Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 90

After asking around, Dante discovered that there was actually a recently constructed city nearby that acted as a major trading hub in the Wastelands. Jayden had been the one to provide him with the information, and he had been reassured that the city ‘would have every commodity that he could possibly desire’.

Unfortunately, the journey to the city itself was a full two days by raptor – according to Jayden. And that meant that at the absolute most, he could only stay there for three days.

After discovering that little fact, he immediately went to find Victoria to tell her that he was going to leave for a week. She was surprisingly agreeable, even allowing him to make the trip by himself. Only mentioning that he shouldn’t stay away too long, as the situation in their camp was growing unstable, and the opportunity to hone himself on the battlefield may be a fleeting one.

He didn’t dally after that, immediately setting off on raptor in the direction of this trading city; Sloria.

Two days later, Dante flew into a large valley. Several camps were scattered on the ground below him haphazardly, their numbers were astronomical. Several of them were even larger than Warlord Vidal’s main encampment, yet they were just one of many inside the deep valley.

The valley itself was easily defendable. The cliffs on each side were large, yet at the same time steep enough to hinder an enemy. Even excavating a pathway into a portion of it with a group of Geomancers would be quite the challenge. Other than that, there were only two directions to enter or exit the area. Both of them by following the heavily guarded path through the valley that those encamped troops were watching.

There were three more surprising aspects of the valley though. The first was the fields. Vast expanses of crops that were being tended by farmers. It was an unusual sight. Thus far, they were the first farms that he had seen in the wastelands. He knew there had to be some, the amount of grain he had seen in the past months was evidence enough, but he had never seen them. In his experience, everyone who wasn’t starving themselves on those disgusting rations seemed content to hunt or gather their food.

Another surprising aspect of the valley was the number of people entering and exiting. There was a steady stream, and many of them were carrying goods.

And the last surprise was the permanent structures within the main encampments. Despite obviously being comprised of mercenary groups, the encampments had plenty of stone structures, and their layouts looked similar to small towns in structure. Everything below him looked like a foundation.

In one of the deepest areas of the valley was Sloria itself. The city was massive, and like most structures in the wastelands, was made for war. Roughly circular in shape, the city was made up of three large chambers.

The first chamber comprised of the entirety of the city. The wall was large, but not too extravagant. A majority of the housing seemed to be inside of that chamber.

The second chamber was also roughly circular, but further inside the city and raised almost a full story off the ground level. The walls that made up that chamber were even larger and thicker, yet still couldn’t be compared to the third chamber. Inside of it seemed to be a wealthier district, as well as several large barracks.

The third chamber was raised an additional story higher than the second chamber. The walls were absolutely enormous and well-fortified, and all of the buildings inside of it were vast structures. The highest powers of the city likely did their business there.

The entire city was made so that if a wall was breached, they could cede that section of the city and pull their troops back to defend the walls of the next chamber.

It was hard to believe that the entire valley had been vacant only a year ago. Actually, very hard to believe. Especially when a warlord didn’t lord over the area. All of those who could be warlords didn’t take up the title, instead they collectively pulled their powers together to cooperatively control Sloria.

That in and of itself made Sloria an anomaly in the wastelands. Jayden had said that those who control it had the potential to arise as a stable power in the wastelands, and after seeing it for himself, he couldn’t help but think that Jayden might be right.

Having the potential to arise as a stable power didn’t mean much though, Sloria wouldn’t be the first, and none of those before it had succeeded.

Dante looked at the others that were flying in the air around him, around a dozen people headed in different directions, and all of them were on raptors. Raptors were the preferred flying mount for practicality. Among creatures that could be used as flying mounts their personalities tended to be the most agreeable, and therefore the easiest to handle. There were others of course, but they were far rarer and some of their behaviors unpredictable.

Those that headed towards the city all flew down toward a small field just outside of Sloria. There was one very eye-catching exception though. A young woman was flying in on a raptor that had a red tinge to its feathers, and instead of flying down to the field, she flew directly into the third chamber of the city. The red tinge to the raptors feathers was enough to draw attention, as it likely meant that the raptor was an elemental variant or hybrid, but the woman’s extraordinary demeanor was what truly drew eyes.

Dante didn’t dare fly directly into the city like her, and instead chose to follow the others and land on the small field that had a very large stable next to it. The second his raptor touched the ground, Dante hopped off. Something about the tactile feeling of dirt under his feet was soothing after flying for two days.

A swarthy man approached with a group of people that looked to be stable boys. The stable boys surrounded his raptor, calming it in a practiced manner as they prepared to harness it.

The swarthy man greeted him with a wide smile. “Welcome to Sloria, sir. Visitor’s creatures aren’t allowed in the city itself, but we can take care of your raptor for three silvers a day, which includes both feeding and grooming services.”

Dante looked at the others that were landing around him, they were all handing over their mounts to the people working the stable as though it was standard. “Sure. I’ll be staying for three days.”

