Amazing...

Another day passed since they met Layla. The four of them (Layla, Divine, Tora and Silver) had fought various battles together. They were all good friends. After another half a day, they could finally see the Capital in the distance. Layla had spent a lot of her time in the Corvat Library, and began narrating some facts about Starhelm.

"The walls of Starhelm are infused with meteorite fragments. While most of the wall is made of Iron, the meteor fragments have greatly strengthened the iron. No one knows what the fragments were made of. Nor does anyone know what the meteor fragments did to the iron." She paused, as if she was searching her memory. "The meteorites also form the base for the city's magical formations. The meteor fragments came from the starfall that happened over two hundred years ago. No one knows why they fell from the sky, but some speculate that the meteors contained small pieces of divinity."

Silver spoke up. "You must have a great memory. It seemed like you were reading right out of a book."

Layla laughed "That's because I sort of did. My brain records everything in pictures, and I can pull them up if I need to, like a camera. It doesn't take more than a few seconds, at most, for me to remember anything."

Divine chuckled to herself. "Alright...then. what did you eat for dinner three days ago?"

Layla paused for a moment. She closed her eyes. "Shrimp Alfredo pasta, served on a flowery decorated plate. Complete with a glass of Red Wine." Divine only burst out laughing in response. "That's very vivid!" was all she managed to say in between laughs.

Silver shook her head at their antics. Those two were like blood sisters now. Silver really enjoyed that dynamic.

.....

The city's walls were approximately 30 foot high, by Silver's guess. Specks of black and purple flaky metal dotted the wall, giving it an ethereal look. Above the city, there was a massive floating magical ring. According to Layla, that was the city's magical defense. It could be activated and controlled to condense a massive amount of sunlight, before focusing it on a single point, causing everything in between the beam to vaporize.

They were all checked at the gate in a similar manner to Corvat. They asked a few more questions and to show their letters of "recommendation". Once they were inside, everyone was surprised at how advanced it was. Usually a fantasy city would have carriages and horses, but this wasn't the case. Many people in the city rode on magical floating carpets. Some of the fancier dressed people were seen getting into floating spheres that radiated mana. Silver whistled in approval.

Silver spoke with a voice full of reverence. "Man. This place is amazing. It's so different from the rest of the country. The magical technology is on a completely different level."

Divine nodded while seemingly dazed, while Layla spoke up. "This is truly amazing. We should visit their Library. There's bound to be some amazing information to be gained."

Tora spoke up. "We should find a place to rest first. It'll also give us a convenient place to meet up for planning. We should all spend tomorrow exploring the city, and that night, we can decide what to do next as a group." All four of them agreed on this point, and Silver added: "Yeah. Layla, we can visit Tyren tomorrow or the day after, for now, let's find a place to rest."

.....

After scouting around for half an hour, Silver discovered the place that most citizens pointed to. An inn called Dragon's Roost. The inn was supposedly smaller than some of the more luxurious ones, but it was friendlier and less professional. It was the equivalent of staying with a friend instead of staying in a hotel.

The building itself wasn't overly large. It only had two saloon type doors in the front. The outside of the building was an ash gray, and the shutters on the windows were black. The roof was coloured a darker shade of blue.

When the four of them entered, they saw a few people hanging around and chatting. Almost all of them were drinking. They were about to step forward when a lovely voice reached their ears.

"Hello, and Welcome to Dragon's Roost. What can I help you with?"

The woman who spoke was a half dragon. Her eyes were a reptilian shape and blue in color. Her golden hair was tied up in a neat bun. She had an exposed tail, and wore plain grey clothes. She had a red apron overtop her clothes. She had patches of golden scales splotched along her arms and legs. A single row of scales was underneath both her eyes.

Silver was the first to speak, just as Layla was about to step forward. "Hi, I'm Silver Moon. This is Tora, Divine and Layla. I'll need four separate rooms, if you don't mind." She exclaimed "Oh! and three bottles of your best wine, sent to my room."

The draconic lady nodded. She grabbed four keys from under the counter and smiled. "I'm Tanya, and that'll be 1gold and 30 silver, total."

Silver smiled and handed her the money. Silver no longer cared about money. Unless she had to buy something, she would spend what she wanted.

Silver handed everyone their keys, and Layla spoke up. "You didn't have to do that."

Silver smiled and simply said. "I know, but I wanted to."

.....

Silver's room was sandwiched between Layla's and Toras, with Divine being directly across the hall from them. The rooms themselves were quite small, but they held all the necessities. The beds were larger than the one she used in Corvat. Silver decided to brainstorm about her Ice Magic. 'Is Ice the pinnacle of water? I don't think so...I can't get steam unless I heat water. Water magic doesn't let me change the atoms, so I can't do that without fire. Wait. If I had fire, I could cast steam, and if I had earth, I could use mud. What could I do with shadows and water? Ink? Perhaps I could make the shadows poisonous? I'll work on this more tomorrow, that way I can test my theories. Maybe Tyren and I could have a chat about it.