The shuffling and rearranging of gear made it much harder to focus. How hard was it to find one cup? Verlate asked herself. If there were to make any excess noise, they could be caught. Verlate looked around. There is nothing in her sites except for Broer and Sedulur in the surrounding area. She hated that she didn’t have the opportunity to make any modifications to them, they were both very interesting specimens. Could the smell of them get her caught? It was a possibility, but if what they were investigating was true, it shouldn’t be much of a distraction. She kept hearing the clatter of metal in a bag.

Verlate shot her gaze back at Tyrannus. “Keep it down!” She whispered to him. Tyrannus looked at her, and shrugged.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have woken me up so early,” he said, pouring some water into a black metal pot. “I’m gonna need some coffee.” Tyrannus crouched back down and set the pot over some loose pieces of wood.

“Brew some coffee later!” She said, “The smell and the smoke are going to draw attention our way.” She affixed her gaze back to where they were lurking. They were deep into the woods right now, but only a few hours away from Adspemregi, the city where The Wilted Rose is operating in. There was a small den, on the outside it doesn’t look like anything more than a possible bear den, but there were burn marks on the ground. Somebody had been here recently. Alarotha had told her about there being a high probability of Necromancers in the area. Some of the citizens had reported smelling rot and decay, just off the main road. There shouldn’t be any predators in the area, however, given the proximity to the city. Alarotha thought it would be in the order’s best interest to have Verlate investigate. Although Verlate would have been sent on a more urgent mission, Alarotha thought that it would be best to have her investigate anything close to the city, and try to stop it before it could become an urgent problem.

A sickly sweet smell hit Verlate’s nose. Something fresh, and warm. Verlate sharply turned. Tyrannus had had a full pot of coffee brewed already and was sitting there, sipping on a cup. Verlate stormed over to Tyrannus. There was a small plume of smoke in the air. Tyrannus noticed her approach

“Verlate! Come over here, I made enough for you to have a cup asw–” Verlate kicked the pot to the ground, and stomped the fire until it no longer burned. Verlate crouched down.

‘There are about a dozen different ways that we could be ambushed here, right now.” She said. “All of them involve us being torn limb from limb by ravenous, walking corpses.”

Verlate walked back over to her vantage point where she had a clear enough view of the den. “Our best bet is to keep as low of a profile as possible, that especially includes smell, anything other than rotting corpses is going to draw suspicion our way.” She said.

Although, it was true that she wasted no time grabbing Tyrannus, what other choice did they have? The whole world now knew about what happened with the Village that both she and Tyrannus were at, and much of the scrutiny now fell, on the Wilted Rose. It was very possible, not guaranteed, that more members within her order would die, either by execution at the hands of the government or by an angry mob. Verlate felt her grip tighten around the dagger on her waist. She couldn’t show her emotions right now especially. Doing so would only cloud her mind, and stop her from making rational decisions.

Tyrannus walked up to her, crouching down beside her. “You’re really on edge today, aren’t you?” He asked.

Verlate shook her head. “We just need to stay as focused as possible on the mission, sitting and waiting here is most of the job.” She said. She completely ignored his question, although both she and he knew, that she was definitely on edge.

Tyrannus definitely knew what was going on. “How old are you now?” he asked her.

“Twenty, why?” She asked.

Tyrannus chuckled. “I’m 36 years old now, which, I know I’ve aged exceptionally well.” He said. She wasn’t looking at him, but she knew that he had a smile on his face. “In all my life, I’ve never seen anybody that appeared as driven as you are, and it’s not the good thing that you might think that it is.” He said.

Verlate shifted her gaze over to Ty. “What’s your point?”

“Eventually it’s gonna be a problem.” He said. “Best to handle it now, rather than when you can’t.”

Tyrannus stood back up and walked over to the ashes of his fire. He still had some coffee in the cup that he poured.

Verlate shifted back towards the den, scoping it out as much as possible. What exactly did Tyrannus mean by that? She was driven as much as she possibly could. What more did she need to focus on? Or what was she not handling? She couldn’t think about it right now, she had to focus on the task at hand. Wasn’t that exactly what Tyrannus had warned her about? She shook the thought from her mind. She couldn’t think about that, especially now. She hadn’t faltered yet, there would be no reason that she would falter now.

Verlate’s eyes felt heavy. How long had she and Tyrannus been sitting here now? Ten hours? Maybe more? She wondered if the necromancers were out already, and weren’t coming back. Or maybe they were. Maybe they would be out for a few days. Perhaps they need to sit here for longer. Her head started to drip down to her chest. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to kick over the coffee. She could certainly use some right now. She heard Tyrannus shuffling behind her.

“We’re not done yet,” she said, not caring to whisper anymore, although she probably should. They could be back at any moment.

Tyrannus stretched his arms out. She heard his bones crack. “Look, I’ve been sitting here for too long now, I need to get up and walk around a bit, or else I’m going to go comatose.”

Verlate brought her voice lower again. “Walk around our camp a bit, do some stretches.”

