Four Years Later.

“You sure we can trust this guy? He seems pretty young.” I could hear the settlers whisper as I checked over my equipment.

My various crystal-tipped bullets all seemed to be in fine condition, and my small pickaxe with a ruby head was still nice and sharp.

I thankfully didn't need to use it much, for those times that my gun ran dry however, the ruby axe had saved my life more than once. If you knew where to aim, a solid swing with a gem-tipped tool like my pick could do a lot of damage to the horrors of the Scorch.

"You didn't hear? He took out that pack of diamond dogs that were hounding the new settlement down south."

"That's a load of quartz. I don't care what kinda fancy guns you got, ain't diamond dogs supposed to be indestructible?"

"Dynamite." I spoke up as I finished cleaning my repeater, the finely crafted barrel cut from pure ruby shining nicely in the sun.

The two men who had been whispering a bit too loudly jolted and looked over at me.

"S-sorry?" one started as the other nudged him

"Diamond dogs are pretty much immune to any kind of weapon except diamond, but they're pretty dumb if you have the right bait. I led them into a pit and shattered them with a bundle of dynamite." I looked up at the pair as their eyes went wide.

Despite their previous talk, they were clearly impressed.

"W-what kinda bait?" one stammered out.

I gave a forced smile and lifted my shirt, where the bite I had received from a razor-sharp set of diamond fangs was still healing

"Wasn't my original plan, but once they get a taste, they go into a frenzy."

"Quartz, how did you get away once it had you like that?" I grimaced at this, the painful memory still fresh in my mind.

I reached into a pouch at my side and pulled out a set of metal rings, designed to fit around my fingers, each studded with a pointed diamond. The pair went even wider-eyed at this.

Despite the existence of creatures like diamond dogs, the material was still rare and expensive, especially given that naturally growing clusters of the gem attracted some of the deadliest creatures in the Scorch.

"Imagine what you could get if you sold that…" one of the men couldn't help but sound jealous.

I laughed at that.

"Money wouldn't do me any good if I got caught without it. Only thing that can get one of those diamond critters off you in a clutch, and ain't exactly easy to use." The act of punching a crystal creature, even with the duster, had left my hand an absolute mess.

I had barely just recovered enough to start using my trusty repeater again.

"Why don't you just sell it though? Surely you could make enough money to get outta the Scorch, pay off whatever debt sent you here?" I lowered my hat at this, trying to think of the best excuse I could manage.

Most people ended up in the Scorch out of desperation. It was true one could get lucky and make a fortune from the naturally growing gems that literally sprouted from the ground out here, if they survived the wildlife and other threats. Unfortunately the odds of that were frighteningly low.

I’d met plenty of men like these two before. They simply couldn't understand the concept of someone staying out here unless they had no other choice, and I didn't quite fancy explaining my reasons to them. The truth was there were plenty of folk like me in the Scorch, here for more than just money, but to everyone else we just seemed insane.

"I wish my debts were so easy to pay off, I'll be lucky if I ever get out of here alive." I shrugged and the two men nodded, seemingly satisfied by my answer.

They turned back to talking about other affairs, what they would do once they arrived at the mining town we were headed to, talking about the best harvesting spots they would hit up to try and find rare geodes and clusters to harvest. Most of their info seemed pretty spotty at best, so I tuned it out and went back to polishing the slender barrel of my repeater, listening for the telltale shrill screams of the crystal critters I had been hired to deal with if, or more accurately when, the caravan attracted them.

Not even I knew what caused the many crystal creatures of the Scorch to come together and attack people like us just trying to get from one place to another across the shimmering crystal sands. They didn't seem to actually eat anything, so it wasn't for food. When the creatures got a hold of people, they just tore them to shreds and moved on, attacking without regard for their own safety.

That was what made them so dangerous really. A normal pack of wolves would retreat in the face of a show of force or if the odds were clearly stacked against them, but creatures like diamond dogs would keep coming until they were blown apart.

Researchers were sure there must be some kind of method to the madness, but they were still baffled as to what it could be. Some folk thought that the meteorite that had turned the once lush and bountiful forest into the gem-encrusted hellscape we all not-so-lovingly called “The Scorch” had driven them mad as it had changed them, while others thought there was some greater force actively controlling them.

