The wagon rattled down the road, listing and lurching with every pothole. Despite the discomfort of the hard seat, and the weariness settling on her from emotional exhaustion, Ylia was filled with a delicate optimism. Maybe it was delusional. Maybe the damage of watching her home burn was so great that she had fled to a fantasy. But she felt strangely accepting of her Fate.

  They had left the forest behind and now they headed over the Gorgosan Plains, which typified Yarulian beauty: hills, dales, flourishes of forestry in the form of elegant copses, quaint bridges over tinkling streams, and the odd slab of farmland crowned with a farmstead. These were the lands of those who lived slow and easy, and she could not help but feel their peace work its magic on her. That would all change once they reached Gorgosa’s borders, but for now she was content to enjoy the scenery and know that she was on her way to recovering some of her fortune and making a new one.

  In talking to Qala, who was a woman of few words but always well chosen ones, she’d decided that she wanted to try and make a new life in Gorgosa once she had retrieved the Demons from Telos. Ylia had fled to the rural life to escape the city’s madness, but she did not think she could go back to Midnere now. Although the burning of her House was a tragedy, she could not deny she’d become tired of running it, tired of the drunken patrons, the constant pressure to accommodate guests at all hours, the late nights, and the rumour-mills of small towns. She wanted a new business, new people, new challenges. She knew Gorgosa would likely take some adjusting to, but she would find a path that worked for her. New horizons awaited.

  “You still have not told me how you came to be acquainted with your felidae,” Qala said.

  Urgal had made a remarkable recovery and seemed to be enjoying the ride, resting his head on Qala’s lap as she drove the horse forward and steered it around pedestrians on the road. Ylia was relieved, but at the same time, slightly suspicious. The blow the Warden had dealt Urgal should have been a death-blow, no matter how thick Urgal’s skin was or hard his skull was. Maybe he is Daimonborn in a more literal sense...

  The phrase “Daimonborn” simply meant unnaturally large, not literally sired by Daimons. The Daimons had been extinguished by the gods and no trace of their line remained. All that was left of them were their immortal bones and blood in the soil.

  And yet, many legends and myths and fantasies maintained that the Daimons had copulated with mortals, or with gods, or with other animals, somehow sired children, and these were the Daimonborn. Ylia was religious but she did not believe such stories.

  “I grew up in Aurelia,” she said, in answer to Qala’s hovering question.

  “That explains the blonde hair.”

  Ylia grinned.

  “Obvious, isn’t it?”

  “Not as obvious as the way you smile. Aurelians and Yarulians smile differently, you know.”

  Ylia noted that Qala’s mouth was hidden by a band of cloth.

  “How do people smile in Qi’shath?”

  “With a knife behind their back.”

  “I see…”

  Qala laughed—that same strange discordance that still managed to be musical.

  “I interrupted you. Please, proceed.”

  “I grew up on a farm in Tezada.”

  “A southerner then,” Qala muttered. “Forgive me for interrupting once more.”

  “That’s quite alright. Yes, I’m from Southern Aurelia. It is a beautiful place, I can say that even now. Yarruk is beautiful but it’s…”

  “Small,” Qala finished.

  Ylia laughed.

  “Yes. Tiny, in fact.”

  “Yarulians tend to forget that. They had an empire two hundred years ago and some of them think it’s still there.”

  Qala clearly felt salt in the wound that Yarruk had once conquered and occupied the northern shores of Qi’shath. A tiny portion of land in the grand scheme of that massive country, but it was the principle of the thing that stung. The land had since been returned to the Jade Empress Qiu Jin—after no small amount of bloodshed.

  “We are all products of our environment, I suppose,” Ylia added. “But anyway, I grew up in Southern Aurelia, and I was very happy, but then some things happened…” She faltered. Could she tell all to this stranger? She had opened up to Telos, and look what had happened.

  “Ah yes, ‘things happening’,” Qala said, soothingly. “That is the unfortunate way of the world. Change is a constant. The Kwei Shin move and turn the Wheel always. Fate dances.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Ylia knew that the Qi’shathians had a slightly different form of religion to the rest of the world. Their relationship with the gods was unique; she did not pretend to understand it fully.

  “Who are the Kwei Shin?”

  “What you call gods, we call Kwei Shin—those who walk between two worlds. But they are not exactly equivalent to your gods. In your western beliefs, the gods are objects of reverence, and they also intercede on mortal behalf. But in our beliefs, the gods are only one part of a greater whole: the Immutable Way. The judgements and actions of the Kwei Shin are not beyond question. Even they are bound by a deeper law, a mythic law, the law that is Existence itself.”

  “It sounds complicated.”