Tyrannus groaned. “Look, I’m starving, and there’s nothing good that we brought, I’m going to go grab some food, I’ll bring something back for you.” He said, waving bye to Verlate as he turned his back to her.

Verlate sprinted over to Tyrannus and grabbed him by his arm. “You can’t go anywhere unless I’m with you.”

Tyrannus broke free of her grasp and scoffed. “Look, I’m going, are you coming with me?”

Verlate couldn’t just let him go. The necromancers could be back at any moment if they are even here. Or maybe they had something within that den. Perhaps some sort of underground network that had a separate exit. She wouldn’t put that past them. She had to think of something. Tyrannus couldn’t just leave, if they were to come back, Tyrannus’ help would be very useful. Especially given how tired she’s become.

“We’ll, take a look inside!” she blurted out. Although it was harder to see his face under his hood, she could tell that he was cocking an eyebrow. “We’ll take a look inside there, and if there’s nothing, then we’ll leave and head back to the headquarters.” She didn’t even know if this would get Tyrannus to come with her. She was tired and hungry as well. If there was nothing in there, then perhaps they could report that to Alarotha. Although, the truth was that she wanted to keep an eye on Tyrannus as much as possible. This mission was more to watch over him, rather than just stalking necromancers, although that was definitely an important part of this mission. She didn’t know what Alarotha would do is she heard that Tyrannus had just abandoned the mission.

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Tyrannus nodded at her. “Fine, let’s take a good look around, then we can get something to eat.”

Verlate nodded. She took another good look at the den from a distance. Borer and Sedulur were still in position. She wondered if they had stopped smelling, or if she's gotten used to it. Probably the latter. She took a deep breath and started down towards the den. Tyrannus was right behind her. Brush and branches blocked her path, but they were easily parted away from her. They made quite a noise as she batted them away and even startled a small flock of birds. If they were here, they would have surely noticed her and Ty approaching. She approached the entrance of the den. It was pitch black inside of it, and the stench of decay and rot, subsided, she was surprised that she had even noticed it given how used to the stench that she was. She made a gesture towards Tyrannus. With a quick flick of his hand, he produced a small flame within it. She picked up a thick stick off of the ground and held it towards Tyrannus. He lit the piece of wood up. The room lit up better than she thought that it would, although she still couldn’t see much. She noticed Tyrannus picked up a stick off of the ground, and lit it up as well. She moved across the den. It was bigger than she expected, and there wasn’t much around here. At first, it just seemed like some travelers used this area to camp out the weather, but that didn’t make much sense. There was an inn close by that they could use, and that’s not even talking about the proximity to the city. There were some bedrolls scattered along the ground, one green, one white, and one black. They weren’t made of the best materials, but they would work if there was nothing better around them. She noticed that there was a torch scone on the wall, odd. She put her torch there, it lit up a large portion of the den. She turned towards the bedrolls again and started sifting in them. There had to be something here. In the green bedroll, there was something metallic within it. She pulled it out of the bedroll. It was a silver fork. Odd she thought, silver utensils were more for the upper class, and were quite valuable. Perhaps they were also bandits here. It would make sense if they were killing people here to also steal from them. She tossed the fork onto the ground. Tyrannus noticed the fork land on the ground and quickly pocketed it. He walked over to Verlate with a book in his hand.

“Hey, I’ve been shuffling through this book.”

Verlate quickly snatched the book from Tyrannus’ hands and started sifting through the pages. “What did you find?” Tyernnus was startled by the sudden grab.

“Nothing really, it just seems like someone’s diary, but nothing too out of the ordinary though.” He said. Verlate kept looking through the pages, Tyrannus was right, no diagrams, nothing about the undead, or experimentation. The most important thing here were the perfect ingredients to use for creating the perfect pan-seared steak. Verlate tossed the book onto the ground. Was she just being paranoid? Was there anything truly here at all? Verlate shuffled around the seemingly empty den. What was she doing here then if there was nothing? Were these people perhaps hunters, and they left some meat out to decay and rot? That didn’t seem likely, considering that there were no bodies or even bones to talk about. Verlate looked around the room more. Perhaps she truly was paranoid, but it was good to keep looking out for anything suspicious. She felt her stomach growl. She was very hungry too. Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to head back to grab something to eat. She wanted to do another quick sweep around the den first. Although, there wasn’t anything too suspicious, but perhaps there might be something hidden in plain sight, like Tyrannus had shown her, they were crafty when it comes to covering their tracks. She picked up one of the bedrolls yet again, seeing if there was a possible trapdoor hidden underneath them. Tyrannus looked at her, as though she was insane.

“How would they put a trapdoor there, Verlate?” He asked.

Verlate dropped the bedroll back onto the stone floor. “These people are crafty, and they’ve had a lot of time to plan if they were connected to the ones at the graveyard,” Verlate said. “I’m not leaving anything out of the question, although, I’m starting to believe that there’s not anything here.”

Verlate stood backup, where hasn’t she checked yet? The ashes? The utensils? She looked over at one of the walls of the den. A boulder? She didn’t even question when she saw it, but there was a boulder leaning against one of the walls. Moving it would take a lot of effort to do so, but she and Tyrannus could move it.

