Chapter 241: Croi_Millennial Mage

Chapter 241: Croi

 T, Thron, Gallof, and Be-thric reached the edge of the city of Croi after an uneventful trek across the ten miles of ins.

 After their magically noticeable method of travel, Ts fight with the magical beasts had been a bit lengthier than nned, but not by much.

 Besides that fight, theyd only stopped for a moment so that T could duck into her sanctum to be reinscribed and repaint her limbs with iron. T tried not to think too long on why those limbs needed to be repainted.

 As such, it was barely after sunset when their feet found paved streets.

 Just like in the humannds, there were no dedicated roads between arcane cities.

 This was true, even though magical creatures were far less hostile towards arcanes than they were to humans, and arcanous creatures were much rarer.

 The entire set of differences and distinctions was something that T still didnt fully understand, honestly.

 There were arcanous creatures that had gone through founts. Those were mundane beasts with a bit of magic added on the top. Sometimes they could be powerful enough to be considered magical beasts, but they were always aspected like the fount from which theyd gained their power.

 T was unsure how they continued to get power to use, but from what she understood it just became a natural thing for them to generate power as part of their bodily functions. It was an incredibly finite supply, and if they didnt eat or sleep, they wouldnt continue to produce it.

 Though, I suppose no one actually has told me that for certain.

 -And that doesnt really make sense from what we know about magic and where ites from-

 But that was the prevailing theory. From what T could tell, arcanous animals didnt really exist in the arcanends, as confusing as that was, so she couldnt see if the arcanes had any better information or theories.

 Truly magical magical beasts weremon to both the human and arcane areas of the continent, and likely found all over the world.

 These beasts got their power from a bond with something. That bond wasnt unlike a soul-bond, but it wasnt with a human.

 To her knowledge, no one had ever witnessed the birth or creation of a truly magical creature, so a lot was spection. Humanity wasnt even sure if magical creatures were altered mundane creatures, jumping straight from mundane to magical, or if they were created as fully magical with or without the necessity of parentage or some form of egg or birth.

 Arcanes simply saw truly magical creatures as realitys response to improper or reckless usage of magic. That predicted the appearance and behavior of the creatures, so most didnt care further. T hadnt been able to find research materials beyond that.

 In either case, truly magical creatures gained power from that which they were bound to. The mostmon was from thend or reality itself. They were brought into being, or made into what they were, to defend the area or drive out something unnatural.

 All this to say, roads were not possible when thend itself might somehow spawn a creature of power to wipe out the constructed, or traveler-worn, thoroughfare and anyone unlucky enough to be upon it at the time.

 So, the feel of fitted stone under Ts bare feet, and the sound of the boots of the other three on the same, was a wee statement that they were back in civilization.

 True, it was a human enving civilization, but T would take what she could get at the moment. She was still feeling a bit strained, and her head was still pounding, from the fight with the minor horde of creatures, capped by the reality drake or whatever the rust that thing had been.

 Arcane city defenses were much more nebulous than human ones, but that made sense given that, in general, arcane cities were left alone, where human cities were forced to move every few centuries or be destroyed.

 Overall, the differences were many andpounding.

 Croi was a truly ancient city.

 T had learned a bit about it in preparation for this trip. It had been more than ten thousand years since its founding, and the very feel of the ce was heavy with history.

 There was a cold nip in the evening air, but that made sense as it was getting close to the shortest day of the year. Even so, as far south as they were, snow had yet to stick on the ground.

 Thatck alone made T rarely really contemte the fact that it was mid-winter, closing in on the end of the year. Its right around a month until my twenty-first birthday.

 It was an odd, disconnected thought among all the internal observations of the magnificent city, but it sat heavily within her.

 This timest year, she was taking trips back and forth between Bandfast and Marliweather, trying to get in as much time with her siblings as possible before Nc and Illie left for the Academy.

 Unless I lost more time than I realized. Be-thric could have been mucking about in my head, trying to create and perfect Tali for decades, for all I know.

 -I dont think so, and you dont either. Dont let fear make you jump to conclusions.-

 I suppose so. I hope they are doing well.

 -Nc and Illie? Yeah I bet they took the disappearance pretty hard.-

 If they even know.

 -They know, T. They would have been told. Most students read the letters they were sent, and your siblings would do the same.-

 Yeah Imagine how surprised everyone will be when I show up. That lifted her spirits a bit, and she smiled.

 Gallof sighed. It is good to be back in a city, is it not? Back here in particr.

 Thats right. Gallof and Thron were based out of Croi until the opening for a new Pir came avable in toiri. T nced towards the man. Has it changed?

 No, its only been a few months. Croi hasnt really changed in centuries, a few months are meaningless to such a ce. He was clearly enamored with the ce, and T could somewhat understand.

 Even the outer edge was interesting.

 They were stilling in from the outskirts. Another difference between human and arcane cities was very obvious as they slowly made their way inward.

