Chapter 19 - Palgia

It was times like this that Lewis forgot that Eri had never been outside Elysi in the last two years. Times like now where she was currently sprinting around Iter, spinning in circles completely awed by the city. Of course she had no idea where she was going, forcing Lewis to follow her and through a series of unfortunate turns got them both separated from the rest of the group.

"Damn it" Lewis grumbled as he lost sight of everyone for the fourth time this trip.

"Woah" Eri let out mesmerized for the twentieth time since they got here. Lewis didn't blame her for her excitement, Iter was an amazing city and had stunned him his first time here, famous not just in Elysia but in the world, mainly because it was one of the only ways in and out of the country. Lewis was just annoyed that they'd got separated. Again. The last thing they needed was to get left behind.

Iter was twice the size of Elysi with its centre being a great ring of huge towers that contained portals that could take you all over the world. The ring was mostly empty space filled with citizens organized into lines making their way to their desired tower. Each tower was assigned to a different country. The problem was Lewis couldn't remember what tower was assigned to Thalassi, he'd only been once and that was a long time ago, plus Kate always sorted this kind of stuff out he and Eric would just follow.

"Eri we'll head back to the centre" Lewis called out but soon realized she'd disappeared into the crowds again.

"I really need to make get put a tracker on her" Lewis grumbled before setting off to find her.

He spotted her speaking to a uniformed officer who stared at her clearly confused before pointing her to a slanted marble slab on stop of a golden pole. Eri wandered over to it and standing on her tip toes began to analyse the slab's surface. Walking over he could see that it's surface had a map of the area engraved into it. It showed every tower and where it transported you.

"Stop running away" he shook her head as he glanced over the map. He soon discovered where the Thalassi tower was and annoyingly they'd somehow made it to the opposite side.

"You said we were lost. So I went go find help, but I couldn't pronounce Tha … Thala"

"Thalassi"

"That one, so instead they just pointed me to the map".

"Alright just don't run off again" he told her "I mean it".

They quickly headed across the ring, past the largest tower in the middle that was assigned to Elysia. It didn't take long for them to spot the rest of their group.

It was impossible to miss Becka's annoyed stare and hand gesturing four times. Lewis just shrugged and gestured towards Eri who was still glancing all around Iter amazed. How was he going to deal with her when they get to Thalassi.

The towers where of similar ancient architecture of the Great Cathedral back in Elysi and made from the same silvery, white stone. Also they were absolutely huge, standing over one hundred metres into the sky. They all had six sides, and every side was about as long as house with most of them having rune covered arches carved into them that was filled with swirling white mana.

"Alright everyone lineup, we're already held up the public long enough. We're going to enter the portal to Palgia now and I want you to follow the person in front of you, only stopping a when a staff member tells you to" Becka informed everyone.

"That includes you Eri" Becka told the girl as the group quickly formed a long line. Reluctantly Eri stood in front of Becka behind the rest of the orphanage. Following General Jager and Alex Athra everyone started walking through the portal, tiny sparks flying out every time someone disappeared through the swirling white surface. Lewis took his place behind Becka and watched her vanish through portal.

He soon followed and was instantly hit with Thalassi's warm, tropical climate and blinded by the sunlight beaming down directly on them. His eyes quickly adjusted and cool coastal breezes started to brush against his skin.

Long distance portal travel always presented the risk of nausea especially on your first time, but luckily their entire group had seemingly gotten away from it.

He spoke too soon. Eri and few other kids rushed over to the side and began throwing up in the bins placed outside the portals for that exact reason. The magic inside instantly destroying their vomit. He watched Eri miserably wipe her mouth however, that misery was quickly replaced with a wide smile as she looked at where she was.

"Whoa! It's so white!" she exclaimed.

"Elysi is white" Lewis pointed out "so is Iter".

"No they're like silver-white this is white-white".

"White-white huh" Lewis laughed "sure we'll go with that". The capital city and island Palgia was built mostly from buildings of smooth, bone-white stone that looked as clean as the day they were built despite most of them being over one thousand years old. The building's designs were uniform and simple ranging from small domes, perfect boxes with brightly coloured triangular tiled roofs, to huge ancient temples built from chiselled pillars. At the centre of the island, towering over the rest of the city, stood Thalassi's Great Coliseum. Thalassi had many more however, none could compare to the Great Coliseum of Vouno. It's gigantic size making it visible from all of Thalassi's islands as well as the mainland. The monuments architecture as ancient as the country itself.

Lewis followed closely behind Elysi's group that was led by General Jager as well as some Thalassi guards who'd been waiting for their arrival outside the gate. He walked beside Eri who'd once again snuck away from the rest of the orphanage to stand beside him at the back. They travelled down stone pavements that twisted through the city towards the Great Coliseum.

