Ashdeer POV
I sat at the helm of the boat watching the wild geese skim the river. The tall spires of Sparade were visible in the grey mist of dawn. The sun was still to come out. I was relived to be out of Irismus and on a mission that occupied my mind so much.
I watched the riverbanks draw near as the boatman steered us towards it. Sparade was built on a riverbank. The city had kept springing up and growing willfully on it's own across the hills and the banks of the river to become a mishmash of homes, inns, shops and government buildings. The Duke of Sparade had shifted his palace to the other side of the river to escape it's narrow and congested lanes in the last generation, and the rest of the noble houses had followed. So Sparade was now two different realities across a river.
