I wake up, shouting for Ace.

Who is right next to me, under the blanket, and looks up at me - peeved that I woke her.

I hug her very close, breathing hard, and after a moment she just hugs back.

"Nightmare?" she asks, trying to add sympathy to her voice this early in the morning. She looks haggard, eyes red; was hers a night spent wide awake?

I nod, and say - voice warbling more than I mean it to - "You know I'll be there for you, right? That I wouldn't willingly leave you behind?"

She sighs heavily as she holds my head in her hands. "Is that what woke you up? Course I know that. I'm not an idiot."

I kiss her. "I'll try to set you up to sleep in the cart."

"Please," she asks.

---

Soon after breakfast and packing the tents we're on the road again. We all take turns marching and in the cart, save for Ace, who needs to rest still after yesterday's excitement. I only stop when the horses need to rest and graze, eating dried crackers and fruit and cheese on the road and drinking spring water and diluted wine. Tayeb and Siobhan both assure I that this way we'llget a goose-down bed in Vinyedo in the evening.

Hills with scattered windmills give way to flat, wide rolling plains of grasses, and heat to cloud cover and sparse shade from trees and the cool wind rising from a river. We also pass by people going the other way - drovers, riverboaters, merchants, once even a fully armored knight on horseback and her squire, leading her other horses and their supply train.

For a stretch after lunch, Hikaru walks alongside me. For a moment neither of us say anything, focused on marching, and finding a shared rhythm of the road. But before long, he clears his throat.

"I hope you're alright," he asks.

I explosively exhale, holding back inappropriate laughter. "Managing," I say. "Honestly, having some idea of how this happened is helping. The Io theory, I mean."

Hikaru nods, grimacing. "It doesn't explain enough. It fits some of the facts we have, and nothing we know contradicts it, but it's not enough. We need more data, more thought, more time."

"Are you saying you were wrong?" I say, smiling.

He turns to me with a flat, almost disappointed expression. "If I wasn't willing to be proved wrong, then there'd be no point to my theorizing. I can imagine a few things that would falsify it."

"Or prove it," I say.

"Yes," he says, through gritted teeth. "I think at this point it's more likely to be incomplete than incorrect, though. And then... there are questions I have about why we still have stats and Perks. How much that's descriptive versus prescriptive. The sort of questions that leave you as sleepless as you and Ace seemed to be."

This time I can't stop myself from tension laughing, and he has at least the good grace to look away.

"Ah," he says. "I am happy for you two, for the record. It's very clear how much you care for her. And how much she looks out for your happiness, as well."

And, I realize, he's jealous despite himself. Of Ace.

Thanks, Flamma, really needed that insight on top of everything else, I think.

I have the sudden mental image of a black cat purring, you're welcome.

"Did we keep anyone else up?" I mutter, peevish, ears flat on my head.

"We were exhausted, on the one hand," he says, "but on the other tents are not the best at muffling sound and greater discretion was possible."

"And on the gripping hand?" I say, voice flat, one ear flicking towards him.

"On the gripping hand that wasn't how I figured it out," Hikaru says, looking at I. "And I blame my insomnia more than your indiscretion."

"We'll keep it down," I groan.

"Thank you," he sighs.

---

Vinyedo itself is nestled between river, forest and mountain, the town square and its central manor ringed with a stone and earthwork crenelated wall. The manor itself is not a full castle - not rich or important enough for that - but it does rate the central wind and watermill pulling double duty as a guard tower, and I see human and ubastim guards with crossbows stationed there, as well as the pikes and crossbows arrayed at the wall.

Extending past the city walls along the river and the road are houses, ranches, vineyards, farmsteads and shops; there are produce stands and clothing stores as far as the eye can see, tavernas grilling lamb and beef and fish over charcoal braziers, many bakeries, even a few places selling wine or olive oil or salt as I get closer to the square. There's more humans here than anyone else, but they're not even half the populace; there's lot of ubastim and vulpecians, but I also see pixies literally flitting about - some doing aerial delivery - and the odd koboldt working fireplaces or loading docks.  Even a handful of aethyr and an elf or two.

I see here the village people watching our arrival with some trepidation, shying away from our cart. Occasionally, one will wave to Tayeb or Shadi - and they will return the gesture with as much smile as they can manage - but none of them seem to know what to make of me, in my monastic robes; or of the Pixie in his robes and wizard hat; or the fully armored Knight of the Temple of Aurora; or the skulking ubastim in green with gold jewelry, wearing long knives on her hips. They are definitely having trouble with the vulpine blender in her black armor with the oversized sledgehammer, riding in the cart.

