NIMBUS AND THE KNIGHTS OF CENFERUM

Chapter 1

After a few minutes of confusion and murmuring, the ship docked. Its doors opened, and some men threw ropes to the port workers, who anchored and pulled it to the dock. Silence prevailed among the population until the doors opened, and passengers began to exit, walk down the wooden ramp, and finally step onto the carved stone dock. Initially, some loaders took care of removing bundles and wooden crates from inside the ship. However, after a few minutes, the first distinguished members began to emerge and were received by the high-ranking government entourage from Aldair Castle. Since there was a line of soldiers limiting the distance from the crowd to the dock, everyone was too far away to identify who was who among those important figures of Cenferum. Moreover, it was impossible to hear what they were saying. It was only possible to assess their body language, and all of them were quite agitated—some downcast, some seemed to be crying, others supported in fainting, but it was still impossible to deduce what had happened for only one ship to dock that day. What could cause such commotion and delay the other ships?

After a few more minutes of heated debate, the entourage began to move. When the carriages were loaded and finally left the dock in an orderly procession, people immediately rushed to the avenue where they would pass. It was chaos, everyone crowding along the isolation line created by the soldiers of the Grand Leader, separating the street from the sidewalk as best they could. The boy, still intrigued by only one ship arriving from the journey, also ran there. And although everything was very strange, it was still a special occasion. This was the moment when the population got closest to the bravest men and women in the world—people who risked their lives to defy the expanse of ether and bring the supplies that the continent couldn't produce. Everyone wanted the opportunity to get close to them, perhaps to internalize some of that courage through osmosis. Maybe it would help them endure their daily struggles in that cruel and hopeless world.

Suddenly, he bumped into a girl in the middle of the crowd, short like him. Her face was not the most beautiful, but her gaze was seductive, and her lips were full. The girl saw him and flashed a fake smile:

— Hi, Nimbus! Congratulations on being selected to study here at the Doctor's school.

— Ann... Anabele, I'm not staying in Aldair anymore. I declined the spot. Goodbye!

Almost instantly, the boy turned his back and began to walk in the opposite direction. The girl stood there, looking at him with an expression of not having understood anything. Nimbus didn't want to see her anymore, not after everything that had happened. That's why he had decided not to stay in that city. He wanted to leave, even if it meant refusing an opportunity that came to fewer than ten percent of the students in his school. He was going to leave that city within a few months. Enough of suffering. He would get rid of it.

After a few minutes of elbowing and squeezing through the crowd, the boy finally reached a position where he could observe the heroes a bit more closely. By this point, most of the entourage had already passed, and he couldn't see the fleet captain or his knights and squires who always took the lead. Lamenting this fact, he watched what little remained of the entourage—mostly nearly empty carts and porters carrying almost nothing on their backs. Many wounded were visible, some on stretchers, others supported by crutches, some with their arms in slings. Seeing this, he decided to ask someone who had been there longer about what had happened.

— Sir, do you know what happened? Why did only one ship from the expedition arrive? — He addressed a middle-aged man with some gray hair.

— They say it was pirates or ether monsters — the old man replied without looking at the boy.

— Or pirates controlling ether monsters — added another boy, who was standing next to Nimbus. — I'm Aska, the butcher's son. Don't you remember me? — he continued. — They're saying that a lot of things didn't come or arrived in small quantities, especially rare medicines. They even talked about rationing, and with only a few months of stock, they won't last until the next expedition.