2.40 (1/2)

Ryoka knew that she didn’t have the same sense of normality she used to have. Her reactions to things like monsters and magic had been tempered by her experiences in this world, and she could look at Goblins and magic spells without batting an eyelid.

And of course Erin and Octavia were both independent young women who had experienced just as much, if not more, than Ryoka had. But it was still slightly worrying that of the two of them, Octavia was the one who reacted normally.

“How did you—was that a teleportation spell?”

“What kind of flour did you mean, Ryoka? Did you mean acorn flour, or wheat flour? Oh and, how did you do that?”

Ryoka felt like throwing up. Her insides felt like someone had shoved an electric egg beater in them. It had been like that last time as she recalled, although at that point she’d appeared above the rooftops of Celum. She’d been more preoccupied by not sliding off the roof she’d landed on to worry about throwing up.

The smell wasn’t helping. Octavia was staring at Ryoka in shock, but Erin had, in her own way, adjusted to the situation in a second. There was almost something commendable about her mental resilience.

“So was that a spell? Oh wait—you look like you’re going to throw up. Here!”

She handed Ryoka a large, empty jar. It looked like the disposal container for failed alchemical reactions. The taller girl pushed it aside and took a few deep breaths.

“I’m fine, Erin. Just give me a moment. And fresh air.”

She stumbled towards the door of the shop. Erin hesitated, and followed her. Ryoka had to step around upturned chairs and avoid two puddles of potions. Octavia’s shop was trashed. What had happened here?

Oh, right. Erin.

It took a while for Ryoka to regain her internal sense of balance. Her head was still spinning, but when she felt ready to explain things and not throw up, she looked around.

Erin was standing next to Ryoka, staring up into the cloudy grey sky. The winter air blew her hair wildly, but she didn’t appear to notice.

She was smiling. It was so surprising to Ryoka that she stared. Despite being marooned in an unknown city and all she had presumably gone through, Erin was still smiling.

Ryoka touched her own face. She wasn’t smiling. She rarely did.

Erin grinned at Ryoka. The other girl was clearly happy. Then she threw her arms around the other girl.

“Hey!”

“I’m so glad you found me! I was so worried—but you just poofed out of nowhere! How did you do it? Was it magic?”

“No—it was a mage. I met a mage on one of my deliveries, remember? Teriarch?”

“You mean that grumpy mage guy? He teleported you?”

Ryoka hesitated.

“Yes. He did. He helped me find you and get to you. I was…worried. But it looks like you were okay. What happened?”

“I don’t know! One second I was taking a nap as Toren pulled me around, the next…poof! I’m out in the middle of nowhere and there are wolves and bears! Well, just one bear.”

Ryoka listened as Erin gave her a garbled explanation of what had happened. She shook her head.

“You fought off a wolf pack? And scared away a bear?”

“Um. Yes?”

Ryoka wanted to disbelieve, or at least believe Erin was exaggerating or boasting, but one look into her eyes told her Erin was telling the truth. It almost made Ryoka’s adventure seem normal.

Almost. The Dragon and the game of riddles still trumped beating down wolves with your bare hands. It felt like a dream, even minutes after it had happened. She’d talked with a Dragon. A Dragon. They were real. He was real.

Ryoka sighed. She was back in the real world. She had to focus. She noticed Erin still hadn’t stopped hugging her and frowned.

“Okay. That’s enough. Get off.”

She broke Erin’s hold and the girl beamed at her.

“I’m just so glad you’re here! You’ll never believe who I met! That girl in there—the angry one—she’s named Octavia and she’s an [Alchemist]! Can you believe it? She’s got all kinds of cool potions, too!”

“I can believe it. I know her, actually.”

Ryoka looked back inside the shop. Octavia had left the two girls alone for a few moments to try and mop up some of the potion on the floor.

“What the hell happened? I saw a bit when Teriarch scried you—”

“Whoa! He can scry people?”

“—But I didn’t get a good look. Erin, what are you doing?”

“Come on, let me show you!”

Erin tugged Ryoka back into the shop. The instant they entered, the noxious smell in the air assaulted Ryoka’s sinuses again. Her nose had already gone numb.

“No! No! Out!”

Octavia shouted the instant she saw Erin enter. To Ryoka’s surprise she jabbed the mop at Erin like a spear, trying to keep the [Innkeeper] at bay.

“Hey! Watch it, Octavia! I’ll help clean up! Ow!”

