ARC 2

  [Journey Bound]

  Something warm and sticky smacked against his cheek. His eyes snapped open. He recoiled, his mind racing and thinking of a skill to use. By reflex he jumped to his feet, ready for a fight as he stared down his attacker.

  His hands, which he’d lifted in preparation to block or attack, fell to his sides. He stared into the eyes of a large toad. The animal was fat and round, with knotted green and grey skin. Its two beady eyes stared at him. There was little intelligence in the stare as it croaked.

  Justus sighed in relief. He looked around. He was in a swamp somehow. He’d never seen one, but had heard descriptions. He was on a small, gently sloped hill that rose just above the water. The frog was sitting on a fallen tree, just a few feet away from the hill’s edge.

  Most of the ground beyond the hill was flooded with what smelled like salt water. The swamp was widely channeled with patches and strips of dense foliage to either side. It was like a river that had decided moving was too much work and grew stagnant.

  His spirit ached, feeling nearly depleted. He had the urge to lie down and get some sleep, but he pushed through it. He had to find shelter, or maybe make one.

  A bug landed on his arm, and he slapped it. The insect popped with a burst of red against his skin. A bloodfly. So that was why the frog had hit him with its tongue. Bugs were all through the air, plenty of bloodflies among them. He hated the things. His Jade skin prevented him from getting bit, but that didn’t matter. He just hated bugs. He used to wake up covered in bites when he lived on the streets as a child, and a vendetta had formed during those years.

  Bugs, as much as he loathed them, weren’t high on the list of his worries right now. He looked down at himself. He was naked again. And alive.

  His eyes widened. He was alive. The sky was the pale orange he was used to. He looked up and saw it. The sun. His sun. The large rusty red sphere hovered in the air, shining its dim light onto the world. This was Varkalus: his planet.

  He was back home.

  “Thank the Monarchs,” he said, sinking to his knees.

  The stress he'd been pushing down ever since he'd been attacked by the lich began to fade. The nightmare was over, finally. It had been an insane adventure, and one he was more than glad to leave behind and only relive in memory. It felt so distant now, like a dream. Could it have all been some hallucination? So much of it made no sense. An alien planet inhabited by humans, spirit artists with mutilated spirits, and he was pretty sure he’d died at the end. He wondered if any of it had ever really happened.

  He looked around and stopped wondering when he saw what was lying on the ground behind him. He wasn’t alone on this hill.

  “Fuck…” he muttered.

  They were covered in bloodflies, but not bloody cuts like they had been when he last saw them. Like him, both Katherine and Simon were naked. His guidestone was on the ground by Simon’s foot. He picked it up before anything else. He wasn’t making that mistake again.

  He looked at the two figures, thinking over what he should do. He wanted to leave them but knew he couldn’t. If he left them here, they’d probably end up dead in a few days. It wasn’t like he owed them anything, but that didn’t mean he wanted them dead.

  Justus sighed as he opened his inventory. He really shouldn’t have been bothered, given that he’d been pulled away from certain death twice in the span of a few quarters, but he was. He’d gone through almost all his spare clothes because of this crap, and it pissed him off. Those clothes cost money. Well, not the last ones he’d worn, but that wasn’t the point.

  He pulled out his clothes from his inventory. He winced as the dimensional rift opened. The stone created the gateway, but it used his spirit to activate the portal. He’d pushed himself much too hard the last few quarters.

  He slipped the clothes on, glad to be back in the familiar robes he was used to. The clothes he’d taken out of his inventory on the other planet had been his only set from Crestkept, since their fashion seemed closer to that planet’s. In Solidusk, however, robes were the common clothing of choice, naturally. They were far more comfortable, and offered better maneuverability.

  He fastened his arm pouch after getting dressed, then placed his guidestone in it. He pulled out clothes for Simon and Katherine next. She would have to deal with robes that were too big. He tried not to look much for modesty’s sake, but he could tell she was too small even for the old clothes he hadn’t worn in years.

  He draped the clothes over the two. With a nudge of his foot, he tried stirring Katherine awake. The girl didn’t respond, but she wasn’t dead. Both of them were breathing. He nudged her harder.

  “Hey. Wake up,” he said.

  Nothing. He repeated himself louder. Still nothing. He reached down and shook her by the shoulders. She mumbled incoherently but didn’t wake.

