Quyon and Maymun quickly dried off and got dressed as Ilon looked away and held his tongue about what he wanted to talk about for the moment. It was better to wait a little for Quyon to cool her head as he knew that there was a silent rage building up inside of her at this very moment, and he didn’t want to be the one it was directed toward by speaking up. That was Maymun’s job.

Ilon looked back over at the two of them as they had finished dressing in casual clothes. As he looked over he saw Maymun pull Quyon into a hug and give her a kiss on her forehead.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered to Quyon. “But you know that I can’t tolerate him. Not after what he did.” Maymun squeezed Quyon a bit tighter as she said that.

“I know.” Quyon let out a big sigh as she slightly pushed Maymun away to give her a bit of room. She reached up and grabbed Maymun’s chin as blue eyes looked into blue eyes. “I just remember teaching you to control your emotions a bit better. I’m disappointed, y'know.”

They were both silent, staring into each other’s eyes. As the moment dragged on, Ilon felt the awkwardness increase to an unbearable level due to Kachuk calling him a third wheel earlier. As the seconds passed he was finally able to work up the courage to interrupt the two’s moment as he remembered the potential time crunch they were on.

“Ahem, as much as I enjoy watching your drama unfold, there are important things I need to talk about with you.”

“Ah, right. Sorry for interrupting you twice.” Maymun said as she tried to pull away from Quyon with a slightly flushed face.

“One week.” Quyon said before she let her go. Ilon didn’t think he ever saw somebody pale so quick to something someone said before. He didn’t know what that meant, but even though he was curious now wasn’t the time to ask. “Go on.” She said to Ilon as she made herself comfortable on her bed.

“As I was saying earlier, I met Kachuk and he told me a couple of things. First is that there’s apparently a Horror in the Soullight forest to the east of here, which is only a half a day away from Mazual. He said that he sensed it in passing and figured that the three of us would be enough to take it.” Ilon took a breath as he prepared himself to talk about the difficult decision they would have to come to.

“The second thing that he told us was to leave Mazual.” Both Quyon and Maymun seemed pretty shocked at that. Although Kachuk could be an ass at times, he was someone they could trust with their lives. Him saying to leave meant that there was something here they couldn’t handle. “He said that from what he could sense, there was something here that could kill everyone here.” Ilon said which affirmed their conclusions.

“The strange ongoings have been happening for a couple of weeks or so, right? Then I don’t think we necessarily need to leave at this moment. They must have some reason or goal for doing what they’re doing, so I say we rest for today and maybe even tomorrow then go and kill the Horror. When we return we can see if there are any updates on the case.” Quyon rationalized.

“What about the people here? Can’t we warn them or something? Warn the guards?” Ilon raised his voice slightly, unable to accept the idea of doing nothing for the people of the town.

“Sorry Quyon, I have to agree with Ilon on this one. After what happened, it’s obvious they have bad intentions. We might not be able to fight them or figure out who they are, but we should at least give some sort of warning.”

“Let’s say that we do warn people, do you think they’re just going to believe us? A couple of teens that have only just become adults? Where are you going to say you got the information, and how can you prove that it’s reliable?” Quyon countered.

Ilon lowered his head slightly, considering the situation. It was true that no one was likely to believe them. Maybe he could talk to Lysa, but that would bring suspicion upon himself, and she was already suspicious of the three of them. Even if people did believe them for some reason, it would only cause a panic, and would people really be willing to give up everything? Ilon had to admit that Quyon was right, yet there was something they could do.

“You’re right Quyon. Sorry, I let trying to save people get to my head.” Ilon spoke in a slightly strained voice.

“Ilon!” Maymun shouted at them. “Are we going to just do nothing? Run away when there’s something stronger than us?”

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“There’s not much we can do, Maymun. The only thing that we can try is to leave some information anonymously and hope that they take it to heart. We can only do what we can do.” Ilon responded in a low tone. Silence reigned the room as they all brooded in their thoughts.

“Look, even staying here for the night is risky, but every time we fight a Horror we put ourselves at risk. Even so, I don’t want to put our lives at risk for no reason. We’ll try and give the guards some information and monitor the situation for a while, then tomorrow we’ll go kill the Horror in the east. Leaving it be would be just as bad.” Quyon’s voice sounded out in the silence, giving them a direction of what to do.

“That’s fine with me.” Ilon agreed with Quyon’s suggestions. The only problem they would face now was whether or not Maymun agreed, or if something happened during the day. “Is that alright with you Maymun?”

“Alright.” Maymun agreed with noticeable disappointment in her tone. She wasn’t disappointed with Ilon and Quyon, she was only disappointed with herself for not being able to do anything. There had been times before where she felt useless and powerless, but knowing that there was a potential catastrophe waiting to happen and being able to do nothing about it ate at her. This must be what regular people feel about Horrors.

