Chapter 3: Trouble in Coalot

The sun rose over the waters of the Vasilosse Kingdom, shining its light on the trio’s voyage for the first time. They had sailed for most of the night, their ship unable to keep up with the Royal Army’s coal-powered maritime travel. By now, it must have been far ahead of them, possibly already in the canal leading to the citadel.

Today was a calm, clear day on the water. The sun shone brightly, and the gulls squawked overhead as the ship was being guided effortlessly toward its destination by the southeastern winds.

Hunter went to be with his cousin, who stood near the helm, resting his head on his forearms on the side of the boat.

“Hey. How you feeling?” asked Luck, his gaze lost in the endless blue before them.

“Fine, I guess. It’s just, we left the island rather quickly. Do you have any idea where we’re going?”

“To save dad, obviously.”

“I meant, how? What’s the plan?”

“Hm… We won’t be able to follow the ship he was taken on. For one, it’s way faster than ours, and secondly, Royal Army ships can lay anchor directly inside the citadel walls via a private canal dug through the island. Other than that, I don’t know much about the main island. I’ve never been there, or anywhere else for that matter. I guess we’ll figure it out on the way.”

“Where are we headed, now?”

“Good question. I gotta admit, I didn’t really think of anything when we left.”

“Are we even going in the right direction?”

“Based on the position of the sun in the sky, yes.”

Taina joined the cousins. “Don’t worry, I plotted our course already. We’re going to land in Tumerin Village, a small fishing village on the southern side of the main island. From there, there’ll be a road going north, all the way to the capital.”

“Woah, you know how to steer ships, Taina?” asked Luck, impressed.

“More or less. It’s really not that complicated when nature is on your side.”

Hunter sighed. “Good thing you came.”

“I did promise to look over you two.”

“Yeah, thanks,” chuckled Luck.

“Can I ask you guys something?”

“Go ahead. Not much else to do, right now.”

“Do you think… the prince meant to lead that vice admiral to our island? Do you think he was plotting against us from the start?”

Luck took a second to answer, is eyes still fixated on the ocean. “No. I don’t think so.”

“I thought you were the one who said we shouldn’t trust him until he proved himself,” said Hunter. “He did the opposite of that.”

“He didn’t do anything. Not on purpose, anyway.”

“Doesn’t matter if he meant to or not, it’s still his fault. You heard what the scarred freak said. It’s the prince’s guards who led him to us.”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t him, y’know?”

“You’re missing the point. He’s guilty by association.”

“That hardly seems fair.”

“So what, you’re just gonna forgive that he took Silvers, your dad, hostage?”

“I’m angry, just like you, Hunter. But the prince didn’t take my dad, the vice admiral did. Any anger I have to exteriorise, I’ll direct toward that bastard. He’s lucky he was able to leave with only a broken arm.”

“I’ll have to agree with Luck,” interjected Taina. “The prince was as shocked as the rest of us when he saw what was going on. He’s not a bad person. He’s just stuck with bad ones.”

“Whatever. If one bad apple spoils the barrel, what good can one good apple in a spoiled barrel do?”

“You’re being too pessimistic.”

“You’re being too optimistic.”

“Hey,” called out Luck. “Let’s take it easy before we reach the main island, okay? We don’t know what awaits us there. It’s best we don’t waste our energy with pointless arguments.”

“Yeah, yeah,” pouted Hunter as he left to be alone.

Around midday, land finally began to appear in the distance. The island of Corin, the main island of the kingdom of Vasilosse, where the king resided, and where Silvers had been taken.

Taina, helped by the cousins to the best of their abilities, stopped the boat in a small harbour, one reminiscent of the one in South Breeze Island.

The town of Tumerin was a modest fishing hub, where fishermen from various coastal establishments in close proximity came to trade and sell their stock among each other before going to the market in the capital to sell to the population.

After securing their ship to a dock, they took their first steps on an island that was not the one they grew up on. Taina was especially thrilled about it, more so relieved to no longer be at sea. She ran to the crescent-shaped beach adjacent to the harbour and belly-flopped in the sand, spreading her limbs across its smooth white granules.