I was never sure what to believe, but as long as I could kill the creatures and keep on making a living, it didn't matter much to me. During my time in the Scorch, I had built up a pretty decent reputation. There were of course others that tried to make a living as wandering gunslingers like myself, generally accepting whatever work was around to make enough coin for a meal and place to spend the night, but it was a line of work where a single mistake on a mission could mean the worst.

The early days had been the worst in the Scorch, entire groups of people going missing, some of the early attempts to make settlements wiped off the map entirely. Despite all this, the world had seen the Scorch as a challenge, something to conquer rather than avoid. Some of the nearby countries had sent their finest mages and soldiers to the Scorch with varying success.

For some reason, the crystals seemed to interfere with magic, resulting in the effects being wildly unpredictable. There was sadly more than one example of a magic-user falling to their own powers in the Scorch, so most stopped venturing out long ago. The soldiers had done somewhat better, quickly seeing that their fancy new revolvers and basic rifles from the latest technological revolution were mostly useless, they switched back to two-handed swords, hammers and halberds.

At first, the going was rough with that tactic, but once they started to understand the varying hardness of their enemies based on the type of gem they were composed of, things picked up rapidly.

Nests would be cleared out with heavy explosives and new weapons and armour would be made from the remains, each victory giving the soldiers more of an edge. Over the years, smiths from all around the land came forward to work with the huge deposits of gem being shipped back from the Scorch. Powerful weapons and armour were constructed from the materials and were used to help push further into it.

This made the Scorch an important place for all the surrounding countries to conquer, and skirmishes over land were not uncommon. But the sandy desert-like wasteland was massive, practically a country in its own right, so it would be decades before anyone could lay claim to it fully.

Some people did refer to the Scorch as a desert, but I always found it hard to do so. This place was once full of life, trees and plants, but that had all been snuffed out so quickly when it became the Scorch. To me it would always be a wasteland, a place where you didn’t live, just survived. I knew quite a lot of the unwilling residents here agreed with me on that. Especially those who came from the nation up north, Kenbry, like myself.

Kenbry was a desert nation but it was so full of life and joy that this place had none of. When I first got here I missed it deeply, and wished I could go back every night. That feeling had lessened over time but never truly faded.

For now, each bordering country such as Kenbry had their own large outpost in the Scorch, far away from one another, all trying to expand. One day, the Scorch would become a true battlefield between empires, but that was still a long way off. At least, I hoped.

“Huh, looks like there’s a starsand storm or something…” one of the two older men sitting nearby me in the caravan whispered to his friend.

I carefully rose to my feet and joined them, peering over the side of the caravan to see that there was indeed a large cloud of glittering starsand cresting a nearby hill.

“Let’s hope that’s all it is…” I grimaced and pulled out a small spyglass I kept in a satchel around my waist.

The tool had been expensive but as with pretty much everything I carried, had saved my hide enough times to make it more than worth it. Focusing the lens on the cloud, I carefully looked for any of the telltale signs of crystal creatures.

They were fairly easy to spot in the day due to how their bodies caught the light, but the sun was starting to set and the incoming storm of shimmering crystalline sand, known to us living out in the Scorch as starsand, would be the perfect cover. That was why the spyglass was such an important tool. As soon as I saw an especially large colourful shimmer from the edge of the storm, I swore under my breath, focusing the lens to try and get a clearer look.

“You see something?” one of the men spoke up nervously.

“Got a glint out in the storm, looks like sapphire…”

The lens of my spyglass had turned a light blue shade that I could recognise as that of the familiar gemstone. It was another feature that made it so blasting expensive; a crystalline lens infused with just a drop of identification magic that could help me figure out exactly what kind of creature I was facing from range. Thankfully not enough magic to backfire or explode, but it couldn’t do much more than change colour to match what I was looking at.

When I first saw the spyglass advertised I thought it an overpriced joke, but survival often came down to knowing what you were dealing with out here. If the spyglass had took on the subtle tint that signified diamond for example, I would have called for the settlers to evacuate and start riding for their lives using their horses while I tried to slow down the creatures.

Sapphire was tough, but I could handle it. As soon as I could make out an actual moving form in the approaching cloud, I quickly stowed away my spyglass, yelling out to the entire caravan.

“We got sapphire spiders people! Stop and form a circle!” I pulled myself up onto the roof of the caravan and hopped over to the one in front of us, repeating my yell and the process until all four caravans were slowing to a stop and forming up.

