What We Do to Survive

I found Liam already waiting for me, leaning casually against one of the towering pillars that littered the portal room. I almost didn’t recognize him at first, my eyes passing over him until he waved me over. Instead of his regular formal robes, he was dressed like a street boy from back home with short shorts, a thin white shirt, and woven sandals on his feet.

I glanced self consciously at my own outfit. I rarely wore anything other than my everyday clothes, but I’d dug out some of the things I hadn’t worn since arriving at the Academy. I’d grown somewhat since then, and the shirt and pants I was wearing both felt slightly too tight. Still, it was the most casual thing I’d found in the short time I’d had to get dressed, so it would have to do. Hopefully I wouldn’t stand out too badly?

Liam whistled quietly as I came up to him, giving my outfit what I hoped was an approving look. “Damn, you fill those out way better than I’d of thought, can barely see any of that under that jacket you always wear!”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I just smiled politely and nodded. He pushed off the wall, and gestured towards the portal. “Let's get going then? We’re running a little early for dinner but it's a beautiful city. We can take the scenic route.”

“Sounds good.” I followed after him, looking around with interest at a part of Avalon I rarely saw. The portal room was somewhat removed from the rest of campus, housed in its own free standing hall connected to the rest of campus by a wide plaza. It seemed relations with the port city were pretty good, because only two guards flanked the portal, leaning casually on long battle-staves.

I’d heard that when the portal was located in less friendly cities, the room was sometimes guarded by as many as twenty or thirty mages and twice that many war golems. Now, those golems stood inertly around the edges of the hall, towering stone bodies still as statues and crystal eyes dim.

We passed through the iridescent portal with no issues, only pausing to channel mana into the record stone to mark our exit and prove we were supposed to be here. One of the guards gave Liam a friendly wave that he returned. The outside portal was staffed by slightly more people, a half dozen mages and four patrolling golems positioned around the free floating gate at the center of a large plaza. Once again, we channeled our mana into another record stone, and then we were free to go.

The moment we stepped past the wards set up around the portal, I was hit by a veritable wall of sound, heat, and humidity. The outside of the square was lined with temporary stalls and shops selling foods, trinkets, magical reagents, and a million more things I barely recognized. I understood immediately why Liam had changed into the clothes he had. I was wearing my lightest outfit and still had my temperature control circulations running, but I still felt unpleasantly hot.

After the subdued silence that typically filled the halls of Avalon, the port city was shockingly loud. Though many of the voices I heard spoke the same common tongue that had been forcibly spread throughout the world centuries ago, the babble was interspersed by the cries of exotic birds and a melodic language that seemed to be the local’s original language.

The people made any ideas I’d had of blending in vanish in an instant. The locals had dark purple skin and shockingly white hair that many had dyed in a rainbow of colors. The ethnicity was slightly familiar, I’d seen several such students over the years, but I hadn’t known where in the world it came from. Even if I’d worn the same sort of clothes as the locals, Liam and I stood out like a sore thumb.

Despite the visual difference, I was struck by how familiar the clothing was in particular. Men and women alike wore loosely draped sheets of colorful cloth over one shoulder and secured at the waist by wide belts. Men seemed to wear them slightly longer, the fabric ending just below the knees but slit down one side to allow a full range of motion. Women tended towards shorter garments, with most ending around mid thigh, but theirs were typically not slit at all. It was very similar to the traditional clothing many still wore in my home nation, a fashion I had not seen much of in years.

Despite the surface similarities, there were some clear differences between the two styles. Their garment left the majority of their chests bare, and I noticed that just about everyone past their early teens sported intricate jewelry pierced through their exposed nipples. They generally seemed to have far more tolerance to public near-nudity, many of the children I could see wore nothing but loincloths, and some men and women engaged in more physical labor were similarly garbed. That sort of thing would have never passed back home.

I felt a pang of homesickness as I looked around. It had been more than five years since I’d left the island, and I tried to avoid thinking back on it too much. The place held too many painful memories for me and I was not yet ready to return. Soon, I told myself, four or five more years and then I would make them regret what they’d done.

To distract myself from such melancholy thoughts, I focused instead on my mana sense, which I’d deployed in full the moment we had passed through the wards. I could feel a dozen powerful presences nearby, but they were hidden in and around the locals. Perhaps they were just simple shopkeepers and merchants themselves, but I felt pretty sure that most were hidden guards meant to watch over the portal.

I could feel several of them focusing back towards me, but the attention was not directly hostile. I tried not to let it bother me, I would also want to keep an eye on potentially powerful mages appearing unannounced at the center of my city. I comforted myself with the knowledge that Liam’s presence felt just as, or in some cases even more, powerful than most of our watchers. Still, I didn’t rule out that I wouldn’t have been able to sense anyone sufficiently powerful who didn’t want to be noticed.

