The wagon rumbled closer to Palmyre’s walls, and with every metre, Mark’s anticipation grew. Priority number one, of course, was finding his family. If they were there. Come to think of it, it hadn’t occurred to him what to do if they weren’t. Would he still be able to gain access to their house?

Crap.

Mark pushed those thoughts away. There was nothing he could do about it right now, so instead he focused on the spectacle of the thick, towering walls of Palmyre and the large gate they were approaching. He was also treated to his first glimpses of non-human species other than Rosie, and he did his best not to stare at the occasional oddity that peppered the crowd.

There was a very orderly approach to entering the city, with almost everyone lining up patiently for their chance to enter—one line for carts, another line for foot traffic. The only exception was a gathering of destitute-looking people standing off to one side of the road, staring forlornly at those on their way inside. Even in the early-morning light, their unhappiness was palpable.

“Who are those people?” Mark asked, pointing to the sorry-looking group.

Darius shook his head sadly. “Those are singl’ds who’ve been denied entry to the city.”

“Denied entry? Why would they do that?”

Darius raised an eyebrow. “Yeh really don’t know much about this place at all, do yeh? An adult singl’d is either lazy or a criminal, so they’re denied entry. How else do you get to adulthood with a Renown still in the single digits? Excusin’ yer special case, o’course.”

“But what are they supposed to do?” Mark asked, shocked.

“Work a farm. Kill some wildlife,” Darius said. “There’s ways if they really want it.”

That explanation didn’t sit well with Mark. Some of the singl’d clearly had disabilities that would preclude them from those avenues of levelling, and that was just the disabilities one could see. Still, now wasn’t the time to push. Especially since it raised a much greater concern.

“Are you saying that if an adult singl’d arrives at the gate, they have no way of gaining entry?” Mark asked.

If that’s the case, how the hell is my family going to get in?

“Eh,” Darius said with a casual shrug. “The only real exception is if they have family that owns land and that person vouches for them. Which is a damn rare circumstance in a city like Palmyre.”

Mark’s eyebrows rose. They had been given a house in Palmyre as compensation for the mix-up that sent them to Arenia. Shouldn’t that qualify them for entry? If so, that meant that all he had to do was hang around at the gate until he saw his family! He could almost picture them right now, standing amidst the singl’ds off to the side of the—

“MOM!” Mark shouted, leaping off the wagon the moment he spotted her and his dad standing with the singl’ds. Their heads whipped around at the sound of his voice, both of their eyes going wide as Mark hurled himself into their midst, practically tackling his mother in the process.

“Mom! Oh my god, mom, you’re alive!” he said, tears flowing freely down his face.

“My little boy,” she sobbed, fiercely returning the hug. “I am SO happy to see you! You had us so worried.”

The rejoiceful reunion continued for nearly a minute before his dad grumpily cleared his throat and said, “I’m here too.”

“Hey, dad,” Mark said, pulling his father in for an awkward 3-way hug. It was then that he noticed his dad’s forearm was heavily bandaged, and his mom looked worn out and drained. “Are you guys okay? You don’t look so great.”

His dad chuckled mildly. “Son, if you had access to a mirror you’d see the irony in that statement. But yes, we’re okay. Barely, and only thanks to this woman.” He gestured to an older woman in forester garb who was standing beside them.

“This is Mark?” the woman said, nodding to him.

“That he is!” his mom said. “Mark, this is Eliza. She found us in the forest and helped us get to the city.”

It was surprising to hear that his parents had arrived on Arenia together, and even more so that they’d been able to find someone able to help them. He was pretty happy about the fact, though, and did his best to convey the weight of that sentiment through a simple shaking of her hand. “Thank you so much for helping my folks.”

“It was nothing,” Eliza said. When the two of them made eye contact, her eyebrows rose slightly and she gave him a crooked, curious smile.

“Don’t listen to her,” his dad said, oblivious to the exchange. “If it weren’t for Eliza, we never would have made it.”

