"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa! What is this? Where are we?" Quin asked as he kept to the walls.

  "It's Lysonick brother." Conon answered. "I rushed you over to town before we lost you."

  "No. Why are we so high above ground?"

  The towers of Lysonick interconnected with each other through a series of stony sky bridges.

  Flanked with balustrades, all of them linked to the buildings from their top floor if not their roofs directly. Even higher structures towered over Quin and the whole site appeared as a city suspended in the air.

  He never felt more unsettled in his life.

  Conon scratched his head and raised an eyebrow. "Uh, because we're Sentar'i 'n' we can jump that high? Have you ever been out of Sirqu? Most places are like this."

  "Most?"

  "Yeah. I guess it'd be weird if you never seen it before, but you'll get used to it 'n no time."

  Quin didn't want to get used to it, he wanted to touch the ground. The only stairs he saw were at the bottom levels closer to earth.

  From where he stood however, no such steps existed. Just narrow stone inclines next to the buildings that led down to the ground.

  Conon kept his balance as he slid down the paved slopes. Quin's eyes caught other Sentar'i in similar acts all around him. He would have to follow.

  Fortunately, his mask helped tunnel his vision to just the incline. It forced him to look at one direction and soon enough he made some slides of his own, albeit awkwardly.

  They made it to the lowest level above ground (about two floors up) when they found Onyl on an elevated pavilion.

  Propped beside a pillar, she paid no attention to any passerby; her eyes looked inward more than out.

  A snap of Conon's fingers snapper her out of her head. They had reached her and she never recognized it.

  "We're back," Conon announced. "'n' look, Quin's back too 'n' 'n good health. Quick 'n' easy."

  Onyl stared at her junior partner. To Quin's surprise, she didn't look angry or agitated or annoyed.

  If anything, she appeared stunned to see him. That's how bad he messed up as he understood it.

  "Did Bossman come back? He heard 'bout what happened?"

  Onyl turned to Conon with those same lost eyes. "N-no," she stuttered. "He is still out."

  Quin knew Ythan showed little trust in him. If the blue cloak found out about this latest snafu, the little trust that remained would all but evaporate.

  Quin had to prevent that. He could only think of one thing to do at the moment.

  "Guys, please don't tell Ner. Fyful about what happened to me," Quin blurted with hands clasped to one another.

  "What do you mean?" Conon asked. "It wasn't like those Yerps were carryin' trinkets or anything."

  "You can tell him about that, but not about what happened after."

  Conon looked away. Onyl looked to the floor. Quin waited patiently, hands still interlocked.

  "Uh look, I'll leave it out when I talk to him," Conon began. "But if he presses me 'bout it, I'm not gonna lie to him. Fair enough?"

  Onyl remained silent.

  Quin moved next to her. "Please Onyl. Please keep it a secret."

  "A secret?" she asked with shock. "You want that to be a secret?"

  "Yes. Please Onyl. Please."

  Onyl's eyes turned away from Quin. Seconds flew by before they adjoined with her eyebrows and her face reverted back to its default scowl.

  "Promise me," she started. "Promise me you will explain what all of that was."

  Quin couldn't afford to push it. "Deal," he said. "So will you keep it a secret?"

  "...Very well, but I expect to be filled in."

  As good of an agreement as it can get, Quin's shoulders sank with relief.

  "So, they're done askin' you questions 'bout those Yerps?" Conon brought up to Onyl.

  "I believe so but I should check anyway. I should also inform them on where I will be in case of more inquiries. If Ner. Fyful arrives, tell him I will return shortly."

  Onyl jumped on top of a balustrades before she leaped above to higher levels. With one matter out of the way. Quin's mind went to another.

  "Where did the chroniclers go?" Quin asked.

  "Oh the Yerps? They're right below us." Conon said as he hopped over the top rail and out of sight.

  The prior relief Quin enjoyed, poured out from his body. As he approached the balustrade, he kept his eyes forward before his feet went over.

  Right as the awful feeling of gravity began to set in, he had nowhere else to fall. He finally reached the ground. He already wanted to leave.

  Just as Conon said, the Yerps waited beneath the pavilion on a spacious road. Yach leaned against a column while Arty and Mier looked over some papers when the two Tyrovivs approached them.

  "Oh you're back," Mier mentioned. His face zeroed in on Quin. "Is everything fine now sir?"

  "Yeah yeah. Things are fine now," Conon said. "Listen, my partner here's gonna keep an eye out while I go take care of some business."

