Light and pain all condensed to form a miniature star of suffering in the front of Karon's skull, and with a pained gurgle of protest, he fell down on the ground where the star decided to go supernova. He lay on the ground squirming, with tiny pricks of light dancing in front of his eyes, which he closed with a whimper.

To add to his pain, he heard an amused chortle at his expense. After a few minutes of bemoaning his luck and when the worst of the pain seemed to have settled, he decided to open his eyes again and saw Trixie standing over him with a huge grin on her face.

“I don't know, Karon; if you can't even handle a tree then maybe we shouldn't be going after this guy after all,” she said and patted his head, sending a jolt of pain through his scalp.

“Ouch! Don't do that!” he said and glared at her.

“What about this,” she asked softly and kissed his forehead slowly.

“Uh, well, that you can...” he began, and then noticed Selena standing a way off, looking at them like she had made a grave mistake. “Trix, I think we're being unprofessional,” he whispered.

“Too bad,” she murmured and continued kissing his face further down.

“I… ehh… Trix, we have a destiny to recover and… and…”

“We can get her a new one instead, and find other things to do,” she said and licked his lips.

Karon stayed completely still, and his eyes flickered back and forth like he was considering it. Trixie noticed and pulled back her head with a snort. “I'm joking. Now get up, we've got work to do.”

She turned her back on him and started walking over towards Selena, while chuckling something sounding like “males,” under her breath.

“I hate you,” Karon said slowly.

“No you don't,” came Trixie's amused reply.

With a growl, Karon rose from the ground and rubbed his head gingerly. There was an intense throbbing behind his eyes, but nothing beyond that which would indicate he had seriously hurt himself. He looked around and found Promise lying on the ground. When he picked up the spear, it immediately sent a flood of exhilaration from the battle, worry for his pain, and rage towards the one lone tree that had dared to hurt him; all at the same time in one giant flood of impressions.

It made Karon wince, and the pain doubled for just a few seconds as he sorted through what Promise was sending to him. It settled down about the same time the spear realized it was hurting him, and the flood receded with a small, guilty feeling that appeared to be an apology.

“It's okay,” Karon said aloud, bringing himself back to reality.

Selena and Trixie were standing silently, waiting for him to join them, and he walked over while taking a look around this new world they had arrived in. Apart from the sun that shone a little stronger and the colors, it didn't look that much different from Earth.

They were standing in a forest of tall, leafy trees with pale blue bark and green emerald leaves scattered on the forest floor. The ground was mostly the same old brown dirt that Karon surmised you would be able to find on most worlds, and the sky above them, visible in patches through the tree canopy, was a normal blue.

“So, this is your home. What is it called?” Karon asked when he came to stand before Selena.

The woman blinked rapidly at him, then said something in a language Karon didn't understand. It took him a few seconds to get it, and when he did he smacked himself on the forehead, eliciting another jolt of pain.

“What?” Trixie asked and looked at Selena, confused.

“The bazaar isn't just some random spot where people go to shop. It's a sphere in complete flux and it adapts to every creature that goes there. If you'd ask some kind of aquatic being about the place he'd have said it was under water, and so on. Hell, the bazaar we visited is probably just one layer, and beings we are unable to comprehend the existence of could have been at the bazaar standing right next to us, visiting their own form of bazaar we're not even aware of,” Karon told her.

“And this has something to do with Selena talking funny, why?” she asked dryly, then stopped for a second and spoke again. “Wait, I get it. The bazaar also adapts so that every creature there automatically understands each other.”

“Yup.”

“Then how could we understand each other in that blue fog place?” Trixie asked him.

Karon furrowed his eyebrows and remained silent for a while before answering. “I don't know. Maybe it's not really the bazaar, or maybe it's the real thing and the fog is just what the bazaar is shaped of and suspended within. Maybe the forces playing boss to the bazaar don’t extend their authority outside the borders of the shopping bazaar. There could be a lot of explanations; point is, we're not in that place anymore and here the shortcuts don't apply.”

“Can't you do that mind thing you do to rip a language out of someone, or put it in? You know, like you did to get me to learn English,” Trixie said.

“I don't 'rip' anything out of anyone,” Karon said and rubbed his head, evaluating just how bad his head hurt. “No,” he said eventually and shook his head, “that would put a little too much strain on my mind at the moment.”

“So how are we supposed to understand what she says? Or she what we say?” the unicorn asked with an annoyed look on her face.

“Well, unlike some brutes who just throw energy around and waste it on making lights and sounds and heat, I happen to have some skills that are a little more refined. Like telepathy,” Karon said and gave the unicorn a smug grin.

“Won't that just hurt your head too in the long run?” she asked, decidedly ignoring the rest of his comment.

“Yeah, it will give me a constant headache, but it will be less of one. I'll get used to it eventually,” he said.

“You'll get used to walking around with a constant headache?”

“I got used to you, didn't I?” he said with a smirk.

The glare Trixie gave him could literally kill had she decided to put some energy into it, and for a moment, Karon looked nervous, but nothing happened. So he turned his eyes to Selena and very obviously moved his hands towards her head and put two fingers on each temple.

“Can you understand me?” he asked.

“What are you doing!?” came the frightened response, flavored with a myriad of feelings ranging from panic to wonderment.

“Communicating, obviously. Since we don't have any language in common, this will just have to do for the remainder of the job. Think you can handle it?”

“I… yes. But if we can't speak the same language, then how are we speaking right now?”

“We're not, I'm sending thoughts, feelings and just raw data to you. It's your brain that translates it into your own language, same back to me.”

“Oh, that sounds… very practical.”

“And very distracting, so I'm going to let our connection fade into the background or the strain might become too much for me. If you want to talk, poke me in the shoulder or something.” Karon finished, then let the steady flow of consciousness that came from Selena fade away, until it became only a small pressure somewhere deep inside his mind.

Her facial expression had gone through nearly the entire spectrum of human emotions during the very brief conversation, and it was becoming obvious pretty quickly that Selena was not used to magic on the level Karon and Trixie were throwing around. He made a mental note of that and saved it for later consideration. If Selena was having a hard time dealing with magic, then it could become problematic once they started interacting with farmers or other 'common' folk.

“It would be a good idea to bring that up with Trixie, you know, so she doesn't try and show off.”

