Edge walked back to the lodge with Trapper, since she had attended the meeting on behalf of Puppet Town’s beast-hunting association.

  “What’s your take on the undead stampede?” He asked as they crossed the town square. “I ran into a monster that could reanimate corpses in the Savage Garden, and the Gardener had a skill that drove monsters mad, but I’ve never heard of anything on this scale before.”

  “It sounds dangerous but should be manageable,” Trapper replied after considering the question for a few blocks.

  “The town’s defenses were explicitly designed to handle this sort of threat, and our hunters have ample experience in dealing with hordes. The reanimated part is creepy, and we’ll have to adjust our tactics, but in the end, the undead should be easier to eliminate than ordinary beasts.”

  The veteran hunter turned to look Edge in the eyes. “What worries me is an unknown entity with unprecedented powers has Puppet Town in its sights. I don’t know why anyone would raise a horde and order it to attack our settlement, but I have a bad feeling this is only the beginning.”

  After they made it home and everyone took a seat at the table, Trapper and Edge let Violet, Riller, Sasha, and Jumo know what Sakura had revealed. They spent an hour discussing the matter from every angle they could think of, including how they planned to prepare for the stampede’s arrival.

  They agreed to think about it some more and pick up the conversation later that evening, leaving Edge with a few hours before he needed to meet Sakura at the Pioneer.

  He passed the time playing with Rue and fed Blue the snack he’d promised, laughing at the beasts’ antics as they chased each other across the yard. Skill-Eater was still asleep after using Overdrive during the battle with the Claws, which suited him fine. He wasn’t ready to talk to the ravenous lord, and he found the prospect of his core watching the world through his eyes deeply unsettling.

  Moving on to more pleasant matters, the powers he’d stolen from Yussuf would finish digesting an hour or so after sunset. He was looking forward to finding out what they could do, especially the wind attack that had claimed his arm and trimmed two of Earl’s limbs.

  When it was time to leave, he put Rue in his den, gave Blue a hug, then walked through the lodge’s front gate. Edge crossed the settlement while eavesdropping on the people walking down the street, making his way over to the Pioneer for his meeting with Sakura.

  He was ready to find out what his partner had been up to while he was away, eager to get her take on the situation with the stampede, and curious to meet whoever she was planning to introduce him to.

  He could hear music and voices well before the Pioneer came into view. While the settlement’s senior members were already hard at work, Dialla wasn’t going to publicly announce the stampede until tomorrow morning, giving everyone a much-needed night to enjoy the moment and recover from their prolonged ordeal.

  When Edge stepped into the establishment, the bar was jampacked. There wasn’t a single open table or an inch of room at the bar, but that wasn’t a problem, since Sakura had rented a private room in the back of the building.

  When he opened the door and stepped inside, she was waiting for him with a pitcher of beer at her side. She raised a glass in greeting, then gestured for him to take a seat and poured him one too. They enjoyed a companionable silence for a few minutes… which ended when Rue started yipping inside his head, insisting that Edge let him out.

  Sakura’s eyes went wide as he introduced her to the golden fox. When she pulled a strip of dried meat out of her bag, the pup hopped straight into her arms, licking her face after wolfing the morsel down. Since it was clear they were going to be friends, Edge leaned back in his chair, sipped his beer, and enjoyed the moment.

  Not long after, two people entered the room with a fresh pitcher and a bowl of snacks.

  One of them was Sam, bartender and proprietor of the Pioneer. The other was Rita, who worked as a maid and server in the establishment. Edge had gotten to know them both while renting a room before joining Trapper’s crew.

  It wasn’t unusual for the pair to bring in an order, but he raised an eyebrow when they took a seat at the table and poured themselves a glass. “Uh, hi guys. It’s good to see you.”

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  Rita smiled and Sam waved hello, but neither of them said a word as Sakura pulled them in for a hug. He hadn’t realized they knew each other, and they seemed to be old friends. Edge had to stop Rue from jumping up and helping himself, and after negotiating a fee of three snacks to remain on the floor, the fox curled up under his chair and promptly fell asleep.

  He still had no idea what was going on, but it all became clear when Sakura gestured and the skill covering her prisoners’ tattoos deactivated, revealing intricate ink along both forearms. Edge had seen them once before, so that part didn’t surprise him. What shocked him to his marrow was that Rita and Sam now bore the same markings.

