Our group stood at the apex of a hill having finished another one of the countless hikes up the steep road. From our vantage point we had a perfect overview of the city and its borders.

‘Holy…’

The size was staggering to say the least. Even from up here it was difficult to approximate,

‘Ten... twenty... no, twenty-five kilometers diameter?!’

‘How do they even travel around the place?’

“Now that, is a fantasy city! I mean just look at the sheer size and the stone walls surrounding it!”

Eagle regained his initial vigor and stood brimming with life once more. Only moments ago he was trudging upwards. I ignored him and surveyed the city which was surrounded by three layers of walls that broke into three sections.

It was hard to tell from the distance but if common sense meant anything then the outer section was the slums and those scraping to get by. The inner was for the wealthier, merchants and the like. And the center, based on the monstrous castle, must be the government's residing place. A quick look down the hill showed Eagle managing to skip his way downwards.

“s’tahW Eagle do-gni?”

Barth asked me from behind, both he and Marden wore grimaces and looks of confusion. I shrugged and started descending towards the city. While Eagle might seem carefree to the others, his speed was perfectly maintained.

Each time he landed all of his momentum was broken and recreated, all while swinging his arms like a true kid. Yet I spotted him using some of the more advanced techniques taught to the recon teams to descend through rough or unstable terrain at optimum efficiency.

‘Humph, show off’.

I increased my pace a bit and we arrived at one of the gates within two hours. By the time we arrived I was breathing heavily, having utilised as little essence as possible my body received a greater workout. From what Eagle understood during one of our group training,

‘More like torture sessions’,

essence increases the strength of a muscle exponentially.

Meaning that should a normal child and an adult receive the same infusion, the adult’s gain would be significantly greater. Thus, body training remained just as, if not more, important than increasing capacity and control over my essence.

There were several caravans in front of us that formed a line leaving us with little to do but stand around. I eyed the security around the perimeter which was decent enough. Several guards sanctioned by the gate and one standing outside directing people through one at a time. Two twin towers stood on either side with the occasional sentry walking between them.

‘The intervals are short enough to spot major movement but a group of six or so could easily sneak in.’

The up and down square pattern while provided great cover, also eased a potential raid’s team infiltration. All of this would have to be done under the cover of darkness as the area was devoid of any vegetation for nearly half a kilometer.

Having finished my musings, our group was called forth and we proceeded under the portcullis. Barth and Marden walked forward and started discussing something with another guard clad in a combination of plate, chain and leather armour. A sword hung at his side and a kite shield on his back. All the other guards wore similar attire.

A slight look of disdain can be seen on one of the guards. After looking at Marden and Barth, he eyed Eagle and me before spitting into the ground.

He started asking something but was silenced when Barth took off his gauntlets and a light shone. I could tell he used his essence to do something,

‘Wait, didn’t he do something like this back in the village as well?’

The result was instantaneous, everyone took several steps back and even the trash guard paled a bit.

We were waved through in a matter of minutes.

“Hey Eagle, do you know what Barth did? Pretty sure something similar happened in the village.”

I asked while following our guides.

“Nope, it has something with one’s essence revealing a piece of your identity but how it is done I have no idea.”

Eagle shook his head as he replied. With the stone wall no longer looming over my head I started to look around. My earlier guess stood true with poorly made wooden houses littered about with dirt roads running all between them. No doubt those will turn into mud pools during rainfall.

There was the occasional inn or two, market stalls but other than that the streets were filled with people going about their business. Despite the apparent lack of entertainment most of them were smiling. Some of them even greeted us with a wave of their hand or a polite nod.

‘Would they act the same if our hoods weren’t lifted? If they saw our ears?’

“Hey Cato, you smell anything?”

Eagle asked a random question.

“No I don’t, why are you even asking this now?”

I replied, irritated and confused.

“Well, there doesn’t seem to be any advancements from their society compared to our own during medieval times. So how come it is so clean? Do they have plumbing? Is it another use of essence or did they develop through alternate ways?”

Eagle started blabbering about more of his questions. The man is never satisfied, no matter how many answers he finds.

“Why don’t you knock and ask to use someone’s washroom? I’m sure that would answer your question.”

“I...uhh...I think I’ll pass.”

A hesitant reply came from Eagle. Despite killing countless number of people he decided to act shy all of sudden,

‘Dude really?’

I was just plain tired of walking and wanted to sleep on a proper bed without stuff crawling all over me while sleeping.

