One eye opened to glance at Sophia, then Peaches snorted and the eye drifted closed.

Sophia knew what that meant. Peaches wasn't really asleep; he was just resting and didn't see any reason to move. He would if Arryn asked him to or if there was food, but otherwise, he was comfortable. She grinned and made her way over to the sloth. She didn't have any of Arryn's special grooming combs, but she had her fingers; they'd work well enough for a greeting.

Peaches moved against Sophia's fingers as she ran them through his fur, clearly more interested in the reunion than his rest. He didn't open his eyes; instead, he shifted so that she could reach his back instead of just his shoulder. That was enough to know that she was welcome … and also exactly where he wanted to be groomed, or maybe scratched. He'd let her know what he wanted.

"Ah, miss?" A young man, probably closer to sixteen than twenty, interrupted Sophia. "Ah, you don't want to get that close to the bear. He's got a short temper and is willing to use his claws on anyone who bothers him too much."

"Peaches isn't a bear." Sophia answered without thinking. "He's a giant sloth, and he's just grumpy with people who don't treat him with respect. Like, say, calling him a bear."

The young man backed off, but it couldn't have been more than a minute or two before a familiar voice interrupted Sophia. "Sophia! It's good to see you; I wasn't expecting you here any time soon. Dav, it's good to see you, too. I'm afraid I don't know you two, though?"

Sophia looked up and saw exactly who she thought she would: Arryn, the merchant who worked with Peaches and had helped them travel from Old Kestii to Casterville. He was far more than he seemed; the image of him riding Peaches into battle against Flaming Rage Beavers she and Dav were too weak to handle was easy to remember.

He looked well, despite his age. As always, he was dressed richly in multiple layers that showcased his wealth. This time, if Sophia hadn't known better, she might have taken him for a mage instead of a merchant, because he wore a loose robe over his vest and slacks.

"Arryn!" Sophia smiled as she stood. "I didn't expect to see you here, either, at least not until I saw Peaches. Although … is this close to Old Kestii? I know you said there was another route away from there, but I don't think you said where it led, just that it wasn't appropriate for us at the time."

Arryn chuckled. "There may be a direct route, but I don't know of one. If I were looking, I'd look deeper in Old Kestii than I'm willing to travel these days. My old bones don't like that much danger. Why don't you and your team come join me for some tea?"

Sophia wrinkled her nose and glanced at the others. Jax seemed to have just made it to the front of the line to check them in. "I don't know. We haven't talked to anyone here yet, and we still have to find a place to stay afterwards. I don't know how long it will take."

"The second is easily solved," Arryn stated with a smile. "I have a house in Mazehold, not far from here. I can certainly put the four of you up for a night. It is only the four of you, isn't it?"

"Well, there's also Taika, but he doesn't take up much room," Sophia admitted. "I don't want to put you to too much effort, we can find a place."

"Nonsense!" Arryn's smile widened into a grin. "I want to hear what's happened to you since I last saw you. It must have been something else to get here this quickly."

"We were lucky, or maybe unlucky," Sophia answered easily. They'd worked out a story they were going to tell ahead of time. It was a good thing, too; she knew that if they hadn't, she'd say something she shouldn't. They were going to try to keep as close to the truth as possible; it made remembering things easier. "Dav, Amy, and I found a crossing from the Skylands' Wilds into this shard. That's where we ran into Jaycen."

"Broken?" The receptionist's exclamation was loud enough to interrupt Arryn when he started to answer Sophia. "So you know how hard the medals are to get? Why do you people always leave them on when you could put them away somewhere safe?"

"It was somewhere safe!" Jax objected, lying through his teeth. He still had his old medallion; he just couldn't wear it without being recognized as Jaxucet Willowbloom. "It was in my pack! I can't help it if the unicorn's horn buried itself in my pack when it slipped past my shield!"

"Jaycen's" pack even had a patch in the right spot. The fact that the patch was completely cosmetic was something no one would notice unless they were far more thorough than Jax expected. If they were that thorough, they were already in trouble and whether or not the patch was real didn't really matter. There were other parts of the story that weren't any better.

"Fine!" The receptionist leaned under the desk and pulled out a blue medal on a black cord. "Will this one work?"

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"It's an act," Arryn murmured to Sophia. "Losing or breaking medallions is not unusual, it's simply annoying. It's good that you still have yours."

Sophia glanced down at the medallion peeking out from below her shirt. She didn't even think about it most days, but then she also wasn't trading blows with monsters. Her place was in the back or as a cloud of feathers.

