Tay followed Mondromo off of the roofs and down into Duskborough’s second tier. In the short week he’d been here, he’d not been able to learn much, but even he knew that if there was any place a bottomsider could hope to live, it was here. Below it, lowlifes ran rampant, and above it, topsiders came and bullied those they thought less of. But here, between it all, one could finally get some peace and quiet.

Thus, they called the area Peace and Quiet.

And it was anything but. People were filing out from their homes and their shops and taking to the streets in a chorus-like display of neighborly fervor. Mondromo couldn’t take three steps away from him without some knucklehead all but trying to split them up.

Tay kept expecting to see some of them trying to pat them down for coins, or try and snatch something from his person, but that never happened. He kept his own hands firmly on both sides of the small chest, but not a single person they crossed ever reached for it. If they gave them anything, it wasn’t trouble, but smiles. A strange neighborhood, indeed, and not unlike Pyrewood.

“Come on, kid,” Mondromo said, looking back and trying to get him to pick up his pace with a wave of his hand. “No dragging your feet now. We have to get you off of the streets.”

That only made Tay slow his pace more, to the point where Mondromo had to turn around and wait for him underneath an overpass that held up some sort of candle shop with a shirtless man stringing in laundry from his windows.

“Don’t mistake my gratitude for annoyance, but I’m not sure I’ve fully figured out your angle here,” Tay said.

“Gratitude for… you want to know why I helped you?” Mondromo began to grin again.

Tay only took the grin as confirmation that Mondromo was after whatever was inside the chest too. He pulled it to the side. If Mondromo was going to try and snatch it, he’d have to go through Tay. He hadn’t survived death only to lose the only reason why he’d almost died in the first place.

“You mistake my intentions,” Mondromo said. “I heard the sounds of battle and saw some topsiders bullying a bottomsider, steel in their hands. I acted because I wasn’t about to let them run one of my brothers through.”

Tay lowered his head nodding, feeling some blood rush into his cheeks. The man thought he was a Stormwall native.

“If that’s true, then you might as well consider your good deed done and go. Nothing good happens to people who do me good will.”

Mondromo took a step forward, and so Tay began to take a step back until Mondromo planted a giant hand on his shoulder, his grin now morphed into a more somber expression.

“I’m afraid my good deed, as you so put it, would only be wasted if I left you now, Tay. You’ve pissed off some really far-reaching folks. Give them an hour, and all the friendly faces you see around here will change until you’re nothing but a mouse to these hawks. I have a shop around the corner. You can lay low there until you decide your next move. Oh, but, hold on just a moment!”

Mondromo held his hand up to the air. Small, white lights, not unlike fireflies, coalesced out of nothingness and began to bounce around his fingertips. Tay watched as they grew in size and illumination and gained speed, swirling around each of his fingers as if come to participate in some elaborate dance. Then, all at once, the lights combined and a flat, rectangular, palm-sized object—just like the one the spikey-haired man had thrown—fell into Mondromo’s hand. Except this one did not radiate shadows, but instead glowed softly with that snowy aura the winged creature had possessed.

“What is that?” Tay asked.

Mondromo turned slowly to him, with one of his bushiest brows raised. “What? You mean you really don’t know what this is? Seriously?”

Mondromo lowered it, and Tay saw that it didn’t just look like a tarot card from a distance, but it was quite literally a card itself. But this was a card unlike anything he’d ever seen. As he took it from Mondromo, holding it between his thumb and forefinger, Tay could feel it pulsing with heat, like a basket full of fresh bread.

There was artwork on the card, and strange symbols that seemed to vibrate as he tried to read them. He blinked a couple of times, and then, out of nowhere, the symbols stopped vibrating and formed into words that he could read.

(15) Skywing Lord Stable This revenant gains +1 power for each card fused to it. Barrier, Flying 1 >>

And the artwork on the card, just underneath the name at the top, was that of the winged creature that saved him. It was diving from a sky full of clouds so white one would have thought them laden with snow. But Tay had never seen anything like this before, and had no idea what any of the words on the card meant even though he could decipher it now.

He gave the card back to Mondromo and said, “This looks that thing which saved me. But I don’t know what that means. I saw—I saw that other thing kill it. It died.”

