Although the mob had tried to kill me, I was still grateful for they gave me an idea of what to do with the baby once safety was reached. I clearly couldn't keep it; we'd eaten all of the bread I'd taken from the burning city within less than a week. She had a voracious appetite. So I needed someone who had magic to unload the infant onto; any Arcanacrat would do.

I was familiar with Avalons through their charity work. Their job was to 'do the right thing'; their magic failed if they didn't. After asking around in the next town, I found the address of the nearest Avalonry and approached. I stepped up the cobblestone pathway that lead to the silver-handled doors of the small ivory Avalonry. Like all Avalonries, this one was surrounded by pristine, bubbling water dotted with colorful aquatic flowers. I cupped water in my hand and let the infant drink, she spilled most of the liquid down her front as always. I drank too and then stood. With nervous knuckles, I rapt on the door. The metal was hot in the afternoon sun.

As I waited, I fought a sense of loss. Avalons were too virtuous to buy sentient beings. Although I could have made a fortunate by selling the child, sorcerers were hard to get into contact with, especially for illegal transactions. Very important people did not talk to starving drifters like me. Even if it meant I'd still have to solve the hunger problem on a day to day basis, I needed to get rid of the baby. If they took her for nothing, I would count that as a win for both of us.

The door hadn't even opened all the way when I thrust out my arms, the baby in my hands, dangling in the air.

"I found this." In the week it'd taken me to get to town, little nubs had grown in on her gums. I had some slight bruising from where she'd clamped down on my arms. She gurgled and grasped her hands toward the gleaming armor of the Avalon.

"A Moon Giant? We cannot harbor this monster. There is an Enchanted Creatures zoo in Majikast, only they have the facilities," she informed me curtly. Her face was artificially beautiful, her hair an exotic shade of mint blue. To me, at this moment, she was ugly.

"Majikast is months away by horse, and I lack even that." I jostled the infant, and it kicked its pudgy legs. "Please, take her. I can't care for her anymore. Look at my arm."

The lady Avalon regarded the series of bruises along my bony limb, but her resolve remained unshaken.

"We're not an orphanage. This is a burden the Avalons are not equipped to deal with. As I said, you may go to Majikast and— Where are you going?"

"Majikast," I lied, tucking the baby against my chest and wrapping a cloth over her so that other citizens in the town wouldn't gawk. The Avalons weren't going to help me. Majikast was out of the question. But there were other cities with sorcerers.

A few days later and I was close to giving up and abandoning the baby. Hunger chipped away my humanity one stomach gurgle at time. None of the sorcerers in the surrounding towns I knew would see me. I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't keep finding food for both of us.

As I leaned against a shady tree and contemplated my options, a breeze blew a smell into my face that tingled the top of my mouth. Magic, and more than I'd ever smelled before. The infant gave off a slight whiff of enchantment, but this magic was as thick as soup. A sorcerer had to be at its center, and a powerful one too. Maybe they would grant my wish?

I directed the donkey toward the scent. Passing an old tower from before the Arcanacracy, I came to the top of a hill and found myself gawking down on the city from where the magic was coming.

Calling it a city was a stretch. It was a city to-be, in construction, an improvised sort of place. The manor at its heart was already finished, and the roads had been laid down. The rest of the town was still in varying states of completion, from the uneven construction of the walls to the half-built row of shops. I even spied the well dug for an Avalonry, though the ground was still flat and no ivory gazebo stood there yet. Housing was being thrown up out of the surrounding woods and stone. Large quarries far enough to be out of sight of the main town had tipped me off to the construction project going on. The forest behind me had been cleanly uprooted, leaving acres of soft, dark dirt with no shade or trees, and probably more than a couple of displaced birds' nests.

The town had been constructed by magic so rapidly that unlike an organic city, many of the structures stood empty. Everything smelled fresh and clean. Its symmetry could only really be appreciated from above. As I traveled closer, I kept in mind the perfectly aligned stone of the fancy roads had hardly seen any foot traffic. All cuts of the stone were consistent. It had to be a sorcerer's work. The roads were backed up with carts of imported glass and bags of seed and fertilizer. That destroyed the perceived image of order from above with ground level chaos.

Families who were ragged from traveling were lined up. I got into line. I held the baby, swaddled tightly since she didn't like the sunlight very much. I tried to avoid the looks I was getting. Instead, I focused on figuring out what was going on. Families received paperwork from one beleaguered bureaucrat sitting on the outside of the town in a hastily constructed cloth tent. A small boy was standing by, fanning him. The boy had simple clothes and pink skin, probably a local. The bureaucrat had darkly tanned skin, ochre lined eyes and was clad in a flowing vest and slacks from fine Zanthachuanian silk. Imported. Not local.

As I waited in the long line, I noticed as soon as papers were signed and handed back, families would break up. The father would often kiss his family fondly, then leave to go grab a tool for construction or a bag of seed from the carts. The mother and the children would go into the town. Since the city walls were not yet constructed, I'd seen many open their houses for the very first time. Excitement sprung from those who never had anything before.

Envy struck me. If only there'd been a city going up after our ranch had been destroyed, maybe my dad and I could have traveled to it, gotten a house, and he'd still be alive. The Moon Giant baby punched my ribs, kicking and wanting to be put down. After regaining my breath, I shook my head. We all have our fortunes and our misfortunes. I smiled at the families who got their deeds afterwards.

Finally I reached the front of the line.

"Name," the bureaucrat said, not looking up from the long scroll pinned beneath his writing quill like a mouse against a snake's fang.

"Azark," I replied.

"Either previous or desired occupation?" The bureaucrat asked, nose still pointed at the scroll. The coppery skin and looping black hair had been a hint, but his accent secured that this man was from Majikast down south. Did the Centralized Magical Arcanacracy send a representative to all city openings, even this far out? Then again, this was the only city founding I had seen in person instead of hearing about. Maybe there weren't many.

"Uh, I'm not here to settle," I said.

"Oh?" Finally shaken out of his apathy by surprise, he regarded me. "Your appearance suggests you've nothing to your name..." He squinted, not liking being confused. "Are you a merchant?"

"Uh, sort of."

"Commerce licenses won't be here for shops until next week. The bankers are going to arrive last once everything else is established."

"I'm making a delivery to a sorcerer." I opened the swaddling and let the Giant baby peek out. The boy fanning the bureaucrat dropped his fan and gasped. I quickly covered the baby again.

"Did you... How did you come across such an acquisition?" He'd asked, obviously flustered.

"Is there a sorcerer in this town?"

"Yes... I..." The man gestured at his Assistant. "Go, request he stop working on the well. Tell him I said there's a visitor he must see." The boy ran off. The man addressed me again.

"Do you see the manor?"

"Yes?"

"You are welcome to wait for your Client there. Please, uh, do not speak of your business to anyone else in the town."

I'd hurried along with the Moon Giant baby fussing in my arms.

(( A/N: Enjoying the story? Can't wait for the next part? Consider purchasing the paperback edition at my CreateSpace website: https://www.createspace.com/5621397 

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