The sun moves above the horizon, declaring a new day.
A town sits in a relatively small patch of flat land inside a mountain range.
Its walls are dozens of meters tall and about half as thick, with guards standing at attention manning them.
Poles bearing flags are inserted into the wall every few meters with guards equidistant between them.
The flags are red with intricate gold borders. In the middle, there is a detailed white bird taking flight.
Every fifty meters, there is a battlement with a massive decorated cannon on it, placed on a rotatable platform and aiming into the distance.
On both sides, there is a large gate, with a massive road connecting them through the town.
On one side of the town, beyond the mountains, there is an open grassland with a proper road leading away, and on the other side, it leads into an arid desert with the road petering out almost immediately.
The town itself is surrounded by snow, and there is a small frozen lake a bit of distance outside its walls.
At the gate facing the south, hundreds of people are spread out, waiting for entrance.
Place is among them. He, along with two other men, are sitting on some boxes, making small talk.
They are all wearing thick coats, gloves, and scarves.
He lets out a huff, the air he exhales turning into a white mist before dissipating.
"Babiiiiiiis.." Place let out a groan.
"How long now?" He asks one of the men with him.
"It should be time." Babis replies, "They're taking longer today for-ah!"
He gestured to the side gate.
"They've opened!"
The side gate, which was about a tenth of the main gate's size, swung open with a great groan.
The three of them stood up as the other people started moving towards the gate.
Place started walking forwards, and the other man with them held up a hand, following which the boxes shrank and attached themselves to his belt, where many other similar boxes were already present.
As they moved closer to the gate, the people stood in a line to the left side of it.
They ignored the line and walked to the right side of the gate, where an armored man sat at a desk with a closed book.
"Ald-Placeen 'Place' Cublue." Place stated as the man looked up at him.
He opened the book and flipped through it.
Then he looked at the two men accompanying him.
"Babis Arlo, Guard and servant." Babis stated, and the guard looked to the other man.
"Ermote Bona, Guard and servant." The guard nodded and looked back at Place.
"Your identification?"
Place removed the glove on his right hand and displayed his palm, and a black symbol appeared on it.
The guard produced a brown slab and slid it forward, and Place placed his palm on it, flinching at the sudden cold feel.
A sequence of words appeared facing the guard, who nodded and waved them forward.
"Stay out of trouble, young lord." He said as he gestured to the guards at the gate.
Another guard gave each of them a stone token.
Place looked over it as they walked through the gate.
A hooded figure on one side, and on the other, an intricate spell circle carved into the stone.
"Easy to verify." He muttered, taking a guess at its purpose.
"Correct." Babis scratched his chin through his luxurious beard as he spoke. "It's numbered as well, and every one is slightly different."
"Simple, but effective and cheap." Ermote nodded. 'But that's not the only impressive thing." He continued as they entered the town.
"Feast your eyes." He gestured to the inside of the wall.
The side of the wall facing the town was covered with gigantic runic symbols, with smaller ones occupying the space between the larger ones.
"It took them a full three years to cover the entire wall, and everybody thought it an insane idea when they began. But everyone wants one now." He marvelled at it as he spoke.
"I've read about it." Place mentioned. "The great ward of Harith'Aano."
Self-sustaining, self-repairing, self-scanning, and passively active. It could detect all living beings within a three-hundred kilometer radius, it could detect most hidden creatures before they drew within a kilometer of its walls, and as far as he knew, nothing had managed to cross the wall itself before being detected.
And that was its detecting abilities, they said that you could throw an entire mountain at the town, and the shield wouldn't even shake.
'That's probably bragging.'
But even so, everyone wanted such a ward around their land.
"Harith'Aano." Place scoffed. "Never mind that the north tower is dozens of kilometers away and that this is just Aano-ti-Birlain."
Ermote shrugged.
"I don't know what that means, young sir."
Place gave him a glance filled with mock disdain.
"Of course not, how many books have you touched in your life?" He spoke haughtily.
"Quite a lot, I'll have you know." Ermote mirrored his haughty tone.
Place smiled.
"Town to the tower." Place started walking again. "This place has been rebuilt from an old ruin, and the name they call it by, 'Harith'Aano', means 'The north tower', which is an ancient tower ruin some kilometers to the northeast, near the top of Mount Tari."
"So they are calling this the tower," Babis started, "When in fact, this is the tower's town, and the tower is a ruin?"
"Yes."
Babis and Ermote shared a glance.
"Well, I've learned something today."
"The study of those who came before is an interesting one." Place nodded. "Learning about ruins is one of my favourite things to study in my free time."
The two older men let out noises of acknowledgement as the talk came to a pause.
They walked in silence for a few moments.
"There is some time before the platform activates, shall we visit the market?" Place questioned.
"There is something I've been wanting to eat." Babis nodded in response.
"Is it that bread you wouldn't shut up about?"
Babis grinned in response to Ernote's question.
"The market it is."