Iermath of the battle, Millit stood atop the magic tower. As the highest point iy, it allowed her to survey the goings on below, without the o start flying around. There were going to be a lot of anxious aristocrats and city officials so, for the moment, she wao be stationary where people could find her.

  Ribbons of rainbow smoke rose up as her people looted the dead messengers where they had fallen into the city. There would be damage from an army of dead angels nding on things but hopefully minimal casualties. The popuce had evacuated to bunkers while the defensive barrier still held, but there were always those who were too stubborn, too old, or too siove.

  A woman was suddenly o Millit, arriving almost too fast for even a gold rao sense her approach. She’d realised, betedly, who these people were. If not distracted by the existential threat to her home, she might have reised some of their more distinctive members. The man in rainbow armour riding a shape-ging dragon definitely should have been a giveaway. They were Team Biscuit, who had retly returo Yaresh along with other famous adventurers for reasons unknown.

  This woman had dark hair and a swarthy plexion, so she wasn’t the team’s famously beautiful speedster. But the team leader’s mother was even more famous thaeam itself, and this woman did fit the description.

  “You’re the Time Witch of Vitesse,” Millit said.

  “I’m actually from a pce called Greenstone. And I prefer to be called Danielle, to be ho.”

  Danielle offered her hand and Millit shook it.

  “You’re in and of the local forces?” Danielle asked.

  “General Millit Marks, Segurado Defence Force.”

  “Danielle Geller.”

  “Thank you for the help. Our forces are battle hardened, aermio protect their homes and families, but determination isn’t always enough.”

  “No,” Danielle agreed sadly. “It’s not.”

  Millit looked up at where the strange, humungous eye had transformed into a mass of cloud. It was now slowly taking the form of a sky lihe rgest css of airship.

  “Is that what you travel around in?”

  “For the moment,” Danielle said. “The man that owns the vessel has a pent for the dramatic.”

  “Is this what it’s like?”

  “It?” Danielle asked.

  “Being a famous adventurer. I was born and raised here in Segurado. Trained here, not in some big city like Vitesse. I had this dream, back when I was iron rank, about hitting gold rank and swanning into one of the famous adventurer cities like a queen. In the end, I never roamed far. There was always too much to do, and it was always going to be a dream. By gold rank standards, I’m a little fish.”

  “There are no little fish at gold rank.”

  “Of course you’d think that. Your life is all world travel and transf sky ships. Swooping in to rescue little no-name pces you won’t remember in a week. I’m n to sound ungrateful — I’m profoundly thankful for the swooping in, believe me. It just makes me realise that, even if I hadn’t been stuck guarding this pce for all these years, I wouldn’t be anything special in a pce like Rimaros or Kacha Kille.”

  “Believe me, Miss Marks, you are special. I have known many adventurers from outside of the famous cities, and few choose to stay and protect their homes after reag high rank. Of those that do, it is less often out of duty than a desire to be a big fish.”

  “You said there were no little fish.”

  “And I meant it. Even those who reached gold-rank with cores are notable people, but those who did not still have the potential to go further. Many famous gold rankers never reach diamond, while some that no one in Rimaros or Vitesse has ever heard of reach diamond. The path is long and strange, and many lose sight of duty as they walk it. If you told the Adventure Society that you were leaving this pce behind, who would stop you? The society, and the leaders of this city would ask you to remain, but they would do no more than ask. Because you’re a gold ranker, and that makes you special, wherever you are from.”

  “Did the Adventure Society send you here?”

  “Yes. They’ve been using the sky link unicatiowork to report messenger movement. They’ve also been asking us to move through more remote areas on our travels, where the society ’t afford to station major forces. eo be in the area just as a messenger army decamped and headed your way, so they asked us to intervene. We were lucky to be in the area.”

  “Not as lucky as we were.”

  Danielle nodded.

  “It’s unfortuhat so many lives are reliant on luck, but that is the situation in which we…”

  She trailed off as twuing voices reached them from above. Two men were floating down on a small cloud, approag the tower.

  “…every city, just most of them,” Neil said.

  “I have never destroyed a city,” Jason shot back. “I’ve been to lots of cities, and hardly any of them were destroyed. Look at this o’s fine.”

  “How many is hardly any?”

  “I don’t know. Three. Four, I guess, but one was more of a big town. And the brightheart city was basically destroyed before we even got there. Also, don’t act like you weren’t there for half of them.”

  “Is four ting Rimaros?”

  “Why would I t Rimaros?”

  “That flying Builder city was dropped on it.”

  “It was dropped near it, Neil. And there was hardly any damage. The priests of O stopped the tsunami.”

  “So, just the four, then.”

  “Exactly.”

