Greggan

Greggan and his new guardian for the moment had traveled up the kings road west towards AridTown. AridTown was a port city ruled by the Magus family. Their house sat next in the line of power based on lineage as the current lord of the House was the cousin of the previous king. AridTown was a bustling city full of merchants and traders, it is well known the house magus and their castle was cared for by slaves. The slave trade had began opening up with the late kings reign and his cousin has promised to open the realm to its nasty grasp as soon as they've won the war ahead. The roads and trails used to travel were loaded with people entering the city making the trip take even longer. Greggan stayed as close as he could to the soldier as they passed the other travelers. They had picked up a couple cloaks to hide behind, the soldier had deserted his position by running from the fight and didn't mean to die a deserters death so stealth was his goal. He had instructed Greggan to tell people he was being taken to the orphanage that he had been found abandoned along the road.

"Listen boy, I can't keep you i'm in some trouble and i can't have a small boy with me. Im taking you to Aridtown and i aim to leave you with someone to take care of you. May it be the orphanage or a work house one." Greggan heard stories of the workhouses and how some men who ran it would hurt the little boys in horrible ways. He also hoped that he wouldn't be sold into slavery, the stories he heard about slave masters were even worse.

The pair pushed their way through the others traveling but Greggan walked in amazement as he saw the things the merchants were hoping to sell.

He had never seen such luxuries before, there were fine silks and exotic animals from the east, slabs of rare meats and barrels of ale. The cart that interested him the most was a toy merchant who had brought toys from a mage city to the west of Autumnveil. There were children playing a game where two monsters battles on a large chess board.

He saw some large cards with pictures on them of monsters and beasts from legends. He watched as the kids would play, one would win then theyde shuffle the cards back into the deck and they would draw ten cards. There were slots on each players side of the board, five to be exact and each player would pick five cards from their hand and insert them into each slot. When the last card was placed the board would glow with a bright white light and a monster composed of miscellaneous parts and powers would appear and fight the other players creation. Greggan was mesmerized by the game ( which led to him tripping over a rut in the road). "Hurry up lad, we get split up and you're on your own. I don't have time to keep up with ya, and i'll be damned if i'm caught off on this road. Punishments are carried out swift on the road and i don't want me bones picked clean by the crows for the all the world to see." He jerked Greggan to his feet an pulled his cloak low over his face. " now watch your step and keep up with me, we are at least a weeks walk from AridTown."

It was a hot day, they called this part of thre'a the summers home since the only season that ever found its way there seemed to be spring and summer and never all at once. Either season could start at sunrise and be the other by lunch. Today was a hot summers afternoon and the crowds cramming themselves shoulder to shoulder made the temperature even hotter, Greggan's mouth had begun to get dry and his lips chapped. " can i have some water?" He asked, the man made him nervous, he wasn't really a kind man nor was he abusive. He took on the boy in hopes of selling him for enough to get a charter to a boat going to the eastern side of the world, a young boy was a favored slave and this one looked to be in pretty solid shape. The man thrust a water skin into his hands, "here take a drink or two your no use to me if you die of thirst."

The water was warm but it was better than nothing, he took a few large gulps and handed it back. The crowds had begun to form a single file line the closer they came to the city gates, with many refugees from the smaller outlining villages fleeing from the war torn country side to the safety of the closest major cities. Even the magic folk had begun filling up citadel city and other magical cities in hopes of safety.

People from all across the realm were eager to enter the new capitol of commerce AridTown had started to become. The city had started to become a stronghold in itself as the ruling family over The city the Magus family had a claim to the throne of thre'a.

The heads of the house had been deciding who should stake a claim as the new king of the human cities of Thre'a, and began taxing the remaining cities declaring Aridtown the new capitol. The city Pesos which resided in the desserts before La'velle in the south was poor in natural resources but rich in precious gems did not have an army and its ruling family the Colina's had no legitimate stakes in a claim to the throne as they were a newer noble family having grabbed any monicker of power only in the last hundred years or so.

Aerios directly east of Aridtown and governed by the house Holstin boasted the largest fighting force jn Thre'a and their city was more of a stronghold with huts outside of the walls where those who weren't apart of the actual family lived. Those who lived under the Holstins banner all worked the crops or joined its army. The head of the house Holstin had married the oldest niece of King Ivan who was the last Arcana known to be alive at this point and claims his son to be the next in line to be king. Aerios lacked the money to mobilize for a long war as AridTown could even though it had the much larger army. Pesos had chosen to stay out of the conflict knowing whomever it aligned with would tip the scales politically.

The two cities had declared war and fighting across the continent had began to break out between the magestrate and the cities, and the cities between each other.

Greggan sat unaware of these things by a fire that had been built along the side of the rode, at night movement into the city was much slower and much more thorough so they had decided to camp for the night with some other travelers for the night.

Devros had taken to drinking with three of the male travelers, two men with skin like the blackest night and eyes like sapphires passed him a flaggon full of a type of spirits not native to the realms. His face had flushed red and his speech had become more slurred and jolly even. He bragged about his battles he had won and even killing the arcane wraiths ( which was of course a lie). After a couple of hours and more drinks Devros started talking about his boy companion.

" saved this one 'ere from some wraiths, we found him in the woods outside the city. Doesn't say much really, just asks to eat and drink every now and then. I have to find him a place before i start my journey." He recanted a fake tale of his battle with the wraiths laughing. His companions stayed quiet, oddly quiet. Devros being too drunk by this time to notice anything other than an empty cup and any woman within eye shot. Greggan had been watching these men closely and noticed they had tattoos all over the flesh he could see. They were wearing cloaks like he and Devros and kept their hoods up even while they drank. They spoke both common tongue and a language He had never heard before. What Devros was failing to notice was the tattoos beginning to glow blue, low at first but as Devros got more and more drunk the tattoos glowed brighter and brighter. No one found it strange, but as he looked around he noticed all different colored lights from fires and other magics to create light. Greggan felt a power emanating from them though, not like the other lights that seemed to span as far as he could see. It was almost like a burning feeling, not the burn from fire but the burning of ice.