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The small two person vehicle flew through the dense forest, hovering gently above the mag-lev track, trees flicked by either side, the road track was perfectly straight and form the passengers position looked like a perfectly cut slot into the forest on either side tall trees stood like some canyon walls.

“We nearly there yet?” said the human occupant of the vehicle, even though they were racing past the trees at 300km/h this human phrase seemed to survive this technologic age.

“60 kilometres?” said the other occupant, a Galen, “20 minutes or so.”

They had jumped into the vehicle early this morning, very early, they had not seen another soul as they left Irikarr a town outside Tikama-Fe, they had travelled halfway across a continent passing through several time zones and only now were they nearing their ultimate destination. They had opted to take a tour through the countryside rather than go direct via wormhole gates, they stopped off for an early breakfast at the city of Corth, cheated a few thousand kilometres by gating to Tedamine, and were proceeding the last few thousand miles through the coastland forest towards Itonis.

            The vehicle shot out of the forest and onto a slender bridge, all reflective metal and chrome, its proportions seemingly too slender to support itself, it spanned a broad river perhaps a few hundreds metres across, but it passed by in only a few seconds.

            “we’ll meet that river again, it, or one of its tributaries passes by Itonis” said the Galen, she looked blank for a second, accessing some maps or another off her implants, “yes”.

            The relationship between the occupants was complex, the human, a young man, was a student and had for the past three months spent life with a Galen family, the elder matriarch of which was the vehicle’s other present occupant. He had come to Gadarren to study, his interest was primarily in archaeology though if his feelings were this divorced he could have stayed on Earth, rather he felt a need to feel this culture, to provide some sort of context to his archaeological work. He had only gone back home twice in his stay, short half day trips by gate, mainly to see relatives, though some had managed to come to him on Gadarren, if he was to cynically remark, on thinly disguised holidays.

            The Galen, Imnda as she was known to the man, had been looking for a guest, her family house had plenty of space, most of the current generation had interests off world and she had wanted someone who shared her more historic passions. The two had been matched by an AI, neither party had submitted any kind of formal request but by happy coincidence they had both expressed these wishes in passing conversation, the rest as they say, is history.

            The forest was beginning to break up as they approached the city, occasionally a small village was visible through the trees, or standing in the fields like some stone island. The navigational displays in front of them listed the changes in speed as the vehicle slowed down as they approached the city, the deceleration was so slight that neither of them had registered it, the vehicle was beginning to show them maps of Itonis. Imnda had only planned their journey to Itonis, she had not yet got round to finalising their exact place of arrival in the city, she thought a little, and then touched the map, a blue line raced from their current position to the point she had just touched. Mark was too busy staring out the windows while she did this.

            “I can see the walls!” He exclaimed, the white stone of the walls stood bathed in sunlight. Unlike a lot of Galen cities the walls still penned Itonis, and these had seen blood too, many armies had thought here in the more troubled times Gadarren’s past, consequently these walls were solidly built. “The Eastern Gate” said in tones of awe.

            The gatehouse was quite impressively massive, for Galen buildings of the same era it was quite undecorated, strictly functional. The vehicle had slowed to only a few kph as they passed though it, the first arch they passed under was a plain semicircular arch, but impressively thick about ten metres, the sofit was interrupted by a number of slots where once gates could drop down, but now like the old outer gates these were permanently raised in these peaceful times. The first gate lead into a series of killing yards, where equally high walls and stout gates had been the end of many raiding parties.

            They both took in these sights in silence. Itonis was colossal by any standard the walls took in more than just as city Itonis was almost its own country, it certainly operated as one in days past, an island of order in central Aephia. The vehicle had moved onto the old stone roads, the mag generators built beneath the stone only kept the vehicle a few inches off the ground, and the vehicle barely moved faster than walking place. The road was flanked by the old buildings characteristic of Itonis, stands of flowers were dotted along its length, the vehicle glided along with the early morning pedestrians. Imnda touched a panel which collapsed the clear roof of the vehicle, so that they both could sit in the open air and hear the city coming to life.

            “That’s better” she said “oh its wonderful.”

            Nearby a man was beating a huge hollow tube of copper which hung from a little between two huge columns, its low toll was not so much loud but pervasive, already a flurry of wings could be heard, that families Natara had come to be fed, their huge shapes glided above the street over the roof tops and out of sight.

            Not only was Itonis huge, it had concentric walls. Itonis had always been an influential city in the region, but before this the area was incredibly sacred by Galen standards. It was this inner city of shrines and temples that they had come to visit.

            As they passed through the outer city of Itonis, the housing giving way to the inner ring of civic buildings, the residents of the city were beginning their day. The air was thick with the smell of food and of incense, gongs and bells were ringing in indication of the start of the day. The vehicle drew to a halt outside another gatehouse, somewhat smaller than the first one the passed.

            “Come on let’s get out” as they got out Mark put a small camera set to his ear, recording everything he was looking at, he did not want to forget a moment of this. The device was held against his head by a small hook that clipped over his ear, he adjusted it level and followed Imnda as she approached the gate.

            Unlike the outer gates the inner gates of Itonis were closed, however they were never locked nowadays.

            “Have you ever Been to China?” Mark asked, “or anywhere in Asia?” He asked Imnda

            “The forbidden city? No this is different, you know that. Itonis had always been a democracy, the local government is held in the outer city, beyond this gate are only those things which are sacred, which do not concern the petty arguments about how many bakeries the city needs, or whether some street or another needs resurfacing.”

            “I know, I know, the architecture is different anyhow, much more… I don’t know.”

            As the inner gate opened in front of him he caught the first glimpse of the gardens inside.

            “In the times of chaos all the local powers tried to take Itonis, for its city and for its sacred ground, but Itonis always kept its independence. The ‘Blood battle’ was perhaps the closest this city came to conquest, but it was said that the army failed because the sacred land of the inner city resented the evil influence.”

            They stepped through the gates into an impressive landscape of gardens and walls, from here they could see the small hill at the centre of the city, its slopes were equally as manicured and ornate buildings could be seen scattered across the landscape. However one thing that could not be seen was the fact a lot more of the landscape was built up, a lot of it was kept below the trees, or sunk into the ground.

            “When Tiemis’ forces breached the outer walls, they instead pushed further to break into the inner city, they thought that if they could attack the remainder of the outer city from between the two sets of walls, and with the inner city safe ground they could take Itonis.” The garden they were walking across was perhaps a hundred metres square, the centre of which was a kind of plaza that linked to the front gates, on all sides were further smaller walls, with more gates in, they headed towards one flanked by two tall towers. “But the city fought back, the Natara of the inner city attacked with ferocity, the hot springs and geothermal wells surged, flooding the city’s sewer with scalding water killing a lot of Tiemis’ covert forces who were working their way through the city underground.”

The gate they were approaching was open, expanding out onto another square, but this time with a small temple in it.

            “Of course this alone was not enough to finish Tiemis’ chances, the people of the inner city fought, every square, every garden and columnade was a scene of fierce struggle, the losses sustained as they tried to take the inner city were simply too much, Tiemis’ poured more and more troops into taking the inner ground but the city consumed them, in the end the city won. Sacred ground.”

[will at some point be extended]