“So where do you think Gina went?” I asked Tony sleepily, it was early morning and I had just crawled out of my bunk and returned to my cabin from my quest for kava. Outside the Sweetwind, the rings were just starting to glow again. Despite wanting to turn in last nigh I had to finish quite a bit of work around Sweetwind, and it had eaten into my sleep.

“She could still be on the upper levels, but her goal is probably grandfather.” Tony was talking about his grandfather, the retired or self-professed retired explorer and adventurer who lived on the lower frontier of the needle. I personally thought Fredrick Roark was a madman. He was obsessed with his research, but he was also the unofficial leader of the Roark clan, after Allister. The last time he had been rousted from his lair, as I think his family tended to call it was when his son Allister had gotten married. I hadn’t seen the man since.

The fortieth floor, was as low as almost anyone had made it down into the needle, except for perhaps the celestial elves. Since they were the self-professed caretakers of the needle, no one really knew just what secrets they understood, or how deep they had delved into the depts of their home.

My mom’s family was from the Chrono Spire, which was on the fifteenth floor of the needle and they had pretty much ignored me my whole life, or tolerated was a better word for their treatment. Mother had only been there a couple of times. When grandmother had left the needle to marry, she had taken her daughter and two sons with her to live in the outside world. This was considered a grave breach of tradition among the celestial elves, and that rift in the family had never quite healed.

When mom had died, I had lost my last link to her family and I hadn’t bothered to try and rekindle it. Half-bloods were looked at with a… lest then favorable attitude by other full-blooded celestial elves to say the least. I had only met a few other full-blooded members of the elvish race, and they were notoriously stuck up and had a superiority complex that was only exceeded by their arrogance. The only time I had seen any members of my mother’s family, was when they had inexpiably shown up during the refurbishment of Sweetwind after it had been transferred to my mom. It had been just as much a shock to her as anyone else.

It was a wonder they actually tolerated the sky folk in what they called their “Sacred Temple.” Their willingness to work with the sky folk was a deep mystery that only the celestials could shed any light on. Everyone knew the celestials weren’t native to Prime, but no one really talked about how this particular population of them came to be in the needle, or where the needle actually is from for that matter. That sort of knowledge had been lost along with many things during the cataclysm, and the dark years that followed it, or so the celestial elves always claimed. Personally, I doubted that statement greatly considering how well they kept records. Grandmother had also passed down a few myths and legends of our origin to my mother and I. My mother’s grimoire also contained a lot of information that it didn’t want to share with me.

For the most parts, the two groups within the needle got on well enough, mostly by avoiding one another. There were other factions in the needle. Even a few wild dragon clans deeper down in the needle, as well as a bunch of other races. Gremlins, for example had a pretty strong presence in the underwork levels, the non-habitation floors and they often worked directly with the celestials on the mysterious work they were always about.

Gremlins were like dwarves in statue, but spindlier, even more so than Goblins, and had a high degree of aptitude for the mechanical artificer skills. They were often companions, or servants to the celestials and were used to run errands on the upper floors, which is the only times I had ever seen them.

“Becca, you awake?” I yawned and blinked at Tony and realized that I had missed his last comment.

“I said that she probably took one of the ring lifts down, but she had to have stopped in Trader’s Reach to get updated on current conditions, supplies and other things.”

Nodding to him, I walked over to the other side of my cabin and opened a spell-sealed safe in one wall and ruffled around inside. A few moments later I pulled an old dusty book from the contents of the spell-folded space, then I shut the safe and rebound the locking mechanism with a touch of my power.

Before Tony could inquire about the book, I quickly pocketed it and glared at his attention. It was my mother’s journal, and it had been her grandmother’s journal before her. I knew it contained many things I’d need to know about the needle, and I wanted to keep it on me.

“Are the traveler’s back yet?” I asked, and Tony shrugged. “Tombason slept in his bunk, I didn’t see him vanish like the other traveler.” He said and I nodded.

These travelers had varying lengths of time they could spend here with us, but I knew if Neil reappeared it would be aboard Sweetwind. He had made it plain that he would reappear wherever he left, even if it was aboard a moving vessel.

My mind drifted away from the constant questions I had about the travelers and I shook myself as I motioned to Tony.

“Natasha should be back from Oak Hollow, I sent her to get a hot breakfast from the guest hostel.” I yawned, and wondered if any of my new crew knew how to cook. I could make some types of food, but breakfast normally consisted of leftovers or waybread and cheese or something as I worked. It wasn’t a situation I was comfortable with.

