As the sun lowered on the horizon, Darrel finally directed the dragon to land. The great beast gave a huff as it settled on the ground, deep in the heart of a bed of flowers. Alie slipped off the dragon's back and nearly collapsed as her stiff, aching legs struggled to suddenly support her weight. She had never ridden a horse before, but she assumed this must have been what feeling saddle sore was.
As soon as they had all dismounted, the dragon gave a grateful snort. It swung its large head in Alie's direction, it's golden eyes asking. She gave it a smile and an appreciative pat on its scaly snout, then waved it off toward the hills. Prancing like a gleeful pup, it bounded into the flowers in search of something to eat for dinner.
Darrel's mouth twitched as he watched the dragon prance away. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to you talking to animals," he frowned.
"Really? After everything that's happened to us?" Michael sank down into the flowers, stretching his aching legs.
Darrel shook his head. "It's not natural."
"Neither is turning an origami figurine into a living being," Michael shrugged, "but okay."
"I'm starving," Alie declared loudly, to keep them from arguing. She was incredibly glad that she had managed to get them both out alive and relatively unscathed, but she was way too tired to deal with them bickering.
"Well, all our supplies are gone, in case you haven't noticed," Darrel scowled. "As is our money. And my crystal. Don't think that I forgot about it."
"Damn it," Michael muttered under his breath. "How are we going to get around, now?"
"Portals," Alie shrugged.
"With the Commander on our tail? We might have gained some ground riding the dragon all afternoon, but I doubt we'll be able to keep it for long."
Alie put a hand on her hip. After a moment of thought, she turned a sly grin to Darrel.
The moment he noticed her attention, he stiffened uncomfortably. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You're a thief, aren't you? How do you manage to take whatever you want and keep from getting caught?"
His answering smile was wicked. "You sure you want to know the answer to that, Princess?"
"I'm not becoming a criminal," Michael groaned.
"Too late," Darrel snorted. To Alie, he said, "You'll have to leave the dragon behind. It's not exactly inconspicuous."
Alie shrugged her shoulders. "That's okay. It'll be happy here."
"And you'll have to keep the heroics to a minimum. If you want to keep the Commander off our tail, then announcing yourself to every town we enter is something we just can't afford to do."
She nodded firmly. "Of course."
Grinning, Darrel slung his arm around her shoulders. "Alright, then. Don't worry, Pet. Just do exactly as I say, and before you know it, you'll become so hard to find, people will start to think you've turned invisible."
Alie lifted his arm off her shoulders, returning his mischievous grin with one of her own. "Just don't call me Pet, alright?"
"What's the matter, Sweetie? Not fond of a little nickname?"
"I have a nickname. It's Alie. Sweetie."
His sea-green eyes glistened. His smile turned sharp with attraction. He made a sound deep in his throat, like a cross between a moan and a purr.
Somewhere in Alie's gut, warmth blossomed like a flower in bloom.
Hoping the flush hadn't spread to her cheeks, she turned on her heel and started walking, not caring where exactly she was headed. "I think I saw a town that way," she called to him over her shoulder. "You'd better start teaching, because I want a hot meal when we get there."
He jogged to catch up, striding along to her right, while Michael joined them at her left. Together, like the inseparable unit they were, they strolled the flowery hills into the darkening night.
—————
Alie followed Darrel's instruction to the letter. The best way to hide, he said, was in plain sight. If they were going to blend in, first they would need to make disguises. It was easy enough to change her clothes and the look of her face with her imagination, but as Michael had no magic, she had to disguise him, too. She made them look like a plain middle-aged couple. She thought about making them older, but Darrel pointed out that if she looked too old, no one would believe that she had crossed the world on foot.
Darrel, strangely enough, decided to keep himself at around the same age. "I can pretend to be your son," he shrugged, as his face became unrecognizable, but no less handsome.
Not that she told him that.
The second thing they would need to hide were weapons. Darrel's swords disappeared easily enough with a wave of his hand. Michael ditched the sword he had stolen, asking Alie to imagine him another pistol instead. He tucked it easily into the folds of the loose-fitting vest she imagined for him.
The Ultimate was harder to hide. Magic didn't seem to want it to turn invisible, and tucking it in the folds of her dress couldn't completely conceal it. She had to wrap a light cloak around her shoulders to fully hide it.
But what was the most difficult to hide, was the magic itself. Nothing could fool a magic seeker, Darrel said, but unless soldiers were actively on alert for someone, it would be unlikely that one would be around to find them. What they needed was to hide the fact that they were using magic to disguise themselves. It wasn't easy to do, as the stuff liked to cling to her skin like glitter. But after a while, she managed to calm it down enough that it lost its shine.
They entered the town late. Thankfully, no one paid them much mind.
Darrel suggested they raid one of the restaurant kitchens after the establishment closed for the night, but Alie refused to let him do any more thieving. She may borrow his tricks, but she didn't want him committing any more crimes, either. Instead, she told one of the restaurant staff that she and her family had run out of traveling money and were willing to work for a meal. The man she spoke to smiled appreciatively at her. He didn't have work for her, he said, but he directed her to another restaurant that did.
That night, they scrubbed dishes and floors, and ate until they thought they would burst.
