While Sigmir and I were settling in, Lenore pushed out of her Hallow, intent on getting some time in the air. After over a week of being stuck within her Hallow or dealing with the enclosed space, she needed some wind beneath her wings.

“You can relax,” Sigmir told me, realising that a part of me wanted to be with Lenore, at least in spirit. To see this strange new civilisation from the air and observe their culture. Giving her a grateful smile, I relaxed against the wall next to the window, letting myself zone out as my mind synchronized with Lenore. By now, our bond was deep enough to allow me to share her senses from hundreds of metres away, maybe even more than a kilometre, and even cast spells through her, if needed.

In this case, I had no interest in actually doing anything but observing but knowing that I could help my partner if needed was quite the comforting thought.

From above, the separation between economic, and likely social, classes was incredibly apparent. Around the docks, the buildings were mostly small and somewhat ramshackle and the further away from the sea you got, the better the buildings, until there was something curious. My first instinct was to wonder whether the distance between Lenore and me was getting too large and if some sort of limitation distorting the information I was receiving, but when she turned her head and focused on other parts and my sight returned to normal, I realised that it wasn’t the case.

“They are warded?” I asked, trying to make out the magic behind the distortion we were seeing.

“Likely, yes,” Lenore agreed, keeping her distance from the magically protected buildings, simply flying parallel to them. Given that there were hundreds of crows, dozens of ravens and countless seagulls in the air around town, neither of us was worried that another raven was drawing attention unless she was close enough for people to make out details or observe. No matter how good your senses, unless there was reason to focus on something you would simply ignore it.

For a good half hour, Lenore was flying above the warded areas, studying the magic concealing the individual buildings, slowly getting a better idea of what was going on. Compared to the ward around Torop, the warding was on a much smaller size but when it came to power, the individual wards were quite good. Without moving into the area, it would be difficult to make out details but that, in turn, would cause us to be exposed. From a distance, the concealment was good enough to prevent Lenore from making out details. If I was there, I might have been able to circumvent the concealment but Lenore simply lacked the affinity.

“Love, it’s time for dinner,” Sigmir’s voice intruded into my quiet observation, causing me to retreat from her mind and focus on my own body, while Lenore turned to fly across the walls and into the countryside.

“Thanks, dear,” I blinked my eyes open, taking her hand and pulling myself up. Instead of simply helping me stand, she pulled me further, taking me into her arms.

“You know, if we are careful, nobody will hear us up here…” she quietly whispered in my ears, her voice thick with desire. When I was about to respond, she gently bit the sensitive tips of my ears, causing a shiver to run down my spine and an involuntary moan escaped my throat. Before I could retaliate, she stepped away, leaving me just a little frustrated as I watched her walk away. As the saying went, I hated for her to leave, but I loved to see her go.

During dinner, I remained quiet, occasionally chatting with Sigmir or Lenore, once she got back into range, but mostly, I was listening to the various conversations going on around us. What I could hear confirmed my earlier suspicion, that there was a strict social order, based on wealth. But given that wealth was very much a hereditary good, the wealth was concentrated in the nobility, with only a few merchants able to accumulate money, which, in turn, allowed them to rise into the ranks of lower nobles.

Similarly, it seemed that there were certain obligations in keeping a noble title, but from the one story I could overhear, I was unable to ascertain the specifics.

Overall, the Empire sounded like a rather unpleasant place for me, strictly bound in their customs and their civilisation, with very little room for those who wanted to move according to their own cognisance. It was, in so many ways, just like the real world, where you had to move according to the dictates of society or face the consequences. Exactly what I wanted to escape from when entertaining myself in Mundus.

After dinner, Sigmir and I retreated to our room and luckily, Lenore was back and willing to help us out a little. With her help and the remote location, Sigmir and I were able to… let go.

Come morning, both of us were wonderfully relaxed and a little sore, the room filled with exotic scents but undamaged - Mostly.

There was a bit of smirking when we checked out, especially after we had one of the employees check that the attic was still intact, which turned bright red, but we got our money back. As we were walking towards the gates, we got further away from the water and the buildings around us got more prosperous. I had seen that trend from above, but on the ground, it was even more obvious.

Along the road, we could see the wealthy quarter, where Lenore and I had seen the wards from above. There were active guards keeping watch at the gate there and I noticed further magical wardings around the area. A part of me wanted to stay nearby and take a jab at those protections but decided against it in favour of keeping moving. Not enough incentive, with far too large a possible downside.

Not that the guards could really have made trouble for us, there was simply a vast difference in power involved. The nobles might see themselves as lords of their fate, but looking at the magical formations at a glance, there was no way they could actually stop Lenore and me. Not if we simply wanted to damage them, especially after some recent considerations on Blood Magic. The Nobles would be wise to extend a certain courtesy to powerful beings, or those beings might decide a little social shuffling was in order. I certainly would do some shuffling, if I were to be forced to go to extremes.

When we got to the gates, there was some more unpleasantness. Where before, few guards had given those leaving their settlements more than a cursory glance, the guards in Nobost inspected each and everyone who left. That resulted in a long queue, the wait slowly grating on my nerves.

“Make way!” a shout came from behind and when I glanced over my shoulder, a group of five humans, equipped in a mixture of metal and leather armour strode past the queue, looking as if they considered it their due right. The only uniform piece of equipment was a cloak, embroidered with an insignia I hadn’t seen before, a sword surrounded by a wreath of laurels. Unable to contain my curiosity, I used Observe, doing my best to keep the activated concealed and hidden with Darkness-Magic.

The one I had targeted, a solid-looking bruiser wearing heavy armour, moving in the second position of their party, twitched a little, his face twisting into a frown but other than looking around for a few moments, he didn’t react.

The result of my Observe was truly disappointing. While I couldn’t measure the whole party by a single member, seeing a level fifty-five weakling, who hadn’t even crossed the first divide by the feel of it, swagger around as if he was the greatest was just… disappointing.

Rolling my eyes, I watched their party move past, keeping my opinion on their strength and arrogance to myself, though I made a mental note of the insignia on their cloaks. A white sword on blue ground, surrounded by a wreath of laurels, it made for some quite fetching imagery. Likely something along the lines of victory in battle but I had really no idea. What I could see was that their cloaks all had a similar, weirdly sterile, magic on them.

“I’ve seen that one before,” Lenore warned me, and I raised a mental eyebrow. In response to my query, she shared images of her flight last night, showing that very banner flying in the wind above a large mansion.

“I guess we know whom that group belongs to,” I muttered, shaking my head as I watched those people easily bypass the queue. Arrogance, but no true power to back it up, only the fetid stench of rotten social dynamics.