  She could not see Qala’s mouth, but the eyes revealed a secret smile.

  “It is complex if one tries to grasp it with the mind, but that is not the Way. The Way is felt, it is known, it is experienced. That is the Seventh Gate, which opens only when one is shorn of their falsities. What I say will mean nothing now, perhaps, but in time you will experience it for yourself. You will feel the call of the Seventh Gate. You will feel the embrace of the Immutable Way that governs all things.”

  Ylia was not so certain, but she found it fascinating nonetheless.

  Qala suddenly slapped her forehead, an exaggerated slapstick gesture.

  “And here I am again distracting you! Finish your tale!”

  Ylia swallowed, and continued, skipping over the details of what’d happened to her father.

  “I wanted to leave Aurelia. My home was broken. I set off on an adventure. My travels brought me to Qi’shath, for a brief time. Sumyr, too. Though only its outskirts.”

  Qala’s eyebrows raised.

  “That is well-travelled indeed.”

  “It was in Qi’shath I met Urgal. I was going through the docks of Xi’ten. He was in a cage. I think the sailors meant to sell him to some kind of circus, for there was a troupe of theronts there like I had never seen before, and one of them was haggling with the shipman over a price. I couldn’t understand exactly what they were saying, of course, but haggling is the same the world over.”

  Qala smiled.

  “I wanted to buy him, save him from that life,” Ylia said.

  “The circus life is not easy on man, theront, or animal.”

  Ylia shook her head.

  “But I had no money, of course,” Ylia said. “So I just watched. Eventually, a price was agreed. But then, it was as if Urgal sensed what was happening—he suddenly went berserk. The cage broke and he went at the theronts. I’ve… I’ve never seen bloodshed like that.” Ylia swallowed. She remembered that the docks had been painted red, the blood dripping into the waters of the Emerald Sea, changing it to ruby.

  “I don’t know how many he killed. It all happened so fast.”

  “A felidae, in a state of threat, is a very dangerous thing.”

  Ylia nodded.

  “He tore them to pieces. And then, I don’t know… I just had a sudden impulse. It seems madness, now. I ran up to Urgal and put a hand on him. He rounded one me and I was sure he was dead. But then he suddenly seemed to soften. His eyes, he was looking at me, and it was like he could really see me, like he was more than just an animal, like he really knew what was in my heart. He calmed down, lay on his belly. I sat there with him. The theronts fled to find the authorities. At some point, I remember looking at the shipman. I think I said something like, ‘You’ve had your money. He doesn’t want to go with them. Let me take him.’ The shipman didn’t argue—he just wanted the beast gone. I boarded the next boat to Sumyr. And ever since, Urgal has followed me.”

  Ylia finished, taking a deep breath. She had not shared that tale with anyone in a long while.

  “That feeling, that urge to do what was so counterintuitive, that was the Immutable Way.”

  “Perhaps… Eventually, I found Yarruk. It was peaceful, here. The Yarulians are… irritating, at times. Their customs are backward. They are a proud and stubborn people. But, they welcomed me. And for all their pride they are quite sincere.”

  Qala nodded.

  “Yes. I too must confess that I have warmed to the Yarulians, despite their strange customs of drinking ale in the mornings and putting milk in their tea.”

  Ylia laughed.

  “Yes. A strange bunch, to be sure. But they gave me a home. Until…” She wavered. The optimism she had cultivated proved itself to be a shallow mirage. Grief threatened like a blade to the throat. She tried to swallow it down but the razor’s edge remained.

  “You have lost much, this much is easy to tell,” Qala said. “Tell me, do you believe in auguries?”

  Ylia considered.

  “I suppose I must. I believe in the gods. And I have often looked to the night sky for comfort.”

  “That is wise. Well, when we reach our first stopping point, The House of the Drunken Dragon, perhaps you will consent for me to read an augury for you?”

  “I have no money.”

  “I am aware of that. But you have shared your story, which is worth much, and you have alleviated the boredom of the long road. Besides, my acts of kindness are not entirely without ulterior motive.”

  “Oh…” Ylia felt a knot of anxiety form in the pit of her stomach.

  “The Immutable Way is a law of giving and receiving. One gives so that one may receive. The Wheel is always turning. But it shall turn against you if you do not honour the Way.”

  Ylia felt the knot unwind.

  “Well, I believe the Kwei Shin shall look very favourably upon you indeed after all your kindness.”

  Qala laughed darkly.

  “My dear, I do not wish for the Kwei Shin to look upon me at all. The purpose of honouring the Way is so that one may remain invisible to them. Those chosen by Fate live hard and difficult lives. I wish to remain hidden. Life is better that way.”