The boy practically bounced between food stalls at the night market, scarfing down anything that crossed his path on Dominic’s dime. He had more than enough money to spend on some street snacks, so he let Aster stuff himself. If anything, this wasn't enough to pay him back for treating him.

“You said you had questions,” Aster remarked, munching down on another lamb kebab. “You're not asking?”

“Ah, right.”

He had already gone through so many mind-bending paradigm changes today that he had forgotten there were even more lined up.

“Your transformation magic, how does that work?” he asked.

He had never heard of anything like it before, but the boy had done it as if it wasn't special at all. He had a guess as to why, but he needed to confirm it.

“It just…works?” Aster replied. “It’s the only thing I can do, so it better work.”

“Can humans do it?” Dominic asked.

“No, they can’t,” he answered. “They have to be at least part demon, though I think it’d be best to be over half for transformation.”

The boy pursed his lips as he thought it over.

“It’s a tricky affinity to have if you’re not compatible.”

“So you're a demon.”

“I am.”

“Fully?”

“Think so.”

It had been as he’d guessed. Thelo had mentioned that demons metabolized mana differently than humans, so it made sense that they were able to use some affinities that humans weren't—affinities that didn’t exist in Vaine because demons weren't present there.

Aster glanced at him with a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

“Have your memories recovered at all?” he asked. “I guess you must've lost a lot of them.”

“…I’m still having trouble recalling some things,” Dominic lied.

“What else is missing?”

“Are there other affinities only demons can use?”

“Oh, yeah.”

He counted on his fingers.

“Territory, charm, transformation…I think there are a couple more but I can't think of them right now.”

He gestured vaguely with his hand.

“Basically all the niche manipulation magics,” he said. “I guess humans can’t quite connect with them. Though a lot of demons can’t either. They're not easy to handle.”

“You seem to be handling transformation very easily,” Dominic commented.

Aster chuckled, looking slightly proud of himself.

“Well, I have to,” he replied. “It’s good to be able to run away fast in the slums. Besides, transformation is by far the easiest affinity to master out of all of them. I only have to do one thing. All my siblings can do it too.”

Dominic raised an eyebrow.

“You have siblings?” he asked.

Aster’s eyes widened.

“Oh, that’s right—you never met them,” he said. “I have three siblings. They were all out when you showed up.”

“Younger or older?”

“Younger. Ria and Lia are twelve and Mour is nine.”

“…It must be hard to take care of them.”

“We manage.”

He took another bite of his kebab, not looking particularly bothered.

“Since we can all transform, we stay safe. It’s easy to run away from trouble when you’re tiny or fast or you can fly.”

“How old are you, Aster?”

“Sixteen.”

He continued savoring his midnight snack, not paying any attention to the maelstrom of thoughts he had sent crashing into Dominic’s head. This wasn't something a kid his age should be so used to. Though he knew there were plenty of children out there in the same situation, or worse.

He spotted a stand they were nearing, selling something like custard buns, and moved over to get a closer look.

“You like sweets?” Aster asked, glancing over.

He shook his head. He just couldn’t get the foul stench of the viscount’s mana out of his head, and it made even looking at heavy foods difficult.

He paid for two, handing one to Aster, who had already powered through the rest of his kebab. It was sweet, but both the bread and the filling were light. They ate in silence for a bit before Aster tentatively spoke up.

“Did you have any other questions?” he ventured.

Dominic thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

“Who rules Hesia?” he asked.

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“That’s the king,” Aster replied. “King Set. I’ve heard he’s cold and unforgiving. Most of the nobles are afraid of him, though, so that makes him good in my book.”

“Is there a queen?”

The boy raised an eyebrow.

“No, Hesia’s rulers are celibate until they retire,” he explained.

“…What?”

Dominic had never heard of a system like that before.

“Well, it makes sense,” Aster replied, shrugging. “Hesia elects the strongest person as the ruler, and they live so long that it’d just be cheating to let their kid inherit after them.”

“How old is King Set?”

“Uh…”

The boy pursed his lips.

“Well, that's complicated,” he said. “Ive heard he’s over fifteen-hundred years old—”

Dominic’s eyes flew open at that number.

“—but his reign has been unusually long. Apparently Hesia’s rulers used to stay in power for only two or three hundred years, but he’s been the king for about a thousand.”

He was silent, still reeling at the sudden blow he’d taken from the unexpected information. If they lived that long, then it was no wonder why they banned hereditary rule.

“…Is there a reason for his reign being that long?” he asked, preparing himself to get pummeled again.

Aster gave him a look of pity.

“You really did forget a lot, huh.”

He turned and took another bite from his custard bun, chewing pensively.

“I’m no scholar,” he finally replied, “so I’m not sure. I think it has to do with the fog, like he’s been around so long that he knows the most about it, or something. Not sure.”

Dominic raised an eyebrow as a topic he had been thinking of bringing up appeared on its own.

“Is the fog that important?” he asked.

“Of course it is!” Aster responded.

“Because it’s dangerous?”