I let out a dejected sigh and kept following the two. Having lost interest in my surroundings which resembled the village, I zoned out as we trekked through the dirt. It wasn’t until we came in front of another wall that I snapped back and looked around. Another portcullis hung open and between two twin towers similar to the ones of the outer wall.

Having left the poor region I was somewhat excited. To see proper living conditions of the higher life. Once Barth showed his arm for identification we were ushered through without any questions and immediately stepped onto the cobble road. The houses were larger, more spaced out and didn’t look rotten.

Everything was tidy and the pristine pathways created a completely different atmosphere. There were signs with words written on them, not just plain images. Fences, shrubs and beautiful vegetation surrounded the houses. People whom I assumed to be servants, with their outfits similar to the messenger in the villager’s lord manor, milled about.

I started to burn the surroundings into memory in order to memorize the layout. I had a feeling we would spend some time here. I kept it up until we approached the first building made of pure stone. It would pass for a several story house but the most intriguing part were those who came and left all without exception had weapons of some sort be it, swords, bows, hammers, shields, etc.

“Hey Cato, I think we’re here.”

Eagle jabbed my side to get my attention.

“Yeah, probably.”

I answered and paid close attention as Barth and Marden turned to face us. They started talking to Eagle. They turned around once they’ve finished and walked inside without us.

“Aren’t we following them?”

I asked Eagle who stood rooted to his spot.

“No, they told us to wait here for a few minutes and then walk inside. All we have to do is become registered with a lady at the front desk.”

Eagle turned towards me and explained.

“I see.”

Having nothing else to do both of us just stood awkwardly as people went past us with curious gazes.

“Alright, I think that’s enough. Let’s go.”

I had enough standing around and decided to lead Eagle inside. Talking, jeering and shouting could all be heard from the outside. I pushed the heavy wooden doors and stepped inside. All of the background noise stopped at once as sunlight filled the room.

‘What’s their problem?’

“.truh teg uoy erofeb tuo teG .sdik rof ecalp on t'nia siht ,won yeH”

A rough looking elf draped in leather armour got up and blocked our way.

“Hey Eagle, I don’t understand them, so whenever someone speaks just translate for me, ‘kay?”

I asked Eagle without breaking eye-contact from the cocky bastard in our way.

“Sure, he said, hey now, this ain’t a place for kids and that we should leave before we get hurt.”

“...I see”

Anyone standing before now cleared the pathway down the middle of the hall and took a seat on either side.

I extended my right arm in a greeting, hoping that the fool would be daft enough to fall for it. Several snickers and murmurs went around the room before the elf grabbed my hand and started to squeeze on it, from his grimace I could tell he wasn’t holding back.

Tired of the farce I imbued my arm, core and legs with a burst of essence and pulled the elf closer while bringing my foot next to his. With his balance broken I had no trouble twisting his arm behind his back and had his face wiping the floor.

The room as a whole gasped as even more murmurs broke among the rank of people seated around the tables and benches.

“Hey Cato, this guy seemed to be famous for crushing rookies and his rank seemed to be at the upper gold level.”

“What does that even mean? ‘Upper gold level’?”

Eagle approached me from behind, “Just let him go and let’s get registered.”

I released his arm and gave a kick to his side to make sure he stays down for a little while. As we walked down the clear pathway no one made more noise than a whisper. When we reached the front desk a rough elf towered over us. He eyed us with a scrutinizing gaze. Several scars adorned his face and arms. His entire body was bulging with knots of pure muscle.

“Welcome, Cato and Eagle, gnitcepxe neeb evah I you.”

I caught an odd word or two but the meaning escaped me. The voice was steady and powerful.

‘Is this the owner?’ The way he carried himself across made it possible.

“eht ti saW two adventurers dlot taht you tuoba us?”

Eagle started to talk about something. I just pretended to be a part of the conversation.

“Correct, they said a pair of kids would be interested in joining. But never did I expect them to be serious, hahaha!”

The elf heartily laughed and pulled out two cards. Eagle exchanged a few words and faced me.

“We have to imbue them with as much essence as possible in one burst. The cards will then display our starting rank and self-destruct.”

I looked at the two blank pieces of parchment.

‘Guess there’s no point in holding back.’

I focused nearly all my essence into my fist, condensing it as much as possible.

“?hoH dab toN little one.”

I had no clue what the elf said but his raised eyebrows told me all that I needed. I grasped the parchment and forced the contained essence into it. At once it shone blinding pale blue colour and several characters appeared on it.

