They arrived at Waterveil and Ratface was treated to her first sight of a major city. Well, apart from the elf city, but she wasn’t sure that counted given that she’d been glamoured to forget.

  It didn’t take her long to work out why it was called Waterveil. The place literally had a lake sitting over it, with tunnels of water spreading through the roads.

  “Why?” asked Ratface.

  “In the Lady’s Kingdom, it isn’t enough for a city to be a big place, instead it must be a place of wonder,” said Abigail. She walked up to the wall, which was also made a water, and ran her way through the rising current. She stopped Halmir when he tried to do the same. “Best not, I have armour to keep me in place, you’ll be in the wall before you know it.”

  “Seems dangerous,” said Tiffany. Albert snorted.

  “Well, it is a wall, you can hardly expect defences to be safe, can you?”

  Ratface shook her head. She couldn’t have explained the difference between a farmer and an adventurer any better than that sentence could. Tiffany was obviously bothered by it and was going to argue with Albert before a guard waved them through.

  The water in front of them parted and they walked into one of many roads. Unlike most roads Ratface had been on, these ones were twisted around the area. It reminded Ratface of something.

  “Like rivers,” said Tiffany, her eyes trailing the city in wonder, her earlier problem with the defences forgotten. She and Albert seemed more at ease around the water. Was it their bog heritage showing perhaps?

  “This city was made by Sofia, her last project before she died. She spent her whole life fighting water serpents to extinction,” said Abigail. She let he hand trail through another tunnel of water, this one twisted through the road and back up into the sky. “At the end she said she missed the way they made the water move.”

  “Are all your cities as intense as this?” asked Ratface.

  “Hah, no. Waterveil is a great work and a great city. The rest are impressive but it’s only the Lady’s own city that rivals such a place.” She tapped a pole they were walking past, it was covered in runes. “The runes themselves to keep this all running is mind boggling. Only old Sofia could recreate them, it’s all of us current knights can do to maintain it.”

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  Ratface looked up in concern and Kryssa nudged her.

  “Use your eyes before you go being concerned,” she whispered.

  Ratface looked and her eyes widened. The sheer amount of mana holding it in place was mind boggling. It was more than that though, all the water she could see.

  “It’s conjured,” said Ratface. If the mana stopped the water would just disappear.

  “See? It’s not that impressive,” said Kryssa, “it’s no Lurian.”

  “Where’s this loyalty for home coming from, huh? I know I don’t have it.”

  “You didn’t spend years stuck in an elven city. Just the parts you remembered were amazing enough.”

  Ratface mulled it over. It occurred to her that for Kryssa, that memory had been her home. The memories she’d interacted with had been the closest she’d had to friends. She held her hand out to the glamour.

  “I’ll be sure to hold some wonder left for when we see an elf city again.” She gestured at the rest of water around them. “All of this is still impressive to me. It’s not like I’ll ever be able to make something like this.” She tried to smile but the best she could do was her lips twitichg before falling into a frown. A part of her still grieved for the magic she couldn’t touch. Kryssa hesitated, then grabbed her hand.

  “Just because you can’t do it yet, doesn’t mean never. You’ve already done one impossible thing, what’s another in the grand scheme?”

  Ratface managed a smile and gripped the glamours hand harder. Halmir watching them shifted into his rat form and blinked onto Ratface’s shoulder. It still hurt. The two of them could do magic she couldn’t dream of; Kryssa was literally made of it. Yet Kryssa was right, she’d already done magic before, maybe in the future she would again? The hope was like a knife in her heart, but she couldn’t let it go.

  A guard shot through the water and landed next to them. He was surprisingly dry. He looked at the group of them before his eyes found Ratface and rested on the pendant she was wearing. He looked her up and down, surprised by her height.

  “Ah we’ve been sent to get the last of the trial takers, this would be you?”

  “I suppose it would,” sad Ratface.

  “Excellent, if you and your group are ready follow me.”

  He didn’t wait for them to express if they were ready, instead they were engulphed in a pillar of water and whisked away. The city shot passed them as they were pulled into the top of the water and then sent hurtling down to a courtyard.

  Ratface wobbled in place but felt a steadying hand on her shoulder. While everyone in their group except Halmir was taller than her, the metal gave away who it was. Abigail was standing behind her. Her hand on Ratface’s back was trembling a bit and her face was pinched tight.

  In front of them stood a woman in light armour with a blue cape. Her hair was blonde, and she shone a bit to the eye. Her own eyes were furious as she took in Ratface and Abigail. No, not Ratface, just Abigail.

  “Well, this is a surprise,” she spat out, “I wouldn’t have expected a traitor to be a sponsor.”