CHAPTER 21

"Why is the city on fire?" Estelle asked.

I finished my delicious morning stretch and then reared up so I could put my forepaws on the caravansary's wall and peek over. Estelle was standing there, surveying the city and smelling nervous.

And justifiably so. I could see six different fires in the distance, and the sulfur stench of the city had a faint overlay of smoke. The smoke wasn't made out of memories of the fireplace at home; it was too interlaced with metallic tang and chemical stench.

"What's going on?" Marcus called. I turned to look over my shoulder; he was standing near the stairs that led to the second floor breezeway, clearly having just gotten out of the shower and come downstairs.

"The city's on fire," Estelle said, not taking her eyes off the sight. "Six different places."

"I can hear yelling and fighting, too," I volunteered, by way of my ever-present friend Murray. "At least, I'm guessing it's fighting. Some pzorp, pzap noises, and lots of metal banging together."

"What are those?" Estelle asked, pointing off to the left and frowning.

"Big metal birds," I said, looking where she pointed and quietly smugging about my superior vision. "They're throwing their feathers at something on the rooftop there." I squinted, frowning. "Oh. It's one of those snake demons." My stomach dropped.

"Boost?" Marcus said from beside me.

Estelle lay flat and reached down. Marcus jumped up so he could grab her wrist and pull himself up. Both of them turned so they were seated on the wall looking out at the towering smoke pillars.

"This was us, wasn't it?" Marcus asked after a moment.

"Gotta be," Estelle replied. "We bring a fortune in highly magical metal into the city, the next day everything is burning. What are the odds?"

"I didn't tell anyone, I'm confident that you and Athos didn't tell anyone...I suppose maybe Simon?"

"Doubt it. He had a contractual obligation to keep it quiet and demons don't break contracts, ever. Probably the jackass."

"Probably." He paused as a massive battle clank jumped into view several blocks east of us, arcing high enough to be seen over the rooftops. On closer examination, it was a wartech mage, not a clank, as I could see a cockpit in the chest. The mage's steam-powered armor was ten feet tall and covered in gleaming copper with liberal splashes of blood across it. It pointed down into the street and a beam of goldenrod light lanced out from its fingers. It jumped down again.

"What do we do?" I asked.

Marcus chewed his lip for a moment. "I'm tempted to say 'nothing'. We bunker down and wait a couple days until after the auction. At that point we'll have enough money to do what we like. On the other hand—"

"Hey! You lot! Get down from there!" Daro shouted from behind us.

I turned to look over my shoulder. Daro, the fat owner of the caravansary, was glaring at us. He was also wearing a harness with various bits of gear and bottles attached to it.

"There's a reason I didn't unlock the gates this morning! I didn't want to draw attention. You're ruining that."

Estelle turned around and slid off the wall, absorbing the landing with a deep drop into her knees. Marcus followed her a moment later, lowering himself to the full extent of his arms first. I simply dropped back to all fours.

"Do you know what's going on?" Marcus asked.

Daro looked at him like he was an idiot. "The city's on fire, obviously." He shrugged. "Probably some mage lost control of an elemental, or a demonist summoned the wrong demon, or a curse got out of control. It happens. If you'll excuse me, I need to go help with the fires and the search and rescue."

"You sure? It looks pretty dangerous."

"I live here. It's my duty. I'll avoid the active fights and stick to the areas that have already been wrecked. Are you lot coming or staying?"

"Dad! Wait up!"

Pasha jogged out of the kitchen, her hair in a businesslike ponytail and an overstuffed backpack dragging her down. "Did you really think you were going to sneak off alone?"

Daro frowned. "You need to stay here and look after the place."

"Dad. It's my city too."

"And this caravansary is part of it. Go fix that leaky pipe in the back hall and call it proactive reconstruction."

"But Dad—!"

"No buts, young lady. If looters show up, someone needs to operate the defenses."

"You have defenses?" Estelle asked.

"A junky old battlesuit," Daro said dismissively.

"Dad! Millicent isn't junky, she's mature!"

Dargo gave his daughter a speaking look. "Her shielding is mostly burned through and her zapbanks hold barely half a charge, but fine. Mature." He turned to Marcus and continued, "It's enough to stop most weeds and the locals know that we have a police subscription so they don't bother us."

"Dad! Millicent is a she, not an it!"

"Yes dear. Go check her over just in case she's needed. Now, are you lot coming or staying here?"

Marcus and Estelle exchanged a confirming look and then Marcus shook his head.

"Not our fight and we've got no Skills that are very useful for fire fighting or search and rescue. We'll stay here and help defend the place."

