“Joan,” Korgron said in as soothing a voice as she could manage. “It’s not so much lost as just misplaced. Searle is--”

“He’s not a pair of gloves,” Joan said. “He’s the Chosen of the Shield. You can’t just misplace him. Where is he?”

“We’re not sure,” Hardwin said. “And stop yelling. We have it hand--”

“If you had it handled Searle would be here right now!” Joan yelled, unable to stop herself.

“Joan!” Hardwin snapped at her.

“Don’t even TRY that with me right now,” Joan snapped right back, causing his eyes to go wide. She wasn’t surprised, people didn’t usually snap at him of all people. “Where was he last seen?”

“Joan, you should calm down,” Thalgren said. “You’re working yourself up into a tizzy, little missy. Searle’s missing right now, but we’ll find him. We just--”

“You weren’t even going to tell me,” Joan said.

“We were, eventually,” Andreas said.

“After you found him?” Joan asked.

“Joan, please,” Korgron said. “Calm down. It’s not--”

“Not what? The end of the world?” Joan asked, unable to keep the anger out of her voice. “Because it literally is. Searle is a part of that. This is it, our only chance. And I… I…” She felt a dull throbbing in her head and slowly reached up a hand to place against her forehead. “Right. Headache. Of course.”

“Joan?” Korgron asked. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Joan said. “This is a stress headache, not a my brain is tearing me apart headache. We need to find him. Where was he last seen?”

“Joan, enough of this,” Hardwin said. “We have it under control, we--”

“What?” Joan asked, cutting him off. “Going to find him, somehow? Magically? Trust him to get here? Trust him to know whatever he’s doing? Never mind the thousands of years of memories I have of all of our quests and adventures that can be useful. Just trust? Why don’t we just walk over to the Demon Lord’s side, then? Tell him it’s over. I failed. He wins, the Inferno God wins and the world melts. Is that what you’d like?” She could see the anger building up on her friend’s face, but she honestly didn’t care. The only reason she knew anything about this happening was because she’d heard them arguing about it. Of the four, only two of them seemed at all interested in telling her. Korgron and Thalgren.

“Joan,” Korgron said. “That’s not fair at all.”

“Neither is not telling me about this,” Joan said. “If you’re not going to tell me anything, I’ll figure it out myself.” She turned and started to go back the way she came, only for a sigh to come from behind her.

“Wait,” Thalgren said.

“Thalgren,” Hardwin said.

“The little missy has a point,” Thalgren said. “She’s got the knowledge, like it or not. Now that she knows it’s not like we can hide it from her, so why not have her help?”

“We have it handled,” Hardwin said.

“And here I thought I was supposed to be the prideful one,” Korgron said.

“It’s not pride,” Joan said. “It’s anger at not being able to solve it himself. He does that a lot.”

“Joan,” Hardwin said, his fist clenching.

“I’ll figure it out myself,” Joan said. “Once you figure out if you’re willing to have my help or not, let me know. Then I’ll tell you where he is.”

“Joan, we’re not--” Korgron started, but she ignored her and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut. If they didn’t want her help, then they wouldn’t have it. And if they found him before her, then fine. At least things would be fixed then.

------

Joan gave a soft, gentle sigh while she lightly tapped on the map. If nothing else, at least the battle lines of the demons hadn’t advanced any further.

It didn’t help that there were still dozens of different locations that the demons could break through or sneak around the lines if they were careful. Then the added issue that things just weren’t progressing the way they had as the Hero. The timeline was all messed up and some threats either weren’t appearing or, if they were appearing, were affecting the demons instead.

Of course, she supposed there were probably things that were coming up and she just wasn’t being told about them. If the disappearance of one of the Chosen wasn’t enough to make them tell her, she didn’t want to imagine what other things they were hiding from her.

She didn’t know why she’d assumed it would be so much easier to just remember everything. Maybe if she had just stayed the Hero, it would have worked out in the end. An infinite number of chances. Except she gave up, accepted defeat. Thought this would be the way to change things.

Joan shook her head and refocused on the task at hand. There was time for worries about defeat and failure AFTER all of the seven Chosen were together and the world was saved. Until then, there was still work to do.

‘Any luck?’ Andreas voice filled her head. She glanced around for a moment before sighing.

‘A little,’ Joan said over the bond. ‘Want my help now?’

‘We wanted your help before,’ Andreas said. ‘It was just a matter of telling you without having you freak out.’