Karon made a kind of waving motion with his arms, like he was wondering where to go next. Selena understood and gave him a nod before looking up towards the sky and taking her bearings, which only took a few seconds before she set off in what, to Karon, was a random direction.

He followed after her with Trixie, and the two spent the first half hour of wandering just taking in the environment. The novelty of blue trees wore off quickly, though, and before an hour had passed, Trixie was looking around with a dangerously bored expression. Karon decided it would be good to strike up a conversation before she set something on fire.

“Trix, we should probably make up a plan for how to deal with the sorcerer.”

She shrugged and answered in a bored voice, “Kick his flank, get back Selena's destiny.”

“As always, you leave me in awe with your sheer tactical genius,” Karon said and smacked his tongue.

“You said it yourself; a guy calling himself 'Nagrosh the Dark' can't be that bad. We just need to find a way to put Selena's destiny back into her or whatever, and you're the expert in messing with minds.”

“I should put that on a business card,” Karon said dryly, but before he could continue, Trixie interrupted him.

“Karon, what is this really about?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, carefully putting on a neutral expression.

“You've been acting doubly paranoid recently, and you look worried all the time; even your jokes feel forced.”

“My jokes are not forced,” Karon said sharply, unable to keep some of his annoyance from creeping into his voice.

“Karon, I love you but you were never as funny as you think. But these past few weeks you've been joking about everything and not in your usual, carefree way, either. It's like you’re trying to be funny. Usually, you just complain and it's kinda amusing, but now… I don't know. Something is wrong, I can tell that at least, so, trickster or not, cough it up.”

“You're sexy when you try and boss me around,” Karon said lovingly.

She gave him a warm smile before replying, “You won't distract me, Karon.”

“Dammit,” he muttered and rubbed his forehead, the headache was getting worse. “Nothing's wrong, Trix,” he tried to reassure her, but her face told him that it hadn't been one of his more convincing lies.

He sighed and took his crooked hat off before wiping his forehead of the thin sheet of sweat that had gathered there. “There is nothing wrong, Trix, I'm just worried.”

“About what?” she asked curiously.

“You, me, everything going on. We're in an entirely different game here, and I'm not talking about this job, specifically. This sorcerer might appear to be a push-over if his approach is anything to go by, but what about the next little adventure we stumble into?”

“Karon, we're not exactly new to the adventuring deal,” Trixie said and poked him in his ribs.

“That's kinda the point, Trix. We've done a fair share of dangerous things, but those were in places like Equestria and Earth, and that one trip to Valhalla. This is different. We're playing a game of power now, the true great game played between beings that could snuff out stars easier than you and I would a candle. How the hell am I supposed to measure up against that? How am I supposed to protect you when everything I could do is worth next to nothing?”

“Really? You worry about protecting me? I can take care of myself nowadays, Karon,” Trixie said with a hint of accusation in her voice.

“I know, I know. But you still don't stand a chance should one or both of us piss off some random deity. Even a second class demigod could wipe the floor with us.”

“So what should we do? Just head back to Earth and live the quiet life? Or head back to Equestria and live an ever quieter life with far too sheltered ponies.”

Karon was taken aback by the anger in her voice, especially when she mentioned Equestria. He opened his mouth to respond, then closed and opened it repeatedly before he managed to think of something to say.

“No, I don't want that and neither do you. It's not in our nature, and that's the point I'm trying to make. We're two creatures that seem to be uniquely gifted at pissing people off, and we're playing games with massively powerful beings while we just drift along.”

The both of them remained quiet after he finished, and the sound of distant birds singing traveled on the wind. There was something very soothing about it, like nature had decided to remind the two of them to remain calm, and that things weren't doomed to end in misery.

Karon breathed in the smell of the forest, both strange and familiar at the same time. He turned his eyes back to Trixie, and the birdsong quieted, leaving only the sound of Promise striking the ground with each step he took.

“Look, when we were in Equestria there were plenty of times when I was afraid, but the only thing I was truly terrified of, was facing myself. Now that's over, and after two years of training with Varsif again, I've advanced both in skill and power far beyond what I had in Equestria. I'm truly free. Free to explore and do whatever I want as long as I don't break some very basic rules. And Trix, I'm fucking terrified of losing you.”

“You won't,” she promised and brushed her head against him.

“There's no guarantee for that,” he began, but Trixie was quick to put a hoof to his lips and look into his eyes sternly.

“Bitz managed to make his way, and I'm confident we could take him, and I bet there are millions we could handle for every one we couldn't. If we should—no, when we do make someone more powerful than both of us into an enemy, we'll still win. Because I'm awesome and you're awesome, and if we don't win by power, we do it because we're smarter, or trickier, or we just cheat. I'm not gonna run back to Equestria and all the butterflies and rainbows because things get dangerous; that's just part of the fun. Together, you and I are gonna kick flank.”

Karon couldn't help but grin along with her, and he stopped for a second to embrace her. She hugged him back hard, and when they separated there was a quiet understanding that passed between them, and Karon didn't need to be telepathic to decipher it.

“To the end.”

The moment was lost when Selena cleared her throat very loudly, and Karon and Trixie turned their heads to see her standing a few meters away, tapping her foot. She might not have understood a word of what they'd been saying, but her point was made pretty clear through body language alone.

“She doesn't think we're taking this job seriously enough.”

“She has a point; maybe we should at least pretend we're professionals instead of a random pair of troublemakers.”

“Can't I be a professional troublemaker?”

“Don't try and be funny. I'm the funny one.”

Karon smiled briefly, and turned his attention back out to reality. Selena was still watching them like she was weighing the possibility of returning to Bitz and asking for someone else to help her out, and Trixie was looking back at her with a wry smile.

“We're right behind you,” he said to Selena, and even though she couldn't understand him she understood the motions he did with his hands.

She turned around and continued her walk towards whatever settlement she called home, and Trixie gave Karon a quick kiss before they went after her.

“I'm a little surprised you were so honest about all of that,” the unicorn commented.

“Would you have preferred if I had waited until we had just finished fighting the sorcerer off and I revealed it as some kind of confession, all the while making it seem like learning how to trust you and not accepting fear was some kind of lesson I had learned? And so it ended up being the moral of this little adventure?” Karon asked in as mocking a tone of voice he could.

“It would have been more dramatic,” Trixie answered and tapped her chin thoughtfully.

