Cass walked with purpose through the hallways of the townhouse, her thoughts purposefully directed at anything and everything but herself.

“Miss Cass?” Telis said.

Cass jumped. The butler stood in the center of the hallway, as plain as day, her hands folded neatly in front of her.

Did you see her? Cass asked.

No.

“Excuse me. I apologize if I startled you,” the woman said. Her tone was professional. Crisp, like fresh laundry. But her words were obligatory, not sincere. They were an empty platitude with a promise it would happen again.

“I’m fine,” Cass lied. “You were looking for me?”

“My lady would like to speak with you.”

“Sure, lead the way.”

Telis led them back to the sitting room. Alyx was waiting for them in her armchair, her hair a clean and vibrant red and her ragged armor replaced with a tunic and trousers. Her sword was still on her hip.

“Look at you!” Alyx grinned. “You don’t look half bad when you aren’t covered in spider guts.”

“I could say the same about you,” Cass shot back. She dropped into the chair opposite Alyx. “What now?”

“The trip back to Velillia is short, but it is through the wilderness. I have equipment that needs replacing, you?”

Cass shrugged. “Can’t replace what I’ve never had. And I don’t know if I can afford anything either.”

“How much did the assassin give you?” Alyx asked.

Cass shrugged again. It hadn’t felt like a particularly heavy bag, but Cass had not opened it nor would she have any idea what the contents were worth even if she had. She fished it out of her Bag and tossed it over to Alyx. “I don’t know what this is worth.”

Alyx opened the pouch, poking around with a finger, a scowl settling over her face. “You sure you didn’t side with me because she was low balling you?”

Cass shook her head. “I have literally no idea how much that is worth.”

“Right, right. They probably use different currency where you’re from.”

Cass nodded.

Alyx pulled a silver-colored coin from the pouch and held it up for Cass. It was round with a square hole in the center. “This is a sliv; you can buy a sword with a handful of these.”

She poked around some more and pulled out a copper colored coin. This one was a little smaller but with the same square hole in the center. “This is a coh. A hundred coh get you one sliv. A couple coh is enough to buy a loaf of bread. It shouldn’t cost more than a dozen or so coh for a night in an inn unless you are buying a private room.”

She rummaged around the pouch with increasing disdain on her face before cinching it again. She fished around her own pocket and drew a gold-colored coin. “This is a glin. It is worth a hundred slivs or 10,000 coh. One of these is enough to buy one of those shower orbs you saw earlier.”

Cass’s eyes bulged. Magic plumbing was worth a thousand nights in an inn?

“As a rule, daily necessities can be bought with coh, martial equipment can be bought with sliv, and a mage’s products are bought with glin.” Alyx pointed to the pouch of coins. “That is mostly coh. It might be a single glin all together. Definitely not more than two.

“It’s no small amount of money, but enough to kill a person for?” Alyx scowled and shook her head. “Anyway, it should be enough for supplies. Not that I plan on letting you pay for anything yourself today. It’s the minimum I can do to begin paying you back for everything.”

Cass opened her mouth to dismiss the debt again, but Salos cut her off. Don’t you dare! Take her money.

“Thank you,” Cass settled on instead, standing to take the money pouch back from Alyx. The eavesdropped conversation bubbled in the back of her mind. Cass needed to set the record straight. Alyx didn’t owe her. Cass may have saved her, but Alyx had already done the same. “But I really don’t think you need to make a big deal out of it.”

“I pay my debts.” Alyx stood up and threw an arm over Cass’s shoulder, marching the two of them out the door. “And today, that means making sure you make it to Velillia in comfort!”

“Alyx,” Cass protested, but could do little about the force of the other woman’s greater strength as she was swept outside.

“Let me do at least this much,” Alyx said as she let Cass go.

The two of them fell into a slow walk through the increasingly busy streets.

Most buildings were two stories tall, the second floor spilling out over the street. The first floor of many were store fronts featuring wide paneled windows of green or yellow tinted glass. Glass wind chimes hung in front of the windows from the overhanging second floor. Many depicted birds or dragons in flight. The breeze from the port carried through the town, creating a quiet symphony of glass and wind.

