The message was simple, involving no words, but rather just the near-overwhelming urge to go outside. Wishing we had received the ‘request’ slightly earlier, the five of us trudged back down the stairs, out past the guard to stand on the street.

Jorl stood outside on the stone cobbles, a curtain of crystal arrayed out about and behind him, like fractal wings. His eyes were already locked on us as we exited the inn, and his face made his impatience clear.

We approached him quickly, though I will admit to some hesitation on my part, remembering the flick to my forehead with some irritation.

“Good! Listen; I’ve found nothing, if they were here, they’re gone now. I’m confident, mostly, ha!”

I looked around us at the gathered crowd and whispered under my breath, knowing the Apex could sense it regardless of volume.

“Jorl, we have a witness who says they saw – or heard – a member at one of the sects. They’re definitely involved. Oh, also Badan Tain asked if you would stop flying around scaring people...”

“If they were here, they’re not now; I just said that! I didn’t find a single person who knows the name. And I’m not scaring anyone!”

Jorl’s yell at the end sent many of the watchers stumbling back; the man seemed to sense the fact and visibly took a breath, calming himself. Hopefully.

“With clear hesitation, the witness we found indicated that there may actually be an individual named the Risen Throne, or rather of the Risen Throne. It is not conclusive, but... we believe this naming scheme suggests an Apex may be at their head. It would make sense, for such a large organization.”

Reff’s voice was louder than my own had been; this massive size precluded any sort of real whisper, but it was still probably too quiet for any in the crowd to hear, for which I was grateful. We had chosen to retreat to our rooms exactly to avoid the possibility of being overheard, but when an Apex called, you came.

Unfortunately, Jorl did not seem to place much stock in our supposition, waving a hand negligently and snorting, before speaking again.

“Impossible. Ha! Ai’rong would have a fit if he heard you suggesting he’d missed somebody. Anyway, with this lead not resulting in anything solid, I’m going to need to head back, find the others and let them know... what we know.”

I felt conflicted at the news; on the one hand, I would be glad to get back and help out in any way I could, but on the other, I could feel there was something going on in the City of the Red Grasses, and I had a suspicion that my quest involved whatever it was. Not for the first – or the last – time, I wished for some more... specifics from Xiournal. But I had to admit, that it would be nice to get away from the pervading oppression of the city’s aura... and its effects on my companions.

“I’ll come back for you when I can, or somebody will, anyway. Stay out of trouble.”

The last was a growl, though I hardly noticed; it had not occurred to me that we would not be leaving with the Apex, but looking back at his phrasing, it should have.

“We are not returning with you, Honoured Apex of the Crystal Drake?”

“I’ll be going at full speed, little healer. You barely survived half the journey like that, last time. I can’t waste time going slow, if... he’s out there, becoming people. We’ve got to put him down before he has chance to gather himself.”

“Then why waste time here at all?”

My tone had more challenge than I had intended in it, and I winced slightly as I heard it, but while the Crystal Drake’s eyes narrowed, he at least did not smash me into paste.

“If I could have caught him, before he built himself a wall of meat, I could have killed him. At least that body. I should be more than a match in a simple fight. Now, no more questions! I’m going.”

With that, the vast crystal mantel closed around him and he shot into the air before the refractive mass flowed into the familiar shape, and with a boom that seemed to shake the world, Jorl was gone. Leaving us in a city that had us constantly riding the edge of violence, and arrayed against a chaos engineered by our enemies, and perhaps even a fucking Apex.

“... Shit!”

*

***

*

“So, anybody think we’re lucky enough for the Risen Throne to stay gone, now that our Apex has left?”

We were back in the siblings’ room, and I had reclaimed my space on the floor. I will admit that I was letting the city creep inside of me a little more than usual; the abrupt departure and failure to listen to us was pretty damn annoying. I knew it was more the norm than not, but to that point I had found Apexes – and people at their level – to be mostly polite and willing to listen. The city had been affecting him, that was certain, but that did not make it any easier to shake off the irrational anger.

“With flat sardonicism, I think if there are enemies to be found in this city, you will come across them, Hunter.”

I had to grin at Reff’s comment, even as his sister glared at him for making a joke. Even Darina snorted a laugh out, though Toria just seemed lost.

“The Apex said there were no Risen Throne members in the city, but the letter said there would be no available portals. This is precisely what the individual Loneth saw was requesting, however. If there are no portals, and there are no members in the city, how did this person leave? On foot? Doesn’t it seem more likely that they would have stayed?”

Toria’s words sobered me quickly, and I lost my smile as I considered her words. After a moment, I slapping my fist into the opposing palm and stood, frustrated with myself.

“We didn’t ask when she saw the bastard. I’ll go ask.”

I saw the others realise I was right, the irritation showing on their faces at also having forgotten such an important question; I did not know whether we just sucked as investigators or whether the city was having a more extensive effect than we had thought.

