Foreword

For as long as I remember, I wanted to have a tangible creative outlet for my hobbies. This book is exactly that—a passion project that I’ve dreamt up for the sake of letting my creativity out. But why am I telling you this, dear reader? How is this relevant to the larger story at hand?

You see, the world of Soloastria wasn’t originally conceived with the notion of a book series in mind. Since its inception, it was—and still is—a tabletop roleplaying game setting, designed by yours truly, and made for me and my friends to adventure in, playing out the tales of our characters and tying them into larger narratives spanning multiple story arcs. The book you’re reading right now is a project made with the intention of eliciting a specific feeling from the reader—the feeling of engaging with a tabletop roleplaying game campaign, and following its character-driven story bit by bit, almost as if watching a live playthrough or a listening to a podcast.

Soloastria Legends is, at its core, a campaign presented in the form of an illustrated novel—a format that aims to blend the prose of a regular novel with the vibrant illustrations of a graphic novel while not making one or the other feel too jarring in comparison. It’s a delicate balance to maintain, for sure, but realistically… I have neither the time to work on a full graphic novel, nor the desire to present my work as nothing but layers of prose, so… This will have to do, for now.

The illustrations you can expect from Soloastria Legends are detailed character portraits, full artworks of dynamic action or cozy downtime scenes, as well as informative graphics about worldbuilding and lore. While reading, you might also encounter comic-esque pages with panels and speech bubbles in place of regular prose, but those won’t appear as often, because sudden and radical shifts in format tend to feel a little bit too jarring for most people’s tastes, and I am very aware of that.

With that out of the way, you can go ahead and enjoy the first volume of this story without being surprised by its unusual design choices. In case you don’t actually enjoy it or even find the reading experience frustrating, make sure to let me know what went wrong, and I’ll do my best to address your concerns in future volumes. Feedback is always welcome, be it positive or otherwise! If things go terribly wrong, I can also always start again—the process of creation is the most fun part, after all. Not the result!

Dawn to Dusk, Part 1: Folk Heroes

Chapter 1

On the Road

Thirteenth of Stormhunt, year 1702 Post Schismus. Afternoon of Soc Quarront.

Two adventurers—a stoic, emotionally distant knight and her young, enthusiastic squire—were walking through a wooded thicket leading into the Oldwood Forest. Their destination was the dangerous borderland between the Duchies of Sen’Caill and Goldwall—a lawless stretch of land where bandits would often smuggle contraband between the two regions. In stark contrast to the unpleasant possibility of danger awaiting the travelers at every corner, their trek through the woods was actually quite relaxing. Golden rays of sunshine were shining through the crowns of large oak trees—trees arranged in neat rows on both sides of a well-trodden dirt road, almost resembling the ornate columns of a long hallway in a luxurious manor.  

“A beautiful day for adventuring.” the knight thought, and so did her squire.

The pair was following a lead on a group of bandits who they were tasked with capturing by a particularly wealthy adventurers’ guild patron. The bandits were supposedly running a trafficking ring, with its headquarters located somewhere on the border between Goldwall and Sen’Caill.

“The map.” the knight murmured. “Where did I put the map…”

The raven-haired high elf attempted to grab the map scroll directly from her backpack without taking the thing off, but couldn’t quite reach it—her plate armor was getting in the way. Instead of stopping to take off her backpack, however, the elven knight continued to march on, angrily grunting while repeatedly trying to access her inventory without slowing down.

The knight’s squire—an orange-skinned devilspawn (or more politely: a fiendfolk) with bright blue eyes and soft, white hair—sighed in disbelief. He tapped the knight on the shoulder, hoping to get her attention.

“My Lady, if I may ask… how about we stop walking and take a minute to reorganize?” the squire suggested.

The knight ignored him and continued on her merry way, struggling to find her map.

“Lady Sienna?” the squire said. “If you would… excuse me for a moment…”.

The squire, still marching on behind his lady, opened up her backpack and tried to find the map buried somewhere inside. Various adventuring tools, martial weapons, and rusty pieces of armor clattered around inside the bag as the squire was digging for the map in question. 

“Gosh, your stuff is always so jumbled, Lady Sienna—here, just let me help!” he said, enthusiastically ordering things in her backpack.

The knight continued walking along the dirt road in silence, a bit flustered from her squire’s remark about her storage habits.

“Wow… you should really clean in here, you know?” the squire added. “The bottom is still crusty from that one time you were swallowed by a giant frog. Remember? Oh, and—”

“Are you quite done?” the elf interrupted her squire with a slightly irritated tone of voice.

“Yes, yes, of course. I think I got it!” the fiendfolk replied, pulling a scroll out of Sienna’s backpack. “There you go, my lady!”

“Thank you, Enix.” the knight replied, stopping to unravel the scroll and analyze its parchment. “According to this map, we should be nearing the border with Sen’Caill around…”

Sienna raised her head and looked around for a moment, identifying a landmark from the map.

“Around right now…” she said.

“Wow, really?” Enix inquired. “That was so easy—we didn’t even need the map to begin with!”

“Isn’t that funny?” he smiled.

“Yeah…” Sienna murmured.

“But hey—at least I got to organize your stuff, my lady!” Enix added. “Now… how are we gonna go about searching for those bandits?”

The adventurers were at a crossroads, and had to pick where to go. Sienna kneeled down to identify a strange trail running through a muddy road to the north, and sure enough…

“Cart tracks and hoofprints…” she said.

“What?” Enix said, distracted by a fluffy moth that landed on his finger.

“They went that way…” Sienna added, pointing north.

The moth sitting on the squire’s finger—instead of fluttering away—flew in the direction Sienna had just pointed to. As the knight and her squire ventured forth, the moth—flying ahead of them—seemed to stop every once in a while, as if to make sure the adventurers were following it.

“This your new pet?” Sienna asked her squire with a faint smile.

“Haha, no, but… I think it wants to show us something!” the squire said enthusiastically.

“Let us carry on then.” the knight said. “Maybe we encountered a good omen…”

The two followed the insect intently, trusting its judgment at every subsequent fork in their path. Before long, Sienna and Enix would find themselves standing before an abandoned campsite set up in the ruins of some kind of olden druidic grove. Just then, suddenly, the adventurers heard rustling coming from the bushes nearby. Before they could unsheathe their weapons, a deer fawn jumped out of the foliage and ran right past them.

“Whew! False alarm.” Enix breathed a sigh of relief.

“…” Sienna remained vigilant, readying her glaive. Even if for a brief moment, she swore she could’ve heard booming footsteps coming from a deeper part of the forest. Sure enough, with time, the approaching stampede grew louder and louder, leaving no room for imagination as to what it could be.

“Giant boars…” Sienna muttered. “Quickly, we have to hide!”

The knight grabbed her squire by the arm and rushed towards the nearby ruins, looking for hiding spots in the vacated campsite set up on top of them, but to no avail.

“Think, Sienna, think…” the knight thought to herself. “What to do, what to do…”

Suddenly, she had a bright idea: instead of hiding inside the ruins—which had no buildings still standing—she would leave her food rations inside the campsite’s tents, then sneak out of the area once the boars took her bait.

Sienna and Enix set up their “trap”, then hid in a roadside bush, patiently waiting until the boars got interested in the food. Once they did, the animals started crashing the tents in search of more food, allowing the adventurers to make their escape.

Unfortunately—while sneaking—Enix was jumpscared by the deer from earlier, who decided to bump into him amidst the bushes, as deers tend to do. The squire’s girly squeak was loud enough to alert the boars from a distance, and once the animals had noticed the adventurers running away with a small deer, they couldn’t help but give chase, immediately charging after the knight, the squire, and the troublesome fawn.

“We’re done for, we’re done for!” Enix said repeatedly while running.

Just as the biggest of the boars was about to catch up to the squire and impale him on its tusks, Sienna jumped in front of the squire, positioning herself between him and the boar. Ready to take the attack head-on, she braced herself for impact, but suddenly…

“HALT!” a booming voice rang from a distance, stopping the animals in their tracks, including the deer fawn.

The boars, suddenly much calmer than just a few moments earlier, stepped aside to let a pair of women pass through. One of them clearly a dark elf, and the other, some kind of wood elf.

“Bad boys!” the wood elf said. “Shoo, shoo—all of you, y’hear?!”

Just like that, the boars scattered, running back into the forest with rumbling stomachs.

“Poor things, they looked hungry—shame we couldn’t feed them, but…” the wood elf continued. “Oh well.”

“Better have ‘em a little hungry than munchin’ on you two, eh?” she said, smiling at the knight and her squire.

“Who-” Sienna tried to ask.

“Oh, right! The name’s Emilia!” the wood elf interjected.

“And her right here?” Emilia said, pointing to the cautious dark elf standing next to her. “That’s my partner, Elly!”

“She’s the one who told the boars to stop chasing you guys!” Emilia explained enthusiastically. “Amazing, isn’t she?”

The dark elf blushed, then regained her composure with a fake cough.

“R-Right, so… You were incredibly lucky to find us here.” she started. “I am Elynere, and this is Emilia—”

“And we’re both adventuring druids!” Emilia interrupted her friend.

“Nice to meet you two!” Enix said, approaching the women. “I’m Enix the Squire, and this is my lady, miss—”

“Wait, wait, WAIT… I recognize your face.” the dark elf muttered.

“Who, me?” Enix said, surprised.

“No, your… your…” Elynere stammered. “The knight behind you!” she exclaimed.

“Here we go again…” Sienna thought to herself.

“A-Are you, by any chance—” the dark elf continued.

“Sienna Picarello?” the knight interjected.

“YES! Oh my gosh, it IS you!” Elynere exclaimed excitedly.

Emilia tilted her head in confusion, unsure why her partner was making such a big deal out of the knight standing before the two of them.

“You two know each other, Elly?” she said.

“N-No, but… This is THE Sienna Picarello… in the flesh!” Elynere said. “The Elven Hero of Randwynn!”

“Please…” Sienna grumbled, embarrassed.

“I-I’ve heard stories about you… way back when I still lived in the underdark!” Elynere continued. “You were my idol, y’know?”

“Stop…” Sienna muttered quietly, looking away.

“When I worked the farm, I-I used to wield my hoe like a glaive, and… and I pretended I was just like you, swinging it against imaginary bad guys! Fahaha!” Elynere blurted out.

Sienna’s cheeks were already beet-red by this point, but she hid her flustered expression by turning away and pretending to look for something inside her backpack.

“Oh, DUDE… I can’t believe I finally met you! T-This is just… Wow!” Elynere said.

“Dude…?” Sienna muttered, turning around.

“Oh, r-right, sorry. Your… highness? Your majesty?” the dark elf corrected herself. “Y-You’re some kind of noble, right? That’s what the folk tales always said…”

Sienna stood up proudly, but instead of scolding the dark elf, she said:

“No, not even close.”

