Sin kept her Domain on high alert. If Father Tully was willing to knock them out and torture them for information, then Sin had to know if he was nearby at all. Though, she felt like avoiding him wasn’t to be all that difficult. If Rai and Sin entered the Keep, then the likelihood that Father Tully, who seemed like a fanatic, could enter that same Keep was very low.

She knew that if one group of people came to power over another, then the people still loyal to the previous regime would receive a... less than cordial welcome were they to step on the premises now owned by the new rulers in power.

From the state of the chapel, and the mental state of Father Tully, Sin reckoned that he’d already felt some of that pushback from the faction currently in power. That faction being one that was loyal to the current Warden of the Life clan, of course.

Even just the fact that he didn’t live in the Keep was enough to give Sin a clue about Father Tully’s position on the clan’s totem pole of power.

“It’s there.” Rai said, interrupting Sin’s thoughts.

She looked up at the massive gate.

It was unlike any kind of architecture she’d seen before. Sin thought that they’d somehow moved back hundreds of years when she looked up at it.

There was no metal.

No stone.

No concrete.

Only wood and leaves. Spindling tree bark curled over and through itself, making a web of bark that functioned as a huge wall separating the Keep from the rest of Draconis.

Arcane symbols were lined along the wall’s edges, presumably imbued with traps to keep invaders out.

Though, there were clearly no such defences for the rest of Draconis. Everyone else simply had to rely on the fact that the city’s geographical location was too difficult for potential invaders to physically get to. There were some guards posted around the main city, but they were mostly lazy and useless from what Rai saw of them.

Even the guard outpost just outside the gate seemed to have a mystical sheen to it.

Sin pulled out her student ID card and kept it at the ready. Rai did the same after seeing her do so.

They walked up to the guard outpost just outside the gate.

A man wearing a dark green uniform stepped out of the small building and stood in their path.

Rai and Sin stopped where they stood.

His expression betrayed his caution.

“Halt!” He shouted. “Who goes there?”

Rai took a step forward to answer.

“We’re students! Here to study for a project of ours!” He answered back.

“We haven’t seen any students around here... show me proof and I’ll consider letting you in!”

Sin took a step forward, but Rai grabbed her arm.

“Careful... there’s something off about his attitude.” He whispered.

Sin nodded, and went forward to show the guard her ID.

He stared her down, but Sin didn’t shy away from the pressure.

The guard snatched her ID out of her hand and held it up against Zenith’s light.

After a few seconds, his eyes widened. He looked back at Sin with a kind of... reverence.

“My apologies Miss Raven. Please, you may enter.”

“Thanks. C’mon Rai, let’s go!”

Rai ran up beside Sin.

*Thud*

The guard held Rai back by his chest, in a not so gentle way.

“Wait. I need to see your ID as well, young man.” The guard said.

Rai handed the man his ID.

As the man read Rai’s ID in the same way he read Sin’s ID, he grimaced.

“Refused. Leave and never return to Highborn Keep.”

“... Eh?”

Rai was flabbergasted.

“Wh... why?”

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“One without a family name or noble status is forbidden from entering Highborn Keep without explicit permission granted by our great and mighty Warden! Miss Raven may enter, but you may not.”

Sin was also stunned. She hadn’t seen discrimination this blatant since... well she’d never actually seen it on this level. Hearing about one’s disdain for commoners was one thing, but seeing it have a real impact was... depressing. Her worry about Father Tully had almost dissolved with the frustration that was building within her.

“How does that make any sense?” Rai asked. “What about the non-nobles that work for the Warden? Do they get his explicit permission every time they enter?”

“Workers and their family are all allowed to enter, should they show some form of proof of identification. Given that you have no family name, you cannot be related to any of those workers, and you cannot be a noble. So leave, and never return!” The guard said. He began to return to the outpost building, when Rai said something that stopped him in his tracks.

“Sage Elira, you know her?” Rai asked.

“... What about her?”

“I’m her nephew. She would’ve talked about me, my name is Rai!”

“Like I said, you have no proof! I can’t just trust anyone based on their word! What if someone claimed to be related to our Warden based on him mentioning their name before? Would I have to believe them? Of course not! For the last time, leave and never return.

If you try anything funny then you’ll be forcefully detained!”

“What’s going on out here?” The guard’s partner said as he came out of the outpost.

“Nothing. Just some troublemaker lying about the Sage.”

*KKRRRRAAAAAAAAAKK!*

Everyone looked up.

A red dragon had flown up above them, and was now diving straight down towards them all.

Rai and Sin held their ground, ready to act at the last moment if they needed to.

The guards froze in place.

Fortunately, neither Rai or Sin were forced to act.

At the last moment, the dragon’s wings flapped open, and it glided down gracefully to land in front of the outpost.

