While Jeyvan thought about what he had seen a few moments ago, the crowd of people around the group slowly started thinning as they arrived at a large open area. Jeyvan looked around and saw various people moving things in and out of the many ships that were parked in the port of the town, the boxes varied in size, some needing two or three men to carry them. Jeyvan finally knew from where did the various exotic goods in the city come from.

 Ivan moved and they followed him towards a large ship, the biggest in the port. It had large red sails that made it imposing compared to the other smaller ships. Jeyvan noted as they were climbing the plank that led towards the open deck that no boxes were being carried in or out of the ship, it simply stood there as though waiting for something.

 They weren't in the deck for long before a small, overweight man whose clothes barely contained his belly came towards them with a smile on his face. "Hello, my name is Caspio and i'm the captain of this ship, may i know your names?" Jeyvan had no doubt the smile would drop out of his face if they either didn't have the money to pay for his services or were nobody important.

 “I am Ivan Hiland and this is the protégé I’m taking to the academy, Jeyvan Avorian.” Ivan spoke while inspecting the large ship with his white eyes, paying no attention to the man after saying those few words.

 However with those words the smile disappeared from the man’s face, a respectful attitude taking control  and he bowed as he spoke “Lord Adjudicator, we have been expecting you. All passengers are on deck and we are ready to depart when you see fit.”

 After hearing those words Ivan nodded and looked at Jeyvan who was by his side with a smile “If you want we can depart an hour or two late, that should give you enough time to look through the goods in the market.”

 Jeyvan was about to nod at his words but he remembered what he had seen in the dark alleys and his face gained a frown, he didn’t think he would enjoy seeing the products of luxury that others use while those who were unprivileged starved, rather it would make him sick knowing those people could help yet they did nothing. He reluctantly shook his head and it earned him a hand on his shoulder and a reassuring smile from the old man.

 Ivan looked at Jeyvan’s face for a few seconds before he turned to Caspio “We are ready to depart as soon as possible, can someone guide us to our rooms?”

 A little time later Jeyvan was looking through the window of his private room as the city he had been in for but a few minutes disapeared into the distance only to be replaced by the ever moving waters of the great river.

…

 “Jeyvan, wake up, quickly now!” Jeyvan opened his eyes as he felt someone shaking him, once his eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw Ivan and the old man were next to his bed, Ivan being the one who woke him.

 “What… What’s wrong is there any problem?” Jeyvan came to his senses as he scanned their anxious faces and he quickly got up from the bed.

 “The crew has just sighted a naga warlord guarding the way through the river, if things get ugly we will need to flee so get ready.” Ivan walked out of the door after saying that, likely to survey how the situation is outside.

 Jeyvan got dressed as the old man stood nearby; he had a frown on his face as though he was thinking about a very hard problem.

 After getting dressed he tried to ask details from the old man “What’s a naga warlord? I mean, I know what a naga is but… what's a warlord?”

 The old relaxed his frowning face and looked at Jeyvan “The naga’s have a very simple society, the stronger you are, the higher up in their society you go. We have tried to give names to their many ranks and the warlord can be considered in human terms as a general.”

 “But why is it here?” Jeyvan asked as he stood next to the bed while looking at the old man.

 The frown came back to the old man’s face “That’s what I was trying to understand, in this time of the year there should be no nagas in the great river, they should be down at the swamps at Orivk at this time of the year.”

 The Orivk kingdom is one mainly composed of swamplands, so many aquatic creatures such as mermen and nagas stay there for most of the year and when the droughts came in the summer, drying up the swamps, they would roam around the great river until their swamps were cozy again.

 Their talk came to an end as Ivan came into the room, silently closing the door behind him. “We need to leave, now.”

 Ivan walked to the nearby window and threw it open; it was a large window coming almost from the floor to the ceiling. After doing so he went to the bed Jeyvan was standing next to and ripped the sheets out of the bed.

 “Are we going to jump through there?” Jeyvan looked quizzically at what Ivan was doing, there was a door right next to them, why jump from the window?

 “Yes” Ivan answered shortly and Jeyvan understood why when he started hearing the screams coming from outside the room, the naga were already in the ship.

 “Jeyvan, come here.” Ivan said and Jeyvan obeyed, coming to stand in front of the tall man.

 “Climb up my back”  Jeyvan looked weirdly at Ivan but still did as he was told, once he was astride Ivan’s back, Ivan took the bedsheet and put it around Jeyvan and himself, tying a strong knot at his waist, like that Jeyvan and Ivan were now tied together.

 “Old man, can you get to the left side of the river bank?” Ivan asked as he turned towards the old man, Jeyvan looked up Ivan's shoulder and saw the old man nodding calmly as though the current situation didn’t affect him.

 “Good. Jeyvan, close your eyes.” Jeyvan did as told and suddenly Ivan jumped through the window, dropping down towards the water below.

