The sun was rising in the sky on the day of the summer solstice. The air was peaceful, birds were chirping, and there was a light breeze cooling guardsman Lance's face. His armor was warm, so a breeze was always welcome on a summer's day. He enjoyed the serenity of the moment. A small team of woodsmen were gathering lumber from the nearby forest, but despite the constant flow of wood coming in, Lance didn't hear any sounds of trees falling. Usually these men made quite the racket. Were they cutting everything down quietly? Some kind of "don't disturb the peaceful morning" skill? Weird.

  Lance was listening for falling trees when a train of wagons came up the road toward the gate. Runners raced ahead of the train to talk to the guards, so by the time the wagons reached Liston the gates were wide open, the guards standing to attention on either side of the road.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw another train of wagons on the distant horizon. He sighed a little. It was going to a be a long day of standing to attention. The Solstice Ball was always like this. All the nobles in the area would come on over to hobnob at the academy. Each one expected the city guards to treat them like they were the king of Selwyn. He caught a glimpse of a well-dressed lad through the carriage window. Some rosy-cheeked boy off to his first dance. Lance's danger sense was absolutely calm. Out of the whole train, only one of the caravan guards gave him the barest hint of any danger. Must be a minor house. Probably owned a little lake or something out in the remote wilds.

  The train of wagons went in and made their way toward Liston Academy, the elite part of the city. Where powerful nobles and scholars gained spells and became mighty... Lance shook his head. The only thing coming out of that academy were healers that acted more like bandits in disguise, and nobles that seemed no different before or after their "studies".

  "Look alive, lads. Plenty of nobles coming in today. They'll all want the royal treatment, so expect to stand up straight and watch wagons the whole day. I'll, uh, I'll be on patrol in the city. Send a runner if you need anything."

  Lance dismissed the guards, giving them a ten minute break until the next noble came to the gates. He slipped out of the group, trying to sound official as he quickly appointed himself to duties away from the gates.

  "At least it's not as bad as that horse."

  "SAILORS ARE STUPID."

  Zig was scratching the message into the handle of his new weapon. It wasn't just a stick this time, it was an actual axe handle, carved and shaped and nicely oiled. Next to Zig on the floor was a small pile of broken axe handles. Zig was still getting used to legendary strength. This time it went smoothly. Zig gouged out the words along the shaft, then rubbed purple goop over the grooves. He waited a couple minutes, then wiped off the excess, leaving the rest to glow as a soft purple inlay for his weapon.

  Near the top of the shaft went the classic half-dome rock. Zig glued the flat side to the wood. He stared fondly at all the jars of goop around him, each goop having a different but equally precious function.

  "I love you guys."

  "Uh..."

  Hepp froze, half in the doorway.

  "I didn't realize, um, I can... go..."

  "Hepp," Zig said with a face the color of a beautiful sunset. "Sometimes a man loves his goop. It's not weird, nothing strange about it, it's just how things are. Please don't tell the others."

  "Mmhmm."

  Hepp nodded awkwardly.

  "I just came to say I'm going to visit Lucy. I was hoping she'd be at the party last night, but she never showed up."

  "Ah yes, Lucy. The human woman."

  Zig's brain was still spinning out, trying to come up with a smooth explanation for confessing his love to goop.

  "Mmhmm. That's her."

  Hepp nodded awkwardly again. There was a long pause.

  "I'll just go."

  "That'd be best. See you later Hepp."

  Nobles were filling up the academy fast. The dance wasn't until evening, officially, but since people were coming from out of town, they'd decided to make a full day of it. Those who knew water magic were showing off in the courtyard, all the fountains giving them plenty of water to play with. Water elementals of all sizes were flowing around, sometimes fighting each other, sometimes delivering drinks, sometimes dumping water over a poor student. Groups of nobles would chuckle when that happened. With so many summoners around, it was impossible to tell which person owned a specific water elemental, so the mayhem continued with the culprit never found.

  Gutters watched the magic with interest. He'd seen only a couple of spells growing up. Middle district wasn't really a place for nobles to flaunt arcane knowledge. He wasn't particularly drawn to magic himself. Not like Jane, who was staring wide-eyed like an owl, trying to absorb the scene and commit it to memory forever. But he did see the appeal. It was the ability to do the impossible. That captured Gutters' attention. The idea that nobody thought a wound could be healed, a sickness could be cured, or a creature made entirely of water could appear and serve you a cup of tea. He could see how one might lose themselves in such a dream.

