Chương 60: Wings and Scales

In a surprising turn of events, Thacea stepped up to the plate almost immediately, turning to the rest of the group with a look of resolve on her face that might've actually betrayed a genuine hint of excitement.

"I volunteer to be the next on this roster." The avinor's speaking mannerisms remained largely the same - polite and reserved. Yet similar to her features, she seemed to allow a small sliver of genuine excitement to color her voice as she stood up at about the same time Thalmin began packing away his projector. This gave me and the two guys some room for smalltalk.

"So, what did you think?" Thalmin began with an expectant grin.

"About your realm?" Ilunor replied almost immediately.

"Yes, Vunerian, what else is there that I could have alluded to?"

"Well, I've said my piece." Ilunor responded with a shrug.

"An average run-of-the-mill adjacent realm, perhaps even less than average if I were to delve into any critical analysis of what was shown." Thalmin let out a growl at this, which prompted me to add my two cents in before the two could get into another verbal spat.

"Well I thought your realm was very impressive, Thalmin." I spoke earnestly, and with a hint of giddiness, as the realization of having just been thrust into a second fantasy realm was really starting to sink in now.

"From the walls, to the buildings, and even the streets, everything was just like being transported back in time." I spoke with a palpable wanderlust in my voice. Thalmin's smile grew for the first half of that, but a questioning glare began forming just as quickly at the latter statement.

"Back in time?"

"Oh, sorry, it's just, we had similar architectural and city-planning methods as you before things started erm…" Industrializing?

"... changing." I decided on a vaguer descriptor instead.

"But erm, yeah! Speaking frankly, it's impressive to see your infrastructure projects, what with the roads, public spaces like the bathhouse, an actual sewage system, and then some! It's honestly rather impressive!"

"Heh. The newrealmer is impressed by the unseen underbelly of civilization it seems?" Ilunor interjected snidely.

"Well, it's more like I have an appreciation for what actually makes a city, and a civilization tick, Ilunor." I snapped back just as quickly at his cheap quips.

"Not everything is about the most impressive castle or the fanciest of monuments. It's these more subtle aspects of civilization that truly shows the development of a nation." This seemed to genuinely baffle the Vunerian, as he cocked his head in confusion, as if being faced with an utterly foreign concept.

"Public works are not the measure with which I would base my analyses on the impressiveness of a civilization, Booker." He stated plainly, frankly, and in no uncertain terms.

"It may come third or fourth in my consideration of that title, but it should be more of an afterthought than a primary aspect of consideration." He eventually shrugged, after parsing the thought in his mind for a few moments.

"But what can I expect from the mentality of a commoner. You see the mundane as the grand, and the grand as the mundane… or perhaps the grand is simply too far above you to consider at all." I was just about to put in a few choice words in response to that before Thacea suddenly returned with her sight-seer already almost fully assembled.

"I do hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Thacea addressed all three of us with a questioning gaze.

"No, not at all." Ilunor replied promptly, which prompted me to just sigh in response, before shrugging.

"Nothing of value was spoken, and nothing of value was lost as a result." I chimed in with a side-eye directed towards the Vunerian. Thacea, upon reading the room, decided to continue unabated.

"Before I commence my sight-seer experience, I would like to note that this particular chapter of my sight-seer was modified to be more of a visual experience, as opposed to Thalmin's more narrative-driven piece. I must also warn you, that you may experience motion sickness and its accompanying maladies such as dizziness, nausea, and the sort."

"And you assume this because you believe all of us to have never experienced flight before?" Ilunor abruptly interjected, prompting the avinor princess to nod once in reply.

"That is correct, however I did not mean any offense by-""Of course you didn't." He continued with that same, cocky, shit-eating grin as if excited to explain just exactly how Thacea was in the wrong here.

"And I take no offense, of course. For you are correct in assuming that most land dwellers are, of course, bound by their physical limitations. However… the fact of the matter is, I am not like most land-dwellers, Thacea Dilani. For I am a Vunerian of the house of Rularia. As such, you must keep in mind both my draconic heritage, and my personal privileges. The former granting me immunity to the maladies commonly found from a land-dweller experiencing that which was not meant for them - flight.

