"It looks like we will," Fang agreed, nodding. "I knew you were hiding something, but I didn't think your story would be stranger than mine. Ryoka, I ask you. Y'know, you're called Sankyaku where I'm from."

Well, they were hardly the first offworlders to have appeared, not if there was a word for it, and it wasn't just the lowerworld that were treated to their strangeness. She shook her head, still half amazed, but turned her attention to the pot floating above the fire.

"I think that stew should be about done by now," she said.