Thankfully we didn’t encounter any more mysterious cultists. A few more trips around town for miscellaneous supplies and grabbing the crabs at the inn’s stables led us leaving just shy of noon. Somehow Bia had hypnotized the hexacampi into having navigation skills far above their synapse count, so Dan was making sandwiches on go with his telekinesis ability, Bia receiving orders to pass on to him. A normal scene at Dan’s establishment, complimented by crab cake still in the shell and a halfbrain moron at the counter.

  “Speaking of which, I’d love some crab in the sandwich,” I said. Lloyd and I rode side by side, reviewing the documents we’d taken from the hideout.

  “I’m not letting you eat the hexacampi,” Bia said. “Or consume any crustacean products in their vicinity. The main characters get the trauma, not their rides! Have some class.”

  “I could really go for some crab cake right now,” Lloyd countered. “Reviewing legal documents makes you hungry.”

  “You’ve reviewed nothing this whole time,” I said. “You’ve been eating a sandwich.”

  “I’m tier seven, I can multitask.”

  “But are you?”

  He shrugged. “The mind is impenetrable. Whatever it is I say, you’ll never know.”

  “Sandwich studying is not the same as document studying.”

  “No, you,” he laughed in the mirth of inattentiveness. “Speaking of which, what’ve you found?”

  “A lot less than if you’d help,” I replied, stuffing the sheaf of papers away.

  “Okay, okay, I bloody get it. Can you get to the point?”

  “It’s completely fucking indecipherable. These are like goddamn Deliran runes. Maybe if someone from Deliria could help, I might be able to understand it.”

  “She’s got a point,” Dan shrugged as he slid me a sandwich. “Crab,” whispered.

  “Oh shut up,” Lloyd said. “I dropped out of the family. I never followed their traditions and didn’t learn shit.”

  Bia raised an eyebrow in my peripherals.

  “Aren’t you some systemologist or something?” I asked him. “What’s it called, those people that study Governance mechanics to fuck with em?”

  Lloyd’s eyes lit up red malice. “That is not what we do. Any exploits that come from ‘fucking around’ with the Governance are more likely to blow a city to bits than do anything useful.”

  “I can see many use cases for blowing a city to bits,” Rosa giggled.

  “That’s… fair, I suppose. But –” he snapped. “I bet those aren’t even Deliran.”

  “No, they’re not. These are legal documents and mail letters, not ritual circles. But it’s still written in some fucking script I can’t read. So, help, please?”

  Lloyd sighed and retrieved a paper towel to put down his sandwich. I guided my crab over to him and gave him a random document from my dimensional bag. He mimed adjusting glasses. Old habits back from not being tier seven and having vision issues. Or maybe just being a weirdo, I dunno.

  “Yeah, definitely not Deliran. Doesn’t look like anything from the West at all, we don’t have ideographs this detailed,” he flipped the page over. “I’d almost say these look…”

  His face froze. Whispering, low pitch for just mine and Bia’s levelled ears: “Dawnic.”

  “Oh for fucks’ sake,” I groaned. “More of them? What are they doing, infiltrating Haelcrien? Actually – that could make sense.”

  “Wait, wait,” Rosa asked. “What are we talking about?”

  Bia shot me a worried glance. Dan leaned at us in interest as he handed Rosa her sandwich.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I waved them off. I looked at Lloyd pointedly: I am reserving you for anti-evil-scheming and you will not be eating sandwiches. He smiled his eyes and we prompted our hexacampi to run ahead at max t-seven speed.

  “Oi!” Rosa. “Get back here! Keeping secrets ain’t edgy, it’s emo!”

  “Good quote,” Lloyd said, the two of us now a good few hundred metres ahead of the others. Hopefully Bia doesn’t let them get mauled by Grim or something.

  “It’s certainly one of them,” I said. “Quite feeble if you were to ask me.”

  “Which is why no one asks you. You and Bia speak like you’ve never spoken Eoresse yet you’ve been here long as the Verosavs. You also sound like you’re constantly having a voice crack.”

  “That’s bullshit,” I raised a finger playfully. “You do that far more purely from not taking breaks in your sentences cuz you’re too damn invested in telling everyone the newest breakthrough in systemology or fucknot.”