A young man, no more than sixteen or so years of age, appeared out of the crowd and approached us. He was tall and slender, his long hair dyed with streaks of red and orange and tied back in three buns of different colors. He was a mage, but not a particularly powerful one. His mana felt loose and weak, first or second circle at the most. That was well above average for his age and I assumed he attended a local training program of some sort.

Bowing his head respectfully, he put a hand over his heart and said, “Good mages of Avalon, this one is Kan. This one is prepared to guide you through the city.” He raised his head but left his hand on his bare chest.

I glanced over at Liam, but he seemed unsurprised by the boy’s appearance. “Excellent. My companion and I have plans at the House of Blue Fins but not for another hour. Perhaps you could show us the sights along the way?”

He bowed his head again, “Of course, good mage. This Kan is well acquainted with the area you speak of. Is there anything in particular you wish to see?”

“A good view of the harbor would be nice, I believe the field of fountains is also on our way?” He turned to me, “Anything you’re interested in Orion?”

I shrugged, “That all sounds good to me. If there's some extra time, I’d be interested in visiting a market of some sort.”

“This Kan understands.” He gestured around with his free hand, “However if it is markets you seek, you need look no further. The city has assembled a wide display of our people’s goods within this very square, to better welcome the good mages of Avalon.”

Well, that actually made a lot of sense. I was pretty sure Armouth, the city that had hosted Avalon’s gate when I first arrived at the Academy, had done much the same. The area around the portal had been a bustling, lively market much like this one. Well, as bustling and lively as anything ever got in that particular oppressive dictatorship.

“That’s good to know, we can just take a look at the end of the evening then I think.”

“Very well, if that is the good mage’s wishes. This one shall guide you to the sea-bird's tower, it is nearby and offers a grand view towards the waters.”

Walking through the bustling port city was… nice, even with the oppressive heat and humidity. Several years spent in one place, even one as majestic as Avalon, wore on the mind, and it was nice to see something other than smooth stone and open fields.

Port Anangala seemed to be a well designed and built city. The streets were wide and well paved in the same yellow-gold bricks that many of the buildings were made from. The people seemed to favor mosaics as a form of decoration, slightly different shades of brick used to draw out vast images across brick walls and walkways.

Though Liam and I mostly stayed silent, our guide seemed happy to fill the air with commentary and information about the city, the people, and the history of whatever buildings we passed. He gave specific emphasis to the lords of the city, whom he kept describing as generous, powerful, humble, beautiful, and just about any other positive terms he could spin into his story. If nothing else, that told me everything I needed to know about why he was guiding us around.

Still, despite the propaganda, Kan had a pleasant voice, speaking with a faint but lyrical accent. The stories themselves were interesting enough as well, though I didn’t plan to take his assertions as an honest fact. I was sure he was telling us a heavily slanted narrative, meant to appeal to powerful foreigners who could make valuable allies and trade partners in the future.

We reached the aptly named sea-bird’s tower after a pleasant ten minute walk. It was taller than the buildings around it and at the top of the tower perched a massive bird statue carved from yellow and black speckled granite. It was a masterful work, the bird caught with its wings half spread and its beak opened in a triumphant cry. Even from the base of the tower, I could make out the fine detail, every feather delicately shaped out of the hard rock.

Kan led us up to a spiral staircase that wound around the outside of the building. The tower was positioned at the center of a small park, unfamiliar trees blooming with bright red flowers. Several women lounged on long benches under the trees’ shade, watching over small children playing in the open space. Some of them gave us interesting looks, but a few rapid hand gestures from Kan made them lose interest.

As promised, the top of the tower gave an excellent view of the city and the harbor just beyond the walls. The shadow cast by the bird sculpture shields us somewhat against the glare of the sun, making the rooftop a pleasant place to relax. Leaning against the warm parapet, I looked out over the city and smiled. The pleasant fragrance from the trees below just barely reached us at the top of the tower, reminding me of the exotic perfumes father would gift mother on their anniversaries.

I was somewhat stunned by how large and well organized the city was. A neat grid of city blocks stretched as far as the eye could see in three directions. The neat grid was sometimes interrupted by large open squares, such as the one in the distance where I could see the top of the Avalon portal, but even then they were sized exactly to fit within the outline of the city.

In front of me, I could see the city end with a high wall that faced the port itself. Hundreds of ships stood in the harbor, many of types I’d never seen in my life. Even from this distance I could see the bustle of the city’s namesake port, thousands of tiny figures scrambling in a controlled chaos that stretched to enclose the entire natural harbor below.

I’d seen cities before, I’d even seen large cities, but nothing that compared to this. I had no doubt that this city alone held more people than all of my home nation. It seemed the lords of this place really did have something to brag about. Controlling and feeding this sort of population must have been an incredible undertaking.

