At the base of the tower, Rosi made for the exit. Or at least she wanted to, but Inaco jumped in her way.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? It is dangerous out there, and it is always good to have someone to watch your back.”

“I already told you I will be fine, Inaco. I know what I’m doing!” Rosi retorted.

“Fine, fine.” He stepped aside, that awful smirk appearing on his face again. “Have fun, Rosi!”

She looked at him, confused. He saw through the disguise, and yet…

“You know it’s me?”

“Of course I know it’s you, Iria. Who else would you be?”

“But you just said–”

Inaco gestured towards the door with a slight bow. “I said to have fun!”

Rosi nodded, then stepped outside.

The cool night air felt nice, the occasional sea breezes bringing a salty smell all the way to the Princetowers. The usual sounds of the bustling city had fallen away by this point as people went home or into the various inns by the harbor.

Rosi looked left, then right. For the first time, she could decide for herself which direction she wished to go.

Left. I’ll go that way. I’ve never been to that side of the city before, she thought.

As she began to walk, she found herself picking up speed more and more. It felt as though the wind were catching in some big sail attached to her, pulling harder and harder in that direction. Eventually, she was in a full sprint.

She passed house after house, princetower after princetower, and even ran by the occasional person still out at night. But that breeze didn’t last forever and she eventually stopped, breathing heavily and resting her hands on her knees.

Rosi scanned her surroundings. She was near the rainforest, spanning along the city limits to her left, a large stone wall blocking access in and out. To her right, she saw several workshops and what appeared to be a guard barrack just across from the gate in the distant wall.

Maybe she could see the wilderness a bit, if the guards would let her through.

She strolled up to the gate, where several men in heavy chain armor watched her approach. One of them, his face concealed behind a half-helmet, spoke. “You’d best stay away from here. It’s not safe beyond this gate.”

“I just want to explore through there a bit. Surely it won’t be a problem if I stay near the gate.”

“You can’t enter without permission from a Prince,” the guard replied.

“I am Rosi Casteyo. Is that enough?”

“Do you have any proof of that?” He asked, still standing firmly in front of Rosi. Another guard now stood beside him.

“Have you ever heard of anyone else with water for hair?”

The guards looked at her as if expecting some further explanation.

“Surely you know about that, at least,” she said.

“We don’t know everything about every prince’s family, kid. You’d best go home to them before you get yourself hurt here.”

“But, I—”

“We’ll take you home ourselves if we have to.”

Rosi frowned, but relented, turning around to head back in the other direction.

Even separated from her parents, she still lacked complete freedom. This was a completely new part of the city for her, only glimpsed far in the distance from the rooms of her home. Why couldn’t they just let her look, or give her an escort while she passed through?

She looked to her right as she walked away, where a path curved away to follow the perimeter of the wall. She thought she saw a gap in the spikes placed along the top of it, and turned to investigate. Sure enough, there was a big ripped-off section of the spikes, evidenced by the bent metal atop the wall and the chunk of it laying on the ground. Rosi couldn’t tell how they had climbed it though, or why someone would have been that desperate to climb over it. Were they coming from the wilderness?

The top of the wall sat too high for Rosi to reach, and she didn’t have the strength to lift herself up. She decided to search nearby in the hopes that she could find something to help her climb. This area seemed newly built, so there might be a ladder nearby.

She searched house after house until she found one still under construction, with an unattended ladder resting against an unfinished wall. They would easily find it again, and Rosi didn’t plan to keep it. She hefted it up, carried it to the wall, and climbed over, leaping into the wilderness beyond.

Only, she didn’t land amongst trees and underbrush. What she saw was actually the opposite: ramshackle houses made from scraps of metal and stacked stones were crammed together among narrow walkways, where Rosi saw gaunt figures moving like ghosts. Others sat wrapped in fraying clothing, holding their hands up to anyone who passed by.

“Where… am I?” she whispered to herself.

