“May I interest you in some tender meat on a stick?” says some vendor as we walk by him. I look at the meat in interest but nor do I want to eat at a situation like this, but I swore I saw the meat moving.

“No thanks.” Is all I say as we pass the vendor and some others before walking up to a bunch of bench tables under a giant tent with a whole bunch of people. We find an empty table and sit down as we look at each other and then out to the festival with almost a hundred vendors outside. As people pass by I slowly take off my goggles and rest them in my black coat I’m wearing cause of Null.

“What’s on your mind?” I ask Tajjit as he stares at the festival.

“It’s a good thing you broke into the city yesterday Kodath, when I first saw you I thought you were going to be a normal little brat, but now, your something different.” He turns to look at me. “What were dealing with here is something different, something huge. What Terry told us may or may not make any sense. If were dealing with something that were not prepared for, then it may end in a war.”

“Terry told us to speak with Et’dra, when is his speech or what not?”

“In about 20 minutes, he’ll be taking it at that building,” he points to a large palace with a balcony for everyone to see. “Null will introduce him as he comes out and makes his traditional speech with his family, after that we’ll head up there and discuss what will happen.” He reaches in his pocket for something, he pulls out a card that looks like its engraved in gold. It says ‘North hollow Day Pass.’

“What is this?”

“It’s for when you can leave and enter the city at anytime during the day, nights are forbidden.”

I stare at it and slip in one of my coat pockets.

“When you enter the city, just come straight here, I don’t want you to attract unnecessary attention.”

“Ok,” I stare at the people eating food which is starting to make me a bit hungry. “Hey, about Tayler and his father,”

“Its true, his father could of made a decision of letting his son do 1000 hours of military cleaning service or suffer a life time imprisonment.”

“Isn’t that a bit excessive?”

“Of course it is, but it’s the rules, and rules around here are strict by order and conduct.” He then turns his back on me and moves the collar around his neck to make it bare. It revealed a tattoo on the right side of his neck with a writing saying ‘Fear the none, Until Service is done.’

“What is that?”

“It’s a service symbol, everyone in the Imperial Visions League must wear this symbol and do what is in the handbook, or else we are punished.”

“Punished?”

“This symbol is a magical relic, if we disobey any order, it takes a year from our own lives.”

“That’s terrible, how could you guys still do this, its been so long since these rules and documents were placed down, why don’t you just destroy them?”

“Well some of us tried but it always failed, sometimes Lord Et’dra doesn’t like it either but nonetheless he just sticks to it, he calls it tradition. People say if we do such a thing, chaos will be released into the city and order won’t be able to stop it.” His words make me shiver by the way his voice is, he has never been more serious than anything, I think that no one here likes those orders. This place already feels like it’s in chaos cause of the ridiculous rules of conduct and such. I get a little angry and was about to complain a little more but I just blow off some steam and relaxed. I think I may be a little hungry, I get up and head to a vendor who was selling noodles with beef and mushrooms. I sit back down and offer Tajjit a bowl of noodles I got for him. I chow down while we watch the sun going down, then it disappeared behind the tall buildings and all we saw was the blue sky and clouds with a little haze of the sun behind them.

When it got dark enough some street lamps and some glass containers hanging on a wire above us lit up with a yellow light making the festival bloom. Then we heard a loud horn from the palace where Tajjit lets me know its time for the speech or whatever is going on thing. Everyone gets in a good spot to where we see the balcony. Then we saw a huge flame burst on the balcony as Null appears.

“He does that to show off.” Tajjit whispers to me as he finishes his noodles.

Null pulls out a scroll with a gold binding on it. He then motions his hand outwards and then releases a magic outburst as a dark white mist hazes above us. Then out in the mist, an image forms, it shows North hollow with the clouds moving, Ive never seen anything so bizarre and cool. Null begins to speak.

“Time began when the great rising began, after when Lord Dedura discovered and built North hollow from a small house to a wonderful civilized city, filled with magic, life and an essence that makes us feel good.” He talks as the picture above us changes from a house, to a man with a gold hat, believing to be Lord Dedura and it then shows North hollow from like over a hundred years ago. “Upon which stance this city holds, we will not fail you, we will grow, we will survive, and we will knock on fears door and break it down and force him to fear us!” Then everyone cheers as Null closes his eyes and his smile disappears as he opens his eyes again. “We heard the rumors that the because of the destruction of the outer towns and cities caused by the unknown element. We would crumble and die in the shadow, but no fear, for we shall rebuild and begin a new era, with the help of new and stronger magic, we will wage war against fear. Fear the none until service is done.” He closes his scroll as an explosion of cheers and clapping erupt all around us. Then we heard some horns as everyone silences.

Then Null speaks one last time before leaving. “Allow me to introduce, the 9th and grand leader of the royal city of North hollow, Lord Et’dra.” Null leaves as we see a man walk up to the balcony, its hard to see him but from down here, he has a full beard and mustache, very fine. He doesn’t wear a hat not like most of the leaders Ive seen in books, but he does wear the rope like the rest, gold, neck piece covered in jewels. His sleeves connect to his wrists where he wears metal gloves, gauntlets. He waves in the air causing the magic mist to disperse as he opens his arms.

“People of North hollow,” his voice sounds so masculine, like a man, a manly man. “It is with great honor to celebrate the 342nd birthday of the grand royal city of North hollow.” People cheer as some of them let their kids get on the parents shoulders. “People like you, like the villagers,” thought I heard some people booing, “like me, have a respect for this city, my father told me to take good care of it as he went and explored the world before mysteriously disappearing, but that made me a better man. It gave me hope, and I used that hope to build this city, and to build a family.” He turns and waves his hands as a women in a big dress comes to his right side and two kids come to his right side. They stand and look as tall as me, they must be my age. “With my family, we tried to build this city and make it magical. But after the disastrous breakup and disappearances of some,” he looks at his two kids who hide their face the whole time since they came out. “But its great to have the family back together. Please give a cheer for my beautiful wife Claudia and my two children Terenity and Odysseus.” They show their heads and wave at the crowd with a bitter smile on them.

I look at them with my mouth open, surprised to find out that they were still alive, but . . . the offspring of the leader of North hollow. I stand there about to lose my balance. Everything went silent, all I saw was mouths moving, a little waving, then they went back inside and then the sound kicks back again as I hear fireworks above us.