The warm air radiated off of the vivid reddish and beige walls and floor with their intricate, sweeping curving patterns that were set in the tiles and brickwork. In the middle of the courtyard a large, ten meter tall fountain burbled softly, with five statues of near-white granite of different creatures pouring out water. The first that faced the wide open double gates of grey wood and banded iron was a winged being, one that Talon was told was reminiscent of a creature called a harpy, though far more elegant. According to the priest, it wasn’t a harpy, lacking the taloned legs, feathered body parts, and narrower features the species possessed. In fact, aside from the wings, it looked humanoid, albeit beautified, and was known as an ansel, one that poured water from an elegantly and meticulously decorated vase.
Which apparently didn’t exist. Talon didn’t quite understand why this depiction was around if it didn’t exist, but she wasn’t completely tone deaf to others' creativity.
The next statue to the right was a bull-headed creature, standing tall and on digitigrade, cloven hooves, and that poured water from a large drum. This was a minotaur, and while very uncommon, was a creature that existed, albeit generally only in the far north and in some areas of the Empire to the southwest. The third was a many headed serpent, three of said heads poured water from their gaping, eel-like jaws. Scylla were, from everything that Talon had been made aware, a strictly sea or lake dwelling creature. She was glad for that fact, because she highly doubted that such a creature would be anything but ill tempered.
The fourth was a cowled figure, one that for all intents and purposes looked humanoid, but Talon could see nothing beneath the stone hood. Blackness, complete and impenetrable, concealed its features, and even its hands were hidden within the arms of its robe. Water flowed from where its hands would have been. It was the representation of the humanoid creatures, according to the priest, and also a motion of their religious beliefs that one's particular species did not matter nearly as much as some seemed to believe.
Talon didn’t understand why that was important at first, but with their repeated lessons and a few… regrettable events, she knew better now. Not everyone was open minded and understanding, and some had misconceptions of superiority. Or inferiority, either would explain some of the bigotry that she’d seen. Fortunately, Ar’Klaadi was in short supply of such things, though they did still exist.
Finally, the fifth figure was one that Talon couldn’t help but stare at. With broad, flared wings, the figure of an immense bird made of immaculately carved stone reflected off of her eyes, the waterfall beneath its bulk ran off in rivulets down into the rest of the fountain. Even without having been told what it was, Talon had felt an inexorable draw to the figure, and instinctively knew she was looking at true power, and more than that, a possibility.
The Phoenix, an icon of rebirth and the elements, the Guardian Beast of the Kingdom of Arnost and perhaps the most powerful being in publicly available records. Of all the creatures that Talon and her siblings had learned of, it was always the Phoenix that Talon found herself daydreaming about the most.
“Talon?” A soft voice called out to her, and the once Red Hawk snapped to attention with chagrin.
“Apologies. My mind wanders,” Talon dipped her head slightly, her silvery edged feathers glinting in the light. Around her, Pecky, Yak, Owl, and Gabby all looked to her inquisitively. The siblings were no longer mere Red Hawks, having grown during their adventures into Elemental Hawks of varying types. Tier three was a recent upgrade, and one that they knew they might well be stuck at for the foreseeable future. Scaling up to even higher tiers as Elemental Hawks would be difficult, but far more likely than otherwise considering their other possible evolution had been Blade Hawks.
Honestly, Talon wouldn’t have been averse to that, but if it meant losing out on her ability to manipulate the winds on her feathers, she wouldn’t take it even if it had meant staying as a Red Hawk.
“That’s alright, I think that might be enough for today, in any case.” The kind voiced man replied in turn, the courtyard was not quite empty of others, with several acolytes maintaining a respectful distance as they moved about their business. Given how nice the days were in Ar’Klaadi, Talon was grateful for the open-air classes. Especially because she didn’t like being indoors for too long.
“Beryl! You said you’d teach metal!” Yak cawed annoyingly, but before Talon could step forward, Gabby reached over and gently slapped him upside the head.
“What did I say about cawing all the time, Yak? Inside voice.” Gabby gave Yak a level stare, to which he only sheepishly twittered.
“Yak is sorry. Can I learn about metal now?” Yak somehow looked up to Gabby with big, wide, pleading eyes in spite of being easily half again larger than the rest of the siblings. Gabby turned her gaze to the human in priestly garbs, a rich assortment of green and burnished orange robes that looked more like an academic’s attire than those of worship.
Beryl chuckled at the sight, and Talon knew that Yak had his sweet spot in his grip. Contrary to how Yak sounded, he was actually quite intelligent. And was altogether more durable and heavy than a flying bird should be, but Talon didn’t want to think about the accident when he’d crashed into her head-first mid-flight again.
