After they’re… Memorable encounter with Arthur. Casper led Jack into a house that appeared much like the others. Deceptively so, for they were now standing in a hidden room carefully disguised underneath strategically placed rubble and cunning engineering. The chamber was split into a central square about ten meters in diameter with a smaller chamber at each of the cardinal directions. Each chamber was filled with various clothes, accessories, tools, or other bits and bobs one would expect to find in a medieval Italian village. It was all practical but nothing seemed very valuable to him. He was much more interested in the glowing glass spheres affixed to each corner of the central chamber. They were hollow as far as could tell, but their surfaces displayed a variety of colorful shades of light as if there was a projector inside.

“This is one of our safe houses.” Casper explained upon entering. “It serves multiple purposes from giving shelter to those on the run, tribute for those that get noticed by the law and quick changes of clothes for those that need to be someone or somewhere else. Pick some clothes that fit you from the southern chamber and put what you are wearing in this.” At this, he picked a thick canvas sack off one of the racks and tossed it at Jack. “After you change we can finally go onto the major streets and thoroughfares.”

Jack pondered on his words a moment before giving the young man a point blank glare. “You still haven’t told me where we are and where we are going. It’s time you gave me some answers.”

Casper opened his mouth, then hesitated.“I can’t say much here. We are not completely safe from prying eyes yet. We are in the orphan ward. This is where unwanted children are rounded up and put out of sight by the Empire.”

“Why are we here then? This doesn't sound like the kind of place where someone important would hang out” Jack asked.

Casper mouthed the words ‘hang out’ in abject confusion before settling on something that he could answer. “I am from here, it is my home, as such I know all the ways in and out without being detected by our ‘benevolent’ government.”

“You’re an orphan too?” Jack asked.

Casper’s eyes widened at Jack’s admission and inclusion. He cleared his throat. “Yes, It was only by sheer luck that Mother Siobhan and my father were kind enough to take me in and get me an education.” He lifted his hands and a gust of wind came out of it and blew across Jacks face.

“Thanks to their guidance, I was able to become a magi, just past the novice stage and barely was able to make it into the acade-“

Jack reached over and grabbed his hand. He was panting and his eyes were dilated. “Was…was that magic? How did you do that? How do I do that?”

Jack’s sudden ardour intimidated Casper, causing him to step back. When Jack moved to follow up with more questions, Casper put a hand over his mouth. The gesture seemed to surprise both of them as he quickly withdrew both hands, stepping back defensively. “What do you mean you can’t use magic? I saw you use Fire to put out the torch in the tunnel.”

Jack frowned and let the other man retreat. Physical contact didn’t appear to be welcome. “That wasn’t magic, at least it wasn’t me doing it. The torch came to life and tried to burn me. Only, it didn’t hurt for some reason. Still not sure why.”He held out his hand in demonstration of the point. His words shifted from confusion to annoyance, and finally to wonder at a dizzying speed.

“Well that explains why you haven’t been reacting to me using my Wind spells to scout the area, I suppose.” His eyes turned inward as he paced back and forth across the chamber. He came back and examined Jack closely. His eyes began to glow with wispy green light. “You do not know anything about magic? How is that possible? Your body is radiating Fire mana. Oh my, you have mana in your blood stream! How are you not dead?.”

He gave an exaggerated shrug. “I don’t know.” He replied. “There is no such thing as magic where I come from. It is the stuff of children’s tales and fantasy novels. I have seen a little since coming here, like those light globes, but I have no idea what it looks like here.”

“Well, there are three branches of magic. Sigilism, Cultivation and Mysticism. Here in the Eternal Empire, Though most people just call it the Empire, we practice Sigilism. It allows us to bind a sigil of power to ourselves so that we can use the sigils power to create spells, making us magi.”

Jack frowned. Those all sounded interesting, but he had no idea what he could do yet. He just had to play it by ear and hope he got some cool powers as a perk. He felt like he deserved it after the crazy day he’d had.

He considered his options. He had no idea what to do or how to support himself. Following Casper seemed to still be the best idea, but he couldn’t wait to get to wherever they were going to learn this stuff. So without further ado, he lit a torch with a striker that was on one of the tables and stuck his hand inside the cheery orange glow. It promptly went out. It didn’t hurt. I’m not even burned. There was a slight tingle and he could think a little more clearly than before, but that was it. This is better than coffee.

