Luer was as unimpressive as any hero’s first city. Tristan wandered down the dirty streets, watching the people scurry from door to door while the rats loitered on corners. He wondered if rats could talk. They probably could and they’d tell their master that he, Tristan, had arrived. He was sure to be an evil master of the most--

“Are you planning on sleeping in the streets?”

Tristan whipped his head around to find Kay walking next to him. “What? Oh. I’m fine. I have...a place.” Were those rats watching them? They shouldn’t talk so loudly in the streets.

“You didn’t seem to be listening to the captain earlier so I wanted to make sure you got inside quickly,” said Kay. He shrugged. “But if you have a place, I let you get going then.”

“Sure. Uh...thanks.”

Kay waved and strode away. Tristan watched him turn right into a side street. Maybe he should follow him. He didn’t have a place to stay after all and Kay seemed to know people. But maybe Kay was a spy for the same evil master the rats worked for and was trying to get Tristan to fall into a trap so that he could take Tristan to his master and so make Tristan evil too.

Tristan chuckled. That had to be it. And the best way to defeat an evil plan was to spring the trap before it could be set. Was that how traps worked?

Dried leaves skittered across the cracked stone pavement. The wind picked them up and tossed them into the harbor. Some of them disappeared with a faint hiss. Tristan turned up his collar against the wind. It was strangely chilly for spring, but wasn’t that the way it should be at the start of an adventure? Now he just needed to find the right place.

Quickly he took note of the building Kay had disappeared behind. Just in case. He was stupid after all. In a town where he knew no one, why would he lose track of his best friend? Well, soon to be best friend. He needed to work on that.

Tristan hurried down the street. It had to be here somewhere. Every town had one. At least every town he had read about. His town certainly didn’t but they were a backwards collection of no good busybodies. Just thinking about them made him angry and he couldn’t be angry now. He needed to focus. There should be a sign or some sort of symbol over a door or window or something. But what if there wasn’t? What if the town mystic was hidden? Maybe Luer was just as backwards as home.

He passed crumbling cottage after tottering shack. Clouds scudded across the sky. It was the perfect atmosphere for a villain to make an appearance. Dilapidated town, absent population, leaves, rats, wind. It was perfect. He couldn’t have planned it better himself. But where were--

Tristan walked head first into something solid. He grunted in surprise. Where had that come from?

“Oh my. Is that a human?” said the warmest voice Tristan had every heard. It reminded him of the sun on the south wall of his house.

He looked up into brilliant eyes. He blinked stupidly at the person in front him and then down at the massive black tiger sitting next to him. Tigers weren’t supposed to be black.

“It is,” said the tiger.

“Should we ask it why it’s out and not hiding like everyone else? It looks rather stupid.”

“Most of them are.”

“I will ask it what it’s doing. Do you think it can speak? Humans generally cannot speak with anything near intelligence.”

“Fae Argene, humans may be inferior but it is never wise to insult them within hearing.” The tiger’s jet ears twitched with something like annoyance. “Never forget the Crimson Rain.”

Tristan took a step back. Fae. He had never seen a Fae before. They didn’t have time for the islands, but Luer was an important enough town, of course they’d be here. Is that what Kay had meant? Is that why everyone was hiding? That didn’t seem right. Fae were fickle but not evil and Luer definitely suffered from an evil presence.

He swallowed. The tiger Fae was watching him closely. Like a cat. Well, tigers were cats of a sort but this was a Fae-tiger-cat.

“This human will be no trouble,” said the tiger Fae. “Mousy hair, mousy size, mousy human. He will be no trouble. Ask him what you wish, Fae Argene.”

The tall Fae bowed to the tiger and then turned its brilliant eyes on Tristan. “Who are you, mousy human? Why aren’t you scurrying home like your kindred? Speak.”

Tristan inhaled slowly. He couldn’t speak to a Fae, but he couldn’t disobey one either. That might make it angry. “My—I’m Tristan,” he whispered. “I am traveling.”

“Tristan!” laughed Fae Argene. “This human calls himself Tristan. What do you think of that, Fae Isolde?”

The tiger twitched its nose slightly. Was that disgust? “Humans can call themselves anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was lying. But it is not worth our time. We must hurry find our quarry before tomorrow.” Fae Isolde stood to its full height and shook until a pair of black wings sprouted from its back.

Fae Argene pouted slightly. “I wanted to speak to the human more. They are such quaint little things. How could they have killed all the gods?”

“Another time,” growled Fae Isolde.

Without another word, both Fae launched themselves into the sky. Fae Isolde’s black wings drove the dirt into Tristan’s eyes, pebbles and debris whipped around his face. When he could see again, both Fae were well over the rooftops and flying quickly south.