On that day, after the usual routine, and bringing Ki'rei food, I went to visit Hatta. He was going through some reports, looking all bored out of his mind, shuffling paper after paper.

- Morning - I said, as he didn't notice me enter.

- Morning. What brings you here? - he stood up, to get from behind his desk, and meet me halfway.

- Two things. First is that I want you to inform me when Will and the rest return, and the second is I want you guys to meet with Ki'rai.

His eyebrows shoot up.

- Meet? Why?

- She is a good kid - "An ally", I wrote with void essence in the air. - I'm sure she will be thrilled to finally talk with other humans except me. Besides, you should know what we are dealing with. You need to see her transforming abilities.

- Good kid? - he sighed. - If you say so.

Then he went back to his desk, picked a piece of paper, and wrote on it with some charcoal "You sure about that?".

"Yes", I replied.

- Yeah. A bit humorous at times, but overall a good kid. I think it would be actually beneficial to both parties to socialize a bit.

- Ok. I guess we should prepare something since she shouldn't be seen by other people.

"Are you absolutely sure? We can't take any risks", He wrote.

- Yeah. I thought that maybe I could bring her here, or to Velvet Lotus. Obviously after informing Aisha first, and clearing it out of people.

- Fine by me. We can go with both of those options.

"She informed me about some spying devices in my stuff. I think we can trust her.", I replied.

"That could be just a facade. You need to be absolutely sure."

I nodded.

- Ok. Thanks, Hatta. See you later then.

- Yeah...

I left, uneasy. Hatta was right. I needed to be absolutely sure, and I almost was. Almost. There was a part of me, that just couldn't let go of the possibility of her betrayal. It was ridiculous, as she didn't show any signs of going behind my back. She also couldn't lie. Or could she...?

I was confused. Those thoughts could be genuine, but also with the history of betrayal I was a victim of in this place, there was a big probability of me being suspicious for no reason.historical

If I were to consider all my knowledge of her and went through all the memories of my careful observations of her behavior, those past few days, I couldn't point out a single thing that could be an indication of her being untruthful. On the other hand, she could literally transform into a different being. And that's a definition of a trickster if you ask me.

I hated the fact that the scenario of betrayal was repeating itself, and I was blaming Aisha for that. She was the one who made me so suspicious of everything. Not only me but all of us. I needed Hatta to remind me, as my feelings towards that strange, cute creature were blinding my judgment.

It was so fucking stupid, since I loved all of those people, but could trust barely any of them. It felt like this whole situation was pointlessly complicated.

I went to grab a cart, and shadow walked to my room to pick up Ki'rai, from there we jumped back to the canyon. To the anchor, I left next to the passage out of the geographical formation. There was plenty of harpies around, so the battle started almost immediately. I summoned shadows to protect the little lizard, while I slaughtered the incoming enemies. A few minutes later the blue skies were cleared of those ugly flying creatures.

It was beautiful scenery, but I didn't like it. Too many naked orange rocks, no plants, and the sand under my feet. So dull compared to green forests. From above it looked much better, but from the inside, you had enough after few hours.

My shadows picked up the score, and we headed forward. I moved a bit faster, to create a little bit of distance between us, to not endanger Ki'rei pointlessly. In few hours we managed to return to the place we reached yesterday, and from that point, the exploration of the unknown started.

There was not much change for around a mile or two, but then the harpies became darker in the coloration. Their claws were longer, sharper, and more durable. To the point, they could actually parry my blade. I had to abuse the shadow walk, to move through the air, which was a new experience for me. I never thought about it before.

I really could fly, although awkwardly. For Ki'rai it looked so funny, that she was actually rolling and giggling on the cart while I fought. It looked so damn cute, that I almost got clawed across my face.

We kept moving forward, and with a bit more time we discovered yet another type of those creatures. This time with red feathers. They had an affinity for fire and could throw flames from the sky. It was horrible to fight them, as even with my newly discovered ability to shadow walk through the air, I had to chase every single one of them for several minutes, before finally killing it. Just one group of those creatures made me say: "Fuck it, it's not worth it".

With that, we returned back to my room and had a short conversation about what to do the next day. Ki'rai proposed to explore the swamps further, to look for more hunting grounds than just the lizardfolk one. With having an anchor already there, we didn't have to travel that much. I agreed since it sounded reasonable. Then I went to sell the score, park the cart and buy us some food. I also got a new large backpack, and a couple of smaller ones, since moving through the swamps with the cart was just stupid.

We ate and then went to sleep, hoping for a better tomorrow.

The day came to an end with 24 478 730 points remaining on my account.