Cass found herself at the city gates about an hour later, dressed in her new leather armor, her Bag stocked with supplies. Before her were a set of five horses, four saddled and ready to go, one packed with supplies.

Cass stared up at her horse, her stomach sinking fast. She glanced at Alyx, who easily pulled herself up into the saddle.

“Um, is there maybe a step stool I could use?” Cass asked, her face flushing red at the question.

Alyx frowned down at Cass. “Step stool? What do you need something like that for?”

Cass looked between the towering horse and the ground. Without a skill or a stool, she couldn't comprehend how she was supposed to get up there. And Wind Stepping onto the creature seemed incorrect.

And yet, it didn’t look like Alyx had needed either.

“I don’t think I can get up,” Cass said finally.

“Sure you can,” Alyx said. “Are our saddles that different from what you’re used to?”

Cass bit her lip. She had no idea. Maybe they were. She guessed not, though. It looked like what she had seen in movies. A saddle strapped to the horse’s back and stirrups hanging from either side. She had had enough of a horse girl phase growing up to know that much.

Yet there was a world of difference between fawning over pictures of horses in library books in the fifth grade and standing in front of the living, breathing, towering animal.

“Cass?” Alyx asked.

“I’ve never ridden a horse,” Cass admitted. “I don’t know how to get on. Or ride.”

It didn’t look difficult in the movies, but she knew from the romance novels she read on occasion that there was more to it than simply sitting on the horse’s back and kicking the sides. If it wasn’t, it would make all the ladies riding double with their love interests rather silly.

“You don’t know how to ride?” Alyx repeated, the disbelief in her voice clipped.

“Correct.” Cass looked away. She didn’t need to see Alyx’s face to feel the shame and the disbelief.

“But how did you get anywhere without a horse?” Alyx asked. “Did you ride something else? Griffins? Lizards? People don’t just run everywhere, do they?”

Cass shook her head. “Don’t you have carriages or wagons or something?”

“Sure, but that’s too slow over the terrain we’re covering.”

“Well, that’s exclusively what we use where I’m from. Carriages that have their own propulsion and can drive faster than horses tirelessly.”

“I thought you said there wasn’t magic where you were from. How do you have self-propelled carriages?”

Cass shrugged.

“But, the wheels? How do you get over rough terrain with wheels?”

“Would you believe me if I told you there were paved roads stretching from every edge of the continent to every other edge?”

Alyx shook her head. “Who maintains that much road? How do monsters not take it over?”

“My lady,” Telis coughed politely. “We need to get going.”

“Right! You can tell me more about this later. For now, I guess you’ll just have to share a horse with me. We were planning on riding at speed and I don’t want to risk you falling off the back on your own. Come here,” Alyx held a hand down as she scooted back off the saddle of her horse.

“Your sure?” Cass asked. It didn’t look comfortable how Alyx was sitting. And the horse still looked very tall.

“Yeah, come on, we don’t have all day.”

Cass bit her lip and took Alyx’s hand.

“Can you get your foot into the stirrup there?” Alyx asked.

Cass nodded. It took bringing her knee up to her chin to get her toes into the loop for her foot and Alyx pulling her up from the animal’s back, but they got Cass seated on the horse.

Alyx reached around Cass for the leads. “I’ll have Telis teach you later. We don’t have time now. Hold tight to the saddle.”

Cass nodded, her hands clamping around the leather lip of the saddle. “Sorry.”

Maybe there was a riding skill which would help her pick it up quickly.

Alyx kicked their horse into motion, Telis and Marco following on their own horses, the horse meant for Cass led along behind them on a rope. They trotted out of the city into the wilderness beyond.

The wilderness beyond the city was open grass lands. The wind rolled through the wild grass like waves over a golden sea. In the distance, dark trees ate up the horizon, a mountain topped with snow rising beyond them still.

“We’re in a hurry?” Cass asked.

“Yeah,” Alyx said.

“You’re excited to be going home, then?” Cass asked. She was pretty sure she managed to keep the longing out of her voice. It was hard with images of her siblings floating around her head.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“I suppose that’s one word for it,” Alyx said. “Concerned about starting on the back foot is more accurate.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mentioned the Rising Dragon Festival, right?”

Cass nodded. “Yeah, you said something about needing to win the festival to be named heir?”

“Yes. The Rising Dragon Festival. Except in some unusual circumstances, it is held every nine or so years. It’s a big event for the duchy. It’s a chance to prove your wealth and power to your vassals and a chance to prove loyalty and gratitude to your lord. But most importantly, it’s when the dragonlings select their knights.”

“What is all this about dragons and knights?” Salos asked from Cass’s shoulder. “I kept quiet earlier, but I cannot stand to listen any longer.”

“What is there to say?” Alyx asked.

“Why don’t you start with when did those arrogant lizards start letting humans call themselves ‘Dragon Knights’ and we can go from there.”

“Arrogant lizards?” Alyx scoffed.

“I said what I said.” Salos glared back at Alyx from Cass’s shoulder.

