VIRAN

  Nothing bad happened because of his mistake. The Arrivals didn't even bolt the door when Viran left. Instead, they cheerily emerged some minutes later, with all of their private areas covered, and no sign that they had been bothered by Viran's presence.

  They had their belt pouches arranged strangely, but the last thing Viran wanted was for Emma to start fiddling with her midsection in the halls at his prodding.

  Parading Auntie's newest maybe-Wards quarter-naked down the Spire stairs while Mirri was trying to make sure their 'unit' was professional and respectable would be a disaster if someone got offended, or worse, tried to bother the Venatrix-in-training.

  Venni had an uncle who liked humans *that* way, but Venni had so many uncles that one did anything you could think of, and their scales were all the same shade of maroon as Venni, so it was impossible for Viran to keep track of which one the Ward was talking about during any given story.

  Hopefully it wasn't the Ward Viran had seen yesterday, and someone else could be the one to explain to the Arrivals that sometimes two sapients of a different species loved each other very much.

  Viran had just realized the Arrivals were still waiting for him to lead the way when Calen took charge of the conversation for him.

  "Soooo the throne room is downstairs? Is that where Isha is?" The Venator-in-training chattered up at him. "Do we get to see the lake soon, or is it like, restricted because it's where you get the water?"

  Happy to be anywhere but the rapids, Viran started the walk down the stairs by explaining that the throne room was just a mess hall now, and people called it the throne room as a joke. Auntie had ripped out the actual throne three centuries ago, when she had moved into Eastwatch, and wouldn't be in there on most days, because she liked to eat at her desk where it was quiet anyway.

  The Arrival seemed more interested in the lake on the plateau, and Viran lost track of how many stairs they had taken talking about the water, and the lakebed, and all the runework in the filters he wasn't supposed to touch while he was down there.

  The reservoir for the ancient aqueduct tower was nothing like the rivers at home, but Calen seemed more interested in the mountain behind the Lower Basin, so Viran switched to talking about that.

  Or, he tried to.

  "Lower Basin?" Emma asked from behind them. "Is there more water further up?"

  "Only the frozen stuff," Viran huffed. "I can climb to the second 'step' when I try, but the cliffs will be too icy until summer, and there's nothing past there. The third 'step' got broken more than a thousand years ago, so it takes wings to get to the peak of the Fang now. Auntie says they made the gatehouse and the lower walls out of the rubble after they dredged it away from the pipes."

  "Wait, those are made out of that funky brick stuff like the roads. But the mountain isn't even close to that color." Calen was getting ahead of the story, but at least it meant he was paying attention.

  Viran nodded.

  "Mirri knows the whole history of Eastwatch because she mostly grew up here, but the steps up the Fang were built by the Empire, like waterfall gardens," He explained. "Auntie says the Elves were vain enough that they tried to cover the whole mountain in green to hide the ugly underneath."

  "Elves? Were? Empire?" Calen and Emma traded off questions, too fast for Viran to know which one to answer first.

  He really wanted to go back to talking about the lakebed or the beach, before they got to the bottom of the steps. People got nervous when you talked about elves, even if you were *supposed* to be telling scary stories. Being not-scary seemed to be going well so far, and talking more about the Empire might ruin that.

  "It's complicated, I'm still learning some parts." Viran admitted, dodging the question so that the Arrivals would have to ask twice if they wanted to hear the scary parts. "Auntie might have books to help once you learn to read, but the way they tried to fix things is why a lot of the world still needs fixing, even thousands of years after they're gone. The mess is this way, because if it was next to the barracks nobody would be able to sleep."

  Thankfully, that seemed to satisfy their curiosity about elves for now. Viran got to spend the next minute winding through the halls and shepherding the humans around the tight corners in the right order, until they were close enough to the mess that they could just follow which way everyone else was going.

  After some prodding, he spent the time explaining that there weren't any other humans at Eastwatch because there were no dragonborn on the other side of the pass, and it would be dangerous for anyone with combat training to be caught guarding the 'wrong side' by their former colleagues. The human Wards stayed in or around the villages, this far east.

  "The north is different, but most of the humans up there are still visitors who travel the Frozen Circle. Some kobolds settle too, but never permanently." Viran finished as he shuffled out of the way, pressing himself to the wall as best he could when a small group of Rangers exited the mess outfitted for patrol, some of them giving the Arrivals behind him hard stares on their way by.

