The assassin attack had left the group shaken. Both Orden and Cato had been injured severely enough to require medical attention, and the rest of the group had minor injuries or bruises that were uncomfortable to say the least. No one went to sleep, even though it was still before dawn.

They spent much of the morning in their camp. Julius had determined that the danger had passed, and they would benefit most from rest. They planned to continue their journey by midmorning at the latest.

Ril pensively watched the sun rise over the hilly plains that stretched out as far as his eye could see. There was not much to do but wait for the others to recover at this point. Behind him, Cato had woken and was nursing a healing potion that Felix had provided. Cato steadily rubbed his chest with his left hand as if it still ached. For all Ril knew, it still did.

Orden had also recovered significantly, although he still looked very much worse for wear compared to when Ril had seen him in the forest. Orden looked tired, and surprisingly small. Perhaps it was because Orden’s armor was partially destroyed from the assassins' arrows so he had foregone wearing it, instead opting for comfortable linens that shrunk his frame.

In the meantime, Eren lent him her enchanted sword to shave his head with. It was a strange and awkward experience that ended with both Evelyn and Eren laughing while fussing over him when he proved utterly incopentent at the job. With several coordinated motions, Ril’s stubbornly hard silver hair fell from his scalp. It was smooth, and stiff resisting any attempt at bending it. It was also rather sharp. Ril could easily imagine using a clump of it as a lethal weapon.

“You know? Your hair might be made of silverlight.” Evelyn said thoughtfully as she played with a handful of the shorn strands.

Ril blinked in surprise. Silverlight was the legendary metal that the swords of the heroes of the country used to battle powder beasts on the frontlines. It was said to be incredibly hard, sharp and immune to essentially all forms of decay. It was also really difficult to produce, supposedly. As such it was really rare and expensive.

“Really?” Ril looked doubtfully at the strands. Now that he thought about it, it was certainly possible. His hair wasn’t incredibly heavy like hair that was actually made of metal would be. On the other hand, this would make him rich. Well, slightly wealthy. But still. He had an infinite source of the rarest metal in the kingdom growing from his skull.

“We would need to go to a proper smith to be sure, but it certainly feels like silverlight.” She said, tossing a couple strands up and watching them literally float down.

Something to keep in mind. Naturally, Ril collected all the strands and tucked them away in his bag.

Eventually, the injured deemed themselves fit for travel and the group mounted up on their horses and set off.

The hours passed uneventfully. Felix was uncharacteristically silent. It seemed that the lack of sleep made him grumpy. That was alright. Ril also didn’t feel like talking much. Preferring simply to enjoy the rolling hills and the seemingly endless grassland.

The presence of the assassins bothered him. Mostly because they bothered Evelyn. Evelyn hadn’t said much about the topic, and he hadn't managed to ask her about the subject specifically. But, It was definitely bothering her, as she brooded on her own horse. Every once in a while she asked Cato a question but otherwise she stayed silent.

However there was another reason why the assassins bothered Ril. It meant that someone hated Evelyn enough to pay - what he assumed was - a lot of money to get rid of her. It was hard for him to imagine hating someone so much that he resorted to doing such a thing. The worst he had ever felt was perhaps jealousy at nobles, in particular Godric, back in Elkshire. But he had never wanted to kill him. Steal from him, yes. Humiliate him, probably. But kill him? Never.

Worst of all, Ril had absolutely no idea how to help her. This was so far outside of his understanding that he didn’t even know where to start. Even the simple solution of finding the person who hired the assassins and asking them to stop - or beating them until they did so- wouldn’t work because it seemed that even Evelyn didn’t know who it was that hired the killers.

Ril’s thoughts went in circles for the next few hours. Struggling to find a solution, but constrained by the words that Orden, Eren and Felix had said about getting in her way.

Eventually, Ril had enough. To try and break out of the thought cycle he asked,

“So Eren, what did you think of the Empyrean that the bandits had?”

Eren looked up from her own rumination. Then she seemed to consider for a moment.

“They were pretty good. It’s a good thing that we killed them though. It would suck to do this under a curse.”

“A curse? Wait, are you saying that the Empyrean’s abilities are permanent?”

“You remember the purple flames that he had? That is a nearly sure sign that they were a Curse Empyrean. Curse Empyreans are usually weaker than regular empyreans but their effects stay with their targets. Not forever, mind you, but easily a day or two. It would make the rest of this trip miserable.”

“Here! Here!” Felix gave a halfhearted cheer.

* * *

Eventually, after hours of travel, the party crested the final hill and came into view of Anduin. The city was large. At least, it was larger than Elkshire.

A river, the Nahal, snaked its way through the city. It entered the city from the south, a bright, if slightly murky blue, but by the time the river disappeared out of the city in the east, the water was brown from the waste that the inhabitants generated.