I looked over at the man to see him standing with a slack jaw.

‘Was that a bit too much?’

I shrugged it off, I was not about to walk around pretending to be some weakling.

Eagle did the same as me only without touching the paper, but the end result was the same.

“.pets lanif eht rof worromot yb pots ot eerf leeF .noitartsiger ruoy ezilanif ot yad a ekat lliw-uohs ti ,uoy knaht-ht-hT”

The man was distraught and his stuttering didn’t make it better.

“Let’s go Cato, it will take a day to finish the registration, we’ll need to come back tomorrow for the final step.”

If before there was an occasional whisper, now the room was devoid of any noise. Everyone’s attention was on us as we walked down the center and exited the building. We waited a few more minutes outside before Marden and Barth walked outside.

They wore smug grins on their faces and Barth clapped Eagle and me on the back while laughing. It was clear we lived up to their expectation.

“You boys sure know how to stir up a commotion!”

Barth shouted as we were given a court tour of the city. Eagle translated for me, if he felt it necessary. Our first stop was a bustling market sprawling over a square no shorter than two hundred meters. Or so Eagle told me.

There were stalls for everything; weapons, clothes, armours, food, household items, jewelry, you name it. Eagle asked where all the metal works were done and after purchasing a few supplies we were led to a different district. There were less people around this area but all without fail were burly, with thick beards.

The distant sound of metal striking metal told us we entered the blacksmithing area. Eagle had hoped that in the city the techniques and equipment would be more advanced than in the village. But was severely disappointed when anvils, hammers and simple blast furnaces were all that was present.

With sunset rapidly approaching we left the banging behind and were taken to an inn; Broken Hilt it was called. Simple stone covered the walls and circular tables placed rather close to each other. We ordered something that resembled chicken, or so Eagle assured me. With darkness engulfing the streets, the interior was lit up with candles hanging on the walls and a fireplace off to the side.

There was a cheery atmosphere as everyone ate their grub and shared stories - all without exception were armed adventurers. Eagle took the proximity of tables to his advantage to listen in on rumours and get a better grasp on the status of the world.

Nothing overly interesting was mentioned other than that a strange artifact was found on the borders between Lavir and Trill. A small skirmish broke out and Trill’s troops won. The artifact was brought to the royal castle for the court mages to inspect. No other information was known about it, only speculations ran wild.

“Hey Cato, here is something else, apparently an absurdly rare species, the Ayeries were spotted in the forest not too far from here. Looking something akin to an over-grown wolf with an extremely long tail. But that’s not the point. They say a group of bandits captured two cubs and their mother and made a deal with a merchant to auction them in a few days.”

Eagle started to talk about another rumour that caught his attention. I crushed the metal cup I was holding.

“It is so big that you need to buy tickets just to enter the room where the bids will be placed!”

‘If it was the two I saved…’

“Eagle, I need you to ask whoever said that about the colours or any other information they know about them.”

My anger controlled, but it was just the calm before the storm. I wanted to be sure. I eyed Eagle as he pushed his chair backwards and started asking a group seated just next to us.

“They weren’t too sure either but they heard some people mentioning white, black fur with a variation of green or blue.”

Once Eagle finished something snapped inside me. Despite being aware of it my judgement became clouded and I could feel myself using essence for something.

“Wo-woah Cato, what’s wrong?”

Eagle stammered in surprise.

“Find out where we can get the tickets, find the merchant and anything related to him. I’m headed to our room. Once you’re done you better come as well.”

I got up and trudged up a flight of stairs to the room we reserved. The door creaked open as I walked in and sat down, trying to get my emotions under control. Several minutes later Eagle came inside,

“Do you want to explain to me what the fuck that was all about? Releasing your killing intent like that the entire first floor shut up and stared at us!”

Eagle was frustrated, and it was truly my fault but he wasn’t done,

“You’re damn lucky the other two weren’t around to bash your head in for such a display and instead were asleep in their rooms!”

“Sorry, but I just lost myself there...”

Eagle let out a sigh at my poor excuse of an apology.

“Now what about the Ayries that got you so worked up?”

Eagle asked and I filled in the holes from my previous explanation of the wolves, giving him the complete story.

“I see, but that still doesn’t explain such a reaction. There is only one thing, one person that could possibly do that.”

Eagle pushed for further answers but I wasn’t about to lay my life story for him this moment.

“That’s going too far, in time I may tell you but for now, help me figure out a way to find those cubs and save them.”