Ashinaro jerked awake in a panic.

  It took him several moments to remember where he was, but even when he did, the panic didn’t subside. He was in Arkalis. He’d been looking out at the ever-present mists shrouding the Sea of Fear from a bench near the docks, and must have fallen asleep, exhausted from the journey here and not sleeping for three days straight.

  Ashinaro didn’t know what time it was, but it was either quite late, or quite early, because the city was quiet. He’d heard the other races had poor night vision and tended to sleep and wake earlier than the drakken did, and also to sleep longer.

  After a moment, he realized someone was screaming. The panic he was feeling wasn’t his own.

  “—legs, my legs, where are my legs?!”

  “Zanas?” he asked mentally. “What happened?”

  “This. Is. An emergency!” Zanas said in panic. “My legs are gone!”

  Ashinaro frowned. “I… yeah, well, they were knocked off. I picked them up and they all dissolved, so I assumed they went back to you. Your scepter’s still whole.”

  “Well my legs aren’t here! I don’t see them anywhere!”

  “Where are you looking exactly?”

  “What do you mean where? I’m looking around here. Here.”

  Ashinaro felt a poke in his stomach and looked down in surprise to see his armor actually protruding out as though a skeletal finger were beneath it.

  His stomach lurched. Which he wasn’t sure was due to the revelation or to Zanas poking around inside of him.

  “Wait, are you actually inside of my humanform?”

  “What do you mean? Where else did you think I would be?”

  “I don’t know, not actually inside of me.”

  The scepter was bound to his battleform, which meant it was inside his core. And since Zanas was inside the scepter, he shouldn’t be able to roam around outside it in Ashinaro’s body.

  “You’re physically inside of my stomach? How does that even make sense?” His core was in his head, not his stomach.

  “It’s the same way your battleform exists inside of you. Don’t you know anything? And look we have bigger problems right now. We need to find my legs.”

  “Like I said, I picked them up, or I touched them. I don’t remember. But they dissolved inside of me like your mask and scepter did.”

  “Well, I don’t see them anywhere, so obviously you must have messed up something! There—” He cut off. “Oh wait, never mind, there they are. Why would you put them all the way over there? So inefficient.”

  Ashinaro felt something inside him shake and then Zanas let out a contented sigh.

  “Ah, much better. Now I have legs. I have a fear of not having legs, you know. It’s not fun to be trapped inside a scepter without legs and arms. So I’m very attached to my—” The skeleton cut off and let out a panicked scream. “My arm! Where’s my arm? I’m missing an arm! Why am I missing an arm?”

  Ashinaro clutched his head. “Please don’t scream so loud.” He couldn’t even block his ears against it.

  “My arm! Is gone! I will scream as loud as I want!”

  “Your arm’s not gone. I picked it up along with your legs. Just look around more carefully.”

  “You must have done something wrong because my—” The skeleton cut off, then huffed and Ashinaro felt him walk around inside him. Which was extremely disconcerting.

  “You need to be more organized. You’re very messy. Why would you hang my arm on your relic? That’s disgusting. And by the way, these things still stink of monsters.”

  There came another sigh as Zanas, presumably, reattached his arm.

  Then Ashinaro felt some more hopping around inside of him.

  “Ah, much better.”

  “Zanas, did something change? Because I didn’t feel you this acutely before. And what took you so long to wake up this time?”

  “Well I got blown apart by the priest. Needed to recover. And like I said, I’m a parasite, draining your energy and waiting until the moment I can consume you.”

  “I thought you said you were a passenger.”

  “Did I? Well, who knows. Passenger, parasite. Not much difference really when you think about it. Both are using the energy of the host.”

  Ashinaro frowned. “That’s… true, I guess, but they’re—”

  The skeleton popped out in front of him—thankfully insubstantially, though there wasn’t anyone around to see—and examined the docks. “Ooh, this is new.” He sniffed at the air. “Smells cleaner, too. Where are we?”

  “Arkalis. Which I had to escape to after you dumped the vat of molten metal on the high priest.”

  The grinning face on Zanas’s mask stretched further. “That was pretty great, wasn’t it? I told you there’d be a vat of molten metal.”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “The vat of molten metal isn’t the point. The point is, the priests are after me now.” He paused. “Maybe not me, precisely, but I can’t be sure of that. What you did wasn’t part of the plan. And why were you disguised as High Priest Vershik?”

  “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I be? It’s the perfect disguise. Who would suspect themselves of ambushing themselves?”

  “Anyone without a twin? If I saw someone who looked like me, I would be extremely suspicious. It’s not something that goes by without notice.”

  “Really? I saw myself all the time. Hasn’t happened lately, come to think of it. No thanks to you, no doubt.” He cocked his head. “Or, thanks to you? Not sure if it’s good or bad, so I guess it could go either way.”

  “Wait, you mean those mirrors in the tower? That’s not remotely the same thing.”

  “Mirrors? What are mirrors?”

  Ashinaro sighed. “Never mind. The point is, looking like someone while ambushing them is not very subtle. Especially while naked. Humans don’t generally walk around naked. Well, unless they’re in their battleform. But even then, it’s not usually something they do.”

  “You were him too.”

  “Because I couldn’t remember another priest to mask myself as. It wasn’t my first choice.”

