Welcome to Karma town

"Whoa! The town looks so amazing from here," Kyther said as they looked at the Karma town from up a hill.

"That is right," Niko responded. "It looks amazing from here. But let me tell you, it is even more amazing when you go there."

"Alright, we should walk now. It will get dark soon," Joseph mentioned and moved his feet ahead. Tyler followed him.

"Right. You will be amazed to see the night life here." Niko walked ahead as well leaving Kyther behind who was lost in some thoughts while staring at the town.

"Oye, Kyther! We will leave you behind," Tyler called him, making him snap out of his thoughts.

"Ah, yeah! I am coming!" He ran behind them.

After they walked for a while, they reached the town's entrance. They walked on the concrete road connected to the town. They could see horse-carts carrying goods and people leaving and entering the town.

Joseph tried to read what was written on the arched entrance. "Wel… come… to…" He squinted to look clearly what was written further, but could not understand properly. "… Kar…"

"It is 'Welcome to Karma Town'," Niko told him.

"Ah, okay."

"I am surprised you could even read that," Kyther told Joseph and took out a piece of meat from nowhere and began to eat.

"You know my grandfather had taught me to read a little when I was young."

"I forgot to ask you. Why did you want to come to this town?" Niko asked in curiosity. "It is okay if you do not want to answer."

Joseph thought for an answer as he could not tell their true motives to a stranger. Tyler spoke at the very moment.

"As you know, we are not the people to know much about the city life. We wanted to know more about the city-dwellers. We lied to you when we told you we headed to this town. Actually, we did not know where we wanted to go. I hope you will try to understand."

Niko was impressed to see how well spoken these young men were. It seemed like whatever he read in the books about them were all lies. "Ah, I see." He thought for a bit. "No issues. I can help you. City life is not like the tribal life. You might get lost there. But you have to just stick with me. I can do this much to return your favour." The guards at the entrance stopped them as they were about to enter the town.

Niko showed a piece of paper to the guards and they let them pass after giving the paper back.

"What is that paper?" Kyther asked as they entered the town.

"It is a permit to enter the town freely," Niko answered.

"Do you need a permit to enter a town?" Tyler asked curiously.

"We do not need a permit every time to enter," Niko answered. "It is only required for some time in this town. It will be okay after a while."

Joseph gazed around. The beauty of the town from inside amazed him. There were shops at which men, women, and children all flocked together. There were groups of people laughing and enjoying their times together. It differed completely from the environment of their tribe.

The architecture amazed him too. The houses and buildings were made of stone bricks. They looked like a huge cube if they were one-storey and a cuboid if they were two-storey.

The people looked so carefree and devoid of any mortal dangers. There was an abundance of food as he could guess from the aroma coming from the shops.

"The life here is so convenient," Joseph muttered.

"Yeah, people lead a healthy and carefree life in the towns," Niko mentioned at Joseph's words. They stopped in front of a fountain that was in the middle of a crossroad. "I have to go as I have some important work to do. You guys can look around in the meantime. Do you have money on you?" He expected an answer, but they remained silent. They did not speak but their silence gave him an answer. "Alright." He suddenly pushed his hand inside his pants. "Just give me a second…"

"Hey, what are you doing?" Tyler mouthed in embarrassment as he looked around to see if someone watched them.

Niko took out a pouch from inside his pants. "Do not worry. It may look weird but I have a pocket in the inner part of my pants. It keeps my money safe from thieves."

"It explains why I could not find that pouch when I checked you," Tyler said.

"Yeah." Niko opened the pouch and handed each of them a pair of coins. They noticed each of the coins were covered in thick pieces of leather so that they do not make a sound even if they collide with each other. "You can enjoy yourselves for a bit until I return from my work. We will meet here before the midnight, okay?" They nodded before Niko walked away and entered an alley.

"What should we do now?" Tyler asked before he noticed Kyther was not with them. "Where is Kyther?"

"There he is." Joseph pointed to a shop where Kyther brought a cotton candy. "Whoa, it just melted in my mouth. It is so awesome." He reacted when he ate the cotton candy. He looked at Joseph and Tyler. "Hey, guys, come on. Taste this. This thing melts and vanishes in your mouth."