“Eh?!” Elynere exclaimed.

“I am but a humble servant of Lindemayen, the Knight of Crosses—there is not a single ounce of royal blood within me.”

Elynere looked visibly surprised.

“I do not know of the tall tales you have heard about me, but rest assured, I am no better—or worse—than an average commoner.” Sienna said, putting herself down. “And I do not expect to be treated any differently…”

“R-Right.” Elynere stammered after an uncomfortable silence. “Sorry, I just—”

“Aww, come on!” Emilia interjected “Give yourself some credit, lady! If you’re at least half as awesome as Ellie says, you should pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Right?”

“Actually, she, umm…” Elynere said. “Miss Picarello disappeared without a trace for, like, decades, some time ago—t-that’s why I got so excited to see her in person.”

“I never got the chance to witness her doing, umm, y’know… Her heroics, and all, I just…”

“Heard of the folk tales…”

Sienna silently lowered her head in shame, choosing to not address the dark elf.

“What? Why?” Emilia inquired.

“Nobody knows… E-Except her, I suppose.” Elynere said, looking at Sienna from the side. “Come to think of it…”

“What made you return, Miss Picarello?” the dark elf added.

“…” Sienna couldn’t muster up an answer.

“This is a… personal subject. Right, milady?” Enix said.

“Quite so…” Sienna murmured with a husky voice.

Elynere felt a bit disappointed. After practically idolizing Sienna throughout most of her childhood, and having personally lived through many great tragedies herself, she thought:

“I persevered in large part thanks to her… I was inspired by her, and yet… She, herself, just… gave up?”

“Just like that?” she thought. “It’s not like her… It doesn’t SOUND like her.”

Emilia waved her hands in front of Elly.

“Hello, is somebody there?” the wood elf said, jokingly tapping her friend’s forehead. “Lost in thought, are ya?”

“I-I was just, umm—”

“Yeah, me too!” Emilia interjected. “And wanna know what I think?”

“I think we should adventure together for a bit!” she exclaimed.

Enix seemed excited at the suggestion, even if Sienna wasn’t exactly thrilled.

“W-What do you mean?” the dark elf inquired.

“Four is better than two—ain’t that right?” Emilia smiled. “So…”

“You two fellows over here, E… umm… E—” she continued.

“Enix!” the squire happily interjected.

“Enix, that’s right! And… Miss Picarello, the Elven Hero.” Emilia said, smiling. “What are you two doing out here, anyway?”

Sienna thought about whether it would be wise to share the details of her mission with complete strangers, but Enix sensed her doubts, and reminded her through a whisper that the two elves had just saved their lives from a rampaging herd of giant boars.

“Ahem.” Sienna cleared her throat, still a bit shaken from the previous conversation. “We were…”

“We were on the trail of a humanoid trafficking ring, located somewhere within the vicinity of those ruins.” she said, regaining her composure and pointing to the ruins of the druidic grove.

“No way, you too?!” Emilia asked excitedly. “Me and Elly were doing the same thing!”

Sienna raised her eyebrows, then gave Enix a concerning look.

“Did… Did our quest giver happen to mention anyone else undertaking the quest?” Sienna inquired.

“No, my lady.” Enix replied.

“Out of curiosity: who’s paying you?” Emilia inquired.

“Daggerbrom.” Sienna replied. “Richard Daggerbrom.”

“Doesn’t ring a bell, does it, Elly?” Emilia asked her partner, but the dark elf nodded disapprovingly.

“W-Well, we—on the other hand—were sent here by one Rheya Dillweed.” Elynere said.

“The initials match.” Sienna said. “Have you seen Mrs. Dillweed in person?”

“No.” Elynere answered.

“And neither have I and Enix seen Mr. Daggerbrom.” the knight added.

Sienna thought long and hard about her next move. A quick look at her squire brimming with excitement to finally meet some new friends made her feel… guilty—almost as if her solitary way of adventuring had been detrimental to Enix’s development in the long run. But then again, could anyone other than Enix handle the truth? The truth about the real Sienna Picarello; the one troubled with a condition so horrifying it forces her to push people away out of fear for their safety?

The high elf had to make a difficult choice: possibly endanger her new acquaintances with her yet-undisclosed secret antics, or spare them the misery of finding out why she quit adventuring all those years ago in the first place. Seeing her squire giddy at the thought of being in a proper adventuring party again, Sienna felt compelled to—at the very least—try.

After all, what’s the worst thing that could happen?

Chapter 2

Down Below

Having agreed to Emilia’s suggestion, Sienna led the other three adventurers—including her squire—deeper into the ruins of the druidic grove that they’ve found earlier, discovering that the ruins had a secret hatch freshly-covered by a camouflaging net made from foliage gathered in the area.

Behind the trapdoor was a ladder, leading to a dingy, dim-lit tunnel system. The adventurers quickly found that each tunnel ended in another ladder, covered by another trapdoor at the top. The ruins were seemingly littered with secret hatches, accessible at a moment’s notice and from various points.

“T-This has to be the place, right?” Elynere asked sheepishly. “Y’know, the trafficking ri—”

“Quiet.” Sienna shushed her. “If it is, we better not make any noise, or else…”

“Right, s-sorry.” the dark elf whispered.

Using hand signs, Sienna ordered her new teammates to scout the corridors to their left and right, while she and Enix proceeded forward. Eventually, all four of them met up again—this time, in front of a rusty iron door embedded in a mossy cobblestone wall, surrounded by garbage and lit up only by a single, flickering magic lantern—a broken one, as a matter of fact.

“Are you sure you checked all other paths?” Sienna asked the two other elves.

“T-There were no other paths, Miss Picarello!” Elynere replied. “All tunnels, corridors, and a-alleyways, they just… converge on this point.”

“Looks like a backdoor, doesn’t it?” Emilia inquired.

“Good point—we took the wrong trapdoor.” Sienna said. “Let us go back to the tunnels and—”

Before she could finish, Emilia was already chanting some sort of incantation that suddenly shapeshifted her into a rat. In her new form, she approached the iron door and began sniffing around, until finally, she found a crack in the door covered by moss. After gnawing through the moss, she sniffed around yet again, catching a whiff of food somewhere behind the door.

“Guys! See this hole right ‘ere?” she squeaked enthusiastically. “I’ll sneak through it and letcha in from the inside, just gimme a minute!”

“Oh my goodness—we’re not doing this again, are we?” Elynere thought to herself.

Seeing the concerned look on the dark elf’s face, Enix felt compelled to ask:

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just, umm…” the dark elf sighed. “Whenever Emilia shapeshifts, things tend to get out of hand very, VERY quickly.”

With no word from Emilia after a solid minute, Sienna felt the need to break the awkward silence.

“Care to elaborate…?” she said. “Is she… going to be okay in there?”

“Oh yeah, totally.” Elynere said nonchalantly, focusing intently on something in her hands. “She’s not the one I’m worrying about, though.”

“What, you think she’ll hurt people?” Enix asked.

“No—I mean, yeah, kinda, but…” Elynere replied, still focusing on something else.

“Hey.” Sienna said sternly, enough to make the dark elf jump.

“Mind telling me what you are doing with that amulet you are holding?” the knight added.

“W-What, this?” Elynere replied, showing Sienna a metal hair pin. “Oh, that’s just… my hair pin.”

“…” Sienna wasn’t buying the explanation. She crossed her arms like a stubborn parent waiting for their child to speak the truth. Elynere started visibly sweating, but seeing as Emilia wasn’t coming back, she felt the need to explain herself.

“Okay, look—sometimes, when Emi goes out to do something stupid, I just… clutch this symbol and pray—pray to my Goddess to, y’know… Keep her safe.” the dark elf blurted out, once again returning to fidgeting with her hair pin.

“…” Sienna was still staring the dark elf down with an unrelenting gaze. Enix felt a little uncomfortable, but didn’t say anything.

“WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY?!” Elynere suddenly erupted, making the squire jump and fall into a pile of garbage. During his fall, he landed on a rusty lever buried beneath layers of trash. His fall was strong enough to turn the lever over, making the rusty iron door in front of the three adventurers slowly creak open with a very loud noise of scraping metal.

“Ah, yes, I… I totally meant to do that!” Enix exclaimed. “The path lies open—you’re welcome, my lady!”

Sienna winked at her squire, seemingly implying he should go make himself busy for a moment. Naturally, Enix recognized her intention immediately, as any good squire would.

“Oh, yes, right! I’ll go look for Emilia, while you two, uh…” he said. “Watch my back—yes, that’s it.”

Once Enix went deeper inside the backdoor entrance, Sienna turned around to face Elynere again, giving her a suspicious look.

“The lever, just now.” she murmured. “Was this your Goddess’s doing?”

“I-I like to think it was, fahaha!” Elynere said nervously. “She’s always got my back, y’know!”

Sienna approached the dark elf closer, making her simultaneously blush and tremble. Her stern blue eyes were judging Elynere intently, before finally, she dropped all the pretense—Sienna grabbed the dark elf by the wrists and said:

“The moth…”

“…” Elynere just stood there, dumbfounded. “W-What…?”

“The moth, from earlier.” Sienna continued. “The moth that guided me and my squire to these ruins.”

“Your hair-pin-amulet-thingy—whatever that is—is also moth-shaped.” she added.

“Now, I have been alive for over two centuries, but only know of ONE divine being associated with moths…” the knight continued.

“And it just so happens to be the Eldritch Goddess of FATE.” Sienna said, dropping a bombshell on Elynere that would freeze the dark elf solid.

Unable to mutter out a coherent response, Elynere babbled nervously, trying to squirm her way out of the knight’s stern grip, but to no avail. Sienna patiently waited for the dark elf to stop struggling, and only then, she spoke again:

“Answer me truthfully… Are you a follower of Nezhara?”

“…” Elynere said nothing, at least at first.

“Y-Yes…” She eventually muttered with guilt behind her shaking voice.

Sienna loosened her grip on the dark elf before eventually letting her go. Elynere’s legs were shaking so much at this point that she immediately fell over upon being released from Sienna’s hold.

“Hey now…” Sienna said calmly, approaching the dark elf very slowly—each step of her armored boots heavier than the last, clanking against the cobblestone floor beneath her.

From Elynere’s perspective, she felt as if she was about to face the wrath of a zealous crusader, punishing her for heresy—a scenario she was already intimately familiar with.

Crawling further and further away from Sienna until her back was hugging the wall, Elynere shielded her face with her arms, letting out a pitiful squeal, before finally… the elven hero picked up Elynere’s hair pin—dropped during their confrontation—and placed it back in her hair.

Elynere raised her eyes, catching a faint glimpse of the knight towering over her insignificant, pitiful little existence.