Ryoka caught the mop and stared at the girl made of fabric and stitches. Octavia looked like a normal person, albeit with a Frankenstein-esque appearance with all the stitches on her shoulders and neck. She also looked uncharacteristically flustered. She pointed at Erin.

“Ryoka, you know this girl?”

“Hi, Octavia. What’s happening?”

The dark-skinned girl waved her hands and tried to push Erin back out of the shop.

“Do something about her! She’s an insane fool who’s going to get us all killed!”

“Oh come on! It was only o—two accidents!”

Erin protested, but Octavia was clearly upset. She glared at Erin, fists clenched.

“You melted a hole in my kitchen! And then you nearly poisoned us both!”

“What happened?”

Ryoka interposed herself between the two girls. Both tried to explain at the same time, with much arm waving and accusations.

“I just wanted to make some magical stuff! Like food or a potion! I even paid Octavia a lot of gold to help me out!”

“I thought you wanted to do a few experiments! I had no idea you were this insane!”

Octavia pointed a trembling finger to the part of the shop where the smell was most overpowering. Ryoka saw what looked like the epicenter of a localized disaster; a cauldron had partly melted, and a thick purple residue clung to all the nearby surfaces. The [Alchemist] turned to Ryoka, imploring.

“Please, keep her away from my ingredients and potions! She just keeps mixing them together without any sense of the danger.”

Both girls turned and stared at Erin, who looked hurt.

“That’s how alchemy works, though, right? We have to experiment to—”

“No!”

Octavia clutched at her dreadlocks. Ryoka had to agree with her on this one.

“Erin, you can’t just throw ingredients and potions together. If alchemy is anything like science, you need to document your work. And all this stuff is magical. You need safeguards.”

“What, really?”

“That’s what I said! But you create a poisonous cloud and melted—”

“Octavia, shut up for a second.”

Both girls shut up and stared at Ryoka. She almost felt like an elementary school teacher dealing with a bunch of brats. But still, Ryoka had to smile a bit. Erin was fine, and she’d even managed to piss off Octavia. And Ryoka had a bag full of money and a spellbook. Wasn’t something supposed to be going wrong by now?

“Let’s start over. Octavia, I’ve just finished a delivery and I came here to find Erin.”

“But how—I don’t know anyone who can just cast a [Teleportation] spell out of nowhere. Wait—that delivery to the High Passes…”

“Runner’s confidentiality, Octavia. I can’t tell you anything.”

The stitch-girl looked disappointed. But then her eyes widened.

“Is it the potion maker? Do you have another—”

Ryoka sighed.

“Shut up. Please. Octavia, this is Erin. A friend of mine. She’s an [Innkeeper] in Liscor, far from home.”

“Hi.”

“And Erin, this is Octavia, an [Alchemist] who talks too much for her own good. And she tries scamming everyone she meets, so don’t take any of her bargains.”

“That’s—”

“Now, explain to me how you two met. And what happened. From the start.”

Both girls looked at each other. Then they began a more coherent narrative that Ryoka could actually follow.

The story went like this: Erin, coming into the city had a jar full of bees and two jars of honey. She also had a desire to get rid of said jars, and thus went to find an [Alchemist] to sell them to. Octavia, being known as the enterprising (and annoying) [Alchemist] she was, was only happy to take Erin’s goods and her money if possible.

The interesting part of the story was that Erin was only too willing to give Octavia both, if she helped Erin do her own experiments. Octavia had happily accepted, but it turned out that Erin’s style of experimentation was insane, to say the least.

“She just threw two potions into the mixture. Just like that.”

Octavia pointed a shaking hand to the place where all the poisonous smoke had come from. It had been neutralized by some kind of white powder, but Ryoka and Erin were both keeping clear of the area.

“That was after she melted a hole in my best cauldron trying to make soup with ground up Corusdeer horns!”

Erin shrugged helplessly.

“I thought I could make something warm and tasty, you know? Something magical.”

“I told you it wouldn’t work. Corusdeer horns can get so hot they’ll melt through almost anything. Putting them over a fire is just asking for a melted fireplace. And in a soup? You’d melt a hole right through your stomach!”

“But Ryoka said—”

“Erin, Octavia has a point.”

“What?”

Erin looked at Ryoka as the other girl shook her head. For her part, Ryoka was uncomfortable with Octavia’s description of Erin’s activities as well. Erin could easily have blown up Octavia’s entire shop or killed herself trying her mixtures out on herself.

