I feel refreshed, in body, mind and spirit, dressing after the baths. Apart from reaffirming that Jules now and forever had my back, there was so, so much grime and dirt and sweat and tears and blood that I didn't even notice until it had been washed away.

"Add new clothing to the expenses list," Sekhmet mutters as they pull on their pants. "At least one dress outfit. Can't be helped for now, but I already know we'll be lucky if it's less than five Crowns each."

"Holy shit," I say. "That much?"

"I saw girls with spindles on the ride up," they replied. "Spinning yarn. They don't have the tech to sell you $50 tee-shirts with your coat of arms on it here."

"Yet."

Sekhmet puts a finger over her nose and mouth, ears flat, thinking. Then they agree: "Yet."

I grab my towel. "Hey, Jules?"

"Yeah, J- hmn." They think about it. "Guess I shouldn't call you that. Got any ideas?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh." 

I do not, it turns out. 

"Deedee, for now? Like I said, this fits me way better than Sekh fits you, and if there's a way back we'll think about it then."

"If," they say, nodding, frowning. "Yeah that's a burn after crossing scenario. Deeds, then."

I sigh, twisting my hair in a tight coil to wring out any soap and water left. 

"Anyway. Thank you."

They shrug it off. "What the hell else are friends for, Deeds?" they ask.

For all it's a rhetorical question, I can't help but wonder. But at least I feel human again - flicking my tail reminds me it's a figure of speech now - and feel far more ready to meet with the local Big Good and Questgiver.

There's a knight on horseback waiting for us all when we exit the baths.

He almost looks bored, with a long, drooping mustache; it strikes me how much paler he is than most of the other people here, who tend to be at least a bit tan. His armor is plain, and his shield is red - emblazoned with a gold hare rising up on its hind legs and cracking open a gold pomegranate with a mace.

I looked around at the others as they filed out through what I was delighted to learn was called a 'vomitorium,' filing behind me and Sekhmet. Hikaru raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"I would see your letters of introduction," he said.

I take mine out of my jacket pocket and wordlessly pass over the envelope. 

Rather than cracking it open, he examined the wax seal - running the thumb of a bare, un-gauntleted hand, his shield hand, over it - before handing it back, then repeated this process for the documents of each of my friends.

Ace glared at him as she handed over hers, but looked more confused than actually angry.

"You will need escort into the palace, which I and my people will provide," he said. "With a carriage for you as well. The Most Honorable Contessa will extend her hospitality to you for this audience, which will include a light meal -"

"- Oh thank God," Ace blurted out, earning a sour look from the knight.

"- as the Contessa is very busy, and has little time to spare given the present crisis," the knight said, a little louder. "I will reiterate that you are to afford her all the courtesies of her station, and all due gratitude for the privileges and protection she extends to you."

Shut up and listen when she speaks or your career will be a short one, in other words. I feel a chill down my spine.

Hikaru looks up at him. "Sir," he says, "we will endeavor to be unfailingly polite, but beg for you to be patient with mistakes and oversights we strangers to this city may make. We are far from home and... agree that the situation is as serious as she considers it."

"Thank you. Yes. Our company mage has the right of it," Alesha says, her shoulders dropping in relief. "Unless told otherwise, we will not speak unless spoken to and address her as... the Most Honorable Contessa, you said?"

The knight smiles, barely, thin-lipped and tense. He pivots his hips, slightly, and his horse backs up with four rhythmic clops on the cobblestones. "She has further titles, which you will learn, but the Most Honorable is sufficient for now."

I was never good at modern formal etiquette, and we'd need to learn fast. I take a deep breath before I nod.

"We're... all very confused and scared," I say before really thinking about it. "And will try to allay her fears, as well as our own."

He nods. "There's wisdom in that."

I realize I'm holding my breath, and plosively sigh. "Sir, may we know your name?" I ask.

There is a long moment of silence where I worry I've offended the man on the horse.

Who probably has class levels. More of them than us.

It's - more or less - statistically impossible to hit someone 9 levels above you, Hikaru's voice echoes in my memory. 

Which I would really rather it didn't.

He puts his hand, shield and all over his heart, his armor clinking against itself at the gesture. "Ser Tomas Del Conejoloma Valencia," he says. "At her service, and yours if we are comrades."

