street.

"Where to?" The carriage driver asked.

"We want to get some clothes, somewhere decent but not too expensive. Not a shop, a stall perhaps."

"Sure. Get in."

Ayemon gave the driver a copper coin and opened the door and walked right in, Aldrich followed as he thought about this exchange.

"What is this? You can do that?" He asked curiously.

"This is a private carriage, this is that man's job. He takes people wherever they want to go for coin." Answered Caldera.

"Why is it called private?"

"It's called private because there's also a public carriage. There's a difference. A public carriage can stop to pick up people only in specific areas. A private carriage can stop anywhere and costs more."

This all was new to Aldrich. But he could understand why they needed it. Cities were big and had many people and many places that people can go to and people wanted to reach a destination fast.

Soon enough they stopped and got off. They were in a street that was stacked with stalls, most of which were selling clothes and fabrics. Ayemon told the carriage driver to wait for them.

The stalls had people shouting how their fabrics are the best and cheapest, some even claimed that nobles brought their clothes from them. Some had beautiful women posing in their clothes and inviting customers to buy.

Aldrich walked and stopped by one of the stalls, there were many men and women around it and looked at them examining the fabrics and the men behind the stall were busy writing down measurements.

"Come on, we're not here to tailor something we're looking for something ready and easy." Ayemon called out to him from the back.

They walked until they arrived at a stall that had trousers and shirts of many colors lined up on his stall.

Eventually Aldrich bought two outfits both were good fits snd had a soft texture. The two trousers were dark brown and black respectively. While one shirt thar had buttons was white and other was grey.

He only bought one coat that he would wear over both shirts. It was light brown. This cost him a whole silver. This price made Aldrich give up on buying and storm off but he was stopped by Ayemon.

Both Ayemon and Caldera said that these clothes were average but to Aldrich these were the finest clothes he ever had. In the village only the mayor and Krynt could have such great clothes.

On the way back to the inn Aldrich had a lifeless look on his face. One silver. That was three months of his wages from both his jobs with Isger and Krynt.

He made a total of eight coppers a month. Six from Isger's and two from Krynt's. This can't be right. When he looked at the twelve silvers last night before going to sleeep he invariantly believed that he was kind of rich.

But now, it was starting to become clear. A city was a place that burned through money like a bonfire through paper. The rushing people made sense. They were all trying to make money to make ends meet...

Back in the inn, Aldrich changed into his new clothes and looked at himself in the mirror. He stood at 1.7m, his jet black hair wasn't too long, his grey eyes were starting at his reflection.

He wore the dark brown trousers and white shirt with buttons, he fixed his new light brown coat over the shirt. Except for some dark circles around his eyes he thought he didn't look too bad.

Aldrich went down the stairs and passed through the reception to a door and entered the tavern. The smell of the food had diminished since the time they first arrived.

Aldrich saw his group sitting by a table and walked towards them, while walking he observed that only two other tables of the tavern were in use.

When he sat down he noticed a stack of papers on the table in front of Norge. Before Aldrich could ask about it a waitress came to their table.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if you were done deciding." She asked.

It seemed like Ayemon and the rest got here earlier and were asked about their order before he came.

"Yes we're mostly done, we'll have three ale mugs and one beer. Three plates of chicken breast and onions and one fish stew. Our young friend just came here so when he decides he will call you back for his order."

"Sure thing," the waitress replied and hurried back to the kitchen with their orders.

Aldrich looked at Norge and asked him the question that has been on his mind.

"Did you find anything? About Atrio and Keld."

"Well, we aren't sure yet. Anyhow, the man named Atrio Taelva is not recorder in the banks record of employees. There's still the fact that he may have used an alias. We'll have to make sure."

Aldrich wasn't surprised by the answer, "why are you helping me?" He asked, looking at Ayemon.

"You're a noble aren't you? Why take the risk to investigate the deputy governor? You don't know me."