“You want a moral to go with this? Here's a few: fear isn't without purpose and it can be a damn good motivator. Curiosity and us being damn near broke is the prime reason we're doing this, not altruism or the need to be heroes. And finally, if you want to be a villain, then you should pick a better name than 'Nagrosh the Dark'. It doesn't really inspire fear.”

“Hmmm, you forgot 'Multidimensional mercenary work is exciting and it's a good idea to listen to ideas coming from a very beautiful and clever companion'.”

“You're right, forgot that one,” Karon laughed.

They made the rest of the trip in high spirits, and the two of them laughed and made jokes all the way while they went over old adventures together. Selena walked in silence, and it was only when they reached the edge of the woods, at the shores of a great ocean with white cliffs sticking up from the sand, that she turned around and waved Karon forward to her.

He came towards her and, from the far reaches of his mind, the connection to her surfaced.

“Yes?” he asked.

“We are now at the edge of our city border. It's not very far from here, just follow the beach left for less than an hour and we will reach the boats.”

“The boats?”

“Yes, to take us to the city.”

“Mind explaining that further?”

“You need the boats… to take us to the city.”

“So, what, the city is located out in the ocean?” Karon thought, fighting to keep the impatience from transmitting as well.

“Of course. It is a city.”

“And in my experience cities are usually located on land.”

“Not ours. Why would we put them on land? All the fish and work is out in the water.”

“I… never mind. How do you think the people in your city will react to our presence?”

Selena turned her eyes over at Trixie, and she looked very uncertain. Karon could feel it through their connection, along with fleeting impressions of past times where strange and magical things happened in the city. From what he could gather, it never ended well.

“I don't think the others will react well to your friend.”

“Great, she'll never agree to sit one out.”

“You have much power, is there no way for you to make her look normal? Or keep her out of sight?”

Karon groaned at the thought of adding even more strain on his mind by keeping Trixie cloaked.

“Yeah maybe, but I can't keep that up forever. It's also going to be painful for me to perform this much magic on top of the headache I got from the tree.”

“You are the ones Bitz hired to help me, so decide what you think is best and I will assist in whatever way you want me to.”

“Let me discuss things with my… partner, and we'll decide on a course of action before continuing.”

Selena nodded in understanding and, with a shiver of relief, Karon allowed the link to fade into the back of his mind. The sound of the waves gently washing up on the shore helped to alleviate some of the increasing pain, but it was only a little, and the burden of cloaking Trixie while they were inside Selena's city would be exhausting. It would have been a lot easier had he been cloaking himself as well. Then it was only a matter of creating a small field of his aura and expanding it. However, cloaking Trixie only would require him to bridge a connection to her and do the same to her, which would also mean he would be receiving data from two persons at the same time while sending energy and instructions to Trixie's aura to keep her out of sight.

Two years ago, he might have been able to do such a thing for a minute or two at the most, and then collapsed. Now… he might be able to keep it up for forty minutes, tops. And he had no idea how big the city might be, or how hard it would be to keep Trixie from breaking his magic.

“Trix, get over here,” he said, and sat down on the beach. He took off a pair of worn boots, not the same he had received from Rarity, but a new pair of leather boots both darker and a bit more durable. He made a very pleased sound when he removed his socks and bathed his naked feet in the shallow water, letting the waves wash over them.

“You'll get your pants wet, and you'll drag around sand everywhere,” Trixie complained, as she came and sat down next to him.

“Don't be like that. This world is pretty nice. Try and enjoy it before all the fighting starts,” Karon advised and took off his hat before closing his eyes and turning his face up towards the sun.

“There's a lot of nice places, Karon. I prefer the exciting ones,” he heard her say.

“That's what I wanted to talk about. Selena has told me that the locals aren't exactly magic-friendly, or anything-out-of-the-ordinary friendly.”

“Too bad for them,” he heard her say in a dangerous tone of voice.

“I mean it, Trix. We're here to help Selena, not burn her home to the ground. If we get into trouble, we'll get to have a little fun with the locals but nothing major, okay?”

“Define 'major',” she asked slowly.

“No one dead and nothing they can't fix up in a few days.”

“What about the sorcerer?” she asked.

“Depends on him, really. If he's as much of a pushover as I suspect then we get the trick to stealing destinies back from him, and use it to put Selena back on track. After that… I don't know. He's a sorcerer after all, but he sounds like a young kid or just too full of himself. I could easily have ended up like him, and we don't kill other practitioners lightly, Trixie. So if he's not the super evil badass villain he no doubt fancies himself as, we give him a slap on the fingers and tell him to run away.”

“Do you really think that's a great idea?” Trixie asked dubiously.

“No, but the bad ideas are usually more fun,” he said and turned his head to wink at her.

She smiled back at him and shook her head. The world seemed so bright to Karon after having his eyes closed, and the light of the sun bounced off the trees behind them, making them glow a pale blue.

“So, what's the plan?” Trixie asked.

Karon squirmed inwards at the thought of what he was about to ask of her, and of how she probably would react.

“Since the locals aren't fond of magic and weird stuff, I think it's safe to say they wouldn't react well to the presence of a unicorn,” Karon began.

“And...” Trixie asked all too calmly.

“And I think it's best that you either stay here while I go into town and investigate that basement where the ritual took place, or you follow along but while I cloak you.”

Trixie's face remained impassive for a long time and the longer she remained silent, the louder Karon's heart started beating. He licked his lips nervously after a couple of minutes had passed, and asked, “So?”

“Okay, but if something happens I'm not going to stay back just so you know,” she said, looking him deeply in his eyes, her purple eyes hard as stone.

“Didn't expect you to,” he said, wincing inwardly at the headache he would have to endure.

“Want me to do anything while you’re doing your fancy 'soft' magic?” she asked and flicked a bit of sand away with her right hoof.

“No, if you start channeling energy it will just make it ten times more difficult for me to keep you hidden. Just follow behind and avoid bumping into anything. When we're out of sight in the basement, we'll see if there's anything you can do.”

She seemed to accept that, even though her eyebrows were slightly furrowed. The both of them rose and walked over to Selena, where Karon once again brought up their connection and told her, “We're ready to go to the city now. I'll keep Trixie cloaked as long as I can, but we need to hurry to the basement where you woke up with the sorcerer so we can investigate any residue of the magic he used.”

