Landor guided us through parts of Kolyug we had not entered before, towards the center. I had seen them from the sky before, but only in a very superficial way, due to the height Lenore had flown at. What I had seen had made it obvious that the houses were larger and more elaborate, which combined with what I had heard had led me to believe that it was where the elite of Kolyug was living.

On the ground, my view was confirmed, the magic around us felt stronger and the houses, while still built from plain grey stone, had a more sophisticated feel to them, even if I couldn’t fully grasp the aesthetics.

As we walked, I got a little curious. “Say, Landor, why was the guard able to simply decide on their punishment on the spot? How does Justice work here in Kolyug?” I asked, curious if there was some sort of legal system or if it was purely the whim of individuals.

He laughed for a moment, before answering. “It depends; for residents there is the magistrate who would hear cases, but not for outsiders. The locals have a dim view when it comes to outsiders coming into their town and making trouble, so the punishments for them are harsh, swift and often final.” Landor’s voice halted for a moment, before continuing.

“You have seen the city’s magic in action, it makes Kolyug a very peaceful and orderly city, just how the locals like things. In my youth, I felt stifled by it, that’s probably why I became an adventurer but I doubt you are interested in ancient history.

“Anyway, the Sergeant - that was the rank of the guard we talked to - has the authority to judge simple cases. In your case, it was simple: you had two well known citizens of good repute on your side, and someone,” he looked at Sigmir for a moment, “dropped the fact that you were scheduled to meet the Captain of the Guard. In addition to that, the enchantments hadn’t triggered on you, making it clear that you never took action, or they would have secured you as well.

“With all those, the Sergeant was happy to side with you, maybe hoping that we would mention the incident and his role in it in a positive light, when talking to the Captain. We should actually do that, his actions were quite efficient and professional, or we would be even later than we already are.” Landor finished his explanation with a rumbling sound, shepherding us towards the castle in the middle of the city.

Hearing it, I was shaking my head, with a smirk on my face. Even in a fantasy world, what seemed to count was who you knew.

When we got to the castle itself, I was almost afraid to go in. Or maybe ‘afraid’ is the wrong word; ‘repulsed’ might work better. Because that was what I felt, pushed back by the concentration of Earth Type Astral Power. It was less concentrated, far less concentrated, than the Nexus in Neyto but at the same time, it wasn’t contained, flooding the structure before me. Lenore and I glimpsed through her vision, taking it in, and I finally understood what Kolyug actually was. I had thought it had been a gigantic engineering project, used to create a great, orderly city, using magic but I had been wrong, so wrong. I had to suppress laughter that tried to bubble up when I realised that what I had thought was simply a city was so much more.

Unless what I was feeling and seeing was wrong, then the whole city was basically an advanced magical item, made to channel vast amounts of Astral Power from the lines of power below, lines connecting the various nexus all over the world, into a useable form, for the Kol to use at his leisure. I had to bow to their genius, the Grandmother had told me that she was controlling the Nexus in Neyto, using Kallista’s grove and the Barrow Den to filter the powers within, but even then, they were harmful to weaker beings, over prolonged exposure. The original Kol had apparently solved that problem. While I thought that the absolute power provided was orders of magnitude weaker than what a Nexus gave, it was still awe-inspiring.

I took a deep breath to gather myself and it seemed my strange reaction had drawn the attention of the guards Landor had been speaking with. Giving a light bow, I started to explain. “Please excuse my strange behaviour, I am a little sensitive to the ebb and flow of Astral Power. That’s why I reacted the way I did.” I told them, after pulling my hood back. It might cause problems due to the Outsider-trait but if I tried to stay concealed, it would likely cause even more problems.

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The two guards were frowning but Landor told them that he would vouch for me, which caused me to raise my eyes in surprise.

“My wife is a good judge of character, far better than I am. And she told me that you are decent people.” he explained and both guards relaxed, stepping aside to let us in. I was a little tense, the surrounding Astral Power pressing down on me and my discomfort caused Sigmir to grab my hand, squeezing it to comfort me. The gesture helped me quite a bit, even if there were butterflies in my stomach. I was not comfortable in official, social situations and never had been.

We were guided over a small exercise yard, that would, if the keep itself ever got assaulted, work as a further line of defense and into the keep building itself, Landor leading the way, clearly knowing where to go.

After a short time of walking through nondescript corridors, built out of, you guessed it, grey rock, he opened the door to an office, greeting another troll, before shepherding us into an inner office.

The troll we saw there was quite the impressive specimen, even bigger than Landor and just as muscular. Part of me thought that Trolls really needed to put some extra points in agility but who was I to tell anyone how to train.

“Greetings, Landor. Now, tell me why we needed to urgently meet and who those small people are.” the mountain of a troll, maybe it was a mountain troll, asked. His voice finally had the deep, rumbling and resonating quality I had been expecting from trolls all this time, sounding like an avalanche rolling downhill.

“Greetings, Captain Nurlad. These Adventurers have been doing a couple of jobs for the Guild and on one of them, they found something I wanted to bring to your attention. Adra, if you would?” Landor gestured for us to step forward.

Adra bowed in greeting and started talking. At first, she explained our task and method to solve it, before getting to the meat of the matter. Bear-meat, in this case. When she described the Infernal Bear we had fought, the Captain’s eyebrows went searching for his hair, a fruitless task if there ever was one. Either, he was shaving or simply not growing hair on his head.

When Adra explained how we had realised that the bear likely had died due to its condition and started to investigate, finding the strange wounds, she gestured for me to explain what I had found.

Swallowing my nervousness, I bowed and explained what I had found, glossing over the exact magical abilities I had, not wanting to risk getting penalised for being a Blood Mage. Hearing about the healed scars and the magical sigils within the bear, his frown deepened, until he heard about the Eternal Ember. At that point, he muttered a soft curse, in what I assumed to be troll, that I understood thanks to Lenore’s ability. I wondered just how a goat would accomplish the task he alluded to, but maybe I was just uneducated about interesting mating practises and local anatomy.

My part of the explanation done, I stepped back and Adra showed him the Eternal Ember, causing another curse. It seemed I had to learn a couple of things about mountain goats, they seemed to be capable of the most curious things, who knew?

“I see, it is good that you brought this to my attention. Will you please gather suitable adventurers?” the Captain asked, looking at Landor.

“As for you, don’t tell anyone about your discovery. I would ask you to join the investigation, but I doubt you have the power. But, you brought this to us, so I will offer you a spot, if you believe to have the strength.” he continued, now looking at Adra.

Adra gave a bow, explaining that we were lacking in strength for such a task but that we would keep the events secret. Additionally,  she asked Landor to relay the events that had happened earlier, to commend to Sergeant, as promised. 

There was a blue window, giving some EXP and the message that we had declined to continue a chain-quest. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the difficulty. It was labeled as impossible and remembering the Devourer, I knew it would be brutal, unless there was some sort of excellent ability-matchup on our side. But, against some sort of Fire-Mage/Necromancer/whatever-else they were, I doubted such luck.

The Captain nodded gravely and handed a couple gold-coins to Adra, for the Eternal Ember. There was also a window telling me that our reputation with Kolyug had improved even more, but I was not sure what good it would do.

Next, he stood and got the troll in his front-office, to escort us out, while he started planning with Landor.