-Pyr’ra-
Kuro, to his own surprise, woke up before Jarou. Usually when hunting as a group with their mentors, he woke up last. He considered waking Jarou up, but the red-haired boy looked so peaceful he decided against it. He went downstairs and found Rel cooking breakfast in the common area they’d met in the night before. He moved in the sluggish way characteristic of a person who had too much to drink the night before.
Vel was sitting at the table, watching him with head propped up on one arm. She had a fond look on her face, that combined with a slightly mischievous smile. She turned her head as Kuro noisily pulled a chair out. Her green eyes were piercing, her pupils keen, narrow slits as he sat down. “Good morning Kuro,” She said in a happy tone, “Sorry I didn’t get the chance to greet ya last night. How have things been? How’s ol’ ‘Roskie doin?”
‘Roskie? Kuro hadn’t really heard anybody call his mentor by such a cute nickname before. He couldn’t imagine anybody saying something like that in his presence - not without getting hit for it, anyway. “Things have been good, and Oroske is doing well. How about you, Vel?”
“Oh, you remember my name! I wasn’t sure you would, we’ve only really met once since your revival last year.” Her eyes lit up at the revelation. For someone he was quite certain was close to Oroske in age, she was quite pretty. She took better care of herself than most Hunters, that was for sure. Her deep brown hair was a modest length, barely past her shoulders, and kept neat in a low tail, and she kept her cloak and button-up shirts cleanly pressed. Few Hunters could hold a candle to her in how proper they acted. “Things are good, things are good. They’ll be better once Rel finishes up my breakfast.” She giggled in a way befitting someone much younger than her.
“I didn’t take him for much of a cook, to be honest.” Kuro said, returning her smile.
“He’s shockingly good at it, but he cooking for other people. He lost pretty badly last night, so he has to make breakfast for the entire lodge.”
“For How many people are here right now, anyways? I saw most of the rooms were taken on the third floor.”
She took a moment, counting on her fingers, silently mouthing names as she went. “Like, twenty? We’ve got a handful of Blues with their mentors. Probably only like ten will be here for breakfast, though. A lot of the Hunters staying here right now either work early in the morning, or late at night. Some, like Teril, stay here and take care of stuff in the area around town. He got the first serving of breakfast earlier before taking off to take care of some Sigils, or something.”
“I see. Still, that’s a lot of people to feed.”
Vel chuckled again, “Sure is. Lucky for Rel, today’s a day off. He might have a meeting or two, but at least he doesn’t need to be doing stuff around the city all day.”
As she was finishing, Rel turned from the kitchen, and brought over two plates, each covered in a surprising quantity of food, and quite the variety too. “Heard you two talking, so here’s both of your breakfasts.” He turned to Kuro, and seeing him face to face, he could see how tired the older man was beneath his soft smile. “I take it Jarou won’t be far behind?”
Kuro nodded, “Probably, usually he wakes up long before I do.”
“Good, I’ll make his and mine next, then. I think that’ll cover everyone I’m expecting for breakfast.”
“So few?” Kuro asked, though Rel was already half-way back to the kitchen.
Vel answered for him, “You two are the last two he’s expecting. Between the two of us, though, I think we might have a couple of surprise arrivals.” She winked, and began eating her food. Was she referring to Oroske and Nadred? The two were supposed to be somewhere nearby while he and Jarou took their test, but true to Oroske’s word he had no idea where they were.
Kuro followed suit, and began eating. There was a wonderful variety of staple Human Realm breakfast foods: toasted bread, fried eggs, and hotcakes. He was surprised at how good everything was. All of the food was very simple in nature - and hard to mess up, from what he’d been told - but they still tasted far better than usual. Did Rel have some sort of secret to his cooking? It was the only thing that made sense.
Jarou wordlessly sat at the table when Kuro was about half-way done with his food. The other blue cloak yawned quietly as Rel brought over another two plates of food. Kuro had been so focused on his food, he hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings until the other boy arrived. He was surprised to find that Vel had already practically cleaned her plate off, and she was teasing Rel by taking small pieces off of his plate while he sat down. Rel fended her off as best as he could, but eventually gave up and let her eat some of his food. He had more than any of the other plates had, making Kuro wonder if this was a common occurrence.
Kuro finished his food, and waited silently for Jarou to eat as well. It was fascinating to watch as he gradually became more awake as he ate, slowly reviving from a zombie-like state to a functioning person over the course of a few minutes.
Once finished, they threw on their cloaks and prepared to get to work. “So,” Kuro started the conversation, “Where do you think we should go first?”
“Sen’anum’s house is the closest to us, you probably haven’t seen them since the Peace Party last year, right?” Jarou offered.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Yeah. Alright, do you know the way?” The idea of seeing Raen again excited Kuro. The young Lord had been kind to him during their trip to and from Ish’din last Fyr’ra. Jarou nodded as he took the lead.
Kuro was not prepared for the temperature shift, nor the piercing wind that came in through Pilgrim’s Gate. The previous day had been a little chilly, but today was outright cold. They were nearing the end of the first month of Pyr’ra, and throughout the last week the weather had been becoming colder very quickly. This happened the previous year, but it still shocked Kuro how quickly they’d gone from pleasant weather that was neither too hot nor cold, to weather that was much too cold for his tastes. He was excited to get his new Cloak after this Hunt. He’d submitted two designs for his black cloak: one for the heat, and one for the cold. That should, he hoped, help a lot during this winter.
