This must be what Zuan was worried about earlier, I thought. Some sort of monster infiltrator or something. I flexed my fingers, maneuvering the mana towards the tips. Cadoc’s hand was still on the hilt of his sword. I stared at the hooded man, trying to see if there were any other signs of his inhumanity. Clearly the hood was meant to hide the antennae, but he fucked up.

Suddenly there was a long wooden staff in between me and the antennae man. “Hey,” Naomi said. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“What does it look like?”

“It looks like you’re about to start another stupid fight for absolutely no reason.”

I turned to her. She was holding her staff out in front of me to block my path - though I could have easily pushed her aside. “What do you mean no reason? That guy is,” I dropped my voice to a whisper, “That guy is clearly some sort of monster.”

“So it isn’t a trick of my eyes, then,” Cadoc said. “Even here there are enemies at every turn. Get ready to fight, friends.”

“Ready,” Amaia said.

“No!” Naomi said. “Stop it, you idiots, that’s just some random fucking man. Do not attack strangers in the streets! Why do I even have to say that?”

“Look at the top of his head,” Cadoc said. “Beneath the hood. That is no human man. He is some sort of skinwalker, clearly, but all shapeshifters retain part of their old form, as even the children know.”

Naomi turned to look, although she still didn’t step out of the way. “Oh, that?” she said. “Yeah, well, that is, like, unfortunate and all, but he isn’t a monster. He just started to turn.”

I realized suddenly what she meant, and what Zuan really must have meant before. “Is there a dungeon that close to town?” I asked.

“Ah,” Cadoc said, taking his hand from his sword. “Poor fool. If you are certain to die as a monster, is it not better to die struggling through the dungeon for a chance of survival? Instead he lives his life here as normal, waiting for death to find him. Someday someone will have to strike him down, but he looks a ways off, yet.”

“Happy we cleared that up,” Naomi said. “Another murder averted. You’re welcome.”

“About that,” I said. “We still haven’t talked about the fact that you almost fucking cut me in half last time.”

“Yeah,” she said. “But I didn’t. And it got your attention, yeah? Sometimes you have to yank your dog’s chain to keep him from biting the neighbor. It’s for his own good.”

I rolled my eyes at her. It wasn’t worth the argument, and she had prevented me from committing multiple crimes, so I let it slide.

“And what is it with you two?” Naomi asked. “Miles is a fucking psychopath, probably because he was raised by some woman in the clouds with no respect for human life. But what’s your guys’ excuse, huh?”

“I meant only to fight in order to protect the innocent,” Cadoc answered. “And because my honor demanded it.”

“If your honor is encouraging murder I think maybe you should get rid of it,” Naomi said. “And what about Miles? Do you think he’s crazy?”

“I’m right here,” I said. She ignored me.

“He is the sanest man I have ever met, truly.”

Naomi balked - I almost did, too. “And you,” Naomi said, turning to Amaia. “Come on, Amaia. How do you keep letting them draw you into this stuff?”

Amaia only shrugged. Naomi threw up her hands, shouted some wordless shout of exasperation, and stomped off. We followed.

We began walking again through the streets of Coernet. To our right, away from the water, the buildings - and people - seemed to be cleaner and better dressed, many of them also noticeably plump. To our left, the waterfront was full of thin, dirty people stained with marine viscera, and now I noticed just how many of them were showing signs of turning. Most took no effort whatsoever to hide it - a woman whose skin had begun to turn dark and glossy, another who had plates of exoskeleton over her arms - visible through the scraps of her sleeves as if the chitinous hide has burst through suddenly. Antennae were the most common, but some people even had mandibles or large bug-like eyes.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

None I saw had more than one feature which had changed, so nearly all of them looked simply like an average man or woman who had mutated in some unfortunate way - or, especially with the antennae, it looked only like a costume, until they moved. Still, many were completely normal with no signs of turning - at least, none that were immediately visible.

Mutation, I thought to myself. That’s an interesting idea. Are dungeons radioactive? If I come home with cancer I’m going to be pissed.

“Why doesn’t someone go destroy the dungeon core?” I asked.

“Who said there was one?” Naomi said. “This far east, there’s no reason to believe that there’s a dungeon here, per se.”

“How far east are we?” Amaia asked, suddenly interested in a conversation she had clearly been ignoring a moment before.

Cadoc chimed in. “Not so far east, surely. There are leagues between Coernet and the front. Vildnet would fall long before it would reach here.”

“Vildnet did fall,” Naomi said. “A couple of years ago.”

“What?” Cadoc said. “No traveler outside Eraztun ever mentioned such a thing. How do you know?”

“Because that’s where I used to live.”

We were all silent for awhile as we continued down the wide avenue. I was the one who finally broke the silence.

“Forgive my ignorance,” I said. “But my country doesn’t deal with these sorts of problems. What is to the east? Are we in danger of turning, ourselves?”

“Yes,” Naomi said. “Eventually. But I can fix that. Look up ahead.”

