Chapter 113: Where Our Feet Take Us

Solara let out one of her mightiest chirps when we entered the common room of this 'Overripe Melon'. The sound was loud enough to carry. Loud enough to make everyone sitting turn in our direction. There were a dozen tables, and all but one of them were empty. Four Beastkin sat at that table, men and women with the faces of horses.

Solara let out another chirp from atop my head. The Beastkin continued to stare at her.

"Hey, it's okay, Sol," Ash said quickly. "They're just trying to get breakfast, like we are." It was wise of her to say it, for the Beastkin of my time had always been quick to anger. Or rather, they had always tried to find an excuse for their anger.

Solara considered the Hero's words. She let out a smaller chirp this time. The Beastkin looked away. Ash led us to one of the empty tables, a circular one with seats for four. I sat down first. Ash sat on my left, and set the satchel next to her. She had left the one that housed the Academy's books behind. Alisa sat on my right. In front of me remained an empty seat. In some ways, these people took things more literally than the System ever did.

Two children wandered between the tables. One of them, a girl taller than her small companion, carried a tray filled with pitchers. She took it over to the table with the Beastkin. The boy regarded us, and ran back through an open door at the far end of the room.

Pale light streamed in from one of the open windows, but the chill of this land was driven back by a large brazier burning in one corner. It gave off a warm glow, such that one half of the room sat in that pale light, and the other half in a deep orange-red.

A woman stepped in through the door the boy had run for. The innkeeper of this establishment, such as it was. She was a short, stout woman, her hair pulled back under some manner of white hat.

The innkeeper approached us, and in her hand was a wooden tablet. One far larger than any I had seen in this world. "Up early, are ya? Coulda slept in. Probably should have, with how late you three wandered in." She looked at all of us, and spared one glance for Sol. "Well? How are the rooms? Won't need to send someone to go and clean them up, will I?" For some reason, she focused on Ash and me as she said this.

Ash let out something that might have been a cough. "That's- The rooms are fine."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Really? Seems like a damn waste to me. You're here for the Hunt, ain't ya? Never know what might happen, so-"

"We have come for food," I cut her off, for if I did not, I suspected we might die of hunger before she stopped on her own.

The innkeeper shrugged, and set the wooden block down on the table in front of us. "Tell me what you need when you're ready. Or ask the kids." Then she was stepping back and away through the door from which she had come.

We watched her go, and then turned our attention to the wooden tablet. Ash and Alisa both leaned in close. Writing glowed across it from its top to its very bottom. They were names and numbers, and the names were… strange.

"Bazour Soup," I mumbled to myself. "Owlbear ribs. Bulette steak. Chimera Three-Tongue pie." These were all food items, clearly. And I recognized some of these names, but not all. The Owlbear had been a beast in my time, and it seemed the people of this city now ate their very ribs.

Next to all of the names ran a list of prices. I knew something of the currency of this world. On our trip outside the Academy, when I had been trying to cure the Hero's ailment, Ren had explained things in exasperating detail. I had paid little attention to her, but it seemed some of her words had stayed in my memory anyway. There were three types of coins in this Covenant -Radiants, Shines, and Glints. Radiants were gold. Shines were silver. Glints were bronze. No doubt there was historical weight to even these names. I did not care for it. A Radiant was worth ten Shines, and each Shine was worth ten Glints.

Perhaps I remembered far too much of that girl's blathering. In my realm, we had counted our wealth in mana crystals. A far better system, for each crystal had its own worth.

Upon waking today, the very first thing the Hero had done was to unload the pouch Arianrhod had given us and count the coin. There had been a hundred Radiants' worth, split across the three denominations. The Hero had stared at the coins for some time, and then worn a rather stricken look. She wore that same look now.

"These prices are robbery," Ash murmured. "We'll be spending Shines no matter what we eat."

"Maybe it's because of the Hunt," Alisa murmured, staring at the same wooden tablet.

"Probably," Ash agreed. "I don't think this place is trying to take advantage of us."

"Is there a problem, Ash?" I asked. "These prices seem small compared to our funds. You did not pay much for the rooms either."

Solara let out a chirp from atop my head. No doubt in agreement. She was craning past my vision to stare down at the wood, as if she too were trying to make sense of it.

"No," Ash murmured, "but it makes me worry about what everything else in this city is going to cost. I'd hoped one of the Hands of the Divine would be generous." The Hero sounded annoyed, which surprised me. I had rarely heard her sound so. It seemed I would need to interrogate this Arianrhod again, when next I saw her.

"So what are we getting?" Alisa said. "I don't recognize any of this."

