As the six of them made their way down the sidewalk of the main road, carriages passed them by, and the crowds threatened to pull them apart. The crowds of people shuffling down the massive sidewalks on each side of the six-lane road pulled the children with them toward the city's center. Huddling together and linking arms, they followed the tide of people.
Eventually, they reached a massive split in the road. Here, the spear suddenly seemed to stop and go left and right. It continued this way on both sides until it made another abrupt turn. The left side turned northeast, and the right northwest, coming to a point in front of a massive gate. This was the end of the enormous road and the city's center, the spearhead. Spreading out from the northern gate was a giant wall of earth hardened to match steel, but more buildings could still be seen behind it. This wall divided the civilian side of the city from the military district, and although smaller and less fortified than the outer walls, it would stop any invaders from coming up from the port. Besides the gate, the outer edge of the street was filled with large buildings. These were the government and administrative buildings of the city. The buildings shone with decorative facades.
In the center of the spearhead was a massive field of flowers; in the field, there were two churches and a cathedral spread out, so when one came down the spear, the two churches seemed like guards standing in front of but to the side of a divine throne. The buildings themselves were beautiful, but the most eye-catching part about them was the plants. The church on the left had a giant flower growing from the back. The rose glistened with a red glow as it bathed in the sunlight. The church on the right was covered in vines with little purple flowers, making it look like somebody had thrown a jade net studded with amethyst jewels over it. From the cathedral in the back, a great crystal tree rose; its leaves and branches shone with refracted light from the sun, and as if to show it was alive, its branches swayed in the wind. Behind and around the sides of the cathedral were other small buildings hardly noticeable amidst the beauty of the field. However, one of the small buildings is where the six children begin to walk.
Following the winding path through the field, careful not to trample any beautiful plants on both sides, the group approached the compound of small, unimpressive one-story buildings. The building they headed towards was surrounded by a small grass lawn free of plants and flowers on which other groups of children ran and played.
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As they reached the edge of the lawn, Lily felt a gust of air blow past as Devlin, Io and Wes ran ahead of her, racing towards the building; Tom and Jani stayed with her as the three calmly walked the same way. As she grew closer, the large double doors opened, and two bald men walked out carrying a large wooden table with a hole in the center; these men were Tree Wardens. They wore humble clothing topped with a white surcoat decorated with the image of a great crystal tree. Unlike the clear crystal that made up the one splitting the sky from the cathedral, this one had a trunk of light green and leaves of every colour imaginable. Strapped to their backs, each man had a long staff of clear crystal that matched the great tree overhead. The men set the table down with a loud thud and retreated inside the building. Seeing and hearing this, the children around Lily stopped playing and turned towards the table. A moment later, the reason was apparent: the men were back, and between them, carried with a long pole, was a large pot; they set this pot down into the hole on the table and stepped back to either side, then from the doors five woman and two more guards appeared, the woman wore long white robes that reached their ankles, the most striking part about them was their hair all different shades of green and nestled in each one's hair was a rose. The new guards behind them respectively carried a box heaped with bread and another full of bowls and spoons. As for the women, two of them had large laddles, but other than that, they carried nothing.
As the children sat on the grass, they organized themselves from smallest to largest. Lily was near the smaller children, Devlin and Io, and the others were spread out in the crowd. After the children were all seated, the woman with the darkest green hair began to speak in a kindly tone,
“The life of the Emperor flows ever through your veins.” She smiled warmly at the children, and they gestured for the smallest to come forward.
“Come and eat what his majesty has provided to nurture the life in all of you, so the small may grow large and the weak strong.” The children began to stand up and form a line, which moved quickly as the other four women deftly handed each child a bowl of stew and a loaf of bread. Being near the front, Lily was soon given a bowl and bread, and then, going back around, she sat down and began to eat. The stew was full of vegetables, and the bread was fresh and fluffy, unlike the stale hard loaves Sky sometimes brought home from the docks. When she was about halfway done, the head of the woman spoke again,
“Those of you who have not eaten are large and strong enough to work for the emperor's greatness. His gifts can be given only to the small and weak.” She had the same kind smile on her face as she said this. Following those words, the guards placed the empty boxes that had held bread and bowls on the grass. Then, they fit the iron bar back into the pot, and two of them carried it away. The other two picked up the table and followed them.