Aisha and I join the others in my room. Sio’s sitting on my bed with his back to the wall, his nose pointed at the ceiling and his eyes closed. Kat immediately turns to us when we enter. “So, how was it? Are you glad your sister convinced you to have some fun?”

Aisha eyes me with great expectation. I glance around the room for help but Sio’s acting like he hasn’t seen a thing while the others just wait for my answer. “I guess. We need breaks every now and then.”

“Hah,” Iris turns to Ellis, “I told you.”

Ellis grumbles and puts her hands together, “I didn’t even see him doing anything. I thought he’d hate it.” Iris, with a devilish grin, encases Ellis’ hands in stone. Ellis hits it against the wall for a bit before giving up. “Stupid bet.”

I shrug off their little interaction, “Did you all have fun?”

“Lots,” says Kat as she grins at Fia.

“It’s been a while since I experienced a festival this big and lively,” Istruan answers. “I can’t wait to see it in the next couple of days. There’s going to be so many things happening! I hear they’re organizing a dance for one of the gods too.”

“Oh, I heard about that. I’ve loved watching those since my dad was in one. Kinda makes me wish they were here,” Emile says.

“It’s a day for couples. Instead of being homesick you should make a home for yourself by finding a nice girl,” Kat says as she nudges him.

“Hah, you’re single too.”

Kat shrugs, “I’m sure I can find someone to spend it with,” Her eyes flick to me for a moment. “But, I think we should talk about extending our break.”

“So many of the main attractions are happening tomorrow,” Fia adds. “Can we participate in the whole festival?”

“I don’t want to be caught out camping in the full moon. It gives me bad feelings,” Istruan adds.

Once again, they’re waiting for my response. I glance out the window. It’s getting dark. If I want to be ready for tonight I need to start preparing now. There’s something weird going on and I have a feeling it’s connected in some way to this festival. “Alright, we can have a couple more days to enjoy ourselves.”

“Good choice!” Sio sticks up his thumb.

“Uh huh. I thought we were planning on sharing rooms again,” I change the subject.

“Oh come on, Rai. We’re all friends here but even we need some time away from each other every now and then, right? Besides, the reason why we switched inns is because this one is a bit cheaper. It’s like we haven’t spent an extra coin at all.”

“I wish the beds weren’t so hard,” Ellis pouts.

I see Aisha and Iris nod out of the corner of my eye.

“I’m tired. I guess I’ll retire for the night. See you all tomorrow,” Sio jumps off my bed and slides out the door.

Everyone is gone in a matter of seconds. I plop onto my bed and stare at the ceiling. My feet are a bit sore and I don’t have the strength to move my legs. If I stay like this for a little bit longer, I think I’d end up falling asleep under normal circumstances. But these aren’t normal circumstances at all. I’ve ignored for a few days now but what was that thing I saw the other night?

I roll onto my side.

That girl in the alleyway… Why do I feel like I’ve seen her recently? There’s something I’m missing, aren’t I? I’ve tried to explain to the others but no one seems really interested in listening. They haven’t seen it firsthand so they wouldn’t be as bothered, but aren’t they a little too lax? Maybe I’m the one at fault. Ever since we came here, all I can think about is leaving…

I get out of bed and pull out my disguise.

There’s a knock on my door and I quickly absorb them back into my bracers. Istruan and Axel walk in with Kat trailing behind. “Rainen, we’ve been traveling together for a while now but we don’t know much about each other. So, I’ve come up with an idea. Tomorrow we’ll split up into groups again but this time we’ll each be with a different person,” Istruan says.

“That’s a great idea but there are only three days.”

“Always the pessimist, Rai,” Axel comments. “Don’t you want to get to know me better?”

“Hmph. I already know too much,” I reply.

“Jokes aside, we won’t be spending the whole day with one person. We’ll have certain times where we’ll meet up and switch off. All of us will be together to watch some of the bigger events like the play and the dance.”

“You didn’t have to run it by me.”

Kat shakes her head, “What’s the point of the idea if not everyone is up for it? So how about it, sounds like a good idea, right?”

I shrug. I really don’t know all that much about everyone else. Actually, the only person I know well is Axel. I wish I could say the same about Aisha but there hasn’t been much time to catch up. “It does sound like a good idea.”