“She wasn’t kidding when she said she wasn’t made for ocean travel,” laughed Luck, poking his cousins in the arm with his elbow.

“Alright, where to now?” asked Hunter.

Overhearing his question from her bed of burning hot sand, Taina sprung up and pointed to a signpost planted at a nearby fork in a road. “We go north. We’ll pass the mining town of Coalot soon, and after that, it’s a straight line to Winrol, the capital.”

The signpost corroborated what Taina had just explained. Two other signs pointed in opposite directions, one to the west, one to the east. West of Tumerin was Queen’s Harbour, another seaside town, at the mouth of the river going inland toward the capital, while to the east lay Fort Kingsley, a stronghold built into the side of a mountain range splitting the main island in two.

“You sure know a lot about the world,” fascinatedly said Luck.

“I… just read the signs…”

Luck gave his cousin an amicable slap on the back while Taina continued to facepalm. “Onward!”

The trio walked along the road connecting Tumerin to Coalot, occasionally passing by and exchanging greetings with friendly locals carrying cargo in wagons pulled by donkeys and horses.

The dirt road was surrounded by vast grassy plains, sparsely littered with trees forming into a thick forest to the east.

As they approached Coalot, the ground became dryer and uneven, little to no grass growing between the weeds sprouting from the cracks in the earth. The air became heavier, covered in a thin layer of smog, and the atmosphere turned bleak, oppressive.

Wagons were here replaced with coal-powered vehicles spouting a dark gray smoke, a technology that was absent from South Breeze Island. The gears turning their wheels whirred loudly, overpowering any other nearby sound.

“How did we go from that cute fishing village to this?” commented Luck. “This place is so dreary.”

“Coalot is a coal-mining town. It’s one of the main suppliers of the kingdom’s coal, and thanks to its proximity with the capital, it’s a vital part in keeping the city running effectively,” said Taina, almost like a teacher would to her students.

“Why does a coal-mining town need a tank?” asked Hunter, his attention driven somewhere else.

“What are you talking about?”

Luck and Taina turned to face in the same direction as Hunter, and to their shock, a large tank sat in the distance, just outside of the town’s limits, its canon eerily pointed inside the town. Its sides were emblazoned with the Royal Army’s sigil, the only colour on the otherwise deadly metallic weapon sleeping like a hibernating bear.

Luck raised his guard. “What’s the army doing here?”

“Should we keep going?” worriedly asked Taina.

“Is there another way?”

“Not unless we circle the town, which will take a while.”

“We’ll look too suspicious if we go around. Best to walk right on through and hope to get out quickly.”

Taina gulped, and Hunter nervously looked around, both filled with uncertainty. Ultimately, they decided to follow Luck, who now led the group.

At the town’s entrance, a royal army soldier standing guard blocked the trio’s path. “Who goes there?” he asked, firmly clutching his spear in one hand, while the other rested on his waist.

“Just a couple of young travellers,” answered Luck.

“Names.”

Luck gestured toward Hunter and himself. “Hunter and Luck Frey. She’s Taina Fritz.”

“State your business in Coalot.”

“Just passing through. We’re actually going to the capital on a visit. Call us tourists, if you will.”

The soldier stood still like a statue for excruciatingly long seconds, before finally stepping aside. “Go on. If you have no business here, don’t stop.”

“Heard, sir.”

Luck led his companions inside Coalot, giving them a reassuring wink.

“Why did you give him fake names?” asked Hunter.

Luck shushed his cousin silently. “We can’t have the royal army knowing we’re related to our fathers. It’ll make us targets.”

“Okay, but what about me?” inquired Taina. “Why give me a fake name?”

“Can’t be too safe.”

The inside of the town was somehow even more desolate than it appeared from the outside. The air smelled humid and polluted, buildings were drab and undecorated, and the streets were encumbered with piles of garbage.

