So high it was barely distinguishable as a dot, a bird flew. Behind it, a pursuer at least thrice its size. The prey darted back and forth in a serpentine, avoiding its predator’s powerful dives. Each time, the bird looked a little closer to death, with some seeming to be purposeful misses. This was no normal raptor; it was a monster.

  Benedict leapt from the balcony where he’d been watching the pursuit, drawing his rifle in midair before he landed on the ground below. Through alleys and down streets, he ran, following his quarry. The longer the battle went on, the lower they came until he could finally tell the smaller was a messenger bird. The monster behind it, however, he had never seen.

  It had a pair of birdlike wings, but the feathers looked tattered and uneven, despite its obvious agility. A shape Benedict would have likened to a plumb bob lay at the end of a short neck—presumably the monster’s head. It stopped in midair, and that head opened into something resembling a four-petaled flower. Light flashed between it and the messenger, and then the messenger tumbled from the sky, having lost an entire wing in the space of a blink. It hit the roof below hard, then slid off it to the ground.

  The monster came down hard where the messenger had been a moment ago, ripping tiles from the roof. Silent except for the beating of its wings, it turned to Benedict and opened its head again. Benedict aimed and fired. Three rounds seared through the monster’s flesh, and it charged him. He dove out of the way. Wind whipped around him in the monster’s wake’s flight. It wouldn’t be enough to throw off the bullets he fired next. The monster died before it could try again.

  A crowd unfamiliar with the idea of running away from gunfire surrounded him, followed by a small contingent of guards. At first, the guards tried organizing the crowd, giving Benedict time to look at the messenger. He unlatched the harness, and a small bit of parchment fell out onto the ground.

  “What happened here?” a guard asked.

  Benedict explained following the monster and killing it, then read the parchment aloud. “We’re in desperate trouble. Noctim’s base is overrun with a legion of monsters, and no one can stop them. The food and water we have in the canopy will not last us for much longer. Already, some have starved to death. If we don’t receive help soon, we’ll all follow. Please, someone, anyone, help us.”

  “There’s nothing in this coffer,” a different guard said.

  A third further examined the bird. “It looks young. Probably got loose and ran into that monster.”

  “And this letter?” Benedict asked.

  “Don’t expect anything to come of it. Noctim cut themselves off willingly. If they can’t handle their problems, they should never have done that. You of all people should be familiar with that concept, adventurer.” He shook his head. “It’s likely this is some sort of prank or trap by a rogue guild.”

  “I’ll discuss this with my party, then. Good luck, men.”

  “We’ll get to the bottom of things, adventurer. If this letter is authentic, we will rescue them. I vow on my honor.”

  Benedict was already walking away, examining the parchment in his hands. The strokes in each letter were wavy and unsure. Could be a sign of malnutrition or illiteracy, really. The monster lay in the same position, twisted and wrecked in a pool of its own black blood. The bestiary told him it inhabited the desert lands to the south, nowhere near them.

  Shiyo stared at Benedict as he related the entire story to her, only breaking her gaze away to read the parchment. After he finished, she still had no words. All she did was rest her head in her hands, deep in thought.

  “What do you think?” Benedict asked when the silence went on for too long.

  “If this is true, why have Noctim’s guards been denying adventurers access to the city?” Shiyo asked.

  “The guards seem to think it’s a prank or trap for those who find the letter.”

  “That’s a possibility. How many malevolent actors do you think would do such a thing? That Noctim has isolated itself doesn’t help matters.”

  “I know, I know.” His mind wandered back to the Ashen Choir, then to the bandits who extorted the hot spring inn. Yes, they were more than capable of such evil tasks. “Still, what if it is true?”

  “That seems a good goal to start. If we can authenticate the letter, we can take our next steps.”

  “The monster that chased the bird may be a clue.”

  “How so?”

  Benedict found its bestiary entry. “It says here that the monster has never been seen so far north of its usual habitat. Maybe it migrated here, but it may be more likely someone brought it.”

  “Insanity, that is.” Shiyo glanced at the parchment again. “If true, it means Noctim’s guards are engaged in such an evil duty one could rightly kill them all, and it would be counted as just. I’m not sure I’m willing to believe they’d go that far.”

  “Even after our experiences in Rahma?”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “As evil a deed as it is to steal young women away from their homes, one could justify it as unrestrained lust and greed. Monstrous, but within the sins of mortals. Subjecting your people to a plague of monsters, though… I can’t imagine anyone doing so willingly.”

  Benedict kept quiet. Shiyo didn’t need to hear about the devastation and evils of the middle twentieth century. “I hope you’re right.”

  “Is Ordra still away with the other two?”

  “As far as I know.”

  “Scouting cannot hurt. We’ll discover the truth of the matter and can take steps from there.”

  Benedict packed what he needed. In the days after returning from Rahma, he had resupplied all his potions and even bought a couple new tools. Thos went into a second coffer on the opposite hip as his primary. Once they had kitted themselves out, the Wraiths left the inn and trekked east.

  Days later, just before nightfall, they arrived at the wall around Noctim. The city itself didn’t seem anything special save for one feature: the tree. Its truck alone was so huge it would cover multiple blocks of any random city Benedict could think of, and it reached higher than a skyscraper. In the branches—themselves as thick as highways—he spotted lights illuminating buildings and long bridges.

