Maria: Can we talk?

Maria awoke slowly, and winced, shielding her eyes as a ray of sunlight reflected from the window into her eyes.

She sat up slowly and checked her party menu.

Chariot and Tanalia were still in it. Maria breathed a sigh of relief, but neither of them had responded to the message she sent them last night. She had taken Irra’s advice, and given them a day, but now that it had come and gone, and still with no response the morning after, it was starting to worry her. It was still early in the morning, the sun had only risen a little while ago. She paced around her small room, contemplating what she was even going to say to them. It’s what she had spent most of the day prior doing as well, coming up with ideas to try and fix the rift between her and her friends.

Tanalia: Where?

Maria paused and shuddered. She wasn’t sure if she should be excited or concerned that they actually responded. For all she knew they could have plotted to kill her, rid the world of one less problem, even if she wasn’t one— at least she didn’t think she was. Maria groaned and stared at the message. Tanalia had seemed so ready to kill her last night.

Maria: The Adventurers Guild?

That seemed like a safe option. She knew at least if they tried anything she would have the support of the guild on her side. No, these were her friends. She couldn’t think like this towards them. She didn’t want to, but she was. She wanted to patch things up but feared for her life getting too close to them. She waited to see a response, but as the minutes passed, there were no responses.

Maria: I’ll buy you breakfast.

She gulped. Did that make her seem desperate? Maybe… yes definitely… no?

“Gah!” Maria groaned and pulled at her hair. She returned to pacing around the room, and a few moments later, she finally got a response.

Tanalia: Fine.

One-word response. That was never good— But it was something. Maria dressed and went downstairs into the guild hall. It was much quieter, with a few adventurers sitting around tables. Maria sat patiently at one of the open tables, tapping her fingers against the polished wood while she waited. She kept her eyes on the windows and the passing city folk. The longer time went by without seeing Tanalia though, the more worried she grew.

The guild doors opened, and Tanalia stepped in. She was looking better, not so beaten up and bloody. After scanning the main hall, and locking eyes with Maria, she heaved her shoulders and marched over.

Maria gulped, and kept her eyes on Tanalia as she approached, and sat across from her. She had a cold, quiet stare.

“M- Morning,” Maria said.

“Morning,” Tanalia sighed.

Maria stared awkwardly at Tanalia in silence for a moment, tapping the table before looking back at the door. She was radiating an aura of intimidation she hadn’t felt from Tanalia before. She had always been on her side and had thus never felt it before, but being on the receiving end of her distrust and anger, left her feeling smaller than ever. Tanalia’s eyelashes were narrow, and curved, beautifully done as if she had spent hours in front of a mirror working on them, but that’s how she always looked, and the intimidation of it was finally shining through. “Has… Chariot said anything?” Maria asked awkwardly.

Tanalia shrugged. “I haven’t spoken to her.”

“Right, right,” Maria sniffled. “Uh… breakfast?” she chuckled awkwardly. “J- Just order whatever you want and I’ll cover it.”

Tanalia nodded quietly, and waved down one of the waitresses, before ordering hazelnut butter and bread, as well as a forest mushroom omelet and milk. Maria simply ordered eggs. The waitress bowed and said the food would be out in a moment before strutting off. Maria was left alone at the table with Tanalia in awkward silence. Neither seemed to want to speak first. Maria calmed herself. She knew this would turn out fine, it always did in these kinds of stories… at least the ones she had read. This didn’t feel like things were going to turn out alright.

“How… a… how are you doing?” Maria finally asked, breaking the silence.

“Uhh… I could be better.”

“You and me both,” Maria sighed. “You’re… doing better though? Physically I mean.”

Tanalia shrugged, glancing away awkwardly.

Maria sighed and pursed her lips. “I’m… I’m sorry. I really am.”

Tanalia said nothing.

“I couldn’t tell anyone… for my own safety. I hope you can understand that. I never—”

The doors to the guildhall swung open, and Chariot stepped in. Maria’s heart skipped a beat as the warrior started marching over. She was fully strapped in her armor again, the steel and chainmail rustling together loudly. She sat beside Tanalia and glared at Maria.

“Hey,” Maria said nervously. “Do you want breakf-”

“I’m not interested in the breakfast,” Chariot scowled. “I want to talk.”

“Right, right,” Maria gulped. “I was just telling Tanalia… I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry for keeping it a secret from you.”

“I know,” Chariot sighed. “I understand why you had to keep it a secret. I’m just still a little hurt that you’ve been lying to us the whole time regardless.”

“What else was she supposed to do?” Tanalia asked.

“I don’t know. I really don’t.”

