Meyriv continued along the road for another three days, noticing that its state of repair was gradually improving the closer he got to Lem. However, the next day, the pattern changed abruptly as the road had been dug up and covered by some long-abandoned fortifications. A mound of dirt remained with some rotting palisades jutting from it.

In the remnants of an old skirmish, Meyriv picked his way through bent and broken pieces of weapons and armor still littering the ground in some places. However, the years had left them weathered with rot and rust.

He continued along the war-scarred landscape and occasionally passed the sites of other conflicts, some older than others. Midway through the afternoon, he finally arrived at an inhabited area. A few farms were scattered along the road, and the houses had thick doors and strong walls. Some of them even had arrow-slits for defense. Rough area, he thought to himself.

As he continued along the road, he saw a few people working in the fields, but they kept away from the road as they saw him approach.

That's probably a wise choice if those bandits are representative of the typical fare on this road, He considered.

As evening descended and he got closer to the city, the road became wider and better traveled. There were now large paving stones instead of cobble, and there was a decent amount of traffic sharing the road with him. Merchants with their carts of wares, farmers pushing wheelbarrows of feed, and the occasional soldier all scurrying about their business from place to place.

Their various aches, ailments, and worries buzzed around in his mind, but they no longer overwhelmed him. Instead, after a few minutes to adjust to the mental noise he found he could actually pay attention to them. He felt a bit guilty that he was effectively invading their innermost privacy, but as he had no choice in the matter either way he decided it would be a waste not to learn from them. He certainly had no intention of informing anyone of his knowledge.

How many rumormongers would kill for an ability like this? He wondered with a grimace. The world is fortunate I don't take pleasure in ruining reputations and relationships, because I could have dirt on much of the population just by walking past.

The buildings steadily became nearer together as he walked, and he came to the realization that he was now in the outer reaches of the city. However, there was no wall or marker to define the exact point where the countryside ended and the city began.

I suppose they wouldn't have needed a wall while the Lemnarch still ruled...and by the time it was vanquished all of the nearby threats to the city had long been dispatched. He mused, Speaking of rulers, who's in charge these days? There's some sort of authority keeping the peace here. I suppose I should ask around. Or just listen harder.

Listen he did, and it was only a few minutes before he gained some information that could help. The city-state was governed by a man named Yriel, a former imperial battle-mage general who had seized power in the aftermath of the collapse. Meyriv would have to collect more information about him.

In other news, A Railithi immigrant was worrying about a certain guard captain's extortion scheme. He was targeted because he had no friends or family in the area and because Railithi were generally disliked outside of their insular nation.

Ancient feuds never seem to die. Meyriv observed. I wonder what drove him here? By all accounts, it's not easy to cross the wastes, and going around could take months.

He shook off the distraction. Where was I? Oh, a certain greedy guardsman. He had learned the guard's name from the immigrant's thoughts, and it was a simple matter of asking a few innocuous questions to street vendors to track the man down.

He observed that as he got closer to the man's favorite haunts, the number of people harboring animosity toward the guard was growing. He certainly doesn't keep a low profile. Everyone in this corner of town seems to either hate his guts or takes his bribes. Or both.

As he checked another of the likely locations, his quarry stumbled out of the tavern, a bit tipsy and joking with two of his fellow guards. Meyriv leaned against a building and tried his best to be inconspicuous, but his foreign clothing drew them like flies to honey. He saw where things were going and planned his response.

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The guard approached him with his friends. "Hey you—" they began, but Meyriv beat them to it. "Hugo! Just the man I wanted to see!" He exclaimed, cheerfully greeting the man like an old friend; Hugo was utterly bewildered. "Uh. Do I know you?" He said finally.

"No, I'd just heard a lot about you." Meyriv rambled like a madman, "I'm new around here and I discovered you're the fellow who collects the visitors' tax, so I wanted to get that taken care of right away. It's quite an honor to meet such a distinguished and..."

