Alive again

Walls are vertical roads you don't walk on.

It had already been a day since our new friend joined the party. Heh, way to call our group.

An undead, a black cat and a man in a grey armor. Quite the fellowship.

The swamps were already behind us when we saw the first of the walls, the totenkopfwälle.

Why the name, you ask?

It's a kind of grim story, actually. Legends say it is because the place where the wall's construction began was a cementery, or because so many people died building it. Noone knows the truth, of course. another event washed away by the sands of time. It'd been possibly centuries since the last time I'd been there. The walls, once vigorous and wide, were now almost ruins. Vegetation spread through enormous holes in the stone wall. Half of what I could see of the western section was in ruins or wasn't. No king could've allowed this disaster. Thepaladin hit his right shoulder with his right hand, in a salute, and started praying. It didn't allarm me at all because it was the official salute of the ALA since I was around. No big deal, but there was noone to salute, though-

Then I realised.

There is someone. 

I then directed my attention towards the figure in the path.

Under the remains of the main gate,someone with the robes of the Royal Guard observed us.

-Death to Per-hez!-the figure shouted.

-And to its heirs!-the paladin said.

We then met her at the gate, where she had improvised a refuge. The woman, who presented herself as Karola, eventually asked us the questions. 

-What is an undead doing here, and witha paladin of Stär-keh?

The paladin (whose name was, by the way, Reliquitur) procceeded to tell her about our encounter last day. Once he was done, she turned her head towards me. I instinctively took a step back. Lieutenant got down from my shoulders and ran away. 

Right, it was already past her breakfast time. She had to be hungry.

Karola insisted in asking me questions: who was my summoner, where had I come from, why was the sword in my ribcage and such. Reliquitur then explained I wasn't able to talk and she frowned for a second before grabbing a bag. After searching for a second, she handed me a flask with a dark purple liquid in it. My fingers grabbed it clumsily and I looked at her in surprise.

-It is an unmuting tonic. Once you apply it to your throat (if it can be called that?) you'll be able to be understood within a few days. Half of the thing is more than enough.

Her grey hair was a sign not of her age, but of her rank. I immediatly knew what she was after that. She looked friendly however. Her coffee eyes shone like bronze and her strong complexion, unusual in human females, gave her a somewhat kind and charming look. She also was a hand taller than me.

I hesitantly applied the viscous liquid in my jaw and throat, wishind her words were true. I then gave her the flask back and bowed a bit in signal of gratitude. She apparently appreciated it and smiled.

-He looks like a decent person.

-He is as far as I know. He forgave my life.

-Meow?

Lieutenant was back, and the shiny ball of black fur made its way to my shoulders and purred once more.

Unfortunately for us, Karola was heading in the opposite direction, so our ways had to part there. It had been nice to meet a new person. She even gave us directions and gave me a "history class" of the last five hundred years (which I had spent dead, apparently). We bid farewell and started walking towards the capital city, following the eastern part of the totenkopfwälle, which merged with the second defensive fortification in our way to the city: the Keizai wall. Not even I remember why this name. There were four defensive walls and we had already crossed the first one, which was in a horrible state of conservation. Karola was proof Aetria hadn't ceased to exist, at least. Two days after the encounter, I still mute, we arrived to the slums of the city.

It was a mess.

Cheap buildings covered the streets. The filth and the rats thrived all over the place. The pure nature of the first wall clashed with the crude lifestyle people had past the totenkopfwällen. Overcrowding. Illness. Paganism. We had to take an alternate route because some old people were taking us as an omen of death. In those conditions, death is a blessing and it would not pass much time until it finds them. 

The Keizai wall was completely black now, apparently. It was most certainly because of the buildings that threw black, thick smoke to the air. "Factories", Reliquitur said. "they eat materials and throw out items and other stuff and smoke. They're useful, but polluting."

Oh, how the world had changed! I hope it's not like this everywhere.