Haven
As the three walked in, the woman named Zoey had just apologized while she took a call, which seemed to be entirely from an earbud with no cell phone required.
Sophie and Zander could both overhear the conversation, about how two vampires and two werewolves marked enemies by Lister were carrying a detached human hand with a card in it.
"Looks like our enemies are getting craftier, they've never been able to find us, but they know about the cards. The question is do they know what to do with them?" Zoey responded and informed the men to monitor the situation and have Lister take care of it.
"So sorry about that, but we had other, uninvited guests, enter the interior barrier so we just sent our precautions. Anyway, welcome to Haven." Zoey said with a cheery smile.
The first thing Zander and Sophie noticed was her orange aura, which had a golden tint to it, which was the first time they had met a "forbidden being," on the side of Solace. It seemed like Cyrus was able to sense this in his own way, but he was rather quiet.
The city was nothing like they imagined. It was absolutely huge and several, much bigger versions of the beast cores, were prevalent and provided light and heat.
They followed Zoey and she said this was the "hometown square," where everything in Haven begins.
In the center, a giant monolith, white in color, stood with text Sophie could not read. Zander couldn't at first either, but his system activated and asked if he wanted the words translated, to which he selected yes.
Cyrus said, "this monolith is a map, isn't it," to which Zoey responded, "yes it is, very good. Does this place seem familiar to you at all, Cyrus?" Zoey asked.
Cyrus had been convinced, ever since he meditated and saw the path, and after walking through the interior so easily, knowing the text of the language of Haven, and now being here, something seemed familiar about it.
"In a weird way, it does, but I can't put my finger on it." Cyrus said.
Zoey explained the map and layout of Haven, the castle, which is where they would be staying, on one of the top floors. She also explained Cyrus had his own card, he just didn't receive it yet, as it was tradition for him to receive it after passing the initial trial in the castle.
The left side of Haven had housing, markets, a school, and Zander and Sophie were in awe at all the mixed couples.
"Zander, are my eyes playing tricks on me or are those human auras holding hands with orange auras," Sophie asked.
"Oh, so you've noticed," Zoey stated.
"Haven is a place for all those souls devoted to Solace and we do not discriminate and after a while, it was only natural for humans to mate with other types of beings. After all, our first king was a human with a werewolf wife and our current king is a human, turned vampire, with a vampire wife. As for me, I'm a vampire," Zoey shared with a gentle smile, as her eyes turned to red and she revealed her fangs.
"That's so cool!" Cyrus said.
"That's amazing and beautiful in its own way," Zander said.
Trying not to be rude, Zander pointed toward a werewolf child in its werewolf form crying about how he didn't want to go to school today he wanted to be with his mother, who was apparently a vampire, according to Zoey.
The children are given the best schooling and it's all paid for, thanks to your family, looking at Zander.
Rather than staying at the monolith, Zoey started to escort the three around Haven.
They got a full tour of the school, and Zander accidentally bumped into a Minotaur, and as he turned around, he saw the 12 foot Minotaur towering over him. For a second, Zander was frightened but the Minotaur simply laughed and said, "excuse me young lad, I must have not seen you. I am Professor Scully, but you can call me Percy."
"It's so very nice to meet you Percy, I am Zander, and this is my wife Sophie and my best friend Cyrus," Zander said politely.
"It really is you, have you recently grown out your hair or perhaps evolved?" Percy had winked.
Amazed, Zander realized his hair was down to his shoulders now.
Zoey said, "don't worry Zander, we have a marketplace where you can get your haircut as well. You see, Professor Scully here is one of the first teachers we had here and knew your parents well."
"Well, excuse me but we will have to catch up later, can't keep the class waiting," Professor Scully said with a wave and when he got near the classroom door, he shrunk in size to about 6 feet, nearly half his height.
"He does that for his younger classes, he's a gentle giant," Zoey said.