 There was a splash and Jeyvan felt the coldness of the river water touch his skin and seep through his clothes, Ivan started moving his arms, quickly swimming towards the river bank while Jeyvan held onto his neck with all his might as the currents of the river battled to overwhelm them.

 Soon they once more felt sturdy earth beneath their feet.

 Ivan released the knot at his waist and Jeyvan dropped to his knees, coughing out river water that had gotten into his mouth. He felt a hand at his back, gently circling it and Jeyvan looked up through watery eyes to see the old man smilling down upon him.

 Jeyvan unsteadily got to his feet and looked at the old man, ready to start asking questions when they heard a boom coming from the direction of the ship.

 They all looked and saw the ship they had just been travelling on lit up in roaring flames as figures submerged in the river water threw giant spheres of fire towards it.

 They soon heard the screams of despair coming from the ship and Jeyvan simply watched, horrified, as the ship slowly broke down under the unrelenting flames, sinking under the water, the screams dying down to be replaced by ghastly shrieks.

 “The nagas” Said the old man “Are horrifying creatures, it is almost impossible to fight them while on water so the most that can be done is to pray, pray that we don’t cross with them.” The old man looked at Jeyvan with worried eyes, the boy had never met death before and he wasn’t supposed to have met it know, so young.

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 "Those flames you saw were created by their mages, twisted creatures even more so than the rest of their kind, that only live to spread despair and death through the places they tread”

 They walked deeper inland, away from the nagas, and set up a simple bonfire. Jeyvan looked at the burning flames of the bonfire that reminded him of the sinking ship and closed his eyes, falling asleep with his knees to his chest.

 Jeyvan awoke drenched in sweat, he had nightmares about the screams from last night and he didn’t think they would stop any time soon.

 He looked in front of him where there used to be a bonfire and saw the a patch of dirt, he quickly realized why, the sun was just beginning to rise. He looked around him for traces of the old man and Ivan and panicked when he saw nobody. Had they left him? Would they leave him to be killed by the nagas?

 He was broken out of his panicked thoughts by the sound of branches being stepped upon and he looked up to see Ivan and the old man coming towards him, both bringing with them wet clothes and as equally drenched bags in their arms

“Where have you been?” Jeyvan asked as he tried to calm his beating heart.

 Ivan looked at Jeyvan with his white eyes, seemingly seeing through his faux calm and replied “We didn’t have the time to bring our things with us during the attack so we went to get them while you were asleep, we will need them for the trip to the academy.”

 As he said so both he and the old man dropped the bags they had in their arms into the ground next to Jeyvan, who looked at them, the bags were so drenched that Jeyvan thought anything inside should be useless.

 Ivan searched through the insides of the bag he had carried and Jeyvan was surprised to see that they were strangely untouched by water, and brought out three bottles filled with a strange transparent liquid that seemed like water.

 He gave one to the old man who opened it and started taking slow sips from it and then gave one to Jeyvan before starting drinking from his own bottle.

 “What is this?” asked Jeyvan as he looked at the bottle, it had a texture unlike water because as he turned it around it slowly slipped down like gelatin.

 “That is the nutritional fluid from the academy, try it, it’s not like you’ll die” Ivan finished his  bottle with a gulp and answered Jeyvan with a chuckle who was looking at the bottle in his hand with intrigue.

 Jeyvan slowly opened the bottle and sniffed it, it had no smell, before putting it to his lips and taking a small gulp. As he did so his eyes widened and he threw his head back as he swallowed every drop down his throat.

 “This is amazing! It’s so sweet, what is it made of?” Jeyvan said as he licked his lips, the taste still lingering in his tongue

 Ivan smiled at Jeyvan “That was made by the alchemists at the academy, it is the rations that we from the academy take when we travel, only the alchemists know what is is made of but at least it takes care of our hunger” Jeyvan noticed he was right, he had just drank a bottle of that liquid but he could clearly feel his hunger slipping away.

 “Now that we took care of our meal we should be on our way, we should be close to the academy and the sooner we get there the better.” Ivan closed the bag and threw it over his shoulder; the old man did the same with his.

 “Come Jeyvan, we should start travelling to the academy as soon as we can.” Thus, they started on their path towards the academy.

…

 Jeyvan’s feet were sore; they had been walking for ages through trees, holes dug by animals and hills that seemed to have no end. The only thing that indicated they were going along the correct path was the river towards their left side which kept flowing without an end, Jeyvan thought that maybe that was the reason it was called the great river.

 “Look over there, there's a house” Jeyvan was broken out of his thoughts by Ivan’s voice and he looked ahead of him and, through the trees, there was upon a little hill a wood cabin.

 “Let’s go ask for directions” ivan said and Jeyvan agreed, though he didn’t want to say that they were lost it was hard to believe a blind man would be able to guide them towards the academy.

