-- Jovan –

It was hot in the New Capital. Jovan never called it the New Capital aloud, it was a Scoop thing and he’d never get his job done if people looked down on him as a backwater hick, but that was its name in his head.

The New Capital wouldn’t have been so hot if not for the industrial district. Waste mana leaked from the factories, thickening the clouds into oppressive, steaming things that trapped heat inside the coastal city.

Jovan wiped his brow, wishing his stiff-collared uniform was more breathable. He wished that every day since he’d put it on, but it never got any easier. The pen in his hand was slick with sweat.

He fiddled with the window, hoping for a breeze, but eventually gave up and turned back to his work.

“Hey, scribe.” Scorpio, the highest leveled magician in their department, had never bothered to learn Jovan’s name. “Send a report to the captain. Tell him I sensed a magical stirring in the Scoop.”

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Jovan felt a chill down his spine, forgetting the oppressive heat. “A stirring? As in a dungeon?”

“Probably?” Scorpio gave him a derisive look, “Just send the report, I want permission to investigate. It could be important, so mark it urgent.”

“The captain is extremely busy right now.” Jovan said numbly. A dungeon? In the Scoop? That could change everything—

Scorpio rapped his fist on Jovan’s desk. “I just said it’s important. What’s in your head, air?”

“Right.” If the palace caught wind of a dungeon in the Scoop, they’d wrap their dirty little fingers all over it. And they wouldn’t be kind to the people who lived nearby. “I’ll send it right away.”

Scorpio rolled his eyes, “Scoop-head.” He mumbled as he walked away.

The heat slammed back down onto Jovan. He clenched his fist, sweating. When he’d gotten a job as a scribe for the royal corps, he’d been overjoyed. Now, though…

Now he knew just how callous their rulers could be. And he would be damned before he let them anywhere near his home.

Jovan ‘forgot’ to write the report.

If they wanted a dumb, orphaned ‘Scoop-head,’ that’s exactly what they’d get.