The portal was unusually large, created to let through wagons and horses as well as humans. The cost in magick energy and thus in crowns must have been immense, especially considering the short time in which it was set up. Once every while the portal blinked and let through the occasional traveler or courier.
The spectacular artifact opened into what could only be somewhat of anticlimax. Although the city of Pax had grown from little more than one dusty road with a couple of wooden sheds, and had filled out some, it was still a slightly jumbled city to the first-time observer. Rackety buildings and larger, neatly made, wooden shops were equally interspersed along either side of the street. Some buildings seemed an odd conglomeration of wood and stone, as if the builder couldn't decide which they prefered, and an otherwise normal building might have odd stretches of stone criss-crossing it at random, jutting out with all-stone extensions, or upwards with small turret-like bits.
The Provost Office, clearly the Administrative Headquarters of the city, stood to one side of the Portal, where a soldier in a Royal Blue uniform stood.
Main street stretched a fair little ways to either side of the portal, and it was clear further streets stretched into other little byways at regular (and sometimes random) intervals.
Beyond the main street the spectacular view of snowpeaked mountains called immediate attention, for they rose even beyond the aged stone wall that rose solemnly about the city.
Michel walked to the portal and stood still in front of it for a few flickers as he looked out over Pax. He felt it, things were changing. It had begun. He would never look at this place in the same way again. The commander inhaled deeply before he walked over to the guard and waited for the man to salute him. "Good day, private. I'm here for the summer festival." Michel smiled. "If I'm not mistaken, my arrival has been expected, yes?"
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