We walked for nearly another hour.
At first, the citadel looked like a distant line on the horizon. The stone walls slowly grew, becoming taller and more massive. The closer we got, the more I began to sense its sheer scale.
The walls were enormous. The stone blocks they were built from were each the size of a small room. Towers rose above the walls like stone spears pointing toward the sky.
And soon we encountered the first people. They were dragging the carcasses of unknown monsters behind them.
And the closer we got, the more people appeared around us.
Some looked as if they were returning from long expeditions. Others, on the contrary, looked too fresh.
I noticed that people were occasionally glancing at Orpheus.
He walked calmly, barely paying any attention.
After a while, we reached a road. A real, well-trodden road leading straight to the main gate.
"There are usually more people here," Orpheus remarked.
"Not many now?"
"Yeah."
He shrugged.
"I guess most of the groups haven't returned yet."
We kept walking.
The road gradually widened.
At first it was just a well-trodden path, but soon old stone appeared under our feet. The slabs were enormous, each nearly the size of a cart, and laid so evenly that there were almost no gaps between them.
But that wasn't what was strange about it.
The stone looked… too perfect.
It was dark, smooth, and barely worn, even though thousands of people had obviously walked across it. Occasionally, thin lines resembling patterns or grooves appeared on the surface, as if energy had once flowed through these slabs.
"An ancient road," Orpheus said, noticing where I was looking. "It wasn't built by humans."
I didn't say anything.
The gates were getting closer and closer.
Now we could make out the details. The enormous gates, as tall as several houses, were made of black metal covered with intricate patterns. Not rust, not decorations-more like a system of lines extending into the thickness of the gates.
And the strangest thing was that there were neither hinges nor locks on them.
Towers stood on either side. So tall that their tops were almost lost against the gray sky of Spire. The stone blocks at the base were so enormous that it seemed as though they hadn't been laid there, but had simply grown out of the ground.
People were already gathering in front of the gates.
Some sat right on the road, resting after their journey.
A few people were butchering a monster the size of a horse.
Nearby stood a cart piled high with some kind of dark roots.
It all looked almost… ordinary.
People were talking, laughing, and arguing over the spoils.
But sometimes I noticed others as well.
A man walked past us, and for a moment his body seemed to warp. The muscles beneath his clothes bulged, his silhouette broadened… and then everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
An Awakened One.
There were quite a few of them here.
As we got closer, the people at the gate began to look around.
Some recognized Orpheus right away.
"Hey, Orpheus!"
"So you're alive, then!"
"Were you out on your own again?"
He merely raised his hand lazily in response.
The guards at the gate looked different.
Heavy armor, long spears, and on their chests the symbol of the fortress-a circle crossed by a vertical line, resembling a spire.
But even standing next to them, something felt strange.
The wall behind them was too smooth.
No traces of masonry, no mortar. Huge blocks fit together so precisely, as if they were parts of a single whole.
"First time?" asked one of the guards, looking at me.
I nodded.
He smirked.
"Then get ready."
The gate wings slowly began to part.
No creaking.
No clanging.
Only a deep, low rumble, as if an ancient mechanism were waking somewhere inside the wall.
The passage was enormous. So wide that dozens of carts could easily have passed through side by side.
And beyond the gate, the city lay open.
It was… immense.
The streets stretched far ahead, branching off, climbing onto bridges, disappearing between the houses. Stone buildings stood close together, sometimes three or four stories high.
Balconies, wooden galleries, overhanging roofs.
Flags.
Ropes with clothes drying on them.
The smell of smoke, baking, and hot metal.
People.
Hundreds of people.
Some were pulling carts loaded with grain.
Others were hauling bundles of hides.
Blacksmiths worked right out on the street, and the blows of their hammers echoed between the houses.
It looked like an ordinary medieval city.
Almost.
Because sometimes, between the houses, you could see ancient structures.
Smooth stone walls without windows.
Huge arches, too large for people.
Strange columns rising dozens of meters into the sky.
As if people had simply… built their lives inside something ancient.
I looked up.
High above the rooftops, through the gray sky of the Spire, a huge shadow was slowly drifting in the distance.
The Construct.
From here, it seemed even more impossible.
Orpheus noticed where I was looking and smiled.
"Get used to it."
He slapped me on the shoulder and walked ahead down the street.
"Welcome to the Citadel."
We passed under the arches of the gate, and the noise of the city gradually began to grow.
At first-individual voices.
Then-dozens.
And after a few blocks, it all turned into a single hum, as if the whole city were speaking at once.
"The market," Orpheus said, without even turning around.
The road led us to a wide street sloping gently downward. The stone houses on either side grew lower and closer together, and between them appeared awnings made of coarse fabric, wooden stalls, and carts.
