The plan to disguise me in his party seemed to work splendidly. Even though I appeared as an Osterian that towered over the others, they didn’t bother to take more than two looks at me. There was one problem. Pait and the others were given crag cats to mount, but I was left to walk. I stood as tall as the Dioshin men mounted, so they must have felt that I was too big to sit on one of their animals. I didn’t care that much anyway, as I never took to mounting animals.

The only time I ever rode was when I had to. Typically, my blue mage spells and personal speed were enough to get around. At some point, I had noticed in my dungeon skills that there was a long-distance speed skill called Travel Speed which increased my endurance and speed for running. This differed from things that amplified my battle speed like Haste, as it only affected the legs. If I put enough points into it and with my long legs, I could run faster than a horse. So, that was an option too.

We ended up traveling wide of the village and eventually came to a road that cut through the forest. If you didn’t know where the pathway from Dioshin to Esmore was, you wouldn’t be able to find it at all. Was this a part of Dioshin’s defenses? By keeping things embedded in the forest, it was a means of hiding stuff?

We traveled down the long dirt road for about an hour before we came out to a long decline. I was able to look down into a valley that had been clear of trees. There was a large city there. The outer wall had been made of stone, while the buildings within the city were all made of wood. The city wasn’t at the level of treehouses or something like that, but there was a raw, wild feel to the way the city was built. Entire trunks were used to denote walls and it seemed like a fire hazard to me. Maybe, when you had access to magic, you didn’t need to worry about fire spreading.

We were brought down into the valley. I noticed that the guards at the front entrance seemed on edge. They all seemed to be somewhat fearful. The men bringing us in had to announce their presence from quite a distance away, and even as we entered the town gate, there were arrows drawn on us with itchy fingers. I was half expecting someone to lose by accident and cause a disaster.

As I walked down the dirt paths of the town, I saw many beastkin of various types. Pait said that beastkin kept to their own. All of the guards who brought us in had been wolfkin. In this city, there was a larger assortment of people, but if one paid close attention they’d notice that the ones dressed up nice and clean were mostly wolfkin, while the other kin were in poorer conditions. It painted a clear picture to me. They looked like the people who had come to Chalm after the bandits took over the west of Aberis. They looked like refugees fleeing some kind of destruction.

Everyone had haunted or fearful expressions on their face. It may not look like it on the surface, but Dioshin was in a lot of trouble. Our journey came to a stop just outside the main castle. Something had been written on the wall in red paint during the night, and a guard was trying to scrub it off.

The words written were ‘Death is coming.’ Other than the guard cleaning it, everyone else was going out of their way to avoid looking at it. Just what had Miki walked herself into?