“Cariston?”

Elyza is only half paying attention to the conversation at breakfast the next day. No more than ten minutes earlier, a rather confused looking guard had come in to give ‘The colourful group from yesterday’ a reward for taking care of the weird demons in the storehouses. It wasn’t a lot of money, Elyza has definitely had a hell of a lot more, but it's enough that she can eat her breakfast in peace and not have to worry about finding some other side jobs so they don’t starve or something.

“Yeah Cheese?” Cariston asks, setting his mug down as he looks at Cheese in his usual five-year-old child disguise. It’s still kind of weird, but they're all getting used to it now.

“What’s cunnalingus?”

Time seems to stop as everyone’s head perks up at the sound of Cheese’s tiny voice saying that word. Cornelia grins, raising her hand to high five Cheese, while Naliah looks really confused. Elyza gives Cariston a horrified look which he mirrors back at her, looking between her and Cheese as if asking her for help. She just rests her head in her hands, having to resist the urge to scream as she hears Cariston start to stumble over his words in some sort of explanation.

“Oh, uh. Well, Cheese. You see, that, um...Elyza? Please?”

She just shakes her head, regretting ever joining that mercenary company and ever getting stuck with these absolute chaotic idiots. She listens painstakingly as Cariston tries his best to broach the subject, which Cornelia does not help at all.

“Well, you see Cheese. When a man loves a woman-”

“-Are you really going to explain this to a five-year-old boy, in the middle of the tavern?” Cornelia interrupts, her voice smooth as usual but she’s still grinning, obviously absolutely loving the whole situation.

“K-Knowledge is important. Even if that knowledge is something- something like this.” Cariston says, trying to sound proud and sure of himself, but the bright blush across his cheeks and waver in his voice does not help him at all.

“Soooo, what does it mean Cariston-”

“-Okay, no.” Elyza says, raising her voice slightly to stop Cheese in his tracks. “Cheese, we’ll tell you when you’re older.”

“But I’m older now.”

“I don't care. Come on, breakfast is done, we’re heading out now.”

Naliah snaps out of her confused state that she’s just been watching the whole exchange in, looking at her plate, that still has meat on it, with a look of distress. “But I’m not done-”

“-Nope, don't care.” Elyza says, standing up and giving Cheese a glare as everyone in the tavern, although a small number of people, are all looking over at them now. “Cheese ruined it for everyone, let’s go.”

With grumbles and protests everyone quickly finishes their drinks and food, Elyza standing by the door, arms crossed, looking annoyed as she waits for them. This is not how she wanted her day to start at all.

The group are silent as they leave the tavern, but it doesn’t last long. Cheese manages to stay quiet for all of two minutes before he starts to talk to Cariston again. Luckily, it’s about some book he was reading last night. The tension seems to dissipate little by little until everyone begins to feel at ease and not incredibly pissed off at cheese for ruining things once again. Elyza doesn’t think she’s ever met someone who expels such an unhinged energy as Cheese does.

“Hey guys?” Cheese asks loudly, grabbing everyone’s attention.

Great, here we go again.

“Do you think we should have another name for me while I look like this?” He says gesturing to his mini Cariston looking self as they walk.

“Like what?” Cariston asks.

“I don’t know, but Cheese is a weird name for a human boy, right?”

“You’re a weird kid, Cheese.” Elyza says with a shrug.

Cheese seems to actually pout for a moment, before Cariston reassures him he isn’t weird, and Cheese is a fine name. He seems to drop it, other conversations starting up before in the next lull he starts suggesting names. Elyza and Cornelia share an annoyed look, while Naliah and Cariston start suggesting names too. Most of the ones Naliah suggests are weird, and Cariston’s ones are way too proper to fit Cheese. Eventually, someone suggests the name Wensleydale, and Cheese’s little face lights up. They somehow all agree to try call Cheese by Wensleydale when they’re in public to try help him avoid people suspecting he’s a mouse. Elyza wants to point out he just looks like Cariston’s little brother or something, and no one thinks he’s a mouse. But honestly, it would be a bit hypocritical of her to think it’s stupid to go by another name to avoid drawing too much attention.

The group's first stop of the day is the Arcane anvil once again. Their visit there isn’t that exciting due to the fact they’ve already bought most of the shop's stock in the last few days. As they enter, both Joanna and Trissaleth are at the counter. Trissaleth looks exhausted, half heartedly looking through a book, while Joanna greets them warmly, Trissaleth managing a small smile but not much else. She seems happy enough to see them yet again, even if she does not have the energy to deal with them. It’s probably because they’ve spent so much money here, but Elyza also gets the impression that she does like the group, not just as customers.

It’s nice to see Cariston and Cheese gushing over her newest creations, them both absolutely losing it when Joanna shows them some sort of book Trissaleth made that will help them get even more smart? Elyza has to admit she doesn’t really know, she wasn’t paying attention to their nerd stuff, as usual. Joanna keeps looking over as Trissaleth, asking prices as Trissaleth keeps correcting her tiredly.

After the boys finally stop freaking out about the expensive books, Elyza steps forward to the counter to actually buy something. She spends her whole greeting with Joanna with her eyes on the arrows behind her. Trissaleth seems to notice, a small smug smile pulling at her lips as she moves from her book and lays them out on the counter without a word. Joanna does not need to try hard to sell them this time. Elyza picks them up, inspecting them before handing over her gold. Elyza sadly only has enough to buy two of the arrows, but says she’ll be back for the rest of them hopefully.

