Jude found Glenny already awake and outside the smoky inn. The rogue, wearing his starry cape, stood in the cold shade, watching a scene play out.

Leland trudged through snow and slush alike, the mountain air not enough to maintain such the icy wonderland of months prior. It was slowly shifting to early spring at this point, and the sun wasn’t letting anyone forget. It was unrelentingly bright despite being early in the morning.

The whiplash-like weather made Leland’s lungs burn with every semi-running step. He was pushing himself, that much was obvious from his woozy posture. He was on the verge of passing out, but something pushed him, something drove him to move.

“What’s he doing?” Jude asked, taking his place in the shade.

“Don’t really know—”

Glenny cut off his words when the world seemed to wane. The harsh light of the sun suddenly fell, like it was blotted out by the shadow of a flying leviathan. Rolling purple mist suddenly escaped from Leland’s grasp, as a dark violet halo formed silently above his head. It was larger than before, deeper with a sense of weight. With his newly minted rank-up, the curse took on a slightly evolved form.

“What—”

With Harbinger’s Halo’s creation, Leland decided to pull out all of the stops. He, technically, had twenty minutes to work with, but running exhausted felt like an eternity. The faster he finally dropped, the faster he could quit for the morning… the day.

Glenny gave a low whistle as he eyed the surrounding small town. There were a few out and about this early, but for the most part they didn’t give the purple halo and Leland a second glance.

It was not that the showing was commonplace or lackluster, but because of the time of year. It was growing closer to the Royal Dream, a time of magical and physical involvement. Luckily for Leland, or unluckily for the townsfolk, many adventurers, renowned fighters, spectacular showmen, and powerful mages migrated to the major city of Ruinsforth.

And thus, this town was full to the brim simply because it was enroute to Ruinsforth.

Of course that meant some of the people awake were surely not common citizens, but Glenny had trust in Leland. Showing Harbinger’s Halo was like being the direct focus of a lighthouse, and Leland knew what the curse meant more than anyone. The halo, a Harbinger’s Halo, was a mark, a brand. It was the callsign of a minority of wrongdoers and their vile Lords.

“He must have a good reason for running this early and summoning his halo,” Glenny said aloud to Jude but mainly to himself.

Since Leland’s near death battle, Glenny had been worried about his friend’s wellbeing. He didn’t want to bring attention to the matter, but he’d noticed Leland flinching or drawing back when they came across monsters in the wilds. Completing quests was no more difficult than before, but there was a new hesitance in Leland’s tactics.

Hopefully whatever he was doing now would resolve the issue.

“He really has changed,” Jude whispered just after Leland collapsed to his knees. After fishing through his pocket, he covered the distance to his friend and helped him pour a stamina potion down his throat.

“What’s this about?” Glenny asked after the final waft of purple mist dissipated away.

“C-contract,” Leland said through horrible, hard, burning breaths.

“You have a contract to run?” Jude asked.

Responding with a glare, Leland allowed himself to fall to his back. The cold wet snow met his open neck and hair, soaking both with a blizzard of soothing. Content to lay like that for a long moment, he eventually tugged at his grimoire and allowed it to flip to the page he wished to see. He read it aloud to his friends.

Cursed contract of the Lord of Endurance:

Use: If used while completely exhausted, each running step during the contract’s duration provides a small addition to your base stamina. Only usable once per hour.

Total Steps: 14.

Return: Two laps around the presiding Lord’s domain and the promise to try the presiding Lord’s morning exercise routine.

“F-fourteen?” Leland asked, his breath still longing for a full scale reprieve. “Only fourteen?”

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“That’s…” Jude didn’t want to say, ‘pretty bad,’ so he just stopped speaking.

“That’s a lot for you,” Glenny quickly supplied.

Leland glared.

Jude rolled his eyes. “Why didn’t you just heal yourself as you ran? You can have two contracts activated at the same time now, right?”

The cold wetness in Leland’s hair and on his neck froze over. He stiffened before saying, “Right…”

Glenny burst out laughing. “Did you really forget? How many steps do you think you could have gotten if you constantly regenerated yourself?”

“At least fifteen!” Jude bellowed.

“Fifteen!? I was thinking sixteen!” Glenny went on.

