Depthless Hunger

Kai had known many Irunians, and Irunian steel had played a major role in his life, but this was his first time actually visiting the country. As they headed southeast his first thought was that it wasn't so different, which was mainly due to the exposure to the Frontier. There was allegedly a stretch of wasteland that served as a partial boundary between the Elemental Nations and Irun.

At least the emptiness was itself a good sign that nothing bad was happening with the border, at least not visibly. They saw some traders, mostly leading dark little Irunian wagons, but no troops. Where the Elemental Nations always fought with one another, Irun tried to maintain good relationships with its allies.

Once they were flying over the land itself, the earth seemed distinctly... gray. Dark earth, restrained trees, roads made from gray brick. Kai had known the Irunians were a serious people, but he didn't think that even their landscapes would cooperate. There were occasional splotches of color, and the towns seemed to be built around shining metal pillars, but otherwise it fit the stereotype.

"For those of you from off the continent," Inafay said, "Irun likes to handle its own problems, so do your best not to get involved. I mean, if you see monsters attacking people, it's obviously fine to interfere. But otherwise... unless there are war crimes, we don't get involved."

"So what are we doing here at all?" Zae Zin Nim asked.

"This is a Frontier nation too, we just need to do things right. The first big city is called Brasyan and we'll meet up with contacts there. Hopefully from there we'll be able to support them without ruffling any feathers."

"Do Irunians have feathers?" Orotaisin asked.

"If they do, they're probably made out of steel."

For the longer voyage they were using both the diamond star and the Windborn vessel, so it was a comfortable ride, if less united. At flying speeds it only took them another day to reach Brasyan, which was immediately obvious as a far larger city. Even the smallest Irunian villages had plenty of metal, but Brasyan's buildings shone brightly as if they were all topped by steel.

When their ships landed on the outskirts the inhabitants looked at them with more skepticism than Kai had expected, maybe even fear. No one stopped them from walking into Brasyan to find the Frontier outpost, though. Along the way, he was surprised that he didn't see any foreigners at all, not even from the Elemental Nations. Irun was more ethnically insular than he'd thought.

Soon enough they reached the outpost, which was more of a formal building than the previous ones he'd seen, more like an embassy than a fortress. When they entered he finally saw some more diversity, though everyone was wearing formal Irunian robes.

"Thank you for coming." A severe Irunian woman met them at the back and nodded somberly. "You're here on official Frontier business?"

"We're here in pursuit of official business," Inafay told her. "Is there anything we can do while we're passing through?"

"Irun has problems of its own, but they're delicate. Best to leave things alone." The woman arranged a place for them to stay and then she and Inafay went into a back office to discuss further business. That left Kai shifting restlessly in the front room.

"Problem?" Orotaisin appeared at his side. Inafay's fiance didn't talk to him much, but seemed to have quietly assumed that he inherited a friendship.

"Not a problem," Kai said, then shrugged awkwardly. "There's an Irunian man we used to know named Tusquo, back in-"

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"I know, Inafay has mentioned him."

"I was hoping we'd run into him here. Maybe we'll get a chance before we leave."

Orotaisin gave him a wry smile. "You realize we could just send a message? Irun has a good courier system, so why leave it to chance?"

Kai blinked as he realized that was obvious. The two of them headed out to find a messaging service and Kai had a quick letter etched onto a steel plate. He resisted the urge to explain everything that had happened and just told Tusquo that he was present and wanted to meet.

Would that be enough? Technically they hadn't known each other very long: they'd met during the Hunter Trials, journeyed together once, and fought together on a few more occasions. To him those events stood out, despite everything he'd experienced since then. If they hadn't meant the same to Tusquo, he probably just wouldn't hear from him.

Because Irun was so generally safe, their group split up into clusters to explore the city. They didn't explicitly discuss any of it, but Kai ended up leaving with Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena on instinct. That probably made sense, because Inafay and Orotaisin seemed to want to walk together and it might have felt odd to invite the Tonjin brothers. But honestly he'd just gone with the two women without thinking about it.

As they walked, Kai instinctively glanced at the souls of everyone around him. Their average wasn't bad for Deadwaste, and they generally had relatively high Physique levels, but he saw why Irun was flagging as a nation.

Most of those who could fight had the Path of Iron ability, which was better suited for carefully making weapons than the highest tiers of combat. The highest he ever saw was "Iron 9" which granted only 45 Power. Occasionally he saw someone with the Path of Bronze, which seemed to max out at a pathetic 18 Power. At times he'd wondered if he'd made a mistake handing his potential power over to Tusquo, but seeing the comparison he was definitely glad now.

"They're limited," Zae Zin Nim said. Kai was about to shush her when he realized that she was speaking a foreign language and he only understood because of the Alltongue Fruit. "This power is a dead end."

"That's not fair," Kai said, instinctively speaking the same language. "They're the best crafters on the continent."

"And their steel is actually good. Better than you can find on Cloudspire before qi gets involved. Maybe even chakra..." Zae Zin Nim hesitated and looked over at Omilaena, who hadn't seemed to be paying attention.

"It's odd." Omilaena inclined her head toward a shop that was selling weapons. "Can we take a closer look?"

Irunian steel was expensive, but their ability to acquire funds had exploded since Kai was last here, so it wasn't a problem to buy a sword for her to test - just a hundred Goralian Eagles. Omilaena used Lethal Artisan to melt it down and rolled the metal around in her palm curiously. After some time she shook her head.

"The fundamental material is very strong, better than all but the strongest metals on Rosemount," she said. "But the problem is that it's devoid of energy. Normally its inherent qualities would be improved by chakra, or here mana, but I'm not sensing any of that. It can't equal a properly imbued weapon."

"Is it worth absorbing?" Kai asked.

"Already tried and I can't. That's an interesting property on its own, but being non-reactive to other forms of power could also be a weakness."

"I think that's the problem with Irun overall. Everyone wants their abilities, but they can't defend an entire nation with them. If they didn't control such a large block of the continent they'd be at risk of getting absorbed into someone else."

"Sounds like they are anyway," Zae Zin Nim said, "if the Earth Union has anything to say about it."

There was more to the Irunian city than Kai had expected. They had stands where young men and women sold little bronze flowers that were beautiful, if not useful. Heavy spiced sausages, dancing exhibitions, and craftwork competitions. Irunian cloth seemed highly durable and actually had nothing to do with their metals at all, it was just strong fabric.

While on the outskirts of the city, Kai noticed a large caravan coming in. That alone wouldn't be notable, but what stuck out to him was that they were guarded by a group of men and women wearing bright red hats and capes. They didn't look Irunian either, much paler and with generally light hair. All the power he sensed from them seemed to be mana-based, but nothing he was familiar with.

Ordinarily he would have thought they were just guards, but the Irunian caravan didn't seem happy about their presence. As they arrived, the armed group took a large payment as well as a portion of the cargo before moving away. They didn't disperse into the city, instead staying in tight well-armed groups. Based on how the Irunians all glared at them, that might have been for the best.

"I haven't seen those before," Zae Zin Nim said. "Where are they from?"

Kai had been wracking his brain ever since he'd seen them, but he came up with nothing. "I... honestly don't know."

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