The others have some other things they want to check out in the shop so she leaves them to it, deciding to wait outside as the temperature is a perfect blend of heat and breeze to make it a lovely pleasant day. She stands outside, leaning against the building as her mind wanders elsewhere. She’d been keeping an eye on their surroundings on the way here, keeping a look out for Alenas to see if he really has backed off. She hasn’t seen him following them as he had been, she hopes that means he’s gone for good. Sure, she wasn’t thrilled to leave her life behind in Pyke when she joined The Arcturus Company, but it really was the best thing for her, and she wants that past life to leave her the hell alone. Alenas is a reminder of the bad things she’s done. The bad things she’s still doing, but trying to stop. Being a better person is damn hard when all you know is pain and how to use that pain to hurt others.

She’s broken out of her thoughts by the rest of the group exiting the shop, Cariston asking them if they have anything else they want to do for the day. There are a few requests of finding an alchemist and a tailor, so they make their way towards where Cornelia was sure she saw an alchemist, tentatively of course, as Cornelia’s sense of direction is horrendous.

As they’re walking, Naliah goes into her bag, walking closer to Elyza as she then holds something out to her. Elyza has to do a double take as she sees two more of those special arrows in her hand. She just looks at them, and then up to Naliah’s face feeling a bit confused on why Naliah has bought them.

“I bought them for you, since you only had enough for two. You can kill more stuff with four of them now.”

“I...that was a lot of money Naliah.” Elyza finds herself saying, honestly in complete disbelief that Naliah cares enough to spend a load of money on something for her.

Naliah just smiles, handing the arrows over. “You’re a good shot and have our backs. I’d rather you kill things quicker so Cornelia doesn’t set us on fire trying.”

Elyza still doesn’t really know what to say. Very rarely is she left speechless by gestures, but she’s also never really had anyone be so kind to her. She’s used to doing everything on her own, having no one else to rely on. She figured out they all cared after last night with Alenas, but still she definitely is not used to this.

“Thanks, Naliah, I owe you one.”

As usual with following Cornelia’s directions, she ends up leading them to the completely wrong place. Cheese makes some backhanded comment about how bad her sense of direction is, which of course makes Cornelia say a few choice words and storm off. Elyza just watches her go, glaring at Cheese before sighing softly when he just stares back at her innocently. Cariston is the one who suggests if they all have their own things they want to do, maybe they should all just split up. Elyza reluctantly agrees, Naliah reminding her that they all have their sending stones if they really need to get in contact with each other.

Cariston and Cheese head off to the library like the nerds they are. Naliah mentions needing to check if a cloak she’s ordered is done yet, before she dashes off too. Elyza is left standing in the middle of the trade district, not really sure what to do. She doesn’t like libraries like the boys, and she is definitely not into fashion like Cornelia and even Naliah seem to be. She’s the odd one out in the group. She tries not to let the sinking feeling in her stomach overwhelm her, but it’s hard. They’re all so magically talented with their abilities and studies. Where does she fit into that? What can she do, shoot some people?

She decides that standing in the middle of the city feeling sorry for herself is a really stupid idea. So, she does the only thing that makes sense for her to do. She surprisingly finds the alchemist that Cornelia mentioned easily. As she’s approaching Arcadia’s Cauldron, hoping Cornelia has also found her way here, she hears a loud bang from inside. She stops about ten feet away, watching the door for movement as a spike of panic stabs at her heart. She waits a minute, then another, staying still, her hand ready on her bow in case something comes out, but nothing does. She takes a deep breath, scolding herself for getting so freaked out about a loud noise. She swears she never used to be so jumpy. It must just be the whole being in a new place, and the fact they were attacked by weird demon things just yesterday.

As she enters, the first thing she notices is a grubby looking gnome woman who has a giant smile on her face. She puts two and two together pretty quickly and realises she must have done something wrong and the bang was from some sort of explosion or something. The gnome woman in question, although a little grubby from just being blown up, looks absolutely adorable. Her round face looks friendly, her eyes bright and lilac in colour. Her brown hair is tied up while she wears a flower crown with blue and pale purple flowers. She has goggles around her neck, which she was obviously wearing when the explosion happened due to the black marks on them. She Definitely ticks all of the boxes of cute and naive just from looks alone. Elyza goes to saunter over and use her usual charm, when she seems to notice for the first time Cornelia looking at her rather panicked.

The gnome woman calls Cornelia by her name, asking if she’s okay, Cornelia seems to splutter over her words, her usually cool and collected persona completely gone. Elyza can’t help but grin as she figures it all out.

Cornelia seems to have a crush on her, and it’s absolutely adorable.

“There you are Cornelia. I’ve been looking for you.” Elyza says casually, walking over to stand beside her. “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh, Hello there! My name is Arcadia. But uh, you probably already figured that out since it's on the sign outside. Uh, anyway! Cornelia here came in as I kinda sort of accidentally blew up something. But she’s so strong and caught me! I was just thanking her and offered to help her with her flower problem.”

“Her flower problem?” Elyza asks, side eyeing Cornelia with a smirk.

“Yeah, she was asking if I knew about some orange flowers she was looking for that she’s seen locally. I’ve got to say, I haven't really seen any orange flowers around here. But I, uh, I don’t really get out much sooo...” She says, trailing off with a laugh as she rubs the back of her neck.

