“Cece, you’re a miracle worker.” Zereh embraced the blacksmith and replaced the mid-tier armor she was wearing with what was obviously her main set. The newly polished armor was a matching set of black steel with lilac accents.

Emrys couldn’t help but stare as she tested the flexibility of the suit.

“How much do I owe you?” Zereh asked.

“For the damages, and considering it was a rush order, that’ll be fifty gold.”

“Done.” Without hesitation, Zereh handed over more money than Emrys had ever seen in his entire life. They said their goodbyes and Cecile went back to the breastplate she’d abandoned when they arrived.

“Are you ready to go now?”

“Just one more stop.” The warrior raised a sardonic eyebrow. “Don’t worry, this one is part of the investigation. Can you take me to Sven’s house?”

“His house? Yes, it’s not far from here.” He led Zereh through the winding alleys, though she refused to explain what she thought she would find there.

They found Mrs. Thurgood standing outside the front door.

“Oh good,” she said. “I was hoping to see you again before you left.”

“I would like to see Sven’s room, if that’s okay,” said Zereh.

“Yes, I think you should.” She led the two into the house. Emrys had been there before, but it felt different to be there without Sven. Like he was trespassing.

“I came back here to clean his room after I spoke with you and I found this. I didn’t know what to make of it, so… Well, you had best see for yourself.” She waved them inside.

Sven’s room looked just as Emrys remembered it. A bed was pushed up against the far wall, sheets askew. Beside it was the desk they had hammered together when they were boys, covered in books, sketches, and loose notes.

Zereh flipped through a few of the pages and let out a low whistle. “All he’s missing is some red yarn and a cork board,” she quipped. Emrys flashed her a puzzled glance, and she rolled her eyes. “Never mind. Who’s Stephanie?”

“She was his girlfriend. Sven was planning to ask her to marry him, but then…”

“She died?”

Emrys nodded. “There was an accident at the Solstice festival. She didn’t make it. Sven took it pretty hard, and he hasn’t been the same since.”

“It looks like he was investigating her death. There’s notes here on everyone he thought was involved.”

“That doesn’t make sense. It was just an accident. She was walking home after the festival and got caught in a stampede. The cows got spooked by the fireworks.”

Zereh raised her head. “She was trampled by cows? Seriously?”

Emrys grimaced. “I wouldn’t put it quite like that.”

“Looks like he didn’t believe it was an accident, or at least he wanted a more serious punishment for those involved.” She handed Emrys a stack of parchment notes. Sven had interviewed a number of villagers in Sonora in an effort to learn what led to Stephanie’s death. Most of them didn’t know anything, having been too involved in the revelry.

What he’d been able to determine, though, was that she must have left the festival early since she was already in the field by the time the fireworks went off. There were a few pages about why she’d gone to the field in the first place. It wasn’t anywhere near her house, and was in the opposite direction.

Emrys flipped through the notes with a growing feeling of guilt. He’d known Sven was hurting, but he’d had no idea his best friend was spiraling so far out of control. The last time they had talked, he had noticed Sven was distracted and more serious, and the man had been taking more trips to Sonora, but Emrys had assumed he just needed time to work through his grief.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“He was suffering so much more than I realized,” Emrys murmured. The notes devolved from neat lines of text to deranged scribbles and sketches, like a written record of his descent into madness. In hindsight, it made sense that a life mage who focused on healing would be devastated by the death of someone close to him.

Zereh’s eyes were troubled. “It’s not your fault,” she said. “He could have asked for help, but he didn’t. He made sure you wouldn’t worry too much.”

Emrys handed the notes back. “Let’s just find him. Everything we’ve found still points to him being in Sonora, even if it’s for a different reason than we thought.”

“Have you ever seen these symbols before?” Zereh passed him another sheet. This one was only half a page, ripped at the edges. It was covered in the same symbol sequence over and over, the lines progressing from hesitant scribbles to clean images.

Emrys snatched it from her grasp. “Where did you find this?”

She raised an eyebrow and gestured at the desk. “Same place as everything else.”

