Cass woke in a cold sweat, the smell of blood lingering over her senses even as she left that bloody cathedral in her dreams. A nightmare. The first one since she'd left Velillia.

She shuddered, pulling her blankets tighter around her, and forced herself to take a deep breath. It was morning. No, noon? Atmospheric sense reported the sun was high in the sky and it was too hot in the canvas tent for it to be early morning.

She took another breath. It was just a dream. Just a memory. One she shouldn't let bother her.

She closed her eyes, and she was back in the temple basement of Velillia. Paladin corpses were strewn around her. Some were crushed under Kelstor's claws or burned to charcoal from his breath. Some were slashed to pieces from Kohen's sword, others decapitated by their own captain.

All of them were dead because of her.

She shook her head and forced her eyes open. It was pointless guilt. They had been villains. They'd kidnapped her. They'd wanted to sacrifice her to their goddess.

She shoved the lingering guilt back across the veil Liminal draped over her mind. She'd been avoiding looking at that guilt up to this point. She could keep avoiding it. It must have been all the blood yesterday that had triggered the nightmare.

The blood and Kohen.

She bit her lip and shoved that over the veil too. She'd done what she'd done. She'd saved the rest of the caravan. That had to be good enough. It was too early in the day to collapse under the weight of that, even if it was already noon.

Decision made, she dressed and stepped out of her tent. Most of camp was already packed away. The sea of tents from the previous night had been replaced by a sea of boxes and bags all being ferried between wagons.

She looked around for her companions. Kelstor made slow circles over the camp, probably keeping watch with Alyx. Telis was talking with the caravan master and a few other merchant masters while Kohen and Tiador loitered just outside the conversation, visibly impatient. Meanwhile, Marco and Daidyn helped move boxes with a group of other Str-aligned people between the wagons.

Pellen sat at the edge, writing slowly in her notebook and largely looking like she was trying to stay out of the way.

She didn't see Salos anywhere. She closed her eyes and looked for their bond. She almost missed it. She'd expected to find him lurking in Kohen's shadow or along the wagon wall.

Instead, he was dematerialized. And in her necklace?

Odd. It had been a while since he'd spent any time there. As far as she could tell, he didn't like it there. He was almost always materialized, and when he couldn't be, he spent his time in her soul well instead.

How are you doing this morning? Cass said, poking their bond. It was unusually sluggish.

His response was unusually slow. Ready.

Cass raised an eyebrow. You still half asleep?

Something startled on his end. There was a sense of a scramble. He materialized on her shoulder. I'm fine.

Was he? He looked the same as always. But he was still holding back his soul. She didn't push it. She didn't understand what had happened, but he'd drift back to her when he was ready. She could either stick her nose in it and possibly make it worse, sit here wondering about it, or find some way to make herself useful.

Really, the last option was the only one worth considering. She wandered off to find Hess.

He was overseeing the loading of the wagons.

"Anything I can help with?" Cass asked.

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The big man looked Cass up and down. "You trying to tell me you're a Strength type now?"

Cass shook her head. "Doesn't have to be with loading."

He shook his head. "Loading's all that's left. Got to get them rebalanced so we can get a move on. Two weren't reparable. Four had to be unloaded to be repaired. We're almost done. We'll be leaving soon. Go rest up."

"You sure?" Cass asked.

He waved her away. "You did more than your part yesterday. Let the rest of us make ourselves useful, yeah?"

Cass nodded, and wandered away, trying not to notice the wagon at the end of the line being loaded with the bodies of the deceased.

Hess wasn't wrong, though. They departed soon after.

The late start meant that they did not make it to the city that night, and it wasn't until the following evening that Cass spotted the port city of Belden.

The city appeared to be a narrow band of dense urban development, pressed up against the edge of the Continent, going from dense along the rippling outer wall to very dense as the buildings seemed to fall over the edge.

A sprawl of water clung to the northwest side. It sparkled blue in the sun, the waves reflecting like gems, cresting and breaking on the white sand beaches. Long docks ran out into the water, lined with space for boats.

Beyond the water and along the northeast side, the world ended.

As Kelstor made a wide loop of the city, this side of the city revealed itself.

Land and sea alike fell away into the bottomless nothing that was the space between continents. And the city spilled out over the edge. Spires of white stone and grassy islands floated in the space. Stone bridges arched between them. Spiraling towers rose from the spires, each capped in glistening glass roof of dazzling colors, between which long docks hung, with huge ships floating alongside them.

Terraces were cut into the side of the Continent, and more city filled them, as if it were hungry for every scrap of space.

The sea poured from its impossible bowl in rivers and pools between the floating Spires, casting some of the terraced city in the azure tint of light through the crystal sea.

Balloons and blimps floated through the air between, landing on spindly jetties to pick up and deposit passengers, while more people meandered the streets below.

The air carried an excitement. It was something separate from the energy with which it illustrated the city streets. More than the bustle of a big city. Velillia had both and yet had not come close to this energy.

It was closer to the buzz of electricity or the heat of fire, though still distinct.

Alyx circled Kelstor above the caravan until the wagons reached the city gates. Unlike the walls of Velillia, which had been imposingly tall stone edifices, the walls of Belden were wood palisades, thick enough to station soldiers atop, but not actually tall enough to keep Kelstor from poking his head over the walls.

The gates were open, a steady stream of people and carts coming and going from their walls. Most were other caravans, with a large collection of wagons and a few guards. A few were clearly armed parties, decked in weapons and burning for a fight. Very few were unaccompanied wagons, a single driver with their cargo hoping for the best.

The city guard processed each entrant in turn, and in a little over an hour after the caravan wagons reached the gates, the caravan was inside.

Kelstor took up a position behind the wagons as they walked through the city.

A guard stepped in the way, stopping Kelstor before they could enter.

"We're with them," Alyx said, pointing at the wagon ahead of them.

"Excuse me, my lady," the man said, his voice level but his eyes struggling to hold Alyx's. "The city lord requests dragon knights greet him upon entry."

"The Lord dares to order the appearance of an honorable knight of Vaisom?" Alyx's expression passive, her voice carrying just enough warning. Energy pulsed back and forth between Alyx and Kelstor as communicated telepathically.

"Apologies, my lady," the guard said, his head dropping. "But I still must ask you to cooperate."

Alyx pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh. "Fine." Alyx glanced Cass's way. "I'll catch up with you later. Stay with the group."

Cass hesitated. Splitting up didn't sit right with her.

<<Alyx wanted me to tell you that you don't want to come. It will be boring at best and annoying at worst. She says you should slip off with the rest of the caravan and rest in the inn,>> Kelstor projected telepathically.

Cass wanted to argue. Wandering off on her own had gotten her kidnapped by cultists, after all.

<<She will be fine,>> Kelstor promised. <<She has no shortage of experience dealing with this kind of thing.>>

You would only be in the way if you tagged along, Salos added.

Cass bit her lip. Right. If Alyx was being dragged off to play politics, her particular brand of blunt was unlikely to help.

"Alright," Cass said, hopping down from Kelstor's back.

<<We'll be back before you know it,>> Kelstor promised.

"This way, my lady," the guard said, gesturing past him. To Cass he added, "Don't stray far from your group and go straight to your inn. There's rising mists on the forecast today. People've been disappearing in that lately."

"Disappearing?" Cass repeated. Like kidnapped by criminals or devoured by the mists? But the guard was already leading Alyx and Kelstor away, and the caravan wasn't waiting for her.

What do you think? Cass asked Salos.

That any fool that tries to ambush you in the mist is in for a bad time, Salos said.

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