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The invisible foes that hunted Brian's master never appeared in your wanderings, but Brian himself had plenty of enemies. Some thought he was a cult leader and hunted him for his crimes, real or imagined; others thought he was a god and wanted his head on an onyx platter, so that it might speak prophecies. Beasts prowled the wilds between cities, things that you had not imagined in your earlier life, and they hated Brian for reasons you would never understand. You and his animals—his ravens, coyotes, serpents—traveled ahead, to warn him of threats, then stayed behind to conceal his path. That bought Brian the time he needed to visit the cities, sell his jewelry for enough money to get by, and to find people who would not be missed…people who went to his master, like offerings to a god.

You knew what you were doing, of course. You even suspected the true nature of the red-black wine you drank whenever you returned to Ypotryll. Nonetheless, your life had purpose for the first time in years. And when you lay in the back of his van, exhausted from the hunt and from fear of pursuit, Brian promised to teach you the secret language of beasts. One night, he would always promise. One night you will learn. But he kept looking over his shoulder, as if he could see what was coming.

One night, you returned to Ypotryll with Brian, and the master himself was waiting for you. He killed both of you.

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