“Yes, I believe we should have enough time before Dane comes to pick you all up. Let’s see…” He paused, closing his eyes as essence churned around him. The man was tier four, and while not as powerful as that terrifyingly strong person who Dane had met, he was still one of the most powerful people in Ar’Klaadi. Talon knew that he was accessing a peculiar essence pattern just by the feeling of the essence in the air, but also knew that if he didn’t want them to feel it, they wouldn’t. His control was superb, and he made his pattern readily apparent to his audience as he went. Concealing the use of a pattern in “polite company” was a major faux pas as they had come to learn. Hence, Talon knew that if she detected someone using a pattern while trying to keep it hidden, she’d have to be on high alert immediately.
The city was safe, but as she’d come to find out, she and her siblings were considered obscenely valuable to certain individuals, for some reasons she found disgraceful at best.
“Saratasha teaches us that metal is only another element, a base part of all reality. In fact, Iron is one of the most plentiful materials in the world and beyond, though the truly most abundant is Hydrogen… But that can be a topic for another time.” He strode forward, pulling at the air as he went. Essence rippled as he pulled something from nothing, a lump of iron suddenly appearing in his hand. Beryl nodded, his sharply trimmed beard and mustache wagging intentionally as to make a show of it.
He pulled out another lump, this one with much more earth within it. “Both of these are packed full of iron. Yak, will you try to levitate these two pieces?”
Yak nodded, before a ripple of essence left him and instantly locked onto the two pieces of iron. The pure iron floated immediately and cleanly, hovering several centimeters above Beryl’s hand without the slightest deviation. The other chunk, however, wobbled unsteadily, and Yak had to concentrate to have the metal stop.
“As you can surely see, this lump of crude iron is much harder to maneuver. You already know that unworked iron is harder to manipulate, and the reason is as simple as it is intuitive; there’s just not that much iron in this chunk as compared to other materials.” Beryl gestured and both objects vanished into the ripple of essence in front of him. “Now, look at this.”
A glass jar of black sand appeared in Beryl's hands, along with a rod of some sort. Talon frowned at the sight of it, but Yak was the first to caw in surprise.
And then uttered a quick apology before Gabby could slap him. Again.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“You feel that? This is trace iron that can be found in the earth, filtered and sifted, but very loose. But this—” he gestured to the rod, “—is called a magnet. It utilizes a special force called magnetism to affect a field around itself. In this case, we can do… this.”
Talon watched in wonder as the object – with no essence whatsoever – was placed against the side of the sealed glass jar and the inanimate dust suddenly flexed and cling to the side of the glass, like it wanted to swarm over the rod, but couldn’t. He moved it up and down, and the sand followed, turning almost rigid and spiky wherever it moved.
She glanced over to Yak, and saw his eyes sparkling with absolute rapt attention. She could practically feel the essence in his body roiling around, matching his excitement. Beryl continued demonstrating the movement, a small smile tugging at his lips, “The metal sand is attracted to the magnetic field put off by this magnet. Though, what is magnetism…? That is a question for next time, it seems.”
The gathered siblings looked up at that, before Gabby squawked, “Oh, Dane’s here!”
Talon’s own eyes shot up in surprise, as she had not noticed the man's presence. Leaning against one of the pillars of the courtyard, Dane had simply waited and watched with a wide smile on his face. Talon noted the way he held himself, and the way that she could barely detect his essence any longer, and couldn’t help but feel a little prideful of the man's progress.
“I didn’t want to interrupt,” pushing off of the pillar, Dane began to stride over, “Training took a little bit longer today, but we’re ready to go.”
“It is no matter,” Beryl waved off Dane’s explanation hurriedly, “After what you all did for us – and considering how eager they are to learn – it is no bother at all.”
“We learned about court politics today!” Pecky excitedly contributed, before immediately wilting, “It was boring and hard to understand.”
Dane barked a laugh, before clearing his throat, “Erhm. Yes, well, high society politics can be like that.” He gave Beryl an apologetic look at that.
The Professor-Deacon gave a slight shrug, “I’ll admit even the most ardent of students aren’t often keen on the topic, however,” He turned his eyes upon the siblings with a glint, “It seems I’ll have to redouble the lesson. Boring though it might be, it will be something you’ll want to know.”
“Yes, Professor,” The siblings replied in unenthusiastic unison, to which Dane could only give a helpless shake of his head.
Beryl made a tutting sound before saying, “Now, now, this is something that you’ll wish you knew if it ever comes up. And considering your parties growing esteem and position… It seems to be an inevitability.”
“He’s right,” Dane chipped in, “Take all of the lessons seriously.”
