"Lady Dracus!" Evelyn shouted, trotting to the S-rank adventurer, Lucia Dracus. "It's good to see you," she said when she stood next to her.

Lucia turned to face her, with a smile so natural one could think she wasn't surprised at all to see Evelyn. It was a trait of hers that Evelyn noticed the first time they had met in the Palace in Avinea. Somehow, Lucia seems to never be surprised. Evelyn thought that Lucia's control over her emotions was one of her best traits.

"Miss Baranet. I must say, I didn't expect to see you here. Although it is a welcome surprise," said Lucia with a gentle and confident smile.

"I'm as shocked as you are," said Evelyn, doubting that Lucia was surprised at all. "Are you on a quest somewhere nearby?"

"Just finished it, actually. We spend far too much time in this town already, so we are packing our stuff and going back south. To Thabinat."

"Are you in a party?" asked Evelyn, feeling a small pang of jealousy toward the lucky bastards who got to be trained by a legend such as Lucia Dracus.

"Yes," said Lucia, giving no sign of noticing Evelyn's envy if she had. "Though not much longer. This group has been under my wing for long enough. We would already be on our way south, to a city where that guild that issued their advancement mission is. I usually am an observer and a mentor to groups like these, as you know," Lucia explained.

"Ah, yes." Evelyn nodded, feeling almost like a teenager in the presence of Lucia, despite being 26 years old. "Did their performance satisfy you?"

"It did." Lucia leaned against a cart that was parked in front of the big tavern that they were most likely staying in and looked at it. "There were some mistakes, of course. Some problems may prove hard to handle in the future if handled wrong, but that's every party. Even the best weren't perfect," said Lucia, almost as if reminiscing. "They will make fine B-rankers." She turned back to Evelyn. "But enough about me. What brings you to this beautiful town of unexpected meetings?"

Evelyn ignored the "beautiful" part by trying not to look at the crooked and dilapidated taverns and drunks lying in the gutter in broad daylight, as if it were the most normal thing to do. "I'm actually looking for someone. He—"

Lucia put a finger up as if to stop Evelyn from talking. Which worked. "Wait, let me guess." She put the finger now on her lips, mimicking a diligent student. "You are looking for…" She squinted her eye and looked up with the other as if trying to remember something. "Oh, yes! I got it. You are looking for a man!"

Evelyn thought she couldn't get more confused than when an innkeeper turned out to be a master of analyzing people based on their clothes. But here she was. Standing in front of the person she admired the most, utterly lost and dumbfounded at the way she was acting. She knew that Lucia Dracus was known for her… unconventional character, but seeing it in person was something she turned out to be not prepared for. "I'm not— I mean, I am… technically," stumbled Evelyn, before collecting herself. "I'm looking for my friend, Annette. A man kidnapped her, so I suppose I'm looking for him too."

"Ah, the infamous wicked kidnapper of the young and innocent princess Annette Gwynaedd…" said Lucia, continuing to give Evelyn the impression that she was performing in a theater where she was the only audience member. "How very noble of you!"

"You know of it? The kidnapping, I mean."

"Dear, it's hard not to know with all those posters flying around. It's quite a popular topic to discuss too…"

"Right, the posters. Of course." Evelyn made a mental note to stop forgetting that she wasn't the only one who knew about the fate of her friend. "Anyway, I've found out that they were in fact here, in Sylio, over a week ago, and have left Aldunis via ship. I was just on my way to get something out of the harbor master."

Lucia covered her mouth in a mock surprise. "Oh my! I bet many bounty hunters would kill for such information!"

Evelyn nodded. "They probably would. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack after all. What, with the only information being that a princess has disappeared in Avinea? I should consider myself very lucky to have learned even a scrap of what I know," Evelyn snickered

"Mhm, I bet." Lucia nodded deeply. "Would you like to get even more lucky?"

Evelyn looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you could be standing next to someone who… oh, I don't know… knows where they sailed to?" Lucia wondered aloud.

"What? You know this?" Evelyn asked eagerly before some logic returned to her. "How?"

"Because I saw them off, of course!" Lucia smiled innocently. "I had no idea that he was a fugitive, and she was his prisoner. Otherwise, I would have never helped them." Lucia said, her face almost comically stern.

"Wha—" Evelyn caught herself and asked a more meaningful question. "How did that even happen?"

"I picked them up on a road from Avinea. A man and what looked like his daughter. Or sister. They looked so tired and miserable that I had to take them in. With how close to each other they seemed, I was never suspicious of their true relationship." Lucia shook her head, as if to look disappointed in herself, adding credibility to her lie.

"No, you couldn't have known." Evelyn sighed. "He fooled the innkeeper with a similar act, I must assume. Bold strategy. He must have made Annie really scared to make her go along with it…" Evelyn mused aloud, hands on her hips, below her wide belt that held numerous pockets all around, as well as a defensive measure in the form of a metal disc.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Thank you for not blaming me." Lucia almost wiped an imaginary tear from her eye before realizing that it would be probably too much.

"Do you know where they are headed, then?" asked Evelyn.

"Oh, yes. Nardan. You know where that is?" asked Lucia, feigning ignorance.