“Well, that’s true. It’s fatal to anything that goes near it.”

Dominic frowned.

“Anything?” he pressed.

“Anything,” the boy confirmed.

“There's absolutely no exceptions?”

“If there had been, it would've made national news. The king is desperate for a way out, after all.”

Dominic froze in his tracks.

“Wait,” he said, his brow furrowed in concern. “A way out? Does the fog not only exist in Helwin?”

“No,” Aster answered, “it goes all around the entire continent. There's no way out of it.”

Dominic’s fist clenched. The entire continent was just one giant cage?

“Are there any gaps in it?” he asked.

“Of course not,” Aster replied.

He took a deep breath and slowly let it out, calming himself.

“And it’s fatal to anyone who steps in,” he reiterated.

“Yeah.”

“And there are no exceptions.”

“I mean…” Aster pursed his lips as he thought it over again. “I guess most people haven’t even tried to get close to it, so maybe there could be? But it’s never happened before.”

“…I see.”

He started walking again, slowly sorting out the thoughts that were still racing through his head. He’d come out to try and clear up questions he had, but he’d only ended up more confused. Hesia was more than just another continent that happened to have been undiscovered until now. They were trapped inside. Its existence felt like it was fundamentally twisted.

If what Aster was saying was true, then there was something very important he needed to confirm.

“You said you had three siblings at home?” Dominic asked.

Aster glanced up at him and nodded.

“Yeah.”

He took three silver coins from his pocket and handed them over to the boy.

“Here.”

His eyes sparkled as he held the shiny pieces.

“I have to go, so treat them to something too.”

“Yes, of course, brother!”

He bowed enthusiastically. Dominic turned and quickly headed away from the bustling street, only one destination on his mind.

The sounds of the street market faded to murmurs, then to nothing behind him. The path under his feet turned shabbier, the brick eventually crumbling away altogether and becoming sand. The lights of the streets in the distance disappeared, leaving the surroundings pitch dark. A cold wind blew off the coast, ruffling his hair.

Dominic stood at the very edge of the city, staring out into the fog. It was a solid wall of nothing, completely blocking out any sight of the beach or the waves. It smelled unnaturally dry, more like smoke or ash than water. As dead as salted land.

He he took a deep breath, took a step forward, and walked into it.

It engulfed him, swirling all around his body in an instant. He waited. He inspected himself, then let out a sigh. It was like he had expected—there was no change to his health. They said it would kill him, but it only floated harmlessly past. He had emerged from it safely when he’d first stumbled across the shore, and it was the same now.

He took a deep breath, letting it fill his lungs. The scent of salt flooded his senses, but remained benign. Nothing happened. He closed his eyes and reached further.

The swirling mass was dark, but not cold. If anything, the scent of ash it carried made it feel slightly warm, like what remained after a fire. The waves ebbed and surged rhythmically in the distance, sending spray off the rocks, rolling gravel against the shore. He had been hoping that perhaps scraps of the ship had made it here, but judging by the scent, nothing had washed up with him. It was just sand and water, stretching as far as he could sense.

…Hm?

No, there was a strange smell mixed in.

The shore was supposed to be empty, devoid of life, but there was a wisp of paper on the wind. In the mana there was the smell of paper and ink and lamplight, right where it couldn’t have been.

He tried pressing further. Slowly, the trail started to come into focus. It smelled like fresh books and old bricks. A little bit of iron, a little bit of candlelight. The chaos of water crashing against something like a pier. On the wind, the nearly inaudible humming of a song.

“What’s this?”

Dominic’s eyes shot open as a voice came to him through the mana. It was deep and melodious, and he whipped his head around trying to find the source. There was no sign of anybody around, yet it as if there was a person speaking directly into his ear.

“Someone’s here.”

He tensed. The mana coming off the voice was dense and black. It smelled like a crackling flame, like embers flying off a fire.

“Oh, I see.”

The presence moved fluidly around the beach, observing him. He felt its gaze skimming across his skin.

“It’s you again.”

He didn’t hear it, but he felt a low laugh, like a rumble going through the air.

“A little eavesdropper, aren’t you.”

Dominic bit his lip.

“Go back.”

An immense wind, heavy with mana, blew in from the ocean. He caught a fleeting glimpse of a pair of black, crystalline eyes, and then everything was gone. He was on the edge of the fog, stumbling backwards to keep from collapsing to his knees, one hand frantically covering his nose.

It wasn’t impossible to be detected when he spread out his senses like that, trying to track something. In order to smell mana over long distances, he had to send out a bit of his own. It wasn’t unfathomable for another person to notice. But to be forcefully removed from a place like that was not something that had ever happened before.

Dominic lifted the hand from his face. There was blood smeared all over it. The scent of iron clogged his senses.

“…Heal.”

The flow from his nose quickly stopped. He raised his head, looking back towards that impenetrable wall, thinking that ever since he had arrived, not a single thing had gone as expected. He was in a world that felt minutely wrong in every way. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Dominic turned, wiped the blood off his face with the back of his hand, and headed away from the shore.