“Please, hear me out! I’m just trying to help…”

The young woman’s words gave Vala pause. Simply lowering her mace and shield, she said nothing as she waited for the blonde woman kneeling next to the dusty wooden crates.

“I-it’s true,” the blonde woman continued, taking out a couple of large, glass vials from her inventory. Filled to the brim with an amber liquid, the young woman meekly offered them to Bane. “I did steal these… b-but I had no choice! The kids were going to die without them!”

“Okay, okay,” said the lycan as he inspected the vials and then passed them over to Vala. “Take a deep breath and tell us what happened.”

“Alright…” she said, closing her eyes and exhaling slowly. “After I left the plaza, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I ended up wandering around the city and, before I knew it, I’d come across an old church near the edge of the Trade District…”

“I heard someone groaning in pain inside, so I entered and saw dozens of sick people laying around… I panicked and then nearly ran into the old man taking care of everyone. He told me that a lot of people have been coming down with some sort of illness, and that everyone there would be dead within the week…”

Knitting her brow, Vala interrupted her. “And then you decided to take matters into your own hands.”

“No! W-well, yes… I asked if there was anything I could do. And that’s when he showed me two kids. He said that the only thing that could possibly get them through the night are those Greater Healing Potions. So, I went around asking and ended up at an Apothecary. But when I begged him to give me a couple of potions, he just waved me off and told me that every last one had been reserved by the Conclave…”

“What then?” asked the lycan.

“Then I waited. The shop keeper told me that someone should come to pick up the potions soon. And since the Conclave seemed eager to give out stuff in the plaza, I was confident they’d part with at least a few potions… After ten minutes or so, two robed men came. But when I explained the situation to them, they just laughed and told me to mind my own business…”

“And that’s when you grabbed those potions and ran,” said Vala.

With her eyes nailed to the floor, the blonde woman just nodded. Bane and Vala exchanged glances, a sigh escaping the lycan. “Alright,” he said, “can you lead us to that old building?”

Hearing this, the young woman’s face lit up. “Of course!” she said as she struggled to get up using only her arms. A moment later, she laughed awkwardly and actually got on her feet. “Follow me!”

“Hold it.” The blonde woman’s legs buckled the moment Vala’s hand grabbed her shoulder. “Even if what you’re saying is true, you can’t just stroll out of here with people on the lookout for you. Go and check if the coast’s clear,” she said, glancing at the lycan.

“Alright. I’ll cough three times if it’s safe to come out.”

The taur woman rolled her eyes. “How about just telling us if it’s okay.”

“You’re no fun at all…” he said, shifting his attention towards the young woman. “I’m Bane by the way. And this serious-looking lady here is Vala.”

Willfully ignoring her glare, Bane turned towards the door and pressed his ear against the aging wood.

“I’m Mia,” the blonde woman smiled. “Thank you for believing me.”

Vala’s expression remained impassive as Bane gestured for them to come out. Merely a couple of steps behind the other two, she scanned the surrounding streets. She followed the young woman’s movements carefully, her hand resting on her belt near her mace’s pommel. ‘If she’s bullshitting us…'

They soon reached the Trade District’s main street. And while the surrounding crowd made it so that they stood out less, it also made it more likely for them to get spotted, especially given her height. But this at least gave her better vantage. “Two Conclave members on our right,” she said, motioning the other two to head on over to the other side of the street. As they zigzagged their way through the sea of people, Vala tugged on Bane’s shirt.

“What?” he asked, slowing down his pace to let her catch up to him.

“Might be best to keep your distance,” she said, lowering her voice so that the blonde woman couldn’t hear her. Noticing Bane’s raised eyebrow, she continued. “In case someone sees us. The last thing we want is those fanatics breathing down our necks, just because they caught us with her.”

“Yeah, but… she seems nice enough.”

