Walking in front of the group, Karla Sapuk, senior harbor official, made sure no one could see her grin. After all, she had just met the son of a Marquess!

Sure, it was the Marquess of an Empire at the other end of the world, and it was his youngest child, but someone like her did not normally deal with upper nobility.

She had been sent with Lord Dan Kalou in mind. Had they known a Marquess' son would be on board, her superior, a baronet, would have been sent instead.

After all, the Palevine Empire could be considered fairly egalitarian compared to the majority of other territories out there. Were she, a commoner, sent to welcome the son of a Pardean Marquess, for example, the Pardeans would have considered it a grave slight.

She was taking the shorter route, leading them past several warehouses, and only remembered noble sensibilities when she heard gagging noises behind her.

Lord Dan Kalou and Dame om Apox looked fine, but Lord Dean Pelou seemed to be on the cusp of retching.

“My apologies, my Lord, I should have taken a different route.”

Ferrudion was debating whether he should shut down his sense of smell. On one hand this was a novel combination of smells he had never experienced before. On the other hand, it inadvertently made his body react disfavorably.

‘I can detect the same smell as from the part of the ship full of animals. But there is something else as well…’

Deciding to rough it, Ferrudion scrunched up his nose.

“Quickly lead the way.”

The older woman bowed slightly before continuing on.

It took them another ten minutes of brisk walking before they arrived at a marble building a good distance away from the warehouses.

Here, the smell was still present but much more subdued, and Ferrudion could sense some interesting magics inside and on the building.

A few of the warehouses held smaller managy constructs related to temperature, but this place was on another level. For one, the whole thing was covered in an unnecessarily elaborate construct to prevent entry to anything with managy below a certain threshold.

The threshold, however, was set so low that Ferrudion was certain any of the mortals he had met could pass through if they knew how to cover themselves in a thin layer of their internal managy.

“Please wait here for a moment,” Karla Sapuk said and held onto a stone dangling from her sash before stepping through the managy construct. She rushed up the stairs and disappeared through the entryway.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The entryway was much larger than the ones on the ship but seemed to operate under the same principals.

There were two handles on each of the two slabs of wood that one could push or pull to move the wood inward or outward. The ones on the ship had all been made of a singular slab and the wood had been different.

‘Why do we need to wait?’

“Is there a reason not to follow her?” he asked his mortal companions.

“There is a barrier here,” Kalou Dan said in a hushed tone of voice.

Covering his hand in a thicker than required layer of his internal managy, Ferrudion stepped up to the barrier and waved it in front of him. It passed right through.

“We can pass through.”

At that moment, a burly man stepped through the marble building's entryway and gasped audibly.

“Honorable…” he panted as he slowly hobbled down the stairs, “Lord…”

When he had made it to the bottom, the official that had guided them here stepped through the entryway behind him, an exasperated expression on her face.

“Dean… Kalou…”

The man stumbled up to the group before bowing deeply.

“On behalf… of the Palevine… hah… Empire, welcome!” the stubby man panted.

Ferrudion looked to his right, at Lemme on Apox, unsure what to say.

“My charge accepts your welcome, would you mind if we headed inside?”

“Of course not, of course…” the man seemed to gather himself before looking around, shocked.

“Karla, where is their carriage?” he said, snapping his head around to look at the woman leisurely walking down the marble steps.

Unsure what a carriage could be, Ferrudion left the conversation to his mortals. Kalou Dan helpfully came forward:

“We walked here.”

The man gasped again.

“You made a Marquess' son walk?!” he shouted at the woman before gasping yet another time and turning back.

“My apologies, my Lord.”

Ferrudion rolled his eyes.

‘There is nothing wrong with my legs. Why should I not walk?’

Flying using internal managy was way too exhausting. While he would have considered it out there on the water, the managy here on land was so thin, it would take him ages to recharge.

‘And there is no water, so we could not have taken the ship here, duh.’

Ferrudion considered that flooding the area would likely be more managy efficient than flying here.

“Can we go inside now?” he asked, annoyed.

“Of course, my Lord, please take these,” he handed Ferrudion, Kalou Dan, and Lemme om Apox one stone each, “And follow me.”

Ferrudion felt the stone's magic and retracted his own layer so that the stone's inferior managy could cover him. He frowned.

Not only was the stone's managy barely more compressed than the ambient managy, but the construct was as unnecessarily elaborate as the one maintaining the so-called ‘barrier’.

He followed the man inside, nonetheless. The woman had already helpfully headed back up the stairs and was now holding the left half of the entryway open for them.

Inside, lay a small hall with a marble staircase heading to the upper level as well as two wooden entryways to the right and one to the left. The floor was covered in a pattern of different blues, and Ferrudion extended his senses to inspect the material the various squares were made of. It was an interesting kind of carbide material he had never seen before.

Cautioning himself not to stomp, for the material seemed quite brittle, Ferrudion followed the man through the first entryway on the right.

Kalou Dan and Lemme om Apox followed him before the woman, Karla Sapuk stepped inside as well, and closed the door behind them.

Beckoning them to take a seat in one of the plushy chairs before his desk, the man finally smiled,

“I forgot to introduce myself. I am Sir William Burk.”