“How many people live here, in the city?” I asked slowly, not taking my eyes off the shining sliver of sea I could make out in the distance.

“This one is sorry, for a hard number is difficult to obtain. However, if you ask of the local population, excluding visitors and traders from other lands and those that make their homes here unlawfully, that is a simpler question to answer.” I nodded, already distracted by his half answer. A population so vast it was hard to keep track of everyone…

“This one is taught that four million peoples of the nation make their homes within the great walls.” Damn. Four million people in one city… It made the three hundred thousand in my homeland’s capital look like a small town in comparison.

Kan continued on, “Roughly two million of those are the worker rank, those who are free laborers or work a lesser trade. A further million make up the merchant rank, this city is home to the majority of the nation’s traders. Finally, the last million is divided between the lords, mages, scholars, and other higher rank peoples of the nation.”

Though I was unfamiliar with the specifics of the local power structures, I nodded as I considered the numbers. They seemed roughly reasonable, particularly if children counted as members of their parent’s ‘rank’.

I listened with half an ear as Kan took the question as an excuse to launch into a propaganda filled explanation of the city, its people, and the nation it was a part of. Port Anangala was the northmost port city on the southern continent, making it a very wealthy trading hub. The two continents were divided by a vast stretch of mana-rich ocean, making travel a long and dangerous affair. Sure, powerful archmages could punch through that distance with raw power, but for most people and goods, ships were the only route that connected the two continents.

It was little surprise that I had barely heard of the city and the nation it was a part of. My home lay nearly two continents away, far enough that even with magic news would take months to travel. It was like an entirely different world, the people, the plants, the animals were all so different from what I knew.

I turned to look at him with interest when my mind caught up with something he’d just said. “I didn’t realize your people kept slaves, I didn’t see any along the way and you didn’t include them in the population count you gave earlier.”

“Ah, this one apologizes for his lack of clarity. Slaves, local or otherwise, are not permited within the bounds of the city. This one understands other cultures have other traditions, but among the peoples, one can only become a slave through one’s own actions. The worst criminals, some prisoners of war, raiders, and other such outsiders of the peoples are sentenced to work the fields, to atone for the harm they have brought to the peoples.”

Oh, that would make sense actually. I had wondered how they provided for so many people, but a population of slave farmers would certain do wonders towards solving that issue. “What about the children of slaves? What happens to them?”

Kan looked back at me blankly for a moment, then tilted his head slightly and flatley said, “Slaves do not have children.” Then he dove back into the story he’d been telling a moment before as though I hadn’t asked anything.

Ok then. It seemed I had hit some sort of cultural taboo without realizing. I would let that line of inquiry lie, it wasn’t like I was particularly interested regardless. They could do what they wanted with their own people, it was not my place to judge them.

We spent several more minutes at the top of the tower before Liam asked Kan to show us the ‘field of fountains’ he’d mentioned before. I was pretty sure I’d seen the spot from the tower, one of the nearby open squares was partially shielded from view by some tall trees, but I could make out several large fountains through the gaps in the large leaves.

My guess was proven correct when Kan led us in that direction, shifting his storytelling to the history of the fountains. Apparently they commemorated a lengthy war against a lesser sea god many centuries before. Each of the twenty-seven fountains honored a different hero who had killed one of the god’s fearsome demigod sons.

I had to admit that it was an awe inspiring site. The fountains were arranged in a large circle at the center of the square, each as large around as the tower had been. Though the designs varied, all were carved from a pearlescent blue-white stone that gleamed in the evening light.

As Kan had said, each depicted a different life-sized person striking down all manner of monstrous sea creatures. In one, a tall woman carrying a blade-tipped staff stood over the corpse of what looked like a walrus with a dozen additional tusks and eyes. In another, a bearded man held a sea-serpent’s head up with one hand, a heavy book clasped in his other arm.

We walked slowly around the fountains, Kan an endless fount of information about each of the figures depicted in the square. We passed many locals relaxing in the square, resting on the edges of the fountains and dining at small open fronted shops that lined the edge of the square. There were several other foreigners in the square as well, some of them similarly guided by a local while others walked around with clear purpose.

Finally, Liam told Kan that they needed to head towards the restaurant if we wanted to make it in time, and the guide led us the rest of the way there. At the entrance, Liam handed Kan a gold coin that the guide ‘reluctantly’ accepted and tucked away into a hidden pocket within his clothes. He offered to wait for us to, but Liam firmly told him that we would be fine, and the boy eventually relented, disappearing with a polite bow and a, “This Kan is pleased to have been of assistance, great mages.”

I found it curious but not surprising when a familiar presence appeared at the edge of my mana sense only a minute after Kan’s departure. It was one of the mage’s I’d sensed around the edge of the Avalon portal, clearly the authorities didn’t want any guests walking around unmonitored.