Gwyn’s head popped around the corner of an opened doorway. The ship gave way to a giant hanger, or what he interpreted as a hanger. Whatever must have been stored in such a bay was a mystery, but it reminded him of something out of a space opera. The original purpose was now lost, but in its place was a stone city made of narrow streets.

  Beyond the city in the hanger, the massive doors gave way to a large cavern with an extension of the stony buildings. The whole layout of the streets and city made Gwyn think of reconstructions he had seen of Ur—though with the streets incredibly narrowed and large pillars dotted around the layout.

  In the distance, climbing a tall ziggurat type structure, he could have sworn he saw flash of blue glow. It was the sort he had grown accustomed to seeing with Fiona’s shiny skin, but it seemed like such a long shot to say that it was the right location.

  The earthling felt a presence close behind him, and Amaris’ head popped around the corner above his.

  “The style of city reminds me of Old Zenotote, if we can get some disguises I think I can guide us through without too much trouble.”

  “You just want to charge in like that?”

  “Not charge, disguised, and I wouldn’t suggest it if I wasn’t confident, I could keep us from getting lost.”

  The lizard woman’s tone at least suggested she was sure of what she said.

  Gwyn shook his head and pulled away from the door. He waited until Amaris looked away as well.

  “Okay, but are you sure they are in there? What if we run in and it’s not the right spot.

  “Not there?” Amaris sounded confused for a second before her face lit up with understanding. “I see, yes, you Netzians don’t have as good of eyesight. They were climbing the palace stairs.”

  “Palace?” Gwyn was realizing he might have been correct in assuming that glimmer was the blue princess, “You mean the thing that looks like a ziggurat?”

  “I don’t know what a ziggurat is, but I assume we are talking about the same place. We should hurry though, if they are climbing that tower, and if this is as old Zenotote as it seems to be, they might be in for an unfortunate meeting.”

  Gwyn didn’t like the vagueness of her statement, but he agreed with the need to rush, the sooner they could rescue everyone the sooner this could all be over with.

  “Alright, but how do we get disguises? I melted all the armor in the last fight.”

  Amaris grunted but offered no solutions, she seemed just as stumped even though she had made the suggestions. Gwyn figured it was just the sort of thing where the obvious thing to do was to blend in, but they didn’t know how to do it. Sort of like a roleplay situation where the party didn’t think to pick up a disguise kit until the moment was upon them. Though in such a situation, the party would likely just charge in and murderhobo their way to the goal instead. If he ever caught up with his old friends, he would have to stress very much that murdering everything was, in fact, not a good way to manage everything.

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  Gwyn peaked out through the doorway again. They were on the second, or third, tier of the hanger, and a balcony immediately greeted them. Even so high up, the stony town was built high enough they could see the rooftops beyond the balcony. If they wanted, they could try to parkour across, but thinking about doing all that jumping across buildings made an old injury in Gwyn’s leg burn.

  He shuffled out, looking both ways down the balcony to make sure no one was coming. When it seemed safe enough, he got low and peaked over the edge just enough to see down below. Fish people of a spectrum of colors and sizes slid through the narrow streets. They were the sort of ordinary folk one would expect to see in any town. No crazy military lifestyle implied, no strict system to obey, just regular folks doing regular things. It made Gwyn feel a little doubtful. They had fought a couple of patrol, and he had started to think these people were just villains to defeat and save their friends from. Something easy to think about.

  He was fortunate to get distracted at the sight of two armored fellows moving along the streets below. More guards, he could feel a little better about not beating them up too much, probably.

  Quickly liquefying some of the balcony’s flooring, strangely it lacked railings to use, he made a ball and turned it solid. One drop later and it pinged off a guard’s helmet. The man may have looked up, but Gwyn had already shuffled back across the balcony and into the door. He waved to Amaris to keep back and produced a metal bat from the wall nearby.

  They stood in silence and waited, sure enough the clanking of armor grew louder and louder, until the guard was knocked unconscious by his blow. The second guard barely had enough time to react before Amaris lurched forward and drove her knee into his head. Soon they drug the sleeping foes away and donned their armor.

  “I am impressed that work,” Amaris said after dropping the helmets faceplate down.

  “Thank you for not expressing your doubts until after we got the armor,” Gwyn replied. He dropped his own faceplate and felt hot breath heat up his face. The fish people had humanoid enough forms, but they were all a bit on the shorter side to the earthling, so his armor was tighter in just about every spot. He managed to get by with reminder that it was only temporary.

  “Shall we be off then?” Amaris asked.

  “To save our friends.”

  They shuffled their way to the stairs, then the streets. Gwyn slouched some to make it appear he was a bit shorter while walking past the scaly citizens. They eagerly filled the streets with chatter that was unrecognizable to him. “Do you understand any of them?” Gwyn asked in a low voice to Amaris.

  “A bit, but there is so much at once I can hardly piece anything together. It seems to be nothing more than regular chatter though.”

  “Regular?”

  “I’ve picked up things like school, work, market, and game on multiple cases. These are the sorts of people just living their lives.”

  “Hopefully that will be the case for everyone, and we only have to resolve a misunderstanding or something.”

  “You are oddly optimistic for how grumpy you act sometimes.”

  Gwyn grunted. He wasn’t sure how to take that.

  “Let’s just hurry up and save everyone.” He said. They had only just entered the streets, and he hoped they could move through them quickly.