Eli POV

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As I came down the road, I came up to what looked like a mid sized fort. But when I came near the clearing leading up to the walls, I looked out past the treeline as the line of large stakes packed into a wall went on for a good bit leaving the impression that the tall palisade actually held a small city. Unfortunately, the guards at the gate were as lax a group this time around.

When I had to let down the chain mail veil, I just closed my eyes and waited a few seconds.

"Sir, that's enough" He said.

I put the veil back and saw he was looking at me like I was a freak. Then he put a hand to his side and appeared to reach a decision.

"Maybe if they paid me more I'd care enough to detain you, but I have no reason to not let you in so, no trouble now. You hear?" He said, to which I nodded.

I was let in and came down a street which held a standard more similar to Earths middle ages. The state of sewage management was still in the throw it outside level of urban planning, with the houses being an assortment of shabby structures with various points of patchwork maintenance. As I moved through the crowd of filthy bodies I noticed a number of what I assumed were people that had what looked like the heads of goats.

Well, not goat heads of a direct copy from their grass chewing lookalikes. They had a similar fur around their heads and down to their collar bones with a wide variety of horns. Some of these horns were the typical brown curls around the head with ridges, while some were simple, sharp grey horns more similar to a bulls, and a design that had the classic ridges but had them going out of their foreheads and following along the back of their skulls. Their heads were shaped like a humans but had snouts and their eyes were completely white with no visible iris. Down from the collarbone they still had the general anatomy of a human with the women having the curves and eyelashes of the female sex.

I was walking through the crowd with relative ease. Apparently the chain mail veil and large crossbow were an intimidating prospect for would be pickpockets and passerby. As I looked around at the locals I was struck by the gender make up of the members of the human species. The humans were almost all women, with a some children of both genders here and there. The goat people things however were more gender balanced. The only human men were the guards and a few heading in and out from the gate I had come in as well as the one on the direct opposite side of the town.

A beautiful mansion was off to my left, it's rich red brick roof standing tall with it's Victorian columns and white brick work stood in great contrast to the shamble buildings around it. The rest of the houses in the city were a jumble that seemed to be planned around the idea of houses just go wherever they would fit. The only exceptions to this chaotic rule were the main road and the path to the mansion.

"Aye, you there. HALT"

I had the uneasy feeling I was the one being addressed.Turning to my right I found a group of three guards looking at me. The men were several inches shorter than my 6'2 with the leader having a yellow and black stripes on his shoulders and breastplate.

"Where's your insignia?" The leader asked. He was a slightly muscular man with a mustache curled around his upper lip, with piercing brown eyes.

"I don't know what that is" I said after a moment of consideration.

The man seemed quite happy at this revelation. and the men around him smiled at this answer.

"Well lad, anyone coming through here is required to make the trip to the Diamond to check their magic potential. So we got a good trip ahead of us if you don't have anything else to do". The guard leader said.

A nagging suspicion kept me from immediately agreeing. "If I did, how long would I have to get the insignia?". This kind of felt like a kidnapping, even if they were really taking me to my intended destination.

"An individual without the proper insignia is allowed two days at most or if requested will be taken to a judge to allow for a week if the overseeing judge deems the circumstances sufficiently dire" He said like he was reading the text of the law straight from the book.

Lacking any overt reason to deny the man I reluctantly agreed after a few seconds.

"Excellent" The guard said. They then 'helped' me over to the gate opposite of where I had entered. Off to the left was a carriage station waiting for me. The leader explained the situation to a clerk checking on the various horses and carriages. Then we were provided a driver and a suitable carriage which we shuffled into. The leader and one guard were on the bench opposite side of Eli with the other guard as my seating partner.

"All right get comfortable, this trip may take us 45 minutes to an hour depending how much of a bitch the goddess of traffic is to us today." The leader leaned back gave a good stretch.

I gave a similar motion and was content for about 30 minutes until I noticed something about the carriages passing them by in the opposite direction. I decided to wait until I checked another carriage for my suspicion to become a sense of worry.