Daro's lip curled slightly in poorly-concealed disgust but he just nodded. "Fine. Keep your weapons close. Foreigners and poors like to start looting the minute there's a problem. Pasha, lock it up behind me and get Millicent ready."

"Yeah, yeah."

Daro leaned hard into the heavy gate of the caranvasary until it slowly creaked open far enough for him to slip through. A moment later it was closed again and Pasha was dropping the bar back into place.

"Come on," she said. "You can help me warm Millicent up and then I'll make breakfast for you metlok." She turned and headed towards the main office, the three of us trailing along.

"'Metlok'?" Estelle asked, one eyebrow rising.

"Foreigners," she explained, not looking back.

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"Dat's not an accurate translation," Murray said. "Da woid is more commonly translated ta 'weed' when speakin' in Ozurdati, but a literal translation would be 'foreignah who disrupts da social fabric ah Hellsport due ta dere lack o' civic voitue and personal responsahbility.' It has connotations ah contempt by da speakah and bahbarity by da subject, and is typically portrayed in populah media by people wid poor personal hygiene."

Rude.

No one said anything and Pasha visibly kept her eyes forward, but I could smell the embarrassment washing off of her and even with her olive complexion I could see the pinking of her ears.

Marcus cleaed his throat. "Unless you need our help, we're going to check in with our friend. Do you need us?"

"...No, I've got it. Breakfast will be ready in an hour."

"Fine."

o-o-o-o

"Eugene! Open up!" Marcus pounded on the heavy oak door with a clenched fist. I stood nearby, trying to be subtle about pressing myself into the wall. The second floor breezeway wasn't that high up and I would probably be fine if I fell, but the cobblestones twenty feet below looked hard. Estelle was comfortable leaning back on the railing with her thumbs hooked in her belt, but I was a lot heavier than she was and didn't want to risk even brushing against it.

The door opened to reveal a half-asleep and half-dressed Eugene rubbing his eyes. "Wha's up? 's early."

"The city is on fire. What did you do?"

That seemed to wake him up. "The city is what now?"

"On fire, and it's getting closer. Did you tell anyone about the orichalcum?"

"I was careful. I didn't say anything about where it came from and I didn't say there was more. And I made sure no one followed me on the way home."

"Goddamnit, Eugene!" Marcus punched the wall hard enough that he left a splot of blood where his knuckles split. "What the fuck did you think you were doing? That box belonged to all of us, you had no right!"

"I didn't touch the fucking box, I used my own loot."

Marcus stared for two long seconds and when he spoke his voice was very calm. "'Your own loot.' That's right, you put some of the scales in your backpack."

"What? You saw me take them. It's not like I stole anything."

Marcus took a deep breath. "Things were hectic enough that I forgot about those. The scales came from the box which we all agreed was communal. You should have put them back."

"Fuck off. I found the box, I was the one who convinced you to bring it along, and you saw me put those things in my pack. You didn't say anything so of course I figured you were fine with it." He shook his head. "Senjin's balls, I did you a favor. Last night I went out and hocked some of them and I made enough to buy us all some Skills that we badly need if we're going to get Athos home, plus I bought two more of those Spirit needles so we can heal him if he gets hurt again, plus I got enough cash to bail you two out on your little charity scam." He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Look, I'm getting a shower and some clothes on. Why don't you go cool off and I'll meet you in the food hall? Once you've calmed down we can discuss this like grownups."

He shut the door in our collective faces.

o-o-o-o

"You are one stupid fuck, Eugene," Marcus growled.

We were settled around one of the larger round tables in the dining hall. The humans each had a plate of ham scramble. I had a bowl of yummy bacon-included scraps and was sitting up so that I could have it on the table like a grown-up person. It would have been more comfortable on the floor but this way I could participate in the conversation.

"Seriously, what the fuck?" Eugene said. "Put your dick away, man. I already told you: It was my loot so it didn't cost you anything, and I bought Skills and gear for exploring those other domains, and I got you cash that you can use to bail yourself out of that illegal homeless shelter scam you were running. Although at this point I'm on the edge of 'fuck you, keep your own ass out of jail' on that one."

"You stupid motherfucker, half the city is burning and there's monsters and demons fighting in the fucking streets! Godsdamnit, Eugene. You fucked this sideways, why can't you fucking own that?!"

"I can't talk to you when you're like this," Eugene said, pushing his chair back. "I'm going to get some tea and wait for you to calm down so that we can plan our next move like grownups." He stood up and sauntered over to the kitchen pass where Pasha was waiting.

Marcus's face was bone-white and his hands were shaking. He started to rise but Estelle put a hand on his arm.

"Let it go," she said. "We knew what he was."

"We might end up fucking dead because he couldn't keep his damn mouth shut. The city's a damn warzone."

