Liam tapped his foot impatiently. If he had a watch, he would be glancing at it fitfully. 'Where the hell is he? He's not usually this late,' he said.
Annabel shrugged. 'I guess he's up to something. We can walk if he doesn't show up.'
'To the beach? That's half a day away on foot!'
'We have the money, don't we?' Luca chimed in.
'Yeah, enough money to get there, not back! We all pooled in a bunch of money for this. No way that idiot's gonna dip out!'
Liam, Annabel and Luca were hanging out at the town square at a bench under the Sun, watching water gushing out of the stone fountain. By the time Seth realised he was late, they had already been waiting for him for a third of an hour.
'Hey!!!' shouted Seth, sprinting down Newstreet Street, 'Sorry I'm late!!!' The trio watched as the boy arrived in front of them. They were just a bit annoyed.
'Dude, where have you been?! We've been waiting ages for you!' Liam said, coming to yank on Seth's ear.
'Sorry, sorry. I was just up to something, and I lost track of time.'
'Lost track of time, huh? I can't belieeevve you'd leave us out here in the Sun. It's a hot day, you know. What could be more important than poor me—us?' said Annabel dramatically, correcting herself off at the end.
'There is a vast array of things that take priority over you. Take a clogged washroom, for instance, Ann,' said Seth with a deadpan tone.
'Whadidyousay?' She took a challenging step forward.
'Now now, children,' Luca put an arm over both their shoulders, dragging them away from each other. 'We're here to go to the beach, not a clinic. Move your asses! and count your money! We can't be a dollar short.'
'Yeah, children. Let's go!' Liam smirked at them.
'Yeah, child. Let's go!' Seth looked at Annabel, who looked like she was about to explode. She followed along, swearing she would bury the boy alive when they got to the beach.
Seth and co. marched down Crescenthill Street (which was really just a slightly steeper incline) past a small gathering of kids who were watching a puppet master putting on a play on the pavement and stopped at a stables close to a road that led out of Melano. Usually, the place would be crowded with people looking to go somewhere, but now that autumn had arrived, the days had gotten progressively cooler. Thankfully, it was still warm enough for a gaggle of teens to enjoy themselves at a beach.
'MY LORD!' Liam said loudly, then lowered his voice, 'Try to haggle the price down for us. Here.' He stuffed the money he had saved for their ride into Seth's hands, who stared blankly at the other two. They were already handing him their money.
'Tch. The word "haggle" is too lowly for someone of my stature. I prefer…"negotiate",' said Seth, adding his own savings to the stack and leisurely waving their collective wad of cash in the air.
He walked up to a young man sitting in the back of a carriage, fiddling with some string and knitting needles. 'Excuse me, good sir. I am the Lord of Melano. Could you kindly give me and my friends a discounted ride to the beach nearby?'
The man looked up from his needles, seemingly frustrated. 'Lord of Melano? You're just a kid.'
Seth shrugged. 'Appearances can be deceiving. I control your taxes.'
The man frowned and hopped off the carriage to walk to the front, where his father was busy feeding the horses. 'Pa,' he whispered in his ear, 'Some kid who says he's the Lord of Melano wants a discount.'
'Lord o' Melano?' his father said, peeking out from his spot in front of the horses. He saw the young boy looking back at his friends, who were standing a few metres behind him, mockingly cheering him on with overexaggerated waves and pumps of the arm. He shrunk back. 'Yesyesyes. He's the Lord aight. Go on, let 'em on! Tell 'em we'll give 'em a quarter off, even. And apologise.'
The young man swallowed nervously and walked back out to address his customer. 'Sorry for the wait, sir, and for my disrespect. We'll gladly let you on. For a quarter off, even!'
Seth's face brightened, and he gestured toward his friends, who followed him onto the carriage. Then, they set off.
The Avillo Barony was one of the southernmost territories of the Thenadore Kingdom. Its lands were composed of highlands and small cliffs from the McCanner Mountains in the southwest that slowly flattened into rolling hills and plains further up north. With the floods from the McCanners during the spring and summer, and the Rivers Ander and Tethir running through the territory off to sea, most of the western parts of the Barony was covered in forest. Even from Melano, the yellowing greenery was visible, its shades of sunset painting the horizon with warm tones.
The quartet was silent for a while until Liam decided to speak up. 'So, Seth, what were you doing when you were busy being late?'
A gust of wind blew past them, sending Annabel's hair fluttering in her face.
'Meditating. I finally got the manuals.'
'Seriously?!' Liam said incredulously. Luca and Annabel weren't any less shocked. They had heard Seth's endless grievances about how the Baron wouldn't let him cultivate, and how he would do so anyway, but they never really expected him to step over that line. 'Won't your dad get mad?'
'Eh. I'm sure father won't notice. Besides, what's he going to do about it now that I've already started? Confiscate them? I doubt it.'
'Confis—Wha? Whatever! Since when?'
'Since last night.'
'You snuck down here last night?! You realise how unsafe that is, right?' said Annabel. 'You're a noble! What if you get kidnapped and held for ransom?'
Seth had nothing to say to that. He just gave her a shrug. Luca chimed in: 'Oh, I'm sure he knows what he's doing. Besides, what can we do about it? Bring it to the Baron? We'd be executed on the spot!'
'Hey. My dad isn't cruel like that,' Seth said.
'Heh. Sorry…' The four fell silent.
