While Nurium had some modest 10000 souls within its walls, Horos, the town they moored in for the night, boasted a number that dwarfed its southern counterpart by 15000. That difference in population was visible within a few moments of disembarking, where the streets and alleys, that to the naked eye had the same dimensions as those in Nurium, were so crowded that Tercius and Lux had to push themselves forward in search of an inn.

People kept hitting into him, one moment to the left, another to the right, few even pushing from the back, but he had a single task on his mind. To protect the little one that slept in the crook of his left arm. He was sure that he could endure the pushing and shoving, but she? She would be crushed for sure.

He came off the barge with a desire to see some sights in the town, but with how things stood, that was better left for some other less crowded time.

"Uncle! Any inn in sight?" he yelled at the man that made his passage that bit easier with his menacing presence, Tercius following in his steps.

"I see one ahead, just a little more." he heard Lux yell back, while some passers-by flinched from the loud sound.

And true to his word, they left the stampede, and through a door above which a sign identified the building as an inn, they stepped into a tightly packed room that just served dinner.

It smells so good. Tercius sniffed the aroma that lingered as a waitress brought a serving to the nearby table. His uncle went to the bar, while he waited near the door of the inn, in case this one also turned out to be full. Luckily he saw his uncle wave him over, and he jumped forward, with the hope of a full belly and warm bed soon in sight. The little lioness still slept, so he had to wake her up once their dinner arrived. She ate most of the greens that his plate contained, and he had to convince the innkeeper that the little girl would not do any damage while they stayed for the night.

In their room later that evening, after he paid the son of the innkeeper to bring him a shirt full of small stones, he fashioned a crib of sorts. A thin stone plate on the bottom, with its sides, raised 2 cm, that then forked into a rhomb grid-like pattern joined at the top in a small dome. The little girl had some space to move around and if she had to do a number one or maybe even two, she had enough space to not sleep in it.

Lux watched from the side as his nephew built something like that in a matter of minutes and once more had to relive that memory. One moment he was talking to his brother, and the next he felt the surface disappeared under him, gravity pulling him into a free fall.

But only for a second.

His legs got stuck just under his knees, then his back hit the floor, head ringing, vision darkening, while a sharp pain wound up from his legs making him scream in a way he did not hear from his mouth for decades. Everything else was a blur, fragments where his brother talked to him, a sharp knife's edge and then the blissful darkness finally took him.

He honestly did not believe when his younger brother told him who did that to him.

Even to this day he had his doubts about it.

But then he saw something like that and he wondered how his brother managed to make a son so talented in so many areas. Sword and shield, then his skill with stone, and he had his suspicions about three more. One for running he was almost sure of and some kind of skill for enhancing reflexes, the boy had an aim that belied his age. And a third that he suspected was some kind of locator otherwise, how would a boy of 10 cycles find out he was even there?

And the boy wanted to use all those talents and go be a mage.

What a waste.

"Uncle, do you have a nice name to suggest?" Tercius asked, while his fingers brushed over the gentle scales of the sleeping lioness. "Something short, but even a long one is acceptable if it has a nice nickname."

Lux looked at the small creature that stuffed itself to sleep, and the only notable thing about it was its grey color, with the ones he saw previously being more blue or dark green.

"...Maybe Ash." Lux finally said.

"Oh, that's a good one. I thought Amber for her eyes, maybe Lady Grey for the scales. Let me write these down." Tercius took a small notebook out of his backpack and scribbled these after the three that were already there.

Misty, Hope, and Hekate.

***

Tercius stirred as he heard a sound somewhere in his vicinity. Can I have one night of peace and quiet? Is that too much to ask for? he grumbled internally.

Without opening his eyes he used Mana Sight to observe in front of him, only seeing his own body and the little lion in front of him. But no uncle. He probably went to the outhouse. he reasoned and turned back to sleep.

But as he hovered on that edge, he heard someone murmuring. He recognized one voice as that of Lux, while the other was that of a woman.

Not again. he thought. Why didn't he rent another room?

People here had a curious relation to privacy. Some had almost no notion of it, like that family in whose house they stayed last night, while others had a partial understanding of sorts, but those people usually came from religious backgrounds, like his grandmother whose mother was a priestess in a temple.

But this was not that.

His uncle and this woman stood on the balcony of the room they got for the night, and if they were doing those things, then even his shameless uncle would search for a place that offered more privacy than a balcony.

He once again used Mana Sight and observed them. Their signatures stood close to one another, and as he suspected they were only talking. This went on for a few more minutes and then the woman saluted to his uncle, immediately after jumping from the balcony, right down to the street.

