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The birds sang the songs that beckon the light of the morning. The sun scattered into thousands of paths as it shone through the trees. The breeze carried a chill but not too exaggerated. Erin basked in the morning tenor in silence with her knees on the ground and her eyes shut. To many, she looked like nothing more than a vulnerable damsel, asking to be assaulted. However, to the trained eyes, she was more than ready to act at a second’s notice. Her nose and ears perceived more than her eyes ever could.

Morning came an hour and more ago. Erin had taken the liberty to scour the area before resuming their journey. She also used this moment to meditate in order to reorganize her thoughts and wits. She needed this after last night. She had revealed her biggest secret to the two women she had come to care a lot about. One had taken the revelation without much surprise but the other was almost too distraught to even talk to her. They went to bed without resolving the unease between them and when Erin had woken first, her feet carried her to the forest to clear her mind.

Which brought her to the present. No matter how much she tried to clear her mind and rearrange her thoughts, guilt kept finding its way back. And she couldn’t send it away knowing full well she deserved the feelings of guilt. At the same time, she felt indignant that her lover couldn’t comprehend her difficulty in expressing the truth. Be those as it may, there was a queer feeling that made a smile appear on her face.

As epiphany was close to her reach, her meditation was rudely interrupted by the presence of a few individuals approaching her. They were not the ones that had been following her all this time but a fresh group. Going by their snail pace and hesitation, she could only rule it as them sneaking up on her. She opened her eyes and got to her feet. She turned to the direction where she sensed them coming from. Though the dense vegetation impeded her sights, their scent was carried to her nose by the breeze.

“Show yourself,” she said, loud enough to be heard a few yards away. When there was no response, she unsheathed her sabre and charged the blade with her Mana, giving a thin glow of a vibrant blue. As he swung, the blue glow was released from the blade and flew at a tree in the shape of a lunar moon. The Aura Shot grazed the tree and a boy revealed himself after tripping on a branch due to purposely misguided Aura Shot.

“Wait! Wait!” the boy instantly shouted before getting back up, prioritizing his well being over his dignity. “I mean you no harm!” The boy had the appearance of the average Westerion and nothing about him left an impression on Erin, save for his attempt at sneaking up on her.

“Speak your reasons or meet your end at my blade,” Erin said, letting the chill of the morning seep into her voice.

“I-I was just being a nosy fellow, that is all!” the boy frantically explained.

“That’s very convincing,” Erin retorted and filled her blade with the blue glow once again.

“I-I swear! It’s not every day that I see a Fae. Besides, you’re a very pretty lady, milady. I just want to get a closer look at you and maybe have a few nice words with you.”

Erin laughed, the blue glow shone ever vibrantly on the blade. “Do you take me for a fool, young man?” she said and shifted her gaze to a boulder a few feet beside the boy. She pointed her sword to that place.

“M-milady?”

“Tell me the truth now or you and your friends will meet your end here.”

“M-my friends?”

Erin sighed. She flourished her tails and incurred a yelp from the boy. “Stop playing me for a fool. I’m in no mood for that. Your friend by the boulder. Your friend behind that stump. And the one above the tree. Did I make myself clear?”

The boy swallowed a lump in his throat and signalled for his companions to show themselves. A bright light engulfed the surrounding in a blinding flash and as it dissipated, two more boys and a girl appeared in the places Erin had pointed out. The three left their position and slowly make their way to the boy.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” the boy with the bow that had been in the trees whispered to the girl.

“Tell that to Cole,” the girl responded without giving him a glance.

“That is some interesting trick,” Erin remarked, training her gaze on the four.

“It is no trick,” the girl retorted indignantly. Going by her robes and staff, she was a spell caster. “It is an adept tier of Light Magic.”

“Mary, shut up,” the boy said. “Forgive my rudeness, milady. I am Cole. This girl here is Mary. The one with the bow is—”

“I am not interested in your names,” Erin interrupted. Her Appraisal had already revealed the four’s names. “I merely wish to know your reasons for stalking me.”

“Before I do that, can you please put away your sword first?”

Erin complied with Cole's request and sheathed her sword but upon doing so, she clad her body in lightning. The four recoiled with a shriek. “There, I sheathed my sword. Now talk.”

“Um...”

“Why? Do you have any more requests?” Erin asked and snapped her fingers, sending a small streak of lightning towards the ground just slightly away from his feet.

They all gasped as none of them could follow the speed of her spell’s conjuration. Cole quickly shook his head. “Nope, n-no more requests.”

“Now talk,” Erin demanded without dispelling the lightning enveloping her.

“We truly don’t mean you any harm, milady.”

“Not what I want to hear,” Erin said and fired off a lightning bolt that hit a stump beside them, exploding it into splinters and barks.

“Alright! Alright!” the boy shrilled. “There was a man in Valenolk. He was asking for information regarding a Fox-kin around these parts. He said he would pay good money for any information as long as it’s true. He would pay more if the information was more abundant.”

“Valenolk?”

“The nearest town from here. They’re known for their grape mead. It’s good and it costs not even a fraction of the cat piss the nobles drink.”

“Cole!” the girl rebuked him.

“S-sorry,” the boy quickly apologized.

“Who is this man that was asking for such information?”

