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Wind flowed north to south across a prairie of vibrant green grass that spanned horizon to horizon. Far to the south, well out of sight, the blue ocean lapped against tall cliffs. Wind rushed over that dark edge, to fall down to the waves far below. A couple of blips to the east, the South Eastern Tribulation Mountains formed the coast of Nelboor.

To the west, laid the target.

This was a good spot to start the walk into Eralis, the first city of the Songli Highlands. They didn’t want to just blip into the middle of town, after all, and the border was a lot more nebulous than Erick, and everyone else, had originally thought.

Magenta light flashed.

Erick, Jane, Teressa, and Poi, stood atop tall grasses. There were only two Ophiel visible, and both of them were bright magenta. Both of them were on Erick’s shoulders, though neither looked like they usually did. One resembled a hunched-down bird, with a single pair of wings, and only two eyes; there weren’t more eyes hiding under the wings, either. Ophiel was getting better about keeping himself hidden by being out in the open, but he was very energetic, bouncing up and down as he was wont. This was probably to counter the other Ophiel, on Erick’s other shoulder. That second Ophiel resembled an unmoving decoration of magenta feathers and magenta eyes. Perfectly still; perfectly disguised as yet another part of Erick’s magenta [Conjured Armor].

The hopping Ophiel got a bit too excited, though, being in a new place. He twittered in happy violins. He fluffed out his wings. A few extra eyes appeared then disappeared from his forehead.

Erick playfully tapped him on the forehead, saying, “Careful now. I saw your extra eyes.”

Ophiel whistled in guitars and flutes, then solidified himself back to two eyes, two wings, and a bird-like body. He chirped in fiddles, which was like a guitar and violin at the same time; an uneasy happiness. He was still getting the hang of these new forms, but it would take time.

Erick said, “It’s okay Odin. You’re doing great.”

Both ‘Odins’ chirped in conspiratorial harps. And then shoulder Ophiel squirmed, fluffing out in several extra eyes to make up for the lack of eyes elsewhere. Both of them chirped again, asking for approval.

Erick said, “Shoulder-Odin can have extra eyes and a few extra wings, sure. Mobile-Odin only gets two, though. Shoulder-Odin has to pretend to be jewelry.”

More harps—

Jane was already walking west, plowing through the tall grasses, flattening them with her conjured boots. She called back, “Daylight’s burning!”

Teressa and Poi followed.

Erick caught up, saying, “We got time, Julia.”

Julia smiled as she walked backwards, still easily flattening the grasses in her path, saying, “Eralis is hours away, Elias.” She looked to Teressa. “He could have gotten us closer, for sure. Right, Tiffany?” She asked, Poi, “Probably a lot closer, eh, Paul?”

Tiffany said, “I don’t want to appear in the middle of some place where I’m not supposed to be, and neither do you, Julia. You’d at least have the chance to pass off as a normal resident. I cannot.”

“Tiffany is right.” Paul said, “We walk in from the outside, and hope we don’t hit a roaming clan or soldiers. Hopefully, they won’t instantly attack, but we’re kinda naked out here.”

A lot of things had been left behind. Paul’s guard armor was left behind, since that was very clearly ‘guard armor’. Tiffany’s, too. But both of them had their backup, [Conjure Armor], which would work just fine. All of them wore [Conjured Armor], in fact. Tiffany’s was slate-grey and blocky and covered her entire body, with a helmet that fully covered her head almost like a dome. She could see through it, of course, but when the time to fight came, she would use her impeccable mana sense, more than any visual sense. Poi, for his part, was very blue, wearing a meticulously-conjured fullplate that was thicker than most any Erick had ever seen on a person. It was still weightless, but it looked uncomfortable. Poi had insisted that it wasn’t, but Erick—

Erick— Elias, caught himself.

Paul had insisted that his armor wasn’t uncomfortable, but Elias— Yes, his name was ‘Elias’ right now—

Paul said, “We’re going to mess this up so quickly.”

“Ohh!” Julia walked with eyes forward, calling out, “It’s gonna be fine, Paul! Believe in Clan Phoenix!”

“Yes, Paul.” Elias repeated, “Believe in Clan Phoenix.”

Paul groaned.

Elias asked, “Are we sure there’s no Phoenixes?”

Julia laughed, saying, “They’re here now!”

With a sigh, Paul said, “There are all sorts of elemental birds. Fire birds. Ash birds, too. Water birds. No birds that self-resurrect, though… Maybe some undead birds do that?”

Tiffany said, “There have to be undead birds somewhere. My money is on Glaquin, inside those lich kingdoms.”

“Phoenixs might not exist, but Thunder Birds exist. They’re called Tribulation Birds, though, and as you might have guessed, they’re all over the Tribulation Mountains.” Julia thumbed backward, to the east, saying, “They mate and nest in the South East Tribulation Mountains but they make their actual territories all over the entire scattered Tribulation Mountains of Nelboor.” She added, “I read that the royal family of the Songli Highlands has the Thunder Bird as their Clan symbol.”

“How do you even make monsters?” Elias asked, “How would you make a Phoenix?”

“Blood Magic, Elemental skill or Mana Altering —not sure— and [Husbandry] secrets,” Tiffany said. “[Husbandry] is a very deep spell.”

Julia said, “The resurrection part would be difficult. If anyone could do it, the Life Binder could.”

Paul said, “If such a bird existed, it would be hunted down with extreme force. We should not talk about that sort of monster, anyway. If any conversations go that way, just call it a Thunder Bird Variant that turns to ash when it’s weakened and comes back as fire to enact vengeance, or something.” He stressed, “[Resurrection] does not exist. All the spell does is make cannibal monsters.”

“But the spell does exist.” Julia said, “Politically, it doesn’t. But it does.”

Poi gave a disapproving sigh.

Erick said—

Dammit.

Elias said, “—

Paul said, “You’re literally never going to be able to get your mind to think of us as our names, Elias.”

Tiffany laughed. “I’m having a lot of trouble, too.”

“We just need time.” Julia said, “We can do this.”

Erick asked, “But no last names?”

“We’re not nobles.” Teressa said—

Dammit. Her name was ‘Tiffany’. Tiffany.

“—We’ll be surname-phoenix, if anything.”

Elias spoke aloud part of their story that they had come up with, as though he was recollecting, “Those nice summer months watching the wheat and rice turn gold in the shadow of the North Tribulation Mountains. While our uncles and aunts protected us from the larger threats, we went out and killed the small things to keep our land safe.”

“It was a nice time while it lasted.” Tiffany smiled, saying, “But alas, young scion Elias Phoenix’s dalliance of 20 years ago came knocking; named Julia. Thus he was disgraced, and forced to abandon his home. Luckily, his two retainers decided to go with him.”

Elias frowned. “I’m not exactly comfortable with… parts of that.”

Julia happily continued the story, saying, “But he can regain his position through alliances and power and bringing prestige back to Clan Phoenix. Meanwhile, his daughter can also prove herself in the Clan’s eyes, by being a positive influence on her father’s quest to regain his Clan position.”

“How about we just want ties to better clans? None of that other stuff.” Elias suggested.

Paul laughed, then continued the story, “Meanwhile, Paul is on assignment to ascertain the validity of his master’s—”

“Do they really use the term ‘master’ here?” Elias asked.

Paul smirked, and continued, “Yes, they do. Anyway. I’m here to ensure that things go well. I want to get back home but I can’t without Scion Elias.” He added, “The other term they use is ‘Scion’, but that denotes a much higher class of Clan. Do you want to try that one?”

“Ah. Probably not,” Elias said.

Paul said, “The second we meet other people, they’ll likely choose what you’re called, anyway. Don’t get hung up if they call you ‘master’.”

Tiffany continued the story, “Meanwhile, Retainer Tiffany is just here to kick ass and have fun—”

Julia laughed.

Tiffany continued, “But more practically, because of some political game her parents are playing that is way over her head, and also to get rid of her. She must return in triumph alongside Master Elias, or remain away in disgrace or die in a gutter; it matters not to Clan Phoenix.”

“You’re much more valuable than that, Tiffany,” Elias stressed.

Tiffany smiled. “And that is why Tiffany is here with Master Elias. Where else would I be?”

“Meanwhile…” Julia took the lead, saying, “Julia was raised by Demis over in Kal’Duresh, in Glaquin, but when she turned 16 and matriculated, her adoptive parents told her the truth of her parentage. She went to Nelboor and found her father in their village in the North Tribulation Mountains, in the Tempest Forest, though we don’t talk about where the Clan actually is. There were problems then, and there still are, but she just wants the stability and power of being in a Clan.” Julia said, “My goal is to put Clan Phoenix on the map and to usurp my father’s place, but I need a lot of resources and contacts.”

“See? Now that’s just hurtful, too.” Elias said, “I never would have abandoned you.”

Julia smiled, nodded, and said, “And I am finding out that you didn’t. I was actually taken from you. We already had our fights about all of that when I came to Clan Phoenix last year. Which is why I am happy to finally be around you. Working together to gain a place in a Clan!”

Tiffany said, “Hear, hear! So let’s get to town and start drinking! Ale fixes everything.”

“This is going to fail, so fast.” Paul said, “So very, very fast.”

Elias ignored Paul and said, “I already scanned a lot of that part of the Tempest Forest. We’re going to tell people that we’re from around there, but not exactly where. We don’t want to fail this because someone got a bright idea to actually look for our Clan.”

Paul glowered, like a spoilsport. “That’s only one of the ways this is going to fail.”

Elias waved him off. “No one talk about anything too exact, anyway. Openly lie.” He added, “Except, we are Clan Phoenix. That’s not a lie. Just a lie… in the eyes of the legality of Nelboor.”

“Ha!” Tiffany scoffed, “The ‘legality of Nelboor’. People invent towns all over this shitting place, claiming any and all trashy things they want to claim. In that same tradition, we are Clan Phoenix, by the very act of claiming to be Clan Phoenix. That’s literally all it takes. Lying about the location is normal, though.” She shrugged. “Far as I heard.”

“It’ll show up as pink on a truthstone,” Paul said. “Half-truth.”

Julia said, “One truth is that we have very little money on us. Dad’s still technically rich, but they won’t let him access it, which is true, in a sense. They kicked us out with whatever we could pack, but no valuables. Told us not to come back unless it’s at the head of a parade of money or power.” She added, “We chose to try for the power route.”

“They didn’t leave us completely bereft.” Elias said, “We have our rings, which are proof of our Clan’s backing.”

Though the rings were solid bands of diamond and encased in platinum rain ‘silver’, they now sported covers made of Deep Sky Silver, tooled to look like wings and eyes and with little flame motifs.

Everything else had been buried back at the beach, inside a sealed stone sphere fifty meters down; adventurer’s badges, guard armor, clothes, everything except the essentials, which included Erick’s eye dyes and a few other things which could fit on their persons. Any of them could find the location with a simple [Teleport]; that spell would place them directly above the proper spot.

Tiffany said, “So the first order of business is to make some money! Can’t adventure for it, though— By the way. I just decided I came from adventurers. That’s how I know how the star-ranking system works, if we happen to visit a place that uses that. We shouldn’t, though.”

“Ah. Good idea.” Julia said, “I come from adventurers, too. Or rather, raised by. Didn’t you know I’m actually the next in line to be Young Master of your Clan, since my father is the Clan Scion? I found out several years ago, hence this journey. Too bad the Elders don’t like me.” She added, “I left Glaquin well before all that Particle Magic business.”

Tiffany said, “You’ve got a long way to go if you ever want to be respected by those old Phoenix Elder bastards.”

Julia said, “Hopefully the Songli Highlands have opportunity. I heard they oversee this whole area, keeping the peace and making prosperity.”

Paul said, “We should cut the chatter, now. We’re still hours out from sight of civilization, and this is the territory where we’ll be attacked, for sure. Elias sticks out like a flamboyant fern.”

Tiffany laughed. “Pink is a good look!”

“I like it.” Elias defended his [Conjured Armor], which was a breastplate and gambeson ensemble, with shoulders for Odin to rest upon and an open-faced helmet. “It lets Odin easily disguise himself.”

Julia said, “We were never going the Stealth-route, anyway. But yeah. Let’s talk about what we know of this place; Eralis.”

Erick paused, as he just realized something.

He said, “Maybe I should have picked a different name. Elias and Eralis… Too confusing.”

“Not too late.” Paul said, “But the window is rapidly closing and you’re already messing up names. You could just live with it.”

“No, no. I’ll change.” Erick asked, “How about Ezekiel?”

“Now there’s a proper demi name.” Tiffany said, “I never heard it before, but that hardly matters.”

Paul said, “Okay. That’s a good one. Better than Elias, actually. A lot better.”

“Ezekiel it is,” Ezekiel said.

Julia shrugged. “Whichever. So! About Eralis?”