“And you!” Mark’s mom said, giving him another quick hug. “You appear to have made it without too much trouble. That’s a very interesting staff you’ve made yourself, by the way. Thanks to your Boy Scouts training, I’m sure. And to think that Eliza had us worried that you were in some kind of dire situation! Thankfully, our Tomes appear to have been wrong.”

Mark’s gut dropped, and he glanced at Eliza. “Uh, yeah. No idea what that would have been about.” Eliza raised an eyebrow at Mark but didn’t say anything. Thankful for the reprieve, he leapt to change the subject. “Now that we’re here, let’s stop wasting time and head inside!”

His dad shook his head. “I’m afraid we can’t. The guards won’t let us through.”

“Even though you hold land?”

“It seems like they have some odd rules here,” his mom said with a sigh. “You can’t come in if your Renown is less than Level 10, which is obviously the case for all of us. There’s some kind of loophole where owning land and vouching for your family gets around it, but the fact that that I’m only Level 6 means we can’t take advantage of that fact.”

Mark grinned. “I may have picked up a few levels. Does that help?”

“Son, please, we’re in a serious situation here,” his dad said.

His mom, meanwhile, had taken the opportunity to look more closely at her son. “Peter, look at his Renown.”

Mark’s dad made eye contact with him, treating Mark to the sight of his dad’s eyebrows rising into his hairline. “How in god’s name did you get to Level 10?”

A loud voice interjected itself into their conversation, booming, “Aye, now that’s a story!”

Mark turned to see Darius ambling over, his wide grin taking in the whole group. Mark gave him a pointed look and said, “That particular story will NOT be getting shared out here, right?”

Darius grinned but didn’t say anything further.

“Mom, Dad, this is Darius,” Mark said. “I managed to find the ocean road, and he and his family were kind enough to give me a lift. Darius, meet Beth and Peter, my mom and dad. And their friend Eliza.”

Darius winked at Eliza as though he knew her, and she gave him a deep bow of respect in return. Then he looked Mark’s parents up and down. “Yer parents? So that means…”

Mark nodded in agreement, and Darius gave a long, low whistle.

“Something tells me things are about to get a wee bit strange around this city,” he said. “Why are yeh waitin’ out here?”

“The guards won’t let us in,” his mom said. “I own land inside the town, but my Renown is only Level 6, so…”

“Bah,” Darius said, waving her comments aside. “They’ll let yeh in if yeh got Mark in tow. He’s Level 10, so yeh meet the requirements.”

“Actually, I’m not so sure,” Eliza said. “The guards were very particular about the rules, and with Beth not being the one who—”

“GUNTHER!” Darius bellowed in the general direction of the gate. “These folks have land, and their son’s Renown is Level 10! Let ‘em in!”

The guard looked over at them for a moment, then consulted a Tome that popped into his hand. It was huge, like an old bible from the middle ages. After a moment of consultation, he snapped it shut and the book disappeared.

“Can’t do it, Darius!” the guard called back. “It clearly states that the landowner must be the one with Renown above—”

“Not a problem!” Darius said. “Can’t have yeh breakin’ the rules, can we?”

Darius turned towards his wagon. At the top of his lungs, he shouted, “ROSIE! GUARD GUNTHER HERE DON’T WANNA BE BREAKIN’ NO RULES, SO NO MORE O’ THOSE PIES O’ YERS! YEH KNOW, THE ONES HE BE NEEDIN’ TO GET HIS FLAG UP O’ER HALF-MAST—”

“HANG ON!” Guard Gunther shouted, his face going beet red as the other guards snickered. “I, uh, just found a loophole. You folks are clear to go in.”

Darius spun around. “Ain’t that a pleasant surprise! Come on, folks, let’s get yeh to yer new home.”

Quest: “GET TO PALMYRE” Completed!

You got to Palmyre! Good for you. Even if you were unconscious for half of it.

Reward: 200 XP, and you got to see your family! Well, some of them at any rate.

Mark grinned at the appearance of the message. From the smiles on his parents’ faces, he could see they’d gotten similar alerts. His grin faded somewhat when the guard glared at him, but Eliza distracted him with a bump on the shoulder.

“You heard the man,” she said. “Let’s show you around your new home.”