Chapter 563: 565. The Empty District

“There’s no one there,” a mercenary fury said as Dallion kept knocking on the door of Diroh’s inn.

“Seems so.” Dallion turned around. “What happened? There used to be lots of hunter inns a few months ago.”

“Guess you haven’t been here a bit longer than that.” The fury smirked. He looked like a typical mercenary for hire, with a lot of mismatched pieces of armor and custom-made weapons. The one surprising thing was that he also had a spark of awakening in him. It wasn’t much—a low double digit at most—but for a fury that was quite impressive. “Your kind stopped coming here for a while. After that, the noble closed most of the inns.”

“Why?”

“Do I look like a noble?”

The conversation seemed casual, but thanks to his music skill Dallion could tell it was no accident. The calm determination emanating from the fury suggested that he was sent to keep an eye on Dallion. Someone was concerned that a hunter had come to town. Either that, or it was Di’s place that was the focus of concern.

“Any other place I can use?” Dallion asked.

“Not with the Order here. With so many of them everything that was open was taken by them. And when they’re gone, the imperials will pour in. Guess you’re out of luck.”

Quite straightforward. He’s insistently trying to get rid of you, dear boy, Nil said.

“How do I get to talk to a noble?” Dallion ignored the advice.

“You don’t. Nobles want their calm. After everything that happened in the last year it’s understandable. There’s not many of them left.”

That came as a partial surprise. Dallion knew for a fact that the poison plague shouldn’t have affected Halburn to this extent. And yet, even he had heard that an alarming number of nobles had died.

“Then I’ll check with the merchants. Plenty of them around.”

Seeing that Dallion wasn’t taking the obvious hints, flashes of annoyance flashed through the mercenary. There was also hesitation. The hunter emblem visible round Dallion’s neck not only offered protection, it was a testament regarding his strength. In a one-to-one battle it was all but certain that Dallion would win.

“You really should leave.” The fury went for the direct approach. “It’s not safe for awakened like you.”

“You’re an awakened,” Dallion countered. “So is everyone in both armies around here. I’ll leave when I decide. Keep pressing and I might choose to look into the reason the ruler doesn’t want hunters.”

The threat was far from subtle, but made its point. With a slight nod, the fury took a few steps back, then disappeared in the blink of the eye. Furies usually did that, but thanks to his current traits, Dallion was able to see the mercenary do it.

Nice person, Nil said. It’s doubtful he was the only one, though.

He wasn’t, Dallion replied.

“If you have something to add, just come down here and say it,” Dallion said, looking around.

To the untrained observer, it would seem that he was searching for something. In truth, he made a point of pausing and looking in the eye of the dozen other furies who were spying on him. He had noticed their presence ever since he had entered the old hunter’s section, which now was little more than a ghost town. All the buildings were closed and barred up, and not a single person in the streets.

There was a moment of silence. Without making a single sign the mercenaries left the rooftops they were hiding on. A few tried to be cheeky and stayed a bit longer just to check whether Dallion noticed. When he proved that he had, they had joined the rest, giving him some space. At least they were skilled enough to know when they were outmatched.

That meant Dallion had to be quick. No doubt right now they were reporting their findings to the noble who had sent them. It was likely that in a matter of minutes he would appear, and that would prove a lot more difficult than dealing with a bunch of mercenaries.

Is Di inside? Dallion asked the guardian of the building.

She doesn’t want to see you, the inn replied.

She was happy to see me last time. What changed?

She doesn’t want to see anyone. Just go. You’ve caused enough trouble by being here.

I can’t do that. Dallion grabbed the door’s handle. Will you let me in or must I do it myself?

There was no response. Taking that as a no, Dallion took out his Nox dagger and discretely pressed the blade through the point where the door connected to the frame. There were a series of soft clicks. Cracks appeared, allowing the blade to move in further, causing the wooden bar holding the door to snap.

Putting his dagger away, Dallion then calmly opened the door and stepped in.

The place had definitely seen better days. There was no dust or dirt—furies wouldn’t tolerate that—but there was little else, either. What few chairs remained were clustered in the corner and the bar shelves had a single empty bottle on them. Barring the door anew, Dallion went towards the stairs. Barely had he set foot on the lowest one, when a cluster of clouds flowed down from above, changing into a rather large and vicious fox.

“Hello, Skye,” Dallion said with a slight smile. “Been a while.”

The creature growled at him for a few seconds more, then relaxed somewhat, although it remained blocking his path. The creature wasn’t native to this world, although it seemed to have adapted quite well. Originally, it was Jiroh’s pet cloud fox from the fury world. When Dallion had come back to the awakened world, it had come along with him to serve as both gift and guardian to Jiroh’s kid sister.

You’ve gotten smellier, the fox snorted.

“Still mad at me? She was the one who wanted to be left alone.”

You could have insisted more! That never stopped you when you were in my world. You went against the odds even when things were hopeless.