She sighed and waved the lycan away. ‘Leave it to a guy to lose any semblance of logic the moment a pretty girl bats her eyelashes at him…'

True, by every definition of the word, Mia seemed nice. But Vala just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about her. And the one thing she had learned to trust over the years was her gut instinct. The two robed men looking around on the other side seemed none the wiser as they walked past them. ‘So far so good…’

A while later, however, they neared a large three-story building, located at the crossroads between the Trade and Residential Districts. The wooden doors crashed open as a man tumbled to the ground between the three.

“FUCK YOU TOO, WILL!” The man’s dulled nails scraped against the dusty cobblestone tiles beneath him. His gaze never left that of the burly innkeeper as he stumbled to his feet. “If you’d rather serve these… FREAKS, instead of your regulars, then I’m taking my business somewhere else!”

The innkeeper shook his head and slammed the doors behind him. And as the man grumbled, his eyes fell upon Vala.

“What’re YOU looking at?!” he said, reaching out to push her out of his way. But before he could even touch her, he found himself crying out in pain. With his face barely an inch above the street, Vala had pinned his arm against his back, twisting his shoulder as she used her other arm to hold him down. “Shit… let go of me!”

“Go and cool off,” she sighed, hoisting him up and shoving him forward. Once she was sure the man had left, she turned around and saw Bane’s dumbfounded expression. “What?”

“Remind me not to piss you off…”

She grinned for a moment before her eyes began to widen. “Where is she?!”

Confused, the lycan turned around to see that Mia had vanished. “What the…? She was just next to me a second ago.”

Vala rushed past him, scanning the street and the surrounding alleyways. But she couldn’t see any sign of the young woman. ‘I knew it…’

They hurried their pace, avoiding the few onlookers that had stopped to check out the commotion. But as they prepared to turn the corner, they stopped. Several people dressed in white robes stood at various intervals along the road, keeping an eye on those passing by.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Bane.

“She couldn’t have gone this way. Not with these many Conclave members keeping watch. This way.”

With the Residential District’s main road no longer a viable option, they headed straight, entering a narrow alley that led into a maze of small, wooden houses. Half an hour later, they were no closer to finding any clue as to the blonde woman’s whereabouts.

“Well, so much for that,” said Vala. “Come on, we’ve wasted enough time on this. Let’s just see if we can find a job or something.”

“Not yet… I want to try out one more thing.”

Rolling her eyes, she followed Bane as he approached an elderly woman that had just left her house.

“Ma’am, sorry to bother you,” he said, waving politely towards the woman. “But would you happen to know of an old church somewhere around here?”

“Oh my, h-hello!” she said, pulling out an old key and locking the door behind her as her neck craned up to look at Vala’s frowning face. “An old church you say…? The only one that springs to mind is the one near Tanner’s Alley. Just go down this way and make a right at the wider street at the end. Keep going that way until you can smell the tannery.”

“Uhm, and how will we recognize the church?”

“It’ll be on your left. And trust me, dearie, you’ll know it when you see it.”

As soon as the old lady left, Vala grabbed the lycan’s shoulder and yanked him back. “Seriously? Please don’t tell me you actually bought that girl’s story about the church.”

“Why would she lie just for a couple of healing potions?”

“Some people just get their kicks out of doing stuff like that. We caught her red-handed, so she just fed us a tale about a church and some dying kids and then gave us the slip. Nothing more to it.”

Bane looked as if he’d been asked to sew water. “Wait, so you actually think she made all of that up?”

“Come on,” she sighed, going in the direction the old lady had shown them.

“Where to…?”

“It’ll be easier to just see for yourself.”

Finding Tanner’s Alley proved easy, since the sour, prickling smell got stronger the longer they went on. And by the time they reached the only building that resembled a church even remotely, the vinegar-like odor had become almost unbearable.

“I can almost taste it…” said Bane, his eyes beginning to water.

