Thankfully, Taylor hadn’t gone anywhere by the time Leo managed to dampen his soul and stagger through the rift.

  Though that was probably due to the fact that she was contained within what functionally amounted to a large jail cell.

  Exiting the rift, Leo immediately let out a sigh of relief as the mental strain required to keep his soul dampened vanished. The discomfort was still there, but at least he’d be able to function normally. His relief was short-lived however, as he quickly spotted a half-dozen guards all standing on the other side of a metal fence, their spears leveled at Taylor as she glared at them.

  “For the third time, state your name and purpose for coming to our plane!” shouted one of the guards, an older man with a grey mustache, who refused to be intimated as he glared right back at Taylor. “We won’t warn you again!”

  “Sorry! She’s not good with people!” Leo called out, rushing over and placing himself between Taylor and the guards before the situation got any worse. A quick look around confirmed they were in a small, fenced-in space with only one exit, which meant this town kept who went in and out of its rifts highly regulated. Most did, though most didn’t bother keeping such a large staff assigned to the task.

  “What do you mean, ‘not good with people?’” the guard repeated, looking at him like he was crazy. “Your name and purpose are simple questions!”

  “She’s, uh… she’s mute!” Leo said, shouting out the first thing that came to mind. “She physically can’t talk!” he added, looking pointedly at Taylor to ensure she understood the definition of ‘mute.’ Taylor rolled her eyes, but nodded to show she understood.

  “Why would you let your mute companion go through the rift before you?” the guard asked, now just looking at Leo like he was an idiot. One of the other guards whispered something in his ear, and the head guard blinked, nodding as though everything suddenly made sense. “Ahh you two must be the foodies Charles just mentioned would be following after him! Is that the case?”

  “Yep,” Leo sighed, holding up the root he was going to be cooking before long. “…That’s us. I’m Jim, and this is Taylor. We wanted to restock some of our spices in town, and maybe visit your healer while we’re at it.”

  “You really should have just started with that,” the head guard scoffed, waving away the rest of the retinue. Unlocking the gate, he opened it for them, offering them a small smile. “Apologies for the rude welcome. Can never be too careful these days when raiders are involved.”

  “Have you had raider problems before?” Leo asked, stepping through the gate and ensuring Taylor was right behind him. She looked irritated and was scratching at her skin a bit, but at least she was continuing to play along with the claim that she was mute.

  “Once, a few years back. Killed eight people and severely injured twenty more before we managed to drive them back,” the guard spat, shaking his head. “We upped our defenses after that, and we haven't had a problem since. Thankfully, for us at least, raiders seem to prefer preying on the truly low-tier planes. I’m talking tier 2 or 3, not tier 6 like ours.”

  “Well, that’s nice to hear we won’t need to worry about them while we’re here,” Leo said, trying to recall all the stories his parents had told him about that involved entering the scattered settlements of the planarverse. “Do you have any identification we need to carry, or anything along those lines while we’re here?”

  Different towns had different systems, and Leo had been instructed that the smart thing to do was simply ask at any town that bothered to guard their rifts. His parents had been issued identification cards, had quick sketches done of them, received stamps on the back of their hands, and were even once given temporary tattoos to indicate they’d gone through security before entering one town.

  “No, nothing of the sort, though I appreciate you checking,” the guard smiled. “I’m Wes. Nice to make the acquaintance of two Cartographers who actually know what they’re doing.”

  “The pleasure is ours,” Leo said, shaking Wes’ hand. “Is there any chance you could point us in the direction of that spice shop?”

  “Our town isn’t too large, you shouldn’t have any issue finding it,” Wes chuckled. “If you head down the main road, take the third left and then keep going. You’ll hit it soon enough. The healer’s place is actually on the same street. We’re a pure forest plane, so just follow the path we cut down and paved through the trees.”

  “Fantastic, thank you for your help!”

  With that, Leo grabbed Taylor’s hand and all but dragged her away from the checkpoint, the feral woman still staring daggers at the head guard even now. Once they were hidden within the treeline, he turned to his companion.

  “Taylor, please, don’t pick any needless fights while we’re here,” Leo begged, mildly annoyed to note that even with their souls equally dampened to a soul rank of 6, she was still noticeably stronger than him. Body evolution is mostly unaffected by dampening, he reminded himself. And evidently, so is whatever her weird soul-body makeup is.

  “Am I still mute?” Taylor muttered, annoyance clear in her voice.

  “You tell me. You’re the one who refused to answer them when they asked you some incredibly basic questions,” Leo snapped. “How hard is it to say ‘I’m Taylor, and I’m here for spices.’ Or even just ask them to wait until your partner followed you through the rift? Maybe, I don’t know, say anything at all instead of just standing there looking like you want to eat them?!”

  Taylor glared at him for a moment, and Leo tensed as he prepared for her to strike at him. But to his surprise, she actually looked away, lowering her voice as she spoke.

  “…I was surprised.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Surprised?” he repeated, his own annoyance bleeding away as he realized Taylor was being honest with him. “How come?”

  “There were six people… I’ve never seen that many people before.”

  Leo could have smacked himself, and he grit his teeth at his own stupidity. Of course Taylor had frozen up when half a dozen armed guards demanded to know what she was doing. With most of her memories missing, he’d functionally been the first living person she’d ever actually met, followed by Charles. Taylor had only ever met a single new person at a time, and all of a sudden, she walked into a brand-new plane, trapped in an enclosed space with six people she’d never seen before, all leveling weapons at her and demanding answers. If anything, he should probably be congratulating her for not freaking out and attempting to disembowel them.

