011-The City of the Desert

By the time Nonoth realized Jack diverted the topic off her question with his "big discovery", they were already under the huge gate of the City of the Desert.

Nonoth wasn't expecting such a magnificent city, especially when it was a city located just outside of a wide desert with few people ever to visit. And those are the rare in the rare, only like adventurers or people who doesn't have to eat, in short, those who has a death wish, or those that are already dead.

But this city was one of the few cities that Nonoth had come across in the years after she left the cloud, looking for her identity.

With an enormous gate almost 100 meters tall, the city was surrounded by six as high walls that were made of huge irregular stones. The very question of how long did it took for those who built the city to finish this master piece takes long for one to get even just some idea.

"The coin is getting hotter so we are close. They are definitely inside the city." Nonoth stopped in front of the gate and checked the coin floating in front of her.

"Let's get in then." Jack was so excited that his tone was almost somewhat anxious.

"You..." Jack cut Nonoth off before she could rise another question and said: "The reason why this city is favored by almost everyone is that anyone is allowed in, which grants it with information, goods and people. Even stuff in your wildest dreams, you can find them here."

"I doubt it." Nonoth gave out a light sigh, thinking it would be hell of a miracle if she can find her mom here, too.

There stood a tall wall right inside the gate, it even got its own name: shadow rampart. Everyone knows that inside every gate there would be a wall, tall, but not taller than the gate, but few knows its name and why there should be one:

A gate is to prevent unwanted creatures, and the wall unwanted spirits.

It was common sense that a stone is a mirror to spirits. So a mirror for spirits with the right spells cast being the first thing a spirits sees after it wanders through the gate, is a high efficient way to screen spirits that come inside.

What's special about this city was that it wasn't ruled by anyone or any group of people. People live here for its freedom and its convenience, and people defend it for the same reasons.

For thousands of years the city has stood here, it has never fallen. Or rather, it has rarely been attempted. And in those few times that it was, its people rose voluntarily to protect it with their sweat and blood, so that their free way of life would live. And this was why even the infamous ones like the Death Merchant would somewhat behave here, and were to be welcomed anytime they choose to come.

This, was the home to anyone and hence, everyone.

"But even though the people are all willing to defend the city, it would still be hard if facing an army, no?" Nonoth asked Jack who seemed very familiar with the city's history.

"Of course it would be hard, if all the people here are defenseless civilian, yes." Jack gave Nonoth a smirk, waiting for her to ask.

"Okayyy, I'll bite. But...?"

"But, while we don't have an army, we have a special group of people who are the protector of our way of life: bounty hunter." Jack looked so proud saying these, as if he was part of this "group", but as a 14-year-old he really didn't look like so.

"Hmmm...'we'?" Nonoth was not at all distracted by the fact that he just introduced to her the very promise of the safety of the city, but focused on the fact that Jack used "we" instead of "they" to indicate the people here.

"I mean, I've always wanted to be part of this city." Jack gave an awkward excuse.

"Uh-hua. OR, you are from here, aren't you? What were you doing there at Streamy Night anyways? You left pretty much without any qualm." Nonoth grabbed him and was determined to not let him get away with it this time.

"Isn't that a mummy?!" Jack suddenly began to yell. Nonoth jumped up and turned to see, only to find an empty street corner.

Jack disappeared when she turned back. Nonoth sighed and didn't go after him. Shouldn't him know that she could easily track him with the silver coin by now? He HAD been spending days with Nonoth, watching her tracking someone in the exact same way!

But Nonoth didn't track him either. She ordered the coin to show the direction of the boy, and she eliminate that direction and wend the for the next one, which was the direction toward the Death Merchant.

The direction of the Death Merchant was very close to where the boy ran to. Is that a coincidence?

Was the boy working for the Death Merchant all along? But if so, why didn't the Death Merchant just took her as well when he kidnapped Mal? But if now, what on earth could be so horrible that the boy was trying so hard to hide from her? Why won't Jack just admit that he was a citizen of the City of the Desert from the beginning?

Or maybe, the coin was not even a belonging of that man with a scar at all! She just took his words from the beginning because she was the one stopped him from running away. It never occurred to her that he could had been lying all along!

Nonoth shook her head, as if she wanted to get rid of that idea. If something is meant to happen, worrying about it without necessary information is not gonna help. She detected the distance between her and hopefully, Mal, and went on her way alone.

She was hoping that whatever that boy was planning, that would be the end of it. But somehow, she also felt like that was not going to be the case.