Her first thought was of pain.

  Her second was the realization she was thinking at all.

  Opening her eyes, Ashi could see a familiar ceiling, the wooden roof of her room in the lizard inn. For a moment, she thought it had all been a dream premonition of the future: a warning to get out of town immediately. Then she tried to sit up.

  Pain instantly throbbed across her body, but she pushed herself up anyway and looked down at her bruised and battered body.

  Her right arm was bound in bandages and a splint, and her head was also wrapped in cloth, weaving around her hair. Her clothes was different too, her shirt was green. She'd change it, but that sounded painful so it could stay for now.

  Standing, at least her legs were fine, she stumbled out of the room, her balance not as fine as her legs. Taking her time on the stairs, she made it to the main lobby.

  It was mostly empty, with the exception of the man staffing the bar, a few scattered about room silently and, worst of all, Rune sitting at the bar, smiling at her.

  “Good to see you're alive. The physician at first thought you would die. Head wounds can be very dangerous, after all.”

  She considered just moving past him, but he'd certainly follow and trying to have a conversation and stand at the same time sounded like too much right now. So she plopped down on a chair next to him.

  “Couldn't be bothered to get dressed?” he asked merrily, drinking from his cup.

  She looked down at herself, brow furrowed until she realized she was, indeed, lacking pants. “So I'm not.”

  “You've been out for about a day,” he told her, swirling his drink. “I understand you fought back in your sleep, so they only bothered with the shirt.”

  “I guess I'm not used to being outside yet,” she slumped on the bar. “Why are you here?”

  “I was visiting you. It was my plan that got you so beat up, after all. That being said, you did marvelously.”

  She frowned thoughtfully. “I didn't get the Kaulin though.”

  “True,” he nodded, “I shot them as they tried to kill you, actually. Still, you got the rest, made the Kaulin lower their guard so I could kill them, and you rang the bell, which rallied the guards in the fort to come out and join the fight. The town is reclaimed because of you.”

  She didn't respond, so he kept talking. “Now that you're conscious, I'll have to tell the mayor. I understand the people in charge want to throw a little banquet in celebration of breaking the siege.”

  “A banquet?”

  “Indeed. And you're the guest of honor.”

  She blinked a few times. “What?”

  “You're the guest of honor. Since you woke up, they'll probably have it tomorrow. As long as you can actually get around and have a conversation by then.” She glared at him, but he shrugged. “You're clearly not in the best shape for those things right now.” He stood, picking her up.

  “Put me down,” she grumbled, trying to struggle.

  “It's amazing you even got down the stairs, you need rest,” he told her as he carried her back up to her room. As he set her back on her bed he nodded at her bag on the floor. “You're lucky you didn't lock your door, you're basically the only person in the building who didn't get their stuff stolen.” With that, he left, and she fell asleep again.

  When she awoke, the daylight suggested it had been quite a while, and her head felt much less cluttered. Once again, whatever caused her to have such quick regeneration was amazingly convenient.

  She pulled herself from bed and retrieved pants and her spare old jacket – the one she'd been wearing wasn't here. She tried to change shirts but her right arm made that very difficult, since from the way it felt it hadn't managed to heal yet. Even her superhuman recovery had its limits.

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  Sleep had recovered her balance, so she retread her steps back to the lobby to see it was now more populated with an evening crowd.

  “Miss Ashi!” the keeper of the bar waved her over.

  “That's me,” she stopped.

  “I just wanted to tell you that the rest of your stay is free. Also, I was told to ask you to go visit town hall when you wake up.”

  “Sure, why not,” Ashi grumbled. Her arm meant she wasn't really in the state to go horse riding anyway.

  Dragging herself out the door, she winced from the clarity the outside world seemed to have. Making her way down the unfortunately familiar street, she could constantly feel eyes upon her. She lowered her ears, hoping to stop her clear silhouette, but no such luck. A few people came up to thank her for her actions; she tried to not laugh at them. If only they knew her actions had all been in her own self interest.

  She made it to town hall and pushed her way through the front doors. The bodies had been removed, but the stains and other damages had not, meaning it still looked rather grungy. A frazzled receptionist told her the mayor was waiting in her office. She nodded to him and went up the stairs. She traced a finger over her bandaged arm as she walked down the hallway before opening the door.

