2 Teophaistos

Quorin was divided into five different districts, separated by canals of water, which all met in the city center, forming one giant fountain in the middle of a wide plaza. The city center was the connection point between the five districts, and therefore the most crowded place in the whole city, since citizens needed to go through the city center in order to visit the other districts.

In addition to the trader's district, there was also a commoner's district, a military district, a nobles' district as well as a mages' district. While the first one was the living place for all kinds of merchants, artisans, and crafters, like Corwyn himself, the second one provided living space for the common and poor people of the city, and was therefore the largest district. Following, the military district not only served as training grounds for the soldiers, it also provided accommodations for them as well as various other buildings, like the department for city order. The nobles' district served as living space for the wealthy citizens of Quorin, as well as government officials and of course, the rulers of the city, the mayor, and the patriarchs. And lastly, the mages' district, for the mages officially employed by the government.

Some of those mages were positioned around the well in the middle of the plaza, arms raised high into the air. They held their eyes closed in apparent concentration, invisible energy floating around their palms. The energy then flowed in the direction of the center of the fountain, before turning into water falling down into the fountain. They where people born with the ability to transform Arcor into water, as well as to manipulate that water. Because Quorin didn't possess enough natural water to supply the populace, those mages were needed in order to increase the amount of water available. To make this task as efficient as possible, the fountain, which was practically the center of the city, was located right inside a "well" of Arcor, making it possible to produce large amounts of water with as little effort as possible. The water was then directed into the five main canals, which then divided further into subsidiary canals in the form of a net, supplying the whole city with water.

Of course, the uses of mages for the city did not only lie in the creation of water. For example, there were people who possessed the ability to manipulate the element of earth, digging up fertile soil from underground, allowing the creation and maintenance of fields around the city, despite being in the dry and barren desert. There were also those who could control complex machinations for countless uses, like transporting various goods and people, or plowing the fields, raising the efficiency of growing crops and fruit. People who got useful abilities and were employed by the government received the title of mages, and earned themselves a place in the upper level of society.

Although Corwyn possessed an ability to use Arcor as well, he wasn't recruited as a mage by the government. One reason for this was his low status. Since he was hardly outstanding as a simple blacksmith, the chance of being noticed by the government was really slim. Furthermore, even if he wanted to directly apply for a job at the government office, he couldn't because the nobles' and mages' districts were off-limits for commoners. Another reason was the limited practicability of his ability. It took his full concentration for several minutes to just create a simple one-handed sword, and he only succeeded today for the first time in creating one without breaking it immediately.

But Corwyn wasn't really bothered by it since he didn't plan to be a mage anyway, because being a mage meant being a dog of the government, having no free opinion and only following orders. Maybe it looked like the government cared very much for the populace by providing mages, but in reality, they only cared about their own wealth. All the fields and valuable machinery belonged to the nobles and wealthy, leaving the commoners with no other choice but to buy from them, to unfair prices. For most people, it was already difficult just to make ends meet, so they had to work for the nobles, to humiliating conditions.

After giving the fountain one last glance, he continued his way into the military district. While the nobles' and mages' districts had their entrances tightly guarded, the military district was freely accessible to any citizen. The entrance was a large gateway made from white stone, which measured a good thirteen to fifteen feet in height. The top of each of the two pillars of the gateway got a relief of a soldier carved out, facing each other and crossing swords in the middle. Immediately after the gateway, the large garrisons serving as living quarters for the soldiers emerged, with multiple rows of vast numbers of small windows as the only outer features worth mentioning.

Corwyn had actually been quite often to the military district until now. That was not only due to the fact that his best friend lived and worked here, but also because his father often took him here when he was a child, practicing swordsmanship with him. One might argue that as a blacksmith, there was no need to know how to fight, but it was a steadfast believe of Corwyn's father that as a weapons creator, in order to fully understand the weapon, one must not only understand how to create it, but also how to wield it. And to this day, Corwyn believed in his father's teachings and practiced fighting on a regular basis.

He soon passed the garrisons, and the training grounds came in sight. They were divided into multiple practice fields, separated by wooden fences. Weapons stands and training dummies were granted to every field, and quite a few soldiers were still immersed in their training despite it being lunchtime. Corwyn let his gaze wander to the training fields for younger soldiers, searching for his best friend. He soon discovered him at the outer northern field, practicing with a one-handed sword against a dummy. The young man was training alone in the field, swinging his sword over and over against the dummy, with seemingly no pause in between his strikes. To someone with no knowledge of swordplay, it would probably seem like he was just swinging his sword around randomly, but Corwyn noticed that not only were his strikes fluent with no wasted movement, they were also extremely precise. He basically hit the dummy in the same spot every single time and followed into the next move with apparently no delay.