Getting to his feet, Leland pushed past his friends and scurried into the smoky inn. Even after he entered, he could still hear his friends laughing. In a way, it was a bit funny. But also showed just how his specialization choice in contracts was the correct decision. If the Lord of Nature’s contract, Touch of Regeneration, worked in tandem with the Lord of Endurance’s stamina contract, then his goals to never be out of breath again would come much sooner than expected.

He cursed himself, realizing that even if that happened, he’d still have to exercise in the mornings to not break the contract.

“You alright there, sonny?” a voice from behind the inn’s bar asked.

Leland pulled himself from his day dreaming, focusing on the man. Older, the man spoke with the rasp of a lifetime of smoking. Dull and wispy could only describe his voice, however, the man’s dress and particularly smashing facial hair was something far from dull.

“How long does it take to comb your mustache to look like that?” Leland found himself asking.

The man smirked. “Watch,” he said before licking both thumbs and pointer fingers. With a sudden pull and twist, the man curled his mustache up like a dual sided fish hook. “I’d say that was two seconds, what do you think?”

“Maybe less.”

The man gave a prompt nod. “Now then, sonny. You look lost, what’s the matter?”

Leland smiled. “Just realized I’m dumb and inefficient.”

“You a mage, right?”

“How’d you know?”

“Sun dimmed for a few moments. I looked outside, and there you were, blazing with magic,” the man said, pouring a glass of water. “No mage I’ve ever seen, though. Running like a warrior, dark power like a shadow rogue. Scary stuff.”

Leland took the offered glass, downing a few gulps. “You seem to know a lot about combative archetypes. Are you a former adventurer?”

“Nope!” the man laughed, shoving out his hand. “Legacy of the Drink, how do you do?”

Leland gave a firm shake. “Legacy of the… well, that’s a bit private. Wouldn’t want that information to fall into a certain stalker’s palms.”

“Stalker, you say?” the barkeep said, quirking an eyebrow. “Sounds like an adventure. But to answer your question, people of all kinds come through my inn to get to Ruinsforth this time of year. You pick up on things, you know?”

A thought came to Leland. “You ever see people with a halo like mine?”

“Nothing of the sort. Interesting spell, I must say. Are you asking because you want to meet up with Legacies of your Lord? Make friends, sort of thing?”

A somber still smile fell on Leland’s face. He wanted to say, “The opposite, actually,” but held off from speaking.

“I see you aren’t going to answer that,” the man laughed. “You mages and your secrets. I swear, if everyone just shared information with each other, the world would be a safer place.”

“That’s a nice thought. But some secrets are better left alone.”

The man grumbled something, leaving for the kitchen. Leland took the cue and left.

After a quick change of clothes, a check to make sure they hadn’t been robbed, and another check to see if his tattoo had changed at all, Leland made his way back into the inn’s common room. The room had filled up in the short time he was gone, the patrons eating breakfast and smoking their pipes. Jude and Glenny had their own table, a fresh spread of food warm and waiting.

Sitting down, Leland said, “I might have to stop using my halo out in the open.”

Glenny cracked a glare.

“Don’t give me that look. I used it out in the open plenty of times before ever realizing what it meant. Obviously those who know are few in numbers. My parents didn’t even recognize it.”

Jude ripped a piece of sausage off his fork. “And it only takes one person to recognize it to bring trouble. Either the Inquisitors or a Harbinger.”

“Speaking of vile being hellbent on the torture of others,” Glenny said with a roll of the eyes. “Has anyone been contacted by the Huntress? I figured she’d catch up by now.”

“You… you don’t think she’s finally given up chasing after us?”

Jude and Glenny both looked at Leland like his forehead suddenly expanded with horn growths. “No,” they both said at the same time.

“A pity.”

“Anyway, we are going to be in Ruinsforth in a few days. Do we take on another quest on the way, or skip straight to the city?” Glenny asked.

“I vote to skip,” Leland said.

“Quest,” Jude called in turn. “I want to kill more things. I need to know the full extent of Floe’s Incarnation.”

“And you will, but in Ruinsforth. With our parents.”

“I agree with Leland. We are skipping directly to the city.”

Jude grumbled something.

“Look at it this way, we can spend more time with them if we arrive early. Surely they are stationed in the city for the Royal Dream, and once that starts, they probably won’t have the time to be with us.”

Jude grumbled again, but with less enthusiasm.