"I'll be damned." The stable master gaped in disbelief at scalehoofs, moving obediently from one stall to another. “I can get them to move out, but this...”

"Weird, right, Mr. Hale?" Moira nodded, no less stunned despite seeing mares and stallions follow my words earlier.

"Yeah, I've seen it before, but… what can I say? That's a natural beast talker for you."

"Would you go by something some random chick uttered? It seems more than that to me."

"It could be," the stable master said, but to my relief, that was all he had to say about it. "Anyway, Grey. When you're done here, would you take a look at the other two buildings?"

"Of course, Mr. Hale. Only..."

"Yes?"

"I'm not sure if they'll accept me the way they did here. You know..."

»Let me come, Lady. I will explain.«

Hearing Scoresby's older mare, the stable master burst out laughing. "Ready to jump in to help you. Unbelievable. Alright, I don't see any problem with that. Take Sylph'ra with you. Just so you know, Building Three houses privately owned scalehoofs like here, but Building One houses my scalehoofs."

"A-are you saying they'll be more knit together?"

"Exactly," he gushed, his smile betraying his delight that I remembered what he told me yesterday about scalehoofs being herd animals. "Glad to see you've got the smarts. Not everyone does."

A remark that stroked my pride, but also raised a few questions. If the standard of one's body increased with each sigil in one's array, didn't that mean that even a fool picking their nose could become a renowned scholar? If so, having the Lattice didn't sound so bad. But what the stable master said suggested otherwise. Even with the runes giving everyone the opportunity to be something more, there were still fools.

Of course, one could argue that even a born genius could be a fool, but with the Lattice around… well, I guess it took more than a hundred sigils to make a difference. After all, though stronger, I didn't feel any smarter than before.

'Come to think of it, I didn't know I was stronger until I put myself through the hard work. So maybe some kind of mind challenge?'

But no matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn't come up with anything to compare my wits with. Outside of basic calculus, advanced math seemed the same unknown to me as on Earth, so goodbye to the notion that I could enrich the folks here with derivations, integrals, or something even more ridiculous. Then, there were crossword puzzles I used to do with my grandfather sometimes. Finding those here, however, seemed as futile as finding my way back - that or common sense. It continued to elude me as well.

'Seriously, it did.'

There was no other way I could explain my stupid decision to follow the note I received from the cat last evening. Sure, I found plenty of reasons to justify it, but it didn't change the fact that it was stupid.

'You should know better, Korra!'

After what happened the last time I followed my reason and cut my way home through a dark alley, I really should have learned my lesson. Yet here I was, walking to the outhouses instead of having a midday meal, risking everything I got back just on a hunch I might meet my tail - so to speak. At least, that was what I got from the note and the feeling on the back of my neck. Whoever was watching my ass was close, closer than ever before.

│ Quite a stunt you put on in the stables.

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│ Not low profile, but not necessarily bad.

│ Might speed things up. We need to talk.

│ Tomorrow, stables, lunch break.

│ Excuse yourself for a need to use the shitters.

The toilets, or more precisely the outhouses, or as the note said and many people call them, the shitters, were placed up against the outer wall between buildings two and three, as far away from the main building as possible due to the smell. Surprisingly, Moira had a lot to say about that - it was almost weird. From her, I learned that the outhouses were as ordinary as they could be. Just ordinary wooden shacks. There were no anti-odor runes like in the indoor toilets of fancy houses, and no runes to suppress noise.

'So here I am. What now?' I thought to myself, with a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach and bated breath. Although it reminded me heavily of the stench in the cellar, not the reason I stood in front of three small wooden sheds, gripped with jitters and afraid to even breathe lest I make a sound.

'What am I supposed to do? Knock?'

Glancing over the three outhouses, I found it, much to my frustration, hard to tell whether they were occupied or not. There was no hole to peek through, no signs either. Only when I pricked up my ears - fearful of what I might hear - did I find them empty.

'Seriously, what was that bastard waiting for?' I could feel the city guards' gaze on the back of my neck, closer than ever before. 'Was there a password? Two short taps, one long, or anything like that?’

No. There was nothing about that in the note, nothing about what I was supposed to do once I got here.

'Was he waiting for me to get into one? Or… shit! What if it wasn't the city guard who sent me the note after all…?'

But before I could get any further with the dreadful thought, the sound of footsteps caught my attention. With a jolt, I turned around and froze. There, walking down the alley between the buildings, was a tall, stocky man. One glance from him, and I knew he wasn't my watchguard.

Still...

'Have I seen him around?' I wondered, unable to shake the feeling that this wasn't the first time I'd met him.

'Oh no! That couldn't have been...' Frozen with fear, I stared at the man approaching me, trying to remember if he was one of Dungreen's visitors, if I had seen him in the cellar before.

"Ah, I wondered who it was. You must be the new lass. Grey, right?"

"Y-yeah," I stammered out, relieved beyond belief.

'How could I forget?'

He was one of Mr. Hale's staff. I had seen him this morning when Moira was giving me a quick tour of the facility - all too quick, coming to think of it. That I didn't remember him right away wasn't surprising at all.

"Korra Grey, sir."

"Turoc. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but not really."

'Huh? Did I make a bad impression?'

"Don't get your tits in a twist. I just didn't expect to see anyone here."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"That you've been played for a fool, newbie. Nobody's used this shitter in years. That's why I like them. It's quiet."

"Nobody uses them? But..."

"Behind the administrative building. That's where you'll find the new ones."

'Shit.' After all the worrying, it turned out that I was in the wrong place - and that was only because they wanted to pull a prank on me.

"Thank you, sir," I blurted out and ran off, hearing Turoc grumble in disbelief behind me. "I didn't take her for a sissy arse. If she was in such a hurry, she could have used these. Well, whatever."

Not letting the man's remarks get to me, I found the new outhouses where he told me. Two stalls, noticeably nicer, no smell. And unoccupied as well. There was just that uncomfortable feeling at the back of my neck and no one else.

'Was I in the wrong place again?'

The more and more I thought about it, the more it seemed stupid to meet here, especially if it was supposed to be a secret meeting. You couldn't know when someone would show up to use the place.

'But where else...?' I didn't get to finish the thought as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and the second time, in just a few moments, I found myself facing a man outside the outhouses. But this one came unheard, almost as if he had emerged from the shadows.

[Swordmaster: ₪₪ sigils]

There was no need for the Lattice to tell me that the man was strong. My instincts screamed it at me more than clearly. That, and that this was the man overseeing my safety. That sharp, penetrating gaze was unmistakable.

"Hello, Grey. Name's Blaine."