Ezekiel said, “Let me just erase all of the [Witness]able land we just walked through…” With a few quick casts, he layered the previous lands they had walked through with [Sealed Privacy Ward]s, and then he popped those spaces. Those spaces were now retroactively non-visible to all mana senses, and [Witness]. “Okay then.” He started, “The big thing they have are the Void Walls. Each of the three cities that count themselves part of the Songli Highlands have these same magical constructs. They’re this massive anti-magic effect that restricts [Teleport] and a dozen other spells, and they’re the reason that the Songli are powerhouses. Very hard to attack them. It’s a highly populated land, too, with…”

They had gone over a lot of this stuff already, but more preparation rarely hurt anyone. Julia interjected her own research, which was monster-based, which would give them some good leads to find some monsters to kill for parts and rads and thus money. Tiffany knew rumors and a few stories, though she didn’t put much stock in any of them now that they were on the ground and Ezekiel had seen what he had seen through Odin. Paul spoke of tactics that they were likely to face off against, whenever they ran into the inevitable privateers roaming the prairie. At that, the whole conversation turned to tactics and powers and all of that.

Ezekiel listened, but he also repeated his name to himself a few times.

Ezekiel. Ezekiel. Ezekiel—

Most of Odin flew high in the sky, as invisible and as intangible as light could be. Ezekiel did not have any ‘invisible’ Odins directly around him, for magical Sights were a concern, but they still made good high-flying scouts. He wasn’t sure when, exactly, he’d need to reign them in and cut Odin down to two or three, but they were not at that necessity right yet.

And because there were so many Odin still in the sky, looking out for problems, Odin pinged him.

Ezekiel checked on the ping.

Ezekiel interrupted the information rehash, saying, “Contact. Ten kilometers ahead to the left.”

Julia, Tiffany, and Paul, all smoothly transitioned to focus.

“Scratch that.” Ezekiel said, “At our 10 and our 5. The party ahead had seven people, according to Odin’s memory. Now Odin sees three ahead of us, and four— Three behind us. One went invisible, or something. One kilometer out, both parties.”

Tiffany conjured massive grey gauntlets over her armored hands, doubling their size, as she happily said, “The welcoming committee for Clan Phoenix!”

Ezekiel quickly flickered his desire for certain information through Odin and Odin responded. Ezekiel said, “Reviewing some memories, our greeters were not at their ten-kilometer position ten minutes ago. They showed up in the last four minutes.”

Julia asked, “Probability of attack?”

Paul said, “Extremely high. They likely prepared for anyone who came through here, but we were the ones to fall into the trap.”

Ezekiel reviewed his spells, rapidly deciding which ones were good to use, and which ones would give away his true—

Tiffany perked up. “Oh! Do you see the trick, Ezekiel? Blades of prairie grass that are not all grass. We walked through a field of them.”

Ezekiel, suddenly mad at himself, spat out, “But I was look—!”

An Odin turned on [Mana Sight], since Ezekiel’s mana sense was not good enough to see what—

Oh yeah. Ezekiel paused, ever so briefly. Those grasses were not entirely real. They were barely magical, too. Ezekiel guessed that they were actually normal grasses, but with thin lines of magic on them; [Alarm Ward], or something similar. A neat trick. He had been watching for [Alarm Ward]s, but not such fine ones. Mostly, though, he had been looking out for large magics, larger than a person’s head. [Force Trap] and the like. The small shit had escaped him.

He scowled at the grass. “How did I not see—”

“I didn’t notice them either,” Tiffany beamed, as she smashed her gauntlets together, and roared, “Come on out, little shits! Take your beating!”

Paul said, “At least they didn’t have a chance to set up the field against us. I was worried more about that, then any— Guy to the left, invisible.”

Ezekiel was just about to call that out, but instead, he handed out magenta-silver [Animadversion]s to everyone, using four Script Seconds for 2800 mana, total. Paul took his shield, first; it slipped through the air like passing off an intangible cloud, to slip around Paul’s left arm. Julia got the second one. Tiffany, the third. At that same time, each Odin cast their own twisted pink-silver shields that then hung over Ezekiel’s shoulders like pink pauldrons, before each Odin took to the air, giving up their disguises.

A red, flaming spell came from the invisible guy, a hundred meters away. It was not a simple [Fireball]. It was like four [Fireball]s at once. Not quite a [Grand Fireball], but it was clearly meant to injure, and kill.

Ah. Yes. This was a fight. No parlay. No attempts at anything non-lethal. Ezekiel guessed the [Large Fireball] would do at least a thousand points of damage; and that much again over the course of a few seconds. Most people only had 600 Health or 600 Mana.

Odin moved to intercept the [Large Fireball], to bash it away with his thorny silver shield. The [Fireball] detonated on everyone, anyway, since it had likely reached its maximum distance just as Odin touched it; or maybe it was triggered to explode as soon as it touched anything at all.

Fire and heat billowed across the land. Whatever parts of the spell touched Ezekiel and his people, just kept on billowing a bit, until that fire flopped onto the ground. [Animadversion]’s reflection extended to the whole person, after all.

The land burned. Ezekiel’s magenta [Personal Ward] took damage, flickering bright in the burning air. Everyone’s [Personal Ward]s took damage; even Tiffany’s, and her grey spell was barely anything at all.

And though the ground burned…

This was completely livable. Oh, sure! It was not comfortable. The fire hurt. But it didn’t hurt bad. This was like being in really hot sunlight. Ezekiel wondered for a brief moment if he could just walk through flames, now. He probably could!

And then came [Large Fireball]s 2 through 7, from every one of the attackers, and then came the attackers themselves. Pink reflections barely bounced the flaming spells before they exploded. The attackers barely cared that their spells bounced. Some of them didn’t even dodge the bounce; they didn’t seem to care that they were now on fire. One guy who was now flaming with blue fire, laughed. He was almost upon Julia.

Time slowed, and yet, it did not, for Ezekiel had turned on [Hunter’s Instincts]. Suddenly, the battle seemed less like he was frantically responding to a horror, and more like he was casually planning how to extricate all of his people from this current problem.

The forward three attackers were incani. The backward three were human. The invisible person was a harpy. None of that mattered, it seemed. Erick was briefly glad that incani and humans seemed to be fighting alongside each other. Too bad this small collection of enlightened souls were trying to kill them.

Fire burned and boomed all around, and then the greeting party offered up a welcoming of steel.

Two humans from behind suddenly accelerated, and slashed at Paul. One with a sword, glowing oozy green, held by a woman; the other with a saber, glowing brighter green, held by a man. Paul somehow worked [Animadversion] to catch both attacks, the spell flickering with bright pink thorns as it smack smacked from one attack to the next, rapidly blocking both [Strike]s with perfect [Interception]. [Strike]s reflected.

Bright green ooze reflected onto the sword woman’s arm, rushing up the limb, over the green [Conjured Armor] to soak into the joints in her plate armor. The stench of melting flesh filled the air as green gasses briefly jettisoned from every crack in her armor, all the way up into her helmet and chestplate.

When the man’s green saber impacted pink thorns, green flashed backward, becoming disco-rays of decaying magic that splashed against the man, burning holes right into his green conjured armor.

Both of the cloying green spells suddenly stopped as both of those people aborted the rest of their attacks, backing up just as fast as they had come forward. The man healed himself and then the woman, as both of them rushed away, but not out of sight.

Ezekiel realized that maybe they did not strike to kill, but to severely injure?

No. That was giving them too much credit.

Their Decay Magic seemed to be frontload-type Decay, and they had struck with the entirety of their own killing power. [Animadversion] had thrown all of that power right back at them. They might have already burned through all of their Health. They certainly would have died if they hadn’t canceled their own damage over time effects.

Other than that, Paul was doing just fine.

Three seconds had passed since the battle was joined.

Ezekiel barely paid attention to Julia or Tiffany, except to see that, yes, they were clearly in control of their own fight against three incani. Julia flickered out with a short sword, deflected a non-elemental [Strike] with her own [Animadversion], and easily drove back her attacker, while Tiffany played with her single attacker, goading him into attacking her own shield of pink spikes.

The goad worked. The man barreled forward, not allowing Tiffany to dictate the flow of battle. They fought.

Julia fought two-on-one.

Both of the women were doing fine.

Ezekiel had his own problems.

Was Paul okay?

He briefly wondered if it was right to worry about the man, for Paul was more about soft-power than direct firepower, but he was also a highly competent fighter who had taken care of his own dual attackers in a single moment, while everyone else was still combating everyone else. After this was over, Ezekiel would not have been surprised to find out that Paul had subtly manipulated the two attackers into harming themselves with maximum power. That’s what the Mind Mage did in combat, after all.

Ezekiel’s own designated dance partners had not engaged him yet, for one simple reason.

In rapid progression, the battle shifted, as the attackers realized those shields were damn fucking powerful. Ezekiel enjoyed that feeling, briefly, then he started dismantling the attackers with just as much precision as the rest of his obviously more competent team.

Paul already knocked two people out of the fight, after all!

Those two people were currently staring at them from fifty meters away, but they weren’t currently fighting—

The invisible harpy blipped, getting right next to Ezekiel. The third human, coming from behind, was already next to Ezekiel with a spear pointed at his heart. The two decaying humans suddenly blipped right next to Ezekiel, their swords not glowing this time, but aimed at vital parts nonetheless.

Ah. Four on one. They wanted to kill him fast. Everything else had been a probing strike.

Bird Odin blasted the two on the left with [Merciful Suffocation], spitting ten curls of magenta-gold air that wrapped around the attackers and flowed into their mouths, dealing damage with every breath.

Shoulder Odin blasted the other two on the other side with the same spell. It struck both, but bounced off of the invisible person; a shockwave reflected. [Merciful Suffocation] then bounced off of Ezekiel and Odin’s own reflective spells, too, then struck the invisible person, soaking into their body. Ezekiel did not know what was happening there. The spell had bounced, but what were the criteria for a bounce? Did a stronger reflection denote how a spell was bounced? Or did the invisible person only have a single bounce to their own reflection? Or what?

This had literally never come up before. He had not studied this interaction before.

Ah. Well. They say that you never know how good your preparations are until you have to use them.

Ezekiel dumped a hundred mana into [Slowing Bolt]’s Variable cost, which was more like 2000 mana with all of his modifiers taken into account, causing a zippy pink cloud to pulse from his chest, as Ezekiel had not bothered to point at the guy with the spear. Pink mist washed over the spear-holder. The attacker stopped, completely, but his momentum carried him forward to plant into the ground. Ezekiel stepped to the side to avoid the crash.

As Ezekiel moved, causing the decay mages to retarget him, Paul, Ezekiel guessed, caused the Decay mages to trip on their own feet and fall to the ground, too, as Ezekiel slammed his gauntleted fist into the face of the invisible attacker. He could have done a lot more, but he wasn’t willing to blow his cover for something like this and only a single second had passed. Each Odin was already casting even more [Merciful Suffocation]s at every target they deigned to hit, so they were already doing everything Ezekiel wanted from them.

That punch was not the first punch Ezekiel had ever thrown in his life, but it was the first thrown with the intent to injure.

The invisible person tilted their head, ever so slightly, taking the blow to the side of their invisible helmet, instead of to their nose. But Ezekiel still had 81 Strength. This attacker was obviously expecting a caster. They were not expecting warrior-levels of power.

The attacker’s head moved several inches more to the side than they expected, but the attacker was still, barely, able to follow through with their own plan. An invisible sword came up toward Ezekiel’s groin, aiming for the space under his armor. [Animadversion] easily caught the imperfect blow, moving faster than anyone had time to blink. Mirrored-pink spikes grew larger, catching the attacker’s attempt at a disemboweling. Blood erupted from the air around the attacker’s invisible arms.

In his next Script Second, Ezekiel threw another 100 mana [Slowing Bolt] at the stronger of the two incani attacking his daughter. The incani dodged. They even put up their own shield to block the spell. The ethereal, inexorable mass of pink light passed through the shield and conjured armor around the attacker, hitting the incani, freezing them, causing them to unbalance and fall to the burning prairie grasses.

Odin was still laying down the [Merciful Suffocation] on every single attacker. Pink-gold smoke-like crescents layered upon everyone that was not Ezekiel’s team.

Julia took down her attackers. Tiffany wiped the ground with her single foe, which might have been what they were expecting. The attackers had thrown a sacrificial fighter at the 3 meter tall orcol, hoping to keep her busy while they took out the rest of the team.

That plan had not worked.

Ezekiel began putting people into Stops, but he was not willing to test the reflection of the invisible person again. If he [Stop]ped himself… That would be bad.

He needed to test what how reflections worked more than he had—

No. Wait. He had read about how multiple reflections interacted before. He had talked to Sizzi Zago at length about reflective magics! Ah.

He was just panicking, a little.

Okay. Crisis solved.

Paul moved to take down the invisible person, pulling his own sword from the air and smashing down on the attacker. A half a second and four hammer strikes later, which was two hits more than necessary, it seemed, the harpy went down. Their concealment spell faded, revealing an unconscious harpy woman with red feathers, blood seeping out of her conjured armor.

