It takes us two days of aimless wandering to find another road, Two days with barely any water and a grumpy Kara complaining and blaming me for our situation. At least we had enough food to not starve.

The next day, we meet a merchant who we strike a deal with. He gives us food and water and lets us travel with him to the next city, Strendorrs Mine, while I infuse three gems for him. Thankfully we are spared any Bandit encounters during out travels but the stories we share do get us quite a interesting reaction.

I wave goodbye to the merchant, leading Kara to Morgan's armoury. "When we have some money again, I'll buy you some proper clothes. Morgan can lend me a revolver until I can build my own, she owes me a favour."

Kara swipes a fruit from a vendor, letting it vanish in her [Pantry] and feigning interest in the merchants necklace before turning to me "Or I can kill a few bandits and we grab their loot to sell. It's not like some random bandits can seriously hurt me."

"I am not risking your life for this," I explain, "I can snipe some bandits four some easy coin, I’ve done it before." That’s how I got started, some looted coins, a revolver that gave up after four shots and a dream of freedom, or mostly a dream to eat regularly to be honest.

“You saw me slap a sword away with my bare hand, as long as I stay in close quarters with them.”

“I- wait a second.” If she terrorises them in melee, I can take out anyone that tries to take a shot at her. They would be too occupied with her to deal with me, we could easily take out huge encampments that way if we had a way to communicate, like one of those huge telephones they got in Lurn.

Lurn is the city of innovation, a dream for any crafter, filled to the brim with luxury apartments, the best academy in the world and the highest security anywhere in the Hunters plains. I’d love to visit it sometime but the requirements are ridiculous as they only allow students, teachers and gifted individuals to settle there and any trading is restricted to exclusive contracts or the students selling their inventions. A spot at the academy would be like a dream come true but I don’t think Kara would be able to join me so I’d have to deal with the contract first.

“What?” she asks, resummoning the fruit, a pear, and eating it.

We reach Morgan’s armoury but I instantly notice something wrong. The window is empty, showing none of her new inventions, the lights are out and there is a sign reading “Permanently relocated” on the door in a handwriting I do not recognise.

“We make a good team is all I thought, we should try fighting together next time,” I explain, trying and failing to open the door, “I know a second entrance which I can lockpick, maybe she is packing inside.”

“Or you let me try something,” Kara says, stepping up to the door. She grabs the handle, putting her second hand at the edge of the door, nails digging into the wood. She rips the door open, ripping through the frame with the deadbolt, as she stumbles inside “Oops, it appears like we forgot our key, honey.”

The relationship disguise again?

The one person close enough to see us, a boy barely twelve years old, just looks at her, turning away and muttering annoyed.

We step inside, only seeing empty tables and cupboards flanking us, the Counter is completely emptied as well, even missing the register. Cuts, bruises and burns are everywhere, a fight having obviously transpired here.

Entering the backrooms, I get greeted by a revolver pointed at me.

Lily is kneeling behind a thrown over nightstand, clutching a shoddy revolver in her hands with tearstained eyes. She looks like she hasn’t eaten in a while, shaking even now when holding the revolver, bags under her eyes.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Don’t move, I’ll shoot you!” she screams, not recognising me under the cloak.

I slowly raise my hands to pull away my cowl, causing Lily to shoot at me and miss. I expecter her to have better aim by now but it might have something to do with her current situation.

Kara dashes in after me upon hearing the shot, ready to kill Lily, but I barely manage to grab her arm causing us to tumble down.

We end up lying in a heap in front of Lily. I look up at her with my cowl now down, smiling up at her “Hey Lily.”

“Grant!” she yells, jumping over the nightstand, dropping the revolver. Jumping on me, she clutches my chest, balling her fists in my cloak and hugging me so tightly I am worried she might never let go.

I wrap my arms around her, somewhat confused, comforting her as Kara untangles herself, standing up and patting herself down. She is as good with kids as always and goes to stand by the door, guarding it for some reason.

“Hey, Hey,” I comfort Lily, stroking her hair and sitting up, letting her sit in my lap, “What’s up, why are you here all alone?”

“I- I- They- I am sorry!” she sobs, barely managing a word before breaking down even more. She is completely distraught, the complete opposite of the excitable, passionate girl I got to know these past months causing me to start feeling rage bubbling up in me.

“It’s alright,” I reassure her, shooting a meaningful glance towards Kara, silently asking for help.

Kara sighs, slumping her shoulders as she walks back over, kneeling down next to us. It’s just playing nice for a few seconds, not even she should be that annoyed when helping Lily.

She taps Lily on the shoulder, causing her to turn around and look at Kara with her big, tearful eyes. I just tighten my embrace, trying to calm her down somewhat while controlling my strength, careful not to crush her.

Kara smiled uneasily, baring her fangs and trying to reassure Lily, “Stop crying, it’s unseemly.”

Surprisingly, Lily did stop for a second, in confusion instead of anything else. She buries herself in my cloak, blowing her nose and sobbing silently “Th- They took mom.”

I go completely rigid, mind racing at a thousand miles an hour. They can’t have killed her, it would have needed to be the Stokes or Tharon, the Stokes already threatened her before so it’s probably them but it’d be in Tharons profile to kidnap her. If Tharon turned her into a slave, I will personally kill Wilhelm after making him choke on… something.

Cinder would be harder to deal with, she is one of the strongest fighters in the hunters plains and has hundreds of capable fighters on her employ. I don’t think she would have Morgan brought to her directly but to another camp in the vicinity.

If this was just a random Bandit camp or even a thief that went in over their head, I will track them down and kill them before they know what happened.

Figuring my silence was somehow her fault, Lily tried to explain further “They started by wrecking the front and then- then mom told me to hide in my room. I am sorry. I heard Mom screaming and ran out the back. She-” she breaks out into more sobs, pulling my cloak over her head like a blanket.

“Mom was bleeding.”

Kara goes completely silent, looking down at Lily with pity in her eyes, or hunger, it’s hard to tell.

“Okay, Lily,” I say, voice as calm as I can make it, “I want you to go to your room, Kara will give you some food and stay with you while I go get your mom.”

Kara looks at me, scowling, “I am not babysitting.”

Lily opens the cloak a tiny bit, peeking at me through the slit. “Please don’t leave me alone with her.”

“Okay,” I reply, patting her head while thinking of an alternative, “we will still give you some food and I want you to go into your room while we get your mom. Lock yourself in the room, only open it if I tell you to, okay? I’ll need your revolver, it won’t do you any good with your aim.”

“Okay,” she sobs, cleaning her nose on my cloak.

I quickly lead her to her room, seeing it completely ransacked with my present shattered on the ground, gems missing, I make her a little hideout and make Kara empty the rest of her [Pantry] and leave it here.

We leave her behind and step outside, closing the door and hearing the click of the lock shortly after.

“What’s your plan?” Kara asks.

Dumping all my mana into [Restoration], I clean and repair the revolver as I answer, “Find out who did this and kill all members of their little group, no exceptions.”