Fengyu and Mokai observed the farming settlement in the crimson light of the setting sun.
The trek down into the valley took almost half a day but they did speed up. Karsh gave them a pretty detailed description of both the path and the settlement but they wanted to check the terrain before the nightfall.
Karsh was a simple man. His rough appearance was created by years of living on the outskirts of the society of all worlds. He did not care about the balance of the good or evil. For him this was just business. And he did not care whether it was Firme or anywhere else. He did not know the significance of the place he was occupying. Nor did he care. It was Ashen who dealt with the Guild, or it was Ashen with whom the Guild wanted to deal with. They did not get much out of them - again he was only a man to carry crates or to make a kill.
The sun was setting over the group of huts on the flat meadow that filled the bottom of the valley. It was peaceful, quiet and beautiful. Here in the valley, below the misty fog level, the flush green of plants was abundant. The only crimson streaks were coming from the setting sun. A few farmers were just returning to the village from the fields that filled the meadow. It was a perfect stillness before the storm.
Fengyu braced himself for the upcoming fight. He crouched next to Mokai in the shadows of the last trees at the edge of the flat terrain, just a hundred of meters above the valley bottom. He had sensed some tension coming from his friend but had no time whatsoever to ask the details. Mokai was looking gloomy.
Below Lao Zhan, Tie Dun and Huo Yan waited for the sign to start.
First things first. Let's deal with Ashen. Fengyu hoped to get some answers at last out of him.
He had not spotted him yet. According to Karsh, there was a bigger house at the other side of the meadow, in the benevolent shadow of the trees. Slightly higher than the main village, it was a perfect place to relax in the evening.
From where he crouched, Fengyu could only see some roofs hidden between the canopy of the trees on the other side. Their plan was to sneak there as the farmers had left the fields.
The guardians, they took with them, were to secure the main village. The farmers were simple people trying to build some life in that hidden place. They did not expect any resistance from them.
Master Kaelji and Joy stayed in the outpost, they had taken in the afternoon. Master Lira wanted to accompany them in their mission, but Master Kaelji convinced her to stay and give them the possibility to prove themselves. Fengyu was not certain what to think about it. Was it just another test? Was it training again or was there something more? The insistence on staying behind had felt strange.
As the sun set lower they wound their way through the fields, bent half way to seek cover of the growing crops. The smell of herbs engulfed them as they entered the field. This was not grain, only exotic looking herbs. The smell was strong and the plants looked as if covered in a morning dew, with droplets of water like sirup on their leaves.
Fengyu hardly resisted the urge to touch. The overwhelming smell soon made him dizzy and he looked for the possibility to leave the immediate vicinity of the plants.
As they reached the outskirts of the village, they split up in two groups. The guardians spread to surround the cluster of huts, while Mokai and Fengyu with his guards headed to the other side of the valley, where the significantly bigger house emerged.
It was built of solid timber, under the cosy umbrella of low hanging trees. The slopes of the valley were steeper here and the lower branches hardly brushed the top of the roof. In front there was a spacious veranda with lounging chairs and stools. It looked like some nobleman's summer retreat. Unrealistic, given the circumstances.
Fengyu squinted in the setting sun. There was some movement on the veranda. Some maids were setting the table for the dinner or an evening snack. A few more steps and he could make out the shape of a man in one of the lounging chairs. He recognised his bush of wild hair, sticking above the headpiece of the chair. Surprisingly, as the man was pretty short. Lost was his cloak made of strange assortment of patched materials. He was dressed in simple, grey, but elegant robes.
They stayed low at the edges of the field of herbs. The plants reaching almost a meter and a half were quite bushy and gave plenty of cover. But after so much time, the smell started to suffocate them. How did the farmers could stand it for the whole day was a mystery.
The maids finished with the dishes at the table and retreated inside of the house. Ashen was alone on the veranda.
Fengyu gave the signal.
Tie Dun moved first, circling wide to flank the veranda from the side. Lao Zhan followed but took the other side. Huo Yan stayed behind Fengyu with an obvious purpose to keep him safe.
Mokai's eyes were scanning every angle in a strange, jerking motion. He searched for threads of energy, Fengyu realised. The kind only a spellcaster would read.
On the veranda, Ashen raised from his chair and approached the entry flight of stairs. He must have noticed something. He flicked his wrist. Wind tore across the field. The herbs bowed. A burst of pressure burst outward - a pulse of raw force. Fengyu ducked and rolled to the right. Behind him, Huo Yan was thrown good ten meters back, before he managed to keep his ground. Mokai crouched but stayed in place.
Meanwhile, Lao Zhan leapt straight through the pulse, close to the ground. He had managed to reach the stairs and aimed his blade for Ashen's legs. The mage raised his hand and with it came a shimmering wall – thin and translucent, but the blade rang off it, sparks flashing.
Tie Dun, already behind, pounced over the veranda railing. His two blades came in a cross-slash, one struck the shoulder, the other aimed at the spine.
But Ashen vanished.
It wasn't an illusion. He moved. He moved too fast as if the space itself had shifted. He reappeared midair behind them, above the field of herbs. His palms crackled with strands of energy, molten wires, white-blue, arcing toward Mokai.