The medallion the receptionist held up for Jax was fairly simple, with a gold eight-pointed star over a circle on the enameled blue face of the medallion. The enamel varied in brightness, with light areas in the dark blue shaped like the wind and dots like individual stars. A blue gemstone, or perhaps glass, sat in the center of the star, while another faceted blue crystal with a gold-covered tip dangled below the main medallion.

"Yes, that's fine," Jax said easily. "I also need to register my companions. Has there been any sign of a monster surge?"

"I'll need to see their medallions," the receptionist said, calm again awfully quickly. "There have been more birds seen outside than usual, but I can tell you already know that. So far, they're avoiding Mazehold, but be wary when you're moving around outside. There are also rumors of a possible Nest of spotted styrax somewhere in the Smiths' district, but no one's been able to find them."

Jax snorted. "There's no way styrax are escaping notice. Those things are taller than I am and longer than they are tall."

Sophia had no idea what a styrax was.

Cliff clearly didn't either, but he was just as clearly paying attention. "I want one of those."

"You don't know what they are," Sophia answered silently, hoping he would prove her wrong.

"That's why I want one," Cliff stated like it was the end of the discussion. He was right, too; it was very hard to argue with. Maybe she could say something once she found out what a styrax was.

"Go ahead and get checked in," Arryn prompted Sophia. "I'll wait. I need a moment to finish things here before I show you to my place in any case. Oh, and you may not be my only company for dinner."

They might not be … what?

"You don't need to invite us if you already have…" Sophia trailed off as she realized that not only was Arryn not paying attention, he'd already walked away. She sighed and joined the others at the desk.

Registration was easier than she expected. All she had to do was state her name and show off her own medallion. She half expected the man to ask about their level or upgrade, but he didn't seem to care. She wasn't sure that was a good thing; how would they organize people if monsters attacked if they didn't know anything?

At the same time, it was a relief. Not only did she not have to fill out lots of paperwork, the less information anyone had on her, the less likely they were to be dangerous.

Sophia frowned at the thought. When had she transitioned to thinking that others were dangerous here, and just as importantly, why? Almost everyone had been helpful. She knew she couldn't always count on that, but it certainly wasn't something that should make her distrustful. The only things that had happened were the attack by the follower of the Broken Lord and the fight, such as it was, against the people Jax was looking into at the Arena.

Oh, of course. They were on a secret mission, as silly as that seemed, and it was against more followers of the Broken Lord. Well, more or less; Jax didn't seem to think that the fact that they were followers of the Broken Lord mattered. Sophia wasn't as sure of that, but she could still remember Los'en's rants about the Broken Temple.

It was probably best to be cautious, but there was no reason to be paranoid. They didn't know her group apart from anyone else; the only one who needed to hide was Jax, and he had that under control.

The Broken Temple didn't know who she was; that was clear from Pelrith Moonshadow's notebook. They'd know more about that in a month or two when Lan'ti returned to Othala's ruins and Othala gave Tiwaz an update, if Lan'ti didn't just cross over to tell them.

Even if they had found out since then, there was no reason the Broken Blade here would know anything. She really didn't have to worry.

She knew she was going to. Back home, they likely would have known. Travel was easy enough that people expected it. Here, however, it was hard and that meant no one would expect people who, when last seen in Izel, hadn't even reached the first upgrade to be in Mazehold and past the second upgrade. It had only been a few months, after all. Less than half a year, at least.

According to Jax, what they'd done hadn't set a record or even come particularly close to it; there were people who only took the minimum number of Abilities they could get away with and threw themselves into danger to reach their Upgrades quickly. He was still very impressed with their speed, since they'd managed it in so little time while actually pulling together a good range of Abilities.

Sophia focused on the world around her again. The receptionist had just finished with Ci'an, Amy, and was starting to explain the layout of the city. Mazehold was divided into districts that were more or less controlled by the various major factions, but there was a lot of overlap and a lot of people who belonged to more than one of the organizations.

That was especially true of the Registry's district; Called were spread out all over the city. The receptionist didn't mention it specifically, but the Professional League's area was only a little larger and that made Sophia wonder if their situation was similar. Everyone needed the things Professionals did, from raising food to building houses. If that meant they often lived in homes with Called for protection, it made a lot more sense.

The receptionist sent them off with a fairly vague warning about taking care of themselves and calling on the Registry's services if they couldn't, along with a sketch of the parts of the city he expected second upgrade people to live in. It seemed wildly inadequate to Sophia, but it would probably serve as a starting point. He did, at least, tell them that they could sell whatever they had in the back if they didn't want to spend the time to find someone in the city that would take it.

Sophia waited until they stepped away from the counter to tell the others about Arryn's offer of dinner and beds for the night. There were people waiting behind them; it was only polite.

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