  But Gutters was, incredibly, distracted from the magic. He was staring at swords. Each time another noble came into the courtyard, Gutters head swung around to see what they were carrying at their waist. Almost every man, and a few women, had some kind of dueling sword strapped to their belts. Sometimes it looked like a fashion accessory, similar to a nice necklace or ring. But Gutters watched the way they moved, and he suspected a number of them really did know how to swing those swords. While Jane swooned, watching all the magic, Gutters was trying to pick out who would be the top swordsman in the crowd. He wished he could see them fight.

  He didn't have to wait long.

  The rogue water elemental attacked again, flowing into the basin of a fountain and redirecting the jet to land right on top of a young man's head. The crowd laughed as the boy's face grew red with indignance.

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  "Lyle! That was you, I know it!"

  The crowd looked at another young man, who shrugged his shoulders a bit too casually.

  "Nonsense Lynn, I'm just watching the show."

  Lyle took a sip of his drink as Lynn spluttered and furiously wiped water off his face. Lynn marched up to Lyle and put a hand on his sword.

  "Selwyn's Orders," the boy spat.

  Lyle's eyebrow rose.

  "For pride, or for progress?" He replied calmly. His own hand was drifting towards the hilt at his belt.

  "For pride, of course." Lyle hissed back. He drew his sword, and the crowd stepped back, forming a circle with the two boys inside. More people came over from around the courtyard, making the circle complete. Gutters went to see, but there were too many people in front of him, so he hopped up onto a nearby fountain to get a better view.

  Lynn attacked first. With a cry he lunged forward, slashing wildly. Gutters winced. Even he could see that was a bad move. Lyle saw the blade coming, lazily moved to block it with his blade, then kicked Lynn in the stomach. Lynn stumbled back and fell to the ground.

  "Ooo."

  The crowd commiserated with Lynn's shame. He picked himself up, readied for another attack, and this time lunged forward with a stab. Lyle swung down and knocked Lynn's sword out of his hand. The blade fell to the stone ground with a loud clang. Lynn paused in shock, then looked up at Lyle.

  "I guess the pride goes to me," Lyle said.

  A very red-faced Lynn grabbed his sword and hurried out of the courtyard. The crowd clapped and cheered for Lyle, who smiled and winked at a few of the ladies. He pointed at Lynn, who had almost reached the courtyard's gate. A water elemental snuck up from the side and dumped water on the boy, who cried out and kept running. Echoing laughter chased him.

  "Ho, Zig."

  Knob shuffled into the hall of the Broken Leg, where Zig was having breakfast. Zig was the only one there, everybody else seemed quite hungover.

  "Ho Knob, how are you feeling?"

  "Like a bag of rats used as a flail."

  "Does that... work? As a weapon?"

  "Psychologically? Yea. Takes ages to find all the rats though. Here."

  Knob took two balls of cloth out of his pockets, and presented them to Zig. They were heavy, and Zig's rock proficiency was tingling.

  "Is there a rock inside?"

  "Kinda. Rock dust. Very fine powder. I made so many screens to filter down to the finest particles."

  "Huh, cool. What does it do?"

  "Well, I know you're going to meet a bunch of captains tonight, and they can get a little stabby."

  Zig nodded in agreement.

  "They can get very stabby."

  "Yea, so I made a smoke bomb, of sorts. Maybe it'll help you escape in a pinch."

  Zig nearly dropped the ball he was inspecting.

  "This is explosive?"

  "Na, I don't know how to make things explode," Knob said wistfully. "Maybe some day. But I was thinking you could hit it, with your club."

  Zig pictured it in his mind, hitting the cloth pouch with his legendary rock proficiency, compounded with his legendary strength.

  "Yea, that'd do it. Dust would go everywhere."

  "That's the plan. Just maybe find a healer after using it? Gretta said rock dust isn't great to breathe long-term. And..."

  "Yea, Knob?"

  "Be safe. It's pretty cool, having you around."

  Zig gave the half-goblin boy a little hug.

  "I'm always safe, Knob. Kinda. I'll bring Teeth with me this time. If anything I'm worried about their safety."

  That put a smile on the boy's face.

  "Thanks Zig. Let me know how the smoke bombs go."

  "Lucy? Hello?"

  Hepp pushed the gate that was lopsided on its hinges. It swung noisily to show the weapons arena. It was a mess. All the dummies were in pieces, hacked to bits. The tables and displays for weapons were all broken, the weapons gone.