Solara let out a small chirp. She flew from my head to the table, and craned her neck toward the wooden block. Then she let out a louder chirp, and pecked the wood, directly beneath the very last entry. One that read: Ice Salamander Stew - Ten Glints.

"Is this what you want to have, Solara?" I asked her. The bird turned around, looked at me, and let out a low trill. I reached out and brushed her head.

"I- I don't think she can read this… can she?" Alisa asked. "How would she even-" She shook her head.

"Well, I guess we'll trust her," Ash murmured. The Hero turned and looked around the room. There was no one save for the four Beastkin. One of them was almost hidden behind all of the tankards in front of her.

"I'll go and find her," Ash said, rising. She strode over to what was almost assuredly the kitchen, leaving Alisa and me alone. I watched the Hero go.

Solara had waddled in front of Alisa, who hesitantly reached out and brushed one of Sol's black feathers. Solara permitted this gesture.

"Girl."

Alisa looked across at me, one eyebrow raised. "Don't call me-" She let out a deep sigh. "What is it?"

"I will begin your instruction today, when we return to this inn. You will not tire yourself before then, so that you may devote yourself properly to what I teach you."

I expected something akin to indignation on Alisa's face. What I was met with instead was first surprise, followed by… eagerness. "Very well," the girl said, "if you are sure you can help me."

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. This girl doubted me? "I am perfectly sure. The only thing that remains to be seen is how much you can achieve with my help."

The girl nodded with more seriousness than I expected from her. "Okay." Her chin lowered, just by a fraction.

There was nothing to do but wait. Solara began her rolling, this time in a small circle around the edges of the table. My mind drifted toward the only two sounds in the room. One, the sound of the brazier burning in the corner. The other, the sound of the Beastkin.

"...think it's real? With that kinda money, blight take me, but we wouldn't even have to do a damned thing. Just stay at the ends of Meria for a bit and-"

"You think that fool would pay us for that?"

"Knew a few fellas who did last Hunt. Bet we can get away with it this time too. The fool's an old codger anyway. Last of a dead line, not like he has much choice but to throw coin at-"

Ash emerged from the kitchen and joined us again. She retook her seat. "She said it'll be out in ten minutes."

Solara stopped her rolling to let out a chirp. I did not need to check the bond to know that she was hungry.

We talked and waited. Much of the talking was Ash asking Alisa everything she knew about Azareth. The girl had grown up with many stories, and she recounted some of them now. The Festival of the First Hunt we had seen in Koralis had been a small thing compared to the one that always took place here. She spoke of the sky bursting into flames of a thousand different colors on the night of the festival. Many people traveled to Azareth simply to see them. The sky would burst into flames again, on the night of the Sacred Charge.

Solara listened to this part with an unusual amount of attention.

She spoke of how the great city had once come under siege by an army of undead, nearly two hundred years ago. Decaying corpses who cared not for the cold. Cared not even for themselves. There had been nearly fifty thousand of these corpses, if the girl's telling was to be believed. They had come not long after the year's Hunt had left, and so the city had only its own guards to defend it, and in those times, its people had believed the city impregnable.

Arianrhod had saved the city. The girl spoke of this event as if she had been there herself. She spoke of Arianrhod opening a great tear in the ground around Azareth, such that all of the undead were sent somewhere far, far away. The woman had been only a Crest then, one who had come for the Hunt but whose party had, for some reason, failed to set out with it. Arianrhod had distinguished herself then, and then she had gone on the Hunt itself, and distinguished herself again still. Somewhere on those Ten Thousand Steps, one of the Namestones bore her name. I had missed it.

"She is… at least two hundred years old, then," Ash murmured. She looked at me as she said it.

Arianrhod was a human. I had seen no sign of my blood in her. Nor of the Elves, who also lived long. She was a human, and yet a human who had supposedly lived for two centuries. That should not have been possible, and yet it was.

Was it the woman's mark that allowed her to live so long? I did not see how a power that created tears in the world could cause such a thing. Was it the act of advancing a mark itself? I did not know. And I suspected that if the woman were here in front of me, she would not answer.

Eventually, the two children returned. Each of them carried a large tray, filled with plates and bowls and tankards. And between them came a larger pot, doubtless filled with this stew.

They brought it all to our table. Ash took the tray from the boy, set it on the table, and did the same for the girl. She gave them both a smile. One they did not return as they ran back.

Then Ash lifted the lid from the pot, and we stared.

The stew was blue. A pale, glowing sort of blue. It smelled faintly of frost. If frost could be said to have a smell at all, then this was it. Chunks of darker blue stones floated in that pale blue. Was that supposed to be the meat? I glanced at the tankard, filled with what appeared to be water and nothing else.

