They made their way down the hill to the coastal kingdom, her heart racing excitedly in her chest the entire walk.

The kingdom had hardly changed in the last 50 years. The walls surrounding the land were enchanted sandstone. They were almost a thousand years old, but still looked brand new. The castle was the same way, even from the near hours walk to the other side of the kingdom, she could tell it was just as pristine as the last time she’d been here

Some of the store fronts had changed. An old smith’s workshop had become a leather worker’s, she could still see the old forge sitting unused out the side door. A bakery had become a shop of alchemical supplies; herbal aroma wafted intoxicatingly into the street from its open doors. An empty building had become home to a bookseller.

However the city's main economy still was depending on the same things as all those years ago; imports and fishing. The docks still remained full of people loading and unloading goods from cargo ships. Pearl fish salesmen and women still beckoned passersby to their shops. Street performers dazzled tourists and travelers from other regions as they stepped foot into the kingdom.

She didn’t get long to appreciate it, however, Zaramir’s pace never slowed, leading them in the direction of the castle to the wealthier districts to a large governmental looking building made of the same Sandstone as the castle. Carved into the stone above the towering, open double doors were the words, “Registry of Houses of Magic”.

It was quieter in the building, though the doors remained open, no street noise made its way in. Runes were carved on the threshold, likely the culprit keeping the interior nearly silent.

The old sounds were their footsteps as they made their way through the foyer to a large information desk, also made of the same stone. A bored looking woman sat behind it, lazily flipping through the pages of a large leather-bound book.

She didn’t look up as they approached, “How may I help you?”

“We’re looking for information on magical disasters nearby.” Zaramir stated plainly.

“Biproductal? Elemental? Or intentional?” She droned, indifferently.

“Elemental.”

A dim glow emanated from her forearm that was resting on the desk from under her thin, long sleeved blouse, “Aisle four, in the back.” She gestured to the doors behind her. “Basic Elements on the second shelf, Hybrid on the fourth. They’re organized by severity, not elemental type.” She reached under the desk, sliding a drawer out, reaching inside and pulled out a sheet of parchment, without looking at what she was doing.

She finally turned her head up to face them. Her eyes were a shocking blind white, small scars under both of them that looked like they had been fingernail scratches. Corabelle had to suppress a startled gasp.

She slid the parchment across the desk, “Here is the legend of the icons for the elemental types, they’ll be on the spine of the relevant book or binder. Please return that when you are finished with it. If you need the cartographer, she’s on the 3rd floor.” She stated, returning her blank gaze to her book.

“Thank you.” Zaramir took the page and led Corabelle to the back room.

As the door shut behind them, Corabelle couldn’t help but ask, “Why did she have a book?” She questioned in a hushed voice.

“She’s from a house of magic specializing in divination. They make their predictions using calculations based on known facts alongside simple, traditional divination methods. It’s much more accurate than full divination and less costly. They intentionally blind themselves to help prevent them from filling their brains with unwanted information. They have RuneBinds that allow them to read which helps them with the background knowledge they need. They’re predictions rival True Oracles and they leave less to interpretation.” Zaramir explained.

“When I was looking for a house to take me, there was none that… intense.” She murmured.

“It’s not as barbaric as it seems. Everything they do is entirely by choice and the rest of the House Sisters ensure they don’t feel it happens.”

“Sisters? The house only has women?”

“This one does, yes. There are similar houses that welcome all, but the local one prefers to accept only women.”

There weren’t many houses that had women as the house leader, let alone being women-only institutions when she was searching for a house to accept her. She wondered if she would have a better chance once she was permanently free from the maze.

They reached the section containing what they were looking for. Zaramir crouched down and began running his finger over the spines of the books, pulling out any one with the icon for fire disasters, starting at the ending ranked with the most severe.

It didn’t take him long to sort through the limited selection for nearby options. After which, they headed back down the aisle to the long corridor that led to a large spiral staircase leading up to the top of the building. From the bottom of the large open space of the library room, she could see the immaculate carving into the stone that ran the length of the stairs, all the way to the top. It was a perfect map of the kingdom, wrapping around the stairs like a map that had been cut into ribbon, each section connecting to the one above it.