Ezekiel continued to put people into Stops. The fight wasn’t over, but it was close. Now they just had to secure their victory.

Which they did.

And then they secured their victory even more as Paul listed procedures for containing downed enemy combatants, and everyone moved to enact his words. Ezekiel was glad for that. As the adrenaline finally ebbed, he felt a cold seep into his body, racing up and down his spine.

Julia banished the flames all around them with a few [Flameshape]s. Tiffany grabbed the stragglers who were further out of position and brought them closer. When they were all down, and closer, Ezekiel cast a strong [Mana Drain Ward] atop them, and then a [Health Drain Ward]. All of them were Stopped, so maybe they didn’t feel the itchiness, or maybe they did; Ezekiel found himself not actually caring if they were comfortable.

It was an odd feeling.

Ah. They could have died. Yeah. That could have happened.

These people were out for blood.

… He canceled his [Hunter’s Instincts]. The world sped up. He breathed.

Pink-gold air and pink mist layered atop their seven attackers.

Ezekiel took a moment to recall the interactions of reflection. Generally, the more power there is in a reflection, the more resilient it is. Lesser reflections will simply break under constant reflecting. His own [Animadversion] was very high powered. Whatever the harpy had been using was low powered.

The harpy had lost that reflection contest.

[Animadversion] would likely break if numerous spells targeted the parts of him that the shield could not directly reflect, but the shield itself was the strongest part of the spell. Having a reflection contest against the shield, itself, would likely result in the opposite party losing that contest.

Ezekiel calmed down, thinking about magic. He stepped away from the line of sleeping killers. So did everyone else.

Julia asked, “They’re still in their armor?”

Paul suggested, “Ezekiel?”

“Right.” Ezekiel already knew what they meant by that. He began casting several spells, designed to strip targets of protections. He should have done this already, but he was a bit flustered.

[Ward Destruction] was first. Seven of those. Then came [Force Breaker]; [Conjure Armor]s popped like so much broken spellwork. [Prismatic Breaker] was just to get rid of the other small spells Ezekiel saw, though he could not tell what those were, exactly. When he was done, the seven people were naked save for underclothes, Stopped, and stripped of all normal defenses, as well as surrounded by a lot of [Merciful Suffocation]. Ezekiel had Odin switch off of that spell as he finished stripping them.

He asked, “What do we want to do with them?”

Tiffany said, “We’re taking all their stuff, obviously. I see gold, jewels, rings. A lot of it is marked, but it’s still worth something. No papers or badges or anything like that, though.”

“Expected worse.” Julia added, “A lot worse.”

“Those fireballs would have cooked us alive if we were normal people. [Animadversion] is a very strong spell. All of them had reflections. None of you noticed except for Ezekiel, and only with regard to the harpy.” Paul sent, ‘And we should start talking like this.’

Ezekiel felt another chill.

‘Who are they?’ Julia asked.

‘That was a fast fight and I hear nothing from them now, but I think they were just uncommon bandits. We would label them Hunters, but they call themselves a minor Clan. They’re based in a small city north of here, but they lay traps like this all around in odd places.’ Paul frowned. ‘That’s a common tactic; laying traps in the prairie. Walking into the city will not be as easy as I expected.’

‘We can do this to more people if they need this done to them.’ Ezekiel found his backbone again. He sent, ‘How would this have gone if they were a clan, or soldiers?’

‘Um… No functional difference. Hard to say. There were a lot of thoughts in that fight.’ Paul sent, ‘But that’s not really important. What’s important is that these people have done this before. They had prisoner drain-collars waiting for us for when they took us down. With our resources locked down, they would have tried to torture us for information about where we came from, and then they would have tried to ransom us to those people. When that failed, they would have killed us, and they would have saved your death, Ezekiel, for their leader, since they would have suspected you of being the most leveled person here. Near the end, they began to suspect that they have fucked up royally; maybe literally ‘royally’. And that brings us to this: Do you want to try to listen to them explain away their guilt and possibly get away? Or should we execute them now?’

It felt like it was the middle of winter, for some damned reason. Ezekiel shivered.

And then he decided.

“… Odin sees the collars in a pile, just up ahead. That is proof enough...” Ezekiel said, “I’m grabbing them now. I will… Allow these people their last words. They have acted like Hunters, and so they get the same treatment.”

Tiffany nodded. Paul approved.

Julia said, “Good.”

Ezekiel moved to—

Wait.

There was another way. He touched his magenta breastplate, holding his hand over the spot where the Silver Star laid hidden, upon his chest. There was a way to not need to kill them.

Ezekiel offered, “The alternative is that I could bless them.”

A warm wind blew across the prairie. Grass rustled under the sun. No one spoke.

In the distance, Odin fluttered down from the sky and grabbed a bag dropped on the ground. He blipped over to the team, and dropped the bag of assorted drain collars in a great jumble of clangs and scratches. The thin bag ripped open, spilling out rusted iron circles, each with thorns on their interiors. They looked as though they could never be cleaned, no matter the effort anyone could put to the task.

And still, no one spoke.

And then someone did.

“No.” Poi said. “In death, they will have their sins judged by the gods and their fates sealed by their own hands. Giving them their final words is enough. There is no need to change who they are.”

Teressa scoffed at Poi, then said, “Killers should not get as much deference as Paul thinks they should… Bless them, then kill them. Maybe they’ll be able to understand what they did wrong when they meet their makers.” She said, “But if this is about being squeamish about killing them, then let me take this responsibility, and don’t give it too much thought.”

Jane said, “Justice demands a swift and uncruel answer. My instinct is to say that your artifact should only be used against the worst people. The ones that harm everyone. But…” She paused.

While Erick thought, he had Ophiel slip collars around every person, locking them into place with the provided screws and clips; they weren’t the most secure locks. These people obviously didn’t plan to need to use them for very long. Necks bled, but not too profusely.

Poi said, “If you use that Crystal Star here, you will be using it against literally everyone you meet.”

Jane turned to the man. “Would that be such a bad thing?”

Poi went stock still. Jane eyed him, then turned away, to look at the sleeping killers.

Teressa... just watched.

Erick saw two possible futures stretch out before him. Two ways in which the Crystal Star of Empathy changed the world forever.

One, where the world was happy and prosperous and everyone sang hand in hand, which was completely fictional and so delusional of him that he almost slapped himself. And the second, where he was hunted down by people he respected, like Silverite, and now Tenebrae, and others, for sure, because he had gone too far, because he had… He didn’t know? Likely gone into every prison the world over and forcibly changed the souls of every single person therein? The only problem with that, was that there weren’t many prisons in the world. Mostly, lawbreakers either got exiled, or murdered, depending on the local laws and the whims of the magistrates.

So the idea of going into prisons and ‘fixing everyone’ was a fiction, because that was literally not how the world worked. But...

He would find the leaders of the Incani and the Humans, and Bless them with Empathy, ending the Quiet War.

He would find every bandit leader in the world, and change who they were, at their core.

He would turn the ‘common bandit’ into a thing of the past.

Maybe the ‘new common’ would become someone who talked to the people they were about to rob, to speak about taking only a bit of gold for ‘safe passage through a land’, instead taking lives and everything else attached to those lives.

War would end, because Erick would make it end.

It was such a wonderful, terrible, awesome, horrible idea. A dark bloom of laughter called to him in his mind, to change the world to his liking, for his liking was better than what had come before, for he was a better judge than anyone else who had ever existed on Veird.

And he knew, instantly upon having those thoughts, that he was wrong to think those thoughts. He tore himself away from that dark part of himself.

He breathed deep. He watched as killers trickled blood onto prairie grasses. He felt, as his Crystal Star weighed upon his chest, a burden, an opportunity, an option.

For didn’t even the lowliest criminal deserve the chance at redemption? Didn’t everyone deserve a second chance, especially if that second chance would actually change who they were, at their very core? The Blessing of the Crystal Star was not some mind-game, temporary thing. It was a true change. It was soul magic.

It was the chance at true redemption.

Erick chuckled, nervously. “Ah. I don’t like this part of the path.”

He didn’t expect to want to press that button so much, either. To rid the world of problems with a single spell, spread so wide, as Jane had said when the topic of [Cascade Imaging] and [Luminous Beam] came up. It would be so easy.

Just step over the line and do it.

Do it right now—

Poi’s voice broke through, “They’ll know they were soul-mutilated. Maybe not today. Maybe not for a long time. But they’ll recognize the shift in their own soul soon enough. They’ll see how they aren’t able to get back up after a loss, and go out and kill some other people who aren’t able to defend themselves as well as us. They will discover what was done. They will know divinity changed them. Do you want to blow your cover so soon? Do you want to walk down that path?”

Teressa frowned at Poi, saying, “You have no place to tell him that, no matter your rank in this unit. Adjust yourself.”

Poi’s eyes went wide. He looked away and gasped as he stood straight, a sudden pale descending upon him. “I have overstepped. You are correct.” He looked to Erick. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“You’re right, though.” Erick said, “Silverite said that soul magic is a slippery slope. Best not to fall down that path this early. Let the gods judge them.”

“No,” Jane said.

Erick startled, and looked to his daughter.

Jane stared at her father, then at everyone else. “You’re all overthinking this. The options are to kill them, or to make them better people. There’s no reason to think that changing who they are is a bad thing.” Jane stared at her father, saying, “Do it, and don’t look back. Or, if you need to have a line you won’t cross, then only do this to those people who personally try to murder you, which every one of these people tried and failed to do.” She stressed to her father, to Poi, to Teressa, and, it seemed, to the very mana itself, “This is not a dark moment; don’t make it one. This is righting a small part of the world into something better.”

Poi cut in, “The problem is not here. The problem is in escalation. When does the solution not become soul-control, once soul-control is on the menu? It’s the same problem of [Mind Control]. When does the evil action that’s used for good become just another evil action?”

Teressa sighed, but said nothing.

Jane said, “I already said when: when they come after us directly and they could obviously use some empathy. Besides! We’ll never see these people again, either way, but if they’re Blessed, then they might do some good after doing all the bad they’ve done. Do you see those collars? You don’t even need to tell me that they’ve done wrong! I can see it already.”

“You have this concept of Free Will.” Poi said, “You understand the need for this. Why is this a hard concept for you?”

Jane said, “Because we had jails to lock up the bad guys. Not everyone should be free, but since there’s no jails here, except for jails of the mind, then we should use these ‘jails of the mind’ against those who deserve such treatment.”

Poi went dead silent, not giving a flicker of emotion away as his face became a hard mask.

Teressa looked on.

A minute passed.

Erick said, “I’ve decided.”

Poi looked to Erick. He nodded. Teressa crossed her arms.

Jane asked, “What are we doing?”

“In what is likely stupid, but the only way to be sure: I’mgiving them a choice.”

- - - -

He woke up, stripped of everything. A bubble of opaque pink Force surrounded him—

“That damned pink demi basta—”

The man touched his neck, and the collar that he had used on so many other young brats dug into his skin. His status read zeros all across the board. He was fucked. Royally fucked, maybe. He pressed against the capsule in his groin— There was a dimple in his inner thigh; already healed over. God damned scions. They even took his emergency potion! What the fuck was a scion doing out here!

The man called out, “If you’re alive and you can hear me, shit-for-brains! I’m gonna kill you! You hear—”

A voice asked, “Accept soul mutilation so that you will never work this line of terror against anyone else ever again, or die right now.”

He froze. He paled. He would have pissed himself if he hadn’t gone minutes before the alarms tripped, and a target of opportunity had appeared.

… Ah.

He was royally fucked.

These were the threats made against him, then.

Ah.

The man went cold. A resolve formed, quick enough.

The voice asked, “Your choice?”

“Death!” He said, “I choose death, and when I get to Hell, I will raise up armies to visit horrors upon you for all eternity! I will contact my sisters and brothers and my whole clan! They will summon me, and I will descend to this Melemizargo-fucked abyss and destroy everything you love!”

The world tilted.

He felt nothing. Not the pricks of the collar around his neck. Not the feeling of his hands, or his legs. He caught sight of his body, as he fell to the right. The body fell to the left.

He died.

- - - -

The incani chose death. The humans, who were not, chose death. The ‘harpy’ chose death.

The harpy was not actually a harpy. Erick noticed her truth imprinted upon her soul, as if her words weren’t convincing enough. She was incani. She had just Hunted the harpy and had taken her form. Recently, too. Erick had a hard time hearing her rant. Upon hearing the harpy’s words, and what he had heard from the rest, he knew that none of them were who they appeared to be.

Erick had encountered people like this before.

Poi apologized, for giving wrong information based on surface thoughts that were not entirely correct. These people were not going to try to ransom Erick and everyone to the fake Clan Phoenix. If these people had won the fight, Erick, Poi, Jane, and Teressa, would have been dead, and then their bodies would have been used for other, terrible purposes.