Fengyu lunged, aiming on tackling Mokai low to the ground. In this moment a searing pain shot up his wrist. The little-beast-bracelet, as he had started to name it, became scorching hot. He failed and landed heavily in dirt just in front of Mokai. In his squatted position, he automatically raised his hands above his head.
The energy struck something – something invisible. Then it split and sizzled into nothing.
Fengyu looked around slightly dazzled. The pain retreated, but the bracelet was still pulsing.
It absorbed… It absorbed the attack.
He looked back at Mokai, who stood there braced for the stroke that never came. His right hand was stretched forward. His palm was covered in an entanglement of tiny vine branches, and glowing with dim green light. He curled his fingers slowly.
Ashen frowned. A series of marks flashed on his sleeves - a warding spell. He tried to move, but a vine, thick as a wrist and gleaming with syrupy residue, erupted from the ground and latched around his ankle… his calf, his tight. The herbs below had transformed into living, vicious branches, entangling him without mercy. Soon he was dragged toward the ground, bound in a tight cocoon of herbal vine.
He tried to free his hands, cast another spell, but it was too late. He screamed, high and furious.
Mokai just stood there, arm still extended, a faint glow retreating from his palm.
Fengyu looked at him. "You didn't tell me you could do magic now," he said.
"No, I didn't, but you haven't asked." Mokai grinned.
"This is a handy artifact, especially in the place like this." Fengyu's eyes rolled over the planted fields.
Mokai laughed. "Yes, it is."
Fengyu figured that with Mokai's newfound ability - and that artifact of his - the whole little-beast-bracelet stunt would probably be overlooked. Good for him.
He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, the tension slipping away just enough to mask the uneasy relief curling in his chest.
Tie Dun and Huo Yan grabbed bounded body of Ashen and hauled him up. The vine retreated allowing then to bind the prisoner in a more conventional way. They marched him to the porch and dropped unceremoniously to the wooden floor.
The last rays of crimson were touching the veranda porch. The maids were watching from the inside in absolute stillness. They had never screamed. Maybe they were trained not to. Or maybe they knew better than to think anyone would protect them from what came for Ashen.
Fengyu observed him for a while, before his eyes landed on the pedant. A little trinket must have slipped from beneath the folds of Ashen's robes during the scuffle. And now it was glowing faintly with a blue light.
He motioned to Huo Yan. He unclasped it carefully and handed it to Fengyu.
It was a small thing - metal, worked into a spiral knot of unfamiliar craftsmanship, warm to the touch despite the night wind.
As soon as it left Ashen's body, the mage's limbs slackened, and his breathing grew rough, like something inside him had been unhooked.
"A focus," Mokai murmured. "And maybe more. That thing's not just for show."
A focus acted as a conduit between the mage and the ambient magical field. It allowed more precise control, especially for mages who rely more on tools than inner strength. The artifact pretty useful in a place like Firme and for a not fully trained mage.
How had he managed to lie his hands on something so valuable?
Ashen groaned. "You have no idea what you're interrupting," he spat. "That gate - those fields - they're not for you."
"No, they're for you and your buyers," Fengyu said.
He leaned forward, dangling the pendant in front of him. "Who do you send the goods to? Guild's officials? Or just anyone willing to pay?"
Ashen's eyes didn't flinch, but the corner of his mouth twitched - contempt or amusement, Fengyu wasn't sure.
"I don't answer to you."
Fengyu nodded slowly, his tone calm.
"We're not in a rush. But I'd start talking before someone else does. Maybe Karsh gets the better deal if he speaks first."
Ashen scoffed.
"Karsh? That slug? He knows nothing." A pause, too long, and too calculated. "But you don't either, do you?"
Fengyu crouched beside him, lowering his voice.
"I know this place is Firme. I know you kept it quiet. And I know the gates are now sealed."
Ashen flinched at the name. His eyes darted up, alarmed.
"We never say it," he muttered. "It's… forbidden."
"You were quite talkative last time, when you opened the gate." Fengyu studied him.
Ashen looked genuinely shaken. He frowned, as if trying to remember. "I… did I? I don't remember saying it."
"You did," Fengyu said. "Clear as day."
The mage seemed sincere in his bewilderment. "Maybe it wanted to be named," he murmured under his breath.
As he spoke the words, Fengyu felt the bracelet on his wrist gave a sudden pulse - like a heartbeat against his skin. He stilled.
The moment hung there, taut and strange.
Then Mokai stepped in. "The pendant. It's the forge pattern tied to mid-tier Guild's requisitions. Not something a freelance poacher just stumbles across. This place is independent, but backed by someone with influence."
Ashen's expression didn't change, but a bead of sweat broke at his temple.
"Who is your contact at the Guild?" Mokai pressed. "Master Brug?"
Ashen didn't reply, but a flicker broke through his mask of indifference - just for a second.
"Is there someone else?"
Ashen said nothing, however the silence weighed more than a confession.
Fengyu watched him. He didn't need a name. The reaction had told him enough.
Brug wasn't the end. If Brug had sanctioned this, then someone had sanctioned him. Someone far enough removed to keep their hands clean.