  He scanned her with his Spirit and recognized the problem. Her spirit was drained to near empty. As an unranked, it would take her hours to recover enough spirit to regain consciousness. Unranks had incredibly sluggish Spirit regeneration, even compared to Opals.

  That made the situation a lot more annoying.

  It took more time than he’d imagine getting clothes onto the pair. Moving their dead-weight was more cumbersome and difficult than he’d have thought. He stuck to just robes and shawls, foregoing undergarments. Putting underclothes on them would be even more of a hassle, and he wanted to get moving. He briefly considered covering Katherine’s chest while he struggled with her robes, but he had no bras in his inventory. He did have some cloth that might serve as chest bindings, he had no clue how to tie them. He settled on leaving it alone. It didn’t look like she needed one anyway.

  While he was dressing Simon, he noticed a round silver coin on the grassy ground. He picked it up and examined it. On one side of the coin there was a side profile of a man's head, and on the other side there was some kind of bird, an eagle from the looks of it. The side with the eagle was heavily tarnished. Was this Simon’s? Why had it ended up here?

  Justus realized that it wasn’t the only thing. His own guidestone had teleported with him to Simon’s planet and back. He’d assumed it was because it was a guidestone. They were inherently special objects with incredible capabilities and a small spirit of their own. But what if there was more to it? If so, what did the coin and guidestone have in common?

  He decided to put the coin in the side pocket of the robe he dressed Simon in. He had a hunch about what its appearance here might mean, but he’d have to wait until Simon woke up to see if his theory was right.

  Once they were dressed, he looked through his inventory for something that might help him. There were nine notifications in the top corner of his vision now. He’d never bothered to check them on the other planet, and he still didn't want to now. He had enough on his immediate plate to worry about. If they were really urgent, the system would display the notifications in a pop-up.

  His first thought was to use his sending stone, but then he remembered he used the only one he had trying to escape the Lich. It hadn’t worked, but the infused spell in the sending stone had been used up anyway. He cursed. He’d forgotten about that. Those damned things were almost as expensive as a sapphire guidestone. It had been one of his best finds. Wasted.

  After mourning the loss through a series of curses and kicks at bushes, he turned his thoughts to the current situation. What could help him move through a flooded swamp carrying two people?

  He heard a high-pitched yelp and spun toward the noise. It came from a small shrubbery on the hill. The plants shook, and a small creature jumped out. Justus relaxed. It was the dog Simon had carried out of his apartment.

  Strangely, like humans and eagles, dogs were present on his world as well. There looked to be slight differences. He’d never seen a dog that small on his planet, but that was likely a product of breeding.

  He wondered if this dog was indeed the same species of canine that was on his planet. What did that mean? Finding humans on another planet was one thing. It was possible both human groups had diverged from a space-faring society before their recorded history. But dogs? Were dogs brought along with that precursor race? Or was something else entirely going on? What about birds? It was curious, but he had no clue what to do with the information.

  “At least I won’t have to carry you,” he said to the dog. The small animal sniffed the air and ground. When it saw Simon, it made a small yipping noise and bounced over to him. It whined and licked his face.

  “He’ll be a while,” Justus told the dog. It ignored him. He ignored it.

  He went back to scrolling through his inventory. He was pretty sure…

  “There you are!” he said, as he summoned the item. Even as his spirit flinched from conjuring the large portal that glimmered in the air, he grinned. He knew this purchase would come in handy someday.

  A small canoe dropped onto the ground. He winced as the wood slammed into the—thankfully soft—dirt. He should’ve summoned it over the water.

  He’d bought the canoe for cheap in the market. It had been in poor condition, but he’d had an acquaintance patch it up for him in return for a favor. He figured he’d want it in case he ever needed to get across a lake or travel by river. He never expected he’d get use out of it this quickly, though. He’d only had it for four years.

  He grabbed Katherine and set her inside the shoddy wooden vessel. Dealing with Simon was more of an issue. The dog growled at Justus whenever he tried moving its owner. Justus reached out with his Spirit to soothe the animal. He wasn’t good at using his Spirit aura like that, but it was easier the smarter the creature was. Apparently the dog was pretty smart, because it let its guard down quickly.

