2. Facing the Sunset

I kicked open the tavern’s door. “Gooooood afternoon!”

Back to me, the bartender didn’t look up from polishing the glass in her hand. Tanya remained untouched by the dust, as ever, dark skin flawless, stained rags dangling from her stainless black apron, a faint trace of dappled brown fur at her neck, vanishing into her high collar. Dryly, she replied, “Hello, Kit.”

“Yes, that’s right, I’ve come to grace you with my presence yet again. I know you’re simply overwhelmed that the Great S—”

Tanya thumped the glass on the counter and glared. “People are trying to drink in peace.”

I looked around the rowdy tavern. At the lunch hour, the room churned. People shouted across the room at one another, raising tankards. A sandy-haired man played the harmonica in the corner, a hat out in front of him. Two burly men glared over an upended barrel, hands clasped in a contest of strength, while their friends riled them up all around. One grunted and contorted his hand into a bear paw, while the other grinned and tightened his grip, a green exo-skeleton bursting over his arm. Beer spilled from glasses, balls clacked in the billiard tables, and Tanya’s illicit visi-spell screen did its best to screech neighboring Elgany’s news over the ruckus.

Sweeping my gaze back around to Tanya, I quirked an eyebrow. “Who?”

She rolled her eyes. “You were so much cuter when you first got here, all banged up and timid, what, seventeen years old?”

I sighed happily. “Feels like yesterday.”

“Feels like the ten years ago it was,” Tanya replied, shaking her head.

“Ten years?” I paused, sweeping my eyes over Tanya. There were lines in her face there hadn’t been before, a few tiny hints of gray mixed in with her roots.

She set the glass down and looked at me. “What, surprised? We aren’t all as lucky as you. Most of us keep aging, even after we get our core.”

“Huh,” I muttered. It’s almost time to move on.

Shaking my head, I yanked my leather duster off the rack by the door and swung it on, casually stowing the mask in the inner breast pocket it as I did. No need to continue to beer-gut look now that I was home free.

Sunset Tavern was the nearest thing I had to a home in this shithole of a town. Perched on the edge of what passed for a metro center, wooden floor never quite free of the pervasive dust, front bleached and battered by the sun and sandstorms, the Sunset faced the desert and not much else. The setting sun, I suppose, at the right hour. Law enforcement left the Sunset alone, let alone the mana-crystal company’s guards.

Then again, law enforcement generally left chimera alone. Everyone but other chimera left us alone, generally.

I thumped down on the bar. “Any news?”

She twisted her lips. “You know, most people leave their jackets and go upstairs to have fun with the girls. You’re the only one who vanishes back outside.”

“Who needs fun, when you can make profit?” I reached to the pouch on my belt and slipped a crystal onto the bar. It glowed in the dim light for just a moment before Tanya swept a hand over it and vanished it into pockets unknown.

“Plenty of news. What do you want to hear first?”

Across the bar, the harmonica fell silent.

I tensed. Ah, shit.

“Kit! Is that you? Here about the hunt?” Grim slammed up against the bar beside me, tossing sandy-colored hair out of his hazel-green eyes as he stowed his harmonica in his pocket. A loose shirt with a high, stiff collar that plunged uncomfortably low and flowed around the lower sleeves tucked into a fine pair of leather trousers, which themselves led to turquoise-paneled boots. He leaned an elbow on the bar, propped his head on his fist, and grinned stupidly in what was probably meant to be a charming pose.

To be fair, it was charming. And, slender and towheaded with just the right touch of tan and a musculature neither over- nor under-bearing in clothes that fit, he was attractive.

The problem laid in that he knew it.

“Grim. It’s been days,” I replied flatly.

“Long, lonely days, doubtless,” he replied, tapping the bar. Tanya ignored him.

“The girls are upstairs.”

“Why go upstairs, when there’s beauties right here?” He reached out and captured a lock of my hair, twisting it around his fingers. It shone gold in the low light, an unnaturally bright sheen that nonetheless grew straight from my scalp.

I pulled back, yanking the hair free. “Oh, sure.”

“Absolutely sure. Why, I could sing ballads about your hair alone.”

“The hunt?” I prompted. Otherwise, this conversation will never go anywhere.

“Oh, right! Quetz. It’s a Quetz hunt!” He grinned, as if this was exciting.

I frowned. “Right, so how is this different from every Tuesday…?”

Quetzalcoatl hunts were hardly unheard of. Everyone wanted him. One of the last Great Ones, or monster beasts over a hundred thousand years, who still lived. Some estimated him at closer to a million years old, but that was pure exaggeration. Still, a hundred thousand year core cost more gold than you could shake a stick at. Untold gold. Piles of it. Mountains. Anyone who managed to embed that core in themselves would become a chimera with the power of a god, quite literally. Anyone who managed to craft his core—even a fragment of his core—into a piece of chi-tech gear would find themselves with a weapon to rival the most powerful Relic from the Great War.