Instead of judgment or punishment, the dark elf was met with kindness. Having had her hair pin returned to her, she was offered a hand by the knight, who helped her stand up. Back on her legs, Elynere was gripped yet again by the knight—this time, however, it was a warm embrace.

“H-Huh?” the dark elf whimpered.

“Thank you…” Sienna said, releasing the dark elf from her embrace and flashing her a faint smile. “Without your Goddess’s assistance, me and my squire would have surely gotten lost in that forest…”

“???” Elynere looked at the knight in a confused manner.

“I just wanted to say…” Sienna continued. “I know it must be hard for you to be open about your religion, but—rest assured—I do not think any less of you for choosing to devote yourself to an Eldritch God.”

“???????????” Elynere continued staring blankly at the knight.

“I myself am often scrutinized for choosing to follow the principles of Lindemayen, even though he is but a lesser deity.” Sienna continued, pretty much rambling at this point, and well aware of it. “I thus know how it feels, and as such, would never judge another—”

“THIS ISN’T HOW YOU REASSURE SOMEONE, YOU ABSOLUTE PSYCHO!” the dark elf exploded. “I WAS ALMOST CONVINCED YOU WERE GOING TO KILL ME!”

“Why’d you do all of THAT for?!” she said, still fuming.

The elven hero laughed, completely unphased by her ally’s outrage.

“Oh, I could not possibly know.” Sienna shrugged. “Maybe to…”

Stepping aside, Sienna revealed Enix and Emilia standing further behind her, waving to Elynere and the knight from inside the backdoor entrance. The two have seemingly managed to stealthily dispatch the guards awaiting inside, coming out of the whole debacle unscathed.

“…Stop you from worrying about your friend for a little while?” Sienna added. “By the looks of things, I did a pretty great job—after all, you stopped shaking.”

“Huh.” Elynere said, more dumbfounded than ever. “W-Well…”

“I’m glad you don’t mind my… religious practices, but…” she continued. “How about n-next time you DON’T THREATEN ME in order to grab my attention!”

“Nothing else was working, so who am I to blame?” Sienna chuckled. “Come on, the others are waiting for us.”

Once Sienna turned around and started making her way towards the backdoor, Elynere breathed a sigh of relief. The dark elf smiled, finding a fluffy little moth perched atop her index finger.

“Haah… I-I really thought I was a goner there.” she thought to herself, taking off her hair pin.

“How is it that you always have a plan for me, Lady Nezhara?” the dark elf smiled, staring endearingly at the metal pin, before planting a gentle kiss on it and putting the thing back in her hair.

“Hey Elly, you comin’ or not?!” Emilia yelled from a distance. “There’s a whole dungeon in there to explore!”

“Coming!” Elynere exclaimed, quickly following after her teammates.

After going through the backdoor, the dark elf found herself in a rather unsanitary kitchen of sorts. In the middle of the living room connected to the kitchen sat four unconscious guards, bound to each other with hempen rope.

“I gave these guys a little mandatory nap time and made them all nice’n’snug with what little rope I had left.” Emilia explained. “This little fiendfolk right here helped me rough ‘em up!” she added, nudging Enix in the shoulder.

“Yeah, we make a pretty good team!” the squire said. “It’s a shame our first quest together has to be so… serious.”

“Whaddya mean?” Emilia inquired.

“He… already had an unfortunate encounter with traffickers before, on an adventure a year prior.” Sienna explained, sparing Enix the burden of having to recall the event himself. “I was there too.”

“Oh, uhh, dang…” Emilia said, feeling a bit awkward about her prior comment. “Sorry, kid.”

“No, no, it’s fine.” Enix flashed her a faint smile. “After all, now that I’ve become Lady Sienna’s squire, everything is going to be alright!”

“We’re much stronger now than we were last year—isn’t that right, my lady?” he asked.

“Yes…” Sienna said hesitantly, as if careful to not eat her own words later. “Quite so…”

“Anyway…” she added. “I think we should proceed forward.”

“Agreed!” Elynere replied. “This kitchen is driving me nuts, I mean… rats, cockroaches…. t-there’s all sorts of vermin in here!”

“Do these people know NOTHING about food safety, or, or… personal hygiene, even?!” she finished.

“What, are you some kind of safety inspector now?” Enix chuckled.

“I umm…” Elynere stammered.

“No—but she’s a chef!” Emilia answered for her friend. “And an amazing one, too—you should totally try her cooking sometime!”

“M-Maybe after we get out of here first, fahaha…” the dark elf muttered nervously. “I think I… heard something from that hallway to the left, a-and I’m not liking this place so far, soooo… y’know.”

Sienna moved towards the last door on the left hallway in order to listen in, and sure enough—she heard grunting and fighting noises coming from behind the door. From the sound of it, she could hear three men inside.

“Stand back, everyone…” she told her teammates sternly.

Sienna took a few steps back, then gathered momentum and charged at the door with a sword and shield in hand, battering it down using her shoulder. Inside, she found a dapper young man knocking a pair of equally sharp-dressed bouncers unconscious with some sort of sleep spell. The red-haired man was almost as tall as Sienna, but clearly not as stoic as the elven hero, since his first idea upon seeing other adventurers was to panic-cast a Fog Cloud spell and fill the room with smoke, using it as a distraction for his escape.

Unfortunately, the door he sprinted towards turned out to be locked, and a certain high elf in plate armor slowly approached him through the smoke as if it wasn’t even there. Having successfully grappled the man, Sienna brought him before her teammates, dropping him to his knees. The knight’s intimidating glare was stronger than the stranger’s resolve to mend his wounded ego, at least for now—and as such, he chose not to stand up just yet.

“Alright, alright—I acquiesce—you got me.” he said. “But don’t celebrate just yet!”

“I have important friends on the inside! You wouldn’t want me to tell on you to your boss, would you now?” he added with a smug expression.

“We uhh…” Emilia said. “We’re not with those guys.” she added, pointing at the sleeping bouncers.

“Oh, really?” the man inquired. “Well, that’s great, ‘cause I don’t actually know anyone here either.”

“Hmm…” he murmured, pondering for a brief moment.

“Ah, of course—fellow adventurers, I see!” the man exclaimed. “Fret not!”

“I am already taking care of this quest on my own!” he added with newfound confidence. “So if it isn’t terribly inconvenient, could you, perhaps… leave me to it?”

“Dude…” Elynere said. “Why do you think we’re here to begin with?”

The man took a good look at each of Sienna’s party members, carefully analyzing them from head to toe with a serious expression on his face.

“Hmm, it appears I happen to be outnumbered… A democratic solution will not suffice here, no siree…” he said, still considering his options.

Emilia and Elynere gave each other a look that clearly said something along the lines of “are you seeing this?”.

Sienna kneeled down in front of the mysterious stranger and offered him a helping hand.

“My name is—”

“Oh, so you have decided then!” the man exclaimed enthusiastically, immediately rising to his feet and wiping the dirt from his knees. “Very well!”

“In that case, leave me to it, and I’ll consider sparing you a coin or two from the treasure I find in this… despicable establishment.” he added.

Sienna wasn’t amused.

“Listen here…” she said, slowly stomping towards the man with her metal boots, clanking against the ground with each step just like last time. By the time she had him pinned to the wall, however, the man stopped pretending he was actually intimidated by the knight, and simply said:

“My, my—how forward you are!”

“At least take me on a date first, you scoundrel!” he chuckled.

Sienna gave the man a light slap to the face. Even though she held back, he still recoiled a bit from the pain.

“Ow…” he grumbled. “That’s not how you treat a gentleman—”

“Alright, enough of this…” Sienna said sternly. “It is clear you were tasked with the same mission we were, and whether you like it or not, we are NOT going to simply walk away just because you got here first.”

“Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way…” she added. “Either you help us deal with the traffickers, or we will knock you out and tie you up until we are done.”

“Traffickers?” the man said, surprised. “No, no—you got something wrong, lady.”

“I was contracted by a reputable patron to gather evidence on an underground crime ring located inside the ruins of a druidic grove.” he said. “A mouthful, I know, but that’s what I was told word-for-word.”

“No-one told me about any traffickers.” he added, sincerely. “I thought they were just plain-old bandits!”

Elynere felt a tingle inside her head—a feeling she always gets right before things deviate from her Goddess’s plan, and usually turn out for the worse.

“Hun, are you okay?” Emilia turned to her partner.

“S-Something’s wrong…” Elynere muttered, clutching her head. “It hurts…”

“What’s wrong with her?” Enix inquired.

“My head, I… Lady Nezhara is trying to warn me about… fates unraveling, and—” Elynere tried to explain.

“Oh please—don’t tell me you believe in divine superstitions!” the man groaned. “You just got a migraine from the smell in this place—can’t say I blame you, this place is rotten to the core.”

“No, you don’t get it!” Elynere exclaimed. “We… We’re in serious trouble… o-or going to be, soon.”

As Elynere was arguing with the mysterious adventurer, Sienna tried to focus on noises coming from the door that the man was previously trying to escape through.

“Everybody stay quiet!” she said, listening in closer. “I think I hear footsteps…”

“Crap, they’re onto us.” the man sighed. “Alright everyone, huddle together—I’ve got something for the occasion!”

“What are you…” Sienna tried to question the man, but he presented her with a magical blanket—big enough to cover all five adventurers, and make them completely invisible while they’re covered by it.

“Shh… They’ll still be able to hear us, so just… keep your voices down for a bit.” the man explained.

Suddenly, the adventurers heard a door being unlocked. A group of bouncers rushed into the room, only to find two of their colleagues sleeping in awkward positions. The unconscious guards were woken up with stern slaps, then had to explain why they were sleeping on the job.

“We wuz jus makin sure nobody got to to the V.I.P. lounge, but uhh…” the first one said.

“Then this guy showed up—a wizzurd or somethin, with a red cape, and armed with a rapier!” the other one added.

“Yeah, das right—and to top it all of, this guy had the nerve to cast sum kinda spell on us, putting me and Giorgio over here to sleep!” the first one said.

“An intruder, huh?” the biggest, loudest bouncer said. “Crud.”

“It’s prolly one’a the adventurers that we hadta lure in ‘ere, ‘member?” the first bouncer said.

“Oh yeah, foreal foreal! Well, we don’t hafta lure them in anymo’, so there’s dat—” the second bouncer replied.

“You BLOCKHEADS!” the big bouncer shouted. “You were suppose’ta ambush ‘em outside! In the RUINS!”

“Oooooh, riiiiiight…” bouncer 1 and 2 said in unison.

“Arrrgh… Crud…” the big bouncer groaned angrily. “Now we hafta tell Big Boss Ricky to deal with it right away.”

“Oh noes, he’ll be totally pissed, dude…” the first bouncer said.

