Echoes of the Reach

[2.2] | Of Tea and Trials

    Soaked in morning sunlight, the patchwork streets of the Misty Canopies clattered with the growing throngs of the morning rush. Flocking birds with beaks in an array of citrusy colours rustled their way through the trees, soaring over the mist-clouded river towards the clear blue skies beyond. Lodged into the tallest tree, the bones of a former river barge protruded over the scrap-forged streets, a large clock cast in dented brass set into its outward face. Its hands jutted past the early morning hour, and on cue, the vessel's horn blared its bassy call. The daylit world had resumed its course.

    At regular intervals throughout the Canopies, manned gates protected the pulley lifts that carried residents down to the city proper. While the lifts were broader than the mineshaft cages below, the Canopies they served were a busy, densely populated space, and their log-carved platforms filled out quickly at peak times. Last-second arrivals were forced onto the lift's barest edges in an attempt to wring as many silver pieces out of each trip as possible.

    By foul circumstance, the group learned that final lesson the hard way, and Talwyn found herself jostled and bullied away from the others. The flimsy scrap metal railing shuddered and clanged under her nervous hand, and the rabble refused to budge to let her through. Between the hordes of bodies, the chain heaved and screeched through the platform's centre, thrusting and jerking under unseen forces. She closed her eyes, desperate to think of anything but the long, imminent drop to the mist-veiled cityscape below.

    A searching grasp found Talwyn's shoulder, and behind a pair of sour-faced humans, Darius' beaming smile and sharp, well-cut features awaited behind the parting of her eyelids. He squeezed through, found his balance and, once again, offered his hand towards her. "It took me a while to get used to these things, too. I much prefer the other way down."

    "I'll be okay. It's just...I'm not the biggest fan of heights," Talwyn answered, balancing herself between the barely-there railing and the stalwart support of Darius' arm. Suddenly, her thoughts broke free of the chain's wailing chant. "Wait, there's another way down?"

    "Not that the Syndicate would tell you about, but you can find almost anything around here if you know where to look." Darius nodded past Talwyn's shoulder, a sly glint in his eye. Bound to a dark platform corner, a rope ladder cascaded down the winding trunk of a tall, sun-streaked palm tree. Its wide rungs swung from side to side, pivoting around an invisible central axis. A trail of three humanoid shapes scurried down its length before it reeled itself back up to the raised platform.

    As the mist concealed the clandestine ladder, Darius adjusted the brim of his hat and sighed. "So, how long have you and your friend been in town?"

    Talwyn focused on the half-elf's attention. After the duskclaw attack the previous evening and her dive into his emotions, Darius lacked the same vague, shifting, intimidating aura that strangers carried everywhere. "Kerensa and I got here about a week ago," she said, the worries draining from her teal eyes to make way for sparks of relief. "We rode out of Darsinia with a trade caravan. The journey was pretty long, but it was amazing to see the jungle up close, to be that far away from huge crowds of people. It was so quiet in a way, so...peaceful."

    "You don't like crowds, I take it?" His smile remained, yet there was a shred of sympathy at the heart of his cheer. "I've never been through the Warding Wilds, you know. Our skyship sailed right over it, but the one time we stopped for bad weather, the captain steered away to land on a cliff."

    "A skyship? You came here on a skyship?" The hairs along the back of Talwyn's neck pricked up. Most skyships served at the command of crowns or councils, and of the smattering of privately owned vessels, few offered transportation to strangers. Those that did made sure passengers paid – generously – for the privilege. She and Kerensa had contemplated hitching a ride on a skyship for approximately two seconds before agreeing that the funds would be better spent on a month's worth of provisions.