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seasong's Light Against The Dark II (May 13)
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<blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 883535" data-attributes="member: 5137"><p><span style="color: orange"><strong>Tuoma</strong></span></p><p></p><p>At the top of the ridge, the trio looked, and an immense city rolled down slope and away from them. Easily three times the size of Theralis, and slightly more than twice the size of Aglaonis, it sprawled across the rapidly dropping hills beyond the mountain slope and spilled into a flatland bowl beyond. A quarter million people, representing the combined trade between North and South; the funnel through which everything passed. If you looked, a few arcanists might be spotted flying about the sky; horses built more for the flatter northlands pulling wheeled contraptions; espers in street stalls, selling fortunes; steel weapons rather than black iron; and much more. The first thing the young heroes noticed was the lack of proper architecture.</p><p></p><p>"Where's the high towers?"</p><p>"Or the arch bridges between them?"</p><p>"Are people supposed to live in those boxes?"</p><p>"I don't see any ducts... how do they get water into the city?"</p><p>"Forget about that, how do they get it OUT?"</p><p>"Ew."</p><p>"EW!"</p><p>"Hey, look, there's a tower about a stone's throw that way..."</p><p>"That's the library that, ah, I saw in the vision."</p><p>"Cool. At least it's one of the bigger buildings."</p><p>"If you call them buildings."</p><p></p><p>As they talked, they walked, passing people on the way through the wide open gates. A pair of oddly-uniformed soldiers, dressed in shiny ringlets of silvery metal, nodded in passing and continued on. Like the south, the cities were largely open when not repelling an attack of some sort, and for a trade city, it was even more important.</p><p></p><p>As they reached the library, however, another soldier stopped them. Built like a six-foot-six brick house, she towered over all three, but her manners, while brusque, were gentle. Merideth pegged her, almost immediately, as a kindly Captain type. "Sorry to bother you folks, but you're new here and arcanists?"</p><p></p><p>Merideth shrugged, "I'm an esper."</p><p></p><p>The soldier smiled, "Ah, of course. Well, I do apologize, but spellcasters without permits have to be peacebonded. You can get permits at the Arcanist's Guild, for espers as well, but I have to peacebond you here and now."</p><p></p><p>Greppa, his mind swimming with images of the gag and tied up fingers from his days as an orc slave, opened his mouth to protest when she pulled out two wrist bracelets. "These are the peacebonds. You have to wear these; if they are removed by an unauthorized entity they will begin to shriek."</p><p></p><p>And without further ceremony, she clapped the bracelets around the left wrist of Greppa and Merideth. "Again, my apologies for the inconvenience."</p><p></p><p>Greppa's mouth closed. Merideth fumed... and when she tested the limits of the spell casting, fumed some more. The bracelets didn't affect her ability to cast a spell at all, they just made it extremely difficult to resist the exhaustion that followed. <em>Extremely</em> difficult.</p><p></p><p>Bellos grinned at them, but not when they were looking. The soldier hadn't even blinked at the huge iron meat cleaver he was carrying.</p><p></p><p>The library was quiet, but not abnormally so. A few children whispered to each other in a back corner, under the watchful eyes of an aristocrat's servant, while a pair of elderly men argued quietly but vehemently over the price of steel plate armor in "the Age of Kithios". And as Greppa watched, and <em>ellini</em> girl pulled a book, the very book Greppa was looking for, and carried it over to a stack she was making, placing it on top.</p><p></p><p>As she walked back to the book shelf, hunting further books, Greppa walked over to the pile she'd made. It looked exactly like the pile in Belial's image. It was a bit disconcerting.</p><p></p><p>He picked up the book and began idly turning the pages. The girl walked up to him, her voice quiet, timid, but very serious, "I'm using that."</p><p></p><p>He turned and looked at her. She was smaller than him, and looked perhaps fifteen, just barely an adult, with black hair and intense brown eyes. The eyes were very serious, her mouth was pinched shut - an arcanist apprentice, then, he decided, and one not accustomed to dealing with people.</p><p></p><p>"I only wish to read one passage. I will not take it from your stack."