I opened my spirit eyes, and Calfet of Huwata flickered into view. He stood where I’d last seen him—about forty yards out towards the river east of us.

From beside me, Aslishtei asked, “What do you need to perform the ritual? How should we support you?”

I shook my head. “It’s already done, and I see him. Come on, follow me.”

The people waiting to get into the city stared and pointed as our strange group got moving. There was Mumu and me, of course, along with Susu’s team, Aslishtei, Sondo, and a handful of soldiers, including a couple that—if I hadn’t seen them report to Sondo—I would’ve sworn were hunters. Their gear, the way the moved, everything about them felt familiar.

Mumu saw my confusion, and signed, “Soldier scouts.”

Ah, I thought, that explains it.

They’re both qi users too, Yuki said. We can smell it on them.

They’re empowered in some way? Right now?

Yes, they said, the magics were cast just as we arrived.

Do you recognize the spells? I asked.

No, but they smell delicious.

Okay, well, let’s keep an eye on the scouts, along with everyone and everything else, I suppose.

At least, the ground was flat, and it looked like the grass had been grazed low around the city walls, so it took hardly any effort to make our way towards Calfet’s ghost. He’d been a big man in life, easily taller than anyone in our group. His face was squarish too, almost like he’d had some dolbec in him.

We found no signs of his body, but there was blood on the ground, as well as the faint scent of urine. The land told the story of a brief struggle and something heavy being dragged towards the water. The hunters and scouts spread out to examine the area, yet the conclusion was obvious: Calfet’s body had been dumped into the river.

His ghost stared forlornly in that direction, which confirmed it in my eyes. Did the poor man walk away from the walls to take a piss and get ambushed? Was he just a snack for Borba?

Maybe, but there’s something wrong with the pattern of events, Yuki said. We can’t quite figure it out though.

Hmm? What could it be? I doublechecked the signs, but didn’t see anything unusual. Not until a few of the soldiers stood next to Calfet’s ghost—that was when a realization sparked within Yuki and me at the same time: all the soldiers wore necklaces, but not the ghost.

The necklaces were near identical in their make—half of a razor clam shell pierced by a small hole at one end, strung through with a leather cord, and worn outside the soldiers’ armor.

“Um... what do those do?” I asked, pointing.

“Why do you want to know?” Sondo countered.

“It’s no secret,” Aslishtei said. “Just tell the boy.”

Sondo pursed his lips, but answered my question anyway. “The necklaces are worn by the gate guards, so that they can pass through the smoke without triggering its enchantments.”

My stomach sank as the implications registered. Oh, no. No, no, no.

He’s inside, Yuki said. Inside the city.

It’s not guaranteed, I thought quickly. The ghosts I’ve seen don’t always wear what they had on when they’d died. Some were dressed in the clothes that mattered the most to them when they were alive or most symbolized who they were. It’s possible the necklace wasn’t of enough importance to justify it being represented after death.

With how all the soldiers wore them, though, that sounded thin, even to me. Still, it’d pay to make sure. I said aloud, “The necklaces are important, then.”

“Of course,” Sondo replied. “They are the symbols of the gate guards.”

“And that meant something to Calfet? Being a gate guard, I mean.”

Sondo gestured, and one of the soldiers with him stepped forward. A thin man, he was one of the guards who’d overseen our arrival. “Very much so. He bragged about it to anyone who’d listen.”

“Ah,” I said. “Then I have some bad news, I think. Calfet’s ghost is missing his necklace.”

The hunters around me frowned. They’d heard enough stories from me to know what that observation implied. Worst of all was Mumu—she looked as pale as a sheet.

“What are you saying?” Sondo asked.

“It’s likely that Calfet's necklace was taken from him before he died.”

Sondo wasn’t stupid, and neither was Aslishtei. Both their spirits flashed in sudden understanding.

“The mankiller took the necklace,” Sondo said, scowling.