Erick’s first introduction to Nelboor had not been Clans, or Soldiers, or being found out as the Archmage Erick Flatt, or being ostracized or worse for appearing to be adventurers. His first introduction to this continent had been the same plague that had afflicted all of civilization, one that he had purged out of the Crystal Forest, and helped to kill within Treehome. A plague of body snatchers.

A plague of Hunters.

- - - -

They burned the bodies and slagged the collars, and then Erick erased the site of their questioning from the manasphere with a few casts of [Sealed Privacy Ward]. He did not erase the site of the battle. If someone came looking around here, they would see what had happened, but they would not see the full outcome.

In a moment of paranoia that even Teressa considered unfounded, Erick went and had Ophiel erase most of their walk from where they had landed on Nelboor, to here, back when they had talked too openly about too many things. He had already done this, but he wanted to be sure.

Erick walked on, toward Eralis, surrounded by Teressa, Poi, and Jane, feeling numb.

- - - -

Ten minutes of walking later, Erick broke the silence. “What a fucking mood swing.”

Teressa said, “Didn’t think Hunters would be our first introduction to Nelboor. And so close to civilization, too. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: Nelboor is a shit continent.”

Jane said, “I forgot these types of people even existed. Dad killed all the ones around Spur.”

Erick suddenly felt like all the energy had drained out of him; but he kept walking forward, barely breaking stride. He was being weak again. He thought he was past this.

He would never be past this.

“And those answers…” Jane scowled. “It’s like they weren’t even prepared for their own deaths. Like Hunting people would never have rebounded on them.”

“That’s the disconnect of the mortal condition, for ya. That’s just how people can get through the day.” Teressa said, “Living next to monsters… Living next to war and death. You can only think that ‘it could never happen to me’, or else you’d go crazy. Because it does happen to you. It happens to your neighbors, and your family, and yourself, eventually.”

“I guess that’s true,” Jane said, mollified.

Teressa said, “And yet… That harpy…” She shivered.

Poi spoke up, his voice strong, and sure, “We just met some killers, is all. People who have abused the good works that were given to us by the gods. We will surely meet more, in the future. That’s all that was. Cherish that we had the power and the luck to drive off the darkness, and that we did not lose ourselves in doing what had to be done.”

They walked on. A warm wind blew across the prairie.

Time passed.

Poi said, “… That’s what my sister used to say. It’s served me well for many years.”

Jane focused forward, on the path ahead. Teressa glanced backward, toward Poi, and then away, toward the horizon. Erick just thought, and considered, and weighed, as he walked; [Mana Sight] active on one Ophiel, [True Sight] active on the other, and with Yggdrasil’s eye trailing behind, watching.

After a minute, Erick said, “Your sister sounds like a smart woman.”

Poi looked away for a moment, then turned back, and nodded.

Ah. His sister was dead.

Poi did not break stride, though his breath halted, briefly.

They walked forward, across the prairie, no one looking at anyone else. If Poi wished to talk about his sister and all of this morality stuff later, then Erick would listen, but he would not bring up such a subject here, or now.

Jane broke the silence, “We should have just killed those Hunters after we subjugated them. Soon as we found out what they were.”

“I agree,” Poi said.

Teressa said, “Right about that.” She frowned. “I still can’t get that harpy out of my mind.”

“They were all Hunters.” Jane said, “She just reveled in it more than most.”

Erick said, “I thought they were humans and incani working together. I would have liked to have believed that. You know, even if they were on the other side of the battlefield.”

Poi said, “Yeah… That would have been...” his voice trailed off.

Jane said, “They were all incani, and those ‘humans’ were just part of their recent… conquests.”

The wind blew.

Erick wondered if—

Poi spoke up, “All of you are messing up your names, and it’s driving me crazy.”

Ezekiel said, “Shit.”

The same time that Tiffany said, “Dammit! I can do this!”

Julia chuckled, then laughed.

Tiffany was not far behind with her own laughter. Ezekiel chuckled.

A gloom seemed to pass, like the breaking of a dawn.

Julia, “Thank you, Paul.”

“No problem, Julia.”

Tiffany asked, “How much further till the first villages, Ezekiel?”

“Just over the horizon, Tiffany.” Ezekiel said, “Half an hour. Then a few hours till the city itself. We have to cross the delta, but we should arrive at Eralis in the afternoon, unless something else happens.”

“We have lots of money now.” Paul said, “I would like to find a nice place to drink a lot of liquor.”

Tiffany happily shouted, “Damn fucking right!”

“The good stuff too. No beer or ale.” Paul continued, “I can [Cleanse] myself afterward, but I would like to get piss drunk in the shortest amount of time possible, unless it appears we will not be able to.”

Tiffany laughed.

Ezekiel put on airs, declaring, “I will arrange such a treat for my loyal people! Drinks for the unrepentant spy for the elders of Clan Phoenix. Drinks for the party girl. And drinks for the daughter I didn’t know I had till last year!” He put on a stern face, saying, “But do not forget why we are here.”

Julia happily asked, “And why are we here, honored father?”

Ezekiel said, “To reclaim our place and power in Clan Phoenix, filial daughter!”

“And to drink!” Tiffany said.

“And to drink,” Paul repeated.

“And to get drunk!” shouted Julia.

- - - -

Fields of grain stretched across the world, with dots of houses here and there amid the waving gold, except they were not just ‘dots’. They only seemed like that because of the distance. They were actually sized like minor mountains.

The people out here did not build small. They built for defense. The only thing small about this furthest farm around Eralis was the small wall that encircled the entire compound; fields, buildings, guard towers and all, to delineate where occupied territory ended and the prairie began. Those guard towers placed all down the wall and in the centers of the fields were more appropriately sized to the mansion beyond; they were each at least twenty meters tall, and thick as extra-fortified lighthouses.

Guards were everywhere. Farmers were everywhere.

Like a dark mirror to a similar arrival, a year ago and half a world away, Ezekiel and Julia were watched as soon as they crested the previous hill and exposed themselves to the civilization growing before them. As they got closer, just minding their own business, Ezekiel waved at the staring guards. The people in the tower —a few humans, wearing steel armor— did not wave back.

Ezekiel led the way south, around the field, giving the short wall a great lot of distance. He had seen a road down this way, and they were close to it.

Soon enough, they found that road. It just ended, right there, before it got too far past the northern farm. Despite being in the middle of near-nowhere, the edge was meticulously maintained. Grasses grew from the prairie, but did not touch the road, while the road itself was ten meters wide and lined with white stone. The road was perfectly flat, like someone had scraped the world with a planer, and it was the best way to walk forward to Eralis, so that’s what they did.

Their new path brought them closer to the guard towers of the northern farm than Ezekiel would have liked. The farmland wall was only ten meters north of the road. Ezekiel heard, as much as saw, the guards atop those towers talking about them, as they walked past.

It was either stay on the road, or cross through the other farmland on the south side of the road, which also had towers and guards, though fewer than the farm on the north side. They were threading their first needle, it seemed, and there was no way out but through.

Ezekiel sighed.

Julia observed, “They’re all looking at us.”

Tiffany said, “This is the road to Eralis. We’ve every right to be here as anyone else.”

They walked for five more minutes before they could not. They stopped.

Several guards lined the road in front of them, along with one woman who stood out front. She seemed in charge, and wore black, spiky armor that would fit the style of any villain in any of Julia’s stories that Ezekiel had ever seen. Ezekiel blinked his mana sense active, and looked past her completely smooth helmet. No horns. Pale skin. Human coloration, mostly. Probably human. None of the guards with her seemed anything other than human, either.

But the guards in the tower to the south were all incani; their horns were prominent, their armor utilitarian, but slightly ornamental. They looked down from their tower, not bothering to make themselves look like they weren’t there to specifically observe the confrontation on the road.

The woman on the road stepped one step forward, toward Ezekiel, and spoke in Ecks, “You will now be questioned under a truthstone. Fail to give the right answers or attempt to flee, and you will be dealt with accordingly, as is our lawful right as a Border Clan of Eralis.”

Ezekiel stepped forward, but maintained a five meter distance between them. “We will be happy to answer anything that is not a problem for us to answer, and we will do so right here, and now.”

The woman nodded, curtly, then raised her head to the right, barely. A man stepped forward with a box. He opened the box, exposing a clear jewel. A truthstone, no doubt.

The woman commanded, “State your names.”

“No.”

The woman paused again.

Ezekiel said, “We will not be interrogated unduly. That I am deigning to answer anything at all is a gesture of goodwill, and a desire to make this as quick and as informative as needs be. Ask your important questions.”

The stone glowed blue.

The woman said, “Strange accent you have there. Where are you from?”

“Far away.”

Blue stone.

The woman seemed to relax. “Do you have any designs on this land?”

“Allies, information, the secrets of the Songstresses, but not if those desires would make me enemies.” Ezekiel asked, “Do you have any of that which I seek?”

Blue stone.

The woman had paused when Ezekiel mentioned ‘Songstresses’. Several people, on both sides of the roads, went still.

The woman sighed. Ezekiel could tell that she had been looking for something in particular in his answer, and that she did not get it. The guards on both sides had been Scanning them since this whole confrontation started, too. Maybe the woman had gotten her answers from those scanning people, for the scanning man right next to the woman had lingered their magic in a few conspicuous places, like the small bag of loot that they had taken from the Hunters, and held open a telepathic connection between himself and the front woman. The Hunters didn’t have much gold, but they did have rings and gems, most of which had already lost their enchantments, but all of which looked personal.

Ezekiel asked, “Is there something you are looking for in particular, with all your mostly-invisible Scanning magics? Maybe I could help.”

The scanning people on both sides startled.

They scanned harder.

The woman weighed something in her mind. Then she asked, “Do you meet any people out the way you came? Anyone at all?”

“You already know the answer. I see you talking to someone through [Telepathy], and the Scanning man to your left gazed upon the rings and jewels that we collected as spoils of that encounter, and his gaze locked for several moments. I wasn’t able to tell exactly which interested him so much, though. His Scan was too broad.”

The woman in black gave no hint that Ezekiel had struck at the heart of the matter, but others had. The incani guards to the south all seemed to sour at once. The human guards to the north turned hateful, all at once. Most of the humans’ ire was thrown directly across the road, toward the tower full of incani guards. Only a few humans still looked down at Ezekiel, Tiffany, Paul, or Julia.

This was momentary.

In the next second, the crowd focused on Ezekiel. Hands tightened on sword hilts. Mana swirled.

Ezekiel needed to diffuse this. He angled backward, saying, “The small bag of loot.”

Tiffany handed him the bag and the crowd drew back from open hostilities. It seemed that neither side knew where Ezekiel’s loyalties laid, and they were mostly content to watch, until watching became untenable.

Ezekiel put his empty hand forward and down, conjuring a waist-high pillar with a shallow bowl on top. The guards on all sides stiffened, but did nothing. Ezekiel spilled the bag’s contents onto the pillar. Gold and silver rings glinted in the light, along with a few loose rubies and sapphires. Three pearls were adorned with lettering, of which Ezekiel was not able to read.

“Taken from Hunters, as you have all likely guessed.” He asked, “Is there something in particular you seek?”

Anyone could have heard a pebble drop.

The guard woman spoke, “All of those are spoils from Hunters who have been attacking our lands and the lands of our allies for months. All of it was taken from us. We wish it all back.”

Blue stone.

“What will you give us in return?” Ezekiel said, “It is only right that we get payment for eliminating a threat.”

“What do you want?”

“Directions to good places to stay in Eralis. Pointers for contacting the Songstresses without angering them, for I know not the protocols of this land. Some of this loot that we rightly took from people who don’t deserve it; enough for a night in a good inn. A gold equivalent would be acceptable.” Ezekiel looked from the incani guards, to the human guards, and the human woman standing in front of him. “To know if this is some Quiet War aggression, and to know how to stay out of it.”

Blue stone.

The woman lifted her head, just a bit. Her tone bordered on disbelief, “Quiet war agg—”

One of her fellow guards, the Scanning Man, spoke, “He has a Silver Star. He won’t believe us.”

The atmosphere shifted to something lighter, something that was happening around Ezekiel and his people, instead of to him and his people. One human up in the nearby northern tower even began to chuckle, as he stared hatred across the roar, at the incani in the other tower.

Ezekiel heard him whisper, “Not on their side, then.”

Another one whispered, “Not on anyone’s side.”

The woman silently straightened her gaze at Ezekiel. She spoke more easily, but louder, and no less forcefully, “Please give us what was taken from us. In exchange, we can give you food for the night, and a welcoming to our home, and tomorrow, we can escort you to the city—”

“Don’t believe her, Scion!” The incani guard in the other tower called out. “They kill demis, too.”

The woman, unperturbed, said, “We kill those who take from Clan Grey Cloud, no matter their species. And I’m demi myself. Half of us are.”

The truthstone had not shifted from blue this entire time, though it had grown brighter, then dimmer, then brighter again.

