His path brought him to a stone wall in a dipidated state not uhat which would occur from several hundred years of . It was the tallest among many others too short to escape the vegetative stranglehold of shin high grass. Josarl sidered carrying on without stopping, more ed with catg the creatures that seized his recall device, but he couldn’t help himself. He bed through the ruins for a minute or two before he found a tablet. It had writing carved into it that appeared to be made of swirls.

  “Yup,” he said to himself. “I ’t read this.” He put it back where he found it and walked for another hour before breag the woods. From there, he navigated open fields that looked as if they were being farmed, tinuing all the way to the vilge.

  Apart from the blue-leafed background, it was a remarkable echo of vilges from his home reality. Blocky wooden posts id sideways in a log style with thatched roofihe pinnacle of architectural design. About twenty buildings prised the vilge, assuming one included the well and outhouses. A handful of cattle poputed pens behind two of the houses. They felt bovine when looked at, but their faces were too wide, their backs had humps and eae possessed a single rge udder. Farm fields encircled this core. Josarl did not see anyone in the vilge, nor had seen anyone in the fields. He pced his helmet on his head.

  “Hello?” he called uainly. “Is anyone here?”

  The pce did not seem deserted to him. While disorderly, Josarl could tell the differeween abandoned disorder and impoverished disorder. This was clearly the tter. Turning his head from side to side while sing the area did not reveal anything new. “Hello!” he called with more furvor. He’d reached the building by then.

  Rounding the er, he found peared to be the entire vilge’s popution kneeling in a half circle around a man wearing colorful red trimmed robes. The robed man indicated that Josarl should wait and be quiet with a couple haures before bowing his head. They were all bowing their heads, even those too feeble to kneel. Josarl noticed several such elders sitting on a bench to the side. The se was sileself.

  Time pieces were as yet to be ied in Josarl’s world, at least anything more mobile than a sundial, so he could not tell how loood there. The local sun wasn’t helpiher. It had risen up about half way into the sky at that moment and seemed to be gliding in a straight liher than the arc of his own sun. One of his shoulder bdes itched. He reached to scratch it. Despite being built for flexibility, the armor was still predominantly inflexible enough that he could not reach. A little heat rushed to his cheeks at the realization he wouldn’t have been able to scratch it even if he could reach.

  Presently the robed man lifted his arms into the air. His mouth opened and the words “Blessed be” drifted over the supplits. The gregation rose. “We have a visitor!” he said. “Step food sir! Let us meet you!”

  All eyes were on him. Josarl hesitated. Religion was all well and good, he was after all a firm believer in Lukoro, but wheing this new gregation he found himself w whether their beliefs held any of those tes symptomatic of true degeneracy. Ritual human sacrifice, ibalism, pedophilia, he sidered them all the markers of slipping morality.

  Uanding slid into his mind like sand over a rim. Aware that the time for doubt had already passed, he stepped forward. His armored figure stepped right up to the robed man and he provided an eg introdu from the depths of his helmet. “I am Josarl Starx. I e from a faraway nd.”

  “Wele, Josarl,” said the robed man. “I am Deber. Wele to our vilge. What do you seek?”

  “I have been robbed by twisted creatures the likes of which I have not seen before and require both dires and assistan retrieval. Where might I find these?”

  “We are but humble peasants whose lord has goo the capital to meet with all of the other lords. Perhaps you will fihere? We have folk who get you there. As for the twisted creatures-” Deber looked around spiratorially before adding in a whisper, “There are rumors of orks crossing the border, scouting our nds and wayying citizens. If they were your assaints, they have gone back to their home in Lessdor.” Deber nodded early. “You will not find them in the wilds without a skilled tracker. Until then, why not stay the night and enjoy our hospitality?”

  Jnced around. “I’m grateful. However I should warn you, very little food agrees with me. I would not want you to be offended if I became sick.”

  “Not at all. I’m sure you have many oddities in your nd! e! Let us prepare!”

  Deber rallied the vilge to prepare a modest feast to celebrate… something. Josarl was irely sure he uood the events transpiring around him. The gathering of food he uood, along with setting up of tables and chairs. The why eluded him, however. By the time the light began to fade, the festivities were underway. Large bowls of grain and ptters of meat sat enshrined oables while irls and young women brought around what he presumed to be alcohol of some variety. Amid the gentle warble of many voices talking, Josarl found himself seated with Deber and nitaries of the vilge. Dignitaries in this case being a rather polite term. Leadership did not rest with anyone present, but there were members of the unity whose existence proved distinct from the others in various ways. It was with this colle that he versed.

  “How far is your homend?” said a man Josarl assumed to be the only moneyed man in the vilge based on his .

  “I’m irely sure. You could walk for many years without it getting any closer, if that helps,” said Josarl.

  “That is quite far,” said the moneyed man. “I ’t even imagine such a trek. It must have been terribly difficult.”

  “Strangely, it was gettihat was easy. Going home is my current problem.”

  “Losing all of your belongings to orks will do that,” said the moneyed man. “I’ve been robbed before. One of my caravaoo far east it seems. The mountains that limit their access to our nds doly fehem in, so wandering beyond them be an unfortunate decision. However, these days my business is struggling for purely eic reasons.”

  “What is your business, exactly?” asked Josarl.

  “I am aic goods dealer. If it es from a far off nd, I have almost certainly bought and sold it! Spices, furs, silk, even a little bit of the spicier, uh, spices.”

  “Then you do not live here?”

  “Oh, no, I certainly do. Aral links and all that. However, I am the seventh son out of eight. A great personal tragedy would have to befall our family for me to i anything and a dowry is right out if I don’t pay it myself.”

  “How big are the dowries here?”

  “About a quarter of your total wealth. Why? Are they not se in your nd?”

  Josarl shook his head. “No, we provide personalized wedding neckces. The tral gem is usually a ruby, the rarest in our nds.”

  “Rubies are rare in your nds…?” mused the moneyed man.

  “The market is not there,” said Josarl. “Rubies are sacred and trolled by the royal gover. Aernal source would be seized without pensation.”

  “A shame…”

  “A strange indeed,” said Deber. “Does your nd normally send knights so far from home?”

  “I am no knight. This armor is to protect me from the air, though it proved to be unnecessary.”

  “Then what are you?”

  “I am a scribe, above all. However, as an Ued I am... grahe honor of such dangerous and far reag expeditions.”

  “What is an Ued?” asked one of three elders.

  “I am one protected from a certain sin. That is all I will say.”

  “Incredible!”

  “We, of course, know precious little of the outside world,” said Deber. “We are bound to this nd and our lord. Well, except Deyenom,” he said, indig the mert. “He has special dispensation from the lord. Since we are oopic, Deyenom, you could take our visitor to the capital, yes?”

  “Of course,” said Deyenom uhusiastically. “I have busihere anyways.”

  “Wonderful!” said Deber. “Pray tell, Josarl, how is our food agreeing with you?”

  “I’m not sick yet.”

  “Excellent!”

  Shortly afterward, the festivities shifted away from food towards song and dang shortly afterward. Josarl was familiar with the dances of his own world and these matched them closely enough that they created an uny valley of dang. The vilgers would get three steps corred on the fourth do something totally wrong. He watched keenly, even as he felt his brai inside his helmet. A deep darkness embodied the night by the time the vilgers were tired enough to go to sleep. Deyenom housed him for the night and in the m they departed on the week long jouro the capital.