The mismatched pair of adventurers headed towards the church of Kushang. "You think there's a chance this actually works out?" Illaria asked.

"Not really," Alvec replied.

"Then why do we be bothering with this?" said Illaria. "Surely there's some better use of our time."

"Look, if you've got a better idea, I'm all for hearing about it," Alvec replied while rubbing his forehead.

Illaria sighed heavily in response. "I do suppose this is at least more productive than drinking away at the tavern. Certainly, fewer people will be hitting on me, which is a nice benefit to dealing with church folk."

Alvec scoffed. "Kushang's all about civilization; half of their worshippers would be ready to drop on one knee for you. It's a tad worse than just flirting," he smiled warmly.

"You exaggerate."

"Yeah, but my mother said it was the best thing that ever happened to her," said Alvec. "From what I hear, she bought the ring."

"Well," mused Illaria. "I do hope that no one attempts to become that familiar with me. I've got many more important things on my mind than any romances."

"Perhaps you can tell me more over drinks sometime," Alvec said. "We've already been through this much; maybe once we get this tower situation sorted out, I can help you in return."

"I think I'd like that," Illaria stated. Her story wasn't one she'd talk about out on the streets or in the church halls, but over drinks, in a crowded bar, where no one but her companions could hear her, that didn't sound so bad. Spirits knew she'd need all the help she could get; it was the whole reason she'd joined the Blue Banner army in the first place. To kill Cutthroat Crowley, to find and rescue her parents if they still lived. Bait knew the score, but it hadn't come up with her new friends. Would they stick by her side if they knew she had chosen such a seemingly suicidal course of action? They had known each other only a brief few days, and she couldn't help but feel like Alvec would. Running headlong into Crowley felt like the sort of action a boy willing to throw himself in front of her as a shield repeatedly would take without question.

The pair didn't speak much during the last leg of their trip down Scythefell Street. The church was much busier than they had seen it yesterday. It took only a few moments to find Sarbie running errands for the head priest as he bounced around the room. Illaria flagged her down and pulled her off to the side.

"Hello again, we met yesterday," Illaria said.

"Ah, yes... give me a moment; your names are on the tip of my tongue," she nodded. "Illaria, yes?"

"That would be me," Illaria said, curtly bowing.

"And... oh, dear. I'm struggling with this one. I'm sorry, Hoc rammed his way into our conversation, and before I knew it, you were both on your way out. Did it begin with an A?"

"Alvec," he replied, extending a hand to her. She grasped it with both hands and gave a quick, gentle shake. "And you're Sarbie, right? I imagine it's a lot easier for us to remember your name than the other way around. Sha-Laial is a big city, and I imagine the church of Kushang has a lot of stuff going on."

"You can say that again. We hosted three weddings just yesterday," she said, nodding in agreement.

"See, I told you, lots of weddings going on, Illaria."

"Are you two perchance engaged?" Sarbie asked, glancing between them.

"No, we've only just recently met. Our relationship is much more transactional," Illaria replied. Sarbie blushed a bit at Illaria's explanation.

"Hey now, I think you've given her the wrong idea," Alvec interjected. "What Illaria meant was that our goals aligned, so we've been traveling the same path. I don't think she understood the connotation of the word transactional."

"And what connotation do you be implying it had there, Alvec?"

"All I'm saying is that when people hear transaction, they think coin, and when they think coin and familiarity, they usually think of physical intimacy being purchased," Alvec said, rubbing the base of his horns.

"I... I concede your point, Alvec," coughed Illaria. "I would like to clarify that we do not share that sort of a relationship either."

"What exactly brings you two here today?" Sarbie asked, her face still flushed a little red. Illaria recanted the events to the cleric of Kushang. She pursed her lips together, thinking momentarily before responding to Illaria's question. "Considering the timing, we'd likely be looking for someone between 40-80. That doesn't narrow that down very much, but they likely would have come here looking for work soon after the end of Ageneon's War," Alvec supplied. Sarbie pursed her lips for a moment.

"I obviously wasn't around for that, full-blooded human after all."

"Neither were we; Aassimar and Tieflings have normal human lifespans. We are about how old we look," Illaria confirmed.

"Which makes me 22?" Alvec replied.

"And me, the oldest of the group at 26," Illaria replied.

"Ah, we're closer in age than I thought," she said. "Allow me a little bit to go ask around. Maybe someone remembers Vato and who may have worked for him. You're welcome to relax in the garden while I'm away," she pointed towards a door that led into some sort of courtyard.

"Thanks. We'll wait there for you," Alvec replied as he motioned for Illaria to follow.

