“Seven seconds to fell the heathens. How foolish. You wield his blade, but you share none of his guile!

Now, let’s find out who you really are!”

Father Tully dragged Rai and Sin’s limp bodies into his office. He moved a rug from the floor, and unlatched a hatch. He dragged them down the stairs and plopped them on a pair of chairs.

He tied their hands and legs to the metal chair using a thick rope.

Father Tully began chanting a spell, which caused Rai to react.

Slowly, Rai began muttering incomprehensible words.

Father Tully began his interrogation with a bright light flashing in Rai’s eyes.

“So... he left without telling anyone anything...” Rai said.

“Actually... why are you so interested in Varon anyway?” Father Tully asked.

“Oh, he’s m-MmmmhhhMH?”

“He’s Rai’s topic of interest for a paper he’s writing!” Sin said, after using her Domain to keep Rai’s mouth shut.

“Ah! That’s interesting, that the Academy would have you write about Varon...”

“Oh no, it’s more of a personal project for... the headmaster...?” Sin said, totally convincingly.

“... Right...”

“Well, thank you for your time Father Tully! We really appreciate it. But, we should be off now to finish our assignment! Goodbye!” Sin said.

“I see... well, thank you for visiting, and I hope your assignment goes well.”

Rai looked at Sin funny, as if she was crazy, but she didn’t give him much room to breathe, let alone talk, right now.

There was a flash of light which stunned Rai for a moment, but he didn’t think anything of it since it seemed like it was the light of Zenith’s suns reflecting off of some glass into his eyes.

Rai allowed Sin to drag him out of the chapel. Once they were outside, his lips became unsealed.

“Pwah. The hell was that?!” He asked.

“Rai... please don’t start saying stuff like that out of nowhere. You can’t just... actually we’re still too close. Come.”

Sin grabbed Rai’s hand and pulled him further out into a small park near the chapel. There was a small handful of people there, but they seemed to be playing with their pets.

A small batfly, and a massive tri-corned wolf, were playing tag with each other while their owners chatted amongst themselves. It was a strange image, given that tri-corns tended to hunt little flying creatures, but perhaps this one was trained to be more docile.

Rai and Sin sat down on a bench.

“Right.” Sin said. “You cannot let anyone know about that.”

“Why not?”

“Because of what you said about your ---... that he was exiled or something? Don’t you think he’d have had enemies even in his own clan? You can’t believe 100% of what Father Tully said either, since he could easily be trying to trick you or lure you into a false sense of security. Rai c’mon, you can’t be naïve like this.”

“... You’re right... I got too excited hearing that he knew my ---.”

“Which is understandable. But, as long as you keep yourself aware of that now, then we’re alright.”

“Yeah. Sorry. I’ll keep it in mind from here on.”

“Good.”

“Did we learn much about the clan from him? I kinda forgot everything he said before the stuff about my ---.”

“Well... we just learned the same thing that we learned from the matron of the hunters. The Life clan right now seems to be nothing more than a shadow of its former self.”

“Hmm... somewhat depressing, really.”

“Just a little.”

“What’s the next place on the map?” Rai asked.

Sin pulled the map out of her pocket and unfolded it.

“Let’s see here...”

Sin looked through the different marks that the librarian put on the map for them to follow.

The next one up was surrounded by another bundle of different marks.

“What’s that little mark supposed to mean?” Sin asked.

“I think she wrote it in the notes down here...”

Rai pointed at the notes section at the bottom of the sheet.

Sin moved her face closer to the map to try to read the notes, but in the process she managed to block Rai’s view.

“Hey.” He said.

Sin turned around to look at Rai’s slightly frustrated face looking back down at her.

“Oh... sorry.”

Sin moved back a little bit, just enough so she could read the notes, and enough so she wasn’t obstructing Rai’s view.

“Thank you. So, the notes here say that the next place is a... a... bar?”

“Not just a bar... look. The little marks surrounding it are other smaller shops like confectionaries, bakers, and other food selling stores?”

“That’s so strange... what’s the point of going to all of those places? How’s that supposed to help us learn about the Life clan?”

“I’m not too sure either. I would think it’d be fine to just go to one of them, like the bar since that’s got a big marker on it.”

“Well... we’re also moving way further into the city. If we look at the markers that follow, they’re all within the wall that separates Highborn Keep from the rest of Draconis. So, we’d have to go into the Keep after we’re done there.”

“I see... well, we should get a move on then.”

“Agreed.”

Rai and Sin got up from the bench and began to walk out of the park, before an ear-piercing scream assaulted their eardrums.

They turned around quickly in reaction.

