Though we set out with the intent to walk for the whole day, around noon Vaozey had to stop and rest. Since she had never had endurance issues before, I assumed it was because her body was still weakened from the damage it had suffered the night before. As she was on a rock, sweating and gasping, I stood nearby and kept watch. We had passed by a few hunters earlier in the day, meaning we were likely nearing the city, so the possibility of an attack was far from zero.

“Hey give me your-” Vaozey began, but then the words caught in her throat. “Can I borrow one of your throwing knives please?” she corrected, changing her tone. The polite speech didn’t sound right coming out of her mouth, and I could tell she was forcing it.

“You don’t have to be polite,” I told her. “The words you use don’t matter to me. Why do you want the knife?”

“Haircut,” Vaozey replied. Her new hair wasn’t exactly long, but going from two centimeters to about fifteen had probably changed the fit of her helmet. Still, I thought, it’s more useful if she keeps it longer for now. At some point, I wanted to regenerate my face to get rid of my identifying scars, but I didn’t want to take the risk of someone seeing me do it.

“Keep it long,” I replied. “It’s less likely someone will recognize you.” Vaozey looked like she wanted to protest, but caught herself again. I was half-hoping she would agree to part ways in Towrkah, I sighed, Humans really do have a habit of acting in ways that inconvenience me. Despite the potential problems that would result from traveling with Vaozey, the positives slightly outweighed them. Even having one extra person in a combat scenario increased my chances of survival considerably.

“It doesn’t feel right,” Vaozey muttered, running her hand along her jawline. I had noticed the action a few times earlier in the day as well.

“Nerve issues?” I asked.

“Nevermind,” Vaozey sighed. “We’re almost there, let’s go. I’ll keep up.”

We came upon Towrkah an hour or so before sundown. Like the other cities, it was surrounded by a wall and had a clearing around it. Unlike the other cities, the clearing was relatively small, the bottom of the wall was lined with wooden spikes, and the city looked to be more vertically dense than others. The average height of a building appeared to be four stories, and the small citadel in the center had a fort that was about seven or eight by my estimation. I’m surprised that the middle tower is even standing, I thought, glancing at Vaozey to see her reaction. Though she had put her face wrappings back on, I could tell she was thinking something similar.

“No entry allowed without a valid reason,” the bearded guard told us, gripping his halberd stiffly. Against Vaozey’s insistence, we had approached the gate into town openly but cautiously and attempted to gain legitimate entry. I figured the risk was minimal because of the low number of guards, and the situation presented an opportunity to gather information. The response wasn’t violent, at least, but it also wasn’t ideal.

“We’ve come from Kahvahrniydah,” I explained. “We were traveling with a caravan, but it was attacked and we were left for dead in the wilderness. It took us over a week to walk here.” I watched the bearded guard for any indication that Ngvahp had sold us out, but he was barely paying attention to my words. That’s a good sign, I thought.

“No entry allowed without a valid reason,” he repeated, pausing on each word for emphasis.

“Listen, jhoytshahjh,” Vaozey began to growl, but I held up a hand to stop her. Fighting our way in isn’t going to work, I tried to think aloud as I met her eyes, We need to figure out the loophole, or perhaps bribe them. It doesn’t look like they recognize us, so don’t do anything stupid. Vaozey appeared to glean the important parts from my expression and backed down reluctantly.

“What permits or reasons can be used for entry?” I asked, turning back to the guard. “We would really prefer to sleep indoors tonight.” Suddenly, I had his attention, and he looked mildly suspicious.

“Trade permit, diplomatic permit, religious pilgrimage, existing residency, employment with a company based in Towrkah, family visit with registered authorization, and special permission from the duke,” he listed off. As he spoke, I glanced around at the six other gate guards, judging their reactions and looking for indications of hostility or something I could use as leverage. They looked bored, and didn’t appear to share their comrade's suspicion. At least there’s nobody behind us, I thought, In these circumstances, we could flee easily if we had to. Suddenly, a glint of torchlight from a familiar-looking emblem on one of the guards’ neckpieces caught my eye. Definitely Rehvites, I noted, who else would wear an ant-shaped pin?