The swarthy man nodded and gestured to the stable boys. They led his raptor away as the swarthy man brought out a flat piece of metal with a few symbols engraved on it. It looked like it was created by an artificer, and gave off a very distinct sensation. “When you want to pick up your raptor just bring this to the stable. There is also no need to pay in advance. Be warned though, if your balance owed exceeds 3 gold, we will sell your raptor to get a return on our investment.”

Dante took the piece of metal. “Understood.” Then without another word, he began to walk toward the city gates.

Sloria seemed to almost be organized too well. The autonomy reminded him of a city in the noble’s territory.

The main gate to the city had a large portcullis that was fully opened, and the guards that were checking the people entering were efficient, but not too thorough. Almost all of the mercenaries were granted access immediately upon showing their group’s colors, and the rest were just given a once over. The main exception were those who were bringing goods inside of the city, those were thoroughly checked, and a tax was taken based on the value of what they carried.

Strangely, none of those who payed a tax on their goods were reluctant to pay. On the contrary, most of them almost seemed excited to pay for access to the city so that they could hawk their wares.

Dante stepped up to the back of the line. He was somewhat surprised by the line’s composition; a majority were children or women. Then again, most of the men could just walk straight in after flashing their mercenary group’s colors.

He judged the speed of the crowd as well as the number of people in front of him. Despite moving quickly, it looked as though he had a half hour wait in the future.

His appearance earned him more than one uncomfortable stare from those around him. One in particular was from a ragged young girl that was holding the hand of her mother. The two of them were directly in front of him. And after one cursory glance from the girl, her eyes were wide and locked onto him as though she was unwilling to look away for even a second. “So pretty…”

The woman that was holding onto the girl’s hand looked down, then followed the girl’s eyes to him. She also seemed surprised, yet controlled herself rather quickly. It seemed that his appearance didn’t have much of an effect on her. She tugged on the girl’s hand, grabbing her attention and giving her a reproachful look. “Elise, it’s rude to stare.” The woman looked up at him, eyeing him warily. “I’m sorry about my sister, sir. She’s still young and lacks manners.”

Dante could only smile wryly after being called ‘pretty’. “It’s fine. If anything, I should be flattered.” He was somewhat surprised that they were sisters. At first glance, the age difference seemed vast, but upon further inspection he realized that the woman holding the girl’s hand must have been in her early twenties. Both of them seemed quite haggard though, they likely had traveled quite some distance, and judging by the wary look she had given him, been through quite a lot.

Upon hearing his words, the woman let out a breath in what seemed to be relief. His curiosity definitely got the better of him. “Long journey?”

The woman nodded slowly. “We were living in Trest, which is three months south of here. It was in Warlord Zacharias’ territory before he was killed. We barely made it out of the city before it was sacked.”

Dante winced. In the wastelands, women and children had something of a protected status. More people were always needed, and no one would willingly hinder the growth of the population.

Things could be a bit more unpredictable when armies got involved though. It definitely depended on the discipline of the mercenary groups under a warlord, but more than a few atrocities occur after a city gets seized.

As the line slowly shuffled forward, Dante stepped up so he was alongside the two of them. The information he had on Sloria was lacking, and if he was going to sit in the line anyways, he might as well try to learn something. “You traveled three months to relocate here? It seems a bit out of the way.”

Elise looked up at him and smiled enthusiastically. “We came all the way here because we are going to get a house all to ourselves!”

Dante’s eyebrows knitted slightly in confusion, and he looked to the girl’s older sister for an answer.

Elise’s sister seemed equally confused by his lack of understanding. “You haven’t heard much about Sloria, have you?”

Dante shook his head. “I only heard about it two days ago, and came because I needed to buy a few things.”

Elise’s sister had a look of understanding on her face. “The first lady of Sloria is offering sanctuary to any women or children in the wastelands. The women have to work at one of her businesses, but the children can live for free until they are of age.”

That was interesting. He began to think over the implications. Especially the title first lady, that was odd. “Does the first lady have a lot of influence in Sloria?”

Elise nodded excitedly. “The first lady is the strongest! The only reason we came here is because she is so nice.”

Dante smiled politely at Elise, to the girl’s delight, but still looked at her sister for answers. Thankfully, her sister understood. “I think she’s influential... From what I’ve heard, Sloria has five leaders, and she is one among them. Every time I’ve heard mention of Sloria, the first lady is always brought up in conversation.”

Her knowledge was rather lacking, but that was understandable. She still knew far more than him in any case.

They came to the front of the line and Dante stepped through the gates after a single glance over from the guards. Then he waved goodbye to Elise and her sister.

Sloria was interesting. Or rather, the way it was structured was interesting. As his eyes scanned over the stacked buildings that were clearly made by Geomancers, he saw that almost all of the people were either women or children. This first lady sounded magnanimous, giving shelter to any women or children that needed it for little to no work.

That seemed surface level though. For a new power, the recruitment of so many non-combat civilians looked more like the foundation for an empire than anything else.