Twisted Skies, Chapter 7 - Corruption of the City

 Only the elusive masters of past and future – called fate-weavers – had still refused to submit to modern science, stubbornly holding on to their old secrets. Although they were old-fashioned, they were by no means weak. No matter what, each and every fate-weaver would be a master of great power, the total opposite of the man before him. The more he thought about it, the angrier Thurain got. How dared this bastard impersonate the great masters, how dared he cheat the innocent for his own gains? Even though he was weak, he was still a cultivator, and should still had a responsibility towards the common folk.

“Yes, indeed, I see great trouble in your future,” the cheat continued, oblivious about the storm brewing within Thurain. “You are new to this city, young and unprepared. You are about to handle matters you should let lie. The goals you wish to achieve here will forever remain out of reach, and your fate will lead you down a dark path instead. Your best course would be to turn back now and leave this city as fast as you can.”

“Cut the crap!” Thurain shouted, and regretted it right away. His master had taught him to never swear. Words had power most people didn't understand, especially those from a cultivator. Even so, in his shame and anger, all he wanted was to get away from the scammer as fast as he could. Yet he still couldn't move from his spot in the queue. For relief, he was dependent on the scammer's goodwill, something Thurain knew would never be forthcoming. Thus trapped, he lost his cool and shoved the cheater back, though with minimal force. As a cultivator, he wouldn't want to harm an ordinary person.

“Go cheat someone else! We're not interested!” he shouted.

However, the scammer's reaction was nothing like Thurain had expected. He could see a crafty glint in the cheat's eyes, but by then it was already too late. With a dramatic, wide swing of his arms, the cheat stumbled back and onto his cart. As he screamed to high heavens like a slaughtered pig, he tumbled over the cheap wares he had lined up on top. The sound of broken glass showed that his fake 'tinctures' had broken under his weight and splatted their light brown contents on the floor.

“What the-” Thurain was sure that he hadn't used that much force on the cheater. Not even a mortal would have reacted like that, let alone a cultivator.

Before he could react, shouts and screams spread throughout the crowd. Thurain just stood there in shock, while others left the queue to help the scammer back up.

“Master, are you alright? Are you hurt?” someone asked.

“No worries, good folk. A great master like myself would never be hurt by a mortal's attack,” the cheat said, as he fixed his messy hair and clothes. No matter what he claimed, he looked neither unhurt nor unworried as he hobbled over to his toppled cart to set it upright again.

“What's with this nonsense! Clearly, he's acting to win sympathy! Don't believe his lies!” Thurain shouted, even more enraged than before. Yet all the people around only looked at him with scorn.

“That was too much, Vaine. I know you're strong, but you really shouldn't hit others. Master DeVarisse only wanted to help.” Even Ria had somehow taken the cheat's side.

“No, I-”   

“What's going on here?”

Before Thurain could defend himself, a man in a black uniform had marched towards them along the queue. In his hands, he held a baton of solid, white wood, while on his hips, he carried a whistle and a peculiar mask with a black and white checker pattern. With his excellent eyes, Thurain had already spotted people with the same uniforms at the front of the queue, handling the new arrivals.

These must be the guards of the city, he thought.

This one in particular looked like a nasty sort, overweight and with his head held so high that Thurain had a hard time seeing his eyes. While the guard looked past his nose at the commotion, he pounded his baton against his hand.

“You, newcomers, don't think I'll go easy on you just because you're not from around here. You best keep quiet, you hicks, or this entrance won't welcome you. Then you can go over to another entrance and try your luck there.”

“Officer Conogan, what great luck!” Theodoro shouted as he hobbled over to the guard. “You see, I was willing to offer this young man my assistance, but this inconsiderate rowdy just hit me for no reason! See, all my expensive goods are shattered.”

The guard looked at the cheat from the corner of his eyes before he showed a vile grin.

“The great Doctor DeVarisse, is it? Weren't you just grafting these idiots again and got called out for once?”

“Me? Never! All my goods are genuine, and their effects proven! If anyone ever were to be dissatisfied, they can find me and I will refund them without question. I swear on my mother's grave!” He stood up straight and raised a hand, before he turned to Thurain again.   

“Yet due to their great potency, my tinctures hold great value. Just look at what that rude boy has done to my expensive elixirs!” He pointed to the ground, where only the broken glass was left after the brown liquid had seeped into the cracked stone floor.

“Valuable!? They're probably just colored water, scams like all your other 'profession'!” Thurain shot back.

“What would a country boy understand of my great genius?” the scammer asked and his nose rose almost as high as the guard's. “You better compensate me for my losses or this matter won't end here! You're just a worthless hick anyways, you waste. This city doesn't need you.”

Again, Thurain could feel the anger rise up from his stomach. He had come to Heliana to infiltrate the Elemental Path Sect and solve his master's murder. He didn't have time to be held up by a scammer and a crooked guard. Weren't these the same types of people as those who had come to claim his home mountain once his master had been gone? The same people who had claimed it for themselves, called him a hick, and his existence a waste? Never would he let them run all over him again.

