Her eyes went round - just like the knight's, when he saw her popping out of the carriage window. However, she didn't notice anything but the city in front of her.

Overlooking the other carriage, the black horses, as well as the other knights, she could see more and more of Kadena appearing on the horizon.

She had never seen such a clear water surface before. Granted, most of the time she saw the ocean, it was in polluted areas. It wasn't like she went there on vacation.

But it was a sight to behold. "Why is there so much water?" And it wasn't fresh water either.

"A remnant of the past," the nameless knight informed her, after he sighed at her nonchalant attitude, as she had just reprimanded him for it, "from before the land masses changed to their present shape. The valley basin shows what the Lodden Empire must have looked like eons ago, when it was filled with seawater. That's why there's so much salt on our mountain ranges."

There wasn't much of it in the valley though, as it was on the mountains, probably after thoudands of years of water with salt hitting them time and time again. It dried and was hit again, layer after layer, century after century.

So, in fact, it was not the sea she saw. "It is a vast lake, a remnant of the time when this entire empire was part of the sea, and only their lush mountain ranges towered above the water masses." He seemed pleased, getting to tell this story.

'Quite the patriot,' she thought, but she didn't dislike this part of his attitude.

Logically speaking, it couldn't have been the actual sea, since they were in the middle of the largest landmass on the map, but this lake was so big that it seemed to never end. There were also a lot of white rocks around it, probably the materials they made the whole city out of, at least when Rowena looked at it from a distance.

"It's beautiful." She had to admit it. 'It looks like fucking Venice over here, how did Sarah not mention that in the book at all?'

She let her maids pull her back in after they had discouraged her from climbing further out. But Rowena was already restless, she wanted to see the city up close. Now she finally understood how Lodden had managed without Arlen's help until the Shifting Ages had come and rendered them desperate.

From the book, she already knew that there were a lot of salty mountains, so the mountains would be mostly safe. About a third of the Lodden Empire consisted of their rich mountain ranges, where they had four silver mines and one iron ore mine. Also a lot of salt, obviously.

Since the very ground the Surface was on was chalk full of salt, it was not comparable to putting a bit of salt there to make everything right. They truly couldn't step on those mountain tops.

Besides, a few spots without blessed ground wouldn't hurt right away, since the Visitors rarely slipped through them, just as they had not done so in the forest, opposite of the Nerena Marquisate.

Usually, fences were put up to make sure they were safe from unblessed areas around the blessed ones, since the Visitors couldn't get too far above the Surface. They couldn't climb a solid fence because that would mean moving away from the Surface.

In fact, many Visitors had wings or could float in some way once they reached their true form. It was an accepted theory that as they became more human - or, as Rowena now understood, remembered who they once were as a human - they wanted to free themselves from their existence, so their final form had something that would set them free. Only it didn't work that way.

Now, a winged Visitor - at least a Grade 4 - could fly or hover a few inches off the ground, ignoring any type of sanctified ground, but they still couldn't break through it in the first place. That is, if the Grade 4 went through the Surface on unblessed soil, they could hover over the blessing or salt and get through to an area where they could inflict damage.

To prevent this from happening, humans built fences. But most of the time, they didn't provide the kind of security they wanted, since a sufficiently strong Grade 3 could throw over most fence variations.

'Again, they aren't as advanced as we were. I mean, they haven't had to try that hard yet, but they're going to have to try a lot soon.' Rowena's face hardened at the thought. 'At the beginning of the book, they were still discussing water to help their cause. But water is not the answer.'

Of course she understood that now. They hadn't made the connection to salt yet, because they didn't really know if the Visitors coult set foot into the sea or not. They couldn't go that deep down themselves, and the sea wasn't very safe in this world either, so it was hard enough to cross it if one had to.

'No one would voluntarily sink to the bottom of the ocean to look for Visitors. Understandably so.'

She realized by now that it must have been this very city that got them thinking the water must have been the thing that kept them away, only to fail down the road. Since Kadena was completely covered with seawater, there would be no Visitors visiting them. How could they?

They couldn't rise far above the Surface, which was underwater - even before that, they had to come through the Surface first, and then come up by rising out of the ground.

But what if the ground was covered with water? And what if it was salty water?

Salt repelled them. Nobody knew why, but it was like some animals couldn't eat certain things. They just couldn't touch salt. For some reason, it didn't kill them, but it burned them enough to keep them away. At least if there was enough of it. A thin trail of it wouldn't stop anything, of course.

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Well, in this case, since she could already see that the city was built on top of pillars inside the water, the Surface was still underneath. They couldn't enter Kadena, no matter how hard they tried.

So they couldn't get into the upper mountain ranges, but they couldn't get into the biggest city either, and probably much more than that, since she saw no end to this "lake" before either.

They didn't have many churches and therefore not many priests, let alone High Priests, but they also didn't need them yet.

"An insane fortress," she muttered.

Norina looked at her mistress, who was so lost in thought that she didn't even seem to realize she'd said anything. She exchanged glances with Ava, but both silently decided to ignore it, since it wasn't directed at them.

It wasn't as if the people in Celia's world hadn't thought about moving onto or into the ocean. But there were dangerous monsters there too, and besides, the safe area wasn't endless, and they still had to farm and make a living somehow.

There were already a lot of people living on the water, some built cities on solid foundations that rose from the ground, while the Visitors crawled on the bottom.

