Tales of Ayre

The constant trundle of carts rolling over stone tiled streets. The breeze whistled through the awning stretching over the sides of the streets. Laughter of children playing about without a care in the world. Crowds of voices chatting and dealing with one another. Tooting of flutes and horns and strumming of lutes and lyres by entertaining gleemen. All to a backdrop of yellowing white plastered apartments, hanging baskets dressing the windows with fragrant flowers and herbs.

The place seemed to be a living anachronism. The garb of the guards suggested an older, more middle-ages style. While the people of the town wore more close fitting, modern style of clothing with buttons instead of ties along with many hats and head covers.

The town was much cleaner than expected. The sound of rushing water ringed in his ears from a drain close by as the pair walked along the side of the street. However, he had to hold the collar of his cloak to his nose as the air was less than agreeable, even if there were inviting smells of freshly baked pastries, breads and roasted meats dominating the streets.

“Jace, could you stop holding up your nose? It’s embarrassing.” Evaliena leant over the side of Jace’s neck.

Jace whispered back. “I’m not used to it… my nose is just so sensitive.”

“You won’t get used to it if you keep trying to stay away from the smells.” Evaliena spoke. Jace nodded and lowered the collar. The smells intensified, but not as much as he expected. If he focused, he could ignore the offensive smells if he wanted to… Maybe this was how the others were able to ignore Cinnamon. Evaliena straightened up.

“What is there to see around here?” Jace whispered. He didn’t know what the town offered… at all… He knew what the malls around his home city were like. Not an open air town like this.

“Good question. Let’s head to the market square. I said we needed some supplies.” Then Evaliena pushed Jace forward. “Then maybe we could scout out some of the shops.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose on you more than I should,” Jace said as the pair navigated the streets. Evaliena let out a worrying chuckle. Stalls crowded the streets, and it didn’t take them long to walk to the market square of the town. Weren’t they afraid of their stuff being stolen? The air was heavy with the scents of dried herbs and bags of spices. Peppers, Nutmeg, mace, turmeric, ginger, rosemary, thyme, so many others. There was leather, sheep’s skin, wool, bolts of cloth. All sorts of raw products. Oils, butters, creams and milks. Jams and pickles. Live caged poultry. Cured and dried meats…

Jace never saw so many people shouting about their wares, haggling, and bartering with each other. Evaliena kept a hand on Jace’s shoulder so she wouldn’t lose him in the crowd. The crowd, a mixture of human-like Humes with their tanned skins and dark hairs. The piebald and many-coloured coats, varied the appearances of the less numerous Therians. “You might as well put a harness on me if you’re gonna keep leading me about,” Jace muttered.

“That’s an idea if I ever have any children again.” She mused. “But no, I know you’re more independent and responsible than that. Just… there are many people here today, it must be market day.” Jace could feel the subtle movement of Evaliena scanning around through the arm on his shoulder. Then there was a tug. “This way, Jace.”

Evaliena guided them both to a stall racked with hanging sausages and other cured meats. There was also a large wooden pallet filled with fresh eggs. No fresh meat? No wait, it’s winter. Jace corrected himself. The air was chilly, yet most people were wearing clothes as if it were a normal day.

“Ah, One Reynard and her… pup?” The stall keeper examined as they both approached. “You seem guarded today.”

“Oh, just keeping this one in sight.” The vixen replied.

The stall keeper clapped their hands together, rubbing them eagerly. “Well, what catches your eye, then?”

Watching Evaliena haggle was something else. She willingly paid a heavy price to enter the town… yet for getting a fair price, she was something else. A bit of arguing about the prices, Evaliena got some discounts, the stall keeper got some gains. By the end of the exchange, Evaliena had bought several legs of meat, ropes of sausages and two pallets of eggs, which she disappeared into that invisible construct over her hand. Jace couldn’t help but salivate over some of the smells he was taking in.

The clack and jiggle of a small pile of silver and bronze strips as the stall keeper wiped the currency into a sack and tucked it away into some strong box behind the stall. “Pleasure doing business with ya yellow fur.” Half the stall’s stock was just gone.

