Chapter 3: Not Your Average Corner Shop

The door creaked open illuminating the surroundings, and made a dull 'thud' after hitting the wall. This immediately caused and eruption of dust to cascade upward from every available surface. "looks like... this place needs some spring cleaning Kharln" stifled my mother whilst grabbing her nose to prevent a sneeze. While waving the majority of particles from her face, she muttered something strange under her breath and stomped her foot firmly on the Oak Floorboards. The dust and air within the room shook and rushed past us, whistling with the speed at which they traveled, promptly exiting out of the building behind us. 'woah, was that magic?' I gasped, mouth agape at my mothers sudden use of such a technique. 'Imma have to learn that.'

Observing the space around us, It was pretty unremarkable. Shelving units containing books, bottles and other miscellaneous objects were scattered about, with what appeared to be with no regard as to organization. In other words. It was a mess. At the back of the store, an old man who I assumed to be the owner sat asleep in a chair with feet up on the front counter. Composing herself elegantly clearing her throat, my mother woke up the shop keeper, "look at how far the great mage Sangris Olsten has fallen," she mocked "sleeping on the day job is forbidden is it not?" a smirk crept onto her face. "I make my own rules thank you Aria" The mage groaned getting to his feet. Upon pulling the rim of his hat up a wide warm smile presented itself. "glad to see your little boy is healthy, he's grown quite significantly since I came and visited the other month." he continued.

"Its already been that long? Time sure does fly" came the reply, "He is his fathers son after all, I don't know how we'll cope with two of them eating all the food in the house, haha".

The atmosphere in the room felt a little more light after this exchange, putting me at ease in the shop that was more akin to a bombsite.

"Lets get down to business the. What ya here for?"

"I was wondering if you had anything that would be useful in terms of educating Kharln in the future", "If he is anything like Arthur and I he'll be a quick learner with a high affinity for both combat and magic."

"Starting 'em young, I see.....Let me think" Olsten said scratching his chin a couple of seconds passed, "You know... I might have exactly the thing". A mischievous light in his eyes sparkled as the words left his lips as soon as the last syllable left his tongue, he vanished into thin air.

'what has he got in store for me..?' I wondered.  No pun intended.

After his sudden disappearance, my mother made herself comfortable in the chair Olsten had been sitting in and let me loose. Being placed on the floor was quite a surprise, I honestly thought I'd be left attached to my mother for our entire day. It was quite daunting. Everything around me towered towards the wooden beams that spanned the ceiling way beyond my reach. All I can do now is explore I guess. Across the floor from me a large dark green leather bound book that had fallen off its shelf caught me eye. Shuffling my way over to it took far more effort than I had expected, leaving me a little breathless. I heaved the plain front cover open, and found myself staring at some maps that sprawled the double page spread. A hand written title was labeled 'The Central Continent'. This is just the information I needed I smiled. Geography.

Back in my past life, when I was In school, geography was my favorite subject, it explained geopolitical situations around the world, ranging from natural resources, territories and wars to the base of every day life and reasons why places are the way they are. Understanding the very foundation of this new worlds 'lore' I'm sure would pay off in future. These maps however were fundamentally different to the ones I was used to, not just because they were hand made. Three variations of the same map lay before me; one came with name labels over each county and the sea, all coloured in block greens, greys and blues. The next was identical except for a ring that ran around its centre marking conveniently a '2000km' radius. (To put this into perspective, the UK is around 950km tall. If memory serves me correctly this is spanning from the top of mainland Scotland down to the south coast). The Third map was far more detailed, with an accurate scale and grid. Ascal was the only country labelled, scattered with main trade routes and rivers as well as cities that were displayed in orange, towns in brown. A side note on the page said that 'Nzar can be seen on the northwestern peninsular of Ascal directly northwest of Asriana (the capital). Turning to the next page, smaller maps showed Ascal, and the north peninsulas land that Nzar is located within. Drainage basins and small rivers of the hills were also shown.

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What struck me as odd about the maps was that clearly in the middle, there was a note: 'Center of the World' in faint writing. This could potentially be a mistake, 'how could the world have a centre? It doesn't make sense or obey the laws of physics, what is there and edge?' hoping the book would answer my questions, I began reading the next page. It was Titled "Ascal - Human State 700,000+ population"

and continued...

Ascal is the second (out of 2) largest nations in the central human empire, it resides 210° Edgeward. Putting it Counterclockwise from the Burgeo sea. Almost all trade by sea into the central continent flows through Ascal. This is mainly through the capital, Asriana, which sits on the River Nere Estuary. This city is the largest on the continent due to the massive flow off people and goods giving rise to chances at wealth but also great poverty. Large amounts of goods also pass through the port in StCal, which lies on the opposite side of the river Tere to the neighbouring human nation Igris.

Towards the edgeward side of Ascal there is access to the base of the Crescent Mountains which can be seen in from nearly everywhere on the continent due to the flat ground. They circle the entire central continent, which has led to much mining and resource collection in the area, due to an abundance of rare minerals and forests.

The land in Ascal is predominantly grassland small woodlands and hills making ideal for farming and transporting goods efficiently by horse and carriage (due to a lack of extreme height change) however, due to having a coastline bordering the great central ice rifts, some land is tundra and much of the midward coast freezes over during harsh winters making life tough for the villages residing there. This has led to the wealth predominantly revolving around Asriana; cities sitting on central trade routes and the mine cities at the base of the Crescents.'

I sighed. 'A few answers, but mainly just more questions' "Hufffff".

'Edgeward? Midward? directions in degrees? North, east, south and west don't appear to be the only way of giving directions. Instead, I guess these methods exist due to the centre of the world theory. 'A flat earth must have edges'. This theory is also backed up by the view I saw when we left the house this morning. Being able to see mountains hundreds of miles across the sea should be impossible due to planet curvature, talking about curve, that's what the view was missing. I recall clearly now. It was as flat as a pancake. Before I could begin to delve further into my thoughts on this preposterous word model the front door burst open dramatically, a silhouette stood in the doorway, grin wide.

Olsten had Returned.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BYUohrfBdzHjD37m6 - lore link

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