The Manipulators

Willier-Chapter 3

Unlike the modern era, back in my days, we had to choose to either join the Solist or Lunist. There is no in between. Luckily, one gets two years of training before the life defining decision....

...

To simplify the terms for you Mintians, a Solist is the king's soldier and a Lunist is the Queen's soldier. Sadly, I only get two years of spare time during my thousand-year life span before this fatal choice. 

Now, let's think of the Solists first. A Solist gets the king's favor and enjoys the blessing of the sun, great for a fire wielder like me. A Lunist gets the queen's favor and enjoys the blessing of the moon, great for an ice wielder like me, too. Based on how much the Gelumnatio must've hated me, I decided to become a Solist. So, it wasn't really a hard question at all. I just over thought. Anyways, where was I?

Well, as it turns out, I do not have a single damned idea. You see, ninety nine percent of the graduate's first ever mission is a train escort mission, which meant that we get to go inside of a metal box for about two days in the desert before we reach our destination. Now, most of you probably are now thinking, who in the world could catch up to a train and possibly rob it? A simple question with a simple solution, it is our "dear" neighboring kingdom, the Orinkemi. The Orinkemi was founded by a random named Orin Kemi, what a surprise. Orin Kemi saw how the Sunrise Kingdom have managed to run itself perfectly despite having no forms of law what-so-ever and decided to make a copy of it. Sadly, it didn't work out as he expected it to be. 

Alright, enough of this story. As you can see, I can go off topic really quickly, so let's return to the metal box of heated doom. 

As our first official mission, my allies and I don't have the slightest idea what we should be doing other than staring out of the window. We kept staring and staring until Trueman came and decided to stare at us instead of the desert. It was after a while did he tell us that our job is to guard the interior of the train from sudden ambush and that we are doing a horrible job at it. Well, crap.

Upon receiving this information, Ingeborg instantly started pouring snow generated from her hand to calm down her watering eyes. Our amusement suddenly turned into amazement as Maverick and I realized that she didn't even blink in the sandy terrain, an exceptionally amazing feat for a Gelumnatio and extremely easy for a Combustioantitheus. 

Partially because of our duty and entirely out of curiosity, the three of us began to roam the train. Almost every section of the train contains some sort of supply. The supplies ranged from grains to literal gold. Most of the good stuff were stored near the train head for the fear of raiders dissecting the train (They did it once). 

After two long hot days and cold nights, the train finally reached its destination. The journey was pretty peaceful other than a small sandstorm that raged for about hours. However, a new problem emerged from my mind. Well, it was really a question instead of something to be solved. 

Where in the hailing storm are we?

A white glistening wall rose from the horizon of the dead sandy desert. Inside of the wall is a huge gold-plated gate. Our train soon slowed down as the gate opened, revealing a station for the train. The halls were grand and beautiful carvings raced covered the entire pale structure. Tall pillars stood left and right, holding up the glass roof that covered the space above the track. Sun light shined through those glasses and enlightened the entire area, creating a somewhat holy atmosphere.

Our crew quickly unloaded the goods as the patrols, aka us, got a slight peak of this grand kingdom.

The center of the world, or so they called it. The Abhyudaya Empire is indeed a very different place than Sunrise Kingdom. It seems as though the entire kingdom was blessed by heaven above. Our eyes quickly darted from left to right as a group of tall, tainted elves stared at us. We returned their curiosity with ours and stared back. The tainted elves, also known as dark elves, were blessed with dark colored skins to blend in with their surroundings. However, it seems that their camouflage won't work in such a white place. Unlike many tainted elves, these individuals seemed to be too distracted by our appearances to get offended by our stare. After all, it's not every day that one could see a light blue Gelumnatio, a black-red skinned Combustioantitheus, and a pale cross breed of those two races to patrol upon the road of Abhyudaya. 

Our "tour" was short-lived as we were subjected to carry the goods to a trading market near us. 

The goods were not as bad as some of the older soldiers told us. Though I doubt that we carried the lesser ones than their golden ones. The walk was pretty great; however, nothing could've prepared me for what I saw next. 

The sunlight reflected off the white marble street beneath our foot as the road widened; it was a marketplace. shops and tents of various colors filled sides of the street as creatures of all shapes and sizes filled up the remaining space. This place is beyond marvelous than anywhere I saw before. My allies and I are lucky that an average Mintian is taller than elves, for we would definitely be lost in this current of moving chaos. 

The rest of the day slid past everyone's grasp as we helped the shop keeper to set up his store. By the evening's twilight, we returned to the train that was to deliver us back to Sunrise Kingdom. Unlike the previous journey, everyone was to patrol and guard the carriage from outer forces. Ingeborg's team was to guard the last section of the train; however, I did a horrible job at it due to the fact that I had been staring at the mighty walls of the Abhyudaya Empire. Even after it disappeared out of my sight, I kept staring at that direction. The Abhyudaya... truly a city of angelic light.