Like a geyser, a thick jet of yellow-tinted smoke erupted from the ground. A hot, bitter tang filled Talwyn's mouth and drew tears from her burning eyes, blinding her to the lone duskclaw that raced through the smoke towards her. It came closer, and closer, and then it stopped. Talwyn parted her eyelids to see it rooted to its spot, a thin length of cold steel extending from between two of its legs.

     "I wish we had a smokescreen that didn't make my nose itch so much," an unfamiliar voice muttered from the sword's far end. Through the smoke, a tall, olive-skinned, half-elven man emerged and pulled the blood-slick weapon free of the creature's body. The duskclaw spat at him as it dragged itself away, and he kept his long, light-coloured rapier trained on the insect while turning his shimmering blue eyes to Talwyn. "Are you hurt, miss?"

     Talwyn had passed by a diverse range of characters during her stay in Trocari, yet nobody she had yet encountered resembled the person stood before her. Exquisite silver stripes travelled along the shoulders of his deep blue cloak, the short sleeves of a fine, light-coloured hide chest-piece poking out underneath. Along his legs, the same vivid blue shade coloured his well-tailored trousers, and polished metal buckles shone from his tall, steel-tipped boots. Dark, windswept hair fell to just a stroke above his shoulders, blending with the wide-brimmed leather hat on his head.

     In a city built for – and by – outcasts, this man somehow stuck out like a moon among the stars. He was also still waiting for an answer, and Talwyn scrambled to sweep the floor dust from her dress. "Nothing I can't walk off," she said, glancing around in search of a path to clear air. What looked like the outline of a raised stinger floated close by, though she lost sight of it as she squinted through the haze. "Who are you? Did you make this smoke? I can't see a thing through it."

     "You can call me Darius, and while I didn't make the smoke, it was sort of my idea to fire it over here. So really, if you think about it –"

     Drowning out the hiss of the rising smoke, a saliva-wetted cry rang out as the curved tip of a thick tail tore through the fog. Darius spun on his heels at the sound, catching the swing in the centre of his chest and slamming into the stone ground. As the rest of the attacking duskclaw emerged through the veil of haze, a thin needle pushed through the tip of its tail, its point mere inches over its victim's sprawled body. Dazed and winded, the man lifted his free arm in defence of his battered chest.

     Talwyn prepared to lash out with another blast of force, yet the skitter of claws on stone told of a second insect that charged at her from behind. She ducked to the side just in time to dodge the severed tail that flew past her face, only for a blunt, shell-armoured blow to slam into her side. Bracing herself in time to break her fall on a stack of kegs, she pushed off onto her back as the wounded tail hurtled towards her again and smacked off the barrels with a sickening squelch. The duskclaw reeled in pain, frozen in place for a moment.

     And a moment was all Talwyn needed. Keeping her eyes on the central keg, she wrapped her mind around every pound of weight, every wooden sinew, every fermented bubble. Telekinesis was magical, yet its driving force was very physical, and she strained her muscles until they burned to flood the barrel with all the power she could muster. Collapsing into the reed-woven bed in her small rented hut later would be so incredibly satisfying.

     The keg creaked, then cracked, then burst from the pile, ale seeping out of its splitting sides. As the insect turned towards the noise, the rest of the stack crashed over its back and drenched it in a frothing torrent. Heady alcohol fumes curled around the sore nerves of her lingering headache.

     Seizing on the sudden distraction, Darius knocked his opponent's stinger to the side and pulled himself clear of the insect's grasp. The monster hissed, steaming drops of greedy saliva leaking from its jaws, and scurried after him, but this time the half-elf was ready. He loosened a strap on his belt, withdrew a small steel hand axe, and hacked at the creature as it rushed him. The honed edge lodged itself between the duskclaw's eyes, earning a wild cry and pushing the monster back. Not yet done, he tore his axe free and, through the fan of spattered blood, stabbed his rapier through the creature's throbbing tail. A layer of frost claimed the flesh around the wound, a soft purple tint creeping over the ice as he withdrew his blade.

     "Good thing those barrels were so unstable," Darius said, hobbling to Talwyn's side with widened eyes. The pile of destroyed kegs shuddered as he spoke, and the buried duskclaw poked through the wreckage. At the same time, the other creature's tail strained free of the frost's grip. "Alright, we need to get you out of here, like now. I don't want to be responsible for an unarmed civilian getting hurt!"

     Without a word, Talwyn pooled her power in her hands, flexed her fingers and fired a blast of lightning at the barrel-buried duskclaw. The bright bolt sizzled into the insect's rear sac, and as the first wisps of smoke rose from its sensitive flesh, the electricity leapt towards its frozen peer. Chained together by tethers of arcing energy, the monsters screamed and jerked in all directions, their bodies burning in a storm of teal sparks. They slumped beside each other, pools of deep purple blood painting the flagstones.

