“What is going on?” David demanded, looking between Alera and Leah.

Moments ago the Rogue who’d abandoned them, shattering the last remnants of Ethan's attempts to stave of his depression, had reappeared on their doorstep.

“Have you… did you…?” Leah’s eyes were wet with tears as she clutched Alera’s hands like they were a rope, saving her from drowning.

“Leah,” Alera said, her knuckles white as she squeezed her friend’s hands in return. “I found him. I found Tae-Won!”

David was stunned, he felt blood drain from his face as he scrambled to find a chair or a table to support him before he fell over.

“What the fuck!?” Miguel screamed behind him. “No! You do not get to show up-“

“Miguel, shut up!” Leah shouted over the screaming Cleric. David saw a small spark of the old Leah return. Three words from Alera had done more to improve the red haired woman than anything any of the rest of them had done in the last almost three months. “Where? Where is he?”

“Wait,” David braced himself against the wall with one hand and held up the other, trying to interrupt the conversation. “Someone back up.”

“David,” Alera rushed over to him, now taking his hand. “Where is Ethan? I need to tell him, tell him I found Tae-Won!” She stuttered as if she had meant to say something else but caught herself.

“I told you,” Miguel shouted again, pushing his way into the crowded entryway. “He’s not fucking here!”

“Miguel, shut up!” David repeated Leah’s command. The sudden shock of seeing Alera, and her surprising announcement, had thrown him off guard. But he was now starting to get himself back in control.

“Alera, he’s gone.” He said quietly, frowning at her. “He left over a month ago.”

“What do you mean ‘gone’?” Her face went pale as she released his hands, taking a step back. “Did… did Paul get him?”

“No, you did!” Miguel shouted his accusation, and pointed his finger at her.

David was starting to get annoyed at Miguel. Alera’s statement about Tae-Won was getting lost due to his shouting. She still hadn’t told them anything more than she’d found him.

“Miguel,” he rounded on the cleric, holy golden light radiating from his eyes. “If I have to tell you one more time to shut the hell up, I’m going to throw you out of the house!”

Tae-Won...Leah...Alera...Ethan… I’m missing something here, but I don’t know what. He thought to himself, trying to piece together this unexpected puzzle.

“Start over,” he turned back to Alera, gesturing for her to enter the living area. “Where have you been? And what are you doing back?”

Leah rushed for the kitchen and retrieved both coffee and water for Alera.

“Ta, love,” Alera smiled weakly at her as she sat in Ethan’s usual brown armchair. Seeing her in his best friend’s seat, the same friend who she had just crushed, angered David. But he quickly pushed it down. Something was going on, Leah wasn’t treating her like she had done anything wrong, she actually seemed to be welcoming her back to the guild hall.

For a moment, Alera said nothing. She simply ran her fingers over the arm rests, looking sad, as if she was missing something that wasn’t there.

“Alera…” David said softly, leaning on the back of one of the couches. Miguel paced angrily behind him.

“I know,” a tear ran down her cheek. “Tae-Won. I found him.”

“You said that,” David said, feeling his impatience grow, “how? And where?”

Alera took a small sip of her coffee.

“He is being held in the city of Fuerte de Playa,” she held the mug between both hands, as she looked at Leah. “He’s in the dungeons of a castle, I saw him. I talked to him.”

David felt his face drain of blood once again. Leah gasped from the couch and Miguel stopped pacing.

“Is he….?” Leah asked her nervously.

“Aye, he’s alive,” Alera nodded. “And he is holding strong.”

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“How… how badly have they hurt him?” Miguel had silently walked up behind David.

Alera’s eyes flicked between David and Leah nervously. David nodded at her to continue.

“It’s bad,” she answered quietly. “They took one of his hands, he’s covered in burns and scars… it looks like they’ve been starving him.”

David quickly looked down at Leah. He expected to see her sobbing over the news of her tortured husband. Instead, she was grinding her teeth in fury. Her usually dark brown Druidic tattoos were beginning to glow in soft green light as energy surged through her.

“I will kill them all,” her voice echoed in the quiet room, like the early rumblings of thunder on a quiet night. The early warning of a coming storm.

“Yes,” David placed his hand on her shoulder, hoping to bring her back to them. “We will. Every single one of them.” He could feel his own righteous fury vibrating in every cell of his body. Tae-Won was a good man, those that were hurting him would be brought to swift, and bloody justice.