Istruan closes his fist and makes a ‘yes’ face like I’ve fallen for some kind of trick. “Since I don’t think it’ll be good for us to pick who we want to interact with, I’m going to write up a list of who’ll be with who and at what times. I’ll let you all know in the morning.”

They each say, “Good night,” before leaving the room. Axel stops closing the door halfway and freezes there.

“What’s up?” I ask.

He closes the door, “I think you should take tomorrow seriously.”

My breath is cut short as the air changes.

“We’re all excited for this, Rai. We’ve been here for a bit but we haven’t had any time to enjoy ourselves or get to know each other. And I’m just hoping for the best tomorrow.”

“What do you mean by that?

He shrugs, “I’m just saying that you should try to be a bit more excited for tomorrow or at least act like it.”

I stare at him, narrowing my eyes, “I already agreed. I said it was a good idea and that I’d do it.”

Axel sighs, “Rainen, you know what I mean.”

“I do and I’m trying to let you guys have your fun. But I have to stay focused and prepare for when we leave in a few days.”

“...”

“Is that it?”

Axel shakes his head, “You know, your sister came to me the other day. She asked me to check up on you because you’ve been distant. She wanted to know if you were doing okay because you’ve been ignoring her. She asked about your master and why we’re looking for him. No, not just her but Istruan, Kat, Emile, actually, wait everyone asked me. And I couldn’t answer them because I didn’t know why either.”

I stare blankly at him. “I… We just need to find him. He can help us.”

“With what, Rai? With what? We’re not running from anyone! We’re not criminals. Why do we need to find him? If you could tell us all why then maybe we would have left already or we’d at least try to understand you more. The thing is, I don’t think you even know why you’re in such a rush.”

“...”

“Do you remember why we stopped here?”

“To rest,” I mumble.

“Exactly! To rest! You are not resting, Rai. You look more restless than when we first got here. I know you’ve conceded a lot to us but we’re still on edge because you are. We can tell. Everyone is worried about stepping on your toes but a lot of us are trying to make some kind of connection here. You agreed to stay and the partner idea. So I hope you keep your word. There are a lot of us who are excited to get to know each other. “

“I will, and I’m sorry. I’ll try harder.”

“Thank you.”

He closes the door. A suffocating silence fills the room. I sit on the bed staring at the smooth hardwood flooring. Light pours in from the window illuminating my fists. I glance out the window while my fingers stretch. Orange lights move across the stone houses, the echo of a sneeze reaches the room. I pull on my fingers to loosen them more and throw on my disguise and slip out the window.

“It really is almost a full moon.”

How many nights have I spent like this; sitting on rooftops, watching the silent town and staring up at the moon so much I didn’t even notice it change. What is it that I’m looking for? Maybe I should just go back inside and rest up for tomorrow.

I quickly crouch down as a group of guards go by. Two out of the six carry crossbows. They actively scan the streets and houses peering down alleys and through small openings in the curtains.

“Quit doing that,” the guard at the front says. “You’re not going to find anything in there.”

“Sorry,” one of the lantern bearers says.

One of the crossbowmen sighs, “Why couldn’t they have put me on the tracking party or up on the walls? It feels weird to carry this thing around on the streets. Do they think I’ll have to end up shootin’ some thug or something? This sword or even my fists could take care of a regular old thug.”

Tracking party?

“There’s been too much trouble around these parts recently. I didn’t get to see the bodies myself but if they were as nasty as I was told and the captain is making us do rounds in groups of six, then be glad you’re here with us,” the one at the front replies.

There was a murder today? That’s why a part of the street was blocked off when Aisha and I came back and the western entrance has almost double the men on the walls.

The other crossbowman shudders, “If you chased that roluk into that forest out there you might’ve ended up like those two boys. I’ve only seen roluks a handful of times and I got a bad feeling from all of them. I could feel their eyes, you know. I bet she used those weird eyes all those roluks have to enchant the two boys. If you ask me, they sent far too few people after her. Instead of stationing more people at the wall and increasing patrols, they should have put us on the hunting team.”

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A roluk? Was it that person I saw the other night?

“Remember what happened to the supply party? A bunch of’em died in the mines. Rumor has it that she was part of that and the massacre a few days later at the village too.”