Evaliena respectfully nodded her head and tugged Jace to follow her. This was an alien experience… where he was just used to flashing a card over a scanner and a machine spitting out the desired object. This was far more personal and exciting! “Got any other supplies you need to get?” Jace wondered.

“We’re gonna be roaming the market for a while, pup,” Evaliena explained. “Need to get extra because I didn’t expect to be looking after a growing lad such as you.” She lapped a hand on to the sides of Jace’s arms. “Now keep an eye out for anything you want in particular. But nothing too fancy now…”

Jace rested his hand on his chin and rubbed it, supporting his elbow with his free hand. “I wonder, do they sell precious stones? Minerals? Crystals?” He quietly listed. He used to have a few rock and mineral collections that were filled out by a fortnightly magazine.

“I don’t know about that…” Evaliena looked around. They started slowly weaving through the crowds of the marketplace. Street urchins deliberately shoved their way past Jace a few times. He was sure they were trying to pickpocket him despite not having pockets at all. If movies and video-games taught him anything.

They went from stall to stall, haggling and then purchasing various foodstuffs in bulk. But not any of the spices or herbs. Maybe they didn’t need any of them. That construct was so bloody useful. Jace did keep an eye out, however few if any of the stalls were selling anything that wasn’t perishable or disposable. He guessed anything worthwhile would be in proper shops.

After stowing away so many sacks of flour into her invisible construct. “That should be enough for a few more months.” Evaliena mentally checking off a list.

“My feet.” Jace whined, having had to stand on cold stones for what felt like an hour.

“Don’t tell me you want to go home already?” Evaliena leaned down with a smile. A point made in her cloak as her hand leant on her hip.

“No, not that, just a lot of wondering about—”

“We do have plenty of time. Wanna see the rest of the town?” Evaliena asked as she started walking. Jace followed by her side.

“What else is there?” Jace was a little intrigued by what Evaliena meant. The town hall? The local pub? What was there to see in a town that didn’t have electricity? Then, as they turned down a street with a large building, he heard running water, a lot of running water. And he saw clouds of cooling steam waft down. “Is that a sauna?”

“No.” Evaliena said flatly. “That is actually one of a few public bathhouses.”

“Public bathhouses? Like swimming pools?”

“Not really.” The vixen explained. “Not everyone can get the water needed to bathe privately for themselves. So with one chipping in, they get the mana and funds together for one of those. Do you wanna go inside?” Evaliena teased softly, knowing how private an individual Jace was.

“Why is there steam?” He looked up, away from Evaliena’s gaze.

“Oh, that’s another part of it, that sauna, you said. Really opens the pores in one’s skin.”

“Sounds fun…” Jace thought of another place they could go to. “Are there any libraries?”

Evaliena leant down. “I doubt it. They may have a small book collection in the local adventurers’ guild and town hall. But nothing on the scale you’ll be thinking about in a town of this size.”

Jace felt like a shot of energy went through his system. “There’s an adventurers guild?!” Evaliena just looked at Jace. Then he felt his spine wiggling as that tail he forgot about was wagging frantically. He immediately calmed down.

“Woah, woah, slow down.” Evaliena held her hands out before Jace. “We are not going to that place. You’re barely halfway to your second milestone.” Curbing Jace’s enthusiasm. She thought for a moment. “Ya know, you haven’t noticed the tower in the centre of the town, right?” Evaliena gestured to her side.

Jace hadn’t paid much mind to the largest tower in the town, just assuming it was part of the town’s defenses. “Yeah, what about it? It’s a tower?” Evaliena grinned slightly. “It’s just a tower… right?”

“It’s an airship dock.” She stated.

“Air…ship… dock?” Jace didn’t quite believe or understand what he was hearing.

“You don’t have those either?”

Jace shook his head slowly, and his tail wagging.

The aerial landing, as it was called. Written across the side in imperial common. A wide based tower with multiple large arches around the circumference, presumably for allowing for large amounts of cargo to be moved in and out. The walls had an inward parabolic arc to them, flowering out at the top of the tower into six ramps. Jace thought it was the town’s keep when he barely saw the shape on the way in.

