Taol's Compendium of Nent

Chapter 17: Domain of Iron (Petram)

When I had awakened, I expected to wake up inside of a tent, believing that our journey through the desert was yet to be completed. However, I was quite surprised when I found out just what I had awakened to – I had found myself in a bed, a blanket tucked over me. When I tried to sit up, I was suddenly met with a sudden shock of pain that coursed up my back which was enough to make my eyes widen before holding and forcing down my screams as I then threw myself back on the bed. Looks like I was going to be stuck here for a while.

Actually, I still am.

Once my eyes had fully adjusted to my new environment, I realized I was in a room. An infirmary of sorts, which was basically proven true by the people who were resting in similar beds as me, albeit suffering from different injuries.

Minutes later, a doctor soon chimed in and approached me, acknowledging that I was now awake and that I had been out for half a week – when I asked where Tirza was, she said that she was told to wait at the city inn mainly due to the fact that the infirmary is meant to be private space only for doctors, nurses and patients. She was, however, allowed to visit me during visiting hours due to the fact that I was now awake.

It was at this moment where I soon absorbed everything that she had said – the realization hit me like a truck. We were brought to Petram’s capital. I didn’t know how, but it might have had something to do with those silhouettes I saw at the desert before I passed out.

I couldn’t believe it – after all that suffering, after all that frustration, after getting so close to losing my mind and cutting my trip short…we finally made it. We were officially halfway through our worldwide expedition to reach the edge of the world.

Some time needed to be spent for my injury to fully heal, about roughly half a month if my recovery is at its best – I was lucky that the pincer didn’t go deep enough to hit my spine, otherwise it would’ve really been a problem. At least that was what the doctor told me as well. She also brought up the darkness that swarmed my arms, mentioning that the superiors of Nent wanted my presence once my injury was fully healed.

Well, that was something I was waiting to hear – it would seem that even the authority of Petram was informed of this situation involving the Void Servants and the Edge of the World. I now had three continents left to travel, that being Ventus, Candor and Inanis – we were inching closer and closer to our destination, and perhaps that gave me some semblance of motivation, which was always welcomed during these dire times.

Now was the part where I had to remain in my bed, confined within the infirmary as I waited for my injury to heal itself – day after day passed, and admittedly, boredom was enough to grab me by the horns I found myself inhaling and exhaling to pass the time. Sure, this was a change of pace that I desperately needed, but I would rather prefer to walk around the city instead of just sitting here and doing nothing.

At least it was nice for my companion to visit me every now and then – here she was, acting all high and mighty and lecturing me not to get myself in trouble again. She was just yapping on and on about how I almost gave her a panic attack when I put myself in a near-death position again. Honestly, for someone who was a lot older than me, she was acting like a total mom…

I couldn’t help but feel bad. Here I was, constantly stressing her out that I was pretty sure her hair was going to turn grey faster than usual, all because of me. But at least I appreciated her efforts to keep me company while I was still stuck in the infirmary. It made the weeks feel a lot less short compared to when I had to be alone.

Thankfully, my recovery was fast enough to the point where I was discharged about a month later – sure, it wasn’t two weeks as I had initially hoped for, but it was better than nothing. The doctor warned me that I would have a huge scar on my back, and that I had to take great care of it. Thanking the doctor for nursing me back to health, I decided to leave the infirmary.

I soon found out that I was within Petram’s castle as soon as I stepped out of the infirmary – in fact, I was in a relatively small room with a spiraling staircase in front of me which would lead downstairs. Lead to where? Who knew – I certainly didn’t. Either way, I went down the stairs, and I was met with ANOTHER small room with ANOTHER door. I could already tell that one might be easily lost in this place…but then again, I’m not the one who built this place, nor am I the people who inhabited this castle, either.

