Naomi refused to tell me what had just happened inside the store, instead insulting me until finally becoming quiet in the face of my continued interrogations - but even without her answers, I had formed my own ideas.

Clearly she didn’t want someone to know something about her parents. I was certain that that someone was me. Naomi was lying again. Had to be.

Obviously we already knew that her parents were alchemists. We also already knew that her parents were in Coernet. But there must still have been something we didn’t know, maybe something that even Naomi didn’t know, that she didn’t want us to know. That’s what had gotten her so flustered when I mentioned her parents in front of the shopkeeper. She realized I was on to her.

My theory was this: her parents were actually still wealthy. She told the truth about her parents moving, about her never having been to Coernet, but she lied about them becoming poor. That wasn’t her reason for leaving and betraying us. It was as I’d originally thought: she had the money, but didn’t want to pay it. Maybe she was scared of disappointing her parents, as I’d guessed before. The reason didn’t matter, not really, because whatever the case, her parents did have money, and she intended to give me - us - none of it.

Why ask the shopkeeper all those questions? I asked myself. Cadoc asked me the same question that night, when I confided in him, and I gave him the same answer I gave myself.

“Simple,” I said, talking in almost a whisper for fear that Naomi could hear me through the walls of the inn. “Because she really doesn’t know where her family is. They’re in Coernet, sure, but beyond that, she doesn’t know. That has to be it.

“She doesn’t even know for sure how big the town is, let alone where in it she can find her parents. She had to gather information so that when we finally enter Coernet, she’ll know which direction to flee to. Maybe her parents are powerful mages, or are rich enough to have guards that she thinks will protect her from me. Maybe she thinks that she can disappear into the crowds of the big town - maybe it’s even a city, really - and rip off her collar in some back alley before I realize what’s happened. She’s thinking ‘Hey, they’ll be in Coernet. They have money. They can still buy the cure for Amaia. No harm, no foul.’ She thinks I’ll give up after that.

“She’s wrong.

“For her, this is a matter of pride. A matter of not embarrassing herself in front of her mom and dad - at least I assume so. For me, it’s life and death.

“I’ll raze the whole city if that’s what it takes. I’m getting my money.”

Cadoc was nodding. He had a surprisingly serious expression on his face. “I see.”

After getting the vials from the shopkeeper, we had decided to find an inn in Harfin for the night, as the sun was already evading the eyes of the waking, and at least three of us had still vivid memories of what came out at night in those parts. The vials would buy us a few days, so there was no reason to risk night-travel.

Before that, though, we went around town, shopping for supplies. Thoughts of Naomi’s second betrayal on the horizon ran through my head all the while, so I kept an eye on her at all times - she squirmed under my gaze after she noticed, and then made another snide remark about my being attracted to her, but I was too busy thinking to talk.

We bought food which would keep - hard bread, honey, dried fish, that sort of thing. The merchants were more than happy to take our golden treasures, and although I was certain we were being at least a little bit ripped off, a single gilded plate was enough to fill our bags.

Then came clothes. Naomi needed a change - already a third person had mistaken her for a prostitute, approaching me with coin in hand - which I wished dreadfully I could have accepted. I thought about it. I really did. I needed the money, and she owed me. Let her pay however she is able.

She had a collar around her neck. She had to do what I said, or burn. I could have made her do it.

I didn’t. I refused the man before Naomi realized what he was asking for.

But I didn’t want any more proposals coming our way, nor the added attention, so we followed directions until we came to merchants selling armor and travelers’ clothes.

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None of our clothes were in much better shape than Naomi’s, so we all bought new outfits.

Back at the inn, we rented two rooms, although I had insisted on only one.

“One room!” Naomi yelled. “Are you crazy?”

“Cheaper,” I said. “And I don’t trust that you won’t bail again.”

“Really,” she said, sounding almost disappointed. “You still don’t trust me? I want to help Amaia, I swear.”

“Miles,” Cadoc said, hand on my shoulder. “I understand your concern. But we will cause quite a stir if we all stay in one room. People will think the rumors to be true.”

Naomi looked taken aback. “What rumors?”

Amaia spoke up. “The rumors about you being a prostitute.”

Naomi blushed while I answered Cadoc. “Rumors or no, I don’t trust her, Cadoc.”

“I never did,” Cadoc said. “But I trust Amaia. Let her watch the coward.”

I turned to Amaia, who shrugged.

“Fine,” I said. I turned back to the innkeeper - who had been standing there the whole time. “We’ll take two rooms.”

The innkeeper laughed. “Forgive me. I know we have a reputation for being a place that doesn’t ask questions, but do you always bathe in the town square?”

I’d never heard the expression before, but like all of the strange expressions I’d heard in that dimension, it was obvious what it meant. “Just give us the rooms,” I said. “And a meal. You serve food, right?”

