Ewan doubled down on Dryth's previous experiences with teleporting somewhere as his teacher grabbed his arm as soon as Dryth could walk and dragged him out of the teleportation chamber at what was basically a run.

  "No time to dally!" He half-shouted as he pulled Dryth along.

  Dryth stumbled and did his best to keep his feet as they jogged quickly though bright, intricately decorated hallways, which wasn't helped by Sindri tuning to look every which way and throwing his weight around while on Dryth's shoulders.

  They raced past all kinds of faces, many if not most of which turned to watch them as they flew by with a mixture of disapproving, confused, or intrigued stares. Dryth knew this had to be another Association campus. He didn't know of any other places Ewan would be able to teleport them to besides those, but it wasn't Stonebreak's campus. The architectural style was different, more elegant and airy than the large and solid blocks Dryth had seen all over Stonebreak. There was also so many more colors. Stonebreak had been fairly uniform and drab, with hints of art or decoration here and there, but that was only something Dryth realized when he looked at everything that was everywhere in this place. They passed people in robes of many hues, some single tones others combinations of colors that hurt his eyes There were paintings and sculptures everywhere, some of which were actively giving off magic such as blowing bubbles or having the people in the paintings do different dances as people passed them. The entire place seemed to be alive and beautiful in a way that Dryth didn't know Stonebreak lacked until he'd seen both to compare them.

  There was no time to take in the extravagant sights though, Ewan continued rushing them out down hallways until they burst through a door into open air. There were even more works of art there, mixed in with gorgeous plants and trees, and there were magical beings and beasts walking everywhere Dryth looked. He saw a sphinx and what must have been a small dragon, along with a humanoid figure that seemed to be made of a single carved gemstone as tall as Dryth was, a giant hound, a horse with a glowing white mane that drifted like smoke, and even another snake with wings, although it had wings closer to bat's wings. It was also in a cage and seemed to be desperately trying to attack the woman carry said cage.

  He didn't have more than a second to look around before Ewan was once again propelling them quickly away. Ewan didn't even try to go around anyone and just plowed through every time someone was in the way, earning angry looks and shouts that he didn't respond to. They kept that speed until they hit a large metal gate that was sitting open and slowed to a stop just outside the borders of the campus.

  "There we are!" Ewan patted Dryth on the back and let go of his arm. "Now we're safe!"

  "Safe?" Dryth noticed the two guards standing by the gate turn and look at them at Ewan's words. "What are we safe from?"

  "Now that we're outside the gate the Director can't force me into any meetings!" Ewan replied, not noticing the guards eying him. "Every time I come to the capital she's always trying to drag me into this or that, but we don't have time for me to argue with her today, we have an appointment!"

  Either the guards recognized Ewan thanks to his little speech or they decided trying to avoid meetings wasn't worth being concerned about and the two guards stopped walking toward them and strolled back to their posts.

  "Wait." Dryth's brow furrowed as he thought. "Doesn't the Director work at the Association's headquarters? Wait, did you just say 'the capital'?"

  "Indeed! Welcome to the capital, my students!"

  Dryth whipped around to look. They were standing on a cobbled sidewalk next to a smooth stone road that curved past them, lined by large buildings on either side that had a respectful distance between each. A bustle of people passed by all around them, most of whom were walking into or out of the Association campus, and carriages and other more esoteric vehicles passed them by on the road. Stretching out below them, the campus was situated atop a large hill, was a massive city bigger then Dryth had ever seen. It rolled out across the countryside like a gigantic stone patch sewn into a green garment. Near the center of the city was a palatial edifice surrounded by high walls, with smaller estates surrounding it. The farther you went from the center the less rich the city looked until you eventually ended up at another set of walls that made an odd oblong shape as they circled the city. Sitting outside the walls were even more buildings, although once you got to that point there were less and less stone structures and more and more made of wood, or sometimes a combination of the two. Once you reached the farthest edges of the rolling mark of humanities ability to change the landscape the buildings were obvious ramshackle and worn down, even at this distance.

  "Welcome to the largest city in the kingdom," Ewan continued, "Home to art, philosophy, beauty, discourse, history, wealth, power, political intrigue, rot, disease, theft, murder, backstabbing, love, scheming, production, creation, magic, and so much more!" He cried.

  Dryth looked askance at him. "Do you like it here? I can't tell from that introduction."

  "That depends entirely on why I'm here and who I'm interacting with. Today should be fine, I believe. Now, we need to grab transportation if we're going to make it on time. Follow me there should be a spot to hail someone nearby." He turned and started walking down the sidewalk. "Was it this way...?"

