God of Discovery [high fantasy, slow build, mlm]

The city of Evadia

Their return to Evadia was not as quick as D'Argen had hoped. It was horribly cold, horribly wet, and horribly uncomfortable. While D'Argen could run fast enough to keep himself warm and on top of the snow, he ran much slower when travelling with others. Even though Thar was just one more than his usual, D'Argen's speed decreased even more than before.

After an absolutely awesome snowstorm had them blocked in a cave for two days, they found a series of tunnels and spent the following month getting lost in the caverns and underground paths. It allowed them to hide from the snow and with Thar using his mahee, they were able to ward off the cold.

When they finally made it out, Yaling painstakingly plotted their journey back to Evadia in as straight of a line as possible to get them back home as fast as possible. D'Argen was not the only one eager to return, though he dreaded having to share his findings with the Chief Scholar. Vain would not be happy with him. He just knew it.

By the time Evadia was on the horizon, the worst of the winter was over.

The main street of the city of Evadia was a straight line to the castle. There was no wall or gate to indicate they had entered the city. It started with a few mill houses, all still and covered in snow, and then came more buildings. They were clustered closer and closer together to indicate one of the city districts, and when the main street became paved, they were officially inside the city. The main street was covered in smooth rocks and it was so wide that even with all five of them walking side-by-side there was plenty of room for the regular city crowd. The sun was high in the sky and there were many people bustling around, dressed in warm wool, leather, and fur.

Although D'Argen could have run the entire street to the castle in a single breath, he never did for fear of harming the people on it. Usually, he would run the rooftops. This time, he decided it was fine to take in the sights of the city that he had missed during his last quick visit.

Not much had changed in the last four centuries. The mortals that lived in the city of Evadia were used to the Never Born walking their streets. Still, many of them stopped and bared their necks in respect before quickly tucking them back into the warm safety of their clothes.

Once they entered the market district, D'Argen noticed only a few vendors had their stalls open. A little further in, he heard shouting and building. The other four hurried their steps after him until they came to a platform.

The castle of Evadia was built close to a small mountain and the entire city sat on top of a complicated array of underground chambers and rivers. During its initial creation, Acela had tasked Halen, the God of Construction, to bring one of those rivers to the surface. It took a lot of work to get the river to flow out from under one of the castle walls. It bent away from the main street, crossed it twice, circled the large trading centre of the city, then disappeared back underground and did not come up again. Its final dip away from the city was a beautiful and ornate platform made of the same white marble as the walls of the castle.

It looked like an elaborate mouth drinking the river.

Every winter, the platform iced over completely. Every winter Yelem, God of Fire, was at that platform with a team of mortals breaking the ice. Sometimes, that final dip underground froze over and caused the river to overflow into the market district. Maintaining the platform was something that D'Argen often forgot about.

Yelem was standing at the tallest point of the platform, looking down at the mist created by the river as it disappeared under it. The mortals around him were working with pick axes and spikes to break the ice on the edges of the river and hanging from the platform. His mahee's tulip scent was overpowering as streams of fire fell from his hands, surrounding the mortals to keep them warm and melting the thicker ice that their tools could not break.