"That… does not quite look appetizing," Alisa said slowly.

"It looks like something might still be alive inside," Ash said. She reached out with her finger, and brought it down just before she touched the stew.

Solara let out a confused chirp, her head tilted very far to one side.

We all glanced at each other. Ash, being a Hero, braved the path. She filled up her own bowl first, before filling ours. We stared at our bowls. I regarded mine with immense suspicion. The concoction in front of me certainly looked like poison, but who would give poison that so obviously betrayed its own nature?

For that reason alone, I filled my spoon, and brought it to my mouth.

It was cold. And sweet. Then the first of the stones melted, and with it came a prickling chill that ran all the way down my tongue and my throat. I blinked. I let out a breath. It was cold, and carried with it some tingle my breathing never had.

I had once told Ash that the food of this new world had lost some of its luster. That the stews and the porridges now tasted common. This thing before me would never taste common, no matter how many times I had it.

"What in the world," Ash said next to me. She coughed and reached for the tankard, gulping down the water.

Alisa's entire face had scrunched into an expression I had never seen on anyone before, let alone her.

Solara let out a chirp and looked up at me. Then she looked at the bowl. Then back at me. Her meaning was clear enough.

"Solara," I said, "I do not know if you will appreciate this."

Solara let out a louder, more determined chirp.

"Solara, I would still advise against it."

I stared at her. Her resolve was clear. "Very well," I said, "some lessons must be learned the hard way."

I refilled the spoon and held it out toward her. She pecked once at the strange blue liquid. Then her beak darted forward and came away with one of the chunks of blue meat.

A shiver ran through the whole of her small body. She let out a strange, high pitched squeak.

Her four wings, two golden and two black, flared once together, and then Solara fell onto her side with the tiniest of thuds.

I checked the bond at once. My left hand was already reaching for her, wisps of white fire trailing from my fingers. I blinked again. There was neither distress nor pain. What I felt from Solara instead was only confusion. She was simply trying to understand what had just been done to her.

Ash laughed. "Well, she did warn you, Sol."

Solara let out a chirp in answer, still on her side.

"We will get you proper meat, Sol," I promised her. The bird let out a low trill at that, and made no move to rise.

Then I reached for another spoonful.

The streets of Azareth were even more crowded than they had been the night before. Throngs of people moved in every direction, all of them walking beneath the shadows of bones and a pale sun.

Ash looked back at the inn. This 'Overripe Melon'. The Hero stared at it for some time. "I've had quite a few 'first experiences', and as far as they go…that was definitely one of the stranger ones."

"I did not find it so disagreeable," I said. "Minus the initial shock, which was substantial, it did have some merit."

Ash looked at me as though I had grown a second head. Alisa was giving me a look as well. Solara let out a chirp from atop my head. Whether she was defending me or agreeing with them, even I could not say.

"Well," Ash said, "I imagine that's just the first of many here."

"Indeed," I said.

We began to walk down the busiest of the roads, back toward the great thoroughfare we had first entered the city by. Ash and I walked together. Alisa walked a step behind us. Solara let out large chirps at everyone who passed, and a surprising number of them whistled back, or raised a hand in greeting.

"So, where are we going?" Alisa asked.

"Where our feet take us," I said absently.

"You don't think our timeline warrants urgency?"

"There will be time enough, girl."

"And how can you be sure?" Alisa demanded.

I sighed. Why were humans always in such a rush? I turned back to her and answered. "Because, girl, for all the things we mean to do, haste will do more harm than good."

"Yeah, relax, Alisa," Ash said. "We have a good idea of what we're doing."

Alisa did not seem enthused. She muttered something I chose not to hear, and kept to her place behind us.

Then there was shouting from our right. It came from the open door of an inn we were just then passing.

"-and you better stay out! Lob, throw him or them or whatever the hell he is out!"

"Good man, though I have none of this coin today, the fortunes of today cannot determine-"

"I told you to be more careful of our purse, you did not listen-"

I had just turned toward the commotion when something crashed into me.

The world tipped. Solara went from my crown with an indignant squawk, and then the stone of the street was against my back, and a considerable weight lay across me.

"Lys!" Ash said, from somewhere above.

I grunted, and opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was an arm, braced against the stone beside my head. A forearm of deep ash-grey skin, and upon it was a Crest in the form of a shield.

I looked up, and though there was only one body atop me, that one body had two heads. One was staring with something close to delight. The other was frowning.

It was Malachor.