  “You do realise that four is a lot when you’re talking about destroyed cities, right?”

  Danielle let out a motherly sigh.

  “I may,” she said to Millit, “be forced to aowledge your point about what my life is like.”

  The pair nded and the cloud they were riding on streamed into an amulet hanging from ohe men’s necks. The other moved forward to shake her hand.

  “Neil Davone,” he introduced himself. “Team healer.”

  “Were you the oting shields on my people?”

  “I might have tossed the odd barrier out, here and there. Nothing remarkable.”

  “You saved lives that would otherwise have been lost. The lives of my people. You have my thanks.”

  “You’re wele. And this is—”

  “John Miller,” the other man introduced himself as he moved forward to shake her hand. “Team cook.”

  “Cook?”

  He certainly wasn’t dressed for adventuring, in a floral shirt, shorts and sandals, topped with a straw hat. It ropriate for the sunny day, but not fhting monsters. His aura was human and silver-rank, with the signature taint of monster cores. He looked every bit the auxiliary adventurer, yet he seemed a little off to Millit. He had a transtion power that sounded a little odd, and seemed to own the cloud transport they were riding on. fortably carrying two meant it was expensive, even if he was w for famous adventurers. How much did they pay their cook?

  Mostly, it was the way he carried himself. He was a core using silver ranker, surrounded by gold-rank adventurers, some of whom were extremely famous. Even Millit was uncharacteristically hesitant around the Time Witch of Vitesse. This man showed none of the wariness or deference she was used to from lower-ranked people. He acted entirely as if he belonged.

  She took a slightly rude g the emotions in his aura. She saw little more than the same fidence dispyed in his. He gave her an amused smile, as if he realised what she was doing. He certainly shouldn’t have been able to, but could probably guess from the curiosity in her gaze. He took his leave, asking if he could use the elevating ptform, leaving her with the adventurers.

  ***

  An impromptu street festival had sprung up seemingly from nowhere, long tables and food stands filling the market district. While the city of Segurado celebrated their reprieve, Millit’s s were with what came . She wahrough the crowded streets as people feasted, sang and ughed.

  She didn’t join ially exhausted after going from oing to the for almost two days, ofteing the same things over and over. There was the Duke and his people, the city parliament, the local Adventure Society, then representatives from the tial cil.

  It had been two nights sihe battle, duriher of which she had found a ce to sleep. She had finally slipped away, but instead of finding a bed, she found herself walking the streets ie m. People teemed around her, nnising her with her aura carefully retracted.

  Her mind was still rag, preoccupied with the hreat. The popuce was celebrating, but their leaders still didn’t know what brought the messeo their gates. Was it a part of their ongoing search for the rumoured artefact, or something more specific? Would they return, with a greater force? The Adventure Society had no more idea than she did, spending two days asking her questions to which she had no answers.

  The smells ing from the stalls took her back to her days as a girl at market. Her family were never poor, or she’d never have gotten essences, but she hadn’t lived in the fancy part of towher. Her parents were fruit merts, and she’d grown up around markets and trade halls. She khese streets. The yelling and ughing, the aromas of the food vendors. When an unfamiliar st wafted her way, it arrested her attention.

  Her gold-rank senses allowed her to track the st like a hunting dog. What she found was a stall where a group of local stall vendors were crowded around an outsider, as if he were holding court.

  “…season with some salt and then caramelise them in the oven with oil. Nid simple. I like to add a spsh of water to help them soften. Now, let me expin how we make fresh pasta bae. It’s so fresh you practically cook it by waving it over the steam from a kettle. Pass me that roller…”

  Millit found herself listening discreetly out of the way. There was definitely something unusual about the Team Biscuit cook. After around ten mihe group started breaking up. Then she heard him whisper, too low for a an attentive gold rao make out.

  “ I offer you a meal, General? Pop around behind the booth.”

  She hadn’t realised he’d noticed her, in the middle of teag the locals a fn recipe. But she shortly found herself in an area boxed in by stalls, shielding them fr eyes. A folding table and chair set awaited her, draped with a tablecloth aooned with dishes, ptes and bowls. She could sehe magic of gold rank ingredients. Was this how Team Biscuit always ate?

  “One of the secrets of Team Biscuit’s success,” John Miller said as he sat down. “Live off spirit s when you have to, but eat proper food when you . Well-fed adventurers are happy adventurers. And you want your adventurers happy, believe me.”

  She looked from the food to him as she sat down. As she did, he pulled out a privacy s devid activated it, setting it oable.

  “I thought a woman of your stature would appreciate some discretion,” he said. He dled food from various dishes onto a pte that he set in front of her. He then made up a pte for himself, apparently unworried about what gold-rank food would do to a silver ranker.

