Clocksong Ch. 03

Outside the small, recently disowned workshop, chaos was ensuing. Much louder than the earlier small panic that the gunshot had caused, large swarms of people screamed as they poured down the streets, tumbling past carriages and fruit stands. They mob fled away from the center of the city, where deep smoke rose in the sky, and the stench of burning woods and flesh rose in the sky.

But Tito was completely ignorant of the chaos, totally enveloped in the horror of Huli in front of him. The sturdy woman had a tough yet beautiful complexion, a look of grumpy yet calm solemnity in her blank eyes. He had been kneeling over her for five minutes now, trying to get a proper thought to form. No tears fell. Just a hollow feeling of despair in his heart.

Tito was finally jerked back into reality as a man crashed through the front door, slamming it shut and breathing in ragged breaths. Still in a foggy mood, Tito turned and looked at the man. He wore a vest, sleek velvet pants, and a crisp goatee. But his demeanor did not match; his large, widened eyes flickered about the room, and he licked his lips between ragged breaths. He held his back to the door. He looked at Tito after a moment, fear and hesitation in his gaze.

Tito didn't manage to get out any words, so the man spoke up. "Um, sorry, I just-" the man exhaled, rubbing his wrinkled head. "The Knights Constabulary are here and... not on friendly terms."

A prick of a chill managed to slip down Tito's spine, despite his numbness. He could lose everything in the world, and hearing of the Knights of the King coming down for you would still terrify Tito.

Tito turned back to Huli, as of hoping he might catch her snoring or squinting at him. She lay still, unmoving, though. She's moved to the beyond, he finally admitted to himself. He felt a rush of tears pry from his cold eyes, wetting his jacket.

That was when he noticed something - a small corner of a paper poking out from her jacket pocket. She always wore mens jackets due to their pockets, and placed various tools and notes in them. But something seemed strange about the paper.

He pulled the slip out from her jacket, confirming his suspicions. It was worn and browning on the edges, as if read often. Unlike Tito, Huli was highly clean and organized, and would never let a piece of paper get dirty so easily. It must have been with her for a long time.

Brushing aside some of his tears from his red eyes, he looked at the slip. A young girl was in the sepia toner photograph, with long hair, maybe brown in color, and large eyes. It didn't look like Huli, nor anybody Tito knew. She looked to be around 10 years old, and she was standing against a smooth stone wall. It was probably an old picture, as most photographers liked to use sharper black and white photos these days. 

"Why the hell are the Knights-" the man muttered as he entered the workshop, his voice wavering, though he froze as he saw Tito kneeling over Huli. He blanched even more, and took a step back. "D-did you..."

Tito looked down, realizing he still had his gun in his hand. "No, I came when I heard her-" he choked off the last of the sentence, wiping away the last of his tears. He put the gun down and stood up slowly. 

The fellow looked between Tito, Huli, and the gun for a few more moments before relaxing visibly. "Alright. I don't know what happened here, boy, but we're not safe. The Knights Constabulary are outside and they're killing." He scrunched his face, though the man did not look very surprised. 

Tito pushed down the grief that manifested as a lump in his throat, trying to understand what the man meant. "They're... killing? Like, people, in the city?" That didn't make any sense. The Constabulary was there to keep order. "It's probably an invasion." Though that wasn't very plausible either. The State didn't have any enemies that Tito knew of, though he wasn't very politically aware. Yet, Tito couldn't feel any of the horror or shock he should feel at that moment. 

Behind the bloke, a loud crash sounded as the front door was bashed in from its hinges. The door smashed through the contents of the room beyond, making Tito wince as he heard it destroy tables and presumably the timekeepers that rested atop them, probably thousands of spans of gold worth in clocks destroyed. A tall woman strode into the room, looking darkly at the two men. She wore a uniform of the Knights Constabulary standard, made of dyed black leathers and gambison, with white glazed metal plating over her shoulders, breasts, and legs, with similarly colored gauntlets. Her dark brown hair was tied in a spiky ponytail. She swept aside her black and white cloak and pulled out a sleek blackened blade, pointing it at the two. "In the name of the Holy Knigthood of the Lady Eliss, put your weapons down."

Tito paled despite himself, noting he had picked up his shoddy firearm instinctively. The man in front of him had pulled out a ceremonial shortblade from his waist belt, though Tito didn't doubt the sharp glint of its edge. Tito himself quickly tossed his gun on the table next to him, putting his hands forward as his mother had taught him to. The lady did not look like someone to mess with. 

But the other man still held his thin blade forward, sweat beading on his forehead. Tito felt his stomach drop. Disobeying a Knight? The man wouldn't live much longer. Tito was doubtful her wrath would avoid him either. 

The Knight's stern look turned to one of disgust, and she opened her mouth to bark something. Her blade began glowing a subtle purple along the back, flat edge of the blade. 

Tito noticed the man next to him sliding a small glass vial with a metal plug on top from his pocket, filled with some grey cloudy substance. The man twisted the vial in his one hand before sharply throwing it at the woman, the glass sailing with practiced precision. 

