The night was short-lived. Frederick introduced Oakley to the barkeeper, Vitaros Shayre, who was also the landlord of The Banished Bark Inn. Oakley noticed that, yet again, this was another person that looked human at a glance, but less and less human the more he took notice of him.

Vitaros appeared to be human, but was statuesque in how still he was. That was what got Oakley to look closer, realizing Vitaros was literally made out of rock. The rock resembled human skin very well, but the differences were there. Instead of wrinkles, there were cracks. Instead of sweat from the warm interior of the inn, there was dust from erosion. He was a large man, but appeared to be more of a gentle giant, instead of intimidating in any way. Still, Oakley wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alleyway.

Frederick attempted to get Oakley to drink up as much as possible and Oakley did drink a full tankard of mead, to his credit, but Frederick was downing his own much faster than Oakley was. Oakley was introduced to various other people, mostly human, and to Frederick’s group of friends and drinking companions.

Unfortunately, Oakley couldn’t truly sink into the fun of the atmosphere. All he could think about was the note in his pocket and how best to get out of the inn without drawing too much attention.

Frederick provided the perfect excuse by almost throwing up. Oakley rushed the larger man outside of the inn, so that Frederick could relieve his stomach from the alcohol he had bullied it with.

“How about we call it a night, hmm?” Oakley said, patting the larger man on the back as he stayed hunched over, waiting for any more to come up and shower the ground.

Frederick nodded, not entirely capable of full sentences at his level of inebriated. Oakley wondered if he was lucky that his main companion was such a lightweight, to help with his own mission, or if he had somehow become friends with the town outcast.

Following some very vague hand waves, Oakley helped Frederick stumble home. They weaved through only a couple streets to get back to his house- a small stone house with wooden beams visible from the outside, as a quaint little design feature. Oakley knocked on the front door to the home, hoping that there was someone to take Frederick off his hands. He didn’t want to have to spend his night caring for a drunk person when he had his own tasks to deal with. He also couldn’t leave Frederick alone if there was nobody to help.

Thankfully, the front door opened a couple moments later, to reveal a woman, with curly brown hair reaching down her back and flowing over her shoulders. She took one look at Frederick and knew exactly what was happening. She didn’t even seem to register who Oakley was, she just gave him a polite smile before tending to Frederick and helping him inside.

Oakley wanted to say something, but they had already disappeared into the home and he hadn’t been invited in, so he didn’t want to intrude. He wasn’t the best at goodbyes, so he just nodded to himself and quietly began to walk away back down the street. He pulled the scrap of paper out of his pocket to try and reread the writing, to refresh his mind with where he was meant to be going.

The note said the ‘the Chapel of Families’, which meant absolutely nothing to Oakley. He would just need to look around for somewhere that looked like a chapel. He already knew about the Church of Brator, so his best guess was to check near there. Perhaps the town just had a religious section for those kinds of buildings. He wasn’t sure what a chapel for families was, however. Maybe the people of this land liked to value family? He didn’t have a chance at guessing by just standing around, so he started walking again.

“Excuse me?”

Oakley spun around to see the red-haired lady standing just outside of her door. He didn’t want her to put the effort into calling over to him much more, so he lightly jogged back over to her.

“Hello, how is he?” Oakley asked, thinking she was calling him over for help.

“Oh, he’s like this at least once a week, the silly thing,” the lady said with a polite laugh.

“I’m Oakley, by the way,” Oakley said, unsure if he should offer a handshake or something.

“I know, he was chatting about the strange man from the woods quite a bit earlier,” she said, smiling. “I’m Ari, his wife.”

“I should’ve known!” Oakley said, “well, thank you for looking after him. He’s a wonderfully cheerful man. Could you let him know I said thank you for both the drinks and the company, oh, and the saving earlier?”

“I’ll make sure he knows,” Ari nodded, “he’s always so modest that he’ll likely try and convince me you saved him, instead!”

“I realize it might seem like a silly question,” Oakley said, realizing he had stumbled upon a solution to his problem. “I’m trying to find a place called the Chapel of Families, but I’ve never been to Branchtown before, could you help point me in the right direction? I know where the Church of Brator and the inn are, if that helps?”

“Branchkeep, and of course, it’s no bother. If you know where the church is…”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Ari thought for a moment and then began pointing into thin air with her hands, but she wasn’t giving any verbal directions. Oakley was reminded of needing to ask for directions before satnavs were a thing, but usually the people helping would at least voice what they were thinking.

Suddenly, a tiny blue light, like a campfire, but barely an inch in diameter, appeared between the two of them. Ari’s eyes were glowing the same blue, though it faded from them rather quickly.

Oakley jumped back instinctively, and the firelight moved towards him at the same pace of his jump.

“What did you do?” Oakley asked as he tried to settle down, eyeing the light.

“You act like you having seen a simple spell before,” Ari laughed. “I figured directions wouldn’t help someone who hasn’t been to the town before. After the third or fourth, they get easy to forget and I wouldn’t want you lost at night- again, from the sounds of it- so, if you just follow this light, it should take you right to where you need to go.”