Clutching my flask of hot kava to me, like it was the last one on Prime, I staggered out of my cabin and descended down into the spine passageway to look for Cid, Tony on my heels.

My ship’s new artificer was at work in his workshop, where he was paging through the massive tome he had pointed out the Sweetwind in a few days ago. I saw diagrams of different types of refraction chambers, and he was comparing sketches of my ship in his little journal to what he was looking at in his book.

He was so engrossed in his work, he startled when I greeted him. “Er morning Cid, that’s some light reading you got there.” I yawned and he glared at me, his hand steading an ink vial he had almost knocked out of it’s movement clasps on his worktable.

“Ah it is zee good morn, Captain Marshall a bit early yes, we lift soon?” He asked in a very quick sentence as he licked his lips and peered out of the workroom into the refraction chamber as if he was waiting for his favorite thespian play to start. His catlike eyes were fixed greedily on the softly glowing ballast crystal that pulsed sleepily in it’s slumber.

“In a bit, going to decend to Trader’s Reach and try to get news of our little runaway.” I pointed towards the illustrations in his massive book on airships. There was a picture of a strange, spindly airship with celestial elves around it, most of them looked like they barely were tolerating the artist.

“You ever talk to celestial elves?” I yawned and he looked at me quizzically before he laughed.

“No one talks zee elves, unless zee want you to. Zee are about as elusive as za forest pixie.” He gave a meowing cackle and I saw his whiskers twitch in agitation.

Pointing to the sigil on the side of one of the illustrations I told him what I knew of it. “That’s a mark of the way you know. More specifically it’s the aspect of time, and space.” I said and he stared at me.

“How zu you know ziss?” His expression was very guarded and he gave me a narrowed and disconcerting stare with his unsettling eyes, their slit pupils glinting at me in the light of his workshop.

“I know because that’s the same symbol that represents the Chrono Spire, where my mother’s family is from.” I glared at him and crossed my arms, not very happy at the hostility I saw in his demeanor.

He gave a startled laugh, then rubbed a furry paw across his face as he nodded. “I apologize, its just that I wasn’t aware that your family was of the way.” I shook my head.

“I’m not, but I know of their teachings and it is a basis for most of my own knowledge and practice of my power. I just was never initiated into the way, nor do I think that my mother’s people would ever have me.” I growled, a sore spot from my own childhood and for that matter, a sore spot that my mom had always held coming to the surface.

Cid studied me carefully for a long while then smiled. “Ah zee may be surprised, and not all of zee way honor the aspects zee same. Vee family may be a bit… close minded but not all of zee way be like them.” He chided me and I nodded. My own bitterness felt a bit sour when I considered a few other encounters I had had with the secretive practitioners of the way. They were an odd lot, but often accepting of others.

I stood there for a moment until I remembered what I had come down to ask him. “Cid, before we get off track here, I wanted to ask you if you’ve been able to get the main mechanician console working yet.” I pointed to the mess of dusty consoles, artificer devices and wires that were in one corner. He winced and shook his head.

“Ah on it, even for me ziss a serious challenge. You say zee main board never been operational?” He asked and I nodded.

Yea, you could get basic functionality out of it for balancing power, and other simple operations but that station was the physical interface between the Sweetwind and its crew as well as the encoded information depository of the ship. If there was a way to trace the origins of my vessel it would be likely that getting all of Sweetwind’s original systems restored would be the place to start. I knew that my grandmother had inherited the ship from her own father when he had left it to her, but beyond that I didn’t know much of my vessel’s history.

It had always been in sorry shape, and every artificer that had tried working on it, just seemed to make the problems worse. Cid wasn’t exactly a miracle worker, and I wondered if he would ever get it repaired. Looking at the story state it was in, I had my doubts. There were missing crystals, trashed panels, and whole sections of the artifice were dark, long dead and looked like that had been their state for a few generations.

“Mabey grandfather can convince his gremlins to help with the restoration. He has a few working with him as assistants.” Tony said and my eyes widened and I groaned.

“Well, I think we can try stopping at the Chrono Spire on the way down, I’m sure your father’s gremlins are quite good, but I wonder if I can get one of the elves to look at it.” I said, and even to me my voice sounded decidedly unhopeful.

