"Just how big is this city?" Darkfire groaned in frustration, and Arran felt much the same. They had already spent several hours exploring the city's seemingly endless streets, and yet, Arran knew that they had barely seen a fraction of it. "Let's find a decent inn first," Arran said. "After that, we can take our time exploring the city." They decided on an inn named The Golden Pig. Large and fairly clean, it was more expensive than most inns they had found so far, with a crowd of merchants instead of the mercenaries, caravan guards, and Shadowflame hopefuls that filled most inns. Unconcerned with cost — he already had enough gold to last a lifetime — Arran got them the two largest rooms in the inn, then paid some more for clean bedsheets. After they settled in, they headed back down to the common room, where they approached the innkeeper. As soon as he spotted them,

Although he had already traveled the route earlier that day, Arran's return to the inn still took him some time. Navigating the city's many narrow streets proved even harder at night than it was during the day, and once more, he had to rely on directions from passersby to find his way. When he finally arrived at the Golden Pig, it was already past midnight, and inside, he found the common room filled with a lively crowd of people in various stages of inebriation. Although it wasn't quite as rowdy as a common inn or tavern would be, it seemed even the respectable merchants at the Golden Pig weren't above enjoying a drink or three in the evening. At once, his eyes searched for Darkfire, and he found his friend in a corner of the common room, sitting behind a table with a large mug of ale and an annoyed expression. When Arran approached him, he looked up, a wronged look on his face. "They threw me out a

"Is something funny?" the young woman next to Arran asked, giving him a questioning look. Arran coughed several times, only partly succeeding in stifling his laughter. "My friend may have done something stupid," he said, his attention focused on the Governor's daughter as she entered the dining hall. Now that he got a better look at her, he saw that she was really quite beautiful — her flowing brown hair framed a well-proportioned face, and her dark eyes were large and alert. When she noticed Darkfire, her eyes lit up, and she immediately approached him, seemingly unconcerned with what the others in the hall would think. As she reached Darkfire, she cast a glance at the man who was sitting next to him — a wealthy merchant, judging from his elegant robe and slightly pudgy physique. "Move!" she said in an unexpectedly firm tone that caused some looks of surprise among t

Just getting out of the city took Arran frustratingly long, with the crowded and narrow streets making it slow and difficult to find his way. Yet after a time, the streets got less busy and the houses grew sparser, and finally, he found himself outside the city. Here, the roads were much quieter than the streets had been, though there was still a good bit of traffic, with farmers and merchants bringing goods to and from the city. As Arran made his way north, he relaxed a bit, enjoying the sunny countryside while thinking about the weeks that lay ahead. From what he had heard these past few days, he now understood that the situation in the Sixth Valley was far more complicated than he had expected. With several factions fighting for power, choosing the wrong novice to join could be disastrous — deadly even. Yet so far, Arran had only seen a handful of Shadowflame novices in

Arran read the letter in his hands, then tossed it aside. It held an invitation from a novice named Zehava, but it contained no time or other details, just mentioning the name and an address. Although Arran thought he could probably afford to ignore it, there was little point in offending a novice he didn't yet know. He would pay the novice a visit the next morning, he decided. After he got into bed, it took him some time to fall asleep, and as he lay awake, he thought about his forbidden Realm. Well over two years had passed since Master Zhao had sealed it, and still, the seal remained in place. Partly, this was a testament to Master Zhao's extraordinary skill. Although the lesser seals on Arran's Wind and Fire Realms had been torn away when Arran took ten Realm Opening Pills at once, the seal on Arran's forbidden Realm remained as strong as the day it was created. Yet the greater part of the story