“I know you’re excited, but you should really try and think over what you want to do before experimenting. Set a goal, make a hypothesis, and then mix something up, okay? And run everything by Octavia first.”

“Aw.”

The shorter girl sagged a bit. Octavia looked relieved.

“Good. Now, I’ll expect you to pay for damages. I’ll send you the bill—you can leave and—”

“What? I’m not going. I haven’t even finished half of the things I wanted to try yet!”

The [Alchemist] froze.

“What? You can’t be serious.”

Erin looked indignant. She grabbed her money pouch and jingled it in front of Octavia’s face.

“Didn’t I pay you for experiments? Sure, a few of them went south, but I still get to try out more stuff! You promised!”

“I said that, but—you can’t seriously expect—”

Octavia spluttered and tried to argue, but Erin was already looking around for more ingredients and potions to mix and match.

This looked like one particular bargain that had backfired spectacularly for the stitch-girl. Ryoka’s lips twitched. She saw Erin looking at a rack of mana potions. Octavia angrily reached for Erin’s shoulder, but Ryoka caught her arm.

“Don’t try to stop her, Octavia. Erin’s a better fighter than I am; I’ve seen her kill zombies with only a frying pan. She can beat a Gnoll in a fistfight.”

That was all true, but it made Erin turn red and Octavia hesitate.

“But—now, I understand a deal’s a deal, but let’s be reasonable here, Ryoka. You can’t just expect me to fulfill my end of the bargain now, can you? What about damages and the costs of my lost reagents? True, I factored that a bit into the price, but I should be recompensed for my damaged shop and trauma, I really should. You can’t really justify letting Erin continue after all she’s done, can you? Let’s call it quits and I’ll throw in one—two potions, free gratis, alright?”

Ryoka watched Erin’s eyes glaze over as Octavia wheedled and pleaded with her. She raised one eyebrow at Octavia.

“How much did Erin pay you for letting her use the shop?”

The stitch-girl hesitated.

“Um—”

“If it’s over ten gold coins, she could probably buy out that entire rack of potions. I know they’re not high-quality. And how much do carrots cost? A few Corusdeer horns?”

“Well—that is to say—you can’t just simplify the base ingredients cost to a few coins, Ryoka! You know that. You and me—we’re businesswomen. You know there’s transportation fees and procurement costs for adventurers and in the winter prices go sky high—”

Ryoka stared Octavia in the eye until the other girl’s words ran down. She looked back at Erin.

“Go ahead, Erin. Do your worst.”

Erin smiled brightly. She already had some carrots in her hand and another Corusdeer horn. Octavia went pale.

“Stop that! Don’t you know how much those c—no, not that one! That’s rare! I only have—Ryoka, do something! Ryoka!”

—-

Alchemy really was quite fun. Erin didn’t want to be an [Alchemist], and Ryoka had told her she shouldn’t take any other classes in any case, but she enjoyed the feeling of experimenting with all the things Octavia had in her shop.

True, she’d nearly poisoned herself once with that terrible cloud, but that was a mistake. Now that Ryoka was here, Erin was taking things slow. She wasn’t even mixing potions now; she was doing something she’d always wanted to try. She was making magical food.

Slowly, Erin stirred the last of the powdered Corusdeer horn into the big pot of soup bubbling over the fire. This time the powder dissolved without causing the entire liquid mixture to glow white-hot and melt the pot, so Erin considered that a good sign.

“Mm. Smells good, doesn’t it, Ryoka?”

“Mhm.”

That came from a desk a few feet away. Ryoka was lying on the desk, slumped over, using one of Octavia’s stools as a seat. She’d cleared away all the alchemy equipment so she could sprawl out on the smooth surface.

She looked tired. But she was staying with Erin as she worked, and Erin was glad to have her here. It had been so surprising to see Ryoka just fall out of the air. Was it magic? She hadn’t really told Erin anything, but Erin was fine with that. Ryoka had found her!

Carefully, Erin added some dried thyme to the soup. That wasn’t part of her magical formula; it was just for taste.

Octavia was off sobbing somewhere, or so Erin assumed. She got really mad because Erin wasn’t being cautious enough, but that was what [Dangersense] was for, right? Besides, Erin hadn’t destroyed anything after those first two attempts. She’d just used up a lot of Octavia’s stuff; that was all.

