We didn't linger long after the fight. There were still a few miles to go to make it to Ocala proper and I could tell the Zebelos were eager to get going. The expedition was quite used to hiking, so we merely set into the rhythm the Cloth Muscle set as they walked.

The fields of vegetables spread out wide around us but it wasn't until we passed the treeline that I started to spot people actually working said fields. If my estimate was accurate, we'd already crossed deeper into the Zebelos territory than Dai and Devon had managed to before the Breakers captured them. Vibrosense gave me a good picture of the extent of work the people of Ocala had put into their farming efforts. Many building foundations had been removed for the sake of the food production, ground into a base that spread unevenly across the fields. It spoke of an effort to level the area as well as adjust for irrigation from a pond I could vaguely spot in the distance. None of that was evident from the surface other than the success they'd achieved.

The people working in the distance waved at the passage of the Cloth Muscle, but faltered a bit when they noticed the strange armored group trailing behind them. I watched as a family urged their children into the wagon they'd been pulling before following a path further into the fields. The move brought a frown to my face, but I assumed it was a safety concern; if Wildwood was any indication, the majority of people wouldn't be offensively inclined even if their Traits allowed for it.

We crossed another treeline and the first stretch of the city of Ocala appeared before us. It was not at all what I expected. While most of Wildwood and the Allied Towns had maintained their existing buildings and had only started to replace scrapped structures with magic-formed ones, the Ocalans had blended existing and new. Towering buildings of old-world wood and stone flowed right into supporting balconies or second floors created with magic.

Vibrosense went wild as the sheer variety of magical frequencies radiated off the buildings, indicating at least a half dozen different casters had been involved in the construction of the first building that came into my range. Old wood had been given life and used to sew segments of the building while slabs of stone in a dozen shades of brown actually held the structure. Formless windows and doorways stared out at the road with many faces poking out in curiosity. None, however, approached.

"Welcome to Ocala. We are currently in some of the factionless territory," Radolfo said, waving his hands out. "Some ways north we'll hit the Nash Family's lands before we arrive in our own territory."

"Are we going to have an issue if we saunter into this Nash Family territory?" Daniela asked, a growl barely hidden in her voice.

"No. The Breakers and the CRH... they are the only ones to enforce their borders that strictly."

"CRH?" I asked, making note of what seemed to be two new factions in the city. Couldn't learn to share, or is there something else going on here?

"The Cult of Reborn Humanity," Filomena answered, receiving a nod from her grandfather. "Almost entirely made up of the Tendrils and the Partials."

"Partials?"

The woman looked over her shoulder and pointed at Billy. The youth sunk a bit as his legs lost cohesion before he shifted behind me. The move caused a grin to break out on Filomena's face. Blobby moved to comfort him. It was somewhat surprising that he could present himself strongly in the face of beasts and combat, but a modicum of attention took him out faster than Daniela could dodge a responsibility. "Figured you'd know all about them."

"We call things by different names," I replied smoothly. Information was a bargaining chip I intended to hold on to for as long as possible. Remembering, I sent a message through the comm-plant to try to keep as many discussions to the Implants until we knew more about the situation in Ocala. There was a chorus of agreement.

"They were already doing that, Ronan," Jolene provided. "You were the one that didn't respond to the group as we talked during the walk."

"Oh," I sent back to the woman, blinking. Maybe my ignoring of the comm-plant outside of combat is alienating me more than I thought.

"Well, we call them Partials because they are part Elementals," Filomena continued.

That tidbit of information brought my self reflection to a halt. The implication that they had 'full' Elementals was certainly there. I spotted a glimmer in the woman's eye and schooled my expression as much as I could. Radolfo has some shrewd family. She was fishing for information even as she answered my question.

"Fitting, I should say. We say people with those qualities have Afflicted Traits," I replied easily.

"Traits..." Radolfo said, joining the conversation. "An apt name for what we consider our mutations."

I was ready to elaborate on his deduction when two structures flashed in my vibrosense like incandescent flares. There was only one thing that manifested like that in my senses and my eyes immediately snapped towards a pair of buildings. More of the strange plant-stone buildings had lined either side of the road as we walked, clearly having chosen vertically over a wide footprint for some reason I couldn't determine. The ones that lit up on vibro, however, were subtly different.

The outside structure was as chaotic as the others, but the top floor looked deliberately shaped to look like a lighthouse. Both buildings stood opposite each other, framing the road both in my sight and in vibro. Apparently, my pause was more than a bit sudden as Billy bumped into my back and the others turned at the grunt he elicited.