His uncle came back inside and closed the door behind him slowly.

Army business is none of my business. he thought and sank back into the fold of sleep.

***

Even in Zuros, the next town down the river, when they stayed for the night someone came and talked to his uncle. Tercius knew that his uncle held a rank in the Army, but Lux also told him that he was retired. So now when these nameless figures appeared in the night and spoke and saluted the man, the words of his father came to mind.

...Who knows, maybe even this is part of his plan. Ughh, this is one of the reasons I never liked being around him. Once I found out this side of him... Well, I could never fully trust him again...

Tercius saw why his father felt that way.

And although some part of him wanted to do the same, Tercius did not let it. He felt that his uncle was only misunderstood by Septimus, who feared the man for his potential in keeping secrets and doing things behind his back.

So he decided to trust the man.

Along with their barge, many others traveled, most bearing stones like granite and marble, and these went north to Spheros, from where it was shipped all over the Empire. To the other direction barges mostly brought cloth, sugar, and some processed wood.

The journey of eleven days, spent by night in the inns or village homes, and by day by being confined to a small space with more people and merchandise came to an end once they reached Spheros.

His grandmother always told him of the grandeur of the coastal city, of its green swaths of grass that grew everywhere when you left the hot climate of the south. The trees here grew in greater density, some native to the area, others brought by the settlers and merchants and then transplanted.

Where every town he saw so far had its building packed densely inside its walls, in Spheros there was so much free space between houses, filled with bubbling brooks, old trees of a broad canopy that gave enough shade for 30 people to hide under if they packed nicely.

Not that that was how the whole city looked like.

Some parts looked filthy and downtrodden that he had to wonder how two such opposites existed so close side by side.

Here it looked like everyone lived on another's head, stomping over someone else's feet just to pass by. Children ran after their barge, stained from head to heel, their clothes just a few scraps tied together in a facsimile of pants, but looked more like diapers. Yet on their skinny frames, it somehow fit. He watched at all of this, a turmoil inside him, sadness warring with some part of him that said to look away.

He watched two small children being pushed into the water by the frenzied mob as someone from the barge behind theirs threw something to the children, and they fought over that catch, the sight reminding him of piranhas.

He had to look away.

They sailed to a pier where they disembarked and Lux paid the other half of the agreed-upon amount. All around them people carried something, whether it was a crate, a barrel, or a pen and paper, everything moved with oiled purpose. They found their way over the stone pier to a large warehouse where they made inquiries of who traveled north, to Lissea if possible.

"To Lissea you say, eh?" an old woman drawled as she went over her entries in the book before her.

"... J, k, l, ah here it is. Lissea. Let's see. Leaves on 27th, morning, pier three, vessel by the name of Zephyr. Four free spots for passengers. You boys want to board?"

"I will need to see this vessel first." his uncle said. "Let's go."

Tercius thanked the woman for her help, something that he notices his uncle was rare to say. The vessel in question had three sails, and a sleek design compared to other ships around. Sailors were moving on it, tying ropes and rolling barrels, while a few others gambled with a pair of dices and a cup.

"So, how is it?" Tercius asked his uncle.

"It will do. Let's go back before someone snatches our spots."

So they did just that and now they had a day and a half to spend in the city.

"Uncle, what is interesting to see around here?" he asked as he tried to calm the little girl that woke up and started to squirm. Tercius thought she just wanted to make a few laps, to stretch her legs, but he was afraid to let her go here. Someone might just eat her raw and still living.

"...Interesting to see? Are you thinking of buildings?" Lux asked and Tercius nodded.

"Well, there is the Palace of the Governor, way up the hill, almost embedded into the mountain, but we won't be allowed in without an invitation. Then... Maybe the Bank of Sogea? Its vault holds most of the wealth of the continent. But you can only go inside if you want to do a deposit or a withdrawal. Maybe the Baths? We have the Temple Promenade along the river, further up the Commons." Lux saw the boy frowned at that. "Hmm... The Library?"

"Wait! Let me guess we can't go there too? The books are so old they would crumble from a single touch?" he asked expecting that to be the answer.

"We can if we hurry up, they close around six." his uncle said as he pointed at a sculpture that stood before them.

"That's an odd place to put a sculpture," Tercius mentioned in passing.

"That's a sundial Tercius. People use it to tell time." Lux explained, once more remembering that this was his nephew's first visit to a real city.

