Illuminated by ntern light, Myers sits alone in the Mess Hall of the Timbergrove. In front of him rests a map of the surrounding area and half a bottle of wine. Both items are oo help him relieve his he wio numb the stress and the map to give him an illusion of trol. Over the years of service at his former and, maps were a stant panion in his daily life. They allowed him to pn, anize, and manipute the battlefield before the battle even began.

  Even with these two items, his nerves are still on edge. Yes, he escaped Memphis with Cy’s life intact, but he also lost the greatest strength at the same time: Anonymity. Three years of hiding should have made every [Bounty Hunter] give up the hunt. Three damn years should have been enough. Now his presence will be dissemio every single Bounty Hunter guild and the hunts will start again!

  The wooden mug cracks under his grip. Wine spills out of the crad drips onto the map. Cursing, he quickly gets up, grabs a rag, and wipes his mess . Once finished, he sits down and stares at the stain in the er of the map. Once upon a time, if a subordinate spilled something on a map, he’d have the man publicly whipped and puhe man’s pay would be permaly withheld until such time that ten times the cost of the map is covered.

  Now he’d doly the thing he loathes most.

  “Yee look like ya drinkin to stress. Thas rarely warks for most.”

  His head twirls to find Cillian with a bottle in hand and a grin on his face. The short man’s face is red, as red as usual when he’s drunk. But, what really gets Myers attention is his eyes. Though Cillian is very drunk, even leaning a little to the side, he 't help but feel like his mind is sharper than usual.

  “I o rex.”

  Cillian snorts. He wobbles to the table and leans on it. “Yur nat tha type ta rex like dis.” He grabs the bottle oable and takes a smell. “Drinkin makes ya emotion stronga. Ita makes yah feel mor and think l-less.” He lifts the bottle and takes a chug. “Unlike me.” He burps.

  Myers frowns at the words of a drunk. Normally, he’d never give the man's words any thought, but Cillian has made impeccable deals while intoxicated. Even his former [Quartermaster] with double the level of Cillian would struggle to make the same profitable deal.

  Leaning ba his chair, he takes Cillians words to heart. Yes, things are going to be much more dangerous now that the [Bounty Hunters] know Cy was at Memphis. But, they still formation on their looks, new names, and only the highest level [Bounty Hunters] would have any hope of even trag them if all they use are items from three years old.

  “Heh, yur rexin.” Cillian chuckle.

  Myers nods. He does feel a bit lighter now. Still worried and stressed, but more manageable. He’d been too focused too mu the worst possible situation. On top of that, he isn’t going to be running forever. There is a way out for both him and Cy, he just o speak to Quasi about it. Speaking of which…

  “Have you seen my grandson?”

  Cillian nods. He points down. “Kids wit tha cap’tain. Dey pyin wit fire and makin explosions.”

  And like that, his stress returns in full force. “Thank you.” He gets up and rushes down to the hold.

  As he rushes off, Cillian salutes him with the bottle and then chugs the rest of the tents.

  __________________________________________________________

  As Myers nears the hold, he’s met with the smell of burning flesh, fshes of light, and the sound of popping. Wheers, he is also met with the stench of blood.

  Quasi is in the ter of the room and is sitting oool as a Fenrimorph without his Gaus. Below quasi is a puddle of dark grayish-blue blood with bits of flesh and fur. As for Quasi, the man is smothered in burns, missing skin, and fur.

  Near him is Boriss with a thick singed b while d hes watch from a distance.

  Before he ask what's happening, a part of Quasi’s arm bursts into fme. Boriss prepares to smother it with the b, but the fme quickly dies down, leaving the fur only slightly singed. Speechless, he watches the same thing happen several more times. At some point, the fire is explosive and bright enough to rip flesh from the body. Only then does Boriss smother the fme.

  At such a sight, Myers gets a feeling of woozy. When he looks at Cy, the child is rexed and curious. Seemingly unbothered by the gruesome dispy.

  Eventually, Quasi raises an arm and bes hes and Cy.

  Both Phytonid and human rush to Quasi. It is here that he notices a box in Cy’s hand. Quasi reaches inside and starts grabbing and ing dried meat. At the same time, hes starts cutting away any burnt flesh on Quasi.

  It is here that Myers makes his presenown by walking up.

  “I’ve seen a lot of disturbing ses in my life, but I think this might be the worst yet. I’m guessing you’re trying to learn magic?” He asks.

  Quasi growls in affirmative.

  “Are you sure it’s safe?”

  Quasi elbows hes to speak.

  The Phytonid twists her head towards Myers without halting her surgery.

  “The Matriarch's body coagutes blood within moments of exposure to air- making the ce of bleeding out unlikely. The body is also incredibly resistant to both bacterial and viral pathogens. bined with the most exceptional regeive property I have ever seen, the Matriarch is pletely safe from such artificial damage.” hes expins.

  Myers blinks, still woozy as hes slices burnt flesh off of Quasi. “I… see. Why are you peeling him?”

  “Though his regeion is exceptional, we have found that it struggles tee flesh that is burhus, my job is to remove such flesh so as to tinue rapid regeion.”

  Myers ighe queasiness of his stomad patiently waits for hes to finish. When she does, Quasi doesn’t even wait to heal before transf into a cat.

  “Holy crap it smells like meat!”

  “Like roast wolf!” Boriss adds.

