“So you and Salome know each other?” I said to Nimbus as we walked down the dirt road together. Well, I walked. Nimbus hopped, but you get the idea. “Back in my trial simulation, you made it sound like you don’t work with humans.”

  Nimbus hopped beside me but didn’t look at me. “I don’t. I don’t even like you two-legged creatures. But I will admit that you and Salome are different from most of your kind. You go out of your way to protect creatures like me, even when it doesn’t make any sense.” He shot a very distrustful glare at me. “It’s extremely suspicious if you ask me, but I suppose not every human is out to get me. Just most.”

  I didn’t quite know what to say to that, so I returned to my original question about Salome as I played with my stylus in my hands. I didn’t understand why I was doing that other than I didn’t want to lose it again. “So how did you and Salome come to know each other? Have you known each other for a while?”

  Nimbus grunted. “We met about a month ago now. She got me out of a very bad situation, so that’s why I trusted her when I saw her attacking those bandits. The people she saved me from before were much worse and more powerful than the bandits, so I was not at all worried about our odds of survival. This is the first time I’ve seen her since then, so I was as surprised as you were to see her. Figured she’d left a long time ago at this point.”

  I tilted my head to the side as we walked down the darkening road. It was much lighter here on the path because fewer tree branches were blocking the moon and stars, plus I could see lights from the village ahead. “Who had harmed you? How did Salome rescue you?”

  Nimbus grunted again. “I don’t want to talk about it. But I can tell you that she wasn’t deliberately looking for me when she found me. She was looking for something else. But I don’t know if she found it before she rescued me, after she rescued me, or if she found it at all. Don’t care either way. I’m just glad I have my freedom, even if I occasionally miss some of the benefits of my old lifestyle.”

  I considered Nimbus’s words. Nimbus made it sound like he had been held prisoner somewhere, presumably somewhere near North Forest, though I couldn’t think of where. I knew some families that raised rabbits to sell to traveling merchants and restaurants in the bigger cities and towns, but none of them raised Codex Beasts like Nimbus. And if a Codexer as powerful as Salome had come through North Forest and liberated a Codex Beast from one of the farms, I would have heard about it.

  Small-town people talk, and we would definitely talk about that.

  Thinking about Salome also reminded me of her Quiet Quill and its similarities to my Codex Stylus. I knew that there were plenty of similar Codex-bound weapons around, such as swords and knives, but what were the odds of me running into a Codexer with a weapon almost identical to my own, if not undoubtedly stronger and rarer? Especially since Isaac made it sound like earlier that styli were not a popular weapon among Codexers.

  I still had so many questions about Salome, but I doubted Nimbus would be able to answer them, so I changed subjects. “Gotcha. Earlier, you mentioned that the Codex had given you a quest to deliver Inkwyrm to me. Was it an actual Codex Quest?”

  Nimbus nodded as he hopped. “Oh yeah. I got it as soon as I left your trial simulation. It was actually a multipart quest, which was what caught my interest.”

  I raised an interested eyebrow as a cool breeze came through the trees, bringing some relief from the hot summer night air. “I have a multipart quest myself. What were the two parts?”

  Nimbus jumped over a fallen tree branch in our way. “The first part involved finding that fancy piece of metal you’ve got there. That was what I was doing in that pile of junk that you and the drunk old man were playing with. Don’t understand what you humans find so fascinating about piles of junk, but there’s a lot I don’t understand about you people, so that checks out.”

  I pursed my lips as I kicked the branch out of my path. “We weren’t playing with it. We were—”

  “The second part involved delivering the stylus to you and confirming that you had accepted it,” Nimbus continued as if I hadn’t spoken a word at all. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish that part of the quest because that drunk old man tried to kill me, and I wanted to get as far away from him as possible. I was actually outside the Codexium in the woods waiting for you to come out so I could confirm that you had accepted the stylus when those bandits found me and trapped me in that mana bubble.” He gave me a sharp look. “What took you so long, anyway? Did you and that drunk human decide to go terrorize some more innocent rabbits for fun or something?”