  "Oh no."

  Hepp ran to the tavern, seeing the broken front door. The interior was similar. Everything smashed. Nobody there.

  "Lucy?"

  Hepp took in the destruction. Who could do something like this? He had to find her. He didn't know where to look. Hepp came out of the building feeling sick. He spotted someone in the arena. Someone wearing a guard's uniform.

  "Ho, stranger."

  The guard turned to look at Hepp. He didn't look too friendly.

  "I was on patrol just now, and I saw quite the case of 'everything is broken and everybody is gone'. Scratch my ears and call me suspicious, but I'd like to ask you a few questions."

  "I just got here," Hepp panted. He had Extreme Endurance, but this situation made him feel sick in his stomach and breathless. "Inside is the same. Everything broken, nobody there. My friend works here. Lucy. Can you help me find her?"

  The guard looked at Hepp for a while, then sighed.

  "Wish I had Lux with me. He's got a truth skill that makes everything easy. I guess I'll just have to trust—hey, wait a moment."

  The guard peered at Hepp's face.

  "Aren't you the one that did the slaughter in Middle District? Then ran away when I asked you about it at the gates?"

  "Ah... No?"

  "Huh. Ok then. Today's the solstice. Lotta nobles running around, making me jumpy. I'm going to investigate this..." The guard gestured at everything around them. "If you'd like to tag along, you can."

  Hepp let out a breath of relief.

  "Thank you, mister..."

  "Lance. Senior guardsman."

  "Hepp. Where do you think we should look?"

  "I'd like to check the interior, but if we don't see anything useful, we'll need to find witnesses. Do you know any regulars that might have been here when things went south?"

  "Hmm, I think I could recognize them, but I wouldn't know where to find them. I'd usually find them here."

  "Any enemies, people likely to organize something like this?"

  Hepp shook his head.

  "Fighters tend to be a rough bunch, but we all respected this place."

  Lance tapped his chin a few times, thinking.

  "Well, we can ask around. Nobody helps the guard quite like nosy neighbors. Let's go."

  Zig felt a nervous energy going through him. Doubling his money? Who wouldn't go for that kind of opportunity? But he kept thinking about his previous experiences as the Alchemist. It was volatile. Every captain seemed like a pirate in everything but name. Any weakness, any opportunity, and they would draw blades.

  Does that mean I should just stay with the mine? Am I a dwarf? Zig looked at the back of his hand. It wasn't nearly as hairy as Gretta's. He'd enjoyed creating Red Mine with the others, it was a lot of fun. But he didn't want to make it his whole life.

  "What do you think, Teeth? Do I just avoid conflict?"

  The giant horse gave Zig a side-eye, something horses were very good at. She huffed in a way that said what she thought about avoiding conflict.

  "You're right. Sometimes conflict is necessary. That's how this crazy world works. Still. Kinda wish I'd brought Gretta too."

  The two walked down surprisingly empty streets. The summer solstice was a festival day, and people should be everywhere. They turned a corner and saw the door of a house quickly shut. Zig looked at Teeth, who seemed completely at ease with an empty town.

  "You probably think this whole town is empty, don't you? Since everyone hides before you even turn the corner."

  Teeth shrugged, which was super weird for Zig to see. Horses didn't normally shrug.

  "You understand everything, don't you? Not just general intentions, but everything I'm saying?"

  Another weird horse shrug.

  "Huh. Ok, well, I'm going to go make a deal with a bunch of nasty pirates. I'm hoping you can stay by the door and secure my exit, make sure I have a way out. If I start screaming, that's the signal to charge in and be scary. Deal?"

  Teeth kept walking, not doing anything in particular.

  "...I'm gonna take that as a yes."

  They came to the building Jints had marked out for Zig on a map. A large side door had a muscular man standing by. He wore a long knife on his belt, and judging by all the scars, he had some experience with it. Zig made sure his hood was up.

  "Gentleman," Zig nodded at the man.

  "Alchemist?"

  Zig nodded again. The man tilted his head toward the door. He kept his hand on the hilt of his knife, and his eyes on Teeth. He looked uncomfortable.

  "Excellent. Teeth, stay here with this nice fellow. That's a good girl."

  The doorman gulped and a bead of sweat was visible on his forehead. Teeth came right up to him and sniffed a couple of times. Zig smiled from within the darkness of his hood. Things looked ok so far. He made some final adjustments to his cloak, took a breath, and opened the door, stepping into the darkness.