With the ship’s return, Cotanaku went into some amount of chaos. The whole town didn’t suddenly mob the docks, but it looked like a nontrivial amount of work was stopped around the town so that people could wander to a position where they could see what was going on. Kaldalis guessed that the unexpected arrival of the Contender had people spooked as to what fresh hell could be coming on the next ship. As news spread that it was the Rambutan and that Garyung had returned, there was a collective mixed reaction. Some were disappointed that it wasn’t new excitement - not knowing what Garyung had in store for the town - while others were happy to have him back in charge.

Either way, Balrim, Myrin, Reno, and Ess leading the way back into town meant they were the ones bombarded with questions by the most excitable familiar faces. Kaldalis was able to slip by without being accosted by giving the group a wide berth before getting into town.

He tried to keep his eyes open for a few people in particular. Martok was high on his list, so that he could tell the man that Balrim and Myrin would be looking for him. He also was perpetually keeping an eye out for Dalgaard. Courbois was the one member of their little friend group that they’d left behind, and he wondered what she had been up to this whole time, too. But most importantly, he wanted to see if Heluna was in the area. If she had rushed over when the Rambutan arrived, it might mean she was looking for him.

Kaldalis had no idea what he would do with that information. He’d gone far out of his way to not think too hard about what Onirioago’s news meant for his relationship with the world as a whole, for fear of what it might do to his mentality. The idea of facing a woman he had developed feelings for became terrifying in the new context of her being a real person, and him being a visitor from another world.

In the absence of any of those faces, Kaldalis made his way into Cotanaku. He started to notice how much the town felt like a town now. In addition to the larger, more prominent clock tower, as well as the fire brigade and the hospital, there were numerous other additions. There was an area that had been cleared and flattened, and someone had erected a pair of makeshift basketball hoops. Right next to it, a building was going up that reminded Kaldalis of a classical single-room schoolhouse.

Besides the new additions, there were numerous improvements on existing structures. The Sheriff’s Office where Gavinkim had been holding Onirioago had grown larger, presumably to make room for more than the two rudimentary drunk tanks. The cafeteria that had evolved from the original mess hall tent had become something more akin to a food court, and a little building attached to it had the look of a grocery bodega.

The most stunning difference was in the adventurers’ quarters. Nothing had changed about the space or arrangement, but almost everyone had upgraded their little tents to proper homes. Some of them looked like actual suburban houses in miniature. Others filled the little lots they sat on, becoming something like little rowhouses, sometimes two or three in a line had very similar designs, making Kaldalis fear that someone had reinvented the Homeowners’ Association in-game.

Or, rather, ported the toxic idea to another universe.

There were still a few tents here and there, but they looked like they had fallen into disuse. It was likely their owners had established themselves in Panbu instead. Regardless, the presence of those tents made Kaldalis feel a lot better about his own place, since all he’d done is construct a single-room shack. He resolved to add onto it as soon as he had the cash from the stream payout, which Reno predicted would be at midnight tonight.

Kaldalis’s shack looked like it had held up just fine in his absence. He had never met his neighbors, but one of them had built one of those sizable rowhouses, while the person on the other side had built a cramped-looking hexagonal building that looked like an enclosed gazebo. Or maybe a miniature Shari’s restaurant.

Redesigning his home to keep up with the neighbors would have to wait, though. One of the familiar faces he had been looking for was waiting for him. Courbois was leaned up against the wall of his shack, next to the door, though she pushed away as he approached, walking to meet him.

“Kal,” she said tersely.

“Courbois,” he replied. Having not seen her for almost three weeks felt slightly awkward, but they hadn’t been that close in the first place.

He offered his hand and she gave it a firm shake with a thin smile.

“What are you doing here?” Kaldalis asked when it became clear that he was going to have to lead the conversation.

“I thought it would be easier to catch you here than try to rush the boat,” she explained. “And I felt like everyone else was going to be asking you for information instead of letting you know what happened around here.”

“I appreciate it,” Kaldalis said. He gestured towards his little shack. “Did you want to come in, or should we just chat out here?”

“I think inside would be best,” Courbois said with a smirk. “Knowing you, standing out here in the open this long without getting accosted by an emergency is a minor miracle.”

“Jesus,” Kaldalis cursed as he stepped past her to open the door of his quarters. “Don’t jinx it, alright?”

The interior of his place seemed very spartan as he walked in, with just the bed in one corner, the dresser in another, and the table with two chairs against the side wall. Despite how barren it looked, it felt like home. It was also larger and more comfortable than the closet-sized inn rooms they’d had in Baimer.