“Hey, Ty, come over here for a second.” She said. Tyrannus closed the diary that they found and walked over to her.

“What is it?” He asked.

Verlate pointed at the boulder that was in front of them. “We should move this over, and see if there’s anything behind it.”

Tyrannus shuddered a bit. “We gotta move that?” he asked. Verlate nodded, and Tyrannus groaned. “Dammit, this is gonna hurt my back.”

“You’ll be fine.” She said. She walked over to the large boulder and got into position. Tyrannus followed alongside her.

“Three..Two..One!” She said. Pushing the boulder. Tyrannus was slower, but he soon followed her in pushing the large boulder. It was heavy to move, but not impossible to move. It rolled out of the way soon enough. Both she and Tyrannus hurried out of the way, should the boulder fall back on them, but it didn’t, it stayed put. Tyrannus was huffing, but she was fine. She curried and looked at the wall there. There might have been something, but it was hard to see. She hurried over to the opposite side of the den and grabbed the torch that she sat there not too long ago.

“Sorry about that,” Tyrannus said through labored breaths. “I thought that we were going on zero.” She ignored what she said, and put the torch by the now exposed wall. And there it was. There was a small indent in the wall, where there was loose stone crowding a crawlspace entrance. Somebody had hastily put this together, perhaps as an attempt to stop her and Tyrannus from finding it. She leaped down onto the floor and started clawing away at the stones, the torch hit the ground, and almost instantly went out. Finally, she found something, but she feared that it might have been too late. Each stone was clumsily packed next to another one. There was no system in place for making sure that they were covered well enough. She assumed that these were placed here as a sort of last resort to look, should nobody have any light with them. Tyrannus crouched down beside her and used magic to start a small fire in the palm of his hand. She could see something, another room! She pulled the last stone from the wall. The hole was big enough for her to crawl through. She looked back at Tyrannus. He shuddered slightly. She grabbed the now unlit torch that was on the floor and crawled into the open space. Tyrannus soon followed her.

The room was pitch black. What could be in here? Surely there had to be something useful in here, something that was supposed to be hidden. Perhaps there were rotting remains of travelers in here? That had to be likely. Perhaps there were some alchemical experiments that were taking place here, like some sort of underground drug lab. Or perhaps there was some hidden knowledge about the undead here. She could hardly wait to see Tyrannus lit another fire in the palm of his hand, and Verlate lit her torch with the fire that he had. The room lit up. The room looked like it hadn't been touched in years. Cobwebs covered the stone structures here. This could hardly be considered a room, or even a study. No, there had to e something. She hastily scanned the rest of the room. There were what looked like scattered bits of wood around the room, and bits of stone around, although given where they were at there were bound to be small stones littering the ground. There was a large pile of wood on the ground. She hurried over there and scattered through the remains of it. There was a small glint within it. That had to be something! The hurried over, and grabbed whatever it was. It was, it was a small shard of glass? She looked through the broken crate more, only to find an unopened bottle of wine, some of the expensive stuff too. Tyrannus was laughing behind her.

“We’ve spent all of this time searching through a drunkard’s stash, they probably were just here hiding this from their wife!” He said. Verlate turned around. She noticed something different about Tyrannus. He seemed on edge. And sweat beaded from his forehead. He must have noticed Verlate’s curious reaction.

“I’m a little bit, claustrophobic,” he said. “Crawlspaces like that make my heart race.”

Did they really just come here only to find a stash of booze? What was with the decaying smell? What was with the other reports in the area? Could they be somewhere else? Could they have already moved out? No, probably not. In truth, she was relieved that perhaps she was just more paranoid than usual. She sighed.

“I’ll meet you outside the den.” She said, handing Tyrannus the bottle of wine. “Here, for a job well done.” She nodded to Tyrannus, and he nodded back at her.

“Come on, let’s go grab something to eat.” He said.

Verlate waved her hand at him. “You go on ahead, I just want to check on something here real quick.”

“Don’t take too long” He said, walking towards the crawlspace.

Verlate turned back to the broken crate on the ground. She crouched down and started sifting through the broken crate. She wasn’t a drinker herself, and she didn’t know if Alarotha was or not, however, this could be a great gift to give her. There was another bottle there. This wasn’t cheap stuff here, it was an expensive liquor to be sure. She sifted through, seeing if there was anything else there. She felt something, metallic? Odd, there isn’t any metal with this stuff. It almost felt like a coin, yet a little bigger than one, with a stub in the middle of one of the faces. It had to have been a pin. She grabbed the small pin and brought the torch to it.

Her heart sank, and her breathing became rapid and shallow. She grabbed her chest, her pin was still there, and Tyrannus had his pin on when he left. She knew the engraving on it well. A small silver rose pin, with a silver border, the Pin denoting Apostles of the Wilted Rose. They were required to wear them. Somebody in the order was here. Somebody had betrayed them, and they could be anywhere now.