The remaining journey to Glyss passed quickly and quietly. It almost fell into a more comfortable routine. I was getting better sleep now that I knew the auditory and visual hallucinations were real, and I kept a more careful eye for them. When I saw the figure of light, I was careful not to turn my head directly toward him, instead studying him out of my periphery. Sometimes he appeared to be riding alongside us on a shining horse of silvery white that was as bright as he was. He wore shining armor, and sometimes I could just make out the hint of flaming wings extending from him and the horse, wavering tendrils of light, bright as solar flares. I would catch moments when Peyton or Asterollan would spot him and twist their heads around, or do a mild double take, only for him to disappear. Whoever he was, he did not want to be looked at directly.

I realized that the strange smell of burning electronics or ozone seemed to follow in Cassandra’s wake at times. Sometimes she would pass me on the road and I felt the mild tingle of static run down my arms. She didn’t seem aware of it in the slightest. I began to study Lexie to see if there were signs of Myrapen’s presence, but nothing made itself known. She was not as hovering or watchful as the other gods, I guess. Lexie still had trouble with fine control in her spells, but raw power was never an issue. That may have just been Lexie though – she still couldn’t catch anything to save her life either.

Sometimes in the evenings if I was alone, I would sit and quietly speak to Peter. In a way, I was indirectly attempting to communicate with my own god. I would still hear the laughter on occasion, but nothing ever directly responded to me.

Glyss was a larger town, with two sets of walls separating an upper ward from a lower ward. The city had grown since the original town had been built, and the nearby dwarven border made the municipality cautious. In Glyss we made our way to the inner ward, and instead of staying at an inn we were invited to stay in the home of the city’s leader. He was an older man that looked almost stereotypically like a wizard, with a long slate grey beard and hair and twinkling blue eyes. In fact, he looked remarkably a lot like Master Zern.

He was introduced to us as Javyk Zern. “Wellem is my younger brother,” he said when Peyton asked if there was a relation. He was very enthusiastic in greeting us, shaking each of our hands with both of his and staring us so directly in the eyes as he did so that it was almost disconcerting. “Yes, yes, make yourselves at home. Feel free to wander the estates or settle into your rooms. Dinner shall be served in the hour. Oh! A giant jumping spider. Quite rare in these parts!” Peter seemed a bit nervous to be approached, but once the old man began tickling him behind the eyes, he warmed up to him instantly, leaning into the old man’s touch.

“You’re not scared of him?” I asked, a little surprised. Every wall guard and innkeeper we had met so far had to be argued with and perhaps bribed to allow Peter to pass through. When we walked down streets people eyed him warily.

“Hmm? No. Many consider the smaller varieties lucky. Perhaps the larger one is just extra lucky!” When he got to Asterollan, he peered at him curiously. “I wasn’t expecting an extra human. What brings you so far into Elven lands?”

“I think I have much to discuss with you before dinner,” Raella said, cutting in before Asterollan could provide his own answer. “The gods appear to be returning to our world.”

“Really?” Javyk looked thoughtful at the news, then nodded. “Yes. The retainers will show you all to your rooms, and we,” he looked meaningfully to Raella, “shall sit and discuss this in my library.”

The house was large enough for most of us to have our own rooms, though Lyre and Cassandra opted to stay together in one. The rooms were nicer than an inn, similar to what we had experienced while staying in the tower at the University. We were planning to leave first thing in the morning so there wasn’t much settling in to do. Instead, I flopped down on my back on the large bed, relishing in how soft the mattress was. Peter jumped up, leaning against my side. I absently patted his nearest leg. If I didn’t look at him, I could almost imagine I was being cuddled by a bristly dog.

Lexie wandered into my room after a while and, completely uninvited, flopped down on her back on the other side of my bed. “My bed has a canopy,” she said.

“That’s nice,” I replied.

“I always wanted a canopy bed. Back home.”

“Maybe when this is all done you can have one here.” I had been ignoring the possibility that we might not have a life here after this was all done, and could almost believe the words as I spoke them. I tilted my head back to look over at her. She was staring absently at something that I couldn’t see. “Have they done anything new?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nope. Same old routine. Float around us, stay out of reach.”

