Restart Again: Volume 2 Adam Scott (most difficult books to read txt) 📖

I waited for her to join me on my way inside, but she remained at her spot by the railing. “Goodnight, Val,” I called out from the doorway as I entered the building. I shook my head as I quietly padded my way down the hallway to my room. “Every time I think I’m starting to understand her…”

Lia was in the same outstretched position that I saw earlier, and it took a minute of gentle prodding and shoving to make enough room in the bed for me to lay down. I curled up against her to warm my freezing hands and face, planting a soft kiss on her shoulder as I did so. “Whatever happens...I’ll keep you safe.”

Sleep refused to come as I laid in bed, with my thoughts refusing to quiet themselves as time passed. Though they were initially pleasant reflections on the past few days and my developing relationships with both Val and Lia, they soon turned to worries of what was to come in Attetsia. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t help but see the monsters from my past lives before me once again, waiting just over the horizon. Thralls of the Dominion. Disciples of Kalateth. Councilor Gorat. Baasch the Betrayer. I realized I was gasping for air as the faces flashed behind my eyes in an endless slideshow, and my limbs began to feel numb. Squeezing my eyes shut tightly, I pressed my forehead between Lia’s shoulder blades and reached out for her mana.

Even as she slept, Lia’s aura was a comforting refuge for my panicked mind. The amber energy enveloped me and immediately banished the onslaught of enemies. As my body began to relax, I heard a soft voice inside my head. Although I knew that Lia was asleep, the voice was unmistakably hers. I’ll keep you safe, too.

---

The late morning sun was bright in my eyes as we drove through the empty city streets. I sat on the driver’s bench beside Val, spinning my thumbs in nervous anticipation of the day to come. Our approach to the city proper had been lackluster in comparison to my first viewings of Yoria and Atsal; the city of Attetsia began without fanfare as a loose collection of farmhouses that gradually grew closer together along the main road. I hadn’t realized we were in the city limits until the road beneath our wagon shifted abruptly from packed dirt to cobblestone and the buildings changed to brick instead of wood. For as much as I had heard of Attetsia as an important center of trade, the ramshackle houses and vacant streets around us painted a conflicting picture.

As we traveled further into the city, our surroundings told the same story from our travels the day before: buildings marked with a red X were battered and broken while those marked with the Company sigil remained in livable, though in far from pristine conditions. My guess was that, as much as things had changed for the worse when the Company arrived, Attetsia had already been experiencing problems for some time before we showed up. Based on the state of the city, it was easy to explain the cause of the revolution, but I couldn’t help but think there was a darker force at work.

Our first human encounter of the day came in the form of two men standing guard at an ornate metal gate that completely blocked the road. The guards were dressed in identical uniforms of chainmail, boiled leather gloves and greaves, and a black tabard with the Elta’sahn Company sigil emblazoned on the chest. Each held a tall spear and wore belts with a weapon on each hip. “Those are Company men,” Val whispered to me as we approached. “Real members, unlike the men at the inn last evening.”

The left guard tapped the butt of his spear loudly against the stone street. “That’s far enough. State your affiliation with the Company and your business here.”

I waited for the wagon to stop, then stood and waved. “Hello there! My friend Palo told me that this is where we should go to join the Company.” I looked back and forth between the guards. “Is that something you can help me with here, or do I need to fill out some paperwork first?”

“This friend of yours has given you bad information,” the man replied in an annoyed tone. “The Company is not recruiting new members, and the Unbound are not accepting groups of strangers on the word of random informants named Palo.” His distinction between the two groups interested me; apparently, official Company personnel had not fully integrated members of the Attetsian rebels, who apparently called themselves Unbound, into their ranks.

“Oh, I forgot,” I laughed airily as I reached into my pocket and retrieved the sigil I had stolen from Palo. “He told me to show this to whoever needed proof that we were legitimate.”

The left guard immediately rolled his eyes when I presented the leather token. “Right. More sellsword rebels,” he sighed without inspecting the sigil. He turned to the second guard and motioned into the city with his head, then turned back to us. “Take a right at the first intersection up ahead and follow the road to the Trader’s Docks. They’ll decide what to do with you there.”

“Excellent! Who should I speak with when we arrive at the docks?”

“I don’t know their fucking names. That’s not my job,” he responded with disdain. “Just follow the road and stay out of the Council district, unless you want an arrow in the head. That’s Company territory.”

The second guard opened the gate, and Val drove the horse forward. “Can do! Thanks for all the help,” I called down cheerfully as we drove past. The guard sighed and followed us until we had completely passed through the gate, then closed it behind us. Once we were out of earshot of the guards, I let the forced smile fade from my face and groaned. “What a miserable