“Didn’t he say he was busy with sum… conjuration thingy, in his… conjuration room?” he added.

“Oh yeah, foreal foreal!” the second bouncer replied.

“Well then whaddya waiting for, knuckleheads?!” the big bouncer exclaimed. “Go to the tunnels and make sure no o’er adventurers slip in!”

“Aye, chief! You got it!” bouncer 1 and 2 said in unison, before quickly scurrying off to the tunnels in order to watch the exit trapdoors.

The big bouncer eventually left as well, taking his reinforcements with him on a perilous journey to notify Big Boss Ricky about this incident… and hopefully not making him too mad.

When the coast was clear, the red-haired adventurer stood up and threw away the invisibility blanket, which disintegrated immediately afterwards.

“Hey, that could’ve been useful later!” Enix exclaimed.

“Don’t sweat it, kid—it was one-time-use only.” the man explained.

“We’re so dead, we’re so dead, we’re so dead…” Elynere started muttering to herself, pacing around the room in circles.

“Everybody, listen up!” Emilia said, taking the initiative. “We can’t go back now, so we might as well go in even further.”

“Now that we know we were set up, we can use this to our advantage!” she added. “If we take the bouncers out before they tell their boss about the whole ordeal—or better yet—if we take out THE BOSS himself, we’ll still be incognito!”

Elynere was so surprised by Emilia coming up with a plan, of all people, that she had stopped panicking for a moment.

“That’s… That’s not a half-bad idea.” she said.

“Aww, thanks Elly!” Emilia smiled. “You know, it’s usually you who gets to make the plans, so I thought—”

“No, no, NO—absolutely not!” the red-haired man cried out. “I’m not going to WILLINGLY walk into a setup, are you crazy?!”

“I don’t know about you people, but I’d much rather take out the bouncers guarding the tunnels—lethally, this time—and simply waltz out of there with my pride intact.” he added.

“If YOU wish to walk into the jaws of defeat, then by all means—do just that.” he said mockingly. “But I will NOT be joining you!”

“Hey man—what’s your name, anyway?” Emilia asked innocently.

“M-My name?” the man replied, confused.

“Yeah, like—what do I call you?” Emilia said.

“You can call me… Cedric.” the man answered. “Just the first name will do for now.”

“Alrighty, then… Cedric.” Emilia said. “If Miss Picarello wasn’t clear enough, then lemme break it down for you…”

In a flash, Cedric found himself strapped to the ceiling with all sorts of vines, webs, and icicles—classic druidic restraints, to be frank.

“We can leave you hanging’ right here, and come back for you later once we’re done—you know—being curious little adventurers, exploring the place and maybe finding something cool in this dingy dungeon.” Emilia said.

“Or, like… saving people that might actually need our help!” she added.

“Oooor….” the druid continued. “You could come and help us, because five is better than four, obviously!”

Sienna faintly smiled, before turning her gaze towards the wizard stuck to the ceiling.

“So what will it be, Mr. Cedric?” Emilia said, looking up.

“…” the wizard resisted at first, but then…

“Fine…” he scoffed. “I’ll help.”

“Great!” Emilia exclaimed, loosening the wizard’s restraints and making him drop face-first onto the floor.

“Ow…” Cedric muttered.

“You know, m-maybe it was fate that brought us five together?” Elynere smiled.

“What in the material realm are you talking about?” Cedric groaned.

“Nezhara, the Eldritch Goddess of Fate…” she said. “As her champion, I… She wouldn’t let me get in harm’s way without a way out, is what I’m trying to say.”

“That is why I believe… that we were destined to meet here.” the dark elf continued. 

“It would explain the moth that led me and my squire to this place…” Sienna chime in.

“Oh, so that’s what it was!” Enix exclaimed.

“Yes…” Elynere continued. “I believe, w-we were gathered here to… find something.”

“On this day, at this time, in this room—”

“Yeah, no—I don’t believe in superstitions.” Cedric scoffed.

“But—” Elynere tried to say.

“Nope. Not buying it.” Cedric interjected. “We’re all here because we got screwed over by conmen who are terrible at their jobs—nothing more, nothing less.”

“Instead of team bonding, we should focus on matters that bring tangible results, such as…”

“Getting out of here…?” Emilia asked sheepishly.

“Precisely!” Cedric exclaimed.

Emilia scratched her head.

“But that’s no fun—we can’t leave just yet!” she added. “There might be people here who need our help!”

“So, Elly…” the wood elf said. “I’m not good with step-by-step plans—just general ideas, so bear with me here…”

“How do we do this, partner?” she asked excitedly, awaiting her friend’s instructions.

Elynere brushed off Cedric’s prior comments and smiled confidently. She then started digging in her backpack, pulling out an assortment of various alchemical concoctions from within.

“First, you’re going to drink this, this, and this.” she said, handing out various potions to each of her allies. “Next, Emi will cast a spell that will make us leave no tracks behind us…”

“Then, finally, we’ll sneak inside the conjuration room that the bouncers were talking about, and stop their boss before he can sound the alarm!” the dark elf explained, brimming with optimism.

“Once that’s done, w-we’ll have all the time in the world to, umm… Look around, or something.” Elynere finished.

“I like that plan.” Sienna smiled reassuringly. “Let us commence forth then.”

“Yay!” Enix exclaimed. “A real mission with a real party—like the good old days!”

Sienna’s smile quickly faded, almost as if reminded of how her last adventures in a regular-sized adventuring party ended up going.

“Yes… Quite so…” the knight thought to herself while worriedly staring into her broken pocket mirror.

Sienna’s reflection stared back at her with pity, suggesting the elven hero should be aware of how this charade was likely going to end. The high elf pressed forward nonetheless, staying hopeful, even if just for her squire’s sake…

Chapter 3

The Real Threat

Upon making sure everyone was ready, Sienna went ahead of the group and signaled them to wait until the coast was clear, but before she left the VIP lounge, Emilia had something to say:

“Careful now, partner.”

“My Traceless Passage spell only works if you’re within 30 feet of me at all times.” the druid added.

“Don’t go too deep without us, alright?” she said.

“Affirmative.” Sienna whispered, before promptly sneaking out of the lounge. The knight slowly made her way through the dingy halls of the underground crime club—to her surprise, the corridors were without a single soul in sight. Sienna could clearly hear all the crime lords and mob bosses partying from the other side of this strange labyrinth of a hideout, but first, she had to cross a pool of water to get there. The pool had no bridge to cross it with, or that’s what the knight initially thought—because upon closer inspection, there was indeed some sort of mechanism in place—the platform floating in the middle of the pool, hanging by iron chains from the cave ceiling, had four retractable bridges inside it, but no clear way of activating them.

Unable to spot any levers or switches, the knight eventually spotted a pair of thugs approaching her way, unaware she was there. Sienna looked around the room she was in for any hiding spots, as this particular chamber of the bandits’ hideout was lush with plantlife—including tall, potted ferns, moss growing on cavern walls, as well as a mini garden of sorts, located in the center of the room. Having only seconds to decide, Sienna knew she couldn’t return to her friends just yet, so instead, she decided to hide in the bushes of the chamber’s mini garden. Miraculously, the two thugs didn’t see her on their way in.

“Aww, man.” the second thug said. “I forgot my activator.”

“Dude, no way, man!” the first thug said. “Me too!”

“So, like… how do we get back to Jerry and the others?” the first thug inquired.

“Hmm, If I remember correctly…” the second thug said, turning towards one of the pillars by the exit to the room. “There should be some kind of… button, over here…”

“There we go!” he exclaimed after pressing something. One loud click later, and the bridge to the platform in the middle of the pool was beginning to slowly extend.

“It’s… taking a while, innit, Jack?” the first thug murmured.

“Yeah, just give it a moment, Billy—it’ll take a couple minutes tops.” the second thug replied.

Sienna was growing increasingly impatient. Not only was her armor not designed with prolonged sitting in uncomfortable positions in mind, but the bush she was hiding in was full of all sorts of bugs, each eager to crawl into her armor for seemingly no reason other than to slightly inconvenience or annoy her.

Having had enough of the two thugs chatting by the pool as they were waiting for the bridge to fully extend, Sienna jumped out of the bushes and ran behind one of the pillars behind the two bandits. Because she was still within range of Emilia’s spell, her footsteps were silent, and the thugs could only hear faint rustling coming from the bushes.

“Yo, dude… check this out.” the first thug said, carefully approaching the mini garden. “I think this bush just, like… moved on its own, dude…”

“Come on, Billy. What did I tell you about strange noises coming from—” the second thug tried to say, but before he could finish, Sienna grabbed him from behind and put him in a chokehold. Once the thug was out cold, she slowly creeped up on his friend, who was still busy admiring the mini garden.

“Hmm… Must’ve been my imagination.” the first thug said. “Still… Lovely bush, innit?”

“Jack…?” he added, but before he could even turn around, something hard struck him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.

“Good work—I was almost caught…” Sienna said quietly.

“Don’t sweat it!” Emilia smiled, stowing away her quarterstaff. “I was getting bored of waiting for ya anyway.”

“What about the others?” Sienna inquired.

“What, should I tell them to get here too?” the druid retorted. Suddenly, the bridge from earlier had finished extending, firmly lodging itself between the platform and the lush, overgrown chamber, allowing the adventurers to pass through.

“Yes…” Sienna said.

“Okay!” Emilia replied, going back for the rest of her teammates. “Oh yeah, by the way—one more thing…”

“Why do you always, umm, linger on words, or somethin’ like that?” the druid added.

“Elaborate…” Sienna murmured.

“Yeah, that’s it—you just did it again!” Emilia exclaimed.

“I did…?” Sienna replied

“Stop, haha!” the druid chuckled. “You’re so creepy, you know.”

Sienna flashed a faint smile, and Emilia ran back to get her other friends in on the action. Once everyone was in position again, the team moved forward, carefully crossing the bridge to the platform in the middle of the pool.

The platform had four circles etched into the corners of its floor, each corresponding to a bridge mechanism extending in that respective direction.

Cedric examined the circles closer, before deducing that they are detachable covers that shield a vulnerable gear-based mechanism inside.

“Watch and learn.” the wizard said, pulling out a 10 foot pole out of his comically-small Bottomless Bag and lodging it inside one of the mechanisms. Nothing seemed to have happened beyond that.

“Now what?” Elynere asked, slightly irritated.

“Observe!” Cedric said enthusiastically, before gripping the pole and beginning to stir it in a counter-clockwise motion. The gears started turning, and that mechanism’s respective bridge began extending. Stirring the gears became increasingly harder with each rotation, forcing Cedric to take short breaks—until suddenly, during one of the breaks, Cedric’s pole shot out of the mechanism as the gears began rapidly rotating clockwise and back into their original state, retreating the bridge as they turned back.