They have an easier time dealing with the pixie dressed as a hunter, I realize. Sio's kit is less obtrusive than my weekend warrior duds.

When I reach the city walls, two guards cross halberds, barring our path. One curly-haired human woman, and one lanky ubastim tom. They wear breastplates painted with purple and green vines on silver, guarded by a gold lion rampant on a red field, on top of stiff boiled leather thick as a thumb and tough as hide: their clothes and gear are plain but well cared for. Provincial guards these might be, but this is also a province that the Contessa sent my party to investigate - a local power in it's own right.

"We've paid our firstharvest taxes, Queensguard," the woman says. "You're not due for secondharvest until next month, unless you're trading your swords for scythes and flails."

The ubastim purrs, and I know that's a snigger.

Mildly, Alesha says, "We may well, if you need the hands."

The woman blinks, and has to close her jaw. Whatever response she was expecting was not that.

"Do you think you'll be shorthanded? We'll do whatever we can to help," I add.

"We don't need such help as indebts the lord Molinero to Adventurers," the catte sneers. "We've no gold and no quests for you here."

"Already getting paid," Sekhmet says, buffing her claws. "May as well stick around and give some of that coin to your innkeepers. Unless you think they'd mind?"

"By who?" the woman asks, incredulous.

Tayeb sighs, then speaks from his cart, projecting from his voice in a way that would make my high school drama teacher proud.

"By the lord Molinero Castellano's liege, the right honorable Contessa, that his vote helped elect come these adventurers, to a one bound by coin and contract to a lawful duty to investigate the attacks on the Township of Vinyedo by monsters or parties unknown," he says. 

And then to the woman: "Alma, I can vouch for them. They have never done less than strive to do good, and the Contessa wouldn't send them without a reason. What manner of beast is attacking my hometown?"

"Your hometown, is it still, merchant?" the Ubast echoes, while Alma seems pinned to her place, grimacing. "And I suppose you've come along with all the rest of the shepherds to pay your debts to your hometown in silver and gold?"

I see him tense, and hide anger and gritted teeth behind stroking his mustache. I know he's not a shepherd. But it occurs to me he may be some kind of Shephard, with the caps.

Lovely! Boy howdy I hope we're not going to check religious intolerance off our to-do list here!

I lock eyes with Alesha, and then with Siobhan. She nods, subtly enough that I think only the two of us can see.

"If there is a beast or man interfering with the harvest here in my friend's hometown," Siobhan says, patting Tayeb's leg, "surely a huntress in service to Eranda's prodigal child could hunt it discreetly, and be back in time to bless the harvest with chestnuts, mushrooms and game?"

"As I can bring the light of the dawn's mother," Alesha says, "and use the gifts she gave me to help you bring in all that needs bringing in. I'm sure as well that there's a need for someone to lay hands on hurts and help farmers back on their feet."

"If there are folks with worse sickness and injury, I can tend to them," I say, "in the name of the laughing wind. And who knows? If there are mice with designs on your granaries, maybe these ears will overhear them."

I wiggle them, along with my eyebrows.

"...Look, all I've got is a hammer," Ace sighs. "I want to help too, just not sure how."

The guards look at each other, skeptical. But their skepticism is an improvement over their hostility and I'll take it for now.

"We really are here to help," I say softly. "Whatever you think 'help' looks like. We do have a job to do besides, one the Contessa sent us to do, but we're not tax collectors and we'd be happy to speak with the lord Molinero about whatever it is the Contessa got wind of."

The prospect of their boss finding out what I know from someone other than them breaks the stalemate, and Alma exchanges a look with the catte before turning back to I. "I cannot let you in," she says, "without my Lord's permission. Stay here while I seek it. Is that acceptable?"

"I hope so, my friend. Will you be back in time for them to find a room in an inn?" Tayeb says.

"That's up to m'lord," she says, nodding her head instead of bowing. But she then slips through the guardhouse door and is relieved by a younger, frecklier man with paler skin and darker hair. In fact, I suspect he's a teenager who's just figured out which end of the pike goes up.

We stay there for a tense, protracted moment.

"Nice weather we're having," Ace offers.

The catte grunts.

"Good football weather," Ace suggests.

The catte squints at her. "Somehow I'm not surprised you prefer that court to a lord's," he says.

"Oh, the politics here are total bullshit," Ace agrees, nodding. "If I knew how much of them I'd be getting into I'd have stayed home kicking the ball around."

