We instinctively ran towards the distant sound of screams. Despite my reserves still being fairly low, the violence in the air bonded with my innate desire to help and drove me towards it like a moth to a flame. The same seemed to be true of my friends, as we dashed past the multitude of craning necks, through the maze of tents and stalls at a pace far beyond the casual stroll we had used before.

Within a few seconds, we had found the source of the screaming, though by the time we did they were long since silenced. Most of the buildings on either side of the street had been reduced to rubble, furniture and now shapeless things lying in the ruins as dust drifted about in the eddying air. The only sound left in the area was from a groaning man, trapped beneath a fallen stone column that had to weigh close to a hundred tons. Half a dozen people stood around the pillar, trying to lift it. The three of us rushed over and lent our efforts to the endeavour, and it seemed our added strength was just enough and the huge stone block rose off the ground. A young girl I had not seen before ran to the injured man and began to tug him out, until he was finally free and we let the mass fall back to the ground with a boom that shook the earth and sent dust and stone scattering.

The man lay on the ground, his legs a bloody mess; I wished we had Darina with us to help him, but sometimes fate can be fickle. I was about to offer a healing pill when the young girl pulled one from thin air and fed it to him.

With a nod that was a half shrug, I turned to one of the others that had helped move the monument; she was dressed in a bright orange and sky-blue robe, with arms festooned with golden bangles and bracelets and a chain about her forehead and jet-black hair; a yellow gem dangled from it to fall between her brown eyes.

“What happened?”

The woman turned to look at me a frown worn on her dark skin; she looked me up and down, the adrenaline caused by our efforts to save the man obviously making it more difficult than normal to ignore the city’s bloody aura. After a moment though, her face cleared and she spoke, her voice was low, rhythmic and almost musical.

“A group of Bleak Shadows picked a fight with members of the Forge of Flesh, and the Blood and Bones intervened.”

“With deliberate consternation, it does not seem like their intervention provided a great deal of protection.”

“New here are you, giant? The Guard hit hard and fast; less of a protective measure than a... preventive one.”

“You mean their aim is to discourage violence, rather than intercepting or preventing it? Clearly this isn’t working. It seems awfully unjust, to me.”

The brightly dressed woman looked between the three of us, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“It has worked for millennia; you should not base your opinion on isolated incidents.”

“It’s not that isolated; we saw another fight between the Blood Guard and a bunch of sects a couple of hours ago. Well, one sect. I guess the rest were just sort of... there.”

“Hmpf. Strange. I had heard there was growing unrest amongst the sects, but I did not think it had grown this bad.”

“I heard they were all sick of being bossed about by the Blood and Bones, when their sects have been in the area for longer than the city.”

The man who spoke up was of average size, wearing a brown tunic trimmed in copper thread. He had a scar running through a short goatee, over his lips and down his chin.

“Have they been here longer?”

I asked the question; I could see a group getting angry at being bossed around on land they had lived on like that.

“No idea. It’s just something they’re saying.”

The man shrugged, and the woman spoke up again.

“I do not think that they have; I have read many histories of the founding of Ouhl, and none mentioned any existing sects. To my knowledge, they formed later.”

“Then why’d they say it? Seems like an awful excuse to get killed by the Blood and Bones.”

The man and woman began to argue back and forth about the relative historical weight that should be lent to their respective accounts and my companions and I shared a look before washing our hands of the situation as it could develop into something more than aggressive gesturing.

Stopping a short distance away, the three of us looked back at the shattered street; more people had shown up since the initial incident, with several of them standing in front of what were apparently their houses, shouting at the broken shells angrily.

“Anybody else think this is a weird coincidence, that this nonsense breaks out right when we arrive? Maybe I’m paranoid.”

“In curt dismissal, there have been many such coincidences since meeting you, Hunter. I am not inclined to believe this to be unrelated to our mission.”

“But... how?”

“With quick contemplation, the Risen Throne attacked the Blacksand Citadel, and to a lesser degree Everwood City. From the letter, it is clear their plans extend much further, however. Perhaps they seek to destabilise the region, for some reason?”

“The letter... Hunter retrieved did seem to indicate that they had plans for locations close to the prison. If they were looking to seize power, they would need to displace or destroy the Blood Guard, at least in this city.”

I looked at the two women and ran a hand through my beard, thinking over what they said.

“It’s still just speculation though. We could spend time investigating this thing, only to find out it’s unrelated and we’ve just given the damned Uppity Chairs a bigger head start!”

I was frustrated; my previous quests had been vague, but fairly direct, but this new one was making me second guess myself. It did not help that the last time I had felt entirely sure about something I had just outright failed, potentially unleashing a vast, ancient asshole onto my new home.

“Who are the, ‘Uppity Chairs’?”

I looked at Toria, doing my best to keep my breathing even, though all I wanted to do was rip something apart.

“It’s just what somebody called them, the first person to give us their name. Actually, given the whole language thing, I guess he was from another world, now I think about it.”

“You lead a strange life... Hunter.”

“You don’t know the half of it. Well, probably more than half, but it definitely gets weirder.”

She raised her eyebrow at me, and I realised that I had let the gnawing aura make me incautious. I moved on quickly, trying to not give her more time than necessary to percolate that particular thought.