“Nice place,” Courbois said, giving his bed a sideways glance.

“I have my priorities,” Kaldalis said as he took a seat at the table, gesturing for her to take the chair on the other side. “I’ve only been here to sleep. Why wouldn’t I invest in a comfortable night?”

“Kinda big for just one, is all I’m saying,” she said, taking the other chair. “And you’re set to accommodate a guest. I thought we’d just be standing in here. I guess you’ve got plans for this place, huh?”

“Is this the news you’re here to fill me in on?” Kaldalis said, making an effort not to blush. “Just gossip?”

Courbois cleared her throat, and was polite enough to wipe the smirk off her face. “Obviously you’ve seen some of the improvements around town,” she began.

“Yeah, a little,” Kaldalis confirmed. “Nice work, by the way.”

“Thanks,” she said with a smile. “We also built up a new town. Panbu fronted the cash, so it’s another of Zara’s, but we helped get it up and running. I thought that’s what you’d want, for the sake of diplomacy. Town is called Kayore, in the Huajia region.”

Kaldalis’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “A whole town? That fast?”

“I learned it by watching you,” Courbois said with a playful grin.

“That’s good news, though,” Kaldalis said, tapping his chin. “The more we establish ourselves on the islands, the more Lataxinan shit we’ll dig up.”

“Found a big one this time,” Courbois confirmed. “But before we get into that, I thought you’d want the bad news first.”

“Shit,” Kaldalis grumbled. “Of course there’s bad news.”

“I’m sure you met the priest dudes when you came in, right?”

“Worse,” Kaldalis said, “I met them in Baimer. I’m the reason they’re here. Used a Lataxinan ability in public and it kicked off a whole investigation that had them rushing here.”

Courbois made a face and reached across the table to sock him in the shoulder. A little harder than strictly necessary.

“Yeah, I had that coming,” Kaldalis reluctantly agreed.

“He’s shut everything down,” Courbois explained. “No exploring the jungles. No running the dungeons. We can only build the things we can get mats for within a quarter-mile of any of the three towns.”

“Holy fuck,” Kaldalis said, slapping himself in the forehead. “Who the fuck gave him the authority to do that?”

“God, I guess,” Courbois shrugged. “All three councils bent over backwards to keep those priest guys happy. I’m just glad we can still get out into the deep jungle here.”

“I guess it could be worse,” he grumbled.

“Don’t worry,” she said with a big fake smile. “It is.”

“Oh boy.”

“I’ve been keeping track of Onirioago’s former crew,” Courbois continued. Even though they were inside Kaldalis’s home, she leaned over the table and lowered her voice. “When I started watching, they seemed about to disperse, but they stuck together. Not sure why. They play nice when they’re in town, but I can’t track them out in the jungle like you and Martok could.”

“Where are they now?” Kaldalis asked. Despite thinking she was being overly cautious, he leaned in and lowered his voice, too.

“Not sure,” Courbois admitted. “But Dalgaard did some recruitment. Picked up Voker and his asshole friends, and then fucked off into the jungle outside Cotanaku. That was two days before the priest guys showed up. Wherever they holed up in the jungle, it’s beyond the mandated distance, so they haven’t been back here, and I haven’t been able to search.”

“Well, that’s something,” Kaldalis grumbled. “At least they can’t make trouble without getting bottled up in here, too.”

“Unless they’re finding dungeons out there,” Courbois warned. “If they’re breaking the rules, they could be amassing fat stacks of exp, powerful gear, and new Lataxinan abilities.”

Kaldalis reached up and put a hand to his temple. Despite wanting to dismiss Onirioago’s crew as someone else’s problem - probably the Contender, all things considered - but Corbois was right. They were a group that had expressed open hostility towards Garyung. If they were getting unknowable powers out there, they might do something drastic.

And what if Onirioago told them about her big reveal? What if they knew the twist?

“What’s wrong?” Courbois asked. “You got a far-off look for a second there.”

As much as he didn’t like it, Courbois deserved to know. If she was going to be running with them, it would be easier to loop her in than keep her out.

He started to move to turn his stream off when a plaintive chiming sound appeared in his head. Instead of the stream shutdown toggle, his messaging inbox appeared. Alongside the messages from Nakala/Reno, there was a new one.

AStevenson, Subject: Please Stop.

Kaldalis flinched at the sight of it. He didn’t need to open it to know what it said.

“Baimer was just…” Kaldalis said at last, dismissing his inbox and the stream toggle. “Baimer was a mess.”