The streets grew busier as they made their way deeper into town, the day in full swing even though the sun was still low on the horizon and hidden behind the surrounding buildings on most streets.

Merchants yelled at passersby from their stalls and shops. Peddlers hawked their wares from tarps and stools in the spaces in between. People meandered through the yelling bodies, haggling and buying and selling.

Most people of the crowd appeared human, their skin ranging from olive to ocher to dusk. Hair ran the gamut from dark magentas to soft browns and emerald greens to lime-tinted gold.

Among them walked people not quite human to Cass’s eyes. There a man with sharp up swept ears and a lanky frame. Here a woman three quarters of Cass’s height and twice as wide, a luxurious beard filling her face. There a towering woman with green skin and a pair of tusks curling out from between her lips.

In the center of town was a fountain square. A woman with a serpent coiled around her shoulders was the centerpiece. She held a staff high in one hand and poured out a basin with the other. On her head, she wore a crown adorned with curling horns.

Salos tensed on her shoulder. Cass reached up to pet under his chin, just as overwhelmed by the crowd. Cass hadn’t seen so many people in weeks. It was loud and chaotic; the smell of bodies was already heavy in the air.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Breakfast first,” Alyx said over the crowds, directing them to a stall on the far side of the statue. It sat under the overhang of another shop. The heavy wooden construct of its frame suggested it sat here on an at least semi-permanent basis. A wide woman with curling red hair and ruddy skin stood behind the counter, a wicker-basketed utensil in one hand, a pot of boiling oil in front of her.

“Two.” Alyx held up her thumb and a single finger.

The stall owner nodded and fished a pair of fried objects out of her pot with the wicker utensil and dropped them in wax paper. Alyx traded her a dozen copper coh for the two fried pouches.

“Here, try it.” Alyx handed one to Cass.

“What is it?” Cass asked. It looked like a fried dumpling, about the size of her fist.

“It’s a fried meat dumpling,” Alyx said before biting into hers. Steam poured out and Alyx fanned her mouth from the heat.

Cass nibbled at hers a little more cautiously. The outer dumpling had a delightfully crispy shell surrounding a softer, mochi-like dough.

Identify it, Salos reminded her.

Right, Cass said, more because she was curious about what it was than because she seriously expected to find poison in it.

Fried Street Food

[A fried, moshen-wrapped bun containing a meat and mushroom filling.]

She took another bite into the center. The center had a saucy minced meat and mushroom mixture, savory but with sweet undertones. It reminded her of soy sauce, ginger, and honey, but still distinctly none of those things.

But, perhaps most importantly, it was real food. Not something she’d dug up and dropped in her fire. Something actually cooked. Prepared with care and consideration.

“How is it?” Alyx asked.

“Soooo good,” Cass said. She closed her eyes and savored the next bite. She hadn’t realized how much she missed food. It had been a long time since she had last been hungry, despite her recent misfortunes, since, as a slyphid, she didn’t technically need to eat. Something about the energy of the air being enough to sustain her spirit-body.

Yet, necessary or not, she had missed it. The food tasted so good. There was comfort in the heat in her throat as it worked its way down. In the weight in her stomach as it settled. There was a fullness she’d missed.

All too quickly, the bun was gone.

“Two more,” Alyx said to the stall owner before Cass could say anything.

Cass ate the second one slower as she followed Alyx from shop to shop, slowly working their way back out into the less crowded streets. They’d picked out a small collection of things: a new backpack for Alyx, sleeping rolls for Alyx and Cass, and a pair of simple lanterns that ran on oil.

“Next stop, the armory.” Alyx pointed down another street as they left the previous shop.

“Didn’t you get more armor from defeating the epherwing?” Cass asked.

“Just a breastplate,” Alyx said. “Most of the other pieces are broken or missing. I don’t know how much of it I can get replaced here. Depending on what they have in stock, it may have to wait until we get back to Velillia to replace.

“Either way, you need a set, too. Any thoughts on what you want?”

Cass shrugged.