Tony burst out laughing and I glared at him. “Worth a shot, I don’t think they will try to kill me on sight or anything, they aren’t those prophet bigots, they are just…” I tried to search for the right words that would describe them before Tony supplied a few choice descriptions.

“Arrogant little pissants? Freaking stuck up elves…” He laughed at my half-hearted glare and I shook my head before I smiled. I pointed to my own pointed ears and he nudged me.

“I’m not like them, you know that!” My protests just caused him to laugh harder. “Becca, you remember when you challenged me to a duel on your fourteenth birthday for calling you a preening git?” He just kept laughing, and enduring my smoldering glare until it turned into a wince. It was hard to forget how stuck up the family thought of me until I mellowed out after a few years to myself.

“Yea, and I’ll do it again if you keep it up!” I snarled and he just shook his head and nearly fell over when Cid joined in, his whiskers twitching.

“Oh you two…uahhh!” I turned my back on them before I downed a gulp of kava from my flask and stalked off to look for Neil. Where was my wayward apprentice anyways?

I found him on deck with Tombason, they had the geography book that I had convinced the guest house in Bagliona to part with, and they were in a heated argument as I approached.

“I’m telling you Tom, this is Earth!” Neil bellowed and pointed to a section of mountains along the roof of the world far the north east of our position.

Tombason let out a deep belly laugh that shook his frame as he shook his head. “Your saying that Endaria is a post-apocalyptic game not a fantasy?” He smirked at the boy as he flipped through the book pointing at the different continents.

“Looks nothing like Earth at all! So what if some things look a bit similar, it’s not like the developers wouldn’t put in Easter eggs or references to reality in it. Doesn’t mean anything, you’re looking at it too deeply shrimp!”

“Yea the coastlines are all different, but look at this. The elevation of Everest is almost exactly the same mentioned in the book, and the mountains are all in the same configuration as the peaks around it. And this!” He stabbed his finger at the pages that described other planets in the same system as Prime.

“Same planets! Same configuration! I bet if I started mapping the stars, I could spot familiar constellations! He yelled excitedly.

“So what? Even if your right, what does that matter kid? It’s just a game! You want to try to figure everything out? Start with learning how to fight properly. I’ve seen you try to do those katas that the captain has you on it was a bit painful to watch! Did you ever get through your mandatory militia training?” He accused and crossed his massive arms at the boy and glared.

Neil seemed to wilt. “I’m… disabled.” He said and I saw the man’s stern gaze soften. “That explains a lot kid, sorry didn’t mean to bring that up. Well I’ll work with you, if you want.” The boy nodded and grinned.

“Well at least I finally got my class! It’s about time!” He said and I saw Tombason shrug at the mention. “Still looking for mine, the interface is still ranking me as a D rank and I don’t see any tree yet other than just the basic combat one.” He seemed to deflate a bit in frustration before Neil shook his head and grinned.

“I’m betting it will be awesome! Just wait!” He said, bouncing on his feet and then noticed my look of abject fascination, and bewilderment as I warred with the great seal, trying to understand what they were talking about.

They both studied me with a very odd expression for a moment before Neil grinned. “Morning Captain!” He looked decidedly more awake than anyone had a right to this early, and I reflexively took another gulp of kava before I nodded to them both.

“Nice to see you two back aboard! I’ll lift ship when Natasha returns and I clear things with the port.” I pointed to a tiny figure trudging across the aerodrome field from the guest hostel, laden with cloth bags and carrying an insulated box. “Go help Natasha with bringing us our breakfast.” As Neil scrambled down the cradle, I saw Tombason give me an incredulous stare.

“You don’t have a cook?” He asked and I shook my head.

“Not me, I am only good at forage cooking, and at that I’m still barely passable at it.” Tombason grinned and looked down into the galley hatch. “I’ll manage if you want mam, I’m betting I’m more than passable.” I shrugged it couldn’t be worse than my own cooking.

“You won’t have much to do elsewise, until I can get you trained up.” He nodded and quickly disappeared to check out the galley. I heard his grumbling through the galley flue next to me before I stalked off to the mainmast and its heliograph tapper. I started blinking out a request to launch, and initiated the customary exchange that proceeded every lift from an aerodrome.

A few minutes later we were in the bow helm, strapped in and munching on breakfast wraps that Natasha had secured for us. I smacked my lips as the delicious egg and mushroom, and cheese settled in my stomach. Food like this was a rare treat and I liked to enjoy it while I could.

