"Marina?" Ren turned to the two, eyebrows raised, "What are we doing in Marina?" Ren had little idea of what this Marina city was, he had only heard it uttered once, but from the view outside the room, the hundreds of people that walked through the streets below, and the tall, occasionally gothic spires that jutted up like a middle finger to the skies told him quite clearly that this was no village, no town, but a city, an affluent one at that.
"Erigald thought that you needed some spiritual help seeing as you constantly uttered words while you slept, and your wavering mana." Elizabeth explained, taking a few steps forward. She was glad, but her face still held worry.
"Who is at Marina?" Ren asked. Since they had brought him all the way here, then clearly there had to be an enlightened spiritual practitioner attending to him.
"Evo, the shaman who spied on the bandits for our sake. Erigald thought it was striking birds with one stone. We needed to see Evo on the bandits he spied on, and what he could possibly know about them, and Combec plots, and he is a great healer. You clearly do not need him." The village chief walked to Ren's side, peering through the window at the multitudes of people in thick clothing of dark colors, one that covered most of their bodies, save for their hands and their faces.
Marina had always been a conservative city, which was magnified by the city's culture of piety, and religious faith, greatly owing to Evo's existence. Eldrad himself was born in this great city before joining knighthood and eventually retiring to Tunish.
"What did he say? This Evo guy."
Eldrad and Elizabeth glanced at each other for a moment before looking back at Ren.
"Evo has not seen you. He is an incredibly busy man. Erigald had been trying to get him, and other healers of the temple to attend to you, but they have been occupied. The city's temple is one of the most visited sites in all of Maldrin." Ren could sense a spark in Eldrad when he uttered those last words, the old man had the countenance of an afraid man a few seconds ago, but just talking about the city made him perk up with a bit of life.
"Five days… Wait, five days?!" Ren blurted realizing how long that had been. He had been asleep for five days. Suddenly he was flustered, he looked at Elizabeth awkwardly, then he looked at the trousers he wore. They were clean. His upper body was bare, and clean. He did not reek. He looked at Elizabeth again, this time, his eyes met hers.
'Don't tell me she was the one cleaning me? Over that period of time, I must have made messes.' His face crumpled slightly, and he suddenly felt embarrassment wash over him. The existence and the control of mana within him had altered his physical abilities, and his body itself, but regardless, he still shat and peed, and there was no way he had not sullied himself over that period.
'Best not bring it up.'
"Where is Erigald?" He asked, kicking away the unsavory thoughts. Clearly, he had tagged along with them, but only him was not in the room.
"Likely at the Temple, trying to get Evo's audience, they are good acquaintances. We had expected to see him much sooner. Soon after we got to the city."
Tunish was quite the remote village, there were Combec villages that were closer to it than Maldrin's villages and towns. The journey here had to have taken them days.
Ren spotted a brown shirt of tunic, one that certainly wasn't his, and donned it. Now that he had had his fill of food and drink, he needed to see things by himself. He reached the door about to pull it open and head out when Eldrad called out to him, "You are forgetting something." he said, and Ren suddenly realized it. The two of them both Eldrad and Elizabeth, had on the drapey grey robes the people on the streets wore.
Ren had been so hyper fixated on their words that he did not realize that they dressed differently. Their robes had only their faces, hands and faces exposed.
"You don't want to be judged by the people and harassed by the city guards, or do you?" Eldrad then opened a box that sat at one of the corners in the room. From it, he pulled out one of the Grey robes, and flung it to Ren.
Ren caught it. The last thing he wanted to do was wear clothing that would make him look like a pilgrim, but with many things, sacrifices had to be made. He threw it over his shoulder, and then spun it about his body.
Now, he looked as Marinan as those who walked down below.
"Can I go now?" He asked with the annoyance common amongst those half his age. Eldrad smilled and nodded, and out he went.
"Wait up!" Elizabeth went after him. The inn the three stayed was a middle-class inn, a full one at that. The room had muffled the sounds that came from outside, but now that he was out, he was hit with sounds that came all about. The inn was always busy, always packed with people from Maldrin and beyond, believers of the gods. They had been on the third floor, and across the hall were people talking, creating so much noise, but it was nothing compared to the noise, and the ruckus that came from the receptionist room in the first floor. Chaos. Angry desperate people spouted rageful words as all of them vied for a room.
Ren got outside, and he was hit with a wave of cold breeze. He looked to the cloudy skies, the suns were out of sight. The thick robe around him kept him warm—like he was cradled in the fur of sheep.
'Time to go sightseeing.' This was the first place he had seen beyond the village. Peace and quiet was nice, but as much as he was a farmer, the life at Tunish was quite stale,
one could only watch the growth of vegetation for so long.
Marina was a fairly cold city, and although it did not snow, the temperature was enough to turn a man rock solid should he be unclad and unmoving.
"Oof!" Ren yelped, feeling the cold particularly on his exposed hands. The inn was in the middle of the city, clustered amongst a plethora of housing structures. The road was split in different parts.
"Perhaps the gods will lead me to them." He joked, and took the path by his right flank.
"Wait up?!" Elizabeth yelled, but the young man had disappeared from her reach, and it was either he disregarded her voice or he did not hear.
Sleeping for so long had made his body feel pent up with energy that needed to be spent. Images of the fight with the magicker popped up in his head, it was the last exhilarating thing he had taken part in. It exhausted him, but it also thrilled him, he hoped to witness such a high stakes situation soon.
The goal today was simply to move around, he had saved the name of the inn he was staying at—Bergenut inn—should he feel lost, he was certain he would get his way around should he ask for directions there.
He was on the streets like everyone else when he jumped onto a roof prompting a gasp from those who saw him. No better way to watch a place than above. He began jumping from roof to roof, the streets had its obstacles, people, vehicles, and various miscellaneous. The only thing Ren had to consider up here was just the distance between where he stood and the next roof, and he had enough physical stats to make the leaps.
He made such a large miscalculated jump that he landed at the end of the roof where he ought to have landed. For a brief second, it seemed that he would maintain his footing, and avoid falling, but that reality existed just for a few seconds. Ren fell with a loud thud, fortunately, he did not fall on any person, but he did land quite badly on his back.
"Owww!" Ren cried. His fall caught the attention of passerby, and those inside the building he had fallen over. The door of the building came open, and Ren's nose twitched from the sweet scent that assailed him, he could smell fried flour and other goodies.
"Are you ok?" A fairly large round man asked, his clothes stained with grease. He got Ren up, inviting him in. Ren had fallen behind the kitchen and the sound had prompted the chef to come take a look.
Sweet smells escaped from the building because it was an alehouse, a fairly popular one in the city. The chef had another direct Ren to a table, where he sat in front of a young dark-haired boy with tired eyes.
Ren was still stunned from his fall, that he simply offered no resistance nor spoke, he just moved as he was directed. But once he sat, he felt the piercing gaze of the boy, it was like the little boy could peer into his soul, he was unblinking and unflinching.
Two plates of Saltmud nut cake were served on their table and two tankards containing ale, "On the chef." the server said and left the two to their devices.
Ren wanted to dig in but the boy's gaze would not leave him, " Can I help you?" Ren asked.
"We can help each other." The boy answered with such a calm and a resolute voice that Ren was so taken aback.