  You couldn’t lie with Spirit. A monster's Spirit was terrifying because you could feel the pure, overwhelming bloodlust and rage pouring out of it. Your Spirit would carry your true nature with it, and even your intentions if examined closely. So if you extended your Spirit to an animal, you could sometimes calm them down and convince them you weren’t a threat, as long as you really weren’t. That only worked if the animal could reason, and if it didn't actually want to hurt you.

  After calming down, the dog let Justus grab Simon. He propped Simon up next to Katherine. The dog jumped in the canoe and curled up next to Simon's legs.

  Justus pushed the canoe into the water and hopped in. It was a tight squeeze with all three of them. The vessel was only meant for two people. He was pretty sure they were a little over the recommended weight capacity of the canoe, since the swamp's water came uncomfortably close to spilling over the sides when he got in. He'd have to go slow and steady. He pulled out the paddle and began to row.

  While he navigated through the swamp, Justus had time to think. All these recent events made no sense. Something, or someone, had broken the Kryznokt Barrier and sent him to another planet. Most likely that same thing had sent him back here. But why?

  He recalled the last thing he’d experienced before waking up. That part especially felt like a dream. He’d been floating in a void, with messages similar to a guidestone system telling him something. He’d been angry at it. He was convinced that whatever had communicated to him had been the same thing that had sent him to the planet. What had it said? Something about a gate. And the end of the world? Was it his world, or theirs? Or worse, was it the end of both?

  Maybe it had been a dream, but it was the only semblance of a clue he had. Something had sent him to another planet. The proof was the two unconscious bodies in the canoe. There were answers, even if he couldn’t see them.

  He glanced at the notifications. Maybe now would be a good time to skim through them.

  A shout echoed across the swamp. It was distant but definitely a person. No, it was two people. Justus looked in the direction the shouts had come from. He couldn’t see anything past the shrubs and trees. The foliage had gotten denser in this direction. He angled the canoe, approaching the sound of the voice.

  There were more hoops and hollers. They were coming from the other side of a hill that broke above the swamp’s water. The dense foliage hid the speaker from view. There was the sound of splashing, and someone began shouting. He was able to make out the words. The voice sounded young.

  “Get it, Roshesh! Come on!”

  Justus turned the corner, and the two people came into view. At least, one of them did. He couldn't see the second person he'd heard earlier.

  The boy was wearing nothing but a leather loincloth at the waist. He was pudgy and broad, but his height helped him to wear the weight comfortably. The strong form he’d grow into was clear despite his young age. His dark hair was cut choppy and short, and he stood on what looked like a haphazardly built pontoon.

  Tied to the wooden pontoon and floating a few meters behind it was a ring-like structure that rose about half a meter from the surface of the water. The ring had fiber strings tied in a tight diamond formation that sank beneath the water.

  The second man was currently thrashing about in the shallow waters near the hill. This man looked like what Justus imagined the boy would in ten or so years. But there was a stark difference between the boy and man other than their ages. The man was an animorphed.

  It was well known that Spirit was influenced by identity, especially the identity that formed during adolescence. It was a major factor in determining your affinities. So for some people, whose identity was closely tied to specific animals, their Spirit reflected that. For whatever reason, in those cases it wasn’t uncommon for people to begin manifesting traits of that animal.

  He’d seen plenty of animorphed in his home city. Animorphed women were popular in the brothels and strip clubs, filling in a niche but enthusiastic crowd. One of his acquaintances, who ran hound races as a family business, was also an animorphed. They weren’t common, but they also weren't incredibly rare. Justus was a bit surprised to find one out here in the middle of nowhere, though.

  The man currently thrashing in the water was covered in green diamond-patterned scales that stretched across his back, while paler smooth scales stretched horizontally across his stomach. The green scales covered his bald head and ran down his shoulders to the back of his arms and elbow, where it shifted into much finer pale green skin. His hands were shaped like humans but had a hint of webbing between the fingers. Those same fingers were pointed with long, thick claws.

  The man was incredibly muscular. Not the lean muscle Justus had, but large, bulky muscle that made him look dangerous, spirit arts or not. He was currently putting that muscle to good use, since when he thrashed about again, Justus could see that he was wrestling with an alligator.

  The alligator was nearly fifteen feet long. They were powerful and dangerous predators, but the man clung to its back and wore a grin. He seemed to be enjoying himself. The animal bucked and twisted its head to try to bite the man.

