When Fuyuko had her armor and c clothes ba, she tested out her arm and shoulder, and when she was satisfied with how much better it felt she headed back to the main hall. Along the way, she passed an exhausted-looking two-tailed fox curled up on a bench, whom she assumed was the same healer kitsune who had worked on her shoulder. It was briefly tempting to give the little vixen scritches behind her ears, but the luponi csped her hands behind her back to rein herself in. She felt that she suddenly uood some of the adults in her life a little better, ears like that were tempting. The idea made her own ears itch, and she shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts.

  She found Gil and Traxalim waiting for her, and did her best to curtsy to Traxalim, “Thank you for your work, my shoulder feels perfeow.”

  The old elf chuckled, “You are quite wele ss, but curtsying is currently only in vogue in the courts, a bow would have been appropriate. Though practig is not a bad idea, if you do end up w with those three, you may end up dealing with royalty.”

  Fuyuko shot a narrow-eyed look at Gil, who raised his hands ily, “Hey, st time I was here it was on for most women to curtsy uhey outrahe other person. I ’t keep up with s that ge after only a few decades.”

  After a shake of her head, she turned back to Traxalim because now it was her turn to tell her story, with Gil filling in his parts. It took a little while, but when they were done, Gil added something that sent chills down her spine. “Oh, and it felt like The Witch was restless. She normally doesn’t bother moving about much, but her presence wasn’t at a steady distance.”

  “But you didn’t enter her directly?” Traxalim asked.

  Gil snorted, “I’m not limping in with festering wounds that won’t quite heal, am I? No, we never got near each other. And I’ll be happy to keep it that way if I . I’ve never been good at pying those sort of pretend-to-be-polite games. I swear I took her head that oime, but, well…”

  “Mm, death doesn’t really stick to beings like her, it’s more of a temporary invenieraxalim replied, then noticed Fuyuko’s expression and chuckled, “Don’t worry about it child, for someone like you just being polite and deferential should be fine, so long as you show enough spihat one expects more of people like Gil and I. Also, I think Gil’s existennoys her, so she sometimes goes out of the way to harass him. That, or he amuses her, it’s hard to tell the difference.”

  These two were just casually chatting about dealing with The Hag like it was an invenience, instead of terrifying. She’d already begun to suspect that Gil was an immortal, and this le to that idea, but this elven priest arently at the same tier of power. The thought was dizzying. And Fuyuko refused to even think Her name when She was being talked about so directly.

  Gil’s ughter snapped her attention to him, “Hah, getting a glimpse behind the curtains of civilizations, are you? I’ll give you a heads-up, there are a lot more people like us around than most people realize. But we are also the ohat help keep people like the old woman in check. I learned my lesson about trying to be involved with things like kingdoms a long time ago, it doesn’t turn out well.”

  “I, but, you said you took her head? How?” Was all Fuyuko mao get out, thoughts swirling in her head.

  “Allow me to take over,” Traxalim interjected, “Given your possible destination, you may o beore aware of some things to truly make an informed choice. First, know that most of the truly powerful heroes do not die a mortal’s death. Just having the stories about them spread tends to imprint them more solidly oy, and many of them have already reached the potential to bee lesser immortals by then anyway. It’s a path I could walk myself, but,” he shook his head, “I know who and what awaits me oher side. I’ll not rush there, but I’ll not bind myself to this world either. Our friend Gil here is one of those, though his stories are long lost to most. As for The Witch,”

  He took a breath and looked up thoughtfully, “She’s something else. That one is no god, but she’s not mortal either, and I am not sure she ever was. She be ‘killed’, but it isn’t the sort of thing that means much to her. She doesn’t stay dead, or is never exactly dead, it’s sort of ambiguous, but however you look at it, she is always there, and I do not know of a time when she wasn’t. And as far as I know, most worlds that have people and forests also bear her presehough her spread existence is not the same as Li’s.”

  “Okay,” Fuyuko said slowly, “Does that mean she was created by the gods?”

  “No, she’s from outside of this creation. And while I believe that the gods could possibly scour this reality of her existe would e at great cost, mostly paid by mortal lives. And while she is something of a malignay, her malignancy seems to be most likely to ma in its worst ways against those who have gathered some sort of karmice that o be redressed. Not always, foolish is have found themselves in her pot, but harm seems most likely to fall on those most deserving of it.”

  It sounded sort of simple on the surface, but it felt like she was seeing more yers to the world, and it wasn’t a terribly fortable feeling. Stepping out of the city felt like it had been a big step, but if this was the edge of what awaited her if she followed the path she’d been offered, then what more would she face? “I don’t think I want to know anymore today,” she said abruptly, “I think I’m going to have bad dreams already. Maybe we get rooms and Gil show me around?”

  The two men were slightly taken aback by her sudden ge of topic, but Traxalim smiled wryly, “We old men do tend to ramble sometimes, don’t we? Don’t worry about it, between the elves and the kitsuhat one doesn’t like ing down this far. Now, as for showing you around town, I have a couple of reendations. There’s an alchemist shop that’s run by a nice half-elf couple. They are the parents of Moriko, aing them might give you more of a feel for the sort of people you will be meeting. You don’t have to say anything about your situation, just go in, browse and chat. I would also reend being straightforward and just asking any groups that seem like they might be celebrating their trip to the dungeon about their experiences. It’s pretty on for newers, we are one of the major stops before the dungeon itself. It’s been good for business, and the city has been in quite a good mood overall.”

