We were fortunate that the outer city was a labyrinth of overlapping shantytowns and incomprehensible winding streets. We were doubly lucky that Olivia had grown up in those streets and could navigate us to the south edge of the city without crossing the path of a single guard. We couldn't easily be found, and we couldn't easily get lost.

  It took us a couple of hours of finagling through the slums to fully exit Beorne. Added on to the time that Drifter was telling his story and we were fleeing through streets and tunnels, it was nearing dusk. I asked Olivia, "Are we okay to continue now? It's getting dark."

  She shrugged. "It's not far. What else are we gonna do, get an inn?"

  It was a valid point.

  Bloville was another hour down the road, leaving us in the dark without lamps or torches. A signpost, barely visible in the starlight, pointed us down a dirt path to the east. Olivia said it was lucky we noticed it; the blockade to deal with the Berserker started just to the south and running into those guards would be a whole other complication.

  It would be fair to consider Bloville a border town due to its proximity to the wastelands. Beorne sat close to the southern border of Beornia, likely developing into the capital of the region due to the milder climate, but the wastelands to the south discouraged its founders from settling somewhere even warmer. Bloville was a compromise, of sorts, providing a safe settlement as a base for those who wished to exploit the wastelands without being so close as to expose itself to too much danger.

  The wastelands themselves were hard to describe as a whole. What we called the wastelands encompassed the Blasting Mountains, a gorgeous region rendered uninhabitable by numerous active volcanoes. It included the Plains of Shattered Glass, where silt and ash pressurized in magical storms to blanket the ground in shards of glass which would later be thrown around by those same storms. The plains ran into an area known as the Shifting Sands, where the storms were less intense and merely overturned the terrain every day and night. We hoped to thread the line between the mountains and the plains, a strip known as the Black Desert where rock and glass were always uncomfortable but only rarely dangerous.

  None of these natural calamities were the worst that the wastelands had to offer, however. In the north, the mad mage Durin the Heavy roamed, eager to crush any who came near into dust. In the south, the Berserker, a man who spent his days dragging his innumerable sins to his next victim. These two Awakened, blessed by the gods for unknown reasons, were more a threat to travellers than any volcanic eruption or hurricane of glass could hope to be.

  I prayed that Orwyn's intel that they were out of action remained true. I suspected that Drifter was a comparable being to them, what with his bizarre spectacle in Beorne, but if they met it was hard to predict the outcome.

  Bloville itself was little more than a cluster of houses with a general store, an inn, and a chapel to the Septemvirate. Lamps illuminated a few windows, but the only real activity could be seen and heard at the inn.

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  We saw a cart with a horxen outside the inn. Orwyn was almost certainly inside.

  The Bloville Inn was not much of an inn, really. It had rooms, of course, but they were rarely used compared to the tavern on the ground level where all the locals drank whenever they could, lacking much else for entertainment in the village. They were clustered around Orwyn as he talked about the news in the world and the tales of his travels, but they turned as a unit when they heard the door open and four more strangers walked in.

  "Bless the Seven, we were worried you wouldn't make it!" Orwyn exclaimed, rushing over to greet us. The locals relaxed seeing that we were, at worst, friends of a friend, and harassed Damien to continue Orwyn's story in his stead. They apparently had their own adventure in Beorne tracking down a scammer who sold them bad linens.

  Orwyn leaned in to speak quietly with us. "Alex sent me off since guardmen were combing the area. Didn't have much choice but to go. I'm glad he was able to direct you to the right spot."

  I nodded. "Honestly I wasn't sure if I could trust him, but so far it seems that he was trustworthy. He wasn't super helpful getting Drifter out, but he didn't exactly hinder me, either."

  "Noman," Drifter said. Single word. Least he had talked in a day. It seemed he was back to normal.

  Olivia was unaware that this was normal. "What? What the hell are you saying?"

  "Alex started his career under Noman," I answered, "but I think he was so fresh he never ended up getting dragged into the darker side of things. Maybe he carried that more helpful, less dreadful energy forward to today."

  She thought about this for a moment. "I dunno, sounds kind of hokey. We should probably bail in the morning in case they're in pursuit."

  "What do you mean 'we?' I'm grateful you helped us this far, but I believe you have a criminal enterprise to run."

  "No, pretty sure I said they were falling apart and the city was falling apart. I want nothing to do with that." She pointed to Drifter, adding "Y'all owe me one and this guy can probably keep me safe, so I'll be tagging along for a bit."

  "It shouldn't be a problem," Orwyn said, "And we certainly couldn't have done this as easily without you. I'll help you get where you want to be."

  Damien's story was wrapping up. "Come, I have some clothes and supplies for you in the cart. Well, most of you," he added with an apologetic bow to Olivia. She shrugged.

  Packs were ready for Drifter and I, stuffed with travelling supplies beyond what I'd owned previously. A tin of actual black tea! A proper kettle! Thick, bleached paper! "Orwyn, this is so much. Are you sure?"

  He shrugged. "Of course. Most of it is from your money."

  "What?"

  "Alex handed me the Varys bounty. I'm guessing whatever you got paid is still in your room in Beorne?"

  I hadn't even thought about that. Months of travel expenses, gone. Except apparently not. "When did he do that? I was only in prison for a night."

  Orwyn's eyes widened. "You got arrested? Ah, I can get the details later. Yeah, a few days ago, he said you wouldn't be able to get out with your own supplies if I could buy more." Thinking for a moment, he added, "I guess I just assumed you sent him. Oops."

  How much had Alex known through our whole endeavour in Beorne? And how much did I owe him? I wouldn't be able to answer either question unless I met him again somewhere down the line.

  We talked with the innkeeper to rent the remaining rooms, then Olivia and I joined Orwyn and Damien in drinking with the locals. After the stress of the day, and really the whole week, I needed a beer.