“Hmm. Not that I mind, but why did you come in here to bother me?”

“Oh, I was trying to check everyone’s rooms out. Greyjon said it was inappropriate to walk in on a man, Asterollan was meditating and kept ignoring me, and Cassandra and Lyre had locked the door. You just happened to be next.”

I sighed. “So one man tells you that it’s not appropriate to walk into a man’s room, and you continue walking into men’s rooms?” I asked.

“You hardly count.”

I expected that, so I ignored it. “And Asterollan?”

“He was meditating.” I didn’t see how that answered the question, but I didn’t argue the point.

Peyton walked by the open door and spotted us, stepping in to lean against the door frame and cross her arms, an amused expression on her face. “Is this some kind of party?”

“It’s just a soft bed,” I grumbled. Peter trilled softly.

“Mine has a canopy,” Lexie told her enthusiastically.

“I always wanted one of those as a kid.” Peyton walked over and flopped down next to Lexie. I was starting to feel a bit crowded. “Dinner is soon.”

“Wonder what kind of food a place this fancy serves,” Lexie said, popping back up. She walked over to the door and glanced back at us. “Are you guys coming?”

“In a moment. It’s a soft bed,” I said.

“I just lay down,” Peyton groaned. Lexie rolled her eyes, made some mumbled comment about old people, and walked out. “Ouch,” Peyton said, having heard the comment as well, and laughed.

I closed my eyes. I hadn’t been alone with Peyton in a long time, and realized she probably didn’t know that the strange figure of light she caught sight of sometimes was a god. “So have you been seeing things too?” I asked.

She shifted on the bed, I suspected to look over at me. I smirked, but said nothing as I waited for her reply, my eyes still closed. “So I haven’t been going insane.”

“No. Cassandra says the figure of light is Asterollan’s god. If you avoid looking directly at him, he stays longer, and you can kind of observe him from the periphery.”

“And the child?” I opened my eyes now to look over at her with a frown. When she realized I didn’t know what she was talking about, it was her turn to smirk. “There’s a kid that shows up sometimes very briefly, and then disappears. I’ve seen her sometimes in town, but mostly when we’re out on the road. Standing by a creek or out in the middle of a field, or sitting in a tree.”

“I think I hear her laughing sometimes. But I haven’t seen her very often,” I admitted. I sat up, careful not to disturb Peter, who was trilling in a soft even way that suggested he was sleeping. “Cassandra says that she and Asterollan have both talked to their gods. Cassandra knows the name of hers too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. But it seems like she hasn’t told Raella or anyone else yet.”

Peyton was quiet. I resisted the urge to turn to look at her. “I wonder what they want us to do? Is it the same as what we’ve been told we’re here for?”

I stood up and stretched a bit, then turned to face Peyton. She was staring at me, her eyes wide and blue and as easy to fall into as the sky. I looked away, uncomfortable with the eye contact. “I don’t know. But we’re going with them for now, right?”

Peyton nodded. “For now. Yes.”

---

We both wandered down for dinner. It wasn’t quite a formal affair – the servants or attendants or whatever brought us our food when we arrived to eat, and we weren’t expected to wait for anyone. Raella and Javyk must have still been talking privately, and Lyre and Cassandra were nowhere to be seen. Lexie was already halfway done with her meal. I watched the way her eyes flicked up above my head as Peyton and I entered – I had grown used to it by this point, but the first several times it had happened, it was hard not to twist my head to follow her gaze, even knowing I would see nothing.

The bed was almost too comfortable, and I spent a lot of the night twisting and turning in it. I was dead tired the next morning, barely able to drag myself along as we gathered ourselves for the final leg of our journey through the Empire.

Javyk accompanied us. “Just as far as the border,” he said. “I have my own duties here and can’t leave, but I’ll be passing you into the care of a dwarven ambassador.” The road looked well traveled and maintained, but there was very little traffic along it. I could see the border wall before we reached it – a massive stone construct. Where the wall met the road, there was a gate with guard towers. Standing at attention on either side of the road was a regiment of soldiers, and standing at the gate was a group of dwarves.

