Kyuden Gotei ~ 2 A.M.

Donovan steps out into the cold rain and feels the wet and thick droplets before he registers the lack of light. Kyorlin pushes past him and travels to the left of the entrance to their quarters. The buildings around Donovan look different in black-and-white, but there's no denying that they are made with style and grace. He can see the contrasts of shiny, opulent metals that gild the exteriors of the quarters here, and the rich veins of marble in different shades of grey.

Just past the dignitary quarters, Donovan sees a number of ponds. Slender reeds grow on the banks of them, giving the area dark patches and blocky shapes to the pools where fish with colored mottling and beard-like cords swim. The ponds show a meticulous care, and the rocks that form the pathways between the ponds are all worked stone and marble. They give an amalgam of what-could-be, the pinnacle of human craftsmanship for natural settings, an irony in and of itself. The drowned man look up with movement.

Kyorlin travels past the bath-houses towards the docks. He lets himself stop and appreciate the care that's gone into these houses. They are all marble, and the roofs are made from from a cut stone, too, that looks a little more soft than the stone below it; slate, perhaps, from how it's made to look like wavy and interlocking plates, or perhaps some mineral clay; it's tough to distinguish in the darkness. He passes a path that could lead him deeper into the city, but he decides to walk first to towards the docks and what seems to be the dining halls.

The kitchens and the dining halls, a series of actually impressive buildings are empty and dark at this hour, except for the few embers of the large ovens in the back. They look as if they could fit an entire shelf of bread in them; the kitchen alone must have a capacity for over a hundred people. He descends the steps of the kitchen to the halls below them, and the smell of fish wafts to Donovan. He looks over the kitchen, and he spots rooms where many fish lie in ceramic containers of what must be "salt-cellars." The air, here, is even colder in these dark rooms, until he realizes that they are likely underground and subjected to the still waters of ocean and rock. Still, the kitchen shows the touch of love and care, of dedication and craft.

He follows Kyorlin's detailed search of the docks:

The enormous pier is currently lit by the light from the Lighthouse. It houses roughly fifty boats, all of which have been moored for the evening, and no people, not even the Eta, are nearby for questioning. Likely, the ships came in late and the people on them finished their tasks quickly to avoid the storm. The ship you'd been on is one of the larger warships, but none are occupied, and all are fit to rest and rock in the turbulent wind, falling water, and calmer bay. The ships rise and fall a little in the waves, and Donovan watches as Kyorlin does a desperate search of the area.

Across the bay, Donovan and Kyorlin can see the still-shining light of the great lighthouse, and one beam of light grazes the Eastern edge of the Shrine to Osano-Wo, the Fortune of Fire and Thunder. As if the spirits themselves are watching, a flash of lightning pulses as the seeking tendrils from the sky connect with the metal upon the shrine; It is a marvelous statue of a serpent, made of precious metals, and housed in a four-sided structure, whose eight columns make up four Torii, and a spacious a wide roof has a high-reaching wire, with a cord that flexes down to the statue itself. In the moment of the lightning's strike, the entire statue lights up and it gives a pulse that, even in the obscuring rain, leaves spots on the eyes for several seconds.

Those few moments of light illuminated a path that extended from the shrine, beyond the walls of this enclosed region of Kyuden Gotei, a path already mentioned by other servants as The Path of Thunder. It's easy to see why: One braves the journey to the shrine, and the shrine nearby serve as a securing-point for lightning; thunder could easily be an accompanying partner in a storm such as this. Other than the Thunder and lighting, the ships and the water, there is little to be seen on the docks, and no sign of Jade.

Donovan is able to make his way back to the Dignitary Quarters and down a cobbled ramp. In front of him lies an impressive barracks, a hundred-foot-long building, the same length of the Dignitary quarters, but with a fortress-like appearance and three stories tall. Donovan sees a few spots near the barracks' entrance that are just a tad bit cleaner than others, likely where guards would stand...except in such a long and wet storm. For now, it is closed and it seems unlikely he would get inside without being noticed.

To his left, he sees the jagged rocks and swampy banks of the bay, and the walls of the inner-area that obscure his view of the rest (except for the vague shapes of Tenshukaku, the castle, and the lighthouse). It he looks right, he can see more broken ground that leads into the unforbidding wilderness and the furious spray of water and the bay. Should he walk further, he will see only the stone and mortar that form the wind-wall for the pier, and upon closer inspection, a more grisly reality to this back-alley area of the city.

Donovan sees a number of chains and manacles upon the wall behind the pier. A residue of rust and blood, not even washed away by the heavy rain, lies here, as a grisly reminder that even the often spilt blood of humans can make marks that nature itself must take great time to wash away.

There are other walls, too, that obscure the rest of the city, but without a need or strong desire to climb or scale walls, Donovan remains ignorant of the rest of the capitol city.