“Wake up.”

Nina rubbed her eyes as she stretched her arms over her head, a yawn escaping her lips as she looked at Jade with a dazed expression. She didn’t know how long she had been out for, but when she brushed the curtain away from the window she could see that they were finally approaching the tall stone wall that was surrounded by the inner moat. It seemed they had reached the city.

While Nina had woken up, Aline’s head still rested on Jade’s shoulder, her closed eyes and soft rhythmic breathing suggesting that she was still asleep. It had been a surprisingly comfortable ride, now that she thought about it. She had expected the carriage to bump around as they rode over the stone road below, but she hadn’t felt any disturbance or vibrations at all. The wheels hadn’t looked particularly fancy when she had examined the carriage before, so it was probably that the roads were simply of exceptional quality.

“I thought you would want to have a look,” Jade said as she looked out the window. “It will still take us a while to reach the estate though, so if you want to sleep again there’s still time.”

“I'll look. Thanks,” Nina smiled. She felt groggy and the comfortable seat wasn’t helping her ambitions to stay awake, but at the same time she was excited to see the city. It had seemed so impressive from the sky, almost like what she would read about in a fairy-tale at home. Naturally, she wanted to take the chance to learn what she could.

Taking the chance to learn what she could would require pulling the curtain aside, but her gaze stopped on Aline. She looked peaceful with a smile at the corner of her lips, and Nina didn’t want to disturb her. Jade seemed to have other thoughts, however, as she drew her own half of the curtain aside to send sunlight streaming into the interior.

“She sleeps like a log, don’t worry,” Jade said as she tapped the tip of Aline’s nose, a smile appearing on her face when Aline’s nose wrinkled in response.

Nina gingerly opened her side of the curtain, her gaze drifting over to the archway in front of them. Clearly the people at the gate had been informed of their arrival as the drawbridge had already been lowered, the carriages rolling across the chasm and into the city. The Royal Guard presence here was much higher than the first gate, and Nina counted around fifteen of them loitering around the gatehouse. Just as she curiously stared at the group of guards, they also stared back though the glass with the same expression.

“They’re wondering who we are, for sure,” Jade chuckled as she waved at them. “Outsiders invited by the Inin Estate will be juicy gossip.”

“Just how many people pass through here?” Nina asked in return. It was something that had always been at the back of her mind - was travelling the plates just uncommon, or was it rare? It wasn’t like it seemed to be an incredibly difficult process, and she wasn’t shallow enough to just assume that The Cloud Orchestra was somehow special. Other people would be doing it, so why hadn’t she seen any other travelers yet?

Besides Ormain, that was.

“They would get a group every couple of days, probably,” Jade said as she gazed at the people who were walking on the street. “Solo travelers are pretty rare, but the groups aren’t that big either. People start to get intimidated when you fly around with a small army.”

Nina sighed. She had hoped that there had been more people moving between the plates because what they were doing right now wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. Reina had said that they would lose Ormain and his group while they were on the plate, but according to Jade, their presence was ‘juicy gossip.’ If the suits were at all competent, they would be able to follow the lead which was essentially a giant red arrow pointing to the Inin Estate. As the curtains to their carriage were pulled back, anyone on the street could see them through the tinted glass, although it wasn’t easy. Jade and Aline’s matching dresses, however, were quite hard to miss.

“Oh, that doesn’t matter,” Jade replied after Nina voiced her concerns about being found. “They’ll know where we are, but much like in the badlands, they can’t do anything about it.” She smiled as she drew a small circle in the air in front of her. “We’re heading to the centre ring, the Royal District,” she said before drawing a bigger circle around it. “Outside of the Royal District is the outer ring where we are now, which is split in half,” she continued as she cut an imaginary line down the middle. “Half of the outer ring is controlled by the Farmer’s League, and the other half is controlled by the Merchant Guild. They’re relatively friendly towards each other, and both factions controls their respective half farmland that surrounds the city. By the way, we’ve entered through the Merchant Guild’s district.”

“How does this relate to Ormain finding us or not,” Nina frowned.

“The Royal District is exclusive, you can’t enter without an invite or being part of a noble family,” Jade explained as she waved a finger. “As you can imagine, SuTSU and the Royal Family don’t get on very well after SuTSU decided to make their front doorstep a prison. The entire plate is holed up like this for a reason,” she said as she pointed to the wall behind them. “They don’t have the resources to build a fortress like the Skywall, so walling themselves in is all they can do.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Surely the prisoners couldn’t do that much damage.”

“Probably not,” Jade agreed. “But SuTSU can. They have both the army and the technology to wipe this plate clean. As you’ve already seen, this plate is a beautiful place which still has a lot of untapped resources. Nobody would be surprised if SuTSU turn their eye to it one day.”

Nina sank into thought as she processed what Jade had said. She had always just assumed that the government ruling the plates had done so for however long their history went back and that it was just naturally accepted. Why did SuTSU control three plates while nobody else controlled more than one? Reina had told her earlier that that the Luesa Badlands were once a prosperous place, so was the plate’s current state a result of a prior invasion?

