— After the Collapse: An Abridged History of Trade after the fall of Catria

  “Anya, Anya Hartford. Is that right?” The gate guard had jumped to attention when he heard my name. His spine was ramrod straight.

  “Uhh yes?” What the hell happened now? I was only gone for four days.

  “I was informed that there should be a spider-scorpion with you.”

  “It is still hunting in the forests. What is it about, guildsman? Is there a problem?”

  “No, nothing like that. You are just formally invited to the ball at the Illustrian Palace next week. The invitation…” his voice dropped to a whisper. “It comes from Lady Ayn herself.” I blinked owlishly. Was that supposed to mean something to me?

  “Who?” Biran elbowed me sharply and hissed.

  “Lady Ayn? Lady Ayn? Lady Ayn of the Arshanara-damned Illustris Council?” Oh. Lady Ayn. WAIT. What?

  “I don't know the reason for it but the lady has requested your attendance. I would not recommend keeping her waiting.” Well, duh. I was not stupid. I had theories about the why of this invitation. It had to be because of that Kalkiin guy I helped execute. I could only hope they weren't going to make me stand on a podium and receive a formal thanks from the Council. That was too much! I wasn't anxious like I had once been but that would make me freeze up.

  “Wait, I— I don't even know when and where this event is happening.” Now it was the guard's turn to blink in confusion. “I only moved here a couple of months ago.” I added for further clarification.

  “Oh, I see.” He gave me the directions and the time, and I was careful to have it all memorized. “An enforcer will deliver you the invitation letter at your residence in a day or two. I am sure I don't need to tell an esteemed guest of the lady this but don't misplace it. You can take one guest with yourself if you want, just inform the enforcer so that they can run a background check. Now if you will excuse me, we have to report your arrival.” He hollered at one of his, , compatriots and sent him running to what I guessed was the guild. The guard then turned to me.

  “Do you need a guard to escort you to your residence, ma’am?”

  “No. I have a couple of errands to do first. I'll be fine.”

  Of course the first of the errands was reporting to the Hunter’s Guild and paying off Biran. My heart ached at the crystals I had to hand over but it was business. The next order of business was making a quick trip over to the Emporium and selling the new venom. 30 credits for just one bottle and Medea could fill up two or three per day. And two more if the drones could handle it; Medea hadn't tested that skill yet and we needed to do it. Once it returned, that is. Speaking of whom, I should probably check up on it.

  Shit. A tier 5 was probably out of Medea's ballpark, considering that it had ascended so recently. Especially since the worms took so much effort to ascend. I switched my senses over to Dea’s and watched as a pulsating and squirming mass of volcanic rock and obsidian moved at the very bottom of the ravine. Cracks of a dull orange glow appeared like pockmarks on it. I turned around and unless I was mistaken, the ravine was repairing itself several miles behind the herd.

  It looked stronger to me.

  .

  I returned back to myself and the weight of four eggs in my backpack. Now that Medea had tiered up, I could have things in my swarm that weren't just newborn spider-scorpions. Once I hatched them all, that is.

  Once done with the Emporium, I had to finally acknowledge the dragon in the room. The Illustris Council and their party. I barely knew how to avoid most Dellish faux-pas as per the standards of thugs and the impoverished. I didn't have the slightest idea about what was considered proper etiquette and what was appropriate clothing. The robe-armors that were popular for combat here didn't even exist in my world but something told me that showing up in casual combat gear was very idiotic.

  Fahria! She was the only one whom I could trust to know what to do. While I was not a betting girl, I was confident that the invitation was something she would love and I didn't have anyone else I wanted to take there. I didn't know where she lived so it was back to the guild for me.

  Depositing myself in a bench to await the end of the day's cullings so that I could catch her, I switched my perception over to Medea's.

  The herd was closer than ever and my original body hissed in alarm. Why was Medea so close to it? The sensation of devouring whirling mana from the air was, well, I don't know how to explain it but it felt nice. Just not in a way that had any equivalent in my human language or body. Pulling myself away from dissecting the sensation, I made Medea look down for a second and then froze my perception to study what I saw.

  The worm below was large but not as large as I had initially thought. I Medea might be able to kill it without too much risk, but it seemed content to ignore Medea for now. It too had a whirling mouth that sucked mana in like Medea but it's seemed to be faster and probably more efficient. I could see why Medea was interested in consuming it.