Sweetwind throbbed under me as I called out my orders and Natasha eased the ship out of the cradle and we made our way towards the central axis. I had advised Neil to wait until after changeover to eat his breakfast and he was clutching his wrap in one hand and looking with deep trepidation at the stream of inverted ships and flying beasts plunging down the axis or in ascension. Between the rings, I saw the flickering movement of the lift system exchanging goods between floors, surging with the morning rush.

We hit changeover and the ship flipped, and began its plunge. Neil gasped, even as my own breakfast churned slightly. Not really fazed this time, he grinned at me and started to take careful bites of his breakfast.

I nodded to the boy, it seemed he was adjusting quickly. It boded quite well for his future as a flyer. We quickly plunged past the first floor and into a much more populated second floor. Small towns and massive farms took up every inch of the space on the walls of the needle around us as we fell, streaking towards the next floor.

When we passed that floor, I heard a collective gasp from my crew and I smiled. The entire floor was a mix of grasslands, and a massive city around a lake on one side, small towns and hamlets covering the walls around us. Titanic fortifications were built into every ring, their massive casting stones tracking us as we fell.

Leveling Sweetwind off near Trader’s Reach, we crossed changeover and dodged and weaved through the brisk morning traffic. I gave cheery salutes to passing ships, some flying familiar sky folk markings, some from other kingdoms. A flying menagerie of beasts, giant avian forms and other creatures screeched, roared or howled as they passed in greeting, their pilots saluting as we fell towards the massive aerodrome in the center of the city.

Following my instructions from the port authority, I guided Sweetwind into a cradle sandwiched between rows of small skiffs, ground hands directing Natasha’s deft maneuvering as she set the ship down in the cradle.

Around us was a hive of activity, as ships from dozens of different families and nations swarmed with people unloading cargo, doing repair work and maintenance on their ships while their crews took to the busy market around us.

The aerodrome was surrounded by market stalls, shops and massive merchant warehouses streaming with goods. In the distance I could see the spires of each of the major sky folk trading houses, their massive banners streaming in the morning breeze that rolled around the inside of the needle as the morning heated up the land.

My broad grin at being back in my homeland and seeing the sight that had me homesick for so long nearly brought tears to my eyes. This was the heart of my people. The swap.

As the Swapper’s Needle traveled around Prime it picked up and traded goods wherever it landed. Merchants bought and sold, picking up goods on one side of Prime, then storing them until they were valuable when the needle moved once again.

The fact the needle had landed so close to Bagliona was obviously causing a frenzy. The merchants were trying to take in new goods and offload them as fast as they could. I hadn’t landed at the trading fields in Bagliona, so I hadn’t realized that the traffic was so intense. From the heart Trader’s Reach, it felt like an overturned ant hill.

The Marshall family was one of the smaller sky folk families, most of the larger ones had thousands of members and dozens of airships all plying the skies under their banner.

The larger cargo beasts were also coming and going in a steady stream. I watched as a massive black thornback dragon was landing, it’s cargo nets setting down as crew streamed off the harness and secured the cargo as it backed up, reared and curled down to rest.

The glowing light of the axis shown merrily in the moist morning air as I popped open the bow helm’s hatch and slid down the ladder, a familiar face waiting for me below.

Aunt Gracie Marshall gave me a hug as we met and I looked down the field to see Fortunate taking on cargo far down the line. “Just arrived a few hours ago Becca, good to see you!” She said and I nodded looking around for Argos when I didn’t see it anywhere, I turned on my aunt.

“Am I truly going to be stuck finding Allister’s kid?” I grumbled and she nodded.

“They have a contract with the Campbell’s you know that. They are on a north tack right now on a heading towards the expanse.” She sighed sadly and nodded to my look of disappointment. I had always known it would be me, my last hope that I’d have some help for the decent was washed away.

“I have word of her by the way. Gina is in a convoy heading towards the thirty-sixth floor, I don’t know why that dunderhead Trip Matterson took her on as a guard, he is heading back to his holdings for the season.”

I nodded, and gave a groan of consternation. At least she had the sense to make sure she was in a convoy. I frowned as I tried to remember anything about the convoy leader. The Matterson’s and the Roarks weren’t exactly on the best of terms. I had to wonder how the girl had managed to convince that old crook to take her.