  Quasi frowns at the Grinning Russian before returning his attention to Myers. “Right. You look like you o talk.”

  “I do, though I wait if you’re busy.”

  Quasi waves a paw. “It’s fine. I o take a break anyway. Hours of bsting my own skin takes a bit of a mental toll on at of the pain.”

  Myers takes ana the pubble of flesh and blood.

  “There was a lot more earlier.” Quasi quickly adds. “Much rger ks too before hes ate it.”

  “You have improved faster than any of my tree siblings,” hes pliments.

  Myers raises an eyebrow.

  Quasi stretches. “Yea, apparently hes’ is all about body modification. Natural Mutation magic or some shit. Anyway, they grow aroy their flesh stantly until they fully modify their form. Not that I’m modifying anything. I’m just trying to bst fire when I punch.”

  Myers scratches his beard. “Like [Monks].”

  Quasi nods slowly. “Kinda, though I’m not sure if they do it differently than how I’m trying. So far, I do something like this.”

  Quasi’s tail moves in front of him and points upwards. Theip bursts into fme. He wiggles the burning tail bad forth like one does with a torch..

  “I safely set myself on fire. Now, if I want to use this in bat, I’m going to have to put in quite a bit more power.”

  “Or learn other runes,” Cy says with a giggle.

  Quasi sigh. “Right. I probably should have asked Auranta about learning… safer runes.”

  Myers stares at Quasi for a long moment. Initially, he’d thought that Quasi ecifically training some fire teique. Now though…

  “Look, I got excited, asked for help, and only after blowing my arms off several times did the thought occur to ask for a safer rune.” Quasi sighs. “Let's just ge the subject. What did you want to talk to me about?”

  Myers takes a breath and steels his resolve. “Mine and Cy’s presence is a dao you and everyone aboard this ship. This I know well and I am immehankful for your effort in keeping us safe.”

  The cat rolls its eyes. “Yes, yes, pliment, thank you, thank you, more pliments, apology, bh, bh, bh. Just skip to the part where yoing to request something from me.”

  The old man pihe bridge of his nose while suppressing the upward twitch of his lips.

  “rade Quasi is right. Vhe are all family now. Family must never be afraid to ask foat milk when cow is sick.” Boriss articutes with a friendly grin.

  “Right.” Myers g Cy. The child is waiting patiently, but also mirrors Boriss’s grin. “As much as I’d like to expin mine and Cy’s full situation, the dang-”

  “Just ask the damn request.” Quasi growls. “I’m not f you to tell me your secrets or why you and the kid are being hunted. I’m sure you’ll tell me in time.”

  Cy giggles at Myers now annoyed look. He’s trying to be diplomatic, but Quasi makes this very difficult.

  “I’d like for you to hurry to the isnd of Magnus. I have allies there that have the capability to protect mine and Cy’s life indefinitely.”

  “Magnus? That's the isnd with the Republic of Guilds, right?”

  Myers nods. “Yes. We will be out of your hair and I will speak to them about you a suitable reward.”

  Quasi tilts his head. “I like you and I really like the kid, but just as you are rushing, so am I. I o visit all the towers as soon as possible. Taking a detour to Magnus isn’t something I do without good reason.”

  “Magnus has a tower on the isnd,” Myers expins. “There are several more towers near all of the major powers too.”

  “All the towers.” Quasi repeats. “I o visit all of them as effitly and as fast as possible. That involves visiting every nearby tower on my way to Magnus. If you wao get there as soon as possible, then you better make an effit route for me.”

  Myers grimaow, but he also figured that would be the answer. Not that it’s a bad thiher. The closer you get to the major powers, the higher the levels of people you deal with, and thus the more dangerous it bees. Allowing Quasi to level will increase the likelihood that if something ued happens, they deal with it appropriately.

  “I’ll have a route made.” He answers.

  Quasi stretches a little “Sounds good to me. By the way, how long until we reach the tower?”

  “Within a day or two. Sooner if the winds are kind.”

  “That fast? Damn. I o get back to training.”

  With those final words, Quasi returns to his Fenrimorph form and starts setting his body on fire all ain. This time, Myers doesnt wait to watch.

  ______________________________________________________________

  Salence shakes his head in annoyanoment he’s preparing the au house in Memphis for the sale of the chests and then the damn guy barges in and ges his mind. Now he has even more paperwork to do.

  As he fihe paperwork and stamps it with all the proper preparations, he leans back to release a sigh. A short sigh, because just finishing the paperwork isn’t enough. Getting up from his chair, he leaves his offid finds his way to the [Secretary] in charge of transportation.

  “Ga, I his dot rushed.” Salence pces the dot in front of the tired looking woman..

  The woman groans. “More work already? I’m kinda in the middle of something.”

  “This is urgent too. I need you to add several Exceptional quality runed chests with the map shipment to Magnus. The seller took my advid now wants to have the chests aued there instead of at Memphis. It should sell for a det bit more there pared to here, so the shipping cost will more than pay itself- especially so if we use the Chests as ste tainers.”

  By the time Salence finishes his expnation, Ga is already shaking her head.

  He frowns. “What's wrong? Was the map already shipped off? That shouldn't be until m.”

  “No. The map’s still here, and it’s going to be here for quite a bit la says.

  Salence leans into the desk. “What? Why?”

  “[Guild Governor] Bernard just locked dowy.”