“The basement is in one of the gathering houses, normally no one is down there since we only use them to store supplies in case of a prolonged storm. It's maybe twenty minutes from where the boat will arrive at.”

“And how long does it take for the boat to get to the city?” Karon asked, hoping she would say a minute or two.

“Maybe half an hour, a little less.”

Sighing deeply, Karon rubbed his temples.

“That will be very difficult. If I don't make it we'll have to find an out-of-the-way spot and wait for me to catch my breath before going on.”

Karon received a feeling of sympathy through their links, and Selena looked at him with a little more confidence that she might actually get her destiny back.

“Lead the way, then; show us these boats that will take us to your city.

“What about your friend?”

“I'll cloak her once we get within sight of this harbor of yours.”

She nodded, and then gave one lingering look towards Trixie before she started walking down the beach. Karon and Trixie followed closely, staying just a few steps behind her while looking for any signs of settlement. After most of an hour had passed there had been none. The forest remained untouched, and the only forewarning they got that they were close to the harbor was when Selena stopped and waved Karon forward.

“What is it?” he asked.

“The boats are just a few minutes away; it would be a good idea to hide your friend now in case anyone is out for a walk.”

Karon looked behind the woman, to the beach still stretching forward a long way without any sign of life.

“Uh, are the boats invisible?”

“No, but they are hidden at a river that goes into the forest.”

“Ah, will there be a lot of people there?”

“It is never certain; sometimes none, sometimes hundreds.”

“And there will be no problem using a boat to get out to the city?”

“No, the boats are free for anyone to use. But if we are unlucky they might all be out and we have to wait for one to arrive.”

“That's not good.”

“I'm sorry, but it is very rare for all the boats to be gone.”

“Nothing to do about it if it's so. If we have to wait, I'll drop the cloaking and Trixie will just have to hide in a bush or something.”

The visual image that was transferred to Selena brought a smile to her lips, and Karon noticed that she had laugh lines around her mouth and eyes. He thought it strange seeing that, and he carefully made sure that thought did not slip through their connection. From what little time he had spent with her, Selena had appeared like a solemn and serious person. Now though, looking at her smiling, it seemed to him like her face had been made to express joy.

“We'll see how things go. Let's just get to the boats, first,” he sent as a final message to her, then allowed the connection to slip back into a corner of his mind.

“Trix, the boats will be at a river connecting to the sea just a few minutes ahead. Selena says that there will probably be a boat there we can use, but if not I want you to stay hidden in the forest until we get one.”

“I don't like that. Can't we just borrow one if all of them are taken?” she asked.

“Want to elaborate on what you were thinking?” he asked skeptically and crossed his arms.

“You're the trickster, do some mind thing and get them to take us to the city,” she suggested in a carefree tone.

“No, I will be putting enough pressure on myself as is. Hypnotizing someone, or, worse yet, several people, will not be good for me.”

“Fine, I'll hide,” she said and kicked away some sand at her hooves angrily.

The three of them continued down the beach and stopped when they reached a wide river that had obviously been dug out by human hands. It looked unnaturally wide and deep for nature to have managed to pull it off so symmetrically in comparison to the wild forest, as if it was just wide enough to allow two of the distant boats Karon spotted to pass each other by, floating in a perfectly straight line.

A dozen or so boats were sitting in the river at the ends of three large docks, upon which, a few scattered humans mulled about, seemingly just talking or resting. A few houses built out of the pale, blue wood of the forest stood at either side of the river, built as large triangles with circular windows looking out at the world.

The humans themselves didn't seem that strange, wearing white and blue colored clothes with a few exceptions. The boats on the other hand looked a bit funny, with bulky contraptions stationed on the deck.

“An engine of some kind, perhaps? I see no sails.”

There was a downtrodden path that led to the small harbor, and Selena took a few steps upon it before turning back and looking at Karon and Trixie, questioningly.

“Okay, Trix, time for you to vanish. Ready?” he asked.

“I am,” she said with a sigh.

Energy swirled within Karon's aura and stretched out towards the unicorn until it enveloped her in a shell. The shell attached itself to her, and with a little bit of instruction from Karon, the energy was shaped into magic, and Trixie disappeared.

He could still feel her through the connection, and her thoughts and feelings passed him by like a distant echo, joining together with those from Selena. He pushed both the connections aside, allowing only a small bit of the connection with Trixie to remain so he could keep the cloaking up.

He turned around to Selena, and she faced him wide eyed and still staring at the spot where Trixie had vanished. Karon jerked his head towards the boats, and Selena straightened herself before leading the way to the harbor.

The people they passed by all reacted pretty much the same; respectful nods or a polite smile for Selena, and suspicious glares for Karon. Now that they were closer, Karon could see that nearly everyone was blond and blue eyed, with a few exceptions of brown thrown into the mix. The architecture and everything that looked made by human hands also had a kind of disturbing repetition, like everything was made after the same basic patterns - even the clothes they wore were pretty much the same.

It didn't take a lot to understand that Selena's people weren't just not fond of magic or magicians, they weren't fond of anything out of their basic patterns, period. Had he not been on a job, Karon imagined that it would have been fun to add a little spice to what must be a monotonous existence. But he was, and the pressure from the magic was building inside his head and slowly but surely forming cracks in his concentration.

Selena led the way onto one of the boats, where another person stood, looking about ready to cast off. His face was one of surprise when he noticed her, and then turned disapproving when he noticed Karon walking behind her, taking in the red robe and hat, spear, and orange eyes.

He said something, his voice rumbling and deep. Selena answered something in a light, almost joking tone of voice, and the man responded with a chuckle. He gave Karon another glance, but one that was a mixture of amusement and pity instead of hostility.

The man had light golden hair and was unshaven, evident by the blonde scruff contrasted against his dirtied face. The clothes he wore were the same nearly everyone else seemed to be wearing: a blue vest over a white shirt with short sleeves, and very wide pants in dirty white. They were torn and rugged, and from the look of him, Karon guessed the man's work involved a lot of hard labor.

Yet Selena managed to calm his suspicions towards the red clad stranger with just a few sentences, leaving him in a happy mood. He waved Karon on board, and through the connection to Trixie he felt the unicorn hurry over the plank on board behind him. The man untied the rope to the bridge, and lifted a small barrel to the weird contraption taking up most of the ship deck. He poured the contents of the barrel into it, a light green liquid that shone brightly when the sun's rays caught it.

