The ashes before Strife

Episode 4 : Unjust Prisoner ; 1

I then stopped the circulating mana in my body and directed it into the wounds in my body to try and heal it as much as possible. "How long until we arrive at the Greyfeather manor?"

The man stopped his rambling and stared confused "not sure what good it will do for you to know but since you asked we've still got a two and half week journey until we get there cuz of all the parades happening. Normally it would only take a week but were having to go around the cities to be as fast as possible."

This was good for me as it meant I had more time to heal and gain my strength back! "Thank you for telling me." The mustached knight was confused by my sudden gratitude but didn't question it "Oh your welcome young lad. I just pray nothing bad happens to you." I gave him a judging look but didn't say anything after this.

Realizing there's no chance of me going back to sleep and with the long journey ahead I might as well keep myself entertained with a conversation "But I have to ask, what are the parades celebrating?"

The man gave a tired look leaning his head back against the metal walls of the carriage "Bandero is known to be very zealous in its worship regarding the gods, I imagine you've heard at least a few bits of history relating to Bandero taking extreme actions because of a gods oracle?"

I remembered the fact I'm a demon and decided to throw some dirt on him "oh I know about what they've done. But I imagine the demons would know even more than I do."

The man then faced me sternly "watch your mouth boy! Those were dangerous times and no one knew what was happening nor what to do, besides, those demons always professed how much greater they were than the other races when they could only hide like cowards! If you ask me they only got what's coming to the elves, dwarves, and animakin early."

Great my guard is a racist. I couldn't help but smile at the man's naivety "oh I'm sure they were especially scared so for the holy republic of Bandero when they saw a chance to get rid of the number one thing standing in the way of expanding their beliefs across the continent."

The man stood up ready to strike me with the back of his hand but the other guard grabbed his arm and forced him to sit down "sit down Jeremy. Don't fall for his antics, he's only doing this to provoke you."

"How can I just rub it off when he's making it seem like our great nation hunted the demons down only for profit! Those were fear-driven times! Why would the high priests even think of doing anything like that when they could have been next on the seven gods kill list!"

The knight sighed "just bear with it. If you fall for it now you might just end up as Rycher. And we have a long journey ahead of us, he's a kid with a smart mouth so just block him out." The man twitched in annoyance as his compatriot said this willingly sitting down now sitting in silence as I slowly nodded myself off to sleep.

For the rest of the journey, I simply did my best to heal though I would make fun of my guards whenever I got the chance.

I was confused how they couldn't sense the mana right in front of them as they scrubbed my body to clean me on some nights as I was cuffed every night unable to break the chains but it was better for me this way as it meant I would be able to charge up my circuits with ease. I just needed to find out what was blocking the expulsion canals in my mana circuits and get rid of it.

The nights were long on the journey and we would often be attacked by beasts during the journey slowing it down to a now three-week-long one.

It was humorous watching the knights escorting me run away or fight the stray beasts that would wander in our path giving me some entertainment.

I felt like it would have been better if we simply walked through the journey instead of taking all the rocky paths as when I looked back through the barred windows in the metal carriage I saw the winding paths we could have simply walked through faster.

They allowed me to stand up in the carriage as we traveled as it was my only source of entertainment besides making fun of Bandero history in front of them to aggregate them into entertainment for me.

But I did worry as to what was happening to Lupra during this time. A small part of me hoped she would appear and free me from this convoy allowing us to warmly embrace each other once more like before we separated.

I Should have brought her with me. I tried to reach out to her but whatever was stopping me from using spells made it impossible for me to transmit my location to her, I hope she's at least not being hunted and living as she needs to like a normal animal.

"Alright, cretin! Step out!" After the three-week journey, our final stop appeared to be the entrance of a large stone city covered in snow and gushing winds. "Care to tell me where we are at least or maybe give me a scarf for my weak child body?"

The most disciplined of the eight soldier escort covered me with a coat as the others scoffed "this is the domain of marquee Greyfeather that he presides over. The city of Highscale. We came here at a bad time as the winter storms here would have stopped if we arrived tomorrow."

"I see nothing stopping that being the case if we simply camp out." A soldier poked his spear in my back piercing my skin through the ragged stinky clothes I had been wearing for the last three weeks and the new fur coat.

"If you want to stab me just do it, just know you are ruining a valuable of marquee Greyfeather's daughter." I glared into the man making him step back as he removed his spear in a slight horror at the mention of her.

Just who was this psychopath to scare people so much?