Cass followed Telis and Alyx through town and into a small townhouse.

Alyx flopped into the armchair in the main room with an exhausted sigh of relief. Marco took his place behind and to the left of Alyx’s chair, his hand resting impassively on his sword.

Cass stood awkwardly by the door. “Weren’t we leaving town?”

Alyx waved off the question. “Soon. Nothing is ever easy. Sit down. We need to talk.”

Cass frowned but settled into the chair opposite Alyx. The chair cradled her as she sank into the cushions, the tension leaving her body with a satisfied sigh. It had been weeks since she’d sat on something that wasn’t a stone stool or the bare ground and this was heavenly. She was unbelievably ready to settle back into civilization.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t Alyx’s hometown and there was at least a little more travel in her immediate future. Was it too much to hope for a car? Probably. But there were carriages at least, right? Carriages with cushioned seating? She could hope.

“Tea, my lady?” Telis asked, a teapot and a pair of cups already at hand. Steam floated idly from the pot’s glass spout. A delicate floral scent filled the room.

“Gods, yes. Thank you, Telis,” Alyx said. “One for Cass too. She needs to see what real tea tastes like.”

“What does that mean?” Cass asked.

Alyx snorted as she took the first cup from Telis. “You should have seen what she served me out there, Telis. The first thing this woman gives me is the nastiest, greenest liquid I’ve ever tasted. What even was that, Cass?”

Green? When had she—Oh! “The Green Spone Soup!” Cass said with a snap. “I had almost forgotten about that concoction.”

Served with a roasted vineroot potato beside the corpse of the giant spider. The spone—a green mushroom she’d foraged in the Deep—had tasted awful and the earthy flavor of the aster it had been combined with had not helped. She hadn’t tried that combination again.

“Concoction, you call it,” Alyx chuckled. “Sounds about right. Either way, this is what tea should taste like.”

“Most of my tea was just fine,” Cass retorted. She quite liked most of them. It really was just that one which was disastrous.

“Taste this and then try telling me that,” Alyx said as Telis handed Cass the second cup.

Unlike tea cups of Earth, the cup was made of forest green glass, opaque enough Cass couldn’t see more than a silhouette of her hands through the cup and the tea within, but translucent enough that the shadow it cast on her lap was tinted green.

Alyx sipped her tea, her face softening as she settled.

Cass sipped her cup. It was a black tea, not dissimilar from an Earl Grey, but sweeter and more floral. It was easily the best tasting thing she’d consumed since arriving.

Did you Identify that before you drank it? Salos asked.

Cass stiffened. Do I need to? Alyx wouldn’t poison me.

Salos sighed. Do you know that? Really, truly know that?

Yes!

No, you do not. I will admit, Alyx personally poisoning you is unlikely, but that is hardly the point. We know nothing of her servant. Is she the kind of woman who would act for what she believes is her mistress’s best interests without permission? What does she think of you? Is she even truly loyal to Alyx? Perhaps killing you would further her goals of isolating her. You do not know her motivations.

And again, she is not the primary concern. There has already been one attempt on Alyx’s life since we met her. We do not know how many enemies she might have. Perhaps this Telis is loyal, but perhaps the teapot, the cups, the tea leaves, or the water used to boil it were contaminated. Any of these could be poisoned without that woman’s knowledge. The poisoner might only intend to kill Alyx, but that will not stop you from being caught in the crossfire.

Cass tried to keep the scowl from her lips. That’s so paranoid. We just got back. They wouldn’t have any idea that we would be here.

“Not to your taste?” Alyx asked.

“Huh?” Cass looked up from her teacup.

Alyx was staring at her with a wistful smile. “I wasn’t a big fan when I first tried Alfen tea either. Admittedly, it can be an acquired taste.”

“Oh, no, the tea is great. Thank you.” Cass shook her head. “I was just thinking about something else.”

“Yeah?”

Cass shrugged. She wasn’t about to explain the conversation she and Salos had been having. Instead, she lied, “I was just thinking about home.”

Not wholly a lie. The tea evoked memories of late mornings sitting on her apartment balcony under the summer sun. A row of house plants sitting in a line along the railing. Succulents sunburned. A pot of strawberries bursting with berries in the corner. Green onion flowering in white puffs.

“Ah.” Alyx nodded, a serious look slipping back over her face. She shuffled up in her chair, sitting straighter. “Of course. We should talk about that.”

Alfen Tea

[Made of tea leaves from the mountains of Alfen, from which the tea gets its name, and mixed with cornflower and lavender. Minor Focus restoring effects.]