Out the door I went once again, and this time, I was…outside? In just a fraction of a second, I found myself looking out into the City of Iron itself in all of its glory – a city that, considering all the other capitals that I have been to, looked almost completely from another world. It looked like as if everything had been overrun by the influence of modernity, with buildings made out of steel and iron instead of brick or wood…

It was something I had never seen before, and it certainly wasn’t something that Flos and Novus adapted – it was strange to see Petram’s capital like this, considering how…mostly uninhabited the rest of the continent were. It’s beyond me how they managed to develop to such magnitudes that it is almost unreal.

For a second, it felt like I was in the wrong place, and that I had been taken elsewhere to some foreign land, but there was no denying it – this WAS the City of Iron, and upon seeing it firsthand, I could definitely see why it was called that.

Above me, I could see ships flying through the clouds that dotted the night sky, with the aircraft moving through and back with their destinations unknown to me. This was the first time in my entire life that I saw anything like this before, and the ships themselves looked immensely bizarre, with them being literal ships used on seas with wings attached to them, while their sails were fitted with propellers at the top of them.

Moving my attention away from the ships, I soon shifted my attention to the castle itself – the castle looked like they were made purely out of steel, giving it a shiny, silvery shimmer as it glimmered brightly amongst the city lights of Petram, with the lights themselves being a multitude of colors ranging from white all the way to pink and blue, which was odd, but perhaps I could learn more about this city once I meet the authority figures of this place.

There was also something else that I noticed about this city as well…

The place was PACKED.

It was as if a single acre of land wasn’t spared – everything around me was covered with buildings, shops and alleyways that connected the pavements together, which made up this huge circuit of walkways. It looked like it would be really easy for one to get lost here…

After managing to fully adjust myself to this new, modern environment around me, as well as adjusting to the assault of colors that attacked my eyes, I decided to make my move. Before I met with the people in charge of this continent, there was someone that I had to meet first.

I had to find Tirza.

The question was: where was the inn which she was staying in?

With that thought in mind, I quickly left the castle grounds and gotten myself into the city pavements, which were already bustling with people. It was so…dense around these parts…

It looked like as if there were countless inns around here, all of them having contrasting, different qualities to them – some looked quaint and minor, while the others were massive, almost looking like they were competing with the castle itself in terms of its size. I mean, they looked huge, with their height stretching out into the stars in the sky!

It took a while, but after managing to purchase a city map from a nearby tourist store, I decided to mark down all the available inns available, which according to the map, there were about five of them. Goodness, why would anyone want to build more than one inn around here? Judging by how huge this place was, perhaps it made sense?

With each inn I went, I sought out the receptionist, asking if Tirza was one of their customers, and every time I was met with a clear ‘no’. However, as soon as I got to the last inn, which looked like the cheapest to live in judging by its looks and quaint atmosphere, I quickly got inside, asking if the dark elf was currently living here, and sure enough, I was met with an agreeing nod as he directed me to her room.

Sure enough, I would begin knocking on her door, and after a moment’s worth of silence, she would open up the door and immediately lunge at me, and with me completely taken by surprise at her sudden move, the both of us would fall down to the ground while she got herself on top of me, hugging me like there was no tomorrow – admittedly, the impact from hitting the ground on my back made a momentary shock which caused me to let out a quick yelp of pain as a tear left my cheek. That…was unexpected, honestly.

Still, I appreciated the fact that she was showing that much affection for me – it almost made me…flustered, even. It was a bit strange to see her act like this, considering she was this tough-looking elf just two years ago. I suppose this expedition can really change someone no matter how adamant they are to change…

With me now fully recovered and me now back in the fray after reuniting with Tirza once more, it was time for us to get back on track with this expedition of ours. We still had one last thing to do here before leaving for the next part of our journey.

We had to meet with the Petram’s rulers.

Without much hesitation, the both of us got back up to our feet, attempting to shake off that awkward situation which we had earlier before getting a move on, with us leaving the inn and getting a move on back to the castle.

Speaking of the castle, it looked like as if the place was carefully built – it reminded me of Flos’ capital’s castle, in the sense that there were separate minarets that are specialized for one purpose, with one of them being, of course, the infirmary.

