For about an hourglass, Nua walked in silence, contemplating. The road led them between maturing barley fields, crisscrossed with irrigation channels full of muddy water in deep teal hues. It was the twilight season, and its long day was perfect for the crops to grow. In the distance, the girl could see a dense date palm orchard and a pasture where sheep roamed. There were palms planted on both sides of the road as well, not the date kind, but areca, with their featherlike leaves and thick green trunk near the top. In the center of the barley field to the left, Nua noticed an olive tree, thick, spread out, and gnarled, with a hollow reaching the ground. She felt strange as she realized that until now, her world had been so limited she had had no idea that trees could be that large. Hessa was right – she was a city girl, through and through. For a while, she watched her surroundings, taking in all that she could. A stray spotted goat watched the caravan as they passed, indifferently nibbling on the tamarisk bush. It clearly felt at home here, unlike Nua.

She listened to the birds she didn’t know, breathed in the animals’ musky smell, and the perfume-like scent of warm vegetation, and excitement mixed with anxiety filled her whole being. She was going over her recent discussion with the king and the events of the previous day, trying to make some sense of them.

“Hey, Hessa! Hessa!”

The huntress pulled Shadow’s reins and closed in.

“What’s up?”

“I was thinking of yesterday’s story. Do you know the real… I mean, our version of the legend?”

Hessa eyed her cautiously.

“Sure I do.”

The girl wiggled her fingers, thinking about how to frame the question. There was a large jump from legends about the Autarchs of the past to the reality of today, and the huntress couldn’t know the conversation with Anki. Finally, Nua just asked.

“If you had the chance to be an Overlord, would you do that? I mean… you said that there are Unsagga mercenaries everywhere. What if someone gathered an army?”

Hessa gave her a sober look. Then she continued, her voice lowered.

“Don’t talk about such matters. Even in this caravan. There are strangers here, and people gossip.”

“You as an Overlord, or the Unsagga Overlord in general?”, Nua whispered. “Or the mercenary armies?”

“It’s not like you’re the first one who thought about that”, she said, “And it is dangerous even to mention it in passing.”

Nua continued looking at her, so Hessa began to explain, half-jokingly.

“See, girl, politics is a vicious animal. You go about your own business. Then, one day, you ask a wrong question or give a wrong answer, and before you know it, there’s politics all over you. I’ve seen people lose their heads for it.” She paused. “Literally.”

Apparently, Hessa was just as eager to lift the oppression over the Unsagga as Nua. In any case, there was no chance to trade Anki off to her in the near future. Nua sighed and decided to focus on the immediate priorities.

“I’d like to learn reading.”

Hessa made a suspicious frown, prompted by the abrupt change of topic.

“That doesn’t have anything to do with politics, I hope?”

“No politics. I want to write home.”

“I suppose Ezekiel has some spare wax tablets”, she mused. “But remember, I’m not a scholar. You’ll end up learning by yourself more than I’ll be teaching you.”

“And Ezekiel?”

The huntress waved her hand dismissively.

“He has no patience for people who can’t read.”

They made a stop mid-day. Typically, nobody was working when Great Utu climbed high in the sky, and the caravan used the hot hours to rest and eat. There was a barren dirt area on the side of the road used for that purpose, so Nua was delegated with the other helpers to put up a makeshift tent, made of wooden poles and a linen roof. After the talk with Anki, she could not stop comparing herself with the three of them, two boys who were most certainly younger – but taller – and an Old Azurian woman her age, who, unlike her, actually looked about twenty and apparently used a cotton strophium to bind her breasts. Whereas Nua, well… she never needed one. Or perhaps she did, but not enough to justify the expense.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Still hungover?” Hessa called. Shadow was resting nearby, curled up and glancing at the people in the tent. “Go fetch the food and drink. You need to work through that. Work’s best medicine.”

She reached into her pouch, then looked at Nua. “Want one? Good for heartburn.”

On her hand, there were a few yellow-green, translucent nuggets, similar to the store-sold candy that Nua had only ever seen from afar.

“What’s that?”

“Mastic.”

Nua eyed the nuggets suspiciously.

“Is it a drug?”

“Gods, no!”, Hessa laughed. “It’s safe. You chew it. Keeps your teeth clean. Get one now, and one after the meal.”

“Teeth are in the mouth. You don’t walk on them, or poop with them. Aren’t they clean by default?”

