"Ayre, it's fine, you can relax." I put a hand, my left hand, on Ayre's shoulder in a bit of solidarity. I know that a potential fight gets her blood burning — literally, as the steam starting to pour from her scales in this cold, wintry air indicates. "It seemed like a pretty casual and organized response."

  "You're right. Sorry. I've just been wired since we stepped out of the transport thing. I expected everyone to look at me, but I didn't really have any remote idea of how many "everyone" there would be here." She stows her weapon with a simple command — saying the weapons name, Gae Bolg — causing it to collapse into three magically connected segments that tuck neatly into a loop on her belt.

  "Besides, we probably shouldn't be getting in fights in the city, Ayre. We need to be low-key, remember?" Lilly stands up on her tiptoes and pokes Ayre's nose.

  A shadow passes over us, drawing my eyes. Initially, I look across the street but find nothing like a banner or something I might expect. Instead, I follow on, upwards and upwards until I spot what casts the shadow.

  Broad wings, over fifty feet across, silhouetted by the sun with what appears to be pennants flying along behind the beast. What little color I can see looks like the same red I've seen on the guards like Marius, and there's what appears to be a lance poking over the edge. Whatever the creature is, it definitely has a rider.

  "Oh! It's a gryphon! I heard they use them a lot in this country!" Lilly looks up with only the highest heights of joy, a radiant smile as she watches the creature fly overhead. "I want to meet it! They're supposed to be really smart. Like, really smart. Father brought—"

  Lilly's voice cuts off mid-sentence as we watch the gryphon abruptly burst upwards with an eruption of Aero essence for a few seconds before coming back down in a steep dive in a large loop. The rider hefts their spear and lets it fly about a hundred feet from the ground, where it streaks down leaving a trail of red essence. A fraction of a second later, the impact lands and a colossal burst of freed essence erupts from the impact point — whatever monster had been there clearly being very thoroughly killed.

  "Breath Divine." Ayre breathes an oath with widening eyes and a growing, almost feral-looking, grin. A grin I've only seen on her once before — right as she set the monster rancher who had abducted me on fire. Eyes gleaming with an internal, unhinged energy, she turns to me. "I need to meet them."

  Eventually, our city guard escort returns, with a fine layer of what has to be the remnants of some goo-like monsters rapidly dissipating off of him into freed essence. I stare for an uncomfortably long time, feeling that welling want suffusing me as I watch the dense essence boiling off the man.

  Luckily, he has no reason to think anything untoward and just puts a hand on my left shoulder with a charming smile. "Nothing to worry about. Don't gotta look so shocked." I try to force a smile back to my face as he gestures for us to get back into motion.

  As we walk for a little while, he continues rattling off sights and landmarks, restaurants he recommends, clubs and bars he spends his downtime at, and events that are either coming up or happen regularly. I make a point of memorizing every one, as well as the route we’re traveling out of habit. Knowing things feels good and will serve us well here. Even if I can't taste anything, my companions can, so these restaurants and bars could be useful for them.

  I've been watching Lilly for a while, clearly burning to ask a question but not wanting to interrupt our guide — likely because she's deeply interested in what he's talking about but also unable to suppress the need to know whatever answer she's seeking. Marius finally makes takes a breath after a particularly long-winded ramble, and Lilly all but explodes into the tiny conversational weak point. "Where did the monster come from?" Her voice sounds desperate. So much so that he actually stop and turns around to see her looking agitated but excited. "How can you be so casual about a monster just appearing in a crowded city?! I need to know! Does this happen often? What kind of monster was it?"

  As Lilly barrages him with her own endless array of excited questions, he finally holds up a hand to make his own opening. "Give me a second to breath!" He chuckles as he turns to get back into motion again, having stymied my fairy friend. "It's simple, actually. Any city, by dint of existing, generates a wealth of Ordo essence. Moreso if things are built in boring grids and repeating building designs — it's a big part of why you don't see a lot of straight streets, neatly laid out districts, super organized seeming layouts for what goes where, and countless other things. The more orderly, the more order essence that gets called into being by the city.

  The more order essence, the greater the impact of it unbalancing the areas natural essence levels. Unbalance those enough and something will coalesce out of the wealth of free essence. And most often that will be a monster of some stripe — normally slimes, though larger and more dangerous monsters can appear, too. Even dungeons cores! Luckily they're always either Ignia attuned because of the Emberforge or Ordo attuned because of the city itself. Creatures made of fire essence tend to be predictable given their base motivations of power seeking, and order essence ones will inevitably follow some very specific set of plans and directive that we're quite used to dealing with.” I look over at Ayre as he continues speaking. The comment he made will have surely annoyed her twice over — once for calling the essence type she's an elemental of as it's simplest name, fire essence, and the second for saying creatures of Ignia are predictable. Looking at her, she's pursing her lips and taking deep breaths to center herself.

  Lilly notices too and puts a hand on Ayre's flank, surely sending a small wave of fae essence — the essence of love, creation, and a handful of other very pleasant things — into her. She visibly relaxes when she feels it, her eyes taking on a nacre glow fit a second as he continues. “This one was a slime. A proper big one, too. Us groundfolk probably could have handled it, but the cavalry decided they wanted to put on a show. It's good for people to see our gryphons flying, I think. It's hard to not feel some kind of impressed watching that sort of display."

