Felix Caelus

"Not everyone's so readily polite to Orcs," Felix says, though only once he's sure the two women are out of immediate earshot. Terentius has moved up to join in the chatter, leaving the two lovebirds to each other for a few minutes. "I know that won't matter to you, and it's not that they're bad people on the whole, just... Marcella will appreciate it. Ushug too, I think. She won't show it, but that's just her way."

At least in the capital most people are too sophisticated to sneer openly - and it helps that there are more and wealthier Orcs here than in Skyrim. The family can enjoy their stroll into the city unmolested. The two smiths cast critical eyes at the gate guards' polished armor, but Felix just tips his head back to look at the massive arch of the gate itself and shiver as they pass under it.

"I wasn't even raised here, and yet it feels like home," he admits to Jim. It's the heart of the Empire - and its pulse is in the crowded flow of people through the orderly streets. They're entering the Arena district, and said arena is visible immediately, looming ahead of them at the end of the main thoroughfare. It's no Colosseum, but then the games here were never important enough to become a focus of Imperial public relations. The outlines are similar though: a tall circular construction of stone on the lower storeys and wood on the upper, dwarfing the little buildings of the surrounding district.

There's a lot more merchandising going on along this street, and posters advertising the New Year's games starting at midnight, though Felix ignores all of that. He points out the lanterns hung along the rooftops, and the ponds covered with lotus plants. ("Just don't eat any of them, they're toxic.") Getting close to the arena reveals that it's surrounded by sweeping lawns on which various fighters are talking themselves up to admiring crowds. The family group's just going to skirt around the arena to the city's inner wall and the gate thereon.

Although by the sound of it Ushug and Marcella are really struggling not to taunt any of the would-be gladiators. Felix is more concerned about any of them hitting on Jim, and there's a possessive arm around the captain the whole way. He knows Jim doesn't care for the arena, but he can explain whatever the captain wants to know, and point out that this is where about half the kite flying takes place later.