Chapter 1: Part 4

Traveling on a crippled foot did indeed prove to be tedious. If I applied too much weight then I would most likely fall flat on my face. Fortunately, the pace of the journey did not slow down.

“You know the poison will travel faster if you’re walking right?” asked Daniel, who would not avert his gaze from my foot.

“Do not trouble yourself over it,” I said. “My magic can suppress it for a time. Besides, the sooner we get to Divinity’s Reach, the sooner we can find someone to heal me. I doubt we will find someone if we just sit around and wait for me to recover my strength.”

“That’s true…” said Daniel thoughtfully. “But I’ve seen you heal wounds before, can’t you purge poisons from your body?”

I shook my head. “I am not very proficient with healing as it is, let alone removing a poison as strong as this. I mostly spent my time learning combat skills and such. In fact, that spell I used not too long ago was something I learned right before we met.”

“Only combat spells?” Asked Daniel surprised. “Surely your training must have involved some sort of healing! I mean even charr soldiers must learn some first aid at some point.”

“My training was supervised, but utility spells were something I had to learn in my own time.”

“So why did that stop you?”

“I did not have a trainer to look over me when I was in my spare time. I believe it goes without saying that not many charr liked me, so when I was not studying, I was out watching my own back. It was… tedious to deal with.

“That sounds like a living nightmare.” Daniel seemed to have tensed a bit from my statement. “Sorry that life in the citadel was hard for you…”

The statement caught me off guard. A wide grin spread across my face and a fit of laughter erupted from my muzzle. Daniel raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Alright,” he said dumbfounded. “What’s so funny and since when did you ever crack a smile?”

It took several moments for me to regain my composure and answer Daniel.

“I am sorry,’ I said with one final chuckle. “It is just that you were the second person to ever say that to me.”

Daniel seemed even more confused.

“And who was the first?” he asked with his smile returning.

“A… friend in the Citadel.” I said simply. Daniel seemed to have shrugged off my cryptic response, perhaps he did not want me to feel like I was being interrogated, or maybe he had given up on trying to pry information out of me.

“At least I finally got you to smile!” added the human.

“I know not of what you speak of,” I said jokingly. “I am smirking, not smiling.”

Daniel simply narrowed his eyes playfully. “Oh smirking is it?” he asked.

I nodded as we traveled over a steep hill. The human laughed as he playfully punched my arm. “I wonder when we’ll finally see the…city…” He began to trail off as his question was answered. There it stood beyond the horizon, like a gleaming pearl in the distance. With massive walls that seemed to encompass its entirety, and large white towers peering from behind them. The sight was truly enthralling. Daniel and I stood there for several seconds as we gawked in amazement.

“Is that Divinity’s Reach?” asked Daniel. I double checked my map.

“Seems like it,” I said. “The human capital.”

Daniel and I continued to travel towards the towering city, neither of us had ever visited Divinity’s Reach before and found it be much more extravagant than expected. We had heard stories from traveling merchants before, but none of them could ever compare to witnessing it with our very own eyes.

By the time we arrived to a small farm near the city it had already become nightfall. However only a short walk remained between us and Divinity’s Reach. Daniel strode with a spring in his step as he eagerly made his way up one final incline. But then he suddenly stopped. He glanced towards his right and tilted his head.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“The Merchant’s Coin,” he said reading the sign of a nearby building. “I think it’s an inn.”

I carefully observed the structure, several odd individuals were entering and their chatter could be heard from outside. It was possibly a tavern as well.

“You should see if they have any rooms,” said Daniel. “And get yourself a drink while you’re at it, it could ease the pain.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll go get the reward for our job while you go get some rest. Let’s face it; you could use a good night’s rest.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you want to go in there on your own? It’s a big city and not to mention your first time in there.”

“Oh Anavari, I’m not a child!” dismissed Daniel with a wave. “Besides, we just took on a couple of assassins so I’m sure I’ll know what to do if I run into a mugger.”

“Alright,” I said reaching into the back pockets of my pants. I extracted a sealed letter and handed it to the Human. “I’ll be waiting for you in the bar.”

“Don’t, you should get off your foot as soon as possible. You should also listen to my advice about that drink.”

“You know I don’t like drinking alcohol.” Daniel took the sealed letter and casually skipped up the hill. “Oh Anavari!” he said cheerfully. “When will you learn that people don’t drink for the flavor?”

I chuckled at his response and waved goodbye as he disappeared behind the city gates. I rounded towards the Merchant’s Coin, and limped over to the door. I quickly observed the area and made my way to the counter.

I went ahead and waited for Daniel. I even ordered some mead to see if it really would ease the pain on my foot. I abandoned it after the first sip.

After waiting for several hours I decided to order a room for the night. I noticed that my wound had begun to bleed once again, but it seemed to me that it would not get healed until the morning.  As I walked into the room, I threw my pack aside and shut the door. It was a particularly small room, just a bed by the corner of the room and a window that overlooked the road. I was too weak to care about the look of the room; my vision was getting blurry anyway. I simply moved over to the bed and collapsed onto it. It took me several seconds to realize that the bed was not quite big enough for me. Admittedly I am small by charr standards, but I could still only barely fit in the bed. I had to curl up in order to be comfortable.

My eyelids were feeling heavy now, but it seemed more like I was losing consciousness instead of going to sleep. It did not matter, I would have started dreaming either way.