(49)
Fox Mask! Fox Mask had made contact. Nestra couldn’t wait. She would get to meet her again, and then they’d fight! Oh, this was going to be grand. Nestra was so looking forward to it. She unfolded the origami with a smile of barely contained excitement.
“Tomorrow 3AM, inside the Steel Realm. Sneak in.
C.”
The note was in English, which was a nice touch. Nestra wondered what the C. referred to though. According to her picture, Fox Mask was called T. Nguyen. Maybe the message was from someone else? No, that made no sense. The Steel Realm was the name the Sword King Enclave used for their most coveted portal: a world with rich sources of magical iron they used to forge their many weapons. It was valuable enough that Threshold was ready to buy their excess stock at a premium. Nobody else would know she could sneak into portal worlds since she had the appearance of a dreg. It was definitely Fox Mask, so C. was perhaps how they referred to themselves.
“So is Fox Mask a boy or a girl? Hmmm.”
She still couldn’t tell for sure. Maybe she’d just ask.
Nestra’s enthusiasm bubbled for another good five minutes during which she resisted the urge to change into her true form, in case someone was keeping an eye on her. Arg! She wanted to get out of here so she could practice the Scornful Crescent on some unsuspecting monsters. Or enclavers. Either would do. Soon, however, her thoughts returned to the match. She was still a bit jittery from the excitement.
“Might use the opportunity to take a shower!”
It turned out that the Sword King Enclave did have running water to a degree. The flow was too small to take a proper shower. Instead, the bath was structured in a more Japanese fashion with a small rock tub and a large basin used for ablutions. It wasn’t bad, and Nestra was happy enough to soap up and then let the mana-rich water drip over her body. Meanwhile her mind wandered.