Her tears wet real cheeks.

Her suffering, wracked a real heart.

-The Gospel According to the Holy First Handmaiden

The Crystal Warden eyed Vallerian with a critical gaze.

“Why would a lord be coming into the Magus district from Southshore?” He asked with far too much aggression for Vallerian’s taste. Far too much for a lowborn at any rate. Vallerian sighed, shook his head, then responded.

“I was out for a stroll with my pet here.” He answered, for the third time today, pointing to Charlotte perched on his shoulder. She preened regally as if to prove his point. “She’s grown a taste for the Southshore rats you see. They prove a greater challenge than the fat rats of The Forest.”

The Warden nodded, looking down at the small ledger in his hand, gears of his mind grinding away. It reminded Vallerian of watching his baby sister trying to work out letters. “I see.” The Warden eventually responded, tapping his ledger with a quill and looking down at Vallerian’s signet ring again. This man’s subordinate, the fat one, had run off to compare the signet to a list they would have squirreled away somewhere. One they obviously didn’t use often at this gate. “And you claim to be…”

“The Count of Tarnarquill.” Vallerian answered, again. As though the normal gate guards weren’t tedious enough, the Crystal Wardens found whole new ways to waste his time. Particularly those who given some sort of command. Studying the knots of office on the Fershya man’s finely oiled leather jerkin, it wasn’t a far guess that this was one such man.

Though to be honest, eyeing the man up and down, Vallerian couldn’t help feeling a tad uncomfortable. The man hid no weapons beneath his long cerulean cloak, a shade no doubt chosen to match the crystals fastened to the leather vambraces the Wardens wore. Arcanum crystals, the source of all magic. Not to mention a weapon from which this man could conjure faster than Vallerian could draw an arrow. Magi, Vallerian thought, he hated magi.

Not that he couldn’t agree with the purpose of the Crystal Wardens: an order dedicated to keeping watch on the untrustworthy magi that plagued this district. That was something Vallerian could get behind, he just wished they weren’t magi themselves. Seemed a tad bit counter intuitive to him, like putting a thief in charge of the treasury, that’s all.

As the second guard came shuffling back, Vallerian relaxed a bit. Whispering into the ear of the first, the man kept glancing back at Vallerian nervously. Good, they had been a nuisance, they should be nervous. Eventually the first nodded, then sent the second off again to wave in yet another carriage of arcanum crystals that had come rumbling up to the gate. Almost a half dozen had rolled right on through while Vallerian had been forced to wait. He could hardly believe it; merchants being let through before a lord. Unheard of, simply unheard of.

“It looks like your signet checks out my lord.” The Warden finally stated. “Now what did you say your reason for coming to the Magus district today was?” The smug man had pulled up his ledger again, quill freshly dipped from an inkwell fastened into the nearby wall.

“None of your business.” Vallerian bit back. He already didn’t want to be here; this wasn’t making it any better. “Just put down that another lord is looking for love potions.” Vallerian slipped a gold coin onto the ledger. He knew love potions didn’t exist, and if they did, he didn’t even want to begin thinking about the ethical ramifications of such a thing. But it was a common enough excuse for young lords and ladies wandering over to the mage district.

The Crystal Warden raised a brow. “Is this a bribe?”

“Only if you take it.” Vallerian responded, dropping a second coin. Charlotte made a cawing noise and shook her beak in disbelief at his brazenness. Vallerian met the man’s eyes, and, after a tense moment, the warden shut his ledger with a thud and a nod.

“Love potions. You’ll find your way straight down the White Road and over to Mistress Selene’s alchemist shop.” He finally relented, motioning Vallerian to proceed through the gate.

Rolling his eyes, Vallerian finally continued through the gates. Never again would he come in from the Southshore side, he vowed. Even if it took longer to get in from The Forest, he would go that way just to avoid the headache. There, at least, they knew their royal sigils by sight.

“Sloppy training.” Vallerian grumbled striding forward.

Crossing the threshold of the district, he braced for the telltale wave. When it hit, Vallerian’s stomach dropped as he visibly cringed. A distinctly uncomfortable feeling, it always reminded Vallerian of leaning just a little too far back in a chair as a youth. Along with the uncomfortable feeling though, he could feel a distinct change in the air. It had a thickness too it, like what he would feel elsewhere when a storm was coming. He hated it, hated being in the Magus District. He hated being surrounded by magi everywhere he looked, unsure of what any of them could do, or when. Charlotte let out a low cawing sound and covered her beak with a wing, she hated it as well. Smart bird.

Part of the problem was that the place made no sense to him. By all accounts, if you walked around the walls, it should only be large enough to fit a few hundred buildings within its walls. A small wedge of space stretching from the outer to the inner wall was all it was supposed to be. Looking around at the wave of structures that stretched out before him, he knew instinctively there was far more than just that.

It was all because of that, Vallerian thought eyeing the huge tower that loomed over the district. To call it colossal would be to call Celeste ‘somewhat earnest’. The twisting monstrosity stretched so high it nearly sat equal with the tallest towers of the royal palace, and that sat at the apex of the huge hill upon which the city was built. The entire construction was made to draw the eyes upward, huge flying buttresses that were massive towers unto their own stretched up, as if holding the structure aloft for all to see. Above those, thick lines wrapped up in twisting patterns, all pointing to the top. All pointing to the massive blue crystal that floated at the apex of that massive building. The largest chunk of Arcanum ever found, and the pride of the Academy.

That’s what the tower was after all, The Academy, the ever-beating heart of the Magi District. Vallerian almost wished he could cut it out. It had been constructed by some Archmagus a few hundred years ago, or so his tutors had told him. They had found the great crystal and he had casted a spell that made the district larger than it should be. Out of spite for the king at the time if he remembered. The Crystal Wardens had been that king’s counterstroke.

“Magi.” Vallerian grumbled. “Even hundreds of years ago you couldn’t trust them.”