Cass took another sip of her tea, now sure there was nothing unusual in it. Her thoughts spun around her. How was she supposed to get back? What did she know? “I’m from another world.”

“Right,” Alyx said. Marco in the corner stiffened. Telis didn’t move.

“I have loose theories on how that happened,” Cass continued. Technically, they were Salos’s loose theories. Maybe a god dragged her from her world and then the summoning circles of Uvana brought her here specifically. “But nothing certain and nothing that I can reproduce in the opposite direction. So I’d like to find an expert on the subject if they exist.”

Alyx stared down into her tea, a contemplative frown on her lips. “I’m not sure there is an ‘expert’. But, if there is such a person on the Peninsula, they’d be a mage of the Academy of Arcane Arts in Velillia.”

“What is that, exactly?” Cass asked.

“An organization for mages. They pool funds for promising research, handle the training of young mages, and facilitate the hiring of their members by those in need of a mage. They are probably the greatest experts on all things magic on the Peninsula, if not the Continent at large.”

Have you ever heard of them? Cass asked Salos.

No. But, if the Custodia is no more, then it stands to reason others would rise to fill the vacuum, Salos said. Speaking of, I still believe that searching out the remains of the Custodia is your best bet for the answers you seek. If we can find the Scholar’s Spire, I’m certain I can find a lead to get you home.

Didn’t you say something about the Custodia being demon hunters? Cass asked.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I mean, yes. But. It is still your best bet.

“What about the Scholar’s Spire?” Cass asked.

Alyx shrugged. “What about it?”

“I’ve heard that it could have answers for me too.”

“And there is a Font of gold in the skies of Almerez,” Alyx muttered.

“What?” Cass cocked her head to one side.

Alyx shook her head. “Just another old legend. Don’t worry about it. Look. Despite what you might have heard,” her eyes fell on Salos as she spoke, “No one thinks it actually exists.”

It does, Salos repeated, looking away.

“But, if it does,” Alyx continued. “The Academy is the most likely to know.”

Sounds like Velillia should be our first stop, in either case, Cass said.

I suppose, Salos grouched.

What? Do you have a lead you’re not telling me about? Cass asked.

Salos’s ears flattened against his head. I just wonder if being around someone targeted for assassination is truly wise.

Cass wanted to argue against that, but strictly speaking, he wasn’t wrong. Instead, Cass said, She’s going to the same place as us. Wouldn’t it be more dangerous to go it alone?

Salos grumbled quietly in her lap but didn’t answer.

Across the table, Alyx frowned into her tea, turning the cup in gentle circles.

“Is there something else?” Cass asked.

“Maybe?” Alyx said. She took a deep breath. “I potentially have another lead you can follow. If it pans out, it would go a long way to evening the debt between us. But—”

“What debt?” Cass interrupted.

Alyx blinked at Cass. “I owe you my life, at least twice over. I owe you two Lords of Uvana. What do you mean, ‘what debt’?”

Cass shook her head. She hadn’t done any of that to extract a debt from Alyx. “You saved me from the Herald of the Pass! And I couldn’t have defeated most of those monsters without you. You don’t—”

“I do.” Alyx’s eyes burned with determination. “And I can’t let it stand like this. You need to let me pay you back.”

“You really don’t,” Cass said weakly. Alyx’s guidance was enough. Her company was enough.

“Regardless, I might have another angle for you to find information on both realm travel and the lost Scholar’s Spire,” Alyx continued. She spoke fast, spitting words like bullets from a machine gun. “My father is the Warden of Vaisom. The Vault may have records of one or both.”

Alyx’s hands tightened around her teacup, her eyes once again on the dark liquid.

Cass tapped the arm of her chair. She had questions. To begin with, “What does being a prison guard have to do with lost temples or traveling between worlds?”

Cass… Salos sighed.

What? What did I say?

Lost temples? Salos asked.

What exactly is a Spire then? The only context I have is that it was lost to time and some secret-society-sounding organization used to operate out of it. How is that not a lost temple?

What do you think a temple is? Salos asked.

“Prison guard?” Alyx cocked her head to one side. “Oh. No. He isn’t a prison warden. He is the Warden. In Vaisom, the Warden is the keeper of the Duchy Vault. A lot of things are supposed to be held there, from ancient weapons of indescribable power to forgotten tomes of knowledge. Among those records, you might find a lead. Especially if it is information from a previous age.”

Cass frowned. That sounded good, but, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but would your father actually let us in? This is the same father that allegedly and believably sent assassins to kill you, right?”