‘So not telling me,’ Joan said. ‘I’m not a child, you know that. If I freak out, there’s a reason for it. But I’m fine. I have a few places he might be. Well…’

‘Well?’ Andreas asked.

‘Judging by the time and the map of the area, there’s two I think are good locations to check. But there’s a third that… I don’t think Searle is there. But we need to go there,’ Joan said, a ball of nervousness forming in her stomach.

‘Why?’ Andreas asked.

‘Can you get everyone? I don’t want to have to explain this over and over,’ Joan said.

‘They’re already here,’ Andreas said. ‘Listening, at least.’

Joan almost asked, but quickly suppressed that. She doubted that Hardwin wanted to hear what she had to say, not that he had much choice. Like it or not she was important. But despite herself, she knew she was quickly getting on his last nerve. Not that she wanted to, it was just too easy. Everything she did annoyed him in one way or another it seemed. He probably just didn’t like depending on her when she was a child.

No, that couldn’t be it. She’d always been younger than him, usually by quite a bit. Even when the Hero was more of a child he never seemed to react this way. He got annoyed at times, but his anger seemed so much fiercer now. Ugh. She didn’t have the energy to get to the bottom of what was affecting his mood now. They had to find Searle. ‘Well, the first is something that Hardwin would need to deal with. I’ll show you on the map. There’s an old shrine and people were disappearing from it. There’s a nine-tailed fox there and--’

‘A fox?’ Andreas asked.

‘A magic fox,’ Joan repeated. ‘Kind of. It can turn into a lot of things, actually. Its favorite form was a nine-tailed fox. It also turned into an armadillo, a pixie, a mushroom, a, wait, listen. That’s not the point. It’s a magic thing that can transform itself and unleash incredibly powerful flames. It has a tendency to kidnap things it finds ‘interesting’. It’s not actively dangerous and likely isn’t going to kill him. But it might struggle to let him go. Searle is distressingly nice and will probably resist forcing it to let him go, especially if there are others trapped there. Hardwin would be best to deal with it, because most of its magic will be ineffective against him and if anyone is able to resist its charms, it’s him.’

‘Okay,’ Andreas said, though he sounded a little doubtful even through the bond. ‘The others?’

‘The other is an old tomb. I don’t know if the timeline is correct, but I think it was around now when the undead started spilling out of it and we were asked to help,’ Joan said. ‘I couldn’t say for certain, but if he caught wind of it and decided to investigate, he might be trying to deal with it himself.’

‘Could he?’ Andreas asked.

‘Alone? Maybe. I’d be worried about Bauteut though,’ Joan said. ‘I’d say Korgron should go and help him. The root cause of the undead is a lich at the bottom of the tomb and I’m doubtful it could defeat Searle, but I bet it could trap him for a while. Korgron, on the other hand? Unlikely. Her range of magic is far wider than his.’

‘Okay, and the last?’ Andreas asked.

‘That’s one I want to go to,’ Joan said. ‘There’s a festival going on and—’ She stopped herself, waiting to be cut off. To her surprise, she wasn’t. Well, at least Andreas was willing to hear her out. ‘And I don’t know entirely what happens there.’

‘What?’ Andreas asked. ‘Then why do you think Searle would be there?’

‘I don’t,’ Joan said. ‘I think the Demon Lord will.’

‘WHAT?’ Andreas asked.

------

The Hero looked out over the village, his arms crossed and trying to keep his annoyance at bay. They didn’t have time for this little ‘festival’ of theirs. Especially over some silly ‘golden’ tree. It was nice enough, he supposed. It certainly looked as if it was made of gold, with a golden flower waiting to blossom on one of the branches.

They didn’t have time for it, though. He couldn’t wait days for the stupid ceremony to take place. ‘A gift of the gods’, ‘protected for a hundred years’. But it was up to him to be that beacon, to be there for the people whenever they needed him to be there.

In many ways it was touching, the fact they desired for him to have the fruit from the tree when it blossomed. He wasn’t sure how some paltry little golden flower was going to help him when he had the Chosen and the Star with him, but he could at least pretended he cared. For their sake.

It didn’t stop him from wanting to leave immediately, though. They still needed to find the rest of the Chosen. Not to mention there were rumors of some undead appearing to the south and they needed to deal with it before things got out of hand.

So the Hero did what he always did. He stifled his doubts, forced a smile and walked through the celebrations, making empty promises about how he would protect them all. How he’d save this world. How none of them would be left to die. The war was too far from here, anyway. It wasn’t like they were in any actual danger.