Knowing that something existed out there that the only thing they could do about was hope and pray they didn’t encounter it made Maymun feel like there was a weight on her chest. We can only do what we can do. She thought of Ilon’s words again. Even though Horrors were rare, they were still out there killing unexpecting people. But she couldn’t be everywhere at once.

“What do you guys think we should write though? Just saying that there’s a person with violet eyes who is very dangerous doesn’t exactly tell them anything they don’t already know.” Quyon questioned as she got out a small sheet of paper and a bone pen. It was true that there wasn’t a lot of information that they didn’t already know, but perhaps their warning could still save a few lives.

“Tell them that fighting the potential suspect that has violet eyes means certain death and that it could cause a town wide disaster. Unfortunately, we don’t know anything about the third person and the guards know more about that shaman than we do.” Ilon said.

“I’ll go deliver it when you’re finished.” Maymun said in hopes of doing at least something a little useful.

“I’ll join you then.” Quyon said to which Maymun nodded her head. “Are you going to come, Ilon?”

“I think I’ll use this time to catch up on my rest. I haven’t slept in a proper bed for a long time and I’m worn out. A lot has happened in the past couple of days, so I need some recuperation time alone.” Ilon gave them a reassuring smile. A lot had happened, but he would endure it and move on. He always had.

“Alright. Then, let’s meet up here for supper. If you’re not awake do you want us to knock on your door?” Maymun asked.

“Sure. I’ll leave it to you two then. Good luck.” Ilon said as he got up out of his chair and exited the room. His room was just down the hallway. In a short couple of moments he would be able to enjoy his bed. As he was walking to his room he saw someone come out from the room across from his. The man had his head down so Ilon couldn’t see his face, but he noticed that he had similar black hair and a slim yet muscular stature. Ilon gave him a nod as he continued on his way to his room and dropped onto the bed face first, leaving his stuff by the side. He felt the pressure and tension drain away as his eyes closed, and sleep quickly overtook him.

He dreamed of a silhouette with violet eyes chained down by a dozen chains. One by one they turned violet and snapped, until only one remained. The one chain by itself wasn’t enough to stop the figure and it escaped its entanglement, free to roam the world. All that remained was one untainted chain, surrounded by the other broken and violet chains.

Ilon awoke to knocking on his door. He saw through his window that the sunlight had become tinged with orange, indicating that sunset would be in a couple of hours. He felt like he dreamed of something, but it was one of those frustrating dreams that faded from mind instantly after waking up.

“Ilon, you awake?” He heard Maymun call from the other side of the door. It took him a second to regain his bearing and remember the promise to wake him up for food.

“Yeah, I’m up. Give me a sec.” He said as he did a couple of light stretches to limber up his body. Once he was done he went and opened the door. He saw Maymun leaning to the side of the door waiting patiently. “Thanks for waiting.”

“Yea, yea.” She said as she waved him off. “Let’s go. Quyon’s got a table for us.” Ilon and Maymun walked down the stairs and easily spotted Quyon. There were notably less people here than there were for lunch. As he looked around the room, he also didn’t spot any faces he recognized from the incident that happened earlier in the day. He also didn’t spot Fessal or Cudlin anywhere, so he assumed they were having family time while the employees ran the inn.

“You’re late.” Quyon said as they approached the table she was sitting at. There were already several dishes on the table, waiting for them. Ilon felt his chest grow a bit warmer at the sight. He had been alone for many years, with the only companion being the Master, and now they were together again. His family.

Ilon let out a heartfelt smile at that thought. He had a blood family when he was young, but the only bonds they had were just that, a flimsy liquid with no substance. The ties he had with Maymun and Quyon went beyond just being Cursed.

“Sorry.” He said in a soft voice. He sat down and started eating. “Thank you.” The past year of his life wasn’t the toughest, wasn’t the most emotionally difficult, wasn’t the most painful, but was definitely the most lonely.

“What’s up with you?” Maymun said as she took a seat beside Quyon and gave her a kiss. She gave his smile a strange look before seeing Quyon with a smile of her own. “What? What’s going on?”

Ilon let out a little chuckle at that, with Quyon joining in on it. At the sight of her family smiling and chuckling, she inadvertently started to join in. “Jeez, what’s up with you guys.”

Family. She clenched her teeth at the thought. It brought up bad memories. She knew that Ilon had similar bad memories, but for Quyon … maybe this was exactly what she needed. She shook the thought to the back of her mind as she started eating. They chatted, telling jokes and laughing, telling weird and funny tales of their travels, purposely keeping away from serious topics.

It was nice to just focus on the moment instead of endlessly worrying about the future or brooding about the past.

She looked at the plate full of food in front of her.

It truly was nice.