I use my ability to leap between buildings, over the wall, and blinking far enough away so even if they see me they can’t shoot me. I run along the path for as long as I can until I reach a crossroads. The snow’s matted down nearly flat for both roads and the footprints are difficult to make out. I move more to the left path until I’m running. There’s an almost ethereal sound drawing me in.

It feels like an echo, an echo of something too far away and quiet to confirm but just enough to perk the ears. The echo doesn’t get louder but my legs reach further and faster with each step, the hairs on my back are standing as if preparing for something. I went this way earlier today, I was there a few nights ago. Is this all a coincidence or something more?

The moon reflects off the surface of the water. There. I follow the footprints to a tree with an arrow embedded in it. Just ahead I see a trail of blood. It must be the roluk’s. They injured her and gave chase.

“Hey,” I rush toward the fallen men placing my finger on their pulse. It was obvious at first glance but maybe I didn’t want to believe it. They’re all dead. The bodies and blood lead even deeper into the forest. I see her sitting inside a barrier holding her knees close to her chest, her head buried in there while the monsters lay dead around her.

I inch closer. There’s something about her… She feels different.

She suddenly looks up.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She looks at the bodies of the monsters and gets up. “A-Are you with them?”

I glance at the deceased guards, “No.”

“W-Who are you?”

She backs away from me all the while keeping the barrier up. Blue hair and differently colored blue eyes. She’s a roluk for sure but is she really the murderer? Her hands and legs are shaking not to mention her voice.

“I think we’ve met before,” I ease closer to her, holding my palms out. “Weren’t you the person I saw the other night hiding behind some dumpsters? I didn’t think we’d meet again so soon, especially not in such a weird situation.”

She’s backed all the way to the end of the barrier and still hasn’t shown a hint of wanting to lower it. Huh?

“Your leg, it’s bleeding. I have some bandages with me,” I say, pulling a roll out of my bracers. “It looks pretty bad. You need to stop the bleeding right away.”

She stops pressing against the barrier so hard and starts breathing more normally. In a flash, pain streaks across her face and she grabs her leg. The barrier flickers out for a second as her concentration breaks. Her hand glows with a green light that dies as soon as it began. Strength pools in my legs and I lean forward. I can make it. I can get to her if I go now when the barrier’s weak.

I stop myself.

She’ll think I’m trying to attack her if I run at her right now. What if she bleeds out? If I want her to trust me then I need to take things slow. She’s scared… Wait, why do I even care about that? She’s the main murder suspect. I should do something before she gathers herself. But she looks scared and confused. No, she killed all these monsters. I can’t base how dangerous she is on looks alone. Everyone sent after her is dead.

The barrier steadies and the chance slips. She can hardly bear the pain, or at least that’s what she’s making it look like. The barrier seems as strong as ever and she’s still watching me. There has to be something else going on with her.

It flickers again.

Our eyes meet for a brief moment. One as light and soft as the sky at dawn and the other as deep and dark as the still ocean. Pure. Scared. Innocent. Confused. Refreshing. Familiar. Intoxicating. The world fades. The wind disappears. It’s chill touch gone. It’s empty howls silenced. The moon’s light dims. The stench of blood vanishes. There is only the blue of the sky and ocean.

“W-Watch out!”

I snap to my senses. One of those monsters charges at me from the side. I pull out my knife as it leaps onto me. I stab it again and again. In the side. In the neck. It bites on my bracer and shakes. It rears its head back trying for an angle where its tusks can reach me. I keep stabbing and stabbing. I jam the knife into its throat once more and yank it out cutting the monster open. It yelps and falls over.

“A-Are you okay?” she asks. The barrier is gone.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” I reply, standing and wiping the blood off. I avoid meeting her eyes. “Your leg is still bleeding. Stay there.”

After checking myself for any wounds and finding nothing, I go to her. She does a small shuffle away from me but ultimately decides to stay still. I crouch down and hold out a hand. A moment passes before she shows me her injured leg. The wound is deep. The bleeding has slowed down but it’s starting to freeze, any longer and it would be bad, whether frostbite or worse. I wrap the gash with the bandages despite her flinching and labored breaths.

“Sorry,” I say as I pull tightly.

“A-Are you d-done?”

“Now I am. Can you walk?”

She stares at me for a moment, “Where are we going?”

