11: The Capital; Vallath Imperial State

The Landlord opened the door and two filthy rats chased each other out of the room. They vermin crawled inbetween the Landlord's legs. He crushed the rat's skull at the edge of his boot. His black leather boot coated in its blood.

"That's serves you right for coming on my property!", he yelled at the headless vessel "Bloody shitty vermin!"

Azarian watched as he squeezed out every ounce of blood from the poor creature. The landlord was a very large man, rare for a pure breed Vallathian. His gut pressed against the fabric of his shirt. He didn't have a strand of hair on his head but his grey long ruggegged beard was quite the sight to witness.

"The finest rest in all of the Capital.", he said spontaneously, "Travelers pay good units for this place."

The room was a disaster. The once beautiful floral wallpaper that covered the entire room was pealing off the walls. The ceiling boards had brown soak stains from the room above. The wooden planked floor was creaking everytime someone made the slightest step. The only thing that was fine about the room was it's window view of the Capital.

"As we agreed downstairs..... two hundred units upfront."

"Yes of course.", Azarian reached for his pockets and handed him the money.

"So I have four rules which are very simple.", he said, "One, always pay your rent on time I have mouths to feed and the city life ain't cheap. Two, do not break anything. You break it you buy three. Three, no pets allowed, my wife hates any creature that flies, hops, walks or just breaths. She nearly kicked me out. So I suggest getting rid of that weird blue rabbit you are holding."

"I ne-ed him.", Azarian elaborated ,"He is a companion animal."

The landlord stared right through Humphrey's black beady eyes. His gaze was cold and vile. Humphrey tucked himself into Azarian's arms.

"I have no idea what that means but pay me an extra hundred units." , he smiled with a witty grin written all over his face.

"And then you can keep your ugly blue rabbit."

Humphrey heard what the man said and shrugged his arms. He looked at the Landlord with a very repulsive gaze, the landlord was disturbed and felt awkwardly uncomfortable.

"If he keeps on looking at me like that I will have to add up. Weird looking thing."

Azarian handed him the extra one hundred units. He placed it in his pocket together with the other units he received. He bowed his head in gratitude, he walked away and had his hand on the door.

"Rule four?, You forgot to mention rule four."

The landlord let go off the door noob and turned his attention to Azarian.

"Rule four my young friend is that do not get involved with the Imperial Enforcers or anyone from the regime.", he went on to say, "Don't speak to them, don't try to hang out with them or just anything."

Azarian wondered about the way he spoke about the regime. Every Vallathian Azarian had ever met were proud of what they were doing in the war, undyinngly patriotic some may say but not him. The Vallath nation had always taken great dignity about their military strength and the unbreakable grip on the continent. The landlord wasn't as a big of a supporter of the Vallath Imperial rule. He seemed very fearful for his life, he was very uneasy when he uttered a word.

"I thought the enforcers are here to help everyone.", Azarian said.

"Not everything is what it seems.", he turned to Azarian. " This place is hell on ea-", the landlord hesitated and looked outside the window,

"But then again don't think about it too much."

The landlord walked away from the window and headed to the door.

"I will see you around my boy.", he said, "If you need anything I'm upstairs always. If I'm not there then talk to over sized unicorn I spend every night with."

He waved his goodbyes and left the room.

Azarian could hear the screams of the landlord's wife from upstairs.

"You kids better fucking get down from there!", she shouted and could be heard through the echos of the entire building.

Azarian tossed his bag on the bed. He removed every single thing from his bag and his bed was flooded with his clothes and a bunch of old miniature paintings.

He scavenged around the sea of things on his bed looking for the poster. He threw and turned his entire wardrobe upside down. He finally found the poster and it was in a worse state than before. The poster had cuts at the edges and corners.

He stack up the poster on the wall and took a few steps back. He stared at the poster for moments on end.

"I know this is a stretch Humphrey but I just have this feeling the two disappearances are connected.", he said, "They are roughly the same age and two kids can't just go randomly missing."

Humphrey violently shook Azarian's leg trying to get his attention. He looked down at Humphrey and came to the realisation that the plate was still on.

"We do need to sort this situation out.", he said, " We will find a mage and hopefully they can uncast the spell then we can go to Hope's house."

They left the rest and walked right into the heart of the City. It was busy and they were people everywhere doing their own thing. There were donkeys carrying farmer's products such as the wheat for winter, everyone was flamboyantly dressed with each person wearing their personality for the world to see.

They met this merchant who was selling small sized lady shoes. Azarian asked for the nearest Mage healer in town. The man directed them to a small shop that was only a walk away from the merchant stand.

They walked and walked they finally reach the Mage's shop. The lights were out and it looked like no one was working in the shop, no movement what's so ever could be heard or seen. Azarian went to the front door, he knocked and knocked at the door and got nothing.

He opened the door gently and the shop was clean. The healing table was in order, all the plants hanging on the walls and sitting near the window had been watered and the floor was spotless.

"Maybe she got off work early.", he said to himself.

He walked around the shop and stumbled upon a mirror. He saw Samuel In the mirror again.

"You think saving the boy will change the fact that you are nothing but a monster and always will be.", Samuel said, "An unnatural abomination. Everyone that you have ever loved leaves you. You are a monster admit it."

"Admit it!", Samuel said with a screeching scream.

"ADMIT IT!", he screeched even louder,

"ADMIT IT!"

Azarian punched the mirror and the mirror came shuttering to the ground into a million pieces. He looked at his fists and large chunks of glass got stuck in his first. The glass fell piece by piece and didn't even leave a mark. His skin healed at a blink of an eye.

Humphrey's eyes asked a million questions. Azarian looked down at him and picked up. They left the shop and went back to the Rest.

Azarian laid on the bed staring at the dingy ceiling that was at the brink of collapse. Flashes of Samuel and him serving in the Saranian military rolled before his eyes like a five minute film. The days they spent training together, the cold nights where they would wake up hours before the sun was out and bath in ice freezing water, the endless laps in the sand out running him every single time and still holding back and the nights where Samuel would read the letters from his baby girl, Zaiwe.

Every letter she wrote she made him make the same promise everytime, that he would come back home to her and he promised every single time. Azarian remembered those promises his best friend made and those memories devoured him inside.

He stared at the wall where he stuck up the poster.

"I will find you Malak.", he whispered to himself.