  Sensing some opportunity Justus couldn’t, the man dived towards the mouth. He got an arm around the snout and closed the jaws. He locked his legs around the creature’s shoulders and held the mouth shut between his thick arm and barrel-like torso. He lifted a free hand and called to the boy on the pontoon.

  “Twine!” the man shouted. His voice was surprisingly high considering his looks.

  The boy on the boat was already fumbling through a small crate. He brought out a roll of dark green thread and tossed it to the man in the water.

  The man caught it, nearly losing his grip as he stretched to reach the wide throw. The moment he had it, he began to unspool and coil it around the still thrashing animal’s snout. After a minute the gator’s mouth was tied shut. The man relaxed but kept his grip on the animal with his legs. He turned to look back at the boy.

  “He’s wrapped up nice and tight!” he hollered. “Pull us in, Dashar!”

  Just after he spoke, he saw Justus in his canoe. The boy began pulling on some rope. As it tightened and rose above the surface, it was revealed to be tied to the man’s waist. The man held up a hand to his smaller assistant, keeping his eyes on Justus.

  The boy, Dashar, looked confused. He followed the man’s gaze, and his eyes went wide when he noticed Justus in his canoe, not ten meters away. He let the rope go slack.

  “What is your business, friend?” The man called loudly. His accent was unfamiliar, and his mouth didn’t match the words, so Justus knew he wasn’t speaking Imperial. The accent was a byproduct of the guidestone’s active translation.

  “I’m only passing through,” Justus spoke loudly.

  “Passing through?” the man repeated. “And where do you come from, to be passing through this land?”

  “Tallon,” Justus said. The man didn’t seem to react. “Solidusk.”

  “A dusker?” the man asked. He looked at the boy. “Do my ears lie to me, little brother? Did this man just say he is a dusker?”

  “He did,” the boy replied.

  The man looked back at Justus. “And what is a dusker doing this far south? This is a place quite unkind to the unprepared traveller, you are aware? Are you perhaps a criminal? Running from the law?”

  “If I am?” Justus asked. He knew what the situation looked like. If he told these people the truth, they’d only think him a liar as well. Better to seem an honest criminal than a crook.

  “Then your story may be one that is worth sharing. I might ask it of you.”

  “Would you trade for it?”

  “A trade? For a story? That would depend on what your desire is for the trade, I suppose. A moment, please.” The man looked back at the boy and made a gesture. The boy began pulling him in. The gator thrashed, but with its jaw tied shut, it was practically harmless.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Once he was close to the pontoon, the man took a rope tied to its side and wrapped it around the shoulders of the gator. The boy helped him climb onto the flat raft. The two then reached down for the animal and picked it up. It was an impressive display of strength, and the man carried most of the weight himself. The boy only grabbed the tail to minimize the thrashing animal’s movement.

  The man went to the back of the pontoon. The boy let go of the animal and pulled the large round net closer. The man tossed the animal headfirst into the net, and the water inside immediately churned with movement. Justus realized it was full of thrashing gators. They must have been hunting them for hours to have collected so many. Had the man wrestled all of them?

  The man clapped his hands, wiping them off before shaking them. Like the boy, he was wearing nothing but a loincloth. He gestured for Justus to steer closer. Justus remained on guard but approached. He stopped about three meters away, far enough to have time to react if the two attacked.

  “My name is Roshesh,” the man said. “The boy is my brother, Doshar. What name do you go by, Dusker?”

  “Justus.”

  “Justus, you are a Jade, yes?”

  Justus narrowed his eyes. Had the man studied him with his spirit without Justus feeling it? Only a trained Sapphire could manage control like that, which meant the man was incredibly dangerous. Roshesh noticed the look.

  “I did not touch your Spirit, Justus. I only observe with my eyes and mind. You carry yourself with confidence, but look ready to fly at signs of danger. This suggests power, but not much. Strength and skill, but not certainty. Those of Opal haven’t the power, and those of Sapphire needn’t fear much in these glades. Hence, I guess that you are Jade, like myself. Your reaction tells me my guess is correct. Again I ask you, why come to these lands?”

  “Are you asking for my story?”

  The man smiled. He showed his teeth, which were sharp and long. Despite the monstrous teeth, the expression showed no hostility.