She didn’t have time to admire it as Zaramir was already heading up the staircase with the books for the cartographer.

They arrived at the cartographer’s office, to find an older woman with white gloved hand sifting through ancient maps so desiccated they looked like a passing breeze could obliterate them. However the woman seemed unconcerned as she traced lines with her finger tips.

“What do ya need?” the cartographer said shortly.

“We need maps to these locations.” Zaramir replied with equal simplicity.

“Bring ‘em here.” She slapped a hand down on an empty section of her large table, brushing aside the old maps she was working on to reveal some newer maps of the region copied onto cheap paper.

Zaramir crossed over and set the two viable books they’d found on her desk.

She grabbed the top book, flipping to the back, “House Firyna, huh? You know they’re not gonna help you, right?”

“We’re looking for an elemental.” Zaramir said forthright.

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“Fire I'm guessing from the looks of things here. Much less work to buy one already bound, you know?” She stated, swiping a quick “F” on a section of the map.

“I know.” Was all he replied.

“Hmm.” she grunted in reply. “Well, good luck.” She said as she opened the second book to the location page, quickly marking another location with an “X” for an unknown responsible house. She slid the map over as she tucked the books under her desk.

“Thank you.” Zaramir said, tucking the map into a pocket in the lining of his coat.

She gave a nod of acknowledgement as she pulled her old maps back to the center of her table.

As they exited the registry building, the sun was just beginning to lower over the horizon.

“Would you like to get dinner?” Zaramir inquired suddenly. “We won’t be able to make it to either site before nightfall.”

“I could eat.” she replied, her stomach growling at the thought.

“There’s a nice establishment on the water’s edge. Freshest fish I’ve ever had, if you’re interested.”

While she was a little tired of fish after culling the ones in the lake, she could eat anything and fish from Pearl’s Keep was the best around, “Sounds great.”

“Great,” He nodded his head down a nearby street. “This way.”

He led her down the well paved streets that gave well to less maintained ones, and back toward the market sector. They passed the now closing market stalls down past the harbour to the recreational beaches. The air was beginning to chill as the sun went down and the sea breeze picked up by the time they reached a large wood and straw gazebo attached to an even larger cliffside cave. It was tucked away behind flora and wouldn’t be visible if you didn’t know where to look.

A beautiful gold haired woman sat at a small table next to one of the massive carved columns holding up the heavy straw roof above head. Her hair was tousled by the salty air, falling in long messy waves over her shoulder. She wore a thin white dress and no shoes, seemingly undisturbed by the chilly air.

“Welcome friends!” She called from her seat upon seeing them. Her voice carried the unnatural melodiousness of a seawoman. Her slit pupils in dazzling aqua blue eyes further confirmed the theory.

She descended from a infamous magic house who desperately tried to turn themselves aquatic by trying to meld their own bodies with sea serpents. They failed horrifically, killing many of their members and eventually the House itself dying with them, but the few who survived always seemed to pass on the traits they managed to acquire to their children.

“Just the two of you tonight?” She inquired, standing up from her seated position.

“Just the two of us.” Zaramir confirmed.

“Right this way, She led them into the mouth of the cave and through a narrow corridor lit by glowing algae.

The sounds of a few voices and music began bouncing off the walls in an incomprehensible blend of echoed sound, before they let out into a huge cavern, lit by the same glowing moss along with a few standing torches to supplement. The floor was a combination of sand and stone, with every wave outside a small amount of ocean water sloshed in from a much smaller entryway into the cave system, flooding the floor and filling up the tidal pools that littered the floor. Some of these tidal pools were as long as a carriage and waist deep. Most were knee deep and much smaller. They contained small fish swimming lazily around and shellfish half buried in the shallow sand in the stone pools. They had to dodge them to reach their table on the far side of the room. There were a dozen tables in the room, only two others were filled. A wooden platform had a single musician playing a lute and singing to the cavern.

The woman seated them and left, heading back out of the cave. They weren’t left with a menu nor did there appear to be any servers. The other two tables had food but their table only had empty plates and no way to order food as far as she could tell.

