As the rising sun shone upon the land, the city that had slept beneath the night curtain gradually awakened. Sunlight, pale gold tinged with bright red, slanted across the undulating outline of the Dark Mountains' flank, casting vast, splendid patterns of light and shadow between the plains and hills. The boundary between light and shadow slowly advanced to the tallest tower of the Imperial Academy, just as a deep, solemn bell rang out.
Magic Mechanisms drove the gears and levers within the tower. Grinding bearings pulled chains forged from refined steel, counterweights swung within the clock tower, and the tolling bells drifted outward in wave after wave. The Imperial Academy awoke first, followed gradually by the streets and squares around it, then the residences and shops...
Several clock towers throughout the city began to ring, and soon afterward, a different sound appeared through the streets and alleys: a clearer, more urgent ringing.
Teenagers and young adults in felt hats and short coats emerged from post offices and newspaper distribution points across the city, riding the two-wheeled vehicles that had recently become increasingly popular in Cecil through every street. Their crisp bicycle bells were the second "alarm clock" to awaken the city.
They were the city's newsboys and mail carriers. In most of Cecil's modernized cities, the citizens' day essentially began with the crisp bells of those newsboys and mail carriers.
Sir Golosh had changed into casual clothes and walked through the streets of this foreign city alongside the equally casually dressed Asalina. Beneath the morning sunlight, they watched an entire city awaken from sleep, surrounded by buildings and residents utterly unlike those of Dragon's Landing Fortress.
"There's a book in the room where I'm staying that describes this city like this—Cecil City wakes in the morning to the 'sounds' of