Chapter 16

It occurred to Riley that this was the furthest she had hopped before.

Her world, as of late, had taken to expanding like an opening flower. First the net, then the cage, followed by the house, and now, on a fine misty and cool morning, the whole world of Calaria opened before her in all its wonderful strangeness.

"We can look around later, keep up!" Tobias urged as Riley realized he was a few feet ahead of her. Dutifully, she hopped up beside, as the streams of people moving with them towards the center of the city gave them a wide berth.

"Good morrow, sorcerer," said a man going the other way, pausing to bow his head in respect.

The refrain echoed through the crowd as others repeated it while some muttered, and the halo widened.

It felt as if they were lions in the middle of a herd of gazelle upon the Serengeti. People didn't seem to want to get too close, and many showed not just respect but pure obeisance.

"They're afraid of you," Riley surmised.

"Of both of us. A sorcerer alone is one thing; a sorcerer with an obviously magical being is something else," Tobias explained, sounding put upon.

"I'm just a hare, at least I am now. What's so strange about that?" Riley pondered, hopping dutifully along, pausing every now and again to take in the sights.

She felt like a yo-yo, having only so much slack before she was pulled ever forward on the relentless quest.

"Hares don't exist here. You're the only one of your kind, as far as I know. Any sorcerer that can bind an obvious magical creature to his will is a sorcerer to be feared," he said.

Riley stopped dead in her tracks.

"Oh! So you look like a badass!" She surmised.

"Uh...sure," Tobias trudged along, leaving Riley to grow distracted again.

There was simply too much to see. As they neared the city center, they began to move gently up before Tobias finally turned right, revealing a path cutting into a terraced hill that switched back all the while.

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Perched at its top, barely within Riley's range of sight, she could spot gothic towers jutting up into the sky ringed by fog. Framing the path were opulent houses, massive in scale, with tiny gardens out front, many exploding with floral life, the bouquet of their scents hanging heavy on the humid morning air.

She had only had so much tenganut and bread, leaving the scents to tempt her towards gluttony.

"This place is like a cooler Hogwarts!" Riley exclaimed, quickening her pace as they began to follow the path up.

"Do I even want to know what that is?" Tobias wondered.

"It's a magic school in a fantasy book," Riley explained.

"Sometimes I wish you would just speak Calarian," He sighed again, seeming strangely testy.

"I speak English, but I've got a universal translator in my head, just like Star Trek!" She continued, amused.

"I don't even want to know," He stopped and shouldered his satchel bag.

"What's wrong?" Riley wondered and pressed up against his legs.

"I'm nervous, and I'm exhausted. I've been keeping up this ruse for ages, Riley, and next week, it's going to finally come crashing down around me," he said, portending his own doom.

"My last day before dying was a pretty bad day," Riley began.

"You don't say?" Tobias cracked a smile, like the sun like the sun peeking from behind the clouds.

"It's one of the things I remember most on that side of my life. My memory is kind of like islands or a burned-up book. I know I went to school, but I don't know what I was studying for. I remember how Momma sounded, but not how she looked, but my last few hours are the clearest of all of it." She explained.

"And?" Tobias urged her to continue as they began their trek up the path again.

"I lost my job, I lost my home; six months or so prior, I had lost my grandmother and got kicked out of school because I couldn't pay, and for a moment, I got lost in despair. I really did! It was awful. Then I decided to go out for food and make a plan instead, I was going to keep moving forward, and that's when I died," Tobias stopped again and looked at her, confused.

"That's supposed to help?" He threw up his hands.

"That life ended, this life began, and now I'm here with you in this strange new place where lamps glow but not with electricity, magic is real, and music comes on crystals. I don't know if I'd be happier back on the other side of things. My life wasn't easy, but every day, I made it mine, and I'm going to spend every day making this one mine, too. Letting the worry kill your peace isn't doing anything but keeping you from achieving what you want to achieve. Every yesterday up until now is done, so don't look back; you aren't going that way." Riley finished.

Tobias stopped again and went to speak but found no words to retort.

His eyes brightened.

"That was pretty wise. I'm going to have to think on that," He said as they came upon a towering gate.

Walls chased off into the distance before bending, promising a space of dozens of acres or more within.

Two guards in black chainmail with swords at their hips stood in silent sentry. Riley peered past them, viewing what appeared to be parkland just beyond, save for the two massive buildings dominating the background, one a ten spired castle, the other a blocky keep with seven gothic towers arranged around it.

Riley saw a small dragon like creature take off from one of the tower windows on the castle side and glide across, its wings trailing silver magic energy as it flew.

The guard nodded without a word, letting them pass.

"This IS better than Hogwarts," Riley exclaimed, dashing for the entrance.