He emptied maybe half the barrel, then put it back down and pulled a few levers sticking out on the contraption's side. Selena walked over to Karon while he was busy observing what was going on, and she put a hand to his shoulder to get his attention.

“What is he doing?” Karon asked her as her presence surfaced within his mind.

“Preparations. The Tiga oil will fuel the engine, and it will carry us to the city.”

“You got engines here?”

“Yes, of course we have. Why wouldn't we?”

“I don't know; I just… expected something more medieval.”

Selena winced when the thought transmitted to her and she rubbed her head with a pained expression.

“I couldn't understand what you just said; it just hurt.”

“I was just expecting a quest to track down a rogue sorcerer to take place somewhere… engine-less.”

“I don't understand. Why?”

“Never mind,” Karon thought, and nodded in the direction of the man tinkering with the engine.

“Who's he?”

“One of the guides, they take care of the boats and navigate them for travelers.”

“He didn't look happy when he first saw me.”

“Our people don't like strangers. The cities fight a lot, and there are dangers in the sea that lure away people that don't stay wary of things that are different.”

“Sounds boring, so why did he change his mind?”

“I told him that you were a friend, recently from another city, and were going to become one of us. I also said you were foolish, since you are from one of the other cities, and ate a Tappa root.”

“Tappa root?”

“They grow in the forest; very tasty but they leave one with a tongue that has no feeling and can't be used for days after it is eaten.”

“Ah, so now I have an excuse for why I'm not talking. Clever.”

“Thank you,” she thought back to him, and smiled with a faint blush.

Karon looked over at the man, busily tinkering with the engine. “Will it take long?”

“No, only a few minutes at most.”

“Good.”

The conversation ended after that, and Selena went to sit down on top of a crate while Karon walked around the small boat and took a look around. He could feel Trixie's presence at the far end, hanging over the railing and staring down into the water. So he walked over and stood next to her, keeping his voice low. “We should be leaving very soon.”

“The sooner, the better,” he heard her reply within his mind.

“So long as you remain undetected, yes,” he said out of the corner of his mouth and left her.

The boat took off a minute later, its engine making a soft, whirring sound. At both sides of the boat, mechanical fins started moving, and Karon couldn't help but notice that the design, now that he looked closer, was shaped very much so like a fish. He couldn't figure out the details of how exactly it worked, nor was he really interested in it. The strain of keeping two separate connections up was moving from painful irritation to mind-numbing, and so, Karon found a corner of the boat to sit down in and block everything else but the magic out.

Everything became a flood of impressions; thoughts, feelings and raw sensory data flowed from him from two different people at once, and it didn't take long before he lost all sense of stability. It wasn't until he felt a hand on his shoulder that he realized how much time had passed, and his mind was jerked back into reality.

The sound of seagulls squawking above was the first thing he became aware of, and next came the light of the sun shining down into his eyes. He held up his hand to shield himself and stood up to take a look around.

The boat was moored to a bridge of metal and wood, both aged and the former stained with rust. It led up to a catwalk circling around a great reef sticking out of the ocean like an island of rock. It was upon and around this slope that the city had been made. Squat houses of metal stood scattered around, connected by rope bridges and more catwalks, positioned around tiny squares where the rock was flat enough for several houses to be gathered together.

It looked incredibly unsafe, and how the people living there ever managed to build several hundred buildings was beyond him. The buildings themselves were all the same gray, flecked with rust wherever you looked and sporting sharp edges that had been worn off by the wind and sea. Karon wanted a tetanus shot just from looking at it.

Selena jumped out of the boat, down to the dock, with the practiced ease of someone that had done it a thousand times before. He followed, and could feel Trixie's presence doing the same. Selena turned around once and gave him a questioning look, and Karon nodded almost imperceptibly to his left where the unicorn stood invisible, and bored.

Selena caught it, and the three set off towards the city, following the catwalks through a labyrinth of rails, dangling ropes, and rusted pipes that leaked foul-smelling liquids. The entire city smelled, of oil and salt and unwashed bodies cramped together. Why any sorcerer would steal the destiny of someone meant to become the leader of such a place was outside his ability to comprehend. Especially since the people living there distrusted magic and those of the arts.

“Maybe he thinks he can change it.”

“Maybe, or maybe he just didn't think this through properly.”

“Does it matter as long as we get paid?”

“Not really.”

The path to their destination could best be summed up as rickety, and it took longer than it should since Karon didn't dare follow Selena at her own pace. Sweat was starting to pour down his face, and it wasn't from the heat. The difficulty in maintaining his magic and making sure he didn't take a misstep and fall down to his death at the same time was showing, and the people they passed by noticed.

Their destination was one of the clusters of houses located near the top of the reef, where some of the larger buildings looked to be located. When they arrived, and Karon finally got to put his feet on something that didn't creak ominously, he felt ready to collapse, both from relief and exhaustion. He bent over and placed his hands on his knees, breathing deeply to try and focus his mind.

Selena was standing a few meters in front of him wearing a concerned look on her face. Karon tried to smile encouragingly but it just ended up as a grimace. He felt Trixie's invisible hoof placed on his shoulder, and he whispered quietly, “We need to get you somewhere out of sight, I'm not gonna be able to keep this up much longer.”

“Then hurry to this basement,” her voice echoed in his mind.

He straightened his back and walked over to Selena, and he turned his head around the square, letting his eyes jump from building to building. She understood and pointed to one of the bigger ones that looked more like a warehouse than anything else. They proceeded to the entrance and headed inside, the steel door swinging open with a squealing sound that made Karon's hair stand on end.

Inside the room was dark, save for the little light that made its way through a window smeared with grime and dust that must have collected over decades. A lone lantern hung right next to the door, and Selena took it and pressed a button, which made the lantern shine with a harsh, white light.

Now that he could see better, Karon could confirm that the building indeed was some kind of warehouse. Plenty of barrels stacked atop one another in large piles, and the walls were lined with crates. Everything with the exception of the barrels looked like it was made out of metal, even the crates.

Selena walked over to where a wide set of stairs led down into darkness, and she followed them down with the lantern held high over her head. For a moment, Karon thought he was doing the same, then he realized he was still standing just inside the door. He blinked hard and forced himself to focus on only what his body perceived, and his vision cleared for a moment.

