Chapter 113 Even Newer Accommodations.

The line moved quickly, and soon we stood before the gates of Azareth.

Six men manned the gate. Five of them -four humans and one Beastkin- bore Crests in varying shapes and forms. These five inspected everyone who passed, before waving them through to the city proper. In Koralis, people with Crests had walked with their backs steady and their chests out. In the Academy, they were the highest of ranks save for the Archon himself. Here, five of them stood checking entrants at a single gate.

The sixth man stayed back. He lay face-first upon a table, and appeared to be… asleep. None of the other guards seemed to pay this any mind at all.

"Halt," the man in the lead said. His silver armor shone in the light of the massive brazier burning behind him. "Card," he said, one hand extended outward.

We had seen this as we had gotten close to the line's end. The people who walked through each held out a small wooden tablet for the guards, who would inspect it before letting them through. A wooden tablet that had looked remarkably like the ones I had seen in the Academy. These ones were made from a darker wood. We possessed no such device, and Arianrhod had not mentioned it.

"We don't have a 'card,' friend," Ash said, stepping forward. Solara poked more of her head out from the Hero's collar, until she was half falling out of it. "We only just arrived in Azareth."

The lead man eyed all three of us, and then he eyed Solara. "You three are here for the Hunt, then?"

"Yes," Alisa said.

The man nodded and stepped aside. He gestured toward the guard who still lay asleep on his table. "Go talk to Dietrich, then. He'll give you yours. Best not lose it, either. If you're caught without it, we'll assume you snuck in. And then we'll assume why you snuck in, and things won't go well for you after that."

A rather obvious threat, but the man did have a Crest. One in the shape of a brown drum.

We walked past him, and past his fellow soldiers, and drew close to the large table. This guard had been asleep for some time, judging by the growing puddle of drool directly beneath his face. He was an older man, though not so old as the Archon. Half his head was black, the other half was grey.

Alisa and I each took a step back. Ash looked at us, then back at the man. She shrugged and stepped forward. "Hey, friend. We want to get our cards. We came here for the Hunt," Ash said, loud enough for the man to hear. The man did not stir.

Ash put a hand on the table and lightly jostled it. He twitched and squirmed on the table, mumbled something under his breath that I did not hear, and stayed asleep.

What manner of guard was this? A sentry caught sleeping in my Dark Tower would have been hung from the ceiling above a pit of Split Vipers, and that would have been considered a mercy. I stepped forward to take the man by the collar and jostle him myself.

Solara let out an angry chirp of tremendous volume from Ash's collar. She flew to the table beside the man. She chirped again, loud enough that her entire body trembled with it. Then she leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek.

"W-what?!" the man cried out. In an instant he had fallen backward onto the ground, toppling the chair he had been sitting on. "We're- we're under attack! To arms, to ar-" He paused, and saw the bird glaring down at him from the table's edge. Then he turned and saw us.

"We want our cards," Ash said with a smile. She gestured back at us. "We're here for the Great Hunt. The guards told us we could get them from you."

"Oh," the man said slowly. He rose, and rubbed at his eyes. They were distinctly red with tiredness. "My bad. I'll get you your permits." He fished somewhere inside his pockets.

Solara let out a satisfied huff and turned around. She waddled to the far edge of the desk and flew to my head. It seemed it was warm enough down here that she no longer felt the need to collapse herself inside anyone's collar.

I reached up and brushed her feathers. "That was a commendable job, Sol." The tiny phoenix let out a trill.

The man produced three of the wooden tablets and set them on the table before us in a neat row.

"Now, the process is simple." He glanced at the three of us. "You channel a bit of Essence into these pieces, and the wood does the rest. These are called Identification cards, and they are proof that you entered Azareth legally. Since you came here for the Hunt, your cards will mark you as such." He paused. "But before any of that, you must accept a series of vows. Consider them an acknowledgement that you understand the goodwill under which you are being allowed into this city."

I had seen the vows of this world. Ones that bound one's actions, and were exactly as literal as their wording. They were chains, and I did not relish the thought of wearing chains just to enter this city.

"Do these vows of yours bind?" I asked.

