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The Turning Wind
Mount Ardaziel

Mount Ardaziel

Staying oriented on the way to Mount Ardaziel was easy. The entire journey between the theome of Shibanyet and the theome of Mount Ardaziel was along the northern coast of north Kanjamund. They just had to follow the coastline of the Sea of Turavia.

It was a dreary flight. Aleicree might have played in the wind, but zie knew that Azosta and Limist couldn’t be feeling well on empty stomachs. The three dragons flew in a steady formation without diverging. At least they hardly needed to flap with the wind magic supporting them. They hung above Theoma, using little energy and making great time.

Still, the dregs of morning became the height of afternoon. The sun beat down on them from above for a time, heating their backs, wings, and tails. The sun became a grand nuisance ahead of them as it drifted down towards the horizon in the west.

They passed theome after theome. Six coastal theomes flew by underneath their lofted wings. The northern coastline of Kanjamund contained some of the continent's little grassland and thus some of its few farms, although even here the ever-present forests sometimes pushed all the way up to the coast. They flew over roads linking together the region's many ports. There were no great cities between Shibanyet and Mount Ardaziel, but there were towns and villages. Despite the abundance of forests, Aleicree noticed a preponderance of stone architecture. It seemed like every community had a stone depot piled high with cut stone for construction.

Mount Ardaziel reared over the horizon ahead of them as they flew. It was just south of them when they finally neared their destination. Across the ground between the mountain and the sea, the forests had been partially cleared for a great city of stone, and the foothills of the mountain had quarries cut into them to remove their stone for trade and construction. The land here was scarred and grey with industry.

Aleicree slowed their perfect wind.

The challenge of approaching Shibanyet and not knowing the way around was repeated here. Zie knew no more where the inns of Mount Ardaziel were than zie'd known where the inns of Shibanyet were.

Long experience as a seagon sent zir looking to the edge of the coastline, and zie turned to fly in that direction, feeling in zir geomantic sense of the wind as Limist and Azosta banked to follow. Scanning for a good landing space in the port town of Mount Ardaziel (for that was the name of both the mountain and the great stone city at its foot), zie saw a forum built up atop the roof of a stoutly built warehouse on the waterfront. There were dragons approaching and departing it in all directions, including from out over the water, where a steady flow of ships moved to carry away the stone and goods of Mount Ardaziel.

The decorative columns of the forum described a big four-pointed-cross as seen from above, and they were evenly arranged on red circles of inlaid stone, and each one was beautifully painted in an array of red and green shades. They supported quarter-rings of stone above the forum's surface, and planters hung from the top stones, supporting dangling vine plants.

When Aleicree had landed at the edge of the forum, zie saw a city map with "Welcome to Mount Ardaziel" on top of it and a "you are here" pin in the waterfront area. It was printed up on a simple two-post board that stood on stone footings between two of the columns near the city-side edge of the forum. Numerous smaller pins in the map each with a little number on its head corresponded to a legend alongside the map, showing local businesses of interest to travellers: inns, taverns, a local cartographer's office, a temple of Querent-Querent, a market exchange on another warehouse rooftop, and many others.

Limist and Azosta came up behind Aleicree as zie was looking at the map. Azosta asked, "Have you ever been here before?"

"Never. I haven't visited Vrekant since he moved south." Aleicree's stomach rumbled. "Let's focus on picking a place to eat."

They looked at the map to pick a restaurant.

"Hmm... I've been here before. I know a good place just off the road." By 'the road' Limist meant the stone-paved road that circled the city, leading from the waterfront to the city centre to the quarries on the far side. It was prominent on the map and labelled as Port Road. "They have a really good saffron bread there, and it's not too dear."

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"Lead the way," Aleicree said, and Limist went to the edge of the forum to take off again. Aleicree and Azosta flew after him. Aleicree's amicus breeze welled up as usual when zie flew, but this time zie checked it in order to not overtake Limist in flight.