We had entered the Citadel's commercial district.
There were already hundreds of people here.
Some were shouting, calling out to customers.
Some were haggling over prices.
Some were simply sitting against the wall, watching the crowd.
The market stretched far ahead-a whole network of streets, squares, and narrow passages between the stalls.
The smells mingled:
roasted meat, fresh bread, herbs, the smoke of blacksmiths' forges, and something sweet, reminiscent of fruit.
But the architecture still betrayed the strangeness of this place.
Amid the ordinary wooden stalls and stone houses, enormous ancient columns sometimes rose up-smooth and black, soaring dozens of meters into the sky.
Sometimes part of the market was situated beneath ancient arches, so wide and high that it seemed as though creatures far larger than humans had once walked here.
And some streets ran directly along smooth platforms made of the same strange stone as the fortress walls.
No one paid any attention to it anymore.
People simply lived here.
I noticed a long line at one of the stone buildings.
People were holding small metal plates in their hands.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Rations," Orpheus replied.
The building turned out to be a distribution center.
"Every resident of the Citadel is entitled to a weekly ration of plant-based food.
It looked unfamiliar, but it was clearly edible-something resembling grains and fruits grown from the ground.
"The fields inside the fortress yield a huge harvest thanks to the construct, so no one should die of hunger. Once a week, people come here."
They placed the plate into a narrow stone slot, and the attendant handed out a bag of food.
"What about meat?" I asked awkwardly.
He smiled.
"Meat, spices, good clothes, weapons… everything else is only available through trade."
After a brief pause, he continued.
"If you work anywhere-whether you're farming and harvesting, blacksmithing, sewing clothes, or going on expeditions-you earn tokens."
He pulled a small metal card out of his pocket; it had a symbol on it that looked like a sun.
"They're made at the main castle by feeding all sorts of junk to the Construct. They contain a little mana-an absolutely negligible amount-but it helps distinguish real tokens from fakes."
He put the token back in his pocket.
"You can trade them for anything. Of course, you can trade one good directly for another, or one service for another. I think that goes without saying."
I nodded.
"Naturally, the Awakened who bring information to the Citadel, the bodies of monsters from their cores, various useful plants, as well as the perimeter guards, receive significantly more tokens. After all, they're risking their lives. That's why hunters and explorers are the richest people in the Citadel."
"And what if a person can't do anything?" I asked with interest.
Orpheus answered without turning around.
"Those people live on rations alone. As far as I'm concerned, if you can't do anything under these conditions… it means you simply don't want to. So many of them starve, and they deserve it. If you want a better life, be useful."
"Fair enough," I agreed.
I noticed a thin man standing by the wall.
Several old knives lay in front of him.
He was trying to sell them, but people just walked right past him.
"Many are starving," Orpheus said quietly. "Even here."
I looked out at the bustling market around us.
Mountains of food.
Roasted monster meat.
Fruit.
And nearby-people who had nothing to buy it with.
We walked on through the crowd.
The shopping streets were divided into districts.
First, we passed through the food district. Here they sold meat from unknown beasts, barrels of something resembling fish. And also baked goods made from local grains.
Next was the artisans' quarter. Forges, weapon shops, armor hanging right on the walls.
"Can tools and weapons really be made from the local minerals?" I asked.
"Quite so. I don't know for sure, but the local craftsmen say that the metals of this world are simply flawless. I think people didn't have any craftsmanship skills at first; likely, the first craftsmen in the Citadel were those who awakened the Essence that helped them with this, and then they passed their knowledge on to others."
"I see."
Orpheus is quite knowledgeable about the history of the Spire.
"Um, is there something like a school here?"
Orpheus looked at me in surprise.
"Of course. But it's probably different from the ones on Earth. We only learn basic literacy, arithmetic, and the history of the Spire." All other training is focused on our survival and future awakening.
"Isn't awakening a random event?"
Orpheus nodded.
"You're right. You can't awaken an Essence just because you want to. Usually, awakening comes with a risk to your life, but not always. It's just that we children of the Spire are different from the rest. How can I explain it to you? Unlike others, those born here sense what they need to do to awaken their Essence. It's hard to put into words; I suppose it's most like intuition.
"I think I understand you."
He smiled.
"Reality is cruel, though. Great hopes are placed on us. After all, the more awakened there are, the better for everyone. And yet, the call of the Essence spares no one. You can feel its call at 14, at 16, sometimes earlier, but never later. If you ignore the call, you'll never awaken-at least, no one has been able to yet. That's why it's in our best interest to know how to fight and survive outside the walls, and to learn this as early as possible.
I thought about it for a moment and finally decided to ask.