The spiders were still about three minutes away, but they would move a lot faster than our horses so our best chance was to take care of them here.

“Hey you two, I need some spotters, get up here!” I crossed back to my original caravan and found the two men I had been talking to, their faces went pale but they obeyed me, both climbing up onto the roof of the caravan with a lot more effort than I had.

I asked two others in the caravan, a married man and woman, to join us and they shared a frightened look before joining me.

“Where are our rooks?” I called out as the spotters got into position.

It took a few seconds for the armoured members of the protector guild to emerge from their caravan toward the front of the convoy, but I was glad to see we had a good handful riding with us. They were exclusively armed with close range heavy weapons like greatswords, halberds and warpicks.

“We’ll take point.” one of the rooks, a tall bulky man with a scarred face, called out to me.

I simply nodded, knowing better than to try and give the rooks orders. The small squad made their way to the side of the convoy the storm was approaching from, forming up and readying their weapons.

“You good with dealing with any stragglers?” another called out to me.

I really didn’t like his tone, but now wasn’t the time for an argument.

“I got it.” I called back.

With the rooks moving toward the storm, their heavy weapons prepared and goggles on, I turned back to the rest of the settlers.

“Alright, when the spiders get closer they’re going to fan out and try to surround us. Spotters, don’t bother shooting, just let me know when they’re coming from another direction!” The three others atop the caravan spread out while I crouched down, sliding a couple of rubyshot rounds into the magazine in the stock of my repeater.

They were crystalline shards packed with magically enhanced blast powder, not cheap but the best way to deal with tougher crystal creatures like sapphire spiders. The force from a shot was just about stronger than a non-magical cannon.

“Everyone else, your shots won’t do much but you can slow them down and give me more time to pick them off. Take cover behind the caravans and shoot anything that starts moving towards us!” Now fully loaded, I lifted up my rifle and trained my sights on the storm moving toward us.

I didn’t dare take a shot yet, every bullet would have to really count if I were to handle a swarm like this. Now that the spiders were growing closer, I got a good look at them through the starsand storm.

There seemed to be at least fourty or fifty of the massive beasts skittering around in the storm of starsand, their bodies embedded with large glowing sapphires that had corrupted them and turned them into the monstrosities they now were.

They were hardly recognisable as the arachnids they once were, their forms fed by the strange crystal magic and mutated into creatures with crystal armor and huge venomous fangs ready to sink into their prey. A bite was certainly a death sentence without any mages specialised in healing around, and finding one of those who could actually use their magic in the Scorch? The odds were less than slim, to say the least.

I had encountered the spiders enough to know their tactics, how they liked to hunt and kill their prey. The large groups that ventured out of their nests would work together in a strangely coordinated manner, communicating by some kind of high pitched chittering sound that caused their crystals to light up bright blue. They would encircle their prey like wolves, before rushing in on multiple sides.

Our best method of defense was like I said, with myself picking off the spiders with the rest of the settlers while the rooks rushed the storm and held back the bulk of the swarm with their armour and heavy weapons. The settlers with their basic rifles and revolvers would be unable to score any killing blows on their own unless they got incredibly lucky and hit the same spot multiple times or found a gap in the crystal somewhere, but they could provide useful support and slow the spiders down.

“Everyone get ready, start shooting and spotting!” I yelled, leveling my rifle as the creatures started to skitter around the caravan.

Just as I had thought, they were forming a large circle around us, using the starsand storm as cover. I whipped down a pair of goggles from on top of my hat and lowered the rim to protect my face from the starsand, making sure I could still aim without the fine particles stinging my eyes. The other settlers followed suit, and a few seconds later a panicked cry came from behind me and to my right.

“T-they’re rushing us over here!” one of the pair I had been chatting to yelped and pointed, squinting through the starsand.

I spun around to where he was pointing, already aiming down the sights of my gun. Sure enough, a sapphire spider, roughly the size of a small horse, had broken off from the pack and was skittering toward the caravans.

A couple of settlers that had positioned themselves behind that particular wooden caravan fired a couple of shots, but only one seemed to hit and it barely slowed the creature down.

If I missed, the spider would reach the caravan in seconds, tear through it and the settlers who were desperately reloading their guns. From there, there would be no way to hold back the incoming swarm as well as deal with the creature already past our makeshift defences.

Knowing that lives very much hung in the balance, I shouldered my repeater, braced myself and fired.

