I got up out of our tangle of bodies to a searing pain in my right fingertips. Deep ring-shaped indents had been carved out of them, the wounds smoking. I drank some healing potion, then looked around.

  The color of the grass on the plains has changed – I think I teleported us with the hourglass on instinct. I hadn’t actually gone unconscious in the flood – that was just the funniest way to write it. I do have a sense of humour.

  Not for long after that fucking catastrophe.

  We don’t know if any of the residents survived Tirio. Even if they did, Grim probably snatched them up afterwards. If not, the monsters would have gotten them – with the walls and their fear rituals down, fresh new territory was available for occupation. That fucking sucks. I never really… failed to protect a civilian before. It’s kind of… the entire adventuring job.

  Maybe a guild patrol would find the ruins soon. I hope they don’t figure out we’re related – or figure out why we ran.

  Bia and Lloyd had also come through coherent, but the zeroes – no, ones, now, though that’s not as catchy – had been disorientated by the translocation. Rosa was groggily coming to while Dan wobbled woozily against one of the rare trees in the plains.

  “...where are we… …?…” Rosa mumbled, sitting up.

  “A lot further south,” Lloyd frowned, glancing at me. “Couldn’t you have just done this earlier?”

  “It’s costly,” I bullshitted in need of an excuse. “I probably can’t again for bit.” I showed him the burns on my fingers. “This is volatile magic.”

  “What magic?” Dan asked, returning from the tree with his composure again intact.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I brushed it off without a second glance.

  “Seems like it might matter – ”

  I yawned loudly (Lloyd giggled). “We’re closer to Troltano, at least. Is anyone hurt?”

  “By your secrecy!” Rosa complained.

  “Seems we’re all good then, ” I said to Dan’s raised but impassive eyebrows.

  “We’re not, I’m still hungry,” Bia said. “Did you end up buying anything from the shops…?”

  “No. Grim was in them.”

  “Shit,” Bia looked queasy.

  “I still have those burgers…” Lloyd started.

  “No.”

  “no.”

  “No!”

  “NO.”

  Unfortunately, we’d sold most of our monster meats a few towns back and the rend from the devorean was so high rank it’d probably give even Lloyd a seizure. We had to settle for a bunch of fruits I stored in a cooling bag in a dimensional sack – very convoluted, but it works – and Bia and Lloyd’s unnaturally large stash of that Anyrysm stuff. I still don’t get it. The brand is literally named after a brain malfunction – though I suppose if you yourself don’t have one, it probably doesn’t do much?

  I munched on an apple, Bia meticulously scraping down the core of another to the millimetre.

  “D’you think anyone made it out?” she said, uncharacteristically quiet. That meant she was either joking or not joking. There is no algorithm to my sister.

  “Doubt it,” I said, wincing inwardly but continuing. “Grim could kill any of us with ease. A buncho tierless villagers haven’t a chance.”

  “Well, most of us,” Bia rolled her wrists ambiently. “You have that goofed up hourglass.”

  “I – actually, have been meaning to ask you.”

  Raised eyebrow, perking up a little. “Hmm?”

  “Duskir said you were supposed to have it.”

  “Ah,” she slumped again. “That’s right, yes. When did you…?”

  “I, well, I thought it prudent to get some context before we left –”

  Her eyes darted around, t-seven processing jumping through connections.

  “The truth potion,” the diodes blinked and narrowed.

  “Yup,” I raised my hands in defeat. “Look, you know she never would’ve said shit if I didn’t, alright? That was the only way to make her –”

  “I thought,” she snarled low, wary of the others. They seemed engaged in another mock argument. “We, yes, we, meaning you and me, learned our lesson the first time dealing with old Dusky and Faey, the first time being, the twelve fucking years we spent under their thumbs.”

  “Look, Bee, you might have some prejudice against these people, but whatever the opinion or the truth Duskir had info and it could be retrieved even if her mental state can’t. What I told you that night with Lloyd about the descended from a deity thing and –”

  “And what did it change?” Bia said. “It doesn’t damn matter where the red lightning comes from it matters we have the fucking lightning. You’re lucky she didn’t like, do something you again she always gets angry I’ve no doubt and you USED A GODDAMN TRUTH POTION? DO YOU KNOW HOW BADLY THAT COULD HAVE BACKFIRED?!”

  I glanced worriedly at the others, but they were being just as loud. Probably fine.

  “I had it under control,” I scoffed. “I brewed the thing myself.”

  “You’re not an alchemist, you’re a monster hunter. Sources say; that’s worse.”

  “I know what I’m doing. And look, it turned out fine – and we are going to Troltano to talk to Faelorn, remember?”

