Evelyn saw her light give out as the fighting became intense. She could see the fighting through the energy moving, however she wanted to see it with her own eyes. Evelyn yelled, “Light!”
With her single word, she illuminated the area once more with a singular orb of light to find Adrith had clashed both his blades with Maidrin’s. Maidrin then attempted to swing their blade to rip both of Adrith’s weapons from his hands, and he let it happen. Adrith used this moment to slide to the side of Maidrin, allowing Maidrin to disarm him and freeing up Adrith’s hands. With his open hands, Adrith took hold of Maidrin’s wrist, extending both of their arms in that moment of a great power struggle. Adrith brought his other hand tightly to his side and punched up, uppercutting Maidrin’s elbow, snapping it in that moment. Evelyn heard a horrific cracking sound, like a dry branch was snapped cleanly in half.
Maidrin cried out as they turned quickly to slash Adrith, however Evelyn could feel this was over. She could feel their energies, they had been in a constant war against each other, even though Adrith was taking constant attacks, each one leaving wounds, he was constantly pacing his energy. Evelyn saw from the beginning that Maidrin was constantly using energy, she could tell the armor and weapon were constantly taxing Maidrin with every use. Every slash that landed, every attack deflected. If this was a fight between two mortal people, Adrith was surely to die, he had taken countless injuries, many of which Evelyn knew would kill him if he was not healed.
Adrith slipped behind Maidrin, kicking directly into the back of the knee as Maidrin lost all semblance of balance and fell over. Adrith knew he won, it wasn’t hard to see, the moment the armor lost the ability to protect its user, it was just armor. Evelyn looked to Adrith as he looked at her with a nod, telling her that this fight was done. Evelyn sighed as she began to make her way over, “You had to fight?”
Adrith shook his head as he looked to Maidrin as they tried to rise, “Wouldn’t have it any other way”.
Evelyn shook her head, “I’ll heal you”.
Adrith nodded his head as he began to hear Evelyn chant,
“Hear me, oh heavenly star that guides us warry souls, answer me”
“Hear my request, Give onto us your warm glow in this dark night, answer my wish”
“Hear my plea, let no pain exist under your radiant glow, answer my desire, heal”
Adrith looked above him as he began to see a fall of shimmering golden light cover him. His wounds slowly began to close as he felt the aches and pains still there. He sighed as they both turned to Maidrin who had now made their way up.
Maidrin was now leaning against the wall, taking up their blade in one arm, yet not the other. Adrith nodded his head as he said, “Give it up, you can’t even handle fixing your own arm”. Maidrin was breathing heavily, as their broken arm began to lift, twitches of pain were able to be seen on the hand as Maidrin twitched their head. They then said at that moment, “You two, what is happening?”
Adrith and Evelyn looked at each other as Evelyn was the first to speak, “With the Face Stealers?”
Maidrin lightly nodded their head, seeming to now find that there was some dialogue able to be had, Adrith decided to sit down on the opposite wall from Maidrin. Showing he is not here to fight anymore. Maidrin did not take this as a sign to put down their own weapon as Evelyn speaks, “Well, Adrith realized that something was going on and had a thought that Face Stealers were acting as your friends”.
Maidrin looked to Evelyn as they spoke, “Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Evelyn began to hear Maidrin’s voice more clearly. Maidrin tried to speak in a deeper tone, yet now when pushed to their physical limit, it made it difficult and allowed Evelyn to realize that Maidrin might be a woman. Evelyn isn’t sure why Maidrin would try to hide it, however, she even wondered if Adrith knew and just tried to use neutral terms to speak of Maidrin out of some respect for carrying a Standard of Leadership.
Adrith was the one to speak, “You would not believe us. You were already in turmoil from thinking there were only 5 allies down here with you. So when you awoke and you could sense 9 allies, and none of them were us, you became suspicious of everything.”
Maidrin looked to Adrith and aimed their sword at him, Adrith continued, “You’ve become suspicious especially since you haven’t seen anyone from the order outside your own knowledge until now. And for some reason, they show up just when you need help. You’d be suspicious if we were messing with your mind”.
Maidrin nodded slowly as Adrith continued, “So we did what we could when we needed to do”
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Maidrin asked, “What are you planning?”
Evelyn looked towards Adrith as she was curious as well. He had been pretty quiet on it in his own regard, yet now might be when she’ll find out.
Adrith began to rise from his sitting position, “The moment you get healed, we’re gonna be dropping what is yours and leaving”.