I had expected the stereotypical vision of burly bearded men, short but stout, fully armored, wielding battle axes and perhaps speaking in a Scottish accent. My first impression was that I was seeing a group of children, but as I approached I realized they were adults – just very small. In fact, they reminded me more of tall halflings or gnomes. The tallest only came up to my elbow. They had pointed ears, though not as sharply upswept as an elf’s ears. And while some of the delegation did wear armor, and a few had beards, they did not look uniformly as dwarven as I had imagined.

They spoke Blest, but had a softer accent that sounded vaguely American southern mixed with Irish. For a moment, I felt foolish as I realized that of course I would never really find a recognizable accent here. It made me faintly homesick for a moment.

The leader of the delegation was a man that, despite his height in comparison to ours, held an air of unquestioned authority. He had wispy blonde hair and hazel eyes and stared at Javyk Zern as he approached with us. “Hello, Ambassador Kernel,” Javyk greeted cheerfully. If anything, Kernel’s expression darkened more at the sight of him.

“You’re not coming into Amethys Anchor with us, are you, Zern?” the dwarf called out as we got closer.

“Oh no, I’ve got too much to do back home. I’m simply here to make introductions and pass our people into your care.” Kernel looked visibly relieved. We dismounted and stood in front of Kernel, where Javyk introduced us one by one. Kernel didn’t seem very impressed, but the younger man standing next to him – with messy brown hair and green eyes magnified behind very large glasses – looked incredibly excited to see us, practically bouncing on the heals of his feet, and appropriately ooh’ed and aah’ed at nearly every title that Javyk seemed willing to lay at our feet – from Raella, Lead Professor of Divinity of the Imperial University, to Greyjon, Captain of Kimber City Military. The young man practically squeaked in awe as Javyk introduced Lexie as, “Chosen of Myrapen, the Eternal Flame, god of fire.”

Kernel did not seem like the sort to enjoy the tedium of decorum. Javyk, on the other hand, was taking great joy in drawing it out, and I suspected he was doing it just to piss Kernel off. It was kind of amusing to watch the shorter man go through various shades of pink and red as he tapped his foot in impatience, his arms crossed. Once Javyk was done, Kernel immediately suggested that we be on our way without offering to make similar introductions of his own people.

Raella and Javyk spoke privately for a bit, and then we were climbing back onto our horses and preparing to travel again. And all too quickly, we were passing through the gates, with Javyk waving enthusiastically behind us as we left. Some of the dwarven delegation rode ahead, and a few of the more armored ones followed along behind. Some were mounted on ponies, short enough for them to easily ride – others were mounted on a strange breed of dog that I had never seen before that stood easily as tall as the ponies. The dogs had long fur, some being more grey and some more tan, although the one that Kernel rode was a deep black.

One of the dogs growled slightly at Peter, baring its teeth in an alarmingly menacing way. Peter gave a short, affronted chirp at the sound – I started to try to angle my horse between the dog and my spider, but Peyton beat me to it, frowning in an impressively imperious manner. The dog’s rider rubbed the dog behind his ear and whispered something to it, calming it down. “Apologies, my lady,” the rider said, shifting his mount a bit further away.

“Thanks,” I mumbled to Peyton as I trotted my horse up next to hers. She smiled at me as I motioned for Peter to get on the wagon. Peter obliged, jumping up on top of the wagon and crouching down on the fabric that covered it, settling in for the journey.

“So the dwarven country is called Amethys Anchor?” I overheard Cassandra asking Raella.

“More accurately, there are several dwarven countries. The one that immediately borders the Empire is called Amethys Anchor. There is also Emeran Anchor, Deman Anchor, and Rewbe Anchor, though those are much farther south and we aren’t likely to travel to them. We’re making our way to the Seiling Mountains, in Saph Anchor, which houses the entrance to the great mines that will bring us closest to the Seal.”

“Is it the Seiling Mountains because of the Seal?” Lexie asked curiously.

“Well, it may have gotten its name from it, yes.” I had the sense that Raella was ready to gear up on telling us everything we’d ever need to know about the dwarven kingdoms, and allowed myself to drop back away from the wagon before I got caught up in the lecture.