"...you're related to that guy back at Costa Dulce?" Sekhmet asks, ears flicking.

"My brother in law," he confirms.

"He's a good man," Alesha murmurs.

"So my sister tells me," Tomas says, that flicker of a smile on his face before he turns his horse around. "Come. Let us not keep a Contessa waiting."

---

The carriage - keeping to the theme, all done up in red and gold - passes with a few bumps along the boulevard at the edge of the city wall, with towers both on the wall to your right and jutting from the domed buildings to the left.

"Minarets," Hikaru mutters. "I wonder..."

But whatever he wondered, he doesn't elaborate on, as he sees the statue of Gnomon pointing his wand down to a huge building with high arches, with beautiful tessellated shapes carved into it in repeating fractal motifs of triangles and hexagons, in white and turquoise and gold and sandstone, topped with red tiles and more of those spires. Men and women, human and otherwise, in robes, were walking and talking, some sitting in the shade of trees planted along the boulevard or next to a perfectly octagonal fountain's basin.

And we all go past that, and upwards on a grade, up a hill; there was less town and more green and more up the further you went, with the wall still on our right and curving left, channeling up to -

"The Red Alcazar," said Sir Tomas.

And it was red. The Red Alcazar was constructed of red and black stone bricks, with octagonal turrets and square walls; the tower keep was likewise an octagon. The moat was a natural lake that spilled over into the river; glancing over to it, I spy with my little eyes a soldier sitting at the wall's edge, casting a line down into it, hoping to supplement his rations.

We stop, for a moment, at the gatehouse. Ser Tomas salutes it, and soon an Ubastim man with pince-nez glasses and in black robes came out to examine everyone's letters.  Again, without opening them. 

Once he was satisfied, we continued in, parked, and exited - all of us needing a moment to stretch. 

Tomas passed his horse's reins to a Vulpecian stablegirl with a curt nod, dismounted, and pointed us towards a small building in a grove next to the keep.

There, under the shade of an orange tree, sat a woman at a table. 

She has dark skin and curly black hair tied up in a neat bun; dark eyes, high cheekbones, and a sort of resting amused face. She wears, over over a deep blue dress with puffed sleeves, a plain steel breastplate; over this she wears a gold medallion with a single large ruby in the center that I recognize as the Solar Cross, an Auroran holy symbol. 

She finishes signing a paper before handing it off to the Ubasti courtier from earlier, muttering something to him; then she turns to all of us, sweeping her arm over our seats as well as a collection of plates and bowls of nibbles, deftly dipping her hand to pick up some kind of tart before drawing it back.

"Sit," she says. "I'll take those letters. I assume you know who I am."

Alesha blurts out, "It's an honor, Most Honorable Contessa," after I and literally everyone else in my party sits down - before realizing she should probably also sit. And then she starts to fumble for her letter a second after I hand over mine.

Leesh did most of our inter-guild diplomacy, so that didn't bode at all.

"Charmed," says the Contessa.  She took a bite of her pastry, holding it in one hand while with the other she cracks open our letters, one by one.  She looks down, skimming them.

She takes another bite, and none of us could say a damn word. 

Or move.

Taliab

And we are back, by thunder, close to the end of the second volume of the Quest on SA, and soon after releasing the book.

A couple of things I ought to mention.

First off, you may notice the book got renamed.  That's because the second volume of the Quest never even got to the Temple I was going to name this book after; I will make damn sure it features in the third. Now it's called Out-Of-Bounds Interactions, mostly because these former NPCs are now well and truly out of the bounds of their former programming...

Secondly, and not half as fun, in light of the current situation in Texas I wanted to do something for the trans teenagers and their families placed in legal purgatory there, and decided that I would start donating some of the proceeds of these books to a charity that could help: the Transgender Law Center.   Going forward, I will donate 10% of the gross profit of every Shores of Awakening ebook to the TLC.  That's the profit before Itch.io or Paypal take their cut; I'll post receipts at the end of the month.  I just wish I could do more.

If you liked the last volume, consider picking it up for charity.  If you didn't, first off why the hell are you reading the sequel and secondly consider donating directly to the TLC?

Anyway.  I will try to update this weekly, on Wednesdays, going forward.

 

PS:  If you notice any errors, please don't hesitate to point them out in the comments under spoilers; I always appreciate it!