“I’m here now,” Dallion said. “Ji sent me to get Di out.”

Dallion expected the fox to growl, but she didn’t. Instead, she shrunk to half her size. Feelings of relief and gratitude streamed through her.

She’s up in one of the beds, Skye said. Be careful, she’s gone through a lot.

“I will.” Dallion walked up. The cloud creature shifted into a cloud and flowed past him.

The room above seemed unchanged since the last time Dallion was here. The only difference was that this time it was Diroh on one of the beds, wrapped in several layers of covers. Dallion’s instinct was to think that she was ill. Then he saw the state of the covers. All of them were pristine, and far more expensive than they were supposed to be. Also, looking closer, he managed to notice an invisible layer of air between each of the covers.

“You’ve awakened,” Dallion said. That would explain why Jiroh had suddenly contacted him now. The awakening had probably allowed her to get in touch with her sister’s dreams, or maybe the Orange Moon had shared the news.

“Go away,” the fury whispered. Her emotions, however, plead for Dallion to stay. The amount of fear and confusion was so great that it was more noticeable than the covers.

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Being a fury, it was most likely that her reaction trait was advanced, although it could be her perception as well. Dallion remembered the early days of his awakening, back when bedsheets felt like sandpaper. If she had to deal with that on her own, it must have been quite unpleasant.

“When?”

A week ago, Skye replied, wrapping herself around the bundled fury. It just happened. There was no reason for it.

“Are you a thunder fury?”

In response, Diroh removed enough of the covers for her face to become visible. Her skin was paper-white, as was her hair. That meant she was a normal fury, although not quite. While thunder furies were a rare occurrence, awakened furies were a close second. Numbers varied, but according to what Dallion had heard, less than one in ten thousand furies at present were awakened.

Nil, have you heard of clerics affecting awakening? Dallion asked, approaching Diroh.

There are lots of rumors on the topic, mostly coming from the Order itself, but the short answer is no. If it were the case, the Order would have been full or awakened war orphans.

They do have a large number of awakened…

Oh, most definitely. Having an awakening altar at your disposal helps considerably. However, if you note, all of the awakened are human.

Thinking about it, that was right. In fact, that had made Dallion to initially think the Order was an organization created by the Tamin Empire. It was only later that he had learned that it was older, composed of different races from many different kingdoms.

Coincidence?

Coincidences do happen, dear boy. But that isn’t the issue. No matter how she became an awakened, neither the empire nor the order will be willing just to let her go. And I don’t even know how the mercenaries or their employer will act.

“How does it feel?” Dallion asked softly.

“Terrifying,” Diroh replied in a whisper.

“The room with walls?”

“Not just the room. The thing that followed. I’d been among hunters all my life… I thought I knew what it was. But it isn’t. No one said anything about the pain.”

“Pain?” Dallion didn’t expect that. There had been no pain in his experience, only confusion. In fact, the greater part of the confusion was due to the sudden shift in worlds. “What pain?”

“Like steel needles going through my veins and eyes. And they never stop.”

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Dallion put his hand on the fury’s forehead. She didn’t feel particularly cold or warm. There weren’t any visible veins bulging, any signs of poison, or anything else he could come up with.

Skye, did she eat or drink anything strange before this happened?

No it’s not the plague, the cloud fox replied. I was very careful. I made sure the food was fine. She didn’t do anything differently, she just awakened and then ended up in pain.

Any new strange abilities?

Not that I can see.

“Di, I need you to let me enter your awakening realm.”

“Will it help?” A flicker of hope could be felt in her words.

“I’m not sure, but it might. If something’s causing problems in your domain, I have a few friends that will find it. No need to worry, they’re my familiars. Just like Skye, but different.”

The fury nodded. “What do I need to do?”

“Just keep your eyes open.”

PERSONAL AWAKENING

Reality changed. This wasn’t the first time Dallion was in another’s domain, but he would be lying if he didn’t say that this was unlike any he had seen.

The starting room was very much as he remembered it: a windowless room with a single archway to a corridor outside. A blue rectangle with the familiar “YOU ARE LEVEL ONE” message floated in the air. However, the room wasn’t made of stone, marble, or any other common material; it was entirely of ice.

Guess you don’t see this every day, Nil said.

A single framed ice dagger was mounted to the wall with an ATTACK plaque underneath.

“I guess you chose attack,” Dallion said.

“That’s what I was given.” Diroh walked up next to him. She seemed a lot calmer in the awakened world.

“Sometimes there’s no choice. Do you feel better here?”

“The pain is gone, but when I go outside, it returns.”

“And the rectangles said nothing?”

“They told me to choose a trait, then to go into the halls of destiny. I walked along a long corridor. At the end of it, there was a dagger.”

“And when you took it, you were back in the real world.”

The fury nodded.

“Well, let’s go through the corridor together.”

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