Talon and the others felt Dane’s thoughts through their connection, and nodded, albeit Talon and Owl were the only ones with any kind of resolve behind the gesture. Their time in Ar’Klaadi had served to give them a great deal of information and training they’d lacked.
“But, in any case,” Beryl gestured with his hands in a light, shooing motion, with an amused grin on his face, “Go on, I’ll bet you’re all more than ready to get out of here. Be sure to contemplate what we’ve spoken about today! There might even be a quiz later!”
The siblings groaned jokingly, but followed up with their own farewells, with Pecky’s being an extra, “Have an uber-fantastic-great day!”
Talon knew that some of those words came from their Eldest sibling, but given the manner in which she used them… she was pretty sure that wasn’t a normal farewell. But, at worst it confused people, and Pecky was an odd bird at the best of times. She was an endearing little sister to be sure, though.
‘Finally… I can stretch my wings.’ Talon covertly breathed in deeply in relief, flaring her wings outward and letting the essence on the wind carry her lightly. Dane was already walking out the doors, his shoulder guards were extra large to allow for two of them to perch there. Pecky and Gabby both landed upon them, already beginning to chatter in his ears about how their day went, and curiously poking him for the details of his own. Talon swopped low, manipulating the wind beneath herself, Yak, and Owl to keep them softly hovering. Yak had to flap occasionally, but he liked to get the exercise in.
None of them were small, nor what Talon could call lightweight. Dane was tier three, though, and considering his rigorous training, holding two of them at a time was no ordeal.
“I’m glad you guys had a good day. We’re going to go straight to the house and meet up with Eustace and Tanya. We have a mission given by the guild to go into the Low Ways and clear out some creatures.” Dane spoke.
Talon dipped lower, “Anything in specific?” She was curious as to what they were to hunt, privately hoping for a challenge.
Though, the answer disappointed her, “No, just a regular culling mission,” Dane said with a chuckle, noticing Talon’s disgruntlement, “Well, who knows? Maybe we’ll find something worth the fight down there.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Gabby spoke almost as if quoting something, before she relaxed her tone with amusement, “Though, well, I guess a little challenge wouldn’t be bad. It’s been pretty easy lately.”
As they proceeded through the rings of Ar’Klaadi, Talon noticed more and more people stopping to point them out. Talon would have liked to say that she’d grown used to the attention, but that would be a lie. Dane, too, didn’t like the extra attention, and their conversations moved to an internal dialogue. Still, after having resided in Ar’Klaadi for a while, they were relatively assured of their safety within the city. The City Lord himself had guaranteed their safety within these walls, and as far as Talon was aware, had only needed to make that fact known once for everyone to leave them be.
In fact, many gave the group a wide berth, which Talon couldn’t say she exactly disliked. She wasn’t eager for any crowds.
The city itself was a wondrous place, with runic lines of power flowing through stone and providing light and energy to the entirety of Ar’Klaadi. Every home, every workshop, store, and public structure was powered not by ambient energy, but by the beating heart of the fortress city. Contrary to her expectations, access to that power source was not restricted, and they themselves had gone to see the Heart on a few occasions. It was managed in tandem by the Church of Knowledge and the City Lord, meaning that the two largest organizations also kept it protected.
Though, ‘protected’ was a relative term. Talon couldn’t even exactly place what tier the Heart was, just that it was an incredibly powerful artifact from a time that no one seemed to be able to track. No one seemed to know what came first; Ar’Klaadi, or the Heart. It was the centerpiece of the city, and even in the Low Ways, one could feel the beating essence that streamed forth from it.
Which was why, when the glowing blue lines of the city dimmed even slightly, every single person on the street suddenly stopped whatever they were doing in shock, watching the lines. The constant, distant noise of traffic and city bustle abruptly became sluggish, quieting, like every member of the city was taking a wary breath at once.
And then the power lines lit back up to full luminosity, and all of the artifacts that ran off of them returned to normal.
The people expressed confusion, but then quickly went about their day.
Dane, on the other hand, was a knot of concern as he spoke with his mind to his companions, “That’s… not supposed to happen.”
“Maybe it was a surge?” Pecky tilted her head, looking around, “Looks fine, now.”
“No, I mean… that’s literally not supposed to be possible. The Heart isn’t…” Dane paused, before turning his gaze towards the center of the city with a sight, “Well… we can check on this later. Let's get back home first. Hopefully nothing else weird happens.”
The siblings agreed, though Talon couldn’t shake a feeling of apprehension that clung to her thoughts.
‘I’m sure it’s being taken care of…’ She thought to herself, ‘Why else would everyone be going about their business?’ Talon nodded, almost able to believe her own rationalizations. Yet, her gut told her the opposite.
This was only the beginning of something…