Something lightweight, Salos said. Flexible. Your Dexterity is your first line of defense. You don’t have the Fortitude to make heavier armor worth it.

What does Fortitude have to do with armor? Cass asked. She assumed strength was the primary determiner of the kind (or at least weight) of armor she would want, not Fortitude.

Your personal Fortitude will affect the integrity of armor you are wearing, Salos explained. It is a multiplicative force. So, unless you want to alter your planned path and start investing in Fortitude, I would recommend something that will not get in your way over something with higher defensive ratings.

“Something lightweight, I guess,” Cass said, answering Alyx’s question.

Keep walking, Salos said, his tone suddenly sharp, don’t look around. Someone is following you.

Cass’s head whipped back and forth over the crowd, but she didn’t see anyone out of place.

Don’t do that! Salos sighed. What did I say?

Is it the assassins from before?

Hard to tell. It is possible that your friend just has more guards that we know nothing about.

“How much further to the armory?” Cass asked aloud to Alyx.

“We’re almost there,” Alyx said. “Why?”

Because people were following them and Alyx needed to know. But how to tell her that without making it obvious that she knew?

“Cass?” Alyx prompted.

“Salos is heavy,” Cass said, forcing a petulant tone into her words. “Would you mind carrying him for a minute?”

What are you doing! Salos shrieked as Cass pulled him off her shoulder and held him out to Alyx.

Alyx raised an eyebrow at the obviously struggling cat. “He’s heavy?”

Cass nodded, pushing him at her again.

“I don’t think he wants to be—”

Cass shook her head and pulled Salos close, holding him just below her face. In a cooing voice, she said, “No, no. Look, if you do this, he calms down right away.” In a whispered coo only Salos could hear Cass ‘demonstrated’, “Play along. Tell her what you just told me.”

Salos’s eyes went wide, but he relaxed as Cass bounced him around like a baby whispering in his ears. When he’d ‘settled’, Cass held him out to Alyx again. “See, works like a charm every time. Here, you hold him.”

Alyx looked between the displeased looking Salos and the entirely too pleased Cass with all the trepidation. “I don’t—”

“Take him.” Cass pushed him up against her again.

Alyx took him from Cass. He made a show of struggling.

“I really think—”

Cass interrupted Alyx again. “No, just like I showed you. He calms down right away.”

She mimed cuddling him at Alyx.

“O-okay?” Alyx awkwardly copied Cass, bouncing him in her arms and whispering close to his face.

A minute later, she stiffened. She looked between Cass and Salos.

“See?” Cass grinned. “He likes you. You just had to give it a chance. You want to keep holding him for a little?”

Salos nudged his head up against Alyx’s ear.

Alyx sighed. “Sure. I guess I can?”

What did Alyx say about the tail? Cass asked as they continued walking. To all appearances they hadn’t changed pace or direction.

Definitely not Telis, Salos said. And she claims not to have other guards beside Marco there.

What is the plan, then? Should we turn back? Cass asked.

Salos leaned up to Alyx’s face. She ran a hand along his back, whispering into his fur.

No. She wants to see who or what this is, Salos said.

Is that a good idea? Cass asked.

If there are as few as it seems, then yes. If they have more waiting somewhere, then no.

That’s not exactly comforting, Cass said.

No. It is not, Salos agreed. But it would be better to find out what they want now, while we are in town, than waiting until we are isolated in the wilderness.

They turned off the road onto a narrower side street. Shadows hung heavy over the alley, the sun completely hidden by the buildings. Wind gusted through, blowing up trash and litter and sending the wind chimes spinning in a melody of bells.

“Is this the right way?” Cass’s hands clenched around her staff. Every instinct screamed that this was not a safe place to walk.

Cass flared Trap Detection and Atmospheric Sense, looking for more concrete evidence of trouble. Trap Detection suggested this was a good place for an ambush but offered nothing further.

“The armory is just ahead,” Alyx said, showing no sign of the concern Cass carried.

“That so?” a man asked, stepping out of the shadows of one of the buildings and blocking the path ahead of them.