Ezekiel stepped aside from the pillar, attempting to divorce himself from the situation, saying, “Thank you for your offer of hospitality, but I am not getting involved in this. I’m sorry for your loss. Upon further inspection, these are obviously tokens of successful Hunts and they should go to the loved ones of the deceased. We’ll have nothing to do with this.”

The woman stiffened, then nodded. She gestured backward. Her people swung off of the road, toward the north, unblocking the way. They backed up to the short wall of the northern farms, to stand next to the tower.

The woman remained at the edge of the road, and said, “The Quiet War has nothing to do with any of the issues that you walked into, foreign Scion. This is just a blood feud between Clan Grey Cloud and Clan Red Lotus, and it has been for a long time. Clan Grey Cloud apologizes if we have given an incorrect impression, and we extend, again, an offer of hospitality for the night.”

“Apology accepted,” Ezekiel said. “But we will not spend the night here. I don’t need reimbursement for killing the Hunters, either.”

The woman said, “Then I must ask now, as rude as it might be: Did you see a pair of humans that looked like me?” She touched her the black helmet of her conjured armor, dissipating it.

… Ah. Yeah. Ezekiel did not need to have her remove her helmet, but now that she brought attention to it, Ezekiel mana sensed through all of the people present, again, just to ensure there wasn't some trick.

There was no trick.

He had seen two people that looked like the woman. She had pale skin, bright eyes, distinctive red glints in her hair, and a deep sadness upon her face. She was likely somewhere in her thirties. Ezekiel connected everything about her to two of the human-shaped monsters that he had just killed, back there on the prairie.

He said, “I am sorry for your losses. The Hunters who took the bodies of your relatives are now dead, and the bodies burned to ash. Apologies if that is not your custom.” He looked to the Scanning man, saying, “I’m sure your man can follow our trail, if you must. We left the battlefield intact.”

The woman’s face did not betray her emotions. She reconjured her helmet, then she reached over and closed the lid on the box that contained the glowing blue stone. The man that held the box stepped back.

She bowed. The rest of her people followed suit.

She stood, saying, “Thank you, Scion. May Clan Grey Cloud know your affiliation?”

“Clan Phoenix.”

And in that moment, it was true. The stone glowed blue inside its container, though only a few people here saw that blue glow.

“Clan Grey Cloud thanks Clan Phoenix.” The woman said, “Clan Grey Cloud wishes to impart some knowledge to Clan Phoenix, if you would hear it.”

“Go ahead.”

“The Songli Highlands accepts wayward Clans and those seeking the Songs all the time, but if you have trouble finding a path forward, for your service today, Clan Grey Cloud will assist. We are a minor Clan under Clan Star Song. Our word will carry weight with them, if you wish to be known through us.” She added, “And the Quiet War is a poor reason to start a fight around here, foreign Scion. Those who do so are punished rather ruthlessly by more than a few major families, including Clan Star Song and Clan Void Song, two of the major powers of the Highlands. Both are filled with either demi progenitors or sympathetic humans and incani. We do not revere Koyabez as much around here as we could, but parts of his will are upheld by most.”

“I am glad to hear that. More than you might guess.” And he was. Ezekiel decided, “I will find my own way forward, but if I have trouble, I will keep your words in mind. What is your name? Does your name carry weight?”

“Shuu Grey Cloud. My name does not carry as much as some, but it is not tarnished.”

Ezekiel nodded. Then he looked to the Scanning Man.

The Scanning Man said nothing. Ezekiel could tell he was important, though, based simply on the fact that the clothes he wore under his armor were wildly more expensive than the armors of everyone else in the gathering.

Ezekiel ignored the Scanning Man.

The woman in black armor bowed again, along with her fellow guards. The Scanning Man did not bow; not since he was found out.

Ezekiel walked on, past the demi woman and the man who was some sort of boss to her, keeping to the center of the road, followed by Julia, Tiffany, and Paul. The four of them passed between the two feuding Clans, following the road to Eralis. He did not speed up, but he did not break stride, either. Soon, they were out of the range of crossfire.

- - -

After the foreign Scion walked away, Shuu raised her head. Through the sightless gaze of her full-face helmet, she stared at the incani guard on the tower opposite the road. Even though he hadn’t done it himself, that man had surely killed her brother and sister, and he would pay, eventually. She just needed to prove his involvement.

As the foreign Scion disappeared beyond the hills, and propriety allowed her to go about her business, she checked on several missives she had already sent out. To her left, the young master [Teleport]ed away, likely to give his own report to the elders, or to do whatever he wanted to do; it was not for the likes of her to gainsay his decisions.

One minute later, Shuu was at the site of the battle. She was too late. The people she had sent ahead could only stand there and explain their failure.

The young master of Red Lotus’s farms had beaten her to the stab, for of course he had; he had likely checked in on the Hunters the very second the foreign Scion had entered the sight of Red Lotus with his bag of retrieved ‘trophies’.

All that was left at the obvious battlefield were burned grasses, and nothing else. When the people she had sent ahead had arrived, the entire space was already in the process of being scrubbed by a large-scale red magic that flashed and sparked with lightning and shadow. When Shuu arrived, even that much was gone.

She had nothing. Nothing to fight the Red Lotus in Clan Court. Nothing to prove guilt, or to start an official inquiry. [Witness] was not admissible if the area to be [Witness]ed was gone, and no bodies meant no proper burial. The magistrate would not listen to her testimony, or even care about the retrieval of signet rings and identification pearls. They would see this whole event as Grey Cloud having a fortuitous encounter, and happily close the book on this current iteration of the Red Lotus and Grey Cloud feud. The Greater Clans wished for prosperity, more than they wished for justice.

They would just tell her, “So what if a few people died on the borders to murderers and thieves! You’re the Border Clan! That’s what you signed up for when you took this power. If you didn’t want it, then give up your power to Red Lotus, and abandon your ancestral homes!”

They tell all the Border Clans as much, almost every time a Border Clan brings up a claim against another.

Shuu’s rage flamed higher.

Her anger almost landed on the foreign Scion and his disregard for the dead. Burning the bodies! Who does that!

… Foreigners do that. Shuu understood her anger and she calmed. The foreign Scion knew not what he did. It was not his fault that this happened. And besides that…

That man could have killed them all.

Shuu changed plans. She would send a missive to Clan Star Song if the young master allowed her to do so, or if he didn’t already send one himself, which he probably had. They might not be able to use the wandering Scion and his small fragment of a Clan to directly combat Red Lotus’s encroachment and devilry, but when you see a man walking around with that much power, you stand up and pay attention, or you would soon find yourself dead.

Hopefully, Clan Red Lotus would be the one to receive that death.

Except…

Shuu would still send those missives. But she decided that it would be for the best if she never dealt with that foreign Scion ever again. He seemed like a reasonable sort, so she let him walk on, unimpeded. He and his team had killed seven high level Hunters, after all.

They looked like they could kill several hundred Hunters, if they wanted. Shuu had never seen such perfect reflective shield magic.

Ah. Yes. Don’t reach for the heavens, Shuu.

Shuu returned to the Clan House and went over the trophies.

She had no proof that the Hunters who had plagued the Clan for the last year were actually bought and paid for by Red Lotus, but she knew of the Hunters themselves. Shuu counted trophy rings from Clan Grey Cloud, Clan Ward Stone, and several others, each of them from other Outer Clans responsible for the border, each of whom had been approached by Red Lotus to ask them to sell their farms, and their bases of power along the border. There were even identification pearls from Clans she did not recognize.

No trophies from Red Lotus, even though there should have been some in there, if the Hunters had been hunting evenly. In this circumstantial way there was some proof that Red Lotus had been hiring Hunters to disrupt the borders, to take over through force what they could not achieve through diplomacy and merit.

But.

Circumstantial evidence did not matter.

If only they had had the bodies! They could have beseeched the Court Necromancer to call back the souls of the dead…

The foreign Scion didn’t want that, though, did he? That’s why he burned the bodies, perhaps? Or for some other reason? Koyabez was against necromancy for the sake of the Quiet War, so perhaps that was why…

But! If only he hadn’t! She could have gotten to—

Shuu’s anger rose, but she clamped it down. She wished to say goodbye to her sister, at least. If she had the body, she could call back the true owner, for one last farewell.

But...

She could not go against a Scion, even if he wasn’t from around here, especially if he was actively looking for allies, for whatever reason. With that shield of thorns upon his arm that was packed with enough ambient reflective magic to stave off even the young master’s senses, and rings of true power upon the hands of every one of his, admittedly, uniquely poor-seeming people? He was likely both a great Warder, and a walking calamity.

So, as the grand-elder used to say, ‘Ignore the dragon buying drinks at the bar, and calmly make your way to the exit.’

It was good advice.

- - - -

Ezekiel, Julia, Tiffany, and Paul, passed the farms of Grey Cloud and Red Lotus, only to walk by even more farms with much less security to them.

And then Ezekiel had a surreal moment as he looked across a field of wheat in the process of being harvested, and saw the redscale Valok and his young pinkscale daughter. They were harvesting the grain right alongside everyone else on the farm.

This was obviously a false impression.

The two strangers were not Valok and Delia, two of the very first people Ezekiel and Julia met as they walked in from the desert. And yet, the resemblance was uncanny. A redscale father. A pinkscale daughter. In this case, a world further, a year later, and with completely different people, it was like Valok and Delia were gathering wheat, instead of planting rice.

Julia noticed, too, her eyes going a little wide. She sent, ‘How are those two doing, anyway? Has Delia tried to kill or steal from you again?’

‘She never tried to kill me, Julia.’ Ezekiel tore his eyes away from the lookalikes and focused on the road, sending, ‘Valok is doing great, last I heard. Still not talking to his daughter because he doesn’t want to scare her, and Delia doesn’t want to talk to him yet; not until she can defend herself in a land of shadelings. I might have been too stringent when I told Delia to be that self-policing, but… She’s doing well in her classes at Oceanside, as of a week ago. Getting good with Decay magics. She’s going Scion of Balance and aiming for the Calamity Dagger Class, and also working on becoming one of the Headmaster’s Elites.’

‘Good for her,’ Julia sent.

They walked on.

- - - -

“So,” Tiffany said. “We have no money now.”

Tension broke.

Ezekiel laughed. He said, “Sorry about that.”

They walked along a nice, wide road, twenty meters across, that stretched far past the horizon, toward Eralis in the unseen distance. Smaller group housing, private farms, and even little village squares had started to pop up to the sides of the main road and down myriads of side roads with some regularity. Many of the houses held multiple floors, but more than a few were simple one-story buildings, built wide and out of wood (possibly to invalidate [Stoneshape] shenanigans), with peaked, blue roofs. Odin flew high, high above, and Ezekiel saw the actual city of Eralis far ahead, but it appeared they would have to go through suburbia and then the floodplain of a delta to get there.

“I’m not disparaging, boss.” Tiffany said, “I’m sure we can find something that pays, but it woulda been nice to not have to worry about paying for a night’s sleep.”

“The Tribulation Mountains always have monsters in them.” Julia said, “Worst that could happen is that we find the [Teleport] zone into the city, get some papers or whatever the entry system requires, then go out and hunt a few beasts. Getting back to Eralis is going to be a lot easier the second time around. That was always the plan, anyway.”

Ezekiel stepped off of the center of the road, toward the right, as other people began to start using the roads, too. Julia, Tiffany, and Paul followed his lead. Just ahead, on a side road that seemed to be another major-ish road, carts pulled by cows moseyed north and south, carrying goods bound for markets, or people bound for destinations. Runners, or some other type of job, raced left and right, remaining on their own sides of a solid white line in the center of the road. Some of them had packs on their backs. Some just had their own self, and their blue-edged official-ish clothes that were barely more than shorts, tunics, and shoes.

They ran fast. They used some variation of [Swift Movement], for sure. Ezekiel saw one zoom by and activate a quick pulse of healing magic on themselves, likely so that they could run faster, because then they did just that. A cloud of dust ripped up from the solid stone road as the runner vanished toward the north.

Some people complained about the dust, setting off a chain reaction of others complaining about the lack of rain.

The four members of Clan Phoenix rapidly navigated the cross traffic and continued on down the main road, where they naturally joined the midday throng of people walking to and fro. This was not a journey of people walking all the way toward Eralis, though. This was just a journey of people going about their normal lives in suburbia; buying food at the grocers over there, getting new shoes at the cobbler on the other side, taking a small jaunt toward the apothecaries and the shopping center down that way.

… Going to that brothel over there, which did not look like a place of health and respite, but more like the exact opposite of that.

… Kicking that drunk while he was down on the ground already, and huddled against the outside wall of that bar.

… Getting manhandled by the guards walking down the street.

… And there’s a homeless man getting picked up by guards, and getting thrown in a wagon with other homeless people. ‘Bound for War’ was written on the side of the wagon, while the homeless inside were given bread and informed of their new fate.

Ezekiel frowned.

“Not as bad as I expected,” Julia said.