"No, we will pass, Kyther. You know why we are here," Joseph responded. "I and Tyler will look for some information around. Would you come with us?"

"Nah, I will gather information on my own," Kyther replied before he asked for another cotton candy. "You guys can go. I will meet you here before midnight."

"Alright, just don't catch too much attention."

"Yeah, I know that much." Kyther gobbled up another cotton candy.

Joseph and Tyler walked ahead and stopped at a potter's shop. A bald old man was the shop owner. Tyler picked up a pot. "How much is this one?"

"Eight bronze coins," The shopkeeper replied.

"Is that so? It is too expensive," Tyler said. "The other shopkeepers are selling for five." Joseph got impressed by his acting skills.

"What? No one would sell this quality item at five bronze coins," The shopkeeper mentioned with a raised brow. "They are probably fooling you with low-quality products."

"It must be, but eight bronze coins are still too expensive for me." Tyler kept down the pot. "If you could… you know…" He indicated for some discount.

The shopkeeper thought for a second and replied, "Fine. You can take it in seven."

"Oh, thank you." Tyler got an opening. "By the way, have you seen some masked men in black outfits, or have you heard about them?"

Both Tyler and Joseph noticed the face muscles of the shopkeeper getting tensed at the question. "Why do you ask?" The shopkeeper inquired.

Tyler laughed awkwardly. "Ah, it is nothing. I have heard some stories about them."

"What kind of stories?" The shopkeeper gave them a suspicious look. Tyler looked at Joseph for some input. He had not thought about this much.

"It was not a story, to be honest," Joseph said, awkwardly. "We heard some people in the woods at the outskirts of this town speaking about them. They spoke about how strong they are and something like that."

The shopkeeper still stared at them suspiciously for a while, and responded, "No, I do not know about them. Would you buy that pot now?"

"Ah," Tyler scratched his head with an awkward smile. "I forgot I already had a pot similar to this one. I will come sometime later, maybe." He pulled Joseph with him when he fastened his steps to walk away.

"Are you two new here?" The shopkeeper asked as they were about to leave.

"Yeah, we are new here," Tyler answered.

A strange smile formed on the shopkeeper's face. "Good luck." They walked away with suspicion.

"He was hiding something," Joseph said with a quizzical expression as they walked further.

"Yeah, he definitely knew something," Tyler said. "We have to be careful. His last words felt more like a threat."

"You are right. We should ask some other people and see if they could provide us some information. We will then meet Niko and Kyther at the crossroad," Joseph suggested and Tyler agreed with him.

They used similar tactics to get some information from various people, but they got similar reactions from them. The antique shop owner looked too troubled from even keeping them in their shop. The food stall owner outright denied. The others gave similar disappointments.

"It seems we will have to work harder." Tyler sighed. "I am tired now. I wonder if we will get anywhere like this."

"If they are not talking by themselves, we will make them talk," Joseph said and clenched his fist.

Tyler noticed Joseph had fire in his eyes. He felt himself getting drowned in that silent rage. "I think we should rest for a bit," He suggested.

Kyther, meanwhile, ate a dozen of cotton candies and tons of sweets. "So amazing!" He exclaimed in joy as he had never eaten such tasty stuff. He spent all his money in food only. While he was chewing a sweet, he overheard the people who passed by him conversing with each other.

"The lady is getting impatient. We have to take the sapphire with proper protection to her tomorrow."

The place was crowded. The chatters and murmurs filled the place, so Kyther could not hear them properly. "The lady?" He thought. "Take the… sphere?" His eyes expanded as he realized they could be talking about the same sphere they searched for. He followed those men in tunics in a hurry as they stepped into an alley. Kyther found no one when he entered the alley.

"Where did they go?" He walked ahead and looked around to finally spot them talking to a third person. "What are they talking about?" He hid himself and concentrated on listening to their words.

"We would have taken it to the lady today but an influential researcher had requested to inspect it," One of them said.

The men talked for a while, and Kyther could only hear gibberish. The third man entered a building close to them while the other two walked away. He continued to follow them. He was far from the crowded area now. He could hardly see people roaming in this part of the town.

When he was passing from an alley, a bunch of people with covered faces jumped out of the houses and surrounded him. "Stop wherever you are." One of them put a dagger at his neck.