Snippet #2133775

Felix, followed by Alexandria, Archmage Tess and two students from her class, strode through the town centre, their trek taking them past the sundial, Gooseneck's only popular landmark which cast no shadow under nightfall and the boundless cloud cover of slow-moving stratocumuli. Vertigris deposits formed a crust at the base of the sundial's gnomon, around the die cast symbols representing the hours and eight celestial signs of the zodiac in a nearly perfect annulus. Its most notable feature was a large, bright lemniscate cast sideways in the copper, forming a double loop into which dust and grit had settled.

Outside the town centre, where the rain had long since ceased falling, pockmarks speckling the dirt were nearly trampled flat by passing feet though mud particles still sloughed off dusty wagons and rain gutters onto the cobbles. The narrow streets wove complex patterns through the town, sometimes doubling back or leading to an entirely different network. However, near the end of one of several residential roads lined with nondescript shacks with small farms, the street split off onto a junction illuminated by an oil-burning lantern hung from a hook on the siding of a dilapidated brown house. At first, Felix saw nothing beyond the lamp's yellow-orange glow. Then, Tess motioned toward the right, starting to suggest they head that way, when she suddenly shifted her attention.

"Look!" she exclaimed in a loud whisper, pointing in the other direction as a darkly clad figure jogged across the gap and disappeared into a maze of houses on the next street over.