Kid woke up in the dark again. He put his thoughts in order with his daily mantra. Everything came back to him. He wondered if Typhon had moved on in the night.

The only way to know was to open his refuge to the outside. If Typhon had decided to hover outside, he had to be ready to talk something into defending him while he tried to escape. That would be hard to do with the wind trying to rip him apart.

He told the house that it needed a door for people to use it properly. Part of a wall fell away so he could stick his head out and look around. The wind had marched on in the night after failing to enter his impromptu cabin.

He decided to leave the stone building standing. Someone else might need it in the future.

He stepped out in the open and looked around. The houses he had seen in the night were almost buried in tree limbs from Typhon passing over them. He didn't see any damage from where he stood.

He might be able to trade his help for information. Someone must know how to find Gai, and how long Typhon had been wondering loose. How many people had been hurt and killed because he hadn't done what he had set out to do?

He supposed that the Conclave still stood. Wizards must still wander the world. Maybe he could find one after he found out where he was.

Kid walked down the hill. He realized that he was looking at a farm as he approached. Crops were protected by a shelter of stone and wood. It wasn't big, but it was enough to support a family. A barn housed the animals when they weren't allowed in their corral. A cluster of houses formed a defensive triangle in case some raider attacked.

He didn't sense any magic as he walked closer. That gave him a chance to impersonate an innocent wanderer and ask questions. A protective ring would have muted his personal vocabulary so the ring setter would be able to take control of any duel.

Kid paused as he sensed eyes on him. He didn't see any watchers, but that didn't mean anything. The houses had slits to prevent Typhon from invading their space. Someone could watch from one of those without him seeing it with his normal vision.

He didn't feel like augmenting his vision when he was supposed to be acting like someone lost and looking for a place to go.

He walked to the closest house and stepped on the narrow porch running around it. He knocked on the door and listened. He heard movement, but no one came to the door. He waited for a few more minutes before knocking again.

If no one came to talk to him, he would move on and look for a town.

The door opened after some quiet altercation behind it. A man worn by too much sun into a piece of red leather looked down at him. A woman stood behind him, peering around his arm. They both seemed to be in the middle of dressing for the day.

“I'm sorry for intruding, but I seem to have lost my way,” said Kid. “Can you point me to the nearest town?”

“Havelock is a few miles down the road,” said the farmer. He pointed in the indicated direction. “You'll be able to get help back on your path there.”

“Thank you very much,” said Kid. He made a sketchy bow to the couple before stepping off the porch. He turned in the indicated direction and started walking.

He wondered what they were scared of but decided there were plenty of things out there he didn't know about, and one of them could be wandering the island with him and the native population. It was a thing to keep in mind as he moved forward.

Kid walked in the sun, watching his surroundings. It had been a long time since he had done anything so basic as walking to a destination. He could have talked to his legs and feet about moving faster, but decided that he needed to be able to use his store of magic at any time instead of wasting it on enhancing his speed when he still didn't know where he was.

There might come a time when he really needed to move. He didn't want to try and fail because he had used up his power already.

He didn't recognize the name Havelock. That didn't mean that much, but it might indicate that he had slept longer than he had thought when he had dug himself out of the ground.

The duel had seemed to take forever before they had broken apart. Was Gai still alive? Did he still have the key? What happened next if the key couldn't be found?

Kid hoped Havelock was a place where he could learn some explanations for what had happened after the explosion that had separated him from Gai. If he couldn't find the key, he wouldn't be able to put Typhon down.

He saw the town in the distance. It had built a wall of wood and stone around its circumference, but he could see some buildings sticking up over the top of the wall. He thought that was brave considering what Typhon could do if it was angry.

If he could put the wind down, the town wouldn't have much to worry about after that.

Kid followed the road to a gate big enough for a wagon but not much else. He got in line behind a farmer heading for the local market and waited to enter. He supposed he looked out of place with his dirty clothes, and skin, and the lack of a natural tan on his face.

He could talk his way into town as long as a protective ring wasn't present. He wondered when magic had stopped being feared.

A guard in a loose blue tunic and helmet worked his way down the line. He asked a set of three questions to the supplicants in the line. Anyone who couldn't answer was directed out of the line and told to wait for their belongings to be searched.

The guard paused when he reached Kid. He looked at the others in the line. They stepped back to show the wanderer wasn't with them.

“Name?,” asked the guard.

“Kid,” said the magician.