  The eyes on Zanas’s mask squinted. “You look different. Are you an imposter?”

  It took Ashinaro a moment to realize what Zanas meant.

  He’d taken on the form of Kratis, a guard from Argalis, before entering Arkalis.

  Seemed it persisted through sleep, which was good to know.

  “I’m using your mask. How long can I stay like this? Can the mask’s effect last indefinitely?”

  “Of course. What kind of mask would it be if it petered out just when you need it most?” Zanas tapped the lips of his mask. “It does seem to be low on energy though. You must have been using it a lot.”

  “Low on energy? How low?” Ashinaro couldn’t sense anything about it.

  “I’d say you have less than a day left.”

  “I wish you’d told me that sooner. How do I recharge it?”

  “Oh don’t worry about that. It’s feeding on you as we speak and will be recharged in no time.”

  “Feeding on me?”

  The grinning lips pursed. “‘No time’ might be an exaggeration. How long have you been using it for? That’s probably how long it will take to recharge.”

  Ashinaro sighed and looked around. He needed somewhere to stay. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any money.

  He felt Zanas poking around inside him, despite his insubstantial form floating around the docks, exploring. “What are you doing?”

  “Oh hey what’s this? It’s new. And it doesn’t stink like monsters. That’s a relief. Although also somehow disappointing.”

  Strangely, Ashinaro knew what Zanas was talking about.

  “It’s a curse for failing the quest. It’s odd, because instead of affecting me, it’s something I can use to afflict others.”

  Zanas snapped his fingers. Both his insubstantial form, and inside Ashinaro’s head. Which was weird. “See, I told you failing wouldn’t be so bad. Now you get a new ability from it.”

  Ashinaro shook his head. “That’s not how curses are supposed to work.”

  “Coulda, woulda, supposed to. Who cares what they’re supposed to do? All that matters is what actually happened. What actually happened is you got a new benefit from it, just like I promised. So, what’s your next quest? I’m sure we can come up with a great way to fail that one too.”

  “Get somewhere with a different Exalted and let them know Joy is feeding on her Ascendents. Problem is, I don’t have any money, and even if I did, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t afford a ticket on the Divide Crosser.”

  “You could sell the arnaphen barb and poison. That seems like it would be worth a lot. I carried that a long way. Shouldn’t let it go to waste.”

  “Arnaphen is uncraftable. I could use it, but no one would buy it. And anyway, the corpse is back in Argalis, and I used the entire vial of poison on Vershik. Lost the barb I had there too.”

  Zanas materialized in front of Ashinaro and a bottle appeared in his hand.

  Ashinaro glanced around, but no one was out at this time of night.

  “Don’t just appear like that. And what is that?”

  “I repay my debts.”

  Ashinaro squinted at the label. In his humanform, he was having trouble seeing it in the dark. “That’s just rot draught. It’s common and I doubt it would sell for much even here.”

  “That’s good, because I filled it with the arnaphen poison. Oh, and I have a barb too.” An arnaphen barb appeared in his other hand. He held it up. “Hmm, maybe I should keep this. I could put it on my scepter as a trophy.” His mask flipped to the frowning side. “Or maybe I should eat it.”

  Perhaps because Ashinaro had been jolted awake and was still tired, or perhaps because their mental conversation progressed so quickly, it took him till now to finally register something.

  “Where were you keeping those? They looked like they just appeared in your hands.”

  “I was keeping them inside me for safe keeping. Well, technically inside the scepter inside you. Wouldn’t want the bottle breaking inside me.”

  “You can store things inside of your scepter?”

  “Of course. What kind of house would it be if it only housed me?”

  “Do you have anything else in there?”

  “I haven’t had much time to decorate, but I do have these.” He pulled out several bottles and set them on the ground in a neat row. “And these.” He pulled out Ashinaro’s coin pouch and his box of cores. “I took them for safe keeping, of course. I predicted you would be in a rush when you woke up and in your haste forget to bring anything you didn’t deem immediately useful.”

  That was more forethought than Ashinaro had come to expect from the skeleton. “Surprised you knew to take them.”

  “Of course, I’m very forethoughtful. It had absolutely nothing to do with buying clothes for myself. You drakken have dreadful taste in outfits. And also not many clothing stores.”

  “Did you stop by stores on the way to Joy’s temple?”

  “I… may not have.”

  Ashinaro shook his head. “Can you store anything?”

  “That’s a tall order. That would take forever to find out.”

  After checking to make sure they were still unobserved, Ashinaro held out his staff. “See if you can store this.”

  The coin pouch and box of cores disappeared from Zanas’s hands, and he took the staff, twirling it between boney fingers. The mask grimaced while remaining on its grinning side. “This feels sticky.”

  “I’ve been a little busy and haven’t had a chance to clean it.”

  “Not on the outside. It’s stuck to you somehow.”

  Ashinaro’s hopes fell. “So you can’t store it.”

  “I never said that.” The staff vanished. “Just want you to appreciate how magnificent I am.”

  “Withdraw it again.”

  Zanas sighed. “Make up your mind.” The staff appeared in his hand. He spun it once, then tossed it to Ashinaro, who examined it.

  The staff was fine, completely unchanged. The link hadn’t even broken.

  Ashinaro grinned. “Well, this changes things.”