“Be quiet,” she whispered, her shoulder pressed flat against the corner of a wooden house, as she peered out into the alley leading up to the old, stone building. She couldn’t see anyone around and, judging by the boarded windows and the weeds growing through the cracks, no one seemed to be inside either.

“Well, you were right. The place looks totally abandoned…”

“Stop moping and stay close. We came all the way here, so let’s at least take a look inside to make sure.”

Like the windows, someone had boarded the front door shut. So, they circled around the back of the church until they found a door that had been left ajar. The old hinges creaked as they entered a small, empty foyer. Greeted by a gust of stale, heavy air, the two heard coughs and the sound of labored breathing coming from the room to their right.

They turned the corner and froze above the doorsill. In front of them stood a wide room, filled from side to side with people leaning against the walls or asleep in cots spread across the floor. No one so much as bothered to raise their head to look at the two. And those that still had the strength to sit stared blankly ahead of them while the rest slept, their gaunt faces strained by the effort it took to simply breathe.

A small figure stirred in the corner furthest from them: a young boy, curled up inside his makeshift bed of hay and blankets. Tears ran down his fingers pressed firmly against his mouth as he struggled against a fit of coughs. The echo of approaching footfalls grew louder, as a blonde woman barged in from the side opposite of the two.

Vala’s eyes widened, betraying her surprise even more than her voice. “Mia?”

The young woman next to the boy jerked around, nearly spilling the cup of steaming liquid in her hands. But once she recognized them, a massive sigh of relief escaped her lips. “Vala, Bane! You made it! Quick, do you have the potions?”

Still taken aback, it took the lycan a few seconds to react. He made his way towards Mia, doing his best to step over the multitude of people sprawled across the floor, and handed her the healing potions from his inventory.

“Here you go,” she said, bringing the uncorked vial to the boy’s lips. With each sip, more and more color returned to his cheeks until finally, his expression relaxed and his breathing evened out. “Okay, he’s asleep.”

She gestured for them to follow. At the end of the adjoining room, beyond yet more people, they saw an old man, leaning over a young girl. Noticing them, the man set aside the wet cloth in his hand and made room for Mia as she kneeled and leaned the girl’s head against her arm.

“You must be Mia’s friends,” said the old man, his subdued voice wrenching Vala’s attention away from the little girl. Bowing his head, he continued. “In the name of the Lady of Shattered Light, thank you for your kindness. I am Elias, the caretaker of this church.”

“We didn’t really do much,” said the lycan as he shot a glance towards Vala who simply shrugged.

“Oh, that is certainly not the case,” he said, straining himself to get up as Bane grabbed his trembling arm to steady him. “I’m alright, I’m alright.”

As Elias left the room, Vala’s attention returned to the little girl. Despite the beads of sweat dripping down her forehead, she looked a lot better. And with Vala focusing on her, she then noticed the slim health bar that had appeared above the child. For a moment, something didn’t quite add up inside her head. She then sighed. ‘It’s just a game, take it easy…'

“So,” said Bane, his eyes trained on the blonde woman, “mind telling us what that was about?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean why did you just leave us there in the street? We almost gave up looking for you…”

Stunned, Mia stared at the two of them for several moments before finally answering, the look of confusion still plastered onto her. “I panicked when I saw those Conclave goons, so I nudged you and left before they could see me… I figured that even if they’d catch me, you two would still bring the potions here.”

The lycan slapped his hand over his mouth, mumbling through his fingers as he fought the urge to laugh. “Y-you nudged me? In a street jam-packed with people? We just thought you ditched us!”

Mia blinked a few times as her face lit up like a fire. “Oh darn… I didn’t even think about that…”

The two began to chuckle as Vala sighed, feeling a pang in her chest. “Hey Mia,” she started, but before she could continue, the old man returned with a small book clutched between his two trembling hands.

He held it out towards the blonde woman, nodding at her to take it. “I know you didn’t ask for anything, Mia. But I still wanted to do something for you. The Lady taught us that compassion and kindness should never go unnoticed. And while I can’t do much for you, I firmly believe that the Lady will pick up the slack in this old man’s stead.”