We decided to ignore the other three minarets that were available to us, and decided to just head through the castle entrance, and once we were inside, we were met with another small room, and on both sides there were staircases which led to who knew where – deciding to ignore them, we just progressed forward, and it was from here we were met with the open environment of the castle as we stepped through the door.

There looked to be a ‘ceiling’ of sorts built below the open sky and just halfway through the highest peak of the castle, the only noticeable thing being the fact that the ceiling was made out of glass so that it would be see-through. As to why they decided on this, perhaps it was more of a tactical thing rather than an aesthetic thing. I could see troops being stationed next to doors that were close to us on both to the left and right of us, and far ahead, on the other end, was the door that looked like it would lead to the throne room.

We picked up the pace a little, not wanting to waste time as we walked through the ‘open-air’ hallway, and when we walked through yet another door, we were met with yet another room – only this time, this had some modicum of importance as we saw a man standing in the middle of the now walled up corridor. He was dressed very well, in the same color palette as the troops the area before I would add, save for the part where his clothes looked a bit more on the striking and luxurious side, and he looked to be wearing some kind of hat with an insignia emblazoned on it. He was quick to notice us and acknowledge our presence.

After a brief introductory phase, we soon found out that he was the commander of the Petram military, known as the Leafcaps. He exclaimed about how the rulers of Petram were anxiously waiting for my arrival, and with me now here, he suggested that I meet with them quickly. Upon offering us an escort to the throne room to ease us into the tension, he brought us into the final room – the throne room.

There, we could see a dais that held four thrones, each being inhabited by two men and two women who were dressed in some rather odd-looking clothes…well, odd for royalty, anyway. All of them wore what looked to be a simple, solid, light blue long-sleeved T-shirt with yellow outlines, as well as what seemed to be beige, loose-fitting pants. There was a cloak that was clipped on the back of their shirts so that they would be flowing behind them, and there looked to be a cloak of different color for each person.

Red, pink, orange, and purple from left to right.

Once the commander announced to them that we had arrived, they would nod their heads at him in unison before dismissing him, and with that, he was out of sight as we were left with the four – with that, they stood up as they approached us, thanking us for coming here as quickly as we could while acknowledging their own amazement for arriving in one piece after spending so much time traveling through the first half of Nent and reaching all the way here.

However, they would soon be quick to change the topic of conversation and switch to more pressing matters, which was something I was hoping would happen sooner, actually. They were quick to bring up the current state of Novus’ and Flos’ leaders involving the whole ‘edge of the world’ issue, and they too, were working their hardest on trying to determine if such a place were even true to begin with.

After mentioning how another trace of corrupt magic, that being the one in Petram, was lost, according to Queen Glacea, I was quick to mention how I had siphoned it.

I explained how I found the ruins which housed the dark magic while we were traversing through Petram after leaving Novus through the glacial pass, and in response, I had used what the Queen of Novus had given me, that being the crystal ball – in response, I was able to come across the trace of rogue magic which existed within the temple.

Upon learning about how I had to cross through all of Southern Petram in order to reach here, they would profusely apologize for not taking any initiative to simply transport me through an aircraft in order to cut my trip short – and so, in response, they suggested that they show a sign of apology by taking the next ship to the next continent of Nent, that being Ventus.

Finally, a good stroke of luck for a change!

I expressed my thanks to them, and I didn’t hesitate to tell them just how frustrating it was to get all the way here from the jungle, which admittedly deepened their concerns a bit more. They explained how they didn’t intend on touching the natural landscape surrounding them, which was why their city was completely focused within Central Petram while everything around them remained untouched and uncorrupted by their influence.

A fair decision, sure, but it was hard to shake off the irritation I had harbored for the unexplored part of Petram. Well, unexplored until Tirza and I came in, anyway.

They would soon shift their attention to why they wanted my presence – upon learning that I was seeking out all the traces of corrupt magic within Nent, they spoke about how, with Novus’ and Flos’ cooperation, had found out something that might lead to a potential answer involving the existence of the Edge of Nent.

