Briar's Bridge didn't smell like rot. That was the first thing that unsettled Victoria.
Cities that festered—truly festered—reeked of waste, of decay left too long in the sun. This place smelled of salt, iron, and damp stone. Trade. Labor. Life.
Too much life for what she was seeing.
The docks were crowded, but not loud. Ships sat idle longer than they should have. Cargo waited beneath tarps, guarded by men who looked more like debt collectors than soldiers. Merchants whispered instead of shouted. Coin passed hands slowly, reluctantly.
Controlled.
Victoria stopped in her tracks.
Elias took two more steps before noticing. He turned, confusion flickering across his face.
"Victoria?"
She didn't answer. Her gaze locked onto a sigil carved into a warehouse beam—half-scraped away, subtle enough to pass as wear. Three angled lines forming a broken crown.
Her breath caught.
No banners. No proclamations. No open show of force.
Just logistics.
Restricted shipping lanes. Selective tariffs. Grain seizures under the guise of emergency rationing. Knights reassigned from food routes to "public order."
She had seen this before.
Not in history books.
At home.
Her fingers curled into her palms, nails biting down as memory slammed into place with horrifying clarity—the way the capital markets had quieted weeks before the coup. How bakers vanished before nobles did. How riots were blamed on hunger instead of intent.
How a throne could be taken without ever drawing a blade.
Elias followed her line of sight. She felt his attention sharpen, his presence shifting from passive to alert.
"This symbol," she said, voice flat and distant. "It's not criminal."
She swallowed.
"It's administrative."
His brow furrowed.
"Meaning?"
She finally looked at him. She knew her expression had changed—she could feel it. The cold settling in her chest. The anger crystallizing into something sharper. Older.
"This city isn't sick," she realized.
"It's being starved."
- - -
I raised an eyebrow at her statement and took a better look around. For a city this large—one that supposedly housed thousands—it was too quiet. Not peaceful. Suppressed.
I looked back at Victoria. Her face was tight, twisted with emotions she hadn't decided how to sort through yet.
"How do you know that?" I asked.
Cities suffered all the time. If you didn't know where to look, finding the cause was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Victoria moved before I heard it. Shouting—near the docks. She was already ten paces ahead when I turned to follow.
- - -
The armor felt heavier than it should have.
Not because it was damaged—though it was—but because every dent carried the memory of something Ardyn hadn't stopped in time.
Briar's Bridge gleamed beneath the noon sun. Ships came in and barely went out. Merchants spoke in hushed voices. Guards stood at their posts like decorations.
The city was becoming something Ardyn didn't recognize.
What had once been lively now felt hollow—rotting from the inside out. His superiors turned blind eyes to money and power, and now that same game was tightening around his throat.
A crowd gathered near the docks.
Two people were yelling.
Ardyn groaned as he approached. Mana stirred in the air—volatile, emotional. He knew what he should do. He also knew that if he didn't act now, it would get worse.
He pushed through the crowd.
"If it weren't for your sales, I wouldn't be here!" the man shouted. "You promised profit! This place is dying!"
"Don't blame me for your incompetence!" the woman snapped back. "Plenty of merchants are thriving—you just don't know how to sell!"
"Enough," Ardyn said, raising a hand. "Break it up."
The woman sneered.
"Or what? Do you even have authorization for this?"
She knew the law.
She knew he couldn't touch her without paperwork.
Ardyn hesitated.
Lightning arced from her hands and detonated against a nearby crate.
Panic erupted.
People screamed. Bodies hit the ground. Groans followed as the crowd scattered, leaving wreckage behind.
"See?" a nearby guard muttered. "This is why we don't get involved. More trouble than it's worth."
"I just—" Ardyn started.
The words died in his throat.
Honor is action, his mentor's voice echoed. Protection is not permission.
Ardyn exhaled—
And felt it.
A ripple in the air.
Not modern magic. Too fluid. Too deliberate.
He turned.
They stood at the edge of the street.
The mage caught his eye first—young, composed. Purple glyphs faded around his hands like afterimages, as though the world itself had briefly bent for him. Not destructive. Contained.
Dangerous in a way Ardyn couldn't measure.
Beside him stood a red-haired woman, sharp-eyed and guarded, watching the docks like she was mapping every flaw in the city's bones.