“We aren’t detested, if that’s what you’re wondering,” I said. Vaozey's breathing paused for just a moment before going back to normal as she forcibly calmed herself. I wasn’t sure if the guard heard her, but the gaze he was subjecting me to grew in intensity. Koyl and I got into Owsahlk based on Zoyvrao’er faking our religion, I thought, There’s probably a similar system here, it makes sense that they would have a parallel permission setup since they don’t seem to respect Uwriy’s central government.

“You are not a follower either,” the bearded guard stated, pointing to me before turning to Vaozey. “Woman, remove your helmet and show us your face.” I was worried about how she’d react, but as I glanced back I saw Vaozey doing what she was asked to do. “Do you have identification?” the bearded guard asked her. “We will require it as proof.”

“We had papers from our employer, but they were stolen,” I lied quickly. “You should be careful, they may try to use them to gain entry.”

“Allow her to speak for herself,” the bearded guard ordered.

“It is as he says,” Vaozey replied, taking on a formal tone and changing her vocal pitch to be more feminine. “Though he is foreign, my companion is gifted in magic and has helped me on many occasions. Had the bandits not taken us by surprise in the dead of night, we could have slaughtered them.” The bearded guard didn’t react, so I slowly pulled a coin from my pouch and then began levitating it around my hand in a circle, displaying it for them to see. Yes, look at it, I thought, not just anyone can do that, can they?

“I am inclined to believe your story, given that several bandit attacks have been reported recently,” the bearded guard said. “Still, we have no record of who you two are. Even if you were to give your names, there is no proof. That is a problem.”

“We can clear up those details upon entry,” I suggested.

“No,” the bearded guard replied. “She stays here, you come with me, and we go inside to figure this out.” That’s not a great idea, I thought. The risk was high, and the potential that it was a trap was higher than I was comfortable with. I looked at Vaozey, who looked concerned, then back at the guard. If I deny him, though, we could be attacked right now, I thought, it would be like admitting we were bandits or criminals. “Do you have a problem with that?” the bearded guard asked.

“I…” I began, glancing around quickly again, then noticing that there were at least ten more individuals aiming crossbows down at us from the walls in addition to the seven gate guards on the ground. They weren’t there before, I noted, Did someone call them over? That quickly and just with gestures? I didn't even hear them speak. Ten bolts fired with any degree of accuracy was too much for me to stop with magic, and the probability of a lucky hit to my legs or face was high. “No, no problems,” I confirmed, then I gestured to Vaozey. “I am supposed to protect her, so I’m just a bit reluctant to leave her out here. She isn’t used to rural areas.”

“We will protect your charge,” the bearded guard assured me. “Give your weapons to her and follow me. You, woman, back off to at least one hundred paces and clear the road.” Reluctantly, I disarmed myself and handed my weapons to Vaozey, then allowed myself to be led inside the guard station with no resistance, watching the route we took the entire time while counting personnel and exits. Thankfully there was no surprise attack, and I was merely brought upstairs and shown to a waiting room. Seven guards between me and the exit, then six to flee from once I get out, I thought, I can manage that if I have to.

I’ve been waiting in here for what feels like an hour, I thought, examining the featureless brick wall once again. A single lantern illuminated the wooden table and chairs inside, flickering because of low oil. Though there was no visible method to observe me, there were at least two dozen ants crawling about in the back left corner, moving in a rough circle. Is this infestation intentional, or do they just not exterminate them? I wondered, Maybe they have some religious significance. Religion, as it manifested in creator humans, was something I still didn’t fully comprehend.

I walked to the metal door and listened for anyone who might be outside. I don’t want to rush them, but this is getting absurd, I thought. I couldn’t hear anyone in the hallway, so I tried the knob on the door and found it was locked. When did they lock this? I wondered, looking at the device, I didn’t hear any mechanism move when the door closed. The knob’s design initially appeared to be ornate and delicate, but the bolt and locking mechanism connecting it to the frame was reinforced. This is more like a holding cell than an interrogation room, I thought with a sigh, I’m not surprised, but still, if they don’t hurry up I can only assume hostile intent.

