There were no inns in Kuhtehsh. The town had barely five hundred people living in it, so the number of long-term visitors they got was quite minimal and usually made up of people who were content to either sleep outside or were visiting family. Thankfully, they did have some accommodations for travelers: A couple of small cabins owned by a woman named Lehpey were available for temporary rent. The shortest period that she was willing to rent them for was six days, but the price was only three ngoywngeyt each for that duration, so I gladly paid for both of them. The only stipulation was to leave them clean, which I was fine with.

The cabins themselves were somewhat larger than the average inn room, but quite small by the standard of houses. Still, they had beds, stoves, and even space to store valuables, so they were quite worth the price. Vaozey gave me the backpack before going into her room, leaving me to find some spot to stash it in just in case there were any prying eyes. Most of the contents were either innocuous or otherwise small enough that they could be hidden easily, but Baotaov’s mask would probably bring up questions, and if anyone knew what the black powder jar was it would be a problem.

While I debated just trying to patch the holes, I took a closer look at the owl-like mask, trying to figure out the mechanism. I hadn’t done much with it out in the wilderness for fear that some of the parts that made the magic booster storage work might fall out or otherwise become lost, but now that I was inside and sitting at a table, it seemed to be the right time to look it over. The first thing I did was remove as much of the decoration as possible, plucking all the feathers and stripping off much of the outer layer to expose the actual form underneath.

The two long cylinders on either side of the mask were open on the back side to allow for an internal seal to move back and forth in response to suction from the user’s mouth. The seal itself seemed to use rubber and was kept straight by three metal rods that ran through them in a triangular pattern. It was inefficient, but I assumed that the reason was borne of some inability to make a single-rod design like I was expecting. The mouthpiece also had a one-way seal on it that was spring-loaded, but at some point during the fight the spring had snapped, rendering it mostly useless. Magic could be used to operate it, but without the ability to automatically keep oxygen away from the booster, it had much less utility.

If I could get a spring, I could use this, I thought, looking over the resin-like structure of the rest of the mask. I was once again out of knives, but there was a kitchen knife in one of the drawers near the stove of the cabin, so I used that to do a bit of modification to the mask. I had no need to cover my face in combat, it was detrimental to me, so I gradually cut through the entire upper section of the resin, removing most of the structure besides the jawline and what was required to keep the mechanism from falling apart. It wasn’t comfortable on my face, but with some grinding down to leave room for my jawline it fit well enough. We hadn’t kept the cowl that was originally used to keep the mask on Baotaov’s face, but some leather straps would do the trick for me.

I had better clean this up, I thought, looking at the pile of resin dust and feathers, No need to get kicked out if that woman decides to come by and check on us like she insinuated she would.

Kuhtesh, as it turned out, had a large communal bathhouse with a price so cheap that I could hardly believe it. The water was clean, plentiful, and even heated for two extra ngeyt. It took about an hour to wash all of the grime and blood from my skin and clothing, but it was well worth it. Kuhtehsh didn’t have the same level of stink as most other human cities since it was so small and located in the woods, so when I finally emerged and began to dry myself off I felt much more relaxed.

“I’m almost out of repellent,” Vaozey said from behind the screen that divided the men’s and women’s dressing rooms. Nobody else was using the bath so early in the morning, so there was no need to be overly quiet.

“How much do you have?” I asked.

“One day, maybe,” Vaozey replied. “Do you have any?”

“One guard vial left,” I replied. “We’re going to need more.”

“I haven’t seen a single ant since we got here,” Vaozey said, and I could tell she was shrugging by her tone of voice. “There might not be any here, just like there aren’t any in Owsahlk.”

“It’s better not to assume favorable conditions,” I advised. “How long is the trip to the next town?”

“The next town is Awrehrehzha,” Vaozey replied. “It’s at least two weeks from here on foot, maybe more.” Might be worth waiting for a caravan, I thought.

“Then let’s figure out the repellent situation before we take any other action,” I decided. “We may not need it here, but I doubt we can go without it in Awrehrehzha.”

“Well if it isn’t my two guests!” came the jolly voice of Lehpey just as Vaozey and I were leaving the baths. We both turned around to see the lanky blonde woman approaching us, smiling widely. People around here smile very often, I noted, much more than in other places.

“Sorry, we’re a bit busy,” Vaozey replied, trying to break from the impending conversation before it started.

“You’ve got a few minutes, I’m sure,” Lehpey replied. “Listen here, there’s something amazing that’s about to happen around here, did you hear about it already? Our little town is finally going to get a visit from someone really important!”

“Vaozey is right,” I said. “Unfortunately, we have some business to attend to.”

“Well, okay, if you’re really in a hurry,” Lehpey pouted. “Come back around lunchtime if you want something to eat. We’re going to be having a big lunch today, so there’ll be plenty of extra.”

