"You've got to be messing with us. That's some kind of illusion. It has to be."
"Not an illusion. That's the real thing."
"I thought you said it was a village. A village! That? That is not a village."
"Hmmm, I don't think we ever called it a village. Hey, Aisling, did you ever call it a village?"
"I'm most certain I did not use the word village."
"Well, Empress Vanixi. Welcome to Umbraedomis.
We had set out on the final leg of our journey at the first hints of sunlight. Arden took off a few hours before we had even woken up. Mei had been filling in for night-watch and according to her, he was close to exceeding his deadline for reporting back in.
He also said he'd inform any patrols of our arrival, which should make entering the Enclave less of a hassle.
A massive break in the treeline opened up and we found ourselves atop an enormous hill. Some hundred feet from a cliff edge.
It was on that edge I stood, overlooking miles of the red oak forest below, when I saw it. That the sea of crimson leaves was not perfect. Massive breaks in the red was replaced by trees of pale-bark and bright golden canopies. And rising up from those golden canopies were beautiful white-stone spires, capped with gold and red roofs.
Nestled within that gilded forest was an entire city.
Not a village. Not a town.
A proper city. And by my estimation, three times larger than Tolin.
The city was fortified by massive walls of the same bright white as the rest of the buildings sticking out of the trees.
"Uhm, I think maybe I was the one saying village…"
Not long after we had begun our descent into the valley a small voice admitted to being the cause of our earlier confusion.
The culprit?
None other than the party's acting field monitor and Grand-Waystrider of the OSW—Mei.
"Why would you call this a village!?"
"I thought it meant, like, the same thing?"
My face was red with the impact of my palm.
"Mei, a village makes you think of a small, quaint, grouping of people. Not… a city that rivals Axio itself."
"I didn't mean to deceive you."
"That isn't what I was thinking, I just… Fwah! Ya' know what, don't worry about it."
The red oak forest began to transition to the golden-leaved silver aspens of the Aestori. Forest floor gave way to a cobbled road, smooth gray-white stones winded through the forest leading us to a massive gateway. Twin tower spires rose into the sky, over two-hundred feet tall, flanking an elevated courtyard. Two flights of stairs led up to courtyard, split by a wide river which flowed out from under the center of the structure.
The gatehouse seemed to serve as a control for both port of entry for foot traffic and passage by the river.
Just as this overwhelming structure came into view the eerie feeling of a powerful spell being cast washed over me. Aethermist coalesced into a spherical cloud centered over the road ahead of us.
A man's voice was projected from the ball of mist using sonic magick. He spoke sternly in elvish, an angry inflection on his words.
"Unidentified intruders, our weapons systems are armed and we will respond to any hostile actions immediately and without mercy."
Confused, and concerned, I looked to Aisling and Viane—only to find them sharing looks of equal confusion.
"We have dispatched multiple units to your location. You are being detained, do not resist or you—Excuse me! Just what do you think you're doing? Captain!? OW!"
The voice cut off abruptly following the sounds of an unseen commotion.
Moments later an interface window came into view out of the swirling mist and a familiar head of purple hair appeared on the display.
"My apologies, Matriarch and honored guests. It seems my notice didn't quite make its way around the entire garrison as I'd hoped. Please continue through to main gate."
The Aethermist faded, Arden's face blinked away as the interface collapsed.
"Well, that was almost quite the ordeal."
Aisling chuckled lightly and spurred her horse ahead of us.
Julius kicked on after her, "Are visitors usually treated so aggressively?"
"You five are our first visitors in decades. Well, real visitors anyway. Anything heading up this road is either a returning patrol or a demon with a death wish."
In the distance we could see people running around outside the gates in a manic fashion. Aisling pointed their direction.
"I can't remember the last time I saw the garrison deploy outside the walls with a force that big. Trust me, your arrival is going to stir things up around here, for better or worse."
We passed the lower level, leaving our horses and the bulk of our belongings with an attendant.
Viane assured us that the horses would be taken to a proper stable and our things would make their way to us once we'd decided on lodging.
After a tense exchange with a nervous guard about whether we could carry our weapons into the city, we climbed the stairs to the main courtyard where we were greeted by Arden—plus a raid-sized contingent of guards.
At his command, the unit saluted as Aisling passed by. It seemed her position in elven society was pretty high.
I'd caught on to a few things, and Mei helped fill in some of the gaps. She was co-leader of an elite order of knights, and she was the daughter of a prominent noble family.