Cornelia turns to look at Elyza with a look of pure desperation that just screams help me. Luckily, Elyza thinks this is the most exciting thing that’s happened in like the last month and decides that although Arcadia is absolutely adorable, she’s a bit too much for her taste, and she may as well help Cornelia out, since all Cornelia seems to be doing is making a fool of herself.

“Oh yeah, I remember that now. Hey Cornelia, can I talk to you for a second?” Elyza says, already taking Cornelia by the arm and leading her away. Arcadia seems to understand their need for privacy and makes her way back around the counter to check on whatever the hell exploded.

Cornelia seems nervous, almost panicked as she looks around the room. It’s a stark contrast to how Elyza has previously seen her over the last few weeks. Her eyes are wide as they finally meet Elyza’s once again. “Elyza, what do I do?”

“I thought you were good at this sort of thing?” Elyza says, raising an eyebrow at her. “You seemed to handle that guard fine when we needed the distraction.”

Cornelia just scoffs, crossing her arms “Well he was a man, they only want one thing. Give them some attention and they fall at your feet. Women though…”

Elyza smirks, leaning in slightly and lowering her voice. “Aw, have you never been with a woman before? And here I thought you were experienced.”

“What, no! I mean yes. I mean- whatever. I’m just, Ugh! can you just help me? Please?”

Elyza watches Cornelia basically pouting as she asks for help. It’s so very unlike her, but Elyza doesn’t mind the ego boast that Cornelia is turning to her for advice. It seems all her flirting she’s been doing might have actually been getting to Cornelia, or that she’s noticed it and wants to actually know how to do it.

“You know you just have to ask her out, right? Just talk to her like a normal person.”

“I can’t just do that I-”

“-Hey, relax. You got this, okay? Just ask her if she wants to go out tonight.”

A strange expression crosses Cornelia’s face before she turns around and heads back towards the counter. Arcadia grins at her as she approaches.

“So, about those flowers-”

“-Wouldyouliketogouttonightwithmetonightmaybeyeah’”

Arcadia just blinks at her, smile still on her face as she looks up at Cornelia, which now Elyza sees them standing closer together, she realises their height difference is kind of hilarious with Arcadia being like three foot tall, while Cornelia is over six foot.

“What was that Cornelia? you said that a little too fast.”

“Do you maybe, I don’t know, want to go out tonight...with me?”

Arcadia’s smile falters, a small blush spreading across her cheeks as she looks a little embarrassed. “Oh. I don’t really go out much like I said. So I don’t really have anything to wear- oh but that’s not the point! I mean- um, yeah, that could be fun!”

Elyza watches Cornelia stumble her way through them making plans for her to pick Arcadia up tonight. She watches the panic on Cornelia's face when Arcadia asks what they’ll do, but to Cornelia’s merit, she doesn’t make a total fool of herself. In fact, Elyza feels somewhat proud as she watches Cornelia seem to pull herself together a bit and give Arcadia a charming smile as she says she’ll sort it all out. Arcadia in turn seems very excited, if not a bit nervous herself. As they go to leave, they both hear Arcadia bidding them goodbye, chattering nervously to herself about what is she going to wear as she goes into the back of the shop. Cornelia tries to play it cool, but fails horrifically as she finger-guns at Arcadia while walking backwards out of the door.

Cornelia walks slightly ahead of Elyza as they leave, seeming to naturally head in the direction back to the tavern. She slows slightly, letting Elyza catch up, but scowling as Elyza gives her a knowing grin.

“Tell the others about this and I will hurt you.”

“Do you have that little faith in me?” Elyza says dramatically. Ignoring the full on glare she gets from Cornelia for her dramatism. “I think this is adorable, I’m keeping this all to myself.”

“You...You are? You’re not going to tell the others?” Cornelia asks unsurely.

“Why would I? It's your thing to tell them.” Elyza says, checking their surroundings quickly, feeling satisfied with not finding anyone following them.

“Well, thanks for helping, I guess.” Cornelia replies, still seeming a bit embarrassed by the whole situation.

“You think I got as good as I am by not doing that a few times? Sometimes a girl is just so pretty you forget how to think.” Elyza says nonchalantly with a shrug, taking a page out of Cornelia’s book.

This time Cornelia smirks, looking right into Elyza’s eyes as she speaks. “Yeah, I have seen how you are with Trizzi.”

“W-Wait, no, that’s different!” Elyza tries to say, a blush spreading across her cheeks, which just makes Cornelia’s smirk widen.

“Looks like I have something to hold over you if you do tell.”

Elyza stops, Cornelia carrying on as Elyza looks after her in disbelief. She really is such a bitch.

_________________________________________________________________________

The group spend the rest of their day apart, meeting up at the tavern that night for dinner and a ‘catch up’. It’s mostly just Cheese being his usual self, trying to make everyone flustered, while Cornelia seems to now be egging him on, which is just annoying. Elyza should be telling them to stop and to behave, but they aren’t children, she shouldn’t have to. Okay, so Cheese is technically two years old, but mice only live until they’re about three, so he’s technically older than all of them. Naliah and Cariston may only be nineteen, but Cariston has a sensible head on his shoulders, and Naliah seems a bit too oblivious to everything to cause any real trouble.

So Elyza just watches them all, Naliah keeping to herself as she eats while Cheese tries to ask about more rude words, which is making Cariston extremely flustered. He keeps looking over to Elyza for She just shakes her head at him, deciding that it is sort of fun to watch Cheese have fun with this. She’ll keep them safe and out of trouble, but she doesn’t want to be some killjoy and ruin all their fun. After all, it’s her job to make sure they don’t die, her contract says nothing about stopping them being idiots.