Just like Sin had thought... the tri-corn wolf acted according to its instincts. The bestiary that she’d studied assigned tri-corns and batflies as predator and prey, respectively. It only made sense that nature would take its course.

“Should we...”

“No.” Sin said. “It’s not our business.”

She turned back around and returned to the main road that led up through the middle of Draconis. Rai followed shortly after watching the aftermath of the tri-corn having its way with the batfly. Neither of the pets owners could actually do anything about it, since the tri-corn was far larger than any typical house pet.

As Rai ran to catch up with Sin, another dragon flew overhead.

Just like the last one, it was flying up to the Keep. This time, however, its scales were pearlescent. They shimmered in the light of Zenith’s twin suns and reflected a rainbow light.

“How beautiful...” Sin said.

Rai agreed. It was such a beautiful sight.

He wished he knew more about his own draconic heritage. It might’ve been unlikely, but Rai hoped that he’d be able to find something about it within Draconis.

“Okay. Let’s go.” He said, burying those wishes away.

Rai and Sin started along the main road. They noticed their surroundings growing noticeably more and more robust. It was absurd to Rai that there was such a large gap between the supposed middle of the city, and the bottom of it.

Even though the bottom of the city made up the largest portion of its population, and even took up the most space, they were somehow the worst off.

Rai didn’t like that.

But he also didn’t understand how it was a truth of the city.

Rai didn’t know much about economics, but he assumed that the people in the lower end of Draconis were still working jobs, and earning money. So what exactly was holding them back?

He logically assumed that if their living conditions were still like this, then they probably weren’t earning enough money to change the way they lived.

But then more and more factors came into it. Rai didn’t know how to build a proper picture of Draconis’s inequality when he didn’t even know what kind of information he’d need to build that picture.

However, Rai couldn’t think about that any longer.

They arrived at the bar that was marked on the map.

“Wait... this one had instructions, didn’t it?” Sin asked.

“Yeah. The librarian wrote that we should try not to actually talk to people here, but observe them. We should sit somewhere and watch.”

“Okay, that’s all well and good, but what exactly are we supposed to look out for?”

“I think... we just need to compare. To compare the way that people lived their lives in the lower area compared to the way that people go about their days here.”

“And how is...” Sin looked up at the bar’s building. It was far taller than she’d expected. “this... going to help us do that?”

“It seems like it’s a vantage point. We can look out around the city from up there.”

“What, there’s no other tall... buildings... hmm...” Sin said, as she looked around and slowly realised there were very few other tall buildings.

“Let’s head up and see what we can see.”

Sin shrugged and followed Rai’s lead.

They entered the bar.

The bar itself was relatively well made, but wasn’t anywhere near as clean or warm as Townsend or even the bars at the ports in Aurum’s capital.

What made matters even more confusing was that there wasn’t anyone tending the bar at the moment, even though some people had drinks and were sat around at tables. The atmosphere in the bar was surprisingly jovial down here, if a little creepy. The people sitting at each table seemed to be having the time of their lives, what with all of the very big and expressive expressions they all wore on their faces.

Regardless, Rai and Sin weren’t here to drink. They were here to see what they could from the top floor.

They found the stairs and went up.

The bar had 4 levels to it, it seemed. The next level up was more of a higher end room with a bar just like downstairs. Again, there was no bartender. The attendees to this bar were slightly less happy than the people downstairs, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The third floor was much the same when it came to the bar, but the room itself was far more extravagant, with even less people attending than the second floor. The people here were even less expressive than the people on the previous floor, and it seemed a little weird to Rai that they lacked noses and ears.

As they clambered up the stairs to the fourth and final floor, they found the bar to be the exact same as on all other floors, without a bartender. There were many more people in this room than on the previous 2 floors though.

The one thing that Rai noticed completely different about this room was its décor and layout.

But, Rai seemed to miss a key detail.

The people in this room had no faces.

He was far more excited to see how well designed and beautiful the room was, than the people who lacked facial features.

“This is... crazy!” He exclaimed.

“Look at the marble! How did they even get marble in here? Are you sure this is in the same Draconis?” Sin asked Rai.

“I’m not, really. I can’t believe how beautiful this whole place is, and how expensive it all looks...”

“Uh... Rai...?” Sin said.

Rai turned to look at Sin.

Who was no longer Sin.

What he was looking at was actually a really big bunny.

Its ears were folded over, and its little mouth moved in the frantic fashion that bunny mouths moved as they were eating something.

“Wh-...”

All of the people in the room instantly turned their heads towards Rai and stared at him without eyes.

Rai’s world spun.

Then, he seemed to hit his head on something.