THE HOUSE FOR ME, NO DOUBT,

      A HOUSE IN THE CITY SQUARE

Had I but plenty of money, money enough and to spare,

The house for me, no doubt, were a house in the city-square;

Ah, such a life, such a life, as one leads at the window there!

                      - ROBERT BROWNING

ISOLDE'S POV

The force of water slowly lessened and a gigantic metal gate became visible to eyes. The heavy-looking gate was inscribed with ancient letters and drawings.

So similar yet different from the ones I saw back in the Rock.

The carriage came to a halt all of a sudden and a Mage dressed in dark robes appeared out of nowhere and stood at the window with his face completely covered except for the eyes.

"Welcome home, Captain Baig. I do hope you had a pleasant trip, my lord," the dark Mage bowed as he spoke in a low growl.

"Well, it was quite a trip, Hadraniel. Found a young new Mage for us to teach," he motioned towards me.

"The more the merrier, my lord. I hope you enjoy learning the ways of the Devine, madam," with that the he disappeared again without waiting for my reply.

The ancient gates opened with a metallic sound and I watched with fascination as the city became visible.

It wasn't like the city in the county. No, this was something completely different.

Immediately upon entering the city were barracks for soldiers. Training grounds, quarters, weaponry shops. 

As the carriage moved forward, the harshness of war and soldiers faded and the bustling noise of marketplace came to my ears.

Shops and salons lined up the sides of the streets. Behind them, beautiful two storied houses. I could see fountains in the city Square. There were roads everywhere, even on top of us, crisscrossing the city in many layers 

The carriage halted sometimes to let people cross the road. Children were running along with the carriage to  peek inside. Shouts of greetings could be heard aimed at Inayat, "Welcome back, Master Mage", "Welcome back, Master Mage" and so many more from children to the old. 

I once dreamed of buying a house near city Square like this for me and mama. The dream was now long gone and so was my dear mama.

The scenery changed again when we crossed a beautiful bridge built on top of a lake. This time it was to estates with luxurious courtyards and white marble statues and metal gates. This is probably where the nobles lived.

Inayat pointed to one such gate and said, "That's my house, I guess."

You guess?

"Are you from one of the noble families?" I asked hoping he would say no.

Please say No. I do not want to lose my trust in you.

"I am actually, from both of my parents' side. My paternal grandfather is the current head of the house of  Baig," he answered quite nonchalantly, not caring about how disheartening his answer was to me..

Great. That explains his fascination with all things poor and me.

I still tried to get the conversation flowing to satisfy my curiosity. I could at least do that while we're here on this boring carriage ride.

"So what of your mother's side?"

"My mother is from the house of Rai. She is the youngest daughter of the previous head and the aunt of the current head. Remind me to introduce you to her someday."

Now, why exactly would you do that? 

But I still replied with "That would be great."

I looked down at my hands. The course lines on my palm suddenly seemed magnified today for some reason.

"Is there a famous mage from your family that I might have heard of? The name sounds rather familiar for some reason," I asked, trying to remember where I had heard the name.

"There are a lot of famous mages from House Baig. But I guess the most famous mage from our house would be my grandfather, Ibrahim Baig. He is a former Grandmaster, after all."

A former grandmaster!!!

So that's why the name was familiar! I read his name in one of Papa's letters.

He was the grandmaster when Papa and mama were children.

I have heard so many  stories about him from mama. Some of them, I still think were made up.

No one could be that wise and knowledgeable.  

Before I could ask my next question about his grandfather, he answered it for me, "Yes, he knows every single spell there is. Yes, he is a scholar specializing in every single field. Yes, he invented a lot of spells. No, he did not ride a dragon, he only fought one. Dragons are prideful creatures, they would rather die than let anyone be their rider. Only the current Grandmaster is capable of doing this impossible task."

Okay then. Well, at least that answers some of my childhood wonders.

The conversation came to end when the carriage came to halt. In front of us was a fog-covered lake with no way of seeing the other side. There were several boats on the bank with bored-looking boatmen sitting by. They perked up as soon as they spotted us and started to make their way towards us. However, Inayat dismissed them with a flick of his wrist and signaled the carriage driver to do something. 

"Well, time to finally get my beautiful and your rather bony behind off these seats," with that he opened the door and hopped off. I followed him and tried not to fall face first this time. 

