On the way to the dining room I was abled to observe the interior of the mansion. It appeared to be made of stone and wood, but of a very high quality. The furniture I saw was made out of polished wood and either leather or high quality fabrics. I also saw several paintings around and was surprised by the proper use of scale, something that was lacking in the middle ages of my own planet. The lighting for the building came from sconces powered by crystals that emitted white light.

In the dining room I found that the dining table was massive, it had twenty five chairs surrounding it, and it appeared to be made from a single giant piece of wood. I could hardly imagine the size of the tree it must have come from.

Porten was already sitting to the right of the head of the table waiting for us. Audric sat at the head of the table and I sat to his left. Apparently we were to wait for our food.

Porten seemed to fidget for a moment before he finally worked up the courage to ask a question.

"Master, I really must know... Who was the woman who finally was able to get you to have a child with her?"

Audric simply sighed before giving me forlorn look. He turned back to Porten.

"Ambrjrn was pranking the both of us. He isn't really my son, he's a summon."

Porten's eyes grew ever so slightly larger at that comment.

"A summon? But he looks flesh and blood to me... And I don't sense any mana between you and him."

"What do you think I have been doing all these years... I was researching a new form of summoning. He is as apart of this world as we are now."

Porten's eyes grew even larger before his attention snapped over to me, who had been watching how this conversation would play out.

"If that is true... That would mean you are from another plane right?!? What is it like!"

I tested my hand on my chin and put on a 'deep thought' face. After a few seconds I replied.

"Hmm, well I suppose the best way to describe it is a giant tree, and each leaf is a continent..."

Porten's jaw dropped, not holding a single bit of doubt in his face.

"Could such a place really exist?..."

Audric stepped in at this point, "Of course not. He is just proving you to be the fool I always suspected you to be."

"Hehe, Audric is right. But really my world is quite different, society focuses on technology there. Mm.. humans are the only species there. From what Audric has described I would say my world is a lot smaller than this one."

"Humans the only species... But you are... Well... Not human."

"You think I didn't notice that? Although I don't really mind, it offers a nice change of pace."

Before our conversation had an opportunity to continue, the doors to the dining room where opened and a man that I could only describe as a butler walked in pushing a cart of food.

He was an older man, balding and with a wrinkled face. His attire was similar to an old fashioned butler uniform, even coming with the white gloves. One thing I did notice was that he had small black tattoos around his neck. He must be the slave mentioned earlier, not exactly what I was expecting.

From the cart the butler/slave unloaded generous amounts of food before us. Eggs both fried and boiled, many kinds of bread, sausages, some form of custard, and a selection of fruit juices.

Our previous conversation was quickly forgotten due to both me and Audric having nothing but stew made from things found in the forest. We quickly began to prepare plates with samples of everything on it. 

The fried eggs were prepared similar to an omelet, lightly salted with a mixture of seasonings I did not recognize, mixed with finely diced chunks of what I assumed to be peppers and bits of meat. Heavenly.

When I bit into a boiled egg, I found that it had been partially stuffed with cheese and was lightly salted. It appeared the others ate theirs along with a slice of reddish brown bread. I decided to give it a try and found that it complimented the salty cheesy flavor of the egg with an ever so slight sweetness. I am pretty sure my mouth is melting from the goodness.

I moved on to a slice of dark brown, almost black bread along with some of the sausages. The black/brown bread had a texture and taste similar to whole grain bread, and the sausage was an explosion of meat and spices.

To wash it all down I decided on an orange colored juice from the several selections. I was greeted with a smooth sweet flavor completely different from what one would expect from a orange drink.

After several minutes of eating I leaned back in my chair completely stuffed. Glancing over at Audric, judging by the empty plates before him, I would say he had a similar reaction to my own. Patting his stomach, he let out a long content sigh.

Poten, who had excersized a bit more self control, stood up.

"As much as I would love to stick around, I have leave for the court in a few minutes, so if you will excuse me."

Audric added "And I should probably report to the magic counsel, let them know I am alive and all that." He turned to me. "The magic counsel doesn't allow non members into their building, and considering how long I have been gone, this is going to take all day. So you will need to make your own plans for the rest of the day."

"I would like to explore the city if possible."

"If that's what you want to do I will give you some coin to spend and a honing crystal so you can find your way back."

After that Porten and Audric left the room, awhile later Audric returned with a bag of coins and two crystals. He then explained the monetary system and how crystals worked, he also gave me a brief description of the layout of the city. He then bid me farewell and left.

The crystals where linked to each other. I would leave one here and take the other with me. The mana within the crystal always pulls in the direction of the other, so all I had to do was sense the mana within and follow it back.

The money was a simple system that would make the metric system proud. It started with the copper bit coin, which was about enough to buy a single piece of common fruit. Ten copper bits made a full copper, ten of those made a silver bit, ten of those made a full silver and so on through gold and a green metal Audric called Burium. Even larger purchases used a red crystal.

