Okay, I took Rayden’s advice to heart and went through the barracks with Idleaf first. My first stop, still in the company of Vara and Elira, was the mess hall. I simply couldn’t go on an empty stomach and had free food there. For the time being, at least.

And so, taking advantage of that benefit, I enjoyed my late breakfast and did so in surprising peace as two guardswomen and the few guards that were there kept Idleaf company. To be honest, I was taken aback by how well they took her. Sure, her spectral appearance was a source of worry for most of them, but her cheerful and youthful nature quickly melted those fears away.

Yet to chalk it up to her spirit alone would be a mistake. The guards’ lack of knowledge played a part in that. No offense meant; just stating simple facts.

From the little I’ve heard of their conversations, a good half of them haven’t even heard of any World Trees, and for the rest, it was just legends, myths, and tales they’d once heard. In the end, even the Imperial Chief Healer didn’t know much more, seeing only a glimpse of trees in the distance when he visited the elven kingdoms. There was no doubt that they would treat her with more restraint and respect if they knew what her spirit form represented.

Be it as it may, this breakfast stop gave me an interesting insight into how ordinary folk in the city might receive Idleaf, with reserve, a bit of curiosity, but without outright fear. At least I hoped they wouldn’t panic and run screaming when they saw her.

Anyway, as I successfully fed my hungry stomach, the time to visit the place I wasn’t exactly looking forward to seeing came. What place made me rather wish to face a mossbear than go there? The stables.

No one forced me to go. In fact, no one even mentioned it to me, but I felt the need to apologize to the stablemaster for Jewel. And so, bidding farewell to Vara and Elira, whose free time was coming to an end anyway, I set off with Idleaf bouncing past me to where the horses were stabled.

 

***

 

“Stop right there!” The horsemaster’s roar reached my ears as soon as I set foot in the stables. In a moment, he emerged from one of the stalls looking just like I remembered him. Aged, covered in sweat, and cranky. Well, you could even say furious, based on how sharply he pointed his finger at the spirit of the World Tree next to me.

“That thing has no place in my stables!”

“I’m not a thing. I’m Idleaf,” she corrected him, offended by what he called her. “And you are?”

“None of your damn business,” he sputtered at her and then frowned at me. “Your pet or whatever it is won’t set foot in my stables. Is that clear?”

Unsurprisingly, calling her a pet didn’t sit well with Idleaf either. But I stopped her from arguing with the man. That’s not why I was here. “It is, sir. But may I ask why?”

He raised an eyebrow at me, considering whether to answer at all. “...that thing would scare the horses.”

“I would not,” Idleaf argued, then glanced at me. “Tell him Korra’leaigh; the horses love me.”

Did they? As far as I knew, she only talked to the mare, Whisper, that I rode on from Esulmore. It didn't exactly lift her spirits, though there was a reason for that. If anything, which was kind of odd when I thought about it, they didn’t react to her at all. Most likely because their instincts were as dull as mine regarding her, and they simply did not feel whether she was a threat or not.

I wasn’t going to explain that to the horsemaster, though.

“Sir, I don’t want to keep you for long...”

“Then spit it out, damn it!”

“I came to tell you how sorry I am about Jewel. She was a great horse.”

“Is that all? If so, get lost.”

Not the reaction I was expecting. When he trusted me with Jewel, he made it clear that if anything happened to the mare, I would wish I hadn’t met him. It was the reason I was dreading coming here, and now it seemed he just wanted to get rid of me as quickly as possible.

“What?” he barked at me when he saw me hesitating, still standing on the threshold of his stables. “No sorry, no matter how big, will bring her back.”

“I thought you’d be more pissed at me,” I said flat out, not knowing what else to say, almost sounding like I wanted him to be pissed at me.

“Oh, I could chew your ears off here, but what good would it do me?” he grumbled and sighed, wiping his sweat-covered forehead into his sleeve. “Heard what happened. There wasn’t much you could do. Hardly anyone could when running from a level six hundred beast, or is there more to it?”

“No, sir. I just...”

“If it’s guilt you’re feeling, shove it up your ass. People die, animals die, such is life, such is war. If you had hurt my horse because of your stupidity, I’d let you slave away here until you started to cherish them. But unless I got something wrong, even if you had stood up to the attack that killed my horses, it wouldn’t have done them much good, and you wouldn’t have bugged me here today.”

As sad as it sounded, it was true. If I hadn’t jumped at the last minute, I would have been a bloody mess, quite possibly beyond the ability of my skills to bring me back, and it wouldn’t have saved Jewel or the stallion.

“So if that’s all, take your tail and your pet and get out of here. I’ve got a heck of a lot of work to do,” he grumbled, shooing Idleaf and me away.

It wasn’t the closure I was seeking, nor did it bring me the peace of mind I was hoping for, but it was something. No one could say that I was indifferent, that I didn’t give a shit about Jewel, who taught me to ride on horseback. For that and her kindness, she will always be in my heart.