My eyes locked with Radolfo's when the Cloth Muscle also turned around. "What is in those buildings?"

The man seemed caught off guard by the intensity of my question, enough that he responded without even filtering his words if his rising brows were any indication. "The Crystal Wards."

"Wards..." I said, eyeing the distance between the first building a ways behind us and where the two suspicious buildings were. The range wasn't enough to cover the buildings at the fringes, and my estimate was that they couldn't be larger than Category 2, but I was almost certain-- definitely after hearing the man's response-- that there were Metier Crystals in those buildings.

"Who would have thought the giant was perceptive enough to feel the radiation," Filomena teased. It was an out I wasn't going to refuse.

"Sorry. I don't distrust you, but I could feel something coming off those buildings," I said quickly. At the same time, I let the rest of the expedition know that there were Entities in the two buildings.

"They are a practice here in Ocala," Radolfo said, recovering. "The boundaries of our territories are marked by the Crystal Wards. There are some deeper in as well, since they act as giant night lights in addition to keeping beasts away."

"Curious." When I didn't elaborate further, the man cleared his throat and proceeded forward. I could practically feel the tension build until we passed between the two Wards. If the Ocalans were working with Tendrils, then there was an Aberrant around. I was curious why Gec hadn't identified the Entity Clusters in the Wards; we were still in range of their senses. We'd already gone past the 'withholding information' phase that I was going through with the Zebelos, so I was leaning towards something else affecting the count. The more we learn the more questions we have...

"We are now in the Nash Family Territory. At this pace we'll get to our territory in about fifteen minutes," Radolfo said, using his fingers to estimate time off the horizon.

I gave the buildings around us a more critical look. The structures weren't close enough to form 'blocks' like in the old world, but I could tell where they'd kept the branching streets and where they'd opted to demolish them. As we moved deeper into the faction territory I started to notice barns built into the sides of the taller buildings. Fences and grazing areas where there had once been buildings cropped up regularly along with what had to be family-owned cattle. I even saw a pair of horse-drawn wagons making their way eastward full of vegetables and big barrels. It reminded me of some blend of medieval fantasy with touches of the 21st century.

"That's quite a lot of land. Are all the territories evenly distributed?" I asked.

"No, each Faction has cut a slice of the city for themselves. Relationships between each of the Factions tends to... fluctuate, but we have achieved a certain balance over the last decade," Radolfo explained, slowing to walk alongside me.

"Seems the Nash like their animals, or is this how all of the city looks like?" Samuel asked, breaking eye contact with a pair of cows that refused to look away from him.

"All the factions do a little bit of everything, but it is true that the Nash focus on animal raising. Animal husbandry was kind of their thing before the world ended," Radolfo explained.

"What's your specialty?" Igor asked, speaking to the man directly for the first time.

"Mine?" Radolfo chuckled. "Mine is politics. The Family, however, is all about specialty crafting. GelCraft is our claim to fame, if that really matters."

"Got some slimes stashed away?" Daniela asked Filomena with a sneer.

"You wish you had the means our Family does," the woman huffed in response.

"You wish you had the power my friends have," Daniela shot back.

Before the two could come to blows, Radolfo reentered the conversation. "We try to give people back some of the comforts the Fall took away. That the vehicle for accomplishing that took the form of GelCraft is but chance. Here we are."

The old man drew the group up short and swept an arm out towards another pair of Crystal Wards that came into view. The buildings stood diagonal to a fairly large intersection of US 301, which was an interesting sight. Beyond the structures, however, I could see a number of buildings more cohesive in design rather than the hodgepodge of architecture we'd seen of the city so far. While the factionless area was sparsely populated, and the people in the Nash Faction land seemed reticent to interact with our strange group, the Zebelos territory was awash with activity.

What had to be hundreds of people produced a low roar the closer we got. The sheer amount of life forced me to shunt vibrosense to the back of my mind lest I be overwhelmed once again. Merchants peddled their wares up and down the street either in carts, thick mats on the ground, in hole-in-the-wall establishments built into the residences or in a few cases from the second stories of the nearby buildings. There were more people, I was sure, down that street than the whole of the Allied Towns combined. Materials, foods, spices, slips of papers and a dozen other things passed hands back and forth in a frenzy.