She turned to look back at the wall, seeing ththe frayed end of a rope, where someone must have ripped it from the hook that attached it to the wallat a rope still hung from this side. Just before her sat a burned-out firepit and a few tents and shelters that seemed abandoned. Someone must have climbed out. But why all the secrecy?

Rosi stepped away from the wall, continuing through the city.

“Spare a coin, m’lady?” Came a voice from beside her. She looked down to see a human with purplish veins running up his arms and starting to move up his neck.

Rosi fumbled in her pockets, finding a few Princemarks in there. Probably left over from one of her last shopping trips. She dropped it into the man’s hand with a smile.

He smiled back. “Thank you!” he said, raising his voice somewhat. “We need more people like you.”

Rosi nodded, then continued on her way. But as she looked up she noticed how many eyes were now trained on her. She only had three coins left in her pocket. She couldn’t give everyone a coin, as much as she wished to. But… keeping them to herself felt even worse.

She gave a coin each to the people nearest her, then turned out her pockets to make it clear that she didn’t have any more.

Many eyes and heads still followed her as she continued on her way, trying to understand where she even was. This place already seemed horrible. That first beggar was nowhere close to being the only one with the purple veins running up his arms and along other parts of his body.

Was that really purplevein? Did everyone here have that horrible plague? The fact that Rosi saw more humans here than anyone else made her wonder. Was this area a plague ward of some kind? But there were no healers to speak of, only the rare guard patrolling the slum.

“Spare a coin, madam?” The accent of this man who approached her sounded odd, unlike any she had heard before. “I’ll make it worth your while, I promise. I’m not asking for handouts.”

The man wore light blue clothing, and had the look of… a silvan? Here? He didn’t look like a Shipwood or a Palm. He was quite far from home, evidently. He seemed much better off than the others in this place, and looked at her with an odd smile.

“‘Worth my while’ how?” Rosi asked. “I’m out of money, I’m afraid. I don’t have anything to give you.”

“That’s alright, I’m sure we can work something out! As for your question, I noticed that you seem a bit lost. Fortunately for you, I have a city map that should help you find your way around!”

“I’m not going to go into debt with you.”

“Certainly! But there are a lot of ways you can pay someone back without money. Perhaps we could just say you owe me a favor. Or… well, you seem out of your element. You’re from a wealthy family, right?”

Rosi nodded slowly, unsure if she wanted to answer.

“Perhaps you could arrange a meeting of some sort for my sister. She’s been hoping to get a small business started, and she would appreciate any help she can get.”

“I’m not sure that… I can’t do that. I’m just the daughter of a Prince.”

“A Prince? That carries a lot of weight, if I’m not mistaken.”

Rosi’s eyes darted around, looking at her surroundings.

The silvan turned to his right, then looked back at her, talking faster. “How about this: you take the map, and maybe I’ll ask for something in the future, maybe I won’t. Call it a free sample. If you could arrange something like that for my sister, I’d be forever grateful!” He put the map in her hands, smiled, and rushed away.

Rosi unrolled the map, then studied it to find whatever neighborhood she was in. She had looked at plenty of maps of the city before without ever noticing a neighborhood here, but maybe this one would be—

This wasn’t the right city. It said, right there at the top of the map, “Sera Liberale”. There was a large central island, surrounded by five other smaller ones, each connected by bridges. It didn’t resemble Sera Vimali in the slightest. Either the silvan was terrible at reading maps, or she had been duped.

A couple of guards approached, and Rosi took off in the opposite direction. She wasn’t supposed to be here, and they probably knew that.

She hurried away, turning into random passageways, until she found herself at a dead end. She turned around, and saw four men standing behind her, blocking the only way out. Like everyone else in this place, they weren’t particularly large. In fact, Rosi thought she could see the ribs of one of the men who had no shirt. They had vicious smiles with various levels of toothiness, and held clubs in their hands. One had a dagger with a few crude carvings in it.

The toothiest of the four men stepped forward, waving the dagger. “Give us all of your money, girl, or we’ll kill you.”