  I shook my head and decided to ignore that last question. “I was wondering how those bandits caught you. You were really fast in the simulation. And you’re a Codex Beast, though, since they had a Codexer of their own, that last part makes sense.”

  Nimbus shuddered and shook his head. “It wasn’t quite as bad as it looked. They were trying to capture me because that Jezebel lady realized I was a Codex Beast and wanted to bring me to her brother. I think they were originally going to the Codexium but decided it would be easier to catch me and take me back to their leader than continue to the Codexium.”

  That wasn’t good. I looked over my shoulder but could no longer see the North Forest Codexium on the path behind us. “Why did they want to go to the Codexium? Were they planning to rob it or something?”

  “Don’t know and don’t care,” said Nimbus without hesitation. He snickered as he hopped over a rock. “I agree with Salome that those bandits aren’t going to mess with anyone in this area for a while after the thrashing she gave them. Did you hear that one who ran away crying for his mommy? Pretty sure he peed his pants, too, or maybe bled through them or something. She sure made him look ugly, though in Salome’s defense, none of those bandits were especially fetching, at least by rabbit standards. None of them had very neat fur on their heads.”

  I rubbed my short brown hair with my hand. “We call it hair on humans, not fur.”

  Nimbus snorted again. “Hair. What a weird word. Sounds wispy and weak, unlike fur, which conveys power and gravitas. But I guess that’s why you steal fur and even skin from other animals like rabbits, so you can wear them like a costume. Thieves. The whole lot of you.”

  I glared at Nimbus. “I didn’t steal my clothes from anyone, human or animal.”

  Nimbus sighed deeply. “I was speaking generally, Aaron, not specifically about you. It’s not your fault you were born human. I’m sure you would have chosen to be a rabbit if you had the choice.”

  I had no idea what to say to that, so I decided to go back to Nimbus’s quest. “Back in the clearing, you said you got some rewards for completing your multipart quest. What kind of rewards were they?”

  “Just some more Words and a new spell,” said Nimbus vaguely. “Oh, and a boost to my mana, which is useful because I used a lot of it trying to escape those bandits. The mana bubble they put me in drained my mana, too. The boost actually topped off my mana, so I can once again use all of my spells.”

  I nodded. Those sounded like typical quest rewards, but I also found myself wondering about the fact that the Codex had given Nimbus the quest to give me my stylus. It was almost as if the Codex knew exactly what I needed and had used Nimbus as a way to ensure that I got it. If my stylus had been buried underneath all of that junk, I probably wouldn’t have found it on my own. I might have overlooked it completely and picked some other piece of equipment or weapon that might work okay, but wouldn’t be perfect for me. Not like my stylus, which seemed custom-made to work with my Discipline.

  It was even more interesting that the Codex had chosen Nimbus to be the one to deliver my tool to me. It was as if the Codex wanted us to work together, but maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe the Codex just picked Nimbus because he happened to be the only Codex Beast around and was the only one I knew and trusted.

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  Yet that thought felt very hollow to me even as I considered it. Ever since completing my trial—and even before then—it seemed like the Codex was nudging me along in a certain direction. I thought about my quest to end the Codex Wars again and glanced at the timer in my vision. Whatever was going on felt far above my pay grade. There was also my quest to defeat the bandits, which was interesting in light of my encounter with them tonight.

  As if in response to my thoughts, my portable pinged and a silver scroll unfurled in my view:

  Codex Quest Update: Defeat the bandits of North Forest, Part Two

  After an unexpected encounter with the Wolfbrand Bandits of North Forest and the mysterious Salome the Shadow Scribe, you now have a much better idea of what you are up against.

  Do not let your guard down, however. While Salome the Shadow Scribe may have temporarily embarrassed the Wolfbrand Bandits, their leader, Wolfbrand himself, does not believe in mercy or forgiveness.

  You also learned that the Wolfbrand Bandits have a special interest in the North Forest Codexium. Perhaps they simply wish to rob it, but there’s not much to rob there … or is there?