“Actually, before we go, where would we go to buy supplies for travel?” I asked. Lehpey raised her eyebrows, then thought about it for a moment, scrunching up her face and putting a hand on her chin in a motion so exaggerated that I couldn’t see it as anything but performative.

“On the north end there are a few shops for hunting supplies,” she finally replied. “You could try there. If they don’t have what you need, they’ll probably know someone who does.”

“Thanks,” I replied, and we quickly walked off and rounded a corner before the woman could find something else to distract us with.

“Insect repellent?” the shop owner asked, looking on the verge of laughter. “Don’ tell me yer afraid if a few li’l bugs!”

“They love to bite me,” I replied while Vaozey pretended to examine the rest of the products in the shop, keeping an eye on the conversation and making sure she could block the door if it went bad. “In my homeland there weren’t many crawling insects, just flying ones, so I never noticed until I came here.”

“Must make it hard teh sleep,” the shop owner grunted, rubbing his long brown beard. “Well, I got some powder here that’ll kill any little critters that touch it. We use it ‘round here for keepin’ them out of our homes and such. Yeh might be able teh just put a ring ‘round yer sleepin’ bag or somethin’.” He pulled out a glass jar of a strange orange powder, probably a poison of some kind.

“I was hoping for something a bit more passive,” I sighed. “Ideally something I could just put on my clothes. We have a scented oil back home for keeping flies away.”

“Yeh might wanna check the herbalist then,” the shop owner replied. “Sounds like yer lookin’ for somethin’ a bit more in that area than this one. Anyway, yeh want anythin’ else?”

“A knife, if you have one,” I replied. “Ideally something I can throw. I lost my other one in the confusion during the Muhryehv attack.”

“I heard yeh mentioned that when yeh got here,” the shop owner mumbled, opening up a cabinet behind him that was filled with different stabbing implements. “What happened over there anyway?”

“Not sure,” I replied. “My companion and I were just trying to get to the gate, then there was an explosion.”

“A what?” the shop owner asked, looking back for a moment.

“Boom,” Vaozey said from behind me, gesturing with her hands.

“Oh,” the shop owner grunted with a nod. “Sorry, yer usin’ some big words sometimes. Yeh can prob’ly tell that I’ve never been far from Kuhtehsh, not really used teh that sorta thing. In fact, I’m one’a the few natives to this area. Most folk ‘round here these days came from other places, but I was born here.”

“I see,” I replied. “Anyway, there was an explosion, then everyone was running around. A bunch of people died, and we decided to leave immediately.”

“Guess it was prob’ly some Rehvite or anti-Rehvite business,” the shop owner muttered, grabbing a weapon from the cabinet at last and putting it on the counter. “We don’t have much’a that ‘round here, so no need to worry. Anyhow, if yer lookin’ for somethin’ teh throw, this one’s prob’ly the best.”

“A khukuri,” I said, picking up the weapon and unsheathing it. It had more of a curve than the type of khukuri I was familiar with but was still usable as a melee weapon.

“Yeah we got some folks ‘round here that’ll swear by these for bush clearin’, but yeh can throw ‘em pretty good too,” the shopkeeper replied.

“I was hoping for something straighter,” I replied, sheathing the weapon and putting it back on the counter. “My throwing technique is a bit unconventional.” The shopkeeper eyed me for a moment, then went back into the cabinet, putting the khukuri away and removing a straight single-edged blade. Looking at the ten-centimeter blade, I wasn’t sure what its intended purpose was, but when I drew it from the sheath it was razor-sharp.

“This is the straightest I got,” he shrugged. “Not sure if yeh can throw it though, balance is prob’ly off.”

“No, this is fine,” I said, confirming that it was slightly back-heavy. “Can I test it?”

“In here?” the shopkeeper laughed. “Sure, just chuck it at the wall there, I wanna see this.” The part of the wall he gestured to had a few other knife parks on it, so I didn’t hesitate to throw the knife with force magic enhancement to straighten and twist it midair, sinking it almost to the hilt into the wood. “Huh,” the shopkeeper grunted, walking out from behind the counter and examining the embedded weapon.

“How much?” I asked.

“Five ngoywngeyt,” the shopkeeper replied, still looking at the knife. “Three if yeh tell me how yeh did that. Looked almost like it went straight in, but it should’ve been spinnin’.” So rooms are cheap here, but weapons are expensive, I thought.

“Like this,” I replied, walking up and using force magic to pull the knife from the wall, then levitate it above my hand for a moment.

“Ah, should’a known,” the shopkeeper nodded. “Neat trick. So are yeh with those guys comin’ here sometime this week?”

“What?” Vaozey asked, drawing both of our attention.

