The capital was too loud long before Iris actually saw it.
He heard it in pieces on the road.
The clatter of too many wheels over stone. The overlapping shouts of merchants arguing about prices no sane person would pay. The barked orders of guards who had decided volume was a personality trait. Even the birds seemed louder, as if competing with the city just to be heard.
He walked in the middle of it all with his hood up, shoulders hunched, and beasts flanking him like a very inconvenient announcement.
"Remind me," he said, "why I agreed to this."
"You didn't," the Guild examiner replied dryly from a few paces ahead. "You asked if you could say no. The answer was 'not really.'"
"Right," Iris muttered. "Tragic."
The Guild had sent an escort.
Not a full squad... just enough to make it clear that, officially, he was neither a prisoner nor entirely trusted to be left alone. Sera rode near the front, posture straight in the saddle, cloak marked with the muted colors of the Tamer Guild. A pair of guards in the capital's gray-and-white followed behind, hands never straying far from their weapons.
Behind Iris padded the Thunder Wolf Queen, every step unhurried, sending faint ripples through the line of horses. His original wolf stayed closer to his side, eyes scanning the road. Shadow Cat was nowhere visible and somehow everywhere at once, its presence brushing his awareness whenever the shadows shifted.
They'd left the village to a chorus of stares.
Now, as the road widened and traffic thickened, the stares multiplied.
A merchant wagon came toward them and nearly rolled into a ditch when the driver caught sight of the Queen. "By the roots," he yelped, dragging his mules aside. "Is that...?"
"Keep moving," Sera called. "They're under control."
Iris snorted. "That's generous."
The man's gaze flicked between Iris and the beasts, then settled on Iris with horrified fascination. "You're the one, aren't you?" he breathed. "The irregular."
Iris hunched deeper into his cloak. "No," he said. "That's my cousin. I'm just a guy walking with a completely normal, not-at-all-terrifying entourage."
The merchant didn't believe him.
Nobody ever did.
Word traveled faster than the escort.
By midday, people were edging off the road before they even came into view, whispers passing ahead of them like wind: "beasts," "Guild," "capital," "problem." A group of minor nobles in bright cloaks reined their horses sharply aside, peering down their noses as if offended that something more dramatic than them was on the road.
One of them, a young man with too much lace and not enough sense, leaned toward his companion. "Is that safe?" he asked, not nearly quietly enough.
"No," Iris called up, without looking. "You should absolutely give us distance. And maybe your lunch."
Sera shot him a look over her shoulder.
"What?" he said. "If I'm going to be stared at, I might as well eat."
The nobles muttered among themselves and trotted off, casting glances back as if expecting the beasts to launch into random murder.
They did not.
They just walked.
Which, in itself, was alarming enough.
By the time the city walls came into sight... huge, pale stone rising above the fields like a second horizon... the noise had settled into a constant roar. Carts queued along the road, guards waved people through in bursts, and vendors had stationed themselves in every gap, shouting about skewers, charms, and "genuine capital trinkets" with equal enthusiasm.
Iris squinted at the walls. "That's a lot of rock," he said. "Compensating for something, maybe."
"Defense," Sera said. "And display."
"Mostly display," the examiner added under their breath.
The closer they got, the more the crowd's reaction shifted from ordinary curiosity to full-body alarm.
Horses snorted and shied away as the Thunder Wolf Queen passed, hooves clattering nervously on stone. A pair of children were dragged bodily back by their mother when they tried to run closer for a better look.
"Eyes front," a capital guard barked at his squad, failing to keep his own gaze from darting to the beasts. "Maintain order."
"We are maintaining order," Iris muttered. "They're the ones thinking about starting a riot."
"You're not helping," Sera murmured.
"I was born not helping," he said. "It's a talent."
The wolf brushed his hand with its muzzle in passing, a grounding touch. Shadow Cat's presence skimmed his thoughts briefly, amused and alert.
When they were close enough to feel the shadow of the walls, Iris leaned sideways toward his companions.
"Okay," he whispered. "Listen. You're both very terrifying. Very dramatic. Love that for you. But this place is already loud and tense enough. Could you... just for a bit... act normal?"
The wolf blinked up at him.
The Thunder Wolf Queen turned her head slightly, one ear angling toward him.
Shadow Cat's voice slid into his mind like cool ink. Define normal.
"Less glaring," he said. "Less looming. Fewer lightning sparks. Maybe don't stalk like you're about to murder the city. You know. Blend."
You wish us to… restrain, the cat said slowly.
"Yes," he whispered. "Please. Consider it a personal favor to my continued existence."
There was a pause.
Then, without a word, both wolves changed.
Not shape.
Not size.
Just… posture.
The Queen lifted her head, gaze forward, expression neutral. The sparks along her fur dimmed to a soft, contained glow, more like distant heat than imminent lightning. Her steps, still powerful, lost their hunting edge and shifted into something more measured and Controlled.
