“So this is why you looked like an escaped slave.”

Nathan had just told Remald, how a mysterious airship attacked his village. He took another piece of bread from the table, while the guard captain seemed to be deep in thought.

“To be honest, it sounds very fantastical, what you're telling me there. I'm more inclined to not believe it than believing it. Using an airship of the size, you described, to attack a village, probably costs more than it would to buy a dozen of such villages.”

“Really? But I didn't lie. Where would all the blood on my clothes come from, if not from Lizzy? ”Nathan replied in a sad voice. After the morning preparations in the guard station had woken him up, he also first thought, that the past two days were just a bad dream. Until he saw the blood-soaked shirt, that he used as a bag. The image of Lizzy's death came back to him with cruel clarity, and he sat crying on the bed for at least half an hour.

Remald drummed with his fingers on the table.

“If it is true, then this is a serious attack on our kingdoms territory and has to be reported.”

He stood up.

“Follow me.”

Remald led Nathan to his office. It was a small room with just a table, three chairs, and two cabinets full of files. The docks could be seen through an open window on the right wall. Remald took a rolled-up paper out of one of the cabinets and spread it on the table.

“This is a map of the western continent, please show me where Feriona is. Or rather was.”

The map showed a landmass, with a shape, slightly resembling that of the seahorses, he saw in a book of his father's collection. The map ended at the north and east with large mountain ranges, and to the south and west with the ocean. The southernmost part of the continent, where the tail would begin, was an area of wide steppes. The belly was made up of a gigantic forest, with two major rivers flowing through them. Between the belly and the head, lay a series of large islands. Nathan knew that these belonged to the Moria Republic. The land, forming the head, was an area familiar to Him. He saw a section of it in the village school. Several kingdoms, including the Kingdom of Aruth with his village, was located there.

“Which of those two rivers is the Fera?”

Nathan pointed at two rivers, which were drawn from the middle of the kingdom to its east coast.

“Fera is the one on the bottom. The upper one is the Mara. Port Veragos is here. ”He showed Nathan a spot on the east coast, in the middle between both rivers. Nathan's finger traced the Fera to a position close to its source.

“Around here somewhere, between Fera and the large forest south of it.”

“Ok, I will fill out a report to the capital, if they believe at least a part of it, they should send an inspector down there. But don't get your hopes up. It's really too unbelievable.”

Nathan looked at his feet. It was agonizing for him, not to know what happened to his friends and family. Not even having a hint at all, about what exactly happened, or who did it.

After Remald put the map back into the cabinet, he said with a serious voice,

“I would suggest to you, to not stay in Verago much longer than needed, Nathan. I sent two guards out, trying to apprehend the thug who led you here, but obviously, he already ran away. I can't guarantee that they won't lie in wait for you.”

“Yes,“ Nathan agreed, “that's, what I fear. I just want to be done with it and arrive at my magic school. The last days were horrible.”

“Then let some of my subordinates bring you to the northern harbor. The ferry to Gilsbeck leaves daily, right after midday. That would be in four hours. Regrettably, I don't have the time to escort you.”

“I'm already thankful for everything you did for me. I don't want to bother you any further.”

“Nonsense. My life is worth more than just a few clothes and some food. ”He looked out of the window.

“It's time for me to go. Let Joe help you pack some rations before you leave.”

After they had left his office, he gave Nathan a strong handshake.

“We probably won't see us again. I wish you good luck and success my friend.”

Nathan replied, “Once again, thank you. I will remember your kindness.”

The guard captain nodded with a smile and went downstairs. Shortly after, his loud voice could be heard.

“Richard, Josk, Samuel, Gerod! Get up your asses, the trade fleet from the Wolfengard Kingdom arrived.”

The guard station became noisy, loud voices of the guards mixed with the sound of metal-plated boots running over wood. Then the front door closed with a loud bang, and the station became silent again.

