Spellscribed: Ascension Read Online Free Page B

slapped the skin over her missing shoulder, and held it. "At least if I had kept most of the arm I could do something with it, but this is a chunk carved out of my chest! I should have died!"
                          "No!" Endrance suddenly shouted out, his voice louder than intended, his eyes full of tears and his heart aching painfully. "No one should have died that day! None of you should have died!"
                          Endrance looked away, wiping at his face with his hand. "I… I failed you." he muttered. "I'm... I'll go."
                          He left the room, and barely noticed Selene trailing along behind him as he descended the stairs.
                          "You haven't failed me." she offered helpfully.
                          Endrance sighed. He pulled her into a quick embrace before he turned back to the front door. "Give it time." he said before setting back out. "It's bound to happen eventually."
                          Selene clutched her hand to her chest as she watched him climb onto his horse and ride off.
                          “Goodbye.” She murmured. She could see his shoulders slumped and his head hanging as he rode along. Her heart twisted to see him dejected and broken like that; he'd been like that every time he had come home.

Chapter 02
                         Another hour of riding got him up into the eighth bowl. Navigating the city without Joven's assistance was much more difficult for Endrance than he expected, but he had sent the man on an errand to escort the messenger and his escort to somewhere they could stay. If Joven had been leading, it was likely Endrance could have gotten there in half the time. Given Endrance's lack of talent for navigation, the mage was certain of it.
                          The city was built into the side of the largest mountain in the range, Mount Balator. Thousands of years prior, a warlord united a bulk of the tribes in building a safe haven against some long forgotten threat. They found a several mile wide natural bowl of rock and earth at the foot of the mountain and settled there, building a thick and durable wall to close off the parts the natural rock formation had left vulnerable. This bowl was large enough for general settling, but was most effective as farmland, as the soil was rich in minerals and food grew abundantly with the constant trickle of water from the snowcaps. Eventually that generation had quarried most of the second bowl out of the slope of the mountain. Each bowl had been designed to be able to fully lock itself off from the rest of the city if under siege, and was set fifty feet above the ground level of the first. Given the relatively broad slope of the mountain, each bowl was three quarters the diameter of the last while still being relatively level.
                          During their excavations, the barbarians had discovered a metal they called black iron, which when refined, formed a black steel that was commensurately heavier and sturdier than normal steel. Working the metal became one of their prized crafts, and one of their only trades with the outside world. The stone they quarried out of the mountain was also cut and dressed nearby and dragged back to the mountain for construction. The stone was a dark gray material, though sometimes veins of black stone could be found.
                          Which led to why Endrance was there. He rode up to the gates of the castle and stopped, dismounting. A man in armor took his horse and Endrance instructed the man to stable his mount; the horse would be able to rest the night in those stables. His home wasn't far from here and he could walk once he was done with business.
                          An older man with a graying beard and most of the hair on