“I don’t know either,” Maria said. “I…”

“Maria,” Chariot said, then paused for a moment. “Before the demon king marched through Trumhere Fortress, and attacked Berlington, he led his army into Penkurth. I know you’ve probably never heard of it, but the city is gone now. I was young… my mother and father…” Chariot fell silent, clutching her fist. “They got me out. After that, I went to live with my Aunt and Uncle in their estate far from home, but I could never forget that night. The fire roaring, the trees like torches. I hadn’t heard screams so violent. The demon king took my life away, and I made a vow to never let something like that happen again. That’s why I joined the Kingsguard of Castlebourne. Even then I couldn’t keep the streets safe, not with the Thieves Brotherhood paying off the guards to turn a blind eye to their criminal activity.”

Maria listened quietly. She hadn’t heard of Eastbourne before, but then again, she hadn’t heard of a lot of places. As Chariot fell quiet once more, she muttered; “I’m sorry.”

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“Don’t be. I know you had nothing to do with it. It’s just… now that I know the truth, and who you are… it doesn’t make it sting any less. I don’t think you’re a bad person, Maria. I don’t think you’re anything like him. But there’s a worm in the back of my mind, singing to me that you might just be wearing a mask, hiding your true self. I’ll never know that… so forgive me if I can’t trust you. I want to, I do, you’re a good friend, but…”

“I get it,” Maria sighed. “I… I get it. I can’t do anything to change that… just… keep being myself. I can prove to you I’m not like him. It’ll just take some time.”

“It will,” Chariot said.

Maria nodded, letting out a long sigh of relief. The feeling washed over her, and it was like a set of chains had been lifted off her shoulder. “Alright. There’s another thing I wanna discuss, but it’s about us, as a team.”

“Hm?” Tanalia raised an eyebrow.

“We’re not strong enough… and we’re not coordinated,” Maria explained. “We’re always getting in each other's way when we fight, and if we keep doing that, we’re never going to take down The Ringleader.”

“The other night was a disaster,” Chariot said.

“And if we try anything like that again without being prepared, we might not walk out of it. We were lucky. So, we need to acquire better gear.”

“We need to be higher levels too,” Chariot added.

“I handled myself fine,” Tanalia said.

Both Maria and Chariot narrowed their eyes at Tanalia.

“What?”

“You got your ass handed to you like the rest of us,” Maria said. “Regardless if you thought you did well or not, we weren’t working as a team. We need to be a team, people who can trust and rely on each other.”

“It’s a little hypocritical to be talking about this immediately after discussing trust,” Chariot said.

“I know, but it’s something we need to talk about. We need to start working on builds.”

Both Chariot and Tanalia gave Maria a confused look.

“I’ll use myself as an example. I mostly cast fire spells, but I’ve also been putting points into lightning and heal spells. Nothing about my outfit helps boost my fire damage either. I don’t know if you’ve realized, but they still aren’t that strong. It’s enough to get the job done, but it’s not enough for The Ringleader.”

“I don’t know if you noticed either,” Chariot started, “But you’re lightning spells were the only spells to hit The Ringleader.”

“I know, but right now, with me being such a low level, I have to commit to one element, and fire is what I feel the most comfortable with.”

“It’s certainly more fun than lightning,” Tanalia added. “Things explode much easier with it.”

“I want to get some new gear, maybe enchant my current gear to boost my fire damage,” Maria explained. “Maybe find some gear that doubles my mana, and gives me a little more physical attack damage. I just wouldn’t have much if any defense— But that got me thinking. Chariot, you just said you want to protect people, right?”

“Yes?”

“From what I’ve seen, you have more defense than Tanalia and I combined. You time your attacks and wait for the right moment to strike. You plan everything out, you’re cautious.”

“I know?”

“So why not commit to that? Think of it like this,” Maria turned her attention to Tanalia. “You have more health than Chariot and I combined, right?”

“Where are you going with this?” Tanalia crossed her arms.

“If we want to beat The Ringleader, we need to work as a team, but we won’t ever work as a team if we’re all doing our own thing. I’ve seen this work back home, but we need to support each other. Chariot, you dedicate yourself to defense and heavy attacks. You protect Tanalia and me from heavy blows and heal out heavy damage to enemies. Tanalia, you dedicate yourself to attacking primarily. You’re more out there in the field, and with more health, you can take more hits, and avoid attacks quicker. You can use your bow and knives to attack quickly, and chip damage away at enemies. I can stay behind the two of you, and act as support, casting spells to assist you two, while still having some physical attack damage to defend myself if things get hairy. If we all commit to one role that supports all the others and learn to work in tandem with how we attack our enemies, we can beat The Ringleader.”

