As they walked through the city of Draconis, Rai began to see some of the city that he’d never gotten to experience when he was younger. For the most part, Rai and Sin remained within the central area of the capital. They walked around there, following down some of the relatively wide roads, taking note of the quality of the buildings around them. In the central area there were other amenities such as a library, a hospital, and a handful of other useful buildings.

While they looked for a place to eat, Rai noticed that the city was very different to the capital of Aurum. In Aurum, the city was organised neatly. There were districts with different uses that were aimed to serve a certain demographic.

But here... there was none of that. It was like chaos, where nothing followed a uniform guideline and there was no real indicator one could follow to know what to expect in a certain area.

Rai also noticed that Draconis lacked the freedom he felt in Aurum’s capital city. It wasn’t necessarily in the form of civil freedoms, but had more to do with the open use of one’s divine form. In Aurum’s capital, Rai found that people would walk around in their divine forms quite often. It was a stark difference to his own clan’s capital where people seemed to refuse to use their divine forms. Though, it was still early in the day so maybe that would change as more people woke up to do their bits and bobs throughout the city.

Eventually, Rai and Sin found a place to eat.

It was an indoor restaurant that served sandwiches and other bite-sized goods that made for a nice and quick breakfast.

Once they’d eaten, they waited for the clock to turn 8.

Rai and Sin decided that now that most of the city was awake and in operation, they would visit the library first. That was the most likely place for them to find some kind of useful information about the clan.

As they made their way there, Rai looked around at the architecture of the building.

The library was a simple building. Made of concrete bricks, which was clearly a step up compared to the buildings that surrounded it. Those were all made of wood that looked a little under the weather.

There was a symbol of a dragon coiled around in a circle etched on the front of the building, which indicated that this was an official library run under the Warden’s authority.

“You think we’ll find anything?” Sin asked.

“Only one way to find out.” Rai responded.

He entered the library, with Sin following him.

As they entered, they saw a librarian at the desk, reading a book.

The wrinkled old human lady looked up from her book at the sound of the opening door.

“... How may I help you?” She asked.

“Hi!” Rai replied. “Uhm, we’re here from Aether Academy in Aurum, and we’re on an assignment to learn about the Life clan. I was wondering if you had any books or information packs about the clan that we could look at?”

“Hmm... you ain’t the first ones to come through from Aether Academy. Aye, I’ll see what I can do for you two.”

She began ruffling through some sheets of paper, looking for something specific.

“Tell me then, since one of you must be from our clan, where you both from?” She asked.

“Ah, I’m the one from the clan.” Rai said with his hand up.

“And I’m from the clan of Deception.” Sin said.

“Ooo. Quite a pairing you’ve got there. Don’t think I’ve heard of many cross-clan relationships with anyone from the Deception clan.” She said with a wink.

“Ahahaha...” Rai chuckled awkwardly.

“What are you looking for?” Sin asked to break the awkward silence that followed.

The librarian was still sifting through the papers.

“A copy of the sheet that I made for the other students that came through... I put down all of the important places that you’ll want to visit in the city to get as much as you can for your assignments!”

“Oh, wow! That’s really kind of you.”

“Oh please, it’s nothing. I used to be a teacher, so I know how useless some students are without the right resources.”

Sin’s eyebrow twitched. The insinuation that she was useless without help was... insulting to say the least. Of course, she knew that the librarian wasn’t talking about her specifically, but Sin couldn’t help but feel like it was still a slight.

“Ah. Here it is.”

The librarian pulled out a sheet of paper and looked over it quickly. Then she handed it to Rai.

“That’ll have all the places you’ll want to go to. I think the most important one would be Highborn Keep, but you won’t want to go there first.”

“Huh? Why wouldn’t we go there first if it’s the most important one? That doesn’t make much sense.” Sin said.

“It’s important that you visit it last. Your findings will be your own, but if you want an accurate idea of how Draconis functions, and how the clan really is... then you’ll follow my advice. But, of course, it’s entirely up to you what you do.”

Sin still didn’t fully understand why that had to be specified.

“Right... thanks for the advice and the directions! We’ll make good use of these.” Rai said.