  The mayor turned to look at her, a middle-aged woman with graying hair. “Miss Ashi,” she greeted with a smile, “we were so glad to hear you would recover.”

  “Likewise,” Ashi left the door open and sprawled into a chair. The room was less cluttered than before. “I guess they took your hordes of trinkets.”

  The mayor chuckled. “The office had been converted to a treasury. Still, this building endured less suffering than many others, so perhaps I should be grateful they favored it. We had to put quite a large lost-and-found box outside. But now, everything has been returned to its proper place.” She sat down. “And as part of our return to normalcy, we want to celebrate what helped us do so.”

  “So a feast?”

  “Precisely.” She bowed forward in her seat slightly. “Would you give us the honor of dining with us in celebration?”

  Ashi wavered. On one hand, the sooner she left the less potential complications. On the other, she could use a day to heal and properly resupply. That had really been the point of all of this effort, after all. So she nodded. “Tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow. Evening, to be precise.” She reached into a drawer and pulled out a small bag. “For you.” Accepting it, it gave off the faint rattle of coin. “Our doctor told us your bag had concerningly few rations, so use these to get some more for yourself. Consider it our thanks.”

  Ashi stared at the bag before putting it into a jacket pocket. The misattributed gratitude had not stopped being shocking. “I suppose I'll see you tomorrow,” she stood.

  The mayor stood with her. “We look forward to it.”

  Making her way back out the door, she felt a great need to get away from eyes. So she went to the place that immediately came to mind.

  The rooftop of the fort meant that while she could still hear the noise, it only echoed up at her instead of surrounding her. She gazed into the distant southwest. Somewhere out there, Indigo was waiting for her. Whether they knew it or not.

  Someone was coming up the stairs, but she didn't turn around, hoping that maybe they'd just leave. No such luck.

  “You were really impressive,” a voice told her. A voice she recognized. She turned her head slightly, and there indeed was the guy from the archives. He kept showing up.

  She laughed. “Sure.” She stretched out her arm, feeling it still protest the action.

  “What was it like to fight them? I've never actually met a monster hunter before.”

  She thought about it for a moment. “Like fighting a person. A person born for fighting.”

  He shuffled side to side. “So, I was wondering... what your plans are?”

  With a sigh, “after tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to get back on the road.”

  “Oh,” he was quiet for a moment. “I understand.”

  “That seems rather soon,” a new voice joined. “Are you sure that's a good idea?”

  “What do you want?” she groaned.

  Rune walked over to them. “I saw you coming to the fortress, and thought you might be looking for this.” He held out the spear, and she looked at it with disgust.

  “No.”

  With a slight smile he leaned on the spear. “If you insist.” He paused. “In truth, I wanted to ask about your quest.”

  “My quest?” she asked cautiously. Despite how dismissive she'd been, she remembered he was involved in some organization – possibly related in Indigo. If he found out, he might send word to Indigo. Then again, she considered, perhaps his Order hated Indigo. There was no way to know without asking, and asking was the same as telling: a risk she could not take.

  These thoughts underlaid Rune's response to her question. “Your drive to break the siege wasn't purely selfless. You need to go somewhere, for something important.” A moment. “I would like to offer my help.”

  Her eyes snapped back into focus on him. “Why?” she asked, unable to hide the skepticism in her voice.

  He looked past her, into the town. “I've been traveling for over a month now, trying to help people where I can. But not much happens here in the South, so far from the Wastes and full of ancestral defenses against the old horrors of the underworld. So whatever your quest, surely it will lead me to helping the world more than aimless wandering.”

  She was about to scoff him away, but did pause to consider. The truth was, she was not invulnerable, as her arm was happy to remind her. She had almost died. In a situation she should have left from, true, but Indigo would likely be even better equipped, and more numerous. Facing it honestly, confronting them alone would likely result in failure. With this in mind, she sighed. “Fine. You can tag along.”

  He clapped his hands together. “Fantastic. I'll see you then, if not sooner.” With that, he turned away.

  The archivist, who had looked between the two for their conversation, finally saw an opening to talk again. “So, I was wondering, if maybe you'd like to hang out at the festival together tomorrow?”

  “No.”

  “Oh,” he sounded sad, and after a moment stood to leave.

  Leaving her alone, looking thoughtfully into the distance.