     Glowing green particles floated around Talwyn as she flicked her silver hair over her shoulder. "You were saying?"

     Darius looked surprised, but not in an awestruck way. A brief moment revealed that the widening of his eyes was down to concern, even alarm. "Is that...are you alright?"

     For two years, Kerensa had been the only individual to witness Talwyn's magic up close. It had been just her and her friend for so long that Talwyn needed a moment to work out what the man referred to. Puzzled, she stared at the corpses, the particles in the air, then at last caught sight of her pulsing scars. "Oh, this? This just happens. It's fine, it doesn't hurt or anything," she said, folding her arms to hide the ebbing lights. "Sorry for freaking you out."

     "I wasn't freaked out, just caught off-guard. It's been a while since I've seen a mage outside the Colleges," Darius answered, still ogling the reflected glow of Talwyn's scars on her gloves. As he fiddled with the chains of his silver ear cuffs, the first glimpses of the marketplace pushed through the smokescreen. "Still, we shouldn't hang around. You had somebody else with you, right?"

     "Yeah, I..." The notes of Kerensa's unseen yelp echoed through Talwyn's head. She ran through the thinning smoke, yet a surge of pain spiked through her injured leg to hinder her progress. "No, Kerensa! I have to get to her!"

     "Hold on a moment." Falling onto one knee, the stranger closed his free hand around Talwyn's injured calf. His touch was hot and clammy, but the discomfort disappeared beneath soft, warm pulses that numbed the nerves in Talwyn's leg. After a short pause, Darius lifted his hand away to reveal no trace of the messy bite wound. "There. And before you go rushing off, I can promise you that your friend is fine. At least, assuming the lizard's done their job properly..."

     The reference to a 'lizard' hung in Talwyn's ear as she and the man left the smoke together, and the word did not take long to find an owner. In perfect time with her first steps out of the yellow haze, a warlike cry snatched her attention. There was a loud crack of weapon on shell, and an overturned duskclaw tumbled through the air, desperate chitters escaping its jaws as it thudded into the ground nearby.

     Standing with their broad shoulders swept back, a tall, copper-scaled dragonborn cupped a hand over their dark eyes and chuckled. "Bug's going to be feeling that in the morning," they growled as they pounded the base of their mithril warhammer against the floor, another insectoid corpse by their ankle-high boots. After swiping the blood spatters from their knee-length leather coat, they recognised the half-elf by Talwyn's side and waved their leathery hand towards him. "What was the distance on that one, Darius? Thirty, forty feet?"

     Talwyn's rescuer shuddered at the flopping insect and drove his rapier into its abdomen, ending its helpless skittering. The weapon's hilt held a pristine sapphire droplet in its silver hilt, and the blade itself stirred the air with a faint, constant mist. As soon as he sheathed the weapon, the mist stopped, as did the chills that passed along Talwyn's spine when she observed it.

     Chuckling to himself, Darius tapped a claw mark gashed into his friend's shoulder. "I think you'll be feeling something in the morning too, Arlo," he said, laughing harder at his companion's dismissive scoff. "Where's Tangle? I thought she went with you."

     As if beckoned by his words, a furious screech rocked through the nearby stalls. The wooden shop frames snapped apart, and a pair of bodies flew through the caving canvas covers and rising sawdust. One was the final duskclaw, and the figure it flailed after was a slender, bright pink-skinned girl with short, scruffy hair as red as a ripe bunch of berries. Growing seemingly from thin air, an intricate web of thick green vines and blood-red leaves clung to her bare arms. The girl was a dryad, though the flips and spins she pulled off could hardly be further from the Treeborn clan's renowned slow pace of life.

     The girl – Tangle, presumably – swung around a horizontal beam to balance on top of one of the remaining intact stalls. "Hey! What's the matter, snappy? Can't keep up?" she cried as she twisted a fistful of her arm-leaves into what resembled a throwing dart. With a whistle, she threw it, piercing the soft flesh between two plates of the duskclaw's outer shell. The monster flinched, then charged at Tangle's stand and thrusted its stinger into the lamenting wooden frame, sticking itself in place.

     Humming to herself, Tangle hopped down the insect's trapped tail and landed on its back. The duskclaw yanked its body to free its stinger, yet the dryad unspooled the vines around her arms without issue and threw them around the monster's tail, legs, and torso. Bound to the stall, the creature thrashed and roared, but got nowhere.

     Tangle turned to the others and produced a pair of fine-cut elven glass daggers, her light blue eyes shining with pride. "Yes! Look, you guys! I got this one all by myself."

