The others had caught the dust in their throats as they began backing away for a clearer view. Citizens scurried back home, and the heavy steps of soldiers came from everywhere.
"So you were also caught?" A familiar voice spoke.
Between her and the officers stood a man ready to battle it out with white, crystalline skin. His body was built upon carats, edges where there should have been curves, and light caught him like a jewel. He was tall, structured — like someone had carved a statue.
And what was truly fascinating was the fact that he had no face to speak of, only two vibrant eyes.
"Salty?"
Her brow rose — everything began to make sense.
The reason he spoke like a depressed man who had never felt any valuable emotions, or even someone acting like they were the coldest person in the world, void of any feelings. It made sense!
Salty wasn't even human to begin with!
"You told me that you've traversed through the body for a long time. Then I hope you've realized it". He spoke as if she understood, and in reality, she didn't.
He continued. "The forsaken who've been attacking this place, they're in groups".
They are? Esara didn't quite understand anything except for the word forsaken. She looked down and up at Salty one more time before giving him her answers with a subtle hint of sweat pouring down her temple.
"Yeah, it's... out of the ordinary," She said.
More questions came to mind.
Wait a second...
He has no mouth, yet he is somehow capable of speech — he does not have ears, yet he can hear?
She shook her head, not wanting to dwell on his anatomy.
The soldiers from earlier had surrounded them, and their spears were pointed at them. Esarah raised her hands while Salty remained composed, noting the pressing formation. He stepped back, getting in line with Esarah.
She whispered, "Also, where did you go? I got caught because I tried to get your ridiculous tablet".
"Something else caught my interest". His voice was strained.
"I see, so you'll leave me behind if there's something else of interest, noted". She remarked, slightly offended.
An older gentleman arrived — unlike the soldiers, he wore a regal uniform with the same leathery color scheme, most likely the chief mentioned earlier. Once his eyes scanned the two ex-prisoners, he raised a brow.
"A young girl... and a—". Pause. He observed Salty, but was quickly and visibly left in the dark. "What's your name, divine one?"
"Salty, that's my name".
"...Can I ask you why you've caused havoc in our plaza?"
"Your subordinates chased me with the intention of killing." The tension subtly changed as his voice turned like blades. "Also, I have a question for you, human thief. Can you indulge me?"
The other soldiers were tense, glancing at each other. Of course, Esara couldn't blame them; she, too, would be terrified if a man made of crystal stood in the midst of their home. Though the fact that Salty was pretty much demanding must've meant he knew something important.
She nudged her shoulder at him.
"Salty, you're being awkward..."
"What do you mean?" He subtly turned his head to her.
"Look at them; they're terrified of you. I've spoken with some of them already, and they seem like good people; let's talk it out".
"That's what I'm doing".
"It sounds like you're going to kill them, whether you're getting your answer or not".
He went silent, looked at her with his pale, vibrant eyes as though he was trying to judge or read her. He lowered his fists, putting his tension to the ground.
"You're a human, so you'll understand them better than I do, but I'll tell you this once: they aren't good people".
Relief in her chest, so Salty wasn't dumb enough to kill just anyone, because his appearance told otherwise.
She stepped ahead of him, put her hand on her chest, and raised her voice to try to relieve the tension.
"Excuse my companion, but he seems angry at all of you for reasons I don't know. I can see that you lot are scared, but you can trust us —we don't mean any harm, and we'd like to talk even though you're the one who caged us".
The men glanced at each other, unsurely. Jared, who stood with his superiors, raised his hand.
"Chief, it's true... they aren't forsaken, well, not that woman at least. She could've killed Trar earlier, but she didn't — that alone means she's smart enough to understand that causing any more trouble isn't worth it".
Well, thank you? Even though it sounded more like an insult than a compliment. Esara felt good hearing the remark despite that.
The chief nodded.
"Alright then... let's speak".
Then, one man shouted.
"We can't trust them! Look at that man, he's a forsaken—"
"We already have our own set of troubles to worry about; we can hear them out!".
The chief nodded to the ex-prisoners.
"Let's go then".
***
Eventually, they arrived in the same building where Esara had secured the poor boy. Inside a larger office room, sat the chief, guarded by ten soldiers standing near the wall of the room. Esara had sat down on the nearby wooden couch, and it wasn't comfortable at all.
Already, Salty stepped closer to the desk, making a power shift in the atmosphere — in which the soldiers had swiftly pointed their sabres at him again,
"Let's get straight to the point. The reason the forsaken are constantly attacking in groups is because of the thievery done by you guys".
"What do you mean?" The chief cautiously replied.
"There's a certain relic in this town which was made to attract the forsaken. If you want to make your life easier, you must return it to where it came from".
"What? Why would we have a relic that attracts forsaken here? There's nothing in this town that holds so much power—".
"But there is".
Esara, who had listened to this point, had asked.
"Salty, are you sure there exists such a thing?"
