The new gate into Ichiba Wa stood some twenty feet high and almost just as wide. Currently it was swung open and the north market square was just visible in the distance. Ichiba Wa held four such markets, one on the north, south, east, and west, respectively. The south market was also right next to the docks were foreign goods were bought and sold and where Lake Shibo allowed for the merchant ships to wait for their turn to be brought into port. It was also at the lake where you could take the small ferry boats across to the east market since there were no bridges across the Bokyaku River in Ichiba Wa.

The four markets had their own distinct wares for sale. The north market was where food stuffs, crops, and the like were bought and sold. The west market was for manufactured goods, machinery, and tinkerers. The southern market, of course, was foreign goods. And the eastern market was for magical and holy devices and potions. Zeter had spent a fair amount of time here as a child, learning how to steal and get away with it in Akumu’s great city.

“Anyone see anything suspicious?” Damarys asked as they hovered on the carpet.

“Something is not right,” rumbled the earthen mound just on the inside of the gate.

Each gate had their specific guardian, and Ichiba Wa’s guardian was a large earth elemental. It had no name but was generally content to talk to any who wanted to spend the time talking to it.

“You’re not going to attack us if we come in, are you?” Damarys asked the elemental.

“No,” it replied. “But my defenses are still raised. Something is not right.”

“Any idea what’s wrong?” Zeter asked. Sometimes getting the information you wanted out of an elemental was a bit tricky and he’d found the easiest way to deal with them was to just ask direct questions.

The mound rolled back and forth a moment before replying.

“I can’t feel parts of the Wa,” it rumbled. “There’s holes where there is nothing, but not holes in the ground. The children of Nyla are also missing, though I sometimes think I see them flying high above me.”

“Nyla’s children?” Kasyn asked.

“Her children are bound to defend Ichiba Wa,” both Damarys and Zeter explained.

“I didn’t know she had children,” Kasyn muttered.

“She is a succubus,” Zeter shrugged, having known more than a few Sages who’d made ‘deals’ with her in exchange for some infernal knowledge.

“Oh, and Akumu lets her…

“Nyla isn’t bound to the city like the other fiends here,” Damarys reminded Kasyn. “She made some other deal or something with Akumu. Anyway, she’s bound her children here for Akumu.”

“And they were okay with that?” Kasyn wondered aloud.

“I don’t think they had much say in the matter,” Damarys replied.

“If they’re free,” Zeter said, “I would bet they aren’t going to be all that friendly towards us so keep an eye out for anything flying above us.”

All of Kasyn’s skeletons turned their gazes upwards.

“Thank you for the warning,” Damarys waved to the elemental and then motioned for Zeter to take them into Ichiba Wa.

Where most of Autay Wa had been cleaned up as far as the bodies and obvious signs of war, Ichiba Wa was still a mess of decomposing bodies along the path the army had cut through the city. Like in Autay Wa, there were parts where the bodies were denser and parts where there weren’t any at all.

“Must be missing or damaged runes here too,” Zeter observed. “Pity Kasyn and I never managed to replicate Akumu’s runes.”

They pressed further into Ichiba Wa, noting the lack of defenders for the Wa until they reached Lake Shibo. There, they were met with a strange sight indeed. A pair of ships were docked at the pier and they’d built a massive barricade around them on the docks. There were signs that the barricade had already warded off a few attacks, as signified by the burn marks on it. A few faces could be seen, watching from above the barricade and shouts were heard as soon as the sailors spotted Zeter and the others on the magic carpet.

“That’s close enough!” a voice shouted from the barricade. “Who are you?”

“We’re a search party sent in from Autay Wa,” Damarys called back.

That brightened a number of their expressions and one of the sailors stood up and waved for them to approach.

“We’ve been stuck here for some time,” he called down to them. “Any time we try to go into the city, the undead rise and begin attacking us. The only things that have attacked us here on our boats were the fiends, but even they stopped showing up after a while.”