“I’m going to ignore that,” Alyx said. “But my family has always been Dragon Knights. Though my grandmother was the first to tame a dragon in generations.”

Salos laughed. “Tame a dragon? Oh, Ceriven would have loved to hear you say that.” He paused suddenly. Something cold as ice spiked through him, leaking over into Cass over their bond.

Salos? What was that? Cass asked.

But he continued as if nothing had happened, the mocking laugh still in his voice but now lacking any sincerity. “No, one does not tame dragons. Appease maybe? Impress? Befriend if one is lucky? Unlucky?”

“Befriend a wild dragon?” It was Alyx’s turn to scoff. “Befriending a lord of Uvana would be more likely.”

“Well, I can hardly argue there. They are an unpleasant, uncooperative sort. Greedy and prideful to a fault. I would sooner attempt to sneak up on an argu than willingly try to befriend a dragon,” Salos said.

An argu? Cass attempted to interject again.

Humanoid, lots of eyes, Salos explained.

“I will not have you speak of dragons like that. Wild dragons cannot help their nature. And those partnered with Knights are nothing like that,” Alyx said, her tone biting.

“You keep calling them that,” Salos said, his eyes narrowing. “What is this fixation on ‘wild’ dragons?”

“Dragons without a knight?” Alyx said like it was the single most obvious thing. “What do you think I’ve been talking about?”

“Dragons are a people,” Salos said. “I don’t care for them, but it’s still only polite to acknowledge the personhood they possess. I know you humanoids have difficulty accepting the personhood of non-humanoids, but still.”

“People?” Alyx scoffed. “A wild dragon is a beast. And you can thank the Demon God for that.”

Another cold spike burst through Salos and across their bond. “The what?”

“The Demon God?” Alyx repeated. “The god who ascended to godhood by cursing an entire race?”

“I have never heard of such a deity.”

“Come on, you aren’t, Cass. You must know the Nine.”

“Maybe it’s regional?” Cass suggested.

Salos—and Alyx, Cass suspected, though she couldn’t see her—turned their glares on her.

“The gods are not ‘regional’,” Salos said.

“How would regional even gods work?” Alyx asked. “Would they be only worshiped in certain areas? Or only patrons of certain countries? Or are you suggesting their influence stops at some arbitrary border?”

“Well…” Cass started to explain how everyone had their own beliefs and regardless of what you thought of them, those beliefs should generally be respected, within reason, but then remembered her run in with Perception again. Suddenly, the subjectivity of divinity seemed a lot less plausible. “Never mind.”

Salos picked back up like Cass hadn’t spoken, “There is no ‘demon’ god. Blood and abyss, next you’ll tell me there are fonts of gold and a bottom to the abyss.

“Demons are monsters. They don’t worship. They don’t ascend. You cannot have a demon god any more than you can have a wooden stone or a living corpse.”

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you. The Demon God is one of the Nine. He of Consuming Shadows and Slicing Betrayal? The God of Dexterity?” Alyx said.

Salos laughed. “Where did you hear a title like that? Everyone knows Dexterity is governed by He of—” Salos seized. Pain shot through him and exploded across their bond.

He slipped from her shoulder, falling from the horse.

“Salos!” Cass yelled. She reached for him, yet he slipped past her fingers.

Time slowed as he fell, his body still spasming in mid air.

Alyx pulled back on her reigns. The horse was still charging faster than any Earth horse could run.

Salos fell.

What could she do? Would he be okay?

At these speeds, a human falling from a horse was sure to be injured. But cats could fall further. Was that because their bodies were lighter or because their muscles were better at cushioning their landing?

Would it still work if he didn’t land on his feet?

With his spasms, he would not land on his feet.

Salos fell.

Would their stats make a difference? Salos wasn’t an Earth cat. He wasn’t a cat at all. He was a spirit. Would he survive a fall like this? Or would his head hit a rock and split his brains out on the road, killing him instantaneously? Did spirits have brains?

Salos fell.

Should she jump off with Wind Step and try to catch him? She couldn’t catch him as the wind. She would have to materialize beneath him to catch him. Would that be any better than him hitting the ground? Or would they both getting injured instead?

But maybe they would both be less injured than he would be on his own?

Salos fell.

But he was a spirit. Why didn’t he—Salos! Dematerialize!

She screamed the thought at him. Over and over. Again and again. All in less than the time it would have taken her to scream it aloud.

He should be able to hear her. She could feel their bond pulsating between them. His pain surged over it, louder than her screams.

Salos fell.

He would hit the ground any second.

Dematerialize! Salos, please!

Nothing happened.

Salos! She screamed with every fiber of her being. She needed him to listen. To hear her. To do what she asked. Dematerialize!

She could feel the weight as her words flashed over their bond. A Command.

But there wasn’t time for regret.

He melted, like smoke on the wind. Falling one moment. Gone the next.

But not gone.

She could feel him. Feel his rolling pain crashing over her.

And it was all she could feel. Piercing, lacing pain. Straight to her heart. Like lightning through her soul.

There was only pain and a system message flickering in her eyes:

Divine Punishment: Knowledge of Taboo