“What are you doing here?,” asked the guard. He seemed to expect an answer like begging from the look on his face.

“I had some problems last night and a farmer directed me here so I could figure where I am and what I am going to do about it,” said Kid.

“Anything to declare,” said the guard.

Kid looked down at his clothes, and then at the guard.

“No,” said Kid.

“You have three days to find work, and get a sigil,” said the guard. “After that, you will be expelled as an undesirable element. This is your temporary license.”

He handed Kid a small yellow chit with numbers on it. The magician realized that the numbers were a date. They were different than the ones he had grown up on and used before he had been put to sleep.

Kid put the chit in his belt with a nod.

“If you get caught without it, you will be expelled immediately,” said the guard.

“Thank you,” said Kid. He smiled. “I don't think I will be here the whole time. Do you have any scribes here?”

“There are some off the Bazaar. Follow these wagons until they reach their stalls,” said the guard. He pointed at some of the wagons rolling through the gate. “There will be signs when you get there.”

“Thank you,” said Kid. He fell in behind the wagon rolling in front of him and walked through the gate. He followed the wooden carrier through the streets until they reached a cleared area with dozens of stalls and tables. He paused to get his bearings as the people around him put their wares on display.

He spotted a block of buildings with hand painted signs on the walls next to the doors. He couldn't quite read the lettering. Apparently he had been asleep so long that the letters had changed.

He needed to know something about the local town, and the people around it. The gap in time between his sleeping and waking had to be figured out and factored into his plans. And he needed to know if the locals knew anything about Gai. If he had faded from memory, his key might be as good as destroyed since the magician wouldn't know how to find it without the correct words to use.

After he had learned some of the local history, he could plan his next steps to look for the key.

He didn't like the thought that his duel with Gai had changed the existing land into something that no one wanted to navigate unless they had to do it to reach other places from desperation.

That didn't include the many years Typhon wondered around doing whatever it wanted to anything caught out in the open.

Kid talked to himself about making a good choice to get what he wanted. He walked to one of the offices that looked like the others and knocked on the door. It was time he got started.

A face as lean as any fox peeked out from behind the door. Hazel eyes regarded Kid with suspicion. The magician smiled back to show he was harmless.

“How can I help you?,” asked the proprietor.

“I'm looking for information on the town and where I am,” said Kid. “I am lost.”

“Do you have any money?,” asked the scribe.

“Yes,” said Kid. “Can you help me?”

“Come in,” said the scribe. “Where do you want to start?”

“I need a map and directions,” said Kid. “Let's start with that. Then I need to know everything you know about the town.”

Somewhere along the way, he was going to need whatever was known about the battle at sea and Typhon. He didn't want to state that just yet. The scribe might turn him away if he expressed any interest in the wind demon.

Normal people didn't want to have anything to do with something that might rip them apart just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The scribe led the way to a room devoid of anything but a table. He gestured for Kid to wait before he walked out of the room. He returned with an armful of scrolls. He placed them on the table.

“This is the map that you requested,” said the scribe. “It documents some of the trade routes between Havelock and the other towns on the island, and towns on other islands nearby.”

He unrolled the scroll so Kid could look at the picture drawn on it. It wasn't a complete picture, but it showed that the lowlands that had been there when he and Gai had fought had been covered in water in the years he had been asleep.

He rubbed his face with both hands as he considered what he had just learned.

He and Gai had destroyed this section of the land with their duel. How had the rest of the world fared in the face of this catclysm?

How many had they killed?

What about the other nations? Had they gone underwater like the land where the battle had taken place? Had they been able to overcome the tide?

“What other maps do you have?,” asked Kid. He bent over the unrolled scroll and concentrated on what it could mean if they had wrecked civilization.

“I have the old Frontiac maps, and a small assortment of charts,” said the scribe. “I can't claim anything to their accuracy.”

“Could I see those too?” asked Kid. There was a chance he wouldn't have to leave the new island chain. He didn't want that as an expectation before he had things nailed down.

“I'll be right back,” said the scribe. He left and returned in a few minutes. “These are the old Frontiac maps.”

He unrolled the maps so they formed a big picture. The maps of the island chain formed an inset.

Kid considered the new information. Most of the continent still survived but they were across a huge ocean that had once been an inland sea. This side of the continent had sank below the waves and taken more than a few people with it.

There was no way that he and Gai had enough power to do that on their own. Was the key responsible for what had happened to the land? Should he leave it buried at sea?

Where was Gai after all this time? Was he alive?