Ukila Local Time: Morning. (January 15, 1512)

Despite teleporting unannounced inside a hidden city, there’s no immediate reaction to our presence.

“You know. There’s nothing saying we have to introduce ourselves to the guards,” Uthica observes as Redstone and Midnight settle into a nearby valley between roofs. “A quick visit would allow us to find you a change of clothes.”

I sniff at my outfit. It’s not particularly fragrant, but then I do wash it twice a day. Still, it’d be nice having something else to wear. Removing the cloak, I move it into my inventory, which immediately makes me look less Eldinsworny.

Studying several of the people walking down a nearby street, I use metal manipulation to further pinch the fabric of my clothes, shifting the style to match a dignified looking K’tharn. Can’t do anything about the colour, but just changing the style should help. Even as I’m finishing, I glance at my sole human hand. Right. I stand out even with my cloths changed. Oh well.

And… I could just use Twilight to disguise myself. Whoops.

“Wonder if they use shards,” I say, looking for a shopping district even as I shift my clothes to match a nearby elvenoid's instead. A rare but not unique sight.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Uthica asks, dropping over a nearby edge into an empty alley.

Following her, I land nimbly, then look back up. A ten meter drop and it was easier than jumping off the back porch into a pile of leaves when I was a kid. When Midnight peaks his head over, I send a signal to stay out of sight over our bond. Smoulder reassures me that she’ll keep them from getting into trouble…

I don’t question her, leading Uthica out of the alley toward what looks like it might be a shopping complex. After crossing in front of a human who’s practically wearing a pair of curtains, I answer her, “They’re not integrated. Essence shards aren’t central to their improvement. It might not be something an average person even uses.”

Uthica tilts her head slightly, glancing at me sideways. “Then what would they use for trade?”

“I don’t know. Gold, jewels, paper.”

“Hmm. Paper is rather useful,” Uthica nods, humming in approval.

“Not like- Actually, close enough,” I decide, stopping in front of a busy plaza where a crowd of K’tharn are moving about, calling at each other in the local language.

“Could be an issue,” I note. I’m fairly certain I know the right words for different amounts, thanks to sitting in on more than one game of cards with Letonga. With lots of betting.

Uthica nods, staying close as I move toward a food stall near the entrance. I don’t order anything, instead watching as several of the locals make their purchases. They’re using a small octagonal coin, made of a silver and iron alloy. Moving through the crowd, I watch several additional transactions, noting coins made of copper as well. Against my expectations, the copper coins seem to be worth a hundred times as much as the silver coins. While they are larger, it just feels… wrong.

Either way, creating duplicates of the coins is simple and I’m soon examining clothes displayed out front of the nicer of the two clothing stores in the plaza. One of the clerks approaches me, babbling a lot of words in my direction. None of which I understand.

I don’t say anything, instead just raising the eyebrow over my missing eye. I may have disguised my clothes, but I felt no need to do the same to my face.

She stutters to a stop. While she’s not speaking. I point to a dress and a nice suit. She starts to babble again, but when I don’t hear anything that sounds like a price, I just arch my eyebrow again. As clearly as I’m able, I say the words I’m reasonably sure mean, “how much?”

It must be close because she spits out numbers I recognize. Thankfully, my research in the market before entering the stall pays off. I nod, following her to a counter in the back where I hand her the coin. She tries to usher me into a back room, but I shake my head, declining with a single syllable, “No.”

She frowns but doesn’t try to fight me as I lead Uthica back outside, my new clothes folded under my arm.

Uthica is chuckling the second we’re out of the shop, but I don’t acknowledge her, giving Smoulder headscritches once we return to where she's waiting for us in our alley. The city is interesting, but once we’re back on the roof, I feel myself relax.

“That wasn’t fun,” I say, handing Uthica my new dress.

“It was interesting though. I’m not certain I would have handled it quite so well. And they use the little octagons for money? How do they keep people from making more?” Uthica asks while holding the dress out to inspect it, playing with the frills along the collar.

“I don’t think people here have access to magic. Least, not in the way you’re used to,” I answer.

“Ah. I suppose that would do it. It is strange to see so many K’tharn fully swaddled.”

