Sakura
Sakura nodded, although she disliked his dismissive air. An immigration officer should be there to answer questions, no?
Not that she'd really know any better. She just swore to herself under her breath in her native Finnish before standing up and taking her place slightly in front of her mage-killing friend.
"Let's go."
House Antioch10:30 AM
"... welcome to the Citadel."
Those were the words that followed Sakura and Edelgard out to the gatehouse, and onto the cobblestone street that followed. Down it went, a subtle sloping that allowed the pair to witness far more than they had any hope to see. They could see spires of white-washed stone rise above large wooden buildings with gambrel roofs, blocks and blocks of them all arranged around a central point. Above them all, fifty stories with a base as large as any plaza they could find, was the Tower of Antioch. Or so a brown-robed passerby explained, along the way, as they saw the pair stare up and up its way.
The sky was twilit, an untimely shroud of royal purples and vibrant reds. It swirled around a single point, a dark flame at the tower's peak that crackled with so much mana it were as if someone were sticking needles in Edelgard's eyes.
The road led not directly to this tower, but rather to a large open square bustling with stands and commerce. People of all shapes and colors moved about: conventionally attractive ones in robes or showy dresses, old men with pointed hats and beards, all kinds of staves and walking sticks. They were a noteworthy, loud minority patronizing the wares - exotic foods, spices that reached to the nose with an unregulated allure, jewelry and showpiece weapons and jars upon jars of cheap magical reagents.
Eye of newt the least among it.
But more than those were the people gathered at the edges, watched by the men and women in their armors and carrying their enchanted pikes. People with animal ears, feathers, scaled skin and gemstone eyes. Boxes moved around on carts pulled by big, burly beings who could well be men.
The bazaar of House Antioch catered to, and employed, all.