Chapter 61 : Arrival at the Capital
The capital didn't greet them—it swallowed them whole.
Elias barely had time to step off the carriage before a shouting vendor nearly impaled him with a skewer of grilled something. It could've been chicken. It could've been lizard. He didn't ask.
"Five coppers! Two for one if you smile!" the man barked, shoving the food dangerously close to Elias's nose.
Revantra, cloaked and perched on the bench beside their luggage, wrinkled her nose. "Is that thing still twitching?"
"I think that's the seller," Elias muttered, grabbing their trunk and tugging it into the cobblestone street. "Come on. Before we get bartered for seasoning."
The city was chaos. It breathed magic and exhaust in equal measure. Arcane lanterns flickered from crooked alleyways, some pulsing blue, others green. The buildings rose like spires carved from stone and ambition—stacked too tall, too narrow, defying logic and maybe gravity. People wove between carts and creatures and sparks from a nearby enchantment stall that had just, apparently, exploded.
It was a far cry from their quiet corner of the countryside.
Revantra followed, her little boots clacking in a rhythm that didn't quite match her steps—part hesitation, part fake confidence. She kept her head high, chin tilted, eyes narrow. Regal. Aloof. Exactly how a dethroned demon queen should look when thrust into a mess of humanity and magic.
Inside, she was barely holding it together.
They passed a group of children riding enchanted brooms no higher than two feet off the ground. The brooms zipped in zigzags, their riders laughing.
Revantra glared at them like they'd insulted her ancestry.