Two travelers entered from the opposite direction of Vel and Spair. Both were tall, wearing cloaks that covered their bodies. Their features hid behind masks of their Divine Beasts. The one on the right mask was of Dog with long blond hair framing their face. The one on the left had short dark hair that stood up as spikes. It barely rose above the Snake mask. To most, they looked like normal travelers, outside of the obvious expense of their materials.

The cloaks were finely woven of a fabric that none within the town had seen. The wore boots instead of the normal sandals, of a fine leather without a scuff on them. But the thing all who looked upon them notice was their masks.

The Snake looked alive. The scales, though black, seemed to reflect red, orange, gold, pink, or yellow. The fangs were pure white, with eyes of silver and pupils of purple. As if it was painted on, blue scales surrounded the eyes. And many a villager would swear that a tongue of green and brown flickered between those lips.

The Dog was similar. Purple fur coated its face with silver streaks. The inside of its ears were gold, fading into brown. Its teeth were, with a pink tongue lolling out. Its nose was black, with blue fur surrounding it. And its eyes did not match. One was red and orange, the other green and yellow.

None barred their way as they walked. After a single glance, each person would keep their head down and pretend they did not see the two. A wide berth was given, even as they entered the busier part of the town. All remained at least an arm’s distance, even if that meant crowding their neighbors or being pressed against a table.

To the travelers, they moved at a leisurely pace, beginning at the high-class inns and taverns before moving towards the less affluent areas. At each place they stopped, they simply entered and walked around before leaving. Only once did one of them seemed to react, pausing in the center of town where the market was held.

It was there that Vel and Spair saw the pair. Fortunately, Spair kept her mouth closed, copying the crowd as they quickly moved through the crowd towards their teacher. Vel noticed that the one wearing the Dog seemed to look their direction before their partner pulled them towards the slums. Vel licked his lips, feeling the cold sweat that seemed to spring from nowhere.

“I believe he is this way” Snake began.

“Does it matter?” Dog replied. “The candidate is in town. It will be easy enough to track him or her down if we revealed ourselves.”

Snake looked at Dog, the mask somehow showing skepticism. “We’re wearing out cultivators masks. We already have revealed ourselves.” With that, he continued down the street.

A short while and a quick conversation with an unfortunate soul who didn’t escape in time, the two travelers came across a dive.

“I thought he would be someplace nice.” Dog began.

“He was cast down. Even if he began there, I doubt that they would let him stay.”

Entering, the noticed that dive didn’t properly convey what it was. Inside there was a table with two chair and what charitably could be called a bar. It looked more like a counter stolen from a dilapidated structure. There weren’t even stools by the counter, not that it mattered. The floor was covered in saw dust as a cheap way to keep it clean, not that the dust had been changed. It stank of piss, vomit, and stale beer. There wasn’t even a bar tender, just a cask of ale that people served themselves.

There were three men inside the dive. Two large men with hands the size of granite. One had his Boar already out, not that the Best looked ready for a fight. Both stood as far away from the new comers as possible within the cramp space. The third wore stained clothes, drinking at the table. The only notable features was the sheath at his waist and his hair. His beard seemed to have merged with his hair, giving him what looked to be a mane. An oily, messy mane but a mane nonetheless.

As Snake and Dog moved towards the drinker, the other two dashed out the door. The Boar returning to the its stable. The drinker instead rose up, ignoring the two as he moved towards the cask. Dipping his cup in, he took a drink before staring the two down.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

They stood that way, the masked watching the drunk while the drunk continued to drink. Finally Snake broke the silence.

“Does that even do anything?” He asked.

“No.” The voice cracked as if it was the first time being used.

The silence returned. Snake watched as the drunk dipped his cup and emptied it at a steady rate. Dog began looking for someplace reasonable to sit.

“Would you like to join us and get something that would?” Snake inquired.

“No.” It was clearer now, the ale at least making it easier to speak.

“Where’s your face?” Dog asked, giving up her attempt to find someplace to sit.

“On my head.”

“Your cultivator face.” Dog replied exasperated.

“Not a cultivator anymore. Only got the one face.”

“Despite your injury, you are still a cultivator.” Snake calmly responded, folding his hands across his chest.

“Despite your claims, I am not.” The drunk replied in the same calm tone.

“Oh for the love of.” Dog’s mask changed, morphing from something expensive but fake into real muscle and fur. Its expression changed to reveal her frustrated gaze. “Torman, you don’t get to stop being a cultivator just because you feel like it.”

“No, I get to stop being a cultivator because I can’t cultivate. Its in the name.” Torman countered, still steadily drinking from the cask. Snake stared at it, noticing the level never changed.

“Is that?” He began.

“If it is you either should know already or not. Either way I am not telling you.” Torman turned to stare Dog directly in her eyes. They were the same as he remembered. Wrong in all the right ways. Too symmetrical, too perfect. “What do you want?”

“Such insolence is not becoming.” Dog began.

“You’re either here because you need me or to finish the job your buddy started. If you need me the answer is no. If you’re here to kill me, the answer is no.”

“What if we had a simple question?” Snake asked. His mask shifted too, becoming more real as the conversation continued.

“I’ll let you guess what my answer is.” Torman replied. “I’ll give you a hint, it only has two letters.”

“Emperor, you could never have joined us.” Dog began. “Your path does not allow for ascension.”

“But, someone requires your guidance.” Snake continued. His tongue flickered with every word, even if he spoke without an accent.

Torman looked between the two of them, before looking around the dingy room. As if seeing it for the first time, he lifted his foot to notice the mess the sawdust wasn’t covering.

“My empire needs a maid it seems.” He looked down at his cup, pausing his continuous drinking. With a small effort of will, the liquid turned from ale to fire before he poured it on the ground. The fire immediately feeds upon the dry floor, turning from embers to an inferno in a blink of an eye.

“There, by the time that’s done it will be nice and clean.” Torman smiled as he began to saunter out.

Snaked sighed, causing the air to move, to deprive any oxygen from reaching the flames. Yet the fire still burned, moving from floor to counter.

“This is beneath you.” Dog said before whisking the fire away. That caused Torman to pause.

“You’ve gotten better.” He complimented. “Snake did what Snake does, I didn’t figure you’d finally learn something.”

“That is uncalled for.’ Dog responded.

“Regardless,” Torman began before making a grand gesture. Fire exploded in the room, until every piece of wood was engulfed. “There, no longer an emperor. Thus no reason to heed the Divines.”

Will exploded from Snake, reversing all the damage done to the dingy room. As it flowed, it seemed to reverse the age of the material, turning it from barely functional furniture to something noteworthy. Toman meerly grinned.

“You fix it, you bought it. Its your empire now. I’m just a simple man.”

“Snake and I are letting things progress.” Dog said through gritted teeth. “We need you to guide the thirteenth.”

Torman paused, hand on the door as time continued to reverse in the room. The travelers watched as his shoulders slumped, turning back to the two.

“Ok.”