Opening the door to her office, Christina signals to Feyte to sit down before she closes the door and heads towards the Couch opposite the door. As Feyte goes to talk Christina shakes her head before snapping her fingers and a feeling of discomfort comes over Feyte but disappears just as quickly.
“Ok, we can talk now that nobody will be able to hear what we say, I'm surprised that you have been in the duchy for only a day and already gotten caught up in this, although I suppose you could see it as fate that it has happened this way.” Christina smirks as she says the last part.
“Ok, as it has come to this, I will give you some information on the job that Rivers has assigned you, bring out your map of the City, it will make it easier to show you since you're new to the settlement.” Feyte pulls out the map of Riverglen at Christina’s request.
Christina picks up a pen before laying the map in front of her. “Ok, so as you would have noticed on the map, there is an off limits area, in that area, you will find Riversdale, which has been abandoned for unknown reasons, I need you to investigate what caused the abandonment of the settlement, it's been abandoned for nearly 2 months now, but nobody has been willing to go investigate it.
Now you may be wondering, why are you receiving this request? Well, it's simple really, since this request can be seen as a matter of state, it was seen fit to let Margrave Rivers decide who would go, it shouldn’t be that risky of a request so you shouldn't be too worried that you will get caught up in something, of course, the Margrave may have other reasons to give you this request. But I would not be privy to such information.”
“I guess I will take up this request, it doesn't sound too hard and I can’t think of any reason not to take up this request, I will happily do it.”
“Ah right, give Anne this letter would you? The Margrave told me to give this to whoever he sends on this request and the letter is addressed to Anne so hand it to her when u leave, she should still be waiting for you to make sure that her job has been done to inform the Margrave.”
“I understand, it's safe to assume this has to do with the request so I will hand the letter to Anne.”
“Good, now while I believe you will be safe, good luck out there.”
Feyte nods and thanks Christina for her time before standing up and leaving the room, spotting Anne sitting on one of the bar stools. The few adventurers that have walked in while Feyte was meeting Christina are keeping a wide berth from Anne. Feyte starts walking towards Anne so that she can give Anne the letter.
“Anne, in accepting the request, I was given a letter addressed to you, so I would like to hand it to you, here you are.” Feyte hands the letter to Anne who proceeds to open the envelope so she can read it.
“I understand, let me read this real quick, it must be important if the Margrave is the one who organised it. Let's see, you are tasked to escort the person that has given you this letter to Riversdale to help them investigate the cause of the abandonment of the settlement. I’m not even going to be able to return to the manor today, that's, annoying, very well, Feyte, I will be escorting you to Riversdale, if something comes up, I don't think you can handle, I will help you, but I will not interfere in the completion of the task.”
“I see, I'm thankful and I will be in your care Anne, although you don't seem to be prepared for combat.”
“I'm prepared enough for combat as I need to be, I have no reasons to fight on the frontlines afterall, that would be your job, my job is just to take you there.”
“I understand, if you think you are equipped enough to defend yourself, then I am ready to go when you are Anne.”
“I’m ready, although I would like to head back to the mansion to prepare some supplies for the journey, while i'm equipped enough for combat, leaving town without any supplies besides what you have seems risky, it would be dangerous to leave for multiple days with barely any supplies.”
“Very well, I will wait at the guild for you to return, you should be back shortly after all.”
Anne stands up before glancing at Feyte and walking towards the doors of the guild before pulling the door open and leaving, walking towards Margrave Rivers mansion.
Feyte pulls out one of the other stools before sitting down and signaling to the man running the bar who proceeds to walk over to Feyte.
“What do you want, Miss, some food? Or maybe you want some alcohol although you do look a bit young, but you could just look that way and not actually be young.”
“I’ll just take a meal, something quick cause I don't have much time.”
“Right, I can do that, give me a few minutes and i’ll be back with your food, also, that will be 20 coppers.”
“Thank you.” Feyte says as she opens her bag to hand the barkeep the money.
Feyte waits a few minutes, tapping on the bar while she waits before in the corner of her eye, Feyte spots a red flash near one of the other tables, Feyte focuses to try and work out what she feels she saw as footsteps approach.
“Here's your food, it's just a bowl of porridge, but it shouldn’t be bad, I haven't received complaints about it yet after all these years.”
Turning, Feyte thanks the bartender as he puts down the bowl before turning back to see what she saw but there isn't anything there.
Feyte looks back to her food before grabbing the spoon provided by the barkeep alongside the porridge and eating it, the taste isn't too bad but Feyte didn’t expect much considering the price and she’s had much worse. Feyte slowly eats the porridge which she was provided.
As Feyte finishes the porridge with no interruptions, she feels a tap on her shoulder. Swiveling quickly to see who it is, Feyte sees Anne with a backpack on.
“I’m ready to go, so let's get going.”
Feyte nods before standing up and following Anne out of the Guild so that they can head to Riversdale.
“Now Feyte, I just want to remind you before we leave that this is an investigation, we just want to know why the town was abandoned, we don't know why and considering that of the entire population of Riversdale, nobody came to Riverglen when its so close by, it's a bit suspicious. Anyway, saying all that, let's get going, we should be able to get there by evening and then we can set up camp for the night and investigate in the morning.”
“That sounds good to me, I'm sorry that you have to do this with me Anne.”
“Haah, I understand that this is what the Margrave desires and I will follow through with what he wants so that he's not disappointed. I am also personally interested in what happened to Riversdale. Also, he would have had me go with whoever he wanted to do this, so you really have nothing to be sorry for.”
Feyte nods before following Anne in silence as they head along the roads towards the edges of the city. As they are walking along, a child comes up to Feyte and grabs her hand. A subtle smile appears as Feyte turns to look at the child.
“Miss, where did you go yesterday, you said you would play with us, but we waited for a while, and we didn't even hear you, so we ended up looking for you.”
“Well, something came up and I felt that if I told you that I had to go, that it would ruin the fun you guys were having so I felt like it would be better to leave without saying anything.”
“But Miss, you leaving without saying anything was sad for us, someone was finally happy to play with us and they just left without saying anything.”
“I'm sorry, I knew you would feel sad either way, but I should have informed you.”
“That's ok Miss, anyway, you seem to be busy, come play with us some time.”
“Sure, I will, and hopefully something won't come up that I have to deal with next time.”
The child scurries off as Feyte continues following Anne who seems to be surprised that Feyte is acting so differently to what she's come to be used to.
“We're nearly at the gates, come on.”
Feyte follows Anne to the gates, one of the guards, recognising Anne, the guard stands aside and lets them leave with a nod.