“Would be, wouldn’t it. I was so worried about not messing up, I didn’t think about it much,” I say, stretching out the arms of my new jacket. Which my System informs me I can use as a pattern for my Aunt Sharon’s armor. A quick Facet-scan later, and my jacket changes to match.

Huh. Kinda wishing I had a full set of clothes to do that with now.

I’m about to start stripping, ready to switch outfits before remembering we’re still in the middle of a city. “Which way?”

Uthica points to the east, and I pick out a distant mountain. This time we hold hands while laying our others on the dragons, her invisibility cloaking us before I teleport. Thankfully, we don’t arrive inside another city, just a mostly empty mountainside, our only company a startled mountain bird who squawks when Uthica steps in its nest.

Smoulder pounces on the nest, with a vengeance, shattering the eggs within and spraying Uthica and I with their contents.

Rolling my eyes, I wash the literal egg from my face and we continue.

But I’m looking forward to going back.

Preferably after I have a better grasp on the damn language.

I was wrong about figuring the language out by the sixth trial.

But that’s mostly because it was so close to the fifth, located only a few minutes away. Amazing how quickly we can travel when I have infinite Facet. It lies at the bottom of a canyon more than two kilometers wide for its entire length, only narrowing to a close hundred of kilometers from its start, where the winding river that likely carved the canyon empties into the ocean.

The canyon is more interesting than the mana-warped beasts that emerge when Uthica infuses the Pandregen heart with her mana. After observing the effect six times now, I know that the System uses an array to blast mana across the entire valley. Embedded within the blast is a simple enchantment that informs them there’s an integrated nearby, causing them to stampede toward Uthica.

Since we know what activating the heart does, this time Uthica insists on setting up an extensive set of runes first. Another set of experiments. She really is a K’tharn after my own heart.

While only two rows of defences deep, the runes alternate between the elements and should leave almost nothing alive by the time it reaches us.

Unfortunately, they work flawlessly.

It’s the most boring beast wave I’ve seen since arriving. Probably should’ve done experiments of my own instead of watching Uthica’s.

Uthica’s immensely pleased with herself though, so it’s not all bad. “Did you see how many times they activated. These runes could probably defend this hill from ten times as many mana-beasts without needing to be recharged.”

“It is impressive,” I admit, studying her as she gathers parts from the strongest creatures. Something I should practice alongside her. So, I pull out a knife that was custom made for this purpose, less than a second ago, and set to helping her.

It’s more tricky than simply stabilizing the bodies.

Again, I know her System’s doing something extra, but I’m not certain what. Which leads to me harvesting several less valuable parts that fade away faster than usual.

It’s only as I watch Uthica that I discover the System isn’t infusing the parts to keep them stabilized. It’s wrapping them in a layer of unaspected mana, reinforced with Twilight.

It’s just using butcher’s paper in mana-form.

Once Uthica’s gathered most of the more valuable body parts, and the rest of the creatures have collapsed into mana-dust, we return to the runes she worked into the hill.

“Almost a shame to remove them,” I note, looking at the intricate runework.

Uthica grimaces. “Yes, but they’re only keyed to us. If anyone else comes along… Well.”

“Good point. Want me to break them up?”

Smirking, Uthica gestures at the runes. “Go ahead. I’ll be impressed if you’re able to.”

“Challenge accepted,” I say, then I teleport half the rune away, easy as breathing. Which causes it to explode violently.

“Hmm. Not sure how to ward against that. Yet. Are you able to disrupt them without teleportation?” Uthica asks while whisking away the fire from the nearby underbrush, then pointing to the next of her runes.

I shrug, reaching into the stone beneath the runes. But something blocks my mana. I’m able to work my way in, but it takes me five minutes before I’m able to disrupt the first of her runes. And there are hundreds.

Uthica pats me on the shoulder, “I’m impressed. Didn’t think you’d even be able to do that much. Guess there’s still improvements to be made.”

“The hell was that?” I ask, staring at the runes with new respect.

Uthica takes out her tools, disrupting the next rune in a matter of seconds. “An anti-magic enchantment. To keep ambient mana from disrupting the enchantment. But tweaked to prevent any mana from affecting the runes.”

“It’s effective. If not for the fact they take mana to operate, I’m not certain I could’ve forced my way through.”