  “That was a pretty long sentence without a comma.”

  “I use fuck as a comma. There were one or two in there, I think. Now. You’re sure that they’re FUCKING DAWNIC?”

  “Oh, you bore, ya silly,” he laughed. “Yes, they were. At least, I think they are – I’ve never seen such complex ideographs on anything else. You know, my family once worked with some Dawnic machinery some dumbass stole from their borders – he didn’t live, but I guess they didn’t much care if we snagged some of their stuff…”

  “Well,” I slid a hand over my face. “This is bullshit. I’m just trying to live out here and I’ve got a demon and a supernation on my ass.”

  “Hey, it’s a cool necklace. And we’ve got a demon and a supernation on our asses. I’m not letting you get spit roasted by either.”

  “A building can crush two ants as well as it can crush one, Lloyden. You wouldn’t be much help, just collateral. Also, work on your phrasing. So much time in the books and you’re constantly saying some, questionably, phrased things.”

  “Pfft,” he spat. “I speak with intentionality and poise. You sound like one of those new age broadcast performers ‘cept you’re living sixty at twenty and your signal’s a bust.”

  “Shut up,” I smirked and then sighed. “Oh, we’re going to need to go into hiding even after Grim is dealt with. I shouldn’t have brought the Verosavs – no, shouldn’t have let Bia bring them – now they’re in with this mess too.”

  “Can’t you just give the govs the necklace? You kinda explained the situation last night but also you definitely did not.”

  “Well, it’s kind of an important family heirloom. And you know Dawne isn’t backing off easily; I’m holding onto it. Without it I would not have been able to fend off Grim.”

  “But… well, maybe if you handed it away you wouldn’t be such a big target for ‘em? They’re only after you for the ‘glass, so get rid of it and you’re good.”

  “There’s also the fact that it’s extremely valuable.”

  “Is it more valuable than your life? And don’t give me shit about you and your parents’ relationships. Duskir’s bloody insane last you said and you told me your father was an arse last night too.”

  “No, not more than my life, no. But worth keeping.”

  “Oh – godsdamnsit – Ari. This is the simplest solution. Just give it to someone else. Or better yet, throw it away.”

  “No!”

  “Please. Then we can be done with this. We can just have a nice trip to Troltano, file a report of conspiracies and demons and whatever, then have a happy waltz back home.”

  “It is not that simple,” I glared. My fingers twitched.

  “It is not that simple,” I glared. My fingers twitched.

  “It is not that simple,” I glared. My fingers twitched.

  “Come on, Ari. Aren’t you always going for the safe option?” he looked at me pleadingly. “This is the safest option. No one else has to get hurt, no one else.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “I’ve told you no,” I crossed my arms. “That hourglass is the single thing that allows me to afford any risk at all. It is my safe option.”

  “But is it safe for anyone around you?!” he snapped. “You’re a t-seven with according reflexes. Something higher tier comes after you maybe you can protect yourself, but what about the Verosavs? What about Bia?”

  “It’s still a mighty good trick to have up my sleeve, innit?” I glanced backwards. Three idiot silhouettes were approaching. I turned back to Lloyd.

  “Look,” Eye to eye, gripped his shoulders. “This is how it’s going to go. Haelcrien and the backers from Autumn Kingdom will handle Grim and Dawne. Meanwhile, we can move to Atlantan or something. I heard Tienarte is a pretty place.”

  “You –”

  I put a finger to his lips.

  “The others are catching up. Quiet.”

  ***

  I don’t get why Lloyd is so adamant about letting the hourglass go. Okay, so Dawne and Grim go away, but they’re still going to be looking for it aye? Shit happens anyway. And I’d certainly prefer that we keep something like that on our side. And he’s smart as me, so he’d know. Maybe even smarter – I bet that Deliran education and his attribute allotment certainly lean a bit that direction.

  We’ve just set up camp in a little forest clearing, around a hundred metres off the path south. Three tents and Rosa fumbled her way into making a campfire no one asked for and almost burned the canvas right off one of the tents. At least the sausages she made over it tasted decent – despite half of them coming out as crumpled black husks.