“I don’t have any—”

“Save it,” he snarled. “We can all see how you’re dressed. We also heard about the money you gave out by the gate. Give it to us. All of it. Now, or you’re dead.”

Rosi scrambled to turn out her pockets again. “I don’t have anything left. I gave it all away!”

“Hit her,” the man said, nodding towards the people behind him. One of them lunged forward, striking her across the face with his club. Rosi fell to the ground, scraping her legs and hands on the stone as she tried to catch herself.

They backed off again, giving her a chance to pull herself up.

“Are you sure you don’t have anything valuable?” He said, his smile growing more.

“No, I—”

The toothy man pointed to her chest, where a ruby necklace hung from her neck.

“That’s a gift from my parents! I can’t—”

“You can, girl,” he snarled. “You will, or you’re getting hit again. And we won’t be so nice this time.” The men behind him laughed.

“Fine,” Rosi cried. She reached behind her neck to unclasp the necklace, then slowly offered it to the man. He snapped it up immediately.

He nodded to his cronies, then began to walk away while they descended on her with clubs. From behind them, she heard him say, “Shouldn’t’ve come into Vasura without a guard, kid.”

The first hit knocked her to her knees. The second sent her flat on the ground. Every single one after that hurt more and more, and Rosi put her hands on the back of her head to protect herself. She started screaming, hoping someone might come to help. Hoping that in this back-alley, someone would hear her plea.

One of them shouted, then she heard a thud. The beatings stopped, replaced by more shouting. Rosi looked up cautiously, and saw a larger human fighting them off. He had knocked one unconscious already, and had taken his club to fight off the other two. After finishing a second one, he gestured to the third that he was welcome to leave.

The man accepted, taking off after his boss.

This new human, who bore the same purple veins as so many others in this place, stepped over to Rosi, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to her feet. She could barely stand, but the man kept his hand on her.

“Let me go!” she shouted. “I don’t have any money! I just want to go home!”

He released Rosi’s arm, resting her against the wall of a shack. “It’s okay. I don’t want to hurt you.” He looked Rosi up and down. “They almost killed you. We should get you recovered a bit before you go home.”

Rosi began to cry. “I don’t want to stay here any more! Please, just show me the way out.”

“I will, I promise. But you’ll never make it home in this state. Come with me, I’ll get you patched up.”

“Who are you?” Rosi asked. “I need a name.”

“Javien. Javien Rolero.” He stuck out his hand. “And you?”

“Rosi Cas—” she decided against saying her last name. “Rosi. Just Rosi.”

“Fair enough,” Javien replied. He reached out an arm to help Rosi walk, and led her through the slum. “What brings you to Vasura, Rosi?”

“Whims, I suppose.”

“You came to Vasura on a whim? That’s quite the risk.”

They turned left around a corner.

“I found an opening in the gate, and jumped over it. I thought I was jumping into the wilderness.”

“Ah. Nobody’s told you about the paint-roof.”

“The what?” Rosi looked over at Javien.

Javien led her around another corner, turning right now. “We call it the paint-roof. It’s a big illusion they put over the top of Vasura to hide us from view. They don’t want to look at us and don’t want visitors to see. It’s a secret, so they keep it under heavy guard.”

“Nobody ever—” Rosi’s words caught in her mouth. Tears still streamed down her face, both from fear and pain. “I never knew about this place.”

“Where are you from, kid?” Javien asked, stopping before the door of a shack.

“I’m from Sera Vimali. Why?”

“If you’ve lived here this long and haven’t heard of Vasura, then you’re lucky. You’re obviously from a wealthy family, judging by your clothes.”

Rosi looked down at her clothes. They were torn in places, but the wealthiness remained obvious. How had she not realized how much it made her stand out?

“Are we going inside? I don’t want to do that. I just need to go home.”

Javien frowned. “You can’t walk, Rosi. How do you expect to leave Vasura, much less cross the city?” He pushed open the door, bringing Rosi to a chair in the corner of the room.