Eventually, Seth decided to try his hand at meditation again. He told his friends to wake him up when they arrived at the beach, and he slumped in his seat to enter his meditative state.
He took deep breaths in, hold, and out, letting the trundling of the carriage fade into the background along with the other ambient noises of nature. This time, it only took him a few minutes to form a connection with the Qi in his dantian, and the time it took to reinforce the connection was cut down by almost a quarter of the time. In an hour, he achieved what had last taken him several, but just as he was considering what to do from there, Luca planted a palm on his shoulder and shook him out of his trance.
'Wha—?' Seth surfaced from his meditation groggy-eyed. He squinted as the sun glared down on him. 'What's up?'
'We're there, sleepyhead. I think you fell asleep again.'
'No, I didn't. I was just in a deep meditative state,' Seth said, rubbing his eyes.
'You were drooling,' Annabel pointed out.
'I was?'
'You were. I was tempted to smear it all over your face, but you're so oily it's hardly worth touching.'
Seth clicked his tongue. 'Thankfully, you didn't.'
Liam smirked. 'What makes you think that?'
Seth's eyes widened. 'You didn't!'
'Nah, we didn't,' said Luca, chuckling suspiciously. The other two burst into laughter.
'You guys are gonna have sooo much fun with this, aren't you?'
'Yes, we are,' said Liam, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.
The Rothahrt-Melano Beach was a long stretch of sand that reached further down the continent beyond the Kingdom. A deal had been struck between the Barony's neighbouring territory, Rothahrt, to share the beach as a non-profit area to prevent conflicts from happening over that part of the land.
Lifeguards were stationed every kilometre or so, each of which were middle or late-stage Body Tempering cultivators to fend off rare attacks from aggressive seaborne magical beasts.
Seth and co. hopped off the carriage, and before the carriage left, Seth asked the knitting man's father, 'Do you mind staying here to bring us back to town? We'll pay the full price this time, and I'll even tip you a little extra for the inconvenience.'
The carriage master said gruffly, but respectfully, 'Of course, milord. When would you like to return?'
'In six hours or so.'
'We will be here when the time comes, milord.'
'Thank you.' With that, the carriage master whipped the horses once, and he and his son headed off back to Melano.
'Seth! Hurry up! Luca and Ann are already digging you a grave! Let's help them!' Liam shouted from the sand as he stripped down to his underwear. In the distance, the other two were already at it with their small wooden shovels.
Seth smiled. 'I'm coming, you moron!'
It was a warm day.
~~~
Hector Kenderson yawned. Friday nights were always busy. Teachers from the local preschool and night shift workers from the ports finally had time to wind down, and they would come as a group to his bar for a good drink.
It was busy, but he was making a good living for his family, and that was all that mattered.
He stared at the state of the bar. The floor was a mess to be mopped up, and the lights had been set out to save on energy. The only illumination the frontside of his bar received was from the main entrance, casting its rectangle of light across the wooden floor and making everything visible.
It was quiet in the morning. Hector liked the mornings.
He finished wiping down the last cup and set down his bar towel. 'Manny, you done with cleaning up yet? He looked at another counter, where one of his employees was wiping away at his table.
'No, sir! The stain just won't… Come… Off!' said Manny through gritted teeth.
'You need help with that?'
'No, sir! I can handle this on my own!'
'Alrighty then.' Hector walked out from behind the counter to organise the high stools. As he did so, a shadow blotted out the light coming from the entrance.
'You see the sign on the door, buddy? It says clooosed. Come back later!' Hector called as he set another stool into position.
The heavy footfall of boots started, growing closer as the bar owner turned to find a burly man in an old, woollen tunic and baggy wool pants supported by string standing in front of him menacingly.
'What do you want?' Hector asked, already prepared for a fight. He wasn't inexperienced. Qi flowed through his veins and into his arm as his hand curled into a fist.
'Do you sell cultivation methods and techniques?' the burly man said.
Hector was caught off guard. 'Huh? Oh, yeah. Do you—?'
BANG! The sound of a gunshot rang in the bar, then came a thud and the sound of glass shattering. Hector didn't even have time to flinch, and he only came back to his senses when he saw Manny and the man struggling on the floor. The others had already dropped everything and were scrambling to help.
Manny's hand was riddled with cuts from the wine bottle he had smashed against the robber's head, but the man didn't seem too fazed. Instead, he struggled against the young man repeatedly driving his elbow into his stomach.
'M-Manny!' Hector called, his hands reaching for a bottle himself. He jumped over the counter and waited for the right opportunity to get his own hands dirty, but then he saw the gun on the ground, and the robber reaching for it. He dropped his bottle in a panic, but it was too late.
The man's hands wrapped around the handle, and in a flash, he pulled the trigger thrice into Manny's torso, and he went limp.
Before the robber could push Manny's body off himself, another one of Hector's employees, James, leapt into action, knocking the gun out of his hands. The rest of the bartenders piled in on the man, kicking at him in the side, his legs and arms, and even his head. Grunts and thuds sounded out in the bar until the man went limp.
Hector kicked the gun into the corner of the bar and rushed over to where the two bodies laid. 'Is he okay?!' he shouted as James and another employee lifted Manny off the man.
'He's…' James put his ear against Manny's chest. 'His heart… He's dead.'
'Fuck,' whispered Hector as he took a seat on a stray stool. Only heavy breaths filled the silence.
It was a quiet morning, and the Sun was shining. It was a warm day.