  You know, I’m still adjusting to not really needing to eat that much. Ranking up lets us just kind of harvest energy from the ambient magic around – and there’s a ton of that. It does take time, but a good night’s sleep is plenty to set me up for the day.

  Food is still food, though. Salt is salt and sugar is sugar. Hells forbid someone liquify it though.

  I munched down on a sausage as Lloyden and Bia discussed the new revelations. Well, tried to anyway. They’d already wandered off topic – thank god I have selective hearing. Witnessing a conversation out of hand from these two is a death sentencee – you know that trope of the incomprehensible being that fucks up your entire mind for looking at it because your brain is too stupid for such a concept? It’s basically that, but your mind is so below the subject matter being discussed that it kills itself out of second hand shame.

  I wonder if that’s why we don’t see many eldritch deities in the wild. They all commit suicide via second hand embarassment. Oh, I think they’re being practical again.

  “Well, I don’t get why you two are so stressed out about this!” Bia cheered. “Nothing’s really happened these past few days – it’s all been chill.”

  “Oh, are we just forgetting raiding a fucking cult hive this morning?” I asked.

  “I mean – ” Bia’s face darkened. “That was a little weird, I suppose.”

  “More than a little,” Lloyd snorted. “Quite a performance, by the way, Ari.”

  “I try my best,” I said dryly.

  “Best was kinda shit then, aye?!” Bia snickered. “Couldn’t get a useful word out of her.”

  “Probably just a stupid cultist,” I shrugged. “Didn’t have anything to say.”

  “Yeah, right,” Bia grinned. “I appoint myself HIGH INQUISITOR! I shall handle all interrogations from here on!”

  She did have half a point, I suppose. Whatever magic they used to resist soul-unveiling potions like that was either extremely esoteric or extremely powerful.

  “Oh hell yeah!” Golden Boy threw my sister a fist bump. “Can I do the torturing? Ari’s a little pretentious with it.”

  “Hey – I am perfectly serious when I –”

  “Sure-o! Dream team unite!”

  They cackled.

  Eventually Lloyd decided to go sleep and left Bia and I sitting around. She turned to me before heading off herself:

  “And, Ars, don’t worry so much, yeah? You’ve got eyebags.”

  “You woke me up prematurely this morning, bitch.”

  “Well, maybe you just have ambient eyebags or something. I dunno. But it’s all going to be fine. Grim hasn’t even caught up yet!”

  “Don’t say yet, or better yet, avoid that sentence entirely. You’re jinxing us.”

  “Oh, I thought you were supposed to be all against religion and superstitions and whaterver.”

  “Just don’t, please. Let’s not take any chances.”

  ***

  Bia woke me up again. At five in the fucking morning, with blazing loud shouting.

  Now, I want you – well, hmm. You’re probably just future me. And my memory won’t be getting worse over gaining ranks. Whatever.

  I want you to guess just what caused her to start shouting combat formations to a three combatants and a pair of idiots at five-fucking-sunrise in a forest clearing.

  “Well, maybe you just have ambient eyebags or something. I dunno. But it’s all going to be fine. Grim hasn’t even caught up yet!”

  Yeah.

  Mad cackling and screeching came from somewhere nearby.

  “Hello, hello!” Grim’s high drawl sliced its way around the trees. “You have – ehehe – TEN darn sec-ONDS to get movin’! I, am eating alla your poor arse today –”

  “Shut the fuck up!” I projected my voice a few dozen metres left and mounted a hexacampus. Little trick Mother taught me a while back.

  Dan slammed Rosa onto a hexacampus and took off. Bia looked at the last ‘campus without a rider and urged it to follow – we scrambled at t-seven straight back to the main trail. Screeching followed. Several trees collapsed in my peripherals.

  “Okay, hold on – hold on!” Rosa said half-panicked half-excited. “What the fuck is happening?!”

  “I’m happening, meat!” Grim again. Seemingly closing in. Red light was beginning to flare through the trees. A great big explosion preceded the creature busting through the treeline and onto the road.

  “Bia!” I yelled. “Use the damn walls!”