“I guess not then,” the shopkeeper muttered. “Anyhow, some bigshots from Zihzehshehsk are comin’ here teh certify our temple or somethin’. You two followers?”

“Yes,” I lied.

“Yeah, me too, fifteen years now,” the shopkeeper replied. “Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean teh insult nobody, but I jus’ find the whole thing kind’a stupid. Ain’t nothin’ in the book about certifyin’ temples, not even much about temples at all really. Anyhow, I thought yeh might be with them on account of that fancy magic trick, but I guess not.”

“Thanks for the information,” I replied, taking out three ngoywngeyt. “Vaozey, let’s go find the herbalist.”

“We don’t sell that here,” the herbalist replied flatly, holding up her hand. “I can empathize with your situation, but unfortunately we just don’t have the materials to make that sort of thing in Kuhtehsh. Sorry.”

“You’re sure there’s nothing?” I asked. This isn’t good, I thought, This place isn’t even big enough for there to be a real criminal element present, and it’s possible that the guards here don’t even have any of the normal formula if their temple isn’t even ‘certified’.

“No, but-” the herbalist replied, sniffing the air. “That… perfume your companion is wearing might do the trick. Where did you get it?” I looked at Vaozey and she looked at the herbalist, trying not to appear nervous.

“It was just, er, from some soap I had,” Vaozey replied. “Why, what is it?”

“I’ve never heard of soap being made from tvehpaol flower,” the herbalist replied. “Most people would find the smell too strong.”

“It was cheap,” Vaozey replied sheepishly. “I didn’t like it much either, but it was the last soap I had left.”

“Well, we can at least help you there,” the herbalist said, pointing to a section of the store with some soaps. “There are several cheap options, I’d advise buying a few.”

“This flower, what is it?” I asked. The herbalist side-eyed me, tightening her lips. “I’ve just never heard of it.”

“It’s pretty rare,” the herbalist replied. “Grows around here though. You thinking of going out and looking for some?”

“Maybe,” I admitted.

“It only grows on roots,” the herbalist explained. “Specifically, it grows around old trees. Not just regular old either, hundreds of years, minimum. The area around the town has been pruned pretty well so you’ll have to go a ways out before you even start seeing trees like that.”

“I see,” I nodded. “What does it look like?”

“Orange, six petals,” the herbalist said. “I’m guessing that’s all you’ll remember anyway so I won’t waste much more time explaining the specifics. You can’t just rub them on you either, the raw plant is much too strong so it’ll burn your skin if you leave the juice on. You’ll need to- actually just bring it back here if you find it.”

“What’s the process?” I asked.

“Do you know anything about processing extracts?” the herbalist asked.

“Yes, I’ve done it before,” I confirmed.

“You’ll need to use salt water and let it sit for a day or so, then filter out the petals…” She went on to describe a process that sounded like it had far too many steps, but essentially resembled boiled down to using osmosis to extract whatever the active ingredient in the plant was and then mixing it with blade oil. “…and that’s why you should just bring them back here,” the herbalist finished.

“If we find them,” I replied. “How much for the soap?”

“Gods, I am going to burn this seytoydh forest to the ground, I swear…” Vaozey muttered under her breath, repeating a similar variation of a threat she had been making to nobody in particular for almost two hours. Hiking through the woods around Kuhtehsh was difficult because there were almost no visible paths at all. In order to not get lost, we decided to head due west, but even then we had to occasionally mark trees with my new knife to form a path that we could follow back to town.

“Do you really think a god would be listening to you?” I asked.

“Shut up,” Vaozey sighed. “This is torture. I’d rather take my chances with the ants and just leave for Awrehrehzha right now. At least then we’d have a-” Vaozey suddenly stopped and slapped at her cheek, then drew her hand away to reveal a small millipede-like insect. “I seytoydh told you, they’re dropping out of the trees.”

“They aren’t venomous as far as I can tell,” I replied. “Just ignore them.”

“How the seyt can you just ignore them?” Vaozey growled, pulling her scarf up further over her face. We kept walking for a few more minutes, then I finally caught a whiff of the scent I was looking for, or rather a stronger one. “What?” Vaozey asked.

“Over there,” I said, pointing to the patch of small flowers at the base of a nearby tree.

“Shit, she wasn’t lying,” Vaozey grunted, and we both approached. I wasn’t told exactly how much of the flower we were going to need, but judging by the smell of it we wouldn’t need much. Just standing anywhere near the plant was driving a spike through my eyes, the smell triggering some section of my brain to try to get me to leave as quickly as possible. Maybe that’s why the ants dislike it, I thought.

“Look around for more,” I ordered. “I’ll pick these ones.”

“Yeah, okay just… wait, we forgot the seytoydh backpack!” Vaozey groaned, holding in the urge to yell. “I knew we forgot something. Damn it all.”

