The Keeper's Codex: Ashen Memories

by A. D. Wills

  “I think I'll give it a shot,” Shyn replied, looking ahead with excitement behind his concealing garb.

  Not a shred of nerves or fear lingered in Shyn. His body buzzed from the roar of the crowd creeping down the tunnel—stomping their feet, clapping, and whistling down in urging them out until he and Ackar emerged in the arena to full blown chants, and cheers.

  “Suit yourself. At least this'll be quick,” Ackar snarled, and took his place across from Shyn int he grassy arena.

  Lorin raised his arm up high in the air, bating everyone's breath for a stretched out moment, and threw it down in signaling the first bout to begin.

  Ackar charged ahead at the drop of Lorin's arm, holding true to his gloating of ending it early. Despite his massive hammer, it didn't slow Ackar's building momentum like a big boulder rolling down a mountain.

  Shyn remained calm and still, examining Ackar's armor for any openings he might be able to exploit in the few fleeting moments before Ackar would surely flatten him.

  “Guess he gave up after all that talk,” Ackar grunted to himself, planting his front foot forward, and using every bit of his immense strength to hurl his hammer down—sending a beating, echoing crack throughout the area, as if it shattered the very air around it.

  Ackar slammed his maul down, and huge cloud of dust erupted in a plume that climbed nearly halfway up the arena walls.

  The crowd coughed up what dust blasted in their face. Everyone was sure Shyn would have been crushed to bits from that, but they couldn't see a thing, and neither could Lorin to declare the match one way or another.

  Within the blinding cloud of dust, a loud shout of anguish could be heard, and as the dust settled, the crowd saw Ackar, not Shyn, down on his hands and knees.

  Ackar gritted down on his teeth, smacking his fist down on the arena ground in pain and frustration, while Shyn stood by. He didn't have any reason to be on guard any longer. He knew Ackar was finished.

  None of them got a good look at what happened to Ackar, but soon saw the blood pouring from beneath his seemingly impenetrable armor. Stranger, there was one neat gash that cut right through to the other side of Ackar's leg, but there wasn't any way Shyn's short dagger could have pierced so deep. More than anything though, they were all a tad annoyed they didn't get to see any of it.

  “With Ackar incapacitated, the victor is Shyn!” Lorin called the match the moment he noticed Ackar's grievous looking wounds, and signaled for the capable healers to come out and tend to him.

  “I didn't hit any vital areas,” Shyn told the rushing healers

  The healers nodded in affirmation, surprised Shyn was right, he had avoided all serious fatal wounds in a clean, precise manner.

  “Hold it...” Ackar stopped the healers while blood poured through the initial bandaging. “Now that I know you're not some runt...I want a rematch after all this. I'll give ya this one....but—” Ackar cut himself off letting a loud wince. “I'll get you next time. I won't underestimate you,” Ackar said with a competitive eager grin, as Shyn earned his respect.

  “I look forward to it. I'm sure you won't make the same mistake twice.” Shyn knew that while arrogant, Ackar was certainly formidable and worth his respect.

  Shyn was more than happy with winning already, but at the same time, the worry of facing Aldriss next sank in. After such a short bout, he didn't get close to the fill he was hoping to get. In the end though, I didn't have to reveal anything unnecessary to Calaera... Shyn conceded the lone silver lining.

  He's going to have to reveal something eventually, Calaera thought, peering down from the booth.

  Chapter 8: Caden

  Caden, Sappo, and Snillrik marched through the worn down streets in the slums of Tortsia. Everything about it looked entirely different, and completely forgotten except by those who live here who wished they had such a luxury of forgetting. Buildings chipped, and covered in mold. The cobblestone streets unmaintained, uneven and full of potholes. Not to mention, barely any shops for supplies or food anywhere to be seen. Only a couple of little makeshift stands that looked like a mild gust would blow them over.

  “About our food supply...” Snillrik brought up.

  “Oh yeah, we're all out, right Sappo?” Caden asked to make sure.

  “Well, we're not out, but we won't last that much longer,” Sappo cleared up.

