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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 5161262" data-attributes="member: 60965">Session 30, Part 5<Busy week last week, see if I can stay on schedule until I get this thing done!> It was late on the third day of flying over the edge of the Fae Wood when Harold spotted the city.  It was tucked right up against the tangled mass of the Fae Wood, long wooden dock jutting out into the Radianus Sink, at least that's what Harold had figured it must be as he flew over it for the last thirty hours or so.  All he knew about the Radianus Sink was that it was a squiggly line on the western edge of maps he'd seen of the southern Freeholds, a couple hundred miles west and slightly south of where the Span reached the mainland. The city itself had massive walls, probably 100 feet tall or more, the outer surface of the wall shimmering as though the surface was covered by a vertical wall of water catching the moonlight.  The buildings were tall as well, the ones closest to the wall built up all the way up the sides and others reaching nearly that height.  Harold had never seen buildings so tall or lit by so many lights.  Gleaming white lights burned here and there on building tops, at the base of the chasm-like drops from the rooftops to the streets, and all over the docks.  Fainter yellow lights shone from windows or moved down the busy streets. Massive buildings with dozens of huge chimneys billowed black sooty smoke into the air, joined by the twin smoke-stacks of strange ships that chugged across the water.  The air smelled of smoke and strange chemicals and rattles, clanks, and booms echoed from the city.  Even in the middle of the night, the docks were crawling with people loading and unloading ships and almost as many guards, watching the water as though an army was about rise from the depths and attack. This must be the Black City, Harold thought.  With all these strange contraptions, whatever it took to make those walls and strange buildings and ships, maybe they are the allies the Crystal Towers is looking for.  The allies I have to find.  He touched the True Stone and guided the skyland closer.  As he neared the docks, he squinted at the walls, trying to figure out what they were made out of.  As he got closer, it was the strong winds that helped him figure it out. Warding strips just like those the Hollowed One had offered, thousands of them – tens of thousands of them – covered the black stone walls, the wind stirring them like shining metal leaves.  As he got closer, a beam of light nearly blinded him. He raised his hand to shield himself from the light, eventually tracing it back to a watch-tower built on the end of the dock. The light followed him down as he brought the skyland to the level of the water.  As he did so, a dozen soldiers in crude black uniforms ran up the dock and leveled weapons like the one he'd seen the Black City soldier use on the Fae creature back at Watersprock. “Raise your hands, don't touch your weapons,” one of them shouted. Harold complied.  “I come from the Crystal Towers,” he said. “Never heard of such a thing,” one of the men said.  “Are you from the Fae Wood?”“No, I just flew over it.  I told you, I'm from the Crystal Towers, you know, the nation east of here beyond the Freeholds?” “There is only Gleam, the Black City, the Forest, the wastes, and Charst.  You speak nonsense.” Just then half-a-dozen more figures rode up on horseback.  These ones were like the man Harold had met in Watersprock, black uniforms traced with gleaming silver, engraved and rune-covered weapons ready at their sides, their posture, bearing, and numerous scars telling Harold immediately that these men and women were professionals and had seen hard combat.  The way the other soldiers scattered in fear told him something too. “Hold out your arm,” one of them said, a short woman with short black hair and a long scar across her face.  She drew her sword and stepped towards where his skyland hovered a foot from the dock.  Harold stared at her for a moment, thinking of killing her on the spot.  We have to find allies and the Black City is all that there is left, he thought.  He extended his arm. She slashed the point of the blade across his arm and stepped closer, watching the blood trickle from the shallow gash she'd opened in his arm.  “He's not Fae,” she said. Without another word, the six remounted and rode off into the city. One of the lesser soldiers, a man whose age was indeterminate due to the scars that covered his face and implied something having tried to bite it off, stepped forwards.  “You don't look like a fanatic of Charst and the Fae Hunters let you go, so I'm thinking you'll probably be wanting to see Lady Hadral.” Harold wrapped his arm in a bandage and nodded.  “Just let me land my skyland somewhere first.” The soldier nodded and watched as Harold touched the True Stone and lifted away, looking for a place to set down, a faint stirring of hope rising in his chest.  This may be the Crystal Tower's last chance...</blockquote>

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