Standing under the gate to Perch had me feeling tiny. I mean, why would you need a gateway that tall? I understood why it had to be wide, you had to be able to get a lot of people through. People weren’t stacked on top of each other when they travelled though, so I didn’t know why it needed to be tall. Maybe it was an architectural thing.

  I was still inwardly chuckling at the image of a bunch of people stacked like logs to reach the top of the tall gate when we were stopped by a pair of armoured gentlemen. Judging by the uniform chainmail and the emblems on each shoulder of a giant eagle, I assumed them to be city guards.

  “Stop. Entry fee.” Stated one bored guard, who looked so incredibly bored I was a little surprised he wasn’t asleep. His boredom was understandable, because for all of the people I could see inside the town, there didn’t seem to be many coming and going. Everyone was already there.

  Before either of us could ask how much the entry fee was – or why there even was one – Noren stepped forward and whispered something in the ear of the guard. In moments the guard paled, wordlessly waving us through before bowing slightly as Noren strode into Perch.

  More than a little confused, I turned to Cassie. She shrugged and followed after him. Not wanting to be left alone I followed after with somehow even more questions about Noren.

  Seriously, how does he do it? He’s fast, resilient, has something going on with his vitae, and he can get into town for free? Who is he?

  I quickly caught up to to the man in question, who had paused by a small fountain after strolling into town like he owned the place. Maybe he did, at this point I wouldn’t put anything past him.

  “What was that about?” Cassie beat me to the punch.

  “Oh, nothing for you to concern yourselves with. How long are you staying in Perch, if I may ask?” Noren tried.

  “None of that,” I interrupted. “What did you say to that guard?”

  Noren shot me a look that told me he disapproved, but at this point I just wanted to know what was going on with him.

  He sighed. “I… truly cannot tell you. I can promise you that it is nothing untoward, but at the end of the day it is my secret to keep.”

  “You know, somehow the phrase ‘nothing untoward’ doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence,” I began.

  “Is it something personal?” Cassie asked.

  Noren turned back to her, his expression more grave than I’d seen since we met. “Very.”

  Cassie considered him for a moment, before turning to me. “We don’t need to know.” Her words were simple, but her tone was firm. The kind of firm that had me fully aware that I wasn’t changing her mind.

  “This won’t come back to bite us, right?” I asked him reluctantly.

  Noren chuckled at my question. “It would have to be a strange situation indeed for that to be the case.”

  I groaned under my breath. “Fine. Keep your secrets.” I knew not knowing would bug me for a while, but who knew. Maybe I’d find out eventually. Still, the last week had given me intimate knowledge of the importance of keeping some personal things secret.

  My acknowledgement seemed to brighten Noren’s mood considerably. “Wonderful! Now, I would like to refer you to my earlier question. Oh, Julie my dear? You’re slipping.”

  I examined my features, which had begun to shift slightly over the course of our conversation.

  Gods damn it! And I was doing so well.

  I fixed my slip-up as Cassie answered for the both of us. “Probably only a day or two. We’re only really here to find a caravan to Meria, which shouldn’t take too long.”

  “And to find a library,” I added. It hadn’t been on the original list, but after my more recent experiments I was itching to find out how much more there was to know about my biology.

  “...And to find a library.” Cassie finished, shooting me a questioning look. I mouthed ‘tell you later’ before turning back to Noren, who was watching the exchange with an amused look on his face.

  “Why?” I asked him.

  “Well,” he began. “I was simply wondering if it would be an unwise financial decision to pay for your stay. If it’s only a day or two…” he let the words hang.

  Silence reigned for a moment. “And you would do that why, exactly?” I asked again.

  He smirked. “I feel as though I caused a bit of... friction on your journey. Besides, you two clearly need some time to acclimate to life in a proper town. Besides, I can afford it.”

  Despite the fact I hadn’t noticed him reach into his pockets, when he raised his right hand there was somehow a pouch of coins in it.

  Cassie snatched the pouch, opening it and pouring the coins into her palm. “...two, three… Wow. You cannot tell me that two nights costs eight silver. No way. Liar.”

  That was… a lot. A silver was ten coppers, and a good meal was maybe four coppers. Ten silvers would go on to be a gold, which was enough for a workable weapon. Ten gold went on to become an Obol, and then ten Obols became a Sol. That was the sort of money you only heard about though.

