Chương 10: Chapter 9 - New Sword

Kiara's eyes went wide and she stopped dead in her tracks. After a moment, she mumbled, "Well, at least we're on the right continent." Three large continents dominated the center of every map Kiara had ever seen. Jenpor was the furthest North, Ishkar sat almost directly underneath it, and then Shovis was off to the right a bit, but also lower than Jenpor.

Eshela, commonly known as The Central Kingdom, claimed territory on all three continents, while its capital city was on a large island that was nestled smack dab in the middle of all three continents. Luckily, it sounded like Shian had at least been on the same continent as Kiara's village when she died. Otherwise, it would have been even more difficult to get home. The bad news was that Ventalia and the Central Kingdom were at war. That was likely how Shian had died, in a recent battle for part of that war.

It was just Kiara's luck to end up on the wrong side of that battlefront. At least now she had a general idea of where home was, it was somewhere northeast of here. The conversation died down for a bit while Dustin let her process the new information. He kept to his word, and didn't pry into Kiara's secrets. It was kind of nice, honestly, just having him there for company. Eventually, they did find the cartographers office, and after looking through quite a few maps, they found one that showed where Portish was.

It was roughly 500 miles north-northeast of Livalia. They left the city offices and made their way back to the inn. It was getting late now, and the crowds were headed home from work, streaming out of the city center back towards the residential districts. Kiara and Dravn walked in a comfortable silence until they drew near the inn.

"Well, this is me," Kiara said as they arrived. Dustin nodded, then asked abruptly, "Do you want any help getting back to Eshela?" Kiara quickly shook her head and smiled politely.

"No, you've done enough. Thank you for your help today."

"Hmm, okay," he replied.

"Well, good luck with everything, Shian. Have a safe trip back home." Dustin left, and Kiara went inside. She ate dinner at the inn, which cost 8 iron coins, then went back to her room. How am I going to get home? She wondered to herself as she lay in bed. 500 miles was a long way to walk. How would she avoid getting lost? How would she traverse the battlefront and make her way back into the Central Kingdom? One thing was certain, she needed to get home and see if her family was okay.

The next morning, Kiara arose early and ate breakfast at the inn. Once she finished up, she made her way to the innkeeper.

"Excuse me sir, do you know where I could hire a carriage to take me to The Central Kingdom?" She wasn't sure if that was really a thing, but was hoping it would be. The innkeeper stroked his chin for a moment.

"Hmm. Getting into Eshela might be tricky, what with the war in full swing. Why would you wanna go there for?" Before she could reply, he waved a hand at her and cut her off.

"Nevermind, that's none of my business young miss. What you need is someone that can get you past the battlefront and into Eshela. Once you're there, find the nearest city, and then you might be able to hire a carriage to get where you need to go."

"Ah, I see," she replied hesitantly.

"Would you happen to know anyone that I could hire to help me get into Eshela without any problems?" The innkeeper smiled.

"As a matter of fact, I do!" He quickly scribbled some information on a piece of paper and handed it to her with a nod and a smile.

"Be safe out there, young miss." She thanked him and left the inn. Once she was outside, she glanced at the paper. She couldn't believe her eyes. The innkeeper had given her directions to Sally's Pub, and at the bottom of the note was written a single name: Dustin Savage. I really hope there's more than one Dustin that frequents Sally's Pub.

When she got to the pub, she waited outside for a solid five minutes, debating with herself if it was worth going inside, or if she should try and find her own way through the battlefront. It wasn't that she minded Dustin's company, on the contrary she rather enjoyed it. But she had specifically turned him down the day before when he'd offered to help get her back to the Central Kingdom.

At the time, she had simply not wanted to bother him any further, plus she'd hoped she could make the journey alone, possibly via carriage. She steeled herself, and went inside with a determined stride. She actually breathed a sigh of relief when Dustin wasn't there. It was pretty empty inside this early in the morning, only a few customers were scattered around the room. Kiara went up to the counter, and asked, "Is there a Dustin Savage that works here?" This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road.

If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. The man behind the counter chuckled at that.

"Ha! Work here? No, but that's a novel idea. I should start charging him rent with how much time he spends here. If you come back after lunchtime, he'll be here. He usually plays Royal Bluff at that center table there most days. At least when he's in town." She turned to see where the man was pointing, and groaned quietly to herself. He was pointing at the exact table she had seen Dustin playing at yesterday. There went her chances of it being a different Dustin. She thanked the man and left.

She didn't really have anywhere to be, so she walked up and down various streets to pass the time. She checked out the different wares the storefronts had, and was eventually drawn to one storefront that had a rack of weapons on display. She went inside and perused the weapons. Shian had a sword, but Kiara had left it on the battlefield, along with her armor. She didn't want to lug everything around with her at the time. She wondered if any of that muscle memory would carry over, if she tried using a sword.

