Chapter 10: Wavering Outside the Gates

After so much trouble trapped inside a single building, it proved trivially easy to leave Darkmoon University: Suria simply walked out the gate. That put her back in the city of Darmkael, which had been confusing not so long ago and was now a relief.

What was she actually going to do now? Suria suppressed thoughts of all the obstacles in her path and decided just to get as far away from the university as possible. She didn’t know what would happen after the loop ended, after all, and it was entirely possible that the battle between professors was some kind of prelude to all-out war. For that matter, she didn’t know how far the wave of death would propagate, so best to create some distance.

As she stood in the street, Suria’s gaze wandered to the ribbon of light in the sky: the leyline floated past the western side of the city and she’d never gotten a chance to visit it. That would take her far from the university, and while she couldn’t afford a ride, if the situation became truly dire she could try to force her way onto a ferry.

Walking through the streets more slowly than before, Suria was struck by the sheer variety of people she saw all around her. Back at home, the largest cities had seemed diverse with the tunics and sashes from the Republic of Junn or serpent-eyed visitors from the Shantic States. Here, she saw not only those traits, there were lean giants with blue skin, pale bearded men wrapped entirely in furs, noblewomen with embroidered hats like explosions atop their heads, spear-bearing warriors with shoulders loaded with beads, and more.

And mages, mages everywhere. So many passed in floating carriages, or pulling hovering slabs, or with luggage trotting beside them on four wooden legs. Occasionally someone flew overhead, in a grand vehicle or under their own power. Shopkeepers lit flames with a wave of their hands, stores advertised with sparks of mana, and she saw a woman stirring soup with a rune-inscribed spoon.

Though the city’s roofline descended away from the university, Suria found that it strangely began to curve back upward toward the west. She only understood once she got away from some of the entangled streets and began to stare in awe at the leyline district.

The leyline itself was a line of liquid gold shimmering through the sky, so the city rose to meet it. At the very highest levels, she could see scaffolds that nearly touched the leyline, servicing the ferries that floated along its gold to other nations. Some of the peaks were like ornate palaces in the air while others were far more modest, yet still no doubt cost far more than anything in her village. Her gaze naturally slid down over the maze of ladders and platforms and-

Without warning Suria crashed into someone else and sprawled into the street. As she pulled herself upward, fixing her glasses, she realized that she had collided with a grim-faced young man.

He wore a long cape unlike any others she’d seen in the city and had such piercing green eyes she almost flinched. The collision hadn’t knocked him down, only made him drop some of the heavy suitcases he was carrying. Currently he was just staring at her in surprise, as if he couldn’t believe that a peasant had dared to collide with him.

“I’m sorry, I-” Suria couldn’t get out anything else before he interrupted her.

“I should have been looking where I was going,” he said smoothly. “Excuse me.”

With barely another glance at her, the young man picked up his suitcases and marched into the leyline district. She wanted to help and picked up what seemed to be a newsbook, which he took from her swiftly. Perhaps he had a ferry to catch, but Suria was simply grateful that she hadn’t become enmeshed in any more complicated trouble.

The impact still took a bit of shiny wonder off the leyline docks, however, and when Suria looked again, she saw more than the shining heights. Some of the towering structures were formed of solid stone, but a surprising number were rickety wood and a few even floated on pure mana, threatening to collapse if some mage lost focus. More importantly, the whole edifice produced endless nooks and crannies, and close to the ground there was a region of constant shadow where she saw people moving about within the foundations.

If this district was anything like the normal docks she remembered, it would contain smuggling and worse criminal activity. Powerful mages and the wealthy would be protected from it, moving through smoothly, but Suria had no such protections. Wandering around the way she had been would earn her worse than a mere collision with busy travelers.

Still, as Suria moved in more carefully, she couldn’t help but be swept up in it again. A rugged-looking man in clothes no better than hers suddenly hurled a golden line into the air and, when he gripped it, was pulled into the sky toward one of the ferries. That was just one of many spells she would love to learn, if only she had the chance.

Could she make a life for herself here? Suria was a decent healer, and her ordeal had taught her a great deal, but she didn’t know if she could manage in Darmkael. Since she was too conscious of the time, she took a turn into the respectable-looking district near the leyline.

This time, she tried not to be impressed by all the magic on display and instead analyzed the practitioners. There were a shocking number of people using glyphs of some sort, but most were simple formations or artifacts that someone else had created. Even in her present state, if someone keeled over in the street, she might be one of the better people to help.

But would that be enough to stand out? It seemed like every single shop owner had at least one ranked seal, some even displayed two. If she was finding so many ranked mages on a random street, the experts would be far better. She could probably find work, but it would be something like an assistant’s role or grunt talisman creation. Maybe she could earn enough to afford travel… though given the prices she’d seen everywhere, it might take a very long time.

Actually… instead of making her decision based on feelings, Suria resolved to be more methodical. She checked her satchel and came up with a mismatched set of coins and shells worth 37 oss. The inns she had seen on her way in, at least those that seemed remotely safe, cost more than 400 oss per night. Leyferry tickets varied immensely but usually cost more than 1000 for a one-way trip. What else could she afford?

As she moved Suria couldn’t help but be drawn into a bookstore, which was packed with enough books to make her salivate. Even the cheapest volumes cost 200 oss, and books on magic all went for 1000 or more. She wasn’t able to take a complete inventory because the owner of the store began to eye her suspiciously, and she couldn’t afford to attract trouble from the guard.

Instead Suria retreated to what appeared to be a cafe that catered to nicely-dressed travelers, at first just for shade, then for all the newsbooks. A few of the patrons were reading normal books, but a shocking number had thin newsbooks opened in front of them. As she watched, one of them pressed a glyph on the cover and the ink swam into new pages. Of course she’d seen newsbooks back home, but usually only the head of a village or school would own one, and everyone else would crowd around to receive the latest news. For almost a dozen people in a single cafe to have their own…

She shifted around the exterior of the cafe, getting a better look at the headlines everyone was reading:

Crystal prices rise 17% after third day of work stoppage

Archprince of Endelyth found in congress with washwoman

City guard denies that Blank Hand activity has been increasing

Stolen novel; please report.

Hybrid potions identified in Shantic front lines; North Akrash Company denies involvement

Council of Junn votes against expelling counter-noble faction

Recent storms blamed on Glyphbreakers damaging atmosphere-controlling steles

War in Imperial Wastes enters its third month

Double-seal trials for Naturalism postponed due to earthquake

New Akrashic glyphs promise to modernize artificing equal to herbalism