“Of course, and please keep warm! The city’s much colder than you city folk are used to!”

“Oh, I was raised on a farm near Acies, so I know what it’s like, haha. We came through Acies to get here, and will likely go through Acies to go back.”

“Ooo, then let Bort from Townsend know that Agatha wishes him well for me, will you? He’s one of my old students, y’see...”

“Will do! Thanks for the help Agatha.”

Rai and Sin waved her goodbye and left the library.

“Well, she was nice.” Sin said after they left.

“Yeah. We lucked out with that sheet too. Otherwise we’d be running around blind.”

“Very true. Right, let’s see here then...”

Rai held up the sheet so both him and Sin could see it.

It was a map of Draconis but with the important places to visit circled and noted.

“Looks like there’s places to visit all over the city...” Rai said.

“Hmm... maybe we should start from the bottom and move up? That way we’d end up at Highborn Keep last, like she said.”

“Yeah, I think that’d work.”

“Alright, we’ll go to the hunters’ huts and start there then. Ms. Talvier also mentioned them, so I think they’re pretty important to the clan.”

“Yeah. Let’s go now then. No point in standing around and wasting time.”

Rai nodded, and began to make his way down to the bottom of the city following behind Sin.

That’s when he stopped.

Sin also stopped when she noticed Rai wasn’t next to her. She looked back at him.

“Rai? You alright?”

He didn’t reply. Rai simply raised his arm, and pointed out in the distance.

Sin looked where he pointed.

Zenith’s twin suns slowly edged above its horizon. Without a cloud in the sky, the view of Draconis silhouetted against Zenith’s twin suns was... breathtaking.

Beyond that, there was something flying in the sky towards them.

The closer it got, the larger it got.

And larger.

And even larger.

Until it flew past, directly overhead.

Causing a massive gust of wind, the red-scaled dragon flew up into Highborn Keep.

Rai and Sin had to hold their ground to avoid being blown away.

“... Wow...” Sin muttered.

Rai simply nodded.

After a second, he looked down at his hands.

“... I didn’t feel anything... I felt something when I was near those other draconic beings but... there was nothing from that one.”

“It must’ve been a divine dragon then... remember that you’re descended from the bloodline of true dragons so maybe you only feel an attachment to those... or something? I don’t really know.”

“I think you’re right... but still... wow.”

They both stood in amazement for another few moments, before eventually continuing on their walk through the city.

Rai mentioned to Sin how the buildings kept getting worse and worse the further away they got from the Keep. Even the quality of clothes that the people around then were dressed in continued to decrease the further down the city they went.

It was as if this end of the city was stricken by poverty.

“How is it so... different? This is still 1 city, so how can some of the people be so much worse off?” Rai asked.

“I don’t know much about economics, but I think it’s because all of the... oh... I get what she was saying now.”

“Huh?”

“The librarian. She mentioned that we should finish up at the Keep, and I think I know why.”

“Care to explain for those of us who aren’t as smart?”

“You’re a klutz, but you ain’t stupid Rai.”

“Yeah yeah, but I don’t get it, so please.”

“So, we’re here at the bottom of the city, right? Or, well, the far end of it?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, the level of poverty here is pretty sad to see, but the further up into the city we’d go, the more we’d see the difference in the quality of... well... everything.”

“Right... so if we go into the Keep at the end, we’ll see just how big the gap is between the low and the high. I see...”

“Yeah, and that’ll be useful to put on our assignment. As much as you probably wouldn’t want to make your clan out to be so full of inequality... it would be important to include in your work.”

“No... if I’m going to learn about my clan then I can’t just refuse to see something right in front of me... Y’know, this is all important stuff that I should take in if I’m going to really learn.”

“... That’s a good mentality to have. Alright, shall we then?”

They’d arrived at the hunters’ huts.

Some of the hunters were outside of the huts, wrapped in warm furs and thick clothes. They were organising their unprocessed furs and pelts onto stalls that Rai assumed were eventually going to be for sale.

Rai and Sin looked at each other for a second, then made their way over to one of the men setting up a stall.