The latter being my inherent experience in riding drakes, for my family owns both the leisurely and combat varietals." Thacea took all of this with stride, simply nodding once at the Vunerian's long winded explanation, managing to pull the wind out of his sails through what was effectively a simple acknowledgement to a grandiose display of verbiage. I, however, couldn't help but to let out a long sigh, as I first turned towards the EVI to add a small note to my list of growing ideas.

"EVI?"

"Yes, Cadet Booker?"

"Make sure we include a few intra-atmo aircraft in the demo, maybe somewhere in the background while we show off the city."

"Affirmative, Cadet Booker." Once that was done, I quickly turned towards Ilunor with a cock of my head, all the while directing my speech to Thacea.

"No offense taken here as well, Thacea. For I too have had my fair share of experiences in flight. Both civilian and military, in aircraft and in power armor." I spoke in no uncertain terms, prompting the Vunerian to glare at me with a look of someone who'd just been challenged by a perceived lesser opponent.

"It is one thing to create flying artifices, Booker. That much I can see through your use of drones. It is, however, another thing entirely to create what you claim are aerial-borne vessels."

"Listen, Ilunor. How about we settle this with me just showing it to you when we get to my presentation" I answered politely and with an amused smile under my helmet.

"For now, let's just get to Thacea." That little calling-out of Ilunor's bluff seemed to stir something within both Thacea and Thalmin, as both met each other's gaze for a moment, only for me to raise a single hand, calling off the argument as abruptly as it began.

"The floor is all yours, Thacea." Thacea, with a cautious yet appreciative nod, continued with another wave of her hands; prompting another spike of mana radiation to precede a holographic projection of a sight that I had not at all expected. The world that now consumed our field of view, save for the coffee table that the sight-seer rested on and the couches we sat atop of, was a wooden galley. However, that in and of itself wasn't the most unexpected part of this whole projection.

No, the galley itself looked more than par for the course for your typical medieval-renaissance fantasy faire. What was decidedly not your typical fantasy faire was what was immediately in front of the ship. As the POV of this particular holographic recording wasn't just staring out at some typical ye olde port with a cathedral or palace tower poking through a sea of low-rise structures. No.

What we saw didn't look like it couldn't have been built in the renaissance, or any other period in history that popular fantasy had requisitioned for its aesthetics. Because what we saw in front of us now, was undeniably, in every way possible… a city skyline.

Hundreds upon hundreds of towers rose above the sheer cliff faces of this island, forming what was in effect a coherent, cohesive, and strangely modern sight that looked absolutely out of place, especially from the vantage point of a wooden galley that looked like it'd been pulled out of the 15th century.

I was about to raise a fair few questions about this, if not for the silent POV suddenly getting up from their seat, the whole perspective now turning to a precariously unsecured side of the vessel with not a single handrail, rope, or any sort of barrier existing between the ship's deck and the open ocean below. The POV avinor paused for a moment, as if considering their next step, before suddenly and without warning launching themselves straight off the side of the ship.

Hurling themselves at maximum speed, as fast as their chicken legs could muster, and for a moment losing altitude as they neared the waterline; before leveling out and then ascending straight up. The whole sequence took a total of barely ten or so seconds, but in those ten seconds, I could practically feel my gut churning. Ilunor, however, looked absolutely worse for wear if his dazed eyes and greening cheeks were of any indication.

His bluff now falling flat as he all but needed to grip on tight to the plush armrests of his recliner to steady himself. The footage continued regardless of the Vunerian's condition however, as the video now felt like one of those high-quality nature docs that had a high-res camera strapped to the back of a migratory bird.

As the world around us was now nothing but empty sky, and the ship beneath us continued to fade further and further away into the distance, until it was nothing but a small brown blob in the vast canvas of deep azure that was the ocean. These observations however didn't remain valid for long. As without any warning save for a few high-pitched chirps, came an absolute flurry of colors in the form of an entire flock of birds.

As the POV avinor in question joined what was ostensibly an entire air lane's worth of fellow avinor. Avinors whose colors ranged from bright hot pink, to dull browns and beiges, to more colorful variants of blue, oranges, and reds. The entire flock flew in surprisingly coordinated unison through the clouds, before banking hard to the right, breaking through the cloud layer once more, rapidly approaching their intended destination - the city.