There were just a few problems. First, Quetz lived in the Wilds, which were themselves owned and guarded strictly by our rich and militarily-capable neighbor, Elgany. The same neighbor who’d decimated us during the Great War, even after The Combustion.

Second, a 100,000-year monster was no joke. Take Quetz lightly, and you’d die. Take Quetz seriously, and you’d still die, just slower. Even I dared not take him on. Not that I couldn’t beat him, of course. Because I can beat anyone. But it would be a difficult fight, one I didn’t need to provoke for no reason.

Stop kidding yourself. You’d die, just like anyone else.

Someone of Quetz’s class? There’s only one man who could take him on, one-on one.

And that man is dead.

You killed him.

I slammed my hands on the bar. Grim jumped. Tanya froze, knuckles tightening warily on her dishrag.

“Kit?” Grim asked, tilting his head to see my face.

I laughed. “Nothing, sorry. Spaced out for a second. What did you say?”

“I said, this time, it’s different. There’s a whole company behind it. Big money. Fighters like you’ve never seen, or so I’ve heard.”

“You’ve heard? But you haven’t seen them,” I pointed out.

He waved a hand. “A little spider told me, so it’s legit.”

I rolled my eyes. “He’s never played a joke before.”

“It’s not just me. He’s telling everyone. That’s a hell of a joke, staking his whole reputation like that.”

“Right, alright. So let’s say this is real. Which company?” I asked.

“Box Corp, or something? I dunno. Never heard of them. Apparently they have roots from way back. Old money,” Grim emphasized.

I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Grim spread his hands. “Damned if I know. Look, it doesn’t matter if they take down Quetz or not, right?”

“It doesn’t?”

“We just have to be there. In the vicinity. Little hands reaching up for manna from heaven.” Grim turned upward, handsome face a picture of piety, his hands outstretched to the sky.

“Scraps,” I deduced. My eyes lit up. A piece of a hundred thousand-year monster… even a single scale could go for dozens of times what today’s take will, if not hundreds. Weapons, armor, even vehicles… the merchants will fight over who gets the right to buy from me! A drop of saliva rolled from the corner of my mouth. I quickly wiped it away.

He grinned and pointed at me. “Exactly. You in? There’s a good dozen of us making the attempt. Finders keepers, and all that.”

“I’m in,” I agreed.

“Great. We meet in my bedroom, tonight.” Grim tossed me a wink and a kiss.

“I’m out.”

“Joking, I was joking! Most of the hunters have already headed out, but I stuck around just for you.” Another wink.

“Flattered,” I deadpanned.

Grim sighed, shaking his head. “All this charm, wasted on you. We can go whenever you’re ready.”

“Like now?” I asked, standing.

“You want to hear the other news?” Tanya asked dryly.

“Of course, beautiful. I’d sit here all day, if it meant I could listen to you read the news,” Grim flattered.

“Hit me.” Ignoring Grim, I leaned against the bar to listen. No point giving her a mana crystal for nothing.

“Got a message this morning. Addressed to…” She paused reluctantly, then sighed. “You.” Tanya handed over a paper and a small wooden token.

I opened the paper. Grim peered over my shoulder, standing on his tiptoes to see better. I frowned at him and hip-bumped him back.

The messenger-fish’s teeth left a ring of tiny punctures in the fold of the paper, but most remained legible. Great Sage, it read, followed by a string of numbers. I blinked, confused, and turned it over. “That’s all?”

“And the token.”

I turned the wooden disk over in my hand and froze. Captured in resin, a tiny red feather, no bigger than my thumbnail, glimmered against the wood. Tipped to the side, it caught the sun’s light and set alight, a miniature fire.

I flipped it over in my hand, breaking the illusion. Damn.

“A feather? Is it… a valuable feather?” Grim asked, frowning.

“Just a cardinal’s.” I stuffed the token in my pocket and turned back to the paper. Random numbers, though… is it a code?

“Cardinal?” Grim muttered, brows furrowed.

No, wait. Coordinates! I scratched my head, considering them. If it’s the standard map, and it should be, then… that’s… not far from here. Right up by the Wilds, actually. On my way to the hunt.

“You got this today?” I asked.

Tanya nodded.

Well, can’t hurt to take a look. I nodded, tucking the paper in with the token. “Thanks, Tanya.”

“I feel overpaid. Want a pint for the road? Oh, or I can pierce your other ear. I pierce stuff for the girls all the time.” She nodded at me.

I raised a hand to my left ear. A red bar with gold bulbs on either end cut across the top of my ear. “Nah, I’m good.”

“Symmetry is in, Kit. You sure?”

“Absolutely. Grim?”

He dropped into an over-the-top bow. “At your service.”

I tugged the brim of my cap and pushed off the bar, for real this time. “Cool. Lead the way.”

Someone screamed. A rush of motion at my back. I stiffened and reached for Cher. Before I could grab her, two burly bear paws wrapped around my waist and lifted me off the floor.