  “Here, take this then and get what you can.” Caden tossed over the rest of the coin.

  Snillrik fumbled around, barely managing to catch Caden's errant throw. “I'm not so sure all of this is required.”

  “No worries, just give them the rest. Not like we need it anyway. We're gonna make a bunch of it with this contract we get...probably,” Caden brushed off any concern, though with a parting pause.

  “Very well, I'll meet you two once we're done then,” Snillrik motioned to peel off from the trio, and toward a nearby food-stand while Caden and Sappo made their way toward the Guild around the corner.

  There wasn't exactly a lot of variety for Snillrik to choose from. They only saw one stand partially filled with food, run my one woman behind it, so they headed there.

  “Can I help you?” A frail woman asked with dry frizzy hair, and a tired looking smile she tried forcing.

  “Yes, do you have any food for sale?” Snillrik asked with a bit of a somber tone. Just looking at her made them feel awful.

  “Of course, but we don't have any fresh meat. We have sticky bread, apples, and some dried meat though.” She turned to present a table stocked with mostly stunted apples, seemingly stale sticky bread, and dried meat that looked even darker than normal.

  “May I ask how much for it all?”

  Her eyes shot open. “I'm...I'm not sure,” She stumbled over her words, turning to count her product up and add it together, but no one had ever bought this much in one go before.

  “Would this be enough?” Snillrik pulled out all the coin Caden gave them.

  “Y-Yes, that's more than enough. But you don't need to give me this much...”

  “It's fine, really. This is my friend's coin anyway, and he told me to spend it,” Snillrik insisted, and handed the coin over, putting it on the table between them both. “Please.”

  “...Thank you...” Was all she could mutter out with shaky hands taking the sack of coin.

  Meanwhile, Caden and Sappo stepped inside the two-story adventurer's guild, hoping it to be a little bit more inspiring inside, but it wasn't any better than its bland, and dreary exterior. Not a shred of wonder to it.

  It wasn't anything like the stories Caden heard as a child where it would be filled with adventurer's partying, enjoying each other's company, exchanging stories from their latest contract. Nothing. All he and Sappo were met with, a smoke filled room that reeked of booze, with nothing but dust covered tables and chairs, and an empty board where contracts would usually be posted. It looked all but abandoned, if not for the three drunkards who looked oddly well dressed in fancy clothes, looking to be gambling away at a table together, and a hooded—seemingly asleep—patron in the far corner of the room keeping to themselves.

  “At least it's kinda Caden joked, but the disappointment seeped through.

  “Maybe we should be quick like Daunton was saying...” Sappo mentioned, pointing toward the tilted contract board. The moment he walked in, the three at the table stared over at him, snickering under their breath while Caden's attention was elsewhere.

  “There's no way all the contracts could've been taken up. I'm gonna take a quick look over there just to see if the guild-master left anything they forgot to post or something like that.” Caden pointed out a small empty booth.

  Sappo stood in front of the empty contract board. There wasn't anything else to do with Caden off in the booth on his own, and he wanted to seem busy to the drunks. More than anything else, Sappo just wanted to leave as soon as they could, and every passing moment dragged on.

  “Look, that freak is just staring at the board as though something will magically p
op up,” one of the drunkards purposely spoke loud enough for Sappo to hear.

  “I wonder what an Ursine is doing all the way out here anyway,” another one of them wondered.

  “Who knows, probably just got rid of him. Doesn't look like a whole lot is going on up there after all,” they continued to berate Sappo, throwing shading daggers in his back. “They're supposed to be strong, right? They probably just got rid of the runt of the litter or something.”

  Sappo clenched up, telling himself to ignore them, but their words invaded his mind with ease. He looked over at the booth where he saw Caden rummaging around, and tried to will him to hurry up so they could leave.

  Distracted by his own internal wishes to leave, drilling them in his head over and over, Sappo didn't notice the three drunks get up, and approach him from behind.

  “Look, he doesn't even notice we're here. Maybe he was born with more beast in him." One of them poked Sappo's thick fur.

