They step off the bridge and walk at a good pace, keep­ing par­al­lel with the west­ern Divid­ing Wall. Every now and then Gil peeks over the row of build­ings to check if any­one is look­ing back.

Kiddu
Will you quit being so scared? They’re not even watch­ing this side of the wall.
Gil
How do you know?
Kiddu
Impe­r­ial sor­cer­ers have three lit­tle lights on the front of their hel­met. Do you see any lights? Nope. That’s because they’re all look­ing at the other side of the Wall.

Gil has never been on the other side—the walled off city-within-a-city called the native district—though he’s heard it’s exceed­ingly mis­er­able. Whether the con­stant sur­veil­lance from impe­r­ial sol­diers is an effect or cause of that mis­ery is one of those chicken-and-egg ques­tions.

He stops look­ing at the Wall and watches the street in front of him, which widens into a plaza ringed by tall, orna­men­tal cac­tus plants. The plaza is called Vic­tory Square, and in the cen­ter rises a huge statue of Emperor Zargon.

Vic­tory Square nar­rows back into a street, and after a block the city around them begins to thin out. They walk uphill towards their des­ti­na­tion: the Grand Cir­cus.

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