Eskar rode beside the lead carriage in a state that could most charitably be described as deeply traumatized, his face carrying the glazed expression of a man who had witnessed things his mind was still struggling to incorporate into a coherent understanding of reality.

He had hidden himself during the ambush with the robed attackers and the black orcs, finding shelter behind the carriages and staying there while the fighting raged around him.

The attack had left him completely rigid and terrified, and he was constantly looking to his sides, as he was still afraid that orcs may attack again.

The streets they traveled through were busy with the evening crowd, people finishing their day’s work and heading home or to taverns or to whatever other destinations called them as the light faded, and the variety of those people was itself remarkable, a mixture of races and cultures that Jake had never seen concentrated in a single place before.

Humans walked alongside elves whose features marked them as coming from different bloodlines and territories, their ears bearing subtle variations in shape and angle that spoke to regional differences Jake didn’t have enough knowledge to interpret.

Beast-kin of various types moved through the crowd with the casual comfort of people who belonged here: wolf-featured and cat-featured and others.

Jake couldn’t immediately identify their animal characteristics blending with human forms in ways that were sometimes subtle and sometimes dramatic.

Dwarves, shorter and broader than the humans around them, conducted business in clusters near shop fronts that bore symbols Jake assumed were clan marks or guild affiliations.

This was Roakan, he realized as the carriage rolled deeper into the city, this diversity and mixture and casual coexistence of different peoples in a space that had been built large enough and complex enough to accommodate all of them without forcing homogeneity.

This was what it meant to be at the junction of the three realms, where power and wealth created gravity strong enough to pull people from across the known world and give them reasons to stay, to build lives, to become part of something larger than their individual origins.

The city was not just a place where powerful families lived; it was a machine for concentrating talent and resources and influence in ways that multiplied their individual effects into something that shaped the world beyond its walls.

The group turned northeast, following Raani’s lead through streets that climbed gradually upward along one of the larger mountain faces, the path switching back and forth in long diagonal stretches that gained elevation while keeping the grade manageable for horses and carriages. The houses they passed grew larger and more elaborate as they climbed, the architecture shifting from practical to ornamental, from functional to symbolic, each level of the mountainside marking a clearer delineation of wealth and status until the message became impossible to ignore—they were climbing toward power, moving up through the literal and metaphorical hierarchy of Roakan toward whatever waited for them at the heights where Clan Raikarndel made its home.

Jake sat in the carriage with Chelsea and Gran Rosalinda and watched the city rise around them through the window, taking in the scale of it, the complexity of it, the sheer accumulated weight of history and power that pressed down on everything here with a density that made the air feel thicker than it had in the valley or on the road.

Even at the entrance, they had to wait for at least an hour for the verification. It was Raani who made it possible for them to enter the gates.

Jake, Chelsea and Rosa and there were several others who were outsiders; if they had come individually, they wouldn’t have been able to enter the gates. Raani had shown them the token of Raikarndel, which granted them entry, and even after that, they checked everyone and registered every member.

The level of security the city had was beyond what Jake had expected.

The road leveled out near the top of the mountain face and opened into a wide stone courtyard, and that was when Jake saw the villa for the first time.

It was enormous. The building spread across the mountain’s upper shelf like it had grown there naturally, three stories of pale stone with wide arched windows and a roofline that stepped upward in tiers toward a central tower that caught the last of the evening light. Gardens ran along the outer walls, climbing plants trailing over carved railings, and lanterns had already been lit along the approach path, throwing warm gold light across the courtyard stones.

Above the main entrance, carved deep into the pale stone in letters that were elegant and deliberate, were two words.

Raaya Villa.

Jake looked at them from the carriage window and didn’t say anything for a moment.

Raani had told him during the journey that the villa bore his mother’s name, that it had been built and maintained in her honor, kept ready for the day her son would return to claim it.

Standing before it now, the name felt less like a dedication and more like a weight. The maidens had named the building after his mother and raised it on a mountain and kept it waiting for him.

Maudlina and Ankerita said their goodbyes near the courtyard entrance, brief and practical.

Maudlina squeezed Jake’s arm and told him to eat properly and sleep when he could, which was such an unexpectedly ordinary piece of advice that Jake almost laughed.

Ankerita looked at him for a moment with those sharp assessing eyes, then nodded once, the same nod she had been giving him since the valley rest stop, the one that communicated more than most people managed with full sentences.

"We’ll contact you again soon," she said.

"Don’t do anything reckless before we do."

Then they were gone, moving back down the mountain with their retinue, and Jake turned to face the villa doors.

They were already open. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The maidens were waiting in two long lines on either side of the entrance path, dressed in their dark robes with the silver embroidery, standing straight and still in the lamplight.

Behind them stood servants in neat grey uniforms, and behind them more staff that Jake couldn’t immediately categorize, all of them arranged with the careful precision of people who had been preparing for this moment and intended to get it right.

As Jake walked forward, they knelt. Not one by one but all together, a single smooth collective motion that produced a sound like a wave pulling back from shore.

Jake kept walking and tried not to look as uncertain as he felt.