  Sappo turned around in shock, and saw himself surrounded by the three of them. Even though he was bigger than all of them, he felt so insignificant and small in comparison. Usually he could walk away with his head down in silence, but he couldn't get out of this, not without confrontation. He just hoped to ride it out and take it, just like he was used to.

  “I bet this fur of his would fetch us a pretty bit of coin if we sold it, and Father would be impressed with the find,” one of them felt around Sappo's fur.

  “Nah, he'd probably rather have him as another pet, or something to look at while he eats dinner. He loves rare weird things like this to collect,” another laughed, looking a terrified Sappo up and down.

  “Pet? It doesn't even do anything. I bet it doesn't even know what's going on right now. It's just standing there like a fool. We may as well just find a dead trophy if all it'll do is stand around.”

  “P-Please, can I get by...” Sappo finally spoke up, albeit barely, and with his head down. It took every bit of his will just to even speak up that much.

  “So it speaks!” One of them taunted as they all cackled in unison. “We could maybe teach it some tricks after all.”

  None of the three bothered to move an inch for Sappo to get by, and his own paranoid thoughts ran rampant with regrets of speaking up at all—further coiling into a ball of vulnerability, backing into the empty board.

  “Hey, what's going on here, Sappo?” Caden emerged from the booth, after what seemed to be an awkward eternity to Sappo. All Caden knew was seeing the same dejected look on Sappo's face just like when he first met him. “So what's the deal? What're you three talking to my friend about?”

  “Your friend?” One of them laughed outright in Caden's face.

  Caden stood firm—staring right back at them. “Ya, that's right, what's so funny about that?”

  Sappo nudged Caden, hoping to leave without any confrontation. “Come on, we should probably get going, and meet back with Snillrik...”

  “You know, you shouldn't lead this thing on like that—saying he's your friend. He might look even more pathetic than he does right now when you get sick of being around something as useless as that. The novelty eventually wears off, no matter how exotic they are, trust me."

  “What do you know?” Caden continued with a fire in his eyes. “I don't care what you guys have to say. I mean, why should I care what a few failed adventurers have to say anyway?”

  “Failed? Looks like we have a hell of a lot more accomplishments than some rookie,” One of them planted is tongue in cheek, infuriated that their taunts bounced off Caden without effect.

  “Kissing the Baron's ass, and hogging contracts you never do don't count.” Caden leaned forward, nearly pressing his face against the one in front of him. “If you've got anything else to say, say it to me. Say whatever you want to make yourselves feel like real adventurers. I don't care. But I won't ever let anyone tear my friends down. It doesn't matter who it is.”

  “Do you have any idea who we are, kid?” One of them seethed through his perfect teeth.

  “Why should I care?” Caden asked.

  “We're three of the Baron's sons, if you mess with us, you're as good as dead. Cyrus, Bentan, and Horace,” Cyrus pointed to himself and his two brothers with smarmy grins.

  “So? Far as I know, you're no better than us. Just because you three are sons of that Baron, doesn't mean you can snatch up all those contracts, and it doesn't mean you can push around anyone you want.”

  “No, that's exactly what it means. Whatever the Baron says and does is law, which means we may as well be part of that law too, so get used to it. Going against the Baron, you may as well be spitting on the Divines themselves.” Bentan cracked his knuckles, and pulled out a posh jeweled dagger.

  “Maybe we should show him the difference in our status—take his hand to teach him a lesson,” Horace rubbed his own dagger, eager to cut Caden up.

  “We'll just say they put their filthy hands on us out of nowhere. It's not like anyone would believe you over us, and even if they did, we'd just do the same to them. Let this teach you to learn the lay of the land before entering it,” Cyrus looked to be enjoying every moment of this.

  “You're ruining every adventurer's name just sitting here, doing stuff like this. I bet you've never even been in a dungeon before, or even seen a rare beast. I bet you don't even leave this city ever," said Caden.