 Human cities had most of the residences in the center, as they shrank over time. Arcane cities built outward, and most of the time, the outermost structures were homes.

 As such, they only started passing other people after they were a few blocks in.

 T immediately saw the difference in poptions between Croi and toiri.

 In toiri, Thron had been an outlier. He wasnt the only dwarf by a long shot, but his kinsmen were few and far between.

 In Croi, it seemed like every other person was a dwarf.

 Their skin ranged from Throns emerald green through the other jewel tones: ruby red, sapphire blue, even amethyst purple, among others. For those dwarves, their hair was always some sort of metallic color: silver, gold, copper, or some derivation thereof. Then, there seemed to be another set of dwarves with metallic skin and gem-like hair.

 T had a hard time not gawking when a dark-gray metal skinned dwarf with practically glowing ruby hair and beard walked past.

 Wait his skin looks like mine with the iron paint. She suddenly wanted gem-like hair. That is amazing.

 She really wanted to touch their hair, but realized it would be anything but appropriate even to ask.

 Ahh, the burdens of being civilized.

 -Civilized? Youre the Eskau of the House that practically runs this city. You tell them toe here and let you feel their hair. No ones going to say anything.-

 That is an abuse of power right there.

 -Eh, take the perks while you can.-

 Youre terrible sometimes, t.

 The variation in citizenry was more than just due to arger number of dwarves. There were very few beast-folk of any kind. Hue-folk were slightly lessmon as well, and in their ce, statistically speaking, were other races that T hadnt really seen before.

 She almost had a heart attack, and only ts help kept her from showing overt panic, when a humanoid nt passed them by.

 Leshkin! But no, somehow T could tell that it wasnt. There was moreintellect behind the movements of the being, and the body seemed much morefunctional? Leshkin were effectively animated nts, like a statue forced to move via magic, but made of vegetative matter. The beings that T saw wereplete creatures, seeming to eat and drink, and have internal organs, simply of a more nt derived form.

 Fascinating.

 There were also lizard people, which T knew enough about to not think of as lizard beast-kin. They did not see themselves as beast-folk. They imed to be dragonlings. They also imed that they were the descendants of humans and dragons, while beast-folk were the descendants of experiments gone wrong. So, in general, everyone was offended and angry over the distinctions, and T knew to stay clear of the subject with either sub-group of races.

 The dragonlings, for their part, looked like oddly proportioned humans with variously colored and textured scales. Well, that and draconic heads, which were just a bit disturbing after Ts recent one-sided fight with the drake.

 She definitely tried not to stare at those, no matter how lovely and fascinating the patterns of their scales may have been.

 Through all of this, Gallof was guiding them through the streets, and T was following mainly without thought, simply moving with those that shed already been traveling with, while she tried to take in all the sights that surrounded her.

 Aside from the citizenry, her eyes took in the soaring architecture, and the incredible artistic embellishments on many of the buildings.

 There was no District of Doors in Croi, at least not like that in toiri.

 The House of Blood was nearly without rival within this city. The City Lord was rumored to be a daughter of the House of Blood in ages past, but if so, shed long ago severed official ties with the House to rise to the position of City Lord.

 In considering that rumor, the toiri City Lords belittling of her abilities might have been another jab at them, like hisments regarding the Mind yer.

 Who knows with that madman. T was not looking forward to returning to toiri and resuming her shifts with the City Lord, but that was a problem for another day.

 Gallof wasnt leading them to the center of the city and the House of Bloods main hold, here. No, that would be a walk of nearly an hour, if there were no dys or detours. Instead, he took them down into an underground passagebeled: Compression Lanes

 T had obviously read about these in reading about the city, and she was excited to see them.

 They came down a set of stairs into a nexus of sorts, whererge hallways led in every direction. Gallof led them unerringly down one of the passages.

 T felt the magic around them, and it was almost purely dimensionalpression.

 The air became thicker, but not unbearably so, and they soon exited the hall into another nexus, the air returning to normal.

 Each passage was a straight shot to another nexus, and the space between waspressed, a mile down to a hundred feet or so. That level ofpression was tolerable even for Child level arcanes, but T suspected that it would be painful, if not lethal, for a mundane human to pass through the oddlypressed air.

 It was odd, because it wasnt actuallypressed air, instead it was as if each step took her through the space containing vast quantities of air. It was hard to describe, but she could decidedly feel the odd stresses on her body from the magics.

 Gallof seemed quite familiar with the system of travel and easily navigated to take the needed passage in each nexus.

 Finally, as they came up another set of stairs to street level, close to their destination, T was able to see for herself what Croi offered in ce of the District of Doors.

 Directly across the street from the entrance to the City Lords estate a nearly equally magnificent gateway led into the hold of the House of Blood.

 Around those paired monoliths of power, other houses and groups vied for prevalence.