"Hmn," the catte says, but it's an agreeable grunt.

"Don't suppose there's a game for the harvest festival?" I ask him.

"We'd be remiss not to honor Eranda with them," he says, annoyed. "We farm here. We owe her that much."

Ace nods. "If I can't play, I'll cheer from the stands," she says.

The catte considers this for a second as Alma comes back, clutching a document with a wax seal in her hand. I reach out for it, and she lets me take it; the seal bears the same design of a lion guarding a grapevine.

"You are to present this, unopened, to the guards tomorrow morning after you rise," she says. "From there, my lord will have an audience with you, and determine if you can stay."

"Appreciated," I say. "I hope he will. We want nothing more than the continued prosperity of his town."

"That is for him to determine the truth of," she says. "You're in luck, mercenaries; you arrived mere days in advance of the Royal Drover's Guild. There will be beds and baths for you, if you've got coin."

"Enough of it," Sekhmet says. "Might do an odd job to get more."

Judging by her wince, she hopes our gigs don't involve murder. "You are to obey all orders of the guard, and to disturb no freeman here."

I frown; I thought that the game designers had written slavery out of this setting. "We'll avoid trouble," I say.

She nods. "Welcome to Vinyedo, travelers," she says, at last.

Tayeb bows as best he can from his seat to her. "Thank you, Alma," he says.

And - with a dirty look at the catte - he turns his cart, and us, around to the village outside the town proper.

---

Six adventurers walk into a bar, too tired to come up with a punchline.

There's not as much competition in Vinyedo - nor as much literacy - as there is in Viacruz; the inn is called the Barrel of White because it hangs a barrel with a cluster of silver grapes outside its door. Many of the buildings in the town do double or triple duty, and the Barrel of White is no exception; it does brewing, and baking, and there's an altar to Flamma where the locals toss the dregs of their cups with great enthusiasm and accuracy, flinging ale or wine or even chickpeas into the flames.

I get some odd looks. Some suspicion. Strangers are not common here, and I lack the protections of having Tayeb introduce our merry band - a protection that clearly is not as absolute as I imagined, anyway - as he has family to visit and I do not.

"One Crown a room, a night," the innkeeper - a broad human man - says as we approach.

I blink. I expected them to gouge more. Or - no, this is them gouging more, but one Crown goes a lot further here than in Viacruz -

"That include our meals?" Sekhmet says, drumming their fingers on their purse.

"Not your drinks. Those are extra," he says.

Sekhmet narrows their eyes, darting them across the space. Clean, but not the sterile clean of a place no one visits.

"I don't suppose there are smaller, cheaper rooms," Hikaru says. "For those of us who don't need as much space."

"Are you suggesting we share one?" Sio asks, blinking, clearly caught by surprise but still amused.

"If you have no objections I certainly don't," he replies, offering a hand to her palm-up.

She rolls her eyes and waves him off. "As long as we're already scandalizing the locals, what's one more reason?"

I turn from the banter, irritated. I'm really very tired and just... want some food and the rooms.

"7 rooks for a pixie's loft," the inkeep says. "Cleaning it's only slightly less expensive."

"Peachy keen," Sekhmet says, handing him 20 gold coins. "We'll be staying a while, just add the extra to our tab. And a pitcher of house white for our table."

The innkeeper blinks, taking the gold and weighing it with a scale behind the counter, then turning back at us, obviously wondering what the scam is.

Sekhmet grins a mouth full of feline fangs at him.

"Take a seat," he says, thrown off his script. 

As it were.

"Will fuckin' do," Sekh says, turning around and pulling up a chair.

---

The food is simple. Good, but simple. Bread and cheese, fish, breadcrumbs fried with sausage, eggplant and peppers with an egg, some kind of rabbit soup thickened with bread. Surprising no one who knows this is the winery town of Viacruz, the wine is really good; we all pace ourselves and have tea, too.

After a moment, Sekhmet puts a silver coin on the table and claps me on the back. "I figure we should be roommates again," they say. "Keep you out of trouble."

My face burns and I look down and away, while Ace tries desperately not to say anything through pursed lips.

Alesha holds a hand over her mouth, stifling some expression I can't quite read. "I wouldn't mind rooming with Ace again," she murmurs, voice very carefully neutral. "If she wouldn't."

"Sure," she says. "Fine. Super. Just as long as there's a real bed."

"Okay," I say. "God it's - it hasn't even been a month."

Sekhmet sighs. "Sure hasn't for all it feels like longer. I don't think we're leaving anytime soon, though."