Chariot and Tanalia exchanged a hesitant glance. Maria wasn’t sure though if it was from the hesitation of the idea, changing too much on how they fought, or if they simply still didn’t trust her as much. Maria had considered this proposal to them yesterday when she planned it. They had just learned who she was, and now she was asking them to change to work with her. She wondered if it was a bad idea, but regardless, it was the idea they needed to follow through with if they ever wanted to stand a chance against The Ringleader.

“How do you propose we do this?” Tanalia asked. “Do we just abandon all our gear for new ones?”

“No. From what Chariot has been saying, there’s someone we could seek out to help us.”

“The enchanter?” Chariot raised her eyebrows.

“Yes. I was going to message Master Eardwulf about it, and—”

A waitress approached the table, carrying two plates of food. Maria shut her lips and sat awkwardly as the maiden slid her and Tanalia’s breakfast in front of them.

“Will there be anything else?” she then asked.

“Yes, actually,” Chariot said. “I’ll have some Dragonfruit pancakes and orange juice.”

“Certainly, it’ll be right out.”

Maria watched the waitress off, then looked back at Chariot. “Change your mind?”

“I haven’t eaten yet. Frankly, I wasn’t thinking about the food when I first arrived, but I am hungry.”

“Right. Anyway, I was going to message Master Eardwulf about it. I have a feeling he might know where we can look to find him.”

“I’m not opposed to seeing him, with how often it sounds like Chariot would suck his cock for him to sprinkle her sword in glitter, I think it would be fun to see.”

Chariot cringed and glared at Tanalia. “That’s disgusting. I wouldn’t go that far.”

Tanalia simply shrugged and dug into her forest mushroom omelet.

“Anyways,” Maria cleared her throat awkwardly. “Yes, I want to find him. It shouldn’t be too hard.”

“You haven’t messaged Eardwulf yet?” Chariot asked.

“No… I was a bit… distracted, yesterday.”

“Then message him first before we agree on a plan.”

“Right,” Maria sighed.

Maria: Master Eardwulf, do you know anything about ‘The Enchanter’?

It only took a few moments before she got a response.

Eardwulf: Of course. He was an old friend from many years ago. It has been some time since I have spoken to him.

Maria: I had a feeling you may know him.

Eardwulf: I know many people, Maria. I have been almost everywhere in Mytharia.”

Maria: Well, we’re looking for him. We need him to enchant our gear. Ours wasn’t good enough to take on The Ringleader.

Eardwulf: You found him?

Maria: We did. Things… didn’t go well. The Oracle betrayed us and turned us into him in exchange for a spot beside The Ringleader when he found the demon king's treasure.

Eardwulf: Betrayed? He would never.

Maria: He did.

Eardwulf: I’m sorry to hear what happened to you. Are you alright? What about your party?

Maria: I’m feeling better. We’re going to go after him though. We just need better gear.

Eardwulf: Lucky for you, I know where he is. There’s just one slight problem. I don’t know how cooperative he will be. I’m not sure how much you know about him, but he was enslaved under the Demon King for some time, forced to enchant weapons and armor for his army.

Maria squinted her eyes shut and took a deep breath. “Great…” she whispered sarcastically.

“What is it?” Chariot asked.

“I’ll explain it in a second.”

Maria: Good to know.

Eardwulf: I can send you his coordinates. Are you still in Berlington? He is currently residing in a town called Lakeside Village. It’s a week’s journey.

Maria: Are you sure he’s not a traitor like the Oracle?

Eardwulf: I never suspected the Oracle to turn against you, I thought I knew him better than that. As for his betrayal, I cannot say for sure anymore. From what I last heard of him, he bears some resentment for the Demon King’s army. If you tell him you’re after The Ringleader, he might be incentivized to help you out of revenge.”

Maria pursed her lips. “Or he might kill me on the spot,” she muttered under her breath.

Maria: Alright, thank you. If you could send the coordinates, I would appreciate it.

Eardwulf: Of course. Good luck.

Maria closed her message window and glanced back at her party. “He’s in Lakeside Village. There’s just one problem. He was captured by the demon king, and forced to enchant weapons for his army.”

Both Chariot and Tanalia glanced awkwardly at Maria.

“I’m sure he’ll be cooperative with us then,” Tanalia said sarcastically.

“He can’t find out,” Maria said. “I… I don’t want anyone else to find out. I want this to be a secret, just between us.”

Chariot scrunched up her face, but nodded. “Right. Oh! Before I forget…” Maria’s Serpant’s Blade materialized in Chariot’s hands. With everything that had happened, Maria had completely forgotten that she had lost the weapon.

“Oh, thank you,” Maria smiled and took the sword.

“Don’t mention it.”