They had entered a large circle of mostly open air except for an elegant, silver fountain and light wood benches placed around seating citizens enjoying the nice weather. At the centre of the fountain was a golden statue of a woman covered in Thalassi's traditional armour. From head to toe she was protected by thick metal that moulded perfectly around her body, the crested helmet had a v shape carved out for visibility a slight gap at the base to allow her hair to flow, a thick cape hung from the shoulder blades and a tassets hung at her waist. She was equipped with a spear taller than herself, and its jagged tip was twice the size of the norm as well as circular shield whose face was engraved with the woman's crest.

"Who's that?" Eri asked him.

"That is Athena".

"Why has she got a statue?".

"She's got many statues all over Thalassi. Athena was Thalassi's first queen crowned after she saved it from destruction. She's also the mother of Vouno" Lewis informed her.

"Was she strong?".

"Yeah she was. Athena like a lot of Thalassi's ancient guardians is recorded as one of the greatest warriors in history. Her presence alone was believed to protect this country".

"Could you beat her?" Eri asked him.

Lewis laughed "Me? No chance. I reckon I could last a minute".

"Whoa" Eri let out, entranced by the statue. Lewis gave her a little push to keep them moving with the group. They left Athena's statue behind and continued their journey to the coliseum.

"Are we going straight to coliseum?" Eri asked him.

"No we'll go to our hotel first drop off our stuff".

"Where's that?".

"Right outside the coliseum" said Lewis "Since so many worldwide events use the Great Coliseum a ring of hotels was built around the coliseum. Most countries like Elysia have their own hotel assigned to them". Eri continued to bombard Lewis with questions about everything they walked past, and he tried his best to answer everything he could.

As they got closer the area outside the coliseum the hotels came into sight and to the west of the coliseum he could see the Atlas games market was up and running. The roofs of the wooden stalls all depicting the flags of different countries. The coliseum and hotels were surrounded by a 3-metre-wide moat that could be traversed by eight bridges equally placed around the moats circumference. The entire group crossed with ease and then headed right. The Elysia hotel was to the right of the coliseum's southern entrance beside the hotels designated to Uralis and Itaris.

The hotels stuck out compared to the rest of the island due to their more modern design. In-between two white pillars was the entrance to the hotel formed from automated sliding glass panes.

They entered the reception, it was a similar size to the orphanages living room it, couches and chairs were scattered around providing plenty of seats to wait in. To the left was a wooden reception desk with two woman sat behind it. Lewis made Eri rejoin the main group as they were signed into the hotel. He waited patiently in one of the leather chairs as everyone was singed in and then he approached himself. After giving in his name and watching them fill in some documents on their computers they handed him a silver key with a black tag attached to it.

"Room 14A" she told him with a smile. He walked through the reception into what he concluded to be a massive community living room, that was so big it dwarfed the one at the orphanage. The fully decorated living room could easily fit every single person at the hotel even if every room was occupied. He walked through the living room following the rest of the group up the stairs.

They travelled up one flight before exiting. If he remembered correctly the orphanage were this floor, the military and competitors were above them then the royal guards and then on the top floor suite was the royal family. He noticed the rooms signs increased in number left to right, so he headed right from the stairs. He could see kids already in their rooms and noticed mostly two children had been placed in each room usually with people they've already shared a room with back at the orphanage. Counting the door numbers as he went along passing Eri and Sophie in 'Room 9A' he eventually made it to 'Room 14A'.

He entered his room and was quickly satisfied. It had everything he needed. To left of the entrance was his own bathroom, in the actual room was a bed, wardrobe, a nightstand with a lamp, minifridge and beside the sliding balcony door was a small desk and chair.

Lewis spent the next few minutes unpacking his bags and neatly hanging his clothes in the wardrobe. He grabbed a water from the fridge and walked onto the balcony allowing himself to bathe in Thalassi's heat. His room was at the side of the hotel giving him a view of the crystal ocean and Thalassi archipelago and he had to admit it was a nice view. Around ten minutes passed and knock at his door brought him back inside. He opened the door to a grinning Alex in full holiday mode, he'd changed into a bright white t-shirt that Lewis didn't want to know the price of and matching pants and shoes with black sunglasses covering his silver eyes. He peaked behind Lewis.

"Got yourself your own room. Not quite as nice as mine but it's still good" he grinned jokingly.

"Got everything I need so I can't complain" Lewis said, "Well I could but I'm not going to".

"How kind of you. It's time for the coliseum tour are you ready?" he asked.

"Yeah" Lewis said. He then locked his room before walking with Alex.

Alex then glanced at him "That's what you're going to wear?".

Lewis's face creased as his glanced down at his clothes "What's wrong with this".

"We've came to Thalassi and you're still going to wear all black?".

"Yeah" Lewis said bluntly.

"Fair enough" he shrugged. They began walking down the steps to the living room "You've could've put on a bit of colour".

"Leave it".