While Alexei knew that his power had, somehow, managed to evolve he had no idea what any of the words his power had provided him with actually meant. What he did know was that the new element he had access to had come from the stew he’d eaten in the morning. “Do you have any of that stew left over?” Alexei asked. “You’re thinking about food at a time like this?” The barkeep replied incredulously. “How much do you know about Initiates?” Alexei said, “The ceremony is public, but I’ve never been clear on how much people actually know is going on.” “The Administrar calls down the power of the Gods, gifting you with magical powers beyond that which any mage could hope to claim without assistance,” the barkeep said as if reading from a religious text. “Exactly, and those magical powers vary from person to person, mine was… well… weaker than most,” Alexei explained, “That was the whole reason I left the Academy, to begin with.” “They kicked you out for being a weakling? That seems a l

Alexei couldn’t help but notice how beautiful Alandria actually was from his perch up on the rooftops of the city. In the distance, atop the hills that looked over the cityscape, was the academy. The building was practically a castle, towering over everything else. There was a time that Alexei would have found such a thing impressive, now he just thought it was arrogance. Of course, the academy would be placed above the rest of everyone else. That was very them. Filled to the brim with their superiority. No, the real beauty could definitely be found in the city below, with its glittering riverways and winding streets. Chimney stacks with lazy smoke drifting up into the sky. The hustle and bustle of the people below, crossing rivers and pontoons to get from place to place. In a way, Alexei felt a little angry that they’d been kept so separate from it all. To go from his small farming village straight to the academy and have all of this kept from him? It wasn’t something Alexei c

The area of the city that Lyla’s map directed Alexei seemed to be one that was much less travelled by the majority of the population. The buildings became more tightly packed together and the riverway that he and Neave were following began to smell progressively worse and worse. He’d heard rumours, back when he lived in the Academy, that there had been a part of the city that had been dedicated to beastkin. At the time it had seemed absurd. Why would they need a whole section of the city just for beastkin? It wasn’t like they weren’t people, even if there were elements of the beast about them. But that was a naive view clearly held by someone who had come from out in the countryside. While Alexei had known that beastkin tended to get the short end of the stick when it came to respect in society, he hadn’t quite known how bad it was. Not until he’d seen the slave traders' tent, anyway. He pulled Neave close as they walked through the shadowy side streets. While he didn’

There was still one thing that Alexei wanted to take care of before he and Neave called it a day. It was clear that his planned life as a water salesman out in the sticks of the kingdom had been dashed, or at the very least were on hold. If he was going to be engaging in dangerous activities, such as taking on slave traders and discovering who sent a pair of deadly assassins after him then he was going to need a bit more than a couple of exploding pots to see him and Neave through. They were going to need weapons, proper weapons, that would allow them to hold their own against some of the threats that came their way. They wouldn’t be able to rely on dumb luck and the element of surprise forever, after all. It had also gone past noon, and so Alexei was starting to get a little bit hungry. Neave likely was too, not that he expected the girl to admit it. From her malnourished appearance, he was willing to bet that she hadn’t exactly been leaving off three square meals a day whil

The graveyard had been warm, just like the rest of the city. The interior of the mausoleum was decidedly not warm at all. The air was cold and damp and seemed to cling to every inch of Alexei’s skin. He was nervous for a moment that the cloyingly cold humidity might cause his remaining explosive to misfire, but fortunately, the ceramic container was sealed well enough that no water was able to penetrate. As he found a flight of stairs that seemed to lead down into the depths of the Earth, lit only by sparsely located flickering torches, Alexei couldn’t help but feel like he was being watched. In fact, he was almost sure that he saw the skulls that lined the walls of the mausoleum turn very slightly to follow his movements as he began to make his way down the stairs. He swallowed thickly, his mouth dry, and decided to ignore the potentially necromantic goings on around him. He was entering a location called the black market, after all, he had to expect that there would be