COF 4: The Abject Throne

2 | Desara (II)

A laugh burst out of Reeca's lips. "A rock?"

Elred's face was flat. The shard fairy shot up, grabbed Reeca's arm, and hauled her out of the tavern. When they were out of the tavern's earshot, Elred let go. "Cardovia couldn't be in Orayta because it's too public," Elred said. Reeca frowned at the reddening finger marks lining her skin. The shard fairy didn't even listen to her suggestion of not saying Cardovia aloud. "They couldn't afford having random people discovering their lair. They'd need somewhere with little to no public movement. That's Zoriago."

Elred snapped her fingers as she began walking northeast. Reeca lengthened her steps to catch up. "As to the matter of where in Zoriago," the shard fairy tapped a finger against her chin. "We're looking for a place that's not too far from the ocean and not too near it. Kind of somewhere in the middle," Elred jerked her head in Reeca's direction. "We're not going to waste our time looking for a market. It's too obvious if Cardovia will send some of their people to shop there in bulk."

"So they must be buying produce on the way from the ocean to the market," Elred tucked her sleeved arms into her cloak courtesy of Reeca weaving her torn dress from Helinfirth. "What better way to corner merchants other than position yourself at the border?" Elred stopped walking to face Reeca. "What do we usually find at the border?"

Reeca shrugged. A group of water sprites urging a dagrine-like animal forward passed in her periphery. Cart wheels creaked against the sand as they rode away. "You tell me," Reeca rolled her eyes at the shard fairy.

Elred spread her arms in triumph. "Rocks!"

Reeca eyed the dark pebbles scattered on the sand. Were they hardened animal droppings or something just as vile? She scratched the back of her neck. "That's..."

Elred blocked Reeca's mouth with a hand. "I'm not finished," she said as she began walking once more. "The border between Zoriago and Orayta is determined by rocks opposing each other, stretching across miles up to Aresving. We're looking for those markers."

"You got that just from speaking to a merchant and a weaver?" Reeca blinked.

"Oh, no," Elred shook her head. "I didn't learn anything substantial from the both of them. I did learn that the salvia fiber textiles' prices are dropping tomorrow," she shrugged. "They make excellent scarves."

Reeca snorted for real, this time. A shard fairy, through and through.

They walked on without saying much to each other after that. What Elred said made little sense but also the most. It's the only lead they got and perhaps they should follow where it went.

Reeca's thighs throbbed from trudging through sand. How much more of this? The midday sun now bore down at the back of her neck. Ugh. She shouldn't have trimmed her hair. She's going to end up with a nasty burn at her nape at this rate.

Reeca craned her neck to gaze up at the salvia leaves swaying in the wind. Beyond their hazy line, the mountains leading to Fimrio and Jehnasson formed a distant shadow. Caws, lows, and chatters filled Reeca's ears as she and Elred tore through the expanse. There were no roads so people tended to walk everywhere they felt like walking in. Reeca had bumped shoulders with quite a number of water sprites. She had ducked her head and muttered her apologies every time.

Soon, the rocks Elred was talking about bled into view. Reeca's jaw loosened. The shard fairy was right. Rocks as tall as an estate and as thick as a mountain could house a covert organization. Border markers, huh? The vast expanse of sand and the blue line at the horizon must be Orayta, then. It would be impossible to tell the cities apart if not for these markers.

The sound of the waves was definitely louder now. What would it even feel like if they're in Orayta? "One thing doesn't make sense," Reeca squinted at one marker, noting the thin paint of orange algae coloring its dark surface. "How can they all fit in a rock? Surely their numbers aren't below a hundred people."

Elred nodded. "Oh, they're more than a thousand, at least," she followed Reeca's gaze and breathed. "Their shard fairies are good."

"What?"

"It's a simple illusion spell," Elred turned to Reeca once more and circled a finger in the air. "That and a little bit of spatial manipulation," Elred rolled her eyes. "It's not even the hardest of rysteme spells."

Reeca stopped in front of a marker and craned her neck to the sky, a hand over her eyes to shield them from the glaring sun. "So what now?"

Elred plucked a carpet of algae from the marker's surface. "We wait."

A pout shaped Reeca's lips as she crossed her arms and leaned against the rock. Where would the opening even be?

Three hours and four sandcastles later, Elred tapped Reeca's shoulder and jerked her chin at a marker to their right. Reeca drove her boot at her creations and turned to the direction Elred referred to. One of the markers' surface started rippling. Reeca knitted her eyebrows. What...?

A young girl not older than Marin stepped out of the rock carrying an empty basket woven from the fronds of the salvia tree. She wore a simple tunic with a red band on her sleeve, skirts, and a pair of sandals clipped on her feet. Elred glanced at Reeca and nodded.

It didn't make it any easier even after they talked about what they're going to do. Reeca summoned her sword from the spaces between her armor and pressed herself against the marker next to where the young girl emerged. She watched the girl disappear into the beach towards Orayta.

Reeca and Elred moved as if with a single mind. If they're going to corner this girl, they'd need to not be seen, first. The girl came back after a few minutes with her basket now full with fresh fish of different-colored scales still dripping of seawater. Elred flexed her fingers and a blanket of glass wrapped around Reeca's form.

Reeca lunged as the girl rounded the specific marker. The pommel of her sword found the girl's nape. Within a few seconds, they had an unconscious girl at their feet and a basket of fish.

Elred whistled as she prodded the girl's limp arm. "You didn't have to hit her that hard," she moved to turn the girl here and there, no doubt memorizing the details of the uniform.

Reeca hefted the basket and clicked her tongue when a drop of water stained her boots. The bark wouldn't like that. Should she have made it a waterproof weaving?

Within a few seconds, Elred looked like the girl they just knocked out and Reeca had the same uniform. What did her face even look like after Elred's tampering with glamour? Reeca shook her head. Worry about that later.

Reeca turned to Elred to find a toothy grin on the shard fairy's face. "It's showtime," Elred breathed.

Reeca clenched her jaw. Indeed, it was. There was no turning back now.