After a week of following the same steps as on the first day, I went to the library to read about history so we wouldn't be lost when it came to this place, and also because maybe some memories could come back to my head. On the other hand, my brother focused on figuring out how the city worked and on working so we could eat. The truth is that he really acted like an older brother, I suppose… though he must actually be the older one, judging by the attitudes each of us has.
After finishing reading several books, it seemed that approximately a thousand years ago there had been a war on a global scale. In one battle, which was the one that put an end to the war, the clash of several of the most powerful Shockers of that time resulted in the central continent being split into three, what are now known as the three eastern continents.
When I read this, it left me stunned, and also extremely afraid of the power these beings could have. They were totally devastating; they literally split a continent with their powers.
I also read about which were some of the most important houses of the empire. Clearly the most important was House Corantio; that was the imperial family and the most powerful militarily. They were followed by four families, which were Stormley, Redcliffe, and Stoneway. These had once been the royal families of the fallen kingdoms of this continent and were now vassals of the empire.
And lastly there was the most curious one, Wyrmsten. This house had been a vassal of Corantio long before they controlled the continent, and it was one of the reasons they won so comfortably in the war against the three kingdoms forty years ago. Everything was due to the fact that they dedicated themselves to domesticating wyverns on a massive scale. Certainly all the most powerful houses did it, but not on the scale of Wyrmsten.
Wyverns were enormous winged creatures shaped like eagles. Not only were they devastating because of their size, which could reach close to 25 meters in the largest ones, but they were also capable of using this strange energy that the Shockers used.
It is said that in the past war on the central continent, some towns came to see more than 200 wyverns with their respective riders advancing toward the capital of the kingdom of Stormley. It was an overwhelming victory for Corantio.
I was entering the room after coming back from the library, but when I opened the door I was surprised to see the old man who had saved us the other day on the road sitting at the table talking with my brother.
"Welcome, Luke, come in," Rowan said with a warm smile on his face when he saw me open the door.
I sat down on a chair next to him, looking in the direction of the man. It was a pleasant surprise to know that he had come back.
"Well, now that both of you are here, let me begin. My name is Edric," he took a breath for a second. "The reason I came back is that… well, you must have realized it already, but you are capable of using 'Pulsar'."
I hesitated for a moment and spoke. "We are? Only my brother managed to do it that time on the road."
"Yes," Edric replied. "I am also capable of using it, so I can feel that both of you are able to do so. Because you are inexperienced and don't know how to control it or hide it—thankfully nobody saw you during this week."
A tingling sensation ran down my spine. What would have happened if some soldier from the houses I had read about in the books had seen us? Clearly, it wasn't something allowed for just anyone.
He looked at me and continued speaking. "Your brother already told me what you know and what he managed to remember, so I decided to believe you and I will help you." He then observed both of us for a moment and continued. "It's dangerous for you to walk around with that kind of power without control, not only for you but for everyone. I'll take you to my home and see what I can do with you."
After digesting everything he said, I gathered the courage to ask, "I understand the part about it being dangerous for others, but why is it dangerous for us as well?"
The man turned his head toward me and replied, "The houses that dominate this continent have absolute control over who can or cannot use Pulsar." He thought for a few moments and then continued, "It is extremely controlled who is allowed to use it and have access to it. It is usually only military personnel associated with them or people with special permission. In short, if someone had detected you, you would most likely have been imprisoned, and who knows what else."
I leaned back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling. The truth is that it was quite a lot of information to process, especially considering that I have zero memories of anything.
"Alright, I'll go buy some things and come back by nightfall. As I said, I'll take you to my house; it's on the outskirts of the city, three days on horseback."
Rowan and I nodded at the same time. After that, Edric left without another word.
About three hours later, my brother and I went out to buy something to eat. We were standing in line at a bakery in the main market, talking about what I had read today in the library, when suddenly…
"Hey, kids." I heard a voice behind me and turned to look. Rowan did exactly the same.
"Excuse me, sir, what do you need?" my brother spoke with a respectful tone. When I looked at him, I could see that he was a guard or soldier, since he had light armor and a sword hanging from his waist. But when I saw the mark stamped on his right arm, my body froze. It was a mark of two arrows with a rhombus in the middle. That meant… he was a Shocker.
"You are… new, aren't you? I don't know you," he said. I shuddered when I heard the question. He clearly suspected something regarding Pulsar or whatever it was called. There was no chance that he would just talk to us out of all the people there.
At that moment I touched Rowan's arm from behind, trying to warn him of the danger, but it seemed he had already realized it, because right then he quickly grabbed a bowl of very hot stew from a stall right next to us and threw it at the soldier's face.
"Argh!" the man screamed.
Rowan grabbed me by the arm and started running. "Run!" he shouted.
We both ran nonstop through the market and into an alley between the houses to take a shortcut. The Shocker ran after us without stopping, but he started too late due to the pain caused by the hot food on his face, so he didn't manage to catch us.
After running for several minutes, we arrived in front of the inn where we were staying, completely exhausted—especially me. Apparently, my brother was in considerably better physical shape.
"Sh-shit, that was not good at all," I muttered, breathing heavily. "If the old man doesn't get us out of this place quickly, every guard in the city will be looking for us."
Luckily for us, when we looked toward the street, Edric was there with his cart and his two horses, arriving at the inn. So we ran toward him.
"Mr. Edric," my brother said in a raised voice as we approached.
He turned around and narrowed his eyes. "Why do you look so… agitated?"
"A guard with a Shocker emblem approached us out of nowhere to ask questions, so I assumed he had detected us like you did, and I threw boiling food at his face and then ran here," Rowan commented in a strange tone, as if he were very confident about what he was saying.
Edric stared at us, stunned by what he had just heard. "What the hell is wrong with you? How can you be so careless after the warning I just gave you only a few hours ago?" He brought his hand to his face. "Get on the cart quickly and cover yourselves with that blanket. I'll try to get out of the city fast before every soldier knows about you. You offended someone potentially dangerous."
We climbed in and hid among the baskets of food and supplies that were in the cart. We covered everything we could with the large blanket and stayed still as we moved forward. I was very afraid. I didn't know what would happen if they caught us, but it certainly wouldn't be anything good.
Suddenly the cart stopped. My body tensed completely and I began to hear voices. "Old Edric, what brings you to the city?" It seemed to be one of the gate guards.
"Nothing important, I just came to buy supplies for the village," the old man said with some tension in his voice. It wasn't much, but if you didn't know he was in a truly tense situation, you wouldn't notice it.
There were a few seconds of silence—they felt eternal—but finally the guard broke it. "Alright, old man, you can pass. Send my regards to your wife."
"Will do. See you later, Fen," Edric finally said, setting the cart in motion and taking us away from the city.
About ten minutes later, he spoke again. "You can come out now, kids. We're far away."
I sighed in relief and stood up, along with the blanket that was over me. I sat down and got comfortable for a considerably long journey. I looked at Rowan to see what he was thinking, and he answered me with a hint of a smile, then closed his eyes and lay down on top of one of the baskets.
The journey was long. We stopped to camp several times along the way to sleep. Surprisingly, the old man was always on guard; he barely slept, except for a few hours, and even so he was as good as new and alert.
After three days of travel, we arrived at our destination.