Kami Misaki followed the two City Watch guards through the winding stone corridors of the Keep. One of her arms stretched slightly out of proportion to allow her to carry a large wooden trunk tucked into an armpit. As a result, she walked less gracefully than usual. It wasn’t the weight of the trunk—which, she thought idly, would have taken both guards to carry—but the bulk of it under one arm made navigating the narrow Keep hallways awkward. Kami supposed that she could have asked someone to “help” her, but at the moment she was enjoying the stunned stares of everyone they passed. In many ways, her walk from the Golden Heron to the Keep, with her changes on full display, was her unveiling.

Eventually, they reached a heavy wooden door. One of the guards knocked, listened to a muffled reply, and opened the door. The City Watch had to move into the office to allow Kami and her trunk access, and they all did a clumsy dance of polite apologies as she entered and they exited, closing the door behind them.

“Good morning! What’s in the that thing, my dear?” Inspector Estancia Calenta asked with a dimpled grin. The stout woman leaned back in her office chair, the wood creaking, and folded calloused hands on the desk between her and Kami.

“Everything I own,” Kami shrugged, and placed the trunk down in one corner before making her way to a chair. She looked at the Inspector through her wooden half-mask, far less warily than she had during her first visit to this place… when had that been? Had it only been last week?

“Ah,” Calenta’s face took on a motherly concern. “Elyn kicked you out of the Heron, then?”

“It was a mutual agreement,” Kami shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve been absent and not helping her, and my presence now, she thought, would make the guests uneasy. Meanwhile, I find myself… focused elsewhere.”

“Focused Elsewhere,” the woman chuckled. “Speaking of which, where are the others?”

“On their way,” Kami said simply. “They should be here soon.”

“Good, good. Well, my dear,” Calenta leaned forward, resting her meaty forearms on the edge of the desk. “No need to wait for them to get started. So,” her eyes glittered. “Where is the box?”

Kami leaned back, folding her hands in her lap. “Emah says it’s called the Raft of the Nine Gates, actually. She has it, hidden and locked away. She says that there are those at the university who she’d like to study it, but that it’s not something anyone else can ever touch. It’s too dangerous, we all agree.”

“You believe her story? About the vision she had? Deals with demons?” Calenta looked skeptical, cocking an eyebrow.

Kami sighed, the first breath she’d taken since entering the Keep, she realized. “Given everything that’s been happening across the city and everything that happened in that basement, I don’t see any reason to question Emah’s account. To me and Maly, she touched the hand, and then…” Kami’s eyes unfocused as she recalled the scene, still so vivid in her mind. She frowned. “Well. When it was done, the demons vanished in a flash of golden light and the Raft was closed at Emah’s feet. She saved us all.”

“Poor, poor dear,” Calenta clucked her tongue. “How is she?”

“Fine, actually. She says the poison from the spined demon would have killed her before we ever left the basement, but the power that the Raft imbued in her must have cleansed it. I’ve only known her a week, mind you, but I’ve never seen her better. Despite the… lack of hand and sword.”

“You said her hand is in the box. The, er… Raft. You never found the sword?”

Kami pursed her lips and shook her head. “Another reason to believe her. Like so much happening these days, it all feels impossible.”

The inspector shook her head in disbelief. “It’s all happened so fast, ah? So many changes we must all accept. I heard someone in the market call it the Age of Wonders. It fits, no?”

“It does,” Kami gave a brief nod. “I like that, actually.”

“And look at you! Any changes besides the hair that you’ve noticed?”

Kami pulled a lock of her straight hair into her view. When the golden light from the Raft faded in the basement, it had left her hair bright green, the color of springtime leaves. There were other, subtler changes as well, but there was no hiding the hair. Though she felt less antagonistic toward Inspector Calenta than before, she still didn’t trust the woman. So, Kami said only, “Just the hair.”

“What do you think it means?” the woman asked, but it was a rhetorical question. Kami didn’t answer, and the inspector didn’t wait for her to do so. Instead, after a heartbeat, Calenta said, “And the ratfolk?”

Kami crossed her arms over her chest. “Either Emah saved them as well—though they’ll never know it—or the priest’s failure with the Raft focused the demons solely on them. Either way, I suspect we won’t hear from them again. Even if they survived, it was the priest, Maly says, that was stirring them up against Oakton. Now that she and her mad quest for the Raft are dead, well… I don’t believe they want to have anything more to do with us than we with them.”

“Still,” Calenta scowled. “The idea of underground tunnels, accessing wherever they like…”

“We’re not exterminators,” Kami said forcefully. “We’re here to protect, not kill.”

The inspector raised her meaty palms in defense. “Okay, okay! I’ll have someone else look into it, ah? You don’t have to think of them anymore. Truly, my dear, I’m just glad that you’ve decided to formalize our relationship. We need you.”

Before Kami could respond, there was a knock on the door. Inspector Calenta yelled to enter, and one of the same City Watch guards who’d led Kami here opened the door. He stepped aside quickly, and Maly, Destiny, and Emah flowed inside, one by one.

Maly and Destiny looked much the same, despite the golden flash of the Raft. She was still a lithe, pale Stone Islander with freckled cheeks and tattooed arms, her blonde hair cut short. He was still an enormous, deadly predator, a black cat whose shoulders reached Maly’s thighs, all grace and power. Destiny had, apparently, abruptly awoken soon after the situation in the basement had resolved, which only deepened the mystery of the Raft’s power and the cat’s origins.

The girl smiled at Kami and slid into the chair next to her. Destiny prowled, each step heavy and intentional, to the window and lay down beneath it. His yellow eyes watched Inspector Calenta intently.