Thirty more minutes passed before I got tired of waiting and went back to the door. They probably have procedures for when someone tries to break out, I considered, better to do this quietly if I can. I tried to fiddle with the handle and lock with force magic, but without being able to see what I was doing the best I could do was wiggle some parts of the invisible mechanism to no real effect. Loud it is, I thought, bracing myself against the floor. Taking aim at the handle, I oversaturated my blood with magic, then discharged it with an inhumanly powerful kick.

The metal near the impact point crumpled from the force of the blow, but the door was no closer to opening. Knowing that I had been heard simply from the volume of the impact, I kicked the door a few more times, then noticed bits of stone powder coming from the edges of the frame near the hinges. It’s not as secure as it looks, I realized, the metal is strong, but the frame is brittle. Giving my right foot a moment of rest to let the bones finally finish healing, I ran my fingers along the bricks near the door's hinges and felt that they were loose. Since I had force magic to make up for a lack of friction, it took no time at all to pull the bricks out, then force the nails holding the top hinge to the outer wall out of their binding.

One more kick to the center of the door bent it out of its frame into the hallway, giving me enough room to squeeze out into the hallway. Somehow, nobody else was present yet, so I immediately began heading back through the route I was led in by. I’m on the third floor, so I need to take the stairwell and- My route planning was cut off by a man in plate armor stomping up the stairwell I was about to descend, huffing from exertion. I hadn’t seen anyone in armor during my entry, so his appearance was a surprise.

“He’s here!” the armored guard yelled, then he drew his sword and swung at me. Since I was unarmed, I had to use magic if I wanted to block his weapon, and I had already used a significant amount when I destroyed the door. Because of that, I opted to jump backwards to avoid the slash, then grapple his arm. Armor or not, human arms could only bend so many ways while retaining a grip, so in about a second the guard’s sword was mine. Then I returned it to him, shoving it between his chest and neck armor at a downward angle through his torso, using him like a sheath. Before he could scream in pain, I broke his neck and kicked him down the stairs.

The stairwell was cramped, so a large lump of armor and flesh would prevent others from crossing it easily, but preventing guards from reaching me didn’t fix my main problem. As I was thinking of ways to get out of the building, another guard ran down the hallway from the opposite direction, sword drawn. So there were a few on this floor, I thought as I ducked his clumsy swing. The hallway was tight, so the guard’s choice of a diagonal chop was rather stupid. As his weapon smacked against the wall, his attention was briefly pulled towards keeping his grip on it, giving me a moment to grab his forehead and begin cooking his brain.

Are these really Rehvites? I wondered. There had been a number of untrained and ineffective combatants in Owsahlk’s temple that I had killed, but these people were supposed to be guards. I had entered the building with the assumption that everyone inside at least knew basic force magic, but it was possible that I overprepared. Hearing noise from the stairwell, I began heading in the opposite direction, looking for some kind of exit. As I rounded the corner, moonlight trickling in through a barred window gave me almost exactly what I wanted.

Sadly, the window didn’t face the interior of the city, but I wasn’t in the mood to be picky. With a few force-magic-enhanced strikes I shattered the bricks around the window bars, then pulled them out and made a hole big enough for my torso. Then, I looked out to see where I would be landing and remembered that the ground along the outside wall had been dug out and filled with wooden spikes. Can’t build enough speed to clear them, I growled, even if I could, I’d be dropping almost fourteen meters. There's a good chance it would knock me unconscious, and this hole is conspicuous. I'd be found quickly.

Voices and footsteps entered the hallway around the corner from the stairwell, meaning I was out of time. I don’t know how long I can hold it, but this has to work, I thought, hastily forcing myself out of the window. Using force magic the same way I had in Kahvahrniydah, I stuck my hands and feet to the surface of the outside wall, then climbed up to about two meters above the hole I had made, flattening myself against the brick. Only after I was hugging the wall did I remember that I could use force magic from my torso as well, so I added a much larger fifth attachment point centered around my chest.

Below me, a head poked out scanning the ground for signs of where I went. Thankfully, its owner didn't think to look upwards.

