Isadora scratched her knuckles. Her new white wrappings, only around her hands, were starting to itch. Looking up she stared at the poster on the wall of the upper city:

  Ruling 0: Geoptics are to be killed on sight

  Ruling 1.A: Any practice of naturalistic magic is punishable by death

  Ruling 1.B: Any practice of tolas magic is punishable by death

  Ruling 1.C: Any practice of psychic magic is punishable by death

  Ruling 2.A: If you see any mages and do not report them immediately this will result in imprisonment

  Ruling 2.B: If you discover any magic items hand those in to the local guard, failure to do so will result in imprisonment

  Ruling 2.C: If-

  She turned her head away and followed Veyra to buy some food. Terrifying. All manner of new recruits would read it today and feel pride. Trainees would be trying outing for Red Knight positions. They’ll be worsening The Red Kings ruling to kill every mage and geoptic possible. Speaking of, her eyes caught a foreigner, looking like he just stepped off the boat. The felden stopped his trek and admired the same poster. His amber eyes bored into the first ruling to kill geoptics and a flutter of joy coursed through him.

  Suddenly a teenager, not much younger than him bumped into him. Veyra quickly apologized, her amulet reflecting sunlight, before hurrying off and vanishing into a crowd.

  . He thought. He curled his lip at the thought of worshipping a God. . Everyone back home said he was stupid to travel to Drocon for a war that didn’t affect them but he was never so sure of a choice before. He unfurled his map and tried to find where he was…

  ‘Sill-sow Street?’ He mumbled to himself before looking for the sign.

  ‘I think it’s this way.’ His brother pointed up the hill-city to the very top, where the castle resided. The walk would be a good warm up, he decided. Beginning the walk he only had to lug himself, armour and weapons were provided, but he did bring his years of training. He had beaten everyone in his tiny village countless times and he had the calluses to prove it. The only one to match him was his brother. But village-folk weren’t enough. They would go up against mages! The very concept of fighting was different against them. He had done whatever research he could, about pairs, a Sword and a Shield, but it all still eluded him so he would have to learn quickly.

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  Striding higher a few kids ran past, chasing after their ball, but due to the slight decline he had a feeling they would be running for a long time, which made him chuckle.

  Finally reaching the upper most part of the city it was completely different to the lower city filth he had to walk past. Light brick shone in sunlight which was reflected by paint stained windows. Blooming flowers clung to the chalky rock, his shoes clinking against stone paved streets, tiny blades of emerald grass poking through.

  His nose twitched at the smell of sweet baked goods and his mouth watered. On instinct he reached for his coin purse, only to feel air. He violently tapped his belt and hips- he had been robbed! Rage bubbled through his slight hunger- no, it wouldn’t ruin his day. He had worked too hard to pay for the boat trip and trained too hard to fail now. His dream was being achieved some missing silvers wouldn’t change that! Chest swelling with pride he turned to where to go next… where was the sign ups? He scratched his head, there were no more signs, the map simply read in a circle of grey. He looked to his brother, who shrugged helplessly. Helpful. Wandering through the streets he followed a few groups that looked knight-worthy but that led nowhere. But on turning his blood ran cold. A knight. Not a Red Knight but similar to a walking shadow. Pitch black armour covered them completely, a sword nearly the same height strapped to his back, blades tied to their legs, face covered by a sheet of metal so their eyes didn’t even shine through. How could they see? He went toward him, shrugging off Garrisons clutches to keep him away from the stranger.

  ‘Excuse me.’ He forced a deep voice. Someone like them must have known the way. ‘I’m looking to sign up to become a Red Knight.’

  The dark one nearly insultingly looked him up and down, and then titled their head to the end of the street.

  ‘This way…?’ He asked before going down the alley, Garrison keeping very close, and nearly bumping into another felden in the blinding sunlight. A long line of people stretched away, facing a large stall titled SIGN UPS. He turned to thank the stranger but they were already gone.