A sword clashed against another sword, as two figures did battle on the arena ground. One was slightly smaller and wore a full suit of dark grey armor, metallic rings covering their joints, and a large, fully-covering helmet. The other one was a man, who wore chainmail with matching coif, and he was on the back foot.

The armored fighter deflected and pierced through the man's guard, causing him to loosen his grip, before deflecting his weapon with enough force to disarm him, and sending him to the ground with a kick. The man looked at the sword, seemed to consider the situation for a short bit, and raised his hand, yielding.

Taeqelle nodded and sheathed her sword in satisfaction, then stared at her defeated opponent. A good fight. She had been satisfied with her performance, the man had been a tough opponent. She held out an hand, the man taking it and standing up, a measure of honor on her part. This had been a arena spar, after all, not a life-or-death battle.

As Taeqelle left the arena grounds, the screams and shouts of the arena-goers growing quieter behind her, she considered. I am pretty tired. She decided to return to the temple, not wishing to deal with the watchers or crowds. She didn't bother changing out of her armor yet, however – it was convenient, as most suspected she was a man, a quiet, wandering knight of some kind.

The watchers were a bit more annoying, people who liked to see her fight. She didn't mind the attention, but they could be overbearing. Especially when they tried to get grabby. They wouldn't be interested in her anyway if they knew who she truly was. Not many people were – she was an outsider here. A familiar experience for her, all things considered.

While Taeqelle may have been a traveler, she legally wasn't a knight, as she lacked a noble patron. Not that she cared, as most of the nobility were corrupt and interested in using an attractive young woman such as herself for other things. And even if she could hide that, they were still mostly interested in using their knights as hired muscle for various dubious deeds, which Taeqelle was very much against doing.

She would much rather not bother dealing with them. At least she had been lucky finding that armor, that meant she didn't have to pay to comission one. She found it in an old forge in a forest. No one seemed to live here, so she had picked the best-quality armor and left. Sadly, there wasn't much in the way of swords, but she had her father's back then so it wasn't as pressing of a need.

Taeqelle entered the temple, the holy ground beneath her sabatons soothing her. The cleric nodded at her, and Taeqelle moved into the temple to her assigned room. Temples were by the will of the gods to receive any who wished hospitality, and as an ordained priestess Taeqelle tended to prefer them for that reason.

She finally removed her armor, switching to her lighter inside clothes. She wouldn't be caught out of the room wearing those, though – she'd get mistaken for a streetwalker, and she was most emphatically not interested in the attention of men, especially the kind who sought out streetwalkers. Taeqelle smiled, and stretched her arms. She had some maintenance to do, but her supplies should suffice for those.

Taeqelle found herself unusually reflective as she went through the motions, her mind going to her past and what brough her here. Her father's injury, his defense of their home – and yet he never regretted it. On how it made her take up arms in turn. On how she went from some random commoner's daughter to a skilled swordswoman in her own right.

She sparred, she trained, she had gotten better, but she had gotten bored after a while, a lack of sparring partners and static life spurring her to leave. So she was travelling, slaying bandits and fighting in arenas. It was a comfortable life monetarily speaking, although the requirement of being on the road was weighing on her.

Still, Taeqelle couldn't say she truly hated her life. It had boons and banes, same as everything. She dined in the temple, offered a simple, yet nourishing avocado soup. She made small talk on the side with some of the temple fellows, but nothing particularly interesting.

When Taeqelle slept that night, after her short, daily prayer for a better dawn tomorrow, she dreamed. She dreamed of a place she did not know, of... things she did not understand. Of a fight that wasn't a fight, with lower stakes than even her spars.

Of fighting enormous creatures, a wolf holding a sword in its jaw, an old spearman in withered grey armor, and a giant swordsman with a large red cape. Of a large blue humanoid fish, kicking its enemies repeteadly into the void. But there is one thing she did understand, a voice who spoke to her. It was clearly inhuman, but Taeqelle had no fear of it. She found it reassuring.

"secrets lie within the forest

south, where the country meet the woods

that lead to the sea

go"

When Taeqelle woke up the next day, she remembered the most important thing she learned about the heavens. The heavens cannot help those who close their eyes and ears. And so, with spring in her step, she changed into her travelling clothes, and went southwards, where the country met the wood that led to the sea.

Jorkreng took a deep breath of the warm southern air as he looked around town. He liked to patrol from place to place to ensure everything was going well, although that was only really possible because of the town being pretty small.

Most people thought of guard captains as corrupt layabouts that took bribes from the wealthy to look the other way when the noblement engaged in their various corrupt and illegal behavior. But Jorkreng wasn't this kind of man, and neither was his lord Selwuf for that matter.

Designing a magic spell to prevent ill-willed people entering the guards may sound excessive, especially for a small countryside town, but as the state of the town showed, it had been a worthwhile investment. Power truly was attractive to those who wished to abuse it.