The garden was well maintained and very much an urban park. A single tree grew at its center, with soft red stone echoing outward from the green space provided for the tree. It was an old tree. Old enough that Alvec could tell that it predated the rock of the building. Someone had decided this tree was worth building around and incorporating into the church's design. An admirable choice. Several benches were available for the pair to sit down on. Illaria did so, but Alvec inspected the many rows of planters filled with various herbs. He didn't know all of them by name. Alvec wasn't a healer, after all. Divine Magic handled that sort of thing far better than the arcane magic he practiced. That didn't mean he was completely ignorant of the subject. There was value in almost all knowledge, after all. He knew the names of the most basic ones and some of their supposed uses.

One corner of the garden caught his attention more than the rest. Almost every herb he could identify was used to make antidotes for various poisons, a remnant from the wars. It would have been a sad day for the church when these herbs occupied the bulk of the medicinal supply. A tap on his shoulder spooked him out of his thoughts; he spun round to find Sarbie standing before him.

"I talked to some of the older members of our faith, and they did manage to come up with a name. An older worshiper who only shows up to our evening mass; her name is Caelia. They claimed she was his maid during Ageneon's War."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Thank you very much," Alvec said as he bowed slightly. "I don't have anything planned today. Do you guys need any work done here? Anything a wizard might be able to help take care of? Broken equipment in need of mending?"

"You'd like to volunteer here just for today?" she asked, blinking at him. "Do you worship Kushang?"

Alvec laughed. "Not to the point of a cleric, that's for sure," he said as he motioned to her. "My mother does; she'd be happy to hear I spent a day helping out. Besides, everyone here has been nice so far, so I figure we might as well help the community. I owe Hoc for coming over on such short notice yesterday."

"I guess there are some things in need of repair around here. Hoc may have busted a stack of plates this morning. I hadn't gotten around to throwing them away. Do you think you'd be able to fix them?" she asked.

"I'll need to take a look at them first. If it's in too many pieces, the magic might struggle to get the job done... but I will certainly try." The pair swung by Illaria and informed her of the situation. Illaria departed, vowing to come back later in the day. Sarbie and Alvec spent the next few hours wandering around the church, fixing any small broken objects they could find. The stack of plates turned out to be pretty easy to mend; only the one on the bottom, which had absorbed the brunt of the impact, was beyond saving. It was shattered into dozens of pieces, whereas the ones above were mainly in two to five parts. A broken window, a bunch of brooms, silverware with twisted prongs. If it was out of place, Sarbie led Alvec to it and set him to fix it. Thankfully, mending was a very minor spell and not at all that taxing for the young wizard. They stood in the dimly lit hallway outside a broom closet.

"So, how many of these did Hoc personally break?" Alvec joked.

"More than I'd like to admit to," Sarbie replied.

"Where is he anyway? I haven't seen him around yet today?" Alvec asked.

"Training, I think," said Sarbie. "As a Paladin in training, he gets combat lessons. He's supposed to practice his crossbow skills... but I think he's probably just swinging a sword at wooden dummies today."

"He'd get much more value out of fighting a moving target; maybe I should offer to spar with him," mused Alvec.

"Do you really think that's best? He's pretty strong," Sarbie replied.

Alvec spoke a few words in a light and ethereal language. The air around them shimmered with arcane power condensing around them. Alvec gently reached his hand for her shoulder, and the air around her seemed to react to the attempt, pushing back against him. "I can hold my own," Alvec insisted.

"That is neat. Does it hold up to actual combat?" she asked.

"Take a swing at me if you want to find out," he said, winking at her.

"No, no, I could never."

"Well, I'm certainly not hitting a girl," Alvec replied. "So I guess you'll just have to watch and find out."

"Is there a wrong way to throw a punch? I don't think I've seriously tried to hit someone before," she asked shyly.

"Yes, actually, there is a wrong way," Alvec held his hand out in a fist towards her. "When you make a fist, keep your thumb on the outside. You will break or dislocate your thumb if you tuck it inside and hit someone hard enough. Little risk of that if your thumb is floating freely."

"Oh, I'd never thought of that."

"So, you going to take a swing or what?"

"Fine," she said as she wound her arm back and swung. Alvec smirked; she'd never seen a fight before; that much was evident from the wind-up. He moved backward sluggishly; the point was to demonstrate his magic, not all of his dexterity. Her fist grazed against his magic and slipped off to the side of him. She stumbled forward with her momentum and caught herself on the opposite wall.

"Not bad for a first swing. Next time, try to add some passion to it, though," Alvec said with a laugh.

"Oh, hush you. So it holds up to a punch, but can it take a sword?"

"Yeah, I can't say I've been slashed at too many times, but it has helped. I've got a few other spells that help keep me safe. Plus, I actually am pretty good with this here buckler."

"Anyway, there's still some more stuff I can have you fix up if you don't mind." The two continued to mend the odds and ends.