The mage met Ardyn's gaze.
No judgment. No accusation.
Just understanding.
And somehow, that hurt the most.
Because Ardyn knew—knew—that if that mage had arrived five minutes earlier, someone wouldn't be bleeding.
- - -
"It looks like we got here after the interesting stuff happened." Victoria sighed, turning around.
My eyes lingered on the soldier that stared at me for a little longer before turning and following Victoria.
"You wanted to see that whole thing play out?" I asked, confused.
"I like seeing people's true nature come out when these sorts of things arise." Victoria brushed her hair and stopped. She turned to look at me and folded her arms together, narrowing her eyes. "I can't wait to see yours."
"You say that like you're just observing something that's inevitable when it could never happen."
"It's just a matter of time… like this place." Victoria motioned.
My eyes flicked to the sky. Dark clouds were coming in and something about this place felt off. Whether that was because of Victoria's cryptic comments or that soldier's eyes, I really couldn't tell.
"We need to continue East, right?" Victoria asked. "Should we secure passage on a ship?"
"A storm's coming soon and it looks like no one's going to be moving anytime soon after that fiasco. Let's find lodging first." I glanced around before choosing a random direction. "We can ask when the next ship out is afterwards."
It took us awhile to find a sleeping accommodation, partly because Victoria didn't like it or it was too sketchy for me. Finally, we landed on the Heritage Inn. It was at the edge of the more rich part of the city yet close enough to the docks and the nearby guild building to secure information.
"Welcome to Heritage Inn! Will you be staying with us today?" The staff member asked.
"Yes, two rooms, please." I replied.
"We don't need two rooms." Victoria said. "One's enough."
"You sure?" I looked at her. Everything screamed to me she was from a wealthy background based on how she dressed and how she commented on every accommodation before this one.
"Yes, we'll just have one." She told both myself and the innkeeper.
"Alright, that'll be fifteen silvers." The innkeeper smiled.
I pulled out a gold coin and set it on the table. The innkeeper pulled out five silvers and handed it to me before reaching below the counter to grab the room key.
"You'll be in Room 204. Dinner isn't for another five hours. If you'll be in your room until then, I can arrange someone to fetch you."
"That's alright." I answered. "We got some errands to run, but thank you though."
The innkeeper pressed their lips together, almost like it was forced, and nodded. "You have a wonderful stay."
"Thank you." I nodded, grabbing the key and heading up the stairs.
"What else are we doing in this place?" Victoria asked once we were out of earshot.
"Besides checking when the next ship East is going to be, I want to check the Guild for any odd jobs while we're here." I replied.
"There's something odd about the city. I don't like it. We should leave as soon as possible."
I couldn't help but agree with her statement. Something felt… bothersome about this place. My curiosity was growing as I found our room and unlocked it.
The room was definitely on the higher end. A desk with paper, ink and a quill with a golden feather. Two bookcases flanked each side of the desk with an assortment of books, the wall had wallpaper on it with a neutral color and a red and gold rug in the middle of the room. I turned to look at the other side of the room and noticed one large bed and a sofa at the foot of the bed where a coffee table with desserts were placed.
"You can have the bed," I told Victoria as I spun on my heels and headed for the door. "I'll take the sofa."
"You're not going to rest?" Victoria asked.
"I'm going to have a look around. Do you want to come?"
"Not really. I think I'd rather stay here and rest after all that walking."
"Alright." I stopped in my tracks, remembering something. I snapped my fingers and turned around, pulling out from my sub-space inventory a small pearl. "Take this." I handed it to Victoria.
She took one look at it and then at me. "What's this?"
"It's like sending parchment but in pearl form. There isn't any charges on the pearl but it only goes to its other matching half." I pulled out one out of my subspace and raised it up. "If we need to talk to each other, let's talk through these pearls."
"Alright." Victoria nodded. She lifted the pearl up and tilted her head. "You couldn't have put this one some sort of… bracelet or necklace for an easier time?"
"I didn't think about it then because I was secretly making these but you do have a good point." I stuffed my pearl in my pocket. "I'll find some both of us when I'm out. Anything else?"
"No." Victoria shook her head. "Honestly, I'm dying to see if a place like this has a private bathroom. Haven't had the luxury of that in ages. I'll let you… do your thing."