  “No, no. Well, not here. In Meria it probably is, in the more high end establishments. Unless you end up going and staying in the Noble Quarter, that could probably last you a week.”

  “Where did you even get this money?” Cassie asked.

  “Hah. That’s the rest of what was in that bandit’s pockets. From when we met,” he added, as though we’d forgotten all the murder.

  I was a little taken aback by the admission. “When exactly in the process of looting a dead guy did you have time to search his coin purse? I saw you lift it from him, you didn’t even open it.”

  Noren grinned. “Trade secret. Anyway, I do have my own business to attend to, so this will likely be farewell. For now, anyway. I have a feeling that you,” he nodded at me. “Will end up making a splash in Meria, so to speak.”

  I shook my head. “Really? Your parting words are a sea pun? For shame.”

  Noren laughed as he turned on his heel. We watched in silence as he confidently strode towards a seemingly arbitrary building on the side of the street, raising his fist as though to knock. Before he got the chance the door opened of its own accord, and he turned back and winked at us before slinking inside.

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  “…What a strange man.” I said.

  Cassie laughed. “Fun though. Mostly, anyway.”

  “He had his moments,” I hedged.

  Cassie turned fully to me, a mischievous smirk on her face. “So. You wanna go spend Noren’s money?”

  “Absolutely.”

  ---------------------------------------

  We ended up sharing the money between us and splitting up. Cassie was searching for a place to spend the night and I was searching for a library or book store. I was also keeping an eye out for a caravan service, but looking for one of them was tomorrow’s problem.

  Now that it was just me the crowd seemed a lot more intimidating. There were less people around the further I got from the gate, but there was still a lot more than I was used to. I ended up so focused on keeping my body consistent that I realised that I wasn’t actually paying attention to my surroundings, so I forced myself to take in the town more deliberately.

  Unlike Vernal, which kind of just had houses built wherever people settled, the building here were a lot more organised. They formed proper, consistent streets that seemed to be almost themed.

  There was a collection of streets that were clearly homes, another collection of streets that was clearly more for permanent merchants and shops. I also passed a sort of square that had all kinds of stalls and temporary merchandise laid out. There were a lot of people there, so I skirted the edge and moved on quickly.

  Each building was different too. The buildings in Vernal were largely made of wood, with some being supported by stone foundations. A few were built more completely from stone, typically those like Smith’s workshop which would have been unwise to build from wood. Those tended to have wooden or thatched roofs still, but were largely stone.

  In Perch, the buildings were instead made of brick. Each of them was clustered together along their street, some even seeming to be larger connected buildings split in half to separate into two individual homes, which I found somewhat odd. They even had glass in their windows, rather than just wooden shutters.

  Each street was paved and lined with these strange poles, tipped with glass that hung slightly over the end of the street. There was clearly some kind of magic involved with them because whenever I stood right by one my skin prickled gently. Less even than when Cassie cast a cantrip, but it was definitely there.

  Eventually I stumbled into an area that seemed to be higher class. The houses were all separated now, and larger to boot. Some of them even had little fences around the front to mark their territory. There were a few shops around here too, often smaller than the houses but still decently sized.

  There were more people out around this area than there had been in the previous one. It was around lunch time by now, and the various cafés and restaurants that I passed were all quite full. Cassie and I were due to meet back at the gate around sundown, so I had plenty of time to kill.

  I eventually stopped at a stall with a sign that identified it as ‘Kevin’s Kebabs’. I wasn’t certain what a ‘kebab’ was, but it smelled rather nice and there was only a small queue. The stall itself seemed to contain all kinds of different ingredients, all held in little containers to preserve their heat.

  With the queue as small as it was, it wasn’t long before I reached the stall and was faced with one of life’s great questions.

  “What’ll you have?” Asked a man I presumed to be Kevin. He was a stout, slightly greasy man who’s hairline was making a valiant fighting retreat against his forehead. He seemed jovial enough however, and didn’t seem to upset when I failed to immediately answer.

  “...What would you recommend?” I hazarded.

  I looked me over, chuckling just enough to have his jowls moving in an almost hypnotic way. “New in town, are you?”

  I nodded mutely, so he continued. “Well then, I’ll getcha something good, shall I? Give you a good first impression.”

  “Something good would be nice, yeah.”