However, as we got closer, the finer details of these towers became increasingly more vivid; and with that came several revelations that started to frame this whole city in a more period-accurate light. What were tall, modern skyscrapers from afar, now looked to be more akin to exceptionally elongated and stretched out towers of stone and concrete, with not a single structure containing more than a few panes of glass.

And what I'd first assumed to be window frames from afar now revealed themselves to be far, far bigger than that. Clearly intended for something other than just looking out of. As every floor of every building contained what was in effect, some form of a balcony, with a wide open outcropping that could fit a whole avinor with their wings outstretched. These weren't just decorative or aesthetic elements of design. They were functional, in a way that I'd never thought to imagine before.

From balconies to outcroppings to perches and more, these were elements of design that were conducive to the avinor lifestyle. A lifestyle of three dimensions, unbound by the limitations of arms and legs, afforded to them by their gift of flight.

This was demonstrated almost immediately as the flock began to disperse upon entering into the city limits, as hundreds of them began their approach to several of the outlying towers at the outskirts of town, using those perches, balconies, and entrances exactly as I'd imagined them to. However, instead of entering any of those shorter buildings, our hologram's POV began entering into what I could only describe as a lane of traffic.

An invisible, non-demarcated series of flight paths that ran parallel and above to the city's winding streets. Above and below us were distinct, seemingly never-ending lanes' worth of avinor. Thousands of them commuted in these surprisingly accident-free and well regulated flight corridors, as if everyone instinctively knew the movements of another, as they all made micro adjustments to veer, swerve, shift, or alter their course in order to avoid mid-air collisions with their fellow commuters.

This seemingly impossible and endless string of acrobatics continued as our POV flew their way between vast stretches of towers, eventually finding themselves barreling straight towards one. The flight lanes eventually dispersed, leaving only a few brave avinor to do what I'd only seen professional drone operators do for sport.

They flew straight through a skyscraper, entering through an admittedly large open balcony, flying through what looked to be a public concourse with a reception counter and concierge, passing by trolleys, couches, shelves, and even a precarious looking vase at one point, before flying out the other side of the building in the span of just a few seconds. Everything felt like a complete blur by this point, but the real piece de resistance was still yet to come.

The avinor's flightpath soon found themselves traveling into a part of the city that grew higher and higher with elevation, until finally, there was a strange, almost eerily empty clearing. A clearing that lasted for a good mile or so, acting as a buffer zone between the rest of the city and what was undoubtedly the seat of power of the whole place. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

A stereotypical fantasy castle, with very little in the way of practical defenses compared to that of Thalmin's home fortress. It looked as if someone had taken one of those aesthetically-minded'castles' from the 19th century and simply stretched it out vertically. Creating something that was a cross between the Plaza Hotel from historic NYC, and one of those aforementioned 19th century castles built only for aesthetics in an era way way past the utilitarian age of castles.

In fact, it looked eerily similar to that one particular castle that was prominently featured in that latest Civ building game as an ancient wonder… Something starting with an N…

"EVI, help me out here. Search the historic databases for a castle in the EF, probably Germany or something. Something starting with an N. Featured recently in that civ game as a wonder. Something that rhymes with Lichtenstein."

"Neuschwanstein Castle." The EVI responded blandly, bringing up the exact image of the castle I was looking for.

"THAT'S IT! Okay, thanks EVI."

"Note: the name does not rhyme with the standard pronunciation of the state of Liechtenstein."

"Whatever, EVI, you at least got what I meant."

"Soooooo Booker, what do you think?" An unfortunately familiar voice came in at the tail end of my back and forth with EVI, gesturing at the holographic projection. I took a few seconds to come up with an answer.

"I mean it's-" But by that point, it was too late.

"Hah! Awestruck by a slightly above average adjacent realm, are we now, Booker?" Ilunor couldn't help but to butt in with a sly grin.

"Not really, no. And erm, I don't mean any offense by that of course, Thacea." I addressed Thacea first, before shifting back to Ilunor.

"In fact, the castle reminded me of a few structures we have back home." Ilunor didn't quite buy it, narrowing his eyes, and responded accordingly.