With dinner finished, a few more patrons start to fill the tavern. Elyza notices it seems to be slightly busier than usual, but doesn’t think much of it. She notices as time goes on Cornelia seems to be shying away from the group, that same worried expression on her face Elyza saw earlier. Seems she’s actually nervous about her date, how cute.

“I need a bottle of wine.” She says abruptly, gathering everyone's attention on her.

“Do you have enough gold to buy one? do you need to borrow some again?” Cariston asks, already reaching for his gold pouch. Due to their arrangement, as soon as Cornelia had gotten her share of the gold, she’d immediately given it to Cariston to try to pay him back as soon as possible. He seemed a bit hesitant to take it, but did after some persistence from Cornelia. He now seems to be, in typical Cariston fashion, trying to help her out with more things she wants to buy.

“No- No I have an idea.” She says with a sly smile, standing up from the table and looking towards Cheese. “Want to help me?”

Cheese immediately perks up, the mischief practically shining in his eyes as he grins and hurries to join her as they walk towards the bar. Elyza can already see them plotting to try to steal a bottle, and decides this is the best time to head to the bathroom. Any chaos they get up to, she can deal with when she gets back.

She hangs around outside after she’s done, taking a moment for herself. She doesn’t mind being around the group most of the time. They get up to some wild things, and honestly it does feel good to have others she can rely on. But...something just seems very off with this whole situation. It may just be because for the first time in her life she feels safe with these guys, and seeing Alenas really unnerved her. Made her feel on edge, not safe at all even with the group having her back. And of course, the knowledge that he knows more than she thought, that he could have betrayed her already.

She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes tightly as she tries to push the images that are brought to mind away. The blood pooling on the ground, the sound of her own screams ringing in her ears. She can’t go back, she just won’t, no matter what happens. She pushes off the wall, making her way back inside with the intention of having a strong drink to take her mind off of it all.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

However, as she makes her way back to the group, they are definitely not how she last left them. Cornelia is squaring up to some guy, Cheese standing behind her looking confused more than anything. Cariston is standing by the table looking worried, while Naliah is still sitting at the table, drinking her drink like nothing is happening.

Elyza sighs, making her way fully into the room and over to Cornelia. However, before she gets there, she hears Cornelia swear at the guy and punch him square in the face. The tavern seems to erupt around her into chaos, several other men rushing over to help their friend. Surprisingly, Cornelia holds her own pretty damn well, anyone coming near her getting swift elbows and punches to their faces. They recoil in pain, holding their now bloody noses and glaring at her. She seems to be in her element, telling them to come at her. Elyza thinks of joining in and using her favourite spell to help Cornelia out. But then she catches Cariston’s eye from across the room and knows he needs her help to break this up. This whole being a good person thing is definitely not fun.

She makes her way over to Cariston, having to duck a few punches as the crowd seem to have turned on each other in all of the excitement. When she gets back to the table, Naliah seems to now look excited about all this, making a comment about this making her feel like she’s back home once again.

“Cariston, what the hell happened?” Elyza asks, grabbing his arm and moving him as a punch narrowly misses his head. He looks shaken, not knowing if to keep his eye on Cheese, who has now climbed onto a table and is cheering Cornelia on, or Cornelia who is grinning as she knocks a guy to the ground.

“I don’t know, honestly. They were at the bar one minute, and then one of those guys started making fun of Cheese. And then, well. This.” he says gesturing tiredly to the chaos around them.

“Come on, let's sort this out.” She says, keeping a hold of his arm and basically dragging him over. He makes a noise of protest, but ultimately follows her over. Trying to stand as tall as possible as they approach.

Elyza wonders if it’s best to try to sort this with words, but she feels everyone is way too into this to even listen. So, she does what she’s best at and rushes between Cornelia and the guy she’s currently trying to beat to a pulp. Cornelia looks surprised to see her, hesitating as she lowers the punch she was about to drive into this guy's face.

“Cornelia, stop.” She says, her eyes on Cornelia’s as she stares her down. Cornelia seems to almost growl at her in annoyance.

“They were saying bad things about Cheese. Do you expect me just to sit by and let that happen?” She says, sounding annoyed as another man comes running at her, her fist meeting his face and making him stagger back. Elyza holds her arm out between them, earning a glare from the man and his quickly forming black eye.

“Stop this right now! I don’t care what they said to Cheese, I’m not letting you bring the rest of us down because you want some stupid fight.”

Cornelia doesn’t look convinced, not at all. In fact, she looks angrier, like she’ll happily beat all these people up if it will make her feel better. Elyza quickly figures out exactly how to stop this.

“Do you even think before you act? Keep this up and you’ll definitely get arrested. Do you think Arcadia will like you then? Yeah, great first impression, missing your date because you’d rather hurt people!”

Cornelia flinches at her words, slinking back slightly as she looks to the floor, seeming for the first time in her life to actually look a bit ashamed. Elyza hears Cariston saying something similar to try to stop the group of men that currently have them surrounded. Somehow, he seems to calm them. They collect themselves, throwing a few curses in Cornelia’s direction as they all storm out of the tavern acting like they didn’t provoke the fight at all.

