We gather around the card table in the Emporium’s study like King Arthur’s knights, sitting in similar order to how we do at the tavern: Meg and Flynt on either side of me, Jonas on Meg’s other side and Tyrus between Jonas and Flynt.

Our conversations had been pretty muted since our decision at the tavern; we ate quickly and quietly to get back here as soon as possible, exchanging looks throughout. I spent most of the time trying to decide what I was going to say without going too deep into the [Interface] that I still couldn’t figure out how to frame in a way that would make sense to anyone who didn’t have it.

“This is what I’ve found.” I pull the two ostensibly matching books out of my bag and lay them on the table. “This one,” I tap at the cleaner, newer, less used looking copy, “was with the cultists on our spider mission. The other one I just found in the vault.”

“It looks like it’s seen some shit,” Tyrus observes.

“In more ways than one. It’s definitely been well loved. I don’t know how it ended up getting left behind, but it was important to someone. There are notes all throughout it in a couple of different hands.”

It looks like two or maybe three people have made the notes, but all of them are in the Common Language of the Peoples of Qeth, short-handed as Qethi. It is different from various Elvish dialects, which I understand like English but hear and read as something else, or Dwarvish, which I hear and read as something foreign that I can’t actually understand. I’m not sure how it all works, but I’m also not going to question it too much out of fear that the understanding might stop working.

“There’s also this.” I open it up toward the middle and pull out the folded map— one of many things folded and stored between the pages of the book.

The map looks old; it’s yellowed around the edges and some of the writing is faded. It’s a map of all of Qeth, and has six different circles spaced throughout the country— one of which matches with the location of the vault. Three of the six are X’d out, including one by the Black Lake (the location of which is drawn in by someone not the original map maker); of the other crossed-out locations, one in the desert near Gerai, and the other is near a place called Heroes’ Peak near the center of the country.

The one that matches the vault is not crossed out, nor is the one by the capital, Ruska. The remaining location is near Oosal, but on the other side of the bay, in the mountains near a place called Marrin.

“The book itself doesn’t have any different information that I can tell. The entry for the Stone of Ylaura is identical.”

I flip to it. It fills about a page and has a sketch of a green polished stone nestled into a box that looks very similar to the empty box that we found. There are also handwritten notes in the margins alongside small sketches that I can’t make heads or tails of. One of the notes reads: giant battle locations, another: Stormbringer history—who and when?

“It definitely feels like whoever had this book was using its contents to try to find the Stone, and possibly some other artifacts.”

“Why would it mention the Stormbringers?” Jonas asks.

“The notes talk about some theory that they found it in the early days of their wars against the giants.”

Flynt frowns as he pulls the map forward and studies it closely, then he taps at the giant battle locations note. “This map. All of these are big battle locations from those wars.”

Jonas groans. “Please don’t tell me we have to ally with the giants. I do not want to go chasing giants.”

“I don’t think so,” Flynt says. “I don’t see giants wanting to have anything to do with these locations.”

Meg reaches for the map and rotates it to face her. “Tell me more. Why giant battles?”

“One of the papers,” I pull it out and unfold it. The paper is worn and old, but it’s hard to guess its age. “It’s an unsigned letter to ‘A’ talking about how the Stormbringer family commissioned an expedition several decades before their incursions into giant territories. An adventurer’s diary from that era that was found in some kind of archives apparently speaks of looking for a stone of power in the area where the great dragon went to ground. The diary wasn’t clear on the success of the expedition, but there were apparently dozens of missing pages.”

“Interesting,” Meg murmurs, taking the letter and reading through it.

“Any theories who A could be?” I ask.

She shrugs. “It could be anyone. Even if we were to narrow it down to known adventurers and members of the Four families, I can think of two dozen possibilities. And who knows if that’s even close.”

“There’s a half dozen Stormbringers, including Artival himself,” Jonas says.

“Lord Stormbringer,” Meg replies, “would never have his name connected to something like this.”

“How would you know?”

“Because everything I’ve ever heard about the man says that he’s a shrewd and careful political mind. He’s not reckless. He's not going after something like the Stone of Ylaura without a hundred steps between him and the people actually undertaking it.”

“His son did approach Keira,” Tyrus points out.

“Without any specifics,” Flynt says. “I don’t think we can assume that A is the A. We don’t even know how old this is.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Regardless, I think we have to start here.” I point to the location across the bay. “It’s the closest of the possible locations. At the very least, it may give us a lead on who took out the other team.”

Jonas frowns, glancing between all of us. “But that’s not what we’re looking for, right? We’re not looking for revenge or anything like that, right? We didn’t even know them.”

“No,” I agree. “We’re not looking for revenge. But I would like to know who else is looking for a powerful artifact that can take out ancient magic.”

“Or possibly bring the ancient magic back,” Tyrus points out.

I frown. I’m still not convinced about that whole thing, regardless of what Nyssa says. Nothing in the book suggests that kind of usage, it only speaks of it like a force of destruction. Though I suppose that could possibly count. “Or that.”

“I suppose I’m just a little lost about why we’re doing this.” Jonas sighs as he sits back from the table and wraps his arms tightly around himself. He looks small and uncomfortable. “I’m not sure what we’re fighting for right now.”

Tyrus’s expression creases. “What were we fighting for before?” There’s silence around the table. “No, I’m seriously asking. What were we fighting for before? Because I don’t think we had much of a purpose except an interest in seeing what found us.”

Flynt shrugs next to me. “I think we each have our own reasons.”

“Reasons, sure, but something concrete that we’re fighting for? Not so much.” Tyrus look around at us. “I don’t know that this here is a good thing or bad, but it is a purpose. I can get behind keeping this Stone out of the hands of bad guys.”