"I highly doubt that to be the case, newrealmer-" I promptly shut him down by grabbing my tablet, flipping it over, and displaying exactly what I'd most recently searched for. The Neuschwanstein Castle. This 19th century feat of engineering seemed to raise some eyebrows in Thalmin, garnering something of a respectable nod from Thacea, but seemed to only garner a shrug from Ilunor.

"So you don't live in mud and stick huts." He spoke unenthusiastically.

"What a surprise that the royal family of Earthrealm lives in a grand palace in the middle of the woods. Probably surrounded by the peasantry that took what… a hundred? A thousand years to painstakingly build what we can build in a blink of an eye?" He cackled incessantly.

"Nobody lives there, Ilunor." I stated plainly.

"It's a historical site from a bygone era. We keep it because of its historic significance, and we keep the area around it wooded for the same reason. Or rather, environmental protection acts but that's a whole other story. Suffice it to say, that's not where our leaders reside. But… I guess you'll see when I get to my realm." I would savor the look on his face when we got to my demo.

"Anyways, please do continue Thacea. I'm sorry for derailing your presentation." I quickly added, prompting the princess to nod hesitantly in response, as if trying to gauge and pick apart the minor details of Earth just from that one image alone.

"As I was saying, what you've just bore witness to was my home city, the capital of Aetheronrealm, the Isle of Towers. What you currently see here is the seat of the Royal family, the High Palace of Dilani."

"So that's where you live?" I shot back instinctively.

"Yes." Thacea nodded.

"More specifically, I spent most of my days confined to the tainted branch here." The hologram projected a series of sparkly borders around one of the towers that jutted out laterally from the castle. I nodded once, silently, not wanting to dig into that matter further.

"Apologies if I brought up an awkward talking point, Thacea." I openly apologized.

"It's quite alright, Emma." Thacea responded with a polite chirp and just as quickly moved on. The rest of the city was promptly shown across the next thirty minutes, what amounted to a civilization built upon verticality and their gift of flight. Suffice it to say, there were a lot of questions following that demonstration, at least from my end as I began trying to pick apart everything Thacea had just shown us.

"So, are all avinor cities like this?" I began with an excitable breath.

"No, others rely more heavily on their natural surroundings to attain similar ends. With many cities having been carved into natural rock formations, cliff faces, and plateaus."

"Then why put all this effort into making the capital an artificial facsimile of what you could've more easily done with a cliff face?"

"The Isle of Towers has its roots in heavy historical legacy, Emma. Moreover, it began from desperation out of a group of avinor trapped from returning to the mainland due to a centuries-long storm. From there, they innovated, learning new magics to facilitate and accelerate means of both production and construction, allowing for the feats of engineering we now see today.

Moreover, after the storms cleared, the isle became a hub of commerce as it sat between the flight-paths of the northern and southern migratory routes. Thus, after the Nexian reformation, it was quickly redesignated as the Aetheronrealm capital." I nodded silently all throughout, the EVI taking notes all throughout, and my own mind all but ravenously consuming this new bird-lore.

"And-""Are we quite finished with this Aetheronrealm discussion, Booker?" Ilunor interjected. Although this time it wasn't so much just pride talking, as I could visibly see him shaking from excitement. Clearly giddy at the prospects of being next. I craned my head towards Thacea.

"Are you alright with continuing this Q and A at another time then, Thacea?" The avinor princess nodded once in reply, prompting Ilunor to all but cackle excitedly with a gremlin-esque series of snickers, before running off to his room and bringing back his own sight-seeer. His device was fundamentally different from the pair's.

As unlike Thalmin's, it looked new, and unlike Thacea's, it was sleeker, with gold trimmings, silver finishes, and fine polish making it look like something out of a 27th century corpo lord's modern art gallery. Even the crystals he inserted in seemed to glow brighter, and the iridescent fluid he used to power the whole thing was just that little bit more lustrous.

"I hope you're ready, newrealmer." Ilunor began with a shit-eating grin on his face so wide that for a moment he looked like something straight out of a cartoon.