And it looked like it was all worth it. Erin breathed deeply and inhaled the scent of her new soup. Ryoka’s suggestions had done the trick.

“Let’s see. Cold carrots with a gelatin, lots of wheat flour, and less Corusdeer horn. And I washed the horn this time!”

Erin wasn’t sure about edibility of any of Octavia’s ingredients, but the powdered horn had been washed, and now it was being boiled. That was okay, right?

Ryoka cracked open one eyelid and stared at the bubbling soup.

“Why did you add the herbs? Won’t that mess up the entire mixture?”

“No…I don’t think so. See, if this were potions, you’d have to add all the stuff while it was hot and I couldn’t add stuff like seasoning. But this is just one ingredient, so Octavia said it would probably be okay.”

“Ah. There’s no catalyst, huh?”

“Um. Yeah? It’s just food, so I’m really not doing proper alchemy.”

“Looks good to me. Is it supposed to bubble like that?”

Erin looked back at the pot and yelped. The Corusdeer horns had made the soup extremely hot. But the flour and thicker mixture was diluting the heat; it was only bubbling over rather than meltingly hot. She stirred and blew and added more flour and water as Ryoka watched.

“It’s sort of surreal to see you here, Erin.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe all that happened already. Weird, isn’t it? I never thought I’d get to visit a Human city so easily.”

“Neither did I. You know it’s over a hundred miles from here to Liscor?”

“What?”

“You made the trip in one day. Even if you were asleep, Toren had to have been booking it to run that far so quickly. And you say you slept through the entire thing?”

Erin scratched at her cheek awkwardly.

“I, uh, well, I didn’t get much sleep the night before, okay? I might have slept for a long time.”

Ryoka sighed. Erin felt moved to turn and look at her now her soup was back under control.

“You okay, Ryoka? You seem down.”

She saw two shoulders twitch on the Asian girl’s comatose form.

“I’m sort of tired. Been a long day.”

“It really was.”

Erin reached for a stick and lifted it into the air. She eyed the pink smeared layer at the end, and then shuddered and dipped it into the soup, praying it wouldn’t interfere with the taste.

Octavia had an interesting way of testing potions. She had this…thing. It looked like a layer of flesh on a stick, really. It was gross, but it came out of this jar with magic runes on it. According to Octavia, it mimicked Human flesh and other body functions. And it was reactive, so you could see what happened to skin or your stomach if you dipped it in the potion. If anything burned, turned black, or started dying, you had a problem.

It was also expensive, and Erin had burned the last four tests she’d used in the soup. Something about the mixture was making it literally too hot for consumption even when Erin had taken the pot off the stove. But now she thought she’d done it.

“Oh, hey, look Ryoka! This time it’s not burning!”

Ryoka grudgingly raised her head and eyed the dripping flesh-tester as Erin lifted it out of the soup.

“That’s disgusting. Remind me why you wanted to even use Octavia’s shop, Erin?”

Erin hesitated. She stirred the soup a bit more and then took it off the fire. She spoke as she filled a bowl with the bright orange-yellow mixture. It had floating bits of thyme in it, and Erin’s [Advanced Cooking] sense told her it was probably not too bad in terms of taste. But the real test would be seeing how it affected someone.

“I wanted to make something magical. Something…useful. Something other people can’t steal that only I can do, you know? Maybe even something that can help people – not just feed them. Like the faerie flower drink.”

She offered the bowl to Ryoka.

“Here. I think it’s done. Want to try some?”

The other girl stared at the bowl of steaming liquid and looked back at Erin.

“Why don’t you try it? Shouldn’t you do it if you’re the creator?”

Erin hesitated.

“Because…I don’t want to.”

“Well then, why should I try this stuff?”

“Aw, come on. It’s probably harmless. The flesh-test didn’t do anything.”

“That doesn’t reassure me. I could still get food poisoning or have a horrible reaction.”

“My [Dangersense] isn’t going off. That means it’s okay, I think. And Octavia said the Corusdeer horns aren’t poisonous or anything. Just…hot.”

Ryoka eyed the soup like someone watching a ticking time bomb slowly counting down.

“No.”

“Aw come on Ryoka, I dare you to eat it.”

Erin pushed the bowl onto the table. Ryoka pushed it away.

“I said no.”

“I double dare you.”

“No.”

“I triple dare you.”

“Erin…”

“I triple double dog dare you.”

“Stop.”