Made of a combination of cement, black stone and painted metal struts. The inside had a collection of lifts of various sizes. Jace and Evaliena were climbing one of the ringing staircases up walls. The place had a collection of offices. They were heading to the observation deck, however. A bulge of stone work and enclosed by a cage of woodwork to prevent falls.

This had to be at least thirty stories tall, Jace thought to himself as they turned off onto the observation deck. The wind was loud up here, but the hoardings deflected most of it. Jace raced up to the look. And got some vertigo when he realised just how high they climbed. The fact they were just allowed up here at all, surprised Jace.

The view from the airship dock was breath-taking. He could see the entire snow-capped mountain range, the boundaries walls of the town and its surrounding patchwork fields. The trains of wagons and carts trundling along the straight roads that seem to cut straight through the mountains. He noticed there were recesses in the towers lining the wall. There was something like a crystal in those recesses.

Jace looked around, then saw something was hovering, cresting past mountains further afield. A dark shape lacking definition from the distance.

“Spot something, Jace?” Evaliena looked in the direction Jace was looking.

“I think I see an airship coming here…” Jace pointed towards the incoming shape.

“You acknowledged that your world doesn’t have airships? Then what do they use?” Evaliena inquired as she walked up to the parapet to be beside Jace.

“In what way?” Jace looked up to Evaliena, away from the sights.

“What aerial method do you use to get people and wares from place to place?”

“Oh, we use—” Jace talked about helicopters and planes to the vixen. About the original airships, which were ditched because they were prone to burning down. And the somewhat off topic about cargo ships and trains.

“Oh, there’s something similar to trains here.” Evaliena pointed to a winding track that looked suspiciously like an actual train track. Jace leaned over the edge. He could barely see the outline since thick, tall hedges covered it.

“I need to see that.” A feeling of expeditious excitement welled in Jace. To see how their trains looked. He turned his gaze back to the approaching shape, however.

“Something that’s bugging me, Jace.” Evaliena spoke up. “If you speak of these wondrous things as if they’re commonplace. How?”

Jace stopped leaning on the wall and crossed his arms, thinking about it. “Well, it’s hard to explain, my world went through a lot of changes rapidly during four centuries…” Jace thought hard about the history of his home, he only had an overview… “We went from fighting with swords, arrows and horses, to artillery, rifles and warships, to missiles, tanks and planes… all that technology came out of nations constantly fighting each other…”

Evaliena was silent for a moment. Jace knew she was centuries old. She was blunt about that. Maybe she was looking over her own experiences? “Just fighting each other, even without ‘magic’. Doesn’t explain the advancement… and the numerousness.” She pressed her hand flat against the railing.

Jace thought about it again… two words popped into his head. Industrial revolution. “We did have a movement that happened just before everything. People started leaving the countryside to migrate to the towns and cities en masse. Food was easy to get. Not as many people needed to work farms anymore. It started with a thing called the steam engine and the factory… people started to focus…”

Cogs looked to turn in Evaliena’s mind as she stared into the distance. Jace could see it on her face. Her head tilted side to side. “... What makes us so different…”

Jace offered an explanation. He had read so many fantasy books and listened to essays about world building. “You have magic, or whatever it’s called. We don’t. And you told me earlier; you made me do everything manually because it was to my benefit—”

Evaliena remained silent for a short while. “You’re not wrong. Pup. If you can use mana, there’s little need to build up the infrastructure to churn out so much raw material.” She leant on the parapet with one arm. “In a world without mana, your limit is resources and bodies. In a world with mana…”

You’re limited to the amount of mages you can muster. Jace completed the thought in his head. No need to progress any further, only refine what you have. There was silence for a while as Evaliena processed. Jace watched the shape grow larger as it approached. He could see balloons. Rather than a large hanging gondola below, the hull was flush with the balloons, smaller pods with propellers spinning.

“Let’s return home now, pup.” Evaliena held out her arm. “We can explore more another time.” Jace somberly nodded and grabbed the vixen’s hand. They could have stayed longer, but really, there was nothing Jace actually needed. The fact there were airships and trains in this world interested him a lot. He wondered how they worked here.