After returning formalities Aisling approached Arden.
"Captain, has a Warder by the name Lira arrived?"
"If they have, I haven't been told about it—but I've been running around the garrison since I got here. A Warder, huh? I don't know any of the officers for their side, the Astral Knights generally keep to themselves here, ya' know?"
"A tired proclivity born in a different age…"
Aisling swore under her breath, eliciting a chuckle from Arden.
"If you somehow stumble upon her, please inform the Warder I am looking for her."
"Will do, Matriarch."
Aisling motioned for us to follow after her and we continued towards the main gate.
Flanked by twin spires, the gateway into the elven city was the definition of masterwork that integrated both beauty and strength. Massive doors of metal reinforced timber were locked securely behind a pair of triangular lattice-woven portcullises. Each gate was positioned about ten feet from each other, with numerous machicolations spaced out above at regular intervals to provide almost perfect coverage to kill anything trapped within the gate space.
The walls were masoned out of enormous solid blocks of white stone, which shared a similar roughness with the pinkish Vyae of Tolin.
I had placed a hand over the stone and was feeling the texture when Viane sneaked up behind me.
"It's the same material as your city. Our masonry guild imbues the stone with magick, fusing them together so that the entire section is one solid piece—it also has a neat side-effect of bleaching it white."
"I get a sense that everything in this city has been imbued with magick. There is a sort of… tingle, in the air."
"From the buildings themselves to the miscellaneous nick-knacks that fill them, the stuff of Aether is infused in our society."
"The stuff of Aether?"
"It will make sense as you see more of the city."
"Oh—uhm… okay."
We passed through the gates and emerged onto the main street of a bustling market plaza.
The city was a cross between urban and forest environments. Unlike the straight roads of Axio and Tolin, hexagonal flat-stones sprawled though the city guided through the landscape by winding golden pavers.
Towering aspens rose up everywhere, their canopies created a natural ceiling between the city blocks.
Above the roadway where the overhang of the trees fell short, artificial canopy shaded the roads from the sun. Red and gold ornamental cloth swayed in the breeze.
Beautiful storefronts lined the street, their windows were filled with exotic wares.
Each building exterior had a flow to it. There was hardly a straight flat wall to be found, rather the walls curved and bent as naturally as the forest itself.
The city spires we had seen from atop the hill this morning rose from these buildings, disappearing into the golden leaves overhead.
"Whoa!"
"Amazing!"
Rias and Hailey were as awe-struck as me. Mei continued on ahead, no doubt wearing an enormous grin on her face after witnessing the reaction from Julius.
"By the Aether…" Rendered almost speechless, he stood there slack-jawed and wide-eyed.
"—triarch! Matriarch, over here!"
A woman ran towards us, yelling from across the way. She looked quite of out place in the serene plaza, filled with pristine white walls and golden roads. She was wearing an off-white tank-top that was stained with a wide arrangement of colors, blackened grease, dark patches of dirt, and splotches of red—which I hoped weren't blood.
She had her hair pulled back and covered with a black patrol cap and along her waist was a bulky leather tool belt, a strange looking wrench flailed around by her side.
"Hooo! Wow, would ya' look at that. Humans in Umbrae. I got your message, Matriarch. Sorry I'm a little late! I had to come straight here from sector eight's fluxworks. It's one heck of a jog, lemme tell ya'."
"Lira."
"Yes'm!"
"You're covered in filth."
"I'm covered in work!"
Aisling hung her head dejectedly. She pivoted on her heel back towards me.
"Empress Vanixi, this is Warder Lira. Please excuse my subordinate for her appearance. She is… more eccentric than most."
"Sure, no worries. Uh, pleasure to meet you, Lira."
Lira shuffled briskly to Aisling's side and, failing in every sense to whisper, quite loudly expressed her confusion.
"I'm sorry, did you say empress? Is this some sort of twisted joke, ma'am?"
"Nope." Aisling bowed her head towards me, "Now, if you'll excuse myself and Lady Viane, we'll be leaving you in Lira's very capable hands. Lira, get them settled in somewhere with appropriate quarters and report back to me whenever you're done showing them around."
Both Viane and Aisling turned and zipped down the road, disappearing as they took an off-shoot from the main street.
Lira slowly spun around after they'd left our view. She scratched at the back of her neck nervously.
"Heh-heh. Guess you're stuck with me. I know a great resort that should have some overnight lodging."