“I quadruple dog d—”

“Alright, fine. Shut up. I’ll try it.”

Ryoka grabbed the bowl and hesitated as she eyed the soup. Cautiously, she dipped a finger in and looked back at Erin.

“If I die—”

“You’re not going to die. Just try it!”

The other girl looked around and pointed to a wall.

“The healing potions are over there.”

“I know.”

“And Octavia’s neutralizing potion is there. It’ll take down most potions.”

“Ryoka, it’ll be fine! Just try it.”

The tall girl eyed the potion, sniffed it, sighed, and then reluctantly sipped a bit of the bowl. She instantly made a face.

“Hot!”

She licked her lips, paused to consider, and then swallowed some more.

“It tastes…good, actually.”

“Really?”

Erin smiled widely. Ryoka nodded as she drank the rest of the bowl.

“Whew. It’s hot. And it’s…staying…hot. Erin? What’s happening?”

Gingerly, Ryoka prodded at her stomach as Erin tried to explain.

“Corusdeer horns burn for a long time. I thought—you know, since this stuff is magical I could use it in a food to warm people up. Because…it’s so cold.”

Ryoka considered this. She prodded at her stomach and then shrugged.

“It doesn’t hurt. And the warmth seems like it’s spread out. I feel like I could walk outside naked without a problem. But it doesn’t feel bad…”

“Pleases don’t go nude.”

Both girls laughed. Then Ryoka grew silent. She stared at the pot of soup and then looked at her friend.

“Erin. Do you know what happened? Why did you suddenly vanish? Where did Toren run off to?”

She had an idea, but Erin didn’t want to say it out loud. Slowly, she nodded as her smile faded.

“I think he did something. I think he was the one who abandoned me in the middle of nowhere.”

Ryoka nodded. She let Erin stare into the fire for a few seconds before she asked her next question.

“…What are you going to do?”

Erin shrugged. She felt odd when she thought of what Toren had done. It was betrayal. She didn’t know why, or how—she hadn’t even thought he could do that. But when she thought of her skeleton deliberately leaving her to get lost or die, her heart hurt. She kept her voice low as she replied.

“I might have to kill him. Or—if he’s just disobeying orders, maybe Pisces can fix him? I need to ask Pisces. But if he’s dangerous, I’ll have to take care of him somehow.”

“Is that even possible? He seems immortal and he’s dangerous.”

“He’s not that strong. I mean, he’s a bit stronger than before, but if you break him into pieces you can keep him from coming back together.”

Ryoka nodded slowly. Erin smiled, bitterness mixed with ruefulness.

“I might need help, though.”

“That’s why I’m here, right? I’ll give you a hand.”

Gingerly, as though her face were unsure of how it all worked, Ryoka smiled. Erin smiled back.

“Wanna show Octavia the soup?”

“I suppose. I’ll get her. She’s sulking upstairs.”

Erin poured more soup into a bowl as Ryoka went to get Octavia. The [Alchemist] didn’t have a very welcoming expression on her face when Ryoka finally got her to come back and look at Erin’s creation, but her natural curiosity got the better of her and in minutes she was trying the soup herself.

“It is hot, even when it’s not on the fire. Look—I added some snow and the temperature didn’t even change. Tastes waterier, though.”

Octavia patted her body and then took one of her arms off and studied the cloth. She reattached it as Erin gaped and shrugged.

“Seems like the effect spreads from the stomach. It didn’t affect my arm as cloth, but the effect works when I reattached it. I feel warm all over.”

“You—but wh—”

“I feel warm. Hot, even. If I was outside I’d be fine. And…hold on, I wonder if the effect actually protects you from the cold or just makes you feel warm?”

Ryoka commented as she fetched some more snow from outside. She melted the snow she was holding in seconds, and soon she was smiling.

“I bet I could run barefoot as long as this lasts.”

“I can sell this.”

Octavia’s eyes glittered. She looked at Erin.

“Mind you, it still felt really hot going in. You might want to adjust your recipe.”

Ryoka nodded. Then she had a thought and scowled.

“Damn it, Erin. It is going to be this hot coming out as it felt going in?”

“Ew. I hope not. But doesn’t it warm you up?”

Erin put aside Octavia’s magical arm trick for a second to bask in her own success. She sipped her soup and felt the warmth spread. Yes, she’d done it!

“How did you know this would work?”

Octavia stared at Erin curiously. Erin shrugged.