"I know… I've just been there…" Evelyn said, shaking her head. "Well, at least I know the lay of the land a little already…" she tried to console herself.

"My, what a coincidence."

"An unfortunate coincidence. If I had just stayed, Annie would come right to me. But no, I had to make another bullheaded decision…" she chastised herself. "Thank you, Lady Dracus—"

"Oh, please, call me Lucia."

"Thank you, Lucia," said Evelyn, a little unsure about calling one of the most famous adventurers by her name. "Do you perhaps remember anything else about the man who kidnapped Annette? Or how long will they be staying in Nardan?"

"Well, I can tell you what he looked like. Probably better than these posters, too," Lucia offered.

"Please do."

"To start, he had shoulder-length black hair. Bright orange eyes. A stubble. A nose that looked like it was or had been broken. He wasn't necessarily handsome. He wore a black coat that reached his knees and a black, sleeveless vest over a white shirt," Lucia started pointing out. "Oh, and his name was Keziah."

"Hmm…" Evelyn thought, holding her chin. "It will have to do. I will find him when I find Annette either way," she said, but her expression still showed that she was thinking about something.

"What's wrong?" asked Lucia, picking up on it.

"It's nothing, it's…" Evelyn sighed. "I knew someone named Keziah a long time ago. It was an unusual name, so it somehow stuck with me. That, and he was a massive brat. Made it his mission to bully me whenever he saw me, when we were kids, studying at the Tower."

"Did he now? asked Lucia, suddenly more interested and serious in Evelyn's eyes.

"Yes." Evelyn nodded. "But it's just a coincidence. He died some fifteen years ago in a fire, if I remember correctly. The whole noble family. They were descendants of some heroic general, thus the news about a proud but not very powerful clan's demise reached beyond the borders of their native Grenica."

"Hm, you seem to know a lot about this boy," Lucia teased.

"No! I—I just know of it because we were of similar age and the news about the tragedy was a big talking point back then…" Evelyn stumbled with a hurried answer.

"What color were his eyes?" Lucia asked innocently.

"Blue," replied Evelyn almost immediately before catching herself. "Th—this just proves that it's a different person! Can we stop talking about dead boys now?" Evelyn pleaded.

Lucia nodded, smiling, but not in the way when she was obviously exaggerating her speech, but in a way that held some important meaning that was lost on Evelyn. Lucia seemed to take the most satisfaction out of this part of their conversation for reasons unknown to Evelyn. She didn't dwell on that thought for long, and decided that she wasted Lady Lucia's time enough. "It was a pleasure to talk to you, truly. Thank you for the invaluable intelligence once again."

"So formal!" Lucia chuckled. "You remind me of someone in that regard…" She put on her teasing face once more.

Evelyn, afraid that it might spiral into another tangent of a joke at her expense, respectfully bid her farewell and went to the harbor for the third time in the last 20 minutes. She didn't ask Lady Lucia for an apprenticeship at this moment because it was not the time nor the place. She had to find Annette first and foremost, then she could think about fulfilling her dream.

"Evelyn! One more thing!" Lucia spoke loudly before Evelyn was out of earshot.

"Yes?"

"I need you to do me a favor," she stated.

"Yes? What kind of favor?" Evelyn asked, unsure of what an S-ranker might want from her.

"It's nothing, really. I just want you to stick with Annette wherever she chooses to go when you find her."

Evelyn thought that it was a strange request, as she planned to do it, anyway. Not to mention, why would Lady Lucia be interested in Annette, but far be it from her to question the dealings of high rankers. "Of course, I promise."

"Great." Lucia smiled cheerfully. "Let's say that when we meet again, you can decide whether you want to stick to your promise or choose a different path."

Evelyn, once again, chose to not bother her thoughts with the reasons for Lady Lucia's requests, so she just nodded and went straight to the port to find a ship to Nardan.

*****

A man with dark clothes, dark hair, and dark eyes watched the conversation from a nearby rooftop. He had been observing one called "Lucia" for almost two weeks now, feeling the presence of higher powers on her. In his eyes, she was one of the suspects of receiving power from sources that were too much to handle for mortals of this realm. The undeniable contact that she had with said beings was already dangerous enough, in a world where the veil between plains grew ever so thinner.

He looked at his side. There was a black dog there, on a rooftop. He looked as comfortable and as much at ease as he would on solid ground. The dog looked back at him.

"What is it, Gyt?" asked the black-clothed man, a hand on the handle of his blue and yellow sword at the hip.

"You sense some twirls of Fate around the woman she was talking to? It could be just the influence of this 'Lucia' woman," said the man to the dog, who still was looking at him, with big eyes, with red irises.

"It could be worth investigating more, just like that man whom you allowed to violate you at that tavern," he said again. This time the dog tilted his head in confusion.

"Don't look at me like that. I thought I was the only one who could touch you," grumbled the man. The dog started panting.

"No, I'm not jealous!" insisted the man. "Look, her group is back. They will be leaving soon. When we finish our business with her, we will look into that woman and the guy from the tavern. Deal?" he asked the dog.

The dog gave no visible answer, other than licking his lips and continuing panting. "Great, let's follow them, then."