Casper took the torch from his limp fingers and prodded the previously lit sections. “Huh...cold. How is it cold?” With a frown he put it back where it came from. “It is not safe to experiment too much in this kind of place. There are no protections in place to conceal active magic and yours is very loud to anyone that knows how to listen for it. There are very few Magi in this district, so any flashy displays have a tendency to attract the guard like flies to honey. Wait till we are in a safe zone before doing more—and for the love of the almighty, get dressed already.” He lectured with a stiff demeanor.

Jack was conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to play with his torch but on the other he knew what kind of people ended up on top in places like what Casper had described to him. when given a chance, they beat down others with their power for fun. He did not want to call any crooked cops, or the ‘Imperial guard’ as Casper called them. So he picked an outfit and changed quickly after pulling the curtain to the chamber closed.

It was a drab outfit. Dun beige pants and an off white tunic. It actually took him an embarrassing amount of time to figure out how to lace the thing. It felt awkward to put on what for all appearances was a backwards corset built into a Henley, made from fiberglass. The thing was so itchy to his sensitive skin. Laces are for shoes and dresses, not shirts. His fancy, comfortable robe, which he was able to finally see depicted a Phoenix, went into the canvas satchel that he slung over his shoulder. It saddened him to stick the most beautiful thing he had ever seen into something so dirty, but pragmatism won over sentiment.

Casper gave him a once over to make sure he was presentable. “You still look like a foreigner, especially with those eyes, but at least you look like a commoner and not a noble. Your skin is just too pale to hide entirely. We will be taking the major thoroughfare for this next part. It will be dangerous due to our being adults in a town of children, but I am a familiar face around here. There are some adults here… Avoid them. No one comes here as anything other than as a last resort. Just let me talk if a guard comes our way. Okay?”

Jack nodded. He just wanted to be done with all this cloak and dagger nonsense so he could get some answers. And oh boy am I going to get them.

A quick double back down two alleys and a few more turns brought them to the main thoroughfare. It was the strangest thing he had ever seen. First off there was no trade, no business, no commuters, no vehicle and no adults. Instead, clusters of young emaciated children were all huddling in various alcoves and crevices. One on watch while the others slept. Jack knew what that meant. He had been to several homeless camps over the years and knew that no turf war was more vicious than one where no one had anything to lose. Sleeping at night unguarded was one of the worst mistakes you can make on the streets.

At least he could see the sky now, and the sun. He was half expecting for them to be some funky color but the only difference was that the sky was two shades darker, more cobalt than sky blue, and the sun had an orange tint at the edges. Ok, I can deal with that. At least I know that I am not on krypton or something.

Casper gave a kid directly across the way some hand signals. The kid looked both ways before beckoning them onto the road. A bulging burlap sack appeared in the hand of his blond-haired guide when they approached the urchin, a boy with thinly-slitted eyes. The sack was proffered to the urchin with a casual motion that indicated that this was a normal transaction.

The urchin greedily opened the bag and pulled out a loaf of handmade bread. Jack had never seen bread that hadn’t come pre sliced, so the knobby thing did not appeal to his american sensibilities, but the boy eagerly took a huge bite before handing the bag over to another urchin, and so on down the chain of disreputable kids.

“You know what to do. No guardsman is to lay eyes on my companion. Understood?” He insisted in that way that older brothers everywhere assumed.

“Gotcha, Casper. We will get you clear.”

“Excellent! See you later Squint.”

They turned left from the alley they had entered from and were forced to slog down the road. It did not appear to have ever been acquainted with cobblestones or paving in it’s long, muddy existence. Which was strange to Jack and he said as much to Casper.

“The ‘cobbles’ we were stepping on in the alleys were once the roofs of the old capital. There are dozens of passageways and basements under our feet just like the ones we used earlier. This road here is less than a century old. The Emperor ordered it made so that they could cart war orphans here on mass after shifting the capital over there, ” he pointed to a large stone wall off in the distance. “It was used back during the last war against the Cultivators. Needless to say that they did not maintain it once they finished carting all the war orphans here.”

“Sounds about right.” Jack replied snarkily. “The rich and powerful never spend more than they have to on the poor and destitute. Why do none-taxpayers need infrastructure? No one wants to pay to upkeep those that the working class considers to be leeching off of them. So it’s out of sight, out of mind.”

“Interesting phrase.” Casper pondered. “I like it, short and to the point.”

At the end of the lane, Casper signaled another prepubescent squatter. The kid started to peek around the corner and did a double take. They turned around immediately, panic written all over the kid's dirty face. He started to signal the young men in a way that even Jack understood meant that they were in trouble.

Jack and Casper started to backpedal before a loud and very obsequious voice came from the direction that the lookout had been spying on. “MAKE WAY FOR THE REGENT, LORD Pomp!