… Aside from a few things…

Yeah. It wasn’t that bad, actually. Over there, some young human women were out on their own, walking between shops and laughing in the open. Across the way, a young incani boy, barely a man, held the hand of a very old incani woman, practically dragging the smiling elder forward, talking about how mother was waiting for them. 99 percent of people were just walking along, minding their business, or rapidly crossing or narrowly avoiding the center white line in the road, where runners and fast-moving cows dominated.

Ezekiel only saw the less-savory parts of the city because Odin still flew in the sky, allowing him temporary oversight of the whole land. His own Perception, down on the ground, allowed him to see the world around him in better detail, and through all of his senses. He wouldn’t have even seen the homeless wagon or the brothel if not for his eyes in the sky. What he would have focused on, were the scents in the air, because they were walking past a large market square full of two and three-story restaurants. The air smelled great. The city was clean. The people dressed nicely, mostly. And no one was fighting anywhere.

But there were a fuck-ton more people than Ezekiel had expected.

And this was just the suburbs!

“There are so… so many people.” Ezekiel said, “Everything is so clean.”

“I’d say to watch your pockets,” Tiffany said, “But I think enough people are watching our pockets for us.”

“We certainly are drawing some eyes…” Ezekiel’s voice trailed off as he focused more on the world directly around him.

The people on the road gave the four of them a wide berth, but no one did anything besides glance their way before quickly turning their attentions in other directions. Some walked a bit faster to get away. Some walked slower, or moved to the other side of the street, braving the fast paced traffic in the center.

It was easy to see why they were drawing attention. Ezekiel, Julia, and Paul, were all in their [Conjured Armor], looking like magenta, dark blue, and sapphire blue jewels in a sea of browns, whites, and tans. And then there was Tiffany, standing twice as tall and half-again as wide as everyone else in the predominantly human, incani, demi, harpy, and everything else crowd. She was the only orcol in sight. She still had her grey armor on, too.

A quad of guards spied them from a guard tower, a good fifty meters ahead. Each of them wore steel breastplates with feathers and lightning motifs. They blipped down from the tower, in unison, landing on the road in front, directly in the way. The people nearest the guard moved away from the potential battlefield, while the guards —two incani, one human, one dragonkin— waited for the pink idiot to approach.

Ezekiel did not disappoint them.

And then one of the incani guards stepped forward, and bowed, before Ezekiel could even stop, saying, “Apologies, master Scion, but might this one inquire why you are out and about in full defensive regalia?” He raised his head, and gestured forward, down the road that Ezekiel had been walking. “If it would please you, we could walk and talk, or perhaps I can find you a carriage to make your walk that much more enjoyable?”

Ezekiel broke stride for a moment, smiled briefly, then kept on walking. The guard walked alongside him, and Ezekiel allowed it.

Ezekiel explained, “We’re not from around here and we cannot afford a carriage, for various temporary reasons. I have come to inquire about alliances and information and such, but I wished to see what the Highlands were like outside of the cities, first. It’s a lot more prosperous than I was led to believe, and that makes me very happy.”

The guard said, “The Songli people have a long history of accepting clans into the Highlands, so I wish you luck. But, if you would pardon this one’s impudence, we do not allow such grandiose displays of power, and your mana signature is very… vibrant.”

“Ah.” Ezekiel said, “Well. You see: We walked in from the east, hoping to see all of this land from the edge to the center. To that end, we started in the prairie past a farm held by a clan we soon discovered to be named Grey Cloud, near where they bordered another clan which we found out was named Red Lotus. We were attacked by seven Hunters before we got to those Clans, however. Perhaps they thought they had a numerical advantage; I know not. The problem of those Hunters is resolved, now, but I suspect that whatever was going on there will only escalate… or maybe not. You will understand that I am hesitant to drop the defensive measures I and my people have employed. I expected some sort of trouble on this trip, but not quite the intrigue that had the misfortune to find us.”

The incani guard barely betrayed his sudden flash of inner fear as Ezekiel spoke, and he was not the only one. Several nearby people increased their walking speeds, getting further away, just a bit.

The guard resigned himself to pressing forward, and said, “Please accept a carriage on behalf of the Highlands, Scion; no charge. We are a block away from a carriage house.”

“Very well. I will accept.”

The incani guard visibly relaxed. He stepped forward, happily saying, “Allow me to lead you, Scion.”

Ezekiel allowed it.

The ‘carriage house’ was only a few hundred meters forward, located on the corner of a north-south road half the size of the main one. Ezekiel had a sudden memory of another time, in another world, where people flew in on large metal birds, to land in town and to then take a carriage to their next destination, for the carriage house was directly next to the teleporting platform for the area.

Half of the area was flat, open land, tiled with solid white stone and filled with people blipping in and out, but almost no one came in or left on their own; it appeared that the people who actually cast those [Teleport] spells were in blue and white garb, in some sort of Nelboor-corollary to the Wayfarer’s Guild. Or maybe it was just a Highlands thing.

Those blue and white people moved off toward a side house after they blipped their people, while inside that side house, there were more people waiting to get blipped into other locations. It appeared the passengers and their blipper would walk out of the side house, and onto the white tile square, before they blipped away.

The other half of the space looked more like a guardhouse than a carriage house. The people coming off of the [Teleport] field walked toward that guardhouse, under the scrutiny of bored guards up in their guard towers. Inside that official and open-air building, the people spoke to guards, getting papers or flashing badges, and generally being ushered through as fast as possible. When the people were done talking to the guard, a great majority of them just walked away, into the town, but the richer looking ones took carriages that were lined up all the way down the side road, waiting to accept passengers.

It was to the front of this line of carriages that the incani guard took Ezekiel and his team. He bypassed the first carriages in line, for none of them were large enough for Tiffany. The fifth carriage was big enough, though. It was a large, window-filled wagon with lots of space, views, and with two hulking cows to pull it. The guard rapidly spoke to the driver about ‘charge the guard, no tips, straight to Eralis’ as he slipped the man a metal token that was certainly not currency. The human driver briefly complained, but only with his eyes, before instantly putting on a smile and turning to Ezekiel.

Ezekiel’s guess was that they had more than enough strange, high-powered people walking around that they had protocols for this sort of thing, and that he and his people had fallen into one of those protocols.

Interesting.

The guard turned to Ezekiel, saying, “Thank you for accepting our hospitality, Scion. This carriage should get you all the way to the city, and a fair bit faster than walking.”

“Aye!” The driver said, “I’ll take you right to Teleport Square inside the city, if that be what the Scion wants.”

Ezekiel said, “We would like exactly that. Thank you for your assistance. Both of you.”

It was the work of moments to get everyone in the carriage, and to start down the road. As the cows wheeled the carriage out of the line and started on the journey to the city, the incani guard and his four people bowed to the departing carriage.

Tiffany said, “I can get behind this nice treatment.”

“How many people do you think were plotting to kill us out there?” Julia asked.

Paul said, “Mostly fear, from what I saw. Lots of worry. No plots to murder. More than a few people wondered why a Scion was in their midst. We came into the city in an odd way. I didn’t think it would be this odd.”

Ezekiel said, “That’s about what I saw, too.” He exclaimed, “And there’s just so many people!”

Tiffany laughed. “Yeah!”

Julia said, “Low level, though.”

“There are few monsters around here so almost everyone is under level 20.” Paul said, “But that doesn’t seem to be a problem. It’s… It’s a better looking life than I had expected. Better than I had been warned.”

Ezekiel gazed out the window, watching the prosperous world go by, and said, “It’s a lot better than I thought it would be, too.”

Tiffany chuckled, saying, “You say that, and yet we were attacked by seven high-level Hunters—”

A knock came from the barrier separating the driver from the cabin.

Julia opened it, saying, “Yes?”

“Pardon Scion, but we will be speeding up now and there’s a bump when that happens. Just wanted to let you know.”

“Thanks, good driver!” Ezekiel said.

The vehicle lurched, as the cows began to speed up. Within moments, and likely because the cows somehow had [Swift Movement], and the driver had [Rejuvenation] to keep them high Health, and also the skill, or perhaps the Spell to make the cows use their Skills, the carriage joined the speedy line of traffic headed toward Eralis, in the unseen distance.

The driver shut the partition again, but Ezekiel had Julia open it. The driver startled, briefly.

“Good driver?” Ezekiel asked, “How did you get the cows so well trained? Some [Husbandry] spell?”

“Oh? Uh.” The driver was clearly nervous, but he managed to get out, “Oh, no! Just good old training, Scion. Uh? You’re not from around here, I take it?”

“Not even a little bit.”

The driver went silent. Julia almost went to close the partition, but Ezekiel shook his head, and it stayed open. The window provided a nice breeze in the cabin, as the carriage rolled west, to Eralis.

Ezekiel stared out the window, watching as the city rolled by. Tiffany and Julia seemed equally engrossed in watching the massive, multi-million person ‘suburb’ around Eralis. Ezekiel had seen this land from the air, but those Odins were way too far to see what he was seeing now; he didn’t want the magenta [Familiar] to trigger any alarms over the city, after all. Those high-flying Odins took great care to avoid the [Alarm Ward]s strung across the sky that were only visible to [True Sight]. But… It was almost to the point that having Odin way up there wasn’t actually helpful, at all.

It was a nice ride. But...

Paul stared out the window, slack-faced, and possibly worried.

Ezekiel asked, “Are you okay, Paul?”

Paul blinked a few times, then said, “I had heard certain things about this place. I expected certain things about this place. I expected we’d need to fight off marauding bands of clans or soldiers, I did not expect a sprawling metropolis. I did not expect a carriage ride into the city.”

Ezekiel nodded. He turned to the open window, and asked, “Driver?”

“Yes, Scion?”

“Do you mind if I bother you for some information?”

“Never be a bother to me, Scion!” The man spoke happily, but falsely, saying, “Ask away!”

“What’s the population of Eralis? Are we actually in Eralis right now?” He asked, “Could you give us some basic information that you think we might want?”

A small chuckle came from the driver, as some of his worries seemed to evaporate. He relaxed a fraction, and said, “I’d be happy to do that, Scion. I haven’t given a proper tour in a long time, but I’ve lived here all my life. Let’s see… I’d start with this: If someone asked me where I lived, I would say Eralis, but that’d be a minor lie. We’re actually in the town of Redflood. There’s towns like this one scattered all along the Wanzhi river. Rich farming land, you see? We’re nary a stone’s throw from the Delta right now, and though that place still floods, this Water Season is drier than usual. The rains are just late, I suspect.

“Once we get past Redflood and the Wanzhi Delta, we can enter into Eralis directly. Right through the Void Gates! Very impressive sight.

“And though you’d have to take a different road out of the west side of Eralis, it’d look the same as this one, and you’d eventually find more towns like Redflood, but smaller, for sure. The Army and the Border Clans tend to keep us safe as newborns, but outside of the borders and such… Yeah. You’ll find the usual warmongers.” He paused. He asked, “If’n you don’t mind me asking sir. What’s yer goals here in the Highlands? I might be able to direct you somewhere specific.”

“I want to talk to the Songstresses. I heard they’re famous for how they make their magic, and I want to know more about that.”

“Ah!” The driver happily said, “Then you’ll be wanting to go to the Void Theater. Center of Eralis. You seem like someone who could see the sights from the air, and in such a case, you can’t miss the Void Theater. Only building that looks similar to the Void Gates. But. Er. Don’t be flashing— Er. I have been told that the guard don’t like people being flashy with magics like that, er… Scion. They reintroduce the ground to fliers rather painfully, if’n they can. Probably best not to go flying in the city limits… if you even could— Which I’m sure you can!”

“Then we will search on foot once we get there.” Ezekiel tried to make his tone as nice as possible, without being weak, as he asked, “Anything else we should know?”

“Oh! Sure! There’s lots! Let me tell you about...”

- - - -

‘Julia’ found herself grinning whenever she forgot to stop herself, ever since the encounter with the guards of Grey Cloud. But now, as she watched peaked-roof buildings and so many people roll past her window, and she heard her father speak like a real Scion for about the fiftieth time, she let herself smile. He was good at this, and this was fun. This was really fun.

She sent him, ‘You’re so much better at this than I expected.’

‘Ezekiel’ paused in his words to the driver, briefly, but then kept talking to the driver as he simultaneously sent her, ‘I paid attention to you kids and your role playing games, and all those movie nights you and I shared when you were a kid.’

Julia almost laughed. ‘There’s no way that those things prepared you for this. I read books about blending in. Joined a club in college. I didn’t think you had a subterfuge-bone in your body.’

‘A large part of blending in seems to be more about reading the room and filling in a story about yourself that other people expect you to follow, and I have seen a lot of different stories. But yes. You’re right. I’m only able to do this, here, because I’m listening and watching everyone around us, and working to adjust my actions to what I see and hear.’ He added, ‘This part is a lot easier than I thought it would be, but I fear we might have come in too strong. We might have to fail at something in order to be knocked down a peg by the people who we do not want to meet, but I’m getting the impression that all we’ve met are low-ranking people who would never gainsay anything we do.’

