It turned out more people owed Ersel favors than I thought. Luckily, quite a few of them owned carts.

I watched as the trees swished past my sides. The trot of horses intertwined with the rattle of wheels. Incredible. Just how fast were we going? I lifted my head off my wrist. Quick to return a glance I was getting from the driver. He looked nervous. I wondered why? I stared down at Ersel who shared a similar expression. Odd.

“So Ersel.” Grumbled a scruffy voice from the front, “You haven’t introduced me to your friend yet.”

Ersel winced and her eyes spat from me to the driver, “Well ah, he’s my ah- guard! Yes!”

The coach driver’s eyes changed from nervousness to disbelief, “No weapon?”

I made a quizzical expression underneath my hood, though I doubt he could see it. “I don’t need a weapon. I am a go-”

“Look at him.” Snapped Ersel, “He’s huge! He needs only his looks to scare away brigands.”

By this point I had gotten used to her rudeness, though it would have helped if she balanced it with facts. The fact of my godliness for one.

The short man at the front nodded and returned his eyes to the road, “You have a point.”

A few seconds of silence made it apparent that the conversation had ended. I rested my head on my wrist once more, my pearl eyes tracing the trees from side to side. It reminded me of another forest. I caught Ersel at the edge of my eye, “Ever heard of the bandits of Evermore?”

She took her head off her own wrist. Shaking her head she stared at me “No. What’s Evermore?”

“A forest. Perhaps the largest in the world. They say once you enter it, you see only more and more forest wherever you go. Hence the people call it ‘Evermore’ since it stretches ‘Forevermore’.

The land the forest grew on was essentially an island, a very large island with five port cities and six clans. The sixth clan, and its leader, the queen of thieves is what this story is about.”

Ersel eyed me as if I had missed something, no doubt ready to interrupt me. “So.” She started. I knew it. “Five clan for five cities. The sixth clan was in the forest?”

“Yes. But there wasn’t always a sixth clan. During the third era, that isle, the isle of Gomori was attacked by the eastern kings.”

“Where is Gomori? And eastern kings?” she pressed.

“Not that I have seen it- that’s your job by the way- but it’s on the other end of the strait of dawn. I only heard stories about it. As for the eastern kings. That’s a story for another time. Any country this far would have only heard of their exploits.”

Ersel nodded, the driver seemed interested as well, catching my eyes with edge of his.

“Now about that clan. Long ago Gomori was attacked and fell to the Eastern kings, port by port the eastern kings forced the native lords to kneel. When the last lord kneeled, the covenant of the eastern kings levied taxes against all of Gomori. Not all the people could afford this tax and the lower echelons of people were forced to leave the great cities. Banished almost, to the dreaded Evermore.”

“Dreaded?” Pushed interrupts-a-lot.

“Yes, dreaded. The forest is home to both the beasts and curses alike. But most feared of all were the bandits. You could say in an island with five port cities, both sea and land trade were profitable. Though this was third era, keep that in mind.”

“Pirates.” Ersel nodded as she understood, for once she was not completely dull.

“Exactly. Piracy meant atleast four out of five ships would be pirated if not guarded. So most trade was done in land. Thus bandits. When the outcasts left the great cities they were subjected to all the trials of Evermore. People were homeless, starving, left alone to the wild. Left with two options. Join the bandits or die.

Yet these bandits still had their own problems. Lost by their own petty rivalries, the port cities easily surpassed the majority of them. Further starving the poor population. They would have died, lost in the vastness of Evermore, if not for the former head of a great merchant family, Yoko.

Yoko was the heir to the South Isle’s weaving company. A company once great, but no longer. It was one of the many hit hard by the taxes of the eastern kings, even more so by its inability to adapt to their styles and traditions. When Yoko inherited her family’s company, she had a little less than a dozen workers and a month’s worth of pay. She was desperate. Though desperation breeds ambition.

Where most saw the recent increase in bandits as a detriment, she saw it as an opportunity. Separated the bandits were little more than a nuisance, but united, they formed a small army. So Yoko set about uniting these bandit gangs.

It wasn’t easy, they say it took her five years even convince the bandit leaders to meet, seven in total to finally band them together. In the end it was the promise of wealth that won the gangs over.

Over the next three years, Yoko began her reign as the queen of thieves, raiding any and every merchant dumb enough to travel unguarded. She started her lawless crew with coordinated thefts of small merchants, as to not attract too much attention. Then she committed grander and grander schemes.”

“Did the Gomori Lords know about Yoko?”

“Of course. Yoko was infamous. Towards the end of those three years the port Lords chose to take Yoko head on. Till then they had tried several different measure to oppose Yoko. Increased guards, secret routes, and fake carts to divert her thieves.

Yet Yoko was too cunning. She used the trees to hide her bandits and travel from area to area in a system of hanging bridges. Eventually the port lords began to cut the forest in mass. They cut enough trees near each city until they could begin expanding the narrow roads. They set walls around the most frequented roads and even towers as an extra measure. They set fires to thickets they believed Yoko’s people hid in and kidnapped children unfortunate enough to wander the forest.

For the most part these measures were devastating. Some of Yoko’s people even defected, and her whereabouts were revealed to those who wished to hunt her. So Yoko ran. From forest keep to forest keep, while her loyal followers defended her to the last.

So Yoko tried one last scheme. Use the eastern kings as a divertive enemy. She formed her own secret agency, Evermore’s hand, which slowly melded into Gomoran society. Those few spread rumors into each town, rumors which blamed certain droughts and crimes on their eastern rulers.