Mondromo spun the card around in his hands, then stashed it in a small pouch on the back of his belt. Even while stowed, Tay thought he could see white light pulsing outward, but it was hard to tell.

“It didn’t die—revenants can’t die,” Mondromo said. “It was obliterated. But such is the fate of all revenants. The ones that we duel with have the unfortunate, or fortunate, ability to return to their runekeepers afterward though. You’re telling me you never heard of the game of Runicka before?”

Tay gave a shake of his head, and hoped that Mondromo would elaborate further. Instead, Mondromo took one of his massive hands and gave himself a firm slap on the forehead.

“If you don’t know what Runicka is, then what in the good graces of the Fourteen possessed you to steal cards from House Polamund?”

Tay’s grip on the chest tightened. Cards? He looked down at the box, and it was still as sealed as it had been when he’d swiped it.

His look must’ve given his confusion away, because Mondromo said, “Oh, come now, there’s only one thing in the world that House Polamund would come down into the depths of their city to procure.”

“But I didn’t steal from them. I stole this from a merchant. It was old woman, not that man with the spikey hair.”

Mondromo combed his blond mustache with his fingers and nodded. “Yes, but you’re not hearing me. That man was a Polamund, and he was here in bottomside to do one thing—buy Runicka cards, no doubt. And you’ve gone and stolen the cards that he probably already bought, if I had to wager. What your reason is for doing this—if you’ve no idea what it is you’ve even stolen—is beyond me.”

“I—I—” Tay could feel his voice locking up as his mind raced. Cards? Cards? He’d risked his life, and nearly gotten himself killed multiple different times for mere cards?

He flipped the chest to face him, and undid the bronze latch on the front, gripping the top of the chest with a trembling hand. Slowly, he pulled it up, and sure enough, there was a small stack of cards facing down that looked remarkably similar to the one Mondromo had plucked from the air. Some didn’t glow with the same aura, glowing with blackness instead, which made Tay shudder and close the box again, relatching it.

“I just wanted to make some good coin,” Tay said. “That’s why I came to this city.”

And Tay didn’t miss the look of surprise on Mondromo’s face when he gave away that he wasn’t a Stormwall native. If the man was mad, he had the best gambling face in the world, because he didn’t show it.

Instead, he said, “Not from around here then, are you? Well, that explains why’d you do something so silly as stealing from House Polamund. A lot of good those cards’ll do you. If Polamund was buying them, I doubt there’s more than a handful of merchants down here with the coin to pay their worth. And, like I said before, within the hour, there’s not going to be a single person in the whole city who’s going to risk doing business with you.”

Tay felt like he’d been punched in the gut. All of that, and it was for nothing? And to make matters worse, because he’d stolen from this House Polamund, the city was going to turn him into one of their most wanted?

Still clutching his so-called prize, because what else was he to do with it, he said, “I got to get out of here.”

He’d go back topside and look for passage out of the city. Maybe he’d be able to find someone on his way back to Pyrewood willing to pay just a fraction of their worth. Any coin was better than no coin. But how much were these worth?

Before Tay could ask, Mondromo put a heavy hand to his chest. “Not so fast. You’re coming with me to my shop. It’s just about the last place the Polamund’s will think to check.”

Tay frowned. “Why are you so keen on helping me? Not that I’m not grateful, but…”

“I get it. I can tell by the tears in your pants and the mud on your boots that you’re not used to a stranger’s kindness, but take it from me: if I were to leave you out here, you’d be dead before you could get topside again.”

“You’d help me even though I’m not from around here?”

Mondromo’s grin returned, he took a step back, and then slapped his belly with a chuckle. “Just look at me, kid. Do I look like someone who’d condemn you? Just, follow me—my shop’s just around the corner.”

So, beyond the overpass, they took a sharp right down a narrow road winding up to a small rise. The whole street was tucked underneath the uppermost tier of Duskborough and that didn’t stop children from playing ball together in the shadows. Beyond them, at the end of the lane, was a shop that Mondromo pointed to and called his own.

Tay didn’t know what he’d been picturing, but he hadn’t been picturing a candy shop.