  Conon zipped up the buildings before Quin could get a word out. Before he knew it, he stood as a stranger in a new place, a new environment.

  As he looked around, he noticed multiple similarities. Most of the structures looked similar to what he saw in Sirqu aside from the colony of towers.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The roads seemed the same. The Cosondera presence felt the same with plenty of Tyrovivs about.

  "Sir?" Mier voiced.

  Lost in the sights, Quin's body and attention snapped around to Mier. "Huh? Oh sorry. What is it?"

  "Well firstly, we wanted to thank you again for helping us last night and also, we hope you're feeling better now."

  "Oh yeah. Glad I could help and I'm feeling much better."

  "No, please! I'll leave! I'll leave!" they heard off to their side.

  Their eyes traveled alongside the road to one of the raised pavilions. They saw someone hoisted over the heads of two people, a man and woman.

  Quin could only see of the pony tail hairsyle on the man raised high. That, and his obvious desire to be let down. The two people who carried him aimed to do just that as they reached the edge.

  "I can get down myself!" he yelped. "Please, don't do this!"

  Nobody lent an ear.

  Close to a dozen people suddenly congregated below. They brought with them cheers and hollers as if they were entertained.

  "Ready!?" asked the woman with a smile as they paced the poor man slightly up and down.

  The folks below urged with their arms to get on with the act.

  Were they really about to throw that man over the raised platform? Quin received his answer promptly.

  "Off. This. Perrch!" they yelled before they flung the man off the heightened level.

  His limbs moved erratically as he soared over the audience below. His screams filled the air until his left shoulder met the ground.

  "Ohhh!" they all interjected upon the man's landing.

  The rest of his body rolled over and he ended up face down on the earthen path.

  Both confused and detested, Quin nearly ran over to hel when he remembered the Yerps in his care. An inconceivable sight, he needed something or someone to make sense of it.

  His arm pointed to the scene. "Wh-what was that!?" he asked aloud. "Why did that happen?"

  "Where have you been kid?" Yach responded with a slight wrinkle on his forehead. "These things happen all the time."

  "They do!?"

  "Oh yeah. It's what you guys do to us Yerps or really anyone you don't like and want to get rid of."

  "I've never seen this in my life."

  "I guess you must have been born and raised in Sirqu," Arty jumped in. "Since it's mountainous over there, you wouldn't have seen it but in most cities along the bay and beyond, there's a strictly Sentar'i district that stands above the ground."

  "Yeah, I was kinda told about that but there are stairs to the ground. What reason would people have to toss someone out?"

  "You've just answered your question kid. They're actually tossing Yerps out. We get enough of a privilege to walk around the bottom levels, but if we bother a Sentar'i too much well...you have eyes."

  Mier shook his head. "I still can't believe some people actually watch and cheer for that madness. They've probably gone through it too. Maybe even more than once."

  The four watched the unfortunate man slowly rise up and slowly walk off. The Yerp audience gave him an applause for his efforts.

  Mier closed his eyes and shook his head some more. "Some people..."

  Quin rested a hand on his mask. "And this happens frequently?"

  The three Yerps shrugged and nodded. More or less, yes was the answer Quin perceived.

  "That's just the way things are," spoke Arty. "It's not just Yerps though. Other Sentar'i on the higher buildings could be thrown off too.

  "Purely territorial except vertically. The higher up you are in the district, the higher up you are in strength and status. Those things matter."

  "That's why the stairs end at a certain point," Yach added as he pointed at the second lowest level. "It means we can't go any higher."

  "It's also for any children born from a Sentar'i," Arty butted in. "Unless or until they stand out, they can still get around up there. If they don't stand out, then yes, it's exactly as he said."

  The Sentar'i spirit displayed itself in full once again. A constant struggle to the top. A constant need to prove oneself strong and others weak.

  As much as the colony of towers took up the view, the higher towers took up more. In every sense, they stood as a social hierarchy.

  To Quin's dismay, the show wasn't over.

  "Wait! No! Wait!" he heard from above. This time, the poor soul sounded like a young lady.

  Quin heard the screams until the two Sentar'i had another Yerp over their shoulders. Her long blonde hair and overall dress did nothing to stop them as they neared the edge.

  The crowd below cheered some more while plenty of people at ground level hurried on with their business. Even other Tyrovivs paid little mind to the screams and struggles.

  As much as it all disturbed him, the act really appeared like nothing out of the ordinary. Quin thought about his talk with the Aerviv; his advice to be slow and discreet.

  Quin then thought about what led to his first meeting with Fyful. If he acted out or even returned the favor on the two Sentar'i, then people would look at him with disbelief.