The cold air hit me like needles as soon as I got off the warm carriage. Hiding my hand hands in the pocket of my worn-out overcoat, I followed Inayat to the Luxurious looking boat with a canopy in the lake. It had the a crest with a Raven on it which I am assuming was the insignia of House Baig.

Why are these nobles so obsessed with putting their names on everything they own?

The driver of the carriage soon followed us with our luggage. He put them in the back of the boat and went to the carriage as we settled into the boat. 

The lake with it's crystal clear water was a sight to behold even though much of it wasn't visible due to the thick fog over it. The other side could not be seen at all.

The people of Azura did not seem to mind the ominous looking fog covering half of the lake at all.

They were filling their large pitchers with water from the lake and going their marry way. 

"The water from Holy Lake is used for drinking as it cannot get contaminated because of blessings," Inayat explained helpfully.

 The boat slowly began to make its way across the lake against the current. The boatman rang the bell in his hand and around us water slowly took the form of maidens with fish tails! 

"Mermaids. Helpers of the Devine ferryman of this lake, Charon. Just watch. They will guide us to the Azura fort," Inayat explained, and I watched with bated breath as they gave directions to the boatman with their watery hands.

As we made our way to the other side, the mermaids dissolved into water again, the fog cleared up and lights became visible.

The blurred lights soon turned into a giant fort. Its appearance like that of the armor of a frost giant. 

White, cold and metallic.

The cold fort welcomed us with equally frosty giant doors that had glowing words in an unknown language inscribed on them.

"Sic Mundus Creatus Est," Inayat said out loud all of a sudden.

"What?"

"The words on the doors. It says Sic Mundus Creatus Est. I assumed from your confused expression commoner children are not tutored on the dead languages of the old," he said with a raised eye brow.

Well, I am sorry from not being able to afford a tutor. Next time when I have to choose between food and firewood, I'll just a hire a fancy tutor instead.

"What does this mean?" I somehow managed to ask in a very polite voice.

 "Thus the world was created."

What an arrogant thing to write on the gates of a man-made city....

Our boat stopped in front of the gates and two similar looking mages looked down from on top of them. They were sporting similar gleam of mischief in their blue eyes, their identical faces twisted into a devilish smile.

"What will you give us in exchange?" they shouted in unison.

" I will not tell your father about your shenanigans. How does that sound, you brats? Now open the damn door, Peter, Simon," Inayat shouted at them.

They exchanged a look among themselves and wisely obliged to Inayat's demands.

The metal doorway of the fort opened up with a rusty sound and we sailed to a waterway inside it. Tall buildings  stood on both sides bustling with people in Mage robes of different colors. There were shouting for the boats parked in front of them.

The industrial sound of factories and their harsh metal faces contrasted with the small gardens in balconies of the buildings. 

The boat floated along the waterway without stopping. It finally came to a halt in front of the castle walls and we got down. 

A man in black robes appeared out of nowhere again and scared the living daylights out of me.

Sol! where do these people come from?

He took our luggage and walked towards the castle as we followed behind.

A stone pathway took us to the ancient castle. We walked quietly through the spacious hallway with rooms on one side and a courtyard on the other. The rooms were closed. The courtyard was empty with few cleaners sweeping dry leaves. We crossed the courtyards and walked towards another compound.

"These will be your classrooms. The dorms are just behind the castle. You have already been assigned a room in the Peach Castle, I heard. Try to make friends here  and not get lost. The head of  the Girls dormitory will be waiting for you. Ah, there she is!"

My eyes snapped from my surroundings towards the beautiful woman standing ahead of us.

She was wearing an unfamiliar white outfit with a long voluminous skirt tied with a large pink belt that looked like a bow  around her waist. It had very wide sleeves. She was wearing her hair in two buns on the sides of her head.

She was wearing the same crown-like jewelry as Inayat around her forehead but her one sported a white jewel.

As she turned and walked towards us, I realized my journey to the holy world had begun.

And for a child branded "Unholy" since birth, this sure was progress.

GLOSSARY

*Charon: The ferryman who takes newly deceased souls across river Styx in Greek mythology. The son of Erebus( darkness) and Nyx ( Night).

*Mermaids: Half-human, half-fish aquatic creatures that date back from ancient Assyria to various ancient European mythologies. Also Influenced Sirens in Greek mythology.

*Hadraniel: An angle in Judaism responsible for guarding the second gate of Heaven. the name means, "The greatness of God." He is often associated with love as well.

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Will update next chapter tomorrow. So not a long wait, I hope.