As we approached Cersapil, I grew more convinced that the city of my birth and this planned metropolis shared nothing in common.

  Until the alarm bells began ringing.

  Our escort pulled his horse up, effectively stopping our forward progress. His head tilted to the side as the bells clanged. A long, low horn joined the cacophony.

  The guard turned to us, helmet blocking any insight his face would give me.

  "Forward, quickly now. There's been another outbreak." He turned his horse, moving to a canter. I looked at Richard, examining the control board. Outside of start and stop, I hadn't tried to adjust the speed of our carriage. The big red 'fireball' button tempted me, even though I knew it was the wrong answer.

  We started moving at our normal speed as I consulted Ash through the pass through.

  "I don't know anymore than you do." His voice was thin, almost whiny. Neither of us had been sleeping well. It was hard between Argin's moans and the floating Tuli Monster in the middle of our camp.

  I shrugged, reaching for the blue dial.

  "Not that one," Ash screeched through the window. "That's the y-axis aim for the cannon." Ash had wedged his head as far through the pass-through as possible, eyeing the controls. "What is your obsession with fireballs?"

  I pointed to the next dial, ignoring his complaint.

  "X-axis. And before you ask, the next one is the z-axis. I think the one we want is the green dial all the way on the right." The dial in question looked fairly small for an acceleration boost. I reached forward and twisted it hard.

  With a jolt, the carriage leaped forward, sending Ash tumbling back into the cab.

  The auto-steering kept us from smacking into other wagons and travelers, but just barely.

  Plastered to the seat, I held on for my life.

  The celestial horses galloped ahead, our carriage an afterthought as their magical constraints were released. Thankfully, Ash had replaced the fuel rods this morning, so we had access to power. The last two hundred yards before the Highgate vanished in a flash.

  A jolt almost sent me careening out of the carriage.

  Guards at the gate lowered pikes with worried expressions. I wasn't sure what they thought their pikes would do to celestial horses, and their faces shared the same concern. Gripping the wrought iron rail, I reached over and twisted the knob in the reverse direction.

  Never had it been more obvious that the horses were magical. In an instant, I was thrown into the dash, my head barely missing the fireball button as their steps instantly slowed to the pace of a slug.

  We'd moved from a gallop to a crawl, and in the commotion the control knob had come off in my hand. I tried pushing it back onto the control, but couldn't get it over the rounded iron spike.

  Cole, we're moving slower than a snail after bingeing on lettuce during the Solstice. Richard looked worse for wear. He'd resorted to his thick, blue [Glue] slime to hang on, and had awkwardly glued an eye stalk to the dash.

  I gave the guards an awkward smile as we crept forward, taking up space as travelers on both sides of us tried to get in the gates.

  They lowered their pikes. Small blessings, I guessed.

  Our previous escort galloped up, his whinnied angrily as he pulled up sharp on the reins.

  "Captain, I was escorting these bandits into your custody." The orange tassel of our mustachioed escort bobbed as he saluted in his saddle.

  A woman with a long scar down her face stepped forward. Her leather armor was the same blue and white as my guard's tack. However, unlike our escort, her armor had obvious scores across the chest. She kept it oiled and clean, but it was obvious she’d seen action.

  "This is the Bintior carriage," she said with a rough voice. I hit the stop button on the carriage as the captain stepped forward. The celestial horses blinked out of existence. "Is the scion of the Bintior lineage inside your carriage, or are we going to arrest you?"

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  “Uh…” I didn't know what to say? Arrest us? The alarm bells jangled overhead as traffic proceeded through the surrounding gate.

  The side door of the carriage clicked, and Argin's crutches hit the pavement.

  "Hilly, help me out of this deranged carriage."

  "Argin?" The guard captain gave me side-eye as she walked to the carriage door. "What in the Everbear's furry backside happened to you?"

  Argin shakily stood on her one foot, leaning against her stained crutches. I jumped down, my feet painfully hitting the stone floor of the gate. The statues of the emperors loomed above us.

  The ground began shaking. I watched as the guards widened their stance with bent knees, as though earthquakes were a common occurrence.

