"Yeah, we just got here.” Lyaria replies calmly having experience treating the wounds of overwhelmed people.

"Didn't you see a man!? His hair is black as is his beard… he had a bow, he is a hunter… his clothes were… they were…” Surprisingly, the woman's tongue doesn't stumble as she mouths off a torrent of words without a break.

"I'm sorry, we found his body along with this..." Lyaria hands the necklace to the woman who falls to her knees crying uncontrollably for several minutes in which neither of them says a word by tacit understanding.

After a while, the woman regains her composure with a face devoid of emotions making it impossible to know that she was crying until recently if it weren't for her red and swollen eyes.

“His body?”

"He's still in the woods, we couldn't bury him." Ezer manages to make out a slight sorrow in Lyaria's voice.

“I understand.” Ezer thought the woman would run into the woods in search of the body, but she remains motionless in place.

"Do you have a place to stay? The least I can do to thank you is invite you to my home before dark.”

"Thank you, we will accept your offer gratefully." Lyaria doesn't doubt it, although Ezer can't help but be a little alert at the woman's strange attitude. Apparently, the corpse belonged to a very dear man, and the woman only mourned for a few minutes and then she had a stone face... it seemed unnatural to him. Regardless, he decides to trust Lyaria's decision.

The house was built entirely of wood that had a dark hue, if one paid attention you could notice a slight tilt of the structure to the right. The feeling that he is being watched only ceases when he crosses the threshold of the door and the walls protect him from outside gazes.

What was surprising was the lack of warmth that Ezer was so used to feeling inside a house. The culprits were clearly the holes in the ceiling and gaps in the wood, clearly recognizable from within.

Though it was still better than sleeping rough, but even so, Ezer can't shake the unease he felt and had served as a guide in the past.

"The next town? It shouldn't be more than a day's walk away, although the snow can turn it into two and any unexpected event into three.” The woman answers Lyaria's question while everyone was sitting at a table eating a soup that was more of a broth to kill hunger.

“Sorry, we never ask for your name. My name is Ezer and she is Lyaria.”

“Oh! Where are my manners, my name is Merinda.” The night had already arrived and the cold only increased inside the house without becoming a problem thanks to the fire in the fireplace.

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"Mrs. Merinda , if you don't mind, I'd like to ask about—"

“He was my husband.” The woman steps forward before Lyaria could finish.

“We were together for five years, less time than I would have liked. He hunted to support us and traded what was left over with the rest of the village. He was simple, but closed-minded, never admitting to being wrong. I miss him.” Ezer can feel her emotionless face crack for a moment, revealing pain, though it was only for a second.

"How many able men does the village have? Exterminating the beast can be dangerous.” When asking this, Merina looks at Ezer in surprise and smiles bitterly.

“There will be no hunting team. It is true that doing so is very dangerous, if it was done every time a person dies... the village would have ceased to exist long ago.”

"Why don't you ask the lord for help? At least in winter.”

“Help? From the lord...? Pff ... Ha! Ha! Ha...!” The woman opens her eyes in surprise and a hysterical laugh escapes from between her teeth that manages to scare Ezer who did not expect such a sudden change.

“I've only heard stories of the black fortress and I never seen it in person… Requesting help from a lord who doesn't even have troops for himself is useless, they never helped us and they never will. I'm sure they don't even know we exist, a caravan comes to collect tribute every spring harvest in the lord's name, but I'm sure they're bandits. Help? Such a thing does not exist.”

Ezer is speechless, each phrase of the woman hit his chest with force. Every word is addressed to him as if he were a child ignorant of the world, as if he were an aristocrat sitting in his iron chair too busy at his banquets to notice the world around him.

Ezer knew very well the typical stereotype of the aristocracy as an animal blinded by the gluttony of power and riches. While he didn't rule over the people who suffered so much, his ignorance and lack of intervention made him feel just as guilty. After all, his last name carried weight and power to change things. And for the first time he understands, for the first time it seems to him that he is not much different from the noble hypocrites.

“It's getting late and as you can see I have no candle. You can rest where you like, but don't come into my room.” Merina speaks moderately, understanding that her previous tone was disrespectful.

"Thank you for the hot meal and for letting us rest in your home." Before the gratitude, the woman simply smiles and enters her room softly closing the door.

Lying near the embers in the fireplace, Ezer can't help but think about the woman's words and how reality was harsher than expected. He had heard that his domain was in crisis, but this... this was a total decline of anything that distinguished a united people, a civilization. The difference between today and the wild nomads who inhabited these places centuries ago was not much.

Where was the honor in a lord who couldn't even protect his people? What was the point of having a fortress in the middle of a desolate land? Is my family the cause of all this? Am I as guilty as they? I can do something? These and hundreds of other questions run through Ezer's head until Lyaria's voice brings him back to reality.

"What do you think of Merinda?" The question slightly unsettles Ezer who has to discard his entire line of thought.

"It's strange, I can't tell what she thinks. One moment she breaks down with sadness and the next she acts like it's nothing... I just don't know which emotion is the real one. She acts as if her husband died years ago and not a few hours.”

“Yes, I have seen many people like her, each person reacts differently to the loss of someone important. Those who are used to losing loved ones often act this way, although it is one of the most dangerous.”

“Why?”

“Because sometimes it is better to unburden all sorrows, a person who can no longer do so... suffers internally.”

"We should help her bury her husband in the morning, we owe her at least that much."

“You're right.” Lyaria smiles and as usual walks over to Ezer to share warmth.