I wasn’t sure if I had been awake when we arrived at Redstone or if I’d just been in a daze, but when the cart stopped and I looked up to see what was happening, I was startled to see that we were already so close to the city.

My cart had arrived at the end of a long queue of travellers, most with large carts just like the one I was sitting in. At the other end of the line, there was a massive gate that led into the city, wide enough to let at least five or six carts through comfortably at a time, but while the line was moving steadily forward, it was still a slow process, since it seemed like the guards were speaking with every group that rolled through.

“Umm, excuse me.” I turned to the source of the voice. The younger driver who’d been roped into driving my cart glanced between me and Medric, who was standing a few feet away from the cart looking nervously back at me while pretending like he wasn’t. “Medric wanted me to tell you that you can go.”

Medric’s eyes widened and he shuffled closer to the driver, motioning to him to come closer. The driver sighed and leaned down to Medric, who whispered into his ear.

“He also wanted me to tell you that I didn’t mean to sound disrespectful,” the driver said, with a roll of the eyes. “He just wants you to know that there’s a separate queue for business visitors. Unless you want to sell something or buy in wholesale, you and Ryuji can pretty much just walk right in.”

The driver glanced down at Medric, who was trying very hard not to look at me. The driver gave me a questioning look but didn’t say anything.

“Thanks,” I said. An hour hadn’t been nearly enough time to calm down completely, but I was able to control my emotions to the point where I wasn’t going to snap at someone for no reason. “Can you help me down?”

The driver sighed and moved to get off his seat, but before he could do anything, Medric had already jumped up onto the cart, kneeling in a deep bow like I was royalty. He had one hand extended, but didn’t say anything.

I sighed and took his hand, ignoring the strange look that the driver was giving me.

Medric kept his head down, the entire time he helped me off, and even after I had both feet on solid ground. I considered thanking him, but I got the feeling that he didn’t want any of my attention whatsoever, so I spared him the trouble.

Ignoring the stares and whispers of the other convoymen, I walked towards Ryuji, who was standing a few feet ahead of the convoy with a deep slouch in his posture. I don’t know if he heard me walking closeby, but he kept his eyes firmly on the ground in front of him.

It pissed me off. Though the cart ride had given me enough time to cool off somewhat, the sight of Ryuji sulking around like he was somehow the victim in all of this was enough for me to get angry all over again. A small part of me screamed in agony as I threw away all sense of self-preservation and roughly grabbed Ryuji by the sleeve.

Ryuji looked up, and seemed surprised to see me.

“Lena?” he said.

“We’re going,” I said, speaking as little as possible, pulling at his sleeve some more.

Though I knew Ryuji wouldn’t have budged if he didn’t want to, he came along with me dutifully. I saw more than a few onlookers watching us with a glint of humour in their eyes, and vaguely heard the words “lover’s spat” being thrown around by more than a few people, but I was far past the point of caring.

“Are you angry at me?” Ryuji asked quietly.

I didn’t bother giving him an answer.

When we reached the gate, a friendly looking guard by the side noticed us and waved us over. He gave us a smile when we reached him.

“Hello, hello, and welcome! You folks here for trade or for pleasure?” he asked.

I might’ve appreciated the man’s attitude at any other time, but I was too haggard to appreciate it at the moment.

“Pleasure,” I lied, not seeing a third option available. I doubted a standard footguard would be the person to talk about Otherworlders to anyways.

“A fine choice, our city is then,” he said with a wink. “Just because it’s a mining town don’t mean it hasn’t got it’s own character. In fact, I’d say it means the opposite! Just a few more question for you folks before I let you in though. Whereabouts are you folks from?”

I tried not to sigh. I just wanted to get inside and find the nearest Crown office. “Plainswood,” I said.

“Oh!” the guard said, pausing to scratch his head. “Umm, what was I supposed to do now again?”

I raised an eyebrow. It didn’t seem like the guard actually expected me to answer, more like he was voicing his thoughts out loud, but after a few seconds he clapped his hands. Was everything he did this animated?

“Oh yeah!” he said. “I’m supposed to direct you to the post office.”

“What?” I said, my grip on Ryuji’s sleeve becoming tighter. “Why?”

The guard shrugged and gave me an apologetic smile. “Not so sure myself, miss,” he said. “Something about a couple of important letters needing to be delivered to the Mayor there? I was told that if anyone from Plainswood comes here, I would need to make sure they reported to the post, first thing. Don’t worry, if it were really that urgent, they’d probably deliver it normally instead of hoisting the duty on a tourist. Honestly, it’s a pretty odd request if you ask me.”

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Though the guard laughed, as if he’d just told a joke, what he said made a lot of sense. It was an incredibly odd request.

“Okay,” I said.

“Hmm?” the guard replied. “Okay what?”

“We’ll go. What direction should we walk?”

“Oh the post office? It’s just down the street and in the square. Small-ish blue building, not too noticeable, but if you ask around, there’ll definitely be someone who knows where to go.”

“Thanks.” It was a vaguer set of directions than I’d hoped for, but I was too antsy to stay still any longer. “Can we go now?”

The guard gave us a little bow. “Welcome to Redstone. I promise you’ll enjoy your stay.”

I nodded and walked off, with Ryuji’s sleeve still in my hands. The guard gave him an amused smirk but didn’t stop us from passing by.

We made it about twenty steps before Ryuji stopped suddenly. The sudden stop almost made me stumble backwards, but I was able to barely hang on and right myself, using Ryuji’s shirt as support.