  “I suppose I am. You wanted a trade, yes? Well, I’m sorry to say that we do not carry much, as you can see. But you are a curious sight. A dusker, out this far in such a small craft carrying two unconscious strangers. It is a novel sight. A sight I’ve never seen, if you can believe it. What would you ask of us?”

  “Only food to eat,” Justus said. He had plenty of rations in his inventory, nearly two dozen pounds of food in total, but none of it was good food. It was meant to last, not be tasty. He hadn’t had a true meal in some time now, and he'd hate to expend his ration supplies if he could avoid it. “And directions to the nearest town would be appreciated.”

  “A simple trade to fulfill. Very well. The quarter is half gone already, and the bayou has blessed us with fortune today.” He turned to the boy. “Doshar, let’s show these strangers to the village.”

  “The village? Are you sure, Rosh? They could be dangerous.”

  “We have little to offer which can’t be found just as easily, and nothing which we are unwilling to part with in exchange for our lives. It makes no sense to harm us. And if this stranger wishes for blood to be spilled, then our hospitality will do no harm, for danger is already here.”

  “It’s probably not a good idea to admit you would give up your possessions if threatened,” Justus said.

  Roshesh smiled again. “Ah. So will you be relieving us of our meager possessions then, friend?”

  “No,” Justus admitted. He had no qualms about stealing, but he very rarely mugged anyone. He only took from people that looked like they could afford to lose whatever he was taking, and he preferred doing it quietly and without being seen.

  “Then to me, it was a good idea to tell you. Now I know you are not a man who will take from us.”

  “I could be waiting until you show me where your village is.”

  “Perhaps, but there is little in our village an outsider would desire, I imagine. Now enough talk of hypothetical things. Let us make our way. Come, row next to us. I see questions clawing your lips, and I’m happy to share my story for free.”

  Justus looked down at the unconscious figures of Simon and Katherine in his canoe. He doubted there were any other civilized places nearby, and when they woke up, it would be best if the two had some solid ground under their feet. He knew from experience how jarring it was to wake up in another world.

  As they slowly rowed through the bayou, Roshesh told Justus about himself and his village. He’d been surprised to learn the animorphed was only twenty, three cycles older than Justus himself.

  Roshesh was a hunter for his village, which was a small group of only a couple hundred people. They weren’t part of the Serrated Empire, officially, but were technically in the territory of Greatide. The kingdom’s major settlements were beyond a mountain range to the northwest.

  Justus had studied a bit of geography, so he knew that must mean he was in the Wetland Plateau. It was on the southeast edge of the Empire. He also knew this area was typically pretty dry in ambient spirit, which meant monster appearances were less common, and dangerous ones rarely manifested.

  Roshesh told Justus about his duties to the village. He was one of their several hunters. He’d been wrestling gators for years, before he’d even reached Jade. He’d been taught by his father, the village's chief. Roshesh was training Doshar, his younger brother.

  The village relied heavily on the alligator population. They did more than eat them. They used the animals to make leather from the scaly skin, tools from their bones, and even candles from their fat. It seemed beggars couldn’t be choosers out in these lands.

  “We respect the ridgebacks. The bayou is theirs, and we are their guests,” Roshesh had said.

  Justus thought the sentiment was a bit silly, but far be it from him to judge their way of life. Personally, Justus was eager to get out of the miserable place. It was hot and humid, and he couldn’t go more than a few seconds without a bloodfly landing on him. He wanted to get back to Tallon, where the air was cool and refreshing and not crawling with things that wanted to eat him.

  Justus almost missed the village, even after Roshesh announced they were there. The village was built above the wet ground. Its wooden structures seemed designed to fit into the flora around it. Once he was able to take it all in, he decided it looked like a tree house from an overactive child’s dream.

  The wood that made up the village was rough-cut and sometimes left uncut altogether. Spaces between wood were packed with a strange mix of fiber and dirt. There were dozens of small huts built into trees, using the living wood as support beams. The village was layered, with fiber rope ladders connecting to higher homes and platforms. At its base was one large wooden platform, while the upper areas were bunches of smaller platforms connected via thin bridges.

  Once one of the villagers noticed their arrival, word traveled quickly, and soon the wooden platforms of the village were filled with people that had come to see what was likely considered exciting news to them. A few of those people were animorphed, like Roshesh. The women wore the same loincloths as the men, but left their chests bare. The nudity didn't faze Justus. When you grew up on the streets in the rough side of Tallon, you got used to plenty worse than simple nudity.

