Merchants called out to passersby along the wide main road of the town, with tidy wood and plaster buildings crowding in on either side. A warm red light filled the air in stark contrast to the blue light from above. Fel and Siyla strode down the road, their bright, shining armour, drawing the gaze of many. Siyla had formed a helmet over her face though, her wings garnered enough attention on their own.
The glittering of blue, floating runes caught Fel's attention.
"Hey, Siyla, look over there!"
In the distance, there was a lavish-looking building, made of smooth stone bricks with magnificent carvings decorating the walls. Little lights hovered around large, double doors made of great slabs of stone, while a sign, made of illusory, blue runes, floated in the sky. They displayed the words 'Mage House' in the Nemmeth tongue, a language exclusive to the Mages.
Siyla's eyes lit up, though gaudy, the building looked far more secure than the other taverns she came across, the added comfort was a plus, She had never been exposed to high luxury and she looked forward to it. She grasped Fel's wrist and pulled him along, moving in a bee-line towards the entrance. Yet, just before they entered the building, a trio of robed Mages burst out from the doors, almost colliding with Siyla.
The leading Mage, a handsome dark elf, that looked to be around 25 years old, was almost knocked over. A dark mist appeared around out of nowhere while sharp needles poked out of Siyla's armour. They took a second to calm down and dispersed their magic.
"Sorry about that, I wasn't paying that much attention to where I was going."
The Magus was surprisingly polite, a stark contrast compared to the other people the duo had encountered.
"No the blame is on me, I was walking too fast."
The conversation came to a close, and they continued on their path. Overall, the encounter was, anticlimactic.
Fel tossed a telepathic message to Siyla, "Hey, I thought people here were more... douchey."
"My parents said that too, I guess there isn't much benefit in picking fights with true Mages, the effort isn't always worth it."
They crossed through the door together, revealing a spectacular scene before them. The floor was a smooth slate, with a thick, red carpet rolled out along it. Large, flowing tapestries covered the stone walls while golden chandeliers hung from the vaulted ceiling above. It felt like the whole building was a show of wealth. Walking to a counter, Fel looked around, emitting a low whistle as he went. Siyla elbowed him in the side, his actions were rather embarrassing to her, though she herself was stunned by the sight.
A receptionist attended to them, turning on a holographic screen, "How may I help you?"
Fel looked at the floating runes above the counter, they recorded the different services the Mage House offered, and of their prices. "I would like a double room for the night and dinner for two."
"Sure, that'll be a quarter crystal coin and two gold coins"
Fel fished out the gold coins and gave the receptionist a crystal coin. The receptionist tapped the coin, running a small amount of energy along the engraved lines on its surface, perfectly splitting it into four equal sections. She took a piece and took out a silver key.
"You're in room 12, you can get there by going up the stairs to your right and going down the corridor. We'll bring your dinner to your room in twenty minutes, I hope you enjoy your stay!"
As the duo left, the receptionist frowned at Fel's direction. She couldn't sense a smidgeon of natural energy from Fel, did the Mage behind him think she was only worthy of speaking to a servant? Even worse, did she intend to sleep in the same room with him? She shook her head and pushed the matter to the back of her mind. As an apprentice, she shouldn't question the actions of true Mages.
In the room, Fel took off his armour and lay on the bed while Siyla sat on a sturdy desk. Dark, oaken wood cladded the inner wall, with the furniture crafted of a similar material. At the side of the room was a king sized bed with a soft, feathery mattress and silken douve's. Opposite to the bed was a long desk with a crystalline ink bottle and a stack of thick paper on top. There were other furnishings in the room, such as a small nightstand beside the bed and a rectangular dinner table with cushioned chairs around it.
"Siyla, why don't you ever take off your armour? Doesn't it get inconvenient?"
"It's like a second skin, I feel safe in it. Besides, my job is to protect you, I must be prepared at all times!" The last part felt like a flimsy excuse.
"You can't do much in here with armour on. It'll be far more comfortable if you just, take it off, it's not like you can't use magic without it right?"
Reluctantly, Siyla retracted her armour, replacing it with a steely dress made of soft, flexible metal. She tucked in her wings and stretched out on a cushioned chair. After relaxing for a moment, they realised that they didn't have much to do. In the end, they idly conversed till dinner, they were far too tired to talk about magic theory or mechanical engineering.
Exactly twenty minutes later, rapid knocking rung out from the door. Fel turned his head and called the person in. A lengthy food trolley cart, with over four trays stacked with multitudes of silver platters, bustled into the room. In a few minutes, the servants spread the platters across the dinner tables and placed down lovely ceramic plates and silver cutleries.
However, the dishes weren't what Fel was used to. There were grilled purple meats with a red mushroom sauce over it while fresh, grey vegetables and blue fruits were cut into a wonderful salad with a suspicious violet glitter in it. As the food service left the room, Fel spotted a familiar group of people through the door, causing Fel to throw his thoughts out the window.
"Hey, you guys! Wanna come in and chat?"
Siyla gave Fel a dirty look, making Fel remember where he was. Fel was a rather sociable person, the military encouraged tight bonds as you needed to band together on the battlefield. His bad habits had leaked through.
