“I don’t care,” Irrik answered. “They’ll take care of it. Come on, let’s head into the Registry.” He led them forward, towards the large mud brick building. He nodded at them when they were close enough that they entered the small bubble of space that separated the armed group from the rest of the crowd.

  “Hey there,” one of the armed men greeted Irrik with a smile. He looked older than the others, probably closer to Irrik’s age than Sophia’s, while the other people with him were closer to Sophia’s age. He sounded pleasant, but he was definitely still tense. “You’re from the country?”

  Irrik paused, then nodded. He seemed far more relaxed than the other man, as if he didn’t see a possible threat here. Maybe he didn’t; he was past his second upgrade. Sophia couldn’t tell if the armed men were or not. There were simply too many auras around her for her to get that much detail. “Southern forest, Cloud Clan. Anything I should know, or can we head into the Registry and get some rest before I turn around and head back home?”

  The man seemed to relax a little as he shook his head. His eyes moved across Dav, Sophia, and Amy, clearly evaluating them and coming to a conclusion. “Nah, nothing that’ll bother you overnight. Not going to stay and protect your charges?”

  A smile spread across Irrik’s face and a tension Sophia had thought wasn’t there seemed to dissipate. “They stop being in my care when they enter the Registry; I won’t clip their wings that way.”

  “Nothing more troublesome than youngsters you want to grow strong.” The man chuckled, then shook his head. “May the Broken Lord send you challenges.”

  “Guard the weak,” Irrik answered with a nod. It was clearly a formulaic response; just as clearly, it was exactly what was needed to make the followers of the Broken Temple let them pass with no issues.

  Just inside the building, there was a small entryway. The only things of note about it were the wooden door behind them and a curtain made of obsidian beads that filled an archway at the far end.

  Irrik stopped about halfway down the entrayway, shortly after Amy closed the door behind her. He spoke quietly, “I know you aren’t Cloud Clan, but I also know you’re young and don’t know much. You’ll learn, but it’s better to listen than to learn the hard way. The Registry and the Broken Temple don’t always get along. Try to stay out of the way when they have an argument. Called aren’t supposed to get involved in that sort of fight anyway; politics is for Professionals. That’s why I haven’t taken a Profession.”

  Sophia felt a little insulted that Irrik thought they couldn’t make up their own minds, but at the same time she could tell he was talking because he wanted them to avoid getting hurt. She could give him some credit for that, even if it made her chafe at the assumption that she didn’t know anything.

  About this, he was probably right. That also didn’t make it chafe any less.

  Sophia glanced at her friends. Dav was inscrutable, with a complete lack of expression that told Sophia he was thinking something but not what he was thinking. Amy scowled but didn’t say anything. Sophia guessed her own expression was probably similar.

  Iriik waited a moment, as if he expected someone to say something, but Sophia didn’t have anything to say. He shook his head slightly, then spoke a little louder as he turned and headed farther into the building. “Right, then. Let’s go talk to the receptionist. Do you all know which Challenges you need, or at least which upgrade you’re trying for? I know Amy’s looking at Night Owl, and those Challenges mean you’ll need to talk to the Registry Master for approval.”

  Amy definitely hadn’t kept that a secret. Sophia was certain that she wouldn’t keep quiet about it here, either, so it was a good way to change the topic.

  “I don’t know,” Dav answered. “We weren’t able to find any good options in Casterville for either Sophia or me; Amy already knew about Night Owl, but that wasn’t there either. I figure we’ll see what the options are here; there should be more.”

  “That there will be,” Irrik answered with a hearty smile that Sophia would have thought was completely real if she hadn’t seen the concerned expression he held moments earlier. He turned and headed through a beaded curtain in an otherwise open arch into a larger room.

  Sophia started to follow him, but she had to pause at the entrance to the larger room, right after she pushed the bead curtain out of the way to see the other side. The entrance area was just like the outside, plain reddish mud brick with no decoration, but that all changed on the other side of the archway.

