I didn’t try very hard to talk Koyl out of his decision, and before long he went back to his room to turn in early. It is a rather extreme course of action, even just breaking in without trying to kill or capture anyone, I thought, We aren't in dire need of money yet either. If Koyl is unsuccessful in his search for a few more days, I suspect his opinion might change anyway. Laying in my bed, I found myself contemplating Vaozey’s situation as I tried to get to sleep. Could she be a genetically pure creator human? I wondered, These people have strange coloration, but hers is in line with creator humans’ normal colors. My eyes opened in shock as I realized I forgot something important. She could still heal rapidly, I thought, it’s only been a few months, but I had forgotten that rapid healing wasn’t normal.

“So you’re sure you don’t want me to come to assist you?” I asked Koyl for the third time. He put down his plate, looked me dead in the eyes, and gestured toward me with both hands.

“No,” he replied. “If you really want to search for jobs, you’re welcome too. However, and I mean this in the least insulting way possible, you do not have the required social skills to help me out.” I couldn’t deny it, Koyl was much better at talking to creator humans than I was, considering he had lived his entire life as one. For warbreed though, you’d want me, I thought with a small smile.

“And if you get stopped by a Rehvite?” I asked. Koyl rolled his eyes, then pulled out a coin from his pocket. Placing it on his palm, he closed his eyes and grunted. A second later, the coin levitated unsteadily into the air, then dropped another second later.

“I practiced that for an hour this morning before you got up,” he said. “I have no intention to end up with a burn on my face, but if I do come back with one you can rest assured my opinion will have changed on that... thing.”

Once again I found myself wandering the city. The skies had cleared since the rain the day before, being open and blue. There was a higher concentration of humans playing instruments on the streets than the day before, producing an unending cacophony of string music. The songs all began to bleed into each other as I walked about aimlessly, trying to think of some way to occupy my time. I suppose I could visit a bookstore, I thought, seeing a sign and crossing the street.

The inside of the bookstore was dark, dry, and smelled of paper. Shelves in parallel lined the building from front to back, holding innumerable volumes of every size imaginable. An older man approached me as I entered, clearly displeased with my presence.

“Tell your master that he may come to the store himself if he wishes to purchase something,” the man ordered in a strangely formal accent. “We do not take armed ruffians in this store.”

“I am just browsing,” I replied.

“No, you are not,” the man scowled. “Get out, and only come back if you are unarmed and dressed like a civilized man, if your people are even capable of that!” I looked at the man, seeing his lack of musculature and frail-looking body, and tightened my left fist to crack my fingers.

“And if I don’t?” I asked.

“Do not think you can threaten me, boy,” the old man bristled. “I was fighting in wars when you were nothing but a hopeful dream in your grandfather’s mind. I will still put you down if you make trouble.” I almost laughed at the sheer absurdity, my body’s chest cavity contorting itself in response to my amusement, but I managed to contain myself.

“Do you know of a bookstore that would serve a ‘ruffian’ like me?” I asked.

“Guards!” the man yelled out the door behind me, and I sighed and turned to leave before anyone showed up to the man’s call. The last thing I need are guards paying attention to me, I thought, maybe I should have just shut my mouth about the murders. If I had known the guards were aware of Vaozey beforehand, I would have taken a different approach. Stupid oversight.

Bookstores happened to be few and far between in Owsahlk, and not one of them wanted to allow me inside. They’re all in the west end, I thought, it’s the wealthier part of town, and I don’t look wealthy. Annoyed, I headed east, trying to find a temple. The Book of Rehv is a holy book, I thought, they might have a copy in a temple that’s available for public use. I was guessing, of course, but warbreed kept books of law and record available to anyone who wanted to view them, so I figured something similar might apply. I could even adopt the pretense of joining, I thought, they seem to respect people who are skilled with magic.

Asking about how to join the Rehvites was even less productive than trying to get into bookstores. Most people ignored me when I approached them for conversation, some looking fearful, but the few who did spend the time to engage me inevitably became tight-lipped when the topic of Rehv and joining the religion came up. Even those who were wearing pieces of jewelry that I had come to realize were Rehvite in nature, small golden triangles with a line from the center to one side, ended the conversation near-instantly when the topic of joining them came up. Should I demonstrate magic for them? I wondered, I shouldn't do anything distinctive, like the light magic, but levitating a coin or something should work.

