A Worthless Crown

The Mayor of Alto Mora, Lord Vista summoned me the very next morning.

Two guards, clad in polished armor that gleamed even under Alto Mora's ashen sky, appeared on my door. Their expressions were inscrutable, trapped behind their iron masks.

No explanations were offered, nor were any required, the moment they flashed the Vista family's Signia I understood. Clutching the satchel of crimson ore with both hands, I followed them to meet with Lord Vista.

The Vista estate stood in the centre of the city. Its obsidian walls absorbed all light, rendering the structure a void against the bleak horizon. The gates, wrought iron twisted into menacing spires, groaned open to welcome us. Beyond lay a courtyard full of both blooming flowers and withering branches that clutched at the sky. 

We entered the main hall, where a dozen servants were waiting by the sides.

Inside the great hall, the air was thick with incense—a futile attempt to mask the pungent staleness of the city. Lines of candles had been lit, shadows danced upon the walls. I was led up a few sets of winding stairs to the office of the Mayor, Lord Vista.

The office was vast, larger than my own house infact. Numerous paintings masked cracks in the walls and guards waited idly by the office. A grand fireplace sat on the right of the room, it's beastly flames kept the room appropriately heated as they tore through ashen wood.

At the room's heart sat Lord Vittorio Vista, his frame gaunt yet commanding. His face was riddled with sharp angles, his eyes shrewd but alight with predatory cunning. Rings adorned each of his fingers, glinting like talons, and his robes cascaded over his frail frame, each of a fabulous quality. He had glamorous white hair, styled back revealing a slightly wrinkled forehead.

"Guards, leave. This conversation is to be private." With his words, the guards wasted no time in leaving. Thud. The great doors shut behind me. It was just me and the mayor of the city now.

"Alcors," he addressed me, his tone a blend of silk and steel. "You braved the call and returned bearing treasures. You walk the line between brilliance and exceptionality. All this at just the age of 12, I have a son your age. And he has not even achieved a tenth of your merit. Now, show me what you retrieved."

I lowered myself to my knees, presenting the most important ore. Its blood-red veins pulsed under the dim glow, like something alive. Lord Vista leaned forward, his gaze devouring the stone. Silence fell, broken only by the crackling of the fireplace's embers.

"This is beyond rare, I know this ore. This is the ore they begged us for, when we were at our greatest." He continued to inspect it. "You have ensured prosperity—for me, but most importantly for the city."

He looked through the rest and was even more surprised. I had added in the body parts of the 3 abominations, perhaps they could sell.

"The body parts of monsters? Those are exceptionally rare. Did you find their dead bodies?"

"I fought them."

"Amazing." I seemed to have become a divine miracle in his eyes.

A snap of his fingers summoned a servant, who pressed a weighty pouch of gold into my palm. Never had I ever held such a heavy amount of coins, whether that be copper, silver and yet now I had gold. Another extended a parchment, sealed with the Vista family's crest.

"A deed," Lord Vista declared. "With this, I will allow you to choose any residence in Alto Mora, and it will be yours. I will also dubb you as a hero, and you will recieve the status of an honoured guest at all our future events."

My breath was caught, my heart was being strummed by every one of his words until it went sore with joy. Gold. Property. Stability. Concepts once alien—now tangible. The stories told in school, in fairytales, all had now become my reality.

"Go now," his voice softened only slightly. "Live well, Alcors. But remember—the mines are never gone. They breathe beneath us, you are a miracle to this city. But do not grow foolish with your success."

After walking around for a few days, inspecting different residences, I chose one of the abandoned manors on the edge of the city, the biggest infact.

The house stood at the city's periphery, far from the sprawling graveyard where the exiled and the dead shared soil. Yet this dwelling bore no scars of Alto Mora's rot. The vines that drooped all over were cleared out by Lord Vista's men, the inside of the house was scrubbed to perfection and a group of maids were assigned to it by the Lord himself. 

A new door was installed, there was no longer a nervous creak when I pulled the handle.

Crossing the threshold was like stepping into another world. The marble floor, polished to a sheen, reflected the warm glow of a crackling hearth. The walls were piled with rare paintings, with colors and artwork so rich they seemed forbidden. The air carried the intoxicating scent of expensive perfume spread throughout the house.

My mother awaited me, her eyes welling with tears—tears not of sorrow, but of amazement. She embraced me, frail arms clinging to me as though I might vanish alongside this new future.

"You did this," she whispered. "I can't believe it. If your father saw this-." She stopped there, she was right. If Father saw what I had achieved, he would surely be proud.