Worst of all though, was the people. Almost like zombies, they dragged their tired, malnourished bodies in and out of mines scattered throughout the town. Their skin was covered in soot and bruises, some bleeding from fresh wounds, and their eyes, devoid of hope, tiredly looked at the ground.

Taina was appalled at these sights. “What’s going on, here?”

“Nothing’s going on,” bleakly responded Hunter. “That’s just the real world.”

Luck bit his cheek and kept moving forward. “Hunter’s right. There’s nothing we can do, here. We need to keep going.”

Struck with the depressing reality surrounding her, Taina kept her head down to avoid sharing eye contact with despaired miners. As she walked next to the cousins, her eyes fixated on her feet, she bumped into a person standing off the side of the road.

Before she could even react, the person fell backward with no resistance to their light collision. “I-I’m sorry,” blurted out Taina. She looked up to see a child, no older than eight, his skin blackened with dirt and soot, his eyes hollow and emotionless, staring blankly back at her.

A soldier standing guard close-by came waltzing toward the boy and picked him up like a ragdoll. “Careful where you walk, little rat!”

“N-no, it wasn’t his fault,” pleaded Taina. “I’m the one who wasn’t looking. I bumped into him.”

The soldier turned his stern gaze to Taina. “You’re not from around here, are you? Better you keep moving and mind your business.”

“Y-yes, sir, I’m sorry.” She gave up, too scared for confrontation.

As the trio walked farther away, they could hear the soldier scolding the child as if he had been caught stealing from the king.

“Just ignore it,” said Hunter, a blank look on his face.

A weak shriek escaped the child’s dried out mouth, followed by a thump resonating on the dry ground. Hunter kept looking forward, but Luck and Taina, overcome with morbid curiosity and concern, looked back at the scene.

The boy lay on the ground, and if not for his unsteady breathing moving his chest ever so slightly, he could easily have been mistaken for dead. The soldier poked his skinny legs with the tip of his spear, piercing his flesh on the surface, while ordering him to get up and keep working.

“Oh my gods…” gasped Taina.

“I told you, we can’t do anything,” reiterated Hunter. “It’s best not to look. Come on, let’s go.”

Taina swallowed her shame and continued following Hunter, hoping to soon be out of this nightmarish town. As they walked along the road, ignoring the suffering around them, they heard Luck speak from afar. They turned around in a spurt, Hunter’s face turning to shock.

“Luck…!” gasped his cousin.

Now behind them, Luck was helping the child back to his feet. “You don’t have to hurt him,” he told the soldier.

The soldier responded with an astonished grunt. “Who do you think you are, kid?”

“You can’t just torture a small kid like that. Look at him, he’s on the verge of death.”

“I can do what I want, as is the king’s will! If this rat dies, so be it!”

“What the hell, man…”

“Step away from him. You have five seconds, lest you want to share his inevitable fate.”

Luck stood his ground, his arms wrapped around the child, his eyes unmoving from the soldier’s. Almost as if cruelty was second nature to him, the soldier held his spear and got ready to thrust it in Luck’s abdomen. If not for Hunter tackling his cousin out of harm’s way, Luck would have been on the receiving end of the deadly attack.

“Luck, what went through your head!” exclaimed Hunter.

“He was gonna kill him!” responded Luck equally loudly.

“And now he’s gonna kill both of you!”

The soldier swung his spear wildly in the cousins’ direction, who had to roll out of the way, barely avoiding the strike.

“Please, sir, let us go, it won’t happen again,” begged Hunter.

“I gave you your chance already, and you turned it down!” barked the soldier.

As Hunter was trying to find a way out of this undesirable situation, more soldiers came, encircling he and Luck. “Don’t try anything funny!” said one of them.

A woman wearing the Royal Army’s colours was the next to arrive. On her uniform was a single silver star, giving her the rank of captain in the army. Unlike the men under her command, she carried a long, one-handed sword in a scabbard on her waist, as well as a pistol, a weapon given only to officers in the army and navy. Her blonde hair fell right above her shoulders, grazing her shoulder pads, and her blue eyes shone like pearls in the smog.

