Cael, Edwin, Aria, and Brania walked out of the airport.
The air was different here; it was warmer and sharper, carrying the faint scent of distant battlefields, of smoke and steel and something older.
Cael's eyes fell on the sky. It was not the bright blue of Karyal City. It was gloomy, heavy with clouds that seemed to press down on the city below, as if the sky itself was aware of what lay beyond the horizon.
Arhal City was not as developed as Karyal.
The buildings were shorter, the streets narrower, the technology noticeably less advanced.
Specifically, Mana-Tech was scarce.
There were no floating screens, no automated transport, no gleaming towers of glass and steel.
What the city lacked in modernity, it made up for in something else. Resilience. Every wall was thick. Every corner was defensible.
This was a city built to withstand siege.
The reason was not that the Council could not afford it. The reason was much simpler.