I had been only been given copper and silver coins, but it was still quite the sum I was given. I put one of the crystals in the money bag before tying it to my chest underneath my shirt/toga. The first thing I planned on doing was finding somewhere that sold children's clothing.

I waited awhile for the slave to return, it only took a short while for him to return to clear off the table. I decided to ask him about his life as a slave. So putting on a childish attitude (I figured that it would be easier to forgive me if I touched on a sensitive topic), I approached the subject.

"So... Um... Is it true that your a... Slave?"

The slave stood before me and replied in a formal tone.

"Yes I am, young master. Is there anything you require?"

"Well I was just wondering, what is your life like here.. as a slave."

The slave thought for a moment before replying.

"Better than most slaves. I get to sleep inside the mansion and receive three good meals a day. Master Fabinus is not particularly caring, but neither is he harsh, he never uses my slave seal. The work is not laborious so I am in good health. I am lucky that Master Fabinus is my master. Others are not so kind to their slaves. That is my assessment of the situation young master."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Thank you. Well I will be going now. Oh and please leave that crystal on the table, I may need it to find my way back."

"Certainly sir. Be safe while out and about."

"Thank you."

It seems that Porten was a OK guy despite owning a slave, which is the answer I was after. I am not sure I would be comfortable living in the house of a man who mistreats his slaves. Having got the answer I was hoping for, I headed outside.

My first glimpse of the inside of the capital was of a mostly empty street. The road was paved with smooth stones and its entire length was bordered by close set mansions. The few occupants of the street seemed to be the wealthy homeowner, most of them leaving their homes for the morning. When he told me the layout of the city, Audric had said we where in the wealthy homeowners district located right outside the nobles district.

I decided to get an aerial view rather than rely on Audric's vauge description. Although I had not flown before, I was fairly confident I could do so. After all, if Audric could teleport several thousand miles, flying was probably a piece of cake.

My solution was rather simple, first I created two mana shields flat on the ground, each a 1 foot diameter circle. After placing a foot on each, I wrapped the shield around my foot to allow a firm foothold. The I slowly raised myself a few inches off the ground.

When I had experimented with moving objects with shields before, I had found that I could move them pretty much however I wanted, the only drawback was that it required a huge amount of mana to sustain, but with my connection with the ether that didn't really matter. That just means that I will be the only person who uses this method of flight. For this reason I decided to surround my feet in a small gray cloud and make it look like I was standing on it, hopefully I can avoid some suspicion this way.

Once I was a few inches off the ground I started experimenting. I wasn't about to throw myself into the sky without testing to make sure I could trust this method. Spending a few minutes zipping around the street a few inches off the ground while only (visibly) wearing a shirt earned me a few strange looks from passerbys.

I found that I could fully control this spell and could sustain it with only minimal concentration. Thus satisfied that I would not fall to my death, I began my assent.

ZWOOSH

Watch it buddy! Once I reached just above the rooftops of the surrounding mansions I was nearly blown away by a flying mage, I was unable to get a good look at him but judging from the glare he was probably bald, and he was wearing white and gray robes. Also the serious gust that assaulted me after he passed suggested that he was using wind magic to propel himself.

With a newfound caution, I made sure to thoroughly check my surroundings before moving further up. One satisfied that I wouldn't get hit by another low flyer, I took a look around at the other inhabitants of the sky. I could see at least ten other mages flying about and farther away were people riding some flying creatures. If any of the fantasy web novels I have read had any speck of truth to them, then that would be the city patrols riding either wyverns or griffens.

Giving one last check to my surroundings I zipped into the sky untill I reached a decent altitude for observation. Wow, just... Wow. This city was nothing like what I was expecting.

I doubt I can do justice to the city with just words, but I will try. First off the scale of it, I am not confident at my estimation ability, but I would guess that this city had a population are one and a half million people. Roughly circular in shape, the city is surrounded by a wall that stood three times the hight of the surrounding buildings.

I can not describe everything I was taking in at once, so I will describe the city starting at the center. At the very center of the city is a tower. Now I have been to New York before so I have seen tall towers, and this one would be able to fit right in. At the base of this tower was the royal palace, it looked like a cross between a giant castle and a mansion. The royal palace was surrounded by a large plot of land covered in well maintained greenery.

Separated from the royal palace by a short fence was the nobles' district, forming a perfect circle around the palace. There was around one hundred mansions, each with their own large yard. The noble's choices in what to do with their yard varied from a simple grass field, to a vibrant garden, and some even had swimming pools.

The nobles' district was separated from the rest of the city by a stone wall that was twice the hight of the surrounding buildings. The stone wall was connected to the tower at the palace by a transparent barrier that formed a dome over it. The only reason I knew it was there was because it reflected a small amount of sun light. 

Even though the the noble's district took up a lot of space, compared to the entirety of the city it appeared quite small. Surrounding the nobles' district was the mansions of the wealthy lesser nobles and and non-nobles. Outwards from there to the North and West where the housing districts for the commoners. To the South was the merchant and craftsman districts. To the East was the warehouse district, and in a sliver to the Northeast, wedged in-between the warehouse district and the northern commoners district was the 'shady' part of town, consisting of the slums, red light district and ify institutions.