  "Good morning." Emma almost didn't stutter, returning one of the looks with a slight nod at the male in the lead.

  She got silence back while the short chain of fighters departed around the corner. The last one in the row spoke up, her snout pointed up at Viran.

  "Might want a leash for those. I hear they run off easy, oaths or not." She drawled, waving a claw at Calen and Emma.

  Viran almost opened his mouth to tell her that the last Venatrix to visit Tenashki was still here, and getting a pyre soon specifically because she *hadn't* run, but he remembered that Calen and Emma hadn't chosen to take the Steel yet. Saying that might make the Ranger turn around and argue with him outside the mess, and Viran wasn't supposed to argue with Rangers down south. Especially not in public.

  They knew how things worked around here in a way he didn't, and he would need their support in the coming years.

  The dappled blue snout in front of him had already turned away before he could consider another reply. She failed to tuck her wings properly too, forcing Calen to lean back and Emma to duck when she passed, tail cracking back and forth erratically.

  She didn't even apologize when it lashed against Calen's shin.

  Viran let the grumpy Ranger go, and walked into the mess hall, turning around to continue answering questions.

  He found the doorway behind him empty.

  Leaning back across the threshold, Viran saw Emma hunched over in the empty hall. Her palms were on her knees, and she was huffing air steadier than the bellows of Yarrun's forge while Calen tugged at her elbow.

  "Sorry, just a second," Calen barely turned to look. "Ready Em? I think I smell bread in there."

  "Is she hurt?" Viran asked, stepping closer.

  Emma's spine straightened unnaturally. For a moment, Viran worried he had scared her again.

  "I'll be fine," She crisply told the wall across from her before looking over Calen's head, meeting Viran's eyes. "Just dealing with something unexpected. Is it just bread in there? How do rations work here?"

  He had definitely scared her a little. The quick change of subject also caught Viran off guard, but if the Arrivals were ready to eat now, he wasn't going to stop them.

  A tiny, insistent part of his brain noted that they weren't running yet, either. No matter what that Ranger had just said.

  Neither of the Rangers playing Buul by the entrance to the mess seemed bothered by the humans during their trek across the mess hall to the 'throne', and only a few curious gazes tracked them up to the short line by the cauldron.

  Nobody else in line bothered them directly while Viran explained the etiquette, and demonstrated. One person, one bowl, and a quartered loaf of bread. Stir before you take some, and put a little mana into the heat runes lining the lip of the pot if it was cool enough to touch. Seconds of the stew was fine, as long as you finished the first bowl. Thirds, or extra bread with seconds, but not both, was something reserved for the recently injured.

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  "Everybody who was in the pass counts as recently injured after yesterday, so the kitchen will be busy," Viran explained, waving to the neatly cradled bronze pot sitting half-full at a low simmer. "Seraph Sickness lasts a long time if you don't give your body the resources to fight it, and Sariel couldn't be careful yesterday, or things would have been bad. Worse." He corrected himself.

  The Arrivals *looked* at each other when he said that, failing to share what they were thinking with Viran. They thankfully seemed to know what a spoon was, but Calen struggled with the ladle for a moment, seemingly more caught up in enjoying the smell than in keeping the oversized utensil level while he retrieved the food.

  Encouraging him to get a full scoop instead bought Viran time to figure out where he was supposed to take them next.

  Closer to the cauldron, the rowdier night guard was currently enjoying their 'midday' meals. Putting Emma and Calen there seemed like the opposite of the 'unobtrusive' place Mirri had told him to find.

  The halfway tables, where smaller knots of lethargic Wards seemed to have clustered themselves in twos and threes, spreading out over most of the rest of the hall, were also a gamble if any of them had objections to spending time with strange humans first thing in their morning.

  The same problem emerged if Viran moved them to the open spaces at the leisure games tables with the quiet Rangers at the back of the hall. Anyone who wanted to bother the humans could walk right over, and ask for the space to actually use the game boards.

  All of that meant a long walk all the way back to the entrance of the mess hall, to the single empty table abutting the doorway with no board games on it, was the only option.

  Satisfied that he had solved the puzzle, and that Emma was done chasing onions with the ladle, Viran led the way back.