“How do we know we’re not those bad guys?” Jonas asks. “We don’t know anything about Z. I don’t know anything about Nyssa. I don’t really even know anything about any of you. Except maybe Meg, and we all know she has her secrets. We all do. Maybe I’m dwelling on this too much. Maybe it’s time to let it go and get on board, but I’m still having a difficult time with it. I don’t know what our end goals are.”

“For me?” I look around the table. “I want to experience as much as possible and hopefully leave things better off than I found them. Isn’t that what any of us wants?”

“I wouldn’t mind money,” Tyrus says. “But yeah. I can get behind that.”

“And you honestly think that risking our lives going after this random artifact we didn’t even know anything about a few days ago… you think that’s going to leave things better than we found them?” Jonas asks. “Really?”

I shrug. “What’s the alternative? I sit here and the bad guys find it and everything goes to shit and I’m left with the idea that I may have been able to do something but decided not to?”

I raise an eyebrow. “We have skills. Maybe they’re not what we want them to be, yet, but we’re not the average person walking around the streets of Oosal trying to keep our heads down and make ends meet day to day. We’re not the strongest or the best, but we have some power. We can actually do something. Doesn’t that mean we have to try? Power and responsibility, right?”

Jonas’s jaw tightens and he looks down at his folded arms. “What if we end up making things worse?”

“Then we fix it.” Flynt’s voice is low. He shrugs a shoulder, though his body language is very similar to Jonas’s, and there’s some hesitation and doubt in his voice. “If this is the wrong call, then we fix it. But we’re not even sure what this is yet. We’re still figuring that out.”

“All I know,” I say, “is that this Stone is dangerous, and right now I’d rather it be in our hands than the hands of someone who would animate dead things and kill other adventurers.”

“That doesn’t terrify you?” Jonas asks.

“Of course it does.” Though, honestly, it didn’t until the moment he asks it. It’s easy to get lost in the game play, easy to forget that there’s life on the line here—theirs, and probably my own. I doubt there’s respawn or save points in this whole situation. “But I have confidence in us.”

“We’re barely starting out.” Meg also keeps her voice low and serious, matching Flynt in tone and demeanor. “I appreciate your gusto, but we’re still quite new to this. I… part of me agrees with you, of course it does, and it’s a big part of me, but part of me also agrees with Jonas. Thinking more seriously… maybe we should listen to Nyssa and let another adventuring team take care of this.”

“They don’t know what we know.” I point out my little collection of materials.

“They could,” Jonas says. “You could take this to Nyssa right now.”

A wave of cold pulses through me at the idea of it. I have no idea why, what it is that’s preventing me from doing that, but I know that this is our mission. This is where the quest tree is carrying us. This is what the [System] wants us to do. This is my way home.

“I could. I really don’t feel like I should.”

“Why not?” Flynt asks.

I shake my head. “It’s a gut feeling. I can’t explain it.”

Jonas sighs and scratches his fingers back over his scalp. “I just want to know that we have a plan. That there’s something we’re aiming for and we’re not only going from thing to thing to see what sticks. I want to do good, too. I also want to be sure that…” His voice trails off and he shrugs a shoulder. “I want to be sure that we’re making the right decisions.”

“I don’t know that we can be sure,” Meg says.

“No,” I agree. “We can’t. But I don’t think sitting back and waiting is the right call either. And I don’t want to just go kill a bunch more river goblins or help the local healer gather spell components. We can do more than that. I know we can.”

“I agree.” Flynt’s voice is so low it’s almost inaudible, and I get the impression—from his tone and body language—that he wants to agree with me more than he actually does.

Tyrus sighs. “I’ll follow whatever the group decides to do, but nobody ever got anywhere playing it safe.”

“I’m pretty sure that plenty of people got to tomorrow by doing exactly that,” Jonas points out.

“But what’s the fun in that?” Tyrus asks.

“You nearly died, yesterday. No. Let me rephrase. You should have died yesterday.”

“But I didn’t, because not only does our party have a fantastic healer, we all are prepared to fight for each other.”

“Aw. Tyrus,” I say.

“Don’t you start. I’m on your side right now but that can change in a heartbeat.”

I chuckle and raise my hands in surrender. Tyrus gives me a small smile at that, and then he nudges Jonas with an elbow.

“Also, there’s always the potential for treasure, if Keira’s god of fuckin’ misfortune doesn’t get in the way. Besides. Elf Girl’s right, and each of us know it. We don’t want to be adventurers to play it safe. We want to be adventurers in the hopes that we can make a difference. Maybe this is that and maybe it’s not, but we won’t know until we try.”

Meg sighs and nods. “You’re both right.”

“I know.” Tyrus grins. “So how’s this.” He looks across his shoulder to Jonas. “We’re all in this together. We all need to agree on a course of action. How about we compromise. The weather looks like it’s going to be pretty bad the next few days. Let’s stay around here, rest up, heal our aches and pains a little, do some training, do a little more research if we’re into that kind of thing.”

He glances at me briefly when he says that and I scoff.

“Then, once the weather clears up, we take a trip down to the dock, see if a guy I know can give us a ride across the bay on his day at dock. I’ll admit, I’m not invested enough in some fairytale that may not exist that I’m all that interested in walking fifty miles of mountains, but I’ll take a boat ride in nice weather to see if we can scout out what’s going on.”

I draw a deep breath but nod. “I can take a little time and wait out the weather.”

“Okay,” Jonas says, nodding. His jaw is still tense and his arms are tight around his torso. “If everyone else agrees with that, then okay.”

Meg and Flynt meet each other’s gazes and then nod firmly at one another.

“Okay,” Jonas repeats. He sighs again. “Now, I really do need another drink.”