David crossed the giant gates with bated breath, his heart pounding. This is really it. An actual city.

  But despite what he had hoped for, he couldn’t look into the city proper just yet.

  The gates led into a stone tunnel, large enough that two horse-drawn carriages could drive alongside one another. Yellow lanterns shed warm light everywhere. Fire in a closed space? David shook his head. Upon closer inspection, the lanterns included some shining rocks, not burning fuel.

  Along the tunnel, there were many perpendicular doors, likely leading deeper into hollowed out parts of the walls. How did they manage to build something like that? David stared. It felt like a modern alpine tunnel.

  Sophie stood next to him and stared too. But she didn’t wonder– She was completely shocked, gaping in awe at the sheer scale.

  My reactions might be a bit skewed. The tunnel was majestic; even more so because of the supposed time period it was built in. David craved to learn more about it.

  On the other hand, Aura and Bert followed the guard with only soft, bemused smiles on their faces. Clearly this wasn’t news to them.

  They made it around 50 meters deep into the wall, around halfway until the other side, when Hito, the guard, stopped. For the first time, David took a good look at his face under the helmet.

  He was a young man in his late twenties, but had a kind face. He seemed to look at them with equal measure pity and guilt.

  “This is the examination room. You will go inside and state your case.” Hito said. “Goddess be willing, they will take care of you. Good luck.”

  With a polite nod, he opened the doors and stepped aside. But didn’t walk away. He stood there, waiting for them to get inside. Rules are rules.

  Aura was the first to enter the room, eliciting a hushed gasp from inside.

  “What’s crawled into here this time?” David heard a whisper.

  David quickly followed, and noted the two burly middle aged men - the source of the previous sound. One of them, with dark hair, evidently took offence at Aura’s tarnished looks.

  “State your business.” The other, bald, man said, towards them, this time.

  Aura didn’t respond, but David could see how that snide remark hurt her. Combined with what he knew of her past as a noble, she clearly wasn’t used to disrespect.

  Nor to being unsightly.

  Anger bubbled within David, but he knew that emotion didn’t work well in such situations. He bit his tongue and looked away from Aura’s pained expression. Handle this, Bert. Please.

  His wish was quickly answered. Bert stepped forward, taking over for his silent wife.

  “We’re new workers, to be examined. Alchemy and blacksmithing.” He said, his tone deep and confident.

  The bald man eyed them with a tired expression. “Waiting room. First door to your right.” He sighed. “We’ll call for you.”

  Bert nodded and placed a hand on Aura’s shoulder, leading her to the side and toward the room.

  The bald man turned to his colleague. “Go call Meraz. I’ll check the metalwork myself.”

  Seeing the man’s annoyed face, David couldn’t help but gulp. This did not bode well for their chances.

  The waiting room was small and simple; minimalistic, even. Aside for a lamp standing in the middle and six chairs by the wall, it was empty.

  Floor was made of wooden boards, the walls were smooth stone. It felt cramped. David was grateful that he wasn’t claustrophobic.

  They took their seats. The chairs were rough and hard, but oh so comfortable after such a long journey. There wasn’t anything that the city could throw at them that would break his spirit after all of that travel.

  After just a few minutes, the doors swung open and the dark-haired man called Aura and Bert away, leaving David and Sophie Alone.

  “I hope they can make it through.” David paused, fiddling his thumbs. “What do you think?” “Aura’s good, no?” Sophie turned to him and sighed softly. “Even if they don’t pass, maybe we could do something for the people outside the walls.”

  The other refugees. David shivered softly. He had already forgotten about them. “Do you think so many villages fell?” His eyes turned to the ground.

  “No. But people ran anyway. Like those who left Grainwick.” She said, her tone suddenly bitter. Whether she resented the escapees or regretted not running herself, David wasn’t sure.

  The conversation was steering toward uncomfortable topics, and so David wanted to end it… But his curiosity won out. “With Goddess’s rest around the corner, what do you think will happen to them?”

  “Maybe they’ll take cover in the tunnel?” Sophie looked up, her eyes even more intense now. “Maybe they’ll die, like -” Her voice broke. She fell silent, turning back to the lamp.

  She didn’t start crying. Not this time. Not after three weeks of grief. But David had no illusions; Sophie was deeply traumatized.

  And he had no idea how to help her.

  They sat in silence. Together, yet so apart.

  The conversation was over, the wait ahead was probably still long.

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  David was growing antsy.

  He turned his attention to the shining rocks within the lamp. Magic? Some weird mineral? They were thumb sized, polished pebbles, emitting a powerful yellow light.

  Despite its intensity, there was no warmth coming off from the lamp. It was curious… But he couldn’t really find it in himself to be too excited about it.

  After what felt like eternity, the doors opened again. Aura walked in

  “We can enter the city.” She said, trying to smile, but her face showed clear signs of fatigue. “Let’s go.”

  There was no celebration. Worse, there was unspoken tension in Aura’s voice.

  They walked past the two men and back into the tunnel.

  In the distance, they could see Bert rolling the cart through the gates.

  “What happened at the exam, mom?” David asked, tugging at Aura’s clothes.

  “Nothing much, Marco. I passed with no issue. Even made the exam proctor blush.” She said, trying to stay cheerful. “But the amount of work we were assigned… It’s rough.”

  She paused, clearly unwilling to say more.

  David tilted his head. “But you always worked a lot”

  Aura forced a smile. “Yeah. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. We always are.”