     The pained howl of the trapped insect cut her celebrations short. Hissing with black smoke, a patch of pure darkness burned into the duskclaw's exposed abdomen. A trail of shadow hung in the air, and at its far end, Kerensa stood with a hand pressed to her hip. "Finally. I was starting to get a headache from all that noise," she said as she swirled another midnight-hued blast over her open palm. Even when hurt and wielding orbs of pure chaos, Kerensa carried herself with nothing less than airy elegance.

     Beside the dying duskclaw, Tangle wasted no time in manifesting the exact opposite to Kerensa's refined composure. "No fair! I was totally about to smoosh that bug," she cried, and she demonstrated the rough motions of what she imagined 'smooshing' to look like with her short, razor-thin blades. She stuck her knives in the sheaths along the small of her back and marched up to the necromancer, wagging her finger.

     As she drew closer, Tangle's face visibly registered the paleness of Kerensa's eyes and the dark, ichor-like liquid that trickled from her tear ducts and nostrils. Surprisingly, the corners of her lips turned upwards. "Woah. You're so cool!"

     "But of course. It's about time someone else noticed," Kerensa answered, waving away her magically captured shadows and running her black nails over the paper-thin skin of her neck. Her eyes fell onto Talwyn stood just to the side, and a snatched gasp left her lips as she ran to seize her friend in a tight hold. "Talwyn! Thank goodness you're okay. I mean, of course you are, you're so talented – so, so talented."

     Talwyn ran her hands through Kerensa's knotted hair, stroking it through her friend's muffled sobs. "Kerensa, I –"

     Leaning harder against Talwyn's shoulder, Kerensa left a distinctive void-hued stain all over her friend's waistcoat and her own face. "I was looking for you, but everything got so crazy, and then there was all this smoke everywhere, and –"

     "Really, I was –"

     "And I couldn't find you, and then this big dragon and tiny pink girl showed up and they hadn't seen you either, and then with the smoke and the bugs and –" Kerensa paused for one hard, rattling intake of breath. She pulled away, her clammy hands locked around her friend's shoulders. "And I was just so worried about you!"

     "I was worried about you too! But it's over now, Kerensa, and I'm alright, I promise." With a smile, Talwyn pulled Kerensa into a softer, warmer embrace, remaining still until her friend's convulsing sobs ebbed away. "How about you? How are you doing?"

     Kerensa backed away and rubbed at the puncture marks along her upper arm. "Things got a little messy back there, I admit," she muttered as she picked at the frayed threads of her sleeve's cuff. Some invisible burden loomed behind her words, weighing heavily on her frail shoulders, but she refused to give it voice. Instead, she erased the dread from her eyes and smiled at the regrouped strangers. "It might have even been tricky if this charming bunch hadn't shown up."

     Words fluttered through Talwyn's mind to describe the motley trio that gathered before her, but 'charming' was not among the most prominent. A finely dressed half-elf, a rambunctious dryad far from any woodland, and a dragonborn on hard ground were striking enough individually, never mind all at once. Still, as they checked in with each other and addressed their respective injuries, an unmistakable peace settled around the area. Despite the danger, despite being strangers, they had come to help them.

     Low, fledgling murmurs of conversation bled into the space, and the Silken Square's crowd crept back among what remained of the stalls. Shaken from her contemplations, Talwyn stepped towards the trio and clasped her hands to her chest. "Thank you, whoever you are," she said, a string of exhausted sincerity choking the last notes of her voice out. "We owe you one. We're new in town, but if there's any way we can repay you –"

     "The pastries!" Kerensa hopped over and rapped at the back of Talwyn's knapsack over and over. "Show them the pastries."

     "You know what? You're so right." Talwyn dug the bag out from her belongings and, with a flourish, produced a miraculously unsquashed pastry. When none of the trio moved, she extended it towards them, nodding her head in encouragement. "We just got a bag of these cute little parcel things, and they're amazing. You're welcome to try them if you want."

     There was a long, stifled pause before Tangle bent her legs to spring forward. Without looking, her two companions simultaneously stretched their arms to block her. "There's no need for any payment, pastry-based or otherwise," Darius said, fiddling with his hat's silver-lined brim. As he spoke, the calm that swept through the air found its way to Talwyn's tired joints. "We were just passing through while on another job. I'm Darius Blackquill, and we're Dawn's Chorus, a...travelling group-for-hire."

     "And I'm Tangle! Hi!" Somehow, during her companion's brief speech, the dryad had scampered beyond her restraints to creep up behind the women. Her hand hovered beside the parcel in Talwyn's grasp, twinkling stars filling her watery eyes. "Can I try one of these? I love sweets. Why don't we get them more often?"