Nua’s question was honest, but Hessa roared with laughter. It didn’t help that Anki was snickering in the background. Feeling a bit humiliated, she accepted one of the candies. It turned out to be awfully bitter but also left a pleasant pine aroma in her mouth and eased the nausea. Imitating the others, she distributed provisions from a pack that one of the guys brought from the wagon. The merchants’ midday meal was nutritious but simple. First, a large waterskin of watered-down beer and flatbread wraps filled with cabbage and shreds of roast mutton. Then, hard cheese wedges. Nua ogled the food in disbelief, still not used to the thought that she could eat that well daily. Her eyes almost popped out when the Azurian girl unwrapped wax paper, took small bricks of pressed figs and dates, and placed them on a wooden plate.

Once again, Hessa, Ashra as well as Ezekiel, and several others were sitting beside each other on travel carpets and thick pillows, and the servants had their separate rug nearby. The stargazer was talking more than he was eating, pointing to his maps and scrolls, exchanging plans with Ashra, and using so many unknown words he could as well be speaking a different language. None paid attention to the group of youth, so Nua looked at her companions.

One of the guys – the same one that did not care about her presence at the dinner - sat apart, keeping his distance. He was the older of the two, with russet skin, the meager beginnings of a beard, and curly dark hair. Nua noticed the calluses on his hands. While all the others had them to some degree, his were impressive. He also had a tattooed mark on his neck that had been erased at some point, now resembling a blue blotch. So, a former slave, one that had probably come from a state-owned farm.

The second boy, indifferent to her presence, was also the youngest, thirteen maybe, with the deepest black skin she had ever seen and slightly pointy ears that had a couple of small, dark feathers growing behind them. Just like with Nua’s eyes, slight variations to human looks could be found all over Azuria, although she had no idea what tribe he belonged to.

The girl was Old Azurian, and she talked and carried herself like a farm woman, speaking and laughing loudly, drawing out the words, and moving with a swing to her hip. Earlier, when they had been working, Nua had tried to avoid staring, and only after a while had she got used to her careless demeanor.

None of them were too friendly at the moment. Maybe it was because they were focused on eating.

Nua decided that she needed more people to talk to than Anki, otherwise she would go as mad as the king himself. She cleared her throat.

“So… I’m Nua. Hala’s helper. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Oshana”, said the Azurian girl.

“Zamar.”, the boy with feathers behind the ears had a surprisingly deep voice for such a young age. The tattooed guy did not say anything, and Zamar felt compelled to add, “And this is Bel. He doesn’t talk much.”

Nua looked at Bel. Bel looked away.

“Um. This is awkward”, she said. “But some people don’t like my people. I think I’ll stay. So… let’s get along?”

“He’s just like that”, Zamar explained. “He doesn’t like new people, not your people in particular”, and seeing as the tattooed one frowned, he quickly added. “But Bel’s all right.”

“Hey, I have nothing against the Unsagga”, Oshana chimed in. “It’s not your fault that your Forsaken ancestors were cursed.”

Ugh.

“Anyway, I don’t envy you. That’s tough, cutting all those monster corpses.”, she added with a cheery voice. “Figures Hessa had to take one of hers for an apprentice. So you probably have a knack for it. With the night vision and such.”

Now that was a collection of prejudices. And wait, what? Monster corpses? So there was more to the rotation on this job than Shadow’s moods, even before she’d be trained to help Hessa with the hunt itself.

“Oh, that’s because I’m from the city”, Nua answered. “I am as fast as lightning and not afraid of the dark. And I have fought monsters before.”

Anki, who was slowly circling over the encampment, floated into her view.

“That’s a big, bold lie, Nua.”

“What? Fleeing the mechanical bug almost counts as fighting, right?”

“I’d be careful. Such lies tend to get back at you.”

“Hey, Nua!”, Hessa got up and was walking towards the servant bunch with a wax tablet in her hand. “Ezekiel and I made a plan to teach you how to read. So you can do it almost on your own.”

Oshana made an amused face.

“You can’t read?”

“I can’t either. Who needs reading anyway?” Zamar shrugged.

“Mercenaries”, said Nua. “So nobody can cheat you on the money.” Then she turned to Hessa, ignoring the sudden revelation Zamar, by the look of his open mouth, seemed to have.

“So, what’s the plan?”