Though it was hard to see through the darkened windows, especially in the low light of Duskborough—which only ever got its illumination from grates and candles, Tay could make out the sparkles of rock candy and swirls of lollipops. As they approached, the sweet smell of sugar tickled his nose and made his mouth water slightly. How long had it been since he’d enjoyed such a delicacy like candy?

“Don’t mind the grime,” Mondromo said. “You can’t get it off down here.”

Mondromo pressed his large hand against the door that seemed to be about half as large as himself and gently pushed it open. It knocked against a small bell, which jingled in a way that definitely took more quiet out of Peace and Quiet.

“Girls!” Mondromo called out. “I’m home.”

The candy shop was chock full of small goodies, the likes of which Tay had never seen in his entire life. There were small round balls of compressed powder, and thimble-sized drops made of chocolate, and sour syrup contained in bottles formed from wax. It was all so bizarre and so alluring.

A set of stairs at the end of the shop wound upward to what was presumably Mondromo’s living space. It was these stairs that began to rumble, right before a small girl dashed off of them, across the store, and into the waiting arms of Mondromo.

“Mond! You’re home! I missed you.”

Mondromo chuckled and then said, “I missed you too, Sally. But I wasn’t gone for more than an hour.”

“I know,” she replied. “But I don’t like waking up and finding that you’ve already left for the morning.”

“Well, I’m back now, and look! I’ve brought a guest.”

Tay shuffled back a step as the girl released herself from Mondromo’s embrace and looked him up and down. She was small still, a little over waist-height, so she couldn’t have been older than eleven or twelve. Her skin was far darker than Mondromo’s, and was almost as dark as her hair, which was ebony black and fell down to her shoulders. Except, it had streaks of white running through it, and a whole braid of white that ran from the peaks of her brow, over her ears, and around the back of her head, like a tiara of sorts.

Her most striking feature was the color of her eyes. Her irises were about as white as those streaks in her hair, or, now that Tay thought about, the aura that had encompassed the winged creature Mondromo carried as a card in his box. They were coupled with just about the whitest smile Tay had ever seen.

“Hello!” the girl said, holding out her hand. “My name’s Sallamana. You can call me Sally though. Everybody does. You should call me Sally too.”

Cradling the small chest in his left hand, Tay reached out with his right and gingerly shook her hand, though she squeezed his as tightly as she could muster.

“Nice to meet you, Sally. My name’s Taygion, but kinder folks call me Tay.”

She tilted her head to the side and smiled even wider, as if he’d just told her a secret. “Hooray for Tay! I like your hair by the way. It reminds me of fire. They say people with red hair are always getting into trouble, because they have fire in their blood. Is that true?”

Tay found himself short on words, but when he looked up to Mondromo for help, the large man chuckled and added, “Only partly, Sally. But here, give Tay some space. He’s been through quite an ordeal this morning, and I’m sure he’s looking to relax a little.”

Sally stepped back with a hop, but tilted her head and said, “An ordeal? But he’s so tall! I bet he could handle anything. What kind of ordeal have you been in, Tay?”

“Just a little bit of a disagreement with some bullies. I think we managed to sort it all out though.”

“I wouldn’t say all of it,” Mondromo said. “Why don’t you go and grab a lollipop by the window, dear? Tay and I have to talk about his disagreements for a minute.”

Sally crossed her arms, but didn’t look so half-upset when she all but skipped over to the barrels of lollipops just in front of the window. Mondromo on the other hand only had that stern gaze of his again as he brought Tay toward a table and set of chairs in the back, near to the stairs.

“Don’t think for a moment that this’ll all blow over,” Mondromo said, taking a seat. “You don’t know House Polamund. They’ll turn Duskborough inside-out if it means getting back what’s owed to them.”

Tay placed his chest on the table after taking a seat, but did not remove his fingers from it. “You talk as if you know them.”

“You could say we were acquainted, at one point. But we’ve long since parted ways. They think I’m either dead or fled the city, I’m sure. You should be safe here, until we figure out a safe way for you to return those cards you stole.”

Tay pulled the chest a little closer to him. Even knowing they were practically worthless to him, he’d gone through so much to acquire them. He couldn’t just hand them over and ask to be forgiven. He wouldn’t.