"So what did you do to awaken your Essence?"
Orpheus's expression changed. Before, I'd seen him as nothing more than a carefree, cheerful peer who enjoyed life. But now, his face reflected the horror he'd experienced, mixed with sadness.
"Sorry, but I don't really want to talk about that."
"As you wish." I realized it was better not to pursue the subject any further.
"So, what were we talking about?" Orpheus said, laughing nervously and forcing a smile back onto his face.
"Schools?" I asked uncertainly.
While we were discussing the hardships of children born in the Spire, we walked into another district-what I called the fabric district.
There, they sold all kinds of clothing: fabric, leather, and fur.
"Oh, right, there are also trade schools," Orpheus said, looking at another counter displaying some rather nice clothes.
"I get it."
Orpheus gave me an appraising look.
"Actually, it wouldn't hurt for you to buy something. Unless, of course, you plan on walking around with your true Essence all the time."
I looked at myself. Orpheus was right. I was in Essence now. But the military uniform I'd been issued at the academy was quite worn out after all the adventures I'd been through.
"Isn't there anything here just for the Awakened?" I asked.
"No, the Awakened are usually too busy, so if they want to sell something, they post an ad at the guild. That's why you won't find anything like that at the market."
We kept walking.
Sometimes the Awakened passed between the stalls.
One man with dark horns.
Another with eyes glowing a faint blue light.
Some didn't even try to hide their powers.
The crowd automatically parted before them.
"Show-offs," Orpheus said discontentedly.
Gradually, the noise began to die down.
The stalls grew fewer.
The streets-wider.
The houses-taller and neater.
We came out onto a wide stone bridge that spanned a huge ancient canal-now filled with murky water.
Beyond the bridge lay the central district.
And there, the atmosphere was entirely different.
Fewer shouts.
Less dirt.
More stone.
And right in the center of the city, far ahead, the main castle rose up.
It was built on a huge ancient platform made of the same smooth stone.
The towers rose high into the sky.
And above them, almost motionless, the construct still hovered.
Orpheus paused for a moment and looked at the castle.
"Well," he said.
"It's time to go see the ruler."
And we headed deeper into the city center.
As we crossed the bridge, the city began to change.
The bustle of the shopping streets faded behind us.
The cries of the merchants gradually faded into the hum of the city, replaced by the steady footsteps of passersby, muffled conversations, and the distant tolling of bells.
The central district of the Citadel was different.
The streets here were wider.
The stone houses were taller and more refined.
Stone bridges and galleries stretched between the buildings, connecting the upper floors.
There were almost no wooden structures here.
Most of the houses stood on ancient stone foundations, perfectly smooth, as if carved from a single piece of stone. People had merely added to them-erecting walls, roofs, and windows.
Because of this, the whole area looked strange.
As if the city had been built on top of another, much older one.
There were fewer people here, but they looked… more confident.
At the intersections stood stone columns with metal signs indicating the districts.
Some of the columns were clearly ancient.
They bore deep-carved lines and symbols that I couldn't read.
In the center of the district lay the city gardens.
A vast green space amidst the stone blocks.
There were all sorts of plants growing there, from trees to tiny flowers.
Stone paths wound their way between them, and small bridges spanned the canals.
The water in these canals flowed from an ancient system running beneath the fortress.
"Where does this water come from?" I asked.
"I don't know-actually, nobody knows. The main thing for us is that it's drinkable. The rest is handled by the Deep Researchers."
"Who?"
"The Deep Researchers-one of the factions dedicated to exploring the underground section of the Citadel of Hope. You don't need to know that right now; they'll tell you everything later."
Next, we walked through the guild buildings-there were quite a few of them-but since I didn't know what kind of guilds they were, and Orpheus just waved me off, saying he'd explain it later, I decided not to dwell on them.
The streets gradually began to rise.
The city stood on a vast ancient platform, and the higher we climbed, the better the view of the Citadel became.
From above, we could see the roofs of thousands of houses, fields near the distant walls, smoke rising from forges, and winding canals. And far beyond all that-the black walls of the fortress, stretching for hundreds of kilometers. And above them, motionless in the gray sky, the construct still hovered. Its shadow slowly glided across the city.
And ahead rose the ruler's castle.
It was enormous.
But the strangest thing was its foundation.
The entire castle stood on a smooth, ancient platform several kilometers in diameter.
No seams.
No cracks.
Only thin lines running across the surface, like parts of a gigantic mechanism.
The castle's towers rose high into the sky.
Red flags fluttered lazily in the wind.
A double line of guards stood at the main gate.
Orpheus paused for a moment and looked at them.
Then he said quietly:
"Here we are."
He smiled.
"Now we'll see if the ruler will listen to us."