  The villagers looked on with curiosity as Roshesh and Doshar tied off their pontoon to a hook on one of the pillars that supported the village's lower platform. Justus, at Roshesh’s beckoning, paddled his canoe next to them. Roshesh tied his canoe just as he had the pontoon.

  One of the villagers threw down a long rope ladder, which Doshar grabbed and climbed without a word. He seemed like he was shy around company, unlike his older brother. The boy hadn’t spoken to Justus once during the trip.

  Roshesh turned to Justus. “Your friends here are still not awake. Would you like my help in getting them up? It would take little work for us to make room for them to lie and rest.”

  “Sounds better than letting the bloodflies eat them alive down here.” Justus said.

  Roshesh nodded. He reached down for Simon, but he paused when the small dog sat up. The rocking of the canoe must have woken it from its sleep. The dog sniffed Roshesh’s reaching hand, then began licking him. Justus felt a sting of annoyance at that. The little runt hadn’t been so friendly with him.

  The dog didn’t so much as bark when Roshesh hoisted Simon up out of the canoe. He slung the unconscious Simon over his shoulder, then picked up the dog. The dog practically jumped into his arms. He kept his arm over Simon’s legs and cradled the dog in the same arm. He grabbed the ladder and began climbing with one hand, making it look effortless despite how unruly the rope seemed.

  Justus stepped onto the pontoon, then reached back and picked up Katherine. He had difficulty climbing the ladder with one hand. He had to keep an arm wrapped around Katherine to keep her from falling. When he was near the top, a large clawed hand reached down. Justus hesitated, then took the offered help. Roshesh grabbed him by the forearm and hoisted him up.

  It seemed the entire village had come to witness their arrival. Justus could feel the eyes on him as he was pulled up onto the large wooden platform that was the base for the rest of the village. Most of the villagers didn’t share Roshesh’s amiable attitude it seemed. A crowd had gathered on the lowest level of the village, and they were watching with suspicion and curiosity. Whispers and mutters filled the air.

  From a large hut at the center of the platform, a giant man stepped out. Like Doshar, he was a well-built animorphed. His scales weren’t as deep green as Roshesh’s, and his face was slightly less human. He had a slightly longer snout and a pronounced brow. His eyes were that of an alligator, not a human. He stood a head taller than anyone except Roshesh. The crowd parted when they saw him. The whispers quieted as he approached, and they vanished altogether once he stopped.

  Roshesh nodded respectfully at the man. The man gave a small nod in return.

  “You bring more than the ridgebacks with you on your hunt, Son.” The man said. His eyes studied Simon and Katherine before they fell on Justus.

  Justus felt panic swelling in his gut, but he pushed it down. He didn’t need to see the large blue gem fixed into the pendant this man wore across his neck. It was clear from the way he walked and how he was treated that this man was more than Jade. He was Sapphire, likely the only one of that rank in the whole village. Even without formal training, he’d be far stronger than Justus.

  “These three were traveling the bayou. This one is called Justus.” Roshesh said.

  “Justus.” The man said. His voice was deep and gravelly, much more fitting to his form than Roshesh’s higher-pitched voice. “What is your reason for traveling these waters? We’ve not seen outsiders in over a dozen cycles.”

  “We’re just traveling through. We didn’t come here by choice.”

  The man raised a scaly brow. “You were chased?”

  Justus looked around at the curious onlookers. He felt lying to this man wasn’t a good idea, but he didn’t want word of what happened to him spreading. Roshesh had said they sometimes traded with Greatide. Rumors could spread quickly.

  The man must have noticed his hesitation. “Come with me. Roshesh, take the two sleeping guests. See to it they are comfortable.”

  The man turned to leave. Roshesh leaned over as he took Katherine. He whispered to Justus.

  “He is my father, Chief Sho. Don’t be intimidated. He is softer than he looks, but one must present strength in front of their village, you understand?”

  Justus nodded. He followed behind the chief. He remained tense, ready to Blink at the first sign of trouble.

  The chief led him into the large central hut. The outside was decorated with different animal skins and painted with beautiful complex designs. The building had no door, but a doorway draped with thousands of tiny bones woven in string was in the center. The ornament was creepy, but the dry bones did make a rather pleasant sound as they passed under the curtain.

