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Paragaea,” Hieronymus answered, glancing back over his shoulder at the small creatures following a safe distance behind, driving their aurochs before them in a cloud of dust. “Even leaving out the number of metamen like the Sinaa, and other sentient beings. The half-sized men behind us are the Sheeog, who are rarely seen out of sight of their mound homes in the deep forests, but come to town only to sell their domesticated aurochs at market.”
    As Hieronymus spoke, they came about a slight curve in the road, and the forest gave way to wide, flat plains. There before them lay a grand city, stretched for wide kilometers in every direction, encircled completely by high walls. The road upon which they walked joined with several others just beyond the walls, indistinct masses of people and vehicles coming into and out of the high gates.
    As they drew near the city walls, Leena could scarcely believe the types of beings streaming in and out of the city gates. The jaguar people and half-sized men were the least of them. There were beings walking on two legs like men, but who had the characteristics of lizards and birds, dogs and birds, and more combinations than Leena could comprehend. Beings that looked like humans in every respect, except that they towered almost a full foot over Leena. Strange beasts, too, and vehicles and conveyances the likes of which she had never seen. All jostling for position as a half-dozen roads converged at the city gates, all hurrying either to enter the city, or leave it behind.
    Into this confusion of creatures and cultures Leena walked, her head spinning.

As they made their final approach to the city walls, Hieronymus took Leena by the arm, helping guide her through the ever-increasing crush of bodies.
    â€œThis,” he said, “as I have said, is the city-state of Laxaria. We are now at the southern edge of the plains of Sakria. The Sakrian principalities—Laxaria, Lisbia, Hausr, Azuria, and so on—are among the youngest civilizations on Paragaea, going back only a handful of centuries at most. The majority of the Sakrian city-states were founded by humans of the type with which you're familiar from Earth, but in recent decades more and more of the older races have begun to migrate to the cities, leaving behind their hidden places in jungle, mountain, and desert, leaving the old ones to dream of lost days of empire while they, in their youth, try to better their situation.”
    â€œThis is a human age,” Balam said at her other ear. “Before the humans, the Metamankind Empires divided the globe amongst them, and before them ruled the martial Nonae, and before them the Black Sun Empire.”
    â€œAnd now,” Hieronymus went on, “at the edges of this new-minted human world, still linger the older powers, in decline but not yet dead. Perhaps they bide their times, looking for a moment to return to power. The wizard-kings of the Black Sun Empire have retreated into their citadel city in the cold southern wastes; the Nonae patrol the eastern deserts in their small numbers, raising their children up tough and hard-edged, weaned on adversity. The metamen fight their internecine wars, race against race, tribe against tribe.”
    â€œThose that have not chosen to follow the banner of Per and the Black Sun Genesis, that is,” Balam noted with evident scorn.
    A heavy silence hung over the trio as they passed beneath the arches of the main gate, entering the city proper. A city guardsman, some sort of air-powered rifle slung at his shoulder, gave them a long glance as they passed by, but made no move to stop them.
    â€œBe that as it may,” Hieronymus said, trying to brighten the mood, “Laxaria is one of the more welcoming of the Sakrian cultures, and is a pleasant change from the forest primeval.” He paused, and then added, his voice low, “But you should still watch yourself.”

    For the man Hieronymus and his jaguar companion