Emah, of course, was not the same. She was still a powerfully built Kalee woman, with chocolate skin and eyes, her coily hair pulled back from a high forehead. She still wore a leather breastplate, tasseled skirt, and heavy boots. Yet Emah wore only one green glove, on her left hand. The other arm ended in a stump at the wrist, bandaged and dark with blood. Her ancestral sword no longer hung at her waist.

Despite her losses, Emah carried herself confidently, chin held high and broad shoulders back as she entered. She gave Inspector Calenta a nod, then smiled warmly at Kami. Instead of taking the third chair, she stood between Kami and Maly, feet set wide.

“You two have caught up?” Emah asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Not fully, but enough, dear. Thank you for asking,” Inspector Calenta flashed her dimples. Then her face took on that same look of maternal concern. “How are you, Emah?”

The warrior didn’t answer for a moment, as if unsure how to do so. Finally, she shrugged and said, “Well enough, I suppose. It’s been quite a week.”

Maly snorted and Calenta barked a sharp laugh. Kami kept her face impassive—she wasn’t sure she could be moved to genuine laughter and envied those whose emotions came freely—but inside she admired Emah’s acceptance of her choice within the Raft, and all it cost her. Would she have been able to make the same decision, Kami wondered, had it been her who’d touched the hand? And what could she have possibly offered that was as precious to her as Emah’s swordsmanship? They were all lucky it had been noble Emah Elmhill who’d negotiated for the city’s safety with the spirit of Salo Jaena.

In her reverie, she realized she had tuned out the conversation within the room. She blinked and focused on the present.

“Well, that’s certainly more than we’re making from the Adventurer’s Guild,” Maly said somewhat sourly. “But not a lot more.”

“I assure you, it’s more than most in the City Watch make, and all we can afford, ah?” Calenta said in response.

“The wages are fine,” Emah said, closing the topic. “But what about accommodation?”

“Ah, well… if the memories are not spoiled for you, I thought perhaps Sami Suttar’s place? He had no family, so the property is the city’s to claim.”

Kami looked from Emah to Maly and back. Maly looked surprised, Emah pleased. Kami supposed her own masked face was unreadable, though she tried to provide a subtle nod. The three of them seemed to reach silent agreement and turned back to the inspector.

“Fine,” Emah said.

“Good, good,” Calenta clapped her hands together. “I’ll have it all written into a new contract, and I’ll speak to the Adventurer’s Guild so no one is surprised. I must say, dearies, that I’m relieved to have you on our side, ah?”

“One final item,” Kami said. Three human faces and a feline one turned to her, startled.

“Yes, dear?” Calenta asked, studying her cautiously.

“We have right of refusal on what missions you offer. I won’t trade one brothel for another. You tell us why you need us, and we decide whether we will help or not. And I want that written into the contracts.” Kami said the words smoothly and clearly, without inflection. She studied the inspector as carefully as she’d just been inspected. The two met eyes and an uncomfortable silence reigned for several heartbeats.

“Fine, my dear. Just fine,” the woman smiled disarmingly. “But it means I’ll change the wages to be bounty-based instead of weekly wages. We won’t pay you to do nothing for Oakton.”

“Kami…” Emah said warily.

“Fine,” Kami nodded. She looked at Emah and smiled. “I’m confident, Ms. Elmhill, that we will have plenty to do based on recent events.”

“It’s a risk,” the other woman whispered. “We do need money.”

“We do,” Kami agreed. “Though I have some thoughts about that as well.” Her eyes drifted to Maly, sitting in the chair next to her.

The young woman widened her eyes, realizing suddenly that both Kami and Emah were staring at her. “Wait, what? Why are you looking at me?”

“Say,” Calenta added smoothy, tapping on her desk with a finger. She flicked her attention to Kami. “What happened to the East Bay Dragons boy you all captured? From your account, I thought he was wounded and unconscious when you all went down to the basement?”

“He was,” Kami added, just as smoothly. Her face remained neutral. “Whoever he was, he must have been deceiving us about the extent of his injuries. When we went upstairs, Destiny was awake, and the man was gone. The panther said he had not seen him.” She shrugged.

The inspector clucked her tongue and turned to Emah. “Didn’t you run him through with your sword? How could he have run away so soon after your battle?”

Kami waited, hopeful. Emah met Calenta’s gaze and said simply, “I did and don’t know, ma’am. Another mystery from the week, I suppose.”

The woman sighed heavily and pushed herself to stand with a groan. “Well, alright. We’ll look into that, too, then. I will get the contracts to you, ah? For now, get some rest in your new home. We’ll talk soon.”

Kami and Maly stood, and the panther climbed slowly to its feet to join them. Kami stretched her arm down to collect her unwieldy trunk.

“Hey,” Maly said as they began exiting. “What are we calling this group of ours? Do we have an official name?”

“I hadn’t thought about it, dear, but you’re right. Do you have an idea?” Calenta smiled and sat back at her desk.

“The Wonder Force!” Maly said brightly.

“Not the Wonder Force,” Emah grunted with a scowl, almost as soon as she’d said it.

“Come on, Emah! What don’t you like about—”

“Absolutely no,” Emah growled dangerously.

“Well, let’s have a think about it, ah?” Calenta nodded. “Rest up, dearies. I’m sure we’ll talk sooner than later.”

The door closed. Kami strode without speaking down the hallway, trunk tucked beneath one arm. Behind her Emah and Maly continued to bicker about their group’s name. Destiny stalked at Maly’s heels, yellow eyes scanning and startling anyone they passed.

When they exited the Keep, the great tree stretching above them, cracks of blue sky visible beyond the branches. Kami couldn’t help but feel the air crackling with something monumental. People all around them pointed and stared, whispering in awe.

Kami allowed herself a small grin behind her mask, her feet angling towards their new home.

Next: Reflections on Issues 1 through 6!