“Oi, oi—somebody help me with that bloody thing!” Cedric exclaimed.

Emilia caught Cedric’s metal pole with a perfectly-timed Thorn Whip, narrowly grabbing it before the thing fell into the pool. Handing the pole to Sienna, Emilia took a few steps back and watched as the knight and the wizard used their combined strength to continue stirring the mechanism, until finally… a clang, followed by a click. The bridge was successfully lowered, and the adventurers could pass through, but something was off.

“You guys hear that?” Emilia inquired upon hearing several clicks. Just then, the platform began rumbling—all other bridge-extending mechanisms suddenly started on their own, much quicker than the previous two. On the other side of the remaining pair of unraised bridges were bandits equipped with light crossbows.

“Intruders!” they shouted in unison.

“How did they get here so fast?!” Enix exclaimed.

“Maybe our little clockwork experiments were a little too loud—just a hunch though.” Cedric said sarcastically.

“I-It was your idea, you idiot!” Elynere added.

“Huh, that’s strange—I didn’t hear any other ideas, now, did I?” the wizard scoffed.

“Enough!” Sienna exclaimed. “Everyone get in position—we are about to have a fight on our hands…”

The adventurers lined up in front of the platform’s bridges—Cedric guarding one side, Elynere another, and Sienna guarding the last one. Enix took it upon himself to watch the bridge they came through, in case the bandits would try to attack the adventurers from behind.

As soon as all bridges locked into place, the less-armored thugs took cover in order to take occasional potshots with their crossbows, while the beefier, stronger bandits charged forward directly at the heroes. Surrounded from all sides, the adventurers had no choice but to stand their ground and defend themselves on the platform.

“Crap, crap, crap, crap—I can’t d-die here, not like this!” Elynere stammered.

“Keep it together, everyone.” Sienna said sternly. “We will stay on the defensive until a path opens up…”

“Hah! Good luck with that, lassie!” thug no. 1 said, slowly approaching the knight. Cedric positioned himself between Sienna and the thug, extending his rapier towards the bandit.

“Take one more step and you’re finished.” the wizard said, doing his best to scare away the bandit.

“Ooh, I’m so scared, whatever shall I do—gya ha ha!” the thug laughed, completely unphased.

“Okay, NOW you can’t screw this up…” Cedric thought to himself. “Come on, Cedric, keep it together—don’t embarrass yourself now—show them what you’re made of!”

After a deep breath, the wizard ran up to the bandit, avoiding blow after blow by taking quick yet graceful steps. His masterful dodging streak lasted until he had aligned himself perfectly behind the thug and on the side of the bridge.

“Why stop now, kid—out of energy already?” the thug said, taunting the wizard.

“Merely conserving it.” Cedric replied. “Speaking of conserving, you should stop talking and start saving some air.”

“You’re going to need it.” he added.

“Eh?” the thug scratched his head.

“Thunder Wave!” Cedrix exclaimed—his voice boomed loud enough to shake the cavern ceiling, and the blast following his incantation shook it even harder. Before long, the bandit in question found himself flying off the bridge and into the pool below, struggling to stay afloat in his heavy armor. Before the other thug on the same bridge could even process what just happened, Cedric teleported behind him and attempted to shove him into the pool as well.

Although the bandit reacted in time—instinctively balancing his footing so that he wouldn’t fall as easily—the wizard proved far stronger than the thug had anticipated, easily matching his strength and defeating him in a desperate wrestle at the bridge, sending said thug straight into the pool.

Exhausted, Cedric took a few steps back to look around and admire his work, watching as the two thugs from his side of the platform were now desperately trying not to drown. One of them, with his last breath, took off a locket from his neck and chucked it towards the bridge, nearly hitting the wizard in the face.

“Watch it, you barbaric ape!” Cedric scoffed. “Save your energy for struggling, lest you wish to sink.” he added, smiling impishly.

The thug’s golden locket glimmered in a strange manner, beckoning the wizard to come closer. Curiosity took the better of him, and so he leaned down to pick up the locket. Inside was a photo of the thug in question, happily huddled next to a fireplace with a woman and two children. When Cedric looked back at the drowning thug, he was nowhere to be found.

Come to think of it… the wizard couldn’t find… anyone.

A deafening silence took hold. In a fit of panic, Cedric turned his head left and right, looked up and down, but alas—nobody was there with him. The room started to get progressively darkerer with each passing second, and the water inside the pool below the platform was now crimson red.

“No… Why now, of all times?!” the wizard thought to himself, realizing what kind of forces were at play.

The magical scar over his right eye—inflicted on him with three point-blank Magic Missile darts to the face a few years prior—suddenly flared up with an itching, tingling sensation. The sensation soon turned into torturous burning, as if Cedric was being waterboarded with scalding hot water. The more he yelped in pain, the weaker his body got. The wizard ultimately fell to his knees, writhing on the ground and trying his best to suppress screams of absolute agony, and then…

Then the pain subsided—almost instantly, as if nothing had actually happened.

Still shrouded in darkness, Cedric raised his head from the floor and tried looking around, but to no avail once again. Just then, he could swear a disembodied voice was trying to talk to him.

No, that’s not right… The voice wasn’t disembodied at all. It came… from within.

A voice from deep within his head, his heart—a dark passenger inhabiting him like a vessel.

“EXCELLENT.” the voice spoke. A chill ran through the wizard’s spine. “MOST EXCELLENT.”

“YOU ARE A NATURAL-BORN KILLER.” the voice added. “WE SHALL MEET AGAIN, SOON.”

“UNTIL THEN, MY NOBLE VESSEL…”

“CONTINUE AS YOU WERE.”

Cedric found himself being jolted awake from unconsciousness. “Was… Was I dreaming?” he thought to himself, but… the thug’s locket was still in his hands, and he was still very clearly in the underground crime ring. Surrounded by his worried teammates looking at him with concerned expressions, the wizard got up and faced away from them, adjusting his cloak and stuffing the thug’s locket into his pocket.

“Now… Where were we?” he murmured, to no reply. Upon looking around, he realized all the other bandits had already been taken care of. His allies defeated and subdued them while he was in the middle of his… supernatural experience.

“Are you quite alright?” Sienna finally broke the silence.

“W-Who, me?” Cedric replied. “Why, I’m feeling spectacular right about now—thanks for asking, darling.”

“What was that all about, Mr. Cedric?” Enix asked innocently. “You were writhing in pain just about now, rolling in your sleep as you fell unconscious.”

“It’s… It’s nothing, kid.” Cedric replied. “It’s a, umm… A heart disease, is all.”

“Oh, really?” Enix said worriedly.

“Yes, yes—quite tragic, indeed, but what can I do?” the wizard said, smiling. “In our current predicament, I’ve no choice but to keep going.”

“No time to waste for my condition, is there, now?” he added.

Sienna’s ears twitched at the mention of the word “condition”. She knew that excuse very, VERY well, immediately picking up on the fact that Cedric wasn’t telling the rest of the party the whole truth. Instead of saying something, however, Sienna reflected on her own reluctance to speak her mind out. She concluded that, if she doesn’t feel the need to burden others with her troubling secrets, then she should respect the wizard for choosing to not do so as well. 

“Now,” the wizard said. “We have little time to spare and a lot of neutralized bandits on our hands—where do we go from here, ladies and gentlemen?”

“M-Maybe it’d be best to, like… interrogate one of them…?” Elynere suggested, pointing to the only bandit still conscious, though bound with rope. “Don’t look at me though—I’m bad with… people.”

“It’s not that, Elly—you’re just too sweet for that sort of thing.” Emilia added. “Lady Sienna on the other hand… she looks scary enough, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, Lady Sienna’s intimidation tactics are very effective!” Enix chimed in. “Scarily effective, even.”

“Very well… Let me try.” Sienna said, slowly approaching the tied-up bandit.

The bandit’s eyes widened as the armored woman began loudly stomping in his general direction.

“I yield! I-I yield!” the bandit shouted in desperation before the knight could even reach him.

“…” Sienna frowned.

“Am I really this intimidating…?” she thought, somewhat disappointed.

“See?” Enix said enthusiastically. “My lady never disappoints!”

“Alright, smart guy—tell us, uhh…” Emilia interjected.

The wood elf quickly pulled her dark elf friend to the side, whispering:

“Wait… What do we even ask him, Ellie?”

“??????” Elynere responded with a puzzled look. “How did I NOT THINK OF THAT?!” she thought.

“Well?” Cedric asked. “It was your idea, wasn’t it?”

“Okay, just… Let’s just ask him about the co-o-onjuration room, and…” the dark elf stammered.

“And, umm… Where they keep…” she continued. “The s-s…”.

Elynere couldn’t finish her sentence. The word she wished to say was hurting her on a personal level, almost as if merely uttering it was akin to opening up long-closed wounds. Suddenly, the air was filled with tension, and the mood fell down dramatically.

“Come on, spit it out already—the thug needs to know what to tell us.” Cedric urged the elf.

“Slaves…” Elynere murmured with a heavy voice. “Where they keep… the slaves.” she said, lowering both her voice and her head.

The bandit raised his eyes from the ground, carefully observing the dark elf.

“I… I don’t know.” he said solemnly. “No, really, I—”

Elynere hurriedly walked up to the thug, grabbing him by his collar, then beginning to angrily shake him around.

“WHERE ARE THEY?!” she shouted repeatedly, shaking the bandit harder with each repetition.

“I don’t know, y-you… You crazy woman!” the thug exclaimed. “Get off of me!”

Not hearing what she wanted to hear, Elynere continued messing up the bandit, slapping him and shaking him repeatedly, until…

“ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT!” he yelled. “Alright…”

“T-They’re, uhh… Their cages are in front of the, uhh… boss’s chamber, yeah.” the thug added.

“Big Boss Ricky, was it?” Cedric inquired.

“YES, yes—Ricky, yeah.” the bandit replied. “Ricky…”

“Foolish bastard, that one.” he added. “Always obsessed with his—” the thug tried to say, but was rudely interrupted by a shield bash to the face. Elynere knocked him out cold, then marched onwards in the general direction of the conjuring room.

“Hey, we weren’t done with him yet!” Enix exclaimed. “…were we?”

“I think we were.” Emilia said, slightly uncomfortable. “Let’s just go…”

Following Elynere, the other party members stumbled upon six cages, each containing a captive of a different race. To Elly’s dismay, none of them were dark elves, but still—she felt compelled to free them all, regardless of who they were.

“Alright, you do that, and we’ll…” Cedrid said. “Hmm.”

“What’s the plan, anyway?” he inquired. “We found the slaves AND the conjuration chamber—regardless of what happens when we go in, we need to have an escape plan ready.”

“Go in?” Elynere stopped freeing the captives for a moment. “D-Do we really need to?”