Certainly Shian's strength had carried over when Kiara had taken this body. The weapons didn't have any prices listed, which meant the shop owner was open to haggling. Kiara had never really haggled for anything before. At the village market, the prices were all pretty standard, everyone knew what everything in the market cost, and people could really only afford the basic necessities. She picked up a few different swords to get the feel for it. The third one she grabbed felt nice to her hand.

It fit her grip perfectly, and felt good to swing around. It was long, and she wondered how heavy it would have felt before she'd leveled up her Strength stat. Realizing that she had enough money in her soul space to buy the entire store many times over, she decided to get the sword. If she was going to travel 500 miles and traverse a battlefront, she figured she'd better have a way to defend herself if needed. The shop owner raised an eyebrow when she handed him the blade.

"Ah, a very fine blade indeed young miss! You have expensive taste. This sword is finely crafted by a master blacksmith, a local here in Livaliah. Normally I'd sell it for 1 gold, but I like your style. I'll let it go for 9 silvers." Kiara idly wondered if she had enough room in her soul space to store the sword, or if her money was taking up too much space. On second thought, maybe it would be good to wear it visibly, it might discourage bandits and such.

"Does it come with a scabbard?" She asked. The shop owner nodded sagely.

"A good question indeed. You'd be surprised how many people buy their first sword only to come back an hour later to purchase something to carry it around in." He pulled a few scabbards out from behind the desk and laid them out for her to see.

"Any of these would work. 2 Silver for any one of them." One was white, with delicate silver borders. It was made to strap across her back. Her eyes sparkled as she saw it, it was beautiful. The prices seemed a bit expensive, but Kiara had never purchased a weapon before, so she didn't have anything to compare it to. Not that it really mattered anymore.

"I like that one," she said, pointing to the white scabbard. She reached into her pocket, and stealthily withdrew 11 silver coins, then handed them to the shop owner. The shop owner's eyes flashed with greed, but Kiara didn't notice. He quickly grabbed the coins and stowed them behind the desk. He placed the sword in the scabbard, and quickly ushered her from the shop before she could change her mind. She made her way back to Sally's Pub for lunch.

She ate at the same table as the day before, and waited for Dustin to show up. Before long Dustin arrived, in the company of some of the same people he'd been playing with the day before. They seated themselves around the same table, and ordered some food and drinks. Once the food arrived, someone pulled out a deck of cards and dealt a hand. Kiara made her way over to the table. When Dustin saw her, his eyes lit up.

"Shian! You haven't left yet?"

"Uh, could we talk about this?" She handed him the note the innkeeper had given her. He stared at it for a second, then nodded.

"Hey Doug, I'm out this hand. I'll be right back." The man dealing the cards grumbled, but picked up the cards to re-deal the hand. Dustin and Kiara moved to a corner table for some privacy. He handed the note back to her.

"What's this note about?"

"The innkeeper gave it to me this morning," Kiara said quietly, "said you could help get me back into Eshela." Dustin snorted.

"Yeah, I supposed I could. You didn't seem too keen on the idea yesterday though?" She looked at the floor shyly.

"I uh… thought I could maybe just hire a carriage or something, I didn't want to bother you." Dustin chuckled, then noticed her sword.

"Hey, nice sword! Where did you get it?" Kiara's eyes lit up.

"You like it?! I just bought it a couple hours ago at a shop near here. Only cost me 11 silvers with the scabbard. The shop owner gave me a discount." Dustin balked.

"You paid 11 silvers for that thing? Is it enchanted or something?"

"Enchanted?" Kiara asked with raised eyebrows. Dustin pinched his nose.

"Don't tell me you paid 11 silver coins for a normal sword? Here, let me see it." He held out his hand expectantly. Kiara pursed her lips. Had she been swindled by that shop owner? She unslung the sword from over her shoulder and handed it to Dustin. He inspected it for a moment, running his hand along the scabbard and feeling the silver borders. He unsheathed it and looked it over, running his finger along the edge.

"Well, at least it's sharp," he muttered under his breath, then re-sheated the sword and handed it back to her. He shook his head in disbelief at her.

"I'm gonna give it to you straight, Shian. You got played. There's no way that things worth more than 5 silver, maybe 6. The craftsmanship looks good, but it's just a normal, run of the mill sword. We probably could have talked him down to 45 bronze if I'd been there with you." Kiara just shrugged. A few extra silver really didn't mean that much to her right now. It was kind of surreal having that much coin on her, she didn't really have a good grasp on the actual value of that money yet.

Dustin sighed and studied her for a long minute. Finally, he asked, "Why does someone like you even need me to help you get back to Eshela?" She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at him questioningly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're clearly a powerful mage."

"Mmm," she interrupted him.

"Pretend that I'm not."

"I'm not an expert on these things," he replied with a look of disbelief, "but I've been around the block a time or two, and I know that what you did yesterday with Benji isn't normal. A mortal or a low tier mage wouldn't have been able to do something like that."