The first thing Theo noticed within the city was the relative lack of dust. It was still stirred up by the feet of the crowds, but compared to the constant dust storms outside, the air was practically clear. He noted that the streets were bone dry, but they seemed unnaturally clean, suggesting that the city had some sort of street cleaning organization. Another sign that they'd reached real civilization.

"There are many people." Fiyu's eyes were so wide that he could actually see a hint of them through her translucent mask. She shuffled to the side, tugging on their sleeves to move them into defensive positions. "They are all bumping into each other."

"I'm afraid Fithan crowds can be a bit rough." Theo managed to pull out of his personal thoughts to give her a reassuring smile. "But if you can bear with it, we should be able to find private rooms. As soon as we find a secure place, we can use our sleigh instead."

"But where?" Nauda asked. "If I understand the signs, there are several inns near the gate, but those would be temporary at best. Where are we actually staying?"

"Perhaps we do not need to stay." Fiyu smiled uneasily as she looked back and forth between them. "If I can return to Ichil, I may be able to contact my relative. He is a skilled soulcrafter and he would reward you as thanks for assisting me."

"Fiyu..." Theo had known this was coming but put it off, which he belatedly realized was a bad habit he'd thought he'd outgrown in his years on Earth. "I do think we should investigate the gate as one of our first priorities, but we have no idea where it leads on Ichil. Statistically, it's very likely that it will be nowhere near anywhere you know."

"I am aware, but I may still be able to send a message to my relative." She gripped their sleeves a little tighter. "If I was able to return, you should come with me. We could continue traveling together on Ichil."

Theo had been intending to gently lower her expectations so she wouldn't be crushed, and now had to consider the opposite outcome. If Fiyu did find an easy path back home, that would entirely throw out his current plans and potentially break up their group. Then again, her relative must be an Authority, so his weirkeys could prove even more valuable. The question would be Nauda...

"I'd like to visit your home, Fiyu." The other woman stepped closer, but instead of brushing her in the Tatian fashion, just moved to better shield her from the crowds milling around them. "But there are many other things we need to do, and I think many of them are best done here."

Though Fiyu bobbed her head agreeably, Theo saw a bit of tension in her stance. Despite everything, she might still be afraid that they would leave her, or simply be contemplating that their goals might take them in different directions. He wasn't sure how close they'd grown in her personal calculations, but Ichili didn't form connections often.

"There's no point making decisions now," Theo said before the mood could worsen. "A city this big will have countless opportunities and we need to judge them first. We should check the gate to Ichil, but also the gate to Arbai. It's another low chance, but it might take us close to where Navim lives, and the master of his school might have a weirkey to Ichil."

"Oh, we could see Navim again!" Fiyu let go of their sleeves to clasp her hands together, her smile broadening. "I would like that."

"The point is, you have many different paths back home, so don't pin your hopes on just one. We need to scout Norro Yorthin thoroughly so we're in a strong position whatever happens."

"Let's start with a little tour." Nauda gave his arm a little squeeze, he thought in thanks for disarming the situation, and then turned forward. "Stay between us for now, Fiyu, and we can make basic plans."

As they headed into the crowds, they made their way into the human flood. Unlike Deuxan, where bumping into someone could start a duel or even a feud, here everyone ran into each other. Most didn't apologize or even make eye contact, just pressed on about their own business. Since the three of them were all soulcrafters with enhancement chambers, they were in no real danger, so long as they stayed alert for pickpockets.

That was one of the several things he'd warned them about when they'd first entered and he'd shared his limited knowledge of Fithe. Fiyu would have no trouble, supremely aware of her own person, but he wasn't sure if Nauda was accustomed to such suspicion. He might have assumed she wasn't before, but after seeing the cliff on Tatian... he had no idea what the culture was like down below.

Though Fithe had a reputation as an aggressive world, Theo thought they were actually safer than average in the city. Fortunately, Norro Yorthin wasn't currently at war and wasn't near a watery part of the world, so there would be less widespread violence. They'd learned that dueling was strictly regulated and it seemed that the Houses were mostly happy to operate as economic engines without meddling in the lives of wandering foreigners. Due to the presence of many powerful organizations, the city was relatively low on crime, though the word "relatively" carried a lot of weight.