The city was constructed in layers, with three distinct districts separated by walls. From so far away, it was hard to tell, but the inner district seemed the wealthiest, with the most white stone and silver steel glinting in the evening sunlight. As you went further from the center and downstream the homes became smaller, the walls lower, and the colors duller.

Each district had its own wall that surrounded it and protected it from the outside world. The inner city’s wall was bright, tall and imposing. It was clearly visible above the homes that surrounded it on either side and was made of stone.

Surrounding the outer district a rough stone wall rose. It was shorter than the inner city wall, but still tall enough to prevent unwanted entry. Although some of the taller buildings in the outer city were taller than the wall.

Finally, the last ring of Anduin, which Ril could only describe as the poor district, was less surrounded by a wall, and more protected by houses whose outer walls were connected to form a barrier. The wall was not uniform in height, and didn’t have a walkway for guards to patrol on. Periodically, on the periphery, there were guard towers that looked much better constructed than the surrounding homes.

Right in the center of the inner city, seven magnificent silver spires rose from the ground. They towered over the countryside, with the smallest tower rising at least one-hundred meters in the air with the tallest, almost two-hundred. The reflected sunlight off of the smooth, faceted sides of the towers was nearly blinding.

The party sedately trotted to the south side of the city, where the river and what looked like a major thoroughfare entered the city.

“The jewel of Elendial. Welcome to Anduin, Ril.” Eren said with a smile at Ril wondrous expression.

“Jewel, my ass. More like the ugly little sister of Elendial,” Felix snorted. When Eren gave him a look, he continued. “What? It’s true. Compared to Menteridge this place is a pigsty.”

“Yeah, but Menteridge was sacked.” Eren retorted.

“Doesn’t matter. We are going to reclaim it soon and bring it back to its former glory.” Felix said bitingly.

“Menteridge was a border city, Felix. They relied on trade for most of their, well everything. All the cities east of the mountains are dead. Even if the King reclaims Menteridge it will be decades before it even resembles its former glory. At best it will be a military outpost and supply depot for the foreseeable future.”

“Maybe, maybe, but compared to Anduin, Menteridge was at least ten times the size. The entire city was surrounded by a single wall, not this haphazard, stratified arrangement. Anduin will never be able to be the capital. It’s just not big enough.” Felix said.

“What’s wrong with the walls? They are necessary to keep out powder beasts. The influx of refugees after Menteridge fell caused a population explosion. They lived outside of the walls and were devoured by powder beasts. The walls are important.” Eren said, with a frown.

“Sure, yeah, but they suck. They separate the population. The nobles in the inner district are all hoity-toity. No offense, Eren. And the bums living in the outer district are relegated to being second class citizens. That’s not even mentioning the Slums.”

Eren hesitated for a moment. “You’re not wrong, but what do you propose we do about it? Break down the inner city walls and rebuild them around the slums?”

“No, screw Anduin. The city is too messed up from this. I say we head east and reconquer Menteridge. Lots of space, only one wall there. It’s the perfect place.” Felix said.

The two kept bickering about the subject. Meanwhile they had reached the main south gate. It was large, and more like a gatehouse than a true gate. After a brief conversation with the guard, they were let in and the portcullis raised.

Inside Ril rubbernecked behind Felix to try to absorb everything. This part of the city was part of the outer district as far as Ril could tell. They were on a wide paved road that could support at least two carts side by side with room to spare for civilians on either side. To their right, the Nahal flowed underneath the wall through a tight metal grate. Right outside the gatehouse, there seemed to be a major effort of pumping the river water up several meters and into an aqueduct that headed east.

As the group kept going deeper into the city it became more obvious what the aqueduct was for. On their right a strange farming situation was taking place. Water from the aqueduct and what seemed like half the population of the city was tending to a veritable forest of vertical gardens. It looked like a botanical garden but a hundred times the scale of a typical one.

There were people carrying water to each of the vertical plant beds, and others carting wheelbarrows full of a dark green powder around the place. Both water and powder were liberally dumped into each of the vertical plant beds. However it was when the powder was inserted into the dirt that something strange happened. Whenever this happened, the plants inside visibly started growing. Groups of people were milling around and periodically harvesting the unnaturally fast growing produce.

“Don’t you have Eskolaite Gardens back in Elkshire?” Eren asked Ril at his amazed expression.

Ril of course, was familiar with the gardens. Eskolaite gardens existed back in Elkshire, if in a reduced form. The sheer size of this operation was what really blew him away. Eskolaite was a green powder that could be purified from chromium and had the interesting property of accelerating the growth of living things. It was dangerous if consumed by a person, but made farming inside cities possible. After the calamity, there was a brief period of starvation when the harvest failed due to the presence of powder beasts in the countryside.

“No, I’ve seen Gardens like this before, just never at this size. How much food does this place produce in a day? It must be absolutely massive.” Ril replied. He was craning in his seat behind Felix to try to see how far back the Gardens extended. No matter how he stretched, he couldn’t see the end.