  “Hmmph. I was hoping to just go to the guild.”

  “We have a connection in the guild. We may as well leverage it.”

  “This connection is more likely to advocate against us than for us, Ari. You know what Faelorn was like!”

  “He was teaching.”

  “Teaching my ass. Didn’t he mention he and Duskir dropped out of whatever university they were in whatever country it was we came from? The man has zero temper and zero patience.”

  “We can still try.”

  “I really think going to Faelorn will actively decrease our chances. We should just go to the damn guild office.”

  “Whatever. We’ll figure that out later!”

  “You’re just gonna go to him anyway aren’t you?”

  “No matter. Why did you refuse the hourglass?”

  “Why would I take it? I didn’t need it.”

  “It’s immensely useful.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “For problems that it caused! You could just let it go. Throw it out somewhere and let Grim find it on its own, that must be harder to track than you are.”

  “Grim’s a sadistic demon. It would kill us whether we had the hourglass or not.”

  “You don’t know that!”

  “How can I not?” I sneered. “What happened to Tirio? What happened to the innocent shopkeepers that just so happened to be in the path of where I was going? I’ll tell you what and you’d vomit at the sight you bloody lightweight: it strung them up, Bia. It strung them up like puppets – not even puppets, fucking chains or strings or ropes, little lengths of tendon and blood and whatever other viscera it got its hands on. Did they do anything to deserve that?”

  “...” Bia sighed, then slumped backwards and lay in the grass. “And we just ran, didn’t we.”

  “It was the correct choice. We didn’t stand a chance.”

  “Couldn’t you have… teleported some of the townspeople…”

  “I could have blown up or something. Just us five burnt holes in my fingers. And who decides which of them come with? How many people could I have transported, how many people were living there? Where do I draw the line? If I took on even one more villager, how could I afford to leave any others?”

  “So you just give up? Don’t do anything?”

  “It’s not giving up.”

  “Whatever helps you sleep at night,” she scoffed.

  “I am not sleeping at night, Bia. I know full well I will be mentally berating myself for failing to help for hours and hours. Our jobs as adventurers are to protect anyone we can, and to mourn those we couldn’t.”

  “No. Our jobs as adventurers are to protect everyone. We did that fine in Javenshard, because it’s a low magic area. Maybe this failure is a sign to try improving, like I suggested so many times. Maybe if we’d left Javenshard for once in our goddamn lives we could have grown strong enough to blitz that devorean and even hold off Grim.”

  “That’s a pipe dream. Progression doesn’t go that fast.”

  “If you’re a sane person sure, but clearly you ain’t. Not my point, anyway.”

  “I heard your point and disagree with it.”

  “Ari, you need to listen – ”

  “We should set up camp, Bia. It’s getting late.”

  We slept the night in the plains, then began heading south again, hoping to find a landmark to get our bearings. Unfortunately, the plains were as advertised – we’d have to bet on a village or coming across other adventurers, which there weren’t much of in these parts.

  Monster spawns, although decently high tier, were uncommon around here, which is how the settlements get away with having so little combative ability. They aren’t usually aggressive unless they get super close, and the fear rituals on town walls keep them away. Villages may not have combatants, but there’s usually someone with some baseline auramancy knowledge. Fear rituals are the most standardized and well-known arrangements in Eorwin.

  Eventually we did come across a small town by pure chance, where we stocked up on food and supplies and asked for a precise map location, from which I remapped a route back to Troltano. We’d somehow overshot it and had to head west with a little northwest in as well.

  The treks were long and boring save for the occasional monster encounter. Even our t-seven stamina began to wear down despite the constant stopping for the sake of the t-ones. The longer the trip went, the more I regretted bringing them along. We would probably be at Troltano by now, and it was miraculous that they hadn’t been killed by monsters or Grim.

  Not soon enough, the towers of Troltano became visible in the distance.

  High Haelcrien architecture was a sight to behold. Gold and red colours were baked into every building, with sharp geometric patterning and those iconic right-triangle skyscrapers. Great domes blossomed slightly over sightline of the walls, which were thicker than any town’s we’d seen.

  We walked towards the great eastern gates, joining a sparse but there traffic flow of carriages and horseriders. Very few people were on foot like us. Bia had expressed her miserations on the loss of the hexacampi, but nothing could be done. Backtracking would probably lead to us running into Grim again.

  The gate hovered high above us, at least a few hexacampi height, in comparison to the lousy gates of the smaller towns. The fear rituals on these walls were suitably grander and more impressive – not that they were required. The sheer amount of high-tier Presences would scare off any monsters looking for easy prey. Any stupid enough to approach anyway would be swiftly wiped out.

