– I arrived in Verlor this morning and decided to take a walk around the city. I haven’t been to the capital of Onyx Rocks before. Everything here is structured differently than here. And I accidentally encountered these children of a sick walrus on the street. They stuck to the sole worse than dog shit. No matter how many, it still stinks and stinks. I usually don’t let anyone off the hook, but here I endured it until the last moment. I didn't want any trouble with the locals. “I tried to be taller,” as my mentor punished me.
Ada nodded and continued. “We were taught the same thing at the boarding school,” I interjected into her story.
“By that time it was getting close to dinner, and I was pretty hungry. But in the center they didn’t let me into a single establishment, can you imagine? They said I looked inappropriate. I assured that I had something to pay, but they still did not agree! And those petrified mammoth feces kept trailing behind me. They neighed like sick horses at my shame. And then, as if on purpose, my stomach began to growl…
The northern woman sighed heavily and, wincing, looked at me meaningfully.
– Yeah. I can imagine what kind of food for ridicule this gave to the presumptuous idiots.
– Right! Then I simply caught a cab and asked him to take me to some decent establishment not far from the South Station. The kind where you can eat delicious food and the prices aren’t too bad.
“And he brought you to Rabochiy Gorodok,” Bathmore unexpectedly butted into the conversation.
“I don’t know, but the food here really turned out to be good.” I like it. Everything was fine until Mikael’s company entered the same tavern. These degenerates of the rickety sperm whale began to mock me again. They laughed at me for being so tall. They made fun of my clothes, and then they stole my bag and began demanding insulting things from me for returning it. I am the daughter of Earl Hedwin and I couldn’t let them down! – The northern woman flashed with rage in her eyes.
–Did you get into a fight?
– No. She insulted them back, and they rushed into the fight. They turned out to be not as patient as me. “She grinned almost cheerfully.
– Mother of All That Is! But these are the children of the capital's aristocrats. All elemental magicians…” I grimaced. – What a disgrace! What were they thinking, chasing a foreigner throughout the capital?
“It’s a pack of mad dogs, not children.” People like them ought to have their teeth pulled out before they bite someone to death,” Bathmore opined, stopping the gig next to a large black stagecoach that bore the Wind and Storm Academy emblem on its side.
And next to the stagecoach stood a man, at the sight of whom my mood immediately soared to heaven.
“Uncle Al…” I screamed joyfully, but seeing that he was not alone, I corrected myself: “Eshsher Nett, how glad I am to see you!”
Alan Nett, a teacher from my father’s department, who visited us more than once, saw me and also burst into a smile.
– Mirre Blackrock! Meet girls, this is Mirre Blackrock from Teresa the Magnanimous boarding house. You will study at the academy together. Mirre, this is Lisel Konradine and Hvoyana Holtz,” he introduced them to me. – And Yumi Lo is hiding inside.
– Nice to meet you! – Lisel answered politely.
The Conradine family was rightfully one of the ten most influential in Onyx Rocks. Duke Conradine was the ruler's adviser, and in front of me stood his youngest daughter, about whom they gossiped even in our boarding house.
