Elijah thought about wearing armor.

It probably would have been fitting, given that he didn’t really know what he was walking into. There was every chance that his upcoming meeting would end in a fight or, at the very least, intimidation. And coming in ready for a battle was probably the best way to convey that he was not in the mood to be messed with.

However, it also stood the chance of coaxing a negative reaction out of the guilds and resulting in the very fight he wanted to avoid.

If possible.

Then again, it was probably that it just wasn’t in the cards, but he felt it was for the best if he approached it in a way that gave peace every opportunity to unfold. Still, he struggled not to show his anxiety. Sure, Chelsea had assured him – both in person and via a recent message – that the guilds subordinate to the Four Corners Accord were very willing to work together. Or failing that, to at least coexist.

But the fact remained that he was walking into an unknown situation where he would meet a bunch of wildcards. After all, if they were powerful enough to head up a powerful guild, then they had to possess some level personal strength.

Atticus had confirmed that that was the case.

“Stop fidgeting,” Sadie said without looking up from her book. She hadn’t even gotten out of bed, preferring to use the past couple of weeks in recuperation after her ordeal in the Eternal War. She wasn’t exactly lazing about – she trained more than Elijah did, after all – but she recognized the need for rest and relaxation.

By comparison, Elijah couldn’t sit still for that long. His idea of rest involved him going out and exploring the world, meeting new people, and finding interesting wildlife with which to interact.

So long as he didn’t immediately get dragged into a Primal Realm, he was mostly okay with whatever came to pass.

“I’m not fidgeting,” he argued, staring in the mirror and straightening his tie. Fortunately, the white suit Hope had made for him was practically stainproof. All it had taken was a little ethera from the young Tailor, and all the blood had washed away.

And there had been a lot of blood. More than Elijah had really anticipated or wanted to acknowledge.

“You’ve adjusted your tie ten times. I counted.”

“I don’t like ties.”

“Then don’t wear one.”

“I want to make a good impression,” he insisted, turning to face her. Her posture was languid, her body all but exposed by her skimpy attire. She wore nothing but a tank top and a pair of underwear, which made Elijah regret his choice to finally visit New York. “Which is why I wanted you to come with me. You’re good at this kind of thing.”

“First of all, I am not in the mood to be…diplomatic,” she said, marking her place with a raven’s feather he’d given her the day before. Then, she set the book down. “I’d probably end up starting a fight.”

“You have more self-control than that.”

She shifted into a fully upright position on the bed of moss. “Usually. But being immersed in conflict for the past year…it does something to a person,” she admitted. “I’d be surprised if Ivanka can keep the others in check.”

“You think they’ll end up fighting?” asked Elijah, grabbing his coat. It was off-white, with elaborate green scrollwork meant to represent a dragon going up one arm. Hope had redone the embroidery at some point over the past few months, and as a result, it glistened with ethera.

“Jari will keep most of them in line. My point is that I’m constantly on edge. Looking for a fight, you know? It’s going to take a while for me to detox.”

That made sense to Elijah, though he’d never really experienced any negative effects from submersing himself in other powerful attunements. Maybe it was because he was a Druid.

“We could wrestle,” Elijah suggested, waggling his eyebrows. “I might even let you win.”

She threw a pillow at him, which he easily ducked. “Just go. Don’t kill anyone.”

“That was, like, one time.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“Okay, a couple of times. But you agreed that they deserved it.”

“We’re not having this discussion again,” she said.

In fact, she hadn’t agreed to any such conclusion when he’d explained his actions after the grove had been invaded. She hadn’t judged him for it, though, which was a nice change of pace from when they’d first met. Back then, she probably would have forced him to repent. Now, she could see the nuance of the situation.

That didn’t mean she approved.

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To Sadie, killing pirates wasn’t a big deal. She’d have done the same, had their places been switched. But going to Bloodrock Bay and slaughtering everyone there? She never would have done that. Or at least that was what she had claimed. Elijah suspected that was mostly true, though he also believed that she still would have tracked down the pirate enclave and killed every wicked person in residence.

And that was most, if not all, of them.

Still, it hadn’t been the game-changer for their relationship that he’d expected it to become. Instead, she’d taken it in stride, making her disapproval regarding the way he went about it known.

Which was better than the alternatives.

Now that he had his coat on, he turned back to the mirror and checked himself over. His hair was freshly styled, his suit pristine, and his shoes polished. In short, he looked like an eccentric businessman with an eclectic – at least in terms of old Earth’s standards – fashion sense.

“You look good,” Sadie said before he could ask again. As she spoke, she rose from the bed and approached from the rear. He turned, and she draped her arms over his shoulders. “But that’s normal. Even when you’re all beat up and bloody, you still look good. It’s your best quality.”

“Wait, you’re just with me for my looks?”

“Of course.”

“Ouch,” he said. “I feel like a piece of meat.”