My voice catches in my throat. Do I say that we’re going back to the town? She wouldn’t come with me if I did. Should I lie and alert the guards once we’ve gotten close enough? With her injury, she shouldn’t be able to outrun anyone, especially not now when she’s starting to feel the pain. No, she can still fight. She killed all these monsters. They’re strong too. The one I fought with might have killed me if it wasn’t already near death. I’ll pretend I don’t know anything.

“What happened? What are you doing out here?” I ask.

Her eyes wander over to the bodies of the guards. Her grip tightens on her arm. She knows something’s off. She’s deciding right now whether or not to trust me. It’s all well and fair. I’m also deciding if I should trust her or not.

“I-I was following a sound a-and it led me to the lake. I don’t know why those guards were here so I-I hid.”

I need to press her for more information. She’s already wary of me. Might as well get the most out of this. “You hid from town guards?”

“W-Well I-I don’t know. I-It just happened. Wouldn’t you think it’s strange if you saw them going to a random lake in the middle of the night?”

I shrug, “True, but how’d you get that wound on your leg? It doesn’t look like something one of these monsters could have done.”

A minute passes in silence while she keeps staring at her feet. Finally, she says, “I stepped out of the trees and they show me with an arrow. I think- I think that they got spooked and just fired. I was confused and scared at the time so I ran. The monsters... I think they smelled the blood and came.”

“Okay,” I reply. If only I had some time to investigate the bodies a bit more thoroughly, I’d have more information. It’s clear that most of them were killed by the monsters considering that they all have pieces torn out of them but I can’t write off her killing a few of them either. “If those monsters were drawn to the smell of blood, there will probably be more coming this way with all these bodies. As much as I’d like to take the guards bodies back, I don’t think it’ll be possible with just us. Let’s head back to the town and see if we can get a healer for your wound.”

I’m careful not to completely let her out of my sight as I start toward town. “What’s wrong,” I ask, noticing she hasn’t moved.

“Ummm. Thank- thank you for saving me but I think I’ll go home. I-I wouldn’t feel comfortable sleeping in an inn or someone else’s home...”

“You’re going by yourself? I don’t think that’s safe. If you want to go home, I’ll come with you.”

She frantically waves her hands, “N-No no. I-I-I couldn’t possibly- I can’t bother you with something like this. Be-Besides, It’s further away from town. How could I sleep knowing you’ll go back alone?”

“The same goes for me. Also, if we part now, won’t I still be going alone anyways?”

She quickly responds, “I-I-I meant that, um, where I live is further from town than this lake is right now. It’s also closer to the forest than the path back to town. It’ll be safer if we just go back by ourselves.”

“Well, how could I sleep if I let you walk back home alone with that kind of injury?”

“D-Don’t worry about me, I-I can use magic,” she says as her voice falters.

“Fine, I’ll let you walk back by yourself.”

She lets out a breath.

“If you can walk to that tree over there without limping or falling. If you do that, I’ll go back to town by myself.”

Her eyes widen at the challenge. She looks at me, then the tree, then her leg. She straightens herself and takes a step. Pain immediately shows on her face and she staggers even with the help of her staff.

“Guess I’ll be going with you.”

She protests, “Wha-What will you do then? H-How will you get back?”

I almost start walking without saying a word but an idea comes into mind. “If you’re that worried, you wouldn’t mind if I stayed the night at your house, right?”

She instantly goes pale.

Got you.

“I-I don’t know if I can accommodate a guest…”

“That’s okay. I can sleep on the floor.”

“I-It might smell.”

“I don’t mind. Anything is safer than walking back to town alone, right?”

“T-The house. I-It doesn’t belong to me o-or my family. It’s a friend’s place. I don’t know if they’ll take you in.”

So, it isn’t your home? Is it another excuse or the truth? Either way, she’s getting more suspicious by the minute and she knows it.

“If it’s your friend, you can just explain to them how I helped you. They wouldn’t mind helping a friend of a friend would they?”

“I-I don’t know…”

“I think we should give it a try. It’ll solve both of our worries if it works out.”

“...”

What will you do now? If she attacks me, I’ll be ready. With what she did to all those monsters, I might not be able to take her back alive but I’ll be able to solve one mystery. If she doesn’t try to kill me then I can follow her until I can learn more about her or alert the authorities. I’ll have to avoid looking her in the eyes. I was definitely being sucked into some kind of trance. Even now my head hurts because of it.