But to be fair to Mondromo and Sally, Tay then said, “You really shouldn’t be helping me. I meant what I said earlier. People who try and help me, I—I don’t always treat them right. I can’t treat them right. I know you said I couldn’t make it back topside, but maybe if I go right away—”

“Mond, Quincy’s coming,” Sally called out from across the store. “Oh, and I think he wants candy pretty badly. He’s running over.”

Without even a moment’s thought, Mondromo grabbed Tay by the wrist and practically threw him up the staircase as if he weighed nothing at all. “That man doesn’t know the meaning of Peace and Quiet,” Mondromo said. “If he sees you, House Polamund will know you’re here before long. Say nothing, and we’ll take care of it.”

As Tay scampered up the steps, he heard Sally clapping her hands and saying, “Uncle Quincy always brings us gifts!”

Next, he heard the bell chime, and a man wheezing, as if he was out of breath.

“What’s going on, Quincy?” Mondromo asked wildly. “You look as if the king’s just bit the dust.”

“Oh, something worse, something worse, Mond,” Quincy wheezed. “I’m running door-to-door. You got to be on the lookout for a young man. Tall as a reed with hair like fire. I’m told he’s got a flair about him, like he don’t care which way the coin drops, if you catch my meaning.”

“Well,” Tay heard Sally begin to say, “it’s funny you should mention a man like that because—”

“And what business would you have with this man, Quincy” Mondromo interrupted.

Even though he knew he shouldn’t, Tay crept back down the steps painfully and slowly to poke his head around the corner. Quincy was a short man, though next to Mondromo he looked absolutely tiny, with a thinning line of black hair and some ragged clothes. Tay had never seen him before in his life. Oh, what sort of trouble had he gotten himself into now?

“Me?” Quincy said. “None at all. But House Polamund has challenged that man to a duel at Whalemaw Square tomorrow at dawn, and if he doesn’t show, he’s threatening to search every shop and home in Duskborough until he finds the man. Can you believe that? A damn Polamund in all our honest homes? Anyway, spread the word, and if you see the man, get him down there by tomorrow.”

Sally did ask about any gifts Quincy might have, but he just patted her on the head saying he had no time before he dashed out the door, presumably to find the next shop to warn. A duel though? Tay couldn’t fight, let alone duel. Would House Polamund really comb through all of Duskborough just to get their hands on this chest?

Before Tay could summon up an answer, someone yanked his collar back from behind, forcing skull against the hard steps.

Then someone was above him. They placed their foot and subsequently all their weight down on his chest, effectively pinning him to the stairs in the most uncomfortable of ways.

When the person leaned over, Tay saw that she was a young woman, with the most piercing set of amber eyes that did nothing but burn with cold anger. Her skin was dark brown like Sally’s, and she too had a head full of black hair, though hers was more like flowing ink that fell to the middle of her back. She had a wide nose and a full set of lips that altogether gave her a reserved beauty.

And her body was nothing to forget about either, especially as it kept him pinned to the stairs. Her shoulders were broad and so were her hips. Though she was only moderately tall, she had enough of a build and the right angle to keep him under her heels.

“Who are you?” the young woman asked. “Some sort of thief?”

“I’m uh—uh—” What should he say? A friend? An acquaintance? The sad part was that he really was a thief, so he could’ve just nodded too.

“You’re what? Dumb?”

“Cari! That’s Tay! You shouldn’t stand on him.”

The woman known as Cari looked back for a moment, then down at him again, obviously confused. But she did step off of him and Tay got back up to his feet, rubbing his neck where a step’s corner had dug into his skin. His would-be attacker crossed her arms as he rejoined them at the bottom of the stairs.

Sally seemed determined to set right whatever had been wronged. She stepped forward and said, “Cari, this is Taygion. Tay, this is Carinella, my sister. Tay’s a guest of Mond, Cari.”

To that, Cari gave the briefest and weakest of smiles. “A pleasure,” she said, and then looked toward Mond, whose expression had now gone sour.

“Well, Tay, I’ve got good news and bad news,” Mondromo said. “Looks like you’re going to have a lot less time to lay low than we originally thought.”

Was that the bad news? He, and these three too, were probably better off with him out of the picture.

“But don’t worry, because now we all get one day and night to teach you everything you need to know about your first duel!”

Oh, no. That was definitely the bad news.