There have always been zealots - Pure Earth Radicals who preach about the sovereignty of humans to the Earth. To their eyes, they saw a horrible perversion when they would see a human with a demon, and they would incite riots. Kole remembered one series of riots that took place a few years ago. The elders had stepped in and temporarily quelled the violence each time, speaking about thought-freedom and giving the definitions of unjust abuse. After a month or two of peace, there would be more violence.

This pattern continued until Damir himself stepped in an met with the leader of the zealots. Kole witnessed Damir's tactics firsthand. In a featureless room, Damir sat next to the leader, seating the zealot's most immediate disciples no more than a man's height away from them. Damir engaged only the leader in a conversation, inviting the leader to talk about his motivations. When the leader had nothing but propaganda to spout, Damir began to expand on his ideas, confirming aspects of his beliefs, but without ever becoming ingratiating.

The conversation was long and filled with tangents, until the leader seemed to be at ease with the idea that he may escape without any kind of punishment for inciting the riots. It was clear to all that he was the cause, but since he did not actively take part in the violence, he was guilty of nothing but speaking his mind, and possibly a more hefty violation of using maga to influence people into action. Damir was not trying to get him to confess anything, just talk.

After a couple of hours, the subject of the conversation turned in the direction of the disciples. They were quiet, no doubt as instructed by their leader. It had come out in bits and pieces over the previous parts of the conversation that the leader was most interested in a position of power in whatever venue he could manange. Damir was known to be the spiritual guardian of the entire city, so his position could never be threatened, and slowly, the next part of their dialog turned to criticizing the disciples.

Within a few minutes, the tension and shame hiding within the zealot leader turned toward his own kind, and puerile jokes at their expense began to flow. Damir supported him by laughing, goading him ever so subtly to continue, until the raucous, rude, and cruel comments began to disturb even Kole and the other guardians present.

All of a sudden, Damir stopped in mid guffaw, stood, and glared at the leader. The leader quickly stopped his litany of abuse and froze. Damir scowled for another moment, just enough for the leader to realize what he had done, and look away in shame. Damir then turned to the disciples and said, "See with deeper eyes." And left the room.

The guardians left soonafter, followed by the still-quiet disciples. Five full minutes later, the leader left with his tail between his legs. That put an end to that particular zealot's influence, and an end to any regular prejudicial violence.

Kole always kept Damir's tactic in the back of his mind. If the enemy feels no fear, he will freely express himself, and in that expression, a weakness will eventually surface. Exploit the weakness using the weapons the enemy provides you with, and your enemy will have nobody but himself to fight. This was always difficult to maneuver, but Kole had found elements of this mindset to be helpful within certain encounters.

Kole and Kalisse were nearing the park that lay on the outer edge of the market district, and the sounds of children playing could be heard through the rustling leaves. The path opened up into a playground where ten or twelve children ran around and climbed in the playhouses and on the bars. Through the screeches of play, Kalisse realized that they were pretending to be guardians. As the two of them passed into the clearing, some of the children stopped to watch them walk. As if a wave of knowing passed through them, they all stopped their play and turned to watch Kole and Kalisse. Kalisse smiled and waved to the children, a few of them ran to hide, trailing shrills of excited laughter behind them. Kole smiled as they continued on through the park.

On the other side of the park is the Sosassa river. This was the old part of the river; the embankment still had some ruins hanging off of it where aging fishermen often spent their days. The river had been rerouted to split into two forks to isolate the land surrounding the gateway into an island. The split rivers reconverge a few miles from the oceanside bay, turning the land into Gateway Island.

This island was tactically designed to keep out invaders. Many attempts to capture the gateway had been made in the past, and their marks were left on the land. The outer edge of the island is a vast plain of grass and gravel. Some ruins and many foundations remained from the old city, where low trees and bushes clung. The blood of invaders, most of them demons, stained the soil and turned the color of the grass rust red. The overall pattern on the grass is that of ruddy mile-long fingers reaching inward toward the gateway.

The plains also serve as a memorial for all of those who died defending the gateway. Kole knew several stories from each battle, and he enjoyed sharing them with visitors who were granted walking tours of the battlefields. It had been many years since the last attempt, and pride filled him. The guardians of the City-In-The-Sea were mentioned in songs as being "uncorruptable and fierce, unchallengable and just". He had been mentioned by name in some of them.

