"I think sticking around here sounds good," says the Player, stretching out on the bench by the fountain. She tilts her head back, jabbing a thumb up at the statue. "That's Lanmalare Kismae, an old heroine from the Shadow Years. She's the ancestor of one of the families around here, the Zo'ckeins...they helped to found the City, so they get to put up fountains, I guess.
"They named the library after her, too." The Player points across the way, to a graceful white building with a red-tiled roof and bas relief carved by the door. "The priveleges of power...
"Speaking of priveleges, the Rose Temple is over there," she says, craning around to point across the fountain at a slender, buttressed building. Gold leaf outlines the veins in the marble of the columns in front of it. "The Roses are another noble family. They own a whole town out in the Green Lands too--Rose Valley--and their daughter just married the Governor's son. But enough of that."
You lean against the fountain's edge, looking around. Off to your left, a group of young men meander out of a low, broad building, laughing and horsing around and wringing out wet hair. Steam wisps out of the door before it swings shut. "Bathhouse," the Player says with a soft chuckle. "Interesting place."
Across the street from the bathhouse is another low building, with benches set along the street in front of it. A pathway branches off there and disappears into the greenery next to it; the sound of a harp can be heard from there, faintly. "The opera house, and the outdoor amphitheatre," notes the Player. "Both quite nice."
Leaning back a little more in her seat by the fountain, the Player looks up at you from under the brim of her broad hat and smiles, catlike. "I'm pretty sure you can take care of yourself around here. Come back when you want to get moving again, eh?" And with that, she tips her hat down over her eyes for a snooze.
To the Lanmalare Library To the Rose Temple To the Bathhouse To the Opera House To the Amphitheatre
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