  The ceiling was at least twenty feet above Sophia’s head and formed a dome. It was covered in the same bluish-white glowing crystal that lit the cave outside, but the light was softer, somehow. Sophia didn’t think it was a change in the color; instead, it seemed both weaker and a bit more diffuse. One other thing was odd about it; she could feel that the light itself was slightly charged with mana.

  That was what made her pause. She hadn’t noticed when she entered the cave, but it was obvious here: the air around her wasn’t filled with less mana than outside the mountain. Instead, it seemed to have more. With the light from the ceiling, the increase was enough higher that she was pretty sure it would actually increase how quickly she recovered mana after she used it. It wasn’t dense enough to cause mana sickness, but it was noticeable.

  Sophia opened her mouth to ask about the difference, then closed it. She could ask Amy about it later. It might even lead into a good way to ask about the Broken Temple and the Towers of Kestii. If it didn’t, it wasn’t like it would be difficult to ask about the men outside the Registry building, but she wanted to do that in private.

  Sophia shook herself and turned her attention to the rest of the room. It was not at all like the other side of the curtain; if she hadn’t stopped because of the mana from the lights, she might well have stopped to appreciate the reception area.

  The walls were covered in cloth banners that stretched from near the ceiling to the floor. They were covered in pictures, clearly telling stories of some sort. Some of the banners were old and discolored with time and grime, while others seemed nearly new or at least recently cleaned.

  The first thing Sophia noticed about the floor was that there were carpets rolled up along the edges of the room. The second thing was that the floor itself was made of heavily worn tiles. There were actual ruts in the tiles where people walked across the room. Sophia didn’t know how much foot traffic that took, but it had to be a lot over a long time.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Sophia moved forward to let the others into the room as she took in the pattern on the floor. At first, she’d thought it was just tiles set in an uneven pattern, with the middle of the floor darker than the edges, but off to her right there was a clear image of a person. With that reference point, it was easy enough to tell that the pattern was someone standing on top of a pyramid. The pyramid didn’t have smooth sides like the ones in pictures of Egypt; instead, it looked more like a South American pyramid, with huge blocks that moved inwards with each layer and a stairway on the side.

  “I didn’t know that was under the carpet,” Amy exclaimed as she stepped into the room.

  “Hmh.” Irrik grunted in seeming agreement, then snorted. “Clearly why there are Templars outside. Remember to stay out of this mess; it’s between the Temple and the Registry.”

  This time, he didn’t bother to keep his voice down.

  Sophia glanced around for a moment, then found what she was looking for: on the other side of the room, across the pyramid from where they’d entered, there was a desk. An older man stood behind it. He watched them with a welcoming smile.

  It took a few minutes for the receptionist, Rory, to check their Registry sigils, but after that everything went quickly. The information they had on Spheres was in an area he called the Library, but it was already closed for the night and wouldn’t be open until morning. Similarly, Irrik couldn’t talk to the Registry Master about Challenge trades until the next day.

  Rory suggested a suite setup for Amy, Dav, Sophia, and Taika, with a pair of rooms on either side of a central common area where they could sit and plan or eat together, something that was apparently common for small teams like theirs. Sophia was happy to accept the suggestion, but she waited for Dav and Amy to agree. Their agreement was quick; it was a little more expensive but definitely worthwhile.

  The on-site restaurant was just down the hall.There were a number of other good restaurants nearby, but “with the current situation,” he recommended staying in the building unless they needed to get to a Challenge or go out on a mission.

  That was the only reference Rory made to the followers of the Broken Temple outside the door.

  When he handed them their keys, he also handed Amy two letters. “These were left for you a few weeks ago, after you left Casterville.”

  Amy frowned and lifted one letter to look at the other. They both said Amy Hunter on the front in what seemed like the same handwriting. “They’re both from my brother? Why would he send me two letters?”

  Rory shook his head. “The second one arrived less than a tenday after the first, but that’s all I know. I don’t look in others’ mail.”

  Amy nodded with a puzzled frown. “Do you know which one came first?”