 

***

 

To my annoyance, I was unable to find Lightfeather and Pip. Even the guards I asked weren’t much help, as they had no idea who I was talking about. It was no wonder. The animal caretaker, or beasttalker to many, wasn’t from Castiana. She came here from Granhill at the request of the Imperial Chief Healer. That meant she would have to go back there at some point. Sadly, I had no idea when that was going to be and thus why I wanted to talk to her, to both of them.

Sadly, with an excited Idleaf bouncing around me, I didn’t have time or rather patience to search the entire barracks, and so with an uneasy feeling welling up in my heart, I headed for the barracks gate, not knowing if I’d even have a chance to at least say goodbye to those two.

“Do you remember what I said?”

Idleaf nodded, her eyes fixed on the street outside the gate. “Don’t introduce myself to everyone; just watch...and ask only you.”

Not exactly what I told her, but so be it. My aim was to get as much common sense into her head as I could before throwing myself with her among the common folk. I mean my common sense...there were some gaps in it as far as Eleaden was concerned.

Anyway, to my delight, I found out that Elira had taught her a lot in that short time on the terrace, and Idleaf knew enough about how to behave. But whether she would be able to put what she knew into practice was another matter. My own experience told me that it wasn’t always that easy.

“Okay, so let’s do it,” I said, more to myself, and stepped through the barracks gate onto a busy street.

The way dozens of people moved around, each different, old and young, woman and man, each with their own goal and purpose, completely mesmerized Idleaf. Speechless, she walked slowly beside me, watching the crowds with sparkling eyes.

When her silence had gone on for several minutes, I began to wonder if I had been too hard on her. That wasn’t the spirit, the little seedling full of questions I knew.

“Are you okay, Idleaf?” I asked when I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Umm-hm,” she nodded without taking her eyes off the street, truly fascinated by its liveliness. “Is it true what Elira said?”

“What do you mean?”

“That they all move with a goal in mind?”

Of course, they did. Why else would anyone go anywhere, right? “They do, Idleaf.”

“What kind? Why is he going there? Why is she coming here?”

How the hell was I supposed to know? “Um...housewives might be going to the market to get groceries and other household items; merchants send their couriers to deliver the goods and vice versa to buy raw materials for production. I’m no thought fuddler to know precisely...but if you think about it, we have a goal in mind too.”

Her eyes sparkled. “To see, to explore, to discover, to learn.”

“Exactly.”

“Why is everyone in such a hurry, though?” she asked, quite perplexed by that. “Or do humans usually move like that?”

“No, they are indeed in a rush. The lives of ordinary humans are short compared to someone like Esudein or you, so we try to get as much done as possible while we can. Doesn’t mean we’re always in a rush, though. Take a good look. Not everybody’s in a hurry for something.”

“Humans are so different compared to beasts,” she remarked as she looked again at the busy street we were walking down. “Esudein’s kin moves lazily through the woods and spends more time lying in the moss than on their feet.”

Seriously? It was hard to picture them so. I knew them as several-ton beasts hurtling through the woods, intimidating as fuck and, with my current strength, impossible to defeat.

“Korra’leigh,” she said suddenly, turning back to me as if something scared her. “You’re human too. Is your life short too?”

Good question. “I have no idea myself; after all, I’m part beast too. I could live to be only sixty and just as easily to two hundred. That is, unless someone or something kills me first.”

She thought about it, nodding, while the worry about me slowly disappeared from her eyes. “You need to get stronger, Korra’leigh.”

No, shit. “I know; doing my best already.”

Happy to hear that, her attention turned quickly back to the street. “What are they doing over there?” Without waiting for an answer, she headed for the bakery on the other side.

And so we strolled through the streets of Castiana, where Idleaf was discovering a new world for her, and I was getting to know the city that had become my new home all the better, with all its wonders and flaws.

Yes. Even this city had its shady sides, some of which I have already come to know myself.

Nothing was perfect, and if anyone said otherwise, they were lying. Even Idleaf wasn’t a flawless creature. For what she was, she had her own shortcomings, and I was even further from perfect; freak, socially distant, and indecisive were just a few that came to mind.

Anyway, putting that aside, the stroll through the city went better than I had feared. Idleaf was curious, yes. But as instructed, she limited her questions to me and didn’t bother anyone else. No fuss, no uproar, no commotion ensued. Not even at the market where I took her and where she was beside herself with excitement.

Sure, her spectral appearance and form alone had aroused curiosity among the people. Yet, as I overheard with my oversized ears, most considered her a summon and me for her crazy master, who flaunted her power around. Why was that? Most summoners weren’t crazy enough to hold their summons any longer than necessary. It was draining on both their mana and stamina.

Yet while I didn’t find it very flattering, it did have one upside. They mostly glossed over the fact that I was [Slave], or used to by one. Idleaf’s presence next to me and the number of levels I boasted made it easy to conclude that I had advanced to a different class. Although their assumptions were, for the most part, wrong.

