The city of Velan was built on a simple island and was truly a historic metropolis. Its wonder was matched by the backdrop of majestic forests which have helped shape the city into what it is today.
The trade resources these forests brought were of great importance, but they were also influential when it came to architectural designs as the vast majority of buildings have been built with many natural elements to keep in line with the forests.
The skyline is riddled with impressive buildings and there was no place on Etheria with anything like this. Daily life wasn't too stressful in Veland and it had attracted a lot of attention. Various cultures have left their mark not just on business, but also on the city's identity. What historically was a city of few differences has grown into an amalgamation of differences and it's this that united the fifty thousand people to this day.
It's this multicultural identity that had truly left its mark. Hundreds of food carts, take-outs, and ethnic restaurants offer a plethora of culinary choices and those who feel hungry for something else could enjoy libraries, carnivals, and one of the many other wonders built by the Veland's richest family, the Layne family.
To attract fewer eyes, Draven landed on the outskirts of the city and made his way to the city by walking with a group of merchants.
"This city stinks of corruption" Margoth's voice in his head revealed the disgust he felt towards Veland despite the city's dazzling appearance.
As a god, Margoth possessed many powers, sensing corruption and evil was one of those powers. The giant city walls surrounding the city were guarded by numerous archers including both gifted ones and nongifted ones.
If Draven tried to enter the city by flying, the archers would shoot him down in a few blinks of an eye. The speed he got from Pigeon's wings was nowhere near the speed he used to have ten years ago. He used to fly in the speed of sound and in his prime, his speed even crossed the speed of sound.
"Merchants this way"
"Visitors this way"
"Citizens of Veland this way"
There were two gates on either side of the main gate and between the two gates was an opening for carriages to pass through. Big belly merchants in fancy robes approached the soldier before the center gate. Since Draven was a visitor, he made his way to the left side gate where he saw a soldier clad in full pale blue metal plate armor.
The solder's face was covered by the helmet so Sarah couldn't see his reaction to the two of them,
"You purpose of visiting Veland?"
"Business" Draven answered the soldier,
"Two etherials" the soldiers reached out as Draven placed two silver coins on the soldier's palm,
"Don't cause any trouble" the soldier coldly said before Draven entered the city through the gate.
The city of Velan opened up to them showing its majestic beauty. The paved lane they were standing on stretched from the gate to the town square. They could see the fountain and the crowd gathering at the town square from where they were standing. On either side of the lane were numerous shops such as restaurants, stalls, alchemy shops, smithies as well as bakeries.
"Oi, go to that bakery. Something smells really nice there"
"I paid everything we had to the solider to get entry"
Draven closed Margoth's mouth with a simple fact which wasn't received well by the hungry ancient god.
Hence, Margoth began to bicker like an angry old lady on Draven's way to the GoldenEye auctioneers. From weapons to artifacts, GoldenEye auctioneers had everything for sale for a price of course. They made their fortune by auctioning rare items to the highest bidders over the years. Many small stores lost their business to GoldenEye and in fifty years, GoldenEye had become a major influence in Etheria.
Draven made his way to the city square with Sarah following him behind. She covered her head with a cloak to hide her face. The walls contained several notices, drawings, and posters including the wanted posters of Sarah. The UFH was offering 10,000 etherials to whoever captured the infamous hacker. While it was true that 10,000 etherials were not big of a deal to gifted ones, to the commoners, the amount could change their lives forever. Thus, almost every adventurer in the city was on the lookout for Sarah.
Luckily for her, the king of Veland hated the gifted ones and everything related to them. Because of that reason, he denied UFH's request to search the residents to find her. Otherwise, the soldiers at the gate would have lifted her cloak to see her face and found her.
Draven chose Veland as his hideout due to the king of Veland's vengeance against the gifted ones, particularly against UFH.
"You sure you know the way?" asked Margoth telepathically,
"We are close, it's only a couple of blocks away" Draven answered, reaching the city square and joining the crowd gathered around.
"This protest is not going anywhere until his majesty withdraws the order to hunt down the Black Knight" A blonde youngster wearing a loose white shirt and cream colored pants stood atop the water found and shouted at the crows as loud as he could.
"YES!"
"Black Knight is not a criminal. He is our Guardian!"
"Guardian Black Knight!"
The youngster's words seemed to hold weight as the crowd erupted showing their support for the local superhero called the Black Knight.
"Black Knight, I'm curious about his superpowers" Margoth sounded excited but Draven snuffed out the Margoth's flame of excitement,
"He doesn't have any. Unless you count, having an armor and potions a superpower"
"You kidding?" Margoth was slightly disappointed,
"How many times have the royal guards saved us from the Clown? Or the Sewer Cat? If it wasn't for the Black Knight, most of us would have been six feet under" the youngster continued to show his support and rile up the crowd.
Draven squeezed through the crowd to get to the other side rather than wasting his time listening to the youngster like the rest of them.
"I hope I'm not on the Black Knight's radar" Sarah whispered to him after they managed to put some distance between them and the protestors.
"Let's not stick around to test that," said Draven.
In his peak, Draven would have mopped the floor with the Black Knight. Until he could take back the powers he lost, Draven had to avoid making enemies of superheroes such as the Black Knight although he knew it might be difficult to do so.
After leaving the city square, the roads became less populated but the buildings became fancier. The ladies and gentlemen who were roaming the streets wore clothes that basically screamed nobles. The ladies were found wearing long golden gowns, corsets, and full-length cloaks. These cloaks were fastened at the shoulder using a broach and were trimmed with expensive fur. Almost all the ladies wore a hat with one or more colorful feathers and had a folding fan to fan themselves.