 The group of three arrived at the door to the cabin and Ivan knocked, the door opened and out came a short man who had a beard that went past his belly button.

 The bearded man was wearing a wool tunic with a belt at his waist where sat an axe.

 The bearded man’s eyes wandered through the group until they once more came to rest upon Ivan who was at the front.

 “What do you want?” The bearded man asked impatiently towards Ivan as he looked up towards Ivan.

 “We would like to know if you can tell us how to get to the academy?” Ivan replied as he looked down at the man, the man was very short, just a bit taller than Jeyvan and he realized he must be one of the dwarfs he read about in the books at the mansion.

 The bearded dwarf looked Ivan up and down once more, not knowing what kind of business he could have with the order and asked with a smirk “What if I do? Why should I tell you?”

 There was silence for a bit before Ivan opened his mouth once more “I can give you a bounty of gold if you-“He was cut off by a chuckle from the dwarf

 “In case you didn’t notice I have everything I need right here, water, food and shelter, so why should I go to one of your damn cities and waste gold in things I don’t need?” The smirk almost split the dwarf’s face in half when he realized Ivan had no answer to his question and he was about to close the door in their faces when Jeyvan opened his mouth

 “Wait a second, please” The dwarf stopped in his motion of closing the door and looked at the small child in front of him who didn’t even have a single chin hair. Jeyvan quickly spoke up so the dwarf didn’t change his mind and closed the door on them.

 “From what clan are you?” Jeyvan asked and the dwarf lifted an eyebrow. It was common knowledge that the dwarves of the Sarifh kingdom had three main clans, The Gurdows,  the Harjaam and the Felior, the three clans each held different ideals and never saw eye to eye but when somebody invaded their kingdom, well, they would meet the full wrath of the three joined clans and with each of them complementing the others’ weaknesses they were almost invincible in their keeps in the mountains of the Sarifh kingdom.

 “I am part of Clan Gurdow, why do you care?” Jeyvan looked at the dwarf and blurted out about one of the good things clan gurdow that he could remember of.

“If you tell us we will be in your debt” The dwarf looked into jeyvan’s eyes and the suspicion that was there at first quickly turned into joy.

 “Haha alright then, I shall tell you where the academy is” The good point Jeyvan remembered was that, the members of clan Gurdow always, always, repaid or collected their debts, that could be a good or a bad thing.

 There is a tale about this quality of theirs, it said that a long time ago a noble made a deal with a few clan members of the gurdows, the dwarfs would make weapons for his private army and he would pay them with a bit of land where they could build a keep, turns out that noble was not that smart and once he had gotten his weapons he had tried to deny his agreement to that deal with the dwarfs. The dwarfs told that to their clan and they were not happy with him backing out of the deal and so they brought an entire army of ten thousand dwarfs armed to the teeth to that nobleman's door and lynched him publicaly, since then no one has tried to go back on a deal or debt made to the gurdows.

 Ivan looked at Jeyvan with appreciation in his eyes before he walked into the house, bending over so he didn’t hit his head against the ceiling. Jeyvan and the old man followed.

 It was a simple house; it had one bedroom, one bathroom and a small room with a table where he probably had his meals. The dwarf went into his room and dug around a chest at the side of the bed, a few moments later taking out a rolled piece of parchment before walking to the table and spreading it open, it was a map of the local area.

 “You are currently here so you will have to follow the river until you get to the Mountains; from there you need to cross them, then just keep following the river and you will probably see the towers in a few hours.” The dwarf pointed at a few places in the map as he talked and Jeyvan tried to memorize what he was saying, not that it was too hard to remember.

 “Now, about that debt” Said the dwarf as he looked at Jeyvan “I suppose that you will be attending the academy?” Jeyvan nodded so the dwarf continued “Good, then someday when you are grown I will ask you to do me a favor, what favor i have not decided on,  and I hope you do not go back on your debt otherwise I will have to track down and kill you and that would take quite a bit of time i'd bet” Jeyvan quickly nodded again and the dwarf looked at him in the eye before he too bobbed his head up and down once.

 “Then I suggest you all be on your way, farewell and… good luck.” They turned to leave as the dwarf said those words, Jeyvan didn’t know why he said good luck and he hoped he wouldn’t find out.

…

They were walking through the forest until they sighted something in front of them, it were the peaks of the mountains the dwarf had mentioned would be in their way to the academy

“So the mountains he mentioned were the Grey peaks? Now I know why what he said seemed so simple. By the lord, how are we supposed to cross that?” Jeyvan suddenly realized why the dwarf had said good luck; the Grey peaks were a mountain range that encircled the whole academy like a natural wall, protecting it from outside influences. The academy had opened three paths through the mountains with magic and it was known that only through them or the great river could you enter the Order. Everyone that tried to cross the mountains had never lived to tell the tale however it is believed that dragons and other dangerous beasts inhabit those mountains so there aren't that many that tried in the first place.