     "I think you're showing exactly why we don't right now," Arlo groaned with a huffed fold of their arms. They kept their elbow perched on the handle of their hammer, seemingly unbothered by the pointed base that drove between their scales. "Alright, since we're really doing this...Arlo, from the Chequered Cliffs. I smash stuff, break stuff, punch people who piss me off. I'm versatile."

     Rolling her eyes, Tangle clicked her tongue and took the pink parcel from Talwyn's hold. "Don't mind them. They're just grumpy because we haven't eaten yet tonight," she said, and she stuck her tongue out at Arlo's bemused expression. Their face remained motionless, and she shimmied up to Arlo's side and broke her gifted pastry into halves. "Come on! You know you want to try it. When's the last time something bright pink hurt you, huh?"

     "Easy. It was this morning, when I was haggling with the barkeep and you covered my seat in sticky brambles." As their dryad friend burst into a fiendish giggle, Arlo bristled, sighed, and accepted their offered half of plum parcel. "...I mean, if we're going to be standing around here anyway..."

     "It's a real pleasure to meet you all," Talwyn said, nodding to each of the trio in turn. A bustling crowd filled the Square's walkways once more, and she laid a warm hand on Kerensa's shoulder, more out of habit than out of any detectable discomfort on her friend's part. "I'm Talwyn, Talwyn Farrier, and this is my friend Kerensa. We've been travelling around for a while on something of a research mission."

     Kerensa clawed her fingers through the length of her hair, her nose wrinkling at something even more offensive than the musty, sweaty smell that followed the returning shoppers. "Or we were, until that stupid attendant stopped dear Talwyn here from seeing the materials she needs," she hissed, one effortless ritual casting away from sending a swarm of hexes to chill the leonine Shazir's bones. Once the venom drained from her tone, she eased her raking hand motions and broke the tension with a coy chuckle. "So, we're sort of just drifting around for now, taking in the sights, enjoying the city's lovely culture...minus the giant bugs."

     With a wipe of their now pastry-less fingers on their dark, sleeveless leather coat, Arlo squinted and shook their head. "Believe me, this just now was fucking weird, even for this city," they said as they heaved their hammer over their shoulder, prodding the back of Darius' arm. "Our guy's going to want to know about this, I bet."

     "Right." A flock of furrows carved across Darius' brow. Whatever the level of discretion was that the trio had to operate to, it evidently came less naturally to him than his dragonborn companion. He picked up on Talwyn's concerned gaze, and he reorganised his sharply drawn features into his usual approachable smile. "Sorry to dash so soon, but we suddenly have a house call to make. Besides..." Darius leaned towards Talwyn and gestured around the remaining stalls, the traffic between them flowing as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired. "This place only gets more hectic as the night goes on."

     "Yeah, we should probably be going too," Talwyn said, squeezing her upper arm as the Silken Square's ambient noise swelled around her. The members of Dawn's Chorus turned to make their way out of the square, and she called out to the backs of their bobbing heads. "You look after yourselves now, alright?"

     Darius paused and swivelled on his heels, one hand on his dust-flecked hat. "We'll try our best," he answered with a quick wink.

     The group passed between the shoe-scuffed walls of the northern entrance, a streak of light flashing over Darius' back. Talwyn focused her attention on the half-elf, and as he passed beneath a large hanging lantern, the streak grew into the outline of an elegant, gold-trimmed harp. Exquisite, intricate details proudly announced themselves along the instrument's frame, and the strings glistened like gossamer threads through the evening mist that gathered in the quiet side streets. The harp, the rapier, and the clothes – if the trio ever needed money, Darius clearly had plenty to pawn.

     "Well, after that bit of excitement..." Drifting to Talwyn's side, Kerensa slipped an arm around her friend's waist and sighed. Even the pearly glaze over her eyes seemed to dull with fatigue. "Time for bed?"

     Talwyn laughed and rested her head on Kerensa's shoulder. "More like time to pass out."

     It begins! It's been a minute since I wrote any fantasy at all, let alone high fantasy, and how I've missed it. 

     Because this is fantasy, and because I'm having a blast with these characters and the world they're moving through, I figured I'd leave a few questions now and then. Nothing difficult, don't worry, just a few things to keep in mind or - if you're feeling chatty - talk about with me and other readers in the comments. 

     Whether you join the discussion or not, I hope these questions provide a little extra fun as you read!

1. Talwyn and Kerensa are quite the striking pair. What do you think of their relationship? How do you imagine their first meeting went?

2. Despite, or possibly due to, its secluded jungle location, Trocari is a real cultural melting pot. What descriptors come to mind when you imagine walking through its streets? Would you want to visit a place like Trocari, and if so, what would you do there?

3. Think back to the very beginning of this set of chapters, to the details of Talwyn's recurring dream. What do you think is going on? Does it reflect a real event, or is it an abstract representation of something else?