Exiting the room, I headed through the locked doors and down the stairs, glad at least that my cultivation enhanced body could deal with the constant use of the stairwells; I had not so distant memories of finding even a single flight to be unconscionably tiring. I grinned again as I descended; it had not occurred to me, until that point, that I was entirely absent the burning ache of arthritis. There was a spring in my step that had been absent since our arrival in his part of the world; even with the grim potential of having an Apex – or more than one – to deal with, ancient evils perhaps roaming about and a city that seemed to be on the verge of civil war, I was still far better off than how I had been a year before.

At the bottom of the stairs, I looked around for the proprietor, but saw no-one; it did occur to me to wonder where the other guests were, as we had been told there were only limited rooms available. Perhaps they were simply less foolhardy than our group, and were actually taking their time to acclimatise, rather than rushing it.

I made my way to the guard station, knocking firmly so they knew I was there before speaking.

“Have you seen Loneth? I forgot to ask her something when we saw her earlier.”

“She’s got other work. If you need something, one of us will... help.”

The stout guard rolling his eyes slightly on the word help, and I could tell by his tone that he was not overly keen on this particular part of his duties. Cursing under my breath, I told the guard not to worry about it and was about to climb the stairs again when I heard a series of distant crashes; they only lasted for a moment before silence settled in again, the heavy stone of the inn’s walls proving more than enough to separate us from the general din of the city.

Turning back to the guard and surpressing the reflex to dash outside, I asked him if that sort of thing was common, hoping just a little that it was.

“Not that common. Once or twice a year you get some idiot starting something big, but they get put down fast. More than a couple this year though.”

We stood in silence for several minutes, listening for more; thankfully, there were none and I reluctantly thanked the guard and headed back to Reff and Riffa’s room.

Entering, I offered my friends a shrug before speaking.

“She’s out. Maybe we can catch her later, or tomorrow.”

“With distracted irritation, this city is affecting us in ways we did not anticipate. We must make an effort to hold our focus to a greater degree.”

Everyone nodded, even Darina, even if hers was more of a sharp jerk than a nod.

“Did you hear the disturbance?”

The question was from Toria, who sat closest to the deep, narrow window.

“Yeah; the guard said it wasn’t common, but does happen... but that it’s been happening more recently.”

“We should be out helping, not sitting here nattering!”

“We don’t even know where it happened, Darina. We really need to get used to this place – and I need to recover my Praxis. We can’t be heading out into a Risen Throne engineered coup or whatever with our brains messed up.”

“My Master would not be sat about while people could be suffering!”

“With clear respect, your Master is an Apex, Darina. She does not need to be cautious, but rather it is others that need be cautious of her. We may reach that point, one day, but that day is not now.”

Darina scowled – more, somehow – at Riffa’s words, but she had no counter to them.

“Look - if what we’re thinking is true, that this is something the Risen Throne are cooking up, it isn’t going to end at a few short fights. There’ll be a lot happening in this city, if we’re right, and we’ll have plenty of chances to help, maybe even more than we can handle. So, we need to be ready in case it gets bad. Right?”

“I don’t like sitting here doing nothing while they’re out there doing whatever they want.”

“Neither do we, right guys?”

There were murmurs of assent from around the room.

“See? We just have to be smart about it. The things so far, they’re just the beginning, and might even be to wear down the city’s defences before everything goes to shit.”

“Fine! Whatever. We’ll do it your way.”

I almost sighed aloud in relief; I had fully expected the anger-prone healer to require more reasoning to settle down, but it seemed like perhaps she was gaining a little more of a handle on the city. She had not threatened to hit me at all in that conversation, which was a definite improvement.

“How long do you think it will be before we are retrieved? The Apex of the Crystal Drake didn't give any indication of a timeframe, and my knowledge of the other Apexes suggests that they might not be able to transport all of us at any speed.”

“It’ll take him a few days to get back, but then he might actually need to find everyone else. The other Apexes I mean. With the speed at which they can move around, it might not be easy, or quick.”

“In considered addition, there must be a way to locate each other, or else how can the Unfettered Frame locate the emergent Apexes? And how else did the Infinite Blades and Mending Flesh locate them for the conclave? We were gone for a relatively short time, but they were retrieved from across the globe.”

“I guess you’re right, Reff. I hadn’t thought of it that way. I guess I just imagined them... running around really fast and searching manually.” Darina snorted, but I ignored it. “I think the question is though, if this is all some plan... would we leave? Abandon the city to its fate?”

“In contrary argument, it would hardly be abandoning them, as they have their own force. We should not allow ourself to settle into arrogance.”

“The Walking Sand is correct; the Marshal at least is much stronger than we are, and we must assume the same can be said of other of the Blood Guard. However, it would not be just to leave them to it, unknowing what they might face. We must either stay to assist, or convince them of the greater danger. Or both.”

Which meant talking to Tain again. Awesome.