A city like no other

"Gods..." I say breathlessly as we breach the apex of the hill and Gryant comes into view, I had never seen anything quite like it. The vast city is peppered with towers that stretch so far into the sky that it looks like they could be used as points to step onto the clouds themselves, I thought I knew cities, I had read about Gryant and having been to Bragar and Corviet had me convinced that it would just be the same but bigger; in a way it was but to a scale that seemed impossible. "Impressive isn't it runt?" Quinara states "I had the same feeling when I first saw it too" I see her glance at my awestruck expression. "How?" I ask just amazed at the breathtaking skyline. Quinara takes a deep breath I turn to face her eager to learn more about this city "I don't know, I'm not an architect" she says her face plastered with a smug grin at having sucked me in for that barely passable explanation. "Fuck you" I jab back playfully "I really thought you'd have an answer"
"If I knew how they made cities like that I would be selling ideas to kings for expansive towers to reside in, not escorting naive bookkeepers across the lands" she says with her familiar playful insults. "Hey I'm not just naive, I am also handsome" I respond drawing a laugh from her "I don't know about handsome but you're pretty cute I guess".

As the day grows long we continue along the road, the sheer enormity of the city becoming more and more apparent. "I can see why wars were fought over it" and as I see the huge ballistas on the ramparts of the city I add "and why it's been able to maintain independence." We arrive at one of the many city gates allowing access into Gryant, thankfully there was no guard checkpoints looking for us so we have no issues. I stay close to Quinara as it's very clear that I could easily get lost here, the city was unfathomably huge, she takes me to a dwarf manning a horse drawn cart. "Dryden's fountain in the lower city" she says tossing a silver to him "-ight climb aboard", we climb on and set off to the lower city.

The journey takes nearly twenty minutes, and I can't help but notice the decline in grandeur as we move from the outskirts, which were clearly well kept and manned with guards into the more slum-like lower city. The mental image I had of the fountain was an opulent fountain befitting its namesake, the hero of the fourth siege of Gryant, instead it was a graffiti coated fountain with the crumbled remains of what I can only assume was a statue of Dryden himself in the centre. We get off the cart and I inspect the fountain, the water had long since dried up and the plaque had been pried off leaving a few bolts and a discoloured square in its place. "Come on runt, it's getting late" Quinara says urging me away down a cobbled street with more than a few potholes in it, she leads me to a inn "the Green Elf" I read from the taverns sign. We get in and book ourselves a room, the barman was clearly not a talker as he just grumbles his responses, seeming completely uninterested, which I suppose was a boon given our situation.