“Okay. That has to be the capital.”
“Yes, yes it is,” Kerr agreed, her voice slightly obscured by the strong wind blowing. “Eldingholt. Even bigger than I remembered.”
“It’s tremendous!” Tegwyn exclaimed, his voice tinged with awe. “I’ve never seen anything like it!”
“It truly is impressive,” Aila agreed. “I’ve seen it before and it still amazes me.”
“The greatest city in the world,” Bridget announced with a shake of her head. “Not even joking. It’s a sight.”
That was an understatement, if Jadis had ever heard one. The imperial capital was nothing like Jadis had expected, and everything she could have hoped for. Her inner nerd was screaming in delight at what she was seeing and it was only through sheer force of will that she was maintaining her cool. In fact, if the high priests, Vraekae, Noll, Runar and a whole squad of guards weren’t in near company, she probably would be freaking out. As it was, she felt she had to maintain at least a modicum of dignity.
At the very least she didn’t want to rile up Alex.
“Big… Place…”
“It really is,” Syd agreed with her demonic cape’s assessment.
The Brandrvald river had taken them for miles through the farmlands that comprised the central imperial territory. With a width of at least a mile, the gigantic river had plenty of room on it for not only The Rising Dawn but also all the rest of the ships that had escorted them from Far Felsen, and it also still had more than enough space for myriad other ships to pass them by that were heading in the opposite direction, towards the coast. After another day and night on the water, Jadis had expected the river to narrow somewhat, but that hadn’t been the case. Which was why Jadis was so shocked to see the absolutely colossal waterfall ahead of them.
The land to the east was raised up in an unnatural formation. A sheer cliff that had to be two hundred or more feet tall stretched across the horizon, heading from north to south in an almost perfectly straight line. It looked as though a god had literally lifted a continental shelf up and placed it on top of another, revealing hundreds of feet of bare stone that stretched for miles in either direction. The river poured over the side of the cliff, creating a massive waterfall that shone with a rainbow effect in the sun’s light.
The cliff and waterfall, as distracting as they were, didn’t hold a candle to the city perched on top of them.
A truly colossal construction had been placed along the edge of the cliff. Marble white walls that were patterned with an intricate latticework of blue stone had been built on the top of the cliff. Massive arches, themselves nearly as tall as the cliff was, stretched off into the distance beyond where Jadis could see from her lower position. While Jadis couldn’t see the full picture yet, from what her companions told her, the arches ringed the entire city, creating a magical fortification that no demon army had ever pierced. What Jadis could see were tall towers glittering with silver and gold, massive bridges that were probably big enough to hold smaller cities on their own, and strangely, the upper branches of a tree that were winter bare. Considering how far away they were yet, and how gigantic the city appeared to be, the fact that Jadis could see wooden branches scraping the sky above many of the towers told Jadis that the tree had to be unimaginably large.
Many buildings were built into the side of the cliff, with tall towers reaching from top to bottom. More of the city spilled out onto the ground below the cliff on either side of the river, almost like the foam from the waterfall had been ossified into stone, though the walls that surrounded the lower level of the city were the more typical kind. The lower city seemed to be there more as a result of the docks than anything else as rather than stretching out to the north and south, the walls and buildings followed along directly next to the river. Hundreds of ships were moored at the docks, with many more coming and going. As impressed as Jadis had been by her brief glimpse of Glitnir, Eldingholt was far and away the more astounding city.
“How are any of the boats even able to get that close with how fast the river current is going?” Jay asked as she leaned over the edge of the ship to get a better look at the sights. “With that much water going over the falls, the current has to be insane!”
“Water mages,” Aila answered simply. “Look there. You can see one of the guide ships coming now.”
Looking where the arcanist was pointing, Jadis saw the smaller vessel heading their way. The ship had a sail, but unlike most of the other ships, this one had its sails furled and was simply gliding along with the current. It wasn’t a large ship; Jadis thought it might have been called a sloop, though she wasn’t too familiar with nautical terminology.
“There will be a few mages on board that ship that will be able to use their spells to guide our ship against the current,” Aila explained. “They’ll bring us into the docks safely.”
“They really have spell casters dedicated to just guiding boats?” Jay asked, the incredulity clear in her voice. “That seems like kind of a waste.”
“Hardly,” Aila answered her with a look. “It’s an important job that makes navigating the Brandrvald near the falls much easier. Without those mages, ships wouldn’t be able to sail as close and trade would be much more difficult along the river. They’re paid very well for their work.”
“Fair enough,” Jay said as she watched the small ship come up alongside their own vessel. “I’m guessing we’re going to be going up top? The palace and temples and everything important have to be up there, I’m betting. How do we get up?”
“See those towers?” Aila pointed to the tall towers that were built into the side of the cliff. “There are magical platforms built into them that can be raised and lowered. I’ve seen whole caravans be lifted on them.”
“The Rising Towers of Eldingholt are considered to be one of the greatest magical achievements in the world,” Eir added, “almost as impressive as the crescent shield wall that surrounds the city. I think you are in for a real treat getting to ride them for the first time.”
Jadis couldn’t help but smile at the endearingly cute way Eir was excited for her to experience what was basically just a big elevator. Lifts were completely common back on Earth, so the concept of a raising platform, no matter how big, wasn’t particularly impressive to her. The fact that it was powered by magic was interesting, though. Jadis wondered what was involved in the creation of enchantments that could move so much weight so far, and why such enchantments weren’t a more common sight. If she had to guess, she bet it had something to do with the precious resource known as eleria.
