Kai wandered the sprawling streets of the Citadel, a city of grand towers and bustling markets.
There were structures everywhere he looked.
He approached several residents for directions, but they waved him off, scurried away, ignored his existence, or called him various names.
His tattered rag-like clothes. His unwashed body. Everything about him screamed street urchin.
Eventually, a middle-aged woman stopped.
"Do you know how I can get to the Thesiones Academy?" Kai asked, his eyes wide.
She eyed him up and down.
"You might want to be properly dressed first, lad," she said with a raised brow. "The academy doesn't take kindly to street wanderers."
"Street wanderer? I've got-"
"Look, kid. It doesn't matter what you've got. Come with me, and I'll get you sorted out. You're about my son's age, and we can't have you out and about with almost everything showing."
Kai's face reddened. His time in the forest and the years in Mirth alone dulled his need to hide his body.