“Captain Kareese!” said a soldier as he noticed his superior. “These two interfered with our operations.”

“I know,” answered the woman coldly. “I saw everything take place. Take them away.”

“We didn’t do anything!” complained Luck. “You’re the ones who are mistreating a poor kid!”

“Silence. I could have your heads removed where you stand. Consider yourselves lucky that I might grant you mercy.”

“Captain, what about the girl?” asked a soldier, pointing at Taina. “She was with them.”

“Take her away as well. I’ll decide how to deal with them later on. I’m quite busy at the moment.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Taina let herself be locked up without offering any resistance, content to still be with her friends. The cousins, on the other hand, struggled to even look each other in the eyes. They sat at opposite ends of their small cell, backs turned to each other.

“Guys, please,” Taina begged them.

“What!” shouted Hunter. “What do you want me to do!”

“Stop shouting. You guys have been at each other’s throats since we left. It’s not like you.”

“It’s not my fault Luck can’t mind his own business.”

Luck turned around. “What did you want me to do? Let him die?”

“You said it yourself; we can’t do anything about it. What goes on in this town is none of our concern.”

“I know I said that, but I didn’t expect to witness such cruelty. I had to do something.”

“No, you didn’t! You’re not a hero, so stop trying to be one!”

“Why are you acting so morally untouchable? You did the same thing back home when the vice admiral started terrorizing everyone. You stood up to him. What’s so different now?”

“He was threatening my friend! I acted the way I did for Taina! We can’t hope to help everyone we come across.”

“And why not? Why can’t we help everyone?”

“We just can’t! It’s impossible! Everyone in the kingdom eats the king’s shit daily. Thousands of people are being mistreated every second. You can’t possibly want to help everyone!”

“Hunter, it doesn’t matter what you say and how much sense you make. I’m not gonna stand by as an innocent child gets murdered and close my eyes.”

“We’ll never get to Silvers at this pace.”

Suddenly, a voice called out from the neighbouring cell. It was exhausted and raspy from dehydration. “Excuse me, boys, but I couldn’t help but overhear you yelling. Did you say Silvers?”

The trio could not see the man whom the voice belonged to, their cells being separated by a brick wall.

“Who’s asking?” impolitely asked Hunter.

“My name’s Marco. I knew a Silvers back in the day. He and I were good buddies.”

“Plenty of Silvers in the world. Mind your own business.”

“Is it Silvers Reas, by chance?”

The cousins stopped badgering each other and instead shared a look of perplexity.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” said Marco.

“How do you know him?” asked Luck, curious to have found an old friend of his father in such a place.

“We were on the same crew of treasure hunters back in our young days, along with Travis, his brother, though I’m sure you know him too. To be honest, I was never much of an adventurer. They dragged me into their adventures, and though I enjoyed the time I spent with them, I left the crew after a few years only. I haven’t seen or talked to them since.”

“What a coincidence that you’d be our cell neighbour. I guess the world truly is small.”

“How has he been? Silvers.”

Luck gritted his teeth. “He got taken by the Royal Army for protecting us and our island. We left to go save him, but… things didn’t exactly go according to plan.”

“We didn’t have a plan,” Hunter threw in.

Marco let out a snicker. “I suppose he would do something like that. He’s always been the honourable kind. May I inquire the reason for your chase of him?”

“He’s my dad. I’m not gonna let the Royal Army hurt him.”

“Oh, really? I can’t say I expected to meet Silvers’ kid in a jail cell in Coalot. What about you two? Just tagging along?”

“He’s my uncle,” answered Hunter.

“I guess I am tagging along,” admitted Taina.

“I see,” said Marco, sitting against the wall, his head looking up at the ceiling. “Looks like we had a listener.”

Everybody directed their attention to the hallway on the other side of the bars keeping them locked in. Sitting on a stool in complete silence was a girl wearing the Royal Army garb.