She leaned in and kissed him before he could say more. When they broke away, she said, “Now go meet with those guilds. Make sure you don’t give them any slack, either. If you give them an inch, they will take a mile. You are the one with the power. Remember that.”

Elijah said that he would. Then, after another kiss, he left the treehouse via the stairs leading down to the grove. After telling Nerthus where he was going, Elijah shifted into the Shape of the Sky, then flew across the strait to the mainland, landing a few hundred feet from the Conclave Spires.

There, he found a host of people waiting for teleportation. Most were human, many of whom were laden with enormous packs. There were also a few wagons – proof that Ironshore was fast becoming a production hub. But there were many other races present as well, including dwarves, gnomes, goblins, and elves. In all, it was a poignant reminder of how much Earth had changed over the years.

Once, seeing all those fantastic species mingling together would have been the sole purview of big budget movies with impressive special effects. Now, it was an everyday occurrence.

Elijah’s arrival made everyone nervous, making him wish he’d approached in Shape of the Scourge. Maybe one day they’d go back to treating him like a normal person instead of a walking weapon that might go off at any given moment.

Probably not.

That ship had likely sailed long ago.

Though he certainly could have, Elijah chose not to push his way to the front of the line. Instead, he waited patiently while, one after another, the groups ahead of him were teleported to various parts of the world. How the Conclave organized it all was a mystery to him. It had to have been a nightmare for someone.

Only a subtle din of conversation – mostly whispered – surrounded the area as Elijah awaited his turn. Thankfully, it only took an hour before he approached the space mage and informed the man of his destination.

“The Spires aren’t on the island itself, so you’ll need to travel a few miles before you arrive in the city,” the white-and-green clad man stated. “Please step into the circle.”

Elijah followed the directions, and after only a few more moments, the mage began the countdown, reminding him to keep his arms and legs within the confines of the circle. Then, at last, he was teleported across the world.

New York was indeed thousands upon thousands of miles away. The map he’d seen showed it was located on an entirely different continent, with a vast ocean in between. And when he arrived at the next set of spires, he was struck by the different time of day. When he’d left Ironshore, it had been mid-morning, but now, only a sliver of the sun was visible on the horizon.

At least five thousand miles, he estimated.

The atmosphere was much colder as well – not surprising, considering that there were mountains looming only a few hundred miles away. The remnants of the Himalayas if his information was correct, and he had no reason to doubt what he’d been told. Though he’d heard that they’d grown quite a bit larger than they had been before the world had changed, so he suspected that they were even further away than they appeared.

Regardless, Elijah stepped out from within the circle, then asked the local space mage which direction he was meant to go.

The bored woman gestured to a road leading to the east, adding, “About forty miles that way. Then you’ll need to take a ferry to the island.”

“Thanks.”

She didn’t acknowledge his gratitude, instead going back to her work. Elijah preferred that to the wariness and fear he’d encountered back in Ironshore. Clearly, she had no idea who he was.

He briefly considered shifting into one of his forms to ease the burden of travel, but in the end, he chose not to. There was value in the slower approach, as he saw when he joined a crowd of travelers as they made their way westward. The road itself was well-made and looked new, though instead of the concrete or asphalt he might’ve expected from old-world construction, it was paved with flat stones that emitted a subtle undercurrent of ethera.

It took Elijah a few moments to realize what was going on, but when he did, he couldn’t keep the smile from his face. Not only was that flow invigorating, injecting a tiny dose of vitality with every step, but it also increased his Regeneration by a few points. Doubtless, the combination, subtle as it was, would make travel much faster for the average person.

After a few miles, during which Elijah surreptitiously listened to the gossiping travelers – but hearing nothing of import – the road joined a much wider highway that used a similar construction. The crowd of pedestrians wasn’t any thicker, but this thoroughfare featured many more wagons, most of which were drawn by beasts of burden. However, there were a few that had been built like rickshaws, with a team of men or women dragging them along.

“Good work if you got the stats for it,” said one old woman when Elijah asked about them. “Pays well. Better if you got a Porter class and can handle more of a load. My grandson is an apprentice for one of the big shipping guilds. Says he’s gonna buy me some body cultivation aids when he starts his own company and makes it big. He’s a good boy. Dumb as a bag of rocks, but still a good boy.”

As Dina – the old woman – went on to describe her unfortunately dim grandson and recount his antics, Elijah watched the traffic. There were also many people bearing comically large packs that rose nearly a dozen feet from their shoulders.

He also saw even more diversity than he had back in Ironshore. Every race of settler he’d ever encountered was represented, and many he’d never seen before as well. It was awe-inspiring, and it showed that New York had assuredly managed to maintain its global importance.

After a couple of hours that felt like a leisurely walk, Elijah caught sight of the city’s skyline. Anyone who’d ever watched American movies would have recognized the sight, though there were many unfamiliar buildings. Not surprising, considering that the city was entirely contained by a single island a few miles from shore.

It seemed that Seattle had a bit of competition for the largest and most important city in the new world.