It was nearly dawn by the time Aloy, Avad and Talanah finally reached Meridian. Farmers were already walking out into their fields, but the city was still almost deserted, besides the few guards patrolling the streets. The lights were all lit though and the warm glow was welcoming in the cold night.
Aloy slowed her strider to a stop and Talanah stopped her strider next to her. "So how do we get to the upper city without drawing the guards attention?" Aloy asked.
Avad leaned forward a little to join the conversation. "There are maintenance shafts along the elevators," he said. "We should be able to climb up the ladders in those shafts and avoid a large portion of the city."
"At the very least, it will at least limit our time in the open," Aloy said. Despite the disguises they had brought, Aloy didn't want to run anymore risks than they had to.
"I agree, but..." Talanah paused, "but how do we know who is Shadow Carja?"
"I don't think we can know," Aloy said, "but we do know that they don't want their takeover of the city to seem hostile, that means they can't risk a big scene on the street where someone might see them attacking Avad."
"And if they want to attack either you or Aloy they will only do so if they can make the attack seem legitimate, in case anyone recognises either of you," Avad said.
Aloy understood that Avad meant that arresting or attacking either Talanah or herself - people with some standing in the city - would look suspicious enough that the Shadow Carja would want to avoid that suspicion, but she didn't think the people would mind her being arrested, not after the rumours the Shadow Carja had been spreading about Aloy, .
"Aloy," Avad said after a short silence. He leaned forward a little, whispering so only Aloy could hear him."I..." Acad said but fell quiet, his hands were still on her waist and she could feel his fingers twitching nervously. "I wanted to thank you. After what happened I never would have thought I could climb on a machine, not even after having seen you ride him. And I just want to thank you for making it easy."
Aloy turned to face him, and, for a moment, was caught off guard by how close he was to her right now. "Of course, I-," Aloy started to say but she was interrupted by a loud whinnying as Talanah chased her strider away. Aloy looked back at Avad; suddenly there was a strange weight to the silence between them. Silently Avad got off the strider. He held out his hand, Aloy took it and he helped her off the strider.
Aloy wrapped the shawl she had been using as a disguise around her head again, hiding her red hair. Aloy reached behind her head, trying to feel if any of her hair was sticking out. "Here, let me," Avad said as he moved behind her and helped Aloy cover the back of her head, taking care no strand was left visible.
"Thank you," Aloy said as she turned to face Avad. He was still wearing the shabby clothes meant to disguise his identity. He did look very different, dressed in a hole-ridden shirt and with his hair a tangled mess. Aloy reached out and gently brushed some imagined dirt off Avad's disguise.
Avad covered her hand with his own. "Aloy," he said, briefly glancing in Talanah's direction, maybe to make sure she wasn't paying attention to them. And she wasn't; Talanah was busy putting on her own disguise.
"If the Shadow Carja do find a way to capture us, you have to get away," Avad said. "Even if that means you have to leave me and Talanah behind. They cannot risk executing the Sun-King, the only reason the people accepted my father's death was because I was responsible for it, and they considered me to be the legitimate Sun-King. They will not accept the death of a Sun-King by the hands of anyone else. And they can't kill me in secret, because if I disappear the people will notice, but with you…," Avad paused, he squeezed her hand. "I just want you to make sure you get out of the city. No matter what happens to me."
Aloy shook her head. "Avad, maybe they can't execute you, but that doesn't mean they can't do anything else to you. They have a plan for you, they want to use you and I don't want to give them the chance," Aloy said.
Avad looked puzzled for a moment. Then a small smile appeared on his face. "Aloy," he said softly, "Itamen is save, Marad is save in his deception… so if you ensure your own safety, the Shadow Carja will have no way to manipulate me."
Aloy lowered her eyes, she tried to respond but the words didn't come.
Avad lifted his hand to her face, gently brushing his fingers against her cheek. Aloy met his eyes, covered his hand with her own, and gave him a shy smile. Avad leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. When he pulled back he almost looked surprised by his own actions. "I'm sorry."
"No, I-" Aloy started to say, but was interrupted by Talanah loudly cursing as she struggled to buckle the final belt on her disguise.
Avad and Aloy immediately broke apart. Aloy because she didn't want Talanah to realise there was something going on, and Avad because he realised it would make Aloy awkward to be spotted by Talanah.
Talanah quickly came up to Aloy and Avad. "Are you-" she stopped talking as she looked at Aloy, who looked caught in the act. Talanah furrowed her brow, looking at Aloy and then Avad and then Aloy again.