The barrel of the repeater seemed to quite literally explode in a fireball as the rubyshot blasted straight into the center of the sapphire spider’s body, drilling right through it with explosive force before detonating. The creature gave a chittering scream that was quickly drowned out by the blast that easily shattered it into a pile of lifeless crystal chunks. The sound and recoil from the blast were always enough to make me wince, no matter how much practice I had.

I could tell the settlers were stunned by it too as their panicked cries momentarily fell silent, part shock and part awe as they witnessed the amazing destructive power I wielded to protect them. All too quickly, the silence was broken by a settler on the other side of the ring of caravans yelling.

“Two more this way!” he cried out as the settlers on that side began aiming and firing their guns to slow the spiders down.

I swore under my breath as I started to run around to their side, hopping across the wooden caravan roofs and reloading the shot I had fired as I went. Once I arrived, I worked the lever-action and fired through the closest spider, catching it just as it started to leap at the caravan, then I rapidly repeated the process on the one just starting to catch up.

Just as before, two cannon-like blasts rang out and both spiders screeched as their crystal bodies were punctured, the bullet detonating within them and reducing them to nothing but piles of small gems. This had seemingly scared the other spiders, as the sound of chittering was growing louder from the remaining seventeen or so still circling us.

I didn’t waste the opportunity, drawing out three rubyshot rounds from my bandolier and feeding them into my magazine, loading one as I did so.

With my gun back to the full capacity of seven rounds plus one in the chamber, I took a moment to breathe. In larger attacks like this, staying focused was everything.

I had to mentally track the size of the swarm, the behaviour of the spiders and my own ammo and position. All it would take was one little slip, and we could all too easily be overrun.

“One here!” the settler to my left called out to me.

“One here too!” the one on my right sounded more panicked.

I took a quick look both ways and swore once again, this was going to be tight. I went right first, hopping over to the rooftop of the caravan, lining up my shot and taking it.

The sapphire spider tried to skitter out of the way at the last second but it was far too slow and my bullet still hit it in the body. If I had glanced it or only taken out a leg or two it would likely still be able to move enough to cause trouble, body shots were the surest way of putting them down for good.

Once the rubyshot impacted, it would explode a few seconds later with enough force to shatter nearly anything bar diamond.

With that spider taken care of, I hopped off the roof into the circle the caravan had formed, going into a roll and quickly hopping back to my feet so I didn’t lose any momentum. I could see the spider approaching past one of the caravans that formed the loose circle.

I arrived at the caravan at the same time it did, hopping around the side to the exterior of the circle just as it reared up, preparing to use its pointy legs to smash through the wooden barricade.

As it started to turn its attention on me, I fired from the hip and jumped back, taking cover behind the caravan as the creature exploded in a spray of jagged crystal. Rubyshot could be insanely dangerous up close, and I had heard stories of more than one gunslinger with a crystal firearm that had died due to shrapnel or just using the explosive rounds too close to them.

Normally, I would have used my pick in a situation like this, but that would have taken far too long to put the creature down for good. One on one it was a fine tactic to save my ammunition, not when there were over a dozen more creatures ready to attack at any moment.

Knowing there was no time to waste, I quickly climbed the side of the caravan, getting back to my vantage point and reloading my repeater once again. So far so good, I thought to myself. If I could keep this up we might just make it through this trip without losing anyone.

Some losses were practically expected on dangerous journeys like this one through the Scorch, but as of late I had been doing a good job at making sure everyone made it through. The only bad incident on a job in recent memory was a settler who had lost an arm after a particularly nasty scorpion had ambushed us.

The creature had buried itself in the ground, leaping out to attack when the caravan had rolled over its home. The traveler survived thanks to me putting it down quickly, but his injuries weren’t pretty.

This time, I hoped I could avoid anyone getting hurt under my watch. With that in mind, I steeled myself and started shooting once again. With each and every thunderous blast from my ruby repeater, another sapphire spider was blown to pieces, crystal shards flying everywhere.

The settlers moved back cautiously, ducking into cover to avoid any of the larger, pointier shards flying out towards them.

Even though their own peashooters could barely dent the natural armour of the creatures, they kept on firing away whenever a spider broke from the pack and rushed them. Slowing the creatures and helping me draw a bead on them to detonate the arachnids with my superior firepower.

