Ch 4: City of Gates

"Baldeur are you up here?" Levanya called from the window.

"I'm here mother." He responded sheepishly.

"Get back in here. You know I don't like you out there." She said.

When Baldeur crawled back in through the window, his mother was standing there with her arms crossed right above the bump in her stomach that had been developing over the past few months.

"I thought you promised not to go out there without your father?" She said.

"I'm sorry. I just like to watch the stars shine as the Sun Orbs light up." He lowered his head and made sure to look as ashamed as possible.

Levanya found it difficult to remain mad at him. She knew that it was something Baldeur did with his father and thought he just missed his father.

"Well try to keep your promises. You only had to wait one more day for your father to come home. There's no reason to take any risks." She said.

"Yes mother." He said.

She smiled and rubbed his downturned head. "It's alright sweetie. Come on. We have a few errands to run before meeting your father when he comes through the gate. We have quite the surprise for him."

His mother rubbed her baby bump with a look of joy. Baldeur reached out his own hand and placed it on her belly with hers.

"Your sister hasn't started kicking yet. I'll let you know when she does so you can feel it." She said.

The midwife had been coming over recently to check on the baby. It made it a little difficult for Baldeur to use his own Anodular magic to check on her. He knew several spells that would help his sister become strong. He was just worried about getting caught.

As he started to understand his parents language, he learned that he had been tested as Sourceless at birth. He also learned that most people only had one Source with only a very few having more, at most four.

Having all seven Sources would cause an uproar, so he had kept it a secret from everyone. It was impossible to know how those in charge would take his power. If they saw it as a threat, his whole family could be eliminated.

After their tender moment they started their day. They had a quick breakfast before heading out.

When they stepped onto the streets Baldeur looked up to the black sky. A few of the brightest stars could be seen along with the Mana Source Wind; the strength of the Anodular Source wind had died down enough to be overshadowed by the Sun Orbs.

The City of Gates had no sun or moon. It was a crossroads of worlds and most likely wasn't a planet like those it was connected to. Even digging straight down only found harder and harder foundation stones rather than dirt.

Baldeur found all of this fascinating. How did such a place come into existence? No book he could get his hands on had an answer to that question.

The first people who came through the first Gates thousands of years ago, found the city as is. The city was only a quarter of its current size at that time, which still took days to cross.

Another fascinating aspect of the city was the Wall of Mist that surrounded the inhabited areas. The mist ebbed and flowed, though it mostly retreated to reveal newer parts of the city.

The city was currently divided into 17 districts. Six were complete districts, while the other 11 existed next to the mist and expanded as the mist gave way to new parts.

Those new parts had complete buildings without any furniture or other belongings. They were ready to move in as soon as the mist had retreated far enough back.

Their home district was one of the newer and smallest districts. His parents had moved here to work for the Explorers Union as brand new gates were being revealed by the mist.

Levanya had retired shortly after they got married since it wasn't really her dream to explore new worlds like Vivek.

As they began their day, first they stopped off at an enchanters shop called The Iridescent Quill.

Levanay worked as a Scroll Scribe. She was a sixth circle mage and could sell her magic scrolls for high prices. The scrolls allowed those without Mana to cast Mage spells, though they would work best if the user had Mana as a Source.

Once she was done selling her scrolls and getting new supplies they made their way to one of the markets.

It was located around one of the more established gates in this district. Baldeur could see the Source energies of Qi, Divinus, and Anodular coming from the gate and turning into Source Wind.

On the edge of the gate courtyard, there was a tall circular building with large open windows on each floor. The floors were filled with planter boxes that allowed the owners to grow different foods that would be enriched by the nearby gate.

The existence of this building led Baldeur to believe that whoever designed this city wanted people to live and thrive here.

After acquiring what they needed for Vivek's welcome home celebration, they headed towards the gate that he would be coming back from.

Along the way they passed the tall district pillar. It was the home of the district's Duke.

Looking at the top of the pillar, Baldeur saw the different Source Winds being gathered by the pillar. Through methods that no one truly understood, the Source Winds would be collected by the pillar and turned into the energy that powered the district.

In the center of the City of Gates was a pillar three times the size of this one. The first gates surrounded it and the Seven Monarchs ruled the whole city from there.

Balduer wanted to investigate how the pillars functioned but it was only a dream at the moment. Once he was strong enough to reveal his seven Sources, he had no doubt he'd be able to unravel some of the city's mysteries that were held within the pillars.

"What beauty do we have here?" A young looking man in fancy clothes surrounded by powerful looking guards said to Levanya.

Baldeur immediately became alert when the man spoke. Even without his ability to read people, he could tell this man was up to no good. He just had one of those smiles.