The gentleman accompanying these noble ladies wore silky vests beneath long coats and linen braises. Some noblemen and ladies were escorted by armored soldiers.
"Noble district. Looks pretty but corrupt to the core in any city" Margoth commented,
Draven ignored Margoth as well as the gazes of the so-called nobles. They stared at Draven and Sarah as though they were some kind of party animals because of their robes.
Sarah avoided making direct eye contact with the nobles but she scanned her surroundings for escape routes and hiding spots as a habit. Thanks to the maple trees on the side of the streets, the sun was not as hot as when they entered the city.
Several cool beverage stalls stood on either side of the street with sellers wearing wide grins on their faces. For some reason, they seemed to be ignoring Draven and Sarah.
After climbing the upward slope, the narrow hill street opened up to another city square. No protest was happening in this city square. The buildings were built in a circle and in the center of the town square stood a towering statue of a bearded man holding a hammer.
The alleys between the buildings connected the town square to other parts of the noble district. Each alley had armored guards patrolling one end to another constantly like clockwork.
Draven's destination was the tallest building among all the buildings in the square. It was an imposing snow-white multistoried marble building that towers over the neighboring buildings. A set of white stairs led up to a set of burnished golden doors. Two soldiers flanked the doors in the armor of scarlet and gold.
Regardless of Draven and Sarah's rather eye-raising robes, the soldiers did not halt them. Draven pushed open the glass doors to let Sarah enter first and then, he followed her behind to be welcomed by a vast spacious hall.
Several comfy sofas were spread chaotically for the customers to rest and enjoy the captivating paintings hanging on the walls. A marble counter with a girl in golden robes standing behind could be seen at the end of the hall.
Draven carried the sack filled with weapons he confiscated from his fallen enemies to the counter.
"Welcome dear customers, I am Lulu. How may I be of service to you?" The girl greeted them with an ear-to-ear grin.
"Need to sell these" Draven opened up the sack dropping everything inside onto the counter.
Soon the empty marble counter was filled with several daggers, a broken bow, a silver ring, and a few golden trinkets.
"My dear sir, I can give you two ethereal for these seven daggers. The bow seemed to be made of good quality camoban, it will fetch you another two ethereal. Silver ring, fifteen and golden trinkets, the best price I can give you is thirty-five ethereals. Dear sir will get minus our cut four ethereals, fifty ethereals"
"Deal"
"Wonderful" the girl grinned as she trained as though she had made the sale of her life. The girl put the items into a wooden box before taking out a golden parchment from under the counter.
She then quickly scribbled the list of items, their price, and their condition.
"Dear Sir, please write your name in here" Lulu pointed at the bottom of the parchment and handed over the quill to him,
"John," Draven wrote the most generic name on the parchment,
The girl then took the parchment and went to the back through the red oak door.
"We are at least nine thousand and nine hundred and fifty ethereals short to buy the equipment I need" Sarah whispered to him while Lulu was collecting the ethereals from the back,
"I know. This is just to buy new clothes for you"
"Oh" Sarah seemed surprised but when she looked down at the ragged clothes she was wearing, it made sense for him to buy her new clothes.
"We'll take a quest from the guild and on our way out, we'll buy something for you in the commoner district"
"I want something to eat!" Margoth's ghostly figure emerged over Draven's shoulder,
"If you don't disappear, we can eat whatever they serve in labs"
"Dear Sir" Lulu came back carrying a leather pouch just in time to see Margoth's figure disappear. If he was one second late, Lulu would have seen Margoth which would have immediately drawn the attention of UFH in the best-case scenario, in the worst-case scenario, he would have ended up in some sick torture chamber of a supervillain and tortured every day for information about Margoth's origins.
She poured down the coins from the leather pouch and arranged the coins into five stacks of ten coins. Draven knew the reputation of GoldenEye hence he didn't waste his time counting the coins.
"All good"
Lulu put all the coins back into the pouch,
"Anything else I can help you sir with?"
"No thank you" Draven took the pouch and made his way out of GoldenEye.
The adventurer guild was located a couple of buildings away from the GoldenEye. The adventurer guild paled in comparison with the GoldenEye. It was a three-story building with a large sign hanging above the oak door.
Although the building was not as big as GoldenEye, it was far livelier than the GoldenEye. Draven could hear the chitter-chatter of people coming from inside and when he opened the oak door, he saw countless men and women all carrying some kind of weapon. Among them, a few momentarily stopped their discussion to look at Draven and Sarah before going back to what they were doing.
"Hey, I heard you've been trying to get the Layne family gala gig. Any luck?"
"Only gig I was able to get is the graveyard cleanup"
"Eww, I heard the zombie face made quite a mess there"
"Is it true Frankie went crazy and joined the circus?"
"No way that's true. Frankie is crazy about the Black Knight, he wouldn't get into the water with the clown in million years"
"I don't know man. The clown can brainwash people, we've seen good men do crazy shit for him"
Draven listened to the conversations around him and realized most of them were about the infamous supervillain who goes by the name 'The Clown'.
To be honest, Draven was surprised that the Clown was still alive and kicking. The old Draven would have opted for throwing the clown into a mental asylum or a prison. The current Draven however knew better than letting someone like the clown live.
At this point in time, Draven had no idea that he was going to meet the circus very soon.