With the commotion over, the patrons all seem to calm down, everyone going back to their tables. The group get a few glances as they sit down at their table, but all seems to be somewhat calm once again. Elyza makes sure everyone is okay and settled back at the table before she goes up to the bar. Naliah yet again seems completely content, not at all affected by the situation. Cheese is explaining to the rest of them how that’s the first bar fight he’s ever seen, and it was so exciting. Cariston still looks deeply uncomfortable with everything, but seems to be keeping it together for Cheese. Cornelia, who usually would be sulking, seems to actually be lost in her own thoughts, just staring at the table looking solemn. Elyza does wonder if she was too harsh, especially bringing Arcadia into it when it’s obvious Cornelia really likes her.

She sighs, leaning against the bar to have a moment to herself while the barkeep is seeing to another customer. It was the right thing to do to break up the fight and stop Cornelia, so why does she feel so guilty? Maybe she really just needs that drink to clear her head, it’s been a really weird day after all. By the time the barkeep gets to serving her drink, she feels a little more normal, the adrenaline from everything that happened finally wearing off.

“You’re with the group that’s from the academy, right?” the elven man who passes her her drink asks. She just nods, taking a sip and wincing slightly at how strong it is. Maybe getting the strong stuff that Naliah normally drinks was a mistake.

“Was that you guys who started that fight?”

She sighs, nodding yet again. “Kinda, yeah...sorry about that. They’re very excitable kids and-”

“-Oh no, it's fine. A fight breaks out about once a week here. I’m just glad you broke it up, and nothing got damaged.”

She smiles at him, glad he seems to be a hell of a lot more understanding than some men she’s met in taverns. They chat idly, him asking about what they’ve been up to while in Kier, suggesting a few places they haven’t explored yet. She does worry he’s trying to flirt with her with how nice he’s being, but he just seems to be a genuinely nice guy.

Elyza notices Cornelia standing up from the table out of the corner of her eye. She turns to watch them, checking she isn’t about to get into another fight. Cornelia seems to be back to her usual demeanour, announcing to the group that she has plans for the night. Cheese tries to ask about them, but she just says she has to go now. She catches Elyza’s eye and gives her a look which she knows means she’s not to tell the others. Elyza just smirks, winking at Cornelia, who in turn seems to blush and quickly turn to leave the tavern.

Elyza finishes her drink, thanking the barkeep as she goes to stand and move back to the table with her friends. It’s getting late, they should all be at least heading to their rooms soon, if not getting to sleep. Although, they don’t need to be up particularly early or anything, so it doesn’t really matter.

As she’s about to leave the bar, she remembers something and turns back to the elven man. “What’s up with the name of this place, by the way? The Absent Elf isn’t something I’ve heard before.”

The man in question just smirks, leaning on the bar towards her. “Oh, it’s named after my father who was, well, an absent figure throughout my childhood.”

Elyza can’t help but laugh with him, thanking him yet again for the drink as she makes her way back to her friends.

_________________________________________________________________________

By the next morning everyone seems to have recovered from the excitement of the previous night. Cornelia is her usual self, not letting any mention of what she got up to with Arcadia out. Although, that probably is because they’re in front of the whole group and she seems to be determined to not let them know for some reason. Elyza gets it though, especially with how they all look at her when she interacts with Trizzi, if anyone else saw Cornelia acting like that with Arcadia, they would never let her live it down.

Their day goes as normally as it can with them running a few errands, nothing particularly exciting, just picking up a few things. Naliah’s cloak that she’s been talking excitedly about is finally ready. She has the largest grin on her face as she joins the rest of them outside of the tailors she's been visiting every day to check on it. It seems to be a blue silk cloak with platches of fur around the neck, or that’s what Elyza sees of it as Naliah very quickly holds it up showing it off. After making a huge deal of how nice it is, she slips it on, securing it and practically vibrating with excitement at it. Elyza doesn’t think she’s ever seen someone so excited over a cloak before.

It’s late afternoon by the time they begin heading back towards the tavern. It’s a fairly quiet and peaceful walk back, shops shutting up for the day while families walk back to their homes after outings. Elyza finds herself feeling rather content and used to this place now. She was originally worried about coming to such a large city, but so far, apart from the incident with Alenas, everything has been fine. In fact, she thinks this might be the first case of her actually having some time to relax in many many years.

Suddenly loud screams and shouts start erupting around them as people start running past them. A guard runs towards the group looking quite frankly terrified. Elyza knows they have to deal with whatever is going on by the way Cariston throws a look over his shoulder at her before rushing towards the man. He practically collapses at Cariston’s feet, looking up at him with desperation in his eyes.

“Oh please help me! There’s something terrible in the sewers, it came in the gate house and it killed my partner!”

“What was it, what’s going on?” Cariston asks the man gently, offering his hand which the guard takes, shakily standing up again.

“There were these dogs that- that teleported! Me and my partner were on guard and they came up from the sewers and killed him!”

“Okay, right. It’s okay.” Cariston says, giving the whole group a look which they all know by now means to get over here and reassure this poor guy. The thing is, no one goes to move, they all sort of just stand there looking at this guy like he’s a bit crazy. Cheese goes to move, which Elyza decides that nope, she cannot let Cheese say something weird and make this guy freak out anymore. It’s up to her.

Elyza moves to join Cariston, reassuring the guard they’ll check it out, actually motioning the group over so they have to move. Cheese, as expected, goes to say something insensitive about dogs not teleporting and he’s weird, but Elyza ushers them along quickly in the direction the guard points them in.