As they continued, the noise of the crowds drowned out all but essential conversation, so Theo began examining his surroundings with new eyes. He'd been focused on situational awareness of potential threats, but now he could observe the city itself.

Unlike the messy buildings outside the great tornado wall, everything within was clearly organized by a central authority. Most of the buildings appeared to have been hewn from the red stone of the wasteland around, and he wondered how well the color would hide blood. Buildings arced up to at least three floors on either side, giving the slight impression of walking through a canyon.

Soon enough he began noticing the important signs: the businesses he saw almost all had a conspicuous color scheme that he doubted could be purely aesthetic. He spotted a restaurant with dark blue tables and lanterns, yet it displayed a golden banner in the window - clearly the marker of a House. Once he started looking, nearly every building had some marker of their patron, whether it was just a patterned cloth by the entrance, a door painted brightly, or an interior entirely cast in a single color.

If they spent any time at all in the city, he'd need to learn those signs, but for the moment his attention shifted to the people themselves. The majority were Fithan, with unnaturally red skin and slight fangs - he spotted only a few of Fithe's other major species, marked by bluish skin and horns. Their presence lent weight to what he'd heard about this region not being at war, in any case.

Aside from them, he spotted a number of Arbaian natives, obvious in the crowds due to their enormous rocky bodies. Fiyu was no longer the only Ichili in sight, as he spotted a number of them as they walked, some wearing masks but others simply squinting in the light. What struck him as strange was that he saw no species from Aathal - and he would have noticed, since they all looked like trees.

"Another locked entrance." Nauda looked away from a gate he'd barely noticed. She jerked her head to the side and they pushed their way from the central crowd into an alcove between two buildings, which muffled the sound a little bit. "So much of this city seems to be locked away."

"That's just to be expected, in a city with fractured loyalties." Theo had been noting the walls and other barriers, just not thinking much about them beyond their House insignias. "Most likely each House has several different private grounds for their own purposes."

"So the city is divided into many regions." Fiyu bobbed her head, a slow smile appearing on her face. "I noticed that the crowds moved strangely, but could not determine the barriers to their movements. Now I realize that they were social."

"I understand what Jothan told us now," Nauda said, "but would joining a House actually help? Seems like for every place it would let us enter, we'd be locked out of several others aligned with opposing groups."

Theo shook his head. "It would be impossible to do business as independent agents. I'd bet that aside from the House grounds, most of the city will take custom from anyone. Perhaps we'd gain some benefit from being unaligned, but I doubt most of the average people care enough about House politics to mistreat customers."

"This is premature." Fiyu looked back toward the main street, but frowned at the bustling crowd. "First we must learn all we can about the gate to Ichil, and the other gates. Perhaps we do not need to align with anyone."

"I agree. It looks to me like the central circle of the city is relatively small, so we can guess a few things..." Theo bent down to trace a simple map in the dirt. He could have used gravity to give them all a bird's eye view, but he'd decided that going that high might attract unwanted attention. Plenty of people in the city could fly by various means, but no one broke the tornado wall and he'd only seen the wind chariots outside, so he thought it might be a local norm.

However, he'd been watching the crowds before and after they'd earned their way inside, so he thought that he'd learned something important: the gates to Ichil and Arbai lay in opposite directions. Each was surrounded by rings of security, markets, and other businesses related to the world on the other side. Once he laid out what he knew, the others immediately understood.

"So Ichil is to the north, Arbai is to the south." Nauda shook her head down at the map. "This is a big city, so it would take us a while to go all the way around the circle. Are you suggesting we split up?"

"We don't have to, but I think we shouldn't waste time." Theo glanced toward Fiyu, who remained unreadable for once. "We need information about the gates, and failing that, all the local Houses. The sooner we learn that, the more we can benefit from it."

"I would prefer to stay together..." Fiyu took a deep breath and then nodded to herself. "But I can go with Nauda. We can each investigate one gate and then meet back here at nightfall. Can you take Senka?"

He definitely didn't want to, but since Fiyu was going outside her comfort zone, he decided that he could put up with it. At least... he could if Senka was around. Just when Theo was beginning to hope that she'd left them in the crowds, she popped up from a pile of refuse.

"Senka heard Senka's name!"

"We are going to split up." Fiyu bent down beside her with a gentle smile. "Can you go with Theo to look at the gate?"