  "It smells weird here." Sindri complained to Dryth. "Like sweat and decay and all kinds of food all over the place."

  "It's probably from all the people. I bet the sewer system isn't all that good either."

  Sindri looked at him, but Ewan interrupted before he could say anything.

  "Here we are, I did remember the right spot. Let's see we need something that can fit us all, will go where we want, and won't whine about Sindri, ah! There, that one should do." Ewan led them to an open-air carriage waiting alongside a number of other vehicles. "Good day, young man. How much to take myself and my student to the east side bounty station?"

  The short man slouching against the railing around the driver's seat looked over with unnaturally bright green eyes. "How fast?"

  "We should have more than enough time, we don't need to be there for two hours." Ewan replied, to Dryth's shock. Two hours to get where they were going? How far away was it?

  "Oh, you mean outside east side? That should be enough time to get through the wall, yeah. Call it ten gild."

  "Ten!? Young man it's not more than an eight gild trip!"

  "What's gild?" Sindri asked as Ewan and the driver started haggling.

  "It's what the kingdom calls its currency." Dryth informed him, "Come to think of it, we talked about currency as a concept but I've never really shown you any." Dryth pulled out his coin purse and dumped a few coins in his hand. "This larger one with the six edges and the four lines in the middle is a gild, technically a full-gild. This one that looks like a gild split in half down the lines is a half-gild, and this is a quarter-gild. The full-gild and part-gilds are made of gold, and they're the most valuable coins. These smaller silver ones are lessgilds or lesses, and they only split once into half-lessgilds, but almost everyone calls them halvsies. After that you have leastgilds which are made of bronze and are the smallest, but people call those jingles."

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  "Why 'jingles'?"

  "Because almost everyone carries them around and they jingle against each other in your purse or your pocket. Anything bigger than them and most normal people don't carry them openly."

  Ewan finally finished haggling with the driver, who had picked up the reins. "Right, that's that settled. Every time I come here it feels like it's more expensive to get a ride anywhere." He stopped and looked down at Dryth's hand. "Dryth, I'm not going to ask you to pay for the trip, I'm covering you both."

  "Thank you, I appreciate that, but I was showing Sindri the different kinds of coins."

  "Oh, have we not done that already? Good job then, but put that away and hop in the carriage, we don't have forever."

  Dryth climbed in and Ewan followed behind him, taking the seat behind the driver with only a thin board keeping their backs from touching, which gave Dryth a decent view of the creature pulling the vehicle. It was generally shaped like a horse, which is why Dryth originally didn't pay much attention to it, but looking closer he noticed it was covered in thin scales in certain parts of its body, which glimmered in the sun. It's tail was also different than a horse's, instead of just hair it looked like there was actually flesh there before the hair started, and that part was broad and a bit thick.

  "Interested in our transportation?" Ewan asked, noticing Dryth staring. "Personally I think that Beast Tamers shouldn't be looked down as much as they are among some portions of the mage community, not only do they provide important services like this right now, but if you run into one with a powerful beast they're a right pain to deal with."

  "Well doesn't that make me blush with happiness." Their driver called back. "Seriously though, I appreciate that. Some mages like to act like we're some kind of lesser cousin to Contractors and Summoners and that can gall."

  "I myself am I Contractor, sir, and while there may be similarities between our Classes I find it quite silly to draw that level of comparison." Ewan either didn't notice or didn't care about the driver suddenly stiffening up. "Beast Tamers are their own Class worthy of respect, not only because you all are capable of making bonds with beasts, which we cannot, and let me tell you there are some beasts out there I'd love to be able to contract with if only they were sapient, but also because the average Beast Tamer could probably kick the shit out of any average Contractor!"

  The driver relaxed as he heard Ewan compliment his Class. "Well, that'd take me getting to them, and they tend to have more cards and magic than I do."

  "There's nothing stopping you from getting magical cards, all you need are one or two defensive ones and you'll be right in there with them, throwing haymakers!"

  "Beast Tamers gain some of the traits of the magical beasts that they bond to, if I remember correctly." Dryth piped up. "Is that what you're talking about?"

  "Correct!" Ewan reached awkwardly to pat the man once on the shoulder. "This gentleman here could probably lift as much as his companion here weighs, and if he threw a punch at one of us I wouldn't be surprised if it broke bone! Physical strength is one of the most common trait that Beast Tamers get from their companions, and depending on the beasts that they manage to tame they could have all kinds of tricks. Our lovely driver's eyes are likely from a trait as well, they match the color of his companion's."