He turned around and felt Trixie's presence just outside the door, waiting for him to move so she could come inside. He did, and as soon as she was within the building’s wall, Karon slammed the door shut and let go off the connection between them.

Trixie came back into view at the same moment Karon lowered himself down on the floor and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Are you okay?” she asked as she hurried forward to him.

“Yeah, just a bit tired… and confused,” he said; everything Selena perceived was pressing down hard on his mind.

“If you want, I can go and check on her while you rest,” she offered.

Karon nodded thankfully and the unicorn went down the stairs, leaving him in the dark. After a few minutes of just breathing and steadying himself, he felt strong enough to walk over to one of the walls, which he promptly slumped down against.

He took off his hat and ran his left hand through his sweaty hair. It came back slick, and he wiped it against his robe. In his right hand he felt Promise starting to get warmer, and he felt part of the spear's spirit reach out to him softly. It wanted him to take of its strength, to draw of the spear's energies.

Karon sent back a grateful impression to the spear, and he carefully began drawing a trickle of power from the spear. It was very different from his own, both primal and fierce, and soothing and calm at the same time. Yet there was also something else he could feel underlying the energy, acting as a guiding principle for it.

He cut off the stream before he could dig deeper into it, as he felt a lot better already. However, he decided he would question Promise about that later. If anything was going on with the spirit, he wanted to know before something happened that he might not enjoy. Like changing into a capricious monster with no sense of allegiance and trying to kill him in his sleep. That would be something he could do without.

With a renewed vigor in his step, Karon rose and walked over to the stairs. He kept to one side and dragged his hand along the wall while he descended. He reached the floor and kept on going with his hand to the wall, until it disappeared and his hand only touched air. He turned to see that there was a corridor there, and light shone out of an opening a few meters ahead.

He walked over to it and found Selena and Trixie standing in a small room where a few barrels stood stacked alongside tiny metal chests. Trixie had her eyes closed, and her head swung from side to side like she was trying to spot something. Selena stood silent and watched with her back turned, and so she jumped in fright when Karon came up unseen and put a hand on her shoulder.

She stared at him for a few seconds, before she swallowed and turned her eyes back on Trixie. She looked tense, though Karon guessed that she didn't have very fond memories of the place. They both stood in silence and waited for Trixie to finish her attempt at sensing any trails left from the ritual the sorcerer had used; Selena with a hopeful expression, Karon with a smirk.

Eventually, the unicorn opened her eyes and twisted her face into an angry scowl, then she spotted Karon's smirk and she looked like she had bitten into a sour apple.

“What's the matter, dear, no luck finding anything?”

“Don't say another word,” she replied with a hiss.

“Maybe you should try throwing fire around; maybe that will help,” he went on.

Trixie looked at him with a clenched jaw, turned her nose up into the air, and walked over to stand on Selena's other side, never once looking at him. Karon chuckled and walked over to the center of the room, and almost instantly he felt traces of magic imprinted on the objects around them. Even the air still hummed quietly.

“You mean you can't feel this?” Karon asked mockingly and looked over at Trixie, who refused to meet his gaze.

He smiled and went to work. The energy that still lingered was only tiny shreds that would vanish in less than a week, but for the moment it was more than enough.

He stretched out his hands and gingerly ran his fingers along the lines of energy still connected to the magic that had taken place. He sent a tiny stream of his own energy into it, and instantly got a reply. His senses and perception drifted as the energy transferred its own nature to him, and he realized how the sorcerer had managed to steal someone's destiny.

While Selena had been asleep, he had copied her aura and her very soul, and afterward he had cut her off, temporarily suspending her in time. As a result, the tiny threads linking her to her destiny had jumped to that which most resembled the nature of the holder of that destiny, which was the sorcerer, his own true nature hidden behind the copy.

“Clever, in a way.”

Karon injected more energy into the traces, and they started to vibrate unsteadily.

“Ah, but he had to use tools for it.”

“Good. Had he managed to pull this off just by himself we would have had reason to worry.”

The trace couldn't handle the amount of energy Karon had charged it with, and with a final pulse it twisted and was absorbed by his own.

“Doesn't matter, we got the energy signature of the guy himself.”

“Yeah.”

With a self-satisfied look, Karon turned around and brushed his nails against his chest. Trixie glared at him and rolled her eyes, and Selena looked back and forth like she couldn't deduce if things had gone well or not.

“Got the energy signature of the sorcerer,” Karon announced.

“Maybe so, but we still have to find him and kick his flank,” Trixie said.

“Shouldn't be so hard. After all, how many people could be living in this city, a few thousand at the most?”

“What if he left?”

“Then we’ll find some way to track him. He must have left something of his behind that I can use for divination. If he ran to somewhere else that is.”

“Did you get anything else?” the unicorn asked, “like how we might actually put Selena's destiny back into her … or whatever.”

“I know how he did it. Don't know if I can do the same though.”

“Well at least we're a little bit closer now,” she sighed.

“Think happy thoughts. The more work it takes to get this done, the more Bitz has to pay us.”

“Yeah … are you gonna cloak me now again? Because I can just stay here, instead… and practice burning things. Or count crates.”

“I get it, you're bored. Just come along and something interesting might happen while we look for this guy.”

“If you say so,” Trixie said with a deeply melodramatic sigh, and the three went up the stairs again while Karon briefly explained the situation to Selena. When they reached the door, she put the lantern back in its place, and the room fell back into the murky gloom that seemed to fit the dank warehouse so well.

When she opened the door, the light outside made Karon squint his eyes and walk out after the woman half-blind for a moment. He wondered how long he would have to stay in this city that seemed ready to collapse on itself.

Then he bumped into Selena, and noticed the large crowd gathered outside the warehouse in a semi-circle, all of them with angry scowls and wielding fishhooks and other makeshift weaponry.

“Think this is what counts for a welcoming party around here?”

“Oh god, I hope not, the poor people...”

Karon quickly extended his senses back to Trixie still inside the warehouse, and cloaked her faster than he had ever done before. Within the few seconds it took him to do that, a black robed figure with his hood drawn down low stepped out of the crowd and pointed at him and Selena. He started shouting something in what Karon presumed was the native language.

“What is he saying?” Karon asked Selena, bringing their connection up once again.

