HOXOH

Our next stop was the city of HOXOH. Of all cities I visited, this was the fairest. From afar it can be seen, its glistening spires and mirroring steel and glass shining like a beacon above the lands. It sits on a cliff above the ocean, and is built almost entirely in white chalk, but statues of green malachite and dark obsidian also adorns it.

HOXOH is the city of images, where the mysteries numerology and illusionism are the foundation for the scholarly pursuit of its highly prestigious academies. Even the name of the city is said to have mystic force, as it is the same regardless of in what direction it is read or mirrored. As such, some say that those who reach enlightenment by studying this name can see through any illusion and understand the deepest truth of Creation itself.

The inhabitants are a happy lot, dressed in lightly coloured and breezy clothes, as the climate is very comfortable. Heat from the Fokale Plains keep it so.

The very first day, we got lost in the city's steep and labyrinthine streets, continuously led by false directions. Soon enough, we realized that lying is an artform here. Anyone wishing to progress at the academy has to lean that art to understand the delusions of humanity. Even pickpocketing is accepted.

On the Eagle's Eyre, the market square that overlooks the Eastern Ocean and rising sun from up high, I could here the song "Ye Olde Ocean" every day. This symphony is continuous, never ending. Musicians keep it so by working in shifts. The text itself is perfectly symmetric, where each stanza builds on the structure of the former, thus creating a symphony that has no beginning and no end.