Jorkreng travelled down the paved street, taking in the lack of filth and refuse on the side with a smile on his face. Their town wasn't big enough to have much of a problem with these anyways, but Jorkreng still tasked his men to handle such simple problems as part of their duties. Kept them busy, and earned them the folks' approval too. A local man waved and nodded at him with a smile – Jorkreng answered in kind.

He sighed a little internally. A bit of peace and silence was welcome. There had been nothing but difficult problems lately, mostly having to do with the dungeon and the nobles. Honestly, the dungeon didn't bother Jorkreng that much. As long as the Warden wasn't ticked off, they seemed content to leave them be. He had been sent by his lord himself to confirm the dungeon's existence, and could vouch for it.

He thought about the three imbeciles that managed to get themselves killed. He hadn't noticed them before, although some of the younger brothel girls he talked to had mentioned being anxious about them. Didn't surprise him very much meatheads like these got themselves killed out of glory-hunger. If the duke didn't get himself involved at all, it would've been the end of it.

Frankly, that was the scaries part for Jorkreng. The idea of a duke, a man who rubbed elbows with royalty on the regular, getting himself involved in what was otherwise adventurer's everyday business was what had put Jorkreng on edge the most about the whole mess. Not so much in term of the difference in power, but rather...

What could these three have been to the duke that made him go out of his way to investigate their deaths ? All nobles probably had some dark secrets, maybe a bastard born of a whore or something, but... There was something about this, he could think of no answer that pleased him. It put him on edge.

Still, it seemed the duke was content to leave things be, and that satisfied the guard captain. As long as there were no more trouble, maybe he could enjoy the heat relaxedly. Some of the locals disliked the heat, but as a man who came from the North... Jorkreng couldn't say he hated the higher temperatures here., particularly the mildness of winters. Summer sometimes did get a touch too hot for his taste however, that he had to admit.

Jorkreng's musing were interrupted by his daughter walking up to him. He quickly broke out of his reverie and looked at her, smiling. He ruffled her dark blue hair, earning a broad smile in answer. She quickly signed something to him, and the man smiled. A lack of news was good here. Maybe not so much in big cities, but in a sleepy countryside town like here ?

No news were good news, and Jorkreng could very much see himself spending the remainder of his life here. A bit boring, maybe, but certainly more pleasant than the North.

A girl stood up from the spring she was sitting in, her thick, fluffy, almost woollike hair, a reddish shade of maroon, falling down over her back as she did so. She grabbed one of the magical items spread on the ground, an enchanted towel of some kind, and left the spring, cleaning herself as she did so.

It would remind one of that classic scene where a man walk onto a beautiful woman bathing in a spring, but the girl was actually alone here, and her appearance was a bit strange. Her skin was a strange color to a human, a purplish-red shade of slightly pale ash-gray, and her sclera was pitch-black, giving making her wary crimson gaze menacing.

She dressed herself, grabbing a pair of long running pants, enchanted magical boots, a bra, and not bothering with anything else. This is the hot sun, after all. No need to overdress. Her modesty was secondary for her at her current situation in life, plus at the speed she could move at, it wasn't like anyone could really see her very well.

Those boots are really nice, she thought. She was a little curious on where and how did that purple-haired human obtain all these items. She was a lifesaver ! Was she a hoarder of some kind ? At any rate, finding her had been a miracle. Her ancestors smiled on her at last. She had a slew of powerful magical items ! Oh, and a lot of food too. That had been very nice as well, even she didn't get as much extra from the human herself as she expected.

Ah, well. Forage would make up for it, there was an item for finding edible forage. And maybe even hunting. The girl had never handled a bow before, but there was a small one among the human's she didn't find too hard to use, so she might be able to hunt something small to feed herself with. She had done a bit of practice with it, so while she wasn't confident, it was an option she knew to be available.

She had even managed to outrace an creature used by humans the other day ! The large ones, with four tall hooved legs, long head and neck with hair behind, and a brown coat. These things were really fast, but her new boots allowed her to run faster than them for longer. This was good to know, as while the creature that time was alone, human liked to use these, and being able to outrace them might save her life some day.

As she dodged and weaved through trees, she found herself thinking about the future a little. She didn't have anything to think on about the past, and while the scenery was nice, it got boring after a bit. She had almost nothing to think about while racing the wind at impossible speed, so...

What was she going to do when she arrived ? She expected to be able to arrive before the cold snows, at some point late in the red leaves. The better outcome would be to be able to stay, but if she had to go away, she might be able to do it. The thing here is she was dubious she would be allowed to stay as-is, without contribution to the dungeon.

There was always the Wardensbride option, but she wasn't certain how she felt about that. She'd have to see and decide. Between the unknown of the Warden's personality and their feelings about her scars, it might or might not be an option, so there was no point speculating about it further.

She shook her head, and focused. The jrovtaldormor simply wasn't progressing fast enough to take her down. She knew she would make it – at some point. All she had to do was keep going and avoid the humans.