"Um, why are all the carriages coming from the Diamond academy empty?" I asked.

"Oh a lot of the people coming through here also use this road to get to the capital. But there is not many people trying to leave the west coast, at least not the kind of people who would want to take a carriage." He said, which was perfectly reasonable. However I got the feeling from his tones and the inability to look me in the eyes that he wasn't being totally honest.

When they arrived at their destination I jolted awake when the carriage came to a sudden stop. Looking out the window, I saw a bridge leading over a wide river with some wooden houses on the other side. The line of carriages leading up to the exit of the bridge gradually shrunk until we came up to a wood shed with a long wooden bar blocking the road. The leader then explained our purpose and we were quickly let through.

The houses were of a similarly sorry and chaotic state as the previous towns housing plans. The major differences were the significant increase in the towns size, the lack of a palisade, and a wide wall of white around a large tower in the middle of town. The major road was actually laid with stonework and provided a straight shot to the structure.

When we got close I noticed that the whole wall was a seamless mass of stone with no brickwork to show for it's construction methods. The heavily armed archers patrolling on top of the wall made it clear it wasn't just an art piece either. It was a good two and a half times the height of the highest house so lines of sight weren't going to be a issue for them.

Coming up to the massive iron portcullis, the same procedure of explanation and identification at the bridge was followed here. When we were let in, the guards immediately escorted me to a row of stalls to the left with clerks attending to shipping orders, both in and out, as well as various other business that needed tending. We came up to one staffed by an old woman with her grey hair in a bun.

"We have a prospect for inspection. Brought in under Thompson's squad" the guard to my right said. The leader,Thompson apparently, was behind me with the other two to his side.

'Is Diamond academy part police station?' I internally grumbled to myself as the old woman told me to put out my hands and pull back my sleeves.

She put a metal wrist band around the right arm and a small metal disk with four sharp ridges dividing it into four equal parts on my left wrist. After a few seconds the wrist band started vibrating, while the disk remained in stoic silence.

It didn't seem like much to my eyes but that small shake produced a sharp breath in the surrounding onlookers. The guards stood still for a moment then cheered and slapped each other on the shoulders. The old lady withdrew the items and started writing down on a form.

"All right lad you are a crafter level mage. Go down towards the dorms and they will get you set up." The old woman said as she handed a slip to the guards who jovially took it towards another clerk closer towards the gate. I stared at the paper for a long second.

"I suppose I don't have a choice?" I said as evenly as I could manage. This drew a few snarls and clicks of disapproval from the nearby eavesdroppers. The elder woman was similarly miffed but had enough grace to only show it in her tone.

"Lad you were born with a gift many would kill for. Thank the stars for what you got." She said before motioning the person behind me to move forward.

"Ungrateful fuck." I heard off to the left, but when I turned to look at him the mans companions quickly shuffled away from the skinny brown haired man. The man in question quickly gulped and scurried away with everyone else trying to pretend they weren't involved.

I took a deep breath and did as I was told. This time I managed to get a good look at the rest of the academy. It had five large buildings built against the circular shape of the wall with their layers of windows showing 8 stories each. The entrances to each of these were two large doors with two accompanying columns supporting a long overhang with grey tiles that matched their roofs. The three steps from their front doors had a red brick path that led all four of them toward a large tower in the middle which hovered a few floors over the walls, with small fields of grass leading up to the tower.

This one was odd in that it had a more Asian style roof with its red tiles and protruding corners for its main roof and various balconies. While the buildings were close together, three homes in a walled off section were off to the right of the main entrance with a gate and wall obscuring everything but their red tiled roofs. All of the structures that made up the Diamond academy had the same smooth, white, stone body. There wasn't a single piece of brick to be found in any of the buildings.

Eventually a middle aged man with prim black hair came out of warehouse by the clerk station to greet me.

"Ah our newest addition. If you would follow me, I am the student attendant and will guide you through our wonderful facilities here."