As they continued on the tour of Haven, there was indeed a marketplace with armor, weapons, regular clothing, almost like the Capital of Harmonia, just in an underground city. Well, a city within a Kingdom.
The next stop was the general housing, which was all very organized and very elegant. Zoey walked up to one of the unowned rooms and gave the three a tour. It was a spacious, two bedroom home with two bathrooms, a very nice living area and kitchen, and due to its size, Zoey explained this would typically be a Chimera or Minotaur home.
Amazed, the three followed Zoey toward the center of each floor.
All the houses were next to each other about 100 across, and it went up about 100 levels. There were also shops, grocery stores, specialty food stores, and a pool area on every level. Various species would be doing various jobs, including working at the stores, working on the pools, doing maintenance work or expanding.
Zoey took them to the tenth floor, and showed them the hospital in the center and explained every ten floors had hospitals with regular doctors offices for visits, check ups, etc.
Amazed by all of this, Zander noticed that Cyrus kept having his aura flare up, almost like it was fighting against something, and Sophie noticed Zander had let go of her hand.
Zander walked over to Cyrus and jumped on his back and said, "cheer up bro, this is all so wonderful to see, we made it," and Cyrus finally smiled and his aura settled.
"You're right bro, we have and it's all amazing. I just can't shake this strange feeling that I've been here before," Cyrus said.
"Well let's finish this tour and we can look into it together, the three of us, I'm sure someone will know," Zander replied.
"You're right, Zoey, what's the next stop," Cyrus said with a big smile.
"Well, you've seen the original entrance, hometown square, the school for children, which also has a school next to it for 12-18, the housing, which as you see is a city within a city itself, we still have central town square, the University, the Castle, the Military's base, which is located outside of the Castle, and I can show you where I work, which is the security center. There's also forgeries, which is where weapons and armor are made from beast cores, which ship the weapons throughout Haven to various shops and for the Military and also the Church." Zoey explained.
"How many people live here, it's so big and marvelous and it seems the housing area has plenty of people out and about and shopping," Sophie asked.
"Do you mean how many humans live here," Zoey asked, to which Sophie quickly shook her head no, "ah, you have a good wife Zander and Cyrus, I'm glad to see you keep good company. Keep in mind people come and go and have this as a second home, but in total I'd say a good 15,000 call Haven their everyday home." Zoey explained.
"What about sunlight and oxygen? How can everyone survive not seeing the sun or having any access to fresh oxygen?" Sophie asked politely.
"That will make more sense when you see the two Monoliths at the castle," Zoey explained.
"Let's see where you work." Cyrus said and Zoey led them to a building toward town square, but slightly to the East. Zoey had to scan her hand and eyes, as well as enter a passcode, and the door unlocked.
"Quickly." Zoey explained.
Expecting to see a bunch of people, they were surprised to just see a monolith, but this one was a different color than the white one at the town square entrance. It was yellow.
Walking up to the Monolith, Zoey placed her hands on it, said a small prayer and the Monolith opened, showing a teleporter, much like Zander had in his secret room.
"Walk through, this way," Zoey said and as they did they found themselves high in the sky, with access to sunlight.
The scene itself was beautiful, and Zoey offered to take them to a bridge over to the security area. Here they met many of the guards who kept an eye out. There were separate divisions, those who looked out for entrants to the 50 mile barrier, those monitoring those in the 50 mile barrier, those close to the interior 10 mile barrier, and those within the 10 mile barrier. Finally, Zoey stated she was in charge of overseeing day to day safety, and they could see cameras everywhere, hear audio from the land as well as look at heat signature maps covering the entire area.
"So this is why it's so hard to find and no evil has entered?" Zander asked while rubbing his chin.
"Precisely, we also have a council of 7 that meets twice weekly to discuss any potential issues on Monday and on Friday it's news from the outside world. Our king and queen trust the council to make the best decisions for the sake of Haven, but in the end they can overrule if they feel it best." Zoey explained.
Zander and Sophie wanted to see the church next, which was large, had masses three times a day and had different ministers to keep the masses more diverse.