  Shiyo explained. “Wealthier residents live in the canopy, segregated further by levels of wealth. It’s all better than at the base, where the poor live.”

  “Tends to be the way of things,” Benedict mumbled.

  A pair of guards in long brown coats stood at the gate. Each one held a spear, though Benedict assumed their coffers contained other weapons, as well. Above them, almost hidden under a canopy atop the wall, two archers stood with arrows already nocked. Benedict kept his eyes on them as he walked up to the gate, Shiyo following close behind.

  “Noctim is off limits,” one guard said as they approached.

  “Don’t’ tell them about the letter,” Shiyo whispered.

  “Don’t worry,” Benedict whispered back before raising his voice again for the guards. “We’ve been traveling a long time to see Noctim. May we inquire why?”

  “Magistrate’s orders,” the guard replied. “Nothing we can do. Leave of your own free will, or you’ll wish you had.”

  As if to punctuate the point, both guards leveled their spears.

  “Fine, fine,” Shiyo said, motioning for Benedict to leave.

  “Good day, gentlemen,” Benedict said as they walked away.

  As they strode away, Shiyo looked over her shoulder at them. “Anything about that seem strange to you?”

  “Something about how they act. Are Noctim’s guards usually so jumpy?”

  “Not when it was open.”

  As soon as the guards looked away, Benedict and Shiyo doused their lights and walked along the wall, slowly closing in until they could touch the stone. Shiyo drew her sword and stood guard while Benedict crouched next to the wall and let Morighana’s power flow through him.

  Almost immediately, a sense of foreboding overcame him. The only guards he could sense were at the gate. On the other side of the wall, however, monsters roamed. A group of five monsters with long, sharp claws on their right arms walked together. Past them was a creature on four legs and larger than an elephant, and then a plant with a bulb-shaped head and mouth lined with teeth. More monsters—of those types and others—appeared the farther he looked.

  He dropped his senses. “The letter was right. Monsters everywhere.”

  “How many?”

  “If the density is similar across the city, countless. It’s a true plague.”

  They continued walking along the wall, stopping periodically to sense again. They alternated using Morighana’s power and eventually covered a mile of the wall. The density of monsters stayed the same everywhere they looked. If they dared to go over the wall anywhere, it wouldn’t be long until they were overwhelmed by monsters.

  As they made their way back, Benedict drew the layout of the city as far as he could Sense. He also drew the monsters he could see. The bestiary should have some information on them. They avoided crossing the guards again and began to make their way back to Lorvath.

  Camp was a few yards off the main road. Benedict leaned against a log, paging through his bestiary while making notes about the monsters next to their drawings in the sketchbook. Shiyo sat on the log opposite him, eyes glowing as she Sensed the area. The fire glowed between them.

  “We’re safe at the moment,” Shiyo said after the glow in her eyes began to fade.

  “There are some bad monsters walking around Noctim,” Benedict said.

  “What will we need?”

  “A fortune to spend with the Artificers’ Guild. Fire, binding, general traps… I can’t imagine an easy time even using Morighana’s power with impunity.”

  “In other words, we need a party for this.”

  “Preferably one with a caster. We also need to bring supplies for the people in the canopy.”

  “A large party and multiple large coffers.”

  Benedict stared at the map. What had he gotten them into?

  “A wagon will help on the way back,” Shiyo said. “Make the return trip faster, at least.”

  “This is going to require so much aur just to get started.”

  “Generally, when rescuing a city like this, adventurers keep the treasures they find that don’t belong to anyone. I can’t imagine there are many left in the canopy who still have belongings at the base.”

  “We can’t rely on that.” Benedict watched the eastern sky, slowly brightening with the coming dawn. “And I don’t want to let any others die if we stay longer. You should just transport us out of here.”

  “The innkeeper, at minimum, already knows we left. It would be rather suspicious if we came back within far too short a time to have scouted the city, yes?”

  “What about another city?”

  “Transporting to another city would still leave us with long walk back, longer than just going back to Lorvath normally. Besides, we know the Artificers’ Guild has the equipment we need, and Celica is willing to give us discounts.”

  They spent so long discussing their plan that the sun peeked around the tree’s trunk before they were done. They took down the camp and began their long walk back to Lorvath. On the way, they spotted a wagon in the distance coming toward them. They veered slightly off the road to let it pass, but then Benedict saw an arm waving at them.

  “We come with help!” Celica shouted from on top of the wagon.

  Ordra, Kirion, and Amalyn sat in the wagon behind Celica. All of them stood and waved, as well.

  “What are you doing here?” Benedict asked.

  “Talk about your little exploit has spread around the tavern, Benedict,” Ordra said.

  “The innkeeper told us you left, and we put things together after that,” Kirion finished.

  “I hate to tell you, but we need to go back to Lorvath, anyway,” Shiyo said.

  “We need food for the people living in the canopy, not to mention weapons to take care of the monsters within the walls,” Benedict said.

  Ordra patted a box he leaned against. “Well, how interesting, because we have plenty of food.”

  Celica held up a large coffer. “And I have brought several tools fit for purpose.”

  “Tell us about what we will encounter, and we’ll get into that city.”

  Ordra moved the box off the wagon. It was full of six large coffers, each one about the size of a typical backpack. They even had shoulder straps. With each member of the party wearing one coffer, they strode up to the wall. After Benedict went through the monsters he had seen and noted, they grappled onto the top of the wall.