As Zhen Liu was fainting like a goat and his cousins kept watch over him, three separate convoys, from three different directions were heading to Stone Claw City.
None of these convoys had anything in common with each other, except for...one thing.
All three had business with the Zhen Clan, all of which was...surprisingly personal.
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Coming in from the West, a pristine looking carriage being pulled a third grade Thunder Ram, accompanied by a pair of Aether Master footmen, was making a steady yet quick pace towards Stone Claw City.
This particular carriage’s occupants consisted of Third Prince Carlos Ecaredies of the Bronze Bell Kingdom, his oldest son Santiago Ecaredies and his daughter Bellona Ecaredies.
Of the three occupants in the carriage, two of them were busying themselves by watching the scenery go by, while the third was writing a poem...and not necessarily failing, but having trouble with the rhythm.
/No that won’t work either...bah. Why are puns easier to do this then?,/ he thought to himself. As a lark, both he and Zhen Yue had been regularly sneaking in puns to the letters to one another. There was no deep meaning, they just thought it was cute.
"Looks we’ll be arriving a little earlier than anticipated," Prince Carlos told his children, "granted we’ll get to Stone Claw by nightfall, meaning the Zhen Clan will be fast asleep by then. Apologies Santiago, I know you’ve been wanting to see Zhen Yue again." /Damn. I hope that Goldshire fellow is delayed about as long./
"Oh that’s fine, father," Santiago reassured him, "I’d rather not have Zhen Yue see me after a long carriage ride anyways. I swear there’s this smell that lingers when one comes off them." /It happened two times before but nobody believes me./
’Hmmm. How mundane,’ Bellona thought to herself, ’if only they could share these thoughts with each other. Would be more interesting to hear...I do hope he’s doing okay."
Despite having known Zhen Liu for about a day or two, Bellona had already begun to miss him the moment she left with her family back home...well, him and his assortment of mental companions.
Aside from being the only other person alive to know her secrets, she was fairly certain she was the only one who could hear what was going on in his head.
It felt nice being able to share a secret with someone...and not be involved with politics as a result.
Off in the distance, she could see the city of Stone Claw getting closer and closer in a very slow manner.
’I wonder if he ever got around to using that desire core he extracted from me...[Gilded Freedom], was it?’
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Approaching from the North was a rather unusual vehicle.
While in the visage of a giant six-legged lizard, it’s exterior gleamed with the bright color of brass and glass, while its means of locomotion didn’t involve a beast or wheels, rather, mechanical legs that propelled the carriage forward.
This was known as a clockwork carriage, a somewhat expensive, "modern" vehicle that combined aether with the art of clockwork. While uncommon out in the frontier and Stampeding Bison as a whole, supposedly, the Dozing Salamander continent is home to many such sights.
That being said, the occupants of this carriage weren’t from Dozing Salamander, they were from Emerald Eye.
"You know, I didn’t bring this up earlier, but I am still surprised you wanted to try out this new clockwork carriage of mine," Alexander told his daughter as he drove the carriage forward, "I recall you being very vocal against it in the past."
In the past, Alexander had attempted to convince his family about the safety and efficiency of such a vehicle, but they would often refuse, believing beast drawn carriage to be more reliable than this "mechanical" nonsense. Which is why he was very surprised when Alicia of all people agreed to do so for such a long trip.
"Oh it’s no big deal, father," Alicia replied easily from the backseat, "I just had a change of heart recently."
Not literally of course, but after seeing that strange clockwork being coming out of Zhen Liu, she couldn’t get the image of how elegant and delicate it moved despite being supposedly made of nothing but gears, wire, metal and springs.
As such, Alicia had been in studying up on the workings of clockwork in her spare time and how some have been using it to enhance their ability to use aether as well.
Of course she wasn’t going to lob her own limbs off to replace them with clockwork ones, but she thought the idea of a backpack of mechanical arms was nice.
But while the Goldshire father and daughter were having a fine time handling the carriage ride, Alicia’s maid and confidante, Matilda, wasn’t looking too hot.
"I can handle boat rides and can rodeo bulls, yet this confounded contraption is what makes me feel ill? We stop to camp, I feel fine. We start moving again, I feel like I need to throw up. Do I need to practice more or is this a permanent curse?," Matilda grumbled while holding a wooden bucket, that had been her best friend everytime they got moving.
Alicia chuckled inwardly as she saw her companion’s woes, before looking outward towards the direction of Stone Claw with a thoughtful expression.
’I sincerely hope nothing extreme happens this time around...’
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If one were to head south of Stone Claw City, a trip that would take about a week to walk non-stop, one would eventually hit the port town of Pearl Tusk, a bustling trade town where one can acquire all sorts of exotic goodies from all over the world.
It was starting from here that a merchant caravan had set off from, bearing the stylings and goods one would find from the Roaring Tide continent, or to be more specific, from the Pearl Scale Empire.
If one were to observe the symbol emblazoned on this caravan, one would notice that it beared a striking resemblance to the symbol used by the Zhen Clan of Stone Claw, granted it did look a tad more detailed.
At the very front of the caravan, in a carriage that looked to be the leader, an old man and a young man were busying themselves looking over a map and a compass, confirming their destination of Stone Claw City.
"What an utterly dry place. How is that some branch family managed to survive all the way out here without a drop of water or support?," the elderly fellow observed while smoking a pipe that looked a bit like a crab claw. This man had lived on Roaring Tide for most of his life, so seeing someplace with very little water on it was...odd.
"Supposedly, Stone Claw is home to dozens of caverns of aether crystal deposits. Perhaps the runaways managed to find one that produced a lake?," a young man wearing glasses observed.
"Maybe...bah! Those two better not have died of dehydration while living here. It would have made this trip entirely pointless otherwise."
The old man let out a sigh after confirming their destination, his eyes on the horizon and his mind deep in thought.
’Its been a long time, but now, finally, I can wash away this sin of ours. I’m coming Zhen Shi. It’ll be over soon.’