The most noteworthy thing, other than the sheer weight of humanity present, was the slimes intermingled with the crowds. One man was slapping a quartet of grey air slimes with his hand as they lifted an empty wooden platform down the road like wheels. A handful of food stands had maroon red fire slimes nestled in metal tubs while they set frying pans right on the surface of the gelatinous creatures. One man was casually squeezing a water slime as if it were an infinite bag of water to hose down where a cow had done its business on the public road. It was almost too much to process and I knew I wasn't the only one locked in place by the sheer amount of activity, colors, and normalcy to a magical environment.

The Zebelos and Cloth Muscles seemed to be enjoying the reaction as much as one might expect. To them the sight was likely a daily thing, but to us it was like someone had taken an entirely different path to the apocalypse. Where suffering and struggle had made up the lives of the Wildwoodians, restraint and isolation the lives of us Bunkerites, the people of Ocala had embraced the potential of the future in full.

"Welcome to... MoneyMcMoneyFace Avenue," Radolfo said, cringing along with the words but delivered them nonetheless. Filomena and even one of the Cloth Muscles chuckled.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you didn't name it?" I asked, unable to keep the corner of my mouth from twitching up. The hint of absurdity served to draw me and my friends a bit out of our culture shock. It wasn't the first time I'd heard something named ridiculously by the Fallen, but thankfully the people of the Allied Towns had had enough sense not to let those names stick. The dissonance between the name and the old man saying it was more than a little amusing.

"Yes, yes, a truly magnanimous and auspicious name. Most normal people call it Money Ave," Radolfo said, pushing past the chuckles of his group. "This segment goes all the way to the second major intersection in Ocala. Right now we are skirting our Faction's territory and the Nash's. When it meets FL-40, that road connects the rest of the factions east to west."

"You wouldn't happen to have a map of this, would you?" I asked. "Don't want to have another blunder of entering a faction's territory without warning."

"As a rule," Radolfo started, gesturing for our group to move forward down Money Ave. "Our Faction and the Nash Faction are neutral in most things. We are what the city considers... essential workers. Beyond that, FL-40 is universally agreed upon as neutral territory. Conflicts on that road are resolved by closest faction as quickly and... brutally as necessary. I am sure we can trade for an info packet."

Radolfo finished as we passed between the Crystal Wards. I felt the gentle tingle of their Influence brush against me, recoiling in alarm when they noticed the Shard hanging out on my back. The interaction left me raising a brow in surprise. The Nash's Wards hadn't reached out like the Zebelos' Wards, but I wasn't sure if that was a coincidence or a result of some factor I wasn't aware of. What I did know was that we would need to drop some heavy informational trades --and probably physical ones too-- for access to the Entity Clusters in the city.

My musing was broken by a giggle-inducing elbow to the ribs courtesy of Daniela.

Quake Osseum (44%) > (45 [55]%)

"What?" I asked, frowning as my strange tickle issue came up again.

"We are drawing eyes," she replied via the comm-plant.

Sure enough, when I wasn't lost in my own mind I noticed that Money Ave had gotten significantly quieter. Dozens upon dozens of people were staring at us with the whole spectrum of confusion on their faces. As a side note, I watched their information scroll by my vision thanks to the Implant, giving me a general look into the Quotient of the people of Ocala. Surprisingly --or perhaps not-- they were all in the Q2 to Q3 range except for a few outliers in the Q4 range.

I kept that observation to myself as we made our way further north. As soon as we were out of 'hearing' range, the street market returned to volume with a vengeance. I could practically feel the excitement of the people as we passed through my suppressed vibrosense. This repeated for several blocks until the FL-40 intersection came into sight. My expectations were once more subverted.

By that point we'd gone fairly deep into the Zebelos' territory. The deeper we went into the Zebelos territory the more slimes we saw. Most were no bigger than my head, with only a handful seeming to approach the size of a torso. People seemed to opt for more slimes rather than bigger ones for some reason. However, if that had been all I saw I would have been pleasantly surprised. What I wasn't expecting were a full blown variety of modes of transportation being utilized.

Where the old FL-40 once existed now was a smooth stone surface that could only be achieved with the gift of magic. It extended east and west as far as I could see. That, in and of itself, would have been impressive. However, a similar sight as Money Ave played out on this bigger of thoroughfares on a much grander scale. People riding a variety of slimes as if they were motorized unicycles moved up and down the street at jogging speed. Bolts of silent lightning streaked across the street from the upper floors of the adjacent buildings to land on powerlines going a dozen directions. A few hulking beasts that showed as high Quotient Earth Boars trotted eastward while carrying a dump-truck's worth of materials on their persons. The fire variety of the boars were also present, as were small groups of Breakers traveling east and west before splitting off to do whatever nonsense they deemed worth their time.