Nathan didn't know what he was supposed to do. According to Remald, he had several hours until the ferry to Gilsbeck leaves. Walking to the northern harbor probably took half an hour or an hour at most. He would love to explore Port Verago in daylight, but he didn't want to take the risk to meet one of the thugs from the night before. In the end, he decided to go to his room and try to cast magic again. He thought back to when he averted the explosion of the strange box and managed to cast an illumination spell. Even though it was just a dim flickering and no bright light, it still excited Nathan. This illumination spell was the very first real spell, he ever had cast.

When he walked through the station, Joe, the guard from the last evening, ran into him.

Nathan greeted him politely, “Good morning, Sir.”

“Oh, hi Nathan. The Captain told me to bring you to the northern harbor in three hours, make sure to be ready by then.”

“Thank you. I don't have much to prepare. I'll stay in my room until we leave.”

“Whatever works for you, just be ready in time.”

“Sure. By the way, your captain told me I could get some rations for the travel, where do I get them?”

“Don't worry about it. I'll fetch them before we leave.”

“Thanks again, Sir.”

“No problem, but please call me Joe. I'm not that much older than you. ”Joe waved at him and strode toward the other end of the floor. Nathan was quite happy that he didn't have to look for the rations himself. Cheerful and in high hopes he walked into his room. He closed the door straightaway, sat down and took some deep breaths. When he felt that he was calm enough, he started to concentrate on his immediate surroundings. In his vision, large clouds of mana danced through the air. He extended his thoughts like little tendrils, trying to grab the mana, to collect it in front of him. It was a tedious process, but slowly the circuit for the illumination spell formed. It was a very simple pattern, an inward spiral that ended in a straight line, cutting threw the spiral in a sharp angle. Nathan had a hard time keeping the wobbly shape intact, and even after several seconds, no light escaped the circuit. With a sigh, Nathan released his control. The mana immediately dispersed in the room.

“What did I do wrong? It worked yesterday.” he muttered.

“Oh, right, the movement, the mana needs to move along the pattern.” Nathan hit his forehead with the left hand. Once again he extended his thoughts into the room, gathering the mana in front of him. But instead of immediately trying to form the pattern, he collected the mana into a sphere at the tip of his index finger. Slowly he drew the pattern in the air. Wherever the sphere went, a distinct line of mana was left behind, which seemed far more constrained than before. When Nathan finished drawing the pattern his expectations were high, but again nothing happened.

“Why?!” Upset, that he failed again, Nathan lost his concentration and the mana escaped from his grasp.

“Ah damn it. But it felt right this time.” He reflected on what just happened. The pattern he drew was a lot more stable than before and considering that he also had to circulate the mana when he was using magic tools, it seemed like the correct way.

“is it really not possible to cast it?”

“Oh, wait!” His thoughts wandered back to the evening before his home was destroyed. His sister said no magician can cast spells without a staff or similar items. How could he forget? He jumped up and ran to his bloody makeshift bag. Without hesitation, he took out the illumination orb.

“I won't need you if I can cast illumination myself.” He grinned. Nathan was sure that it would work this time. He took a few seconds to suppress his excitement. Then he extracted mana from the illumination orb. As before he gathered it in a sphere on the tip of his finger, this time, the mana was by magnitudes denser than in his first attempt. Keeping his hand as steady as possible he drew the pattern once again. As soon as he started to draw the final line, the center spot of the circuit started to shine lightly, increasing its brightness as the line became longer until it crossed the last line of the spiral. A dazzling bright sphere of light hovered in front of Nathan's hand.

“Hell, yes!!!” He was ecstatic. This was real magic! Not just pouring mana essence into a pre-made tool, not moving mana along an already existing circuit. It was his magic! Excited by his success, he once again lost control over the mana. Without a guiding force directing the extracted mana, that wasn't used to draw the pattern, along the lines, the light sphere only lasted a few seconds before it vanished. Nathan wasn't bothered by it, filled with happiness he played with the illumination orb in his hand.

Again the mana was drawn out of the orb, a few seconds later, a new ball of light appeared in the room. Without pause, Nathan cast one illumination spell after another, for more than half an hour. He was so thrilled, that he didn't feel how weary his body became. Only when the first spell failed, because the pattern was too inaccurate, did he notice how tired he felt. He barely managed to get to the bed, before he fell asleep.