The man looked at me. "No. They're not binding oaths. They're a promise, nothing more. If we started taking true vows at this gate, the city would empty overnight." He paused, and scratched at his jaw. "Though maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing."

"A series of vows," I said dryly. "And just what would these 'vows' be?"

"You vow to stay in this city no longer than it takes to walk the Great Hunt. When the Hunt sets out, you set out with it, or you leave the way you came. If you do overstay, then you acknowledge that you can overstay for no more than a period of three months. You do not linger -not unless someone with the authority to grant it says you may. And for as long as you are here, you follow the rules and laws of Azareth, to the best of your ability."

Arianrhod had mentioned none of this either. The terms were simple enough. I turned the man's words over several times, and I could find no hidden trap that lay in them even if these vows were binding. These people were rather carefree with who they let into their city.

"Is that all?" Ash asked.

"Yes," the man said. He folded his arms and waited, and only then did I see the mark upon them.

It was a green vine, thick across the man's left arm. Red flowers bloomed all along that vine, slowly opening and closing in a rhythm that almost looked like breathing. I stared. It was a Rune. A stage above even a Crest. That put this man on the same footing as the Archon who had once brought me to my knees. Moreover, it was the first time I had ever seen a mark that was two colors at once. Even Edda's mark had been something shifting between blue and red. This was both red and green at the same time, and it was neither more than the other.

Perhaps that was why they were so carefree. For in Azareth, someone with a Rune could be found holding a gate.

Ash had noticed too, judging by the way she had gone very still. Atop my head, Solara's golden eyes were fixed on the blooming flowers, her head tilted very far to one side.

"My apologies," Alisa said, stepping in front of the desk, "but would you happen to be Dietrich Helsen?" She said the name with some level of reverence.

"I am," the man said with a small nod.

"Girl, what do you know of him?" I asked her. That he was important was clear enough. It seemed he was far more than just the keeper of a sleepy table.

Alisa looked back at me, then at the man. "He's- well, we already saw his name. It was on one of the Namestones. The one hundred and seventy-eighth. Dietrich Helsen, the-"

"That will do," the man said. His face had gone faintly red. "Sorry, but I get enough of that already." He gestured back at the wooden tablets. "Come now. Take your vows. It is already drawing late, and it will be hard enough to find an inn as it is."

Ash took one of the wooden slabs. "Does it matter which type of Essence I use?" She glanced down at her two marks, one purple and one black.

"It does not," the man said.

Ash nodded, and from her I felt the faintest of Essence. Essence that tasted like separation. The wood lit up in her hand. For a moment, it shone white. Then the light slowly began to fade, and what it left behind were a few simple lines, written in glowing letters.

Ash Vale.

Hunt Aspirant.

Marks: Two Sigils.

1: Sovereign. 2: Cipher.

Party Name: Undecided.

"Rather impressive," Ash mused.

Dietrich leaned forward to glance at the small slab. His eyes widened, and then he looked at Ash with far more consideration than he had been paying her before. His gaze flicked to her arms, to the branching patterns of purple and black. I wondered if he knew which was which.

"Well… don't see that every day," Dietrich murmured. "But I suppose you see it more and more, the closer it gets to the Hunt. You won't have any trouble at all finding someone. Even with a Sigil, I'd bet."

What strange technology. Ash had doubtless done nothing more than channel Essence, and yet the device had read her, in some fashion. A device like this could have existed in the old world, but it would have been a rare find. The kind of thing obtainable only through a Quest given by the System, or perhaps forged by someone with an unusual Class. It would not have been something handed out at the gate of a city. Koralis had only been the start of this new world's strangeness, then.

"Come on then, young missy," the man said, "there are other people waiting."

Alisa stepped forward next and took one of the wooden squares. It lit up a moment later, and the light faded back to reveal its lines of text.

Alisa Wulfram.

Hunt Aspirant.

Marks: One Line.

1: Axiom.

Party Name: Undecided.

"Here," Alisa said, turning the wood over so the man could see.

Dietrich nodded slowly. "A Line," he murmured to himself, and looked up at Alisa, who regarded him with her raised chin. "Are you sure about this lass? If you came here for some other reason, we'll still let you in. You don't have to-"

"I came here for the Great Hunt," Alisa said, "And I am quite sure."

