As Valen entered the town of Medst, two things became very apparent.

The first was that he had no idea who he should actually speak to about taking a ferry into Lakevale, something he needed to figure out as quickly as possible.

The second was that Medst was even larger than he had been expecting, easily three times as large as Wyrha, which he supposed made sense considering its nearness to Lakevale and the business and trade that came its way due to that. Medst was the town all people coming down from the North passed through on their way into the heart of Southern Parovia.

The town’s streets were bustling with activity, and as Valen made his way through its central thoroughfare he spotted multiple inns, four or five different taverns, and more stalls and stores than he had ever seen before in his life. People laughed and carried on merrily, content in the safety guaranteed them due to their nearness to Lakevale.

Valen found himself growing bitter. How was it that he could lose almost everything he had ever held dear, and yet these people just continued on with their business as if nothing was wrong with the world?

If he was not in such a hurry he might have dwelt on those thoughts far too long. As it was, however, he knew that his mission was to guarantee a future not just for himself, but for his sister, and even the wyverns. So he refocused on finding the town’s docks, and considering that Medst was built along the shore of Eastlake it was not hard to do.

Turning from Medst’s central road down towards the waterfront, he saw what he was looking for almost immediately.

Row upon row of boats bobbed and slowly rocked in the lake’s waters, roped in place along the piers that connected back to the central docks. All around, fishermen and other folk who made their living off the gigantic body of water went about their business, some loading up boats to head out, others hauling in crates brought from the city, and others simply laughing or arguing in turn as they walked along.

Valen was concerned that in this great press of people he would never be able to find the ferries. Of course, then he noticed the largest crowd of all, off to the left at the very center of the docks. The three largest boats were moored there, while guards wearing the white and silver uniforms of the Imperial army seemed to be dealing with the crowd, forcing them into a line.

It seemed as though he had arrived just in time for another crossing.

Breathing a sigh of both relief and trepidation, Valen started towards the crowd, grateful that Hera had woken as early as she had that morning. If she hadn't, he might not have reached Medst until midday or later, which was not what he would have preferred.

After helping his sister pick up their camp, deciding that she should take the larger pack and their most important supplies with her and the wyverns, they had set their goodbyes. Then Valen had set off toward Medst with only some food, his blanket and pillow for appearances, and the purse of Dracari that Fredrick had left them. He knew that the money would be far more helpful for him in Lakevale than it would have been for Hera, who was trying to avoid being seen by anyone at all.

As he grew closer to the crowd waiting for the ferries, he finally saw what it was that the guards were doing. As people approached the boats, they were being forced into one of three lines, so that as they went to step aboard the guards could speak with them. Whatever it was they were asking, it did not seem to take too long, as they waved people through after only a minute or so of questions.

Still, knowing that it was probably better to be safe than sorry, Valen worked up the courage to address a fisherman walking past.

“Excuse me, sir, but I was wondering why those soldiers are stopping all these people? Is something wrong?” he asked, doing his best to sound as innocent as possible with his questions. The man, seeming like a nice enough fellow, paused and looked back to the crowd before hacking up some phlegm and spitting off to the side as if to show his disgust.

“New in town, eh? Annoying bastards are jus’ makin’ life more difficult fer ev’ryone ‘cause they’re on the lookout for some wyvern tamers from up North. Rumor is they resisted th’ Emperor’s new anti-wyvern laws. Big mess, if’n ya ask me. Shoulda jus’ left’em alone. Ev’ryone knows th’ dragons are th’ power in the skies. They certainly never let any o’ us forget it, anyways. Them wyvern folk weren’t botherin’ nobody, but wha’ do I know?” the man spouted off, his annoyance surprising Valen.

Then, as if realizing that he was speaking to a total stranger, the man turned his now narrowed eyes back to him, looking him over from head to toe in his simple dark attire and worn-down boots as if trying to figure out if he could be trusted.

“Ya didn’t hear tha’ from me, understood?” he snapped. He only waited until he got a quick nod in response before turning and continuing on his way, mumbling under his breath about ‘Imperial bastards’ and ‘shit-brained fools.’ The man did not keep Valen’s attention for much longer; there were other things to deal with now.

Like the fact that, somehow, he had not thought to come up with a cover story or false name for himself before making his way into Medst. His mind began to race, trying to come up with something plausible. Deciding that it was probably better to go with something simple than to try and overcomplicate things, he settled on a cover just as he reached the edge of the crowd and began to be jostled forward by the press.

As time passed, Valen watched as the first ferry finally left the docks, heading out across Eastlake to begin the journey into the city. A short while later, the second ferry had been filled up as well and began to push off, leaving him to worry that he might not be able to make it onboard for this round of crossings. Then suddenly the crowd shifted around him and he spotted a quickly fading opening in the press.

Not wanting to waste the chance, he slipped through the opening, managing to make it almost all the way to the front before it closed around him again. Luckily, though, that was all he needed; no one seemed to notice that he had gotten ahead of so many others, or at the very least no one seemed to care, frustrated as they already were with the soldiers slowing down the process so much.

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He finally reached one of the lines, just as several of the soldiers moved forward to keep anyone else from coming forward. Valen would be one of the last to board the third and final ferry of the morning. He almost smiled at his luck, but then he was quickly approaching the guards at the front of his line and remembered that he was about to be questioned. Taking a deep breath, he ran through his own story in his mind one more time before he finally stepped forward and one of the soldiers raised a hand to stop him.

“Halt there just a moment, boy. Please state your name and what business brings you to Lakevale,” one of the men said, and although his voice did not show it, Valen could see the boredom in his eyes. That was helpful; if the guards were bored, that would mean they were less likely to notice if he hesitated as he spoke his chosen lie.