In the next four years, the port Lords chased Yoko, almost absorbed in the task as if it was all they faced. Meanwhile their people grew weary. They no longer villanised Yoko, but rather the Eastern Kings which yoked them for every copper. More and more people refused to pay the taxes some even went as far as to protest the eastern rule.

‘You’re nothing but puppets!’ cried the people to their lords ‘Cut your strings!’

Three of the five port cities succumbed to this claim, the ones that did not fell to their own people. Soon all five clans gave up the hunt for Yoko. Now united against the Eastern threat.

That said the Eastern kings took this as an act of aggression and they were not shy to assert their rule.

Immediately the Port nobles realized they could not face the eastern kings. That was when Yoko took action. She offered the Port Lords refuge in her domain, in Evermore. Insisting that if Gomori were to stand a chance against the East, it would have to go inland. Fight the East little by little.

The Port lords, out of fear for their own skin, did as Yoko told. And so one night, when the easterners commenced their strike, they arrived on the eastern shores of Gomori and found a city abandoned as if in ruins. Not a single gold coin left in its wake.

The Easterners hit the other cities in kind, and one after the other each were found empty. Even their ambassadors were gone. Quick to react, the easterners assaulted the forest. Yet they had come from a desert homeland and they were not a people suited for the forests. Especially not prepared to fight against those who had mastered it.

Yoko and the port lords fought the war of attrition, winning fight after fight. Within five years the war had ended. The Eastern kings, withdrew, unwilling to fight for an isle that was not worth the trouble.

Thus Gomori was liberated, as a reward the Port lords afford reprieve for Yoko, but she wanted more than that. Always the opportunist, she wanted to form a clan, the sixth clan. At first the lords were apprehensive, but eventually they came to a conclusion. If she paid off all the bounties her commanders had, they would recognize her clan as the sixth one.

So Yoko set about paying those debts. One by one approaching the individual port lords to pay off their respective fines. She had, after all, amassed a grand fortune over the last two decades. First through banditry, and second through the war. However, the last port lord, Lord Minoru, asked Yoko to instead throw what she owed him into a large hole in the middle of Evermore. A gorge most jokingly called ‘Nevermore’.

It was a strange request, but an honest one. They say Minoru wanted to know whether Yoko’s intentions were true. That she would really forfeit gold to honor her people. To pay off one’s debt was one matter, to abandon it was another.

Seven days after Minoru requested it, Yoko set about traveling to Nevermore. She had guarded carriers all along the way. She had a suspicion that some of her people would turn against her.

She took three days to travel inland. In that time she was attacked several times, each attack a failed attempt to steal the treasure. Instead of cutting down her assailants she had them captured.

When she reached Nevermore, she threw the treasure into the gorge, then had her prisoners line up before it and fall one after the other. They say the spirits of those thieves now wander the great depths of the pit, greedily defending the treasure they died to steal.

Afterwards, Yoko’s sixth clan was recognized just as the port lords promised and she began to establish her own city. A city as wide as Evermore itself. One formed by connecting the various forts of bandit gangs that had existed prior. Yoko never lived to see its completion, but for all we know it has grown since then. While in its heart lies Nevermore, the treasure of a nation buried within it.”

Ersel kept staring at me, a little curious but soon after blank faced. She leaned back in her seat, “All these stories you tell me happened so far away.”

I glanced at her, “Want to hear one that happened here? In this kingdom?”

Ersel’s eyes expanded as she sat up. Just from that, I knew her answer.

“We’re here.” Interjected the driver, “Welcome to the capitol.”

Immediately I found my head stuck outside the opposite window. Caught in the moment. Ahead of me was the capitol. It was magnificent.

It was a city which descended in layers to the crystal water below. The lower areas looked like a flower field with a series of coloured cloths hung from corner to corner roofing it. From above, Canals ran as if they were rivers besides the dark clusters of townhouses. I had never seen rocks used so finely. In fact I had never seen anything so big. It was even bigger than Southmarch! Incredible.

“Get off me!” roared Ersel. I peaked to my side and realized I had leaned over Ersel to see the sight.

Reluctantly, I relaxed back into my seat. The nerve. She was supposed to show me the world. “What happened to your promise?” I pushed.

Ersel looked out herself, “Wait till we get higher. You haven’t seen anything yet.”

“I will take your word on that.” I grumbled. She had a habit of repeating what I already knew. I spied at the driver, who, for some reason, looked nervous, peaking back constantly.

“Alright.” He started, “I got you to the capitol, now forget what you know about me and the baker’s wi-”

“Baker’s what?” played Ersel. Apparently she had forgot. It amazed me how dense she was. I looked at her, what had she forgotten anyways?

“Good.” Concluded the driver.

We left shortly after. The air was different, it smelled smoky. I glanced at the plumes of smoke coming from the city. There were lots of them.

“Why is there smoke?” I inquired. Maybe a fire.

“Smithies.” Replied Ersel, she had been foraging through her pack. “The capitol is famous for them. They say the fires here burn brighter than any other in the land. They forge star metal here. Alright.”

Ersel pulled out a small dagger covered in a golden sheath. She twirled it in her hand and pointed it towards me, “This.” She started, “is star metal.” She unsheathed it to show me a single iron dagger. Oddly it was not the blade I had seen before. Then I noted a marking on her other arm just covered by her sleeves. “We’re going to need it here.”