บท 69: Tagged Jack
Emile stood in the back of the line and patiently waited his turn. He wasn't at the very back of the line, he thought that would be suspicious; so instead he walked through the line like he was looking for someone and eventually just stopped moving.
Nobody from the Black Gates questioned Emile or even noticed he cut them in line. They were standing in half a foot of snow in the shadow of the giant glacier.
The glacier was massive, as tall as a skyscraper and protruded out towards the sky in a handful of places like it was a hand reaching for the heavens.
The line moved in unison every few minutes. The security must be thoroughly checking each individual for it to take so long.
Emile poked his head out of the line and looked ahead. He wanted to count how many people were in front of him, but after fifty he gave up.
'A lot'
'It's a lot'
To the right of their line, waves of white slush rolled over onto the shore. It was a surreal sight, almost like waves of snow crashing down, but on a much smaller scale.
Emile wondered if there was sea life here, he assumed there was, almost certain, but in this specific icy ocean? That, he wasn't so sure about.
An hour turned to two and it was finally Emile's turn to enter Rising Tide. He approached the group of guards after he was summoned and waited for their instructions.
"Arms up, legs spread." An unrememberable guard said.
Emile obliged and was patted down. They also emptied all of his pockets, finding the gold gem, and marked it on a sheet one of them was carrying.
"He's good!" The guard who patted him down announced.
The giant cream colored doors cracked and opened just wide enough for Emile to pass through. As he squeezed through, he noticed the doors were ridiculously thick, at least three feet.
On the other side of the gates were the last two guards who simply gestured for Emile to continue forward down the tunnel of ice. On that topic, the tunnel down was just as huge as the gates.
Like an underground highway, the tunnel was wide enough to fit five or six carriages side by side and as tall as two story buildings. Luckily though, the ground was not made of ice and instead a mixture of gravel was spread along the path.
At the end of the tunnel, as expected, were the two final towers; one on each side. The towers themselves were not that impressive, at least compared to the Ivory Lighthouse.
Three, maybe four stories tall without any decoration or stylistic vision. They were plain and uninteresting towers of rock.
Emile stopped and waited in line once more, but he was pretty close to going next.
"Aren't you c-c-cold?" The man in front of Emile turned around and asked all while shivering himself.
"No, not really." Emile replied.
'Thank God my gift also maintains my body temperature or I'd be a popsicle right now!'
"Wow—" The man said, "that's c-c-c-crazy! Is it because of your gift?"
"Yeah."
"Something to d-do with heat, huh? Must be n-n-nice." His shivering got even worse, "My name's Jack."
Emile held his hand forward to accept Jack's introduction, "Spright."
Amidst all of Jack's shivering, Emile took a moment to take a good look at the man. He didn't seem old but also wasn't young, probably late twenties or early thirties.
He also wore a heavy layer of stubble on both his face and head giving him an unhelpful disheveled look. And lastly, definitely the oddest feature of the man named Jack, he had a nose ring.
Long ago Warden May had equipped a relic earring, but other than relics forms of piercings were scarce here and to find such an uncommon piercing on such a random man seemed… odd?
"Isn't your nose ring cold?" Emile asked.
"Nose ring?" Jack asked and looked down trying to see his own nose, "Oh you mean my tag? No, it's not that bad."
'Must not be metal'
'Wait'
'Tag?'
"What do you mean tag?"
"Um—" Jack seemed lost, almost like it was something nobody's ever asked him, "it's like a marking? This ring in my nose shows I'm property of the third Elder."
"Property? You're a slave?" Emile inquired further.
"Oh—well I guess something like that, yeah. Maybe more like a servant, but I can't quit and don't really get paid." Jack's speech slowed as he was coming to the end, as he was realizing his position.
"How'd you end up like that?"
"Next!" The Royal guard yelled over the small conversations, instantly drawing everyone's attention back to entering Rising Tide.
"S***, that's me! We're staying at Whale's Inn! Come grab a drink later!" Jack hurried forward doing his absolute best to appease both the Royal guard and Emile.
Once he was done, it was finally Emile's turn. Stepping forward, the Royal guard held her hand out towards Emile. In her palm was a cracked, unnaturally large pearl.
"Touch it." She said without a change in tone.
Emile gently placed his finger on the pearl and as he did the pearl began to radiate a soft blue glow. Simultaneously, the guard's eyes lit up and produced the same blue light.
"You're carrying an Enlightened Nimbus Charm, correct?" She repeated like it was read from a script.
"That's correct." Emile confirmed.
"And your name?" She asked as the glow from her eyes faded.
"Spright."
"Move along Spright."
And with that Emile passed by the Royal guard and the two towers and descended just a little more until the cavern opened.
The moment the tunnel cleared and Emile entered the actual cavern, the lazily thrown around gravel floor transformed into a fine cream brick road.
Up ahead, waves of people moved between the busy streets. Emile could tell the main road of the Rising Tide kingdom was a marketplace since shops and wagons littered the entirety of the pavement.
Fruits, vegetables, clothing, one building had rows of fish hanging from hooks that were all attached to a spinning contraption. The customers would spin the fish around and inspect it before they decided to buy anything. It was the epitome of window shopping.
'How am I supposed to find a pawn shop in this mess?'
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