The afternoon following the assassination attempt found Leo and Mathias feeling much better from their inflicted wounds. Lena had returned to them very shortly after the assassin had been thwarted, an uncharacteristic look of shock on her face. She had almost dropped the Moonshade Potion she was carrying when she opened the door to the healer’s parlor.

After the initial shock, she turned to all business again, administering the potion to Leo and Mathias. The warm sensation of the potion gave them comfort, and by the next morning the physical wounds they had began to heal shut. The seemingly magical properties of the potion sped up the natural healing process within most living species, though for reasons unknown to Lena, it still didn’t seem to work on pigs.

By the afternoon, Leo’s head wounds were mostly closed shut, though as Lena had warned him, his memory hadn’t recovered even a bit. The gash on Mathias’ cheek was mostly just a scar, which Lena assured him would mostly fade within the next three days. Impressed by the results of her potion, which he had previously dismissed as snake oil as there was no research to back up the healing properties of the moonshade plant, Mathias agreed to be a regular customer of Lena’s when she had her new stock at market.

With the physical wounds on the mend, Mathias released Leo from his care the following afternoon. Though he was free to go, the pair still had some business to tend to. Their would-be assassin had been drug out to the front of the healer’s office where the lawman, Jereth, took him to the Graeton dungeon in the Church of Solana.

The towering stone building that was the church served many functions for the small town, being the central focal point, and the main functioning structure to anything that wasn’t a tavern, home, or merchant stall. The mayor had an office within the church, the small academy for young students was held within the church basement, and Jareth had an office near the church dungeon.

Leo was dead set on finding out why the assassin was after him, and Mathias wanted answers as well, having been attacked in his own home and place of business. The only problem was, the entire town was on the hunt for a humanoid beast, so Mathias had to go ahead of Leo and do some damage control. The merchants weren’t at their stalls today for fear of the beast, and everyone was walking around meekly, whispering rumors to each other, ready to dash back inside at a moment’s notice.

Going out into the square, Mathias began shouting at anyone that could hear, “People! Citizens! Good people of Graeton! Please gather round!” The people in the square stared at him and slowly gathered in closer. “I would like to address the issue of the lion…”

“Is that what it was?” shouted an old lady from the crowd. “Looked like a damned best from hell, it did!” Several others around her nodded.

Mathias knew this wasn’t going to be easy. “No. Not from hell. From the mountain,” he said, pointing up at Mt. Fluore behind them in the distance. “We’re not sure how, but this beast used to be a man…”

“That what it told you?” screamed another panicked villager, this time a younger man whom Mathias recognized as the mayor’s messenger, Idon. “On good terms with this lion then? Best of pals?”

The old healer rubbed at his temples. “I know, the likes of this lion-man have not been seen before, but he is the victim here. A victim of memory loss. And a victim of…” Mathias knew this next part wouldn’t go over well, “the victim of an assassination attempt.”

A hushed murmur ran through the crowd as the panic grew. Mathias could hear some of the whispers as they grew louder, and the common thing his old ears picked up was “…the war…”. He knew he needed to address this.

“We do not know if this has to do with the war,” Mathias yelled out, louder than before to drive the point home. “We have not seen the brunt of the war here in Graeton. The odd bit of raiding here and there, but compared to the rest of Evania, we’ve come out on top. All I do know, is that Leo, this lion-man, wishes to question his assassin, who is currently being held in the dungeon. We need everyone to remain calm, and give him passage from my office to the dungeon. After he gets his answers, he will be on his way, and we all can get back to our normal lives. This is just a blip in our normal routines, and everything will be back to business as normal within the week.”

Everyone nodded. One person could be heard clapping, and Mathias was surprised to hear the sound coming from the grand church behind him. He turned to see who it was, and was surprised to see Mayor Merrik Thornvale approaching him at a slow gait. His head bobbed up and down as he walked, caused by a hunch in his back, and a limp in his step. No one in town knew what had disfigured the man, but there were rumors that his own mother had thrown him down a well as a child. Mathias could see his beady little eyes fixed on him, zeroing in on his prey.

Once he reached the spot next to Mathias, he turned to him to whisper so no one else could hear, “I knew you were aiming for my post, you old swindler. Trying to gain the favor of the people? No one addresses them like this but me!”

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Mathias chuckled out loud. “I have no want of politics, my good man. I leave that to the people of… diminished morals such as yourself.”

Merrik shot back a crooked smile and turned to address the crowd. “Yes! Yes, good people. Our town healer here is correct.” He said the words ‘town healer’ with a sharp, acidic undertone, as if to drive home the point that that was all Mathias would ever be.

“Though close to the stronghold of the Forever King, we are hiding in plain sight, and war will not be upon us.” This seemed to calm down the people as Merrik spoke these words. “As for our new friend, let us let him pass, shall we?” he asked, throwing his arms out wide and gesturing towards the crowd.