No wonder the people here were so cold towards outsiders.

Her mood now sombre, she looked at their surroundings with renewed interest. The carriages were traveling down a wide stone street, generous footpaths on each side hosting a variety of stalls which sold fresh produce. Most of the buildings were two or three stories high, wooden beams and glass were surrounded by the thick grey stone that made up the shops and houses. Residents sat at tables outside a tavern with a variety of beer mugs as the afternoon sun shone down upon them, their laughter echoing down the street as a pair of Royal Guards watched on with longing expressions. Even the clothing that the people wore seemed outdated, a general mix of tunics and simple cloth in a variety of drab colours. Nina had asked Jade if the helmets that the Royal Guard wore were made of gold, but she had laughed it off. They would be too heavy and too expensive, apparently.

It really did seem quite like a medieval town, but the streetlamps and occasional electronic sign reminded her that underneath the façade there was more than what met the eye. Like the Luesa Badlands, she hadn’t spent much time reading about Zaffre’s Moat, which again she regretted. While Reina and Jade had both shed some light on the plate for her, she knew that she understood only a little piece of the bigger picture. Her first impression was that it seemed to be a peaceful place, for which she was glad. Besides the Royal Guard, she couldn’t see anybody openly carrying any weapons, and the general mood of the population seemed to be much more festive than in the badlands.

“Oh, that time already?” Jade mumbled as the carriage stopped. Nina followed her gaze to see Trim step out from the lead carriage with Saela appearing behind her. Trim had changed into a long cream skirt that almost touched the ground and a simple yellow shirt that matched her hair, while Saela was unsurprisingly dressed in loose black cloth. If it wasn’t for the fact that Trim’s features would make her stand out in most crowds, Nina probably wouldn’t have been able to pick her out as an outsider.

“They’re off to NNZ,” Jade answered before Nina had the chance to ask, smiling in Trim’s direction as she waved to them. They watched she led Saela across the road before they disappeared down a side street and their carriage continued on. “NNZ are here in the Merchant District, so we want to get it out of the way before Ormain and his friends turn up.”

“Because we’re going to hole up in the Royal District?”

“That’s right,” Jade nodded. “We’ll be spending a few weeks here depending on what Reina has to negotiate, so we don’t want to leave if we don’t have to, especially because the suits will be staying here. SuTSU have better ties with the Merchant Guild than the other factions because the information that they have is valuable.”

“Not because they want to be in the front seat if SuTSU decide to send an army down?”

Jade looked out the window as they continued to roll down the street. “It would be pretty disastrous for them if SuTSU took control of the city. Ninety percent of people who drop through to Areinis do it from the shaft that the Merchant Guild controls because they’ll sell passage to just about anyone. It’s significant income from outside of the plate which is incredibly valuable when the Royal Family is trying to monitor your finances. That and you know... the whole SuTSU taking over thing.”

Probably why the relationship between the factions is so uneasy, she thought. It was a strange balance where the Royal Family needed subjects to survive, but the other two factions would band together to shut them down if they tried to impose too heavily. Neither the Merchant Guild nor the Farmer’s League wanted the other to become too strong either, so they continuously worked to balance each other out to the Royal Family’s benefit. On top of the entire situation was the fact that they all needed to reluctantly stand unified as any form of weakness or division would give SuTSU a perfect opportunity to descend on them in a situation where they would all lose.

“This trip takes too long though,” Jade groaned. “I just want to get the Inin Estate out the way so we can go to the safe house and relax. Aline and I left some neat high society clothing there that I want to go out in.”

Nina wondered what high society clothing would look like, but shrugged the thought off when she realised that she would see for herself soon enough. She imagined that the style would be pompous and overly decorated, but plenty of things had surprised her since her time at The Cloud Orchestra had begun.

“Have you always matched everything with her?” Nina asked as she nodded in Aline’s direction.

“Not when we first met,” Jade replied as she pat Aline’s knee with a warm smile. “It didn’t take us long though.”

“How did you meet?”

“Oh?” Jade raised an eyebrow at the question while making no attempt to hide the sly grin on her face. “You’re interested in that?”

“I guess so,” Nina admitted. “It’s strange, you know? I’ve been with The Cloud Orchestra for long enough to get in trouble and to carry weapons around with you all, but at the same time I hardly know anything about any of you. I don’t know how old you are, where you’ve come from, or if Jade is even your real name. It isn’t that I don’t trust you, it’s just that I’ve been so caught up in the flow of things and learning enough to keep me going that there hasn’t been any time to ask. Isn’t it natural to want to know more about a friend?”

“Maybe I’m a sneaky monster who is here to steal you away from a glorious career at SuTSU,” Jade joked as she looked out the window before a light sigh escaped. “Alright, I’ll tell you. We still have some time before we reach the estate anyway.”