  His tone the entire way through comes with a sort of pride that's hard to ignore. Lilly picks up on it and comments. "You really seem to take this seriously. I can see the city is in good hands. The guards of my homeland carry themselves with the same kind of competency. Has anyone written any stories about your order? Or about you specifically?"

  The question seems to catch him off guard, but he stifles a small laugh, "I can't say I know of anyone writing stories about me. Aside from my charm, stunning good looks, amazing ability to stand up in a fight, general heroic countenance, and long list of world-altering accomplishments, I can't say there's much to really write a story about for me." The guard shoots a lopsided grin around at the group of us. "As to the Emberguard? I'm sure there's all sorts of historical texts — I assume someone must have written something creative about us at some point. But I can't say I've ever gone looking."

  Ayre's remained mostly quiet for the walk, seemingly on the lookout for more monsters, or maybe the gryphons. Marius had one thing right, seeing those giant cat-eagles definitely had an effect on her. "Where are the gryphons kept? Can other people see them up close?"

  "Mother's Boughs. Are you all foreign spies or something? I would expect a little more subtlety!" He guffaws, clearly meaning no malice. "If you go to the Emberkeep — yes, I'm fully aware of the naming conventions for official building around here being…predictable — you can request a tour. They may need to schedule it depending on the days affairs, but like any city organization, anyone can take a peak if they want. Most of our gryphons won't even bite you."

  That seems to please Ayre deeply to know, but as we round a final bend I see him grimace. Looking plainly disgusted for a moment before reigning himself in.

  The thing that seemed to displease him is a rather aesthetically boring manor. It's well constructed, I think, but it looks not too different from any other building around here — two stories, an outer facade comprised of carved stone columns with an overhanging shallow roof, and five windows on the front face of the building arrayed evenly around a heavy-looking dark wooden door. Finally, standing out from every other building in this pretty well-to-do area, it has a fully fenced-in footprint with a sturdy stone and metal fence.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "Why the face, Marius?" I ask. Logically the fence is the problem — it's the only standout thing about the building, but I can't really guess why.

  He looks awkwardly around, seemingly wrongfooted for the first time since we met. And by a fence of all things. "I wouldn't want to speak ill of whoever you're inheriting this from. I'll bite my tongue, no worries."

  I open my mouth to speak, but Lilly jumps in. "Well you can't say something like that and not expect us to get more curious. Please share? If it's something that makes you react like that, then I'd hate to find out what other random people think down the road with no warning." The sweet-as-candy tone of her voice seems to worm its way into the squirming man's mind and he gives in.

  "Well…alright. It's just that the city — most of Eldara, really — has laws regarding the right to roam. You may have noticed that nothing else — businesses, residences, waterways and anything else — has been fenced in. The teachings of The Traveller stress how important it is for people to have access to safely wander. Our cities are walled from the outside because of monsters, naturally, but within those walls is a haven for all." He indicates the fence and the tone of his voice darkens a bit, "It's not illegal to erect a fence like this, but it's very distasteful. Whoever built this was probably paranoid or haughty to a fault. Fences show distrust for people around you — like the default assumption is that people will cause problems and have to be kept at arms reach."

  About halfway in, Lilly gasps quietly and starts twiddling her thumbs — looking away — something that Marius notices and starts to apologize for before she cuts him off. "Uh, who is The Traveller? You said it with definite capital letters."

  That throws him for a loop, but does make Ayre and I stare at her. The title Lilly has always called her father was The Traveller, but I hadn't made the connection when he said it since he said it so casually.

  "I suppose that would explain your accent. I assume the lot of you are from abroad. But, to answer, The Traveller is one-third of the Eldaran pantheon, each representing one major facet of our nation from the greater pantheon of the world. The Traveller, The Watcher, and the Rootmother making up the triad."

  "Oh, hah..ha… Yeah, sorry, I was thinking of someone else… Ignore me." With some urgency, Lilly tries to redirect the conversation. "So you said that saying that might offend us. Is that the house, then?"

  Marius visibly hesitates but slowly nods. "Yeah, it is. I don't normally come around this side of town, but the numbers match up and it definitely looks abandoned. I'll double-check." He produces a handheld slate from a pouch on his hip and pulses some essence into it. Moments later, it plays a series of pleasant chimes and he spends a minute flicking and poking his finger across it until he…finds whatever he's looking for, I guess?

  Even from this distance, I can feel the complexity of the enchantments in the device, dozens of complex essences working in unison for the little information device. I desperately want to know more, but he starts up talking again. “So, checking city records, this place has been unused for an undetermined amount of time, so it's record probably got lost at some point. But that makes it simple.

  You've got the official deed, so this is where my little tour ends — I have to be getting back — but I would suggest you head down to the [official place] and get the place actually transferred into your name and fill out all of that boring paperwork for citizenship rights and such. It's no rush, but sooner rather than later will make your life simpler. and if you need anything else, don't hesitate to flag one of us down or just ask around! People are pretty nice."