A look of panic came over everyone as they all turned, in horror to look. Coming from the direction of Mathias’ office, Leo was walking towards the crowd timidly, looking as though he expected any one of them to attack at any second. The crowd slowly parted to let him through, and he made his way towards the church where Mathias stood next to the crooked old man.

The hunched mayor stared up in awe as Leo stood next to him. Leo smiled back and stuck out his paw to shake hands with the man in charge of the town. After doing so he realized it was probably a bad move. Something in his brain was telling him that he wasn’t used to having menacing claws and fur where his hand had been, though he couldn’t even remember what his hand had looked like.

The mayor took it daintily and gave it a small shake. He leaned in close, his head only coming up to the mid of Leo’s chest. He beckoned him to lean closer with a gnarly finger. Leo bent down to listen.

“You go into that dungeon, you talk to that trash, and you leave, understand? We don’t need freaks and abnormalities such as yourself here. You’re bad for business.” Standing tall the mayor gave the crowd a smile and gestured Leo towards the church doors.

Leo gave a look to Mathias, who shrugged and also gestured to the church, suggesting they get out of this situation as soon as possible. They turned and made their way towards the large wooden front doors of the church. Mathias turned to look at the crowd one last time before going inside. He could see Idon, the mayor’s messenger, scurrying up to stand beside his boss. The two of them were starting to whisper and glance towards him and Leo.

Mathias knew that couldn’t mean anything good for them, but knew he and his new friend had pressing matters they needed to attend to inside the church.

Leo marveled at the inside of the church. From the moment they entered, it was too much to take in all at once. Stepping inside, they were in a small vestibule area. Beyond this small hallway were pillars that held up the main walls of the atrium, at the center of which sat an ornate golden alter.

Curious, Leo stepped into the main area and glanced up. From the outside of the church it looked like the height of the church helped support many different levels of rooms. Leo could now see that it was, in fact, just one large room that appeared to go up forever. Along the endlessly upward ceiling there were paintings of the heavens, and being that supposedly dwelt there.

At the very top, hanging from the ceiling was a statue. It was impossible to imagine the actual size of the statue if it still appeared so large from such a long way down. The statue was a majestic figure clothed in radiant robes of sunlit gold and sapphire blue. His eyes gleamed with a warm, golden light and his skin glowed with an otherworldly luminescence.

“You remember our God, Solana, yeah?” Mathias threw him and elbow and smiled, knowing the lion didn’t remember much.

“I… no… can’t say that I do,” Leo stammered back.

“Ahh, well, I’m sure you’ll be forgiven. Your state is not your fault after all,” said Mathias, only half joking. “This way!” he started walking and waved Leo on.

They walked through the side of the vestibule and down a flight of stone steps. Even though they were going down to the dungeon, everything still seemed very ornate, almost too perfect in it’s craftsmanship. At the bottom of the stairs they made it to a large landing.

As Leo looked around, he could see that the large landing also served as an office. A large wooden desk sat to one side, behind which were many bookshelves loaded with old tomes. Beyond the office was another flight of stairs that went down deep into the dungeons.

Mathias walked right up to the man sitting behind the desk. The lawman Jareth sat there, his face buried in a book. He looked almost annoyed as the old healer approached him. “What can I do for you, Mathias?” he asked. Then he looked past Mathias and his jaw dropped. “And your… friend?” he asked, trying not to sound nervous.

“That’s Leo, he’s fine,” said Mathias, waving off Jareth’s shock. “Are we able to go down and talk to the prisoner? We have some questions about why he was trying to kill my friend over there.”

“Which prisoner?” Jareth laughed, as if they ever had more than one in the small town. They occasionally had a drunk farmer in that needed to cool off for the night, but as far as big crimes went, Graeton was a pretty dry place. “Yeah, yeah,” he continued, catching the glare Mathias gave him. “Head on down.”

Mathias nodded his thanks and motioned for Leo to follow him down the stairs. Another intricately carved flight of stairs later and they found themselves in a long stone hallway filled with many sets of iron bars. This dungeon was set up to hold a dozen prisoners, but the place looked spotless, a sign that there was never very much activity down here.

The pair walked past several empty cells before they found the one occupied by the assassin. They approached slowly. They could barely see his face in the dim lighting of the dungeon. He had been stripped of his cloak, and they could now see a head of shocking, long white hair. He pushed his hooked nose out through the bars to greet them.

“You two are lucky to be alive,” he said with a smirk. They could hear a bit of laughter in his voice. “Especially you, Faro.”

The word hung in the air. Mathias looked at Leo, who’s mouth had fallen open, shocked at hearing his real name for the first time since his accident.