Rosi examined her surroundings. It was a small shack, though larger than some others she had seen. The entire house could fit inside of Rosi’s bedroom. Built from scraps of cloth and metal on a short foundation of cobblestones, Rosi felt like a strong breeze might topple the entire structure. “Wait here,” Javien said, disappearing into a side door.

Who was this man? He seemed to be the only one in Vasura that actually wanted to help her without asking for something in return. Rosi worried that the demand might come soon, and she wouldn’t have the means to pay it.

The house barely even had furniture. One other chair sat across from her on the opposite wall, and old blankets sat in a pile in another corner. She didn’t see any food. Javien himself seemed more well-fed than the men that attacked her, but he wasn’t anywhere close to being well-off.

He returned moments later with a sayali woman, made obvious by her teal-colored skin and seaweed-like hair. She bore a gentle demeanor, and approached Rosi carefully. “Hello! I’m Anemone. Javien says you’re hurt. Can I look at the wounds?”

Rosi felt strangely comfortable around this woman, nodding. She pointed out a few places where it hurt the most— her entire back, her arms, hands, knees, and calves. Anywhere they could have hit her.

“Oh, my! There are some deep wounds here. Are you okay? Do you need something to drink? Something to eat?”

“I am okay, Anemone. Thank you.”

Anemone looked at Rosi with a tinge of doubt.

“I do not need anything,” Rosi pressed. “I promise. Don’t go hungry at my expense.”

“We have everything we need here,” Anemone said. “People pay us with food to heal them.”

“Then why are you in this slum?” Rosi asked.

Javien spoke up. “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of Purplevein, either.”

“Of course I have. My parents are both human.” Rosi had heard a lot about Purplevein. It was a big concern across much of the human-settled world. It had no known cure, and was deadly to humans. It had no noticeable effect on anyone else, but they could still carry it and spread it to others. Eventually, it would drive its victims mad, blurring their perception of reality, and sometimes that false reality would bleed into the real world.

Anemone shot her another doubtful glance. “Both human? I doubt that.”

“Why is that strange? Can humans not have a child together?”

Anemone shook her head. “No, it’s just that… your skin has a bluish tinge to it. You have sayali in your blood.”

“You don’t even know my parents. How could you know that they aren’t my real parents?”

Javien spoke up again. “If neither of them have any sayali ancestry, then your skin won’t spontaneously become blue.”

“Not to mention,” Anemone said, touching Rosi’s hair. “I’ve never seen a human with water for hair.”

“What are you trying to say?” Rosi asked.

“They’re probably not your real parents, kid,” Javien said.

They all fell silent while Anemone continued to look over Rosi’s wounds. She returned to the side room, then emerged moments later with several strange implements of coral, seaweed, and sand.

“If they aren’t, then who is?”

“Probably a human and a sayali,” Javien said.

“Like you two?” Rosi asked, half-joking.

They fell silent again. Within the next few minutes, Rosi felt much of her pain vanish. She still found it difficult to stand, but more due to weakness than pain.

“You should rest for a while,” Anemone said. “No more than an hour or two, but you will feel better if you do.”

Rosi nodded, sitting back down in the chair. It was solid wood without a cushion. Not comfortable by any means, but better than standing.

After a few minutes, Javien and Anemone disappeared into the side room. Rosi could hear them talking quietly through the wall, which did enough to muffle their voices.

Was everything Javien said about this place true? Did they actually keep this all a secret? Why hadn’t anyone told Rosi about it yet? It certainly seemed important for her to know about, if only to stay away from it. If she knew she would stumble into Vasura by jumping over a wall, she never would have attempted it. Now she was hurt, lost, and reliant on complete strangers for safety, and would have died but for their aid.

Rosi thought about this for a while before the two of them came out of the room again.

“How old are you, Rosi?” Anemone asked.

“I am sixteen,” Rosi answered.

The two of them glanced at each other, as though communicating some hidden message.

“Is something wrong?” Rosi asked. “I can leave if you need me to.”

“No, no. It is not that,” Anemone replied. “It’s… well, we might actually be your parents.”

Rosi’s eyes widened. “I was kidding when I said that. You know that, right?”