"Yes, it exists, and if they don't return it, they'll eventually get eaten by the forsaken, or worse, even harvested".
Silence.
Those words alone sent a chilling dread down the room; no one seemed to dare speak, because in the end, it held some sort of truth.
After great consideration and thought, the chief got his attention again.
"If we do have this artifact in our home, then I'd like to get rid of it. Do you know what it looks like?"
"No, I have no idea, but I do know it should have a carving similar to what's marked on my tablet". Then, he turned to Esara, "—Speaking of it, where did you go with it?"
"It's actually downstairs. I left it behind because I thought you had abandoned me."
He crossed his arms. "That's reasonable; then these soldiers who are here doing absolutely nothing can go get it. Be fast".
The guarding soldier clicked their tongue just before they left through the door frame. Esara had initially frowned at his command — she hadn't expected Salty to be... well, Salty.
A low chuckle left her lips.
"Why are you so mean to them?"
"They are soldiers, are they not? What are workers without any work?"
She scoffed. "True".
After about a minute of waiting, they came back. Four soldiers lifted the tablet by its four sides, on their shoulders. They were out of breath, and Esara could relate to them — that tablet wasn't for the weak.
Salty had taken it, lifting it casually, which hadn't surprised her but left the panting soldiers bamboozled. Salty skimply jumped from text to text, symbol to symbol, eventually landing furthest right near its center.
"This is the symbol — it doesn't matter what it looks like — it should carry this very engraving.
His jeweled finger tapped a cross-like symbol, one large vertical beam, with a crossbar before the top that almost seemed to serve as a balance for scales — and under that again stood two subtle stars on each respective side.
"Look at it, does it look familiar?" Salty asked, repeatedly tapping it.
"I-I have no idea; I've never seen it". The chief sounded defeated; he seemed genuine in not having seen it before.
Esara too had decided to look at it — she hadn't seen it before either, but for some weird reason she couldn't help but feel familiarity in it. Her eyes narrowed, her thumb pressed against her chin as if it would help her with its clarity.
Something happened.
A memory entered her mind: that time she was captured, she recalled another group that had traded with her captors. She hadn't clearly seen them trade, but something had been mentioned.
She recalled the words.
'It's a divine object we found.'
"What about the expedition team? Ask them". Esara asked.
The chief's eyes lit up. "You're right, the recent expedition teams did return with artifacts and supplies..."
He gestured to call all of the men of the recent expeditions, most of whom didn't know, and it wasn't until five minutes later that they figured out something. Outside of the building, a man revealed he had been trading with the humans from the other settlement named Loft during the expedition, but he genuinely didn't know it was the reason for their problems.
"It's a red-colored orb, the size of a bucket... It's at my place; I can go get it".
Another five minutes passed, and he came back with it in his arms, a red polished orb that carried the same marking from before in its center.
"By the gods, you really were speaking the truth..." The chief remarked.
Esara was relieved to see it and turned to Salty.
"See, Salty, it wasn't their fault in the end—"
He didn't respond. In the corner of her vision, his hands were secretly clenched, almost like he was angry.
"So it wasn't them, but other people from another human settlement? How did they get that orb? Did they travel beneath the 96th hill? Things still aren't making sense".
Salty was blabbering to himself; he was still tense, and she could understand a bit. Wherever that orb was supposed to be, Salty was visibly overwhelmed by the fact that it wasn't there.
And he wasn't the only one sharing the same predicament. The chief also seemed a bit upset. "...Did the people from Loft give us that orb knowing it would cause problems for us?"
Salty turned to the chief.
"These people from Loft, I'd like to talk with them as soon as possible, but first, I have to—" His words were overshadowed by the sound of thundering bells that began moving through the streets.
Esara knew what it meant; the others knew what it meant.
It was another attack.
"Out of all times..."
Soldiers rushed out of the building behind them.
"For fuck's sake..."
"Again?"
They ran past the two ex-prisoners and headed towards the main gate in the west of the town. Esara, now unbound from her prison, turned to the still blabbering Salty.
"We are going to return it anyway; we'll get your answer, Salty. But first we need to help the town's people to clear a way for ourselves. If this entire town dies, we won't know where Loft is".
Salty nodded.
Right as they began accelerating towards the main gate, Salty had swiftly swept the orb out of the guy's hand without looking back. After a bit of running, the two arrived at the plaza before the main gate. Soldiers were on top of the wall, firing with whatever artillery they had.
Though what really had caught Esarah's attention was the fact that there stood less than a hundred men in formation around the main gate. Their stone shields were up, spears and sabres were pointed expectantly.
Luckily, she saw Jared nearby amongst the vanguard.
"The attack earlier was the last straw for our gate; it got worn down completely, we had the builders working overtime to repair it, but we were too late!"
"Bad timing, then get ready; facing a forsaken face-to-face isn't easy".
The gate thumped — something was trying to break in.
Then it thumped twice.