  Time resumed and I realized that one of the mammoths was staring at me. Not Medea, but in the general direction of my actual body —I could vaguely sense our positions in relation to each other with the new skill evolution. It was like some weird expanded proprioception—should be. I terminated the connection And then reconnected with a feeling of embarrassment once I realized that it was already too late if it was looking at me. The mammoth snorted, as if amused by my antics. I tried to ignore it and surveyed Medea's surroundings. It was not deep into the forest but I could see shapes skulking amongst the foliage. Things that could and would kill Medea in an instant without even letting it react, if not for the mammoths scaring them. Malevolent red eyes gleamed balefully in the darkness and another mammoth turned its own gaze towards one set of eyes. The red eyes blinked first and disappeared into the darkness.

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  For several minutes the procession continued in uneasy and tense silence. Until the silence was shattered by an shadow. on five long legs and a saucer-shaped body lumbered to the ravine. It didn't have eyes or even a discernible face. It didn't attack but it stared without a face. Another mammoth, the one that had first seen Biran and I, matched its stare in a standoff. I was tense, ready to fire off a quick Summon Eidolon

  They didn't. Somehow, no one did anything other than staring aggressively at each other and soon enough the giant too faded into the woods as the mammoths continued their slow journey. I let out a breath I hadn't even realized that I was holding. Valdima was not lying when she said that I would die if I tried to navigate the Great Forests on my own. That made me wonder about one thing though, how had the Red Powder smuggler died to Medea when it was so weak? That was another mystery whose answer I would probably never know.

  The worm below, and Medea above, they were just bugs before these titans. Or rather, just ticks and fleas practicing parasitism on creatures that didn't even consider them worthy of notice. If something was hungry and Medea was unlucky, it would cease to be in an instant. And Medea had realized it as well.

  It dove to the ground with its tail pointing forward like a blade. One sting before the worm would react and Medea flew up before the worm would swallow it whole. I felt the wind rushing as teeth or something like that slammed shut powerfully behind Medea. A sound like that of a guillotine blade dropping.

  Medea sharply lurched to the left mid-flight as a beam of black and orange molten rock lanced through the sky, accompanied by a piercing shriek. It had missed Medea but it carved through the ravine face with ease. Boulders rolled, the ground grumbled and chunks of the edge of the ravine started sliding off with cracks and groans. Medea and I became one, Superegobarely managed to weave and dart through the landslide. It took entire for the clouds of dust and debris to clear up. The mammoths were ahead, happy to ignore the chaos. The worm’s glowing maw faced us as if challenging us to try again. We— Medea was not going to do that.

  Medea was safe. It had won. The worm just hadn't realized it yet. The worm was massive and Medea’s venom would probably take a few hours to take hold, that was assuming the worm didn't have resistance or super healing or something.

  Finally, the time came and the contractors began to slowly come out in ones and twos.

  “Fahria. I need your help.”

  “No ‘I’m back’ or ‘how are you?’ or anything? And here I was thinking we were friends or something.” The tone was mirthful but I had known her, spent almost every day with her for over a month and I could see an edge in that joke. Great, she was in one of moods today. I eyed her conspicuously gloved hands and the almost orange sheen of her hair for a moment before meeting her eyes.

  “Well, I was thinking about taking you with me to the ball at the Illustris Palace but if I'm being presumptuous then I'll get out of your hair right now.” That did the trick. Her hair immediately dimmed and her eyes widened. I don't know when this Crucible thing was scheduled for but nothing motivated her like an opportunity to network and establish alliances for it. Still, it was probably not good that the phoenix blood was this dominant, right?

  While explaining the situation to Fahria and what I suspected was the reason for it, another part of me switched over to Medea. It was gorging itself on the worm while dragging it so as to not lose sight of the mammoths. Still, I could tell that it was probably nearing a new bottleneck in its evolution. Not a tier ascension but one simply of efficiency of how well it could convert the earth mana into something useful.

  Satisfied that Medea was safe, I switched over to my main body. Wait, main body? My only body, my body. Where did ‘main’ body even come from? Bah, no one told me that constantly switching like that caused disassociation.

  “I see. Well, tomorrow I'll try to teach you high-society etiquettes but first we need to get you a proper dress. I'll pay for it, consider it repayment for the opportunity. Come with me now.” She hailed a carriage and we stepped in.