“Doesn’t look like he jumped,” the head from the window called back to its comrades inside. “There’s no impact point below the window. Did he know about the second stairwell?”

“I don’t know,” a muffled voice replied. “We didn’t take him that way, but if he checked the doors…”

“He has to be still inside,” the head from the window said, pulling back into the hallway. “He couldn’t have just disappeared. We’ll find him.” Good, I thought as quiet footsteps moved away from my exit point, I’ll wait a few minutes, then climb down, do a wide circle to throw off any pursuers, and find Vaozey. I doubt she’s still waiting by the gate after all this time. A ticklish sensation on my left hand drew my eyes to a single ant crawling on my knuckles, picking at some dried blood. You’re lucky I don’t fry you, I thought, I don’t want to waste the energy.

As I suspected, Vaozey had made a fire about a kilometer away from the Towrkah gate where the forest started. She was eating a ration and facing away from my approach direction, so when I called out to her it startled her so badly that she nearly dropped her food into the fire. Her face covering was removed, but she was still wearing a scarf on her neck.

“You scared the shit out of me you npoyt,” Vaozey gasped. “What happened? It’s been almost three hours. Where were you?”

“They locked me in a cell,” I replied. “I think they knew the story was fake, but they didn’t know who we were. That, or they just imprison anyone they can’t identify. I can’t really be sure.”

“So then you-” Vaozey began.

“I broke out, yes,” I replied.

“I knew this whole thing was going to be a waste of time,” Vaozey sighed. “We should have just waited for an opportunity to strike and fought our way in, or found a smuggler. Now they’re going to be looking for us, it’ll be impossible to get past the walls for days.”

“There are other ways inside,” I replied. “I could scale the wall with force magic, for example.”

“And leave me out here?” Vaozey grumbled. “We don’t have any rope for me to climb up after you. Besides, climbing a wall is a great way to get spotted, they always have the battlements illuminated and patrolled.”

“We could make some rope,” I suggested. “Even a simple grass rope would be sufficient for a single use. Weaving enough to get you up that wall would take… three hours maximum, assuming we search for quality materials.”

“I’m telling you, we’ll get filled with bolts if we try- GAH!” Vaozey began, shouting halfway through her sentence and slapping her neck. “Seytoydh ants,” she swore. “They’re been crawling on me since we got here. I can’t stand it.”

“There were a bunch inside the holding cell too,” I said. “I think the Rehvites keep them around for some religious reason.”

“What, because of the ant pins and decorations?” Vaozey scoffed. “That’s just from some stupid seytoydh story in their book about their god’s favorite animal. It’s the ant, in case that wasn't obvious, because the ant is a model for a ‘perfect society’ or something. They loved to quote scripture while publicly torturing us 'detested'.”

“Interesting,” I replied. I can’t fully disagree with the conclusion, I thought, Ants have a highly ordered social structure that far exceeds what humans can typically manage even with high technology. That’s why many types of ground-based micro drones had swarm behavior modeled after them. In some senses, they could be seen as having a perfect society. Vaozey watched me, looking at my face with disapproval as if she could read my thoughts.

“Did you kill anyone on the way out?” she asked. “At least tell me you didn’t cause a massacre, I don’t want to have to hide even deeper in the woods.”

“At least one guard,” I replied. “I’m fairly sure the other one I attacked survived his injuries, but I’m not sure. At most, two guards.”

“Okay,” Vaozey sighed, rubbing her eyes. “I’ll go with you if you want, but I don’t think climbing the wall is going to work, especially not tonight. We should wait until tomorrow and-” She paused abruptly, looking past me. Her expression wasn’t panicked or angry, just surprised, so I didn’t react at first. However, after two more seconds of silence, I felt compelled to look behind me and figure out what she was staring at.

One of the branches of the tree directly behind me had a strange texture to it. In the firelight, it looked almost shiny, as though someone had covered it in water or cooking oil. The flickering of the campfire made it look like its surface was sloshing around, undulating and moving. With a flick of my right hand, I brought up a small orb of light, and the movement stopped. Hundreds of ants, all crammed together so densely that the wood beneath them wasn’t visible, froze in place at the same time. Then turned all their heads to look at us in unison.