Ch 20: The City on the Other Side of the Gate

As they crested a hill the city of New Hope came into view. The name was a bit of propaganda from the local king to convince others it was a good idea to work with the outsiders.

The gate in this world was located in a sparsely populated region. The ruins that surrounded the gate were used by locals as a place to pen up animals. The indestructible gate was barely a local curiosity at the time it reactivated and connected to the City of Gates.

It took a few years before the king started the city realizing that if he didn't take control of the trade coming from the outsiders, the local lords would. He married one of his daughters to a baron's son and put them in charge of the newly built city.

The city was only partially done with buildings scattered around the ruins, disturbing them as little as possible. The reason for the incomplete city planning could be seen excavating the area around the front gates: The Arazca Historical Society.

They paid a huge sum to get the king to build the city around the ruins. While they loved to collect the history of the worlds connected to gates, their main goal was to find evidence of the City Builders.

There was little doubt in the minds of the citizens of the City of Gates that someone built their city and later disappeared. Unfortunately, there was little known about their history, culture, building techniques, or really anything about them.

What little direct evidence of them that did exist, was all in ancient legends of the worlds connected to the gates.

At the city gates they were stopped and inspected. Since they only had a few saplings in a small wagon, it should have been a fast inspection. But the city guards were constantly wanting to establish that they were in charge over outsiders.

They didn't bother with bigger caravans, but they'd throw their weight around when they could. This was also fairly common for newly connected worlds.

Baldeur and his companions could easily put them in their place, but that would just cause problems down the road.

The citizens of the City of Gates weren't conquerors. They didn't have armies capable of controlling all the worlds connected to the City. So they had to accept a little disrespect at times to keep the locals in a good mood.

Worlds connected to the City of Gates had three main designations. Friendly, Neutral, and Hostile. This world was classified as risky-friendly. The people they met earlier were the reason for the risky part.

Because they were considered friendly, they had to play nice. Of course that didn't mean they would let the locals walk all over them. They just had to be willing to accept any consequences.

After the delay, they made their way through the scattered buildings and ruins to the Zeerous Trade Company's world branch.

The ground floor was part merchant house to work with the local merchants, and part tavern. The upper floors were rooms for company personnel. And behind them was a large warehouse for their goods.

As they walked into the tavern, Baldeur wrapped his arms around Aisling and Jin's shoulders.

"Well my good friends, it has been amazing. I hope we can still remain friends and work together in the future." Baldeur said.

Jin just rolled his eyes and brushed Baldeur's arm off him. He didn't really have anything against Baldeur, but he also didn't want to be roped into anything the troublemaker might come up with.

Aisling didn't remove the arm but allowed her aura of wrath to spread off of her.

"Ah. You don't have to be so rough." Baldeur's arm had started to blister under her wrath.

The three of them soon sat down together.

"Good to see you back." The barmaid Zaira said.

"After a long trying journey, it's always refreshing to see a beautiful face." Baldeur said.

Both Jin and Aisling rolled their eyes.

"Will you be staying long this time around?" Zaira asked.

"Alas, we will be leaving tomorrow morning. Not nearly enough time to enjoy your company." Baldeur knew he was being corny but he enjoyed it. He found flirting without real consequence a perk of his current life.

"I guess we'll have to make the most of our time." Zaira brushed her fingers down Baldeur's shoulder.

He gave her a charming smile.

The group then made their orders. When their food and drink arrived, Aisling held up her mug and the others followed suit.

"It hasn't been all bad the past few years training with you guys. To our glorious future." Aisling said.

"To our future." The guys replied.

Even though they wouldn't officially end their probationary training period until they arrived back at their branch in the City of Gates, they celebrated throughout the evening.

Chetan and a few others joined to congratulate them.

Zaira made sure to come over as much as possible to refill Baldeur's drink and flirt.

Baldeur could tell from her emotions that she wasn't fully into him. She was definitely attracted to him but there was an ulterior motive that she wasn't good at hiding.

Levanya and Vivek had warned him about women like her. The City of Gates was a mysterious place to the locals of the worlds connected to it. They tried to make any connection that would allow them to immigrate to the City.

Marriage or a baby was the easiest way to do that.

Of course Baldeur had no intention of proposing and he had a number of methods to keep himself from having children by accident.

But that didn't mean he wasn't willing to have a little fun if someone was willing.