It doesn’t take long before they come to the sewer gate house, which thankfully the guard had the sense to close the door as he left. If there really are some murderous beasts inside, it would be way more trouble if they got out and into the city. Naliah takes lead, her sword summoned and ready in her right hand while her left is on the door. She pushes the door open, darting in quickly expecting something to be right at the door, but it isn’t. Elyza and Cariston are next in, noticing the room has well and truly been destroyed, completely ransacked as someone must have come in to find something in here.

That’s when they see the creatures in the room, two dogs who do not look like normal dogs at all. They have light yellow-ish brown fur and their ears are pointed back, their bodies unusually muscular and very strange. Cornelia seems to on instinct throw a bolt of fire at one of the creatures, watching it yelp and recoil. The other one growls, lunging at Naliah. She holds up her shield, bashing the creature back with a growl of her own as she brings her blade down onto it. Elyza shoots an arrow at the one Cornelia hit, watching it hit as Cheese also casts some sort of spell and frost starts to appear on the creature.

It takes about ten seconds for the creatures to die, one hitting the floor and then the other following a few seconds later as Cornelia throws more fire at them. With them dead, there isn't anything to stop them going into the sewers. They do have a quick look around the gate house before deciding there really isn’t anything of interest here and they should head into the sewers to figure out where the weird dogs came from.

Their journey down into the sewer system doesn’t take long. In fact, within about five minutes of descending down there, they start to hear something. Cheese picks up on it first, stopping the group and asking if they hear something. Everyone stops, listening carefully. At first, it’s quiet mumblings, which suddenly erupt into loud shouts. Everyone looks confused and Elyza isn’t sure why, until she realises, she’s the only one who understands what’s being said.

“No, it’s not that way.”

“No, No I know I’m right!”

“No look, you’re holding the map upside down!”

Elyza finds herself grinning, reaching for her bow with excitement. Oh, this should be fun. The rest of the group are still all standing around trying to make out what is being said. Elyza simply walks ahead of them a little, the shouts covering up her footsteps.

“Elyza, what are you doing?” Cornelia hisses, looking frustrated that she can’t figure out what is going on or what’s being said. That just makes Elyza’s grin widen.

“Goblins, come on.”

“Wait, what, goblins? How do you know?” Cariston asks, walking with her slowly, the rest of the group now starting to follow.

“You hear that?” she says, pointing in the direction the sound is coming from. “Those are goblins, what they’re speaking is their language.”

“You speak goblin?” Cheese pipes up quietly, Elyza nods, barely glancing at him as she leads the group closer slowly. “That’s weird, why do you understand that?”

Elyza looks at him then, trying to decide if she should tell him, as she already can feel the judgment towards her radiating off of him. “I...I had a goblin cross me once. I’m really good at killing them now. What happened isn’t important.”

“I think it is.” Cheese says, furrowing his brow. “Did you kill him? Are you a goblin assassin?”

“What? No, I mean, yes, kinda. It’s...complicated. He did something, so I learned the best way to get him to- nevermind, this isn’t the time.”

“So now you don’t like them? That’s really racist Elyza-” Cheese tries to say, but Cariston tells him now isn’t really the time, and as harsh as Cariston can do anything, tells him to shut up.

The goblins are still arguing loudly as the group approach. They have two of those same strange dogs with them who seem to not be affected by all the noise the goblins are making. Cariston and Cheese have a very quick quiet conversation that Elyza doesn’t manage to catch as they’re both taking turns to quietly whisper in each other's ears. Cariston suddenly stands up, making his way towards the goblins directly into their line of sight. The goblins definitely get a fright as one even makes a little yelp, the strange dogs stand to alert, growling as Cariston gets closer. Elyza thinks to go after him, but then stops, knowing she’ll have a better chance of hitting them if they don’t know where she is.

“Hi there, My names Cariston Vael. I couldn’t help hearing you there. I’m here with my friends. See, they’re over there.” He points back at the group. Elyza decides in that moment that maybe Cariston is not the only smart one in this group and they really are all idiots as she previously thought. “We heard a disturbance down here...Oh wait, do you understand me?”

“Of course we understand you, human.” the one with a large staff basically spits at him, now in common.

Cariston seems to ignore their tone, offering them a friendly smile. “Oh, that’s good. Why are you down here friends, what’s going on?”

The goblins exchange a look with each other, the other one replying this time.

“We don’t like this city, we’re going to destroy it.”

Cariston seems to flinch slightly, asking them why they want to destroy it. The one with the staff replies this time, sounding more annoyed if that was possible, saying that cities are bad and everyone should just return to nature, and since the idiot humans won’t listen, they need to destroy the city. Cariston of course goes to argue against this but they won’t listen to reason, insisting, which is so typical of goblins, that they’re right on this.

Elyza listens to their argument, Cariston not getting anywhere, even when Cheese steps forward and joins in. Elyza is honestly bored of this and sees it as simple as if the goblins are dead, nothing else can happen to the city, so she might as well just stick a few arrows in them. She reaches for her bow as slowly and as quietly as possible, hoping that no one notices.

Suddenly, the goblin with the staff shouts something and slams his staff against the ground. Elyza is just pulling the string of her bow back when she feels a vine wrap around her leg, she looks down, trying to immediately step away but it holds tight, another wrapping around her other leg. She goes to shout out to the others but notices the vines are trying to wrap around them all. She looks back to the goblins in panic, feeling a vine wrap painfully around her arm.