“I’m going to take on some supplies here, and see if there is another convoy leaving. Looking at Tony who had just slid down next to me, I pointed to his communication crystal and he shook his head. I doubted that the thing could transmit between floors, given to how thick the interference was.

Aunt Gracie frowned at Tony, then relayed a message for him from his parents. “I pretty much can sum up their words, but they wanted me to pass this on for you. “Get her back, or there will be trouble!” She growled and we both nodded and I ran for one of the hawkers on the field calling out goods prices.

After dispatching a runner with my list of supplies I grabbed Neil and we entered the city, going straight for the central bank of the sky folk. The building was a massive fortification on one corner of Trader’s reach, its spires towering into the sky around us.

Steering him around swarms of trade certificate vendors at the entrance lobby, I pulled the message cylinder out that that eye’s port authority had given me the day before and stalked towards the manager’s office.

Entering the archway, I was greeted to swarming cubicles, and a small thronelike desk raised up around the bedlam of clerks and tellers counting coin and exchanging enchanted script around him.

“Rebecca Marshall!” A tall spindly mand with a neat set of robes, covered with his family sigils and wearing an odd top hat with a feather in it bounded down off the dais and we clasped arms instead of bowing, a sign of how high the Vermis family was related to the Marshall family in the complicated web of family alliances that I had to navigate.

I handed him the message and he read it, nodding. “You need to access your family vault?” I smiled.

“Yes, and Neil here needs to open an official partnership account.” I saw the man turn and stare at the traveler, then at me. “With you as guarantor?” I nodded at the man’s perplexed expression and tried to hide my grin.

“Very well, it’s not without precedent. However, I think this is the first time it has happened with a traveler in nearly a century.” He stammered and I saw Neil perk up.

“Wait, I thought that we are the first travelers, you know to be in Endaria.” We both stared at him in barely concealed astonishment.

I burst out laughing, shaking my head at the sheer look of incomprehension on Neil’s face. “No travelers until now have been rare, granted but they’ve been part of Endaria since the cataclysm.” I explained and he had a thoughtful look on his face before he brightened.

“You mean the beta testers? But that was only a couple of years ago, and they weren’t even on Prime from what I’ve gathered. All the material I could find looks like an entirely different planet.” His words made both of us go blank for a second before I shook the fuzziness out of my mind and glared at him.

“No, this is the first time a large group of travelers was ever seen as far as I know. And you lot act much differently than any of ones from the legends.” I explained and he just stared at us with a look of confusion.

He shook himself off, and for a second, I realized that the great seal was starting to affect his own line of questioning, as he quickly shifted topic. “What’s a partnership account?” He asked and I smiled.

“It’s like a joint account, it allows Rebecca to pay you directly from her own funds, and you can withdraw a limited amount in script in her name. Though you have to be acting in good faith for the benefit of Sweetwind.” The bank manager explained.

I nodded at the explanation. “I’m also paying for your account, as I doubt you could afford trying to open an independent account.” I explained and he nodded.

“At a discount, too lad. Be thankful that I’m not charging you the outsider’s tax, as it’s in partnership with one of the folk. This account is good between any bank branch on Prime.” The manager nodded to me as he pulled up the documents and we got to work opening the account. After we were done, I left him in the lobby while I descended into the depths of the tunnels below to access the Marshall family’s vault here in Trader’s Reach.

When I was done, and I had the items I needed, I picked up Neil on the way out and we made our way back towards the central market. We had nearly made it back when I felt a familiar touch on my power. Looking around I stopped. Around Neil and myself the street we were on flowed with the folk, some turning towards the bank and some pulling carts, or carrying heavy loads in the direction of the landing fields.

Neil looked up for me for a second as I narrowed my eyes and adjusted my goggles, pushing a complex aura sensing working into my lenses, scanning the crowd. My hairs were prickling on the back of my neck and I spun just in time to freeze in a twisting knot of pain and heartbreak.

There he was, watching me, my former fiancée and his new wife. Neil must have sensed the barely contained hatred and fury washing over me, cracking out of my mental barriers because he backed up and shook off one hand as it must have gone numb from the crackling energy rumbling up and down my harness, occasionally grounding out into him next to me.

“Didn’t think you’d see me again?” Connor Trelawny called and I gripped the hilt of my cutlass as a tall blond-haired man with sparking blue eyes glowing with power advanced. His crew filed around him along with a smirking woman who held a glowing focus rod, her eyes two red pits of malice.