“So that he could pass into the city undetected,” Aslishtei said, finishing the thought. She wasn’t as obviously angry, but her hands fingered the hoops at her sides.

Well, it was obvious, wasn’t it? What better place to hide than surrounded by thousands of other people? What better place to stay fed? “This is so bad,” I said, master of the obvious.

Mumu’s spirit was shaken. She grabbed onto my shoulder, and gripped hard enough for me to feel it through my hauberk. I saw her fight to regain her composure, though, and she got out: “I need to talk to the grandmaster again. She must know of what’s happened. Voorhei’s hunters, you’re with me.”

Aslishtei’s eyes flicked between Mumu and me, before they settled on Sondo. “You’d best go with them, and find out how the Hunter’s Lodge plans to deal with this situation. I’ll report what we’ve learned to the land knight.” She faced Mumu directly before speaking again. “I can tell you now that Knight Ithia will not be pleased.”

As the others got ready to head back to Albei, I whispered a quiet prayer for the dead. I didn’t know if Calfet sensed my intentions, but the heaviness around him seemed to lighten. I’d have to try to come back later to help him move on for real.

###

At any other time, I would’ve loved visiting Albei. The thick stone walls, the rowdy noises of the hawkers and store clerks, the pyramid looming over the city—they were everything Uncle Kila had said they would be. I was in a real city again, except it also felt like being on set. The sights were just so fantastic.

Most of the clothing tended towards layers because of the weather, with a heavy emphasis on quality fur, but I also saw embellishments that could easily have come from medieval Europe, Ming dynasty China, and even some jewelry that looked like it might have been made by a Malian goldsmith.

Having said that, though, there was nothing out of place. The people making the clothes and accessories clearly knew the range of styles available and adjusted for them. There was the climate and practical needs of the people to address, but once those were taken care of, the tailors and tanners could do whatever they thought would get them more customers.

The result was a diversity in colors, patterns, and styles, but none of it felt disruptive. Everyone fit in, and that was especially true since the architecture followed suit.

I saw a lot of wooden structures, and brick and stone too; they were used to build multi-floored houses, compounds with interior courtyards, and even an it’s-really-real pagoda. That last was decorated in a fusion of Celtic and Mesoamerican motifs. It was the weirdest mishmash of styles I’d ever seen, and gaudy to boot with way too much gold trim used, but it worked too. Somehow the builders pulled it off.

It also helped that the city gave off the feel of a frontier town. That mostly came from the hunters and trappers who crowded the streets, as well as the merchants and artisans who supported them. Looking at their spirits, these people were here to either get rich or get away from other, bigger cities.

At least the smells weren’t as bad as I’d feared. Yes, it became obvious when the wind shifted and carried with it the scents of the Butchery. And, for sure, there was also the urine and dung from people’s animals and the sweat from people working hard—people who maybe bathed only once a week. But they bathed! That was a plus. I saw a bath house, made of stone, steam rising from the fires within.

None of the people around me were in the mood to play tour guide, so where and when I could, I bugged Elinei, as she’d joined Sondo’s retinue after delivering us to him. My questions netted me a lot of sideways glances, but she responded to all of them, so it couldn’t have been too annoying.

I learned that the city’s proper name was Albeityel, but everyone just called it Albei. The river to the east was called the Sootyel River.

The ‘yel’ part of a place name was supposed to signify a regional seat of power, and when I asked why it was also applied to the river’s name, Elinei explained that it was a play on words. The river was so important to the people of Albei that they called it—and this was a rough translation—‘the capital river of wellbeing.’

I also learned that there were two land gates to the north and west, as well as two river gates to the east and south. The city itself was broken up into five sections:

Nathta, home of the descendants of the people who crossed the ocean and made their way south and inland to Albei—the nathlein, like Elinei herself. Geista, home of the various ‘stray’ peoples, like the dolbec and nisaak. Baaista, also known as the Butchery. It was a massive, out-sized district devoted to trade in animal and plant parts. Taakta, the artisan and merchant section. Basically, it was the business district for everything besides the animal and plant trade. Scathta, the home of everyone not included above. It also encompassed the river docks and warehouses required to support them.