"No! Senka doesn't wanna! Senka wants to eat yummies!"

"You ate this morning. We must investigate the city now."

"No! Nooo! Senka wants yummies!" She promptly threw herself onto her back and began to thrash back and forth, like a horrible parody of a toddler. Fiyu shifted back, as if shocked that reasonable words hadn't worked with a child-like mind. Then again, most of the Ichili children he'd met had been very well-behaved.

Nauda bent down beside her, opting for the same tone. "We'll get something to eat while we walk."

"Senka wants yummies sporping now!"

Theo was a reasonably patient man after all his years of life, but he had very limited stores of it for Senka's little tantrums. He grabbed her by the back of her robe and jerked her into the air to face him. "You've been following us and eating our food since we arrived here, but you don't have to. If you want food, go get it yourself."

"Fine, Senka will!" She twisted with surprising speed and managed to escape his grip. "Senka doesn't need you fumpets anyway!"

Before the others could stop her, she darted between them and into the crowds, quickly becoming lost among the legs. Though Fiyu looked concerned, there was no real way of retrieving her. Part of Theo hoped that she would go find someone else to bother, but he had a bad feeling that in a few days she'd crawl back to them, babbling so miserably that the others would take pity on her.

"I suppose we cannot find her," Fiyu said, so Theo pounced on her acceptance.

"If she wants, she can find us. I think your plan was good: we split into two groups, gather all the information we can, and meet back at a central location tonight. So long as you don't do anything that would lead you to join a House, I don't think we can get into too much trouble."

They agreed on their meeting point, a large square with statues of the city founders, and then separated in opposite directions. Since Fiyu obviously wanted to visit the Ichili gate, Theo found himself heading south. He had a pretty good idea what he would find, however, so he was more interested in gaining a better sense for the city.

They had only split up for half a day, yet as he walked Theo began thinking about the ties that bound them. When he thought about the trials they'd shared and the emotions that had run through those times, it felt like they had a bond, but were they unified by anything more concrete? Nauda had her own agenda and goals that she kept hidden, while Fiyu might not have any grand objectives beyond returning home to continue her training.

Was that actually enough? He could easily imagine that in the future, it would become clear that they were simply three people who had come together in a disruption between worlds. Then again, when he thought about his friends in his first life - now a century dead - there hadn't been much more binding them.

Brigana, Khaluu, Eratius... he'd stumbled across most of them, as friends or as enemies, and they'd stuck together right up until the day Vistgil had gotten them all killed. Though Theo felt a familiar surge of anger, his time in the Nine had worn that emotion down to sorrowful determination.

Theo actually stopped walking for a moment as he realized something new: that loss hadn't actually been what had made his life on Earth unpleasant. Many others his own age had lamented that it was so easy to make friends in school, but so difficult as an adult. He'd been even worse than most, barring himself off from others in his obsessive mission to return to the Nine Worlds. Yet as big an obstacle as that had been, part of the problem was that he'd been hoping meaningful relationships would simply come to him instead of being built over time.

Yet now that he was back in the Nine, and even placed in an environment where it was easy to meet new people, he'd started to fall into old ruts. Instead of imagining their group drifting apart, Theo thought about what he could do to maintain those relationships, even if their goals took them in separate directions. Nothing about his outcomes would change unless he fundamentally changed.

Slightly cheered by that decision, Theo headed forward with new determination. Most likely, neither gate would take them where they needed to go, but Norro Yorthin could well contain the path they needed. Though not as trivial as Archcrafter, it wouldn't be too difficult for him to ascend to Ruler, then a city such as this would have the materials to reach Authority. Once they reached that tier, they could acquire their own weirkeys and move freely.

On his way, he noted many stalls that sold sublime materials, weaponsmiths, and combat arenas... the problem was that there were just too many opportunities in such a large city. All three of them already had a strong foundation and such commonplace materials were useless to them. He didn't want to draw too much attention to himself and potentially call down Vistgil, but he couldn't afford to waste his time, either.

A scuffle in the street ahead caught his attention, taking place around the entrance to some sort of soulcrafter establishment, a building with a finely carved front that wouldn't have otherwise captured his attention. Several young soulcrafters were arguing, trying to shove their way in.

