"So that's..."
He couldn't find words to describe what he was seeing. However he looked at it he couldn't think of a fitting description or adjective.
Impressive?
Too weak.
Enormous?
Too limited.
Astounding?
Not really either.
"Yeah, Kou'alSol, the pearl of Hei Sohoel," Gertie marveled in devout pride.
Kou'alSol was gigantic, rivaling All-Mag'Ick in size easily, but at the same time much more lively. That was even ingoring the space that was taken up by the river, as in All-Mag'Ick everyone needed more space for whatever they had going on. Be it experiments still running or some gone wrong. Again. Time and space were flexible things in the magical city until the magicians were ready to set things right. Though, too be honest, in that process it was just as likely that another few things went wrong first that may set the original strangeness back to normal just to cause other unusual phenomena that couldn't be solved with the cause of it naturally.
Kou on the other hand was a melting pod of different cultures and had two dominating cultural influences you could easily make out in the buildings. On one side of the river there were buildings with different stories and pagodas, on the other side of the river you could see clay buildings, with poles going up beyond the roofs to build up another floor or using it as a balcony of sorts. In between the tightly built city there were stately buildings, standing out with their grandeur. There you could see a golden cupola with a grand gleaming disk on top of it, there a white palace with shiny green pagodas and rising up a number of stories and other grand structures that just mixed the two very different styles to create something else entirely. Nic could make out some statues, just an arm or head or raised weapon being visible in between the densely packed buildings.
As fascinating and overwhelming as it was Nic started to get worried. How was he supposed to find Ivan in that metropole?
As lowbrow as Gertie sometimes seemed, she was in truth as sly as they come and anything else but from an ivory tower. Within the remaining day she had haggled her way through half if not the complete local underworld, sold her goods for many a times higher price than they were worth and gotten them lodging they had paid for months in advance, three meals a day included. At least something like that, Gertie was fluent in the local tongue and Nic had understood about a fifth and probably gotten that wrong as well as it had just been words he had heard somewhere before, but wasn't even all that sure about meaning in the first place.
At least in this part of the city, they had gone to the port in the northern part and had been running down narrow streets a good while until Gertie had seemed satisfied. Nic was lost after a few minutes and just followed along, the sea serpent had just swum away after a final lick to his face. Kwez on the other hand seemed bored but took in the clay walls to either side nonetheless.
Nic had not had the same problem in Aquatica, but that might have been because of its history. The first settlers there had originally been from his continent, and he just had to deal with a bit of a different accent and not a totally different language. Sure, they spoke whatever they did in Kou as well, but that was used for trading mainly.
Right, he probably should think about what to do there.
Kou was different in another way as well. The people had all kinds of dark skin color, be it a yellowy ochre or a caramel-like brown spanning to darkish anthracite and all the nuances in between. Nic with his pale skin stood out like a beacon in comparison, though at the moment still rather because his skin was about as red as his hair. If just in passing, but still. Darn sunburn. His hair was as exotic, as he had seen mostly brown hair in different shades, a few black and rare one or two blondes and even that was sparse it seemed.
He was on his own and had wandered into the bustling streets, trying to get himself understood with gestures and hand signs, but that went more often poorly than not. It was an adventure ordering something to eat.
Maybe he could try going to the port, there had to be some people who could point him to someone or something for learning. Or maybe some merchants had someone to spare for teaching some basics. He really didn't like being dependent on Gertie, as fluent as she could talk, taking her along anywhere was bound to be trouble.
And if he had no success at the port on this side he still could take a ferry to the other one. The river was broad enough and Kou itself vast, so it had more than one port, though one was used for the marine forces and such. The others were solely for trading, as far as Nic knew, so he could surely find someone speaking his own language and have them give him some pointers. The ferries themselves were always brimming with passengers and goods, there never seemed to be a quiet minute.
With the trade there had been certain things that made the city seemingly one to never sleep. Many streetlights he could recognize from All-Mag'Ick, as long as you had appropriate manastones you had light in the night. And in the dessert there were enough monsters, so there was no shortage of the things. It was all interesting, but not much for him. Or the problem he had an immediate need of solving, that is.
Nic had not yet seen much though, the city was divided into a number of districts, separated from each other by walls and such – until someone just built a house on top of it that is.
You could see the two dominating influences in the buildings, but how that came about exactly was something he would have to read about in the library. The history behind it was surely interesting.
Anyway, he was hopeful enough to find someone or something to help him learn. Why did he not check whether his scroll or his book had something about that? Well, after the last happenings he was reluctant to do so, especially with Kwez interfering when he deemed it necessary, or the mood just took him to do so. Plus, his imagination was running a bit wild, and he had nightmares, but it probably wouldn't be that terrible in reality21, if he was being honest.
In any case, he really wasn't keen on a repeat performance of such incidences. Or would rather not try something, even if curious enough, as long as Kwez could disturb him in any way, shape or form. The hard part was rather to convince the annoying critter to just go with Gertie and Archie for a few hours...
**********
21That these gruesome nightly illusions were much worse than what had happened if you really were to compare them was something he steadfastly ignored. Plus, the other thing that he also did ignore was the mere possibility of anything good coming from these so perceived catastrophes.