Waking up felt more like torture than anything else. Sure, he’d had his bit of unconsciousness before going to bed but he doubted that mattered all that much. It’d probably made him more tired if anything.

  This time waking him up was Liza. She guided him to the kitchen where there was a simple yet nourishing sprawl of fried fish and rice, reminding Ozzy much of what he’d eaten when he’d been out on the swamp wagon. They ate in silence together for a few minutes until Liza finally spoke up.

  “Do you have any plans Ozzy?” Liza asked, her tone indicating she already knew his answer.

  “Don’t die in the near future?” Ozzy said, hoping his nonanswer would be answer enough.

  Mirth danced across Liza’s face as the barest ghost of a smile touched her lips. “Well, I’d say that’s a fantastic short-term goal, do you have anything you’d like to do long term however?” She asked gently, the sternness leaving her voice.

  Ozzy thought back to his conversations with Fauga and the reasons he had his blessings. He had committed to making the city a better place, whatever that meant. That commitment had not expanded to a plan however, and he was more than a little loathe to admit that his new God buddy didn’t exactly have the greatest aptitude for planning. Fauga had all but sent him to his death when he’d encouraged Ozzy to join the fight against Mikeala, and perhaps in penance had been silent since.

  “Probably more ideas than just plans.” Ozzy admitted sheepishly. “How much has Emil told you about my situation?” He asked.

  “Just about everything, including that you’re blessed.” She said bluntly.

  “Part of the terms and conditions of my blessings are that I make Myreluck a better place, and that I stop it from getting worse. I’m not really sure how to go about that other than getting stronger though.” Ozzy said.

  Liza just looked at him like he was a moron. “Listen Ozzy, I know Emil mentioned it to you last night, but I want to make it crystal clear for you. We’re all in this together, so if you start going and purging gangs that means you’ll be dragging us into it. I’m going to beg you not to do anything like that until you’re stronger or I’ll have to exile you from this district. You’re the only reason my husband is alive and I recognize that, I owe you, but you’re also the reason he nearly died.” She said, not pushing down on him, but not sugar coating it either.

  “I understand.” Ozzy began only to be cut off.

  “You don’t Ozzy, you told Emil you understood how dangerous this place was after your run in with those thugs on the first platform, and then you jumped off of a stairwell to test an ability and nearly landed our entire district in a blood feud between groups on the 9th platform. That’s not something someone conscious of this place’s danger does.” She sighed. “I’m not trying to control you, I just don’t want to wake up one morning and hear that a tier 2 somewhere decided to blow you to pieces because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know we just met each other, but Emil cares about you, so I care about you. You’re a part of this house.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “A part of this family.” She amended with finality.

  “Thank you.” Was all Ozzy could bring himself to say, he had a million things he wanted to add and apologize for but in the end settled on gratitude.

  “Don’t mention it. Now that out of the way I do have a suggestion for you.” She said, spearing a piece of fish with the weird chopstick like utensil.

  “What is it?” Ozzy asked through a mouthful.

  “Some of the people from our district are going on a hunting expedition, one of the apologies I got from your new friend yesterday was that the watchers would patrol and help protect our borders for a few weeks, so we’re taking some of our veterans and newer core users out on a swamp dive for cash. Emil and I will both be there and while Emil said you would just come regardless, I wanted to extend a proper invitation. I even think Norman might be going.”

  ***

  Ozzy knew he needed to get stronger there was no questions of it in his mind. Plus, Emil was already going so it as good as meant he would too. Not like he’d have anything to do but blunder around like a fool without him. So he’d accepted and promptly been brought to a waiting area with a very diverse and very rugged looking group of core users plus of course Norman.

  “Ozzy! Good to see you!” Norman shouted, waving him away from Liza and the veteran core users she was walking towards to a group of cheerful and fresh-faced youngsters. With a start however, he realized they might all be closer to his age than he was to Emil or Norman.

  Despite all of the time they’d spent together Ozzy hadn’t gotten around to asking Emil how old he was, though he’d estimated the man to be in his late twenties or at the oldest in his early thirties. Norman only looked a few years older than him but the youngsters around Norman as he’d just been thinking of them all looked to range from 18 to 25. Several of them probably beating out his meager 21 years of life by a few years.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “How are you doing man?” Norman asked him, knocking him out of his thoughts.

  “Good, good! Just been around you know? Definitely been around form what I hear, Katie heard from Liza that you and Emil had a run in with some thugs on the first platform.” He said, and Ozzy was met with starry eyed looks of wonder from the must be new core users around Norman. “I’ll let everyone introduce themselves though.”

  “I’m Florin.” The first to introduce themself was a tall elf like person with light brown skin, not quite Ozzy’s caramel but definitely a step away from the normal elf tones he was familiar with. Florin had a easy way of standing, and looked more comfortable than anyone else there, though that wasn’t a very high bar as most of them looked about ready to jump out of their own skin.