It was almost too much.

"Hey! I'm walkin' here!" someone shouted as they boldly jaywalked the fantasy world street to get to Money Ave.

As we watched, one of the men guiding air-slime-powered platforms used the brief commotion of complaining riders to zip across behind the man with his cargo of crates and baskets. When the cursing and explicit language drifted off along with the people on FL-40, I watched with slack-jawed surprise as the platform driver pulled up beside the jaywalker and handed him a handful of coins before they both went about their day. It was so commonplace and yet hard to reconcile considering the setting.

"Ah yes, traffic is still something that cannot be avoided even after the world ended," Radolfo explained. The two younger Zebelos and the Cloth Muscles nodded sagely in agreement.

"This town is crazier than Ron," Daniela whispered.

"Hey!"

"It's true, rock brain. I thought you were a tad crazy with all your crafting but--"

"Padre!" Someone shouted, cutting Daniela off as they rushed from the steps of a nearby building.

"Maurice," Radolfo said, smiling kindly at the middle aged man that approached. "Didn't know it was your shift today."

"Busy as always here on McMoney," the man chuckled nervously. His eyes drifted to our expedition for only a moment before snapping back to the old Zebelos. "I see the talk wasn't hollow."

"Now, Maurice, you know as well as anyone that talk is cheap and we deal only in the highest quality products, yes?" Radolfo said evenly. I couldn't see the old man's expression, but I did watch as Maurice paled considerably. He nodded so fast his head nearly fell off, flaring what looked to be shimmering blue ridges along his back. Seems the old man isn't all smiles and laughs.

"Of course, sir. Yes, sir. Message understood, sir."

"Great. Now, our fine guests will be staying at the Zebelos property. If this 'talk' comes up... make sure this is known, would you?"

"No doubt, sir. It will be done, Padre!" The man folded into a deep bow before he turned his neck painfully up. "Are you trying to cross 40, Padre?"

"Yes, but there's no need to rush the next stop."

"No rush sir, some people have already been getting antsy to cross." Maurice gestured with his hand to a group of ten or so people that were doing everything in their power to look anywhere but at the 'Padre' and our little expedition.

"Then we'll take you up on that," Radolfo said, turning back our way with an easy smile.

Maurice disappeared in a puff of dust. A loud ringing emanated from the building he entered and several orcs trundled out of a barely visible door. The orcs each held what amounted to plywood sheets near twice as tall as them with big fluffed up cushions. The dozen orcs split half way to create a short path across the street before a trio of earth slimes rolled across the gap left by the orcs. I watched as they compressed and flattened the area the traffic had trampled into a road as smooth as AE-1 in seconds. Everyone on FL-40 screeched to a halt, but one of the slime riders didn't have the reaction necessary and collided with the prepared orcs. Both the orc and the crash-ees took the impact in stride, immediately striking a conversation even as the earth slimes returned to Maurice's building.

That's when the mobs came. People who'd been waiting on both sides of the major road pounced on the protected opening that had been created like rabid animals, rushing to get to the other side. The Cloth Muscle circled around our group to create a small bubble of space with me and Radolfo at the center before they led us across the street. Daniela and the Fists looked extremely uncomfortable with the arrangement and I felt waves of heat, cold and static hiss in the air for a breath before they realized the crowd was smoothly parting around the Cloth Muscle like a rock in a river.

"Oh what I wouldn't give for the hydroponics floor," I heard Sam whisper to himself as he scooted away from the crowd.

I placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and gave him a gentle nudge forward when the Zebelos started to walk. I spotted Ponzio eyeing the powerlines every time lightning sparked, but he remained at his grandfather's side. Filomena, by contrast, had her nose up in the air once again as she walked escorted.

After wading through the human masses to the other side, Radolfo pulled us over to a nondescript building. The structure was entirely mana-made, but it bore a significant amount of effort to make it come across as a building from the old world.

A dwarf rested casually against the door, but he leapt to his feet upon seeing the old Zebelos. "Padre!"

"It is quite alright, Jo," the old Zebelos said. "We are going to welcome our guests here if that is quite alright with you."

"Of course, Padre," the man said, beard swaying with his head.

The man summoned a spell chain on his hand smoothly before pressing it against the side of the building. What I thought was a set of double doors turned on a hinge to reveal the space within. Radolfo swept his hand forward, gesturing our group inside. "I wouldn't be much of a host if I didn't intend to feed our visitors. This is the best place to experience good ol' southern hospitality. Welcome to the Taste of Old!"