Agonising over money, Flo is chucking his only 6 shards into the air and catching them in a repeated motion whilst walking down a sparsely populated street.
Finally overcoming his own thoughts he taps the shards against his necklace and let them be consumed:
[Job – Adventurer
Currency – 6 Shards 0 Sols 0 Eclipse Shards (Owes 35 shards to Blake Hospital to be paid within 29 sunrises)
Life Core Element – Blood
Weapon Body – Gun Body
Current Level – Beginner Gun Body
Innate Body – Unknown
Realm – 1st Stage of Iron Core Gathering Realm
Realm Stabilisation – 0
Companion – None
Location – Brimnar City
Date – 13th sunrise of summer of year 4032]
The sun began to set and an orange hue covered the city of Brimnar.
Florian began to look around, trying to find a nice place to sleep but the search is much harder than it seems.
After a long amount of time aimlessly wandering, he found a housing agency.
“Yes, what can I do for you today sir?” A kind male worker asks.
“Could I find a cheap place to rent out?”
“What’s your budget?”
“15 shards a month and no up-front payment.”
The corners of the workers smile faltered slightly at that request:
“I’ll do my best for you, sir.”
After a while of the worker’s eyes flickering through hundreds of pages he passes three pages to Flo.
“These are three separate accommodations that meet your criteria.
This first one here is a small bedroom above an antique shop, the toilet is the one shared with the shop, there is no kitchen or any other rooms except from the shop, bedroom and shared toilet.
No bath or shower, is that fine or is this one ruled out?”
Flo looks at the price entirely ignoring the salesman, “10 shards,” he muttered under his breath.
He looks at the picture at a cozy antique shop and makes a slight decision.
“This one’s fine.”
“Let me show you the other two which are even better.” Flo’s hands grip the desk a bit tighter than before.
The worker, not noticing this carried on, “This one here is only slightly above yours price range at 25 shards per month but it comes with a full bathroom and bedroom and a communal kitchen.
It is in an apartment block at the eastern side of the city center.”
Flo looked at the photo and it was a nicely carved wooden building with fresh flowers nicely trimmed at the front entrance and the building itself seemed rather large with two floors.
“If you choose this option, you will be sharing it with three other people but your bedroom and bathroom are completely separate with only the kitchen and hallways being shared.”
“It’s fine, what about the last option?”
Finally the salesman puts the last option from the three papers on top for Flo’s viewing.
This time there was no picture, only a few lines of description.
This place—just 5 shards.
“As you can read, it’s a small shed by the side of Heckler’s Restaurant in the western part of the city.
This one isn’t actually supposed to be rented to live in but you can if you want but I most advise the second option as it is the best for an extremely cheap price,” the salesman tone becoming strangely uplifted by the end of his speech.
After some deliberating and shuffling of the papers, Flo made his final decision:
“I’ll take the fir-”
“We can also go see them in person and really explore how much better number two is.”
The paper in Flo’s hand slightly crinkled.
“I will take the first one, thank you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very sure.”
The worker having to finally give up his chase on the poor Flo walked him to his new place.
The sun has now fully set; the moon is yet to rise but the stars are hovering high in the sky.
“Here we are.”
They now stood directly in front of the shop.
A large, almost scarf-like cloth wrapped around the top of the shop around the cornice, royalty in colour with the simple word antique written on it in a fancy font and embedded into the cloth with gold fabric.
A cozy lantern decorated the outside of the shop hanging on the cornice, releasing warmth around the shop’s entrance.
The worker opened the door and a silver bell at the top of the door let out a small welcoming jingle.
The items were all separated into square boxes along the wall of the shop with a large empty space in the middle and with a purple carpet along the ground.
“Ah, good evening, are you here for the bedroom, Jack?”
“Yes, this is the person who wants to rent it.”
New knowledge of the salesman’s name came to Flo as Jack displayed him to the elderly man like a product that never sells.
The old man gets up from his chair, his beige hat slipping off his gray hair and dropping onto the desk.
There eyes met, the old man’s dull grey pupils welcoming Florian, as he reached out his arm for a handshake he speaks to Flo:
“My name is Biland but most just call me Bil.”
“Florian.”
“Let me take you to your room.”
Bil withdraws his arm and turns walking to a small opening at the end of the shelves to the left wall of the shop where some stairs are.
“You do know of the price, right, it’s ten shards a month.” He states as they begin to walk up the stairs with Jack following behind.
Directly at the top of the stairs is a door which leads to the bedroom.
Bil forces the door open and it needs a few tries before it goes, but it finally flies open revealing the room covered in dust.
Bil stands to the side and lets Flo walk in first.
At the very back of the small room lies a circular window which faces directly into a plain wall of the next building over.
Straight to the left of the room’s entrance is a small closet and next to the closet is the single bed with only one sheet on it and wooden legs that seem to be nearing their end.
By the side of the bed and under the window lies a bedside stand with two drawers and the top being completely empty.
The entire right side of the room is bare and also very small as the roof intervenes, making a slightly tilted rectangular shape.
“This is fine, I guess.”
“Then let’s sign the contract.” Jack replies.
After a short while more of going over the thin piece of paper, Flo puts the feather quilt to paper and signs his name on the contract which simply states a few rules and to pay 10 shards a month or get kicked out.
“Have a good night.” Jack left the shop and Flo hopes to never see him again.
“I will be going to my room now and I will pay the 10 shards in a few days’ time.”
“That’s all good to me then.”
Flo entered the bedroom and shut the door.
“Peace and tranquility.”
Flo dived into the bed as calmness finally radiated on his figure but ended as soon as he made contact with the mattress, dust captured his whole body and the room.
A few hours of cleaning later.
Finally, Flo put his head down against the pillow in a much cleaner bedroom stripped of his clothes and weapons.
His plink remaining around his neck and only a light top and pants covering his body.
Flo leaned over just barely to look down the window to see an alleyway.
It was empty, very empty except for one boy, maybe 8/9/10.
The boy took his time walking down the alleyway until he stopped and looked directly to the right of him, the building opposite Flo but there was only a brick wall there.
Well, that was what Flo thought until he vanished.
The only thing Flo saw was the boy turn towards the wall, there was no action or movement by the boy, he didn’t touch the wall or do anything, he simply vanished.
What Flo didn’t see was the words that the boy muttered just before he vanished.
Not bothering to do anything about it now, Flo fell asleep in absolute silence.
The next morning, woken up by the clattering and habitual speaking of customers, Flo’s head was flat against the floor, his ear being the reason as to why.
“Some adventurers came back yesterday, screaming their bloody heads off about the Sun Cult being in Greywood Forest,” a slightly scratchy voice echoed through the floor.
Then a somewhat familiar voice replied:
“Didn’t they take over Northfly a few days back?” A mumbly Bil replied.
“Yeaaaah, but Northfly’s a small village with mead as their protection, we’ll be fine and even if we aren’t the King will get us out.”
…
At the northern edge of Greywood Forest.
Hundreds of white with red and golden decorations were built, even more still being built at the furthest corners of the camp.
In the middle was a large wooden pole and on top of it was an emblem of the sun being cuddled by their God.
A no-name God but a supposed God nonetheless.
The god was made of a white clay and is draped in only plain cloth.
Long hair flowed down his well chiselled chest.
His gaze set not on the sun but on the ground.
A chair lay on the platform at the very bottom of the pole and a sleeping man installed onto it.
A disturbance was caused in the camp but seemed to only awaken the lower standing members of the camp.
A girl was the cause.
A girl we have met before.
Catherine was dragged before the man in the chair.