There were no walls between the sections, and it seemed like the city’s builders didn’t bother with urban planning. Unlike the neighboring villages, whose layouts were designed with defense in mind, Albei’s buildings pressed close together willy nilly.

When I made that observation to Elinei, she pointed out that there were barracks in every section, and each of them housed several contingents of land soldiers, as well as dog riders and their mounts. Plus, all of the city’s fulltime residents were required to be in the militia. They practiced in shifts in the open spaces of the Butchery, which was cleared of all business once a week for the trainings.

Honestly, looking at how the streets ran crooked through the city, maybe the people living here didn’t need urban planning for defense. Odds were, anyone who didn’t know their way would get easily lost and separated from their fellow attackers. Hells, with the right guerilla tactics on the defender’s side, this place would be a nightmare for anyone, or thing, assaulting the city.

There were major thoroughfares that cut through the maze, though, including one that looked like it circled the whole city. I was told it was called Albeitatsoot, ‘the street of wellbeing.’ The street was apparently how most of the goods entering from any of the city’s gates got to the Butchery.

As we crossed the Albeitatsoot, we came across a double-wide cart moving along it, carrying a tarped creature. The people escorting the cart all wore masks—not to hide their identities, but because of the smell. The stink of whatever was under there would give an undead hellmouth a run for its money.

The cart paused to let us pass, and that was true of everyone else too. People spotted the land soldiers moving purposefully along the cobbled streets, and they got out of the way. All we’d need to complete the effect was a siren.

Make way for the fuzz, Yuki said, observing our surroundings through my eyes.

Fuzz? I asked, incredulous. Where the hell did you get that from?

You saw a movie with Terence Hill in it—Super Fuzz.

Gods, but that was a blast from the past. The movie was from the early 1980s, and its premise was a cop who developed super powers from being exposed to... what was it? Red plutonium. And why were you looking up Terence Hill?

He was also in those spaghetti westerns you liked so much.

Westerns? Ah, you're curious about frontier towns, I said.

That’s right, Yuki said happily.

The uekisheile was in a better mood than I expected, given recent events. There was nothing wrong with that, but... we should be more somber, I cautioned. There’s a murderer still on the loose.

That’s true, Yuki replied, but have you tasted the qi in the air?

There’d been so much to see, hear, and smell that I’d half-closed my magical senses to keep from being overwhelmed. At Yuki’s prodding, though, I opened up and immediately felt the confluence of qi—brash and colorful and hungry for life. It came in all kinds and flavors. If it were a casserole or a stew, I’d say the chef wasn’t able to tame the ingredients; each one fought to dominate the others.

Yuki had never been to anywhere like this before, so no wonder they were excited.

There were a lot of ghosts too, which wasn’t surprising given the nature of the city’s economy, but I tuned them out as best I could.

I was loathe to kill anyone’s buzz, so I let Yuki be, and smiled to see them enjoying themselves in a new place. It added spice and brightened the rest of the trip to the Butchery and the Hunter’s Lodge located there.

###

When Elinei had described Baaista, she didn’t do the plaza at its center justice. The place was easily the size of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. I’d never been myself, but I’d seen lots of footage, and the two were definitely comparable, at least in size. Only about half the acreage looked to be in use at the moment, though.

The southeast end was occupied by colorful tents of all shapes and sizes, with crowds of people moving between them doing their best to avoid the shouting touts. None of the structures looked permanent, and from the way I saw some merchants dissembling their tents, my guess was that the whole thing disappeared in the evenings and reappeared in the mornings.

That was a lot of set up and breakdown to do over every day, and the cynical part of me wondered if a merchant could get around that with a special license, requiring an extra fee of course.

Interestingly, just as some merchants were taking down their stalls, others were putting theirs up. Maybe the space transitioned from a day market to a night market?