Dietrich regarded her for a long moment. He brushed one hand in his hair. "Well, alright then," he said, and did not sound happy about it.

Then the man looked at me. I stepped forward and took the last of the three. I held it in my left hand, and was careful to channel only Cradle Essence. These things clearly read the person using them, in some fashion. The whole thing lit up, and when it finally dimmed, I saw exactly what I had expected.

Lysanthia.

Hunt Aspirant.

Marks: Two Sigils.

1: Sovereign. 2: Sovereign.

Party Name: Undecided.

The man's eyes had gone wide when he had seen Ash's card. His whole face went pale when he saw mine. His gaze lingered on it for some time. "Lysanthia," he murmured, looking up at my face, and then farther up at my horns, where Sol sat. "You really believe that, huh?"

I raised an eyebrow. "It is my name."

The man shook his head. "I've heard of stranger things. But you have two Sovereigns too." He gestured at my arms. "This year's Hunt really is going to be special," he said, half muttering to himself. "Just try and stay out of trouble. And…" He paused and looked at the three of us, then back at me. "Well, don't normally say this but try not to show that card to anyone unless you can help it." He gestured at Ash and Alisa. "Use their cards if someone asks."

A strange request, though I could see the wisdom in it well enough. I carried marks these people considered impossible.

"Tell us more about the city, friend," Ash said. "We know about the Great Hunt, but we don't know all that much about Azareth itself. You mentioned finding an inn, and we'd like to find one without wasting too much time looking around."

The man gave the Hero a knowing look. As if this happened often, and it was not strange at all for someone to come to a city knowing nothing about it. Perhaps, for this one city, that much was true. "Just past these gates is the Recreation District. That's where all the inns and most of the taverns are. I'd suggest finding your rooms quickly -the prices climb by the hour. Then…" He put one hand on his chin. "There's the Hunters District. That's where the Adventurer's Guild is. Where all the training yards are. Where most of the recruiting for the Hunt happens. There's the Food District right next to that. We have the Craftsman District. I'd suggest going there first thing to make sure you're ready. And finally, there's the Temple District, at the very center of the city. That's where you'll go for the Sacred Charge. On the other end of the city is the Farming District, can't imagine you'll have anything to do there." He finally finished his explaining.

I listened to all of this with some attention. Compared to the Academy, where absolutely nothing followed logic, this Azareth had been built by someone with some sense in them.

"Thank you, that's a huge help," Ash smiled.

The man nodded and waved us on behind him, toward the large open gates. Then we stepped forward, joining the small trickle of people already making their way through, and we were finally in Azareth.

Azareth was massive. We came out onto a street wide enough for half an army to march down abreast, and the street was full. There were people everywhere, moving in every direction in a hundred small currents. Buildings rose on every side and from somewhere far in the distance came music. And all of it, every street that I could see, curled slowly inward, so that the whole city seemed to be on a slight incline.

"Wow," Alisa said, after a moment.

"It's… well, you couldn't see all of this from up high," Ash agreed.

Solara let out a chirp of tremendous volume from atop my head. I did not need the bond to know she was looking everywhere at once. I checked it anyway, and found only wonder flooding back. She loosed a second, approving chirp at the nearest brazier, as though the fire had been lit in her honor. There were many of them all along the roads.

I had seen many cities across my long life. Some few I had visited myself. Many more I had only ever seen from far above, through a spell. I had seen Yggdrasil, the great capital of the elves, raised in the heart of the World Tree itself. I had seen Nidavellir, carved into the heart of Mount Hal, where the Dwarves had once kept their finest works. This Azareth did not exceed either of them. But it competed, and that alone was surprising enough.

There were hundreds of people in sight. Thousands, perhaps, if one counted every window and doorway.

"We should find an inn," Alisa said, taking a step forward. Many of the men and women around us were doing exactly that, peeling off toward the establishments lining either side of the road. Then the girl hesitated, and looked back at us. "Erm… do either of you have any ideas?"

