Nom started to change colors as his digestive system started to break down the tongue flatbread meal. The purple-shaded tentacle began to turn yellow, but not in a sickly way. The new shade and color spread throughout his stalk like a droplet of ink spreading as a cloud through water. The yellow began to brighten and morph into a golden glow that sparkled underneath his skin. He looked kind of like a lava lamp that just got turned on, the yellow, gold and purple colors all mixing together and glowing.

“Whoa,” Nay said. “Looks like the Delicacy is doing something to you, too.”

“The taste,” Nom said. “I would have never thought that tongue could be so delicious. You are a fantastic chef!”

“Thanks, but I think I owe a lot to the quality of the ingredients.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. You definitely worked some magic in your preparation and execution of this dish.”

Nay wondered how much the Chef’s Kiss passive played a part in this meal. She had a feeling that it allowed her to level up with her cooking. But all in all, it was a pretty simple dish to prepare.

“How are you feeling?” Nay asked. “Is it normal for you to change colors when you eat?”

“This is the first time anything like this has happened. I’m telling you, you worked some magic.”

“But do you feel any different?”

The gold glow settled and Nom’s skin returned back to the normal purple. “It’s hard to explain but my senses feel heightened. Especially my sense of smell and taste. They feel…sharper.”

Nay wondered if the Delicacy had given him the magical changes it had unlocked and activated in her. “You don’t see any magic words or prompts in your vision? Like screen menus?”

Nom sighed. “I wish. No, no magical prompts. Just a strange feeling something is different now.”

“Weird.”

“That’s certainly one way to put it. Things have been weird ever since we met.”

/////////

As they relaxed after their magical meal experience, Nay rifled through the rest of Piero’s belongings. Of particular interest to her was the leather journal. It was battered from travelling in the harsh elements, its leather cover creased and worn. The interior pages seemed fibrous, the pigmentation brown and gray. Examining the ink scrawl of Piero’s handwriting provided her with a strange experience.

Underneath her mini-map in the upper right corner of her vision, a line of small text blinked. She zoomed into it:

---

[Worldtripper Passive: Rosetta Stone]

[In Use]

---

She was aware the glyphs and symbols that were written on the page weren’t English, and while they were obviously a foreign alphabet and language to her, she could still read it. Whatever a Worldtripper Passive was, she was sure the Rosetta Stone ability was translating the foreign language for her in her brain.

More magic.

The journal seemed to be a travel log of jobs he was on. He was hunting Delicacies and something called Marrow.

She read part of the latest entry aloud to Nom:

“To the nether hells with it. I’ve finally made my decision. I’m travelling north, beyond the Spineshards, to forage the ruins of Paleforge for the one Marrow that can completely change my fortune. I have it on good authority The Steksis dwells there. There’s a guide from Skullcap who will help me traverse the mountain range to get there. His expertise is costing me everything, but like my father, I’m a gambler.”

He had also sketched out the map he was working on of the cave system and ruins. Up ahead, the remains of the city itself were unmapped.

In his pack, clipped to the back of his badge, was a folded up piece of paper that was a license of sorts. It said:

Piero Del’Ami.

Authorized Delicacy Forager Licensed by the Delicatessa Marrow Authority.

Authorized Agent of the D.M.A.

The bottom half of the page was a large wax stamp of the D.M.A, which Nay interpreted was the Delicatessa Marrow Authority.

“What the hell is the Delicatessa Marrow Authority?” Nay said.

Nom perked up. He scooted over to take a look for himself. “If Delicacies and Marrow are a type of magic, it sounds like someone has a finger on them. Where I come from, there’s a lot of money in whoever controls and governs magical resources. Sounds like someone is smart here, too, and has the same idea.”

“So he was here because he was looking for a Marrow,” Nay said. “I suppose now is as good as any to discuss next steps. It’s probably not wise for us to stay in this mountain forever. We only have so much food. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly a hunter or trapper. We’ll have to find a fresh water source. That’s probably the first thing we should do.”

“I want to know more about this Marrow,” Nom said. “And what is The Steksis he mentioned?”

“I think we can worry about that once we find a stream or something.”

“Why don’t we just take some of the hot spring water in the pot and flasks and let it cool?”

“That’s a start. If it turns out it’s good to drink we’ll use that then. But I also think, when the weather permits, we try to find civilization. We know there’s people in this world so there has to be towns, villages, even cities.”

Nom shuddered. “I don’t do so well out in the cold.”

“You’re telling me you want to stay down here?”

“I like subterranean spaces. Where I come from, it’s where me and my kind dwelt mostly. In the dark and moist places underneath the earth.”

“Yeah, I love that for you. But that’s not really my vibe.”

“What if we find food down here though? If we have a source of food in addition to water then we won’t have to leave.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s the play.”

Nom looked around, then lowered his head. He sighed. “You’re probably right. Aren’t you…” he trailed off.

“Aren’t I what?” Nay asked.

“Aren’t you afraid of what might be out there?”

“I’m terrified. I’m also afraid of what might be down here, too. But I want to survive and figure out what this world is. And for that we need to find people. Maybe even someone might be able to help us get back to where we came from. Our homes.”

“I don’t want to go back to my world, though.”

“You don’t?”