“How many people live in the city?” Dys asked as Jay continued to listen to Aila and Eir discuss the ships and lifts.
“I’ve heard the numbers reach two million,” Bridget answered without taking her eyes off of the impressive cityscape. “Though the population will be less right now.”
“Why’s that?” Dys asked distractedly as she watched several flying figures wing their way across the river overhead. “Why less now?”
“The war,” Bridget said simply. “Many soldiers will be on the frontlines.”
“Eh, the displaced will make up for it,” Sorcha interjected, speaking up from where she stood with her hands wrapped around the balusters of the ship rail. “Lots of people flee the outer edges of the empire where the fighting is bad. Most don’t make it all the way to Eldingholt, but enough do. There’s a lot of space in the city intended to provide refuge against demonic invasion. People will be there using it, that’s a fact.”
Sorcha’s comment made a lot of sense to Jadis. With how big the city looked, even from her poor position, Jadis felt like the city could hold a lot more people than the two million that Bridget had claimed. Which meant it probably could, just that it didn’t always. With demonic invasions being a real threat on a constant cycle, it made sense that the architects and city planners of Oros had designed their cities to be able to accommodate large influxes of citizens in need of a protected place to stay. Maybe that wasn’t true everywhere, but at least that seemed to be the case in the empire.
“Look! Look there!” Sabina cried out while tugging on Syd’s sleeve. “Do you see that? That’s a Timekeeper Tower! Those were invented by Slevin of Keelton! He was an amazing enchanter who worked on a lot of amazing inventions centuries ago, but most of them are so well done that no one has come up with anything better than what he made in all that time because he was just that good at enchanting! That tower has an enchantment in it that tells you the precise time of day or night no matter what season it is! Bells ring to let people know, just like how some temples have bells that priests ring themselves to let you know that its noon or that the gates are closing for the night, but these bells ring every hour on the hour and no one has to ring them! They do it all on their own! It’s amazing!”
Syd stared at the “timekeeper tower” that Sabina continued to excitedly gush about. Clearly the capital had a level of magical enchantment to it that at least mimicked a level of technology that was closer to the renaissance age than Far Felsen’s more medieval feel. Still, the fact that everything was made by magic rather than technology was intriguing, not only because magic was fascinating, but because it made Jadis wonder just how many concepts that she took for granted just didn’t exist in Oros.
She really did need to take her half-elf smith to the side and introduce a few more modern Earth inventions to her. Sabina had a class that was designed to let her experiment and try new things and create inventions. She wanted to give her a nudge, just a small one, to see what the inventive smith might come up with. Maybe someday in the future young enchanters would be animatedly discussing Sabina’s achievements, if things went well.
“Can’t wait to take a tour,” Jay murmured as Aila and Eir’s conversation reached a lull. “Though I guess I don’t have any choice on that, considering my circumstances.”
“True,” Aila agreed, her expression darkening. “Your detainment is temporary, though. At least we will be staying in the temple district, so the accommodations will be nice.”
“Quite nice,” Eir echoed. “Luxurious, even. I stayed in the acolyte quarters when I joined the temple here and even those rooms were extremely comfortable. I can guarantee you that the temple will not provide you with less.”
“They can stick me in a shed out back for all I care,” Jay grumbled. “Just so long as they give me some alone time with my girls.”
“Hopefully that restriction will be lifted soon,” Eir said, leaning into Jay’s side. “Now that I know differently, I find that abstinence doesn’t suit me. Not where you are concerned, at least.”
“What a thing to hear from a priestess,” Kerr said, clicking her tongue. “You better be careful, Jadis, or they’re going to use Eir against you in court. The evil Nephilim, running around the countryside with demons, corrupting young clerics. Shameful.”
“I’ll show you corruption,” Jay growled at the grinning archer. “Just you wait until I have you alone again.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Kerr winked.
Damn, but did Jadis want to toss all considerations aside and take Kerr right there on the deck of the ship. Eir and Aila too, for that matter. The restriction against leaving her alone with her companions for any length of time greater than a few minutes had continued to hold ever since Runar had talked with Vraekae. Jadis figured part of it was petty revenge, but there was some sense to it. While there wasn’t anything Runar could do about Jadis’ absurd stats, he could at least prevent Jadis’ companions from being powered up. While none of them were under arrest, they were her closest allies and therefore at least suspects themselves. Jadis figured Runar didn’t want any of them to have any extra power boosts if he could help it, just in case another fight broke out.
How exactly the Valbjorn knew about Jadis’ sex-powered rituals, she didn’t bother guessing. Too many people had gotten too much information over the course of the expedition to the mountains. Now, the limits of her abilities were being used against her. A good reason why so many people on Oros kept their skill details close to their vests.
Well, the bear didn’t know everything. If he did, he probably would have found some way to keep her from having sex with her own selves. Maybe the thought that she was degenerate enough to fuck her own bodies hadn’t crossed Runar’s mind. It was an inherently weird thought. Or maybe he had thought about it but just didn’t know that she got any benefit from it. Either way, she had still been able to redo her Stoke the Ardent Flame ritual while she’d been in Glitnir. Maybe it wasn’t the biggest boost to her stats comparatively speaking, but every little bit helped.
Besides, being able to suck her own cocks really helped fight off the itch of not being able to fuck her gorgeous lovers.
“Damn, I really am a lewd degenerate, aren’t I…”
“What was that?” Aila asked, looking up at Jay.
“Nothing,” Jay shook her head. “At least, nothing you don’t know already.”
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