  “The one on top,” Rory answered confidently.

  Amy turned the letter over and tapped the wax that sealed it, then shook her head and tucked them away in her backpack. “I’ll open them after we eat.”

  The Registry restaurant was surprisingly empty when they arrived. After a few minutes, it became obvious why: most people who came to the restaurant were ordering something to be delivered to their rooms. The few who did eat in the restaurant didn’t linger over their food; they ordered, ate, and left as soon as they were done. No one stayed for an after-dinner drink and there was no music.

  It reinforced the air of nervousness Sophia had noticed in the rest of the city.

  Irrik was the first one to finish his meal. The moment he did, he stood up. “I’m headed to bed; it’ll be an early morning for me, since I want to be out of here before noon. I recommend that you do the same, as quickly as you can. It’s never good when the Izel Registry rolls up the carpet.”

  “You’ve seen it happen before?” Amy’s question was met with a silent wave as Irrik walked away. He clearly had no intention of answering.

  They finished their meals quickly and hurried up the stairs to the fourth floor and down a surprisingly long hallway to find their suite. The moment the door was closed, Amy broke the seal on the first letter. She read through it, then sighed. “Well, shit.”

  “What’s wrong?” Dav asked the question right before similar words would have left Sophia’s mouth.

  Amy held the letter out to Dav. Sophia leaned over his shoulder to read it with him.

  Great news, sis!

  Mom finally approved the expedition back to that ruined building in the Western Wildlands! There are going to be more of us than I wanted. I never expected her to let me leave with only my team, but I didn’t think she’d make me take two other full First Upgrade teams plus an entire double-team of First Upgrade Professionals!

  Well, all right, one of the teams of Professionals is my fault; I wanted Xin’ri and Volat to help, since they’re the best experts I know for runic symbology and ancient Kestii. That meant bringing their assistants.

  The second Professional team is the real support personnel, and I have to admit that we will probably need them. This isn’t going to be fast and we need someone to handle everything from getting water and cooking to repairing any tools Volat breaks (because he’s always breaking things).

  The other two Called teams are for hunting and security. The area is relatively low-mana for the western Wildlands, but that definitely doesn’t make it safe. The first time we were there, a family of spiketails was using the ruins as a nest (not a Nest, the lowercase one). We cleaned them out, but who knows what’s moved in since we left?

  The plan is that we’ll be at the ruins site for four months, but we may have to head home early; it depends on when the migrations start out west. They’re done for this year, so we leave Izel tomorrow. We’re bringing quite a bit since we expect to winter at the ruins, but we’re going to supplement with hunting as we go. The winter will give us a safe time to investigate the ruins. If we can, we’ll camp in the building; the room we used last time should still be safe.

  I won’t be able to get any of your letters while I’m gone, but write anyway! I’ll check with Ermine as soon as I get back to Izel. I loved your description of the sea voyage; were the fish really that large?

  How is Casterville? I never made it through there, but I’ve heard mixed things from others who stopped there during their Youth Journey. Have you had any luck meeting people you think you might be willing to work with for the long haul, especially people willing to come to the Skylands? My team are my closest friends and I want the same thing for you.

  That reminds me; Uncle Los’en got himself in a fight again. You’d think he’d learn not to wear jewelry with the Stepped Pyramid design openly. I think he goes out looking for trouble sometimes, but this time I’m not sure Mother can get him out of it. The Broken Temple’s Hilt is demanding a full appeasement ceremony and indentured service to the Temple instead of a private apology. You know Mother’s not going to stand for that.

  I don’t think Uncle would be willing to do it anyway. He’s always hidden his feelings about the Broken Sword poorly, and it’s only gotten worse.

  I’m going to be glad to be out of Izel, and I’m grateful you aren’t in the Skylands at all.

  Many hugs,

  Lan

  Yes, this is the same letter that was shown earlier when Lan’ti dropped it off. I figured it would be nice for everyone to see it again so we’d all remember what was in it. I’m not counting it as part of the chapter’s word count.