  Keep an eye open for the Wolfbrand Bandits and keep training to get strong enough to defeat them.

  I gulped. That update sounded ominous. It also confirmed that the Wolfbrand Bandits were, indeed, after the North Forest Codexium, though I couldn’t imagine why. Neither could the Codex, apparently, as it didn’t say why, but it seemed to hint at something bigger than just gold.

  Whatever the case, I glanced at Nimbus as we walked, deciding not to bring it up to him right now. “What are you going to do after we get to the village? I didn’t expect you to walk with me.”

  Nimbus wriggled his nose as he hopped beside me. “First off, I am hopping, not walking. Walking is the inferior way of moving that humans and other non-rabbit creatures use to get around. Second, I only came with you for safety reasons. I doubt the bandits will come after me anytime soon, but just in case, it’s safer to travel with you at the moment.”

  I nodded, ducking underneath an overhanging tree branch that hung a little low to the path. I glanced down the road at the lights in the village up ahead. “You didn’t actually answer the question.”

  Nimbus came to a stop and looked up at me with annoyed eyes. “When we get to your human settlement, I’m going to go my own way, of course. I’ve got a burrow nearby where I will spend the night sleeping comfortably, without fear of being captured or tortured by humans.”

  I stopped as well and looked at Nimbus, biting my lower lip. “Are you sure about that? The bandits aren’t going to leave you alone forever. I don’t know much about Wolfbrand, but I suspect he’ll want to take out both of us after he learns what happened to his sister tonight.”

  Nimbus scratched his ear with one of his hind legs, looking unimpressed. “He probably will, but I am good at hiding. I don’t currently have any other active Codex Quests I need to finish, so I can just spend as much time resting as I want. Maybe I will even leave this area entirely and find somewhere safer to live. Perhaps I will head west toward the wilderness where you humans have fewer settlements.”

  I shook my head. “There’s nothing much west of here other than the Codex Ruins, which are probably too dangerous even for you. If you want, you could come and spend the night at my farm with me and my family.”

  Nimbus perked an ear at me questionably. “And become your pet or something? Sorry, but I don’t trust humans.”

  I folded my arms across my chest and raised an eyebrow at him. “But you just said that you trusted me and Salome. So clearly, you trust some humans.”

  Nimbus wriggled his nose in frustration as if he didn’t enjoy having his own words echoed back at him. “Okay, maybe that’s true, but I don’t know the rest of your family. If they are farmers, they will probably want to fatten me up and slaughter me, and sell my meat on the market. Not interested in that fate.”

  I shook my head again. “You don’t have to stay forever. You can just stay the night. And you don’t even have to meet my family if you don’t want to. We have a pretty big barn on our property that you could hide in for the night. We don’t even have any barn cats or other predators that might want to hurt you.”

  Nimbus chuckled as if I had made a funny joke. “I’m not worried about cats. Cats should be worried about me. Well, unless they are also Codex Beasts, but I seem to be the only Codex Beast in the area as far as I can tell.”

  I rubbed my forehead in frustration and yawned. Tiredness was setting in, but I didn’t want to let Nimbus go just yet. “Look, I get that you have had a lot of bad experiences with humans, but I really do think that you would be safer staying with me for tonight. You don’t even have to stay until the morning if you don’t want to. Feel free to leave as soon as the sun rises. I won’t try to stop you.”

  That was the truth, though secretly, I was hoping that Nimbus would stay with us. Aside from the obvious fact that the Codex seemed to want us to work together, I didn’t want the little rabbit to get captured or tortured by the Wolfbrand Bandits again. While Salome seemed to think that just using her name alone would scare off the bandits from trying to hurt us again, I wasn’t entirely convinced that the bandits would leave us alone for very long, especially once they learned about the death of Jezebel. I still couldn’t get the mental image of Jezebel’s head exploding out of my mind.

  It would have to be so much worse for Wolfbrand, who was her older brother.

  Nimbus clicked his teeth together as if he was seriously considering my offer. He looked up and down the road for a second before looking up at me again. “I’m still not sure. I mean, I know you probably won’t try to hurt me, but I have done my best to avoid human settlements for a while. Staying on a human farm, even if it is not within the borders of your town, is too close to unfamiliar humans for my liking.”