Naliah manages to dodge out of the vines and immediately runs at the goblins, summoning her sword to her hand and slashing at the one with the staff. Cornelia manages to get out of the way as well, flames instantly erupting around her as she glares at the goblins. Cariston and Cheese seem to be in a similar situation to Elyza, the vines trapping them, restricting their movement.

Elyza struggles against the vines, feeling panic rise in her chest as she looks around the rest of her group, seeing them also struggle against their restraints. Naliah has both the goblins on her, while the two dogs seem to be at Cornelia, who yet again seems to be holding her own very well throwing fire at anything that gets close to her.

Cariston manages to get free and so does Cheese, them both jumping into action and casting spells. Cheese casts his go to spell, a small puddle of grease appearing below the goblins, but sadly they don’t fall. Elyza gives up on struggling, deciding she can still fire her bow like this. It’s definitely more difficult, but she can probably still hit them. She lets an arrow loose, hitting the other goblin who seems to currently be hitting Naliah with a sword. It seems to freeze for a moment, before dropping to the floor.

Naliah catches Elyza’s eye briefly, giving her a look of determination as she turns to the other one again, slashing through its middle. Elyza expects to see a large splatter of blood from that, in fact she knows there should be, yet there isn’t. Only a small splattering of blood hits the floor. When Naliah raises the blade up again to attack, it seems to be completely clean. Elyza shakes her head, concentrating on the dogs at Cornelia and trying not to read too much into it.

The dogs, like the others from before, die very easily. The goblin with the staff however seems to take longer. Elyza misses a few shots, cursing to herself. She closes her eyes, trying to concentrate and ignore the pain in her arms from the vines still wrapped tightly around them. She opens her eyes and loses another arrow, watching it sink into the goblin. He winces but stays up, well that is until Cariston does something to him and blood starts dripping from his ears before he finally falls to the ground with a thud.

Everyone seems to collectively sigh in relief as the vines start to shrivel and fall away. Cariston is about to start making his rounds to make sure everyone is okay, when they hear a strange noise which sounds like...bubbling? Elyza looks towards the grate in the middle of the room and watches in absolute horror as water starts to rise out of it, forming into a huge creature.

Cariston lightly touches Elyza’s shoulder, giving her a look before pointing out the creature to the rest of them.

“What the fuck is that?!” Cornelia shouts, already summoning fire to her hand with an uncharacteristic look of fear in her eyes.

“More to kill I guess!” Elyza shouts back as the creature lets out the gurgling roar. She aims her bow at the horrifying liquid creature, watching her friends get ready to fight once again.

________________________________________________________________________

“They’re going to drown, do something!” Naliah screams as she slashes into the creature, only hitting its ankles but still doing a decent amount of damage if the monster's screams are anything to go by. Elyza watches, fear gripping her chest tightly, as Cornelia and Cariston are still stuck inside the water creature's middle. It seemed to swallow them no less than a minute ago, but with how much they’re being battered about, Cariston already seems to be unconscious, and Cornelia seems to be close to it too.

Cheese scrambles to get the hat off of his head, it’s completely drenched as they all are thanks to this creature. He closes his eyes, opening them with the panic evident in them as he looks at the water monster. “Give me back my friends!” he shouts, holding out his hand the water starts to part and Cornelia and Cariston fall to the floor. Cheese looks relieved, but it's short lived as the creature screams and goes to reach for Cariston again.

Naliah gets there first, slashing through its hand with a guttural harsh shout in another language, by the sounds of it, the same one Elyza has heard her say a few things in now. The monster gives one last gurgling scream as it crumples to the floor, bursting into water and splashing the whole group as it seems to shrink and shrink until the water is running back into the grate again.

Elyza holds up her bow, aiming at the grate, then around the room, breathing harshly as she tries to calm herself down. A moment passes, and then another. No creature seems to get back up again, they’ve finally killed it. Elyza finds herself letting out a small laugh, looking at Cheese as she sees he has a similar smile on his face. They’re both glad it’s over.

“Elyza?” Cornelia calls out weakly, holding a wound on her side as she looks over at her and Cheese. “Cariston needs help.” Elyza nods, hurrying over to their cleric and kneeling down beside him. She watches his chest rise and fall, a wave of relief washing over her as she goes to press her hands to his chest and heal him. But then she stops, the light glowing faintly on her hands in the darkened room makes her whole throat feel like it’s closed up and she can’t breathe.

His voice telling her she’s useless. The blood pooling on the floor beneath her. The light of her healing spell glowing faintly in the dark room. She failed; it was all her fault.

She tries to push past it, swallow down the memories as she closes her eyes and focuses on healing her friend. She feels tears stinging her closed eyes as she pushes down harder, trying not to let the sob she feels in her throat escape. She will not cry in front of them. She needs to be strong for them, she needs to lead by example. She needs-

-Cariston gasps, coughing a little as he sits up, forcing Elyza back. He takes a few breaths, looking around at them and smiling a dazed little smile. “That was way worse than swimming at the beach, I would not recommend it.” His voice and humour bring her back slightly, her hands still shaking as she clasps them together, smiling at him even as a tear slips down her cheek. As before when she’s healed him, he gives her a strange look, but doesn’t question it as the rest of the group help him up and ask how he is. He’s barely able to stand himself but he starts helping everyone, healing them up to the best of his ability.