In a surreal contrast, the other side of the plaza was awash in blood and guts. Tall metal frames jutted from the ground, from which giant creatures hung in order to be butchered, including the giant badger I’d seen lifted over the city walls earlier.

A team of people dressed each carcass. They worked from the ground using the skinning equivalent of polearms, or when more finesse was required, they climbed directly onto the bodies and used long knives or machetes.

The amazing thing was that the smell didn’t get worse; it stayed at about the same level as elsewhere in the city. I also didn’t see any flies, rats, or pests of any kind.

Before I could even ask about it, Elinei pointed out a pattern of grooves carved into the plaza floor. From the ground, it was impossible to see the entire shape—that’d require an aerial view—but there were loops and whorls and other lines that swept across the whole of the space.

And in the center of the pattern, of the plaza itself, was the Albei Hunter’s Lodge.

The building was three stories tall, and built from white stone covered in engravings of animals and plants of all kinds. Some of the art kept to itself, contained to a single block, but others escaped their bounds and stretched out across swaths of the building. Those bigger animals were easy to spot, even from a distance—a dragon taking wing, a giant bear on two legs, something that looked like a wooly mammoth, a snake circling a tree, and many more.

It was one of the most astounding cultural artifacts I’d ever seen, and I’d seen quite a few as a documentarian in my previous life.

Two large double doors stood open and let people into the interior. Above the doors was a sign in burnished brass of the lodge’s symbols: the crossed spear and bow. There appeared to be side entrances too, which people used for transporting goods, but the front entrance seemed to be for people only.

On the building’s roof was a small pyramid, from which soft waves of magic emanated. From the feeling, my guess was that it was a mix of nature mana and... water qi? That wasn’t something I’d ever encountered before, but Yuki had, and they nodded to confirm my guess.

My hands itched for want of a camera. I would’ve loved to be able to document this place and share it with others. There was supposed to be a big festival coming up later in the autumn. I’d at least have to make sure I brought the family then for a visit.

Alas, as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t wander away to go sightseeing. The pace set by Sondo never slowed once, and he led us straight to the lodge’s entrance and through the doors without even a moment to examine the carvings on the building’s exterior.

The man was a tyrant and an enemy of art lovers everywhere.

Once I stepped inside the lodge, my eyes were drawn immediately to a spring-coil of an elderly lady, probably in her early 60s, with a patch over her left eye. I literally couldn’t look away, and I understood at a fundamental level that she was the lodge’s grandmaster. It also didn’t hurt that she’d had the lodge’s crossed spear and bow stitched into the eye patch with silver wire

The grandmaster wore a tan robe trimmed with white fur over buckskin tunic and pants. She also had on a silver necklace with a simple ruby pendant, as well as a silver chain around her head like a tiara.

I counted three knives tucked away among her garments, but from the way she moved, I thought there might be more. Or was that Knife Arts-Sensei talking to me? That happened sometimes—I’d catch myself thinking something that didn’t entirely come from Yuki or me, and a little digging turned up a skill or two as the information’s source.

Anyway, the lodge was a hive of activity, and the grandmaster was there to meet us. It wasn’t clear to me how she knew we were on our way, and no skills whispered the secret of it in my ear. No skills maybe, but I did have a talent that let me... click.

Silasenei the Grandmaster of the Hunter’s Lodge (Human, Silvered)

Talents: Born Hunter, Knife Friend, Persistent Survivor, Ear for Trouble, Shadow-Touched, The Hidden Piece

I froze, and my jaw dropped. Holy hells... For a moment, that was all I was able to think—just ‘holy hells’—and then, Those talents... Born Hunter, Knife Friend, and Shadow-Touched! Also, what is The Hidden Piece? Could you even get more mysterious? She made the best of Voorhei’s hunters look like country bumpkins in comparison.