Nathan had a rough awakening. A stabbing pain pulsed through his head, and his side felt as if it was mangled by a wild animal. Groaning he sat up.

“It's about time you wake up, how can someone sleep so deep that he doesn't even feel it when they're kicked?” Joe stood by his side and shouted at him.

“Kicked?” Nathan had problems to think clearly. “Damn...” He held his head in pain.

“What happened to you, Nathan? When I met you earlier, you looked fine, but now it seems as if you've returned from the great beyond.”

“I guess, I have overdone it with my magic training.” He got a bottle of water from the table in his room and drank half of it in one go. Joe watched him slightly amused.

“Didn't know magic training makes you look like a drunkard after a long evening.” His loud laughter cut through Nathan's head.

“Anyways, get ready. We will leave in ten minutes.” After reminding Nathan, he put a backpack on the floor and left the room.

For the next few minutes, Nathan just sat at the corner of his bed, massaging his temples until the pain subsided.

“Wow, that was awful.” He still felt a slight, throbbing pain, but it was manageable for him. Inspecting the backpack, that Joe left for him, Nathan found a large amount of beef jerky as well as dried and salted fish, easily enough food for two weeks. He smiled, Remald sure was generous with him.

After throwing the magic tools, that were spread across the floor, into his new backpack, he drank the rest of the water and went to the front door. Joe and another guard were already waiting for him.

The unknown guard looked very similar to Joe, he was just a bit more well-fed and had a less serious face.

“This is my brother, Jim.”

“Hi, Jim, nice to meet you.”

“Likewise. Let's go, we have no time to waste.”

Joe looked at his brother with a teasing grin.

“Since when did you become so eager to fulfill your duties? Or maybe it's just that you want to have more time at a certain Inn?”

“Not everyone can live on food and duty alone, Joe, you should try to have more fun yourself.”

Joe shook his head, then turned to Nathan.

“Are you finished? Got everything you need?”

“Yes, thanks for bringing me the food. It should be plenty.”

“Good, then let's go. We'll need to walk for roughly half an hour.”

The two guards led Nathan through the busy harbor. Nathan never saw such a busy place before. Everywhere were people, carts and animals, running around, seemingly in chaos but still without obstructing each other. He saw gigantic ships at the docks, most of them with masts and sails, donning the flags of nearly all countries that the Kingdom of Aruth traded with. A few, quite new looking, ships had no sails. Nathan could guess, that those were magically propelled. He nearly asked his escort if he could go take a look, but refrained from doing so when he remembered, that they didn't have much time.

They left the harbor area using a wide and lively street. In contrast to the past evening, the street was filled mainly with carriages and people carrying goods. The buildings on the side of the street were made from a yellowish stone, their second-floor jutting out over the street. Even the alleyways between the buildings looked cleaner and less intimidating.

“Why is it, that the city looks so much better than yesterday?” He quietly asked himself.

“What did you say?” Jim had overheard his muttering.

“I was wondering why the city gives off such a different atmosphere than when I arrived, yesterday.”

“Where did you arrive from?”

“Uh, hard to say. I went through a gate in the south-west I think.”

“No wonders then, the southern quarters, besides the harbor and military district, are basically just slums, where all the vermin gathers.” Jim explained, laughing he added, “If you had entered through a northern gate, you would probably have asked me why it looks so shabby here.”

“Why?”

“Because all the merchants and nobles have their residences there. The northern market square of Port Verago is quite prestigious in our kingdom.”

“Oh, I see.” Nathan thought about all the trouble he went through and cursed Mark for entering the city through the south. But then again, if all the rich people lived in the north, they probably wouldn't have let the bloody and dirty mess, he was last night, enter the city anyways. Jim and Joe slowed down their steps when they noticed that Nathan glanced around curiously and shortly after the horn signaled that the 12th hour of the day had passed, the small group arrived at the northern harbor.