Julia blue-screened.

She felt like the world had shifted under her feet. Her father had just said that. Her father. The naive pacifist… Well. He wasn’t that anymore, was he? And he hadn’t been that for a long time. Probably still too much of a pacifist, though. He should have just Blessed those Hunters. A jail of the soul was better than death, especially if those bastards could actually make good on their threats to come back from the dead, but Julia suspected that that was just them posturing for their lives.

‘Well you’re doing a great job, dad.’

‘Thanks!’ He sent, ‘You are, too.’

Julia scoffed a small laugh, then stopped pestering Ezekiel. She could be doing a lot better, but she was fulfilling her ‘role’ right now, and that was what was needed. Julia let her father engage with the driver, while her mind turned toward a different direction. Back toward a thought that had been on her mind for a while, now; to the New Stats.

Perception would allow her to unlock her mana sense much easier, but Intelligence is what allowed her father to make sense of what he was seeing, wasn’t it? What boon would she want to take for herself? Which was actually better?

She asked her father for his thoughts on the question.

‘It’s the Intelligence allowing me to make sense of all this, but I wouldn’t notice all the social cues without Perception. So it’s a tossup. If I could only pick one, I’d do Perception for the mana sense. But Tiffany’s better at that than I am, and she doesn’t have Perception, so Perception is obviously unnecessary. Therefore Intelligence might be better in the long run.’

… Another point in Intelligence’s favor.

Julia went silent, and contemplated.

- - - -

‘Tiffany’ relaxed in the back of the carriage, sitting beside ‘Ezekiel’ as he spoke to the driver. She had a lot of legroom in this vehicle, though the carriage was still half the size it should have been in order to make this a comfortable ride. It would have been overcrowded if her original team was with her. They would have needed to take two carriages! Ah. What a fun thought.

Ah. And look at that. She could think of them without crying.

She smiled, faintly and to herself, as she looked out the windows. The city was full of small people, and the journey was perilous and full of unknown dangers, but that suited Tiffany just fine. In truth, it was better than ‘fine’. This was great. She would have liked to see some other orcols walking around or whatnot, but outside of the Forest, and outside of Glaquin, her kind were treated more like beautiful giants and less like people. Thank the gods she was able to wear her armor into town, otherwise she would have felt so uncomfortable. It was the undressing with the eyes that really got her. Wearing unflattering armor helped.

The Red Bitch’s curse was one of the many reasons that orcols didn’t venture very far from the Forest.

… Unless they were into that sort of thing. Tiffany had a hard time understanding that urge to fuck someone who found her pretty, but some people were into that. Besides that, though, fucking around with non-orcols was odd by the very logistical nature of such an event. It was the sausage-in-the-canyon problem. Or the barge-fording-a-stream problem. Or the fact that non-orcols were just… tiny and easy to break. A little blood in the act was fine and expected…

Sometimes a lot of blood made the whole thing a lot more fun.

But the smaller races were very concerned about blood. Logically, Tiffany understood the problems that small people had with blood being outside of their bodies. Their blood didn’t just come right back. Their skin… and holes… didn’t just heal like they were supposed to heal.

Across the carriage, ‘Paul’ flushed a deep blue. He closed his eyes, and breathed.

Whoops. Too sexual for you, ‘Paul’?

Hey, now. Why do you think the city is named Redflood? Because of blood? Because the city has flooded before and killed a lot of people? Or because there’s some ‘time of the year’ for the Wanzhi River, and all of a sudden it’s just a flood of blood, like, out the cooch?

Paul steadfastly looked away.

Tiffany grinned and looked out the window. She watched the world roll by.

City Redflood ended in another north-south road that was lined in white tiles, and then a short, wide white wall, that seemed more like a staging area than a divider.

The driver said, “This wall protects Redflood from the seasonal floods when the red flits swim upstream to spawn, and the entire river turns sparkling red.”

Tiffany eyed Paul.

Paul slowly turned and eyed the partition, and the driver beyond that opening.

The driver continued, “Beyond here is the delta for the Wanzhi River.”

And it was.

They passed the dividing wall and the road began to rise. Not too high, but high enough to give the river below all the space it could ever need. Behind them, two and three story blue-roof buildings, and their individualized courtyard-like properties, dotted the city of Redflood. Here, beyond the wall and below the bridge, the water flowed like a lazy wanderer around banks of grasses and mud, and people fished or bathed along the white wall of Redflood. It was all rather idyllic, as far as Teressa saw. Very peaceful.

Kinda nice.

The driver spoke of speeding up and the carriage began to move faster, to keep up with the rest of the traffic, racing toward or away from Eralis in the distance. The cows were practically galloping, now, but they made less noise than before.

The driver said, “We’re coming up on the Noble District, to the right. You might be wanting to go there, master Scion, but I can’t help you with that. I don’t try to reach the stars and the stars don’t cast me down into an early grave.”

Ezekiel asked, “Does that saying have something to do with the Clan Star Song you were talking about?”

The driver suddenly shut up. Then he went, “Uhh.”

“Should I steer clear of Star Song?”

“Uhh…” The driver sputtered, “Uh. They’re fine people! Couldn’t ask for a better Head Clan, and I mean that, too, Scion. They’re great. They keep the roads and they keep the peace. But people like me don’t reach too high because… We just don’t. I should shut up, now.”

“Thank you for the talk, driver.” Ezekiel said, “If I had any gold on me, I would love to pay you for this, but maybe I’ll strike it rich soon enough. What’s your name?”

“… Uh. Dohzi,” the driver said in a happy, completely fake way. “Dohzi is my name, Scion. Thank you.”

Tiffany smirked. That’s a fake name. Everyone was using fake names today.

Ezekiel said, “Thank you, Dohzi. We’re Clan Phoenix.”

“Oh! I wouldn’t presume to ask your names, good Scion.” ‘Dohzi’ said, “Don’t worry none about me. I can best be forgotten.”

Ezekiel nodded, then said, “If that’s what you wish.”

… The driver slowly reached over and closed the partition.

Tiffany looked out across the waters, and saw the ‘Noble District’, and was awed for not the first time. Traveling just did that to a person. Seeing new sights was awesome. Too bad she couldn’t have done this with her own family. Ahh… Oh well.

At least it didn’t hurt to think of them, anymore.

- - - -

Ezekiel gazed out the window at the Noble District.

The island sat upon the center of the Wanzhi Delta like a scattering of minor mountains, filled with ancient houses, pagodas, and temples. The entire land was surrounded by a white wall, then further surrounded by the scattered banks of the river.

Their current highway did not join that kilometers-wide place. Instead, this road kept well clear, as it went on toward the west bank, where the white walls of the city stood, like a much larger cousin to the Noble District.

Eralis, the first city of the Songli Highlands. Home to millions of every race that existed on Veird, though the populations were not very balanced at all. There were human districts and incani districts and other segregations within that massive city, but most of the city was a land of mingled powers, where the guard came down hard upon rule breakers and every neighborhood had at least one guard capable of [Witness].

Try not to upset the order, or you might get drafted into the military if the arresting guard thinks you’re worth a damn.

Otherwise, don’t walk down streets that you don’t know. Don’t flash your gold. Keep track of your pockets.

Stay out of Clan business, for they are in the business of keeping the city safe and prosperous, and they are legally allowed to murder anyone that gives them just cause; the only check on their power is the other clans, and their own codes of honor.

And yet…

Ezekiel heard the negatives, but what he saw were the positives.

A city of millions. Two dozen million, if you counted all the surrounding lands, which many people did.

A city of trade, where billions of gold flowed in and out every day, where you could buy almost anything you could ever want.

A city where most people were under level 20. Which… was honestly a good thing. How had a place like this survived with beings like the Shades active in this world? Where people were able to cast Red Dots at a whim? Ezekiel needed to find out.

And he could already hear one of the reasons for Eralis’s prosperity.

It was a song, barely heard, like a pulse to the world late at night from a bar across town that was still going strong. That song stayed, ever present, not increasing in volume or clarity, as the carriage rolled closer and closer.

The driver opened the partition, saying, “Here’s the Void Gate, master Scion! You only ever get to experience this once!”

Ezekiel chuckled as he made a show of looking through the partition, but he had already seen the Void Gate from the air. The driver’s excitement in showing off his home to a foreigner was infectious, but that did not diminish the fact that this land was honestly impressive, and in so many ways.

The white wall was a dozen meters tall and set a good kilometer past the edge of the end of the wide, wide, delta, but the ring of the Void Gate itself raised half a kilometer high, a ring of white stone that arced up and down. It reminded Ezekiel of a certain gateway made of silver metal, in a faraway land named after a dead king. This Void Wall was more than just a simple sculptural building, though, and it was also more than the sum of its magical protections.

This Void Wall was not named after anyone in particular, for there were no need for names in this particular situation.

Like a dragon sized to a city, laying down in a protective circle, the Void Wall was a sculpture of Rozeta, the Dragon Goddess of the Script, without beginning and without end, adorned with a scale pattern that shimmered rainbow in daylight. If there was a head or a tail in that sculpture, Ezekiel had not seen it; perhaps both were hidden in the city somewhere. If there were legs, those were similarly hidden.

All that was visible was the endless body of the Dragon Goddess, the patron of this great city of trade and civilization of the Songli Highlands.

Far to the south, Eralis opened up to deep water, where the Void Wall dipped under the waves, allowing boats to pile into the piers to bring goods to and from the city. Kilometers out to sea, the wall arced out of the open water, up and over the main channel, like some great sea serpent's body. To the north, another arc of Rozeta’s body formed another Void Gate that led to the cities and villages to the north, where the two other major cities of the Highlands lay; the farming city, Alaralti, and Holorulo, the seat of power of the Songstresses.

To the west was another arc of the Void Wall, but that one merely opened up to the coastal road, and to all the other ‘villages’ like Redflood on the other side of Eralis.

They drew closer to the Void Gate.

The song increased. Wordless words came and went in an endless choral flow. It was not uncomfortable, but it was… Not comfortable.

Ezekiel asked, “Anyone else hear that? It’s… kind of annoying, actually.”

“Hear what?” “Nope.”

Paul rapidly said, “You shouldn’t be able to hear that.”

The driver gave a good-natured chuckle, then said, “You truly are a Scion!”

“Is that the Void Song?” Ezekiel asked. “I thought you couldn’t hear it.”

“You’re not supposed to be able to hear the Void Song, but people do, all the time.” The driver happily said, “You can almost always get a Clan sponsorship if you can pass the test that proves that you are actually hearing the song. Just be careful. They don’t like people faking that.” He rapidly added, “And here’s where the denial of magic starts!”

Right after that warning, Ezekiel felt something clash with his soul. It was as though he had eaten too much pizza, but back when he lived somewhere far, far away from here. He struck his chest, trying to get rid of what felt like a sudden case of heartburn.

“Is it supposed to feel like… nausea?” Julia asked.

“The feeling will pass. They sell pills in town that’ll ease the feeling for a week but after being here for a month most people don’t feel it.” The driver said, “There’re shops that sell those pills right beside the Teleport Square, and that’s where we’re headed”

Julia asked, “What’s the full list of denied magics?” She tapped her own chest, saying, “I can’t hear it, but I can feel it.”

Tiffany smirked as she said, “I feel fine.”

Poi seemed similarly okay. He nodded, and indicated that yes, he was fine.

The driver said, “This Void Wall is not some simple, set-it forget-it magic, like them runes and oils they use in smaller places. There is a list of spells that don’t ever work right, of course.” He rattled off, “[Blink], [Teleport], [Invisibility], [Force Trap]. A lot of esoteric [Teleport] spells. All the Shaping spells. [Polymorph]. [Hunter’s Instincts]. [Strike]. A lot of esoteric warrior spells and skills…” His voice trailed off. Then he came back strong, saying, “The Void Song focuses on those spells, and it can change from day to day, but it actually hits all magic.”

Ezekiel’s eyes went wide. “All magic? You can do that?”

“Yes, master Scion.” The driver said, “Practically all spell or skill costs are doubled, at the very least. Most are increased by tenfold.”

“Which ones aren’t banned?” Julia asked.

“[Telekinesis], [Telepathy], [Cleanse], [Mend]. Most healing magics. Still doubled costs, though.” The driver said.

Ezekiel asked, “Is there some way around those restrictions?”

“Oh! Sure!” The driver perked up. “Everyone knows the guard ain’t restricted. It’s cause they got them badges, but those badges are theirs only; non-transferable. If you’re part of the Clans, you might get a badge, too. Apply for a worker license for a Shaping spell, and you can get a badge for that. A lot of people go in for [Metalshape] in order to work their jobs and that’s a pretty easy license. Ain’t no one I know ever got a [Stoneshape] license, though. [Woodshape] is also pretty easy to get; houses still gotta get built, after all.” He brought a necklace out from under his shirt, saying, “This here’s just a [Rejuvenation] license so my girls can run as much as they can. That was pretty cheap to get, but the paperwork! If’n you can make [Papershape], then you’re sure to get a good paying job in Eralis. High class of life, that, and— Opp! And here we are! The Void Gate!”

