Page 5 of Stars in Mist

He checked in.You there, Mirage?

Reading you loud and clear.

Eyes on me at all times, please.

Always.

Riv consulted the travel guide loaded into his nodes.

He headed for the inner rings of the rocky body where the map led to the marketplace, the hub of all things illegal in the outer rim of Pegasi.

The travelogue revealed that Neron N13, once famed for its rare mineral resources, was among the most arcane outposts in its corner of the System.

Its obscurity was its strength. What it lacked in policing and central administrative functions, it made up for in street justice.

It was a lawless place rife with cheaters, outlaws, degenerates, pirates, thieves, and cold-blooded stalkers.

Here, fierce battles erupted between rival pirate gangs. Protracted wars played out among rebel factions of Alloria and Falasia, who took their skirmishes off the planet and onto any patch that gave them the opportunity.

Assassins, from skilledshikarito low-hanging fruit opportunists, cased the locus for their prey, as did debt collectors and bounty hunters such as himself.

On Neron N13, its pessimistic residents, who lived in burrowed-out chambers in the asteroid, had given up on the sheer difficulty of taming the planetoid.

They’d resorted to hiring stalwart bodyguards, most of them Ccyth defenders, to protect them. They parted with a pretty schill to keep trading their jewels and raw mineral resources.

But their biggest strengths were their weapons-making, blacksmithing, and legendary beer-brewing techniques. The former drew the punters. The latter kept them there.

He strolled along, keeping a watch on the rough-looking miners who mobbed the place and were quick to start fights for no reason.

They paid him no mind, given that he mimicked them: hardened, worn, cynical, uninteresting.

Some even gave him nods, which he returned.

If he’d shown up as a Sable Rider, with his flowing silver hair and the glowing eyes of a meta, he’d have caused a small riot.

Rumors of the Sable Riders were rife in the backwaters of the galaxy, where they took on mythical and quite twisted proportions.

Superstition abounded on Pegasi’s lonelier edges, and many here feared the unknown factor of metas, clinging onto the sparse information, opinionated news, and bias filtered through.

So, for the most part, Riv kept to himself, camouflaged as a forgettable face, happy to be dismissed the second one turned their eyes away from him.

Soon, he was striding through a busy marketplace bustling with the sounds of commerce and loud conversations between hawkers and their customers. Intermingled with the smells of food and rich brew

He spotted a mix of Allorians, Falasians, and Iccythrians, plus a few Edenites dressed in a jumble of space suits, elaborate robes, and colorful cloaks.

The Ccyth stood out with their bejeweled faces, diamond-encrusted hair, and flowing gem-studded over garments.

Riv ID’d some of the Ccyth from his past Sable Rider dealings, but with his disguise in place, none over garments him back.

He used his commtab to confirm Mirage’s research on the nearest bar with the most reviews, check-ins, and propensity for info bartering.

He found it to be ‘The Righteous Pegasus’.

Snorting at the paradox of its moniker, he strode towards the location.

2

Poseidon’s Winged Horse

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