Finding another Rehvite dressed in stiff formal wear, I opened my conversation by getting her attention and levitating a two-ngoywngeyt coin over my hand, flipping it end over end a few times, then allowing it to fall back into my palm. “I’d like to become a follower of Rehv,” I said, meeting her gaze. For a moment, it seemed as though she was at a loss for words, but then blinked a few times and spoke.

“We do not take your kind at the moment, I am sorry,” she replied, politely but firmly. There was an air of professionality to her tone, as though she was used to interacting with people as a job.

“You don’t take foreigners?” I asked. The woman fiddled with her cufflink, a golden piece of metal that was inscribed with what appeared to be a six-legged figure. The others didn't have anything with that symbol, I thought.

“Non-Luwahriy in general are currently barred, regardless of nationality,” she replied. “In time, you too will be allowed to serve Rehv in the open, but you must understand that securing our people’s future is of paramount importance to us at the moment. This city, this country, it is dangerous. You look to be a man who knows that fact well, judging by your manner of dress. Many in these lands wish us harm, and those people are not always forward with their intentions. Allowing foreigners would… weaken our stability.” It’s a security risk, I simplified, they’re a political organization, regardless of ideology. Allowing actors from another political body to join is just asking for spies and saboteurs.

“Is there anything I could do to convince you?” I asked, prompting a regretful look from the woman. Better not push and ask about the noypeyyoyjh, I thought, it's probably a secure site, showing interest might cause problems.

“It is not in my hands,” she replied. “However, know that all serve Rehv’s plan in their own way. You have been favored, use the gifts you have, and you serve Rehv. If you ever find yourself in Zihzehshehsk, feel free to visit our temple there, as it is open to the public.” With a short head bow and a placating smile, the woman walked off, leaving me in the street. If we all serve your god, why do you need security? I wondered. Walking off before the guards became suspicious, I kept my eyes peeled for a temple. Sadly, I didn't see any building like the one in Pehrink before I ended up at the border of the slums again.

I bought something that looked like roasted bird meat on a skewer from a street vendor for two ngeyt and kept walking around the slums as afternoon began. This is the only place in the city with unwatched alleys, I thought, maybe I could find a private one like I did yesterday, and do some magic experimentation again. At least then this day won't have been a complete waste. Maybe I should have just shown that woman the light magic. I found myself drawing looks from the slum dwellers, but they were less scornful than the ones of the people in the higher-class parts of town. Ducking into an alley, I began my search.

A few minutes later I found what looked like an abandoned makeshift dwelling, and after stacking up some wooden planks I had a good stool to sit on as well as a broken crate to use as a desk. That one boy, he did something like an electroshock weapon, I thought to myself as I pulled two coins from my money pouch, I tried something like it before and it didn’t work, but now I know it can be done. My technique must have been wrong. It had been a while since I tried to experiment with magic that I didn’t already have some kind of visualization for.

Placing the coins near each other and a finger from each hand on top of them, I closed my eyes and began to think. Electricity is just the flow of electrons from one atom to the next, I said to myself, creating a mental construct of two disks over the coins. One disk was red, and one was yellow, representing the positive and negative charges respectively. Inside the yellow disk, I imagined innumerable moving blue dots, then I moved them over to the yellow disk gradually. Nothing happened.

Okay, maybe I just have the image wrong, I thought, the way I process imagery when cooling objects down clearly doesn’t match the reality of the process, so maybe I just need to change the idea. Instead of disks, I pictured a circuit through my arms and body, but still, nothing happened. Not a drop of magic power was used, nor did I feel anything on my fingers. I shifted the image again, picturing just the flow of electrons in a circle, and while I thought I felt something no power was used. I don’t get this at all, I thought.

I spent about half an hour trying to make electricity unsuccessfully before giving up. Instead, I summoned up an orb of light and did some mental exercises shaping it and adjusting its output. I managed to make a few basic letter shapes, though not any of the more complex ones, and also figured out a way to adjust a line of light so that its luminosity varied over its length. Spreading the light out into a square, I tried to render a basic image on it as though it was a screen, but the magic both had insufficient resolution and insufficient contrast for such a task.