  A shiver went through David’s spine. He has heard her say that before. Just before Calland went off the rails. Or before the slaughter in Grainwick.

  -=-=-=-

  Soon Bert joined up with them, already pulling the cart, and they moved on into the city proper.

  As their cart was approaching the second set of gates, they opened. A sizeable worker golem moved through, dragging an empty cart.

  Through the ajar gates, David finally saw it. Cobbled streets. Multi-story houses. Shops and taverns. A city.

  Nestled within walls like a hollowed out mountain - Ki-Elico, the city of arcane.

  Immediately after crossing the gates, they turned to the side and started walking alongside the walls.

  The first houses here were on the richer side and the smells weren’t invasive. It was nothing like Grainwick.

  As they walked, the surroundings gradually turned poorer. Loud crafting spaces, smelly tanneries, crowded openings with wells.

  Finally, they reached a larger building. It was just as simple as the waiting room. Bare minimum of unadorned furniture and tired people operating behind desks.

  David’s heart fell as they joined the end of the queue. More waiting.

  They spent the next hour making idle chatter, until their turn finally came. Only one thing seemed out of place. Each desk was stained with red and each had a bloodied knife.

  What’s that for?

  The woman behind the desk spared them any unnecessary comments. That already made David like her more.

  “Hello, I am Heli and this is the work center. Names and referral forms?” She addressed Bert.

  Bert and Aura pulled out small metallic medals and handed them to the woman. Aura’s was brass, Bert’s looked like copper.

  “Bert, Aura and our children; Marco and Sophie.”

  Bert’s non-nonsense tone and manner of speaking seemed perfectly compatible with the bureaucratic workers.

  Heli pulled out four leather wrist bands from the box behind the desk. She attached the medals to two of them and reached for the knife.

  “Your arm.” she said, almost absentmindedly.

  Hold up. David stared in fear at the dirty blade, but Bert had already stepped forward and reached out with his arm.

  The woman cut at his arm, making a small incision above his wrist. She then wrapped the band with the coppery medal around it. “With this, you will be able to leave and enter the city.”

  Bert stepped aside, making room for Aura.

  She flinched as the woman grabbed her wrist, the small knife tore through her skin all too easily. Meanwhile, Heli continued her explanations.

  “Since it’s just the two of you working, you’ll have to do double shifts…”

  Sophie received her bloody armband without a flinch. Heli kept speaking, and David’s shoulders kept tensing.

  “You may not leave the refugee district, the rest of the city is off limits under threat of being removed.”

  Finally, It was David’s turn.

  A sharp cut. A stinging pain. Blood started trickling from a wound over his wrist. But once the woman clasped the armband around it, the pain suddenly stopped.

  What the… David stared at the armband and noticed how the mana around was pouring into it. David was watching as it grew saturated. A form of bloody ID?

  As he was digesting the situation, the woman was already giving Bert directions and urging them to leave.

  Going after the directions Heli gave them, they navigated a veritable maze of alleys and buildings. There were houses and rooms built one on top of the other, almost like apartments… Only much poorer. In other words, a medieval slum.

  They finally reached their room, only to find, well, just that. A single small room. No furniture, aside from a stone furnace in the corner. It was barren.

  “So, this is home?” David asked, only a bit sarcastically.

  Bert and Aura looked at him.

  “You should be thankful It’s safe.” Bert said

  “We’ll make it home, Marco.”

  David nodded, but without much conviction.

  “Let’s go buy the necessities.” Bert said

  Aura and Sophie stayed behind, walking up and down the stairs to unload their cart into the room.

  David followed Bert through another set of alleys outside.

  As they walked, David noticed that everything they needed was very close. There was a large shop, that looked like a carpenter’s but not quite, that gave them beds and basic necessities like a knife or pots.

  Do we have enough for all that? David wondered, but he saw no money change hands. Bert pulled out a list out of his pocket and handed it to the man. It was made with smooth, silky paper. Reusable?

  David climbed on his feet to look and was astounded. It was a regiment paper, more or less. The shopkeeper crossed off things as he placed them on the counter, then returned the list to Bert.

  It was a veritable mountain of things, though for a four person family, that still wasn’t much. David was surprised. Maybe there was something good about their treatment in this city, after all?

  It took them until evening to transport everything back.

  In that time, David had noticed something pleasant - a waste disposal system within the buildings.

  It was nothing to write home about, barely better than a festival outdoor latrine… The smells were still there and the seating was uncomfortable, but for David it’s been two years of doing his business over a dug out cesspool in the village.

  Anything that didn’t include shoveling waste was an improvement on a massive scale.

  When they were finally done, the room was unrecognizable. Two beds stacked side by side in a corner. A table with chairs, even if roughly made. Cooking implements and a barrel for water. Everything they needed to live.

  Aura and Bert sat at the table, trying to keep their eyes open.

  Sophie warmed up yesterday’s meal, the meat stew and David brought it out for their parents to eat.

  She was doing surprisingly well through all of it. If you didn’t look at her constantly clenched teeth. Or shoulders so tense they could break rocks.

  No one was in the mood to sit around and talk, even Aura’s optimism had been dulled. They went to sleep early.

  David wasn’t sure what ‘double-shifts’ meant in this world, but from Aura’s reaction it wasn’t hard to guess.

  Within the city of wonders, yet they were locked in the slums… At least they were safe.

  David couldn’t help but still dream about the academy.