"Don't you know who we are? We're from the House of Burning Leaves!" One of them stepped forward toward the doorway, only to be pressed back by a wall of cantae.

"No exceptions." A powerfully built Fithan man barred the door, his skin covered in scars. It wasn't his muscle or his scars that caught Theo's attention, but the fact that the man was a Ruler. If a third tier soulcrafter was guarding the entrance, perhaps the building wasn't so unimportant after all.

Unwilling to go up against such overwhelming power, the soulcrafters slunk away, already beginning to convince themselves they hadn't wanted to enter anyway. Theo set them out of his mind and gave the building a better look. The sign declared it to be "The State of Rest" and an instinct told him that the phrase was similar to "sublime" in the local Fithan language. So it was a powerful soulcrafter institution, but an understated one. Notably, he didn't see any indication that it belonged to any of the Houses.

"May I ask what the trouble was about?" Theo asked as he approached. The Ruler kept his arms folded, but regarded him with a friendly smile.

"Simply a few misguided youths. The State of Rest does not allow anyone beneath the rank of Archcrafter to enter. You, being of the requisite rank and considerably more polite, are welcome." Despite his rough appearance, the man spoke very smoothly, which suggested that he needed to keep out threats of a social variety as well. Theo had gone from mildly interested to intrigued, but kept his expression neutral.

"I'm afraid that I am new to the city and not yet familiar with your establishment."

"Ah, well... this is a place for soulcrafters to relax free from House politics. We serve a great many refreshments, but the primary attraction is the opportunity to exchange information. There is no entry fee, but we do maintain certain standards. Specifically, citizens in good standing able to afford our services..."

Recognizing an obvious invitation, Theo slipped his identity plate from his robes as well as a bag of craftgems. Since Fiyu preferred not to carry many, he had almost half their considerable supply. The guard's eyebrows rose fractionally at the sum, but he spent more time looking at the labels on his identity plate. Soon enough, the Ruler returned both to him and gestured inward with a smile.

"We do not get many Deuxan guests here, so I believe you may be of interest to some. I hope you will enjoy your time in The State of Rest."

"Thank you." Theo stepped through the door and felt a subtle barrier tingle over his skin - it didn't try to analyze him, just kept out heat and noise. Even one step inside, the world felt much cooler and quieter.

In the future he might enjoy spending time there, but Theo had too many urgent objectives at the moment and only had time to scout. The interior of the building was larger than the small door would have indicated, spread out across booths over two floors. All of it was tastefully lit with blue lamps, though the greatest show of wealth was how the booths were constructed from wood, which was rare in this part of Fithe.

Since he moved in smoothly, as if he was comfortable in the place, few gave him more than a glance. He noticed that everyone within was an Archcrafter or Ruler except for a few staff, some Fithan but also a lean Ichili man. In one corner, an Aathali's branches bent low as he engaged in conversation with several other soulcrafters.

Lacking the social knowledge to truly take advantage of the place as of yet, Theo instead looked for simpler opportunities. There appeared to be a desk for exchanging clandestine messages, as well as a board that seemed to cover requests. He glanced at them briefly, not letting himself attract attention. After skipping past servers who offered food or drink, he finally spotted what he wanted.

A finely crafted board in one shaded corner was far more organized than the previous, containing only formal-looking announcements on expensive paper. This was exactly what he needed: anything on the board was common knowledge to talented soulcrafters, but still unknown to many others. It was a much better place to start than blundering through the streets.

His eyes ran over the announcements, noting how many seemed to be invitations for employment from the major Houses of the city. All highly specialized requests, which suggested that they respected the establishment as well. Currently his group couldn't meet those requirements, and he wouldn't enter any of the contests suggested, but-

Theo stopped and stared at a paper in the center of the board.

Most of the paper was filled with local names, but his attention was seized by the title at the top: The Chasm of Lamentations. He hadn't thought about that name in years, not since his first visit to the Nine Worlds. The Chasm was a region of great danger and natural wonders that was accessible only once every decade or more.

As far as he knew, the Chasm was located on Noven, so why was its name listed here in Fithe? There were no explanations on the paper, only the names. When he looked closer, he saw that there were empty spaces as if they might be filled by other people. The names of those who had visited it, or would be going?

There were too many questions, but he was certain of one thing: this was the exceptional opportunity he'd been waiting for.