“It's… it's him...” the thought kept repeating over and over as an answer, and with it came a lot of fear.

“Wait, that's the sorcerer?”

“Y-yes...It's him.”

“Well, that was easy. What is he saying?”

“He's saying that you're a magician, and that you're here to spy for one of the other cities, to prepare for an invasion. He says you are going to use magic to spoil our fish and ruin our oil … and a lot of other things.”

“Oh, turning the townspeople against me. It's actually not so bad a tactic.”

“W-what?”

“Never mind. I-”

“Oh, no...”

“What?”

“He's telling them to take me to the chambers and lock me in, that you are controlling me. He knows they would never hurt me and blames it all on you. And...”

“And he's telling them they should kill me before I do something magicky and escape, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Gotta love the classics.”

The crowd was moving nervously, all of them looked focused on Karon with anger etched in their faces. However he could also feel fear and doubt within the crowd just as much as anger; they weren't sure what this was all about, and why Selena was with him. They loved Selena and would never hurt her; he managed to get that from them but not much else.

“Go with them.”

“What?!”

“They won't hurt you, and the sorcerer guy knows they wouldn't allow it or he would just have claimed you were a traitor and told them to kill you, too. Go with them, I can handle this.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, off with you. I'll find you later and deal with that black-dressed clown.”

Selena looked at him fearfully, then gave him one last nod and turned to her people. She walked towards them slowly and they moved to open a path for her. Just before the crowd swallowed her, she sent one last pleading thought to him. “Please don't hurt them.”

Karon didn't respond, instead he cut the connection and her presence disappeared from his mind completely. Behind him Trixie walked up unseen, and he didn't need the connection to know how giddy she felt.

“No.”

“Come on, Karon, they're ASKING for a fight.”

“Since when did you become so bloodthirsty?”

“I'm not gonna kill them, I'm just gonna kick their flanks… and maybe singe them a little.”

“Tempting, but no. We're handling this my way. I cloak myself as well and we sneak away, we'll keep hidden and then follow the sorcerer and jump him once he gets somewhere private.”

“Wait, that's the sorcerer?! The black robed human?”

“Yeah, that would be him.”

“So let's get him.”

“Wait, Trixie n-!”

Before Karon could even finish his thought, Trixie's aura exploded with energy and shrugged off Karon's subtle magic concealing her. She appeared out of nowhere, and the crowd gasped as one and backed away a few steps when she did.  Oddly dressed, spear wielding dude with weird eyes they could apparently handle, albeit with some difficulty. A Technicolor unicorn with a psychotically happy smile and a horn glowing with readied magic, not so much.

The sorcerer looked taken aback, too, and he melted away into the crowd before anything had the chance to happen. Seeing the odds against him double might have something to do with that, colorful tiny pony or not, anyone with an ounce of skill in the arts could feel just by her aura that she could pack quite a punch.

“Oh, no you don't!” Trixie exclaimed, and her horn started glowing twice as bright as her magic was about to take shape.

“Trixie, stop!” Karon shouted and put a hand on her back without taking his eyes off the crowd.

“Why? He's getting away,” she hissed between her teeth, straining to hold back the energy she was channeling.

“We can't fight him here. It will get at least some of the people killed and Selena won't like that… and it's kinda wrong.”

She struggled for a moment, both with the decision and with the effort of holding back her magic. In the end she sighed and her horn extinguished itself, leaving Karon with a relieved expression, and an unruly mob looking very uncertain of what to do. And in his right hand, Promise was reacting to the danger of the situation and was waking up completely.

“Master, I am ready to serve,” an elegant voice spoke calmly inside his mind.

“Got any ideas for getting out of here?”

“Kill everything.”

“No, let's call that plan B.”

“As you wish, master.”

The conversation flashed through his mind literally at the speed of thought, and after it was done, the glyphs on Promise started glowing with an amber light. The people in the mob started whispering to one another with concerned voices, and the looks of anger turned to looks of worry for most of them.

“Trixie,” Karon said in as deep and guttural voice he could manage.

“Why are you speaking in that voice?” she asked in a tone that questioned his sanity.

“Light up your horn in some funky light and speak to me in as intimidating a voice as possible,” Karon said and didn't quite manage to suppress a smile.

“If this actually works...”

She gave Karon a skeptical look before she complied, and her horn lit up with a sickly green light. “You mean like this?” she asked him, her voice more a screech than anything else.

“Yeah that will do,” Karon replied, and he walked forward towards the crowd, waving Promise high over his head and shouting as loudly as he could, “You are all inbred rednecks living on a crappy rock in the middle of an ocean!”

The entire crowd backed away from him a couple of steps, and nervous murmurs surfaced as the obviously magic wielding stranger waved his obviously magic spear around, speaking in a foreign and very scary sounding language that was obviously magical.

“You all smell like rotten fish and I doubt your average IQ is higher than those as well!”

The murmurs became little cries of horror from some of the members of the crowd, and in the fringes some of the people were trying to discretely make their escape.

“You all look like retarded smurfs in those outfits!”

He took a few steps forward quickly, and the crowd immediately reacted by stumbling backwards.

“Your children hate you and so do your parents!”

The entire crowd was staring at him wide eyed and full of fear, his every movement tracked like it would spell their doom.

“Stupid people scream in fear!” he roared, and above him Promise erupted in a blinding light.

The entire crowd scattered like frightened animals, screaming in fear. They went running for their lives down the unstable catwalks and creaking bridges with a frenzy that made Karon wince. He couldn't believe that the shabby construction would hold beneath the human stampede, but it all apparently did.

In less than half a minute, the little square was empty, and in the distance, doors slammed and barred sounded together with the excited cries of the seagulls.

“Well, I guess that makes you stupid, then,” Karon snorted.

“I think we're the only one who has ever driven off an angry mob by actually insulting them.”

“Yeah, we deserve some kind of reward.”

Trixie came up to him and shook her head in disbelief.

“How… how do you manage to actually make stuff like this work?” she asked dumbfounded.

“I don't know. Do something so stupid that even the universe kinda goes 'what' and you'll get away with it.”

Trixie started to laugh, and Karon started laughing with her. They went on for several minutes before it died down, and with the last remnants of a giggle Trixie said, “We should probably go find where that sorcerer ran off to. You know, before he has time to escape the city.”