  "Aye, they're a trait. They let me see better in the dark and underwater."

  "Aha! I was wondering. Based off of the scales, is your companion a kelpie or some kind of variant hippocamp?"

  "Well if we're being specific, neither technically. She's half and half o' both, with maybe some less watery magical horse built in. She only needs water once or twice a week, which can be a pain but isn't too terrible compared to if she was magically bonded to a lake or a pond, she can walk on water, and she eats meat but doesn't try and eat people." He nodded emphatically as the beast turned her head to look behind at her tamer. "Yes we're talking about you dear lady. And no that wasn't an invitation to bite anyone, no matter how much they annoy you." He turned and glanced over his shoulder at them. "She's not people-smart like you two might be used to, but neither kelpies or hippocampi are fools and there's no point giving her any slack. She will take someone's arm off if they step wrong around her."

  Ewan excitedly chattered with the driver about where he'd encountered such an interesting creature and how he'd tamed her, while Dryth spent half his brain power listening and half of it contemplating. Sindri had gotten warm in the sun and decided to curl up for a nap. They traveled down the hill and past a few intersections where more pedestrians walked and other carriages, wagons, and vehicles were drawn by various animals. Most were just normal horses or oxen, but there were occasionally more magical animals and creatures acting as transportation here and there. A woman riding a horse with eight legs passed by in the opposite direction, and Dryth spotted one larger carriage with expensive looking inlays and a large crest on the door that was being pulled by a griffin.

  They moved onto a main thoroughfare that was headed toward the outer walls and the number of people and vehicles grew even more. There were hundreds of people all around with different styles of dress and the colors they wore generally denoting who was wealthy and who was not. A vast majority of the buildings they passed by on the main road were businesses of some kind. In the beginning when they were closer to the wealthier sections Dryth saw boutiques, ateliers, and jewelry stores and when they moved closer to normal residential areas he saw grocers, seamstresses, and cobblers. Whey they got to the section of the city closest to the walls on the inside many of the businesses became more physical, and there were smiths, brickmakers, and haulers lined along the street.

  There was a line of carts, wagons, and smaller carriages lined up behind the wall as they got close to the massive doors set into the side of the gargantuan walls that protected the city. Off to one side was a shorter line with fancier means of transportation where the line seemed to be moving much faster, if still fairly slowly.

  Ewan broke off his conversation with the driver reluctantly. "I don't imagine the gatekeepers have gotten any faster at checking everyone over, and I don't think we're going to make our appointment if we have to wait for this long of a line."

  "If you think you can hoof it there on time I'll give you back a bit of your money, but the walk-throughs take almost as long as going on a vehicle some days."

  "Mmm." Ewan shook his head. "I don't think that'll work either. Ah well. Go ahead and pull into the far line."

  The driver turned to give him a skeptical look. "You sure? I won't get in trouble since I'm for hire, but they don't like people trying to go in that line if they don't have permission."

  Ewan sighed. "Yes, go ahead. I hate dealing with the toadies that work their way into those kind of positions so I avoid using the faster gates when I can, but needs must and all that."

  The driver clicked his tongue and lightly pulled the reins, sending his companion out from behind the cart in front of them and putting them on course for the farther line of richly appointed carriages., which earned them a few confused or startled looks from the drivers they started passing. "You someone special?"

  "I certainly think I am, and I do have this card that agrees with me." Ewan pulled out a thick card of the same shape and size as the magical being handling license Dryth had received but it was colored a deep red and had gold edged lettering on it. He flipped it to face the driver before Dryth could see it.

  "Well, the folks up ahead will definitely ask to see that." The driver looked back at it for a second, then did a surprised double take. After reading it again he let out a slow whistle as he turned back around. "Yup, that says you're important alright. I think we won't have any problems getting through that line."

  "What's that say?" Dryth asked as Ewan slipped the card back into his pocket.

  "I just said, it tells people I'm important. I really wish I didn't need a card to tell people that, they should know by look at me, but..." He shrugged nonchalantly.

  "Who are you?" Dryth asked out loud for the first time.

  Ewan tilted his head up, revealing a mischievous smile. He winked at Dryth. "That's a surprise."

  "... If I go back to the Association headquarters and use your name, do you think the Director would tell me who you are?"

  "Don't do that!" Ewan protested. "You'll ruin all my fun!"