Novus passed through the gate without issue and walked towards the large stone slab that served as the platform that would lift him to the Royal Castle.

The Young Arcanist’s pace got slower and slower as he got closer to it, as he could listen to something that gradually diminished his determination. 

Running water.

Deep below the cliffside, the platform was set upon he could listen to the Septenpilus Rive, one of the tributaries to the Hyacin River, rushing down the mountain through the narrow canyon it traversed before joining with the main waterway of the Rigel.

-You can do it Novus, it’s just water, you’re going to be okay.- Novus talked softly to himself, gathering his resolve to walk the last dozen of Eiru remaining to reach the stone slab. 

-You can do it, don’t be a featherless Acrilla, don’t be a cow- Novus’ attempt at self-assurance was interrupted when a powerful gust of wind came down the mountain, shaking the whole archaic cableway, from bottom to top.

The thick chains connecting both sides swinging in the wind, being followed from side to side by Novus’ almost frantic eyes.

“I could just leave the country and hide somewhere else.” Novus thought to himself. He had too much in his mind before arriving to realize that this would be an issue; he was too busy and too distracted to think about it. 

The issue here was that Novus, as confrontational as he could be, had one great phobia. He was terrified of large bodies of water.

He wasn’t exactly sure why; the day he nearly drowned in a lake took place too early in his youth to be anything but a subliminal whisper in his mind.

“I can’t just turn around, it's just water, and many people take the Chain every day.” He thought to himself, trying to use logic and reason to steel his resolve.

“You can do it, just get on the dumb thing and don’t look down” He kept talking to himself looking down to the floor, fists, and jaw clenched equally tight.

His deep meditation was interrupted by a loud whistle, signaling the departure of the Chain. The Young Arcanist shook his head and took a deep breath.

“Just do it.” And with that short challenge to himself, he forced his body to take the last few steps onto the Chain platform. He let out a large sigh and walked on wobbly legs towards one of the seats arranged for passengers.

Novus sat down, still uneasy about the whole situation, and decided to do what he did back in the Academy to block out snotty noblemen brats attempting to provoke him to a fight.

He remembered what he read about the Chain, trying to calm himself with the certainty of reason instead of losing his cool to his irrational fears.

The Chain’s mechanism looked simple upon the first inspection, but in reality, it was a complex set of chains and pulleys that carried a large platform up an incline reaching the top of the cliffside in which the Royal Castle rested.

The system was a very complicated pulley that moved one platform up while lowering the other at the same time. 

It was constructed during the Imperial times when Rigel was merely a colonial outpost for the now fallen Empire. After a dark age following the fall, some of the knowledge about how to operate and maintain it was lost, so for a long period of time the whole system worked through manpower, or as many Viani would say by using “animals”. 

The Saevus, one of the last creations of the Imperial times, were “conscripted” into doing most of the physical jobs in the nascent nation of Via. In fact, half of the older buildings in Rigel were built by them, under the yoke of Highborn and Lowborn alike.

Of course, this information wasn’t particularly useful to know now, but to Novus, it was at least a way to distract himself as the Chain was about to start moving.

A second louder whistle served as the warning for a set of metal bars closing around the edges of the stone slab serving as the Chain transport platform.

A sudden tug from the chain, currently powered by a recently installed Cibus engine signaled the start of the ascent.

Novus was grabbing to the sides of the stone seat he took for dear life, the gentle sway of the platform moving him from side to side. All of the seats and most of the stone platform were done in a single piece as if it was carved from a large stone.

It was possible to do, but in reality, Novus knew exactly how it was done, as somebody used Artisanal Magic, the colloquial name for [Aedifiix], one of the Arcane Schools.