We ate real food for the first time in what felt like years. It was mostly fish, but I don’t mind fish, and anything would have tasted heavenly at that point. Most of the dishes were covered in a salty black sauce - which, I learned, was also made of fish - and complimented with spices I couldn’t name. It was surprisingly tasty.

No one was particularly talkative during the meal, though, and that contrasted heavily with the last big meal I remembered - the one we had just after leaving the dungeon. That one, although consisting only of roasted meat, was something like a party. This felt like the meal they serve at a wake.

After the meal - in which all of us ate too much - we retired to our rooms. It was dark by then. But I stopped Amaia in the hall for a question first - Cadoc and Naomi were already in their respective rooms.

“You’re still good to guard her?” I asked. I looked at her arm as I spoke - the blackness hadn’t spread further, but was still a terrible sight. “We could still all pack into one room, you know. Let you get some sleep. I’m sure you need it.”

Amaia shook her head. “It won’t be a problem. The innkeeper said there’s a latch of steel on the door, and one on the window as well.” She stopped talking there, as if that explained everything.

“You do know that the latches are on the inside, right? That Naomi can just unlatch them?”

Amaia smiled. “Not when I’m done with them.”

I realized then what she meant. She could use her magic to bend the metal of the latches so that it was impossible to unlatch them - and then, in the morning, simply make them straight again. I laughed, and then we shook on it - I’m not sure why, it just felt right.

“Hey,” I said after, finally looking her in the eye. “I appreciate it. Really. Even though you’re annoyingly terse, you might be the best companion I’ve chosen to bring along so far. Not that you have much competition.” I stopped and thought about what I’d just said. “OK, actually, Lot might have been better. But second place isn’t bad.”

“No,” she said. “Not bad.”

And with that characteristically short response, we parted ways.

I didn’t tell her what I was thinking about Naomi, because I thought she might just ask Naomi about it, and then Naomi would be on to me. Not that Amaia would betray me, just that she’s so straightforward of a person that she might not even realize the error in what she was doing. I’ll fill her in later, I thought, when she isn’t alone in a room with Naomi.

We rose early the next morning. I admired my new clothes as I dressed. A shirt of chain mail above, and a thin layer of leather below, made from some animal we certainly didn’t have on earth. Both were light, the leather especially surprising me with how it didn’t impede my motion. I squatted into a stretch, and the leather moved with me as if I was wearing nothing at all.

Underneath the chain mail was an extremely thin piece of cloth, there only to stop chafing, and over the chain mail I wore a white shirt of what I thought to be linen, My pants were blue, and looked like denim, though they weren’t. At a distance they looked like jeans, and it felt like a small connection to home. Something to help me remember.

Over the shirt I wore a brown jacket with a short cloak attached - a longer one would be too likely to catch on fire, I thought. Over my feet I wore brown boots, of which I was very thankful.

It might sound like a lot of clothes, but most of it was pretty light. I could take off the jacket when I was too warm. If anything, I was afraid my legs would get cold if the temperature dropped too much.

After a breakfast of white fish with eggs and fish sauce, we set off.

We were told that if we pushed ourselves, we could reach Coernet in only a day’s time - but also that, if we didn’t, there wasn’t really anywhere to stay along the road. Hence our early morning departure. We took our first steps out of Harfin’s gate before the day had even proceeded past twilight.

The road between the towns was in significantly better condition than the one we had entered Harfin by. It was a road paved with stones, and though we met no other travelers on the way, the road was clearly well maintained.

We met no travelers, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t meet someone. Or something, rather.

The road ran along the river, though not directly beside it - a little more than a stone’s throw away. The trees were a little thinner on this end of Harfin - in fact, for a mile or so there were hardly any trees at all, clearly having been cut down to build homes inside the town. But then they grew more numerous, and while to our left they weren’t packed enough to block sight of the Blood, to our right was a near-permanent night, the sun obscured by the treetops. The edge of it was illuminated in the morning, but by midday no light was allowed inside.

The scent of pine was strong, and it seemed to add to the claustrophobic nature of the wide road. I could hear animals around us, most of them not causing me to shudder or to quicken my pace.

Sometime after midday the trees began to become sparser again, which for whatever reason reminded me of a balding man, and suddenly my mind was seized by the notion that we were marching across the forehead of giant with thinning hair. The soil, full of clay, had a tan color that could have easily matched some shade of skin. The river to the east was not the Blood, but his blood, flowing the wrong direction because of some wound further on - the giant’s body must have been left hanging upside down.

“Look!” Naomi yelled, pointing, and I had to steel myself before looking, afraid to see the rest of the rotting corpse of the giant. But it was only the distant outline of a city - hard to see against the even more distant outline of Zinthur’s mantle.

“We are making good time,” Cadoc said. “We should be able to make it by nightfall, truly.”

I laughed aloud at myself. My nerves are getting the better of me, I thought. Calm down, Miles, you idiot.

But before I could really condemn myself anymore, my nervousness was proven correct. There was a clicking noise, high and piercing, and almost before we had time to draw our weapons, the creature was upon us.