Gust and Lucifer’s next steps sounded different. The stone road, smoothed by runificery was gone. The walkway in front of them was smooth and paved. Every spot was even and easy to walk on. 

“I don’t think I’ve been here yet.” Lucifer said, stopping.

“Not so surprising.” Gust shrugged. “They make it pretty hard to find the right road to get here.”

Lucifer broke away from Gust. “I would’ve been lost without you.” He smiled. “Thanks.”

As they continued, the scenery changed. First, the stone buildings that dot the landscape changed to multi-level homes with a stone base and wood top. Eventually, they changed completely to wooden cabins and were larger and larger. There were more light posts for the night, their runes slowly gathering sunlight to release in the night. Grass, trees, and flowers lined fenced yards. 

Compared to even the sparsely populated market district, more birds could be heard than people. Occasionally a child’s play could be heard in the distance. 

“Why is it so different here?” Lucifer asked.

Gust sighed. “You know how Berkan’s split into districts?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you and Ferek live at the edge of the market district. I live closer to the edge of the agriculture district. That orphanage is in the poorest district. Astrid lives in the richest district in Berkan.”

“But everything everywhere else is made of stone.”

“That’s cause runes can work on stone themselves, but runes don’t work on wood. Runificery can do a lot of details, but no runificer is going to spend their time making artistic visuals when they can just make a livable home. People here are rich enough to hire workers and designers and contractors to make artsy mansions.” Gust scoffed. “It’s honestly pretty annoying.”

“So then...Astrid is rich?”

“Her family is rich. But she’s fine.”

Lucifer hummed, thinking. “That’s so weird. Why don’t people here make it so places like Horizons don’t struggle so much.”

Gust sighed again. “I don’t think we’re going to go over the entirety of Berkan economics tonight. I’m barely getting started with it in classes right now. Long story short, someone controls how runes move about, and they control businesses or have family on the council or something. We’re not really there yet.”

“Oh, ok. Are we close yet?”

“Just a few more blocks… I mean streets.”

It was really only one block because the entirety of a block of land was the largest mansion they’d seen so far. It used a mix of stone columns, carved out with a swirling line design. It had a gate, fence and a massive door seemingly twice Ferek’s height. “This is Astrid’s place.” Gust said, unimpressed.

“I’ve only seen one place bigger than this and it was the queen’s castle!” Lucifer said, excitedly.

Gust raised his eyebrows. “You’re going to have to tell me about this castle. I didn’t even know there were castles across the mountain.”

“Maybe when you tell me more about rune economics.” 

“Maybe...fine…” Gust knocked on the door.