"Because what you are about to see, is the result of the guiding light, the nurturing hand, and the awe-inspiring power of Nexian patronage." The room around us was once more bathed in a white light, which transitioned seamlessly into yet another 3D panoramic experience. However, there was something different about this one. Unlike the previous two's projections that felt like there was a clearly defined POV, as if the whole thing was recorded from a single camera with all the drawbacks that came with it…

this image felt eerily stable. It was as if we'd immediately jumped from a senior-high film project, to something of genuinely decent quality coming out of a legacy film house. The stabilized image I was met with was that of a vast expansive valley, one flanked on all sides by hilly terrain, with a seemingly endless expanse of mountainous peaks that crested in the background every which way we looked.

"The trail of victory." Ilunor began his unique brand of narration, contrasting Thalmin's more rustic approach to his presentation, and Thacea's minimalistic approach to hers.

"The path of heroes. The road of success. Many names have been given to this long winding stretch of road. A pilgrimage that many a lesser-Vunerian, and those of partial draconic heritage must trek at least once in their small lives." His words were somehow reverberating throughout the valley now, as if there was some sort of a sound projection system that had manifested around us.

"Though the names for it are many, and much of them are quite warranted, none come close to the name which I believe best suits the epic nature of that which is my home." The scenery that surrounded us slowly, but surely, accelerated. Traveling down winding and twisting paths, until suddenly, it simply became a straight, uncompromising road.

Paved, fenced, and well maintained for even industrial era standards, looking like something hailing from the age of concrete and asphalt, at around the dawn of paracrete and unisphalt. The roads continued ever onwards, becoming more ambitious with its infrastructure projects as it crossed streams, rivers, lakes, and eventually… entire canyons and valleys. Bridge after bridge was crossed, each one grander and more elaborate than the next.

With boring beam bridges eclipsed by arch bridges, then by suspension, then truss, then cantilever bridges, and so on and so forth. It was as if the Vunerian was trying to also demonstrate the superiority of his realm's infrastructure; perhaps prompted by my earlier remarks on that very topic. And to be honest… it showed, with many works of engineering looking as if they'd been pulled right out of early-modernity.

This eventually culminated in a series of ambitious tunnels that ran straight through mountain after mountain, giving Norway a run for its money in the tunneling business. These tunnels weren't the bare stone type either, with each tunnel being entirely encased in a white seamless material, shiny, and similar to marble.

After about ten whole minutes of this fast-forwarded journey, which I imagine would've taken days if not weeks to accomplish by horseback and foot respectively, we finally arrived at an unusually large clearing. A large flat space, at the foot of several mountains. However, as the 'camera' panned up, higher and higher still, our eyeballs forced to scale the sheer cliff-face that was the mountain, we suddenly reached a point where the mountain just… abruptly stopped.

About halfway up the tapering conical formation, where the midsection of the mountain should have been, was nothing. Several double takes were taken by the whole gang, including myself, as we looked around us, staring at the other mountains that at first seemed normal, but upon closer inspection… had suffered the exact same fate. All around us, were about seven mountains cleaved halfway up to their summits.

A cut that looked so clean that it felt as if there was a graphical error, a bad glitch in the system, or some passable photo-doctoring going on.

"For I call it, the grand carpet to the throne at the foot of the heavens. A lengthy name, but I believe you will come to understand exactly why I believe that name to be most fitting." None of us responded, each of us transfixed in our own way as the video resumed its hastened pace, traveling closer and closer still until several oddities started becoming apparent. First, was the presence of thousands upon thousands of small outcroppings in the base of the mountain.

Which, upon closer inspection, were open-air terraces. Terraces which housed entire air wings' worth of drakes, all lined up, and sitting as if ready for action at a moment's notice. More details quickly became apparent as we abruptly scaled up the mountain, rising through a small layer of clouds to confirm what was hinted at from the foot of the mountain. A perfectly flat surface at the midsection of a mountain, a result of a clean cut. But what was on that flat surface however, was what was truly remarkable.

An entire city, a multi-tiered city that was divided not with walls, but with height itself. As what was a flat surface from first glance soon turned out to be a tiered landscape fashioned after a layer-cake.