Raising an eyebrow in surprise the dark-elf walked over to the waiter who was carrying the food-cart and tossed him a few gold coins while requesting dinner for three. He pulled out a chair and sat at the table along with his friends before turning to Siyla.
"So what did your servant want to talk about?"
Siyla almost choked on the air, "He-He's not my servant, if anything, he's my master."
The dark-elf was stunned. How rich could that mortal be to be able to hire a Mage? He took a deep look at Fel, trying to discover his identity. Fel felt upset under the curious gaze of the dark-elf why did everyone think he was a mortal? Didn't Aerl say he was a Mage? Exasperated, Fel lifted a finger, directing a sliver of lightning energy towards it.
"See here? I'm a Mage, tada~"
"But... you leak no energy... how is this possible?"
This news confused Fel as well, he didn't know that Mages leaked energy. He decided to consult Aerl for the answer, "Aerl, what does he mean by that?"
"He must be referring to your parivartana lines. They have the side effect of restraining the leakage of your internal energy. The maintained high energy pressure can passively refine your body. Even when you aren't actively cultivating!"
"Is there any way to prevent this?"
"Nope, but you're a weird one, anyone else would be overjoyed if they heard this."
Fel ignored the last statement, Aerl didn't seem to understand the intricacies of society. He focused back on the dark-elf, wanting to eliminate the misunderstanding.
Fel lifted his hand and pointed to the lines on his face, "These lines absorb my energy so you wouldn't sense any leakage." A white lie, but he still kept Aerl's statement in mind, if this ability was so valuable, it would attract a lot of attention.
"An interesting ability, albeit, one that seems to attract trouble! Haha! My name's Gorn, an initial Level 1 shadow Mage. I broke through earlier today, nice to meet you."
Under Siyla's incredulous gaze, Fel went with the flow and replied likewise, "Same to you, my name's Fel, also an initial Level 1 lightning Mage. I broke through around a week ago."
With a shake of their hands, Gorn introduced his companions, first pointing towards a young, female dark-elf to his right, "This here is Ferri, a peak apprentice shadow Mage, she may only be an apprentice but her energy control much better than mine!"
He then pointed to a wolf-like man to his left, "And here is Harth, a middle apprentice wind Mage and a Grand Knight. Although he's only a middle apprentice Mage, he can go toe to toe with peak apprentice mages!"
Siyla joined in on the fun, "I'm Siyla, middle Level 1 metal Mage, nice to meet you."
Gorn lay back in his chair, "I didn't expect to find such company in this town, I was only here to get resources to break through! Usually, there are only low ranked apprentice's and crass adventurer's."
"This is my first time being here," replied Fel, "I've lived most of my life in isolation so I'm not very used to the towns in this world, I hope we can get along well."
Ferri cried out in an outburst, "You became a Level 1 Mage while in isolation?"
"My predecessors left me some valuable resources, although I had to use them all up to get to this point."
With a final, suspicious, look, Ferri let the matter go. Harth on the other hand, saw the power armour in the corner, eyes shining with curiosity.
"I saw it before, but that's really nice armour, where'd you get it?"
"Ah, that's something else my predecessors left for me. It enhances your physical abilities and runs of natural energy. Unfortunately, It's difficult to craft so it's a unique item, not to mention the rigorous training you have to undergo to even use it."
"That's a shame, I would've loved to take it out for a spin."
"Why don't we have a bite while we talk? We have more on the way after all."
In the beginning, Fel was rather dainty with the new, strange food, but as he discovered that the meats were juicy, the vegetables fresh and the fruit delicious. Even the weird glitter was fantastic, providing a subtle crunch to the salad. As they ate, they spoke of many things. Gorn revealed that they came from the Onyx Tower, a Magus school that specialized in shadow and wind magic.
According to them it was only a few weeks travel on foot from the town, laying to its south in the waste. Twenty minutes passed in a flash, another food cart entered the room and the empty dishes were cleared away. By the end of the day, Gorn and co were well acquainted with Fel and Siyla. Gorn gave Fel a red coin with a multi-eyed shadow carved onto it.
He said it was a communication rune, and if Fel wanted to contact him, he only had to inject energy into it. With a final goodbye, Gorn and his friends left the room while slipping him a piece of paper that contained instructions on creating a communication rune.
Siyla collapsed on the bed, spreading out her wings. The lengthy conversation had dried up her social capabilities. Even if she almost only nodded and smiled. Fel, on the other hand, was ecstatic. Finally, an event that resembled what he was used to back at home. But it had gotten late, and Fel changed into more comfortable night-wear he found in his ring and tucked himself into bed. Siyla also got into bed, scooting right over to the edge.
Before they went to sleep, Fel got Siyla to create a black coin where he used his internal energy to carve in his personal insignia, or communication rune. While he did so, his mind drifted, his energy flowing aimlessly across the coin's surface. By the time Fel had pulled himself back to reality, a mysterious image was carved into the coin.
It was a black crow clutching a shining star. When Fel looked at it further, he noticed that there was something wrong with its eye; it wasn't organic, it was forged of clear crystal with thousands of tiny gears clicking below the surface.