The Inner Ring — A Tale from the Tri-City

The Tri-City Necklace — Eye of Horus & Ankh Layered Pendant is a multilayer Egyptian pendant necklace in two styles — The Eye or The Ankh — zinc alloy, layered chain, from the inner ring market of the Tri-City at the southwestern edge of the Ashen Plains.

Nobody goes to the Tri-City for the atmosphere. You go because you need something that cannot be obtained anywhere else, and the Tri-City is the only place in the known world where it is available — the crossing market at the precise point where three territories meet and none of them fully claim it. The Ashen Plains to the north. The western boundary to the left. The regular world curving away to the east. The city sits in all three at once and answers to none of them. This is not an accident. This is the point.

Luna had been to the Tri-City twice before. Both times for specific things, both times in and out through the eastern gate — the gate that opens into the regular world, the one that technically exists outside the Plains and the boundary both, which is the gate you use when you want to be able to say, if anyone asks, that you did not technically enter the Ashen Plains. Nobody asks. But the option is there.

The inner ring market runs along the city's interior wall — a circular corridor of vendor cloths and low tables and the permanent resident class who have been here long enough to stop belonging to either side of anything. They do not explain themselves. They have not needed to for longer than anyone has been asking. The vendor with the necklaces was in the inner ring's eastern quarter, which is the quarter closest to the gate Luna uses and therefore the quarter she knows best, which is not well at all, which is the correct amount to know any quarter of the Tri-City.

The Eye was on one cloth. The Ankh on another. Both layered — the chains falling in the particular order of something that has been arranged by hands that understood what they were arranging. The Eye of Horus: the symbol of protection so old it predates the civilization that named it, the eye that sees what is coming before it arrives, worn as an amulet by people who understood that seeing clearly is the first and most necessary form of defense. The Ankh: the cross of life, the loop at the top that is not a loop but a threshold, the oldest symbol of what continues when everything else stops. The Tri-City has both of these symbols carved into its architecture. It has had them since before the arc took its current shape. The city understands protection and continuance. It has been practicing both for longer than anyone can date.

Luna picked up the Eye. Held it. Set it down. Picked up the Ankh. The vendor watched with the precise, transactional attention of the Tri-City itself — not hostile, not welcoming, simply present in the way of something that has been conducting business at this latitude for centuries and has no particular feelings about any individual transaction. Luna bought both. The vendor completed the exchange without comment. The Tri-City does not comment. It simply moves to the next deal.

Cinder was at the eastern gate. He had not gone in. He fell into step beside her without a word. Ash appeared from the gate's shadow and pressed her flank against Luna's leg for three steps before peeling off toward an inscription on the outer wall — something carved in a language that no longer exists anywhere else on the map, which Ash regarded with the focused attention of a wolf conducting a thorough investigation and then knocked nothing over, which meant she either found what she was looking for or decided it wasn't worth the effort. With Ash it was genuinely impossible to tell.

Midnight rumbled once when they came through the portal. The rumble of recognition. He tilted his great head at the necklaces and said nothing further. Some things he has been keeping since before the Tri-City had its current shape, and he is not going to start explaining them now.

The inner ring market is still open. The permanent residents are still not explaining themselves. The Eye still sees what is coming. The Ankh still marks the threshold between what ends and what continues. The Tri-City has known both of these things since before anyone named either of them. What changes hands there matters. These already have.

→ The Crossing Market — Tri-City Eye of Horus & Ankh Layered Pendant Necklace

More from the Ashen Plains: The Ashen Plains — World File & Canon Index | What the Forest Grows — Corrupt Forest Thorn & Web Bracelet | The Sacred Flight of the Death Moth | The Echoes of the Ashen Plains

What is the Tri-City?
The unnamed crossing market at the tripoint — where the Ashen Plains, the western boundary, and the regular world converge simultaneously. Circular. Egyptian in architecture. Built to last, and lasting longer than anyone can date. Neither hostile nor welcoming. Transactional and precise.

What are the two styles?
The Eye — Eye of Horus, the symbol of protection and clear sight, older than the civilization that named it. The Ankh — the cross of life, the threshold between what ends and what continues. Both multilayer chain, zinc alloy. Select at checkout.

Who is Luna?
Dark fairy living in human form. Black hair, piercing green eyes. Heavy boots. The Attic's authority on everything gothic, dark, and alternative — and the one who navigates the Tri-City's inner ring. She does not explain herself. She does not need to.

What will you find?: The Crossing Market — Tri-City Eye of Horus & Ankh Layered Pendant Necklace