Ellianora and Markus had an entire day to themselves and no money for discretionary spending. Disappointingly, Ellianora quickly learned that her many, many questions would only likely only be met with a shrug or an “I dunno, maybe?” The second thing she learned was that Markus was significantly better than her at hiking long distances.

She now laid panting on the grass atop the tall cliffs surrounding the city of Westgate. A few feet away Markus stood by the railing, looking out over the ocean and down at the city below. Westgate had two lighthouses, one on each of its cliff faces and each had a small park and a trail leading to it. When Markus had suggested they take the breathtaking walk to both of the lighthouses she had agreed, unaware that each hike was six miles long.

“You know, if you keep laying there you’re going to miss the view.”

“If I had the energy I’d spray you with ice water.” She stared daggers at him, but did slowly pull herself up and move over to stand next to him. “Alright I admit it’s a nice view.”

Markus moved to sit on a bench behind her as she took in the view. “See? Makes the trip worth it in my opinion.”

“Almost, but we still have to walk back so…”

“We’re leaving tomorrow, did you have something that you wanted to do?”

She turned around and leaned back on the railing, letting the breeze spray her hair in every direction. “I wanted to poke around and experiment with your magic moon sword to see what else you could do with it.”

Markus raised an eyebrow from his seat.

Ellianora rolled her eyes, “Yeah, I heard it as soon as I said it.”

“So ready to head back down?”

“I guess I can’t avoid it, what’s the plan for dinner?”

Markus tilted his head in thought, “there’s a place near our inn that seemed good when we walked past it.”

“It’ll be late by the time we get back, but the church of the twin goddesses should be open all night.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“tsk” Markus clicked his tongue and made a face that Ellianora couldn’t make out. He was already starting to outpace her again as they made to move back down the trail. She couldn’t see his face but the way he threw a look over the cliff rail, as if he was trying to swing his expression like a hammer and cast it over the entire city, (or rather the air above the city) made her worry. Probably best not to pry… seems like there’s a lot there.

With a sigh, she picked up her pace hoping to make it back early enough for her to still get food.

----------------------------------------

Despite the autumn sun setting fast, the Healthy Handfuls was bustling. Serving, sailors, construction works, and any guards that had just come off duty demanded a certain volume of output from the kitchen, a volume that Healthy Handfuls had become famous for. Being seated in a booth against the wall Markus and Ellianora watched sizzling platters and massive bowls come and go while they looked over the surprisingly cheap menu. The seats were a solid wood piece with an almost bench like look as a result, and the table had a similar appearance: that being a big, solid piece of wood. The bar in the center of the floor had an open window directly to the kitchen, showing what items were already underway (and subsequently what had the lowest wait time). The two seven-foot-and-some-change tall women in the kitchen were impossible to miss, grey skin the color of iced over stone and dark hair pulled back tightly showed proudly on a muscular frame covered in markings, scars, and tattoos. The Goliath race were rumored to be related to true giants, supposedly able to read their environment so easily it sparked superstition of an extra sense gifted to them by the earth itself. Never one for superstition Markus was sure of two things as he sat down. They were much bigger in person than any story gave them credit, and every potato and cut of meat was perfectly cooked, no matter if stewed or grilled.

Looking over the top of his menu he saw Ellianora, completely ignoring everything around her, as she scratched her head and stared at her note book and the runes on his sword. “What’s up?”

She moved her head closer to the blade to get a better look. “I’m trying to make a copy of the symbols but nothing I try looks right.”

“That’s cause its written in luminous. The whole reason the language faded out was because you can’t write it in two dimensions.” He paused then added “and because the only college that studied the language was destroyed.”

“huh” She responded, before looking up at him “wait then how come you can read it?”

Markus turned his eyes away then got interested in his menu suddenly “I studied it where I could, bits and piece, here and there, I couldn’t read a whole book probably.”

“That’s kind of a weird thing to study.”

At this point the waiter came and took their order. After the waiter left Markus turned back to her “How is that weird? Its surprisingly useful.”

“Okay, it’s a bit niche and specific. Why that over any other more common language?”

“I can already speak four languages!” Markus defended, “Also every magic item I’ve ever seen had luminous on it.”

“How many magic items have you seen?”

“A lot actually.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes!”

“Do tell…”