The Bridge Gate [Post here first.]

Liz followed along as well, a grin of her own on her face at Naoki's eager manner. Once Liz was no longer being pulled by Naoki, she would disentangle her hand from Naoki's, as she objected slightly to being pulled along like a child.

After waiting for his papers to be processed in the valley pass, the lad finally made it to Travere. Everything was so alien to him! He could deal with the melting pot of Isra, and the homogenous population in Audria, but a homogenous Gauldin people? He was getting a headache already. He wondered why the sister of a Queen would just own a small store. Shrugging, he would ride into Travere proper unless stopped. He thought of going to the palace to ask about, but he reckoned he would be kicked out and laughed at, so it was a last resort. 

Blank made good time on the road to Travére , despite the crude directions he was given. Traveling in Gauldin seemed to be quite simple, as it turned out, due to the overall good quality of the roads and posted signs. Blank was able to figure it out easily enough, and now before him stood the city in all its glory.

When he first caught sight of it on the horizon he had to pause to take in the city's magnificence and the closer he got the more impressed he became. Blank would seem like any other tourist as he made his way across the bridge marveling at the architecture of the city, albeit a somewhat travel-worn one. He had all the necessary travel papers though, and would get through into the city easily enough. The main thing on his mind now though is what he would do once he entered the city. He figured the first thing he should do is establish a source of income. 

He had learned that money was supremely important in helping someone live comfortably, or even live at all as it could buy things such as shelter, food and water, as well as other things he would like to have.

The gates to the city lay open and Zero was able to walk right up to them without any issue. However, as he steps underneath them a noise sounds and a faint luminous red glow surrounds his body. The guards who stood along the periphery of the gate move forward harsh voices sounding in Gauldish and the common tongue, the meaning clear in both. "Halt where you are." The crowd parts around Zero leaving him in a calm spot that is soon filled with men in the blue and yellow of the city guard.

The guards look at the man who seemed quite oblivious to the situation he was in. In brief, by crossing over the mountains instead of through the pass he had failed to acquire travel papers. Well, he could roam the Gauldish countryside rather easily without them, the localized detection wards on the city gate had sounded the alarm when he'd tried to pass through. "Get on your knees." One of the guards says in a thick accent as the men fan out, one holding a pair of shackles. Travel without papers was not by itself a severe offense but since it usually portended more sinister motivations and possible crimes they were being cautious.

Once Zero is on his knees the guard with the shackles descends, slapping the irons around the man's wrists and behind his back. This done he is unceremoniously dragged to his feet and hauled off to the nearby guard station where he is thrown into a cell. There Zero would be left to wait for several hours until a figure in the black and silver trimmed robes of a military mage appears to question the young man. The figure is male, of average height with a lean build, bald head, hawkish noise, and stern icy blue eyes.

The mage looks at the broken shackles and the sleeping man then with a sigh, he steps out and triggers the antimagic runes on the cell. It appears as though the men had not been thorough in their examination of the prisoner if they hadn't noticed he evidently had magically enhanced strength. This done the mage grabs a bucket of cold water and throws it through the bars onto the prisoner.

"Are you stupid or ignorant?" The mage asks eying the man through the bars his expression hard and unyielding. "Do you not understand that you have been placed under arrest?" Zero may well be irritated but the mage didn't seem to care, while the general populous of Gauldin was friendly, the military tended not to be. Indeed, they tended to be quite harsh when dealing with foreigners who broke Gauldish law.