“I still don’t understand,” Miguel finally spoke up. “How did you find him? And why? You made it pretty obvious you held us in no regard whatsoever.”

Alera glanced at Leah before she said anything, a look of sadness on her face.

“After…” pause, “after the day at the Tower,” she paused again, “I meant to follow them. But they teleported away. And I lost them.”

“Then what?” David asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I decided to follow the only one I knew where they’d go, Kalinda.”

“Of course,” David nodded, “she’s on the Silent Council. Makes sense she’d return to Anvasa.”

“She did, before I got there,” Alera explained. “It took me a week to infiltrate her office after I got there.”

“It’s a miracle you weren’t caught,” David said approvingly.

“Right, thanks,” Alera smiled weakly, the reminder of her previous friendships comforting. “She may be the new Murmur, but she doesn’t have anywhere near the skill of her predecessor.”

“Anyway,” Miguel groaned, “continue.”

“Well, I started noticing she was getting missives regularly, always the same. A scroll with a red wax seal,” she explained. “It took me a while, but I was finally able to intercept one.”

“What was it?” Leah asked her.

“Missives from Paul, requests for aid against some neighboring kingdoms. But,” she took a breath, “they all mentioned a city, Fuerte de Playa.”

“So you went there,” David could guess where she was going with her tale.

“Aye, as the name says, it’s a city in a beach,” she nodded, “with a massive fortress. Walls that are fifty feet high and twenty feet thick. But I was able to get in. And that’s where I found Tae-Won.”

“But why?” David asked, leaning forward to stare at

her.

“I asked her to,” the red haired Druid spoke up, “Thank you, Alera.”

“What do you mean, you asked her to?” David was once again stunned. “You, you planned this?”

“Yes,” Leah turned and looked at him.

David’s rage rose once again. These two women had used them, used and hurt his best friend.

“I just… I didn’t expect him to leave,” Leah said sadly, dropping her head to her chest. “I hoped I’d be able to help him through it.”

“Fat lot of good that did,” Miguel snorted behind David.

He’d been getting more annoyed with every sarcastic outburst from Miguel, but this time he agreed with him.

“Well, he’s gone.” David said accusingly, “Sam too, because of the two of you.” He glared at the two of them.

“Wait,” Alera jumped to her feet, “back up. What has gone on here?”

“Well, after you broke Ethan’s heart, his depression worsened,” Miguel began recounting the events of the last month, ticking each event off his fingers as he went. “He drank, a lot, and wallowed on the couch. Then Sam left, said he couldn’t handle Ethan’s depression anymore, they had a big fight and he quit the guild. That same night, we all woke up in the morning to find that Ethan had left too, he passed the leadership to David and was gone.”

“So where are they?” She asked, looking around the room. “I mean, you have to have some idea where he is?”

“Sam joined Kevin’s guild,” David said bitterly.

“Old friend of his,” Leah explained, “there’s bad blood between him and Ethan.”

“And what about Ethan?” She looked back to the Paladin. “Surely, you have some idea where he is? Did you go to Skaro?”

Skaro was where Ethan had completed his Battle Shaman class quest. He’d come back raving about how much he loved it there. David had noticed a change in his emotional state as well, whatever he’d done there had balanced him. His rage and depression had been staved off. Well, temporarily.

“He’s not in Skaro,” Leah said, shaking her head. “We went there and, other than a very cold welcome, we didn’t find anything.”

“Then where is he?” Alera repeated her question.

Miguel and Leah looked at the floor, they clearly had no idea where their former leader had gone.

Finally, after several moments of awkward silence, David spoke up.

“I know where he is, but it doesn’t matter,” he shook his head in defeat.

“Why not?” Alera asked him, “do, do they have him?”

“No,” David chewed on his lip. There was only one other place he’d ever heard Ethan talk about fondly, it hadn’t been hard to track him down. But Ethan wasn’t accepting group invites or messages. There was no way to get to him. “He’s in Grassmere.”

“Fuck,” Miguel sword behind him. “He’s in the instance and we can’t get in.”

“HA!” Alera’s triumphant bark of laughter startled David and he looked up at her.

“Is that all?” She positively beamed at everyone in the room.