Caster could only stare at the person he once thought he knew, dumbfounded by this new revelation.

The door to the shack burst open, and Keith stepped through. He stood there, silent as usual. After closing the door behind him, he made his way past Elenore and the armor rack, then stood in the corner.

Helga removed the soup from its place over the fire and placed it on the table in the center of the room. She placed two claw bowls on the table and looked toward Keith with a smile.

“I’ll assume you won’t be joining us, dear.” She poured the steaming contents of the main pot into both of the smaller ones.

“Shucks, more for me,” Elenore quickly made her way to the nearest sturdy dark wood chair and sat.

Helga placed an item on the table. To call it blue was an understatement. It was bright sky blue and shimmered rainbow hues from the traces of sunlight and the fire in the hearth. It stood upright on the table and had a handful of spikes pointing upward. It was a beautiful crystal.

Helga grabbed a stalk from the crystal, easily breaking it off from the base. She held it over her bowl, then dropped the whole thing into the soup. Caster blinked in confusion. Elenore reached for the crystal herself and took a piece of it off. This time, Caster quickly glanced at the item section of her inventory. Since she’d been sharing it publicly with their party, he could figure out what the strange rock was.

Selinian Crystal (Aqua)

A delicate mineral found only below the Bael Mountains. These useful rocks grow in 7 different colors, each kind carries a unique utility. Many still wonder why these crystals still form only below the soil of the Bael Mountains, but scholars agree that the answer has been lost to time. The secret died with their namesake - Silenus, an Old God.

Despite this crystal being the variant type ‘Aqua’, it is one of the most useful of the crystal's colors due to its cooling properties. It is sold widely throughout the lands of Perdita.

Clever - Knowledge is Power, Activated! +1 Arcane

Caster was able to read the description just before Elenore plopped it into her bowl. Even from his odd angle on the floor, he could see the steam that had been rising from the bowl stop immediately after a final puff of smoke when the crystal touched its contents.

Soon enough, Elenore had seconds, then thirds. Keith remained standing in the corner while Caster sat inside the rucksack, boredom growing by the second. To Caster at first, the soup smelled wonderful.

I wonder if there’s a way I can sneak some. He wondered. How long has it been since I’ve eaten? At least a day. But then, why don’t I feel hungry? He couldn’t think of an answer.

Soon enough, Helga finished her portion and Elenore drank the rest of the entire brew.

“I have a few guest rooms if you two would like to rest before you continue your journey. I bet you’ve gotten into a tussle recently and could use a few hours of shut-eye. They used to belong to my children before they moved to the city and it would be nice to know these old bones still have some use,” Helga asked as Elenore stood.

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“That sounds great ma’am. How about you Keith?” Elenore looked toward her ever silent companion. Keith shrugged.

“Wonderful, right this way.” Helga turned and began to walk down a short hallway connected to the living room.

Elenore lazily walked toward her rucksack and lifted it by one of the shoulder straps. Caster fell into the side of the bag that was leaning toward the floor. He felt like a pretzel, but their journey was short.

“Right in here. This room was my daughter’s – lil’ Wendy Wacker West. I think you two would get along like two oxen and a yoke, so I don’t think she’d mind if you used her bed for some shuteye,” said Helga.

“Aww, that’s such a pretty name! Wendy Wacker West.” The absent girl’s name along with Elenore’s iconic word draw made Caster nearly giggle.

“Just holler if you need anything. I’ll be in the garden to the west before it gets too hot.” Helga shut the door and continued speaking to Keith before her voice faded away down the hall. “I know you’re not gonna sleep young man, but if you’d like a quiet space of your own you can stay in my son’s run, his name was…” her voice was too distant to hear.

Elenore set her rucksack down onto the small nightstand at the head of the bed, then slowly locked the door.

“Some sturdy logs this place has. Makes sense since the Hullwood Forest is right down the road,” Elenore whispered as she laid down in the bed. “You know they call it Hullwood because the logs there are so sturdy that Mainhelm and Boyerton use them for their fleets?”

Clever - Knowledge is Power, Activated! +1 Arcane

“I did not,” Caster admitted. "When were you going to tell me that you were a princess?!"

"Oh, that? Trust me it's not that important. Besides, it's not as simple as having my parents bud. I'll tell you about it later if you care that much. But for now, that sweet old lady has given me soup and a bed so I will see you when I wake from my stew-coma. You alright to sleep in there?”

“Yeah, the blanket at the bottom of your rucksack is a bed.”

“Good. Try not to come crawlin’ out of there neither. The last thing I need is an Inquisitor Apostle disturbin’ my beauty sleep.”

“Fine,” Caster sighed. He’d rather stay underground and free from the bag-prison for a month than still be crammed inside it for another day.

“Plus, just because you’re a Minion, doesn’t mean you ain’t a pervert.” Elenore stifled a snicker as she buried herself in the blankets.

Caster raised his index portion of his mitten, about to argue for the sake of his honor, but he stopped.

No, no. She has a point.

The cabin was quiet for a few moments, and Caster laid down onto the folded blanket inside the rucksack. He closed his eyes and realized that even though he should be dead tired, he was wide awake. Still, when he realized he had nothing to do, he closed his eyes and felt his mind begin to slow - as if without an immediate purpose, his brain was temporarily shutting down.

From somewhere in the darkness, he heard a noise. It was like the sound Spooky’s portals made. But instead of reminding Caster of the sound of thick fabric being easily torn in two, this sound was far more brutal.

It was like a lion’s roar in reverse. It took several seconds to pass, and bits of the sound felt as if they dropped off or skipped completely, leaving a warped feeling in its wake as the sound zoomed by, sizzling back into the nothingness it came from.

----------------------------------------

Caster opened his eyes. A light was shining down on him from the crack of space under the lip of the rucksack. After a moment he slowly rose from his leaning spot in the back and peeked out the thin crack under the lip of the rucksack again. It was still bright day, and it didn’t seem like their position had changed at all. He couldn’t have been out for long.

Was it this hot before I went to sleep? Caster wondered. Even from inside the shade of the bag he could feel the sun’s warmth. It wasn’t even noon, yet every blade of grass along the trail they traveled was shining brilliantly from the light.

Caster narrowed his eyes. He tried peeking toward the front, but he couldn’t see anything past Elenore’s triceps.

What the… was I dreaming? Was that place my home from when I was human? That old woman… wait, was she an old woman? Wasn’t she young? Jeez, I wasn’t dreaming of Elenore, was I? Caster shook his head and tried coming to his senses. I’m overthinking it. If it’s important, I’ll remember soon enough.

Elenore stopped. Then, Caster heard the voice.

“Hello loves! So nice to have visitors. Are you two from around these parts?” The voice was from an elderly woman.

No, it was the old woman.

Wait a minute.