 To Ts fascination, the doors of every other hold in the area seemed to be mounted on a series of locks in the ground. From her understanding, it was trivial to move a hold entrance, and that happened regrly.

 In this city, no house or guild could buy, or even rent, a particr space. The location of their hold on any given day was purely at the whim and will of the City Lord and the House of Blood.

 Though, in truth, the order and cement didnt change anywhere near that often.

 I cannot fathom trying to find where you needed to go if it did change even every few days.

 T instinctively stood up straighter as they neared. She forced her will and her magic through her garments, reshaping them into immacte clothing befitting her station and disying the emblem of the House of Blood. Shed retracted the white-metal armor before the trek towards the city for two reasons. First, walking in armor was never a fun time. Second, the drake had eaten a lot of her armor, and shed not taken the time to absorb more metal into her elk-leathers to replenish that finite resource.

 Im going to have to be careful of that, arent I?

 -Yeah I foresee it bing a problem, if we arent careful.-

 The guilds notes on how they made the metal should be in the information we acquired somewhere.

 -Yeah, we can hope. It seems like useful stuff.-

 Be-thric noticed her change and smiled, giving her an approving nod. Well thought, my Eskau.

 T pasted on a smile. You are too kind, Pir Be-thric.

 Nonsense. You are the pivotal reason we are here. It is to acquire more power for you, and through you, me and the House of Blood. The impression you make will mean everything.

 Great no pressure. This wasnt new information, of course, but it was still a bit nerve wracking to be reminded. I will do my utmost to make a good impression, then.

 Another difference between toiri and Croi is that here, guards stood outside the House of Bloods hold, and the doors were flung wide.

 That provided an interesting picture, actually, as it was clearly day within the hold, while full night had fallen even as they were just entering the city, and the four of them were at its heart, now.

 The guards saw them and were either expecting them or noticed Ts livery.

 One was a dwarf, and the other stepped forward and addressed them. Greetings, great ones of the House of Blood.

 The few others who were in the area turned to regard the four.

 The guard continued. Be weed, brothers and sisters of the House. Wee, Pir who is our strength against the weight of the world. Wee, Eskau who ys those who would oppose our interest. Be weed, one and all!

 His pronouncement echoed through the streets, and several of those near T and her group fell to their knees, bowing as they passed.

 I suppose that makes sense in a city controlled by the House of Blood.

 The guards voice had also echoed through the open doorway and some of those inside were looking out.

 The most prevalent to Ts eye was a shorter woman, about her own height, wearing well-fitted dark temail. She moved like it weighed nothing and didnt seem to restrict her in the least.

 There was no helmet in evidence, so T assumed the armor was magical and would grow the helmet at need. It appeared expertly made with no gaps that T could see. Where there would normally be gaps, smaller, more flexible configurations of tes were in evidence.

 The only item that seemed odd was the womans left gauntlet, which seemed too big to be standard. Her protian weapon? Shes an Eskau?

 That would make sense if the protian weapon was oveying an existing gauntlet.

 T suspected that this woman was as well guarded in her te-mail as T was inside her white metal armor, while maintaining direct control over it.

 The woman almost looked human at first nce, and she had no gate. In fact, she had no color or obvious feature or magical flow about her at all that T could see with her mage-sight. Very good aura control.

 As T looked closer, she almost froze in her steps.

 The womans skin was as fair as a newborn babes. Her hair was as dark as pitch. Around her eyes and across her forehead, inscriptions were evident,posed of some dark metal, only seeming to add to the womans beauty.

 T couldnt see any power flowing through the spell-form, but she didnt expect she would, given the other parts of the womans aura control.

 Even so, the most striking feature, the one that had almost tripped T up when it was noticed, was her pointed ears, poking out from among the dark hair.

 There are RUSTING ELVES!?! Fair skinned, almost otherworldly beauty, pointy ears. That checked all the boxes T knew of. Shes an elf

 -Well, youve met dwarves. Why didnt you expect elves? They are often part of the same tales in mythology.-

 The elven woman in question strode towards their group, meeting them just inside the hold.

 Her voice was as melodic as it was soothing, yet there was no weakness or frailty to the sound, Greetings. I am Eskau Meain, true servant to Pir Cruas.

 T gave a nod of acknowledgment. Ostensibly, she and Meain were equals, but Cruas was second only to Corinis in the House of Blood as a whole. T did not want to be on this womans bad side. Thank you for greeting us personally, Eskau Meain. I am Tali, Eskau to Pir Be-thric.

 She gestured to Be-thric, and he nodded in respect to the woman as well.

 Be wee, Pir. Be wee, Eskau. As Meain gestured for them to enter, her eyes met Ts, and T saw the elfs control loosen just slightly, allowing Ts mage-sight a spark of insight.

 BlueThe woman is rusting Revered. T was more and more d that she didnt need to fight her way free of the House of Blood, because every bit of information she learned served to convince her more fully that she would fail.

MillionNovel

Chapter 241: Croi