So he’d made those hollow promises all up until the end, when he had taken himself and the few chosen to deal with yet another issue that had arisen. Some strange swamp beast. The Hero hadn’t left anyone behind, despite his promises to keep them safe.

Because nothing would happen.

That was what he’d thought until he’d returned two days after the festival was supposed to have taken place. Not a soul remained, not even the bodies. The homes were left as nothing more than ash.

The tree, gone. The only sign that anything had happened here was to the north. A small, well hidden mountain pass that had small piles of fresh ash and the footprints of demons.

He never knew why the Demon Lord had come through and destroyed the village. He never knew how he found out about it to begin with. The Hero had believed the tree to be nothing more than an old legend, not something possessing any mystical powers.

But it had been one of the Hero’s first true defeats. The first time that he had failed, utterly, to protect those he promised. The first time that he had failed to be the Hero they had so desperately needed.

------

‘Joan?’ Andreas voice filled her head once more.

‘What? Sorry,’ Joan said.

‘You said the Demon Lord will be there?’ Andreas asked.

‘Yes,’ Joan said.

‘Do you want to expand on that a bit?’ Andreas asked.

‘I mean, I can’t,’ Joan said. ‘I just know he came there, burned the town down, likely fed everyone to his demons and then was gone. It happened right at the beginning of their final harvest festival.’

‘And you’re sure he’ll do it now?’ Andreas asked.

‘Yes,’ Joan said. ‘There’s this celebration and this weird golden flower thing will blossom. I don’t know much about it, I ignored it when I was the Hero since it didn’t seem that big a deal. But then when we came back the place was nothing but ash and the tree was gone.’

‘Joan. If the Demon Lord is there then you know that you can’t come,’ Andreas said.

‘I’ve dealt with him before,’ Joan said.

‘That’s not what I mean,’ Andreas said. ‘If he gets wind of you then--’

‘He won’t,’ Joan said. ‘Because you’ll be there. So will Thalgren. I’ll keep out of the way, you’ll keep us all in communication. If you two intercept him before he arrives, nothing bad will happen. So long as you’re both there you should be able to fight the Demon Lord back or, at least, stop him long enough to get everyone out. I know what he’s after as well. So I know about when he’ll strike.’

‘And then you know why we can’t involve you,’ Andreas said. ‘If things get bad, then you could die.’

‘I could die here as well,’ Joan said. ‘And I’d be near two of the Chosen at that point. On top of that, I know the Demon Lord’s tricks. I know his magic, I know his illusions. I know how to counteract them and how to tell if something is wrong. I’m the best shot any of those people have if the Demon Lord makes his move.’

‘If,’ Andreas said.

‘If he doesn’t, then it doesn’t matter,’ Joan said. ‘The flower blossoms, one of the Chosen put it to use. Over and done with. Nobody dies. I’m not in any danger.’

She didn’t receive an answer then and she had a feeling the Chosen were all arguing over it now, outside of the bond. She had one more card she could play, though. ‘Are all the Chosen hearing this?’ Joan asked.

‘Yes,’ Andreas said.

Joan braced herself and closed her eyes for a moment. ‘Please, then. Let me help on this. I swear I will be careful and not take any unnecessary risks. But I promised them I would keep them safe and I failed. I failed to be there when things went badly, I failed to protect them. I gave them my word I would help and this is possibly the only chance I will ever have to try and keep it.’

Joan didn’t receive a response to that, but she did suspect it would help.

Knowing Hardwin and how he seemed to see her, he’d say no chance.

Knowing Thalgren, he’d say yes. A promise has to be kept. He wouldn’t stop her from paying that debt back.

Andreas was harder, she didn’t know him nearly as well now. But he would be turned either way as necessary. She suspected he’d be against it but accept it quickly.

Which left Korgron. Korgron would likely be against it as well. She’d often tried to keep her out of harms way. But the demon was also growing to trust and believe in her. So maybe she’d put a little more faith in her this time. She suspected she’d be swayed easily enough.

After a few moments she heard what could only be expressed as an exhausted, long suffering sigh. She had to give Andreas, emotions didn’t always travel over the bond so well, but he managed it perfectly. ‘Start packing. We’ll leave tomorrow morning.’

‘Okay, see you than,’ Joan said over the bond, a knowing smile forming on her lips. She was tempted to tell him that she called it, but quickly pushed that thought aside. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt her chances going forward or annoy them into changing their minds.

MelodyAvant

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