“We’re taking the whole plant anyway,” I replied, reaching out and grabbing some long grass from nearby. “I don’t think it’s just the petals that contain the compound we’re looking for, regardless of what that herbalist said. Just go find some, I’ll take care of the bag.” I expected Vaozey to get moving as I started to weave the grass into cordage, but when I looked over she was watching me.

“Didn’t take you for a man who knew how to make thread,” she remarked.

“Firstly, this is too thick to be thread,” I replied. “Secondly, cord and rope of all kinds have useful applications in the field, so of course I would know how to make it. Thirdly, I already told you I could make a rope at some point. Finally, I believe I asked you to go look for more flowers.”

“Yeah yeah,” Vaozey grumbled, walking off but staying within visual range. A few minutes later I had enough cord to start binding the flowers I had found, and once I had the plants tied up Vaozey came back with a handful of similar plants that were roughly torn from the ground. “I think I’m starting to see what you mean about the smell,” she remarked. “When I pulled this out I nearly fell over from it.”

“The roots smell?” I asked. I had clipped off my plant near the base with my knife, so the roots were still underground. In response, Vaozey held hers closer to my face, making me recoil and cough as soon as I inhaled. That’s definitely more on the ‘chlorine’ side than the ‘mint’ side for smell, I thought, it can’t be chlorine though, but the active ingredient is definitely in the roots as well as the petals.

“Yeah,” Vaozey said, tossing the plants on the ground. As I was about to pick them up and start making a bundle out of them like I had with mine, I heard one of the trees rustle in a way that sounded like something heavy was moving through the branches. Vaozey noticed it too and froze, looking at me for a cue. I glanced at the nearby bundles of leaves, spotted one that was lower than the others then gestured with my eyebrows and kept my gaze on it.

“You go to your left, I’ll go to my left,” I said quietly.

“Now,” Vaozey hissed, and we both burst into action, rushing behind the nearby trees and drawing weapons. Whoever was in the tree shot an arrow as soon as we started running, but didn’t hit either of us, instead striking just behind where I had been crouched down.

“What’s yer business here?” A female voice called out. Not from the tree, I thought, too far to the right, and too low.

“Gathering herbs,” I replied, raising my voice so I could be heard without leaving cover. “No need for violence.”

“And do you know what those ‘herbs’ are used for?” the female voice asked.

“Do you?” Vaozey asked back.

“Oh I do, honey,” the female voice replied, sounding amused. “That’s why I can’t just let some stranger put their grubby little hands all over ‘em. ‘specially not when we’re gonna be needin’ them pretty soon, but you already knew that, didn’t ya?” Vaozey and I glanced at each other, and it seemed even she wasn’t thinking of fighting.

“This is a misunderstanding,” I said, glancing out in the direction of the voice to see a woman in a sort of ghillie suit taking similar cover behind a tree, pointing a crossbow in my direction. Even though her face was painted with mud to better blend in, I could see the scar on her cheek. Before she could shoot me, I ducked back behind the tree. “We’re not Rehvites,” I continued, “we need this for ant repellent.”

“Forgive me if I don’t take your word for it,” a male voice said from up in the tree.

“I can prove it,” Vaozey said, putting her mace away, then pulling up her sleeve so the burns on her body were visible. Holding her arm out so it was visible, she waved it around a bit. “I’m from Owsahlk,” she said.

“Plenty’a people’ve got burns, honey,” the woman said. “I’d bet me some Rehvites have ‘em too, easy enough to scorch yourself when you’re brandin’ people.”

“Oh seyt yourself ngoyth,” Vaozey snapped. “Do you know how many-”

“How about this?” I asked, holding my hand out and summoning up a ball of light. There was no reply for a moment, then a thump as someone jumped out of a tree and impacted the ground. Feeling optimistic, I looked out to see a man in a similar dress style to the woman, also with a mark of ire on his face, looking at me with a crossbow up. Oh, right, I thought, they probably haven’t heard much, being this rural.

“Never seen that before,” he remarked. “Why don’t you come out nicely, if you’re intent on doing some tricks for us.” I searched his orange eyes for signs of hostility, but he seemed calm.

“I’d rather not if you have those pointed at me,” I replied. All of a sudden, the woman’s eyes went wide, and she made a few indistinct noises to get the man’s attention. Gesturing frantically, she seemed to be trying to tell him something without speaking. Could that be sign language? I wondered.

“Hey, foreigner,” the man said, looking back at me. “You wouldn’t happen to have cooked a whole building of people in Vehrehr, would you?” Of all the things, that’s what they’ve heard of? I almost laughed.

“That was me,” I replied, and the crossbows lowered.

“Okay, I’ll hear you out,” the man said. “I’m Mawyeyz Tawl. Yaavtey was my uncle.”