</p><p></p><p>She nodded, and fled back to the shelf, stealing glances at him as he read. <a href="http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40057&perpage=40&pagenumber=9" target="_blank"><em>Luccas the Red, cast down by Allas...</em></a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="seasong, post: 883535, member: 5137"] [color=orange][b]Tuoma[/b][/color] At the top of the ridge, the trio looked, and an immense city rolled down slope and away from them. Easily three times the size of Theralis, and slightly more than twice the size of Aglaonis, it sprawled across the rapidly dropping hills beyond the mountain slope and spilled into a flatland bowl beyond. A quarter million people, representing the combined trade between North and South; the funnel through which everything passed. If you looked, a few arcanists might be spotted flying about the sky; horses built more for the flatter northlands pulling wheeled contraptions; espers in street stalls, selling fortunes; steel weapons rather than black iron; and much more. The first thing the young heroes noticed was the lack of proper architecture. "Where's the high towers?" "Or the arch bridges between them?" "Are people supposed to live in those boxes?" "I don't see any ducts... how do they get water into the city?" "Forget about that, how do they get it OUT?" "Ew." "EW!" "Hey, look, there's a tower about a stone's throw that way..." "That's the library that, ah, I saw in the vision." "Cool. At least it's one of the bigger buildings." "If you call them buildings." As they talked, they walked, passing people on the way through the wide open gates. A pair of oddly-uniformed soldiers, dressed in shiny ringlets of silvery metal, nodded in passing and continued on. Like the south, the cities were largely open when not repelling an attack of some sort, and for a trade city, it was even more important. As they reached the library, however, another soldier stopped them. Built like a six-foot-six brick house, she towered over all three, but her manners, while brusque, were gentle. Merideth pegged her, almost immediately, as a kindly Captain type. "Sorry to bother you folks, but you're new here and arcanists?" Merideth shrugged, "I'm an esper." The soldier smiled, "Ah, of course. Well, I do apologize, but spellcasters without permits have to be peacebonded. You can get permits at the Arcanist's Guild, for espers as well, but I have to peacebond you here and now." Greppa, his mind swimming with images of the gag and tied up fingers from his days as an orc slave, opened his mouth to protest when she pulled out two wrist bracelets. "These are the peacebonds. You have to wear these; if they are removed by an unauthorized entity they will begin to shriek." And without further ceremony, she clapped the bracelets around the left wrist of Greppa and Merideth. "Again, my apologies for the inconvenience." Greppa's mouth closed. Merideth fumed... and when she tested the limits of the spell casting, fumed some more. The bracelets didn't affect her ability to cast a spell at all, they just made it extremely difficult to resist the exhaustion that followed. [i]Extremely[/i] difficult. Bellos grinned at them, but not when they were looking. The soldier hadn't even blinked at the huge iron meat cleaver he was carrying. The library was quiet, but not abnormally so. A few children whispered to each other in a back corner, under the watchful eyes of an aristocrat's servant, while a pair of elderly men argued quietly but vehemently over the price of steel plate armor in "the Age of Kithios". And as Greppa watched, and [i]ellini[/i] girl pulled a book, the very book Greppa was looking for, and carried it over to a stack she was making, placing it on top. As she walked back to the book shelf, hunting further books, Greppa walked over to the pile she'd made. It looked exactly like the pile in Belial's image. It was a bit disconcerting. He picked up the book and began idly turning the pages. The girl walked up to him, her voice quiet, timid, but very serious, "I'm using that." He turned and looked at her. She was smaller than him, and looked perhaps fifteen, just barely an adult, with black hair and intense brown eyes. The eyes were very serious, her mouth was pinched shut - an arcanist apprentice, then, he decided, and one not accustomed to dealing with people. "I only wish to read one passage. I will not take it from your stack." She nodded, and fled back to the shelf, stealing glances at him as he read. [URL=http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40057&perpage=40&pagenumber=9][i]Luccas the Red, cast down by Allas...[/i][/URL] [/QUOTE]
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seasong's Light Against The Dark II (May 13)
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