"Just let me get more of the soup," I say. "After all that I need the calories."

"Hard same," growls Ace, reaching for the ladle.

---

The bed is wonderful, soft and springy, and I have feather pillows; I see straw sticking out of the bottom, but there must also be something gentler in the top mattress. For a moment I stretch out, and groan, as tired bones and muscles finally get to sleep on something softer than a traveller's bedroll.

Judging by the sounds Sekhmet makes soon after, they're just as relieved; I see them sprawl out on their side in the lantern-light.

"I think this beats the futon in the apartment," they say when words come.

"You say a lot of things in Mundus beat the apartment," I say, voice heavier than I might have intended.

They're silent for a long moment, and then I see them nod. "A lot of things do," they say. "What does it say about home that this place is literally medieval, and it's a better deal here?"

"It's something I've been thinking about," I admit to my roommate.

"Like - shit. Least my boss here doesn't pretend it's not a vassal-to-lord relationship," they say. "Bow and scrape to an idiot who pretends I'm a serf in his little fief on Tenth and San Pablo."

"We're acting as her knights," I say, a little exasperation in my tone. "I'm beginning to think that the real peasants have it about the same as we did back home."

They lay back, looking up at the ceiling. "Yeah," they say. "We're gonna need to get their perspective to figure this out. How much you wanna bet the griefer idiots are behind this and whatever happened to Io?"

"I'd like to think that," I say, closing my eyes. "No bet, though. Not enough info on the one hand, need the cash on the other."

Sekhmet laughs, once, and then we both lie there. The silence stretches on, as it used to, back home.

But there, it never got uncomfortable. Here, with shadows flickering up the wall, with so much at stake, the need to say something and fill that void grows.

"Alesha is really worried about you, you know," I say.

Sekhmet closes their eyes. "I'll bet," they say. "Leesh can't wait to grab her kid, get out of here and back to her house, and her kids, and her job. To tell her ex and her dad that she's alright. Maybe then they'll all roll up to that steakhouse on Grand and drop 200 bucks on a welcome home meal for her family."

I exhale, and then take control of my breathing again, doing it square. I'm tempted to laugh, but that seemed too bitter to laugh at.

"How do you think Amado's doing?" I ask, softly.

Sekhmet hisses her breath in between her teeth, and sits up to look right at I.

"My brother is probably worried sick about me," they mutter, "and about who he'll go to if his car breaks down again during a delivery. But, man, Deeds, what do you expect me to do about that here?"

"I don't," I say. "I've just been thinking about who'd miss us, that's all."

"Is that all," Sekhmet says, a growl crouching under their words. "It's going to suck for him. Of course it will. I was never gonna be a way out of his troubles, though. If I could tell him I found a way out - left a forwarding address -"

"Yeah," I say, looking out the window at a waxing moon, and seemingly endless rows of vines. "Send them a postcard, 'wish you were here.'"

"Moving out to a better life," they say. "If my parents and grandparents wouldn't understand... well, it wouldn't be the first time they were hypocrites."

I take a moment, then nod, reaching for the lantern.

"You know," she says, "they asked after you, once. Asked if we were a couple."

Earlier I would have frozen at that news. Now after everything worse I've faced?

I just laugh. "What did you tell them?" I say.

"That it was up to you, really," they respond, snorting. "Like, Deeds, my girl, you are not half as subtle as you think you are and that's before your ears decided to add exclamation points to all your expressions."

"God, can you imagine if I did go for it?" I say. "It would have been a disaster. We have to live with each other, all I'd have managed was to make things even more awkward."

"Back then, absolutely," Sekh says, laughing. "Like I am even a little relieved now that Ace decided to draw aggro. You got a lot cuter but you make a better friend when you aren't hogging my pillows."

I throw one of mine at them and they laugh even harder.

"There," I say, "don't say I never gave you nothin'."

Sekhmet returns it with just as much force. "Bitch I owe you my life," they say. "Don't owe you nothin' else but I'm still sticking around."

"Sure," I say. "Someone has to make fun of my flirting and Ace isn't gonna."

"Exactly." They flop back, head sinking into a pillow. "What would you do without me?"

"Go broke, probably."

They close their eyes.

"Got a lot to do and a lot of tired to get rid of," they say. "Can you get the light?"

"Sure," I say, fingers hovering over the dial.

"Will ya?" they growl.

I turn off the lamp, and draw the curtains, and am plunged into near total darkness.

"Night, Jules," I tell Sekhmet.

"Night, Deeds," they respond.

It doesn't take long before you both sleep soundly.