“Yes,” Anonia replied. “But then we thought about it, and we realized that you might be correct.” She took a deep breath. “We had a child about sixteen years ago, and I distinctly remember the baby having a head that was always wet. I tried to dry it off more than once, and it never seemed to stay that way. You’re half sayali, and you have water for hair, which is not… Well, I’ve never heard of anyone with water for hair. It would be quite a coincidence to meet two of them.”

“But if that’s true, then why don’t I live here?”

“Well…”

“We left you in the Grand Emperor Inn as a baby,” Javien said. “We can barely feed ourselves. We didn’t have any way to care for an infant.

“It seems that our hope in the Princes wasn’t misplaced this one time,” Anemone said, smiling at Rosi. “You’ve grown up so well!”

“What is so bad about the Princes?” Rosi asked.

Javien frowned. “You don’t know? No wonder you’ve never heard about Vasura, then. They exploit everyone beneath them and profit off of it all, without anyone to prevent them from doing it.”

“But they pay everyone!” Rosi protested.

“They pay some people. The Vimali aren’t paid at all, from what I hear. There’s a reason so many people fight them.”

“You mean the pirates?”

“Pirates, and Kalusk and Tharkenwood.”

“But… why?”

“They want better lives, and that’s not happening under the Princes. You see where we are, Rosi. The people who are sick and can’t work just get thrown out here into this slum to rot. And they hide it all away.”

Rosi said nothing. This was a lot of information for these people to suddenly throw at her— they’re her real parents, the entire country she lives in is horrible, and— what else had her parents lied about? Was any of this stuff even true?

The Casteyos had a lot to answer for.

“I… I thank you for your time, and your help. I think I need to get home,” she said, and turned to leave.

“Wait!” Anemone shouted. “Before you go, I have something I want to give you.” She reached around her neck, removing a pendant with a piece of coral at the end, shaped into a wavelike pattern. She offered it to Rosi. “Something to remember us by.”

Rosi hesitated, then took it with a smile.

“I won’t forget you! I will come back if I can,” Rosi said, then stepped through the door and back into Vausra.

The smell of rot and waste hadn’t gone away, but she had grown much more used to it by now. Which direction had Javien gone to get here?

Rosi went right, then left, finding herself in a different side path from the one she entered with, then followed it until she reached the main path through Vasura, still patrolled by the occasional heavily-armored guard.

Her eyes darted back and forth, making sure that she wouldn’t be accosted by another gang trapping her in a dead-end as she found a guard.

“Excuse me, sir,” she started, “I am incredibly lost. Do you know the way to the Tower of Kíthmu?”

The guard tilted his head as he looked back at her. “Who’s asking?”

“Rosi Casteyo,” she replied. “I am lost, and I need to get home.”

“Casteyo? Oh, my apologies,” he said in a gruff voice. “I’ll get you there right away.” He about-faced, and began to walk away. Rosi followed him closely, eyes still darting around in spite of the guard protecting her.

He whirled around again, pointing a spear at her. “Back off, kid! I see you trying to rifle through my pockets!”

“But I need help! I’m lost!”

“If you’re a Casteyo, then I’m the Emperor,” he replied. He started to walk away again, mumbling something about Violet Madness.

“I’m serious!” Rosi shouted. “Please, I’m lost and I need to get home!”

“Go find someone else to bother,” the guard replied, barely even turning around to look at her.

Rosi gave up, moving on to find another guard. In full view of the main street, it seemed unlikely that anyone would try anything, but she still tried to keep an eye out regardless.

She approached another guard. “I’m lost, sir. I need help getting home, please. I’m not supposed to be here.”

The guard stopped, looked at her, and replied, “If you’re in here, then it’s no accident. You have Purplevein. Nobody with Purplevein leaves Vasura.”

“I don’t— I’m half sayali, I can’t get Purplevein!”

“You can still spread it. Sorry, but I can’t let you leave.”

“I’ve only been here for two hours! If my father hears about this, he won’t be happy,” Rosi said. “I’m a Casteyo.”

