After a days traveling and a night in the woods Stan and Siona were getting close to the area where the facility was supposed to be, after nothing but companionable silence throughout the journey Sonia seemingly decided that she had had enough.

"So, after barely a year of graduation it seems as thou you have settled nicely into the "always be silent" mantra."

Stan gave her a sidelong glance before smirking and responding to that.

"Noisey rangers generally don't last very long in the wilds."

She rolled her eyes at that then moved to stand in front of him, blocking his path.

"Come on Stan, we used to talk all the time, now we barely even say hello, we used to talk about teaming up, taming the wilds together, yet you always seem to be taking solo contracts instead, leaving me to work with one "one word wonder" after another. I need you to be honest, are we ever actually going to do a mission together?"

"We are doing a mission together."

She sighed.

"I mean a mission you actually asked me to go on, not one where you only asked me because Master Aiden told you to."

Not really sure what else to say Stan could only really apologise.

"I am sorry Siona, I can't tell you what the missions were, or why I was doing them, but they are almost over, and depending on how things go with my gran and Oren, I will spare what time I can to go on a party mission with you."

Sonia's eyes widened in surprise and she took a step back.

"Wait, they have you on special mission? Are you being fast tracked to an advanced class? What does Oren have to do with any of this you have another 3 years before you will be ready to take on an apprentice."

Stan held his hands up in front of him and shook his head at the sudden barrage of questions.

"As I said, I can't give you any details about the missions or they why of them, what I can say thou is that Oren has 2 years to apprentice to someone before being removed from the guild, within that timeframe there is only one who can take him on and he has already chosen to reject him. However given how well he apparently responds to me, Master Aiden thinks this could be a good time to make an acception to the general rule, assuming I choose to accept. I have the two years to decide of course, but I don't know how good at teacher I will be, its barely been a year after I graduated myself, and I am not sure how much difference another two years will make."

She stepped forwards again, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I think Master Aiden is right, you will make a great teacher for him, and if you need any help with it, I will be happy to chip in.... in exchange for some decent conversation and the odd party mission of course."

"Deal."

Stan held out his hand and she took it giving it a shake.

"Deal.....right then dearest, lets go check out this amazing new facility."

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"Sure, lets do it."

She took hold of his arm and they continued their walk towards the facility chatting about minor inconcequencial happenings within the guild as they went. Eventually they reached what looked like an old wooden church, with a sun symbol sat at its peak it looked to be a church of Zenith, a small place where travelers either passing by or undertaking a pilgrimage would have stopped to say a few words of prayer or seek shelter from the weather. Didn't really seem large enough to hold a care facility and that fact left Siona questioning if Stan had gone to the right place, he confirmed the directions given by the priest so just to be sure they both entered the building. The church within contained several half rotted benches and at several points in the floor weeds had sprouted up, all along the roof there were vines creeping up and poking out the top seeking the rays of the sun, several of the windows were broken, they looked around uncertain when a voice came from behind them.

"Hi, you made it, don't worry you are in the right place, the facility is housed in the old churches basement where there was a lot more space with a lot less work needed, unfortunately this venture lacked funding, so we have had to make do with what we could get, please come this way."

Stan and Sonia shared a glance before following the priest back outside and round to the back of the building where the entrance hatch to the basement was, when they entered the old run down look outside seemed to change. The whole basement area was well lit using what looked like mana globes dotted around every corner, the walls were clean and painted mostly white with various works of art dotted here and there. The priest spoke of various aspects of the underground facility from the freshly cooked food to the activities available and the fact that every resident had access to their own rooms for privacy, yet in spite of the positive pitch laid on him by the priest Stan saw the place in an entirely different way, this was were the cursed went to die alone and surrounded by strangers. The group of wandering minstrels while clearly skilled musicians with good singing voices Stan couldn't help but notice that none of the residents were paying attention, behind the scenes there was just a series of empty bodies wandering around at random, staring at walls or rambling incoherently to themselves and each other.

"My grandmother doesn't belong here."

The priest who had been half way through a sentence immedietly stopped talking as Stan interupted him, instead of being anoyed by the interuption he simply nodded at his comment.

"I understand it might seem that way, especially if your grandma is still lucid, the curse affects different people at different rates, sometimes the degredation is slow, sometimes its quick, but the end result is always the same. At some point in the near future she will be unable to look after herself, and when that time comes she will need round the sundial care our staff are well trained to handle, plus you no doubt have your own life to lead, bringing her here frees you up to do that."

"And what happenes to those who have fully transformed? Where do they go in this facility of yours?"

The priest shifted uncomfortably at the question, hesitating for a short while as if unwilling or unsure how to answer.

"They.......they are mostly confined to their rooms where they are restrained, for both their safety and that of the staff. I know its not ideal, but once the transormation is complete they become very violent so they need to be restrained. Releasing them isn't much better as they will likely killed by wild predators at best, at worst they will end up being taken in by a goblin tribe where they will be forced to continuously produce children until they are no longer able to, making their lives very short and brutal. Outside of a quick dignified death which we can only do with the permission of a family memeber there isn't really a better option than what we have here."

Stan gritted his teeth unable to respond, Sonia stepped in on his behalf however thanking the priest for the tour then moving away with Stan to leave the facility behind, once they were outside and had gone a short distance away she stopped to ask if he was alright.

"Yeah, I am going to go stay with my gran now, you had best report back to Master Aiden, while I don't think the place is a threat, I do think its worth keeping an eye on, just in case any of the.......residents end up escaping."

"Ok, I will report to him then come back and meet you there, before you object, the guild notice board is fairly quiet right now, plus I want to help out if I can, we are friends, and its the least I can do."

"Thankyou."

She smiled at him before turning to walk down the road towards the guild, Stan went off in the opposite direction towards his grandmothers cottage.