Chapter 136

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Gabriel led her back into the city proper, through one of the grand, mostly-open constructions she'd observed as soon as they walked in, to a smallish courtyard on its different side.

The Courtyard—garden, something it was—was nearly rectangular shaped, and hemmed by four, two story buildings, every with a wide open level at the ground, then stairs main to closed in rooms and areas on the 2nd level.

But there, in the courtyard, what little snow had reached between the constructions and past the trees was normally already melted off. There was a huge stone desk at its center, and a number of smaller stone tables scattered round it. From the stonework in the ground that saved their ft from getting muddy on the moist ground, to the masterwork of the stonemasons, the tables each regarded as if they'd grown into those positions.

There were benches and spherical stones close to most, however everything was too giant even for Gabriel, let alone