Upon transforming into their mortal form, the dragon’s shape morphed and shifted into something... much smaller.

A dwarf.

“... Dmitri?” The guard’s partner asked.

“Aye. You’ll let these two in. Now.” He commanded.

The guard’s eye twitched. He was going to refute Dmitri’s words, but his partner wisely stopped him.

The guard’s partner bowed deeply, and forced the first guard to do the same.

“Of course, Hand of the Sage.” He said.

“Good. Now, get to it or I’ll have ya both scrubbing horse dung off the caretakers’ fits for a month.”

The guard couldn’t hold himself back.

“Wait, I don’t understand why-”

*Smack!*

“If you want us to keep our jewels then you’ll shut your fucking mouth for just one second.” His partner roughly interrupted him. “We’ll do it right now, Hand. Apologies for the delay, please don’t relay this to the Sage.”

Dmitri left the guards to it.

He waddled over to Rai and Sin, who were completely blown away by everything that had just happened.

“Why... why’d you help us?” Rai asked.

Sin’s face clearly echoed the same sentiment.

“Simple. Elira’s my charge, and you were right.” He said.

Right about what?

The arcane circles on the gate doors began to turn and move like locks moving out of place. It was a sight to behold for someone who’d never seen magic used like this.

This included both Rai and Sin. Even though they’d been exposed to magic their whole lives, it was an astonishing sight to behold. Even just the scale of the gate made it feel all the more impressive.

As the gargantuan gate doors swung wide open, Dmitri turned back to Rai.

“She has mentioned you before, boy.” Dmitri said. He pulled out a card from his pocket and showed it to Rai and Sin.

It read ‘Hand of the Sage’ under his title.

“Come. We’ve much to talk about.”

Dmitri waddled calmly and slowly through the gate.

Rai looked at Sin, who was equally as confused as he was.

He wanted answers, especially because he didn’t even know who this dwarf was, other than that he was recognised as something called the Hand of the Sage. Rai assumed it meant that he worked directly under Elira, which meant that Rai could probably trust him enough to be cordial with him.

“How’d you know we were even here? I get that you probably recognised me after I mentioned my name, but how did you even hear me?” Rai asked as he and Sin ran up alongside Dmitri.

“I get it, you’re sceptical. That’s good, especially as your aunt’s nephew. I was simply working on some of the barricades that your aunt had me set up, since I didn’t quite like how they were previously set. Is that enough for you?”

“Not yet... who actually are you?”

Dmitri stopped in his tracks.

He sighed.

“I’m Dmitri.” He said. “Pleasure to officially meet you, wonderboy. I’m your aunt’s personal assistant. Now, can we please get to a spot where you won’t be so conspicuous?”

“Fine... I suppose that’ll do... for now.”

“Great.”

Dmitri carried on walking with Rai and Sin following closely behind him.

Neither of them really trusted Dmitri just yet, but he got them into the Keep. Which was all they needed to avoid Father Tully.

They looked around at the buildings in the Keep.

Surprisingly, there was little difference in the immediate buildings and layout compared to what lay just outside the gate. However... the biggest changes seemed to come as they walked further and further into the Keep itself.

From mediocre buildings to grand halls and mansions, all taking up a generous amount of space.

Even the roads were wider, and cleaner.

It seemed like there was a well thought out layout to the Keep, where the residential areas were set to one side, and the other areas had their own dedicated spaces.

Dmitri walked Rai and Sin through the residential area into a commercial looking area. Even the shops here were extremely well made and seemed to thrive with a healthy clientele living right nearby.

The further they walked, the more they noticed it.

“Draconis isn’t a city.” Dmitri said, breaking the silence. “I can see it in both of your eyes... and you’re right.”

“What do you mean by that? And what exactly do you see in our eyes?” Sin asked. She was just as cautious as Rai was.

Dmitri noticed her cautiousness, so he answered plainly.

“It’s two cities. Highborn Keep is one, and Draconis is the other.” Dmitri answered. “You must’ve noticed it by now, given that look the both of you share.”

Rai felt like he’d been figuring that out this whole time, and now his suspicions were more or less confirmed by someone who lived and worked in the Keep. The two areas were so incredibly different, but somehow part of the same city.

But even the residents felt like they were so widely separated apart. None had said it directly, but their feelings were that the clan was so split and unknowing of its own goals... that same feeling spilled over into how the citizens in the city viewed each other.

Both the citizens of the Keep and the citizens of Draconis viewed each other with disdain. Rai felt like that reality was dawning upon him.

“Come. We’ll get to the pub and have a proper chat. That way, you two can do whatever you needed to, and I’ll get to learn more about the so-called prodigy raised by the Sage.

Oh, and don’t tell your aunt that I blew off her orders to help you. That’ll get me in more trouble than it’s worth.”