  He laughed again, and I began to think that he was just easy to please. I watched as he skewered several small pieces of food onto a thin stake, mixing grilled meat of some kind with mushrooms and another vegetable I couldn’t immediately identify.

  “May I ask what’s in this?” I tried. I was slightly worried about offending the man, but he didn’t seem bothered.

  “Ah, nothing too exotic. I’ve given you chicken, mushroom, lamb, peppers and tomatoes.” As he listed the ingredients he pointed to each one in sequence. “Here. That’ll be a round five coppers, thank you very much.” He held out the hand with the kebab, extending a second with the palm up.

  “… Um, can I exchange a silver?” I asked. I hadn’t ever actually spent a silver before, so I was a little nervous about it. If Kevin was surprised by the coin he didn’t show it, just retracting his free hand to rummage around beneath his stall for a moment.

  When his hand resurfaced it contained five slightly greasy copper coins, so I retrieved a silver from my coin purse and handed it over, coming back with lunch and five coppers. I hoped this thing was good, because it was expensive for what it was.

  I walked away from the stand looking over the kebab. I wondered if I was supposed to bite it like corn or pick the pieces of the skewer one at a time. I settled for the latter and was taken completely by surprise by the taste.

  Suffice to say my expectations weren’t the highest, but this may well have been the single densest package of flavour I’d ever experienced. I hadn’t considered myself a fussy eater before, but if there were people who had grown up eating this and then moved on to more basic meals I could understand not being happy about the change.

  Weirdly enough, it reminded me a little of the Gloom Stalker. Of course, I hadn’t physically eaten any of the monster. Still, the density of it’s vitae gave me a much stronger impression than the badger I’d had that same morning, which hadn’t had much.

  It didn’t take me long at all to polish off my kebab, and I had to resist the urge to go back and buy another. I did resist though, because for all of its flavour-based glory it was also a quarter of my money.

  I spent the next half an hour just wandering the streets, maintaining my strategy of avoiding the really crowded places. Eventually I gave up and started looking around for someone who didn’t look too busy.

  It didn’t take long. I selected a targe- I mean helpful bystander, an older woman who was sat on a bench reading a novel of some sort. I moved to approach her and introduce myself, proceeding to awkwardly walk straight past her when she glanced up from her book.

  Damn it Lia! Come on, you can do this. You’ve stared death in the face, you can talk to one stranger.

  I came to a stop at the end of the street and turned to face her again. I took a deep breath, focusing on putting one leg in front of the other. It wasn’t long before I was right in front of her once more, which lead to me of course walking straight past her again.

  Ugh. Where’s Cass when you need her. She’d have been invited to this lady’s wedding by now.

  I turned on my heel again, stopping and facing her. As I began to build up my nerve I realised how foolish I must look, pacing in front of her before stopping and staring. I felt the desperate need to implode. I was having more and more trouble not shapeshifting into a puddle of goo.

  Just as I was about to call it quits she ended my suffering. “Are you quite alright, young lady?” Her voice was reedy and a bit posh, but gentle enough.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” I lied.

  Very smooth, well playe- Wait! I need to talk to her!

  “Uh, actually,” I began, causing her to look back up. “I. Um. I wanted to ask if you knew where a library was. Or maybe a bookshop? Only you’re holding a book, and…” I trailed off, realising that I was rambling. Of course I could hold my nerve when several people were killed in front of me, but a single kind old lady? Now that was intense.

  “Ah,” she said. It was the kind of ‘ah’ that somehow suggested she understood exactly what I was going through. “You aren’t too far, dearie. Just follow that street there,” she pointed down the street I’d come from. “Until you see a shop painted blue. Then turn right until you reach the road, left on the crossing until you see building that stand alone. Got that?”

  I recounted her instructions in my head a few times and nodded. “Thank you, miss.”

  “No trouble at all, dear.” She waved me off, and I wandered back the way I’d come. After a bit of examination I found the blue shop, at which point my mind went blank. I considered going back and asking her again, but couldn’t stand the idea of repeating my showing from before.

  I must have taken a wrong turn at some point, because it took me almost twenty minutes before I found what could only have been the library. It was big, bigger than any of the buildings I’d seen so far in Perch.

  It must have spanned five houses in width, and it had a plaza seemingly dedicated to it. It was tall too, easily three stories.

  Oh yeah, there’s no way I don’t find what I’m looking for in there.