I had not spared this any thought. It was simple enough. I would go to the finest of these establishments and demand their finest rooms, as was proper. I had spent a night in an inn once, on the road between Hamel and Koralis. The lodging itself had been adequate. What had happened inside its walls had not been, though I would never let an incident like that repeat. Solara chirped from my head, as if she had read my thoughts.

"Hmm." Ash looked around. "This sure brings back memories. Just follow me. I'll find us someplace."

Then the Hero was walking. Alisa and I looked at each other and hurried to follow. Ash was leading us away from the main road, away from where the most impressive of the buildings stood.

"Where are you going, Ash?" I asked.

"The ones out front are all going to be full, overpriced, or both," Ash said, glancing around as she walked. "We'd be fools to even waste our time on them."

I paused. I supposed this was something the Hero would know a great deal about. Far more than I did. Beside me, Alisa looked openly relieved. Doubtless the girl knew even less of it than I.

Ash led us to inn after inn. Each time, she would step inside and speak with the keeper, and each time she would come back out and keep walking.

The fourth time she left an establishment that seemed fine enough, I finally asked. "What was wrong with that one?"

"The price was too low for a place that nice. It made no sense. I don't plan on finding out just how they meant to make up for that."

"I see," I said. After that, I stopped questioning the Hero's judgment entirely.

By the seventh inn, Solara had begun fussing with her chirps. By the ninth, Alisa was dragging her feet across the streets and even I could not keep myself from yawning.

The tenth inn stood two streets off the main road, beneath a painted sign of a melon that had been split open. The sign called it 'the Overripe Melon'.

The innkeeper was a woman who had offered us either three rooms, or one. Ash hesitated. Color climbed her neck. I set one hand on the Hero's shoulder.

"Two," I said.

The woman looked at my hand. She looked at Ash's face. Then she nodded, slowly.

Alisa opened her mouth as if to argue. Then she muttered something under her breath I only just heard. "Ren would kill me." She raised no objection after that.

I did not understand, and I did not ask.

Our room held a single large bed. That was good, for I had been preparing myself to burn a second if there had been one.

"This took some time, Hero," I said. My body betrayed me, and the smallest of yawns escaped my lips.

On the bed, Solara let out a small half-yawn of her own as she waddled its length, inspecting the blankets. Occasionally, the baby phoenix would fall over, and each time she was slower to rise. She was truly tired then.

"Sorry," Ash said. "I didn't think there would be so many people trying to take advantage of us."

"Well. I suppose I can admire caution," I said, sitting down on the bed's edge.

Ash sat down across from me and worked at the buttons of her coat. She did it slowly, and in the unbuttoning her focus was elsewhere. Somewhere far away. She undid a button, then did it again, and then undid it a second time. I had seen something of this today.

A few times, I had caught the Hero staring without seeing. Outside, with the girl accompanying us, I had said nothing. Right now, I stared at the Hero. It took Ash ten full seconds with her far keener senses to notice.

She blinked, and then she turned toward me. "What is it?" she asked.

"Is everything alright?" I asked her.

Ash reached down and touched the necklace I had given her. Her thumb traced the stone. "Yeah. I've just been thinking about that stone."

"The Namestone?"

"Yes," Ash said. "I wonder why it's there at all." Her gaze had gone down entirely to the necklace.

I had considered the same question. This Divine had made herself a God, and if she had done only that, everything would have been simple. Instead, she had carved that stone with the names of three others. Their names were wrong and distorted, but they had been carved all the same. Her own had been reduced to just a title. What that meant, I did not know. It seemed the Hero did not know either.

"Who can say. But if there is an answer, perhaps we will find it somewhere during this Hunt."

Ash looked up at me and smiled. It was a small smile, but something about it was still bright. "Yeah. I guess you're right, Lys."

The Hero was quiet for several moments. "And what about you?" she asked. "When you first saw the city, you looked…odd."

I had meant to discuss this with Ash. It had not occurred to me that it would happen so soon. "What do you know of Ozriel?"

"Ozriel." The Hero's brows furrowed. "Just what everyone knows from the books. You killed him a long time ago. Some of the Gods mentioned it once or twice. They didn't sound too happy about it. But other than that, nothing."