"Let's go," Aloy suddenly said as she picked up her bag and quickly moved away from Talanah's prying eyes.
There were already quite a few people in the lower city, but Aloy did not spot many guards. In fact there were fewer guards than there would normally be and it made her wonder whether the Shadow Carja had simply gotten rid of all of the guards who weren't allied to them. Of course, the number of guards didn't say anything about how many Shadow Carja were in the city in other functions, or dressed as civilians.
All three of them slowly made their way through the city. Talanah took the lead, as she was the least likely to be recognised, even as the Sunhawk, and if she was she wouldn't draw as much attention as either Avad or Aloy would. Talanah warned the others whenever she saw a guard, but none of the guards seemed to be paying much attention, and the precautions taken by Aloy, Avad and Talanah seemed almost superfluous.
When the elevators came into view, Aloy immediately spotted the maintenance shaft, built against the rock wall, a small door just visible behind some shrubs. Looking up to the city far above them, Aloy started worrying about the climb. For a moment she wondered whether they couldn't just use the elevator. But there was a guard posted at the elevator, and no matter how inattentive the guards had seemed so far, Aloy didn't think risking walking right up to one, and then again when exiting the elevator, was a smart move.
Aloy, Avad and Talanah hurried towards the small door, hastily piling into the small space behind it. The space was bathed in red light, caused by the sunlight filtering through the thin wooden panels hiding the maintenance shaft. The ladder was made of treated wood, after every eleventh rung was painted red. Aloy looked up, the ladder seemed to rise forever; the top wasn't visible from where Aloy was standing. The air was stuffy and the heat of the Sundom felt even more oppressive in the narrow space.
"I'll go first," Talanah said as she one hand on the ladder. Before starting the climb, Talanah looked back over her shoulder at Aloy and Avad, and flashed what Aloy was sure was meant as a confident, comforting smile, but failed on both fronts. After a brief hesitation Talanah started to climb.
"These elevators were built by my great grandfather," Avad said, "or... under his rule at least," his voice a little shaky.
"I'm sure he climb will be shorter than it seems," Aloy said to ease Avad's nerves.
Avad looked up at the seemingly endless ladder. "You're probably right," Avad replied, failing to sound convincing.
Avad started climbing and Aloy followed close behind.
As the head of the group, Talanah set the pace. At first they were climbing fast, the ground quickly moving away from them. But it wasn't long before all three of them slowed down. Despite spending most of her days running around, Aloy started to feel her muscles protest, but Aloy refused to even consider pausing. It was still a long way up and there was no place to rest, and even if there was, Aloy just wanted to get this climb behind them; despite being hidden by the wooden panels of the shaft, she felt they were horribly exposed.
As they passed the halfway mark, Avad started to markedly slow down until he finally stopped climbing. "Could we rest for a moment?" he asked, hooking his arms around the rung of the ladder. Talanah looked down at Aloy and they both nodded.
"We can't stay here too long," Aloy said to Avad, trying to make her voice sound gentle.
"I realise," Avad said, his voice strained. "Just a moment." His face was bright red and sweat was glistening on his forehead.
"We're almost there," Aloy lied.
"I will be ready to leave again in a little bit," Avad said, sounding slightly agitated.
"Take your time," Aloy said.
"So what do you think we'll find in the Lodge?" Talanah asked, probably trying to take everyone's mind off the long climb still ahead of them.
"Hopefully a signed confession," Aloy said. "But I'm not sure. More Shadow Carja? Will it even matter if we don't find someone of importance rather than just another outpost where they maybe just house and train men?"
"I'm ready to go again," Avad interrupted.
The last half of the climb took longer than the first, and there were several moments when it looked like Avad or even Talanah needed to stop, but in the end they kept climbing. And eventually the sounds of the upper city greeted them.
Talanah was the first off the ladder, signaling Aloy and Avad to wait while she looked for guards. Aloy felt a bit resentful of having to stay on the ladder for even a minute longer than necessary, but she didn't complain. Then, despite her own exhaustion Talanah reappeared at the top of the ladder, her hand stretched out to help Avad up on solid ground. Avad was visibly relieved to be off the ladder, but turned right around to help Aloy up.
For a moment all three of them stood there, stretching their limbs and catching their breath. "I'm going to have our craftsmen build smaller elevators inside the maintenance shaft,"Avad said, sltill panting. "No man should have to make that climb."