“Hmm. That’s how you got in? Not sure what I can do to fix that. But I’m sure I’ll think of something,” Uthica says, tapping the edge of the next rune in the circle. The next three all distort simultaneously, puffs of dissolved stone filling the air.

She continues working her way around the circle, while I attempt to disrupt another one. But I try to pay attention to how she’s built it. I spend so much time studying and teasing apart the structure that I’ve only finished three in the ten minutes it takes Uthica to finish the rest.

“Pretty sure that’s not fair,” I say, taking her hand before teleporting us to our campsite where our dragons and Smoulder are waiting. It’s perched on a small outcropping below the South rim of the canyon, and our arrival brings us out of shadow and into evening light.

Uthica shoves me gently, saying, “You literally just teleported us ten kilometers without a teleportation beacon or Nexus point.”

I stick my tongue out at her, but I don’t need to dignify that with a verbal response.

She just rolls her eyes at me, handing me one of the meat buns I managed to bake while she was crafting her runes. Practice run using market acquired flour mostly successful. The buns didn’t rise, but they’re tasty enough I don’t care.

The flaky covering could use a light dusting of sugar, but after nothing but meat and fruit for weeks, it’s a delightful treat. I’ll try dried fruit next time.

We enjoy a few hours playing a game Uthica prefers called Vaus’ Champions. The rules remind me of chess, but with different pieces assigned to different patterns and no pawns. It takes me several games to get used to the front-line pieces all having different rules based on the column they’re in.

With Uthica’s fourth victory of the night, I tilt my half-dragon queen over, indicating my disinterest in continuing.

“Thank you for sticking with it. Other than father, no one’s willing to challenge me,” she says as she places the pieces in a cushioned case.

Snorting, I say, “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”

Uthica plucks the half-dragon queen from my hand, saying, “I mean it. I’m still winning. But if you keep improving… I suspect you’ll be taking my Queendom inside of a week.”

“I’m not that good,” I protest, scooping Smoulder up before she can knock the Spire-piece out of our shelter.

Uthica shrugs, packing the pieces away in a padded case. We spend the next hour discussing our plans for tomorrow before going to sleep for the night. As is routine at this point, I connect to the Eldinsworn Letonga. She’s not on patrol today, instead talking with a human I don’t recognize. In fact, none of her squad seem to be around.

They’re looking at a map I’ve seen before. She’s pointing to it and telling the human the days they searched each quadrant. I think. He’s taking notes, stopping to ask her questions.

Then after a few questions, he turns his gaze directly on her. His voice becomes colder as he presses her. I can feel her heart racing as the man raises his voice, yelling at her about wickedness or evil. She’s protesting, but he doesn’t seem to be listening, striding out of the room, a device clasped tightly in his hand. The red lights are ominous.

She goes back to her regular barracks, but it’s clear she’s operating on autopilot. She’s barely looking around as she sits on her bed, her usual wariness gone. I’m contemplating disconnecting from her when another pair of humans walk into her room. She doesn’t react to them, but they walk right up to her.

One of them speaks, and she stares up at them. I can feel her shock. Then she starts grabbing everything she can from beneath her bed. They’ve given her less than a minute before they grab her, practically carrying her by the shoulders to the edge of their encampment. Then they shove her past the outer boundary.

Was she just kicked out?

Why?

Her eyes start to grow damp, but she shakes her head minutely, striding away without looking back.

I follow along with Letonga until she’s moved a long way into the jungle that surrounds their camp. The map she’d been looking at hadn’t shown any roads in the region, and she seems to be wandering in a general westerly direction.

After about two hours, I decide I should disconnect. Part of me doesn’t want her to be alone, but I need sleep. Still, I send her feelings of support. I don’t want to whisper in her ears though. Not in a tongue she wouldn’t understand.

And as I cut the connection, I can’t help but wonder at why she was ejected from camp. What was the device he was carrying. Could he detect me? Or did it detect the connection?

Either way, I need to get my hands on it.

And… I wonder if there’s a way I can help Letonga. Maybe if she wasn’t on the opposite side of the planet…

Despite Smoulder’s comforting presence, sleep doesn’t come easily.

But it does arrive.