I also tried again to make a laser, failing for a reason that was obvious after a few attempts. Lasers required light to bounce back and forth, being amplified and then released as a coherent beam. I had no chamber, and try as I might magic didn’t seem to be able to contain light like a solid object could. Even if I could contain it, how would I create a gain medium? I asked myself as I made a vaguely human shape from light and had it walk from one of my hands to the other. Unless there’s a giant pure ruby laying around here somewhere, I should probably just figure out how to boost my output more, or perhaps change the color of light.

Another thirty minutes of testing later and I managed to get the color of the light to shift from a pink-purple to a deep blue, at a cost of increasing the energy use and lowering the brightness. Trying to go in the other direction was much more difficult, but for a moment I made a red flash that I couldn’t replicate. The emission spectrum of air is quite varied, I thought to myself, if I can control what quantized energies the electrons receive, I should be able to make most colors. However, I think I’ve established that electron control is finicky. Maybe if I can figure this out, I can piggyback electric magic onto it somehow.

I was so deep in thought that I didn’t notice a small group of humans entering the alley. Thankfully, they didn’t appear to have seen anything that I was doing, so they had no suspicion of me. Unfortunately, they did see the two coins I had left on my “desk”, and that drew their attention. The head of the group, a raggedy-looking hooded man in a shawl and torn pants, walked up to me. I could see the mark of ire on his cheek, though it was faded.

“Say there, I dropped my coins earlier,” he began. “Looks like you found them.” I made eye contact with the man, then scanned the group behind him. Five humans total, small weapons at most, likely knives, I thought, I only put down four ngoywngeyt, but I suppose that might be a substantial sum in this part of town. As I scanned the group and spotted more marks of ire, the man was looking at me, and with no way to hide it from him inconspicuously, he saw my money pouch. He smiled, showing yellowed teeth, and put his hand down over one of the coins on the table. I put my hand over the other coin.

“You’re mistaken,” I said, “that money is mine.” The humans laughed, and the four behind the leader started muttering to each other. It’s incredible how they act like this no matter where I go, I thought as I picked up the coin my hand was over and put it in its pouch. The man picked up the other coin, holding it tight in his fist.

“Sounds like you don’t know the laws here, foreigner,” the man began with a smile. “If you find something, that doesn’t mean you get to keep it. See, if it wasn’t that way, jhawptaob like you could just go around swiping things from hard-working Luwahriy like myself, claiming you found them.”

“Just give me the coin back and nobody gets hurt,” I sighed. My patience was running thin, and all the work with magic had made me hungry again. Five magicless humans with, at most, a few knives is not a large threat to me, I wanted to say, but I knew it would be better to keep a low profile. Better they believe they were beaten up by a foreigner than a possible Rehvite, I supposed.

“Rich man like you really needs two ngoywngeyt?” the man mocked, once again baring his yellowed teeth. “You’ve already taken so much from me, can’t you just leave me with this?” Once again the humans behind the man laughed at his audacity. Then, one of them stopped laughing.

“Wait a sec, you’re the one who beat up Naomay!” the second man blurted out. The mood went from tense to suffocating very quickly.

“He’s a Rehvite?” the leader asked, pulling out a thirty-centimeter-long shiv from inside his clothes. That's almost a sword, I thought, doesn't look durable though. I could probably snap it with my bare hands.

“I am not a Rehvite,” I replied, “but I am going to take my money back one way or another.”

“It’s five on one,” another human said from in the back. I noticed that all the men had weapons out, all some form of knife. I’m pretty sure that one on the right is a kitchen knife, I noted.

“I have something to ask you,” I said, looking at the lead man. “Are you people all just stupid or something? I’ve had so many situations like this one lately, where a bunch of idiots try to attack me. Every single time they end up dead, or beaten into unconsciousness. I want you to tell me what exactly is going through your head right now that is making you think I won’t cut you into pieces right here. A while ago, it was because I didn’t have many scars, so people assumed I was weak even though I was large. However, now I have scars, and I doubt you’re stupid enough to think I’m weak. So why? Why would you risk being killed over two ngoywngeyt?” Is there something I could have done to just scare them off? I wondered.

The alley was dead quiet for a few seconds, all the men seemingly at a loss for words. Are they really just stupid? I asked silently. Then, the lead man spoke up.

“Rich assholes like you never get it,” he spat. “Don't worry, you won't be asking any questions once we're done, Rehvite or not.” With a sigh, I went for my sword, and the men charged at me.