(Damn, he's gotten better again. It's already frustrating enough that his talent is so much better than mine, he also works harder than me by at least five times as much!)

Corwyn shook his head in apparent disbelief. Even though they were of the same age and build, the difference in their fighting skills was like night and day. If it was just because Corwyn was a smith and not a soldier, he could still accept it, but ever since the two of them picked up a sword and fought as kids, Corwyn had yet to win a single bout. He made time on a regular basis to come train, but it felt more and more like instead of fighting a match, he was being taught how to fight. Of course, he had no complaints about that, but it was still frustrating.

After another five minutes of continuous sword strikes, the young man put the sword back on the weapons stand, put a bottle of water in his hand, and gulped the water down in one fell swoop. He then let out a breath of satisfaction, placed the bottle back on the ground and started to look around. Shortly after, he noticed Corwyn, and let a friendly smile show on his face.

The young man's name was Teophaistos, and he was the same age as Corwyn. Unlike Corwyn's shortly cut, light brown hair, his hair was long and black, bound together into a ponytail. His face was sharp, with lightly wide eyes and a pointed chin, accompanied by his lips which were far from being full. When you looked at him concentrating, he gave of an intimidating aura. But looking at him smiling, you couldn't help but see him as a kind, charming person.

Corwyn could be said to be quite different from him. In addition to his short haircut, he had big eyes which were meant to apprehend things, a small nose as well as a lightly round chin. His lips were slightly fuller than his friend's ones, and people often told him that his looks in addition to his muscular build were kind of intimidating for strangers. But those who knew him better understood that he was a nice person.

"I see you're as hardworking as ever, Teo!"

Corwyn always called his friend by "Teo", since he thought that his full name sounded way too antique and dowdy. Teo also didn't know why his parents gave him that kind of name since their names were those of normal commoners, but maybe his father thought it would sound impressive if his son would ever become something big.

Corwyn took out one of the loaves of bread and tossed it over to Teo, who nimbly caught it with a look of gratitude on his face.

"And you're still as thoughtful as always, Corwyn! How could you have possibly guessed that I didn't have lunch yet?"

"Perhaps because everytime I visit you here, you train overtime and forget to eat, and once I interrupt you, you always nearly drop to the ground from hunger."

Corwyn said while rolling his eyes, then laughed while adding:

"So I figured, before we have to run around all over again while searching for something to eat, I should just fix a lunch myself and bring it over!"

"Mhm, that was indeed very thoughtful of you."

The sight of Teo mumbling this sentence while chewing the bread like he was on the verge of starvation set Corwyn off into another round of laughter. After he had calmed down again, he began to eat his own bread.

A few minutes later, they both had finished their meal and sat down on one of the benches nearby. Most of the other soldiers had also noticed by now that it was time for lunch, and left the training grounds in droves. Corwyn leaned himself back on the bench, released a satisfied breath after swallowing the last piece of bread before he began to talk again.

"See, those guys at least know when to stop for a break. If I hadn't disrupted you, you would have most likely trained for another hour straight!"

"But it's just so tempting to continue once you're absorbed into it. If there is time to make me stronger, I will thoroughly use it."

Corwyn frowned his eyebrows at that answer.

"You know, I was always wondering where you get all that motivation and commitment from. I mean, it's not like you could become a general or officer with your status as a commoner, as sad as it is. At most, you could become a lieutenant of the guard unit, but that is also not really an occupation with many interesting aspects."

Corwyn seriously wanted to know, but Teo just smiled wryly at him and answered:

"I don't really care if my duty is interesting or not, as long as I can improve, I don't care about the rest!"

He couldn't really understand Teo's mindset.

(If improving is in no way relevant to your future, then why even bother?)

But it was Teo's choice, not his. Corwyn then remembered what he wanted to ask his friend and abruptly cleared his throat.

"Well, anyway, I have a new sword to test, so how about helping me out? It would also be a good training opportunity!"

Teo blinked, then laughed out loudly before replying.

"That would rather be the case for you than for me, but fine, absolutely no problem! However, I hope you have improved your technique a bit. Last time was no challenge at all!"

Corwyn wrinkled his nose at that overconfident answer. Sadly for him, Teo had the skill to back it up. But Corwyn wouldn't just admit defeat like that.

"Hmph, talk like that after you have won!"

Both of them stood up, walked into one of the training fields, then, after having created a sufficient distance between them, faced each other with their swords drawn, their eyes fixed on their respective opponent.

"Are you ready?"

"Let's do this!"