Evelyn looked to Adrith astonished, she had thought going up with them would have been the right option. Having more people made the most sense, being with people so strong and even as connected as Maidrin made sense. Evelyn had to ask, “Why not stay with them?”
“Because we’re not going down the same paths”, Adrith answered as he began to look at the cubes.
“What do you mean? We’re all going to be going up and to the city aren’t we?” Evelyn asked, trying to understand Adrith’s almost cryptic meaning.
Adrith shook his head, “No, Maidrin is going up with them and then leaving. The others may, but we have our own issues to deal with”.
Evelyn worded her concerns, “Like what?”
Adrith gestured, “They’ve been most likely tasked with coming down here to hunt the Chimera Dragon. They’ll probably have enough, but if we tag along we’ll all have to split what we got with them. If we do that then we will be shorting them and ourselves. Since neither of us knows much, we need to be sparing about who we ally with and how we split things. Right now a 50/50 is as good of a deal we’ll be getting”
Evelyn nodded as she took in what he could even be thinking about. Evelyn then saw Maidrin lower their weapon and said, “It seems you really are smarter than you let on”. Maidrin sighed as they took the helm off, sighing as Evelyn saw them slide down the wall with a thump.
“You mind healing me?” Maidrin asked Evelyn as they brought their arm up to begin taking hold of their metal collar and undoing it. Evelyn could see the bruises that had begun to form from the fighting. Evelyn nodded her head as she began to chant her healing spell.
“Hear me, oh heavenly star that guides us warry souls, answer me”
“Hear my request, Give onto us your warm glow in this dark night, answer my wish”
“Hear my plea, let no pain exist under your radiant glow, answer my desire, heal”
The golden glow began to fall onto Maidrin as they sighed out in relief. Evelyn knew that her magic did not relieve pain, yet Maidrin might have been in such immense pain from the broken arm that it was as if she got rid of the pain. Evelyn began to stand back as she then asked Maidrin, “So what will you be doing?”
Maidrin leaned into the wall for a moment as they said, “I will be heading back”.
A simple response, something she would expect from Adrith, Evelyn would have rathered if Maidrin was a little more friendly, yet she understands why they weren’t. “Well I would like to ask some questions before you leave them. We may have not ended things well, but I think of you as a friend” .
Maidrin nodded lightly as Evelyn then asked, “Well I was curious, are you a woman?”
Maidrin looked up to Evelyn at first with confusion then a shake of her head, “If it matters, then yes”.
Evelyn nodded her head as she continued, “Well, I was wondering if you could tell me where you were going. I was hoping we could see each other again”.
Maidrin shook her head, “I believe that is not a question I can answer. Where I go is somewhere very important and I am unsure if we will ever meet again”.
Evelyn frowned slightly, yet she asked her next question, maybe it would tell her something, “Well what were you doing down here?”
Maidrin looked to Evelyn, “I was here to collect certain materials for our blacksmith”.
Evelyn looked at Maidrin's equipment and said, “Well hopefully you can find some things. If he can make armor like that from this dungeon he must be very talented”.
Maidrin shook her head, “No, this was made from simple materials, what I hunt will be what he makes my next weapon out of”.
Evelyn was taken aback, “So what will it be made out of?”
Maidrin lightly gestured to where Evelyn left the loot from the dungeon.
“From a Chimera Dragon?” Evelyn was both curious and impressed by the idea.
“Yes”, Maidrin answered very simply.
Adrith began to rise, he had recovered enough as he looked to Evelyn, “Let us collect our things. We’ll take 2 of these Face Stealer cubes and leave the other 6 for them”.
Evelyn nodded as she said, “Okay”. She wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, however, she could tell that Adrith was right about the situation since Maidrin seemed to not deny anything he said and even collaborated on what he said. She grabbed what was agreed to be theirs, a good chunk of monster cores, and some items, and then she helped Adrith pick up 2 of the cubes.
Adrith took 2 of the cubes which did not take the face of one of the group members. He turned to Maidrin and said, “Make sure you give those cubes to the right person, they will get their true face and memories back when you do”.
Maidrin nodded as she saw both Evelyn and Adrith walking away, she pursed her lips as she called out before they were out of earshot, “May the sun guide you!”
Evelyn turned to Adrith, not knowing what lord or god that is derived from, he did not react as he left, yet he did give a slight wave cast over his shoulder. Evelyn turned to see Maidrin put her head down.