Aloy, Avad and Talanah quickly slipped into the crowd; the upper city was much busier than the Meridian village had been. Aloy nervously looked around the crowd, feeling her paranoia spike whenever someone so much as glanced at them. It was still a long way to the Lodge and it could only get busier as the day went on. Aloy looked at Avad and suddenly his disguise seemed horribly inadequate.
"Avad, you can't come to the Lodge with us," Aloy said. "We have to see what's going on there first. And more importantly, we can't risk any of the people there recognising you on sight."
Avad looked like he was about to protest but then kept quiet.
"Do you think many people could recognise Avad in his disguise?" Talanah asked.
Aloy looked at Avad who seemed to be considering what she'd said. He looked dishevelled, but would that be enough for people who had worked closely with him? After all they already knew many of his personal guard had defected, if they ran into one of them in the Lodge, would a disguise keep them from recognising a man they had seen on a daily basis?
"I think we can't risk it, if someone in the Lodge recognises him, rings the alarm and we're ambushed before we have a chance to escape… they can basically do whatever they want. If someone spots us out here in the open, they can't exactly attack Avad and risk being seen attacking the rightful ruler of the Sundom. Not if they don't want to cause a riot. But hidden away in the Lodge, which is now under Shadow Carja control, they can do what they want."
"I agree," Avad said, reluctantly.
"Where do you suggest we hide Avad?" Talanah asked.
"I don't know, is there somewhere safe in the city that you know? A house or… something?" Aloy asked.
"I think Avad, should hide somewhere more public," Talanah said. "Like you said, Avad is safer somewhere where the people are watching. The Shadow Carja can't attack him and risk being caught by the people . I suggest Avad hides in the Sun-Ring. It's a place of worship so I don't think the Shadow Carja will have many guards there, or harass civilians there. Just think about how quickly that would turn the people against them. Avad will be safe there, wearing his civilian clothes."
"No!" Aloy let slip. Her heart skipped a beat thinking about leaving Avad so exposed. "There are too many people there, what if someone recognises him?"
"As long as they're not Shadow Carja and I'm not somewhere secluded, it shouldn't matter," Avad said.
Aloy shook her head but didn't say anything else.
"So, we will head for the Sun-Ring first, and then me and Aloy will go scout out the Lodge, and after that decide what the plan will be," Talanah said.
All of them nodded in agreement and set out for the Sun-Ring. It wasn't long before they reached the Sun-Ring. Aloy had taken the lead; she looked around the Sun-Ring, a nervous feeling building in her stomach. It was busy, but as expected there were no guards, only priests and civilians.
"I will be safe here," Avad said to Aloy, recognising her worries about leaving him alone. "But," Avad glanced around him before taking Aloy's hand in his, "once you find out what's going on at the Lodge, come back here before you risk... everything." He gently squeezed her hand.
Aloy quickly pulled back her hand, worried Talanah would see. "Just make sure to keep your face hidden," Aloy said.
Avad softly smiled. "I will be safe here," he repeated, "don't worry about me."
Aloy checked whether Talanah was paying attention to them before turning back to Avad. "If someone does recognise you, get out of the city," Aloy said. "Don't wait for us, don't look for us, just get away."
Aloy started to turn to join Talanah, but Avad put his hand on her arm. "Wait, I… want you to take something with you," Avad said. He pulled out something that looked like a large amulet made from machine parts. Aloy recognised it, it looked almost identical to a part of Avad's ceremonial dress.
Avad took her right hand and placed the amulet on her palm, he gently closed her fingers around the amulet. "Keep this close to you," Avad said. "There is a tradition in the Sundom where the Sun-King's favourited champions wore an amulet given by the Sun-King. I wanted to stop the tradition, as it was tainted by my father's practices, but I know many people still remember the tradition. If you get caught, maybe this amulet can help you, if you find a guard still loyal to the Sundom," Avad said, his eyes still fixed on her closed hand as if that could ie the amulet more power than it had. "I know this isn't much and the chance of it working is small, but I… it's all I can offer."
Aloy turned over the amulet between her fingers. It was small, coppery and had red thread woven through it. She put it away. "Thank you," Aloy said. There was more that she wanted to say, but she couldn't find the words so instead she just gave a shy smile before abruptly turning around to join Talanah. Aloy realised Talanah was right, and Avad would be safer staying in the Sun-Ring than coming with them and facing whatever was happening at the Lodge, but that didn't ease her nerves as they left the Sun-Ring and left Avad alone.