They once again alluded to the Void Servants, but when it was mentioned how their origins were unknown, they theorized that it was because they lived in a different realm beyond Nent’s understanding – a different environment where everything functioned differently from our world. And because of the fact that something seemed to be leaking from the borders of Nent at an increasing rate, this only further secured their belief that perhaps these traces were left behind by the Void Servants that had ventured into Nent and ultimately lost to their own magic. Petram’s leaders were…certainly informative involving this whole thing.

I wouldn’t blame them, though – it would seem that everyone was on high alert after getting the distress call from Lord Bell back at Flos.

However, they weren’t done with me yet.

They also spoke about how I could potentially purge the magic that was currently affecting me by heading to the very spot where those high concentrations of corrupt magic were found, that being the unexplored, unmapped spot within the continent of Inanis. They theorized that if I were completely overwhelmed by the magic that was currently plaguing me by attempting to siphon the massive trace of dark magic within the source of it all, it would completely bubble out from my being after taking in so much power and would end up being forced out by the source of the magic before being returned to it.

The idea was strange, yes, but…perhaps it might just work. It sounded scary, yes, but at least I had something to base my hopes on.

I would have to hope something bad doesn’t happen, though. All this was just theory, after all. Not a clear-cut answer that had been proven by them or anyone within Nent.

One of them would soon wrap everything up by saying that a ship would be prepared for us, on course for Ventus – they advised to meet with their leaders in order to seek out more answers from them, because as much as they wanted to give me a clear solution in response to this whole campaign as well for my own troubles, this was all the information they could confer. Knowing that I had spent a fair bit of time here, they said that the ship will leave for the continent tomorrow, and that for the time being, we should prepare for the journey ahead while we still could with the time left in our hands.

With that, we said our goodbyes as we left the throne room, and after receiving a fair amount of money from the Petram superiors as a show of gratitude for exploring Southern Petram, we would leave the castle completely as we were back out into the city – we would soon go into a shopping spree, buying anything we needed for the journey ahead. Food, drinks, you name it – we bought it. We wanted to be really certain that we were prepared, because we were almost certain over the idea that the next three continents, especially the last one, Inanis, were going to be ruthless and unforgiving in terms of nature.

Once we believed we were fully ready for the years’ worth of journeying that was about to come our way, we decided to finally return to the inn that Tirza had been staying in while I was out in the infirmary – by the time we were done shopping for whatever we could find, it was almost nightfall, with the sun meeting with the horizon of the City of Iron. It was a rather tiring day, honestly. We barely had any time to rest after meeting up with the rulers of the continent, and the fact that we finally got ourselves a breather by returning to the inn really showed just how busy we were throughout the whole day.

However, I wasn’t done yet. I still had one more thing left to do before I can call the day as over. I told Tirza where I had to go first, and with that, I got a move on as I left the inn once again, the map in my hands as I decided to head to one last spot within the city.

I had to seek out the Petram branch of the Exploration Team – this journal was beginning to outlive its welcome, and I could tell by the number of pages this thing had left. I can bet they’ll be more than surprised by what I found since the beginning of this adventure. The fact that I was going to write in a second volume to continue documenting my travels was insane enough – I didn’t even know I was writing that much to begin with.

But then again, I suppose with how I was treating this journal as somewhat of a diary as well, it would make sense how I was running out of pages so quickly. I just hope the Exploration Team doesn’t find my work in this journal questionable.

Nevertheless, it would seem that this book will be a mark for the three continents that I have braved and soldiered through – I can’t say I’m not proud, because I am. Of course, some parts of me think I might go insane halfway through the second half of my journey, but so long as I have people who believe in me and my goal to reach the end of this expedition, then maybe I’ll continue to keep fighting for the better.

Besides, I’m not keen on offing myself anytime soon – I have people waiting for me when I return home, and when I do, I’ll be a whole new person when I get back to my village. Fame is nice and all, but there is something else that will keep me going.

And that is the anticipation.

The anticipation of returning home.