2412 Strilaxis 17, Velpa : Jered Axilia

Depandes was a noisy city.

That fact became clear as soon as their party crossed the border to the Inventors' Capital. Hundreds of brownies made up the sea of brown flooding the cobbled roads. Some were talking with each other while some screamed into a weird, metal device in their hands. Xanthy's eyes swam among the horde, noting hammers, saws, and an occasional brass instrument known for making bellowing noises straddled by the hurrying fairies. The amount of pointed ears in this city alone was astonishing.

The roads were packed and garbled; the air was hot and sticky. Their horses could barely meet the current as throngs of brownies hurried in every known direction.

"What is with this traffic?" Xanthy called to Cyrdel who sat in another mount. There were so much screams, clanking, and whirring that Xanthy had to shout to stay above them.

The brownie shrugged. "Hasty preparations for the holiday, I'd guess," he yelled back. "There is a great craft duel happening later in the evening."

Xanthy settled back into her place behind June. What in Toreza was a "craft-duel"?

A loud honk made Xanthy jump. What the—

A four-wheeled, bronze cart strutted by, its back loaded with fresh produce. Xanthy's jaw dropped as she watched the brownie seated at the front of the cart pull different kinds of levers to make the cart move its four legs one at a time similar to how a dagrine would. A cart walking on its own? Wow. The brownie operating the cart saw Xanthy staring and he waved his hat at her. Xanthy smiled warmly at him.

June urged the horse in time to avoid another walking cart from colliding with them. They continued north, wading past bustling brownies and the noisy market. Twice, Xanthy ducked as a mechanical bird zoomed past her. Their beaks emitted a stringent cry and its gears clinked and clanked as soft whirrs filled their entire body. Both of those times, too, her face unwittingly pressed into June's cloak where she caught whiffs of its snedil fragrance.

The traffic thinned like pouring water off a basin when they reached an open square. A huge mansion of some kind stood in all its white glory in front of Xanthy. A huge arch guarded the edge of the property where tall walls spanning the entire property stemmed from.

Xanthy whirled to Cyrdel who barely batted an eyelid at the grand estate. He urged his mount forward. Panic gripped Xanthy's throat. Shouldn't it be illegal to trespass in properties? Someone clearly lived in that mansion.

Then she noticed how brownies generally strayed away from the property and how stately-dressed fairies entered it with chins held high.

Passing brownies now did a double take at Xanthy and her friends. Cyrdel, sensing the growing interest in their entourage, kicked his horse's flank and galloped faster through the shining building.

Xanthy and June exchanged glances. She shrugged. What harm would it bring? Even Cyrdel was able to go through. Perhaps this was his friend's house.

Soon, she and her friends rode through the entrance.

Once past the arch, awe made Xanthy forget that she and her friends may or may not be already trespassing. The structure stood mighty and vast, its two floors glowing white against the glare of the sun, its glass-plated windows doing the same. Xanthy shielded her eyes and turned her attention elsewhere.

Another wing with glass windows slanted inward from Xanthy's left, obscuring Xanthy's view of what's behind the structures. To the right, another wing stood attached to the center building, void of windows.

From the polished road they were traveling on, Xanthy drank in the elaborate gardens where hundreds of plants with different shapes and sizes blossomed. Most of it she hadn't seen or even heard of. Exotic scents and unfamiliar buzzes of insects assaulted her senses as her eyes drowned in their abundance of activity nature had in this place. On the opposite dagrine beside her, she heard Nyxis mutter giddily to himself, his eyes trained on the plants.

Xanthy rolled her eyes as they neared the two-story building. The lower floor was slated with clear glass, giving Xanthy enough view of the staircases branching to both directions from a common set of steps. A marble fountain stood in the middle, water spewing from the top and moving along the carved cascades of flowers and carved festoons. The higher floor was just a block of white. Perhaps the windows were on the other side.

Xanthy wanted to step through that barrier of glass but instead of going straight through the center, Cyrdel led them east.

Unlike June and Nyxis, Cyrdela and Ravalee's heads barely swiveled around. They didn't seem to be taking in everything they saw. Xanthy knitted her eyebrows. No, they didn't look like they're seeing this for the first time. Did Cyrdel live here? Who was he and why could he enter estates like this?

They continued on the eastern path until, much to Xanthy's distress, the road sloped downward at a nauseating angle. Cyrdel flicked his horse's reins causing the animal to gallop down at an amazing speed.