“I have never seen him before and neither have the locals. He was wearing expensive clothes. He could be a rich merchant or a noble.”

Erin fell silent and began to cerebrate with her fingers rubbing her chin.

“It’s the truth,” the boy added.

“What else can you tell me about this man? Any specifics? Like what kind of clothes he’s wearing aside from being expensive?”

“U-um… I-I don’t know...”

“You never seen the kind of clothing he wears or you simply do not what it’s called?”

“The latter...” Cole admitted.

“Do you remember what colour it is?”

The boy stuttered and the girl jumped in. “It was brown, blue, and white. The coat— or I think it’s a coat— is brown, the dark kind. He wore another coat under the brown coat. It’s blue and it has buttons. Dark too but slightly lighter than the dark brown coat’s colour. Under the blue coat was a white shirt with buttons too. He wore gloves. They’re white too. And the long pants were the same colour as the first coat. And he wore some kind of leather shoes that didn't look like it would bode well against harsh roads and mud.”

“I see… a three-piece suit. That is a very expensive set of clothes. What about his hair colour?”

“Dark brown, like one of his coats. Combed and swept back. Yellowish-brown eyes.”

“His height?”

“As tall as you or maybe taller.”

“Do you perchance know his level?”

“What? Of course not. How would I have known? I don’t have Appraisal.”

“When there’s a huge gap in levels, you will feel overwhelmed by the other person. Did you or your friends have that kind of feeling?”

“No,” she answered. “We didn’t get close to him. We just heard him telling this to some other people. We thought maybe we could—”

“So those words weren’t meant for you. You do realize you will get in huge trouble for this, especially if you let that man know you have been eavesdropping.”

“Look lady, we’re short on money and we have debts to pay. We’ll do anything to get paid,” the archer spoke up. “We’ll take our chances.”

“This story again...” Erin muttered to herself with a sigh.

“Hey, we have already told you everything we know. Let us go now,” the girl said.

“Mary!” the boy shouted at the girl. “Are you out of your mind?! Don’t talk to the Fae like that!”

“No, she’s right,” Erin said. “You all can leave now.”

“W-what? Just like that?” the boy asked. “You’re serious about letting us go?”

“You’re welcome to stay and continue to be questioned by me. Though I have to tell you, from then on, failure to answer my questions would be met by my blade. Also, if you relay my whereabouts to the man, I will find you and I won’t kill you but I will make you a cripple for life. Are we understood?”

“Yes yes! Completely understood. We will be leaving now.” The boy shook his head and took a deep bow. “T-thank you very much for letting us go, milady.”

The girl scampered off first before the boy could even finish his sentences. The others followed suit and the boy was left as the last to run off into the distance. Erin trained her gaze on them as they disappeared into the horizon.

“That was kind of you, mistress,” Siv said, appearing from behind a tree. “But a harsh fate awaits them.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It would have been better to just silence them. They will definitely sell your information to the man they spoke of.”

“And the man will most likely kill them to silence them, is that what you’re saying?”

“If only. It’s worse,” Siv said. “He will kill them but he will take his time. He will question them thoroughly first before killing them.”

“Sounds like you know who this man is.”

“Their description did bring someone to mind. Lord Hegan had us learn the appearances of the most heinous outlaws and bandits in case we chanced upon them and we could respond first.”

“Smart. So, what’s the man’s name?”

“Varus. Sadistic man but thorough. He will extract what he wants to know from those four before killing them in the most imaginative way. Would have been better if you killed them before they sent themselves to hell.”

“I can’t do that, Siv. If I kill them, even if it’s for a good reason, I don’t think I will be able to stop myself from killing again even if it's under another so-called good reason. This is where I draw the line, Siv.”

“Trouble will be waiting for us ahead.”

“Then so be it. It isn’t as if we are helpless before troubles. We will handle them. If those four had any smarts in them, they will do well to heed my warning.”

“Your benevolence is admirable, mistress.”

“If Aedan was here, he would definitely call it something else.”

“What would that be?” Siv asked.

Erin chuckled softly. “Naivety,” she answered. “I don’t disagree. It is a very naive way of thinking.”

“Your naivety led you to become a better person.”

“Oh, Siv,” Erin sighed. “Always with a word at the tip of your tongue to succour my self-deprecation.”

“It is an honour. Someone has to defend your pride. No matter who you were, you’re a Fae now and I would hate it if there are people smearing your integrity.”

Erin smiled. “Well, at least I can rest easy now in that aspect.”

“So can I, mistress but I digress.” Siv’s expression turned solemn. “Have you talked with Lyra yet?”

Erin’s smile faded. “She wasn’t awake when I was.”

“She is now. Will you please go and just talk to her? Letting this drag on will just keep souring this relationship between the three of us.”

“Well. I— oh… great.”

Siv shared the same shift of tone with Erin and turned towards their back where they saw a shadow-moulded snake slithering up to them. The snake dissipated into a cloud of smoke as it approached them, leaving behind a small paper.

Erin sighed. “What is it now, Iris?” she mumbled to herself and picked up the paper. Upon reading it, she groaned.

“What did it say?” Siv asked.

“Velkan Corvas has escaped prison and he seems to be heading east.”

“We’re heading east.”

“Precisely,” Erin said.

“Oh,” Siv uttered. “This is worrying.”