"Would you trade freedoms and privacy just so you can live in comfort and plenty!? Is that worth trading all your god given rights for!? To have your every move watched by undead abominations and your dead desecrated and abused long after their well deserved rest!? Stand up and rise against this blasphemy and embrace the light! Rise up against your tyrannical oppressor, oh good people, for God will stand behind you!" - Brutus Callius, high priest of Vitalis from the Elmaiya Empire, shortly before his being sent home in a "polite" manner.

While they walked out from Tohrmutgent's northern gate, Cal admired the architecture and the way the massive gates were richly decorated. Yet at the same time she could feel the powerful magic coursing through the gates. They were heavily enchanted, as were the walls of the city for that matter.

Kino had regaled them with the story of how Tohrmutgent had expanded four times in the past millennium or so, and each time, they never took down the walls and built new ones, but moved the old walls further out and simply built new sections to account for the larger city instead. Many of the sections of the massive wall surrounding the city were literally ancient beyond belief.

Dan chimed in and offered his share of stories now that the bard started the topic. A particularly popular story amongst the populace was how some decades ago - closer to half a century or so - a high priest of Vitalis, a hardliner fanatic at that, came to Tohrmutgent and preached to the people to "overthrow their blaspheming tyrant" in the middle of the city.

The end result of the story was said priest getting carted off back to his homeland while gagged, with a letter denoting that his personage would be considered Persona non Grata in Ptolodecca, because far too many people had complained about his activities. He had preached far too loudly that their children couldn't get any naps in daytime.

After the incident, the local clergy of Vitalis apologized to everyone for the action of one of their wayward brethren, but as a whole, the situation was treated almost like a joke, a mere annoyance, and not a single person was harmed during the incident.

Cal had not opted for a carriage this time, and they took their time walking, an approximately monthlong trip to trek across the country, as she had to lower her pace to that of her nieces'. Dan didn't seem to mind the walk, and easily caught up with his long legs, while Kino kept up with the pace with ease, skipping as she walked while occassionally playing her lute and singing a song.

On the first village - really more a small town - a day's walk from Ptolodecca they encountered a curiosity. In the middle of the town square stood a lone Death Knight, clad in a form-fitting suit of bone plates, with a helmet that was lovingly crafted to resemble a wolf's head. The death knight stood firmly, imposing in its stillness. All while a horde of little children played around or on it.

That was also the first time they saw a Death Knight standing guard anywhere, as even in Tohrmutgent itself, the undead who stood guard were all lesser undead types, as elite undead like the Death Knights were rarely seen outside of war time.

When they asked, an elderly woman told the story of how that exact undead had once sacrificed itself while defending some children from a rabid wolf. The Bone Lord himself happened to be passing by at the time, and saw what happened, then personally reanimated the skeleton soldier into the Death Knight they saw now.

Ever since then, that same Death Knight was stationed at the village even as it grew into a town, and had been treated as their symbol and mascot. Every generation of the townspeople grew up having played on the Death Knight as a child, and even as their local supervisor changes, the Death Knight remained a constant fixture.

The story was fascinating enough, and when Cal did a cursory check on the Death Knight out of curiosity, she felt some really potent, old magic dwell in it, the same feeling she recognized from the Bone Lord himself, which lent credescence to the tale.

It was mostly an uneventful trip as they walked through the Ptolodeccan countryside. They mostly spent their days on the road, while nights were spent in their respective tents. Kino and Dan had each brought their own tents, while Cal's nieces and Ying Xiao shared her large, warded tent together with her.

Two weeks into their journey they reached La Fiachna, a large city in the center of Ptolodecca. Tohrmutgent was oddly in the southern side of the nation despite being the capital, unlike most nations that built their capital in the center. It was supposedly because most of the land that was now Ptolodecca used to belong to other nations, long gone into history by now.

La Fiachna was one city Cal has heard of before though, as in her chats with Aideen the unliving woman had let slip that she was originally born there, over a millenium ago.

The current city was a sprawling, lively place, and the oddest sight was how the temples of Vitalis and Tohrmut was literally housed in the same grand chapel. The worshippers of the two deities usually got along like cats and dogs, though here in Ptolodecca they seemed much more harmonious than usual.

When they paid a visit to the temple - Dan was pretty devout in his worship, and the rest joined to sightsee - they noticed how the decor seems to consist of obsidians and ivory that were intertwined, Life and Death depicted in harmony instead of separate. Even the statues of the deities were placed side by side at the grand altar, and the worshippers of both mingled freely, as did the clergy.

Since they happened to have made a stop at a big city, and it was getting late in the day, Cal booked an inn for a couple days, to allow her nieces some rest from the non stop travelling. Ying Xiao she was certain could handle more, and Kino did not seem exhausted in the least, but her nieces certainly appreciated the opportunity to rest.