With each city layer separated by a good solid hundred or so feet of rock that went uncompromisingly up at a straight angle, repeating itself about ten distinct times, with each perfectly round and concentric layer becoming smaller and smaller with each change in elevation; before arriving at a large, grandiose, over-the-top castle that stood proudly at its peak. The whole city looked sort of like the city of Omushu from Vatara: The Final Wind Shifter.

"My home, my dear peers." Ilunor announced proudly, allowing the video to continue on its own now, as we zipped straight through each of the layers of the city, going from the outermost layer that rivaled even Thalmin's best developed areas in terms of its build quality and general aesthetics, through each of the layers that became increasingly more developed, more intricate in its designs, and sparser in its population.

Most of the structures here were constructed out of a similar material to the paths that were paved between them - a pure-white stone that glistened in the sunlight. Open and public spaces were surprisingly abundant, as were literal magma pits surrounded by some sort of a wooded park that seemed entirely impervious to the heat permeating around them.

"How-""I'm glad you asked, newrealmer." Ilunor responded with a smarmy smile.

"For you see, this was all the work of a single person. A gift, a monument, a practical military act, and a message all in one. All courtesy of his Eternal Majesty himself. Oh I'm sure we will touch upon it plenty in our history classes, but I would be remiss if I did not share a generous glimpse." Ilunor continued, his speech interrupted by the occasional manic bout of pride-filled laughter.

"This entire mountain range was once home to the seven great dragon clans of the past. And my people… were once all but unwitting servants to said clans. Bound to instincts… until the light of civilization opened their eyes. The elves in their infinite wisdom, and my immediate ancestors in their dissatisfaction with such a menial existence, decided to civilize the entirety of the region.

We united to topple our draconic overlords, slaughtered them all, and in an act of brilliant strategic decision making, we decided to all but destroy the lairs with which these dragons once believed to be impregnable… by carving open the mountains themselves!" He announced with glee.

"From there, the elves gifted us the former draconic lands, granting us stewardship over the entire region. We built our cities above where their lairs once stood, as a testament to our victory, of the triumph of civilization over animal savagery. Afterwhich, no longer were we known as mere kobolds — the elves elevating our race, imbuing my ancestors who fought alongside them with the gift of magic, creating Vunerian-kind."

My whole world all but shattered at that point, as what was in essence just a whole wall of lore completely rewrote everything I had initially assumed about the Vunerian. I turned to the pair first, gauging their reactions. Their faces said it all however. Or at least, Thalmin's did. Thacea remained unphased as was expected.

"But-""Oh, please maintain that shock and awe newrealmer, allow me to show you my home before we end this little tour." Ilunor spoke cockily once more, descending down and towards one of the upper ringed tiers, just a few tiers shy of the palace that sat above the rest of the city. There, I saw an expansive mansion that would've put Versailles to shame. With a wide open lawn complete with a hedge maze and several magical artifacts keeping the maze itself constantly moving.

Its architecture was gaudy too, with elements of baroque infused with high-gothic, all in the form factor of a corpo boss' preference for size over practicality.

"So, newrealmer… what do you think? I doubt there's anything in your newrealm that can match the grandeur of a crownlands-affiliate Nexian realm, even with that acceptably mediocre castle you just showed." I let out a sigh, turning towards Ilunor with a tired look in my eyes as I just about was ready to drop the bombshell on him. A proverbial one of course, as this wasn't a game of war, but a game of political might through a game of boastful displays. Thankfully, this was modern humanity we were talking about.

So even a tour of my hometown as it were should be enough to settle things.

"Have you dictated a course of action, Cadet Booker?"

"Yeah, so, major themes I'm seeing here are home, hometown, city, urban development, as well as everything else more or less in between those topics that I can't come up with right now."

"Affirmative Cadet Booker. Query: By hometown, do you wish to bring up your heritage town, or the Acela Megacity?"

"Why not both?" I responded earnestly.

"Both would honestly be good. Have them see the smallest of the small scale communities, then bump it up to the one of the largest cities on Earth. Should be fun right?"

"Affirmative. Loading stated parameters now."

"I'm going to have to politely allow my presentation to speak for itself, Ilunor. So let's head on over to my room. I'm afraid my sight-seer requires a bit more space so let's get going."