“If you make us come looking,” the guard continued, “it won’t be us coming for you, understand?”
“It’ll be someone much worse,” Jason said.
“Smart,” the officer said. “Smart is good.”
“I think your bar for smart might be a little low,” Jason said.
“Too smart is maybe not so good,” the officer said. “If you want to stay on the Island past sunset, find lodgings. That’ll qualify you for a temporary residence permit. Find good lodgings and they’ll register it for you, instead of making you come back and do it yourself.”
“Thanks,” Jason said. He handed over his coin and pressed his thumb to the stone. Either the stone was stronger than his ability, or the stone gave no warning that it couldn’t track him. Shortly after, Jason was through the gate and walking across the bridge.
The main thoroughfare was for carriages, with those on foot like Jason following a path at the edge of the bridge. That was fine by Jason. The rising arc of the bridge gave him an increasingly good view of the city.
Back the way he had come was the yellow sprawl of Old City. Below the bridge, the sun reflected off the deep blue water, busy with water traffic. The Old City shoreline was a massive port, the full length of the city. The ships were large, crammed into docks that seemed strangely high. He wondered if that was something to do with what two moons did to the tides.
There were three other bridges like the one Jason was on. Engineering marvels that spanned kilometres of water, they were the equal of anything from his own world.
Ahead was the Island, seeming opulent even at a distance. Compared to the clustered Old City, it indulged in the luxury of space. Where the Old City ports were occupied with large trade ships, the Island’s widely spaced marinas were occupied entirely by what looked like pleasure craft. Many of them didn’t have sails, presumably being propelled by magic.
The marina buildings all looked like yacht clubs, and beyond that were large houses with expansive grounds. Trees and grass abounded, and the streets he could see were wide and sealed. The buildings were all combinations of green marble and variously coloured tiles.
Eagerly heading along the bridge, Jason got a better look at the wide boulevard at the end of the bridge. Colourful plant beds separated carriageways and footpaths. Trees lined the streets, shading them with a leafy canopy.
The inspection station at the end of the bridge was just a small booth with no gates. The security was fastidious with those entering the Island, but disinterested in those leaving. The security guard looked a lot more relaxed, in his middle years with thinning hair and a paunch his uniform did not flatter. He came out of the booth, giving Jason a friendly smile as he checked his permit.
Although the guard looked casual, he took his time to check the permit thoroughly. As he did, Jason took a deep satisfying breath. The air was clean and fresh, without the wet mugginess of the delta, the dry aridity of the desert or the crowded scents battling it out in Old City.
“I think I’m going to enjoy wealth inequality.”
37
A Good Adventurer and a Great One
After leaving the walls of the city on the back of a heidel, Rufus rode at a casual pace along the embankment roads that divided up the delta. They were busy with traffic, mostly carts and wagons shuttling back and forth from the city. He could have urged his mount to move faster, but instead enjoyed a leisurely ride that took him to the gates of the Geller family estate. A thick, high wall marked the boundary, spanning off in both directions. The estate beyond was so vast that monsters were as likely to manifest inside the walls as out.
He approached the open gate, and was let in by a pair of guards who took his mount. Rufus could sense the iron-rank auras of both men. That might have been normal in his home city, but locally was the exception. To his knowledge, only the Duke of Greenstone’s household guard used iron rank essence users for basic troops. Knowing the Geller family, he expected these guards were family members on some kind of punishment detail or being taught the value of diligence.
At the guards’ direction, he started walking up the wide, gravel-covered thoroughfare. The main house could be seen in the distance, a series of low buildings whose design seemed more interested in fitting the surroundings than lording over them. Rufus nodded to himself, finding it very much to his taste.
The grounds on both sides of the central approach were bursting with life. Palm trees, tall shrubbery, and bamboo stands. Paths disappeared through vine-covered archways and behind flowering bushes. The promise of canopy shade and the sound of trickling water enticed strollers to explore.
Rufus continued up the central path towards the manor house. Moving closer, he saw the low buildings were interconnected with open walkways of wood, stone, and bamboo. As he arrived in front of the foremost building, someone emerged to meet him. A beautiful woman with dark olive skin and black hair, she looked around thirty, which Rufus knew to be twenty years shy of the reality. The age-defying power of her silver-rank essences kept her looks just as they were when he had first met her as a boy.
“Lady Geller,” Rufus greeted.
“Little Rufus Remore,” Danielle said with a smile. “I didn’t think you would still be so adorable.”
Rufus cleared his throat awkwardly and Danielle laughed.
“You know, Mr Remore,” she said, “many of our family’s young ladies are arriving ahead of the monster surge. Perhaps if I set up a little soiree…”
“Thank you, Lady Geller, but I have quite enough to be going on with, without romantic entanglements complicating my affairs.”
“Oh? The young men would be there too.”
“Gracious,” he said, “but my answer remains the same.”
“Such a shame.”
“I’d like to compliment you on your home,” Rufus said. “It makes one want to wander off and explore.”
“Then shall we?” Danielle asked with an inviting gesture. “I imagine we can discuss the reason for your visit just as well amongst the gardens.”
“I would very much like that,” Rufus said.
Danielle picked a path under an archway overgrown with flowering vines, leading him deeper into the grounds. Rufus soon discovered them to be every part the equal of their promise.
“Your estate grounds truly are a joy to experience,” Rufus said.
“Thank you. My family came here as the region was first being settled. The walls of our estate are older than the walls of Old City. Last I heard, we even have a member of that generation still around somewhere.”
“Oh?”
“She reached diamond rank a couple of centuries ago. Not so good at keeping in touch, though. You know what diamond-rankers are like.”
“Agelessness engenders an unusual perspective, I imagine,” Rufus said.
Danielle smiled.
“Let us hope we both go far enough to see for ourselves,” she said. “What brings you out here today, Mr Remore?”
“Seeing the ancestral home of the Geller family isn’t reason enough?” Rufus asked. “I’m a little surprised to find you in residence.”
“We call most of our bronze and silver-rankers home when a monster surge is imminent,” Danielle said. “The family has placed me in charge of defending the estate, this time, and my husband and daughter will be back sometime in the next few months. Really, though, I’m back to overlook my son’s final training.”
“You really train all of your family members here?” Rufus asked.
“We do,” Danielle said. “Our facilities might not be the Remore Academy, but we’re proud of it, nonetheless.”
“And rightly so, by all accounts,” Rufus said. “I have heard my grandfather express his respect on more than one occasion.”
“High praise indeed,” Danielle said.
“If I may ask,” Rufus said, “why here? I know this is where your family first rose up as a power, but now you’re established in major cities around the world. Why send people born in high magic areas to train here?”