His wolf fell half a pace back, aligning its stride with Iris' instead of the Queen's, head level, eyes relaxed, alert but not challenging.
Shadow Cat, now visible again, padded onto the low wall lining the road, tail flowing lazily behind it. It looked, for the first time, less like a knife and more like a shadow that had decided to walk instead of lie still.
The effect on the crowd was immediate.
If before the reaction had been panic held in check, now it morphed into something else. The guards straightening at the sight of disciplined, obviously obedient beasts. Merchants leaning forward despite themselves, curiosity overcoming fear. A few onlookers even relaxed minutely, as if reassured that anything moving that precisely must be under control.
The capital guards at the outer checkpoint froze.
Iris saw it perfectly: the way their eyes swept the scene, registered the Queen, the wolf, the cat; then flicked to him, the Guild escort, and the absence of chaos.
One of them muttered, "They're… in formation."
Another whispered back, "Who trained them to heel like that?"
Iris tried not to laugh.
"This is," he said quietly, "not what I meant by normal."
They took you literally, Shadow Cat said. You requested restraint. They respond as to an order.
"I was making a polite request," he thought back. "They made it terrifying."
Yet effective.
The line ahead of them parted with surprising efficiency. Carts were waved aside, pedestrians cleared to the edges. More guards appeared at the checkpoint, not with weapons drawn, but with every muscle tense.
An officer in more elaborate armor stepped forward, visor raised, eyes keen.
"Guild escort," Sera called, reins steady. "Multi-Bond Irregular in custody for evaluation, with bonded beasts under control."
Under control.
That was generous.
The officer's gaze traveled from Sera to Iris, to the Queen, and back. "They're… disciplined," he said slowly. "I expected more..."
"Chaos?" Iris supplied. "Screaming? Death?"
"Yes," the man admitted.
"Sorry to disappoint," Iris said. "We're very boring today."
The officer did not look convinced.
His eyes flicked again to the way the beasts moved: step-for-step with Iris, not straining, not veering, no teeth bared, no growls rumbling. It was the kind of unspoken coordination even trained units struggled to achieve.
One of the younger guards whispered, "If he can command beasts like that…"
"I can't," Iris said immediately. "I really, really can't. This is them being cooperative out of spite."
The guard blinked. "Out of what?"
"Inside joke," Iris said. "Don't worry about it."
The officer cleared his throat. "You understand the rules for bringing bonded beasts inside the capital?" he asked Sera. "No unsanctioned engagements, no unregistered displays of power, full liability on the Guild…"
"Yes," she said. "And you understand we filed notice ahead. The capital requested his presence." Her tone made it very clear how she felt about that request.
"I did mention I didn't want to come," Iris said.
"Nobody important heard you," the examiner replied.
The officer hesitated, looking once more at the beasts standing perfectly, impossibly still around Iris.
"This kind of discipline…" he said under his breath. "Our tamers would kill for it."
"Please don't phrase it like that," Iris said. "I'm already concerned about being here."
The officer stepped aside at last. "Fine. You're cleared. Try not to… attract unnecessary attention."
Iris looked at the wolves.
Looked at the cat.
Looked at the people already craning their necks at the edge of the checkpoint to get a better view.
"Too late," he muttered.
They passed through.
The world narrowed briefly beneath the gate's shadow, the underside of thick stone, resonant with years of footsteps and fear. For a heartbeat, the noise outside muted.
Then they emerged.
The capital spread out before them.
Streets fanned from the gate like spokes, already choked with carts, foot traffic, and color. Buildings rose taller and closer together than anything Iris had seen... stacked stone and wood, banners fluttering, balconies spilling with plants and people leaning over rails to see the commotion.
Because there was commotion.
On both sides of the wide main road, people had stopped what they were doing.
Merchants paused mid-duel over prices. Children tugged at sleeves and pointed. A pair of street performers lowered their juggling knives, one missing a catch entirely. Someone dropped a basket of apples with a crash, fruit rolling everywhere unnoticed.
Every gaze tracked the same thing.
The boy in travel-worn clothes and a fraying cloak.
The massive thunder-lit wolf at his back.
The second wolf at his side, eyes sharp and steady.
The shadow cat on the wall, tail curling with lazy arrogance.
The Guild escort.
The rumor made flesh.
Iris swallowed.
"This," he muttered, "is too loud."
You wanted quiet, Shadow Cat said. You walked into the center of noise.
"I was brought," he thought back.
Distinction, the cat replied, is irrelevant to the result.
Sera nudged her horse closer, voice low. "Welcome to the capital," she said. "Try not to panic. Out loud."
He didn't.
Out loud.
Inside, the panic had already started.
The capital gates swung shut behind them with a heavy, echoing thud, sealing him inside with a city full of eyes, a Guild full of questions, and beasts that refused to act like anything but themselves, no matter how carefully they pretended at restraint.