  The scene with Wordy and the Yerp attendant played out before Quin all over again.

  He didn't want to see another defenseless Yerp hurled over, so was he supposed to look away instead?

  "Noo! Noo-ho-hooo!" the poor lady cried out.

  Quin thought back to earlier outside of the city. The "poor" Yerps he helped only to be rewarded with near death. Perhaps just like then, this situation had more to it than what met his eyes.

  The young lady kicked and grunted as she tried to force her release. It succeeded in bothering her Sentar'i captors.

  The female Sentar'i lost her smile. "Oh you're going to fly high, Yerp."

  Maybe in some way Quin couldn't see at the moment, this was deserved. Perhaps the Yerps did something wrong and this was their punishment. In a way, it could be seen as a just response.

  The Sentar'i placed themselves by the edge. The young lady hyperventilated as her gaze traveled below to the ravenous crowd. They wanted more and it appeared that's what they would get.

  Ridiculous, Quin concluded. Every part of his thoughts just now couldn't rectify in his heart how wrong this all felt.

  He knew as a Cosondere, he had to intervene or at least he thought so. Whether they were Sentar'i or Yerps, all of it looked unnecessary and uncalled for.

  He had to use discretion however. As much as he didn't like "the way things are", he couldn't upend the apple cart just 'cause, even if deep inside he found it to be a just cause.

  He scrounged in his cloak behind him to find anything that could help. He found the old rusted coin Yach gave him yesterday.

  "Off. This. Perrch!!" the Sentar'i yelled as they chucked the lady over.

  Cheers and screams mingled together as gravity brought her closer to earth. As the crowd below brought their eyes lower and lower, they saw a small projectile enter their peripheral view.

  It whizzed by everyone, and might have been unrecognized if not for the loud shout that followed.

  "My coin!" Quin bellowed as he dashed out after it.

  He flew over the spectators seemingly in pursuit of the minor item when the lady intercepted him. His arms caught the frightened Yerp in mid-air before he smacked the ground feet first.

  Immediately, he grabbed everyone's attention. A rush of feelings swirled inside him as all involved awaited his next move, including the lady he just saved.

  He carefully set her down before he engaged in some theatrics.

  "My coin! What happened to my coin!?" He shouted as his eyes scoured all over the ground.

  He saw the two Sentar'i aloft and said, "Oh, sorry about...ruining your show. I was trying to get my coin and she just...flew into my arms...unintentionally."

  What a terrible excuse, Quin thought. He had no other ideas and had to act fast. That was the best he could do.

  The two Sentar'i squinted down at the Cosondere, mouths curved opened. Whether they bought act or saw it for what it was, they simply groaned and grumbled before they walked out of sight.

  The Yerps at ground level shrugged off the whole episode and scattered in a similar order. With the crowd and attention dispersed, Quin could discard his charade.

  "How are you feeling?" he asked the lady. "Are you okay?"

  "Noo. They threw me off a high ledge," she answered with residual anxiety. She took a few breaths. "But I could have been worse off. Thank you. I can't believe a Cosondere helped me just now."

  "I can't believe anyone wouldn't. Why did they do that?" The answer already entered Quin's head before he finished his question. He had a feeling he would ask that same question again and again in the coming days and weeks.

  She straightened her hair and dress. "They thought I was associated with the other person they threw. He tried to get me to join some group of his because of a debt."

  "A debt?"

  "Yeah. It wasn't the same guy, but I guess his friends were the ones who helped restock our ship. So many ports kept closing and we were low on supplies.

  "We told them we would pay them back, but I didn't think they'd be so relentless about it.

  "He kept demanding and yelling. Eventually, the Sentar'i had enough up there and wanted us gone."

  "Where'd he go by the way?" Quin asked as he scanned around the vicinity for the other Yerp. He couldn't spot him.

  "I don't know but you'd be able to find him by his fingernails. They were all black. Maybe some kind of secret group." Her face puckered as disgust escaped her mouth.

  "We shouldn't have accepted their favor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I guess the Cosondera aren't so bad."

  Once the lady finally composed herself she went on her way and waved goodbye at Quin. Behind his mask, he bore a smile.

  He had a much better result for his deeds than what happened earlier that morning. It felt good to know that his efforts weren't entirely for naught.

  Quin saw the chroniclers and remembered he still had a mission. He returned to the group who nodded at him.

  Yach made a series of light claps. "Well aren't you the hero. Good job. You're already different from most of the other cloaks I've ran into. So did you find my coin?"