64th of Fall, 518
Madeira was lost.
This could be considered pretty par for the course in a new city. It could take a few weeks for immigrants to recognize new landmarks and memorize the easiest path home. But Madeira was an Avalad, and that changed everything.
Head back and breathing evenly through her nose, the Spiritist was centring herself while staring daggers into the thin blue face of god peeking from between the tall, mighty architecture of Zintia. At least, she supposed it was Zintia. A chill breeze whistled through her red cloak, pressing the skirt of her green dress against her legs and making her shiver. She gathered her cloak closed with a heavily jewelled hand and brushed the trailing locks of her unraveling chignon away from her face. She had found herself in some rarely travelled corner of the peak. Here the city's proud gardens were choked with the nodding heads of the last summer dandelions, it's cobblestone cracked and mossy and full of rainwater. She supposed she might be behind some residential area, or at least far enough away from the peaks fresh-faced shopping district to be considered unimportant. If nothing else, she was glad she was having her shopping delivered. Being weighted down with several heavy dresses while wandering would have been a pain all its own.
Madeira quietly cursed and sucked at her bottom lip, her blue eyes flicking from one abandoned path to the other. That was the thing about living your entire life in Alvadas, the city's constantly changing layout and mad leaps into absurdity made one's mind resilient to shock and lent itself to quick thinking. But it came at the sacrifice of any sense of predictability or spacial awareness. She quite literally could not get from point A to point B without help. And that help typically came in the form of Emma, a child who lived and died in the much more logical city of Riverfall.
Madeira twisted the empty moonstone ring around her finger and sighed. She had lost sight of the girl a while back, and had forgotten to have her refill the ring the last time she had summoned her. She did have a full ring left, a large, flat onyx stone on her left hand, but she wasn't desperate enough to use it yet. Jomi found her ‘disability' greatly amusing. If she summoned him to escort her she'd never hear the end of it. No, she could logic her way out of this.
No matter how hard she listened, she couldn't hear people. It must be one of the city's strange 'rest periods'. But it stood to reason that the more opulent the building, the closer to the city's centre she must be, and people tend to converge around the centre. Scanning the skyline, she caught sight of a tall, skyglass dome that might do the trick. If she kept heading for it, she was bound to find people eventually.
Filled with renewed purpose, Madeira gathered herself against the chill and marched down the lefthand path.
This could be considered pretty par for the course in a new city. It could take a few weeks for immigrants to recognize new landmarks and memorize the easiest path home. But Madeira was an Avalad, and that changed everything.
Head back and breathing evenly through her nose, the Spiritist was centring herself while staring daggers into the thin blue face of god peeking from between the tall, mighty architecture of Zintia. At least, she supposed it was Zintia. A chill breeze whistled through her red cloak, pressing the skirt of her green dress against her legs and making her shiver. She gathered her cloak closed with a heavily jewelled hand and brushed the trailing locks of her unraveling chignon away from her face. She had found herself in some rarely travelled corner of the peak. Here the city's proud gardens were choked with the nodding heads of the last summer dandelions, it's cobblestone cracked and mossy and full of rainwater. She supposed she might be behind some residential area, or at least far enough away from the peaks fresh-faced shopping district to be considered unimportant. If nothing else, she was glad she was having her shopping delivered. Being weighted down with several heavy dresses while wandering would have been a pain all its own.
Madeira quietly cursed and sucked at her bottom lip, her blue eyes flicking from one abandoned path to the other. That was the thing about living your entire life in Alvadas, the city's constantly changing layout and mad leaps into absurdity made one's mind resilient to shock and lent itself to quick thinking. But it came at the sacrifice of any sense of predictability or spacial awareness. She quite literally could not get from point A to point B without help. And that help typically came in the form of Emma, a child who lived and died in the much more logical city of Riverfall.
Madeira twisted the empty moonstone ring around her finger and sighed. She had lost sight of the girl a while back, and had forgotten to have her refill the ring the last time she had summoned her. She did have a full ring left, a large, flat onyx stone on her left hand, but she wasn't desperate enough to use it yet. Jomi found her ‘disability' greatly amusing. If she summoned him to escort her she'd never hear the end of it. No, she could logic her way out of this.
No matter how hard she listened, she couldn't hear people. It must be one of the city's strange 'rest periods'. But it stood to reason that the more opulent the building, the closer to the city's centre she must be, and people tend to converge around the centre. Scanning the skyline, she caught sight of a tall, skyglass dome that might do the trick. If she kept heading for it, she was bound to find people eventually.
Filled with renewed purpose, Madeira gathered herself against the chill and marched down the lefthand path.
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