She shrugged and took her hand back so that she could resume eating with small, neat bites.

"How are you not pissed about this?" Marcus demanded. "You hate the guy."

"I knew what he was," she said without looking up. "You were the one who wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. And Athos likes him."

Marcus visibly made himself relax, then he looked at me and snorted. "Athos likes everyone."

"Nuh-uh! I don't like Simon. I keep wanting to bite his heckin' face off, but you guys want to do deals with him."

Marcus chuckled. "'Want' would be a strong word. He's the only one we can get certain services from." He absently rubbed his wrist. "Besides, the deals have been pretty good for us so far."

I grumbled at that and stuck my face back in my bowl.

Eugene came back with a large mug of tea in his hand and a bowl of nuts in the other. He slid the nuts to the middle of the table, scooped out a handful for himself, and sat down.

"Are you done with your temper tantrum?" he asked.

Marcus took a deep breath. "Are you done causing wars?"

"Boys." Estelle's voice was calm but it cut straight through the tension.

"Fine. Eugene, what did you do with all the money that you took from our mutual treasure?"

"I sold it for a little over four million stone," he said smugly. "And then I went to Skill Street and bought unlocks for Defensive Bubble and Dimensional Pocket."

"I've heard of Defensive Bubble," Estelle said, sounding interested. "It's an Uncommon defensive Skill."

"Right. It puts a protective skin around you that will block a certain amount of damage before popping. Best of all, you can cast it on other people and stack them. It should keep our boy here from getting so banged up." He reached out and ruffled my ears; I leaned into his hand with a happy rumble.

"What's the other one?" Marcus asked.

"It creates an invisible pocket right in front of you. You can put stuff in it and pull it out later, and the stuff doesn't spoil while it's in there. You can dump mana into it to make it bigger."

"How much did those cost?" Estelle asked.

"A million two. After that I went and bought us a whole lot of gear that will help with the travels, and then I came back here. I've still got two and a half mil which you and the bitchy boy here can use to fix that scam of yours."

"What's the rarity on the pocket thing?" Marcus asked, ignoring Eugene's last comment.

"That's the bad part," Eugene admitted. "It's a Rare, so we'll all need to do some work to buy it. Of course, you still owe me an unlock on that Rare that you kill-stole from the lizard. I'll hold off on giving you the Dimensional Pocket unlock until you've done that, just so we don't forget. Athos, Estelle, I'll unlock it for you as soon as I can. Shouldn't be long. That Rapid Restoration Skill that our buddy here unlocked for me is great for earning Attunement." He reached over and petted my neck, then scratched behind my ear. When he took his hand back I grumbled and flashed him a look of betrayal, but I didn't say anything. Stupid humans. They were always using their hands for pointless things like eating and grooming and working the remote control, instead of important things like petting me.

Marcus gritted his teeth. "I swear to Zephos, if you try that 'kill stealing' bullshit one more time—"

"No one controls where a Skill goes on release," Estelle said calmly. "Marcus happened to get it, you didn't. Stop whining."

For a moment I thought Eugene was going to snap at her, but then he glanced at me and relaxed, the smile coming back to his face. "Fair enough. Still, I think it's only fair that he unlock for me first. Closes out the deal we had, you know?"

Marcus took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Fine. I'll get it for you as soon as I can but I haven't leveled up Rapid Restoration and Mystic Acceleration enough to generate spendable Attunement. It'll take a bit."

Eugene shrugged. "That's fine. Anyway, if the city is as dangerous as you say then I don't see that we need to do anything except stay here and chill until Simon runs the auction and we can get our mad riches."

The humans nodded.

"Shouldn't we try to help people?" I said, ducking a little in embarrassment. If all three of them were agreed then maybe I was being dumb, but it felt like the right thing to do. "We're strong. We could do search and rescue like Daro."

"It's his city, not ours," Eugene said. "Since getting here they've arrested me for doing nothing, tried to kill you in the street, and refused to heal you because they wanted to farm Attunement off of you. If they're all so greedy that they're going to start killing each other over a rumor that there's a box of precious metal in the city...well, I don't feel any obligation. Let 'em kill each other until the dumb violent ones are gone and everyone else can get on with their lives. It's not our problem."

"He's got a point," Marcus said. "On the other hand, I have no objection to helping out once the fighting stops, but I don't want to go out there in the middle of this. You said there were metal warbirds fighting demons out there, and we can see that there's half a dozen fires spreading. Going out now is too big a risk, especially since none of us have any Skills that are particularly useful for that sort of thing."

I glummed and nosed my bowl around a bit. "Fine," Murray mumbled for me.

I went back to eating. Even though there was plenty of bacon in the bowl, the thought of all those people dying meant that the food still tasted like ashes.