  “It would take a lot of strength, and a lot of finesse,” she said, “to create an aura mask than would fool a gold ranker. Something that would hold up, even if the gold ranker gets pushy and starts probing for emotions.”

  “Messengers are good at that,” Miller said. “I’ve evehem mask people they were using as spies.”

  “It sounds like you’ve had a lot of strange experiences for a cook.”

  “A cook see a lot in search of new recipes,” he said, and skewered a k of saucy vegetable with a fork. “And new ingredients.”

  He plopped it into his mouth with a grin.

  “Is that why you’re travelling with Team Biscuit?”

  He didn’t answer until he was doh his mouthful.

  “More of a happy act,” he said. “An opportunity I take advantage of while attending to other tasks.”

  “How did you end up with them?”

  “I knew some of the team before they were famous. You might say I hitched a ride on their coattails.”

  “You’ve been there sihe beginning? I’ve never heard of you.”

  “I’m the guy who makes the food. Who talks about the cook when there are people fighting monsters?”

  “It sounds like you get to see a lot of cities destroyed.”

  “I have been unfortunate enough to witness some tragic disasters, but that was just easing. Which I hope was obvious.”

  “Even so, you strike me as someone who ’t help standing out.”

  “But you don’t strike me as someone rude enough to sit down with a cook and not touch his food. Doesn’t smell to your taste?”

  She took a slice of bread, du into a thick soup and took a bite.

  “It’s good,” she said.

  “Thank you.”

  They chatted itently as they ate.

  “You know who else I haven’t heard of?” she said lightly. “That man itle with the dark cloak and the shadow arms. I’ve also never heard about Team Biscuit riding around in a giant eyeball that shoots butterflies of death.”

  “Oh, you don’t want to meet him. He’s not very nice.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Remember when I said you want your adventurers happy? He’s how I figured that out.”

  “Why does the team keep him secret? Or is he just travelling with you, like the Time Wi… like Danielle Geller?”

  “No, he’s part of the team. Has been from the beginning.”

  “Like you.”

  “Yes. He’s just been away for a long time. I imagine he’ll be known soon enough.”

  “What kept him away? fli the team?”

  “He has responsibilities that he’s finding increasingly tiresome. He’s looking to them up a back to adventuring.”

  He looked her dead in the eyes.

  “Without anyone making a fuss.”

  “That might be hard if he keeps fighting messengers. They had a rather drastic rea to him.”

  “He has a lot in on with the messengers.”

  “Like a talent for aura masking?”

  “Try the casserole before you finish the soup. I think you’ll find it’s a nice apa.”

  They ate in silence for a while.

  “People are going to have a lot of questions,” she said.

  “He’s a known quantity. To those who o know.”

  “You’re saying that if I don’t know already, I shouldn’t go asking?”

  “I would advise against it. The Adventure Society be touchy when it es to him.”

  “Why is that?”

  He raised his eyebrows and she sighed.

  “Right, I shouldn’t ask.”

  He plucked an envelope out of the air, accessing some dimensional ste power. He sat it oable, o her pte.

  “What’s this?” she asked.

  “You told Danielle Geller that you were born and raised right here in Segurado. And you’re still here proteg it, even with all the opportunities your power would afford you.”

  “She told you that?”

  “I overheard you on that tower.”

  “You have good hearing.”

  “Don’t we all?”

  “What’s in the envelope?”

  “Are you familiar with Lady Alyeth, of Yaresh?”

  “She’s a diamond rahat’s active in the general popution. Of course I have.”

  “Have you met?”

  “Yaresh may be somewhat close, but she’s a diamond ranker. Even gold rankers don’t just call by for a cup of tea. Why bring her up?”

  “I’m guessing that your choice to stay and protect your home during the messenger invasion is bound up ih that got you to gold rank.”

  “I don’t see how that’s your business.”

  “Call it reciprocation for you poking around about Jason Asano.”

  “I suppose that’s fair. Yes, that sensibility was integral to reag gold rank.”

  “Lady Alyeth is on a simir path. She may be able to help you on yours, so perhaps you should call in for that cup of tea.”

  “I don’t know that she’d even see me?”

  He reached out and tapped the envelope oable.

  “A letter of introdu to break the ice.”

  “Cook for her too, do you?”

  A smile teased the ers of his mouth.

  “Once. Just retly, in fact.”

  He pushed his chair bad stood up.

  “I o get back to the stall,” he said. “I’ll leave the rest to you.”

  He walked off and was just about to disappear around the side of a stall when she called out.

  “Wait.”

  He stopped, half turning to look back.

  “I already expressed my gratitude to the others. Thank you for saving my city, Mr Asano.”

  “It’s what we do, General.”