“I’m Ven Kova. My Da runs a smithy in Bestor, and he sent me to the city to talk to some of the city smiths and see what’s most in demand now,” he replied, affecting a barely passable accent in an attempt to strengthen the act. The soldier and his partner squinted at him as if trying to tell if he were speaking the truth or not, and for a moment Valen was worried that the accent had not been strong enough, that they could tell it was fake. But then the first guard, the one that had spoken, simply shrugged and nodded.

“Best get going then, boy. It’s best to be in and out of Lakevale as quickly as possible; there might be dangerous folk about soon, riders from Dagol sent to track down enemies of the Empire. Riders can be nice enough folk sometimes, but I’ve heard these are the Blackscale Knights, and they’re on the rougher side. Better young ones like you, alone in the city, don’t stay for long,” the guard said.

To Valen’s surprise, the man’s words seemed honest enough. It made him happy to realize that not all of the Empire’s soldiers were as ruthless or cruel as the riders that had attacked their home.

Though, of course, as he nodded thanks to the guard and got on the last ferry of the morning, his thoughts turned toward these 'Blackscale Knights' and what their presence might mean. There was a difference between the regular riders that patrolled the skies of Parovia and held garrisons in the Empire’s largest cities, and the true Imperial Orders. He had not thought much about it at the time, but all of the riders that had attacked his family’s hatchery had ridden on dragons with scales as black as shadow.

If the full might of the Blackscale Knights had flown South to handle the dismantling of the wyvern hatcheries in the Divide, they would not leave until they were sure the job was finished. No rider of the Orders would risk failing the Emperor, after all, let alone the head of an Order.

The gigantic black dragon came to mind once again as he stepped aboard the ferry, and stayed there even as they finally pushed away from the docks, leaving Medst behind as its two sails were let loose and the wind began to carry them along, corrected and sped up occasionally by rowers who sat along the sides of the boat.

Now that he knew that it was a full Order that had come, Valen could only assume that the huge beast that had taken on Maelienas was the Patriarch of that Order, which also meant one of the Imperial High Lords was handling the hunt for any remaining wyvern tamers and the wyverns themselves personally.

It was not a comforting thought at all.

----------

By the time Valen could actually see Lakevale in detail, he was more than ready to get off the ferry. He had discovered, quite unfortunately, that he was prone to seasickness. Although they were not actually out on the ocean, taking a boat across a lake this size still felt very similar to what he imagined being out at sea might feel like.

And that made his stomach more than a little upset.

The pain was bad enough that he thought he might be sick in the midst of all these people, so he had forced himself over to the back edge where the crowd was thinnest. The guards stood towards the back, and for a moment he was worried that they might find his sickness suspicious.

However, when the guard that had waved him through had seen Valen and how he seemed to be turning greener by the minute, the man had simply laughed. Apparently, it helped his cover rather than harmed it.

Despite the pain in his stomach, though, Valen managed to keep himself together until they began to pull into Lakevale’s Eastern docks. At that point all thoughts of stomach pain flew from his mind as he turned his attention fully to the city he was about to enter. His eyes widened in shock at the waterfront awaiting him, and the incredible amount of buildings that seemed to spread on forever.

Though he had thought himself prepared for this, the reality of actually entering such a massively populated place was quite different than anything he could have imagined.

The noise and smell assaulted his senses as he followed his fellow passengers off of the ferry, and a headache followed almost immediately. Somehow, preoccupied as he had been with trying not to throw up at the back of the boat, he had blocked out the city until they were close enough for its enormity to overwhelm him.

Lakevale was, simply put, massive.

The thing that saved him from succumbing to the panic of having so many people just existing so close together was the thought of his goal here; he had to find Matt and Layla, see what help they might be able to give him and Hera, and come up with a plan for where they should go from there. Plus, the thought of seeing Simon and Samuel again, their sons, brought a slight smile to his face.

Though it had been many years since he had last seen them, they had been very close before the Romaris had moved away. Even if it was only for a day or two, if would still be nice to talk to them again.

However, the largest issue in regard to finding them tied back into the thing that threatened to overwhelm him – the sheer size of Lakevale. Valen had known in coming here that it would not necessarily be easy to track them down once he actually entered the city, but being here and seeing the grand scale of it all made it glaringly obvious that he had underestimated the difficulty of the task.

He could not risk staying here for too long, not with Hera on her way around to the Southern end of Westlake. The longer she and the wyverns waited there, the more likely it was that they would be discovered and taken. That was even less pleasant to think about than Valen himself being arrested or killed.

Just standing around and worrying would not help, however. So with a fresh wave of determination, he hoisted his pack all the way back up on his shoulders and set off along the largest street leading away from the docks that he could find. People bustled on about their business, crowding the roads, but everyone seemed pleasant and happy enough.

At the very least, no one seemed to be giving Valen dirty looks or, really, seemed to care that he was there at all. Because of that, he was able to move about his business freely, the only times he felt any tension at all being when he passed a patrol of guards or soldiers in the streets.

That was the biggest thing he noticed after the size of Lakevale, too.

Imperial soldiers were everywhere. Some seemed nice enough, while others eyed everyone they passed with suspicion, as if they were waiting for someone to try and make a wrong move. For the most part, the populace seemed to ignore them, just passing around the patrols with the ease of a people used to their presence.

Valen might have felt a bit uneasy about so many Imperials being there, but at the same time he knew that because of their diligence crime in the Empire had been driven to almost nonexistence. As long as they did not know who he was, Valen was sure he had nothing to fear from the regular men and women serving in the Imperial army.

Then he saw something that did scare him, and chills ran down his spine.

There was a roar from above, Valen’s eyes shot up, and three dragons, black-scaled and ferocious, flew overhead.