[Shouldn't there be a spatial anchor around here] Dross questioned.
Lindon swept his eyes around once again and found no such anchor. He tried to probe around with his spirit to see if he could feel Yerin's sword and blood aura, and was immediately distracted by how dense the aura was. Earth aura radiated from the ground and buildings, it reminded him of the thick shadow aura around the Night Wheel Valley. Unlike that valley, one type of aura didn't reign above all others. Fire and Light aura gushed from the sun. Wind aura swept along in the air. He didn't need to be told a river ran through the far side of the city, he could feel it from here. The ground glowed golden with Earth aura in his copper sight. Lindon knew one thing for sure, this was not the Arelius territory. Eithan hadn't told them much, but he did mention most of his homeland was destroyed in a past battle. Which begged the question, where were they?
Dross warned Lindon that someone was walking up behind him. Lindon turned, stuffed his remnant hand and gifted tea box into his robe and regarded the man. He was older, malnourished and had a gray mane of wild hair.
"You one of them spirits? Saw a flash of light...an' there you were" he croaked out, pointing a finger at Lindon.
"Pardon, I am not a spirit. I am lost though. Could you tell me where we are?"
The old man gave a slimy smile "Maybe a few coins would help me remember right"
Lindon frowned at the man. Dross suggested just consuming him so he could sort through his memories. Lindon shook his head, at both the greedy man and Dross.
He pulled a few low grade scales out of his pocket and held them out "Do you remember where we are now?"
A scowl appeared on the old man "The heck er' those? I want coins, a few copper would have been fine before, now I want a silver!" Lindon pocketed the scales, outside Sacred Valley, scales were the common currency that everyone used.
Lindon tried one more question "Silver? As in halfsilver?" The man just shook his head as he turned, he muttered something about 'dumb idiots' under his breath as he walked away.
Lindon cycled to calm himself down, the portal had clearly taken them far away from their intended destination. He searched the air around him, finding absolutely no distortion, no way back.
[This must be the territory of a great clan, we should try to get in contact with their leadership] Dross suggested, Little Blue chimed in agreement. The palace loomed at what Lindon assumed was the center of the city. With one last look around for Yerin and Eithan, Lindon began to walk. As they made their way closer to the center, the disjointed roads turned from dirt to cobble, the crumbling buildings were more sturdy and more people lined the streets.
He ended up walking through some sort of market, shops surrounded an inner square full of stalls and carts. It was shocking to see that some vendors had signs above their carts and stalls, and Lindon couldn't read any of them.
Dross wasn't impressed [That isn't too shocking, many places have their own dialect outside the common tongue]
"It just means we truly are far away from home" Lindon replied.
Peddlers pushed goods in his face, but Lindon brushed them off. More than once, he had to swat away greedy hands that tried to stealthily reach into his pockets. Once he made it out of the square, the road was paved with smooth stone, a few hundred yards down the road sat a giant gate set into an equally giant wall. He moved along until he hit a line of people waiting to get through. Eventually, it was his turn, and he walked up to the waiting guard.
"Where are you headed?" the seated guard said under his wide brim helmet. He looked more likely to fall asleep than anything else.
"To the palace" Lindon answered.
The guards head snapped up "You can't just…" he hesitated, eyeing Lindon up and down. "You don't look like a refugee, who are you?"
Lindon was glad he let Eithan talk him into wearing a fancy Aurelius robe. Eithan had claimed it would be respectful to wear it on the Rosegold continent, but Yerin wore her regular black robe as always.
Lindon straightened his back "I am Wei Shi Lindon Aurelius, Sage of the Twin Stars, honored disciple of the Aurelius Archlord and representative of the Akura Clan."
Technically he was no longer representing the Akuras, but their name carried weight and they owed him a favor for saving Pride and Mercy.
The man looked more confused than anything, "I'm no great scholar, I just watch the gate. Do you have your passport sir?"
Lindon slipped off his wintersteel badge and handed it to the man "I only have this advancement badge" Lindon was hoping the man would at least recognize it as the official badge of a Sage, but he had no such luck.
"Sorry, that doesn't look like a standard passport. Listen, there's nothing stopping you from getting into the middle ring, but only the elite get into the upper ring. You're more than welcome to bother the guards there, just move along before you hold up the line any more."
Lindon took his badge back and nodded before moving through the gate. Something wasn't adding up, that was becoming more apparent by the second. Even if he had ended up on the wrong continent, that guard should have recognized either the Akura or Aurelius name. Not to mention Lindon's own level of Sage. His mind wandered to the vision he had with Eithan's ancestor, Ozriel. All of the different iterations scattered across the night sky. Was that possible? Had he somehow ended up in the wrong world entirely?
[It isn't possible] Dross spoke up [I am very familiar with research on spatial manipulation. The Ghostwater facility was built entirely inside a pocket world, they had very detailed records on how it was made. There is no way a simple portal could have led to another iteration entirely]
That actually helped calm Lindon down a notch. He allowed himself to be moved along with the rest of the people, moving towards a raised platform. A stone train pulled up and stopped, allowing people to get off and on. Lindon grabbed a seat at the back, it was the least occupied section. It was also where the pilots were, standing on a platform hanging off the back of the carriage. When the last person was seated, the pilots jumped into action. Lindon had expected them to use a control panel, but they just gestured and pushed against the back of the train. The carriages started to quickly move along the rails. Lindon opened his Copper sight.
He had to push through the heavy aura, but he eventually got a good enough look at the men. Lindon almost stopped breathing. Seven cores sat in a perfect line starting at their heads and ran down their spines. They were drawing in aura directly to the bottom most core, but instead of cycling it into madra, they immediately expelled it through their arms into the carriages, making them move. They didn't seem to have visible madra channels, but the aura seemed to flow along a set path through their arms.
Dross whispered in his head [Have you, perhaps, broken your eyes recently?]
Lindon snorted, but wondered the same thing himself. Sure, ruler techniques altered aura outside of the body. However, madra was used to do this, it was clear these people somehow didn't use madra at all. They somehow became a conduit for aura, like a focusing glass used to start a fire with sunlight. He managed to tear his eyes away from the men as the cityscape came into view.
They were in the middle ring now, the difference in wealth was obvious. Lindon noticed there were other rail lines, other carts moving in and out of the rings in all directions. Each being moved by a pair of uniformed people. The streets below were wider, nicely paved and held less people who were moving at a leisurely pace. As the train raced along the tracks, Lindon kept an eye on the two workers moving it. He pretended to be looking at the surrounding cityscape, but used his spiritual perception to monitor the aura moving through these people. The strangest part was that they were predominately drawing in the aura radiating from the train itself, only to push it right back in. He watched their strange sacred arts all the way to the station, yet was no closer to understanding it. The two workers both moved in the same way when using aura for a particular purpose, so movement played a role in how the aura acted. He memorized how the aura reacted to each movement, it would have to do for now.