{-Demery-}

Whatever Aither told them, it worked. For a while there was shouting—something about the Tyrus family and someone named Tandi—but it died down nearly as suddenly as it started. The only thing Demery knew for certain was that, whatever happened afterward, he saw an emotion in his grandparents that he’d hardly ever seen: generosity.

Aither stayed with them that night. From the sounds of it, he was offered all kinds of things—all of which he initially declined and, when they refused to take “no” for an answer, accepted—and allowed to stay in the guest room. Judging by his progressively weary tone, he was as glad as the other two when it was morning.

Demery was by the door double-checking everything he assumed they’d need and what Aither told him to pack. He figured there was no purpose in making the effort to say goodbye to their grandparents, since they usually didn’t care anyway.

He was mildly surprised when they both walked up to them.

“Don’t die,” their grandmother said in her usual cold tone. A vague emotion showed in her eyes, though only Koyana would’ve considered that proof of care.

Their grandfather handed Demery a few coins. “You’ll need these for a room at the inn.”

“Looks like it’s just for a room in the inn,” Demery remarked without much consideration to his words.

“Be grateful you’re getting anything at all.”

Then they both walked away again.

Aither led the way when it finally became time for them to leave. Several townspeople questioned what they were doing out so early for, why they seemed to be traveling, and who their companion was; none of them gave quite the full truth. Koyana pretty much just assured them that they’ll be fine and that seemed to be enough for them.

Well, everyone aside from the few that wanted to give them some extra supplies, but Demery was able to kindly decline each offer.

“Looks like you’re pretty close with all of them,” Aither commented once they’d left the town.

“You probably already know why, don’t you?” Demery retorted. “You know a lot about us already.”

Yet, Koyana shrugged, and actually gave a proper answer… even if it did leave a portion of the truth out. “They’re all like family to us. They’ve cared a lot more than our grandparents did.”

“Where do you plan on taking us, anyway?” Demery decided to ask a moment later. They’d still never gotten a proper answer.

“I want you to ask the locals a couple of questions at a nearby town.” Aither must’ve known that the absolute bare minimum wasn’t enough for Demery, because he elaborated after a moment. “It’s going to be late when we get there, so I don’t expect you to do anything else today. But, tomorrow morning, I want you to both look into a person named Feldr. It may help give you a better understanding of what we’re going to be doing for a while.”

“Do you already know stuff about them?” Koyana prompted.

“Of course I do, it’s a part of my mission.”

“Then why can’t you just tell us what you know? Wouldn’t that be quicker?”

“Sometimes the quickest route isn’t the best one to take. You might not understand it right away, but that’s alright—it’s all a piece of a larger puzzle that we’ll get to together.”

Then she, being the person that she was, kept trying to ask about Feldr. She tried to get Aither to tell her anything about them; if they were the same age as the siblings, if they were some ancient person, if they possessed something powerful. It seemed like she took her knowledge of all of the stories they’d been told and set out to determine if any of them were true to Feldr—actually, Demery was certain she was. Still, Aither made no sign of answering any of them, only occasionally telling her “You’ll figure it out on your own eventually.”

It wasn’t until they were at the edge of the town in question that Aither said something other than that.

He gave one look at the people walking around and talking to each other, then stepped back. “I’ll… stay out here. You two should be fine on your own and I won’t leave if you come to find me. Just get some rest, and tomorrow you can start asking about Feldr.”

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…

Demery, like usual, was the first of the two to wake up. He gently nudged his sister awake and mumbled the reminder, “Aither wanted us to ask around about Feldr.”

She immediately bolted up and out of bed. “Let’s go figure out who this mysterious person is!”

“After you make yourself look moderately presentable,” he interjected. He stepped in front of the door right before she was about to leave. “No matter how excited you are, this is just like every other time we go out. If people think that we just stumbled out of the forest, then there’s definitely a problem.”

She relented, turned around, and properly changed and did her hair. “I bet there’s tons of other people downstairs who look like they just woke up…”

“And I don’t want either one of us to be one of them. You would wish you weren’t, either, if our grandparents end up hearing about it.”

“Do you really think anyone’s going to tell them what we’re doing?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Aither was keeping in touch with them. Either way, no matter what, we should act like they’ll know.”

“What’s the point in being away from them if we’ve still got to follow all their rules?”

“It’s not like we can do much else.”

It looked like she’d thought of something else to say but, after seeing his expression, kept it to herself. She walked back to the door once she was ready.

Demery waited until they both left the inn to ask, “Do you know what you plan on doing?”

“Uh… wander around and ask people what they know of Feldr?” Koyana tried with a sheepish smile.

He sighed. “You don’t have anything closer to an actual plan?”

“I was too busy thinking about who they might be to come up with a plan of finding it out, okay? What’s your genius plan?”

“I’m going to figure out if I’ll be able to view some records,” he said matter-of-factly, “and learn when Feldr lived.”

“What’s your big plan after that?”

“Well, if they lived any time recently, I might make a more specific search to determine where they might be. If they lived a while ago, then I’ll ask members of the church about them—they’re more likely to know something than the average citizen in that case.”

“And what if they don’t let you find anything, since you’re not from the town?” she tried after a moment. He knew that, at this point, she just wanted him to admit that he didn’t have it completely thought out.

Though, like always, he did.

“Then I suppose it’ll come time for me to just ask around.”

They split up after that, Demery heading off in the direction of the church—deciding his search would be most fruitful there—and Koyana wandering into the streets. He could only hope that she stayed safe and assured himself that no one here seemed particularly unfriendly or wary of outsiders.

“Ah, good morning!” a cheery nun greeted when he entered the rather small church. “You don’t look familiar. Are you from another town?”

He managed a smile of his own. “Yeah, my sister and I traveled here yesterday.”

“I hope you’re enjoying your time here!”

“It’s been good so far. I came here because I had a question—I’m curious about the town’s history. Do you think I’ll be allowed to access the library and records?”

“Of course! We’re happy to help you as much as we possibly can.” She paused. “Assuming you’ve got no ill-intent behind all of this, I mean.”

“It’s just curiosity. I think an old family friend used to live here and I wanted to see if I was right.” He really didn’t know where the last part came from, but it seemed too right to question. If anything, it gave her a better confirmation that he wasn’t there for harm.

The nun nodded. “Follow me and I’ll show you where you can find those kinds of records. You might not find exactly what you’re looking for, but it should be a good start. If you find a lead and think you might want to look through the records set aside for the bishop, I can get the priest here to show them to you.”

“Thank you.”

She showed him to the spot then stepped back. “I’ll be right here if you need any assistance.”

He nodded and took down the records he knew he’d need—a list of all the residents in the town. He decided to start from the most recent, skimming through until he found the name he was looking for.

It didn’t take too long to find it—four people with the last name “Feldr.” He guessed the older two were the parents, while the younger two were their children. A quicker look showed that they’d been living in the town for quite a while, though their family’s namesake wasn’t included anywhere. The parents, it seemed, died around the same time eight years ago.

The children had nothing to hint at their current status, yet it didn’t match the other records of people still residing in the town.

“Hey,” Demery said cautiously, looking up at the nun, “do you know what happened to these two?”

She seemed grateful to help until she realized the names he was pointing to. She frowned. “You’re looking into Feldr?”

“Yeah.”

“You shouldn’t concern yourself with them,” she said slowly. “Leave what’s in the past in the past. It’s better for everyone that way. If that’s all you’ve come here to do, then I think it’s time you leave. You’re not going to find any more information here.”