Port Road was a broad and busy thoroughfare with dragons pulling blocks of stone on wheeled platforms, wagonloads of construction material or gravel traversing it, and individual workers returning home, though not too many of those as most of the dragons in the city had wings with which to make the trip. The skies were fairly packed as well. Aleicree got to watch the thick evening traffic by land and air. The road traffic beneath them flowed towards the ports and depots as the quarries shipped out their last loads for the day. The sky traffic split for the stone apartments in the city centre and the larger homes in the city's outskirts. The three of them were flying against the current. No trouble in that; plenty of space in the sky.

When Limist saw their destination beneath them, he landed on a nearby rooftop. The buildings here were designed for this. There were many businesses upon the rooftops, and some of those had businesses upon their rooftops, in shrinking pyramids of commerce upon the tops of the residences below. The business they wanted was at street-level, but this also what the buildings were designed for, with a ramp leading down the side of the building and doubling back on itself to get down to street level. They passed doors into the apartments along the way. Aleicree wondered if the apartments with this commercial foot traffic outside sold dearer or cheaper. Was it a convenience or a nuisance?

As the three travelled down, they passed izerah and kalla going up. The ramps were for accessibility! The rooftop businesses of Mount Ardaziel served even the non-flying customers.

At last they stood at the street level, in the shadow of great stone buildings that reared up to provide housing for the working dragons of Mount Ardaziel. Here the commerce faded, and mostly the street led to the addresses of the hulking buildings, but there was one place that looked quite charming built into the ground floor of the building just across from the one where Limist had landed. Here a red sign declared "The Proud Lantern" to be in business, next to a logo of a stylised lantern. The three crossed over to enter it with a flow of what looked to be local quarry-workers still dusty from their day.

There was a menu posted over the queue as they entered. Saffron bread was up there, as well as cinnamon bread, cheese bread, and puff bread. The prices for these were good. They had a stew of the day listed to go with the breads. They also had preserved meats available at a price that was more eyewatering than mouthwatering.

"Saffron bread is what you recommended?" asked Aleicree, prodding at Limist's flank to get his attention in the crowd.

"Oh yes, try it!" said Limist, speaking up over the crowd noise in the place.

Service was moving quickly in the place as it seemed to rely on food prepared ahead of time and delivered to buyers just after they paid at the counter. It wasn't a long wait to get to the head of the queue. Curious to try them, Aleicree bought saffron bread and cinnamon bread. It wasn’t a balanced meal, but zie figured zie could get away with that occasionally. Zie avoided the meat this time as the price was bad, though it pained zir to stay away from it. Zie could use the energy for all-day travelling.

Limist and Azosta ordered saffron bread and stew. The three of them took their purchases to a table, with the two vrash carrying their food in little baskets that they could carry in their mouths on the way to a table.

When they were all set up, Aleicree took a bite of the bread, and then several more with unaccustomed hunger. The other two ate ravenously, and when they were nearly done Aleicree pushed a few coins across the table. “Go buy more, you needn’t get used to skipping meals,” zie said to them.

They both smiled at that and didn’t object.

The three finished their meal in... silence, of a sort. The busy crowd of the Lantern was loud. The combination of fast service and tasty food had many dragons passing through, and the room wasn’t built for luxury and comfort. They couldn’t stay and talk here. It was a place to eat and get out.

When they were out, they climbed back to the rooftop to get a spot to take flight from, and Aleicree asked Limist, "So since you're more familiar with this place than I am, where should we spend the night?"

"Just a cheap hostel I know," said Limist. "That's what I'd recommend. I always used it while out here on a job."

"I've been out here almost as many times, always with Limist," said Azosta. "Same recommendation from me."

So they stayed in a hostel that night with four other dragons they didn't know, and it was nothing but a great bare room with pillows on which to lay one's head, but Aleicree supposed it was cleaner, safer, and quieter than sleeping rough outside.