“Well, it was YOUR idea, remember?” Cedric murmured. “To waltz in here, I mean.”

“If it was up to me, we’d be heading towards the treasury, then heading right out!” he added proudly.

“Well… priorities change, don’t you know?!” Elynere scoffed. “A-And, we don’t even know if there’s a treasury here in the first p-place.”

The heroes looked at the freed captives, then at the door to the conjuration room, considering their options. They knew there were more bandits and crime bosses further into the underground club, and all of them had to be met with justice—that being said, the adventurers couldn’t leave the terrified captives behind to go and dispense said justice, but… taking them with them wasn’t an option either.

“And if we try to rescue these people first…” Enix said.

“We might not be able to thwart this organization after all…” Sienna added. “They will flee, reorganize, then strike back—possibly endangering even more people…”

“…” Elynere didn’t say anything for a moment.

“I’m just tired… of all this.” she said after a while. “Please, let’s just… escort these people out.”

“I have to agree with Cedric here.” Sienna replied. “We cannot leave this place without dealing with the trafficking ring threat first—only then will we be able to—”

“I’m begging, I-I… I can’t take this anymore.” the dark elf added, sniffling.

Elynere was in shambles—bombarded with constant reminders of past trauma, she was incapable of proceeding any further. In this state, she was approached by Emilia, who walked up to the dark elf to gently cup her face in her hands.

“Elly…” she said softly. “Deep breaths, remember?”

“We can’t lose you right now—we need your help, girl!” she added, with more enthusiasm this time around. “We need your elaborate plans!”

“Your strong convictions!”

“Your potion knowledge!”

“Your sense of justice!”

“Your pretty smile!”

“What?” Elynere said.

“What?” Emilia also said.

“Anyhow—point is… we need you, Ellie!” the wood elf added. “So please…”

“If not for anyone else, then… do it for me!” she smiled. “Stay strong for me!”

Elynere breathed a deep sigh. She knew she couldn’t disappoint both Emilia AND her newfound friends at this point, and that’s not even mentioning all the innocent people captured by the bandits of the trafficking ring, desperately looking up to the heroes for help. Elly quietly chanted a short prayer to Nezhara, who—in the form of a tiny, fluffy moth—appeared before her champion . Empowered by her friend’s words and her goddess’s guidance, the dark elf unsheathed her previously-unused sword, raising her high towards the sky—or rather, the cavern ceiling.

“Oh my, it’s… overgrown???” Cedric said, confused. “Wait, how does steel even get—”

“I-I just haven’t used it much, okay?!” Elynere interjected. “I’m… not very good with w-weapons.”

“But, for the sake of everyone here, I’ll…” she continued.
“I’ll try my best!” Elynere smiled brightly, and most importantly: enthusiastically—possibly for the first time that entire day.

“Alright everyone…” Sienna confidently declared. “Stand back, citizens—the adventurers will take it from here.”

“On three:”

“One…”

“Two…”

Suddenly, Emilia prematurely sprinted forward and slammed herself shoulder-first into the door. The door broke down, and with it, so did all the emotional build-up. The elf laid there on the ground for a brief moment, surrounded by wooden splinters and most sincere regrets, all the while rubbing her bruised shoulder.

“Yeowch…” she muttered. “Sorry guys—I got a lil’ too excited there.”

“Wait, what’s this guy doing…?” the druid added, pointing to a man on the other side of the chamber.

The man—a large, rotund, bald-headed crook in robes a few sizes too small for his pudgy body—was holding someone down to an altar. That someone appeared to be a small child, desperately resisting whatever the large man was putting him through.

“Quiet now, boy…” the man said in a grovelly voice, covering the child’s mouth with his large hand. “It… It’ll all be over soon, Harry.”

Pinning the child to the altar with one arm, he raised his other arm high in the air, brandishing a ritualistic dagger.

“Wait, no!” Emilia exclaimed, but the man ignored her. Before she could run up to him and attempt to stop him, he had already plunged the dagger inside the young boy’s chest—his heart pierced, Harry writhed on the altar for a little bit, before ultimately, the flickering little lights in his eyes… went out.

The heroes froze—in their eyes, they had just failed a child. Had they not bickered and argued for so long, then maybe—just maybe—that little boy would’ve still been alive. But there was no time to grieve. Not right now, when other lives were at stake—when violent criminals had to face justice.

Cedric—previously unconcerned with the actions of the bandits and in it only for treasure and glory—was now fully convicted in a new belief: the bald man had to bite the dust, and so did his entire crew.

Rushing into the room with a Magic Missile already prepared and aimed at the rotund mob boss, Cedric was suddenly flung backwards by an invisible force. With an ear-piercing roar, the same force also threw Emilia out of the room, alongside all the wooden splinters leftover from the broken-down door. Enix and Sienna used their shields to protect the captives outside from various objects—including the aforementioned wooden splinters. When they looked up from their shields, they found that the large man was now surrounded with swirling blobs of… ink?

No, it wasn’t ink—rather, it was… something else. A pitch-black substance, for sure. Liquid in nature, but… unidentifiable. Regardless, the man was lifted high into the air, almost touching the cavern ceiling with his bald, shining head.

“Y-You promised!” the man shouted desperately, addressing an undisclosed someone. “PROMISED!”

“G-Guys…?” Elynere yelped from across the room with the freed slaves, slowly backing towards the wall and shielding them from someone. As it had turned out, several bandits heard the strange noises coming from the conjuration room, and rushed in to check on their boss.

“Yo, Ricky—what’s going on?!” one of the thugs exclaimed. “And who are you, people?!”

“Messing with our goods… You’ll pay for that!” he added, charging at Elynere with a battleaxe in hand.

Before anyone could intervene, the bandit became  immobilized—held in place by the same invisible force that previously flung Cedric and Emilia out of the conjuration chamber.

“M-My… My son!” the large man cried out.

“Boss? BOSS, HEY!” the immobilized thug yelled. “What’s going on, Ricky?!”

A disembodied voice began cackling like a mad hyena—cackling so loud that everyone’s heads began to spin in nauseating agony.

“SUCH A USELESS HOST YOU ARE.” the voice finally spoke, presumably towards the bandit boss.

“I-I… I did EVERYTHING.” Ricky exclaimed. “I did everything you asked of me!”

“I gave away my boy!” he continued. “My one… M-My one and only SON!”

“We had a deal, damn you!” Ricky shouted. “DAMN YOU…!”

Suddenly, Ricky’s limbs began contorting in a gruesome, painful manner. The large, rotund man now resembled an actual sphere, his legs and arms reduced to pathetic little stubs. The invisible force began cackling once more, pushing Ricky around like a ball and punting him against the conjuration chamber’s walls, deriving sick, twisted pleasure from the experience, before finally stopping. With his limbs reverted to normal, Ricky tried to get back on his feet, but couldn’t lift himself from the ground. The invisible force was making him roughly ten times heavier than usual—or maybe it was manipulating the gravitational pull itself? Regardless, it made sure the mob boss wouldn’t run away, and that no outside threat—hero or bandit—would intervene in its little chit-chat with the man.

“YOU NEVER REALLY LOVED HIM, DID YOU?” the voice taunted Ricky.

“Y-You’re wro—” the bandit boss tried to say, but his voice was immediately silenced by the force.

“DO NOT PRETEND YOU DO NOW.” the voice roared. “IT IS TOO LATE FOR REMORSE.”

“Maybe… Maybe so…” Ricky murmured. “B-But, it’s not too late…”

“To stop you!” he exclaimed, brandishing a holy symbol before him, pointing it in various directions, but ultimately being unable to tell from where the disembodied voice was coming from.

“PATHETIC CREATURE.” the voice boomed. “PERISH.”

Ricky’s throat started to swell. So did his stomach. And his limbs. Despite being clearly still alive, he started to resemble a bloated corpse. Before long, he was big enough to fill the whole room.

“Take cover!” Sienna exclaimed, raising her shield, and her teammates followed suit.

Instead of exploding, however, Ricky’s body simply… deflated. Seemingly devoid of any organs at this point, it laid there on the floor of the conjuration chamber, motionless… until…

One finger after another, the body started to twitch. And twist. And contort. Suddenly, the adventurers and the bandits found themselves face to face with not a man, not a beast, but an abomination. An incomprehensible mass of flesh and bones, held together not by collagen, but by the unidentifiable, pitch-black liquid from earlier. Ricky’s hollow corpse roared triumphantly from a gaping maw inside its stomach, filled with seemingly endless rows of sharp teeth.

“A MUCH BETTER VESSEL.” the entity spoke. “IT IS A SHAME RICHARD COULD NOT OPEN THE RIFT.”

“BUT ALAS,” the entity continued. “I SHALL FEAST ON THIS WORLD WHILE I STILL CAN.”

The heroes, still in defensive formation, slowly backed away from the hallway to the conjuration chamber, escorting any freed slaves and other captives along the way. The bandits ignored them and focused their efforts on trying to tackle the monstrosity that became of Ricky—one by one, they were felled by the entity, massacred in gruesome ways that would make even sadists flinch.

The bridges on the platform in the middle of the pool from earlier have all retracted by now. Luckily, Cedric stole an activator from one of the dead bandits, however, the heroes would still have to wait for the bridges to fully extend and lock into place. Seeing as the monster behind them was almost done chewing on the leftover bandits, something had to be done, and it had to be done very quickly.

“I-I have… scrolls of the Jump spell, b-but…” Elynere stammered. “Only three uses each…”

“How many?” Sienna asked.

“Enough f-for… 11 people.” the dark elf replied.

Realizing there were 8 slaves—including a few children—as well as 5 heroes, Sienna quickly figured two people wouldn’t make it. She then remembered about her own Jump scroll inside her backpack, but decided to hold onto it for the time being, as one person would still have to be left behind, and she wouldn’t let that happen. 

“Me and Enix will keep the monster at bay…” Sienna said. “Elynere, Emilia, Cedric…”

“You make sure the civilians are safe and sound.” she added.

“And what about you?!” Cedric exclaimed. “And the fiendfolk kid?!”

“GO.” Sienna shouted, running back into the conjuration chamber, Enix quickly following suit.

Inside, the elven hero saw the entity possessing Ricky’s body gnawing on the bones of fallen bandits, absorbing the meat from their flesh into itself, growing larger and larger, resembling nothing at all at this point—just a gruesome wall of flesh.

“Enix…?” Sienna said.

“Y-Yes, my lady?” the squire replied.

“Reach… into my backpack.” the knight said. “Carefully…”

“And grab… a scroll.” she added.

Enix began flipping through things inside his mistress’s bag, all while trying not to catch the attention of the incomprehensible abomination mere 60 feet away from him.