  “I don’t understand. All three of you are jailbirds?”

  Sakura smiled at his befuddled expression. “Rita and Sam are my oldest friends. We all came from the same planet, and long story short, when I got into trouble, they were caught up in it too. After being sentenced, we all came to this world together.

  “Part of my deal with Dialla and Earl involved letting the three of us live in Puppet Town in exchange for my services, and they agreed as long as we kept our status a secret. I think you know by now that not all prisoners are bad people, and I wanted you to understand what I’m fighting for.”

  “Everyone has secrets, and I’m not in any position to judge. Besides, Rita and Sam are awesome. They both helped me out when I was new in town and are practically pillars of the community.”

  Sakura nodded her approval, and they continued to drink and snack and chat. He learned a bit more about their story and shared some details of his old life in exchange. Part of the way through, Edge turned to Rita and said, “Sorry about the mess I left in my room. Learning error with a new skill.”

  “I appreciate the note you left and the tip.” Her eyes turned cold as a winter morning. “Never do it again.” They all got a good laugh out of that and continued to converse while enjoying each other’s company.

  Not long after, Rita and Sam left to deal with the raucous crowd packed into the Pioneer.

  When they were gone, Sakura and Edge took turns sharing the story of what had happened while they were apart. It turned out they had both been through quite an ordeal. As they spoke, he realized how glad he was to have the mysterious woman as an ally.

  She knows a lot more about magic than I do, and her informational skills can accomplish feats I can’t hope to match. More importantly, I know what matters to her and believe I can trust her, which is more than I can say about a certain chain-bound someone.

  On that subject, since his core was asleep, Edge went ahead and told her everything that had happened during the battle, including the vision he’d experienced after Skill-Eater tried to force him to Extract Tiburón’s skills.

  When he was done, she finished her glass and said, “That’s troubling but not too surprising. Lore-Weaver doesn’t talk much about the past, but from context, I think Skill-Eater’s situation is unique. For one thing, I don’t think the other entities known as the twenty-one became cores until after the System arrived.

  “The spider won’t talk about its kin, but when it senses your core, I can feel sorrow, resolve, and fear flowing through our bond. It’s clear they have a history, although I don’t know how much they remember about their lives before they were sealed. Lore-Weaver refuses to discuss the other Unique cores and their bearers, so the precious little information I’ve uncovered is what I’ve been able to dig up on my own.

  “That vision you experienced fills in a few of the missing pieces, and while far too much is shrouded in secrecy, one thing is abundantly clear. It’s vital that you get a handle on the situation before you evolve to stage three. As matters stand, you might lose control completely, and I need you in the driver’s seat if we’re going to survive what’s coming. I’ll see if I can find out anything that will help, and feel free to ask me for whatever you need.”

  “Thanks, Sakura. That goes both ways. If you ever need my help, all you have to do is ask. We’re a lot stronger together, and if there are others like us out there, we need to be careful moving forward.”

  After that, they moved onto what the Gardener had revealed—the origin of monsters, the existence of the Ancients, and the possibility that the dimension they came from was going to overlap with Ord again. He also mentioned the Gardener had said not to trust the System, although he didn’t dare broach anything else about that subject out loud.

  Sakura looked disturbed and fascinated by these details. “We need to learn more about the natives and the truth behind this world, but we can worry about it after we wipe out the stampede and determine its origin.

  “In addition to the threat of a monstrous invasion, I have a feeling that a different sort of conflict is brewing along the horizon. Right after the anomaly, there were a few hours before the feed went dark. My sources told me the planet’s most powerful factions were gearing up for war, seeking to gain control of Ord before the System ended its lockdown.

  “Given that the Red Shield seems likely to remain active for the foreseeable future, it’s safe to assume the planet’s major players are heading toward a direct conflict. If they find out about our cores, there’s no way they will leave us alone, and we can’t hope to stand against them until we grow stronger.”

  After that, they drank in silence, mulling over everything that had been revealed. Eventually, they shook hands, and he walked Sakura to the street, watching her weave gently from side to side until she disappeared around the corner.

  It had been a day of revelation, but Edge couldn’t shake the feeling he’d only scratched the surface of Ord’s secrets.