“Autay Wa was the same until we fixed a few things there,” Zeter told him. “We’re hoping to get Ichiba Wa settled down as well.”

“Well we’d appreciate it,” the sailor replied. “We’ve got enough provisions to last us another month if we need to, but we’d like to just get out of here if we can.”

“Can you sail out?” Damarys asked.

The sailor shook his head.

“One boat tried it and was pulled under the water.”

Zeter couldn’t suppress his shudder at the idea of the lake guardian rising up and pulling his boat into the water. The mass of black tentacles was a rare sight in the past and he hoped to never see it in action.

“Any idea where the fiends are now?” Damarys asked.

“No, they attacked us a few times but then they vanished, like I said.”

Damarys was about to speak again when a disembodied voice interrupted her.

“Where are you?” it was Arjana and there was deep concern in her voice. “Jelvaic’s gone missing. Replaced by an impostor wearing an illusion. Ketty Pordis noticed it and warned me. No idea how long ago the switch was made but we have the fake Jelvaic in custody now. Nyla’s interrogating him but so far he isn’t talking.”

“We’re in Ichiba Wa,” Damarys said, her eyes wide. “Jelvaic asked us to check it out, but I guess that wasn’t Jelvaic at all.”

“No, we need you in Shinko Toshokan, remember? The lands are dying and so are our crops. Without fall harvest, we’ll all starve this winter.”

“We’re headed back now,” Zeter said and waved his apology to the sailors who looked both interested in what they’d overheard, and let down that they would still be left stuck here for the foreseeable future.

Zeter turned the carpet around and flew back towards the gate as directly as he could.

“Who do you think is behind this?” Kasyn asked.

“Not the Sages,” Zeter said at once. “Ketty wouldn’t have spoiled the attempt if it was them.”

“Maybe they’re just trying what they did before with the militia, making an artificial crisis in the hopes we’ll like them better when they help us.”

“The Sages would be stupid to try that kind of thing again,” Zeter said. “Besides, Ketty hates giving false aid and she’s been in charge of the Sages here ever since that fiasco with the militia.”

“I’m more worried about where the real Jelvaic is,” Damarys cut into the beginnings of the argument. “People have been going missing for a little while now, and I wonder if more people have been taken than we know and just replaced, like Jelvaic.”

“That’s a terrifying thought,” Kasyn muttered.

Something else about all of this wasn’t sitting right with Zeter but he was struggling to identify what it was that was bothering him specifically. Yes, Jelvaic being taken and replaced was a problem, and there was certainly still a lot that needed to be done for the city but…something about Shinko Toshokan was…

“Did we ever get Shinko Toshokan repaired?” Zeter asked with dawning awareness. “The whole reason we went to the elder tree was so we could repair the door of the toshokan, remember?”

Both Damarys and Kasyn took a moment to register what he’d said. Then they both exclaimed and slapped themselves on the head as if jogging their memory.

“How could we have forgotten?” Damarys asked.

“Someone’s been messing with all of us,” Kasyn scowled.

“Arjana,” Zeter said aloud as he channeled the magic towards her to convey his words, “has Shinko Toshokan been repaired yet?”

A moment passed before Arjana’s response came.

“What repairs?”

“That’s not good,” Damarys whispered.

“Arjana, the whole reason we went into the wilds was to get the wood to repair the door of Shinko Toshokan. Ichiba Wa’s gate was just a secondary objective.”

“I…” Arjana’s voice faded off uncertainly. “I’ll send some runners to see what the condition of the toshokan is and see if it was repaired.”

“Who would want to keep us from repairing the toshokan?” Kasyn asked.

“Anyone who doesn’t want us from getting a good harvest before winter?” Damarys shrugged.

“It’s more than that,” Zeter shook his head. “They wanted us in here, in Ichiba Wa. Why?”

“How else would we parlay with you?” A smooth voice replied from above them.

Slowly, already knowing what he would see, Zeter looked up. There, hovering in the air were three fiends.

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