Depthless Hunger

Zae Zin Nim gave Kai a strange look. "You don't recognize them? I thought you knew every group on Deadwaste."

"Most of the continent borders the Frontier, but not every part." Kai shook his head, still watching the red-caped fighters. "I honestly don't know. Foreign mercenaries, maybe? I'm surprised Irun lets them operate here."

"It's strange to know more than you about Deadwaste." Omilaena cast him a glance and then shrugged. "Birtaegal is a smaller nation on the east of the continent. Their ships aren't bad; they trade with the Coiled Empire and Flaeren Dominion."

"They're from Birtaegal? I've heard the name, but I guess they never get through Irun."

"As far as I can tell, they wish they weren't associated with the rest of Deadwaste."

After examining them for a while, Zae Zin Nim just shook her head. "Are we going to find out there are a bunch of other places in Deadwaste I haven't heard about?"

"Uh, not too many," Kai said. "Way south of Goralia there's a whole region we call the Southern Reach. They're generally decent allies, but they don't border the Frontier so they've never been as tied to all our problems."

They watched the new group simply because they were the most striking part of the city, the first thing that stood out from the otherwise orderly patterns. The longer he watched, the less Kai liked what he saw. These guards, who he was increasingly sure were mercenaries, were raucous and disruptive. When they entered a restaurant, they threw down money and demanded to be served first, then harassed the servers who were helping them.

Nothing they'd done was exactly a crime, and the Irunians seemed to tolerate their behavior, but it was beginning to get under Kai's skin. He took a deeper glance at one of the average mercenaries.