Atlas awoke from the bed to a familiar voice saying softly
“ It’s time to go.”
Frieda stood in front of his bed arms crossed as he looked over. He stared at her and she said speedily
“ I sat a change of clothes on the bed next to you. I’ll be outside”
She walked to the door and opened it and the door closed with a thud that echoed throughout the room. Atlas stood up and examined the clothes. It was a grey linen cloak and grey linen pants. The shoes were tied sandals. Atlas put on the clothes that felt incredibly light as he put them on. When he was fully changed he set his other clothes on his bed and headed outside to meet Frieda.
Atlas opened the wide stone doors and the doors creaked open and locked open. Light came in and Atlas covered his eyes. He looked outside and saw countless people walking down cobbled streets. He followed Frieda who walked to the left of the hospital building. Frieda looked at Atlas and smiled and said
“ It's wonderful, isn't it? The central city of Horn. Home to 100,000 men.”
Atlas replied
“ It's nice. It's different from where I live.”
When they walked past the markets Atlas saw one cook placing a monstrous fish half the size of him on a spit. Atlas wondered who could have caught such a fish without being unscathed. She stopped after few seconds passed and asked him
“ Hungry? You haven't eaten anything since coming to this city.”
Atlas' stomach rumbled, and he realized he had just forgotten about eating food. He wouldn’t mind some type of meat or anything. So he nodded eagerly and walked up to a market stall with Frieda. The first thing that caught his eye was a variety of large pieces of meat hanging from strong rope. A man was busy cleaving large slices of meat from a obscenely large hind leg that he was cutting in the very back of shop on a white tarp. The man is a burly, bearded man and he got up and carried the pieces he cut to the stall. He looked at Frieda and said with a friendly grin.
“ Frieda Wight, it's good to see you again. What brings you here? Looking for meat to eat or a pickup.“
Atlas could teeth tighten and she said
“ . I usually do. Today is an expectation. I have a business to do. I've brought a friend to try your array of meat. .”
Frieda pointed to me and the man looked at me and said
“ I've never seen him around. He looks to not be from this city with that hair. What's the story about him?”
Frieda pulled a parchment and showed it to him and said
“ He is on his way to talk to the magistrates today. He hasn't eaten anything so I'm just getting him something to eat.”
The man hesitated and said
“ The magistrates… You don't say…Well, good for your friend that the festival is going on. I'll give him something for free as a gift in the joy of the festival.”
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The man looked at Atlas and said
“ I have some giant boar meat with me currently that's already chopped up and ready to be cooked. Currently that’s what I have because it took hours getting the thing here.”
He went to a flat stone slab slightly behind the market stall and sliced off a slab of meat of what Atlas could tell to be a big thigh. The man carried the meat to a metal table. He then said
“fyromite!”
Flames leaped out of his hands and cooked the front of the meat. He stopped burning the front of the meat and switched to burning the other side.
When he was done. He got a ceramic plate and placed the slab of meat. He sliced the meat and gave Atlas the meat.
Atlas was amazed because it looked like magic. The only explanation for him shooting fire out of his hands. He knew from that point on he was not somewhere found on the map.
Atlas took a piece of the meat and ate it. The meat tasted tender, and juicy, but oddly sour. Atlas loved the taste and finished the whole thing with what seemed like a blink of an eye. He has never had high-quality meat before but this would be his first. He said to the man
“ This was the best thing I ever had.”
The man smiled and said
“ Good to talk to another fan of my food.”
The man collected the plate and Atlas and Frieda left the shop. As they left Atlas asked Frieda
“ What was that flame that spurt out of his hands?”
Frieda's face brightened and
“ The great blessing. A power only given by those with magic. The power of fire.”
That’s not at all confusing. Magic? What kind of place did I end up in?
Atlas followed Frieda past the market to a massively tall building. The building looked to be a 50-foot-tall building and Atlas could not just think of buildings like the Parthenon when seeing this building.
Frieda stopped by its long white marble staircase and turned to face him. She said with joy
“ Welcome to the council building. A place of order and power. ”
Wooden glass doors were opened by Frieda to reveal a marble floor walkway. Frieda held the door open for Atlas to walk in. He immediately saw the ceiling, painted primarily in blue and gold. He looked more closely to see a painting of a ship over the sea. People clad in bronze were rowing through stormy choppy seas.
“Beautiful isn’t it? It was painted to symbolize our story to the dragon lands .”
Atlas looked at Frieda and didn’t say but thought
“The Who’s continent”
Atlas followed Frieda down a corridor in a dimly lit room. Frieda turned right into a wide area. The room was supported by 3 marble pillars. He saw men and women hurrying down the halls carrying pieces of parchment. One man lost the shack of papers and cluttered to the ground in front of Atlas. The man crouched and began picking up the parchment and said as he was picking them up
“ Curses my weak hands, I’m going to be late.”
Atlas saw the man was in distress and crouched where the nearest loose parchment was and started picking them up. Moments later, Atlas gave the man the papers he held. The man was surprised but responded with glee
“ Thank you young man for the help. May I ask your name?”
Atlas said with a smile
“ My name is Atlas.”
“ Atlas, a good name that I will remember. Thank you again, but I must be off. I’m needed nearby.”
As the man left, Atlas realized the man didn’t tell him his name. But, Atlas shrugged and reasoned that the man was in a hurry.
Frieda poked Atlas and said
“We’d better be off as well. We are needed for the meeting. “
Frieda walked to a double door place and opened one of them. she said to Atlas as she opened the door
“ Wait there.”
Atlas waited and didn’t know that it could be the biggest revelation of his life