They certainly would not have. For the death of Ozriel was the first sign that the Gods might not have been quite so infallible as they had been pretending all along. "I believe this city is built under Ozriel's remains," I said. "I do not recognize much of the land, but I believe the skeleton fits well enough. Still, there is something strange about this. He was poisoned by Echidna, and so his corpse should never have rotted. And yet now it is only bone."

"Huh," Ash said slowly. She looked away from me, at the closed window, as if she could see through it and past it, to the skeleton that surrounded this Azareth. "From Ozriel to Azael. I can see that," she murmured to herself. "I didn't think he was so..." She searched for the word. "Gigantic." There was wonder in the way she said it. Strange, to hear that now, when we had spent the better part of a day descending Ozriel's shadow.

"Power and size are not the same thing," I said, "but in this case, they were related. Out of all the creatures that walked the world, Ozriel was one of the largest. It is said that he flew between the stars." The priests had said that with much reverence. I had brought him back down to earth.

"And you slew him." Ash sighed and shook her head. "I suppose it's not that surprising. I grew up on the stories." Then she looked back at me. "And Echidna. I've heard the stories about her. They were enough to keep every child in my village up at night." Ash said this as if the stories still kept her up at night.

Echidna had been lost to me before Ash's time. "Her poison could suspend one of the natural laws of the world," I said. "Without her, defeating Ozriel at all would have been…difficult." My voice was calm. I had to make it so. Solara let out a chirp that sounded distinctly confused.

"I see." Ash's gaze was soft. The Hero said nothing more, and neither did I.

Solara broke the silence between us. She waddled up the bed, close to me. She let out a loud chirp. I looked down at her and brushed her head. Solara let out a small trill.

"Lys, we're going to have a busy day tomorrow," Ash said. "What do you want to do first? We need to arm ourselves, and we need to find a companion. I'd like to find out more about the Hunt too. We'll probably find out more here than we did at the Academy."

Arianrhod had given us four days, and we had spent one of them climbing down to this Azareth. We had three left. In those three days, we would need to find our fourth, equip ourselves, and learn more about the Hunt. All three of those tasks were important. None of them called to me.

"I would like to see something of this Azareth first, Ash," I said, lifting Solara up with both hands. The tiny bird yawned, her big golden eyes slowly closing.

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"This Azareth is one of the greatest cities in this new world," I said, "I would like to see it first. Some small portion of it, at least."

Ash looked briefly confused. Then she grinned, and it was not a Hero's grin at all. "You know, once you wouldn't have been able to admit that," she said, "You would have said 'this tiny city is but a hamlet, I would sooner study the motion of insects'-" I cleared my throat. Loudly. Ash's smile widened. "Well, it's fine. I don't mind. Besides, we might get farther looking around than we would if we set out with a goal."

"You say this like you have experience with it," I pointed out.

"I do," Ash agreed, "You'd be surprised just how many times something like that happened on my own journey. Even the quiet days usually had something happen that made them not so quiet anymore."

Once, I had told Ash of the way certain Classes pulled and twisted the world around them. Bent themselves to create stories. It had drawn my Generals to me -all but one. For the Hero, it seemed to have manifested in this way.

"Then it truly is a wise use of time," I said. Of course it would be, for I had come up with it. "Even a Queen's idle musings have some me-" The words were cut off by a traitorous yawn. It had been some time since I had last slept. I set Sol back down on the bed, where she tipped over on her side.

Ash laughed, and crossed the room, and turned down the lantern. We lay down on the bed. There was some distance between us, at the start. The bed was far bigger than the one in the Academy. Then Ash moved closer, and I moved closer still, and the distance was nothing at all. The Hero reached out and took my hand. I let her.

Solara waddled over and lay down next to our joined hands, and let out her last chirp of the night.

The Hero was asleep quickly, as she always was. The Ember Core hummed faintly, as it always did now.

Tomorrow, we would start the preparations for this Great Hunt in earnest. A journey that might end with us granted an audience with someone claiming to be a God. With our names carved into the one hundredth and eighty-second Namestone on those Ten Thousand Steps.

Perhaps it would not be so disagreeable to leave a mark on this land that was not a crater and a corpse larger than a mountain.