“Anyway; if this was an attempt to destabilise the region, why aren’t the more powerful members of the sects involved? The Guard seem pretty strong, they have to be. Do the sects stand a chance, if they’re not all-in?”

“We do not have enough information; let us make our way back to the inn. We can let the Ever Flowing and Mountain’s Rage pick through our suspicions, and await the Crystal Drake’s return. If the Risen Throne are active within the city, he should be able to root their involvement out.”

I nodded slowly, doing my best to let my frustration go. It was probably for the best; I was still well below max strength and my Lesser Regeneration was tied up with V’s damned infection. I could not afford to charge in recklessly.

“Good idea.”

The three of us began our trip back, listening out for the sound of conflict, but luckily, no such distractions arose. With the way the city was itching at us, I really do not know whether we would have been able to resist rushing in, yet again.

*

***

*

We made it back to the City’s Edge much quicker than it had taken us to reach the bazaar; not only were there no random fights to block our path, but with the way we were listening for any sign of conflict, there was an energy in our steps that had bewere theiren absent on the trip out.

Entering the inn proved to be just as much of a hassle as it had been the first time; as it turned out, none of the keys we had been given actually worked on the front door, though I had to admit that the decision made a certain kind of sense. With the building sort of doubling as a small fortress, people coming and going with keys – which they could easily lose – could somewhat undermine the integrity of the defence.

Much like the first time, I ended up pounding away at the heavy door, though unlike our initial arrival, I did not waste any time with normal taps, and was in fact about to try kicking the thing down when it finally opened, revealing the same guard that we had spoken to before.

“Well, get in then! All that banging and you’re just stood in the entrance.”

I growled under my breath and stomped into the room, just about resisting the urge to throttle the equally short-tempered guard. I looked around, trying not to meet his eyes, knowing it would just piss me off more, and was relieved to see Darina and Reff sat stiffly at a table, watching us as we entered.

We made our way across the room and took chairs at the table; I slumped down in mine, head resting on my hands; that place was really stressing me out. I did not know if my Agency was helping, but if it was, and I was still affected to that degree, I knew my friends must be really going through something.

After a minute or so of tense silence, Darina spoke up, her voice the definition of brittle calm.

“You left without me. Us. Again.”

“We went to get something to help Toria sleep, you were still in your room. We didn’t want to bug you.”

“Enough of your nonsense sayings! It would not have been bugging me, whatever that means! I am perfectly capable of maintaining my calm, unlike you, idiot.”

I did not say anything, but I thought what she said was pretty funny, despite the forceful tone in which it was said. Clearly, however, something showed on my face and the diminutive apprentice's red-jade eyes opened wide, her posture shifting as if to dive across the table. Thankfully, Reff came to my aid, as he so often did.

“With careful interjection, I for one am glad to have been afforded time with which to come closer to my centre. This place does not sit well with me.”

“This city does not seem to sit well with anybody at the moment; we saw a confrontation between multiple sects, with the eventual intervention of the Blood Guard.”

“In polite addition, as well as another fight between sects, which resulted in the destruction of part of a street.”

“Yeah, these guys don’t mess around. Tain has some sort of... slicing power? I have no idea about the specifics, but it seems pretty indiscriminate. Though the sects don’t seem any better. I wonder why the citizens put up with them at all; they’re all cultivators, right? It’s not like we’re in a Nadir city, right?”

“Everyone is a cultivator, but not everyone is a trained fighter, idiot. There’s a big difference between having power and knowing how to fight with it. Some people are also just crafters, or... artists. Or a thousand other things.”

“I guess my perspective is kind of skewed... I’ve only really interacted with fighters. I just assumed everyone could fight, to a degree. But even so, tens of thousands of cultivators, at least, all turning on the sects or whatever... it’s not like they’d be no threat, right?”

“With purposeful delicacy, how would an untrained Core stage deal with your own abilities, Hunter? Would a thousand cultivators, specialized in things other than fighting, be able to stop you?”

I thought about that; at my full strength, a mid-Pinnacle stage could just stop me based on pure physical power, but before that, without some specialized ability to shut my own down, it would be pretty difficult... until I got tired. I was about to speak up, to say that eventually yes, I would get worn down, but before I had chance, Toria interrupted.

“It is the job of local authorities to prevent the excesses of power. Should they fail, the Order of Justice may intervene, or in extreme cases, an Apex. There has been no need for the majority of people to devote their lives to battle since before the Cataclysm. Or so the Order historians – and the Paladin - tells us.”

“And if the Risen Throne are stirring the pot? Provoking people to action they would not otherwise take?”

“With piqued curiosity, what do you mean, Hunter?”

“Just a theory; the letter didn’t use specific place names, but it just seems like a huge coincidence that this place starts to spark like this just as we arrive looking for the Risen Throne. What if it is them, or even the Multiplicious Self crawling inside people?”

There was silence at that question, the moment stretching out as we each thought about the implications of a potentially global push to destabilize the world. Or worse, become the world.

“Did you say, ‘Risen Throne’?”

I turned at the voice, finding the woman that had checked us in now out from behind her bars, left hand sat on the pommel of a bladed mace.

“Because I’ve heard that name before.”