“I… I can’t accept this,” she said, her eyes skimming through something in the air.

“Oh, you’ll break this old man’s heart. I have no more use for that tome. After so many years, I know the Lady’s teachings by heart. As for everything else in there… I was unfortunately never blessed with the ability to actually follow in the Lady’s footsteps,” he smiled, offering her the book once more. “Yet something tells me that isn’t the case for you.”

“Alright,” she said, disarmed by Elias’ soft-spoken words.

“That’s the spirit! Now,” he sighed, patting Bane’s shoulder as he passed him and left the room, “you youngsters should go and leave the dead to their deeds.”

 

 

Twenty minutes later, the three of them still stood outside of the church, with Mia pacing back and forth with Elias’ book in hand, while Bane and Vala leaned against a small, wooden shed. The lycan’s gaze drifted as he looked around the narrow yard. The tall grass hugged the sides of the old, chipped fence, while the half-broken statue in the courtyard’s center somehow seemed to be in better shape than the church itself.

“Guys!” Mia’s voice rang out, snapping the other two out of their thoughts. “I don’t know about you, but… I’m going to do something about this.”

“Something like what?” asked Bane. “I doubt the Conclave’s going to do anything and the kingdom doesn’t seem to be all that keen on helping these people either.”

“I’m not talking about asking others for help. I’m saying we should do something.”

“Which still leaves the question: what?”

Knitting her brow, she began to pace again. “Well… the first step would be to get more potions. Which means money.”

“In general,” said the lycan, “selling loot and item drops is one of the best ways to get some cash in games. And since we’re already in a party, something like a dungeon or a group quest would be best. What do you think, Vala?”

“Huh? Oh, sure,” she said. “I can be on the frontline.”

“Great,” Bane nodded. “So we need to find another damage dealer, preferably someone ranged, or a healer.”

“I think I can help on that front,” chimed Mia.

“How so?” he asked. “Got a bow or something?”

Shaking her head, the blonde woman raised the book in her hand and opened it. “Turns out, this is also some sort of spell book… And as far as I can tell, there’s at least one healing spell in here.”

“Can I see that for a sec?” asked Bane. He took the book and began to flip through the yellowed pages. Despite its apparent age, the old tome held surprisingly well. After several pages filled with some accounts and recollections of something called ‘The Shattering,’ he stumbled onto a section explaining the use of light magic. ‘Neat.’ And as he went further, he found a map towards the end with various symbols and markings scribbled over the rough pages.

‘This quest barely makes any sense… these people got sick. What else is there to understand?’

“Did you two also get this prompt?” he asked, still fixated on the prompt in front of him.

The tall, horned woman nodded as both her and the lycan turned to look at Mia. “I-I got it as well.”

“Interesting,” said Bane, “you’re not even in the same party as us but you got the same quest. Wait… if you think about it, it does make sense. I only found this tidbit here, but the book belongs to Mia. So, it’s only natural that she should get it as well.”

Raising her brow, Vala came closer and leaned down next to Bane, so she could check out the entry for herself. Seeing this, the lycan began to fidget, before he suddenly got up and handed her the book. “What’s gotten into you?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he said, grateful that his face was half-covered in fur. “T-that way, you don’t have to strain yourself.”

Vala stared at him for a second and then shook her head, turning her attention towards the rough, yellowed pages. “Xeladia, Troria… This looks like a map of the western continent. But I can’t really tell what all of these marks are. Several places have these weird… oval shapes, but the overwhelming majority are these crosses. And here, Alissey’s also marked with a cross. Are these supposed to be towns… or churches like this one?”

“No idea,” said Mia, taking the book from Vala. “But I can go ask mister Elias.” She started towards the old, stone building, but stopped when she heard a chime, followed by Bane calling out to her.

“You should probably also accept that party invite I sent you,” he smiled.