I walk with James to get to the guards office, as we walk James admires the city, and the people, and the elves, and the dwarves, really he seems to be having a great time. But we do eventually arrive at the guards office.

  James glances at the stone building. “What would this be?”

  I nod. “So, they have sort of designated police, but they just call them guards, as well.”

  James shrugs. “Fine. So I'm a guard?”

  I tilt my head, and hiss. “I mean, closer to… A consultant? Or like a forensics person I guess? I mean you won't stand a chance against anybody who has even a bit of power, so you’ll not be engaging in any combat or anything.”

  He nods. “True I guess. What about guns?”

  I nod. “Good question. They don't work here. I don't know why, but it's like mana interferes with it, and won't allow it to work. Milo claims it's because the gods hate cheaters, but I don't know what that means.”

  “Hmm.” James tilts his head. “Weird. I'd like to keep looking into that.”

  I shrug. “The guards have more than a few confiscated guns in their possession from idiots who haven't realized they don't work here. Feel free to check them out.”

  James shrugs. “I see. I'll definitely be checking those out.”

  I walk up to the office, and pop open the door. “Hey, I'm looking for Lia?”

  An older gentleman smoking a pipe, and sitting behind a desk glances up from a puzzle of some kind. “Not here. Wait till she gets back.”

  I smile. “Where is she!”

  He sighs. “East side, by the gates, a fight broke out between some of those bitch earthies, and a small gang here, she's there to try to snuff it out, but it's pretty large.”

  I smile. “Perfect, me and James will go check it out, and talk with her.”

  He rolls his eyes. “Your funeral.” he returns his attention to his puzzle cube, and takes a puff off his pipe filling the room with a rancid smelling smoke.

  James coughs, “Maybe, I shouldn't bring myself into a gang war.”

  I chuckle. “No, actually, I'm with you so you’ll probably be fine.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  James chuckle, “No, actually I don't thin-”

  I interrupt him, by snatching his arm, and leading him away, and towards the east gates.

  “Hey now, maybe not.” He begins to stutter, but I just keep pulling him along.

  As we walk, he glances over, and gets a sight of the western wall. An explosion rings out, and a bright light flashes over the tremendous wall, rising above the city, bridging the gap between mountains. “They're probably fending off an attack right now. Nothing serious, they've been probing our defenses for a couple days now.”

  James glances. “Those explosions sounded serious.” He says tepidly.

  I chuckle. “That's Lysander. He's on our side.”

  He nods. “Well, I'm glad about that, I guess.”

  I smile. “Yeah, he's a cool guy actually.”

  At that we continue walking and the wall recedes from view. As we walk we draw closer to the eastern wall. This side has slowly been turning more, and more dangerous, as more, and more earth people have been flooding through the gates, looking for places to live, and places to sell their drugs.

  It doesn't look very different but there's more people, just lounging on the ground, or smoking in the alleyways, or little entrances to clubs where snort their secrets.

  As we keep walking something interesting happens, an undead wendigo rips through a street, down an alleyway before hopping a wall, and disappearing out of sight. “Probably one of Lia's creations. Should we follow it, or keep looking for her?”

  James grimaces. “Um, how about look for her?” He continues to saying quietly.

  I shrug. “Oh fine, you boring little man.” I continue to pull him along, in the direction the Wendigo came from, and we eventually find Lia set up in a little command center, around her stands a couple of her fellow guards, and she sits drinking from a glass.

  “Hey Lia!” She glances up from her table to see me, and James drawing closer. “Hey Eli. What do you need?”

  I shrug. “Milo, made me go to earth so we could hire someone who is knowledgeable in earth drugs. He wants you to hire him, he'll pay the extra budget for his salary, and everything.”

  She smirks. “Perfect. We've been noticing an uptick in drugs like that. We've been looking for someone to catalog them, because Milos has been asking for reports on what we need to ban, and everything.”

  James nods. “That's me. I was told to discuss pay with you?”

  She nods, “of course, later though, we need you to prove your worth now.”

  James flinches, “Oh, I'm not a fighter.”

  She chuckles. “The groups we are putting down are both distributing these drugs we were looking into. In fact we were prepping raids on both of them, they just started fighting first.”

  He nods. “Yeah, good excuse.”

  She chuckles. “No, we don't need excuses. We were planning a raid on them without an excuse, they literally just started fighting before we could get to them.”

  He nods again. “That's right. I forgot that this world is based on an aristocracy that doesn't have a real constitution.”

  “Country.” She corrects. “Not world, this country within this world.”

  James sighs. “I see. I’ll have to figure that out…”