  “You're just a naive rookie whose wishful thinking is blinding him full of confidence. What, you thought it'd be all rainbows and ponies out in the world? That you can just do whatever you want adventuring around? Whoever told you those stories doesn't know shit,” Cyrus had enough, and crept closer.

  Caden punched Cyrus square in his jaw, knocking him back onto the dirty floor.

  Bentan and Horace looked back in shock and awe. Never has anyone ever lifted so much as a finger toward them before.

  "Don't ever talk about them like that," Caden's eyes wide, focused and enraged like Sappo hadn't seen yet. "Just watch! You'll hear about us one day while you're still sitting here, lying about all the things you've never actually done. You can bet on that.”

  Sappo finally straightened his back, hearing Caden. Just as when he first met him, Sappo felt this strange sense around Caden—something he couldn't put his finger on. Whatever it was, it was assuring.

  “I'm sick and tired of this kid's bullshit!” An incensed Cyrus lunged up from the floors, about to plunge his dagger down into Caden.

  Just in time, the hooded person in the corner sprang up, and came between Cyrus and Caden.

  “Do you have a death wish?” The hooded one scolded Caden and Sappo, while remaining concealed, and held their broad claymore up, shielding Sappo and Caden from the three brothers' daggers.

  “Whoa, how did you do that? I didn't even see you coming!” Caden said in sparkly-eyed awe.

  “Just shut up, and get out of here already, or I'll let them get through,” they said back to Caden and Sappo.

  Caden remained impressed, so Sappo took it upon himself to pull Caden away to finally get him to run. “Let's go Caden, we can't help right now,” Sappo said.

  “Will you be alright?” Caden stopped to turn and ask the hooded defender.

  “You'll be the ones who need help if you linger,” they bluntly spoke, seemingly tempted to let the brothers at both Caden and Sappo.

  “Thanks then! We owe you one,” Caden shouted back and waved a naive farewell.

  “You're not getting off like that. Bentan, go after them, we'll take this fool to the Baron when we're done with those three,” Cyrus ordered.

  Bentan went to sprint off after Caden and Sappo, but the hooded person stuck out their leg to sweep up Bentan, knocking himself out as he violently crashed onto the floor face first.

  After one last sneaking gaze, Caden finally darted out with an impatient Sappo, who held the door open for Caden, willing him to hurry.

  As chaotic as it was inside the guild, they had the advantage of no one else outside knowing about it, a
t least for now. Even so, they tried their best to not act too out of the ordinary in full on sprint in case they were stopped for questioning.

  “Snill, come on, we've gotta go.” Caden speed walked up to Snillrik, looking back at the doors with Sappo—the two of them noticeably in a bit of a panicking rush.

  “Oh yes, one moment, I just need to gather up the remaining bit of food,” Snillrik calmly continued packing everything up with the help of the woman.

  “Oh, are these the friends you mentioned?” She asked.

  “Yep, we're them,” Caden flashed a hurried smile over Snill's shoulder.

  “Thank you, I'm in your debt,” She thanked Caden directly.

  “Don't worry about it,” Caden had completely forgotten what she was even referring to.

  “Here, let us help carry it, it'll be quicker that way,” Sappo suggested, as he and Caden both jumped in to lend a hand—bundling up and carrying as much as they could in either of their arms.

  “Is everything alright?” Snillrik asked.

  “We might've gotten into a little bit of trouble...” Caden leaned in to mutter in Snillrik's ear, so as to not alarm the woman who they didn't want to drag into this.

  “...How much, may I ask?” Snillrik gathered the last bit of food.

  “Enough to have to leave the city right now,” Sappo emphasized, and pulled Snillrik away from the stand to hasten their escape.

  “Take care, and good luck in your travels!” The woman sent them off.

  The three of them tried to act as calm and cool as possible going through the streets on their way back to the entrance. So far, no one looked their way, just like before. Everything was going well, despite Sappo's obvious nervous look that reeked of suspicion. When they neared the gambling house however, a commotion started to build up from behind.

  “Seize them, those three, seize them all!” One of the guards screamed out to anyone who might help slow Caden and the others down.