Xanthy's world blurred and her stomach dropped as June did the same with theirs. The animal neighed as it sensed the freedom of running wild. Xanthy involuntarily pressed her face on June's cloak and prayed to the gods for it to be over soon. Her stomach churned.

The world stopped. Xanthy lifted her head off June's back and opened her eyes which she hadn't even realized she had squeezed shut. Her jaw dropped when she noticed that they were in another courtyard, this one lower than the rest of the grounds.

Tall walls filled with crawling ivy stood around Xanthy as she dismounted from the dagrine, following June's example. Bunched flowers formed a hazy pattern of purples and pinks decorating the beige surface of the walls. Arches peppered the walls in equal intervals.

They were under the mansion itself, it seemed.

Cyrdel took the reins of all three horses and tied them hurriedly on the first arch he could reach. He turned and ran inside the roofed courtyard, Ravalee at his heels. The pair disappeared into the darkness, their footsteps receding until only the wind's swish could be heard.

"So..." Xanthy craned her neck at the blue sky devoid of stars before glancing at her companions. "What now?"

"I guess we will wait?" June brought his hands together and shuffled his weight from one foot to another.

"Good idea," Xanthy muttered a reply.

Silence coated them like a thick blanket. Xanthy was aware of June's gaze trained on her. Nyxis moved to examine the ivies strapped to the wall. Soon, he took a knife from his satchel and began hacking at a branch.

Xanthy watched this with mirthless interest. She took a step forward. June did the same, his eyes never straying from her. She sighed and faced him.

She opened her mouth to speak when Cyrdel and Ravalee burst out in the open. She turned to glare at them for interrupting but did a double take when she noticed what they were wearing. June seemed to momentarily forget Xanthy and Nyxis his ivy. They gawked at the emerging pair like it was a festival parade.

Cyrdel whistled a sharp tune and Ravalee stepped beside Xanthy, smoothing the skirt of her dress.

Ravalee looked stunning with her velvet dress with sleeves sliding down her shoulders. The sleeves were tight at the elbows only to flow freely after that point. The fabric pooled at Ravalee's feet like a cascading waterfall of velvet textile. A fleece ribbon gathered the upper half of Ravalee's hair into a neat bun while the rest of her hair was let down and smoothed against her back.

Gone were the spectacles in Cyrdel's face. His hair was smoothed back from his face, revealing his rather large forehead. His coveralls disappeared and were replaced by a coat of bright red, with dark trousers and knee-high, leather boots. A thin sword dangled by his belt. A bright, golden crest was fixed by his chest, bearing the same symbols as the one in Dina's breastplate.

Xanthy took a step back. This couldn't be.

Before Xanthy could open her mouth to ask a question, a loud caw rang in the air. The wind stirred, driving her hair to slap her in the face and stick to her mouth. As Xanthy sputtered and swiped at the hair blocking her vision, small silhouettes that looked like birds descended from the sky.

Oh, they're just birds.

Or they were, until they landed and Xanthy noticed their size. Bright plumage of yellow and orange accumulated into a mass the size of a dagrine. Their wings spread as long as half the courtyard, their claws could have shredded Xanthy to pieces if she managed to piss them off. They twittered strange melodies. Their calls were foreign to Xanthy's ears.

"You own a manwari?" Nyxis clutched his head in wonder. His mouth was a perfect circle. "Not just one, but two!"

Xanthy rolled her eyes as Nyxis threw himself into the birds' path. He shouldn't probably do that, right? She noted the ropes twirled along their gold beaks. Her eyes followed its length until it ended in a carriage enough for six people.

It's like the dagrine-drawn carriages in Cardina except this one lacked wheels, a roof, and its fundamental dagrine. It glinted against the sunlight, its red and gold paint shimmering in the heat. Fancy designs of flowers and animals decorated its sides.

As Nyxis was so fascinated about, two large birds were present. Their eyes trained on Cyrdel, as if waiting for a command. From his breast pocket, the boy drew a thin, reed pipe and blew three short notes on it. The birds stopped twittering and snapped to attention.

Cyrdel spoke with a voice Xanthy never heard him speak in before. It's a voice filled with enough authority to command soldiers into battle. "On to Toreza at maximum speed."

Turning to them, he smiled—a sliver of him that Xanthy recognized. "Climb aboard."