“Take that back,” he growled and stepped out of line to teach the scammer another lesson. However, the cheater jumped back like a startled deer, his earlier 'injury' all but forgotten. Before Thurain even understood what was going on, the cheat had already hidden behind the guard's broad back.

“Officer, did you see? That boy was trying to hurt me again! We can't let violent elements like this one into our fair city, can we?”

The guard scoffed rather than answer, but he still gave Thurain a dirty look.

“Anyways, I didn't break anything important. I can pay for the glass vials, but I want the scammer to pay for his crimes as well. He was trying to cheat me by reading my fortune, and he sold this young miss a fake pamphlet.”

While Thurain was trying to take the cheat down with him and save the common people in the queue that way, the scammer whispered into the guard's ear from behind. While most people wouldn't even have noticed the sneaky movements, Thurain heard every single word.

“Officer Conogan, please serve justice for me and make the boy pay. By evening, I'll drop by and get you a good present in return.”

Wasn't this bribery? Would that scammer really get away with this? Again, Thurain tried to step up, but was stopped by the guard's raised hand as soon as he tried to defend himself.

“Stop! Since you broke this honest citizen's goods, you should be held accountable. If you don't pay up, don't even think about entering the city. You won't get through at the other stations either, I'll make sure of that.”

Although Thurain wanted to fight back more than anything, he knew that he was in the weaker position. In the end, he was just an outsider, and even a little man like this Officer Conogan had the power to completely ruin his future plans. When he had left the mountain, he hadn't been able to bring much with him. All he had left was a small rucksack of goods, mostly cultivation resources. Though at least he had plenty of old gold coins that would serve him as currency. If he didn't have to pay too much, it wouldn't be a big deal.

Rather, if he couldn't enter the city, he would be stranded for the night and wouldn't be able to join the entrance exam for the Elemental Path Sect. Although he could always go somewhere else first and plan his investigation from a distance, his limited funds would only diminish further. Even worse, any potential trails of his master's killer grew colder by the day. Thus, he swallowed his pride and clenched his teeth.

“How much for the brown water then?” Thurain asked.

“Brown water? Those tinctures were made from rare resources, you brat! Olvengrass, Longsleeve, Indara... you wouldn't be able to pay me back even if you worked for a lifetime.” The scammer huffed as he listed his made-up ingredients. “The tinctures are made with great care and represent an invincible cure-all elixir to solve all ailments! Even if you sold your soul, you would not be able to afford one.” The scammer was ready to launch into another litany of advertisements, but a dirty look from the officer made his neck shrink and his voice sink.

“...but since I'm a master, I should show generosity towards a little boy. I will take a step back and only ask for four Rai per bottle I will have to replace. You broke seventeen, so that's one seventy-eight total.”

When he heard the final number and saw the scammer's outstretched hand, Thurain's face went pale from anger. In total, he had just shy of one hundred Rai to his name. If he paid the cost, he could only barely afford a place to stay and some food for the next few days. Although he would be able to join the enrollment soon, he wasn't willing to just part with his goods over nothing. However, the guard would not be denied the bribe he had been promised.   

“What, you're a mute now? You better pay up, or do you not want to get through those gates?” The officer stepped forward and tried to strike an imposing figure, his gut almost striking Thurain in the chest.

“Fine,” the cultivator relented in the end. Though he was despondent, he still counted out the money owed and shoved it into the scammer's hand, who took the offer with a wide grin on his face. Both the 'master's' previous fear as well as his injury were long gone by that point. As the scammer turned towards his cart once again, Thurain recounted the events in his head. Everything had gone so fast, but something didn't feel right.

“Wait, if it's four Rai per bottle, it only comes to sixty-eight, right?” he realized. As soon as he blurted out his thoughts, the injured great master rushed off like the wind, his wobbly cart in tow. Thurain's hands clenched into fists as his eyes followed the cheat, but there was nothing he could do. The corrupt guard was still there and he didn't want to lose his spot in the queue either.

“Wait master, you forgot your pamphlet!” Ria shouted, now fully taken in by the cheat.

“Keep it, young lady! May fate be with you!” a distant voice returned, and then the troublemaker disappeared into the crowd.

After all that annoyance, Thurain no longer felt like talking to people, not that he had much of a choice in the matter. All around him, the mortals in the queue gave him dirty looks. For them, he was the evil boy who had driven away the great master. After all, they were just folks from the countryside. From what they had seen, the city's guards had backed the scammer. If he was protected by officials, he couldn't have been in the wrong, could he?

Even Ria only shared a conflicted look with Thurain before she turned around to spy into the pamphlet the scammer had given her. At first Thurain wanted to her about the dangers of unsupervised cultivation again, but his hand halted in a half-raised position, before he lowered it back down.   

His mood now ruined and with no way left to while away the time, he labored along the queue, until he finally reached the gate into the city.