Illaria: Church of Kushang

Illaria made it back just as the evening mass was finishing. Her day had honestly been kind of dull. It wasn't much of a wonder that the soldiers on leave drank so damn much. What else was there to do for a Blue Banner army soldier if there were no decks to be cleaned, lines to be maintained, dinner to be cooked, or entertaining to be done. She took to the podium before anyone could leave. "Excuse me if I might be having a moment of your attention. I was hoping to speak with Miss Caelia." A woman stood up and waved. She was indeed much older than Illaria. Alvec's guess on the long end had been correct for sure. She looked to be in her 60s or 70s. Illaria approached her and ushered the woman off to a quieter side passage.

"I'm Illaria, and I've come to ask you a few questions about a former employer of yours. A wizard named Vato."

Her old eyes lit up with a spark at the mention of his name. "Oh dear, what a strange man he was. When he vanished, he left the church of Kushang a bunch of money to be paid to me for the next decade. His sudden departure was such an oddity. Those were some of my life's best and strangest years."

"Might he have indicated where he might have been going?" Illaria asked.

"No, I'm afraid not. He simply left one day, right out of the north gate," she said. "He allowed me to walk with him that far and no further. That was the last anyone ever saw of him."

"The north gate, you say?" Illaria mused. "That would line up with what Mavec was thinking..."

"I'm sorry I can't provide more information about my previous employer. It all happened so suddenly," she said with a frown. "He just wouldn't stop talking about what was to come. He also wouldn't say what was to come. It was like the thoughts were too terrible to speak. I've always thought he might have been seeing his own death."

Illaria nodded along. "Thank you very kindly for your time. It isn't as much information as we'd hoped, but it does confirm something we were thinking. Should we find out what happened to him, would you like us to contact you?"

"That would be nice," she said. "He was a kind man and a good employer; I would want to know what happened. What was so bad he had to completely disappear?"

Illaria nodded and confirmed that she would be back when she knew more. She found Alvec napping in the crook of a window sill, Rem lying across his lap. The two looked almost too peaceful to disturb, yet she'd need to rouse him shortly. Just what had that cleric girl put the boy up to? Nothing too strenuous, Illaria hoped. He'd be needing all of his wits and spells to keep everyone alive and ready to fight. Sarbie eventually came into view with a blanket.

"No need for that, Sarbie. I'll be waking him up and dragging him back to the inn. Mavec was supposed to meet with our property lawyers. Alvec will want to be awake for a few more minutes to hear whatever information they can uncover. We might have a solid lead on where to find the mysterious diviner, Vato. if we're lucky." Alvec grumbled in his sleep and tossed a bit, grinding a horn into the stone. "Now I know he was drained. He never falls asleep without using that force cube spell he made. Rem, would you be so kind as to awaken your master? Or are you too out of it, too?"

The fox yipped and did a long stretch before he sauntered off from Alvec, turned around... and then pounced on him. Alvec came, too, with a loud OOF. He looked between Illaria and Sarbie, who was holding a blanket.

"Rise and shine, hero of Rust Hill," Illaria said with a smirk.

"I nodded off, didn't I?" Alvec mumbled, "My sincere apologies; I didn't expect to spend six hours casting mending. It may be a cantrip, but anything done for six hours burns up a lot of energy, magical and otherwise. Thank you for preparing a blanket, but if Illaria is here, that means I'm out of time for today."

"No, need to apologize; it's my fault you pushed yourself that hard," Sarbie said quickly. "I should have guessed how taxing casting all day would be. It's not like I can't use magic. I've never tried to cast that much in a row before; I didn't even think how bad it could be."

"Illaria, did we get what we needed?" Alvec asked, rubbing his eyes and forcing the sleep away.

"More or less, nothing definitive, but she remembered him taking the north gate to exit the town," said Illaria. "The spot Mavec was interested in happened to be in the north. It's at least some circumstantial evidence."

"We sure do have a lot of that," Alvec said as he swung his legs off the side of the window sill and stood up. He seemed a bit shaky at first, but after a moment, he settled himself. The two of them said goodbye to Sarbie and returned to the inn. Mavec was waiting for them at what was quickly becoming the usual gathering spot.

"I've got good news. Lawyers confirmed that the Auraman manor hasn't been inspected in almost twenty years. It apparently had an appraisal just after the war and not one since. It would be a great place for a wizard on the run to hide out indefinitely." Mavec said, smiling.

"So we head out in the morning," Alvec confirmed with everyone else at the table. The party briefly recapped their day. Naya had delivered some pastries to Mr. Beans but had not encountered any stolen property this time. Bait ran into a wizard with a fancy cape, but strangely, he couldn't tell anyone what she looked like or what she said. With all that information shared, they agreed to hit the road in the morning. Auraman Manor looked like a viable place where Vato could have dropped off the face of the earth. They'd know soon enough.