As he spoke, he used magic to stealthily transfer some coins from the guard's pockets to his own, some of which he then removed and gave back to the still-dumbfounded guard. "I hope that covers it, and thank you much for your generosity!" He gave an overly embellished salute before turning around and losing himself among the buildings.

By the time Hugo finished processing the encounter and thought to question him, he was already gone*.

He hid out in an alleyway for an hour so so while tracking Hugo's movements via an enchantment left on the coins he had handed him.

Once he seemed to stop traveling, Meyriv slowly approached the building. It was a small home, but it was in a much nicer area of the city than the one he terrorized, complete with a small, grassy yard surrounded by a short brick wall. Meyriv extended his senses into the building to check on Hugo's whereabouts. He was removing his boots and preparing to retire for the night.

Meyriv patiently waiting for him to fall asleep, and he was about to sneak into the house when he noticed a small presence approaching from another room. A little girl about five or six years old opened Hugo's door, holding a cloth toy.

There goes the 'just kill him' option, Meyriv lamented.

"Daddy!" She said softly. "I'm scared. I think I heard something!"

I haven't even stepped into the house yet! Thought Meyriv, There's no way it was me.

Hugo grunted and turned over. "I'm sure it's nothing. Go back to bed."

"But..." the girl started to cry, "It's not like other times! I feel like a monster is watching me right now!"

"There are no monsters here." Her father assured her. "Please let me sleep."

Meyriv was a bit unnerved, She couldn't actually be sensing— He checked her soul. Well, shoot. That's not supposed to happen. She had detectable magical talent. Not a huge amount, but it was strange to find any in someone so young.

Just my luck, an outlier. It had to be a child too! If it were a guard dog I could knock it out or something, but I don't have anything in my arsenal to evade a guard-child! Hah. Because her father is a guard!...Alright, I think I've finally lost it.

He withdrew his presence from the house and walked a few houses away to wait. After two more hours, he returned. He used magic to unlatch the door and muffle sounds around him, but this time he kept his senses restrained to reduce his chances of being noticed.

He silently walked into Hugo's room and stopped. The child was curled up on his bed. She had also managed to commandeer a vastly disproportionate amount of blankets.

Meyriv thought for a moment, then carefully placed some enchantments over the room; First, a complicated one to keep his own voice away from the child while not blocking it from Hugo, then another of the same over Hugo. Finally, he restricted Hugo from moving, aside from his face.

As soon as the binding took effect, Meyriv spoke: He raised his voice. "Alright, wake up!"

Hugo shouted and struggled against the enchantment, but gave up as soon as he realized it was magic and not some kind of physical restraint. Which was good, because Meyriv didn't have all that much energy to spare.

He was relieved that the noise wards were working. He did not want to explain to a child why he was interrogating her father.

"Who are you?" Hugo demanded.

Ignoring his question, Meyriv spoke: "First off, I hope you appreciate how much effort I'm going through to avoid waking your kid."

"I swear if you do anything to her—"

"No, that wasn't a threat. I won't harm her. If I'm going to threaten anyone it'll be you. Threatening children is for cowards." Meyriv said in a tired voice.

"Then why isn't she waking up?!" Hugo demanded

"I'm blocking our voices from reaching her."

He seemed to relax a bit. Or as much as one can while only moving their head.

"...What do you want?" He asked.

"Who are your direct superiors? Give me their names, rank, location, and everything you know about their responsibilities."

Hugo immediately tensed, "Why should I? If you're an enemy of the city you're going to kill me as soon as I tell you to keep your secret safe." He spat

"If I'm above hurting children, why would I stoop to murdering their parents? I just want information. None of it will be traced back to you."

"...Fine." He said at last.

After he had the information he needed, Meyriv stopped him. "The enchantments will break in a few minutes."

Then he was gone.

Meyriv made his way to the wealthier parts of the city where the nobles and officials lived. He was en route to one of the leaders of the city guard when he sensed something. He pulled out the communication ring he had captured weeks ago. Why is it activating now? I'm across the ocean from where I got it.

He loosened the safeguards he had put around it and carefully watched it. If he did this right, it would lead him to whatever it was linked to.