As the gondola continued its journey between the fabric lined pathways, I opened up The Academy Handbook and skipped ahead to an index that had a map of Flags. Everick noticed me familiarizing myself with the map and tapped at the Western wall of the town.

  “This is where the gondola departed from, and this” he tapped to a large circle marked in the centre, “is the Admin office.”

  Each neighbourhood was marked as a ring around the central Admin office. The outer most ring was the boardwalk where Gloria and I had eaten ramen, with only brief annotations on what merchandise was sold and in which area. According to the map, the boardwalk encircled the entire city, never changing in width. It was the thinnest of the rings illustrated on the map, with the rings widening as they approached the centre.

  We were currently leaving the boardwalk and entering into the next neighbourhood labelled The Hides. What struck me as strange was that the entire area consisted of thick hanging sheets that looked as hard as cement. The fabric was a patchy grey, and had a shine reminiscent of silk. Built on both sides of this fabric were thin buildings, no wider than a couple meters, but with as many as ten floors. The oddest part was that the walls and floors and roofs were not nailed or cemented to the fabric, but instead stitched together with colourful yarn. The yarn was not only used to hold the buildings in place, but also used to weave suspension bridges between the multiple homes sharing the same fabric wall.

  Everick chimed in with minimal commentary, “It’s called The Hides because the fabrics” he pointed at the grey material, “it is leather from a stone snake. As you can guess, stone snakes’ skin is impenetrable.”

  My mouth went dry as I wondered how large a stone snake would have to be in order to produce a hide that was the size of a football field, and moreover, how to kill such a beast.

  It took a few minutes to pass through The Hides, and we soon entered into The Guilds. The town took a literal approach to naming things, and thus, this neighbourhood consisted of all the guild halls. Unlike The Hides, where all the fabrics supporting buildings were uniform, The Guilds was filled of unique buildings of varying materials. The Alchemists Guild was shaped like a massive beaker, made of a transparent material that shimmered like a diamond. The Merchants Guild was a collection of massive bird cages veiled in curtains of shimmering gold. The gondola had increased speed as it travelled deeper into Flags, and the guilds passed by faster. A nest of woven fabrics was one guild, another was a large hammock that housed multiple tents. None of them were connected by bridges, but instead had a gondola platform to receive incoming guests. Each building was a gravity defying art piece that symbolised the guild within. The neighbourhood must have had dozens of guild halls, each one encompassing a city block.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Everick took a moment to point out how the guilds had their own gondola system. “Those, over there, are private cables strung between guilds that allow for a direct route between the halls. It’s the easiest way to see which guilds get along with one another. The alchemists with the mages, blacksmiths,” he pointed to a strange building that looked like a windchime, “connected with the guards. Not that gondolas matter to ghosts, you can just float around anyways.” His comment was serendipitously timed as a ghost floated beneath the gondola.

  By the time we exited The Guilds we were moving fast and I didn’t have much time to observe the next district. It was called The Lawns, and was marked as a residential zone. The area consisted of rows of hanging gardens and mansions that looked more like paper lanterns than buildings.

  We passed by the district in less than a minute, and approached a tunnel of black cloth that encircled the gondola’s path. We were approaching the Admin building, which now looked more like a heart, the tunnels like arteries leading to the massive circular building at the centre.

  Everick let out a sigh thick with boredom as we entered into the tunnel, my vision suddenly plunged into darkness as my eyes adjusted.

  The gondola slowed down and we eventually arrived at a new platform made of black marble with red veins.

  “We’re here”, Everick said as he climbed out of the gondola and turned to offer me a hand up.

  Not trusting my compromised vision, I let him guide me out of the gondola and several meters down the pier until we arrived at a grand entrance way. Hundred of piers spread out from a central platform that we were currently walking towards. There was a well of light casting down from a glass dome ceiling several stories above. And in the centre of the platform was a grand staircase leading down. A robed figure was walking towards us from a booth that floated at the end of the pier, his pace the perfect balance of intention and unconcerned slowness.

  “Welcome to The Academy’s Administration Office, please be informed that the gondola will only be held for 15 minutes before being sent back to its port of origin.” The robed attendant said mirthlessly. “Take the staircase down to the entrance hall.”

  The attendant did not slow down or pause as he talked, but simply moved past us and onwards to our gondola. Everick showed an equal amount of dismissal and did not slow down, already walking towards the central staircase.

  I chased after Everick and caught up when he paused at the directory a few feet from the start of the staircase. “Entrance bureau, entrance bureau,” he mumbled as he scanned the list of departments. “Ah, third floor. Okay lets go.”

  Without even checking to see if I was following, he descended the stairwell. It was beautiful and with the type of majestic design you saw in fairy princess castles. As we descended, the steps spiralled downwards without end, the only indication of change being the elegant carvings at each landing, indicating the department and their opening hours. We didn’t go far down, as the entrance bureau was on the third floor.

  “This may take a while,” Everick grimaced as he stood in front of large walnut doors on the platform of level 3, “Try to just be direct in your answers, and don’t make we wait too long.”

  With that he pushed the right door ajar and beckoned me to slip inside.