  “Oh, right!” she called back. “How, again?”

  “Oh for fucks’ sake – THROW THEM!”

  “AHHHHHHH –”

  Dozens of solid concrete walls sprang up behind us, Bia swinging her arms wildly. I spun around and stood on my crab, my fingers spewing red lightning and light blades. Lloyd was also working next to me – the man had no ranged abilities but he always came prepared. A slightly underlevelled gun rained golden buckshot in Grim’s way. It wouldn’t score any damage but it’d certainly slow it down. Maybe.

  “Oh, is this the HOA?” Rosa screamed. “Fuck off!”

  “What’s an HOA?!” Grim responded, curious. Still clawing at the ground like a rabid dog though – and it’s definitely gaining on us. These hexcampi are not on par with a tier forty whatever-the-fuck-that-is.

  “It’s like, these people that go around the neighbourhood and bitch about – WOAH!” Metal tentacles were burrowing through the ground – one had almost tripped their hexacampus.

  “Watch the fucking ground!” I shouted, training one eye downwards.

  “SORRY!” Grim screeched. “Keep telling me about HOAs!”

  “Okay, so they kinda just come up to your house or your business or whatever and they like, I think they sell chocolate?! And also maybe dish soap –”

  “Rosa, what the fuck around you on about?!” Dan said. He was placebo’ing himself into believing he was steering the hexcampus – it was steering itself, of course.

  “Ari, I can’t hit shit! There’s too much dust!” Lloyd yelled. He bent right as some kind of metallic flake lit up red in flight. A blast echoed from behind us as it passed.

  “I think the dish soap is supposed to encourage you to be a nicer person or something? I’m sure you understand, Big Clean wants to sell more dish soap so they have the HOAs –”

  “OH, OKAY!” Grim had begun shouting after realizing it wasn’t very audible over all the chaos. “SO WHERE CAN I GET SOME DISH SOAP?!”

  It launched out of the cloud of dust straight at my hexacampus, a claw outstretched. Lloyd shot it about fifty times but no dice – it kept barreling straight forward and pinned me to the crab, which bellowed an angry chirp and began spinning while still sprinting forward. For a crab, these things were pretty damn agile.

  I brought up my greatsword to fend off the demon as it slithered several blade-tipped tentacles to assist its arms.

  “You can get dish soap, eh –” Rosa raised her voice. “NOT HERE! LIKE, OFF IN THE AUTUMN KINGDOM!”

  “WOAH, OKAY! I’LL BE SURE TO MAKE A VISIT THEN!”

  “Crap, she didn’t fall for it,” Rosa cringed.

  “MY PRONOUNS ARE IT/THEM, ASSHOLE! AND ALSO I AM NOT HOA!”

  “THEN WHERE-YA FROM?”

  I gritted my teeth, barely dodging a massive scythe-tentacle.

  “I AM FROM BEYOND REALITY! EHHEAHAHA! YA EVER HEARD OF DIORVANA?!”

  “NO, WHAT’S THAT?!”

  Dan realized he was not indeed steering the crab and decided to start conjuring daggers at Grim instead. Unfortunately t-one projectiles weren’t doing much to it.

  “IT’S LIKE, NORTH OF HERE, MAYBE! I DUNNO!”

  “THEN WHY’D YA COME SO FAR HERE? I THINK –” Rosa gagged. “Sorry, too loud. Can you still hear?”

  “YA!” Grim shouted, no longer looking at me. I chugged a resistance potion – my skin hardened.

  “Okay, so why come all this way for us? I’m flattered.”

  “Well don’t be! Just your mini-friend over here I need. And I’m getting paid!”

  “By who?!”

  “Someone out in the big bad cosmos, ehehe!”

  Not Dawne at least.

  “You belong there yourself,” I reengaged the demon and immediately took a slash to the eye, and a few more before –

  I snapped four fingers in casting potion. Red lightning blasted a chunk off Grim’s arm and sent it reeling back. A sword swing and a follow up blast sequence launched it right back into the stratosphere.

  “Keep going!” I shouted, bending down to retrieve a potion from my dimensional bag.

  The hexacampi sped into the rising sun.