I lost myself in thought looking out over the vast sea of buildings. I was drawn out of my thoughts by a masculine voice calling out a cheerful greeting.

"Hello over there! Nice view isn't it?"

I had to turn around to get a look at who could be calling out to me at this altitude. What I saw was a mage in light red robes flapping over to me. Yes I mean it when I say flapping, he had a pair of wings made from fire sprouting from his shoulder blades. I can't say that I had even thought of using fire to make wings, or any sane man for that reason. But then again people on earth rode to save on the ends of rockets...

Once he got nearby, the mage spread his wings out wide and small jets of flame shot out of the bottom, allowing him to hover near me. Now that he was up close I could make out his features, a blonde haired, blue eyed, pale skinned elf. Tall and thin, he had an appearance of someone around age 18, but I didn't know how elves aged in this world, so he could be older.

"Wow! Someone so young using flight magic! Unless your one of the shorter races, then I mean no offense."

"Ah, no no, I am still growing, no worries."

"Oh that's good. But standing on a cloud, I don't think I have ever seen such a flight magic. Are you perhaps a wind mage?"

"No, I don't specialize in wind magic, this is just what I came up with to get around."

"You came up with your own magic! That's amazing, are you attending an academy? I am sure any academy would be willing to accept you despite your age..." His voice trailed off as he took a second look at the clothing I was wearing.

"No, I am not currently attending an academy."

"Well talent such as yours shouldn't be put to waste! I will take you to my father, I'm sure he will be willing to pay for your tuition!"

"Haha, please don't get the wrong idea, I am not attending an academy because I moved to the city just today. As for my clothing, all of the ones I brought with me were ruined and I just haven't had a chance to buy new ones."

"Oh, that's good to hear, not about your clothes, but that you can attend an academy. Actually my academy," he showed off the badge stitched to the front of his robes, consisting of a tower topped by a beacon, wrapped around by a dragon in gold stitching on a black background. "Othrode Academy, the best academy in the country, is holding its entrance exams in a few days, would you be able to apply by then?"

I really wanted to check this place out, but I had to keep up appeances, so I pretended to think for a moment.

"I would have to talk to my dad, but that would probably be OK."

"Really?! That's great! My school year doesn't start back untill after the exams, so I am free all day today, you said you just moved here, so do you need me to show you around?"

"That would actually be great, do you know any good places to buy clothes? And I never got your name."

"Sure I know a few places. And it's Allen, Allen Flamewood. And yours?"

"Nice to meet you Allen, I am Ambrjrn, Ambrjrn Aldrich."

Allen scratched his head a moment, "Aldrich... Sounds familiar... Well never mind that follow me."

Allen put out the jets holding him up and began to soar down towards the merchant district. I put a bit of boost on as I followed him down.

Down at the merchant district I began to see that the streets here were busy with a large number of people. Allan led me to a wide but mostly empty alley to make his landing, using the wing jets he had used earlier to touchdown. Since I didn't have any shoes, I decided to simply hover a few feet off the ground, that way I could also stay eye level with Allan.

"Aren't you going to run out of mana if you keep hovering like that?"

"Nope, I can keep this up all day."

"Damn, I have a pretty big mana pool even for an elf... But I don't even want to guess how much mana sustaining flight for that long would take... Either that or you developed a revolutionary low cost flight spell."

Allan didn't actually act like he was expecting an answer so I didn't reply. Instead we headed out into the busy street. And wow, was it amazing. True humans here were in the majority, but I would estimate that was about seventy-five percent of the people I could see, the rest...

Well to name a few of the races I saw... Eleves of various kinds, beast men of various kinds, lizardmen and/or dragonnewts (not to sure which they were), dwarves, halflings, the four armed race Audric had mentioned before, Oni, one woman who I am pretty sure was an Amazon, and a variety of others I did not know the name of.

Allen seemed unfazed by the crowd and simply began to walk along with the rest of the crowd flow. People gave us a little space, I don't know if it was because I was floating on a cloud or if they recognized Allan's robes, maybe both.

As we moved along Allan questioned me about what exactly I was looking for, I told him that I was going through a bit of a growth spurt I wouldn't be wearing any clothing I bought for very long. He suggested a shop he knew of that could make clothing that could grow along with a person. I had my interest peaked by this and urged him to lead me there.

After a few minutes of walking, or rather hovering as it were for me, we arrived in front of a store who's sign displayed a shirt and pants connected by a thread and needle. There were words written beneath the pictures on the sign, but as my reading had not yet cought up to my talking ability, all I could make out was something about clothing.

The inside of the shop I found something different from what I was expecting. It was a small empty room. Tacked to the walls were samples of clothing, and at the opposite side from the doorway was a room length counter. We were greeted by a soft feminine voice.

"Welcome, what can I help you with today?"

Looking at the originator of the voice, I spyed a ten inch tall humanoid figure standing on top of the counter.

"[Holy shit, it's a real live fairy!]"