Indeed, they have been unchallenged for several years. It was no time to become complacent, riding on reputations.

The grassland stretched on for 4 miles inland. Kole and Kalisse were silent. This was their time to prepare for the task ahead, and they focused their thoughts on finding their hunger - that place of raw focus in all warriors. The sounds of whispering grass and bird calls accompanied them for the next couple of hours until they reached the inner wall.

A few hundred feet high, the inner wall was was created from the ruins of the old city. The shape of the inner wall was plain, compared to the deeply ornate structures of the market district and some of the wealthier places in the city. The smooth, pinkish-beige and grey surfaces of the inner wall were simple and without any footholds. Vague distortions in the color created patterns distinct to the substance of which the walls were made.

The colors and shapes of all of the buildings in the City-In-The-Sea are similar because they were all constructed utilizing very versatile creatures called the Jubmala. These bloated crustaceans, roughly the size of adult pigs, secrete a substance that has the consistency of foamy putty. The secretions are naturally generated by the males of the species to build protective nests for the eggs for its mate. The architects create psychic bonds with the males and become the surrogate females. In this way, they can convince the males when it is time to build the "nests", usually at a manic rate of 250 cubic feet per hour per male. The species is also polyandrous, so one architect can have many male Jubmala at its command; the number is limited only by the architect's psychic abilities. When left to dry in the air, the foamy secretions become harder than steel, but incredibly lightweight; and until it hardens, the substance is very plastic.

The idea of a man being the surrogate female to several overweight foaming beetles leaves many lewd jokes in the architects' wake, but it is a very profitable business for them. As many people there are to mock their vocation, there are twice as many who respect and admire their abilities. Many sculptors work in tandem with the architects, applying patterns into the foam as it dries. The sculptors run the risk of often being mistaken for a predator by the Jubmala, and have all received a vicious bite or two during their careers. The bite is poisonous, causing blindness and terrible nausea, but the effects wear off in a day or two.

No sculptors were at risk during the creation of these walls, however. The slick curves of the outer walls were left to their raw forms, as nature intended, as surfaces where no intruder could find foothold nor niche. The only way into the inner walls was by one of the four crane elevators placed at each quarter. The enormous machines were meticulously maintained, as they were very important for the trade of the city.

A group of merchants stood next to their wagons waiting for the elevator to descend. One descended every fifteen minutes to allow passage into and out of the inner walls, and gauging by the impatience of these merchants, the elevator was due very soon.

One of their pack beasts grunted as it pushed its face into its feedbag. The merchants, all from some outpost of the outer worlds, seemed pleased with their trading. No doubt, they would return to their world of origin with tales of what had been seen here, and the wealth that this new earthly frontier could offer to others.

The great muted motors of a massive machine began to groan from the other side of the wall. The ground hummed with its power. The pack beasts shook their manes and kicked at the ground, uneasy from the sound. The music of the machine was well known to Kole and Kalisse, for they have heard it many times. The sound of the motors and hydraulics changing the great arm of the elevator as it reached up from the ground inside, over the wall, and down to the outside was soothingly familiar, yet an omen of their dangerous work ahead.

The platform lowered a fresh group of visitors to the city. The colors and smells of their clothes and manner gave away their own familiarity with the city and these elevators' songs. One visitor coming off of the platform recognized another that was getting on, and they greeted each other in their native language. It was a pleasant exchange of shrill whistles, and resonant hollow clunks that originated somewhere inside their chests. The elevator operator genrously waited for them to finish their exchange before he had to interrupt them to maintain his schedule. Looking around, they both realized that the fresh passengers were waiting for them to finish, and they easily parted with quick apologies in thick alien accents.

The safety gates closed. The merchant who had had the conversation held an expression on his face for the duration of the elevator ride. His nostrils were flared, and his ear-flaps were twisted around to shade his eyes. Kole could tell by the vibration he exuded in his center that the expression must have been akin to a smile for his species.

It warmed Kole, despite his own anxiousness.

End Part 12