They slowly make their way back to the surface, Cornelia leaning on the wall for support as she insists that she’s fine. They’re all completely drenched and definitely ready to get back to the tavern. It’s only been about half an hour since they’d first gone in the sewers if that, but it feels like hours have passed. Nearly having something kill you will do that. As they leave the gate house, there are a bunch of guards waiting nervously for them. Upon seeing them, they all look very surprised.

“You’re all alive!” one of them says, Elyza recognising him as the one they originally saw.

“Just about, yeah.” Cornelia says. Even when beaten and bloody she’s still a sarcastic asshole.

“We thought you would have died, he told us there were terrible magic beasts.”

“Yeah there was. There were also goblins, and what I believe was a water elemental.” Cariston says, going on to explain what happened first with the dogs and how they seemed to ‘blink’ and be in a different space. Then with the goblins and their sword attacks and weird nature spells. Then what happened with that horrifying creature which nearly killed them all.

“That’s- wow, yeah that’s a lot. Are you guys okay?”

“Do I look like I’m okay!?” Naliah shouts, the guard looking very taken aback. “I just bought this cloak! It’s a silk cloak, do you know what water does to a silk cloak!?!” Naliah screams, storming off in the direction of the tavern while the whole group just look after her. Elyza does not know what water does to a silk cloak, but she has a feeling she’s going to find out.

The guards say they’ll need to report this to their captain and thank the group for helping keep the city safe, they had no idea there was something so dangerous in the sewers. With the guards gone, and everyone wet, tired, and hungry, they head back to the tavern. The first thing they all do is go to their rooms to get changed. Elyza would flirt with Cornelia and make her flustered, but honestly, she doesn’t have the energy. She still feels a bit weird, her head throbbing slightly from earlier.

Cornelia gives her a small smile as they both leave their room, meeting Cariston and Cheese who similarly look a lot happier now they’re not completely soaked. They all go to head downstairs, but Elyza stops, telling them she’ll be there in a minute. She knocks on Naliah’s door softly, calling her name. Naliah doesn’t reply, but Elyza does hear a small snoring sound from within. She’s happy enough with knowing that Naliah’s asleep and heads downstairs to let the others know.

They have a quick and quiet dinner, discussing the fight a little bit but no one seems to have the energy to really talk about anything in depth. After dinner they’re in slightly better spirits but still exhausted. Elyza finds comfort in drink, nothing too strong like last time, just a simple ale to ease her mind. Cariston seems to be keeping an eye on her, his gaze flickering to her every so often while he chats with Cheese and Cornelia. Elyza stays out of the conversation, preferring to drink and think on things.

One by one everyone heads to bed, until Elyza and Cariston are the only two who are left downstairs. Elyza hasn’t had a lot to drink, she’s not drunk by any means, but she feels a little numb, in a good way. She feels more relaxed, yet her anxious thoughts still seem to be cutting through the fog in her mind. She sighs loudly, grabbing Cariston’s attention once again.

“Are you okay?” He asks softly, shuffling slightly closer to her.

“Yeah, Yeah. I’m alright.” She answers automatically, stopping for a moment to think. Is she actually okay? She doesn’t like to bring up her past in any sort of way. She doesn’t like when people look at her with pity. She knows she shouldn't feel like this and she should be fine sharing what’s on her mind with Cariston because he’s...well he’s her friend. They’re all her friends, they put their lives on the line to protect her in and out of combat. She can trust him, in fact, she finds herself wanting to tell him.

“Actually, I...can we talk?”

He nods, looking into her eyes with a look of concern painted across his face. It’s so sweet how caring he is.

“I, uh. I don’t know how to say this.” She starts, suddenly feeling that dread in her stomach return again as it catches up to her what she’s about to do. “I’m sure you’ve noticed when I've healed others, that I don’t look...comfortable.” He nods, his eyes not leaving hers. She finds the words harder to say with him looking at her like that. “I don’t feel comfortable healing others. I- I’m scared I’ll do it wrong, or it won’t work. I get really-I don’t know. I don’t like it.”

Cariston just watches her, considering what she’s said before he speaks up. “Do it wrong how? Has something happened before?”

“No- Well, I-” She sighs, closing her eyes tight as she looks down at the table, his eyes feeling like they’re burning into hers. He’s too nice and caring, way too good to care about someone like her. When she looks up and catches his eye again, he looks worried.

“Something happened, once. I-I wasn’t able to use my magic properly yet. I don’t like to use my healing magic on others unless absolutely necessary.”

“...Do you want to talk about it?” he asks gently, each word said with such care not to pry open the obviously painful memories she’s trying hard to not let overwhelm her.

“No- no, thank you. I’m good. I just- Can you make sure you do most of the healing, I’ll help out if I need to but I- I would rather I didn’t have to.”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.” He says, flashing her a warm smile now. “You know, I’m here if you need to talk about anything. That’s what friends are for.”

She should feel worried that he’s willing to be there for her, that she’s putting them all in danger just by being in association with her. Yet for once, she feels calm, she feels happy. She has people she can rely on, and that’s incredible. She finds herself smiling softly back at him. “Thanks Cariston.”

They both head off to bed for the night shortly after, Cariston stopping her before she goes into her room to remind her that he’s here if she needs to talk. She thanks him again, a genuine smile on her face as she makes her way into the room. As she lies in bed, thinking on how she could have died today, she wonders what adventures tomorrow will bring. Just for once, she wants tomorrow to be a nice, calm, normal day.