I turned around, as if to yell at him, but when I saw the deep frown on his face, I was reminded that no matter how docile he seemed, he was still an Otherworlder. I sighed, still too tired and angry for my fear to overtaken, but not enough for me to want to completely disrespect Ryuji and risk angering just because I was feeling spiteful.

He stared down at me, and I could tell he wanted to say something, so I waited.

“Are you angry with me?” he asked.

Yes. No. Maybe? The possible answers ran through my head, but none of them seemed right. I decided to speak without thinking, rather than trying to weight the pros and cons of each answer.

“No,” I said, surprised by my own answer. “I’m just a little upset. Terrified. Angry, yes. But not at you.”

Just what you are. I made an exception to my “speak without thinking” strategy to hold that particular comment back.

“You’re really not angry?” he asked.

“Didn’t I just say I was?” I asked, poking him in the chest. “I am angry. You killed a man, Ryuji.”

Ryuji winced. “I healed him though,” he said, with a nervous chuckle. “All’s well that ends well, right?”

A painful throb of anger coursed through my head as I remembered the audacity of that stupid blue panel to even suggest such a thing. I poked Ryuji in the chest, not trusting myself to say something coherent. Thankfully, Ryuji seemed to understand what I meant, as he shrunk back, as if my finger could possibly hurt him.

“I didn’t mean to,” he said weakly.

“I know,” I replied. For all of his faults, I could tell that much was true. I still didn’t know what to think of his lust for battling with demons, but it was clear that he was truly remorseful about killing Medric. “It’s why I’m still here and not running away as fast as I can.”

It probably wasn’t a good idea to admit that, but I was letting my mouth run more than I expected to. It was true that while I felt an obligation to make sure that I brought Ryuji to the crown, it was only because I had at least some faith that he wouldn’t kill me on the way there. If he’d been an unrepentant murderer from the start, I simply wouldn’t have tried.

Thankfully, my admission didn’t seem to make Ryuji feel worse. In fact, a slow smile started to spread on his face.

“Really?” he said. “Then we’re fine?”

I had no idea what he meant by that, but I sighed and nodded. “I guess,” I said. “As long as you try to learn how to control yourself, so you don’t kill anyone else. I don’t know what your country is like, but someone has to teach you what common sense is here.”

That someone wouldn’t be me, but Ryuji didn’t have to know that.

I looked back up at him, hoping that I hadn’t accidentally said that out loud, but thankfully he was still smiling at me.

Sensing the conversation was over, I grabbed his shirt and started to walk down the road once more, but was immediately stopped in my tracks. Ryuji wasn’t resisting my pull anymore, but it wasn’t him that stopped me, but rather the sight of the armed guards standing directly in my path.

Three guards, clad in leather armor stared at us. The one in the center, the clear leader of the group, gave me a glare as he scanned my body for threats. Looking around, I noticed that a crowd had gathered around us in a large circle, whispering about murderers.

Oh. I guess we weren’t being very quiet.

“Hey, you two,” the guard said. “What’s this I heard about a killer roaming the streets?”

“It was nothing, sir,” I said, trying to give him the best smile I could. I wonder how it looked to him. An unkempt girl, who’d just spent eight days on the road, most of those days in a forest, and a massive boy in strange clothes, talking about how he’d just murdered a man. I didn’t like my chances.

“Sure, sure,” he said. Using the hilt of his sword, still sheathed for now, he pointed at my shoulders and my feet. “Nice cloak. Your boots too. Where’d you get them?”

I could feel my smile becoming crooked. What the hell, Polly? “I’m not sure,” I said. “A friend gave them to me, sir.”

“A friend gave you a matching set of designer clothes, huh? Straight from Pollor’s? My wife’s been hounding me to buy her a set just like that. Not something you can buy so easily off a senior officer’s salary, so I was just curious about what your boyfriend does. But if it was a friend that gave you those clothes. Now I’m even more curious. You mind coming with me for a bit so I can ask you a few questions?”

My eye started to twitch uncontrollably. “No chance we could go to the post office first, is there officer?”

“Not sure there is,” he said. “Not that you mind, I’m sure.”

Ryuji stepped forward, as if to say something, but I quickly grabbed him, afraid of what he would do.

“We’ll go, officer,” I said. “I’m sure we’ll be able to clear up this misunderstanding in no time.”

The man raised an eyebrow but nodded. “I’m sure we will.”

About an hour and a half later, a nervous looking guard approached my prison cell with a set of keys. Behind him was a girl who looked to be about my age, with absurdly long red hair that looked like it would reach down to about her knees if she didn’t have it tied in a high ponytail. I idly wondered if she was overcompensating for something, as she barely reached the guard’s elbow in height. As the guard flipped through his keys, searching quickly for the ones that opened my cell, she gave me a wink.

Once the guard opened the cell door, the girl stepped inside and pulled the door closed shut behind her.

“Leave us,” she said.

The guard nodded and quickly ran down the hallway, out of sight.

My prison cell didn’t have many amenities, so I couldn’t offer a seat to her, but I felt like standing would be rude as I didn’t want to tower over her. Even sitting down, I was slightly taller than her.

“You know,” the girl said, with a smirk. “It’s much nicer at the post office. Why couldn’t we have had our conversation there?”

“I didn’t choose to be here,” I replied. “Who are you anyways? Why did you want me to go to the post office?”

The girl seemed genuinely surprised by my question.

“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked, pulling back her sleeve to show me a tattoo of an eye on her forearm. “We need to talk about the Otherworlder.”