  Amazingly, nothing went wrong on their way down the center aisle.

  The curious stares continued, but lapsed after everyone took their seats. Viran chose his first, so that the humans could pick which side of the table to be on, at whatever distance they liked, and found Calen sliding onto the end of the bench next to him, while Emma put her back to the wall on the opposite bench, next to the arched doorway.

  She seemed to take extra care actually sliding down into her seat, apparently unused to whatever arrangement she had on her belt. Calen was having similar trouble, shifting the loops of leather to deal with the fact that he had overcrowded the front of the belt.

  "Are there more people on the way? Like, the rest of your unit?" Calen asked.

  Viran shook his head freely, glad it was the shorter Arrival next to him. He had expected both of them to sit across from him, but there was plenty of space for his horns to swing without worrying about clipping anyone. Nobody liked squishing their tails in by the wall anyway, so Emma would only be sharing space with Mirri, when she arrived, and everyone would have plenty of space for their elbows.

  "I don't have a unit. Didn't, until you two got here. I'm uh, in a different category because I'm part of Auntie's retinue, but also need to go back without oaths, when it's safe," Viran fumbled his way through explaining the idea. "That's why Mirri is in charge too, only some of the local Rangers will travel with us once Eastwatch is secure for the spring."

  "Without oaths?" Calen paused with stew halfway to his mouth. "That's an option?"

  Viran hadn't even managed to take a bite, but his stomach felt heavy. The Arrival had caught the detail that Viran really didn't want to have to talk about this morning, putting weight on him without even knowing it.

  "It's complicated," Viran said hastily, 'keeping things practical' like Dovin suggested. "I'm mostly learning more about fighting from Dovin, when Auntie isn't teaching me politics, and now magic from Mirri before I'm ready to go home. Senior Ranger Lemmos is busy doing the monster-killing for me while all this happens."

  The humans could learn about politics from Auntie. Or Mirri. Or anyone who was actually done learning, and wouldn't scare them by saying it all wrong.

  It was a lot to take in, but Viran was lucky none of his teachers wanted oaths from him in exchange. Home needed a Warden, and Wardenship was only real if people believed you couldn't be tugged away from it by other commitments. Trying to take the mantle without both freedom and the strength to defend it was 'asking to have your soft bits torn off,' according to Dovin.

  Viran very much wanted to keep his soft bits, so the complicated arrangement had arisen after he had committed to his course.

  "How did you get stabbed if you weren't with Dovin yesterday?" Emma asked. "Was something else going on, too?"

  Halfway through considering how to eat without showing his teeth to the human across from him, Viran decided to solve both problems, taking a bite after every sentence as he spelled out how things had happened, starting with Rattles surrendering and telling Dovin about the warband up north.

  Luckily, the Arrivals seemed too fascinated by the story to care when he opened his snout, as long as Viran kept it closed to chew. He left out all the boring parts, like waiting and counting and worrying, just focusing on how the fight had happened, and his quest to be armed once he realized the squires were still going to attack him, even with the Horde fighters pushing into the pass.

  "So the collection of cannibals isn't a normal thing around here, we just got... unlucky with the timing?" Emma was examining a sodden chunk of goat meat on her spoon.

  Or at least, Viran was mostly sure it was goat. It might have been meat from a different batch than the one he had gotten with his scoop. He had just heard someone refilling the pot from the kitchen proper less than a minute ago.

  "Unlucky and outnumbered," Viran nodded. "I'm not a real Immortal, so I can't hold the north against forces like that coming from the Frozen Circle. Yet."

  It stung to admit that Calen and Emma had only been in danger because Viran wasn't ready, but it was just the truth. None of his choices would have let him prevent what had happened, no matter how much he might do about things like that in the future.

  Real strength couldn't come soon enough.

  "It all looks real to me," The sultry voice echoed from behind Viran's head. "We count Young Immortals all the more where I come from."

  Sutai slid a scaly leg over the bench between Viran and Calen a moment later, prompting them both to make a bit of space. Fortunately or not, the efforts didn't actually seem to buy Viran any more distance from the visiting priestess.

  Or maybe not-visiting? She had a new uniform, the cloth blazing in Auntie's favorite yellow.