But all that was still not enough if a Sentinel showed up and bombed away houses that stood on the sea while they themselves were safe on land. It was never an absolute measure.

Sentinels were originally extremely rare, but the Shifting Ages had caused them to pop up here and there at a moderate frequency, which was far more than most people could ever handle. Even she, as an Executor, was usually under-equipped.

A memory flashed through her mind as she thought in that direction, and it sent a shiver down her spine.

"No, don't try to save me, promise me you won't," was all she could hear in her head at that moment. 'A promise, huh?' She had made too many of those in her lifetime and now she continued making them.

She had tried to understand her words so many times. She tried to forget them even more often. But neither worked. The image of a friend she had known for only a few months wouldn't leave her mind.

There was blood coming out of her eyes, nose, mouth and ears, even her fingernails were bloody and looked like they would come off with a light tug. This picture fused with the sight of Charlotte, lying on a bed as her cells reached the end of their lifespan and fell apart on her young body.

She shook violently for a split second because it felt like she had to physically shake a weight off of her shoulders.

Next to the bleeding girl she still couldn't forget, there was the cause of her suffering. When Celia had looked into those eyes, pearly white and molten silver, a liquid that looked like mercury flowing from them like tears, she didn't know what to do. No one did.

She drew a rapid breath. 'It's over. It happened. Now I'm somewhere else.'

Just in time, as she scanned the carriage, she noticed her two maids looking at her with worried expressions, so she faked a cough and looked away innocently, pretending to search for the knight. They had passed through a gate a while ago, so now they were traveling through the city.

There were many spectators. But as she looked out, only one thing occurred to her. "Hey, Knight," she said, just as rude as he had been, in her opinion, "how did they build the city on the water like that?"

After a short while, he came closer to the carriage, for the people were making noise, so he thought the lady might not be able to understand him.

Of course, she could use Mana, which meant that her senses were a bit sharper than those of a regular person. She would have heard him.

"They had used Artifacts to keep the water away, as far as I know. But most of the work was done on solid ground," the knight explained obediently, "by completing pillars outside and burying them deep. People probably died in droves to finish it. I'm not certain, it was a long time ago. Nowadays, they dive down to reinforce them with Mana Stones and steel, so the city doesn't suddenly collapse. It's not extremely deep anymore either."

Rowena could tell there were about two feet of space between the city's ground level and the water surface. It was more than enough water, but it was likely this high when the city was initially built.

"Interesting." She said nothing more.

"You're welcome," he added.

'I didn't say thank you. You were the one who wanted to talk before.'

The rest of the way to the palace, they both remained silent, though the knight glanced in her direction now and then, as one could tell by the helmet that barely moved with his head.

When they reached the White Palace, she sighed with relief. They had finally arrived.

The first people to be led out of her carriage were those who had vital roles to play on this political mission. That was... everyone but her, if they stood by the truth.

Rowena, on the other hand, stayed behind and took care of their luggage, making sure that everything reached their accommodations safely and correctly assigned.

Everyone had their own room on this trip, as they were invited to sleep in one of the adjacent palaces, the Ivory Palace.

'It's a bit more fancy than what I have seen of Arlen's capital yet. Like, who goes and calls their palaces in this way?' she thought, after talking to an imperial servant, 'White Palace, Ivory Palace and what, Crystal Palace?' The last one being the palace occupied by the crown prince of the empire.

Ivory Palace used to be the empress' palace, but it wasn't in use for quite a few years, since Empress Emilia died. In a way, it was similar to what Rowena went through, when her mother died of illness, she became a recluse. Just a little was known about the imperial prince of Lodden.

But that's why Ivory Palace looked a lot like the White Palace, according to the servant who lead her there, though it was now a palace for entertaining guests inside. Well, it was an empire after all - and not one to sneeze at. They had a lot of mines, they usually had enough money.

As she walked through the main palace, in order to join the other members of the envoy and greet the emperor, her eyes caught sight of several expensive-looking items.

'Art, gems, gold, you name it. They have it all lined up in their hallway.'

On the other hand, they needed every cent of it, she also knew, because besides all those rocky mountains, the abundant white granite that built their city, and the salt rocks she had thought about before, as well as the apparent space taken up by water, there was not much fertile soil for farming. A lot of grain and wheat would have to be bought from other nations, she imagined, even if they could grow vegetables and fruits on some of their mountain ranges and in greenhouses.

Accompanied by this thought, she walked into the throne room, a large and beautiful hall, as dignified as she could, her eyes looking down in respect, with her two maids following as if they had her back.

She bowed, but this time deeply, according to Imperial etiquette. "I, Rowena Dynari van Varnhagen, daughter of the Grand Duke van Varnhagen of the Arlen Empire, greet His Majesty, the Emperor."

"Ah, the honored guest," he said, as if she were not even officially part of the envoy, while smiling like a benevolent ruler, "please, don't be so stiff in front of me. I hope you feel as comfortable as if this Empire were your home."

She hadn't even looked up at him yet, but she felt a vein about to burst in her forehead at his obvious way of telling her that she would have to stay here at some point. 'You wish, old fart.'

Still smiling, she stood up and looked at the Emperor for the first time. "Ah..." Her mouth opened without her consent, but fortunately nothing really came out. 'He really does look like a tur-, no, a toad. Just like the rumors said, a real toad.'

'I believe you didn't try to say 'toad'.'

'Oh, shut up if you have nothing to add.' This was getting frustrating.