  The inside of the city wall was littered with small rectangular houses, unevenly scattered between the heels of taller round buildings and the occasional skyscraper. I took a trip into a nearby visitor centre, bothered for a map, and came back out to look for lodgings.

  “How can they build this high?!” Rosa exclaimed for just about the fiftieth time in a row. Rosa had never left Javenshard before – Dan had been to the big cities for his education, however.

  “Magic and the Governance, mostly,” Lloyd said. “It outlines construction and does other helpful stuff for construction workers. All of this is also reinforced metal.”

  “Wow,” she said, and nothing after, still gazing at the towers. Dan tapped her shoulder when she stopped.

  “It’s been a while since I’ve seen a place like this…” Lloyd said, sidling over. “Edenthein was bigger though. Lots of marble and azurite too, and they liked rounder architecture. The Limril Estate is basically a big globe perched on a cylindrical plinth.”

  “Cool,” I said. “Bia and I don’t know where we immigrated from. But we do know it was also a capital city somewhere. Perhaps just as impressive.”

  “That’s if they were telling the truth,” Bia muttered darkly.

  Lloyd raised an eyebrow. I shrugged cluelessly.

  “So, d’you even know where Faelorn works?”

  Bia sighed to another of Lloyd’s eyebrows.

  “We don’t,” I said shiftily. “We’ll find him.”

  “Did he never give you a mail address or…”

  “No.”

  “Ah, okay.”

  “‘Ello?” came another voice. A man with a red beard approaching the level of ‘plummage’ walked over to us. He also bore some kind of sheriff hat and an underlying Presence he was quite adept at hiding. “Did I hear you mention my coworker?”

  My eyes shot up. “You know Faelorn Hastor?”

  “Yeah, the long-eared guy – wait, you have the ears too.”

  “I’m his daughter.”

  “He never mentioned he had a dau- oh, I see how it is,” he looked awkward. “My… commiserations.”

  “No need, ” I shrugged, cold. “It’s a known thing. Anyway, we’re looking for him.”

  “He’s probably doing paperwork in the guild office,” the man shook his head. “Poor old man lost his touch when his team was wiped – what, a decade back? – now he just does paperwork! But, yeh, I can take you there.”

  “Great, thanks.”

  We started walking, Rosa and Lloyd both peppering the local about Troltano. Lloyd went for political landscape and boring shit; Rosa wasn’t so intellectually circumspect.

  “Are there any other guilds in Haequ – ”

  “How many monsters have you killed?!!! Or people. I take those too.”

  “What?”

  The man led us down several large, open streets into the courtyard of an oddly flat building complex, going for horizontal rather than vertical space as opposed to the skyscrapers. The front gate had a crest in gold sculpture, showing a sword surrounded by fancy lettering reading ‘H.Q.R.’

  “Right here. Go straight and you’ll find the receptionist and they can take you to Faelorn. Probably,” he smiled. “Well, good luck with the old man. He’s kind of an unreceptive arse, has been since school.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Bia said.

  “You knew Ari’s dad in school? Where’d he go?” Rosa asked.

  I whirled my eyes, locked right back on the man. “How did you meet Faelorn.”

  “Long story, sorry friend,” he grinned.

  I narrowed my eyes. “What’s your name?”

  “I’m sure it’ll dawn on you eventually,” he said, and dashed off at high-tier speed without another word.

  Only when we were in the guild building did I realize ‘dawn’ had a double meaning.

  I seethed inwardly at Arodorros’ deception, but also at myself for not seeing it before. I bet that red-haired thing in the forest had been him too. What did Dawne want with us?!

  I approached the secretary, a middle-aged man, looking to be around our tier. Probably had administration related abilities. Paper sorting, infinite ink, that kind of thing. He was writing on a document.

  “Hello,” I said, placing a hand on the desk.

  “Hello,” said the secretary drearily without looking up. “How can I help.”

  “We’re looking for Faelorn Hastor.”

  “Good luck,” he scoffed. “Right wing, floor three, room 137.”

  “That was fast, you knew all that?” Rosa asked.

  “Yes. We all know the horrors of room 137.”

  “Not ominous at all!” Rosa called, Dan dragging her to follow us.

  We walked up and around several flights of nonsensical stairs and corridors – navigating the building was not as simple as the clerk had made out.

  Room 137 looked just like the others, with a sleek metal doorframe and hardwood door. Though, the silver handle appeared to be shaken a little loose of its socket. No doubt Father’s slamming habit.

  I knocked.

  Three spaced out steps from the other side and the creaking of metal hinges.

  The door opened a crack, a purple eye peering from the other side.

  “Aryon,” it said in barely disguised derision, and then slammed the door in my face.