Nom’s green protuberances quivered in agitation. “Hell no. I go back there, they’re going to try and reconnect me to a host body. That’s the last thing I want. Do you know what it’s like to have some douchebag monster making all of my decisions for me? That just needs to use me as an appendage, that needs me to be a leg or an arm or a hand? It’s the worst. I’d rather perish here then go back to that.”

Nay thought of working for Chef Jean as his sous chef at Café Melville. She knew a little too much what it was like to be used solely as a tool or a means to an end, to have someone in power try to assert their control over her. “Point taken,” she said.

/////////

They had decided to set up base in the hot springs chamber. They had filled the pot and one of the waterskins with hot water and left them there to let them cool. Nay had scraped some of the bioluminescent lichen off the wall and had created makeshift torches by tying them to some sticks Piero had in his pack. They had also used the glowing lichen to mark the path from the hot spring to the entrance of the cave so they could check every day to monitor the conditions outside. When the blizzard was gone they would trek out and explore.

Nay rationed out what was left of the dried meat, cheese and flatbread and calculated they had maybe a week’s worth of food before they would have to acquire some more.

In the days while they waited for the weather to get better, they spent their time exploring the ruins of Paleforge. All the structures of the former city were hewn out of the stone, and lumber and timber had been brought in to supplement the scaffolding of what had been under construction before the place was abandoned. Nay had also identified iron amongst the cogs, chains and giant discs she glimpsed up above or deep in the carved out walls of the stone architecture. Which meant the city dwellers here probably mined the ore deep in the mountains Piero referred to as the Spineshards. Every quarter of the city seemed to revolve around giant forges that had grown cold over the long passage of time.

In their exploration they had found wide stairs that led to some sort of mead hall, a long squat structure that was probably a gathering place of note, because it was decorated with statues of the maugrim carved out of the stone. They were muscular and stout creatures, and almost exactly like the concept of dwarves Nay was familiar with. But their arms were long, the knuckles almost dragging the ground. And they barely had any necks. Their torsos seemed to be comprised entirely of chiseled muscle.

Nay stood in front of one of the statues, looking up at it in awe. “I wonder what happened to them.”

“Piero mentioned something called The Scar,” Nom said. “The way he said it, it sounded like there was a connection between it and the fate of this city turning into ruins.”

At that moment, a green dot blipped on Nay’s mini-map at the corner of her vision, getting her attention. Text prompt blinked under the map.

---

[Tongue of the Hierophant Delicacy Trait]

[Detect Marrow]

[Status: In Use]

---

She got a glimpse of the green dot, but then it moved north and disappeared off the map. She zoomed in and saw that there was a spiral shaped chamber up north.

“I just felt something,” Nom said.

Nay looked down at him, his whole body craning towards the north as if he was trying to get a better look. But since the only thing in this section was the mead hall they were in front of, he was just looking at the stone wall beyond. They’d have to go back up the stairs and head north through the city.

“You did?” she asked.

“It was like a cold wind passing through me, nudging me in that direction. But it’s gone now.”

So, it appeared consuming the Delicacy did leave Nom with something other than a pleasant bite to eat. Seems like he could Detect Marrow as well, but he just experienced it in a different way. His interface was more feel while her’s manifested in video-game prompts and menu screens.

“I think the Marrow Piero was hunting for is somewhere North of us,” Nay said.

Nom was already slinking back up the stairs like a slinky in reverse.

/////////

Nay wielded the stick with the glowing lichen like it was a torch, holding it in front of them so the eerie green eldritch light illuminated their path through the city ruins.

The north-side of the city appeared to be some sort of religious or spiritual quarter, as every block in the hexagonal grid seemed to contain a temple or building meant for a place of worship. Each one had a small statue set into an alcove above the entrance archways.

It was of a maugrim holding an ornate blacksmith hammer in one hand and what appeared to be a diamond in the other. Shafts of blue light emanating from the lichen above illuminated this quarter, and the blue light reflected off the diamonds in such a way to suggest that these temples and the placement of the alcoves were designed this way, to catch the light.

Nay saw what looked like Runic markings below the figurines. Her internal Rosetta Stone translated it into the name, Voreheim.

“Must be some type of deity or holy personage for them,” she said.

“Doesn’t look like he tried to help them unless it was escaping the calamity here,” Nom mused.

Nay couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. What if it was another person? Would she have to kill again? She wished she had a gun instead of a dagger. Not that she was trained in firearms, far from it. The most she carried in her purse for protection back in Los Angeles was a taser and bear mace. Guns had frightened her, made her nervous. There was no going back if you shot someone with a gun. There was a permanence to it she didn’t like, no reset button. But she wanted one now. There was something more personal about stabbing someone. It meant she had to get close. It was disturbingly intimate.

She realized that from inadvertently travelling from her world to this new one, a shedding of skin would be required to survive. In a way, it was a fresh start. She could possibly become anyone she wanted. That person she was too timid or afraid to be back in Los Angeles, even back in New Orleans? What was stopping her from becoming it here? Seemed like there was nothing in the way except her own morals and code of honor. But did those concepts matter here? She wasn’t sure. But it was something to ponder.

Oddly enough, the desire that she’d had all her life still burned within her here: To change people’s lives with the food she cooked.

With that thought, the blinking green dot appeared again on her mini-map. It was on the Northern outskirts. They had walked into the radial range of the Marrow.

“I feel it,” Nom said. “The whisper of a breeze. It’s up ahead. It’s calling to me.”