When Priest Rensik arrived in Arkalis, she simply stood at the gates and stared. Never in her life did she think she’d see Arkalis populated again.
It was with trolls and other races not seen for generations rather than the fay, but she was no less filled with wonder.
She was also annoyed. She’d been sent all on her own because Ganis, the Argalis guard captain, was, as usual, being onerous, and unless paid their exorbitant fee, refused to send guards to accompany the priests to search for and apprehend the shade.
So in the meanwhile, she’d been sent alone to track him down.
She was a Champion, and more than capable of handling a single Defender, but she preferred her odds more overwhelming. And she got the impression that Tanelis suspected the man might not actually be a Defender.
She couldn’t even be certain he was in the city, as the godseye she carried had closed before she arrived.
Secretly, she was glad. She wasn’t eager to deal with the shade on her own. He’d managed to get past the essence lock, infiltrate their ritual, and nearly assassinate the high priest with an uncrafted arnaphen barb by using one of his familiars. Who knew what other tricks he had up his sleeve.
She could at least make sure he didn’t escape Fayteraus. Assuming he hadn’t already. They weren’t sure of the exact timetable of the Divide Crosser, and him leaving on it might explain why the godseye had closed on the way over.
If so, it wasn’t her problem. Her job was simply to ensure he didn’t leave Fayteraus, not to chase him down if he did.
She looked down at the map Tanelis had given her, then headed to the guardhouse.
Ashinaro’s next job was mapping out an area that as far as he knew, the drakken had never bothered naming. It was northeast of Arkalis, a craggy area with plenty of places for monsters to hide.
Not that there turned out to be many.
He gained a few more hollow cores to sell in the process, as well as another white core, but it was clear he wasn’t going to earn enough in time before the Divide Crosser arrived.
One bright spot was that Zanas was once more able to damage monsters. It really had been just some rest that he’d needed.
With him and Zanas working together, they made short work of the few monsters they encountered and he finished the job well before sunset and returned to collect his payment.
“Quite the efficient worker,” Thi-Oric said as he handed over payment. “I take it you’ll be wanting another job? There’s been some problem with the water from Harbinger River. Flow suddenly reduced, and we need someone to go investigate. It’s tier three.” He smiled. “Which you just so happened to have reached now thanks to the points you earned from your very thorough mapping.”
“You need to stop giving them out so freely,” Ru-Taris scolded him.
“They’re at my discretion, aren’t they?”
“Discretion being the key word. Just because you don’t have enough people doing jobs doesn’t mean you bump up any old cretin off the street to do them.” She glanced at Ashinaro, smiling. “No offense, Highness.”
Thi-Oric snorted disdainfully. “And you scold me for a little joke.”
“Little!? You suggested I kill people!”
Thi-Oric waved this off. “You need to stop taking things so seriously.”
“You need to start taking them more seriously! Adjusting pay, giving out points like you do.” She scoffed. “What’s the point in having points at all if you’re just going to give them out at random?”
“The point is that they represent—”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“This job,” Ashinaro interrupted, “it’s not another mapping job?”
Thi-Oric continued glaring and Ru-Taris for a moment, then turned to Ashinaro. His dour expression shifted to a grin. “There are plenty more places to be mapped, but this job pays one gold—more than any of those others. Thought you might want it before we get swarmed with new godsworn tomorrow.”
“Like any of those bloody nobles would take a job like that,” Ru-Taris snorted.
“These tickets are cheaper, so they won’t all be rich.”
“Cheaper? Why would they be cheaper?”
“Because King Dusksword is subsidizing them to get more elves over here. Which you’d know if you read the last report.”
“Not my job, is it?”
“Not your job?! It’s your only—”
“I’ll take it,” Ashinaro said, before they could get into another argument.
Instead of immediately setting out on the job, Ashinaro headed to the docks. He’d been hearing more and more about something the locals were calling a mistfiend, and wasn’t certain not going out at night was simply superstition any longer.
Orn-Kalot had looked perfectly fine despite supposedly being attacked by it, but she had been in humanform when he’d seen her.
Besides, she was a troll, and a Greater Champion. If it injured her at all, he didn’t like his own chances against it.
The job could wait until tomorrow, and he wanted to get a look at the boat, for all the good it would do.
The price for passage on it hadn’t suddenly become affordable.
If he missed this boat—which without a miracle he would—the next one wouldn’t be for around sixty days.
The priests would surely come looking for him by then.
With the mask he could hide from them, assuming they didn’t have a way to see through it, but the longer he stayed here, the more he risked. And while he didn’t think his quest to inform another Exalted of Joy’s corruption would expire, he still wanted to get it done as soon as possible. There was a corrupt goddess after all. Who knew how much damage she’d do if left to fester.
“Well,” Zanas said, standing insubstantially next to Ashinaro as they watched the bustling dock workers making preparations for the Divide Crosser’s arrival, “there’s always the free option.”
“Free option?”
“Get on the boat without buying a ticket. Find someone who bought a ticket, then take on their form.”
“They’d know there’s two of them. The twin problem, remember?”
“Is that the mirror thing you were talking about?”
“It’s when there’s two of a person. It’s highly suspicious.”
“If you say so. Seems quite normal to me.”
But stowing away wasn’t a bad idea. To transport as many as it did, it had to be a massive ship; surely there were places to hide. He could use the mask to shift his appearance between that of other passengers to avoid getting caught.
“Getting aboard might be the harder part,” Ashinaro said as he watched workers erect empowered walls around the docks. It seemed they planned for stowaways.
“Let me out and I’ll get you on board.”
“No.”
“Not even an explanation?” Zanas huffed. “You’re a tyrannical host.”
“Letting you out is not going to help us stow away without getting caught.”
“I’ll get you aboard without having to stow away.”
“How?”
“With my imitable wit and charm.”
“And when that doesn’t work?”
“I’m sensing a disturbing lack of confidence in my wonderous abilities.”
“Well, you can read my thoughts, so that’s not a surprise.”
Zanas looked over at him. “You know, sometimes you can be quite mean.”
“It’s bad enough Thi-Oric and Ru-Taris know about you, or think I’m whoever you introduced me as. Doing that again would be the opposite of subtle, and if we’re going to stow away, we don’t want any unnecessary attention.”
Nadienses peered suspiciously through her curtains at the man watching the dock workers as they prepared for the Divide Crosser’s arrival.
She was not one to judge people based on their appearances, but his ragged, hole-filled outfit and lack of any kind of weapon was suspicious.
And why was he watching them so closely?
Just what, exactly, was he planning on doing?
Robbing the passengers of the ship or sneaking on to steal their luggage, no doubt.
Well, she would not put up with that. Despite her considerable influence, she was a law-abiding citizen, so she expected others to be as well.
She carefully let the curtain close, then tossed off her nightclothes and put on her finest dress. Then, after checking twice she’d locked her door, headed straight for the home of the TTC regional overseer to inform him of the scruffy criminal about to rob their passengers blind.