To Salos, she added, I meant temple in the ancient relic-filled site swarming with monsters and traps, not in a, like, place of worship kind of way.

Is that the purpose of temples where you are from? Salos asked.

Alyx didn’t quite wince. She nodded. “Yeah, that’s him.”

“And he’ll let me poke around if you ask?” Cass asked again.

“Well, no. Probably not,” Alyx said. “But his heir is also allowed into the Vault. He can’t do anything about that.”

“Oh, and you’re his heir—”

“Actually, no.”

Cass stared at her. Are you following this?

Salos sighed. Unfortunately, yes. I see where this is going.

“But that is going to change!” Alyx said. “He can’t pick just anyone as his heir. It must be someone from the family, either by blood or by marriage, and my grandmother, the Grand Duchess, must approve it.”

“And she’s not going to approve anyone but you?” Cass couldn’t quite keep the incredulity out of her voice.

“That is my current hope, yes,” Alyx said.

Cass’s incredulous stare didn’t lessen. “Is this how my plans sound to you guys?”

She has the courtesy to tell you ahead of time at least, Salos said with a yawn.

“Look, I know this sounds like dragon’s breath in the morning dew right now, but it’s not completely crazy. The Festival begins in a few days.”

Dragon’s breath in the what? Cass muttered to herself.

An idiom. Completely crazy, Salos translated. Is that really the important part of what she said?

Why dragon’s breath? Why dew?

“If I win, I will indisputably prove to my grandmother that I deserve my father’s position. They won’t have any choice but to appoint me heir.”

“Sorry, silly question, but what is the Festival, exactly?” Cass asked. “How does one win it?”

“The Rising Dragon Festival,” Alyx said. “It’s famous across the continent. It is how Vaisom’s Dragon Knights are chosen.”

“Dragons?” The word hitched in Cass’s throat. A hundred childhood dreams of riding dragons past the horizon flittered through her mind. Page after page of fantasy novels and fantastical reference books borrowed from the library whispered in her ears. “There are dragons where you’re from?”

Alyx grinned, pride all but tangibly rolling off her. “The dragons are my family’s pride. My mother and grandmother were both Dragon Knights. And so will I.”

How arrogant, Salos muttered.

What do you mean? Cass asked.

A human claiming the power of dragons? It is asking for their cities to be razed to the ground. One does not invoke the dragons lightly. They are an arrogant, unruly bunch, quick to anger and slow to calm.

Are they? Cass asked. But then why is Alyx so excited about them?

The hubris of humanity? Salos suggested unhelpfully.

Oh, shush, Cass admonished.

Salos huffed to himself in her lap.

Alyx had not stopped talking during Cass and Salos’s sidebar. “The festival is a series of combat contests to prove your worth to be selected as a knight.

“The Dragon Knights are among the most powerful people on the continent. They are why the Duchy can stand on its own despite the power of other forces, like the Empire or the Celestine Kingdom.

“If I become a Dragon Knight, I’ll be the first of my siblings and of my generation. He will have to acknowledge me.”

That is all well and good, but what are her actual chances of winning? Salos asked.

“You think you can win?” Cass asked for him.

Alyx’s hand clenched in her lap. “I need to.”

Not a glowing response, Salos said dryly. But about what I expected.

Cass couldn’t say that she loved it either.

“I know it’s not the most solid plan,” Alyx said. “And it barely begins to cover what I owe you, even if it is successful. But, it’s the best I can do until after the Festival.”

Cass shook her head. “It’s fine. Just supporting me to Velillia is more than enough. Without you, my only other alternative is to wander around penniless without direction.”

I don’t know if it would be that bad, Salos said. I imagine I could figure a way there if we wanted to.

You didn’t know the town existed before Alyx brought it up, Cass reminded him.

But now we do. We have options.

Cass scratched his head. Sure, sure. But for now, the path of least resistance is to stick with Alyx.

He grumbled, but didn’t argue.

Alyx didn’t look any more pleased, but she nodded all the same.

“My lady,” Telis appeared at Alyx’s side. Cass blinked rapidly. She hadn’t noticed the butler’s presence until she’d spoken. “There are several things that require your attention before we can depart. Perhaps your guest here would like to relax with a bath while we handle them?”

“Cass?” Alyx asked, turning the question over to her.

A bath? Cass looked down at her body. It was caked in dirt and grime. Dried blood and bug guts had long since become a normal part of her existence in her three weeks in the wilderness that it had fallen into the background noise of general discomfort she lived with.

“Yes, please.” Cass nodded vigorously.