“Can you prove that?”

“I— no. But look at my clothes. They’re a little bit ruined, but they’re obviously expensive. You have to believe me.”

He nodded. “I’ll escort you to the entrance, but you’re on your own after that.”

Rosi let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you!”

She felt so much safer knowing that this man— probably a human, but she couldn’t be sure with all the armor he was wearing— would protect her from anyone or anything hostile in this awful place.

Why did it even exist? That’s another thing she needed to ask her parents about.

Past the beggars and the sick, and those trying to take advantage of the beggars and the sick, Rosi and the guard finally reached the front gate.

“I’ll leave you here. Good luck!” he said, then gave a salute, holding his right hand up by his side with fingers flat.

Rosi turned to look at the gate. It felt like it loomed over her, a giant maw feeding on everyone who entered. She had seen it from the other side earlier— hopefully someone would recognize her and let her through.

She approached the small booth near the gate’s entrance, manned by a bored-looking vimali attendant. She had seen a few vimali before, but their fish-like heads and faces always seemed soulless. Maybe they were, if stories from the War of the Coast were to be believed.

The vimali looked up at her, pushing his thin hair away from his eyes. “What?”

“I need to exit, please.”

“No.” He rested his head back in his hand, staring at the ground.

Rosi waited a moment, then got his attention again.

“Oh, you’re still here? Do you need something else?”

“No,” Rosi said. “I need to leave this place. I’m not supposed to be here.”

“Then why are you here?” He asked, his sentence just as monotone as the ones before it.

“I snuck in. I thought it was wilderness, and I jumped over the wall. My name is Rosi Casteyo. I don’t wish to be here anymore, and I need to leave.”

The vimali sat up, shouting to another guard. “Hoshey, we’ve got one with madness over here.”

The guard hurried over, spear drawn.

“Why does everyone think I’m infected? I’m half sayali!”

“Are you? I’m not seeing much of it.”

“What about my watery hair? Have you seen anyone enter through that gate with hair like this?”

“It could’ve come from your delusions,” he replied.

Rosi booked it for the gate, trying with all her strength to push it open.

“Somebody let me out! Please! I don’t belong in here!”

The guard caught up with her, poking a spear into her back. “Back away from the gate, or I’ll make you.”

Rosi started crying, falling to her knees. “I just… I want to go home. I’m not supposed to be here. I’m not even supposed to be in the city. My parents are probably looking for me.”

The guard raised his spear, kneeling down next to Rosi.

“I’ll tell you what: we can’t let you out in case you’re infected, but we can let you stay here with us until your parents come looking for you. We’ll give it a day, and if they show up, then you’re free to go.”

Rosi nodded, sniffling, then got to her feet.

They seated her in the booth behind the vimali, who occasionally shot bored glances in her direction. She tried a few times to strike up a conversation, but was met with dismissive glares and single-word replies, so she gave up.

What felt like several agonizing hours passed before she heard talking on the other side of the gate. Finally, it opened, and she saw Abrosio and Elio on the other side. They both looked incredibly tired.

Rosi rushed to see them, equally exhausted from the long night.

“What were you thinking, Rosi?” Elio asked. “Do you know how dangerous this city is at night? And to end up in Vasura of all places?”

“No, father, I didn’t know how dangerous the city is at night. That is your fault. If you had just told me about this place, I could have avoided it!”

“Now is not the time to talk about this. Let’s get you home, then we will certainly talk.”

Abrosio looked worried, but he said nothing as they returned home.

Everything about the return trip felt different. The whole city seemed so dark, and every shadow felt to Rosi like it concealed some nefarious thing, waiting to lunge out at her. How could a city so prosperous, so beautiful, hold so much danger?

Her parents would scold her, and probably give her even less freedom for a time, but she certainly had some words to share with them, too. But she was glad to finally be out of that awful place, headed back to safety. She hoped she might be able to convince her parents to do something, or at least do something to help them on her own, but she couldn’t figure out what she could even do.