“That’s… incredible,” Oakley said, still transfixed by the light. Reasonably, he had already seen greater feats of magic, but this was the first he had seen properly, done by another human. “And everyone can do these things?” He wanted to learn more about the rules of this land and the abilities of the people within it. That way, he would be better equipped to face Paerilith when it mattered most.

“Of course, not,” Ari laughed, “but I’ve got a little bit of magic blood in my family tree. My great grandmother was a Hulyad.”

Oakley put on a face of understanding, as he could tell that was meant to be a humble brag. He made a mental note of needing to work out what that meant, too.

“Well, thank you for all of this,” Oakley said, waving his hand at the flame. “It’s really far more than I could’ve hoped for.”

“It was nothing, thank you for bringing Freddy back safe.”

Oakley gave a nod of the head to Ari as he said goodbye, though it turned into an awkward semi-bow by the end of it. They both shared a chuckle and went their separate ways; Oakley down the street, and Ari back to her drunk, yet cheerful, husband.

Oakley followed the little blue light, with it bobbing to the rhythm of his walking. It was an odd effect as, whenever he looked away from the light, his eyes didn’t need to adjust to the dark. The light didn’t seem to have the same effect as his phone light would.

His phone had died quite quickly into the first day of him running through the woods, after using it for a torch and trying, in vain, to contact home. He now kept it out of habit and almost in denial of the situation he was in. Hoping, also in vain, that he might be able to get back soon enough that he would feel silly if he threw it away.

Oakley passed by the inn on his route and one of the patrons outside the pub returned the polite wave he gave her. She waved at him, though she didn’t seem to mind about the fact he had a tiny little firelight guiding him along. Their magic must have been common enough for people to not be surprised, even if it wasn’t readily available to everyone.

I need a notebook to keep track of all of these things, Oakley thought to himself as he walked.

He walked down a different street than the one that would take him to the church and continued winding through the streets. He was impressed at how many buildings had been packed into one small town, while having room for all the buildings to be detached, instead of the terraced housing he was used to back home.

The blue light fizzled out, finally, in front of a modest looking building. It was in the center of a circular clearing, not unlike a town square- but a circle.

The building was not entirely cylindrical, it had sides, but there were so many it may as well have just been a circle. Unlike the church, this one had no vines growing up it. It had a small wooden door as an entrance and, if anything, looked a little lonely- exposed as it was.

Oakley wandered up to the wooden door and knocked on it. The building couldn’t have been large enough for anything more than one central room; like an ornate, stone shed.

There was no answer from within, so Oakley decided to try the handle and the door opened easily.

“Must be a public building,” Oakley muttered to himself as he walked in and checked out the building from the inside.

There were no windows on the walls, though he was right about it only having one central area. There were glass panes put in, in place of the roof, just like the church- though these did not have any stained glass as decoration. Oakley could see the night sky clearly from where he stood inside the chapel.

All around the walls were carvings of various figures performing a variety of deeds. In front of the carvings were small statues, along with stone dishes that looked like flat bird baths. Oakley wondered what kinds of gods were worshipped in a chapel like this, while Brator got an entire church to himself.

“Hello.”

Oakley turned around suddenly to look at the person who’d entered the chapel behind him, without him even noticing.

“I hear you’re looking for someone named Paerilith?” The man asked. Oakley could tell, from his voice, that the man was older. His voice had a tell-tale rasp to it. The man had put in the effort to hide his face with a large hood and was wearing simple cloths and leathers.

“What do you know of him? Do you know where he’s gone?” Oakley asked.

“Not quite yet,” the man said, holding up his palm. “First, there is the matter of what you are willing to do, or give, to find this individual.”

“How am I to know you even have information, let alone useful information?” Oakley asked, his eyes narrowing. Finally, someone that wasn’t willing to just give out help purely for the sake of being kind.

“Faith,” the man said, “ironic, right? Us being in a house of faith during this meeting?”

“It isn’t ironic. You chose the venue. What even is your name, anyway?”

“Are you willing to help, or not?”

“I suppose I don’t have a choice,” Oakley shrugged, “though I’ll let you know this. If this ends up being a waste of my time, I am not above enacting a severe punishment.”

“Duly noted,” the man said, with the hint of a chuckle. “My name is Aren, Aren Bryne.”

“A. B.” Oakley noted and the man nodded, what little part of his face was visible beneath the hood, showed a smile.

“The very same,” he said, “and as a gesture of goodwill, I’ll give you a tidbit of information now. The man you seek is not just called Paerilith. That is his second name. His first name is Hariel. You are searching for one Hariel Paerilith.”

Oakley nodded, his eyes narrowing slightly as he thought it over. It made sense that the man would have a first and a surname, but the concept hadn’t even crossed his mind until this moment. He really would need all the help he could get in this hunt.

“So, I can see that got your thoughts up,” Aren Bryne said slowly, “would you like to discuss my proposed deal?”

Oakley didn’t even have to think over his answer. He allowed Aren to lift back his hood so that they could look each other in the eye. Oakley smirked, nodded, and shook Aren’s hand.