When I had a chance, I glanced toward where the rooks had run out to meet the spiders. They were holding their own exceptionally well against the swarm, having formed up into a tight group. I could see them expertly striking out and blocking with their huge gem-edged weapons, each of their strikes taking chunks out of the many-legged horrors.

The rooks were exceptionally good at covering each other. Whenever I saw one step in to deliver a vicious blow with one of their massive weapons, two more would step in next to them, using their own to block the spiked legs and fangs that lashed out at the attacker.

They couldn’t individually kill a crystal creature as swiftly as I could of course, but in an extended battle their tactics and raw skill far outweighed my own usefulness. If I ran out of bullets, I was essentially useless, whereas they could keep on fighting powered by sheer adrenaline.

From the short glimpse I caught of their battle, they had already smashed four of the spiders to pieces and were chipping away at the others. The spiders couldn’t even land a hit on them, and even if they could they would have trouble getting through the gem-reinforced armour of the rooks.

Since they were clearly handling themselves just fine, I turned my attention to the next spider making a move toward the caravan; detonating it into gemstone chunks and a starsand cloud.

“This way!” Occasionally, one of the settlers would cry out a warning and I would hop between caravans to take a lethal shot at one of the large arachnids.

They were trying to sneak around my firing line, using their brethren as cover. Thankfully most of them seemed too dumb to try this tactic.

One or two stray scuttlers I could handle, but if I had to split my attention some would start to break through and then lives would be lost. I had seen it happen far too many times before, once the spiders got close, they were a deadly storm of fangs and sharpened limbs. All you could really do at that point was pray for someone else to blast the thing off you before it started to dissect you alive.

The strange parasitic rock that created these dangerous creatures didn’t endow them with any more intelligence than they already had. Otherwise, I probably would have been killed at least twenty times over on risky jobs like this one.

Being able to take advantage of their predictable behaviour was key to survival in the Scorch, and I had dealt with more than enough creatures to have a pretty solid sense of what they were going to try next.

I could practically sense which direction they would try and come from next now that I was in the groove of things, and I found myself moving caravans even before the settlers were calling out to me, my carefully aimed shots always ringing true.

Before I knew it, the last of the spiders had been blasted apart from the inside. The creature let out a loud chittering sound as its many legs twitched wildly, then it fell still. No longer a danger to myself or any of the settlers.

Not wanting to celebrate too early, I reloaded my repeater once again and hopped between all four caravans. The starsand storm had cleared now, so I was able to remove my goggles as I checked for any more threats, but I was happy to find that there were none.

No more spiders roaming about, and no other creatures drawn in by the sound of my repeater. We were safe, and I called out as such to the settlers who began to cheer.

With the threat taken care of, the leader of the caravan started calling out orders and some reluctant settlers grabbed picks and made their way to the corpses of the spiders, starting to hack away at the chunks of crystal.

In the Scorch, you couldn’t afford to let that kind of stuff go to waste. As per my agreement, in addition to my base fee I would be entitled to a share of any crystal shards the caravan collected on the journey.

This was a standard deal for me, as using my ruby repeater wasn’t exactly cheap, and I couldn’t afford to take a loss every time I had to deal with creatures while doing my job or I would starve within a week. No matter how many you killed, the Scorch always seemed to have more horrors in store for those trying to survive. Before hopping down from the ring of caravans I spared a look for the rooks. They had a few light injuries, but nothing too worrying.

Despite never signing up myself, I had to respect the bravery of charging in to face a horde like that with less than a dozen people. If I was lucky I could maybe handle three or four lesser crystal creatures in close range. My skill set much better specialised for protecting the caravan on my own.

“Y-you saved us! Thank you, I’m so glad there are brave folks like you out here to help deal with those monsters.” one of the men I had been talking to that I had asked to help me spot the creatures called out to me as I took my seat on the back of a cart.

I gave the chestnut horse pulling said cart a soft pat on the head as I passed it by. Me, brave? I had to stop myself from chuckling when I heard that. If they knew the reason I was really out here, the last thing they would call me was brave.

“Nothing to it, just keep me in mind if you need any more help once we get to town.” I nodded, checking my remaining ammunition.

Twenty rubyshot rounds left, less than I would like, but enough to get me out of one or two scrapes if I was careful. I would have to visit the nearest gemsmith as soon as possible to get some more crafted. It wouldn’t be cheap, but the pay from escorting the caravan should be enough to restock my supplies and keep me fed for a while if I was careful and none of my gear needed repairing.

