Illuminated by lantern light, Myers sits alone in the Mess Hall of the Timbergrove. In front of him rests a map of the surrounding area and half a bottle of wine. Both items are ones to help him relieve his nerves. The wine to numb the stress and the map to give him an illusion of control. Over the years of service at his former command, maps were a constant companion in his daily life. They allowed him to plan, organize, and manipulate the battlefield before the battle even began.

Even with these two items, his nerves are still on edge. Yes, he escaped Memphis with Clay’s life intact, but he also lost the greatest strength at the same time: Anonymity. Three years of hiding should have made every [Bounty Hunter] give up the hunt. Three damn years should have been enough. Now his presence will be disseminated to every single Bounty Hunter guild and the hunts will start again!

The wooden mug cracks under his grip. Wine spills out of the crack and drips onto the map. Cursing, he quickly gets up, grabs a rag, and wipes his mess clean. Once finished, he sits down and stares at the stain in the corner of the map. Once upon a time, if a subordinate spilled something on a map, he’d have the man publicly whipped and punished. The man’s pay would be permanently withheld until such time that ten times the cost of the map is covered.

Now he’d done exactly the thing he loathes most.

“Yee look like ya drinkin to stress. Thas rarely warks for most.”

His head twirls to find Cillian with a bottle in hand and a grin on his face. The short man’s face is red, as red as usual when he’s drunk. But, what really gets Myers attention is his eyes. Though Cillian is very drunk, even leaning a little to the side, he can't help but feel like his mind is sharper than usual.

“I need to relax.”

Cillian snorts. He wobbles to the table and leans on it. “Yur nat tha type ta relax like dis.” He grabs the bottle on the table and takes a smell. “Drinkin makes ya emotion stronga. Ita makes yah feel mor and think l-less.” He lifts the bottle and takes a chug. “Unlike me.” He burps.

Myers frowns at the words of a drunk. Normally, he’d never give the man's words any thought, but Cillian has made impeccable deals while intoxicated. Even his former [Quartermaster] with double the level of Cillian would struggle to make the same profitable deal.

Leaning back in his chair, he takes Cillians words to heart. Yes, things are going to be much more dangerous now that the [Bounty Hunters] know Clay was at Memphis. But, they still lack information on their looks, new names, and only the highest level [Bounty Hunters] would have any hope of even tracking them if all they use are items from three years old.

“Heh, yur relaxin.” Cillian chuckle.

Myers nods. He does feel a bit lighter now. Still worried and stressed, but more manageable. He’d been too focused too much on the worst possible situation. On top of that, he isn’t going to be running forever. There is a way out for both him and Clay, he just needs to speak to Quasi about it. Speaking of which…

“Have you seen my grandson?”

Cillian nods. He points down. “Kids wit tha cap’tain. Dey playin wit fire and makin explosions.”

And like that, his stress returns in full force. “Thank you.” He gets up and rushes down to the hold.

As he rushes off, Cillian salutes him with the bottle and then chugs the rest of the contents.

__________________________________________________________

As Myers nears the hold, he’s met with the smell of burning flesh, flashes of light, and the sound of popping. When he enters, he is also met with the stench of blood.

Quasi is in the center of the room and is sitting on the stool as a Fenrimorph without his Gauntlets. Below quasi is a puddle of dark grayish-blue blood with bits of flesh and fur. As for Quasi, the man is smothered in burns, missing skin, and fur.

Near him is Boriss with a thick singed blanket while Clay and Nepenthes watch from a distance.

Before he can ask what's happening, a part of Quasi’s arm bursts into flame. Boriss prepares to smother it with the blanket, but the flame quickly dies down, leaving the fur only slightly singed. Speechless, he watches the same thing happen several more times. At some point, the fire is explosive and bright enough to rip flesh from the body. Only then does Boriss smother the flame.

At such a sight, Myers gets a feeling of woozy. When he looks at Clay, the child is relaxed and curious. Seemingly unbothered by the gruesome display.

Eventually, Quasi raises an arm and beckons Nepenthes and Clay.

Both Phytonid and human rush to Quasi. It is here that he notices a box in Clay’s hand. Quasi reaches inside and starts grabbing and consuming dried meat. At the same time, Nepenthes starts cutting away any burnt flesh on Quasi.

It is here that Myers makes his presence known by walking up.

“I’ve seen a lot of disturbing scenes in my life, but I think this might be the worst yet. I’m guessing you’re trying to learn magic?” He asks.

Quasi growls in affirmative.

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

Quasi elbows Nepenthes to speak.

The Phytonid twists her head towards Myers without halting her surgery.

“The Matriarch's body coagulates blood within moments of exposure to air- making the chance of bleeding out unlikely. The body is also incredibly resistant to both bacterial and viral pathogens. Combined with the most exceptional regenerative property I have ever seen, the Matriarch is completely safe from such artificial damage.” Nepenthes explains.

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Myers blinks, still woozy as Nepenthes slices burnt flesh off of Quasi. “I… see. Why are you peeling him?”

“Though his regeneration is exceptional, we have found that it struggles to regenerate flesh that is burned. Thus, my job is to remove such flesh so as to continue rapid regeneration.”

Myers ignores the queasiness of his stomach and patiently waits for Nepenthes to finish. When she does, Quasi doesn’t even wait to heal before transforming into a cat.

“Holy crap it smells like meat!”

“Like roast wolf!” Boriss adds.