Ashen let out a low chuckle.
"Master Brug," he said, almost wistfully. "Yes. That's the name. That's my ceiling."
He tilted his head, smiling crookedly at Mokai.
"That's all I ever got. That's all I ever was."
"This?" He motioned toward the valley, the house, the crops, the gates. "This is nothing. A quiet little corner."
"You think I'm part of something. But I'm not. I was never part. I was used. I don't know who owns Brug, or who owns them. But they're up there. Far above us."
He leaned back. "You don't get names from men like me. You get ash. You get burn marks. Because the moment someone like me sees too much, they disappear."
Fengyu looked at Mokai, who said nothing. They both understood it - Ashen wasn't lying. The moment their contacts in the Guild found out, he had already been discarded.
They were only scratching the surface. The names they had, were not answers. Just breadcrumbs.
"How did you find out it is Firme? What do you know about the place?" Mokai asked in the end, his tone calm but his focus sharp.
Ashen regarded Mokai carefully. He seemed to sense something beneath that stillness - a tension, a waiting shape - and then decided to indulge them. At this point, it wasn't a problem to share the story, was it?
He stretched against the bindings, but no one loosened them. After crawling a little towards the veranda's post, he slumped against it.
"I didn't come here looking for Firme," he said finally. "I didn't even know it was Firme."
"Then what were you doing here?" Fengyu asked, crouching again beside him.
Ashen let out a quiet laugh, bitter and dry. "I followed the poachers. Five years ago, when I was cast out of the Guild I had nothing. I fell in with them. They were hunting small things in the mountains above the mist. Rodents, mostly. Mythical. They sold well on the black markets. There are still the worlds where they do not ask questions. You write your own spell on the parchment and open the gate. No logs, no identities, only money. These are shaky means of transportation."
Fengyu gave a short nod. Outer-rim worlds where the laws of gatekeeping were treated like a suggestion, not a rule. But the quality… Yes, you could lose your life in-between.
"The business went well. But they never came down here. Not below the fog. They were scared of it. It always seemed... too normal. After seeing and experiencing the scorching hot of the mountains' peaks, it felt dangerous down here. Even the animals avoided it."
"And yet," Fengyu said, voice flat, "you went."
"Brug made us. I wanted to earn more, skip the middlemen, find a shorter way then jumping through gates to cover your origin. So I contacted my old acquaintances in the Guild. With just a few whispers and a few beasts, someone caught on. And Brug showed up. He pointed out some gates that were kept secret and used sparsely. These were accessible only by introduction. But he asked for details in exchange, reports on place, drawings of the gates."
"One day he came and demanded exclusivity. He would give us access to the gates in the cellar of the Guild - secure and quiet. But we would deal exclusively with him and we would shut up. Not a word of our agreement and the world we live in."
"Later he demanded that we explore below the mist. Karsh refused. The animals did not go below the mist, so what was the point? I thought it stupid. Maybe only that kind of rodent preferred the harsh conditions of the damn mountains. And I was right. There are much more beasts in the mist. And below… I have this little settlement and they have their outpost. It's cute, isn't it? And the plants!!! They are amazing. The best business idea, I could have!"
Ashen's eyes lit up with a strange, boyish energy. He leaned forward, gesturing toward the fields with his bound hands.
"Then you showed up. Pantax is known for its business streak. Do you want a share?" He looked at Mokai half accusingly half expectantly.
Fengyu narrowed his eyes. "You're building a market."
Ashen smiled widely, his gaze embracing the whole valley. "Of course! And you know what? No Guild's taxes, no registry, no trade boards breathing down my neck."
He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "The Guild doesn't even really care what this place is, Brug only wanted control. But now? This is mine."
Mokai glanced toward Fengyu. Ashen seemed harmless now, half drunk on his own enthusiasm and ambition.
"So what about Firme? How did you find out?" Mokai insisted. "Did Brug tell you?"
"Oh, no. He is a control freak. One of the Karsh boys, pretty stupid one, stole a note addressed to Brug. It was supposed to be a good joke. Karsh made them run as a bait for Sugemorra for months after that. It took effort to deliver the note back in an unsuspicious way, pretend it just fell off the desk… But there it stood. Firme. The legendary world."
"I think he was hoping we would find relics. Real ones. The way he pushed us down here, how fast he made the supplies available… Even the farmers… They are convicts."
Fengyu frowned. "Convicts?"
The Guild charged for everything - harvest blessings, pest warding, flood control spells. They gave you credit if you couldn't afford their prices upfront. But once the debt piled up… they took everything. Your land, your name - everything. You disappeared. And apparently reappeared somewhere like this.
"They farm my herbs now. Still dreaming of paying off a debt that was never meant to be repaid, dreaming of building a new life or returning to the old one. Maybe they will, it is more probable here than anywhere else." He smiled wryly.
"We are not supposed to know, this is Firme. Karsh knows. Maybe Mirok. The rest definitely not. I do not know why you heard it, as you claim you did." His gaze landed on Fengyu. "But I do not care. Probably now, everybody knows."
He looked at the village, and the crops. His eyes sad. He knew it was the end of his dream.