  “Tino!” A brawny dark-skinned human with the unfortunate beginnings of a mustache introduced himself, nervously reaching out to shake hands with Ozzy. In stark contrast to Florin Tino looked just about ready to pass out and was nervously looking around like he was hoping someone would come pick him up from their soon to be death dive into the swamp.

  “I’m Lyriq it is a genuine pleasure.” A foxy looking Demi human said, she had brilliant red hair, a roguish smile, sharp features, and looking straight out of a questionably ethical anime fox ears and a bushy tail. She instantly struck Ozzy as someone that caused problems, which was maybe why she was still in this group while also looking the oldest.

  “Likewise.” Ozzy said, and turned to the last person who hadn’t introduced themselves, extending a hand out as an olive branch which she sheepishly shook.

  “Niyeli” She introduced herself. Not quite meeting Ozzy’s gaze. She was roughly the same height he was, though broader and wider than him, probably outweighing him by a good eighty pounds. While he couldn’t tell what she was he knew from a glance she wasn’t human. Maybe a really big dwarf?

  “It’s nice to meet you all, I’m Ozzy like you just heard Norman say and you could say I’m pretty new around here.” He said, feeling like he was a teenager back in Louisiana meeting his new classmates for the year, and the feeling of awkwardness wasn’t helped by the wide eager grin Norman was currently growing across his face.

  “What’s up-” Ozzy began to ask only to get cut off as Norman spoke over him to the rest of the group.

  “I heard from Katie that Liza and Emil adopted him!” Norman practically blurted out.

  Norman’s words came out much too eager for the statement to sound like anything other than a joke, but to Ozzy’s horror the fools bought it. A susurrus of congratulations rose up from the group as they all turned beaming smiles and onto him and welcomed him into the firelight district family. Then to make matters worse, Emil strolled up.

  “You all look happy.” He said grumpily and stifled a yawn.

  “Norman was just telling us about how you adopted Ozzy.” Lyriq said excitedly.

  The sleepiness was gone from Emil’s posture in an instant as he locked eyes with Norman, a grin spreading across his lips to match Norman’s, “That’s absolutely right.” He said and stuck an arm out across Ozzy’s shoulders to pull him forcefully into a one-armed hug.

  That settled it, he was throwing Emil overboard the second they got on a wagon.

  ***

  It turned out moving in a group the size of a small traveling circus was both the safest way to travel and a logistical nightmare. The safest way to travel because who wanted to mess with a group of armed and armored core users stomping their way through the streets, and a logistical nightmare because each new territory they passed through required them to send a runner ahead and essentially announce their presence and reason for being there. Needless to say, it was a long and lengthy process that took nearly three times as long as it had for Ozzy and Emil to make it all the way up to the city platform.

  By the time they were ready to even think about getting to their vessel it was already dark. Which Ozzy found out meant they’d made good time. Apparently one time it had taken them not just all day but all of the next night as well as they’d been forced to go around warring territories.

  Thankfully that hadn’t been the case and since the leader of the firelight district was tier 2 they’d deemed it reasonable to purchase the use of one of the undercity lifts mercifully saving them from a traipse along the ever-confusing bridge system that had probably been set up by architects on acid.

  That was all well and good, but the vessels themselves were what really blew Ozzy’s socks off.

  A wagon that was more armor and floating death than ship was moored just before him. Compared to the wagon he’d rode into Myreluck on this thing was probably six times as big and was set up more like a train. It had a segmented body that was connected via heavy iron joints and wooden rope bridges at the tops, connecting four of the massive segments. Each segment had eight massive wheels that were all currently set up as propellers. The first segment was like a train caboose and mostly made up of large metal components and a set of four wheels that were three times as big as the others in the train.

  The next segment back looked like stacked communal spaces and was two levels higher than everything else with an open-air top deck, while the remaining two segments were set up in a similar fashion to a normal swamp wagon just with a wagonloads more defenses and armor.

  It was like Mad Max had met Water World. Each segments first level had plated armor that hung off of the wagons at 70 degree angles to deflect attacked rising up out of the water away from the next level up were there were foot thick half walls and iron bars protected a walkway that wrapped around the length of the wagon where defenders could stand largely protected and rain hellfire down on whatever was dumb enough to attack them.

  The tops of the segments all had what looked to be siege emplacements, some of them were massive ballistae with huge box magazines sitting above the bolt notch. Others were raised stands covered in magical circuits that gave Ozzy the vibe of something that maybe boosted spells or attacks. He could only imagine what some core users would be capable of with a set up like that.

  It was all set off however by a single aspect Ozzy hadn’t prepared for, Colber, standing large and proud on the top deck of the vessels second segment.

  “Ozzy lad! Good to see you!” He shouted down at him, and with an encouraging wave shouted, “Welcome to my new ride!”