  “Keron’s.” The driver nodded as if that meant something and we were off.

  “By the way, where is Medea?”

  “Still hunting.” I answered after briefly switching over to see that Medea was almost finished with its meal. I was impressed, the worm had been physically larger than Medea.

  The carriage turned and drove to what I was only nebulously aware of as the posh districts of New Delport. There was no smog here and the roads were all smooth and clean. The poverty and violence that was so common in the rest of the city melted away in the clean air. I breathed in the fresh air that I could usually only find in the Great Forests.

  Keron's, or Madam Keron’s Place was, well, it seemed to be something like a spa, a hairstylist's and a boutique combined into one. Scantily clad men and women in silvery robes bowed and fussed over me while Fahria negotiated booking a session for us on the day of the ball. Perfect faces with perfect teeth smiled at me and led me from room to room. At some point I found myself lost in the strong fragrance, gentle lights and fussy faculty until hours later, I found myself cleaner and smelling better than I had ever felt in my life. Tiredness and aches that I had not even noticed had evaporated. I was dressed in a deep red robe that seemed to flow like water over my body and yet never got in the way. Apparently this was all just a complimentary service and my real dress and the session were still to come. I didn't even want to think about what all this cost.

  The night had fallen while we were in Keron’s but the carriage had waited for us. Likely because Keron's clientele were all probably wealthy enough for it to be worth it for the drivers to wait for a few hours without taking on a different passenger. I switched over to Medea again and after ensuring that there was no (apparent) danger, I retreated. Something about the cool, clean night breeze, and the trip to Keron's had relaxed me, calmed me. I unshuttered the carriage windows and let the wind caress my cheek. For all the bullshit this city and this world had, this was one of those moments that my old world could never reproduce. Not without extraordinary luck that is.

  I don't know when I nodded off but I did. Perhaps it was because of how many times I had used Hivemother's Crippled Dominion

  It was when she shook me awake with an amused expression that I realized where we were. Right, she didn't know where I lived and probably didn't trust me to not fall asleep again. I couldn't blame her for that, that retchroot eradication expedition had proved without a doubt how bad I was with sleep.

  Suppressing — to suppress a yawn, I directed the carriage driver to my shitty apartment and then stumbled in like a drunk. It was for a moment before I plopped on my bed that I remembered that I had not only forgotten to pay the guy but also shown Fahria the squalor I lived in. Oh well, not everyone is the scion of a merchant clan. With that, I went back to sleep.

  A palace of iron towers and crystal spires stood tall in New Delport. A glimmering golden gate was at the forefront of the palace. Gold and silver filigree on pillars intricately carved from white marble formed a perimeter around the building. Domes of strobing fractal lights in every possible shade and hue capped off the pillars. Two spiralling stairs of glittering glass ran from the ground to the roof of the tallest central tower of the structure. This was the Illustris Palace. The seat of power in New Delport. It had stood since the times of Old Catria and was the true crown jewel of the Eastern Sea. Over a hundred masked enforcers exited the building in silence. Each of them clutched a particular unattuned mana crystal and each had a predetermined destination.

  One went to the girl with the spider-scorpion and then to her guest, the heiress. One went to the woman of iron and thunder who was older than she seemed. One went to the one who ruled his own small kingdom in the shadows and his two new guards. One went to the proprietress. One to the hunter who kept the beasts at bay. One to the mistress of poison. The old monster beneath the well received one. The glassblower rejected his invitation just like he had the last ten. Three went to the church but one was turned away. And unbeknownst to all of them, a body floated in the river Nyrum. A body that no predator in Nyrum touched. A body of a nameless child from the slums who was known by almost none and missed by even less. A body that floated without deteriorating until it left the city and met the waste of it and dissolved in silence.

  Two bodies smiled as one. One looked like a woman with a heatless flame in her heart pretending to be someone she no longer was. A body that had once been someone else. But it was alright, the flesh was just a different sort of garment after all.

  One was a man in a warehouse in the deepest bowels of the city. Dozens of diminutive bodies that burned with a fire that didn't give off heat were strapped to beds that resembled coffins. The man himself burned with the same fire, his body unable to handle the power the will that inhabited it had exerted. But it was all right, he wasn't particularly attached to that body anyways.