“What are you doing, here Connie? I thought the needle had banished you!” I snarled and he laughed and shook his head.

“Oh, that’s a good joke! You think the council of clans would banish me just for snubbing the penniless orphan Marshall girl? Come now, you should know better.

“You betrayed us! All because my father called off our marriage! Why, why did you do it Connor? I never did get a chance to properly ask you!”

The man laughed and shook his head, his own harness flaring with cracking blue energy as he strengthened his own shield. “I never betrayed you… it was your fathers lack of compromise that did that. You could have had it all Becca, power wealth, and… protection…Me. All you would have had to do was support the right people and none of that unpleasantness would have occurred.”

The woman next to him looked at her husband critically before turning to see the look of heartbreak on my own face, and the pain etched there. I knew I was leaking enough emotion for that woman to know the truth. I didn’t care. I had grown up beside him always knowing I would eventually be wed with him. I had liked his family, up until I had learned the truth of his father’s involvement with civil war in Yamania.

I wanted to tell the assembly what I knew, but that was exactly what his new wife probably wanted. Kara had always been scheming, plotting and I blamed her and her family as much as Connor’s.

I took deep breaths, trying to strengthen myself and get my emotions under control. For some reason, I no longer felt the overpowering rage and sense of betrayal that had drove me away from society for years following the death of my family. I wanted justice yes, I did want revenge but I wasn’t without all sensibility.

The Trelawny family was one of the most powerful and influential among the folk. Yes, they had violated a scared compact between mine, and in other cases I would be blood bound to avenge their betrayal, but my own father had called off the union to avoid a blood feud. Feuding with the Trelawny family would have swiftly ended all of us.

I didn’t want to dishonor his memory by dying stupidly for no good reason. I recognized the powerless position I held, there was no way I could win against Connie and he knew it. Even if I called him to account, he would just challenge me to trial by combat despite my own testimony, and he would kill me.

“I hear you made a few powerful enemies Becca. Despite what you may think of my family I bear you no ill will, and I do not wish to add to that growing list you are swiftly acquiring.” He laughed, his hansom face that had once hung around my neck in a betrothal locket since I was nine called to me and mocked me at the same time.

Kara looked between us and narrowed her eyes, red rings of power flowing along her body as she fumed in rage. I felt a bit of leakage and I blinked at her in astonishment. The woman was jealous! I cracked a smile and almost laughed at the slip before I got my mirth under control. She could have that backstabbing monster and I’d wish her well.

Neil was gripping his own weapon in a white knuckled grip and I put my arm on his shoulder and shook my head. “They won’t try anything. Neil, I give you the… dubious pleasure of meeting Connor Trelawny, he is the Captain of Skybreaker. Connie, this is Neil, he’s a traveler.” I gritted my teeth as Captain Trelawney nodded and grinned at the traveler as he sized the lad up.

“I just dropped off a pair of travelers. You people are a… fascinating lot, I have to say.” He beamed at the patch on the boy’s shoulder and looked up at me.

“Your new apprentice? Now that is a remarkable idea Becca.” He thoughtfully stroked his elaborately shaped mustache and looked back towards the market.

“I heard that these travelers, they are undying yes?” One of the crew spoke up and his wife nodded.

“Yes, so they say. I’ve not actually seen one come back so far but it hasn’t been very long since the travelers returned to us.” She hissed, looking over Neil as if she would be interested in a bit of an experiment at my apprentice’s expense. Probably involving burning him into a pile of ashes.

“You know, according to ancient law of the folk, the travelers are the only other outside group other than the ones already here in the needle that can make a decent without being in a crew. I never knew about it until my mother pointed that fact out to me this very morning.” Connie looked towards the central merchant district and upward at a massive spire that held his family’s sigil streaming in the wind along with the other twenty head families of the assembly. They were arranged around the top of the central tribunal hall, and I glared at the building, bad memories resurfacing.

“Ever wonder why that is Becca?” He said and gazed at Neil as if the boy was hiding something. Neil looked about as confused as I had ever seen him and the man grinned at him maliciously. “I’ll get to the bottom of it eventually lad and when I do… I’ll be looking for you lot. Lots of uses for people like you.”

He gave a wry chuckle and beckoned to his crew as he turned and stalked off towards the market. Wincing I turned to watch him go, seeing the look of pure hatred on Kara’s face as she stared me down.