After touring the military base, they discovered that after graduation, students could go to University, get a job, or join the military. Even though times had been peaceful, it didn't stop the rigorous training of the military, although their quarters were quite nice as well.
Everyone had a choice to leave as well, and were assigned a black card and had to form a bind to never betray or give away the location of Haven to anyone unless approved by the council. If they were to betray Haven, their soul would shatter before given the opportunity. Because of this, most people would cast another bind, as a safety net, to which if they were asked, tortured or a magical user tried to use persuasion, the person would simply just not know anything about Haven.
The more dedicated followers of Haven, such as the Elrods' and many of the "forbidden," did not cast an additional bind.
They felt it was their duty to Solace and it also allowed them more advancement opportunities in and out of Haven.
After one more wrap around to see the forgery and shops, Zander asked Zoey what the three of them had been thinking all day:
"Zoey, the speciality food shops for vampires, werewolves, chimeras and Minotaurs, where does that flesh and blood come from?"
"We have had a blood substitute for many years, as well as a flesh substitute, but due to advances in technology, we can freeze and keep it safe a lot longer. When people try to invade or have evil intentions, we send out scout teams to pack up anything we can salvage," Zoey said.
"So no humans are ever fed on here," Zander asked.
"Plenty of humans are more than willing to donate blood, but we don't force them too. Everyone here is free, and it's thanks to your parents' funding and through the hard work of the King and Queen" Zoey explained.
"The Kingdom is also financially stable within its own ecosystem. Your Mother and Father may have been a surgeon and a minister, but they were very intelligent and their inner circle all had very unique strengths. Ella greatly helped the Kingdom become financially independent as well," Zoey finished.
"Woah, so has all of my family's inner circle been to Haven?" Zander asked out of curiosity.
"No. I shouldn't have shared about Ella, but she was the only one, aside from your parents and the Harts," Zoey said.
They were now standing in front of the most beautiful castle they had ever seen. There was a Blue Monolith and a Gold Monolith, protected by magical enchantments and barriers, one to the left and one to the right of the giant Castle door.
"The blue Monolith opens to a teleporter to the F-B rank beast hunting grounds, whereas the gold opens to a teleporter to the A-SSS beast hunting area, which provides us with the necessary supplies for technology as well as great practice for the military. No one has ever seen a SSS beast, however," Zoey explained.
As they approached the castle gates, they noticed above, an invisible barrier, which had several quarter size holes protruding from the ceiling of the underground city.
The three stood in amazement as they could see the clouds, the sun setting, and noticed several objects attached to the top, which were sucking in and storing oxygen. They noticed at the top, hidden to the naked eye, was a vast, complex system that provides oxygen for all of Haven through insulated piping and large exhaust fans, all throughout the city.
"Can't others, if they look high enough, see inside, through the ceiling?" Sophie asked Zoey.
"No, they would see the mountain. The Father of Solace blessed us with the Monoliths and the invisible oxygen system, which can only be detected by those of Havens' noble blood or those with the eyes of a phoenix," Zoey said.
Cyrus looked more confused than ever, and his head was beginning to hurt, noticing this, and that his aura was swirling wildly, Zander guessed Cyrus must be uneasy, so he asked Zoey another question.
"I have one more question, and it's about my great, great, great grandparents apparently creating this place. After looking at it, I believe my parents would have helped fund it but I see no reference of anything from my family or a resemblance of a phoenix. Was that a cover story to protect the true creators?" Zander asked.
"You are quite wise, beyond your years, just like my Father and Mother have always said," Zoey said with a smile.
Cyrus' aura calmed down as he stared at the ceiling, and Zoey took his hand, to which he immediately jumped back, almost as if he was on edge.
"It's been 15 years since I've seen my brother, the Prince of Haven, welcome home, Cyrus Hart." Zoey said as she immediately was bear hugged by Cyrus, who had tears falling from his eyes.