“Yeah,” Karon agreed, and they went off together the way most of the crowd had run to.

They followed one of the wider bridges, the steel underneath creaking like everything else in the city and the handrails were so coated in rust that they had actually been eaten right through at some points. Eventually, they got to one of the clusters of houses that had been built, and suspended in the air. They were held up by thick beams, running underneath them that Karon suspected were just as rusted and liable to break as the handrails.

After he reached the platform and took a few steps on it, a chill ran down his spine, and his instincts screamed at him that there was danger. His first thought was that the platform was going to collapse, and for the briefest moment his reaction was to try and jump as high as he could.

When nothing happened he realized that that wasn't the case, and he turned around to ask Trixie and froze. There were four men standing around her, shabby even by the standard of the people he had seen so far, and they were all armed with curved knives in their hands, rusted of course.

One of them had his knife against Trixie's throat, and the other hand was gripped around her horn. The unicorn herself looked furious, but every time her horn even began to shine the knife pressed against her throat a little harder, and Karon realized that the man was holding the horn so he could feel when it became warm with charged energy.

One of the other men said something in their language, and they all looked at Karon expectantly. But he didn't understand them, and even if he did he would have had a hard time hearing them. The sound of his heart beating at record speed filled his ears, and there was a dread rising inside of him that blocked everything else out, as a thought kept repeating itself over and over again.

“What if you lose her?

“What if you lose her?

“What if you lose her?”

One of the men made a gripping kind of motion with his hand towards Karon's spear, and he realized they wanted Promise. Maybe they thought they could wield it, or maybe they just thought it looked expensive. Karon wasn't sure what to do as his mind was flooded with the fear of what might happen if he made a mistake.

One of the men pointed towards Trixie, then said something and laughed before patting his stomach. The other men laughed as well, and they all looked at Trixie with faces that made Karon's entire thought process freeze. The moment passed, and his mind became crystal clear.

“Promise.”

“Yes master?”

“Plan B.”

Karon slowly walked forward with Promise held out horizontally in front of him. The men looked at him warily, and kept giving each other glances as he approached. When he was only a few steps in front of the men, he stopped, and he slowly lowered Promise to the ground, and then he pointed to Trixie.

The man holding her shook his head, and he motioned with his head for Karon to back off first. He did, his face retaining its unreadable expression, cold and without any visible emotion, save for his amber eyes that burned with focused rage.

The man holding Trixie smiled crookedly, and he forced her to walk forward while he straddled her, his knife still placed against her throat. The other men flanked him, and when they reached the spear, the man holding Trixie removed the blade and pushed her to the side and reached down and grabbed the spear quickly. He pointed it towards Karon, and Trixie hurried over to him with pure rage etched into her features.

Karon's expression remained the same, and when the men holding the spear said something that sounded like a taunt Karon only replied, “That was a mistake.”

“You can go ahead. Enjoy yourself.”

“I will, master.”

The man grabbing the spear smirked, and then his smile slowly fell. His eyes widened and his mouth opened in soundless horror, until he dropped the spear and went down on his knees. He started wailing as if he was being torn apart, and he started clawing his face.

The men around him stared at him, and so when a bolt of lightning erupted from Karon's hand and struck one of them, it came entirely by surprise. The man was dead before his body hit the ground, and smoke rose from his corpse together with the smell of burnt flesh.

The two remaining men turned to face Karon and Trixie, and one of them instantly turned and fled. He got a few steps before a white beam of pure force went straight into him, sending him flying into one of the poorly built shacks of metal plate. He didn't barrel through it, instead his body struck the edge and left a deep impression together with a large splatter of blood, and what was then no doubt just a corpse twisted like a rag doll in the air before it disappeared out of sight, and fell into the ocean.

The one remaining man started sobbing with fear, and he slowly tried to move away from them, keeping to the walls of the buildings and never taking his eyes off them. Karon kept his gaze focused on the man, his face still without any expression. Then he vanished from view.

The man froze and stared at the spot Karon had been standing at just a second ago, a few seconds later the man looked around with his eyes trying to be everywhere at once, and noticed that the spear was no longer in sight either.

He cried out in panic, and turned to run. Instead he ran straight into the tip of Promise, and the spear slid through the center of his chest like it was nothing, greedily drinking of the man's heart blood.

Karon's faced remained impassive, until the man finally fell down and the light in his eyes went out. Trixie joined him, looked down at the corpse, and after a while she went on her hind legs and embraced him, and only then did Karon's face show emotion again.

“Please… don't let that happen again,” he begged her.

“I won't,” she promised.

They held each other for a long time, and when they finally let go, both their eyes turned to the whimpering man who had kept his knife at her. He was down on his knees, still clawing at his face with blood streaming down his skull. They went over and looked down on him.

“What did you do, Promise?”

“I wounded his mind.”

“That doesn't sound so bad; I expected worse from you.”

“Well this is only the start, master; it will escalate. And within two weeks or perhaps a little more, he will die from the pain. By then, the horror will have become so pure it will be branded on his soul and it will take him several lifetimes to get rid of it.”

Karon opened his mouth slightly, and he took a deep breath before he replied to the spear.

“You have served me well, Promise.”

“Thank you, master. That is the only thing I desire.”

“Trixie, do you think you could throw the bodies into the ocean? Before someone comes around and notices them,” Karon asked gently.

She looked like she was going to say something, but instead she closed her mouth and nodded. Soon two corpses went floating through the air, a faint nimbus the same color as the light of her horn around them. It took her only a few minutes, and during that time Karon hadn't moved. He had just kept on staring down at the man that would have cut Trixie's throat for something he didn't even understand the true value of.

“What are we going to do with him? Just leave him like this?” Trixie asked when she returned to stand next to him.

Karon remained quiet for a while before he replied. “No.” They were standing near one of the ledges, and so Karon drew back his right leg and kicked the man hard in the chest, sending him rolling towards the edge, and going over it.

Trixie looked up at him, shocked at what he'd just done, and he turned to look at her and simply said, “It was a kindness, trust me.”

She hesitated, but finally nodded, and the two went over to the edge and looked down into the calm sea. There was no splashing, no great struggle to keep himself afloat; the man was far beyond that, and only a few bubbles marked his presence, and then they were gone.

Next Chapter: Four Suns (Part 3) Estimated time remaining: 10 Hours, 56 Minutes