The Knight barely managed to sidestep the vial with a look of shock. The glass shattered on the corner of a shelf behind her though, and an enormous blast shook the building. Tito thought it was from outside, but a huge explosion of black clouds and ripple purple energy - not dissimilar from the glow of the Knight's blade - flooded through the storeroom, slamming the body of the Knight into the door frame like a child's toy. Tito was thrown backwards and sat for several moments, his jaw gaping. What the hell??

The man beside Tito yanked him up with surprising easy. "Hurry boy, she won't be down for long." He toted Tito through the work room to the back door that Huli used to take orders of sheet metal and coiled spring metal. 

Tito stumbled across the room, breaking free of the man's grasp, but following the man, still in shock and unsure of what else to do. The man looked back to make sure he was still following, before ducking outside and into the chaos outside. Tito froze as the outside air hit him. 

Huli's shop looked cleaner than Lucienne's kitchen compared to the chaos outside the shop. Even from the thin alleyway the unusual man before Tito crept through, the city of Toredil was nothing like Tito had ever seen it. Smoke spilled into the air from burning edifices. Screams rang through the air as civilians ran down the streets in crowds worse than even ninthday evenings. A broad shouldered Knight in black and white strode past the alleyway, chasing a screaming woman carrying a young child, though her scream was cut off shortly after. 

The man in purple pushed past Tito as he turned back, likely turning back from the Knight. "This way," he told Tito with surprising calm, though Tito could clearly see terror in his eyes too. "Too many Knights there."

Tito managed to swallow the raging fear wracking his mind, following the man that seemed to be the only source of calm in the entire city. He stumbled over a few articles of trash and debris as he mindlessly followed the man deeper into the alley. The man checked every corner they approached, before swiftly gesturing for Tito to follow him. He took Tito through winding sub-streets that Tito doubted he could navigate even with a clear mind. He didn't know why the man was guiding him - he didn't even know why Tito was following him - but he followed, keeping as close to the man as he could, accidentally bumping into him several times in his haste. 

Eventually, the alleyway dumped them into a row of city slums, which ramshackle houses and tents of old leather and rotting wood. Tito had never liked the slums of the city - he'd grown up in them, and hated how the people in them were treated - but no hesitation crossed his mind as his guide ducked into a particularly brooding shack, waving him on inside the walls of blackened woods. Tito followed quickly, pushing through a tarp of grimy canvas. 

Inside the box was a sharp series of stairs downwards, only about 10 feet down. Tito bit off a yelp as he stumbled forward, almost crashing into the bottom of the cobbled stairs, though he managed to catch his balance. He looked back up at the man, who followed him in, closing the rusty door behind him. "Not much further," he muttered as he squeezed past Tito through narrow passage. 

Tito followed the man, looking above at the ceiling of muddy planks, light peeking through from the chaotic land above. The passage seemed to run just beneath most of the slums until it vanished into darkness ahead. At one point, Tito saw blood dripping down from above. He looked above and saw what seemed to be a fresh corpse above. Bile quickly rose in his throat and he almost fell, but managed to hold on to the wall next to him. He violently shoved the thought aside, wearily following the man. 

Eventually, after walking in darkness for what seemed like hours, though was likely more a minute, Tito bumped into the man, who had stopped. He rattled a trapdoor above and smoothly opened it, allowing light to spill into the dank tunnel. 

Tito blinked away the bright lamplight that flooded his eyes, though he didn't dare close them. The man pulled himself upwards into the chamber above, before turning around and offering Tito a hand. After a moment of sudden hesitation, Tito accepted it. It dawned on him that he didn't know the man, and had no clue where he was taking him, but he didn't really have any other option. He pulled himself up, holding onto the cobbled walls with his boots, before letting go of the man's hand and wiping his hands on his now-grimy trousers. 

The building seemed to be an old warehouse, with shelves upon shelves lined up in rows. Dozens of flickering oil lamps hung on the walls, and a few pipes ran alongside them, though whether they provided water, oil, or electricity, Tito couldn't tell. In the corner where they had arrived from was a simple table, stacked with papers, with a few cabinets and chairs against the nearby wall. 

Tito felt himself relaxing slightly, though with the relaxation came a torrent of chaotic feelings and emotions. The Knights had turned on the city. The city they swore to protect. He was lost in a foreign location with a man he didn't know. His workshop had been decimated, the city was in chaos with death everywhere. And Huli...

Tito swallowed painfully as the thought of the death of his friend came to his mind again, though he pushed it away. There will be time to mourn later. But I can't afford to now. He managed to organize his thoughts and focused on the situation at hand. 

Tito quickly looked around again, trying to gain an understanding of his location. "W-where are we?" he croaked out, his voice hoarse as if he hadn't spoken in a week. 

He expected the man beside him to answer, but a female voice rang out instead. "Wise question. We're in the inventory of Lord Elgeath."

Tito turned sharply as a woman rounded the corner. His eyes widened as he vaguely recognized the voice. The woman walked closer, into the light of the lamp. Horror sank in as he recognized her body, too. The black outfit. The tied-back ruby hair. Her serious expression with slate grey eyes. 

It was the woman he saw just before Huli's death.