We walked a little ways into the old cottage style town with its cobblestone roads and its lush green fields surrounding it. Beyond the fields to the east was a forest that the Willowisps seemed to be coming from. The people were bustling in the town despite it starting to get chilly from the September air. As far as I could tell there was no danger here. The people were happy and children ran along playing happily without any kind of guidance.  

“So, Scott?” I started.

“So, what?”

“Who was that guy you got into an argument with at the Agency? You never told us and you seemed to dislike him quite a bit.” I said.

“Is that what it seemed like to you?” he asked before letting out a sigh.”His name is Compton and we go way back. He might be my longest known living friend.”

“Well, I’ve never met him.” Elysif said sternly as if she was jealous. Which was weird for her.

“He has always been busy with missions and could never visit. He came to visit me before Mama Louise’s party though. I was going to introduce you two to him but you both disappeared before I could.”

“Did he tell you what his secret mission was?” I asked. 

“No, and I was just giving him crap. Of course he would tell Arbus the details of the mission, Arbus and Mary have archived everything since the time of the Knights of the Templar.”

“I didn’t know the Agency was affiliated with the Knight of the Templar!” Elysif said surprised.

“We were the Knight of the Templar.” Scott replied in his usual crass, smartass tone.

“”What!”” we both exclaimed.

“Yep, after the Knights of the round table we became the Knights of the templar. After that we were scattered all over the world as traitors and fighting monsters as wanderers. We couldn’t keep the peace that way so Mordred gathered as many remnants of the order and started over in the early fifteen-hundreds. We were unnamed for a while until we decided to go with the title of Agency in the mid seventeen-hundreds.” Scott explained.

    It sounded like a history lesson so we took the explanation as is. “So what are we doing in town?” I asked.

“We need to talk to the people about the Willowisps without mentioning monsters or the supernatural. People start to think you’re crazy if you do because we do a pretty good job and make sure the general populace isn’t aware of its existence.” He replied.

“So basically what you’re saying is that we need to ask if anything strange has happened recently?” Elysif asked.

“Exactly.”

“Should we split up?” I asked.

“That might be for the best. We could meet back at the inn at sundown.” Elysif said.

“I agree.” Scott said. So we split up, Scott went south, Elysif went north, and I went West. Since Scott went south back towards the inn I can only assume he was going to drink and sleep but I’ll wait until later to deal with that. Despite everything Scott gave me a job and a home so I owed it to him to try and do my job at the very least. 

    Without much to go on I went to the nearest shop looking building and took a look inside. It looked like a bakery. There were stacks of bread on the shelves and even more on trays behind. In the back was a large metal oven that was heated by a wood flame. A woman stood bent over beside it throwing a few logs in. She was a stout woman with her hair tied up under a bonnet and an apron went over her dress. Her face was sweaty and covered in a mix of flour and spices.

    She didn’t seem surprised to see me but went over to greet me nonetheless. “What do ya want?” she asked in a thick Scottish accent. “Are you the new delivery boy?” she continued.

“No miss, I am visiting this town and wanted to ask you some questions.” I replied.

“You can ask me a question if you buy a loaf of bread.” she said.

    I handed her a few shillings from my pocket and she gave me a loaf of bread. “So what do ya want to ask?” she said in the same thick accent.