When the gates swung open, I caught my first glimpse of a fairy without armor.

Tall, stately figures, with faces like porcelain dolls. Their generally muscular physiques contrasted sharply with their dainty faces, which made them look incredibly creepy. Creepier still were the deep black wings stuck to their backs, which seemed to flutter a little whenever they were talking to someone. Their hair was mostly a lustrous shade of gold, although their eyes seemed to come in all sorts of colors. Their ears were strange too, coming out like little pearl sized nubs on the sides of their heads.

And to see these strange beings going about their day on the streets; hawkers, shop owners, families with toddlers, and other manner of ordinary people, was striking enough to distract me from noticing the strangeness of the city itself.

The roads were wide and made from stone, just like the road leading up to the gate from outside. However, the markers on the road outside were replaced by metal rods sticking a few feet above the head of the tallest fairies, a little glass lantern entombed within a metal enclosure at the top. It was still light out so the streetlights hadn’t been lit, but their Victorian appearance was awkward enough to catch my eye.

After that, I noticed the buildings. Everything had massive entrances, huge steps, and high ceilings. Even little shops selling fish and meat in unsanitary conditions, had the imposing scale that one would only find in government buildings back on my Earth. Speaking of which, the style of the buildings could’ve been pulled straight out of antiquity on my Earth, although there were key differences. Sure, there were massive pillars and arches, but there were also elaborate triangular prisms everywhere, and even after asking Bain Rusta and the scout fairies, I couldn’t figure out what that strange design accomplished. Apparently, it was purely aesthetic.

The scout fairies handed us over to their superiors, who had come rushing towards us after the gates had been swung open. Judging by the frozen expressions on all the fairies going about their daily lives, they had not been expecting the gates to open. In fact, there had been a thick gloom hanging about the city, and I felt that thick gloom begin to solidify into terror and resignation. Clearly, they had assumed the worst when the gates opened.

But with the scout and guard fairies groveling at my feet and saying incomprehensible things in a submissive manner, the gloomy air quickly turned to one of confusion and awkwardness. The dignity of the defenders of the city would’ve been in tatters if the very first word to come out of the mouth of the angry superior officers hadn’t been: “elf!” That declaration was followed by even more embarrassing reactions, this time by all of the fairies on the street.

I sighed, glared at Bain Rusta, and began walking up the road. Kelser and the others followed behind me, with Kelser walking up to me and asking if he should ask one of the wide-eyed fairies which way to go. I told him we didn’t need to ask for directions, and pointed to the hill jutting out of the mass of buildings near the center of the city. On top of the hill, there was a building with more pillars than any other, as well as a statue nestled on the very top.

I didn’t want to spend too much time on the open streets with all the ogling fairies, so I used magic to race through the streets, avoiding confused fairies, and leaving everybody but Kelser, who had rushed ahead with me, and Bain Rusta, who I had grabbed with magic hands. Bain Rusta yelled but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Perhaps he didn’t like being held up in the air as I barreled through crowds of tall fairies and slipped between pillars while ducking arches.

I dropped the old demon to the floor, unceremoniously, as I reached the top of the hill. He was grumbling and complaining about his poor old heart, but I figured that meant he was fine. Kelser was a little out of breath, and he turned around to survey the bewildered crowds down below. A bunch of fairies had already started trying to make their way to this central hill and building, and I was sure the rest of the crowd would find out about me soon, as well. I turned quickly to the building, noticing that despite the massive pillars and gargantuan proportions of the frontal facade, the actual entrance was a simple, reasonably sized wooden door. The door had elaborate inscriptions on it and was by no means lacking in design, but it seemed oddly placed behind pillars several times my size. Some of the taller fairies might even have to duck a little to use this wooden door, I thought to myself as I pushed open the door, nonchalantly.

“Who dares!” came a voice from within.

The door opened all the way. “Ah, sorry, am I interrupting something?”

“You! You are not a spirit, no, you are not even a fairy!” said someone.

“How did you get in here?” said another.

“Has the city already fallen? How did we not notice?”

“Leave this place!”

“Guards, come quickly!”

“No, we sent the guards away.”

“What for?”

“I don’t remember, the fairies wanted to scout for the enemies or something.”

“No, we wanted them to scout for us, but were afraid the other guards were compromised.”

“No, no, we thought our guards were compromised, so we sent them to scout towards the enemy.”

The bickering continued, and I stood there forgotten. I blinked my eyes. Kelser cleared his throat. The bickering beings ignored him.

“Okay, I think that’s enough,” I said as I clapped my hands together. Several magic hands spread out and clasped over about a dozen obnoxious mouths, muffling the indignant cries of the most powerful beings in the Lux Republic.

I stared at one of those beings, specifically the one closest to where I was standing. Based on what Bain Rusta had said, she was one of the ‘spirits’ that ruled over the Lux Republic as a member of the Senate. She had a small body, which floated a few feet above the ground. Her facial features were similar to those of the fairies outside, except for the long, dangling ears that extended out like antennae on either side of her head. She was bald, like the rest of them, and her head gave off a dull sheen even in the dim light. That said, the light in this room was so dim, I could barely make out anything. There were no windows to let in light into this room, so I used a little light magic to help the light from the open door flood into and fill the room.

Two things happened after the room was lit up.

First, the spirits stopped struggling as they caught a good look of my face. Their eyes spread wide, their jaws slackened, and some of them even began to blink rapidly or quiver quietly. The spirit closest to me even looked like she was about to cry.

And yet, unlike all of the other times somebody in this world had reacted to my appearance this way, I didn’t get too annoyed at the spirits’ reaction. Because the second thing that happened after the room was lit up, was that I could finally see the back wall of the room of the Senate.

It was decorated by a wonderful mosaic, full of bright colors, intricate shapes, all clearly the work of master artisans, and all clearly aligned to make a familiar face.

A heroic figure, crouching over a wooden spear stuck into the ground. A massive scar on his chest. The end of one of his long, elfin ears missing as if it had been chewed out by a monster. And an expression full of solemn sorrow and regret. It was a mosaic of the greatest hunter of the elfin Jora tribe, the wielder of the Dragon’s Tooth, Noel’s uncle: Sharun Jora.