Chương 349: 7.5

Robin had overlooked a complication with leaving the Ridgetail Vault and Viznove behind. Something that stung with how obvious and terrible an oversight it was. Far fewer people spoke the tongue from back home in the Sunblessed Vault of old Cantor. Trade via Cave Sloop meant that at least the dockworkers and several of the merchants around could in fact understand him and his crew but beyond that? They were at worst dismissed or shooed away from the markets and eateries. At best?

Well they would start making broad and friendly gestures and pointing him somewhere, although not always where he was trying to go. It was honestly a good thing they had come aboard the sloop as bodyguards on a contract, that association had earned his band access to the merchants and gotten them at least an opening to speak with both the northern dock master and from him the local guildmaster for the cave sloop merchants.

Because apparently this city of Ouenetoi had multiple guilds for merchants, He was not entirely clear on how many because instead of actually calling them guilds they were some kind of noble family affairs. Still it meant that John and Bruiser had contact with someone who could understand them. It did earn him a chuckle seeing Bruiser as off guard by their difficulties as he was.

But even those who manage mutual intelligibility greatly favored the courtly speech of the capital of the Realm Cantor reborn rather than the 'provincial' or 'low speech' favored in Viznove. Painfully even when they were speaking sensible words half the time the accent and choice of phrase sometimes left Robin equally baffled. In this at least Bruiser seemed better practiced again and solidly competent as usual. Although that had brought a different shock. There were no waifs in Ouenetoia!

There were a great many other peoples, a surprising profusion of folk with all kinds of strange faces, fur, feathers, scales and a dizzying array of colors and sizes. But not one slender figure with the distinctive over large eyes that every waif he had ever seen sported. The number of people who mistook Bruiser as a child, and when corrected as some kind of dwarf or in one case something called a 'pygmy' had also earned quite a number of cases of Robin having to hold the incensed fury of bruiser back.

Still it was bizarre! What had happened to Bruiser's people that they apparently were completely unknown outside of Viznove? Well that was just something to not ask Bruiser about until she decided to tell him. It wasn't the only surprise for Robin though. He'd not even realized until they disembarked from the cave sloop that the language he had grown up speaking was apparently called Ridgevaulic! But it was not anywhere near as much of an inconvenience as they had feared.

After all, despite the exorbitant pay offered to the Cave Sloop captain and the riches they had spilled in Light's End, Robin and every member of his band were rich! And where he might not be able to always speak and be understood easily he had the one language everyone listened very intently too. Silver! And even some gold! But not just that, now they had a clean and solid reputation to back them in their work on the cave sloop doing a whole lot of 'guarding'!

Which apparently came with a reputation for being of a hardened sort deserving of respect to have even survived the crossing among most 'normal' sailors. Even mentioning it had earned every member of the band at least one round among such 'open sea' men. And even when brought up with the Cave sailors it had gotten nods of respect offered for having made it through the abyss without needing to be tied up. Which apparently was a thing some crews did for passengers." For their own safety of course!"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Even without knowing the local speech Robin could see that there was a rift between the bald, pale cave sloop sailors and the tanned open sea sailors with the full heads of hair. Still both seemed inclined to give Robin and his crew nods or drinks for a tale of their journey through the dark. It was nice to have respect like that. No one around here seemed to know or care where he came from or what he did.

He'd stood guard on a cave sloop across the abyss and had enough silver to make dealings with the guilds. That was apparently enough for the people of Ouenetoia. Slightly less welcomed was the reputation that their clothes, faces and even a single syllable of their voices carried. Even the gentlest and greenest of Robin's crew could cowl the rougher Ouenetoian by asking them politely what they were doing! Not even threatening them! Just a simple 'how do you do, warm weather eh?'

could send the local city's thieves running like you were cursing their line! It honestly was an interesting advantage to press if they ever had to go back to the old business but one Robin would not be able to use properly until after he learned to speak in a way he was actually understood. Also it was frustrating when you just wanted to settle your account for a night's beer. It took him days to find out what the fuss was." Well you're a northern barbarerer of course!

Your lot fought off the old empire and stopped it dead! Is no offence, just harder and rougher sort in your blood is all. Not that I'd think less of ya there. Gotta be hard living where the sun only shines warmly two days a year! Seriously no offense good lord sir." Most locals apparently believed some truly ridiculous things about 'northmen'. Which was why he'd sought out from the cave sea merchant's guild lessons in the local tongue of this strange city. Which was a new challenge.

At least the weather was surprisingly warm! And in the day the ocean was an astounding wonder. Blue water going out seemingly forever. Yet unlike the flat black expanse of the abyss there was a life and joy to the waves under open blue sky. With a fresh strangely warm breeze always blowing in from the south. Even as they were approaching winter, he honestly didn't even need his traveling cloak unless the storms rolled in. Although he'd have to watch that as well.

It was apparently another thing that disquieted the locals. Made him stand out as a 'northman' despite that not sounding anything like what the people in Viznove claimed such were. Hmmm. Maybe Waifs came from even further north than Viznove? That would perhaps explain some of the ways Bruiser's bruiserness came out. He instinctively smothered a chuckle just in case the waif was nearby. But Robin was 'alone'. That is to say he was in a mingling diffuse crowd of Ouenetoians who drifted in little eddies and groups.

All kinds of people, moving about their day. Dressed in so many strange colors and outfits different from his own garb. There was interestingly quite a love of masks among the locals. And a rather curious sort of preference of the face behind said masks not matching the actual countenance. You could see the soft pale porcelain of a woman's face and then be surprised to find a mustached man behind it. Or the elegant lines of a wolf or dog complete with ears and find an otherwise normal woman under it.

The dog-faced men often had to use tricks with hoods or posture in the neck to hide their actual appearance but since that was common enough quite a number of people also would favor those styles of dress themselves! All of it mingling to obscure and hide just who or what any person was under the clothes. It was not universal. Plenty of people went bare faced as Robin himself. Especially in the docks and among the laborers.

But even those with worn and cheap clothes could sometimes be found frolicking or dancing with their faces covered. Something local and important to locals that he still didn't understand the language enough to fully grasp. It was a very peculiar sort of tradition and no one he could make himself understood too had explained it in any sensible way. It was just a thing that was done here for some reason? Robin wasn't sure that he was actually getting the full truth of the matter yet.

But that was not even the strangest thing about Ouenetoia. Not their weirdly noble guilds who he still struggled to understand the exact word for. Not the strange but entrancingly beautiful tittering speech or the way they seemed to speak half with their gestures and hands as much as their voices.

Not even the way that a third of anyone you saw was wearing a mask and intricate arrangement of garments to obscure whether their real face was furred, scaled, feathered or something else Robin could not even have guessed at. It wasn't even the bitter salty vastness that was the sea! And the overwhelming blue of it ahead of him. No, the strangest thing about Ouenetoia was that as far as Robin could determine the entire city was built directly out of the water itself!

Like a whole entire city had somehow been made out of docks and canals! Then planted in the middle of the vast lake that was the waters of the sea! The whole thing was so ridiculously absurd it still was bringing him to smile every time Robin noticed it again.