  “That’s my bad,” he admitted, letting out a tired sigh. “Sorry. I should have considered that. Thanks for not attacking them.”

  “There were bars between us,” Taylor shrugged, and Leo purposefully chose to think Taylor was just pointing that fact out for fun, and not that she meant she would have attacked them if the fences hadn’t been there.

  “I’ll be sure to take the lead anytime we venture into a plane we know is inhabited,” he decided. “But for now… are you going to be okay? If that was your reaction to seeing six people, are you sure you’ll be good to go into town? Charles didn’t make it sound like this plane was all that large, but the town will still probably have a few thousand people at the very least. You’re not going to freak out, right?”

  Leo briefly wondered if he’d even be able to stop her if Taylor snapped, turned completely feral, and went on a killing spree, before deciding he didn’t even want to entertain the idea. As wild as she was, and as strange as her soul had become, at the end of the day, Taylor was still human. He had to believe in her. At least enough that she wouldn’t run around killing innocent people.

  “I’ll be fine,” Taylor grumbled, pulling her hand away from him. “I was just surprised. And the weapons didn’t help. Just slap me if I start freaking out.”

  “I’m not going to slap you, you’d bite my hand off.”

  “Fine,” she grunted. “Then kick me, or drag me away. Just don’t let me freeze up anywhere it might be dangerous.”

  “I’ll do what I can,” he promised, hoping it wouldn’t come to that.

  With that out of the way, the two of them walked silently through the forest, following the path just as Wes had instructed. Leo’s soul still felt distinctly uncomfortable, and Taylor was clearly unhappy about having her soul dampened as well, but they each put up with it as best they could.

  It didn’t help that walking through the trees like this reminded him of his home plane, and Leo felt a dull yet familiar pain go through his chest as he imagined the countless times he’d walked a similar path from his house into town. It had gotten to the point where the ache in his chest was noticeably less each and every time it popped up, and that honestly terrified him more than anything. Of course, he didn’t like the pain one bit. But the pain was a reminder of what he’d lost. What had been taken from him by the Planar Lords.

  What would it mean if that pain fully faded away one day?

  Before Leo could go too far down that mental road, they heard the sound of people talking up ahead. Rounding one last bend in the path, the two of them came to a dead stop, each for their own reasons.

  Leo stared out over the bustling town, that pain suddenly growing as he automatically replaced the faces of various people milling about with those from his own memory. That man tending to his daughter’s scraped knee could be Jim, the town healer who always made sure he was healthy and patched up after training. The woman over there scolding a group of young kids for causing a ruckus might as well be Tiffany, patrolling the grounds and ensuring nobody was causing any problems. That young woman in the billowing dress and apron, placing a steaming hot pastry on the windowsill to cool before peering over at the two of them with curiosity on her face. She transformed into Francy before Leo even knew what he was doing.

  Gasping, Leo took a step back, shaking his head to clear the faces of the dead from his mind. He’d been so worried about Taylor, he hadn’t realized just how powerfully seeing an actual town filled with happy, friendly faces again would affect him after losing his own.

  Taylor…

  Collecting himself, Leo glanced at his companion, unsurprised to find her rooted to the spot, her eyes wide as saucers as she stared at the scene before them with a blank face. With her memories damaged or gone, she’d never seen anything like this before in her entire life. After years of struggling to survive in a poisonous, beast-infested wasteland, suddenly finding herself standing on the edge of a bustling, easy-going town had to be a serious shock.

  “Are you two all right?”

  Taking his eyes off his companion once he was certain she wasn’t going to freak out and start killing people, Leo looked up, startled to find himself face-to-face with the apron-wearing woman he’d momentarily confused for Francy. Wiping her hands on her apron just like how Francy used to, the woman smiled at them, focusing on Leo when it became apparent Taylor’s eyes were distant.

  “We’re fine,” Leo gulped, offering a shaky smile and desperately trying not to make a fool of himself within seconds after entering town. This woman even smelled like Francy, which some tiny, logical part of his brain told him was only natural. Any baker was going to smell like fresh bread and pastries. “We’ve just… We’ve been on our own for a while now. Taking some time to readjust to civilization again.”

  “Well, we’re always happy to welcome new gem holders into town,” she said, her smile radiant as she winked at him. “And not just because you guys tend to be heavy spenders. If either of you want a nice treat, my bakery is always open.”

  “Thank you. Really, we appreciate it,” Leo said, growing calmer with every word. While he was sure this stranger was positively lovely, and that the same probably went for the townsfolk, every moment he spent interacting with her reaffirmed what that tiny, logical part of his brain had been screaming from the very beginning.

  This wasn’t Francy. This wasn’t his town.

  Waving goodbye, the woman headed back to her bakery, and Leo let out a weary sigh as he found Taylor had yet to move so much as a muscle. It was almost like seeing so many potential dangers and unknowns all at once had shut her down. As if she couldn’t process what was a threat and what wasn’t fast enough to keep up with all the new information. Or maybe what had happened to him was happening to her as well, and those hidden memories tucked away had all been opened up at once upon seeing real civilization.

  Spotting a nearby bench, Leo grabbed her hand, following her earlier instructions as he dragged her over to it and sat her down. The fact that she didn’t even try to resist worried him a bit, but he could only hope she’d snap out of it in time. He really didn’t want to risk slapping her like she’d suggested, as he hadn’t been kidding about being fearful she’d bite his hand off if he tried.

  First things first, he thought, leaning back and watching the bustling town around them. Wait for Taylor to come back to her senses, and see if we can’t gather some much needed information. Though on top of all that…

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