Red slowly strolled up to the guild stall and spotted Semaj slumped over the counter yawning.

Red placed his hands on the counter, causing Semaj to jump to attention.

Semaj looked him up and down quickly, “You look…cleaner. Did the inn treat you all right?”

Red rubbed his back, “Not really. The ale was good in their bar but the bed felt like sleeping on a pile of rocks. I would’ve been better off sleeping out on the ground.”

Semaj rolled his eyes, “Well I hope you rested up enough. Like we talked about yesterday, I have a quest for you. It’s from a family friend of mine, so it must be taken care of in a timely manner.”

Red placed his elbows on the counter, “What’s the quest?”

Semaj went to the back and came out, carrying something under his arm, “Right outside of town, there's a pack of Cait Sith monsters running amok. Are you familiar with them?”

Red shook his head.

Semaj set down a poster that detailed some information regarding the bounty. At the top of the poster, a large illustration of a large animal covered in magic runes standing on two legs, ”I haven’t run into one myself, but my father’s friend tells me they are huge freaky black cats that stand on their hind legs and speak our language. They’re not very aggressive normally, but something seems to be aggravating them. Or leading them.”

Semaj placed his hands in his head then looked back up, “They’ve made a den out of the old town ruins, Sola Dorma. Unfortunately, the paved trade route that leads other countries into La Des cuts through Sola Dorma, so a lot of traders have fallen victim. My sources are telling me there are sixteen of these tier-five monsters. I need the core of all sixteen, or at least most of them. It’s not much for you in terms of pay, but I’ll scrounge something up, plus I’ll let you take on a high-level quest right after.”

Red thought to himself, "One tier six monster messed me up so bad I couldn't defend myself against any of those Oldum knights properly. It feels like a lifetime ago now. Of course, that was before I gained any of these powers from Valafor."

Semaj slapped the large poster, causing Red's head to snap toward it, “I know I said you have to take this on, but this is a A- mission, so I won’t exactly force you. Are you sure you can handle this?”

Red pulled down his hood, his eyes shining through the darkness, "Trust me, I've got this.”

Semaj snapped back but then quickly brought his face close to Red’s, “Woah! I didn’t notice your eyes yesterday, it looks like outer space or something…”

Red rolled his eyes, “I’ll tell you all about it when I finish this quest. Now, what direction are the ruins?"

Semaj pointed left, deeper into town past stalls Red hadn't passed yet. Red placed his hood back on and walked slowly through the crowd, attempting to blend back in.

"Don't get yourself killed!" Semaj shouted behind him.

----------------------------------------

As he hurried past the edge of town, Red suddenly felt a hand grab his shoulder. He attempted to shrug it off, but the hand only gripped tighter.

"Can I help you?" Red feigned a meek voice.

Three men with cracked armor over threadbare rags stood staring at him menacingly.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The man with his hand on Red’s shoulder spoke softly, "You're going to need to come with us."

Red looked at him for a moment, then successfully shrugged off the hand on his shoulder and continued on.

The largest of the three men, standing quite far away from the other two, shouted out, "Show some respect when a knight is speaking to you!”

One of the other knights cheered him on, “You tell him, Nadel."

Red turned his head once again and struggled to hold back a chuckle, “You three? Knights?” He laughed heartily, “Either you all are lying, or this place has really low standards for who protects them.”

Red slowly walked toward the largest man, “Let me give you a tip, just in case you three really are knights. As a knight, you can't demand respect, you have to earn it. It doesn't look like you'd know anything about that though."

The large knight angrily made a few signs with his hands, before ultimately putting one hand up. A few magic runes surrounded his hand as he shouted out, "Flame Torrent!"

Red slowly readied a water spell, but something inside his mind inhibited him from doing so. He attempted to lift his hand up and struggled mightily, to no avail.

"Calm down young god, don't fight me too much,” Red instantly recognized Valafor's voice in his head. Red quickly turned his head, looking for him as Valafor continued, "Before you do your usual thing, I want you to try this. Concentrate on the flow and the energy output of the mana from that fire spell. As it approaches you, I want you to use that superior mana sense and try to get the best understanding of it that you can."

Red let his hand fall and took several deep breaths as the pillar of flame quickly singed the air and approached him. Red focused on the heat intently, and clenched his fist as it changed from an inviting and comfortable warmth to an unbearable burning sensation across his whole body.

Valafor spoke up again, "You got that? Okay, now I want you to think about that energy dissipating and assimilating back into the mana stream surrounding you. Connect that with a physical action."

Red lifted his hand up, in the direction of the flame pillar and let it fully engulf his hand. As he began to feel the flesh burn on his arm, he snapped his fingers. In that same moment, the flames and the magic runes on the knights hand disappeared instantaneously.

Valafor cheered loudly, causing Red's ears to ring, "Excellent! You're obviously a genius when it comes to magic. I call that skill Steal. Unfortunately, you won't be able to see the full capabilities of it for a while, but it should still come in handy to you.”

The three men all shrieked back in fear, with the large man whispering under his breath, "Reign Magic…"

The words lingered in the air for a while as Red and the three knights looked at each other.

Red raised his hand once more and the knights scurried off in a hurry, disappearing into the crowd after a few moments. Red shook his head and carried on in the direction of the ruins.

"Tell me something Valafor,” He spoke aloud, "So now you can just speak to me freely at any time? I thought you only came when I was asleep or barely lucid."

Valafor appeared from nowhere and stood beside Red, now adorned in the armor of the Britannius knights.

“It's a sign of our relationship getting stronger!" Valafor joyfully stated.

Red sighed, "Is that a good thing?"

Valafor only remained silent as they walked on for a while. The sun finally went down as they reached Sola Dorma and La Des was no longer in sight. The area was sparsely dotted with individuals scuttling about quickly. The sandy paths finally turned back into greenery and strange winding trees littered the area.

As they passed the entrance of the destroyed town, Red turned to Valafor, who still floated at his side, "Okay Valafor, I agreed to your terms, I'm going to complete your quest so just tell me something straight. Are you my ally or my enemy? No…no first you're going to tell me what the hell you are. I know you're not my subconscious…"

Valafor tussled Red's hair and bent down, looking him directly into his eyes. In a menacing tone, he simply said, "You're wrong, Redhead."

They stared at each other for a while, before Valafor bounced backwards, placing his hands behind his head.

"Guess it's time for me to let you continue on your journey alone. If you really want answers to those burning questions, then I think this mission will be a good start. And try to use the power I gave to you as much as possible. You've sacrificed a lot for it, whether you know it or not, so take advantage of it.”

Valafor scratched his chin and walked behind Red, "A while back, I said I want you to take my name once you accept your purpose. Do you know what my — what our name means?"

Red turned to Valafor and went to say something, only to see he had already disappeared once again.

Red stared past the sinister winding trees and directly at the mass of crumbled buildings and half-eroded structures in the distance, and thought to himself, "Who or what is Valafor?”