The next day was a bit nicer than usual, it was getting close to the festival time. I was in my room as I put on a red shirt with a red jacket with a collar. I fixed up my spiky hair a bit but its just too messy to start off with. After that I put some of this potion on my face that got rid of some blemishes like red spots and such. As I was putting on my shoes my door opens up as I thought it was my mother but turns out it was Gash.

“Its not fair.”

“Hey, I told you not to get depressed.”

“But your one of the first people here who got invited to go to the North hollow celebration, that’s rare.”

“Yeah well, I probably won’t like it; I’m only doing it because I need to find something.”

Gash shrugs as he grabs a bottle of what looks like wine, he then puts a little in his hand and then pats me on the back and front. “This stuff will make you smell not-like-a-villager. I nod at him as I walk out to see my mother at the table looking at some papers. I still haven’t told her about my uncle cause Tajjit told me not to tell her, neither he or Null want her to know. She looks at me and smiles.

“I love you, no matter what you are, a villager, a soldier for the I.P.L., just remember to behave yourself.”

“Mom I’m not nor will I ever join the I.P.L. just cause the general is taking me to the festival, okay?” she waves her hand as she goes back to looking at her papers. I turn to the front door to see Clira leaning against the wall standing on her one leg. She grown a lot in the three years, longer hair and different taste in clothes, but still the same attitude.

“Will you bring me back something?”

“Heh, I’ll try.” I pat her head as I head outside. I hear her talking as I walk away. “I’m serious, something shiny!”

I walk up to the gate into North Hollow as the soldiers guarding hold out a hand asking me what I was doing, I gave them a piece of paper that Tajjit gave me to give to them. They look at me and my outfit and just snicker at each other but they let me go through. On the other side I see many people walking along looking at me, and then I feel two hands on both of my shoulders. On my left is Tajjit and on the other is Null in black hood again but this time there’s a gold strip on the side instead of red. They both look at me then at each other, the next thing I know im looking at two guys laughing like girls.

“Wow, your definitely not going in that.”

“What’s wrong with it.”

“Well lets see . . . oh yeah, there’s a lot wrong with it.” I look a bit embarrassed and angry because of their laughter. Next thing I see is the inside of Nulls coat as he wraps himself around me, then he lets go of me and then inspects me. “There, now that’s a gentleman.”

I look down at me to see my clothes have completely changed, I’m now wearing a blackish gold suit like Tajjit, but his is more unified to his army status with medals on it and such.

“Well, is this it Nethal?” asked Null

“Yeah, thanks for your help.”

“No problem, enjoy the celebration, remember Kodath, stay away from the orange drinks.” He then disappears into the air as people see it then ignore it like it’s a regular thing.

“So you only brought him to change my outfit?”

“Don’t forget hair.” I feel around my head to see my hair being gelled and stylized, I mess it up and make it spiky once again. Tajjit looks at me and just breathes out. “You look better that way.” I smile as he hands me the brown box again.

“Why should I wear these?”

“Because they block your eyesight, some people here can see the fear in your eyes and determine your from here or the outside, and I don’t want any trouble to deal with any punks messing with some outsider, understand?”

“I guess.” I put the goggles on and it doesn’t make my sight change, it’s like putting glasses on but it just makes my face uncomfortable.

“Besides, they look cool, some people wear them during the celebration so they can look at the sky during night, these goggles help see the stars better.

“That’s neat.” We then start walking down the street and seeing all the other people dressed up, then I see some vehicles (yes, I now know what they’re called) drive by as I see some of them in some flying vehicle as well, it looks like a airship but it only suits one person and it doesn’t look easy to drive, the black smoke from the coal it burns comes down and hovers over the street making it black. We walk by stores with candy, food, antiques, food, and more food? That . . . is a lot of food. Then we walk by a jewelry store as I look up at Tajjit.

“Hey, got any money?”

“Just ask me how much, and I’ll get it for you.”

I smile as I look in the store, but nothing in the store looks good enough for Clira’s taste. So we leave the store and just continue walking towards the middle of the city. We pass buildings that are so large that I’m just afraid of it toppling over and crushing us all. We get to the center of the city, and man I’ll tell you, there is a lot of people. There are vendors almost everywhere, a stage-like area where we see people performing some tricks with magic. Seeing all those ‘Magic Is Forbidden’ posters and seeing everyone even Null doing magic in front of the royal people. So I do what I told myself and stopped asking me questions and get to the questioning with Tajjit.

“Hey, what’s the big deal with all these ‘Magic is Forbidden’ signs and posters everywhere is everyone even Null is using it?”

“Those posters are like really old back when magic was just circling around the world, its just to remind people to not use magic for something they might regret, even if they do, this city is protected by an energy that can block any magic attack from anyone. So it’s not a big deal if we leave them on the wall.”

We walk pass people who seems to be having a good time, then we walk up to a guy who has these glass tubes filled with an orange liquid. Could this be the stuff Null warned me about?

“Hey Hollowians, enjoying the party, why not make it better with this.”

“My name is General Nethal Tajjit and you best walk away to scum punk.” Says Tajjit as the man looks like he’s about drop to the ground and mess his pants.

“Uh sorry I uh-“ then the man walks away and escapes in the crowd.

“What was that stuff?”

“Its an psychotic potion called Permanent, it makes people go crazy and makes their brains go up in the clouds, but eventually you will begin to lose memory and become addicted to it, look.” He points to a group of people just dancing and falling to the ground. One of them pukes and goes into a fetal position. “Its terrible its not illegal cause the people that make them are a big company but the best we can do is to tell people not to take it.”

He puffs out a cigar and smoke it as we stand in the center of the city as he looks relaxed.

“Will you take me to the imprisonment now?”

“Might as well, Lord Et’dra doesn’t make his speech for a few more hours, we got time.”