Curiously, the group of halflings seemed to be almost happy that five of us were not interested in travelling with them. It might have been a simple issue of race, that they were uncomfortable with those of us not commonly seen in this part of the world, or it might have been a size issue, that they were uncomfortable with someone like Sigmir who could look them in the eyes, while they were mounted on their giant goats. Either way, they happily accepted that our group would split, with the two of them taking their quest and escorting them to Galam.

After lunch, we did just that, splitting the party. Malachite and Gilo turned around and headed back the way we had just come from, together with the mounted halflings. Watching from above, courtesy of Lenore, it looked a bit pitiful, two people jogging along, keeping pace with the giant goats thanks to their reasonably high stats while the rest was happily mounted.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter to me. We had always known that our time together would be brief and merely an alliance of convenience. The potential, long-term payoff for joining with the Prince and his guards was immense, especially if they managed to gain the Prince’s trust and ingratiate themselves into his following. If they played their cards well, reputation and chain-quests would be theirs, of that, I was convinced.

For the rest of us, travel continued as before, speeding along the Ancient Road with Olivia’s magic. Unless we actively, deliberately and very persistently looked for a fight, nothing near the road was willing to challenge us. At best, we might stumble across some beast that didn’t manage to run away fast enough, but unless we needed some food, we didn’t bother, there was just no need.

Instead, we continued to press on for a week of hard travel, crossing hills, forests and a lot of fields and meadows, passing by towns, villages and homesteads. Sometimes, if we came across a place at the right time, we took a bit of time to enter, replenish our rations and rest at an inn, but mostly, we continued to move.

Outside of Mundus, I deliberately kept in contact with Mal, using the Capsule space to discuss a few things and get updates on their progress. It turned out that it hadn’t taken the Halflings long to slip up, within three days, the status of the prince had come out and, soon after, the whole story.

To make a long, complicated story short, the Prince was the heir of a Halfling-Principality, but had been in Torop for studies and was now returning to his rightful place. There were some political shenanigans going on, with different factions and groups vying for power, trying to restrict the others, the Prince and gain whatever advantages they sought, making the situation as clear as tar, but Mal sounded quite interested.

Curiously, she seemed to somehow have gotten into contact with Maggy who, for some unknown reason, was quite informed on the situation in that Halfling Principality and able to give advice. I had my doubts whether the advice given would actually be good, as I considered Maggy to be a flake, if not an outright idiot, but with the distances involved, I wasn’t in any position to give advice, either.

Before we ever saw Torop, we saw something much more impressive. The distant horizon turned blue and a unique smell assaulted all of our nostrils. Compared to the deep blue, almost green, waves of the northern Sea Sigmir and I had seen before, the water of the Mare Tempest was a bright, almost radiant blue. Contrary to its name, the ocean looked perfectly peaceful, at least from a distance. Who knew what was hidden beneath those quiet waves.

Torop itself was built on the steep slopes around the Roduo river, using its mouth as a natural harbour. The hills around the river gave the city a certain verticality to it, the higher areas well-protected, be that against sea monsters or storms.

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Those circumstances also turned something else wonderfully transparent, namely the social hierarchy. In other words, the higher up you lived, the higher up you were, both in a literal and metaphorical sense. The top of the hills was occupied with magnificent castles, overseeing the harbour and defending the land while the houses near the docks were occupied by those who had to make a rough living, fishing in the sea and working the docks.

The one difference was the sizeable Naga-enclave, their curious architecture an obvious, almost alien presence in the city.

There was a wall around the city but it was puny, low enough that each of us would be able to scale it within moments and I wouldn’t have bet against Sigmir if she had claimed that she could simply jump over it. It almost wasn’t worth the effort but then, since leaving the Dorrian Mountains, we hadn’t been in a fight worth having, so maybe, there simply were no wild dangers that threatened the city and for sapient threats, a wall would be no obstacle, not even enough to slow a foe down. No, for that, powerful magic and strength of arms were needed.

And when it came to the powerful magic, my earlier impression about the puniness of the wall was overturned once we got closer. The magical emanations of the wall manifested as an overpowering scent to my senses and when I made the mistake of trying to look through Lenore’s sight, I almost ended up on the ground, the light so blinding.

The whole thing wasn’t a wall, it was a magical formation masquerading as a wall, a ward powerful enough to remind me of the Nexus in Neyto, of those brief, few seconds during which I had been able to behold some of its essence. I had no idea what the function of the ward was, it was far too complex for me to unravel and understand in any reasonable amount of time, but one thing was clear, we had to obey the rules and be very, very careful about them.

Looking at the ward, I made a radical decision, namely, I split from the party. Given the more problematic nature of some of my traits, especially the Mortal Hubris, I couldn’t even guess the reaction of the guards and the ward. If I was detected and there was an attempt to detain me, I might be able to flee or, in the worst-case scenario, would escape by dying. If I was with the group, the others would be implicated and in trouble with me, but without my abilities.

The plan was that I would enter after them, with some time between us, and Rai would keep a covert eye on the gate, just in case something happened to me. In that case, they would get transportation for us all, hopefully convincing a Naga captain to allow me to board out in the ocean, using Lenore’s wings to reach them. If nothing bad happened, I could simply join them again. The connection between Sigmir and myself was key for that plan, as it would hopefully allow me to easily keep an eye on them if things turned bad.

A little annoyed at the precautions I had to take for something as simple as travelling into town, I waited for a good half-hour after splitting from the others, making sure to let at least one party on foot pass me by to create a gap between us.

Afterwards, I started down the road, soon reaching the gate. From up close, the ward was even more impressive than it had been from the distance, with enough power flowing through the air to make my hair stand on end.

Almost as an afterthought, or maybe to control the flow of traffic, two guards were standing in front of the gate, keeping an eye on things. Given that I didn’t know about the effects of the ward, Lenore was sitting on my shoulder and I had wrapped my magical Cloak of Twilight around me as tightly as possible.

There was a moment of discomfort when one of the guards focused on me and I knew he had just used Observe. For a moment, I considered resisting but instead, I tried to focus my concealment around the problematic aspects of myself, letting them see my level and race, maybe some other things like the Mystic Title, but not things like the Ruthless-Trait or my Mortal Hubris.

A tense moment passed, as we waited for the guard's verdict until the queue in front of me moved on. Thankfully, I was simply waved on in, with nary a raised eyebrow at my level. Letting out a soft sigh, I stepped aside, looking around a little, taking in the sights of town from up close. The gate itself was halfway up the hill, the area nearby dominated by defensive installations but beyond them, I could see a well-maintained but not terribly magnificant-looking neighbourhood. The sort of place where I would expect craftspeople, lower merchants and such middle-class people to live.

Now, I just had to find the others and a ship to take us across the ocean.