  Inside was a round room with no windows. A rug patterned with swirling designs covered most of the floor. Incense candles filled the air with a fine haze, slowly drawn out by a tiny hole at the center of the sloped ceiling. There were more bone decorations hanging from strings, but these were larger and clearly carved into intentional shapes for aesthetic purposes.

  Chief Sho turned back to face him after reaching the center of the rug. He took a seat on the floor and gestured for Justus to join him. Justus sat, keeping enough distance so he could respond if the chief tried to move against him.

  “It is a surprise to see an outsider here, especially one who has arrived unwillingly. How is it that you and your companions found yourselves in these waters?”

  “A monster attack,” Justus explained. “We were caught up in a dire-beast manifestation. We got trapped, and so I used a sending stone to teleport us to safety. It was supposed to take us to the capital of Solidusk, but it sent us here. I bought it in an underground market. Turns out the reason it was so cheap is because it was stolen from an enforcer.”

  “Sending stone, enforcer… I’m not familiar with these things.”

  “Sending stones are a form of transport. It’s a fairly recent invention. The stone is carved in a special manner that allows for it to contain a specific teleportation spell. It’s activated by spirit. The carving determines where it teleports you. Enforcers use them to send criminals here. They bind the criminals and coat them in honey before exiling them here to be eaten by bugs and alligators, the animals you call ridgebacks. It’s reserved for people accused of especially heinous crimes.”

  Chief Sho nodded. “We have found a few of the bodies of those sent here, usually in pieces inside the bellies of ridgebacks we catch. It has baffled us where they came from. Now we know, if it is the truth that you are telling. So this seller tricked you? Told you the stone he was selling would take you to a city, when it really was made to send you here?”

  Justus nodded. “That’s what it seems like. I’m just glad I woke up before the gators got to us.”

  The chief lifted a brow. “Woke up?”

  “The stones the enforcers use are designed to drain your spirit to the brink of death. That way they can’t defend themselves or escape their restraints.”

  “How… creative. Crime is not a common thing here, even between the tribes. Perhaps it's not my place to judge, but this punishment seems needlessly cruel.”

  “That’s the point. It’s as much a deterrent as it is a punishment. Nobody wants to get sentenced to exile by sending stone, so it makes criminals think twice.”

  “I suppose I can see wisdom in that, even if I still feel it is barbaric. But I’m not interested in debating your people’s enforcement of law. Why is it that your companions are not awake, while you are? Are they Opals?”

  “They’re unranked,” Justus admitted. There was no reason to lie about it. Roshesh would find out if he wanted, and Justus wasn’t naive enough to think the man wouldn’t inform his father. It was best not to be caught in a lie if he could help it.

  The chief was surprised by the information.

  “Unranked? That is… interesting. Is there something wrong with their spirits?”

  “They come from a place where ranking is uncommon.”

  “A strange place,” the chief said, scratching at his jaw. “Well, Justus, now that you are here, may I ask what your plans are? If you wish, I can allow you and your companions to rest for a while. My son by now will have already readied a place for you.”

  “What do you want in return?”

  Chief Sho blinked. “In return? You are a traveler in need of help, and it costs us nothing to do so. I ask for nothing. As you’ve been told, we do not receive guests often. The novelty of your arrival is an exchange for your stay.”

  Justus frowned. “There must be something you want.”

  “There is little we want for here, friend. There is only one thing I might ask, but it is not worth such a small kindness as letting you stay here to rest.”

  So there was something. “What is it?”

  “We, on occasion, send tradesmen to the town of Teshustoq. It is on the edge of Greatide, on the west side of the mountains where the great tides don’t reach. The last tradesmen we sent left five orbits ago. This worries me. The trip to Teshustoq takes four or five quarters. My people usually spend only a quarter or two in town, then return. When the last tradesman did not return, we sent another. That was two orbits ago, and we’ve not heard from him since.”

  “What do you think happened?”

  “We aren’t sure. The people of Teshustoq are friendly to us. They offer us good trade at more than fair prices. Bandits aren’t likely. Few people travel the path between these lands and Greatide.

  “My guess would be that one of my people fell ill, but there is a chance of a worse possibility.”

  “A persistent,” Justus said.

  Chief Sho frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t know this thing. The word you say means little to me in this matter.”

  “A persistent is what we call a monster with an unusually controlled spirit. They persist for much longer, sometimes until they’re killed.”