Every settlement had varying prices, with the ones deeper into the Scorch charging a lot more than the ones on the outskirts for goods and services due to the areas being more dangerous. It usually worked out however, as the further you ventured into the Scorch the more rare crystals there were to find.

Unfortunately, those crystals were usually attached to some unspeakable horrors, so the ill-prepared would find nothing but their own gruesome deaths in the wasteland.

“So, ya gun, it got a name?” I looked up in surprise, finding that a young red-haired woman had broken away from the main group in our caravan to come and sit next to me.

I shifted awkwardly, turning the slender ruby barrel over in my hands, using a worn cloth to clean off a smudge of blasting powder. It wasn’t as if a few marks here and there would affect the performance of the finely tuned weapon, but I kept it clean regardless.

“Not yet, I suppose I never really got around to naming it…” I sighed to myself, unconsciously stroking the crystal barrel and reinforced leather grip protectively.

Without the gun, I almost certainly wouldn’t be able to survive the horrors of the Scorch, so the least I could do was treat it with some respect. I never really had to worry about dents or scratches, as the clear red crystal was an extremely strong and durable material. It had to be to handle the kind of ammunition I fired out of it.

If I had tried to load one of my rubyshot rounds into a regular firearm the best-case scenario would be the gun exploding spectacularly and whoever was firing it losing a couple of fingers or their hand. There were still a couple of folk with missing fingers and crystal firearms roaming the Scorch as a testament to those early prototype weapons.

“Why not? I thought all you wanderer-types were really protective of your special guns?”

The red-haired woman sat down next to me. She seemed genuinely curious rather than teasing, so I looked up from my gun and took her in properly. She was about my age, with skin too perfect and pale for someone living in the Scorch. I had turned twenty two last summer, not that I had really celebrated.

I had been camping solo on a trip between two settlements, a dangerous task that had meant I couldn’t even risk lighting a fire without possibly drawing the wrath of the Scorch down onto me.

“We are, they don’t come cheap and if they ever break we’re pretty much useless.”

“Then why haven’t you named yours?”

“Don’t know, I guess coming up with a name for it myself makes it feel like a pet or something.”

“What’s wrong with that? I’d love a pet out here if it weren’t so dangerous.”

“Don’t really think of it as a pet, it’s more like a partner. We keep each other safe. Without it, I’m useless and without me it's the same, so…”

“So it feels a bit weird naming ya partner right?”

“Right, if the person who made it had told me it already had a name, I would have just accepted it. But now I’ve had it so long it feels kinda wrong to just come up with something on the spot.”

“I see…” she seemed to go deep into thought for a few seconds.

“Then how ‘bout I come up with a name for it?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, I haven’t known it for as long as y’all, but the two of ya saved my life today, so maybe it would be fitting if I came up with a name for it?”

"I suppose I'll have to think about it, I should probably know what your name is first though right?"

"Oh, of course, so silly of me, all the talk of names and I forget to introduce myself. I'm Kate, nice to meet ya."

"Nice to meet you too Kate, I'm going by Cyrus these days, can call me Cy if you'd like."

"These days? Cyrus ain't your real name?"

"Not the name I was born with if that's what you mean, but it's who I am now. Been going by it ever since I came to the Scorch."

"Well fair enough, thanks for talkin' to me Cy, mind if I sit with you until we get to Clearvein?”

“If you’d like, just not the most talkative fella really."

“Ah I don’t mind, I can do the talking for both of us!” I couldn’t help but smile at how energetic Kate was able to be so soon after such an incident that would be sending most newcomers to the Scorch back home at the earliest opportunity.

“So you’re with the protector guild right? They call you guys rooks?”

“Nah I’m not officially with the guild or anything, but this job came from them, yeah.” I nodded, brushing some strange dirt from my coat and removing my goggles to give them a good clean too.

Of the several guilds that worked to explore and conquer the Scorch regardless of nation, I currently didn't belong to any of them. Being an official rook of the protector guild would have been helpful, I wouldn't have to find work through my own sources for one, but I didn't want to sign up and become too well known or easily tracked down by having my name on their register. It would somewhat defeat the point of my living here in the Scorch.

"Are you part of a guild or just traveling?" I ventured a question of my own, not wanting to seem rude.

"I'm part of the researcher guild actually!" Kate seemed excited to talk about it.