Royal City had a fairly simple layout, strikingly similar to Tsumi’din, with a major road in each of the cardinal and intercardinal directions, and rings connecting those roads to form blocks. Unlike Tsumi’din, Royal City was by no means a circular city. Once you made it farther North and South, that structure started to fall apart. Buildings also became much smaller, and more spread apart. There was a surprising amount of empty space between the furthest buildings and the city wall, leaving plenty of room for expansion.
The trip to Raen’s home was short, and mostly had them following the main road they’d entered the city on. They finally turned off at the second ring from the center, and Jarou indicated the second house on their left as their destination.
Kuro hadn’t known what to expect a Lord’s house to look like, yet he was still surprised at its impressive size. The one mansion actually seemed to be three separate buildings combined into one, each with a distinctive style and a different size. The middle section was the largest by far, stretching up to four stories and even spilling over the other two. Jarou explained the center part of the structure was the most recently built, and acts as the Lord’s home, housing him and his family. The building on the left, the smallest of the three, a beige brick-and-mortar building, was the oldest and was used to house the Nobles that were currently serving in-house. It was fully equipped with several bedrooms, a large kitchen, and plenty of space for general living.
The building on the right, which Jarou predicted was where they’d actually find the Lord today, serves as the Lord’s office building. It was a blue building made largely from wood, and had several large windows. It provided a nice contrast from the main building, which had a faded red color, and while there were many windows, they were much smaller.
All of this was encapsulated in a yard surrounded by a short, stone brick fence, with a metal gate centered on the main building. Jarou confidently opened the gate and casually walked through. “You seem to know a lot about this place,” Kuro commented, shocked he’d let himself in so easily.
“Yeah, back before the embassy was built, I’d stay here or at one of the other Lord’s homes whenever the Guardians summoned me here. I’d usually be with the Nobles, though in Raen’s case, they have more bedrooms than family members, so they let me stay in one of those rooms.” He explained, walking up to the front door and knocking loudly.
A portly woman with a kind face, and smooth brown hair opened the door. “Oh, Jarou! Welcome back, what can we do for you?”
“Hello, Jiis,” He greeted, “Is the Lord around today? We were hoping to meet with him.”
“He is, he’s over in his office,” Jiis said, “Would you like me to go get him?”
“No, that’s alright, we can go to him.” Jarou waved a farewell, which Kuro copied, before walking off. The taller boy led them to the front door of the office section, and didn’t even bother knocking before walking in.
The door led into a comfortable space, with soft blue walls and plush grey carpet. There was a reception desk, where a young man with dark skin and soft features sat, scratching at his thick, curly, black hair while looking at a piece of paper in front of him. It took Jarou saying “Excuse me,” to get him to peel his attention away from the paper.
“Oh, sorry. Welcome to the offices of Lord Sen’anum. What can I do for the two of you?” The man said in a soft, yet surprisingly deep voice.
“We were hoping to speak with the Lord, it’s Hunter business.” Despite them both being in their uniform cloaks, Jarou still fished his pendant out from under his shirt to display it. That had become standard practice, after an incident a few months before where someone was found to be impersonating a Hunter.
“Oh, alright. I don’t think he’s in any meetings today, let me see if I can get him for you. Wait here a moment, please.” The boy got up and walked to the area behind the desk, which was separated by a divider that only went three-quarters to the ceiling.
A few short moments later, he returned, along with a familiar man dressed in an ornate coat. “Oh, Jarou, I was wondering who it might be. It’s good to see you,” The man said with a kind smile. He turned to look at Kuro, “And Kuro is here too! A pleasant surprise. What can I do for the two of you?” It seemed Raen had grown taller in the past year, and had grown out his pinkish hair a considerable amount as well. He had the top part slicked back and had the back tied into a small tail.
“We were hoping to ask some questions about the Necromancer that is reportedly targeting one of the Lords,” Kuro spoke before Jarou could. He didn’t want to default to simply being present, like he often did with Oroske. when they were talking to one of the most powerful people in Spire.
Raen’s expression shifted, seeming contemplative. “Ahh, that. I hate to break it to you, but I don’t really have any information to give you. My house has been very busy recently, trying to figure out the budget for some major construction projects we’re going to be starting this next year. Besides not having time to do any investigating, I’m frankly not cut out for that kind of work. Some of the more militaristic Noble families in my employ may be, but most of them are like I am, with our eyes on finance and statistics.
“If I may, I have some suggestions for you might want to speak to first. If you plan to speak to all of the Lords and Ladies, I would certainly recommend speaking with the eldest, Rel Er’anum, and third child Aes Ten’anum. Aes and his house specialize in investigations and policing, so it’s very possible they have the most information out of anyone. Rel’s house may not have any particular specialization, but the man himself tends to keep an ear to the ground where the other Lords are concerned. I would wager good money that he probably knows the most about incident concerning the Lords.”
“Thank you, Raen,” Jarou said.
“Of course, sorry again I couldn’t be of more help. You boys should be in town for a few days, right? If you get the chance, you should come by for dinner. We always make more than enough for unexpected guests.”
“We’ll have to take you up on that offer for sure,” Jarou said with a wide smile, “If you get any more information, send it to the embassy, will you?”
“Can do. Be safe out there!”
The group said their farewells, and Kuro and Jarou were back on the road. “Where to next?” Kuro asked.
“I don’t love the idea of dealing with Ten’anum right now, so I vote we go to Er’anum for now.” Jarou said. Kuro agreed to the idea, and once again Jarou led the way there.