The monster seemed to be consciously ignoring the two, as if it was waiting for… something to happen. Just then, Enix had managed to pull out a scroll from his lady’s inventory.

“I got it!” he exclaimed, before quickly covering his mouth in fear of the monster hearing him. The monster remained unbothered by the squire’s existence, gleefully feasting on bandit corpses littered everywhere.

“Listen to me very, very closely…” Sienna said, cupping her squire’s face in her hands.

“You are going to cast this scroll on yourself, and follow after the others… Alright?” she explained.

“W-What—” the squire tried to say.

“It is a Jump spell.” Sienna interjected. “The last one I have…”

“Accompany the others to the exit—I will make sure this… thing will not reach any of you.” she said.

“L-Lady Sienna, no…” the squire whimpered. “Not like this!”

“Go.” the knight said sternly. The entity, now vaguely humanoid-shaped again, raised its head from the corpses on the ground and stared intently at the terrified young squire, feasting on his fear.

“GO.” Sienna exclaimed, pushing her squire out of the conjuration chamber and barricading it with her glaive.

Before she could unsheathe her backup weapon—a magical sword only reserved for emergencies—the entity was already all over her, constricting the elven hero with fleshy tendrils, before pinning her to the ceiling with pitch-black mucus.

“WHERE IS THE SATISFACTION IN TAKING A LIFE… THAT DOES NOT WANT TO CONTINUE LIVING?” the entity inhabiting Ricky spoke.

“A MISERABLE CREATURE, IS WHAT YOU ARE. FLAVORLESS… AND BLAND.”

“WALLOWING IN SELF-PITY.”

“I SHALL SEE YOU AGAIN, WHEN YOU REGAIN HOPE.”

“THEN I WILL CRUSH YOUR HOPE, AND SAVOR THE TASTE OF YOUR BONES TO THE FULLEST.”

“UNTIL THEN, ELVEN HERO.”

Having said that, the entity slithered past Sienna’s glaive-barricade and—completely ignoring Enix as well—kept on slithering deeper and deeper into the underground club’s various lounges. With each lounge it arrived in, echoes of crime lords and their henchmen being slaughtered could be heard from the distance, creating a cacophony of suffering traumatizing enough to completely lock Enix in place out of sheer fright.

His fright lasted until his lady came back for him after having freed herself from the entity’s restraints. Grabbing Enix by the hand, Sienna realized the bridges were already lowered by this point, and that the Jump spell scroll was no longer necessary.

“Let us go, quickly.” she urged her squire. “We can still catch up with the others.”

“B-But… Lady Sienna,” Enix whimpered. “What of the monster?”

Sienna briefly turned her head around in the general direction of the underground club’s other lounges, seeing flashes of explosions going off in the distance—each wine barrel detonated in one of the remaining lounges was causing the cavern’s ceiling to rumble.

“Some foes we just cannot best… At least not yet.” the knight explained. “Whoever is in the room with that thing right now, may Lindemayen protect their souls…”

Once the two had finally made their way towards the tunnels they originally entered from, they found Cedric almost done escorting everyone out of the hideout.

“Took you long enough!” the wizard exclaimed. “Almost thought you sacrificed yourselves—would’ve been tragically heroic, but… quite fitting, for you two.”

“The entity, it… let me go.” Sienna explained. “It… was not looking for me, at least not right now…”

“Excuse me?” Cedric inquired. “Care to elaborate on that?”

“There is no time. We have to hurry before—” Sienna said, being rudely interrupted by a deafening silence suddenly taking hold.

Once the silence had subsided, it was replaced with terrible ringing, making Sienna, Enix, and Cedric collapse on the ground, bleeding profusely from their ears. Once that was over as well, Cedric was lifted up by an invisible force grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. The force broke its invisibility, revealing itself to be an amalgamation of Ricky and several other mob bosses—a fleshy wreath made of several heads arranged in a floating hexagon, and with a different limb sticking out of the forehead of each head. The creature began rapidly rotating, and Cedric’s vision went blurry. Unable to focus, he felt powerless, and drifted into some kind of trance.

During this trance, Cedric only regained his senses after finding himself in a dark, wet room—no walls, no floors, no ceilings, just pitch-black darkness and wet ground, as if he fell down a watery grave. Suddenly, an armored figure rose from the water, and began making its way towards him. The suit of black armor shambled forward, losing a piece of itself with every step—the less pieces it had, the more Cedric could see what’s underneath.

Underneath was a man around his age, but… eerily familiar. Black hair, dark eyes with yellow pupils, rosy pink skin—Cedric couldn’t quite recognize who that was, or at least up until the suit of armor had suddenly found itself right in front of him after he blinked.

What was left of the armor had taken its helmet off, revealing a heavily-scarred face of a young adventurer underneath. Cedric tried his hardest to remember that face, but a part of his mind was suppressing that memory.

“MY TIME IN THIS WORLD IS LIMITED.” the entity spoke in several voices, almost like a macabre choir. “THOSE WHO WITNESSED ME SHALL REMEMBER THE CARNAGE I LEFT IN MY WAKE.”

“THOSE WHO WITNESSED ME SHALL HOLD THIS MEMORY EVERY NIGHT WHEN THEY FALL ASLEEP.”

“BUT YOU, PERSONALLY…”

“…WILL REMEMBER ME VERY INTIMATELY.”

“THAT IS TO SAY…”

“I WILL BECOME… A PART OF YOU.”

Cedric was suddenly turned upside down, suspended in the air by an invisible force. The entity got close to the wizard, so close that he could almost smell it. Before long, his purple eye started to itch and burn again—the entity was attempting to commune with whatever it was that already resided within the wizard’s eye. Cedric could hear a voice ringing inside his head, addressing the entity before him telepathically, and saying:

“EXCELLENT.”

“MOST EXCELLENT.”

“I WILL NOT SHARE THIS VESSEL WITH YOU, MY KIN, FOR YOUR TIME IS AT ITS END.”

“BUT KNOW THAT I AM SATISFIED WITH YOUR PERFORMANCE.”

“PERHAPS I CAN REWARD YOU WITH… ANOTHER VESSEL.”

Cedric’s vision flickered. Suddenly, he found himself no longer in the void, but back in the bandit hideout. The entity was still there, now in the shape of Ricky’s bloated corpse again. Several spider legs burst from the entity’s back, grabbing Sienna’s paralyzed body.

“Vessel… Kin…” Cedric thought. “I know what you are…”

As if reading his thoughts, the entity residing within Cedric’s eye chimed in:

“KNOWLEDGE WILL NOT SAVE YOU, WIZARD.”

His body moving against his will, Cedric was forced to approach Sienna with a dagger in hand.

“CONSUME.” both entities kept chanting in unison, pushing Cedric further and further towards Sienna, up until his dagger-wielding hand was practically hovering over the knight’s throat.

For a brief moment, Cedric could swear he heard someone praying. Just then…

“RADIANT BOLT!” someone shouted. A guided missile of light made its way towards the Ricky-shaped spider monstrosity, forcing it to drop Sienna and surprising the entity that was manipulating Cedric.

Having gathered enough strength to resist the influence of the entity inhabiting his eye, Cedric finally regained control over his body. Upon quickly reaching into his Bottomless Bag, the wizard unraveled a magical scroll written in a language thought to be lost to time, but known by the wizard quite well. Still wrestling the entity for control, he miraculously managed to recite the spell correctly, banishing the entity possessing Ricky’s corpse from the material realm before it could hurt him or Sienna. Cedric’s dark passenger—the parasitic force nested within his purple eye—suddenly grew a lot quieter, as if afraid of the power of the scroll.

Exhausted, the wizard collapsed on the floor, panting heavily. Elynere, who fired the Radiant Bolt earlier, ran up to Cedric in order to get him back up with some healing magic. Having also cured Sienna’s temporary paralysis, Elynere escorted the two out of the hideout and into the surface, where Enix and Emilia were busy learning about the identities of the trafficking ring’s former captives, such as where they lived and how to get them there.

“Hey, everything alright with you two?” Emilia asked the knight and the wizard.

Cedric grunted angrily before tearing his cape off and tossing it into the air. He walked to the nearest tent in the abandoned campsite by the ruins and started kicking it mercilessly until it broke, repeating the process for three more tents until he finally perched atop a small boulder, seemingly calm, but soon going even more mad, proceeding to hit himself in the head with his spellbook over and over again.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” he kept repeating. “That was my LAST scroll!”

“And I WASTED it so FOOLISHLY in a fit of panic!” he cried out.

“AAAAAAAAAAH!” he screamed his heart out.

“…”

“Okay now, deep breaths—stop acting crazy, you’re scaring the civilians…” he thought to himself, still seething with rage… or rather, with general frustration with himself.

Emilia walked up to Cedric, taking a seat next to him on the small boulder. At first, he tried to ignore her. Then, she said:

“You know what helps me out when I’m stressed?”

“What…” Cedric groaned.

“This!” Emilia exclaimed, handing the wizard a small fidget toy. The toy’s central ball bearing was like a metal button—attached to it were three weighted lobes carved out of wood, rotating around the central axis when spun.

“Wha—” Cedric tried to ask.

“I made it myself!” Emilia said proudly. “Well, almost—an old friend helped me with the metal part, haha!”

“It’s a stress-relief toy, so umm… Feel free to give it a spin whenever you feel overwhelmed, or something—I dunno, I’m not you.” she said.

“But If I were you… I’d give it a shot!” the druid smiled, patting the wizard on the back then returning to chat with the freed captives.

Initially, Cedric looked offended—maybe even disgusted by the suggestion. “Thanks…” he said through his teeth, though Emilia could no longer hear him. After deciding to spin the toy a couple times, however, he felt strangely at ease, enough for others to tell that just from looking at his face.

“You’re welcome!” Emilia said from a distance, chuckling. The wizard grew flustered, and stashed the fidget toy away in his Bottomless Bag.

After taking a short break, the five adventurers escorted the freed slaves of the underground trafficking ring back to their home town of Mistwich, from where they were originally kidnapped during a pirate raid. On their way there, Enix kept telling his other party members how brave and chivalrous Lady Sienna was during their stand off against the entity possessing Ricky, and how he almost thought both of them wouldn’t make it. Emilia decided to praise her friend as well, commending Elly for finally picking up her sword again and joining the fight directly, even saving Cedric and Sienna’s lives at the end.

When the two elves got caught up talking to Sienna’s squire, she pulled the wizard aside to have a word with him.

“You had a scroll to combat these… things…” she said. “From the very beginning?”

“Oui.” Cedric nodded.

“Why did you not USE THEM then?” the knight exclaimed. “Do you know how many people died in that building?!”

“First of all… it’s only the bandits who got hurt—” Cedric tried to retort.

“Have you not considered the fact that maybe somewhere deeper inside the hideout there could have been MORE prisoners?” Sienna interjected.