  It was hard to think about what that meant, because Viran could *feel* her shifting around, rearranging her skirts and settling easily into his side while he was still saying *nothing* at all, and chewing on bread that had long gone to mush in his mouth.

  "Why do they do that?" A stupid question was better than no question at all.

  Viran swallowed before he spoke, taking care not to knock horns with Sutai as he turned his head. Looking her in the eyes was hard for more than one reason when she was so close by, but he didn't dare to offend the gods by praying for courage right now.

  Taking an interest in what she was saying seemed to be the right choice. Or at least, Sutai pressed just a scaleswidth closer instead of flinching back.

  "Because they're more likely to be *bold* in a way that changes the way things play out, instead of listening to fossils stuck in their ways," Sutai declared. "Personally, I'm excited to see what you can do with a weapon soon."

  Sutai made no attempt to hide her teeth when she grinned, but her lifted chin was pointed at Viran, not Emma, so it was fine. She seemed to have entirely forgotten Calen, teetering on the edge of the bench to her right, but the Arrival seemed more focused on the food that anything else, tossing glances up at the line for the newly-refilled cookpot at the head of the mess.

  Emma coughed into an elbow, seemingly struggling with her food, which drew Viran's attention away from the way Sutai's breath tickled his chin.

  "I'm uh, sorry for your loss," The Arrival said when she was done clearing her throat. "Mahira. I didn't know her long, but she seemed uh... dedicated and experienced?"

  Emma's voice almost sounded like a question near the end, but the somber sentiment was nice, and she was right. Everyone got nervous when one of Sanctum's best fell in battle.

  The weight she and her brother might choose to shoulder would be heavy, if they took it on alone like Viran was attempting with his own duties.

  "The world turns for everyone, even Immortals," Sutai sighed lightly and quoted one of Mirri's least favorite passages from the Book of Mercy, tracing one of her claws down Viran's arm. "I'm more focused on new opportunities. Spring is the season for boldly planting seeds. Of all kinds."

  It was Calen's turn to cough on his food, which jarred Viran's brain out of breaking all the way.

  The Arrival waved off the collective concern that turned his way, gratefully accepting the extra space Sutai granted him by throwing a leg over Viran's knee.

  "The um. The first planting season might be more difficult than expected this year, with all the Arrivals scattered," Viran got to the point, trying not to read too much into the way the priestess had hooked an arm around his elbow while she bit into on the last of his bread. Denying a guest food was rude. "Do you think you'll stay to help?"

  One of Sutai's horns pressed up against Viran's shoulder as she leaned in to reply. She didn't lean her head away, further reinforcing the idea that it might not be an accident. Or maybe they just didn't care about things like that in the Wastes, like how the humans from Earth didn't seem to care about showing the vulnerable parts below their ribcages.

  "Isha seems like she has plenty of Young Immortals to help guard the fields, but..." Her grin was back as Viran held his breath, barely daring to hope about what she was about to say. "I suppose I could be convinced to stick around, with the right incentives. A bit of experience is a valuable asset, especially where there's already strength to spare."

  Calen coughed again, but more lightly as he stood off the edge of the bench.

  "I'm gonna uhhh, see about seconds now that the line is shorter. You want anything Em?" He asked.

  The other Arrival shook her head side to side. The stew seemed to be turning the sides of her face pinkish, so maybe one of the spices disagreed with her palate. Viran's bowl was almost empty, but he had no desire to stand up for seconds right now. Leaving Emma alone at the table would be rude.

  And he wanted to see if Sutai would take the empty space on the bench when Calen left, or stay close. He was starting to suspect the fighter from Sanctum was *actually* interested in him, but asking when they had just met would be rude. He barely knew anything about her, she could just be this polite with everyone.

  They would have to get to know each other better before he could be sure.

  Casting his eyes afield for ideas to suggest continuing the conversation some other time and finding the Rangers across the aisle resetting their board for a different game, he found it.

  Viran had just opened his mouth to ask if Sutai played Buul when Emma finished her food, and had her own question for the priestess.

  "What makes someone a Young Immortal, instead of just a regular one?" The Arrival asked. "How do people tell?"

  Roman aqueduct was constructed, to supply water to the city's cattle market. Six centuries later, there were eleven aqueducts sustaining a population of over a million people, and the model was copied all throughout the empire.