Then they set back off into the night, preferring to sleep out in the open where no one would see them so they could shirk their disguises and fearlessly use magic to make themselves more comfortable. They woke with the sun, and headed to the nearest portal.
They quickly fell into a new routine: wake, practice swordsmanship, work for some lunch and spare coin in the local town. Search for anything that might be out of place. Buy or work for dinner, camp outside of town, and disappear.
Alie made a point to keep on the alert for any signs that the worlds they traveled to might be in distress. The crystal had seemed to take them straight to each world's corruption, but without it, she had to search for it herself. The first few worlds they passed through had no signs of corruption at all, at least none that she could see. As she worked and talked with the locals, she tried to ask subtle questions of whether they knew what was causing the corruption in the first place. She had her suspicions, but with no confirmation, she felt hesitant about her next steps.
No one could really give her straight answers. Those who were willing to talk mostly gave her their own speculations. Most wanted to ignore the issue, too absorbed in their own lives to pay attention to crumbling worlds elsewhere in the realm. And there were some, she was surprised to learn, who genuinely had no idea at all that the realm was even sick.
But she didn't give up hope. She knew her calling. As long as they pressed on, as long as she kept searching, she knew she would find the source of the corruption. And then, she could make plans to stop it cold.
They'd been traveling for nearly ten days when they came across the city of Li'ia. It was small, compared to Safeton and the Marketplace. But it was large for a city located in the middle of a world, at least an entire day's walk to the nearest portal. Its golden-plated domed rooftops glistened in the morning sun, sparkling like a golden sea, as Alie stepped clear of the neighboring forest.
Darrel lazily leaned on a tree beside her, watching her with his usual cocky, sideways grin. "Pretty, innit?"
She tried to mimic his slick smile. "You've been here before, haven't you?"
"Nope. Never been. But I've heard stories." His sea green-blue eyes glistened. "They say the city of Li'ia has the highest concentration of rich people in the Realm. Outside of the capitol, of course. It doesn't surprise me, looking at it. No normal person has the money to waste on a golden roof."
"Maybe it's just paint." Michael swirled his pistol over his finger, a trick he'd been practicing to give his hands something to do when they found time to relax.
"Or maybe it's magic," Alie hoped.
"Doubt it. That much magic? Your hair would probably be standing on end by now, with how sensitive you are to it."
She rolled her eyes.
"So, do we roll in rich, or do we go as we are?" Michael asked.
Darrel bit his lip and tilted his head as he stared at the glistening city. "Rich people have titles. And titles are gossiped about. Unless we can come up with a foolproof identity for ourselves, I'd say we stroll in as common travelers to avoid being questioned." He rolled his gaze to Alie, his grin turning wicked. "You should wear the face you had back in the town before last."
"Why? I thought you said we shouldn't repeat identities, so people can't track where we're going."
"That was a really quiet town. I doubt anyone from there will be here to make the connection." He stretched his arms over his head, trying to cover the conspiring gleam in his eye. "Besides, I want to watch that gorgeous lady stroll through these city streets and get envious looks from all the rich ladies wearing too much makeup."
"I thought the whole point of imagining ourselves as someone else was so we wouldn't stand out," Michael sighed.
"It is. It is. But getting a little attention now and then isn't so bad."
Michael gave him a flat, unimpressed stare.
"What? We've been traveling for almost two weeks, and there hasn't been any sign of Sole. We should be able to have some fun."
"I'm not making any rich ladies jealous," Alie sighed. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, imagining its dark strands turning auburn. She gave herself a slightly upturned nose and filled out her cheeks, lifted her brows, and dotted her face with freckles. She turned her traveling gear into a green summer dress with ruffles at the bottom. The fabric twirled around her as she twisted her hips, hiding the Ultimate still strapped to her waist. To conceal the hilt, she drew a matching traveling cape around her shoulders. She glanced to Michael for approval, and he nodded.
Darrel pouted. "You look very ordinary."
"Good. Then no one will remember me." She skipped out of the trees toward the main road leading into the city, humming a tune she couldn't remember the words to.
"Maybe one of these days I'll go as a cat," Michael mused, following after her as a man in his forties with a neatly trimmed beard. "It can't be that hard, can it?"
"If you do, I'm not carrying you around all day," Darrel warned. He marched after Alie, his height greatly diminished and his face softened into a child's. His twin swords, still at his hips, turned into wooden toys.
"Alie would," Michael grinned.
Alie rolled her eyes. "Heck no! I'd want to be the cat that gets carried around."
"No, you wouldn't. You'd want to run around the city chasing children and slipping through spaces that should be too small for you."
She clasped her hands behind her, turning to beam up at him. "Until I found a bowl of fresh milk to drink and a fluffy pillow to nap in."
"Oh," Darrel said, "that does sound nice."
"Maybe then," she mused, "I'd actually get to hear some good gossip on what's happening in this realm."
"Alright, new goal," Michael declared, having not heard her. "Next town we find, we're all disguising ourselves as cats, and we can wander the city in search of comfortable pillows and bowls of milk."
The already warm morning air chimed with the sound of their laughter as they wandered toward the golden-roofed city.