“...Okay,” she answers.

Huh? I didn’t really expect that to be her choice.

She limps toward the road. I move to help her.

“S-Sorry,” she says, pushing me away. “I-I can walk by myself.”

I shrug.

Your choice.

“At least let me lead then. Just tell me which road I have to take.”

I say lead but she’s always in the corner of my eye.

The way to her ‘friend’s place’ isn’t further past the lake like I expected but rather, past the town the other way. She takes a couple of detouring paths that ultimately make the trip longer than going right through the town would but I can tell that some of her directions are unnecessarily wrong in order to confuse me. I swallow my words and silently obey her instructions.

We go through a part of the forest, around some large hills, and follow a frozen stream. Her breathing is more ragged now and I can see the beads of sweat on her forehead. She’s wiped her hands onto her cloak multiple times now and is relying much more on her staff now than when we first started.

I can’t tell if she’s trying to make me get mad, regret my decision, or tire me out before she attacks. At this rate, I might just give her the chance considering how much effort she’s putting in. Whatever. If she collapses, I can just take her to the authorities. The town might be somewhere around a little over an hour from here.

“We-We’re here,” she pants, using both hands to hold onto the staff.

She points to a couple of houses ahead. A village. Probably the ones the patrolmen spoke about.

Once she’s regained some of her composure, she takes the lead all the way until we reach a house near the outskirts of the village. She knocks three times. A little while later, a man who looks around his late thirties opens the door. His hair is messy and he’s rubbing his eyes.

“Who-”

His exhaustion and grogginess disappear. He looks at the roluk’s leg and beckons her inside. I check myself for any easy to get rid of blood before I also enter.

“What happened to you?” he asks.

“I was attacked by some monsters and he saved me,” she answers as she leans against a wall.

“W-Well, thank you,” he says to me, unsure of himself. “We need to get you a doctor right away.”

She shakes her head, “N-No! Not right now. I-I’m tired. C-Can I rest?”

“Of course you can. Let me help you to the room.”

I remember that she’s supposed to ask if I can stay but it looks like she wasn’t completely lying. He seems like he knows her well enough. He let her in right away and barely asked any questions. I’ll wait until he comes back. Even if she told the truth this time, it doesn’t mean she’s trustworthy. Everything about her is setting off alarm bells in my head. There’s something off about this whole situation.

“Excuse me. I don’t have anywhere else to go for tonight so is it alright if I stay here. Even sleeping on the ground is fine,” I ask as soon as the man returns.

He goes along with it better than I expected. He doesn’t ask me who I am or for me to take off my mask. He goes somewhere in the house for a little bit and returns with a pillow and a blanket. “Feel free to sleep anywhere, I’ll try and wake up as early as I can tomorrow to bring a healer over for her,” with that said, he leaves.

The thought to sleep in the same room as the roluk girl comes to mind but whether or not it’s for an important purpose like making sure she doesn’t sneak out in the middle of the night, it feels too awkward.

I lay the pillow on a wood couch and lay down tucking my legs in to fit the small frame. I watch as embers in the fireplace hold onto what little fuel is keeping them alive, burning ever so weakly at the edges.

Within minutes I drift off…

I immediately sit up and spring to my feet. No one else seems to be awake yet. I open the door to the roluk’s room. Two men and one woman stand next to her bed. She’s sitting up with a wide-eyed look.

Clearly, she forgot about me.

“While you should be fine walking, I recommend you don’t do anything more than that otherwise, the wound may get worse. You should be fine within two or so weeks.”

Well great. She can’t even try to run now.

“Does that young man need to be treated too? He’s got some blood on him.”

“No, I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt.”

“Well, if that’s what you say,” he shakes hands with the owner of the house. “If you need me, I’ll be at the festival.”

I swear under my breath.

I can’t believe I completely forgot. I stare at the roluk for a moment. I can’t let her out of my sight. What if she’s gone when I come back? I have to stay here even if I end up breaking my promise…

I turn around and run out the door. As I force my way through the snow and toward the town, I can feel my heart drop.

Please still be here when I come back.

I teleport past the walls and guards and through the opening in my room. I throw my disguise onto the bed and absorb them into my bracers before changing into regular clothes. A minute later, there's a knock on my door.

"Come in," I say.

"Good morning. We'll be a pair for a while," says Kat.