They continued on. The garden’s on their left eventually ended, only to be replaced by an equally impressive sight. A wide open walled building stood with rows upon rows of smoke stacks poking out of its flat roof. Within the building, underneath each smokestack there were flat metal trays suspended over wooden fires. Billowing white smoke was rising from each of the trays. It rose until it disappeared through the smoke stacks.

Here too there was a veritable army of workers. They were spreading silver dust, that was not all too dissimilar to the powder that Ril and Evelyn had collected in the dungeon, onto large metal trays and placing them over the fire. Periodically they would add things like water, or other colored powders. At some point in the process they removed the trays and poured the result into a bin. The result was dark green. It was an Eskolaite refinery.

Far too soon for Ril, they crossed the river and left the Eskolaite refineries behind. Orden and Julius said goodbye at this point. After escorting the princess to the capital, their job was done, and Orden desperately wanted to return to his family's estate in order to recover fully from the wounds he had taken. Julius was going with him to keep him company and make sure he made it there safe and sound.

Ril couldn’t say that he was sad to see them go. Julius was epic, with his flaming sword and unstoppable combat skills, but Orden just rubbed him the wrong way.

The much diminished party skirted around the inner district with the extravagant stone wall to their left. The wall was clearly old, much older than the city that they had been passing through. Its stone was weathered and darkening in several areas from filth gathering over the years. Despite this, the wall itself was clearly well taken care of. Few cracks could be seen and any areas that had been damaged were patched with a white colored concrete.

The wall opened up to a gatehouse that was wide open with only a few guards standing watch. Instead of entering the inner city like Ril really wanted to do, the group turned right, away from the gate. Before Ril could complain at the missed opportunity, he saw that in front of them was a campus. A large open field of grass was surrounded by several unadorned, squat buildings that all had a military vibe about them.

They paused in front of one of the buildings and dismounted. Evelyn gestured for Ril to join her as they both entered to find themselves in a simple if well-appointed foyer.

“I’ll be just with you.” Came a soft voice. In front of them there was a counter which was manned by a kindly older woman. The secretary gestured to the waiting area that lay to their right where several uncomfortable looking sofas sat.

With a nod, Evelyn went over to the waiting area and fell into one of the sofas.

“So what is this place?” Ril whispered, taking a seat next to Evelyn. There was just something about this room that made speaking aloud undesirable.

“Administration of the Academy.” Evelyn replied. She closed her eyes and stretched with a groan. “We are here to get you a room to live in and register you as a prospective for the Academy.” Evelyn continued, eyes still closed, relaxing after their long ride into the city.

Ril ran his hand over his shaved head. He still wasn’t used to the feeling of not having strands of hair getting in his eyes. “What do you mean by prospective?”

“Lots of people want to attend this place,” Evelyn said with a shrug. “I can get you a dorm room to live in, but you won’t be admitted fully unless you prove yourself in the arena. Basically they only accept people who are skilled fighters,” she paused, “or are very, very wealthy.”

“Oh,” Ril said, worried for a moment.

“Don’t worry, you will probably be fine. If you choose your battles carefully and fight like you did with me you will definitely impress them enough to allow you to attend. Unlike most of the prospective students here you actually have real combat experience fighting powder beasts. Just don’t fight a Curse Empyrean. The lingering curse could really mess with your chances at future battles.”

“Why? Won’t it just fade after a few days?”

“Yes, but you need to prove yourself in the arena by the end of the week. Admissions close after that, and a delay of a few days could mean that you won’t have enough battles under your belt to convince them to give you a scholarship.”

By this point the receptionist had finished doing whatever had captured her attention and called them over.

“What can I do for you, honey?” She asked attentively. She was looking at Evelyn deferentially.

“We are here to register a prospective student in the academy.” Evelyn said succinctly, gesturing to Ril who was standing next to her. The receptionist raised a brow at Ril’s tattered appearance and recently shaved skull, but otherwise said nothing. “He will need a dorm, preferably in Reluke Hall.”

“Of course, honey.” she replied, before rifling through a binder that lay open in front of her. “Room 24 is available, will he be staying for the entire semester?”

Evelyn nodded, and pretty soon, they were standing outside of the administration office with Ril holding a key and a folder describing the rules of the Academy. Both Felix and Eren looked bored, but perked up when the two exited the office.

“Let’s go,” Evelyn said and remounted her horse with a grimace.

By now night had fallen, and everyone was eager to get off of the horses. Especially the horses. Felix’s horse didn’t hesitate to inform them all of this fact as often as it could.

They made it to Reluke Hall without incident. Ril was led to the second floor and left in what he considered to be a spacious room. Briefly he considered dropping off his meager belongings and heading out to explore the city, but the soft bed eloquently convinced him otherwise. His body sunk into its feathery embrace and the plushy cushions hugged his head.

Within moments, he was sound asleep.