  With the final words, he turns and lazily walks back down the street and down the hill. As we've moved farther from the city center, it's steadily crept up the sides of the bowl formed by the foot of the mountain. it gives us a very nice view out over the city that will probably be even nicer once we're in the building, too.

  But first… "Lilly?" After he walked off, she went dead silent.

  Ayre, with all of the tact I would generally expect, prods more directly. "So you've said your pa's title is The Traveller, right?"

  In response, Lilly just walks off towards the building. "I don't want to talk about it right now. Let's look at the house." Her dress swishes aggressively as she walks off, seeming to communicate her discomfort in the jarring motion from her quick steps, leaving Ayre and I looking at one another with a shrug. We follow and push through the gate swinging in Lilly's wake to get within the walls.

  Lilly, with no preamble, tries the door handle, and it opens readily so she walks inside, allowing the door to close behind her..

  "Ahhhhhh!" A moment later, she screams and Ayre darts ahead of me, pushing me aside to do so. By the time she covers the very short distance to the door, her glaive has manifested in her hand and she shoulder-barges the door open, only for Lilly to immediately follow with "The lights turn on by themselves! That's really cool!"

  My dragon companion deflates visibly and stares daggers at Lilly while spitting a puff of ash at her — immediately dirtying her dress — standing with her clawed hands on her hips. "Please don't scare me like that, Lilly."

  "Hey, you're getting your ash all over me, stop it. I was just really excited! The little town didn't have automatic lights."

  They continue to bicker, but I set it aside. Something about this place feels wildly familiar. The interior is sparse, if well furnished for what is there, and the entryway room we're in has a single staircase going up the middle of the room to the back wall and then splitting off to two balconies, one on either side, all with fine doors. The first floor seems similarly laid out, though. High above, the source of the light is plainly visible. A large…glass thing.

  The gnawing feeling of knowing but not knowing hits me for the first time in a while as I stare up at it.

  It's made of glass…no…crystal. Ordo crystals? No…Ordo gives off white light, this light is off-pink, so it must be Lux essence. But they're not Lux crystals, for sure, they're too clear. So they must be getting their essence from somewhere else, but where? There's no visible collectors in the room, so maybe in the attic? But then how would it get down? Maybe it needs to be manually recharged, then?

  I shake my head and close my eyes, feeling a headache coming on as I feel a fit overthinking come on like a tidal wave. All of that, and no closer to an answer. I could just reach up and learn exactly what it is, though…

  "What's wrong, Olly?" Opening my eyes and seeing Lilly within a few inches of me, looking up at me through the fallen bangs of her glittering hair, makes me jump back and knock into the wall. Paying attention, she's also back at her normal size, fluttering on her tiny cricket-like wings. Entirely having dropped her glamour I suppose — returning to her preferred form and coloration. No more straw-blonde hair and dress. Instead she glimmers in a perpetual drizzle of pearlescent dust with matching colors in her hair and dress. The color is somewhat like gold, but gold you remember seeing in a dream — not like a piece of polished jewelry.

  From top to bottom, simple shoes and dress to her impossibly intricately woven hair and sharp, angular features, Lilly has a dreamlike quality about her — like she sits just on the edge of understanding. Something and someone who is indistinct out of the corner of your eyes, but exactly what you might expect once you look at her head-on. She's also one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Bar none. From a sunrise over snowkissed plains to the twin moons moving in their eternal dance across the skies with the backdrop of the essence seas. Nothing and nobody else has come anywhere remotely close.

  I feel that tug in my heart as I look at her for a few moments. A distracting flutter that is identical to the way I feel when I see sources of dense essence because of this cursed arm. Because of it, I, with great effort, have to wrench my eyes away from her as she beams back at me. It makes me realize I didn't answer her question, so I do so while continuing to look away. "I…can't remember what some of the things here in the house are." Gesturing up at the thing.

  The admission brings me physical pain alongside the spiritual and intellectual wounds to admit. Not knowing things has grown to be one of the most upsetting things that happens to me semi-regularly, and every other time — just like now — it evokes a terribly emotional reaction to me.

  Something is missing. Something is wrong.

  I look back up at the glass-crystal-lux-not-ordo-possibly-manually-recharged-thing. I can understand it. I have a very easy option to do so.

  Did I answer Lilly?

  I look back at her and realize she's been talking so I try to focus through the turmoil in my head, running back the parts of the conversation I wasn't truly paying attention to but remember regardless.

  "It's a chandelier, Olly. It's job is to make light for a space. This one seems to be automatic, so it's likely more involved in terms of its enchantments."

  I nod, catching back up from searching my memory for a moment. "A chandelier, right. For making light. That makes sense…" I trail off, trying to think about how it might be enchanted to do it, but I have to physically wrench myself away, else I know I'll be stuck in this spiral for a while. I can find out later.

  I can find out later. Either by asking someone or…the other way. Idly, I tug off the sleeve Lilly made me.

  I promised them I would let them know when I'm struggling, though. So I do. "Lilly, Ayre, I'm…not doing great right now."