She pointed. Up ahead the avenue continued right into the stone wall of Coernet’s southern hill. Built into the side was some sort of storefront - but this was barely visible because of the crowd gathered around it.

It was a teeming mass of humanity, but they were surprisingly behaved. I quickly saw that there was some sort of line which coiled its was away from the shop, and everyone waited their turn - even though I could hardly perceive any movement in the line itself. Many of those in line were showing signs of turning, but many looked normal as well. Perhaps half and half.

“Is that the shop?” I asked, content to put aside my other questions for the moment. Once Amaia was cured, we could rest easy for a change, and I could collect myself. It wasn’t far from my mind that I needed money, and ideas constantly interrupted my thinking. Perhaps I should get into the potion business, I thought, seeing that gigantic crowd.

“Yes,” Naomi said. “And it must be my parents’ shop, too.”

“You can tell?” Cadoc asked.

“There are, like, signs,” Naomi said. “I’m certain it’s them.”

Suddenly she turned towards me, and begun to take the choker-necklace thing off, revealing the collar I had fitted around her neck.

“OK,” she said. “Now take this off.”

I shook my head. “Why would I do that? So you can disappear into that crowd? You keep asking me to take it off like I’m going to suddenly change my mind.”

“Look at me, Miles,” she said. “Look me in the eyes. I swear to you that I will bring you to my parents, that Amaia will be healed, and that if there is, like, any sort of reward my family can offer you, that it will be yours. I swear it. But I need this collar off before I see my parents. Otherwise they will have you killed for threatening me.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you?”

“Yeah,” she said. “That is what you’re supposed to do.”

“If you’re OK with that, then why run in the first place? What changed?”

“I-“ she started. “I was scared. Cadoc is right. I’m a coward, in a lot of ways. But Amaia is injured, and she’s my friend, and I’m not going to run off and leave her. Besides,” she grinned widely. “If I did run, you’d burn my house down.”

“He does enjoy burning down houses,” Cadoc interjected.

I grinned back. “It’s true. And I know where you live now. Remember that.”

“I’ll have a hard time ever forgetting,” Naomi said.

I sighed. “OK, I’ll take it off. I’m trusting you. Don’t make me regret it.”

I put my hands around her neck, and some near-demonic urge filled me with the desire to tighten my grip around her frail neck, to crush her windpipe between my fingers and melt her throat with my fire. But it was only a fleeting feeling. I grabbed hold of the dried nail. It was stuck fast to her skin.

“We have two options here,” I said. “I can either melt the nails again, which will make it much easier to take off, but will definitely burn you badly, or I can rip it off, which will be like having a bad waxing tear out any little hairs you’ve got there. Both are going to hurt a lot. Any preference?”

“What is a waxing?”

“Don’t worry about it. Tear, or burn?”

“Tear.”

I nodded. “That’s what I would have chosen, too. Ready?”

She gripped her staff tightly with both hands, and nodded.

I pulled.

She didn’t scream, which surprised me. Perhaps she didn’t have any hair there at all - I always imagined medieval women to be kind of hairy, but thinking back to when I had seen Naomi naked, that wasn’t really the case, for whatever reason.

The collar came off easily enough, and though it did leave a big red ring around her neck after it was off, it was mostly covered by the choker thing after she put that back on.

The grimace on her face told me it had definitely hurt, but she made no complaint.

“OK,” she said, breathing heavy. “Now here’s how were going to do this. Cadoc and Amaia, you hold your swords in front of you, like you’re escorting someone in a parade or something. Try to look like body guards.” She turned to Amaia at this. “Sorry Amaia. But do me a favor this once, yeah?

“Miles, you trail behind, leaving a trail of fire on either side of our path. Try to look like, I don’t know, some sort of weird freaky guy carrying out some sort of ritual.”

“Why would we do any of that?” I asked.

“Because I don’t want to wait in line,” Naomi answered. “Come on. It’s a simple plan. Trust me.”

I rolled my eyes again, but more at myself than at her, this time. “Alright. In for a penny, in for a pound.”

Amaia and Cadoc both nodded, so somehow I found myself at the end of that strange procession.

Naomi walked slowly, her staff in one hand, standing tall despite her being by far the shortest of the four of us. As she came close to the crowd, she raised both hands high, and the tip of her staff began to emit that bright yellow light that appeared whenever she was preparing to attack - our signal. I began trailing fires on either side of me, simply letting the wax roll off my fingers and igniting it as it hit the ground. Amaia began her announcement in her surprisingly imposing voice.

“Make way!” she yelled. “Make way! The daughter Naomi of House Chima’i approaches.”

The people in line looked back at us, and for a moment, they just stood there, looks of confusion apparent on their faces. But soon the spectacle took hold, and they began to part, Naomi holding her staff high like she was parting the Red Sea.

“Dearest Father and Mother!” Naomi shouted. There was no sign of her parents being anywhere nearby, but it was part of the show. “I, like, rejoice to soon see you again! I return bearing tales of, uh, glory, or something! Let us pass, fair people, let us pass, so that my joy may not be delayed, yeah?”

Somehow that worked.