Quasi frowns at the Grinning Russian before returning his attention to Myers. “Right. You look like you need to talk.”

“I do, though I can wait if you’re busy.”

Quasi waves a paw. “It’s fine. I need to take a break anyway. Hours of blasting my own skin takes a bit of a mental toll on account of the pain.”

Myers takes another gander at the pubble of flesh and blood.

“There was a lot more earlier.” Quasi quickly adds. “Much larger chunks too before Nepenthes ate it.”

“You have improved faster than any of my tree siblings,” Nepenthes compliments.

Myers raises an eyebrow.

Quasi stretches. “Yea, apparently Nepenthes’ clan is all about body modification. Natural Mutation magic or some shit. Anyway, they grow and destroy their flesh constantly until they can fully modify their form. Not that I’m modifying anything. I’m just trying to blast fire when I punch.”

Myers scratches his beard. “Like [Monks].”

Quasi nods slowly. “Kinda, though I’m not sure if they do it differently than how I’m trying. So far, I can do something like this.”

Quasi’s tail moves in front of him and points upwards. Then the tip bursts into flame. He wiggles the burning tail back and forth like one does with a torch..

“I can safely set myself on fire. Now, if I want to use this in combat, I’m going to have to put in quite a bit more power.”

“Or learn other runes,” Clay says with a giggle.

Quasi sigh. “Right. I probably should have asked Auranta about learning… safer runes.”

Myers stares at Quasi for a long moment. Initially, he’d thought that Quasi was specifically training some fire technique. Now though…

“Look, I got excited, asked for help, and only after blowing my arms off several times did the thought occur to ask for a safer rune.” Quasi sighs. “Let's just change the subject. What did you want to talk to me about?”

Myers takes a breath and steels his resolve. “Mine and Clay’s presence is a danger to you and everyone aboard this ship. This I know well and I am immensely thankful for your effort in keeping us safe.”

The cat rolls its eyes. “Yes, yes, compliment, thank you, thank you, more compliments, apology, blah, blah, blah. Just skip to the part where you’re going to request something from me.”

The old man pinches the bridge of his nose while suppressing the upward twitch of his lips.

“Comrade Quasi is right. Vhe are all family now. Family must never be afraid to ask for goat milk when cow is sick.” Boriss articulates with a friendly grin.

“Right.” Myers glances at Clay. The child is waiting patiently, but also mirrors Boriss’s grin. “As much as I’d like to explain mine and Clay’s full situation, the dang-”

“Just ask the damn request.” Quasi growls. “I’m not forcing you to tell me your secrets or why you and the kid are being hunted. I’m sure you’ll tell me in time.”

Clay giggles at Myers now annoyed look. He’s trying to be diplomatic, but Quasi makes this very difficult.

“I’d like for you to hurry to the island of Magnus. I have allies there that have the capability to protect mine and Clay’s life indefinitely.”

“Magnus? That's the island with the Republic of Guilds, right?”

Myers nods. “Yes. We will be out of your hair and I will speak to them about offering you a suitable reward.”

Quasi tilts his head. “I like you and I really like the kid, but just as you are rushing, so am I. I need to visit all the towers as soon as possible. Taking a detour to Magnus isn’t something I can do without good reason.”

“Magnus has a tower on the island,” Myers explains. “There are several more towers near all of the major powers too.”

“All the towers.” Quasi repeats. “I need to visit all of them as efficiently and as fast as possible. That involves visiting every nearby tower on my way to Magnus. If you want me to get there as soon as possible, then you better make an efficient route for me.”

Myers grimaces now, but he also figured that would be the answer. Not that it’s a bad thing, either. The closer you get to the major powers, the higher the levels of people you deal with, and thus the more dangerous it becomes. Allowing Quasi to level will increase the likelihood that if something unexpected happens, they can deal with it appropriately.

“I’ll have a route made.” He answers.

Quasi stretches a little “Sounds good to me. By the way, how long until we reach the tower?”

“Within a day or two. Sooner if the winds are kind.”

“That fast? Damn. I need to get back to training.”

With those final words, Quasi returns to his Fenrimorph form and starts setting his body on fire all over again. This time, Myers doesnt wait to watch.

______________________________________________________________

Salence shakes his head in annoyance. One moment he’s preparing the auction house in Memphis for the sale of the chests and then the damn guy barges in and changes his mind. Now he has even more paperwork to do.

As he finishes the paperwork and stamps it with all the proper preparations, he leans back to release a sigh. A short sigh, because just finishing the paperwork isn’t enough. Getting up from his chair, he leaves his office and finds his way to the [Secretary] in charge of transportation.

“Glacena, I need this document rushed.” Salence places the document in front of the tired looking woman..

The woman groans. “More work already? I’m kinda in the middle of something.”

“This is urgent too. I need you to add several Exceptional quality runed chests with the map shipment to Magnus. The seller took my advice and now wants to have the chests auctioned there instead of at Memphis. It should sell for a decent bit more there compared to here, so the shipping cost will more than pay itself- especially so if we use the Chests as storage containers.”

By the time Salence finishes his explanation, Glacena is already shaking her head.

He frowns. “What's wrong? Was the map already shipped off? That shouldn't be until morning.”

“No. The map’s still here, and it’s going to be here for quite a bit longer,” Glacena says.

Salence leans into the desk. “What? Why?”

“[Guild Governor] Bernard just locked down the city.”