  “Ah. We have another name for these. The Tashakula. There are stories about them. Monsters that haunt a channel, or who wade inland and lie in wait for tradesmen. Yes, this is the thing I’m most worried about.”

  “So what do you want from me?”

  “I would ask you travel with another tradesman to Teshustoq. I would send my son, whom you met, Roshesh. But his duties are important. He is our best hunter. Knows the ridgebacks and their minds like a baby knows its mother. If you go I can send another, and I request that you watch over and protect this tradesman, should trouble find them.”

  “I could do that, so long as the trouble isn’t too dangerous.”

  “Of course. I won’t ask you to die with my tradesman if there truly is a monster on the path. All I ask is you do your best to see him arrive safely to Teshustoq. If he does not, but you find yourself arriving without him, then I would ask that you tell the town of the danger and seek their help on our behalf.”

  “So escort your people, and if things go poorly let someone know. I can do that, but I have a request in return.”

  “Of course.”

  “The two companions I brought along. I want to get them to Opal rank and train them to use skills before I go anywhere with them. I’ll need to stay for a few quarters at least.”

  Chief Sho waved his hand. “That is not a request. Stay for two orbits if you need. Roshesh would have needed to catch enough ridgebacks to make up for his absence. He would not have been able to do this sooner than three orbits' time. In fact, this is not a fair trade. I shall make it one.”

  Sho lifted his hands, and a faint shimmer appeared in his eyes. The sapphire in his pendant pulsed with a blue light. From the air, he pulled out two objects. Justus’s eyes widened at the sight of the small blue stones. Unlike the stone in the pendant, they were much lighter in color and sparkled with a rainbow of light. Opal guidestones. He offered them to Justus.

  “Give these to your companions. It will benefit me if they can use skills as well.”

  Justus took the offered stones. He didn’t bother telling Sho that he already had a spare Jade stone. He didn’t want to give that Jade stone to Simon or Katherine: it was sentimental to him. Opal stones were also worth a decent amount of money. They didn’t sell for nearly as much as a Jade stone—and nowhere close to the fortune you could get from an Emerald stone—but you could live off the coin you’d get from an Opal stone for a few orbits in most towns. It was more than fair payment for a simple escort job that was on the way he’d be going anyway.

  “Thank you,” Justus said, slipping the items into his inventory. He tried and failed to suppress a wince as the action caused a sharp pain in his Spirit. It was like jumping with a sprained leg.

  Sho nodded. “It is a proper trade. These stones we can replace, but a life can not be so easily returned.” Sho began to stand up, and Justus followed his lead. “You look like you could use rest. Go and join your companions. We will prepare a proper welcome: a feast. You three will be the rare guests of our next meal.”

  Sho gave him a big toothy grin as he put a clawed hand on Justus’s shoulder and walked outside with him.

  Once outside, Roshesh revealed himself to have been sitting near the entrance. He took over leading Justus through the small village. Simon and Katherine had been placed inside of a hut that was similar to most others in the village. They were still asleep, and they'd been laid on a pair of hammocks.

  "It isn't much, but it keeps the bugs away." Roshesh said, gesturing to the sparsely decorated room.

  The hut was made of wood, and was slightly hazy from an incense candle lit on a hanging chandelier crafted from an alligator skull.

  Justus thanked Roshesh, and the man left him alone. He waited a few minutes, then began taking out his items.

  Living for years on his own in the streets, Justus had learned a thing or two about sleeping in places that might not be safe. One of the things he’d learned was to always set up warnings and traps. It was one of the few habits the street had ingrained in him that his mentor had approved of.

  Justus ignored his weariness and spent nearly half an hour setting up strings, alarms, and even a pulley setup that would snare anyone who entered. The traps would prove a hindrance to anyone weaker than Sapphire, but it wouldn’t hurt them. Justus had more lethal traps he could use, but he only used them when he was certain that anyone who might trip them meant him harm. That wasn't the case here. As suspicious as he was of their hospitality, he didn't have any proof the villagers meant him harm.

  Once the warnings were in place, Justus sat against the far wall in his meditation position. He could sleep well enough in that pose, and it would allow him to react faster if he had to. The hammock would hamper his movements. For all he knew, that could be their purpose.

  It wouldn’t be a pleasant or truly restful sleep, but he would manage. He always had.