As I get closer to the girl, I start to get a better look
at her. She's relatively beautiful, with long mahogany-brown hair and brown
eyes. Like most commoners, she wears a standard un-dyed tunic that extends down
to her knees, and wooden sandals. In the olden days her tunic might have
extended to her ankle, and perhaps had a hood attached to it, but in this new
floating continent, materials are scarce. Though modesty still needs to be
preserved, there are simply not the resources for clothes to be made any larger
or fancier than they need to be. Hand-me-downs are also common; the clothes on
my back were once my father's.
She looks over as I approach, looking up at me. "Hello,
traveller," she says. "Can I help you with something?"
I nod, and tell her I'm looking for information about the
Ruin. I want to know how to reverse it, and fix this world. Her smile fades a
little; it is, after all, rather a serious subject.
"I see," says the girl. "The Ruin, you say…
I have heard of it, but I don't know anything about it. Our elder might know,
though. Shall I take you to him?" I nod, and the girl stands up, shaking
the excess moisture off her hands. "Okay. Follow me." She makes her
way back towards the road and I follow behind, my pegasus walking alongside me.
"Is this your first time in Harford?" she asks,
and I nod. "I thought so. Where have you come from?" I tell her the
name of my colony. "Ah. That's a few colonies over, isn't? It must have
taken you a while to get here." Not really, I tell her, and she nods.
"My name is Elizabeth Coulson Liland," she
says. "Liland" is the name of the country Harford would once have
been part of, back before the ruin. My home colony, too, would have been part
of Liland. In the wake of the Ruin, many people adopted their countries of
origin as part of their name. The elder told me it was their way of holding on
to their national pride, and remembering the nations they were once a part of
but have now ceased to be. This tradition has now become established throughout
the continent.
Elizabeth asks for my name, and I tell her. "It's
nice to meet you," she says. I tell her it's nice to meet her too. We fall
silent for a moment as we head up the road, making our way towards a bridge
leading to another island of the colony. Looking into the distance, I notice
that the shimmering blue lines I spotted on my approach seem to be emanating
from a tower on the adjacent island. I decide to ask Elizabeth about them.
"Those?" she says. "Those are the Skylines.
They're a magical transport system that allow you to travel to far-away
colonies in the blink of an eye. Only the larger colonies are linked, though,
which is why you wouldn't have seen them before. If you can't find what you're
looking for here, then you may want to use the Skyline to travel to another
large colony quickly. A word of advice, though: always send your pegasus through
first. If you go through first, it might not follow after you. Does that make
sense?" I nod. "Okay. You can get to the Skyline through that tower.
It's free for anyone to use, and it's perfectly safe, so don't worry." I
nod again.
Now that I'm at street level, Harford seems even bigger
than it did while I was flying over it. The clock tower, positioned over on an
island to my left, has to be the tallest structure I've ever seen. Even at this
distance, I can clearly make out that it's 2:36pm. I can also see some heavy
clouds on the horizon: it's going to rain later on. None of the colonies I've
visited so far are high up enough that they actually touch the clouds, though I
have heard of colonies far away that are tall enough to do so. For a moment, I
can't help wondering what it would feel like to be inside a cloud, then I
dismiss the thought as inane. I'm here for a reason, and I should concentrate
on that.
Soon, we're crossing the stone bridge that leads to the next
island. The stone feels very sturdy beneath my feet, and it's almost impossible
to tell that I am actually on a bridge and not still on land. As we walk, we
pass a man walking in the other direction, carrying a bundle of straw. My
pegasus looks wistfully at it, as though craving it. I gently remind my pegasus
that it only ate a couple of hours ago, and Elizabeth lets out a high-pitched giggle.
"I guess the flight here must have made it hungry again," she says. I
have to concede that she's probably right. Having to barter for pegasus food as
well as my own food can be a bother at times, but if not for my pegasus, I
would never have been able to reach this far. Having it is certainly worth it
in the long-term.
After a few more minutes of walking, we reach a large
stone house with a neatly-kept garden in front. "This is the elder's
house," says Elizabeth. "Shall I look after your pegasus while you go
inside and talk to him?" I agree to this, and hand over the reins before
heading inside the elder's house. I've already talked to several elders who
knew nothing about the Ruin, but perhaps Harford's will have more to tell me.
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