She rummaged around in her knapsack before presenting me with her metal guild pin. It was a small silver sigil in the shape of an open book, her name inscribed on the pages as "Kate Barclay". It would give her access to any researcher facilities in any settlement, as well as prove her identity for things like staying at inns and collecting supplies the guild had sent ahead for her. My repeater served the same function for me, unique enough that it identified me wherever I went.

"You must be out here for a project then?"

"Something like that yeah, there's been reports of some unusual creature behaviour around Clearvein, so I've got my first job with the guild investigating it." Kate’s enthusiasm seemed to falter a bit when she mentioned the job, so I probed a bit further.

"Sounds interesting, aren’t you excited for it?"

"Oh yeah, I'm just a bit worried about observing the creatures on my own to be honest. I've read plenty about them but those spiders were the first I've actually seen."

"I understand, it can be a lot and you never get entirely used to the attacks." I nodded as I spoke. "They're always pretty terrifying, but that's why you researchers are so important; finding new ways to deal with those things and make life here safer for everyone, right?"

"That's the hope, as horrible as they are I can't help but be fascinated too, I may have to buy ya a drink when we get into town if ya wouldn't mind telling me about some of your experiences with them?"

"Works for me."

I was enjoying talking to Kate a lot more than I thought I would. There was something about her almost naive enthusiasm that felt so fresh. Most people used to life in the Scorch had a much more cynical attitude towards everything, myself included to some degree.

Living in a place where one could meet a gruesome end on any given day at any given time tended to have that effect on people. We were all very aware of our mortality out here.

While I wasn’t really looking to make friends out here, I knew she would likely have a budget for hiring protection. If not, I could at least do some networking and share some stories. Talking to her was easy, and I could always find another job in town by asking the stationed rooks or miners if they needed help with anything.

It was early evening when we did finally pull up to the settlement. While it was new it already had most of the basic structures like a large inn, houses and even a general store had already been set up by an advance party sent out by one of the countries bordering the crystal-infested wasteland. I did my best to stay out of politics outside of the Scorch.

There was enough trying to kill me already, both within the Scorch and outside of it. I didn’t need to get involved in any more potentially deadly situations like that. I just took jobs from whoever had the money, a friend of mine acting as a go-between to make sure my clients were trustworthy. I didn’t accept any jobs that involved anything criminal, but my friend told me there was always plenty of work available if I ever decided to go that way.

I wasn't currently that desperate, and hoped I never would be. Accepting those kinds of jobs may help me get some extra coin quickly, but they came with a lot of extra baggage in the form of the enemies I would make. If I did too much work like that, I would have to get used to watching over my shoulder and sleeping with a gun in my hands again, exactly what I had come to the Scorch to escape.

The head of the caravan came to find me once she had given the rest of the settlers their orders. Most were unpacking supplies and finding the people they would be sharing houses with. The majority were workers, who would be making a living scavenging and mining the crystals nearby the village in a group with guards protecting them in case of attack.

“Good job out there, I’ll be honest with you gunslinger, I wasn’t too sure when the guild recommended you but I’d gladly hire you again.” the leader of the caravan, a tan elderly woman with plenty of scars on her face, handed me a small bag full of coins, and a larger bag filled with my share of the crystal chunks.

I tipped my hat as I took both.

“Happy to help where I can, if you ever want to request me for a job, the guild can put you in contact with me through my friend Barnabus.” the older woman gave me a warm smile and nodded, then she went back to work.

I had to let people know where to find me whenever I got the chance, most went to the protector guild to hire some of the rooks when they needed protection, but the rooks were always spread pretty thin and only had a couple of crystal gunslingers in their employ. They tossed the occasional piece of work my way in exchange for a small cut, and had tried to get me to sign up officially plenty of times but to no success. The arrangement worked fine as it was, no reason to fix what wasn’t broken.

My pay received, a hefty bag of coins and a large sack filled with assorted sapphire chunks, I found myself wandering over to the inn. A small two storied wooden structure with a sign reading "Ruby Rest". For how recently it had been set up it was surprisingly nice looking. The lower floor was a saloon where the workers could get a drink and a hot meal after a hard day of work, while the upper seemed to have several rooms available.

I saw that Kate was leaning up against the wall beside the doors so I gave her a nod and we walked in together, the doors swinging shut behind us.

“So, what’s ya poison Cy?”