“I just have this…skill. It’s called [Wondrous Fare] and it sort of works like [Advanced Cooking]. I get a sense of how to make food magical. I think.”

Ryoka scratched her head.

“What I don’t understand is why the soup works like that. What’s in the horns that does all that?”

“Dunno. It’s magical.”

Octavia cleared her throat.

“Corusdeer horns are used as alternative fuel sources by [Blacksmiths], [Chefs]—anyone who needs a really hot fire. They burn for a long time and they burn so hot you have to divide up a horn into sections to really use them. One horn can go for as much as twelve silver pieces or double that if there’s a shortage—want to know how many you used?”

She glared, but Erin only stared back.

“Wanna know how much I paid you?”

“That barely covers—”

Octavia hesitated. Even she had a problem telling barefaced lies, apparently.

“The soup will be a good addition to my stock. Just write down the recipe and I’ll improve the mixture. I can probably sell—”

“Hold on, that’s Erin’s soup. Not yours.”

“Oh, she can have it. I don’t need any right now; I know how to make some. But I’m not sharing the recipe.”

“What?”

Octavia moved with the speed of greed. She stopped in front of Erin, glaring. Ryoka reached for her shoulder but this time Octavia pushed her hand away.

“That wasn’t part of the deal! I let you experiment here—I deserve to know the recipe!”

Erin blinked at the alchemist girl.

“Yeah, it wasn’t part of the deal.”

“Exac—huh?”

“It wasn’t part of the deal. I just wanted to experiment; I didn’t say I’d give you the recipes.”

“Yes—but—let’s not be hasty now, Erin. We can make a trade—”

“Tomorrow, maybe. Ryoka says we’ve got to do other things right now. So I’ll be back tomorrow, Octavia! I want to try making a lot more stuff next time.”

“Wait, t—”

Ryoka shut the door in Octavia’s face, grinning. Erin grinned too as they walked out the street. Ryoka had already taken off her shoes and put them in her Runner’s pack, and she was cautiously walking along the frosted cobblestones with her bare feet. She grinned.

“This stuff works well. I’m surprised, though, Erin. I didn’t expect you’d be that rude to Octavia. She’s pushy, but that was surprising.”

As a matter of fact, Erin felt guilty. She made an unhappy face.

“Yeah, I figured out she was trying to cheat me pretty early. I didn’t want to be mean, but she just doesn’t let me do anything unless I just do my thing, you know?”

“That’s fine by me. It works well on her.”

Ryoka stepped into a snow drift and out of it, shaking off the melted snow. This time her smile stretched across her face, like the Cheshire Cat. Erin had seldom seen the other girl so happy.

“This is fucking amazing. I can run with this soup, Erin!”

“Can’t you run anyways? I’ve seen you running in the snow—”

“Not like this.”

Ryoka waved her hand and shook her head.

“Running in those shoes? I’m slow in those. I’m at my fastest barefoot; this stuff is helpful. I’ll buy all of your soup even if no one else does.”

“I think a lot of people will eat my soup! Isn’t it amazing how no one made it until now?”

“Yeah. Amazing. Or…impossible.”

“What do you mean?”

Ryoka led Erin down the street, attracting plenty of stares as she walked outside in what was essentially a t-shirt and shorts without shoes on a wintery day.

“I’d like to know whether Octavia could reproduce that soup even with a recipe. It might be that she can’t, or at least, not so easily. You have a skill, right? It could be that [Wondrous Fare] allows you to make magical food without needing some other kind of reaction or spell.”

“Really? That would be so cool!”

Erin hurried after Ryoka, struggling to keep up with the taller girl’s stride. Ryoka noticed and slowed her walk down, leading Erin deeper into the city.

“Where are we going, by the way?”

Eying one of the signs where two streets crossed, Ryoka took them right. She slowed again to walk next to Erin, speaking over the rumble of an approaching wagon.

“First things first. We should get word to Liscor and let everyone else know you’re safe. Olesm, Selys, Klbkch—even Halrac was worried about you, you know. Mrsha kept trying to follow me when I left.”

Both girls walked to the edge of the street to avoid the wagon as it moved past them. Ryoka especially kept her feet clear. The driver of the wagon stared at Ryoka as he passed, nearly running down another pedestrian who started cursing at him.

“Haven’t you ever wondered how cities kept in touch besides Runners and caravans?”

“No?”

Erin had assumed Runners were the only form of communication. Ryoka shook her head and explained.