“This is rune magic. Anyone can use it, and you can access any element, but it’s incredibly challenging to use. You have to draw the runes perfectly and gather all the right material in exactly the right ratios. It’s a bastardized form of magic that nobody uses because it’s terrible.”

“I think we found someone who uses it.”

Emrys sighed. “We can ask him about it when we find him. Is there anything else we need to do here, or can we go?”

“No, I think we’ve–.” Zereh cut off. Emrys followed her gaze but as far as he could tell she was frozen staring at the wall .

“Zereh?” He waved a hand in front of her face. “You okay?”

She didn’t so much as blink. Emrys edged away from her. She was still breathing, but aside from that she was eerily motionless. He was about to call Mrs. Thurgood for help when Zereh groaned and shook her head.

“We’re going to have to go later. Let’s say, first thing tomorrow.”

Concern transformed to panic in an instant. Emrys was back in the dungeon with Jefferson and Merv when they told him they were leaving him behind. The immortals were leaving him behind, leaving him to die.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay? I promise.” She pressed his hand between hers and looked him in the eyes. “Okay? First thing tomorrow.”

Emrys deflated at her touch. At that moment, he would have agreed to anything.

“What, um. What should I do while you’re gone?”

“See if you can learn anything about those ruins Sven was practicing. If we know what those are, we might be able to figure out where he went and why.”

He nodded once, not trusting himself to speak. A moment later, she was gone.

There was something about Zereh that made him want to trust her, but at the same time he feared she would turn out to be just as unreliable as the rest of her kind. It would be so much easier if any of the other villagers were as dedicated to dungeon clearing as he was. He had nearly done it once, back when he was still getting used to magic. With Elder Winter there to mentor and watch out for them, Emrys had convinced Sven and Julia to join them in an earth dungeon. Sven was able to practice his healing and Julia her spear.

To say it hadn’t gone well would be an understatement. Julia had nearly gotten her leg torn off, and Sven had vomited at the sight.

That had been the second room of a two-floor dungeon.

Julia hadn’t spoken to him for months after, and Sven had stopped listening when Emrys wanted to talk about dungeon strategy. Both tried to talk him out of ever going into a dungeon again.

Winter hadn’t said “I told you so,” so much as he had telepathically screamed it with a well-timed eyebrow raise. Anyone else in town who was willing to go into a dungeon would only do so in a party that included at least two immortals, which was occasionally helpful but mostly defeated the purpose.

Emrys found Sven’s mother in the kitchen making sandwiches.

“Did you find anything useful?” she asked.

“We think he was getting into rune magic. I don’t recognize the symbols he was using so I’ll see if I can find something in the library.”

“Oh honey, why don’t you leave that sort of thing to Zereh? She’s already agreed to take you along, so all you have to do is wait for her to be ready. She’ll know what to do.”

Emrys snapped. “Are you worried about Sven or not? I thought you wanted me to help you find him, but as soon as you saw Zereh it’s like you don’t care anymore. ‘She’ll get to it when she gets to it, just wait for her at the gate.’ Every moment we wait is a moment he’s still in danger, and it’s like I’m the only one who sees that!” He was shouting by the end of it, and tears were pricking at his eyes. “Zereh isn’t even here anymore! For all that she said she would help, she’s found something more important to do this evening.”

Mrs. Thurgood’s eyes flashed. She set down the bread she was holding. “I’ll thank you not to come into my house and tell me I don’t care about my son.”

Emrys blanched. “I didn’t mean–”

She held up a hand for silence and received it. “I know you like to play at adventuring, but the true difference between you and Zereh is that when an immortal accepts a quest, our fate is taken into the hands of the gods. Sven’s fate is in the hands of the gods. One way or another his destiny has been decided, and it won’t matter if we wait a day or a year. My only role in this now is to wait, and to hope he returns.”

“I don’t believe that,” the mage said through clenched teeth. “I can’t believe we are so powerless in our own lives.”

Mrs. Thurgood’s eyes softened. “I know.”