Framework of the Frontier, Sain Artwell [read me a book .TXT] 📗

have, the ruins were ancient. William’s gaze returned to Lidarein and he finally asked, “What happened to this place? Did they do this?”

“Hah! No, no no. They were not that powerful, but, they were strong. What happened here? Corruption and greed is my guess. But, what’s going to happen now, William” — confidence swelled in her demeanor — “is that I’m gonna have to insist that you lower the rock and you’re hopefully going to comply, if you want to play this out peacefully. This doesn’t have to be difficult, but I’m not risking a single life for your convenience.”

Lidarein spun her finger around, drawing William’s attention to the alcoves and windows of the ruins around them. More than thirty of them hid shaded figures equipped with a patchwork array of weapons from blowpipes to greatbows. Faint illumination glimmered on the runes of the faun girl’s bow and on the stave of another ambusher. That ominous light. It could only be magic. It had to be.

“Holy shit.” William grinned, too awestruck to feel the dread he knew he should have felt.

Lidarein’s command jerked him out of the clouds. “How this plays out is up to you. Either drop the rock or make it your tombstone.”

William looked at his rock and at the small army, then again at the rock. Resist the urge. Don’t shout ‘come and get it’ don’t say it man, this is not an action movie. You might die. Having visited the ICU over a pencil stab, William had no desire to test if that odd tingling energy inside of him had increased his resistance to being killed.

Trusting his life to whatever medieval fantasy frontier justice system these people honored sounded insane, moreso given that he seemed to be already accused of something — likely the crime of breathing. Frustration swelled beneath William’s breaths. What annoyed him more was that the woman, though stressed and doing her best, had skipped accusations and jumped straight into arresting. What annoyed him even more was that William had done the exact same many many times as a mall cop.

He had no way out. But, at least he could prevent himself from being the ‘didn’t do nuttin wrong’ kid who died with twenty arrows in the head.

“I will begin a countdown,” she said.

“Alright, alright. Anything, but a countdown. Haha… I mean no harm, I swear. I’ve only just arrived and have no idea what’s going on. I’m going to trust that you’re decent people and that I at least get a fair trial or whatever it is that ends up deciding my fate.”

“You’ll get a fair hearing, you have my word on that,” said Lidarein, a hint of relief peeked behind her firm expression. “If you turn out to be innocent and harmless, you’ll have my apology afterwards, but for now, please do comply so we don’t need to restrain you.”

Nodding, William raised his other hand as he knelt to lay the rock down before lifting up his other arm. “There. Now, if it’s not too much to ask, could I please get some clothes?”

3

The faun girl lent William her scarf to use as a waistcloth. Very thoughtful. Walking through a town in his underpants wasn’t the kind of first impression he wanted to leave. Plus, a gesture like that was always appreciated when it came from such a cutie, regardless of the world or situation. Overall, aside from the rock fiasco, they treated him more like a foreign diplomat than a criminal.

Lidarein and five armed guards followed him through the gate of a palisade stretched between two ruined spires. The lower alleys were shaded from the blaring sun, which apparently made the place perfect for a group of kids to whack at each other with sticks. None were human.

Entering the interior of one of the four massive towers between which the town was built, William was met with a vertical bazaar at least ten floors high. Pulley systems, ladders, bridges, and large lifts moved up and down through a hole, which pierced the tower from sky to underground. They boarded a lift up.

Passing by the stalls, terrace farms, and workshops, William ogled at the variety of people. There were faun from antlered elders to hornless doelings; a variety of gnarly granite-green skinned trolls and goblins with bushy hair, tuft tipped tails, and fangs; elves as well as a blue skinned people with demonic black sclera and wide fins for ears. Among the myriad of humanoids walked more bestial creatures, and scurried small flocks of what must’ve been farm animals.

Many of the people waved at them and Lidarein always waved back.

At the top, the whack of hammers drowned out the sounds of the marketplace. A group of workers were in progress of turning another derelict portion of the tower into a fancy new inn or some other big building.

To all appearances the place seemed more like a frontier town than a civilization being rebuilt from catastrophe.

Nice. At least whatever the others had done to piss these people off wasn’t of apocalyptic scale. Regardless, it probably wasn’t smart to meet this Letter King without some kind of a plan.

What do I want to say? How should I introduce myself and how much to tell him?

William coined some ideas, but it was damn near impossible to keep his attention from wandering.

Every other step they passed by a new curiosity of obvious magic or supernatural wonder. On one terrace a gorgeous spring green beauty with dark leaves in her hair let out a whimper as she let her arm unravel into roots and sank them into the ground inside a ceramic pot. Whispers and wisps of golden energy danced as she muttered between her grunts, seemingly struggling to pull something out of the ground. On another instance a man of night-blue complexion controlled water to sculpt rock as if it were clay.

A flock