She had long blonde hair attached in a ponytail going under her backplate, green eyes and a curious, freckled face.

“How long have you been there, my dear?” asked Marco. “I’ve been twiddling my thumbs in here for days, and I’ve yet to see you.”

“Just got here moments ago,” replied the girl in an almost upbeat tone.

“Aren’t you a little young to be in the army?”

“I’ll let you know I passed the exam to become a soldier! And I’m sixteen whole entire years old. And three months.”

“I had no idea kids could sell their soul so early.”

“Shut up, old man!”

Marco laughed and rested his head on the wall. “You’re in for a rough life, kid.”

“I know what I signed up for, thank you very much.” She turned to talk to Luck and Hunter. “You two. You said you wanted to save your family, right?”

“Yeah… But I doubt you’d understand,” scoffed Hunter.

As he ruminated in his anger, the door to their cell suddenly unlocked. The girl stuffed the keys back in her pocket and gestured for them to leave.

“What are you doing?” confusedly asked Luck.

“You wanna save family. That’s the most important thing in the world. No one should stand in the way of that.”

An excited smile formed on Luck’s face. “You’re a shit guard, you know that?”

“Go on, hurry before someone else comes. We’re at the edge of town, so you should be able to sneak out without being seen.”

“I don’t know who you are or why you did this, but thanks. We owe you one.”

“Go, go. Less thanking, more leaving.”

Luck gave her a friendly wink and ran outside of the jail building that had recently been built near Coalot by the armed forces occupying the town, followed closely by Hunter and Taina, who did not feel like questioning the young soldier’s kindness.

Marco smirked. “Wow, what an unexpected twist. I suppose you don’t have any of that kind-heartedness left for me.”

“Unfortunately for you, no.”

“A shame. You know, I have a family, too. I can’t very well take care of them while I’m stuck in here.”

“You should have thought of that before you did whatever got you locked up.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s what they teach you at army camp.”

The door to the jail building opened, and in came Captain Kareese, the same stern look as earlier on her pale face. She glanced inside the cell where Hunter and company should have been waiting, but obviously, saw nothing.

“Elesia,” she said calmly, yet menacingly to the young girl. “Where are the troublemakers from earlier? They should have been transported here after I gave the order.”

“Oh, uh, t-the troublemakers?” stuttered Elesia. “I-uh, they-”

“They escaped,” interfered Marco.

“What do you mean, they escaped?” asked the captain, her eyes piercing.

“I mean, they escaped. They were brought in here a while ago, but I seem to recall the soldiers forgetting to lock the door.”

“What…?”

“The troublemakers, as you call them, quickly found out and made a run for it. Little missy over here never even laid eyes on them.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“What reason would I have to lie to defend a dog?”

The captain drew her sword in a flash, pointing it at Marco’s throat from between the bars of the cell. “Don’t ever insult my sister again, or I’ll execute you myself. Got that?”

Marco appeared unbothered by her very real threat. “Apologies, captain.”

The captain put her sword away and turned to Elesia. “Keep an eye on this one.”

“Y-yes sis- I mean, captain!”

Once the captain left the building, Elesia gave Marco a bizarre look. “Why did you help me?” she silently asked.

“Felt like it.”

“That’s it? You… felt like it?”

“Mhm. Shouldn’t you be glad?”

“I am, I guess I just expected a better answer.”

Marco shrugged and went back to doing nothing in peace. Meanwhile, Hunter, Luck and Taina finally stopped running once Coalot was out of view.

“Hunter,” his cousin called out. “That girl helped us. She didn’t need to. She’s a soldier, if anything she should work against us. But she didn’t.”

“What are you saying?”

“She had no reason to help us, yet she did. We’re gonna save dad, I guarantee it. But I’m not going to ignore everyone else’s suffering on the way. I know I can’t help everyone, but those I can, I will.”

“Whatever. I still think you’re being too idealistic and cliché. But I won’t stop you. Not unless you’re in danger.”

“Thanks, Hunter.”