Zaramir stood up almost immediately after being seated, “Shall we?”

“We just got here.” She stated, extremely confused. “You want to leave?”

“Leave?” he laughed. “No, I mean shall we go catch dinner?”

“Catch dinner…” She echoed before realizing what he meant. The tidal pools were where the food came from. “Oh!” She smiled, standing up. “That sounds fun.”

He led her back toward the tidal pools, heading to the edge of one of the larger ones. He knelt down to roll up his pant legs and unlace his boots He set them carefully on the edge of the tidepool, stepping into the shallow water at the edge. She followed suit, holding up the hem of her dress.

Zaramir reached down and dipped his hand into the water, pulling up a palmful of wet sand. She heard him mutter something before steam poured from his hand, the water burning off, red hot light glowing from between his fingers.

Corabelle’s eyes darted anxiously toward the other tables. They luckily didn’t seem to notice.

Zaramir glanced up at her as his fingers moulded the molten glass effortlessly, “This is a local spot for mages to dine. No one here cares about a little public magic use. In fact you’ll likely see spells that allow them to remain seated while gathering their dinner.”

Corabelle’s shoulders released their tension, “You don’t know how to do those spells? I find that hard to believe.”

The edge of his mouth twitched into a light smirk, “Please. I could easily have everything in here captured and fileted in less than a minute, but I prefer a challenge. It’s more fun that way.” He finished the glasswork he was crafting,

He revealed a small glass throwing blade. He gave it a quick flip in his hand, grasping it by the blade before flicking his wrist. It sailed, impaling a small silver fish in slightly deeper water. He took a step out to claim it, the water splashing the bottoms of his rolled up pants. He returned, tossing the meekly flopping fish onto the land near his shoes.

He extended his other hand to her, offering the blade on his flat palm to her, “Would you like to give it a go?”

“Sure.” She replied, taking the blade, decidedly unsure. She’d spearfished, but this was nothing like that.

She attempted the same flick of the wrist she’d seen in the direction of a slow orange fish, but the glass blade embedded itself into the sand an arm’s length to its left. She felt her cheeks redden at the futile attempt.

Zaramir retrieved the blade, the fish making a lazy attempt at escape as he approached, “I didn’t expect you to be a master of this. It’s hardly a skill most people acquire. I know you took care of the fish in my pond; What tool did you use for that?”

“Spears,” she replied.

“You crafted a spear? Because I know I don’t have any such weapon in my house.”

She nodded, “Harpy’s Claw and there was more than one.”

He raised an eyebrow in an oddly suspicious look, but didn’t expound, instead returning to the matter at hand, “Would you like a spear now or would you prefer to collect shellfish?”

She glanced into the water spotting small pearlfish, mostly too small to produce prize pearls, along with a number of other shellfish commonly sold in the market, “I’ll collect shellfish.”

“If you change your mind, let me know and I can easily mould you a spear.” He replied as he focused on the orange fish she had targeted earlier, easily impaling it himself.

She tied her loose dress up slightly to keep it out of the water as she bent to collect the shellfish. As she gathered them, she tossed them beside the fish Zaramir was rapidly amassing.

The blade suddenly sailed past her, hitting a fish buried in the sand she hadn’t seen. It was right next to her hand. She heard the blade woosh just past her ear. Water was kicked up into her face.

She spit out the salty water as she stood upright glaring at Zaramir as he walked past to collect his prize.

“I didn’t hit you.” He stated in his defense, noting her glare.

“You almost did!”

“If ‘almost’ counted, my work would be done by now.” he smirked. “Besides, I'm far too good a shot to hit you.”

She narrowed her eyes before swiftly kicking an arch of water up his front.

He didn’t so much as flinch, “Mature.” he said flatly, as he tossed the fish into land. Then he muttered something she didn’t catch.

Suddenly the water kicked up around her in a vortex of mist, drenching her whole body. As the mist settled, she could see his shoulders bobbing in a silent laugh.

She suppressed her own laughter, “You are really going to start this?”

“Of course not,” He replied, flipping his dagger over in his palm, “But I am going to end it.”