The same seemed to be the case with the two men whose attention Idleaf and I caught as soon as we set foot in Labyrinth Square. There I wanted to show her the busiest part of the city and the entrance to Fallen’s Cry. Instead, it looked like it was going to be a demonstration of how annoying people could be.

“See that fine piece of ass?” said the one of the two standing next to the potion stall at the entrance to the square to his friend, not caring if I heard him or not. He was tall and thin, with his long hair pulled back in a ponytail. The other one, slightly shorter than the first but sturdier and with a full beard making up for the missing hair on his head, turned and looked at the two of us. “You mean the terran or her weird bear summon?”

“Dickhead. Of course, the terran.”

“She’s weird even for one of them...are you sure?”

“Why not? She has no company insignia on her.”

“I dunno, man. Did you really look at her? If she’s still not one, she used to be [Slave], meaning hardly any training. And her clothes? She looks like a beggar to me,” the beard guy argued. “She won’t have a proper weapon or armor.”

“You should talk, man. I remember a time when you could barely buy a loaf of bread.”

“And you were right there next to me in the same gutter. Only we were eleven. A lot has changed since then.”

“Yeah, you shed your hair. Come on, man. Don’t you see the potential in her?”

Instead of replying to his mate, he paused, sizing me up as Idleaf and I walked past them to the stalls that piqued her curiosity with their display of goods. “Nah, something’s off about that one.”

“What are you talking about? She seems fine to me.”

“Go ahead and ask her, but leave me out of it.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you today?” the man with the ponytail shook his head at the grumbling of his mate and made his way over to me.

Companies. The fact that they were part of one was obvious at first glance. Both were dressed in the same colors, with the emblems pinned to their lapels. Though, that little ornate piece of metal told me jack shit whether their company was one of the less shady ones or not.

Quickly checking where we were, the options for escape and whether there were any guards around, I turned to him just as he was about to open his mouth and address me.

“Yes?”

“Oh, you surprised me there,” chuckled the man, quickly regaining his composure. “I won’t beat around the bush. You seem like a decent summoner,” he said, throwing a glance at Idleaf, who was inspecting the stalls’ wares. “Are you interested in becoming a seeker? Our company...”

“I’ll stop you right here. I am not joining any company.”

“Don’t be so quick to say no. The Street Dogs treat their members well, and you’d see decent money in no time.”

“Money?” butted in Idleaf, startling the man. He, like me, completely missed her approach. “Y-you can speak? Wow, not sure I ever saw that. You’re better than I thought...” he said, waiting for me to tell him my name. “I’m Harlan, by the way. Harlan Shieldwind.”

“Idleaf. Could you give Korra’leigh some of that money now?”

“W-what?”

“Ignore her.”

“But Korra’leigh, you said you had no money; that you can’t afford a decent meal or a burrow.”

No need to say that I found myself wishing I had kept my mouth shut when I explained the way money works to her. It wasn’t my empty pockets that made me feel embarrassed, though. After all, I made peace with the fact that I was broke a long time ago. No, it was Idleaf and her sharing things that were just for her ears.

“Is she really just a summon?” Harlan asked, thrown off by her behavior.

“It’s....complicated. Look, I really appreciate your offer...Street Dogs, was it, right?”

He nodded, already sensing my rejection.

“We’re not a big company, but if you change your mind...”

“Thanks, but I have to say no. I kind of work for the City Guards.”

“She’s a Guardian, too.”

He thought for a moment about what Idleaf said. “Kind of...? [Guardian]?”

“It’s complicated. Look, do you have a business card or something?”

“...a what now?”

Shit! That wasn’t the thing here, huh? “Well, I mean something that would tell me how to find you or contact you if I were to change my mind, as you said.”

“Oh, we’re not hard to find. Silver Road 16, look for the house with the dog sign,” he said, pointing to the emblem on his lapel. It depicted a pack of dogs between two houses against a grey background.

“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.” A merciful lie, as I had no idea where Silver Road even was, one that I didn’t manage to hide as well as I thought. From his smile, I could tell he saw right through me. Fortunately, he wasn’t so pushy and let it go. “Well, see you around then...Korra’leigh was it, right?”

Sighing inwardly at Idleaf’s big mouth, I nodded. “Korra’leigh Grey.”

“I’ll remember that. Thanks for your time,” he beckoned me his goodbye and turned to go back to his mate. I did the same, turning to my fellow, but all I found was an empty spot where she was supposed to be.

“I told you there was something off about her. I’ve never heard of [Guardians] being capable of summoning.” I heard the other man mutter as I scanned the crowd for Idleaf. She couldn’t have been too far away.

“Yeah, she seemed strange in the head,” Harlan Shieldwind agreed, trailing off for a moment. “But had a fine piece of ass.”

The rest of their banter got lost in the bustle of the square as I delved deeper in an effort to find Idleaf. One would think that her spectral form wouldn’t be hard to find even in a crowd of people, yet no matter how hard I looked around, I didn’t see her anywhere.