“I have, but I elected to ignore that fact.” Cedric replied. “Besides, YOU weren’t exactly in a hurry to go help the other side of the hideout either, were you?”

“I… suppose not.” Sienna admitted.

“Yeah, figured as much—but hey, unlike you, I won’t judge.” the wizard said with a smug grin. “I actually don’t care—not in the slightest.”

“We did our best: saved some lives, defeated some bandits… then the whole underground club just basically… cleared itself out.” Cedric said.

“That’s what they get for cavorting with demons…” he added.

“Demons?” Sienna inquired. “Did I hear that right?”

“Duh—what else did you think THAT was?” the wizard scoffed.

“But then… I do not understand…” the knight replied.

“You knew this was a demon, all along… You had a Demon-Banishing Scroll on your person, and… your eye.” she said.

“What about it?” the wizard replied.

“…” Sienna remained quiet for a moment. Cedric thought it was prime-time to leave, but before he could walk away without explaining himself, Sienna grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him closer—close enough to whisper directly into his pointy, half-elf ears.

“How much do you know, genuinely?” she inquired.

“Wanna know what things I have to put up with on a daily basis?” the wizard replied. “Fine, so be it.”

“I’ll tell you all about it, sweetheart—but not today.” he continued. “See, I must acquiesce: maybe the dark elf really was onto something.”

“Her name is Elyn—” Sienna said.

“Elly. Yes, yes—I know.” Cedric interjected. “Anyway, as I was saying…”

“Maybe we really WERE fated to meet on this day—all five of us, I mean.” he said.

“And as much as I love bragging about my solo work, I must admit—things are way easier in a group of five.” the wizard smiled.

“So, for the time being, I think we should stick together—for a little bit, until we’re sure the coast is clear—you know what I mean?”

“I was not expecting you, of all people, to suggest this.” Sienna chuckled. “But, hold on for a minute…”

“What do you mean by ‘the coast is clear’?” she asked.

The wizard leaned closer to whisper something to the knight:

“Stories of  glorious adventures aside, we uhh…”

“We are in serious trouble, and I genuinely mean that.”

“I don’t want the others to panic, but… I feel like you would understand…”

“What are you insinuating?” Sienna inquired. “Is this the ‘daily basis’ that you mentioned?”

“No, this is… This is way worse—it’s beyond me, it’s… beyond anyone, and I’m not alone in this crap.”

“YOU are all in this too. WE are all in this crap… together.”

“You are starting to freak me out, wizard…” Sienna murmured. “And it takes a lot to concern me…”

“…” Cedric thought long and hard about his response, before replying with:

“Look… I know a demonologist who lives in Falkenfield.”

“Maybe he can help us get to the bottom of this… find out why a demon would torment US, of all people.” he added.

“Torment us?” Sienna said, surprised. “Have you not heard that the entity moved past me and my squire?”

“That’s a bad thing, darling—not that I’m wishing you a death sentence, or anything it’s just…” Cedric tried to explain.

“What I know for sure about demons is that—while they exist solely to consume—they sometimes like to… play with their food.” he continued. “They grow in strength with every person they’ve traumatized, or just otherwise inflicted mental or physical anguish on—killing is their last resort, only done when their prey has been stuffed full of delicious, savory terror.”

“So, if I am understanding your train of thought correctly…” Sienna said. “The five of us were led not into a death trap by a gang of scum, but rather…”

“Led into a torture chamber by a demon seeking to feast on our insecurities, yes.” the wizard interjected. “Isn’t that just GREAT?”

“And what about Nezhara?” the knight inquired. “What role do you think she plays in all of this?”

“I don’t make deals with Eldritch Gods, but from what I know about Nezhara, she is not a malevolent entity.” Cedric replied.

“Yes, she is rather pleasant for her kind, but this was not my question.” Sienna said.

“Well… I think she may have also wanted us to meet, even if it meant we had to face a demon.” Cedric sighed. “Maybe she was… trying to prepare us for what is to come.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in superstitions!” Elynere chimed in, making the wizard jump.

“H-How… how long were you listening in on us?!” Cedric exclaimed.

“Really?” Elynere raised an eyebrow. “Listening in?”

“Your conversation wasn’t exactly quiet, y’know?” the dark elf said, pointing to the terrified civilians following the adventurers.

“Oh.” Sienna and Cedric said in unison.

“I mean, seriously—your whispers were louder than my thoughts.” Elynere added.

“Now move along, you two. We gotta get those people back to safety.” she said.

Sienna and Cedric increased their pace, catching up with their other teammates. Cedric took a long look at Elly as she was confidently striding forward, completely unlike the person he saw her as inside the bandit hideout.

“Heh, look at you… from zero to hero.” Cedric chuckled. “Mere hours ago you were a sobbing mess, Elly.”

“Well, it’s like I said earlier…” she replied.

“Priorities change, don’t you know?” Elynere smiled.

Chapter 4

Together Again

13th of Stormhunt, year 1702 PS. Evening of Soc Quarront.

The gloomy harbor town of Mistwich, perpetually shrouded in thick fog throughout both day and night, was uncharacteristically brimming with life on that one, fine evening. Having returned the freed captives of the underground trafficking ring back to their families, the five ragtag adventurers brought together by fate were hailed as local heroes, and a party in their name shook the local tavern like an earthquake.

Cedric climbed a shaky table, dramatically reenacting the scenes from earlier today and completely captivating the audience. Every time he went over something intense, he pretended to almost fall off the table, gathering laughs from even the toughest amongst the crowd.

Elynere challenged the burliest of men within her vicinity to a drinking contest. Initially thinking she had finally met her match, by that point, she was unaware that the man had a low alcohol tolerance, and would black out after only five shots of Elly’s favorite concoction, helping perpetuate the drunken dark elf’s winning streak. Following her victory, she would outdrink several more men and women, losing herself in an alcoholic stupor before eventually stumbling out of the tavern while no-one was looking. Then vomiting. A lot.

“What did I tell ya about drinking contests?” Emilia said, lovingly rubbing her friend’s back as she was throwing up behind a dumpster. “I know you like to have a little drink, but… this is no way to socialize, girl!”

“Get your act together, it’s our big day!” the wood elf laughed. “We’re the talk of the town, Elly—and for a good reason, this time around.”

Meanwhile, Sienna appeared to be on edge. She was nervously picking at her hangnails the entire night, ruining her fingers to the point that Enix had to waste a healing spell on them.

“Lady Sienna…” the squire said in a concerned tone of voice. “Is… is everything alright?”

“You haven’t talked to anyone this entire time, and the party is almost over.” he added. “Is something the matter, my lady?”

“…” Sienna was clawing at her table at this point, trying not to go crazy.

“Enix…” she whimpered with a husky voice.

“I…I have to go…” she added.

“Go where?” the squire inquired. “W-Wait, don’t tell me…”

Sienna grabbed the fiendfolk by his horns and brought his head closer to her, making him lean in uncomfortably.

“I am going for a quick hunt…” she whispered, letting go of her squire and getting up from her seat.

“L-Lady Sienna!” Enix exclaimed right as the knight was about to leave.

“What…” she grumbled, staring back at Enix with a cold, unfeeling gaze.

“Please… be careful.” the squire said worriedly. “Be back in the morning, okay?”

“I-I’ll… I’ll make you breakfast, if you want, my lady!” he stammered, flashing his lady a nervous half-smile. “Anything you want—y-your favorite, even!”

Sienna departed without replying. In the cold, dead of night, she would traverse the fogs of Mistwich in search of “prey”, whatever that could possibly mean, coming from her, of all people.

Before long, the knight had found herself in a large forest neighboring the town. The forest was very lively at this hour, as various animals were making their way to their nests, holes, or burrows.

“You will do nicely…” Sienna said, approaching an innocent stag. Instead of unsheathing any of her weapons, however, she brandished her claws against the creature, scraping them along the bark of trees as she moved closer and closer towards the animal. Her eyes were bloodshot red, and so were her pupils—in stark contrast to their usual, dull-blue coloration.

Clearly, the real Sienna was no longer in charge of her own body.

Or so she liked to tell herself, but, at the end of the day… she wasn’t always feral in this state. Many times, she was actually acutely aware of her surroundings, as well as of her actions. The knight could somewhat control herself, but was ultimately a slave to her hunger—a helpless victim of her “condition”.

Sienna pounced at the stag, tearing into its neck with her teeth like a rabid dog. Her sharp fangs now lodged firmly in the creature’s neck, she began to experience utter ecstasy as she was feeding on the stag’s blood. Once she was done, she expected the usual wave of satisfaction to wash over her, returning her to normal—but it never came. Growing increasingly desperate to satiate her hunger, she killed more and more, spending most of her night in the woods.

While her friends had finished partying and even bought themselves rooms at the local inn, Sienna was still running around the forest in her blood-stained plate armor, groaning in pain as her stomach rumbled with every minute that passed without feeding.

“Somebody, please…” she thought to herself, with a single tear running down her cheek as she was no longer in charge of her own body, forced to watch herself get on all fours and chase after an innocent little boar piglet, resembling an animal no less than the creature she was hunting.

“Make it stop…” she continued her train of thought, all while viciously tearing into the flesh of the little piglet with her sharp teeth, shedding any remains of high-elven dignity she had left. “I cannot… I cannot go on like this—at this rate, I will…”

The knight tossed the dead piglet’s body away, falling to her knees in despair and desperately fighting her affliction.

“I-I will never be able to… show my face… in Randwynn again.” she murmured out loud, before dropping to the ground and writhing in pain, rolling left and right in the undergrowth until her stomach pain had subsided.

Her eyes no longer bright red, Sienna—back to her usual self—laid motionless on the forest floor, breathing heavily and trying to regain her composure.

“The cure…” she thought. “Does one even exist?”

“No, surely—it has to.” she continued. “Ornella is working on it, after all…”

“…” the knight spaced out for a second.

“How many more astrers until then…” she thought. “How many months, even…?”

“…”

“I have to trust the process…” Sienna reassured herself. “With time, when I return to Marinell, surely…”

“…”

“A-Anyway, until then…” she looked around the empty forest, then took a glance at her blood-stained armor. “I should get going…”

“Hopefully, I…” she thought to herself. “Hopefully tonight’s feeding shall be enough, for the time being…”

“If I were to lose control… during a quest…”

“…”

The thought terrified her.

Sienna decided to ignore it and start making her way towards the town, but then, she heard rustling coming from the bushes around her.

Clearly, a humanoid figure was observing her from a distance—at least that’s what the high elf’s darkvision was allowing her to tell through the darkness. The knight readied her glaive, and the figure from the bushes stood up, stringing its bow and aiming it right at Sienna.

“What a terrible night I am having…” she thought to herself before charging into battle.