We continued in silence, following the wizard who still had yet to tell us his name. His hurried down the alleys without braking into a run until a short time later he turned onto one of the main streets. Remembering the impression I'd made on the three thugs, I pulled my hood up and over my face, and wrapped my cloak tightly around my body. I half feared that it would make me conspicuous, but to my relief there were others dressed in such a fashion, and the plethora of races, armour styles, weapons and so forth made me down right mundane.
The wizard lead us down the street, off onto another, cut through an alley (a nicer quality of one than the ones Naziim and I had met him in I thought), across another street, up a second alley and onto a side street.
"Just in time," chuckled the wizard, motioning to a narrow five storey tower of ivory. The doors swung open an a backpack was tossed out, followed by a slender figure who stumbled down the front steps. A tall man stepped out onto the front porch, crossing his arms. He was dressed in dark volumous robes, had tanned skin and a thin moustache and goatee, all of which put me in mind of a moustache twirling Disney villain.
"Begone girl," he instructed in a deep booming voice "I can teach you no more. Go out into the wider world; sorcery can only be learned by experience, not by book work." He turned with a flourish and the doors slammed shut behind him, sealing seamlessly together.
The girl made an obscene gesture in the direction of the door and turned away, gathering up her things. She wore a black robe with purple flames embroidered around the cuffs and hem, a dark leather corset and a black ankle-length skirt. As we approached her, she shouldered he pack and stood up, her eyes going wide as she saw us. My own eyes mirrored hers in action - she looked just like...