  I rubbed the back of my head as I racked my brain. “Again, I get it, I really do, but like I said, I won’t tell my family, and I’ll even bring you breakfast tomorrow if you want. We’ve got carrots, lettuce, fruit—”

  “Fruit?” Nimbus sounded very interested all of a sudden. “What kind of fruit, exactly? Would you happen to have a banana, for example?”

  I blinked. “Uh, sure. We should have a couple of bananas sitting around, but I’m sure I could go to the town market tomorrow and get some more from one of the merchants from Hebron. They are kind of expensive, though, so—”

  Nimbus immediately hopped onto my shoulder and settled there like this was his natural state of being. He then nudged my head with his nose as if trying to get me to move. “What are we waiting for, Aaron? Let’s go to your family farm and then have a big banana breakfast in the morning. Your treat, of course.”

  I was surprised by how quickly Nimbus’s tune had changed when I mentioned a banana, but I nonetheless reached up and scratched his head. Or tried to, but then he nipped at my fingers and said, “Don’t get too comfortable, kid. I’m only going with you for the banana. If I don’t see any bananas in the morning, then you will never see me again. I’m only riding on your shoulder because I am tired of hopping, and you probably know where home is better than I do.”

  I resisted the urge to laugh at Nimbus’s antics and instead nodded. “Okay, that’s fine. My family’s farm isn’t too far from here. We will just have to go straight through the village to the other side. Shouldn’t be more than ten minutes.”

  Nimbus thumped my shoulder with one of his hind legs, which hurt more than I expected, given how small he was. “Then get moving, human. We have bananas to get to.”

  I chuckled and resumed walking toward the village, feeling Nimbus’s soft fur and warm weight on my right shoulder. He fortunately didn’t weigh very much, despite being bigger than the average cottontail I saw around my farm, so it didn’t hurt my shoulder to carry him.

  I was mostly glad that Nimbus had agreed to spend the night at my family’s farm. Even if he was planning to leave tomorrow morning, I felt like this was a good thing. Between the way that the Codex paired us up together and what Salome had said about the bandits tonight, I felt like it was important for us to stick together for the time being. I just didn’t know how long we would stay together.

  Thinking about Salome made me wonder about her again. She had been such a cool person, and her powers had been incredible. Was she an Inscriptionist like me? She had said that our Disciplines were similar, but she didn’t say they were the same. Still, she probably knew more about how my Discipline worked than Isaac did. I wished that she were my mentor because she would have undoubtedly been a superior mentor to Isaac in just about every way. She was a lot more powerful than he and seemed to know a lot more about the Codex in general than Isaac did, plus much less drunk. I bet that the bandits would think twice about trying to get revenge if they knew that Salome was watching us.

  My portable vibrated against my chest, and Nimbus almost leaped off my shoulder in surprise. “Whoa! What’s wrong with your portable? Is it about to explode like Jezebel’s?”

  I grabbed my portable, which stopped shaking, and saw the words SNA Codex Alert in bright red flashing across its surface. I frowned. “No, it’s just a Codex Alert. Isaac mentioned that sometimes the Shinar Node Authority sends Codex Alerts to active Codexers whenever there is an emergency, though I don’t know what this could be about.”

  Nimbus snorted and thumped his foot against my shoulder again, this time with more force than before. “Then look at the alert, for the Codex’s sake. That vibration is annoying.”

  Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I tapped my thumb against the alert, and a transparent red scroll appeared in my vision before unfurling. I leaned in to read it, but felt my heart sink into my stomach. “Oh no… this can’t be right…”

  Nimbus looked at me curiously. “What does the alert say? Is it about those bandits?”

  I slowly shook my head. I didn’t want to believe what it said, but I also couldn’t deny it. “It’s not about the bandits. It’s about Salome. It says she is a wanted criminal from the Ninth Kingdom for the crime of destroying an entire Codexium and killing a lot of people.”

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