  “Old man? Speak for yourself,” Gil grumbled, “I’m still in the prime of my youth! e o’s leave the self-procimed geezer to stew. If it’s the same family-owned shop I remember, we’ll have no problem finding it.”

  Getting rooms turned out to be difficult, especially as they wawo rooms. Gil decided to ge their pns for the moment, “I’ve got an idea, but we’ll o try it ter o’s grab some food and then visit this alchemist shop.”

  There were a lot of options when it came to food, but with Gil to buy whatever she wanted, Fuyuko settled for three different fish dishes offered up by the street vendors. One of them was smoked trout, the sed was some freshwater prawns fried in a light batter, and the third one made her a little nervous, but everyone else seemed to like it: Raw fish bined with rid a spicy, salty sauce. The mert promised that they only used a known-safe fish, but that even more dicey fish could be rendered safe by freezing it. Or by using a purifying prayer of course, but either way those fish were higher-end luxury due to the increased cost, and weren't avaible.

  She loved all of them. The smoked trout didn’t seem much different than the scraps she’d mao filch bae, the prawns were light and crispy and the thin shell ched wonderfully, and the raw fish, well, by itself it was a tiny bit bnd, but with a little bit of the sauce the fvor of the fish suddenly popped.

  She also wasn’t used to anything spicy like this. She’d tasted a little bit of horseradish before, and the sauce had some of that sort of kick, but it also had a strong peppery type spice to it. She kind of liked it, but too much was overwhelming.

  When they were done, and she had ed her hands and face, Gil led the way to the alchemist shop where he proceeded to be a rather boisterous chatterbox. It mostly seemed like rambling to her as she shadowed him, but his random-sounding ents seemed to strike chords with many of the ers as well as the shopkeepers. He even gratuted the woman, who blushed happily, but Fuyuko had no idea how he’d been able to tell she regnant, the alchemist looked normal to her. He picked up several pricey potions, a couple of which he gave to her, plete with instrus (which cost extra!), plus pre-paid for some items they didn’t have in stock.

  He also mao get a lot of information from some of the ers. While the dungeon retty generous with things like healing potions, if you wanted specific alchemical mixtures for your delving you had to either buy them here or trade with the dungeon, and it was harder to know if the dungeon was going to be able to aodate your purchase on a given day. Plus, the price advantage for trading with the dungeon for raw materials was dropping, at least, if you didn’t have anything unusual with you.

  Eventually, Gill took advantage of a lull in the number of other ers to say “It’s too bad that the inns are all full. I don’t care much, but my young friend Fuyuko here is a city girl, I was hoping to get her a few days of fort instead of finding somepp.” Fuyuko tilted her head at the sudden segue, frowning slightly as she tried to figure out what he was doing.

  The two alchemists looked at each other and seemed to unicate with just a few expressions before the husband made a palms-up gesture as he gave her the win, and the wife beamed before turning toward them. “So, we’ll pretend that you were subtle with that, since you were at least generous with your purchases first, but there is a price. You are a swordsman I take it?”

  “Er, ons Master would be more accurate,” Gil seemed a little taken aback at beihrough, and Fuyuko was starting to put together what was going on, but was at a loss for words as the two tiain on her behalf.

  “Well then, our current you is a boy with aspirations to bee a great warrior. We’ll feed you both and give her a room so long as you help train him each day. But, well, no offense, but our 21-year-old daughter still lives with us, so while you seem like a niough guy, we’d rather help set you up in the garden, it’s warm enough to be pretty nider the trees anyway.”

  “Hey, wait a moment,” Fuyuko interjected, “Okay, I appreciate what you are all doing, but Gil saved my life, I’d have bled out if he hadn’t found me and patched up my shoulder, and si healed all stiff, he asked Traxalim to heal it up proper for me cause they’re friends. You trust him. And he doesn’t even snore.”

  The woman looked thoughtful, then narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You said his name is Gil, and he’s known Traxalim for a while? Funny, there was a rather enthusiastitry in my grandma’s diary about a man named Gil. He was rather notably tall too.”

  Gil suddenly looked nervous and coughed, “ce, I’m sure.”

  “Mmm,” she tapped her lips thoughtfully, “Maybe, though I suppose it doesn’t matter. She didn’t meet Grampa until several years ter anyway. Well, if the old priest is willing to give his approval, ut you up in a room as well. Anyway, I’m Kaoru, my husband is Jhaeros, our you is Gan, the daughter you’ll meet is Hainako, and I suspect you already know that my eldest is Moriko, but she’s not here right now.”

  “Hah, you’ve got me thts,” Gil ughed, amused at having been caught, “Though I’m n to get one up on old Mordecai, Fuyuko here is just a little nervous about meeting her first dungeon.”

  Fuyuko scowled at him. He wasly wrong, but she didn’t like the way he’d phrased it. But her scowl seemed to have no effe any of the adults, despite her being taller than two of them, and she soon found herself being escorted along with Gil to the house by Jhaeros.

  Zagaroth