  I rushed to Argin's side only to find Captain Hilly already standing with a supporting arm. The shaking stopped as abruptly as it had started. Argin and the Captain looked at me unperturbed as though the dust in the air and the rolling ground were normal. The bells cut off suddenly. A profound hush fell on the gate as though everyone was waiting for a signal.

  Horns cut through the silence like a heated butter knife. Three ascending notes.

  The clatter of the gate resumed. Voices returned to normal, horses jingled in their harnesses, and the creak of cobblestones under wooden wheels.

  "Do I arrest this..." The Captain gave me a once-over, her nose crinkled. "...Bandit?"

  Argin laughed. It wasn't the good-natured chuckle of a friend, or the evil cackle of a villain. It was an unhinged, hysterical escalation of a laugh.

  "A bandit? No, no... a sheepherder with a slug?" Argin leaned into her friend like a drunk. "Now that's what he is. Now this is the Bintior carriage, and unfortunately what's left of Leyla is in the trunk. She lost her life when a dungeon break attacked our caravan."

  "Dungeon break? Does it need to be handled?" The Captain's hand holding Argin shook a little.

  "No, we took care of it. It's how I lost my foot."

  "You?" I pretended not to see her mouth the word, them?

  Argin looked at me, the granddaughter persona melting away as though it had never existed. Her back straightened. It was as though with each breath, the facade of Argin, caravan survivor, evaporated. Her voice, high and haughty, commanded obedience.

  "Give these [Adventurers] a green pass, and get me to my grandfather. He's got a lot to answer for."

  And that was it. With a raised eyebrow, Captain Hilly whistled, bringing a handful of guards into the conversation. With a few direct orders, they were loading up Argin into a guard carriage. Ash and Meredeath were unloading from the main compartment, fishbowl in hand. Briyain refused to go into a dimensional storage, and I didn't blame him. I gathered Richard from the cab. I wasn't sure what a green pass was, but it probably didn't involve keeping the celestial carriage.

  I rested a hand against the polished black wood of the cab. Maybe it was stupid to be sentimental. Against all odds, though, the carriage had gotten us safely to Cesparil. Richard slimed down from his home on the dashboard, his wet foot slithering against my arm.

  Now what?

  "Now we find Tandy."

  Briyain is hungry. The Tully Monster sloshed in its bowl.

  You only make yourself creepier by talking in the third person. Richard voiced my thoughts.

  Briyain doesn't care.

  That was apparent.

  "What were the alarm bells all about?" Ash joined the conversation.

  "That was a dungeon break alarm." A guard in the cloth uniform of an administrator sauntered up with a green notepad.

  "Do those happen often?" Meredeath asked.

  "Alarms? Yes. Real dungeon breaks? Almost never. Now, can I have your names and occupations? I need to stamp your passes. Also, are your pets registered? I'm not sure you need one for the..." he paused, looking at Briyain. "fish. But the slug looks sentient."

  Richard widened his eyes in a bid to look brainless. He let a long glob of drool slip from his fanged mouth.

  Briyain stupid too. The Tully Monster breached the water of its bowl, two eyes glowing as it tried to [Mesmerize] the guard.

  The [Administrator] resisted. I was sure he had the class. [Administrators] could resist many mood and influencing skills.

  "Keep this paper with you." The man gave each of us a green slip of paper. "I’m granting you preliminary access to the green district. However, as non-citizens, you must check in at the Green District Civil Registery to renew your pass. By next week, you must have your pets registered with the Adventurers Guild. Continued presence in Cersapil is a privilege. Any lawbreaking, debt accrual or deviant behavior," he looked at Briyain, "by you, or your pets, will cause immediate expulsion and banning from the city."

  Richard blew a small raspberry.

  "If you do not have a place to stay, I recommend the Griffin's Hunt. They'd tolerate your kind there." He glanced at Richard, then Briyain. "If you don't have the funds, the city has a hostel in the Green District."

  He handed me two slips, one for me and the other for Richard.

  In a monotone flat voice, he gave us his very best wishes.

  "Welcome to Cersapil."

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