Mumu was the lodge master in Voorhei for two reasons. The first was that she could use both qi and mana magic, which was rare. Haol could too, but he didn’t have her drive. No, wait, my thoughts are running away from me. The reason Mumu was the lodge master was because she was Scout Born. With that talent, she had access to an innate camouflage ability and gained huge bonuses to learning a wide range of related skills and spells, as well as picking up associated talents.

She and I had had a long conversation about it as part of an effort on my part to connect what my Status camera told me and the actual effects of people’s talents. I’d talked to everyone I could about their talents and compared what I’d learned to the information presented to me by the camera.

Anyway, if a talent used ‘Born’ in the name, then the person with it possessed a huge advantage over anyone else. Much more common were talents that used ‘Natural’ in the name. Those people still got bonuses, but to a fewer number of related skills and the effects were not nearly as pronounced. No innate abilities either, but they usually had a knack for whatever it was.

For example, Haol was a Natural Archer, and he was damn good at it too, but his skill set was narrower than Mumu’s. Again, she had more drive, and constantly pushed to learn more and train harder, but because she was Scout Born, she benefited more from her efforts to improve. Someone training as hard as her, as long as they didn’t have her talent, wouldn’t go as far.

It was unfair, absolutely unfair, and different than what I knew in my previous life. There, talent was helpful, but attitude and hard work beat it every time. As did luck, which included the family you happened to be born into.

I’m getting distracted again.

Anyway, Silasenei was a Born Hunter, which provide her with an innate ability plus bonuses to every hunting skill she had. On top of that, she was a Knife Friend, another big deal.

Inleio had possessed Spear Friend, and he’d explained to me how the talent helped him feel connected to the weapon and the World Spirit. It was surprisingly hard for him to articulate, but from what I'd gathered it was like holding the spear or drawing the bow, except more. Much more—like the tunnel connecting the skill to the World Spirit had been pre-dug for him, and all he’d needed to do was pay attention. Through his spear, he could listen to the World Spirit’s guidance.

Combined with being Wood-Wise, Spear Friend had made Inleio famous.

Going back to Silasenei, as if being a Born Hunter and Knife Friend weren’t enough, she was also Shadow-Touched. What, like for real, what? She can manipulate shadows too?

This collection of talents was ridiculous, just ridiculous.

Although... too bad she didn’t have One with Shadow instead—from what I’d recently learned, that would’ve given her the ability to disappear into the shadows. How cool would that be? You’d be near invincible as a hunter. Or a deadly assassin... which made me wonder again about The Hidden Piece.

I’d not seen a talent like it previously, although unique talents weren’t exactly uncommon either. But, then, that might be an artifact of my sample size. If I looked at the talents of all the people in the world, I’m sure there’d be many more patterns present.

And, of course, how could I not notice that she was also silvered? That meant she was at least Level 10, but probably on the low side. The stonewater serpent had also been silvered, yet I couldn’t see her talents. Still, Level 10 required 61,750 light. That was insane.

I’d thought that Inleio and Mumu were amazing, but the grandmaster was in a league all her own. It made me curious to check out the talents of the land knight and the leaders of the other lodges too.

Anyway, anyway, I tried to peer into her spirit to see if I could learn more about her, but hers was just too dense. I didn’t pick up anything other than a powerful watchfulness.

I wasn’t the only one who felt it either. For the first time, Sondo slowed down, while behind me, the hunters and soldiers froze, like they were in the presence of a great predator. Which, looking objectively at her talents, they were.

With a nod, Silasenei gave Dura’s and Susu’s teams permission to peel off. They had bounties to collect for the cutter hawks, and needed to register Teila’s contribution to the hunt for them.

How did she know that, though?

No, I was probably being overdramatic—letting my imagination run away with me. All the hunters had full packs, and it was obvious we’d been out in the wilds for a while. It was a safe assumption that we’d pick things up along the way, or at least have some kind of lodge business to take care of.

“The common land soldiers can wait here,” the grandmaster said. Then, she looked at me, and I felt the sharp edge of her anticipation like a knife drawn across my skin. “The rest of you, with me.”