“What did you think of the festival?” Ezekiel asked Marissa as the carriage carried them away from the small town near Ezekiel’s fortress, where they had spent the day.

Marissa had first been hesitant about wandering around without her illusion up, but she surprised herself at how quickly she became comfortable. The number of living dead and other types of what is normally considered evil races in the town had put her mind at ease. She’d actually been able to enjoy being in a social setting around many people she did not know. Ezekiel even brought some of the potion that allowed her to taste things so she could enjoy the food and drink.

“It was, fun,” Marissa tried to smile at him, but her illusion was still down, and her smile was a bony grimace with a few tendrils of twitching flesh. She slipped the illusion ring back on her finger. Her body became clothed in flesh once again as her robe filled out. “Though for now, I’m still more comfortable with this thing on.”

“That is understandable, you still see yourself as a human.” Ezekiel shrugged.

“Is that saying you don’t see yourself as a human anymore?” The carriage accelerated as they cleared the final edges of town.

“Well, I’m not human anymore.” Ezekiel chuckled softly.

“I’m not sure how I feel about not seeing myself as human,” Marissa said.

“That is very understandable, you’ve always been human, that is part of your identity. If it comforts you, you are technically part human. It’s clear that your character race was human so that makes you a human lich versus something like an elf lich, which is another race.”

Marissa sat quietly thinking about it. “That does help, though I imagine eventually I will need to move on from it.”

“You will,” Ezekiel agreed. “After all, eventually you will be able to change your race if you so choose, so that really throws the idea of a racial identity out the window. Though there is not normally much point, it is expensive to do.”

“I can see how that would be the case.” Marissa cocked her head. “Shouldn’t we be technically talking in terms of species not race though?”

“You know what? I’d never thought about that. I guess that’s probably true. But the use of race to talk about different species is so ingrained. But you are right, elves are not the same species as humans.”

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“I guess it doesn’t matter that much, as long as people know what you mean.” Marissa looked out the carriage window. They were ascending a section of the road that was full of switchbacks. Already they had climbed high, and she could see above the trees out to the planes that jutted up next to the mountains.

The day had started out sunny and was now growing overcast. Far out in the distance Marissa saw something. There was a flash that lit up an area far beyond even the town. “What is that?”

Ezekiel leaned over and looked out where she was gazing. Even though the flash was only momentary, his visual abilities were far more powerful than Marissa’s. “That’s fortunate timing,” Ezekiel said. “That flash is a warning system that I built-in to detect any creatures over a certain power level wandering in from the Uncharted. That has sent a signal to one of my defenders.”

“You have creatures strong enough to contend with the monsters out there? I thought you said the difficulty spike was massive,” Marissa asked in surprise.

“I did say that, and it is quite massive. I’m also quite powerful,” Ezekiel assured her. “Not powerful enough to want to wander around the Uncharted casually, but the edges of it I can handle. Besides, anything that ventures into the civilized lands is normally not at the tip of the food chain in the Uncharted.”

“Can you tell what entered?”

Ezekiel placed his hand on the glass of the window. Black lines of runic power spread out, sinking into the glass before they faded and the view through the glass shifted.

Marissa could now see a massive creature as it crushed a small tree. Its body was bulky, and it looked like a cross between a triceratops, porcupine, and rhinoceros. The horns coming from its head, five in total, were white and sparked with electric blue energy.

Before Marissa could get much more of a view, the image shifted as Ezekiel zoomed it out. A shape plummeted out of the sky and struck the creature with immense force.

The shape had descended from the sky so quickly Marissa hadn’t been able to tell what it was at first. Then a massive set of bony wings caught her eye—a bone dragon. Its head was half the size of the intruder’s body alone. It held the intruder in place with its powerful arms, and with teeth longer than Marissa was tall, ripped the creature apart. The quills didn’t even phase it.

“Ah, Bity.” Ezekiel smiled. “He so loves those quintarcsis. I think he’s after the horns.”

Marissa was too stunned at first to say anything. It wasn’t until Bity lifted into the air, carrying the quintarcsis’ limp form with him, did she finally recover. “Bity? One of Raven’s pets?”

Ezekiel snorted. “Can tell by the name, can you. Yes, he’s been with us a while, and is one of the ones that is allowed to wander since he’s so well behaved.”

“Speaking of her, will she still be mad?” Referring to how they left Raven tumbling down the side of a mountain.

“Maybe? She’ll most likely ignore us.” Ezekiel shrugged again. “Anyways, where was I?”

“You had just met that guy from the Order of Equinox, Elias was his name?” Marissa questioned as she pulled out her magical notepad and quill and checked. “Yes, Elias. He was annoyed you hadn’t read the book.”

“Ah, yes,” Ezekiel nodded. “Things were slow for a bit, so I’ll try to condense the important bits down.”