Kenta stood bent over, panting in exhaustion. His best friend stood, arms crossed, next to him. Looking down at him, only figuratively, of course, since even bent over, he was at least half a head taller than her, Sana scoffed mockingly. "Are you sure you don't want to start training? You look about ready to collapse and we hardly ran at all."
If Kenta had the energy he would have rolled his eyes and complained. While it might have been a leisurely jog for Sana, he had to sprint at full power to simply keep up. He was starting to regret not agreeing to at least a little bit of training so that he could at least keep up with his friend.
"Come. Quick, quick." Sana hurried Kenta along when he could start moving again. "I want to get to the inner gate before the Closing today."
Kenta sighed, shaking his head, "What's the rush? In a week you'll go outside anyway. Just be a little more patient. You always charge head first into everything."
"Why should I take advice from someone a stiff breeze could topple over? Even Elder Lanus could beat you up and he's already half blind." Sana retorted.
Bickering the entire way, the two eventually arrived at the southern gate of the inner wall. The city had two gates, the southern and the eastern. The river, on the other hand, flowed into the city from the west and exited in the north, bisecting the city. The space isolated by the river was claimed by the two great Clans, the Mara Clan and the Tekiel Clan.
Outside the city stretched the farmlands of the city, protected from the dangers of the wilderness by the outer wall which was constantly patrolled. Sana's father's task as head guardian was protecting the city from threats from the outside. Technically he was the highest authority about deciding what passes through the outer gates. The inner guardian, having a similar authority over the inner gates was from the Mara Clan.
The farmlands between the inner and outer walls provided the city with food for itself as well as exports to other cities with less arable land available. While the city kept a unified 10 hours of rest, also called the Closing, in which the inner gates would be shut, followed by 20 hours of work, the people living in the farmlands simply rotated who rested and who worked leading to a continuous bustle which could be very confusing for those only used to living in the city.
Sana and Kenta arrived at the southern gate to see the last shipments of grain to be brought into the city. While Kenta took the time to finally rest, Sana watched the people coming into and leaving the city. She started daydreaming about going out and traveling through the wildlands, fighting against spirit beasts, and visiting other cities.
Slowly, they became aware of a disturbance outside the gate, traveling towards them. People spoke in hushed voices and hurried to the edge of the thoroughfare as if making way for a procession. Even the Martial Squires in charge of protecting the gate moved out of the way and half-bowed towards something. Finally, Sana could also see what was creating this kind of distress and was surprised to see a single young man leisurely making his way through the gate.
On a close inspection it was clear what the big deal was. The man was wearing a dark blue robe with white cloud decorations, the robe of the disciples of the Clousea Sect. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart started beating faster. A genuine, real Immortal, right in front of her.
Incidentally, since the Immortal was making his way in her direction, she could make out more details about him. He was paler than almost every other person she met except for Kenta and his robe was closed with a simple white belt on which a small green 10 cm long sword hung. She remembered from her lessons that it was probably made out of a material called jade. The strangest thing was that despite looking around as if he could see, his eyes stayed closed.
Shaking her head, Sana quickly made her way towards the Cloudsea Immortal into the space, cleared of people too afraid to approach him, and bowed towards him, waiting for him to stop to continue. Since no one was accompanying him and no one else was approaching him, Sana was the person with the highest station to welcome the Immortal. Thankfully he stopped in front of her, allowing her to say, "Welcome honored Immortal to Tekiel City," she slowly righted herself before continuing, "My name is Sana of Clan Tekiel, if there is anything I can do to accommodate Lord Immortal simply say so." Sana was quite proud of herself for remembering what to say despite feeling like she could faint at any moment.
When the Immortal turned his face towards her, she suddenly felt as if she were watched from every side by hundreds of people despite him still not opening his eyes. Keeping her eyes lowered she could just make out his mouth curving into a small smile. When he simply walked past her into the city her heart dropped, wondering if she made some kind of mistake until she heard a soft voice saying, "Come, walk with me. We can talk on the way."
She bowed again and hurriedly fell into step slightly behind, to the left of him. When they passed by the place Kenta stood, the Immortal spoke again without stopping, "Your friend can come as well." Surprised, she looked up directly into the face of the Immortal, lips still curled into a slight smile. She gestured to Kenta to fall into step to the right of him and the trio continued along the street.
The Immortal chuckled and spoke as if to himself, "Who knew that I would complete my mission so soon after entering the city. Well, I should at least introduce myself before leaving again. You two are the ones supposed to enter the sect, yes?" Startled by the sudden question, Sana nonetheless quickly answered, "Yes, Lord Immortal. Kenta and I are supposed to join the Cloudsea Sect."
"It looks like we still have a bit of a walk in front of us, so how about you tell me about my soon to be new Junior Sister and Brother?" he asked with his ever present small smile.