The Servant's Garden is outside the town limits, on the far side from the mountains. You might have avoided the town entirely, but Aurole's roads are much simpler to traverse. The Garden's influence makes the land here rather overgrown. Even in the darkness, you can trace the shapes ahead of you: thick-trunked trees that tower over Aurole's largest buildings, vines twining from their branches to the ground, flowers blooming in colors that would dazzle you in the light of day. Without your mother to keep its power in check, all the Garden does is grow.
There's just one guard, stationed near the town. Avoiding her is as simple as skirting around the edges of the outgrowths. She's leaning against something solid, and you're halfway around the Garden before you realize someone has contrived to surround it with an enormous iron fence. Determined as they are to quash all signs of magic, no doubt this is the work of the Astral Assembly, the piecemeal government Kelestri erected when they ousted your mother from power. Whatever they intended with the fence, it's ineffectual—the iron will give way before the Servant-blessed plants will. They've nearly burst past it already.
Before long, you've made your way around to the back side of the fence, well out of the view of the guard. It's time to get inside.
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YOU ARE READING
Killian Milton
FantasyReclaim your mother's lost throne with the mighty power of the skies! Bring down lightning on your foes, climb an endless tower, and call the ghosts of old foes to your aid. In this fantasy epic, how will you wield your magical birthright?