The boy looked at it with a glint in his eye, going near it for closer observation. A raised platform brought the statue on the level of his knees, made of the white-ivory stone that Tercius just knew came from a quarry south of Nurium. One of the professional deformations he developed while working with his grandfather was to have a critical eye towards stonework and this platform looked solidly made, both to the naked eye and Stone Sight. On the platform, a grey stone ring marked with twelve numerals that circled one small man-shaped sculpture holding the pommel of the sword above his head while the other end of the sword fell back at the other end of the ring, the shadow from the sculpture showing the exact time.

"It's beautiful," he murmured, observing the details that made up the swordsman. Someone made an effort.

"About the Library?" his uncle asked.

He glanced at the dial and saw that they had over two hours left before it closed. "Let's go."

***

They took too long to get there, with Tercius stopping every few dozen meters to gawk at this or that, whether it be the Palace that was visible from afar with its towering spires and the keep itself or the street performers that did tricks for the pleasure of the crowd, he had to take a few minutes to give it the proper attention these scenes deserved. So for this day, the Library was off.

"Don’t worry uncle we will make it, we still have the whole day tomorrow. The boat is still some 39 hours away." Tercius told his uncle.

"I was not the one who wanted to go in the first place," murmured Lux, feeling a fair dose of frustration with his nephew. I made a promise to Septimus. he repeated the mantra in his head as he followed after Tercius, the boy seemingly going where he pleased.

The little lioness squirmed in his arms, her head darting about, from one loud group to the other, and cowered behind his cloak when the noise got too loud. Her scales lost all of the moisture quickly, but one of the passengers on the last leg of the journey by barge assured him that it was not such a big deal as he initially thought it to be. The river lions could go without wetting their skin as long as they drank enough water. Only if the scales started showing signs of cracking, then the need for it was urgent.

When the sun was almost completely down at half-past six the city’s lights came on, these glass-like orbs that when heated emitted light, while they stayed cold enough to touch. Every orb stood 2.5 meters above the ground level, placed on a long thin metal pole that at its top had a small heating enchantment. Perdinar once allowed him to observe one such orb, and he was struck with the behavior he observed they exhibited.

The white light these street posts showered in every direction illuminated the streets, allowing the population of this city to enjoy its wonders during nighttime. Although he had seen cities that had populations that eclipsed this one by many orders of magnitude, and sights that could take your breath away, Spheros had its magic that ranked it in a special place.

The two explorers took their time, having a dinner at one place then going up the Temple Promenade, where on their right the river rushed to join the sea less than a kilometer to the north, and on their right, every 200 meters a large structure loomed over.

His uncle got sick of following after him so he had to cut his sightseeing effort before he was satisfied, but when his head hit the pillow he fell asleep in moments.

***

The next day they made their way to the Library and honestly with the way it had a capital letter in its name, he expected more. Perdinar’s book store had more books and more interesting topics, so he just browsed around the shelves, making the librarians observe him with pinched faces.

"Did you like it?" his uncle asked once they got out.

"Ah...it was fine," he answered after a small pause. "But, is this the only Library in the city?"

"As far as I know, it is. Considering how much you like reading I thought you would like it here." Lux said.

"I thought so too until I saw the general tone of most of these books," he told his uncle sourly. The most common topic he found was propaganda about the glory of the Empire, a large aversion of his. Perdinar had a few of these books in his shop used to keep the doors slightly open to create a breeze when the day grew hot. So just out of curiosity he took a peek at the first few pages and slammed the books shut.

Who the hell wrote so many? Tercius complained.

"So any idea about what to do with the time we have?" he asked his uncle.

"We have something to do actually. Septimus told me something that will have to be addressed before we leave tomorrow. Follow me." his uncle commanded in a voice that brooked no argument.

They went seemingly randomly in silence, the larger man leading the way with sure steps while Tercius used occasional running bursts to keep up.

They went to a small tavern and Lux commanded him to pull the hood of the cloak over his head and speak only when spoken to directly, and even then with as few words as possible. Then both stepped inside to find a dozen weapons pointed their way. The few rays of the light that passed through the barred windows reflected off of a few well-polished weapons and those glints blinded him for a moment.

What the hell? he thought. What are we doing here?

"I need to talk to Ears, tell him the Three-Fingered Hand is searching for him." his uncle's voice said from behind the cloak.

"…whos the shorty?" one man asked back, and Tercius saw that this man’s height was nothing to scoff at. He had the right to call everyone in here shorty.

"…He goes by Pinky," Lux said in the same even tone.

"…I never heard of that code name." the man seemed confused, the others around him having the same trouble. "Did you?"

Tercius almost burst out laughing from some expressions he saw.

"Just tell him I am here and want to buy some information, that’s all he needs to know."