As the driver talked, the carriage passed under the archway of the Void Gate. The white-stone sculpture of Dragon Goddess of the Script arced high above, so far out of reach.

Ezekiel felt the world shift, like a part of him was cut off from the whole. A small part. It hurt some. But not really. Odin squeaked on his shoulder. Yggdrasil’s orb continued to follow behind; [Scry] didn’t seem to be affected, or maybe it was, if all spell costs were increased. From what Ezekiel felt, blocking any spell at all seemed to be easy enough, but he knew it could not be that easy. In order to interact with a magic, one needed to have that magic, first. You can’t enchant a spell you didn’t have, for example.

But…

This Void Wall was able to increase the costs of all spells… How did they do that?

It was probably exceedingly difficult.

At least it didn’t affect spells that were already active. His magenta armor and [Personal Ward] seemed to be fine. He did feel a burning in his chest, though. He asked, “When will we arrive at one of those pill shops you mentioned?”

“I’ll take us right there! Don’t you worry. It’s just uncomfortable; no lasting harm.”

Julia rolled her eyes in the most cynical way possible.

Ezekiel almost laughed. The driver hadn’t been lying about anything, as far as the driver understood the world, but Julia was paranoid and saying something like that around her would always set her off.

Beyond the Void Gate, the city appeared like buildings stacked on buildings surrounded by cultivated nature. There were round buildings and square buildings, buildings with upturned roof corners and buildings stacked like ever-smaller bricks up as high as they could go. Everything was browns and whites, with lots of colorful reds, greens, and blues, and nothing looked rundown at all.

The city had a flow to it, too. One that Ezekiel couldn’t quite grasp, but that he could certainly hear in the hustle and bustle of so many people and so many carriages, all moving along with each other, and mostly not getting in each other’s ways.

… Not that impressive of a sight, for a man who had come from a land where ‘carriages’ did this on much larger roads, but here, in Eralis, this was impressive. There were no stoplights here, after all.

The carriage came to a massive roundabout, well past the Void Gate, where a great many sidewalks and side roads split off, to run throughout all of the rest of the city. From the air, Eralis was well organized into blocks, but each of those blocks was like a tangled city itself.

The driver discharged Ezekiel and his people on the side of the roundabout, in an area meant for such, right beside a large courtyard that was obviously the Teleport Square. This one was twice as large as the one back in Redflood. People blipped in and out of that space, and according to Ezekiel’s Sight, there was something going on in the guard towers that ringed the Square, that allowed [Teleport] to happen inside that space, but not outside the square. It was like the towers were holding back… floodwaters, perhaps. Perhaps… Like a withheld shockwave? Maybe.

The driver quickly walked Ezekiel and his people to a kiosk that sold the pills he had spoken of, then he paid a silver of his own money for a small bottle. He handed the bottle to Ezekiel, saying, “Farewell, master Scion. Enjoy your stay in Eralis.” He pointed to the left. “That’s the Teleport Square, as I am sure you can see.” He gestured to the blocky, white building beside the square, saying, “Get your papers and your interview over there, and they’ll let you [Teleport] in and out.”

Ezekiel took the bottle, and said, “Thank you, driver. As soon as I get some gold, I’ll pay you for the information.”

The driver rapidly shook his head. “No need for that. Have a good day!”

He high-tailed it out of there.

Tiffany said, “He seemed like an alright guy.”

Ezekiel turned, and saw the reason that the driver had moved so fast. Some mean-faced guards were staring at him from ten meters away. He put on his best impression of a young noble and went to greet them, noticing all the while that quite a few random people all around them were glancing his way, and then rapidly specifically not looking his way. The guard with the mean face, a male dragonkin, spoke before Ezekiel could.

“I don’t care if you’re destitute. I do care that you’re openly wearing expensive magics.” He said, “Turn them off, right now, lawbreaker.”

“… Ah. You are testing me. I can appreciate that.” Ezekiel turned off his magenta armor, revealing nice, peasant-ish clothing, and his Silver Star pinned to his chest. He had disguised the artifact with normal silver, layered in tinfoil-thickness over the crystal core. A lightward would have been seen as a lightward, and even this wasn’t the best solution, but this was what he had decided upon. His shoulder-pad shaped Odin was revealed for what he was, but then he morphed, and mimicked the other Odin, turning bird-shaped. Ezekiel felt an actual chill for the first time, now that he was out of his armor and the wind was getting into his sleeves. He was reminded that it was barely Water Season. He said, “As you can see, I can follow rules.” He looked to his people.

Julia, Tiffany, and Paul, each dropped their colorful armor, revealing similar peasant clothing. Each of them briefly gained goosebumps from the chilly air.

The guard and his men, and the other guards hiding around the area in case this meeting didn’t go well, all seemed to relax a fraction. He said, “Good. Now that shield and the [Personal Ward].”

“No.” Ezekiel offered, “I can make the shield less obvious, if you wish.”

Not wanting to argue, and likely deciding he had won enough, the guard said, “Fine. Do you have a place to stay, foreign Scion? Did you come here with a plan? How can Eralis assist you in not becoming a problem for the law, or for our people?”

“As you can see, we are destitute. We came to Eralis because we heard of the power of the Songs, and we want to listen. Broadly, we come seeking allies and magic for personal matters of little importance. If you have any directions to those ends, I will listen.”

The guard blanked for a second as he tried to understand what he had just heard. For Ezekiel to outright state that ‘he came to Eralis for aid and secrets’ seemed to have short circuited the man. Maybe it had.

Ezekiel asked, “Is it truly such an odd concept to want to broaden one’s horizons with travel to a land that—” Then he changed tactics, softly saying, “We were told that the Highlands held great magic. Were we misinformed?”

Seeming to find his feet, the guard said, “You were not misinformed. It’s just… odd to hear it so openly stated. It’s refreshing.” He shook his head. “Look. You seem like a decent Scion, and Rozeta knows we need more of those. I’m gonna level with you. It’s odd for people to come in here and say all of what you said. Sets off all sorts of alarms, because people come in here to try and steal, instead of ask and bargain. Here’s my advice. Check in at that Teleport Square. Get some directions to some places. Maybe go hunt for some cores in the Central Tribulations and get yourself some money, since you’re obviously capable. Make your way over to the Void Temple and see about getting a meeting with the Songstresses. All roads lead to the Void Temple, so it’s not hard to find. Maybe even take a look at the Noble’s District. Maybe you might meet someone you know there. But do not make a fuss about being denied at every turn and threatened with bodily harm. Please do not press any issues with the people of Eralis.” He stressed, “In the very best case, don’t expect anything to happen right away.”

Ezekiel said, “I will accept your advice in the honest spirit of cooperation in which it was given. In the matter of money, hunting for some cores was already a part of the plan of regaining—” He paused, then said, “Well. Those are personal matters. Whatever happens, we will not be destitute for long. Thank you.” Ezekiel stepped back.

The guard bowed, and then his people bowed, too, but not too deep, and not for too long. The guard nodded once more, spared a long glance at Tiffany, then moved on, a tendril of thought already connecting him to others, out of sight. He seemed like a busy fellow.

Ezekiel turned toward the intake-building next to Teleport Square, and started walking. Behind him, Julia smiled as she followed, Tiffany eyed everything while people suddenly started eyeing her now that she was out of her armor, and Paul walked at Ezekiel’s side.

Getting through ‘customs’ was fairly straightforward, and while there weren’t any visible truthstones, there were still glowing rocks under the desks. This led to some careful evasions. Eyebrows were raised, but the woman behind the counter didn’t seem too interested in pressing any particular issue; she just asked the questions as an automated quill wrote down his answers, in duplicate. By the end of the three minute interview, Ezekiel gave his Clan name of Clan Phoenix, of which he had to spell for her since she had never heard the word before, his goals, which were hunting some monsters for some money and then looking into what the Songstresses were all about, and his expected length of stay, which he tentatively put at a week or a month. He wasn’t sure.

In return, he got a quick explanation that open displays of magic were highly discouraged (but not illegal!) and that approved Clans, of which he was not, according to her own ‘list of approved Clans’ she kept behind the counter, might take umbrage with him for so openly flaunting accepted custom.

“Why not just make it illegal, then?”

The intake-lady spoke in a bored tone, “Because we value those who can still cast under the Void Song as they are sure to some day be the very people who will move against our enemies and keep us all safe.”

“Ah?” Ezekiel asked, “So the other Clans will take umbrage with me not because of actual anger, but because it looks like I am intruding into their territory by defending myself? That I am insulting their hospitality, or something? Or am I misunderstanding that?”

The woman’s bored tone momentarily vanished. “Who is to say what goes on in the minds of our betters.” She slapped a piece of paper down in front of Ezekiel. “Please sign here, and we can conclude this intake.”

Ezekiel did so.

He got one paper, which he was to keep on him at all points in time. Since he was not a citizen, if he was found in the city without those papers, there would be a fine. The duplicate set of paperwork went into a large box behind the intake lady, where, after Ezekiel asked, he found that it would go to the Records Office, and that all black marks he might accrue during his time here would be added to that paperwork. If the Records Office discovered something heinous, then he would be tracked down and evicted from the city, or worse.

Ezekiel said, “Well… I’m rather confident that my Clan has never been here before…”

The lady waved him off. “Not my problem. Enjoy your stay in Eralis.”

She shooed him and his people away, and Ezekiel went. He hadn’t even gotten the chance to ask about hotels. He didn’t really need to, though, since he heard a majority of the conversations happening around him, but he would have liked to have had the official recommendation. None of the other people at the other check in counters were Scions, so their recommendations would obviously differ from his.

“That seemed to go okay,” Julia said, as they walked past the Teleport Square.

“Decently enough,” Paul said.

Tiffany asked, “Bar? Hotel? Just to find the place, then we go kill some monsters? Make some money.”

Ezekiel said, “Yes. All of that.”

They walked down a road lined with massive trees that showered pink flowers with every gust of wind. The air was cool and filled with the sounds of a major city, with cows clopping down roads and groups of people walking this way and that. It wasn’t long till they came upon the aptly-named Hotel Street where every place was five stories tall and lit with wardlight signage.

“And there’s the hotels!” Ezekiel said.

“Good.” Tiffany said, “Let’s go fight some monsters.”

The group turned right back around.

On the way back to Teleport Square, Ezekiel wondered how close he was to being found out.

Paul sent, ‘They don’t know who you are, and ‘Clan Phoenix’s name is currently flowing up the channels, but if we’ve tripped any protocols, I do not know them. We are known to the local Mind Mage network because… Because we are. But they would never give away that sort of information.’

Ezekiel smiled, sending, ‘That’s an awfully strong word, ‘never’.’

‘Even if we are found out, the culture around here seems to leave powerful people alone, and the powerful people around here tend not to care about anyone aside from themselves.’ Paul sent, ‘It’s all rather stratified. A lot more polite about it all, too.’

‘I wasn’t expecting so much politeness, either.’ Ezekiel sent, ‘I know you don’t want to, but how do you feel about murdering some monsters and ripping out ‘cores’ for profit? Just a bit of that and then we can get to drinking, and possibly talking about your sister, if you want. I’m here to listen.’

‘I'm fine with hunting monsters.’ Paul cracked a smile.‘And… Thanks, Erick— I… Dammit.’

Ezekiel gave no outward sign of mirth. Erick, though, was laughing.

‘I don’t really want to talk about my sister, but I will go for those drinks.’

‘Fair enough.’ Ezekiel nodded, then looked over at the oddly-acting member of his party, asking, “Are you okay, Tiffany?”

Tiffany cautiously whispered, “It’s the eyes. They’re all looking at me. I do not like this part of small-people cities.”

Ezekiel had already seen the problem. Yes; Tiffany was drawing a lot of looks. But there was nothing to be done about that right now.

Soon enough, they were back at the Teleport Square. Crossing the barrier into the white-tiled football-field sized space was like walking out of the rain. Everything felt nicer; less disruptive to his body and mind. His heartburn ceased. He smiled.

Lightforms went out from Odin, and then Odin blipped them all out of the city, to the west, to a spot already scouted; a field in between two villages where there was nothing and no one.

In the distance, the Central Tribulation Mountains lifted up from the rising land like the very surface of the world had been broken and piled on top of itself. Sheer cliffs. Daunting peaks. Clouds caught upon stone like ripped fabric. Greenery grew where it was able. There was a certain wild beauty about it all.

Tiffany let out a massive sigh of relief, exclaiming to the much quieter world, “Fuuuuck! I forgot how awful cities are!”

Ezekiel smiled, saying, “We’ll get you covered in unsightly blood and guts soon enough.”

“Eh…” Tiffany frowned. “The point is to be less sexy. Not more.”

Laughter drifted on the breeze.

As Tiffany said, “Maybe I need a veil, or something.”