{-Myr-}
The whole trip there was in silence. She thought of trying to start a conversation, every now and again, but quickly decided that would ultimately make things worse. At this point it seemed like Zetai was the only wary one, though it felt like she held enough for all of them and then some. It seemed obvious that Tinath wasn’t going to do anything—she just wanted to do what she could to help them and Casrane. So why did Zetai still act like Tinath had done any of that simply because she wanted to hurt them?
Myr had also considered talking to Llewel about it—get it off her mind, even if she knew she probably wouldn’t like whatever he told her—but she never did. There was one opportunity, after the players had left for the day, and he looked too occupied in something else. She just stayed quiet.
Were Kyirius not known to be haunted, she may have been able to make a compromise; the silence between the five of them for the forest noises around them. But, of course, Kyirius was known for being haunted, and even if they weren’t in that part of the forest, she still had to wonder if there was something following them.
Though it didn’t take too long to realize it was a friendly follower.
The Ghost Hunter’s base was in sight when this follower decided to present herself. She burst out of the forest and, with a laugh, pulled Llewel and Myr into a hug.
Vureta stepped back. “It’s my favorite set of twins! About time you two showed up, I heard you went to Kehnore without even saying hello!”
[https://i.imgur.com/622XvFS.png]
When Llewel made no effort to say anything to her, Myr just said, “We got busy. I wanted to visit you, I promise! But you weren’t at the Ghost Hunter base when we did that quest…”
“You probably just missed me! I was doing some pretty important missions, if I do say so myself…” Vureta looked so proud of herself when she declared, “I’m officially no longer a scout! I’m actually a hunter now!” She paused. “Well, I kinda have been since the game’s ending, but I never had the chance to tell you! To be honest, there was a little while when I thought I wouldn’t be able to…”
Myr did the talking for both of them. “That’s great! And I think you might be able to help us. We’re here collecting reports for Kaerio. The other guy we talked to said we’ll be able to find the person who has them at the Ghost Hunter base. Do you know who it is?”
“Well, maybe, but I don’t think you’ll find her at the base…” Vureta remarked with a grin.
“Vureta, please just bring us to where you keep the reports,” Llewel sighed.
She let out a hmph. “You don’t even want to play around a little? What made it so obvious?”
“You were friends with Kaerio and let him know that we were coming. It makes sense that you’d be a part of his team against the Rune Reactivation Project.”
“Alright, you’ve got me. But, hey, there’s no need to be in a rush, is there? I haven’t seen you guys since you visited me on your way to Anseshara. Sure, Relenri told me about you, but it isn’t anything compared to actually talking to you.” Vureta started down the path towards the Ghost Hunter base, gesturing for all of them to follow her. “What kind of trouble have you been getting into? Have you been able to talk with Casrane? Did you check that spot she used to go to for a little while?”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The thought of what had happened in Kyirius sent them all back into silence. Myr couldn’t think of a way to explain it all where she knew it wasn’t going to start an argument; either no one else was interested in sharing or they couldn’t find a better explanation.
“Okay then,” Vureta said slowly after a little while with no replies. She turned around so that she could walk backwards to see them. “Well, either way, it’s good to see you’re all working together again.”
“We were always working together,” Reynneak pointed out. “What do you mean, ‘again?’”
“Oh, really? I’ve kinda been getting all my information from Relenri on the rare chance I’m around the city. She said that the five of you were working together, and then apparently there was some kind of maintenance, and you split off with her.” She lazily gestured to Tinath.
“You’ve got to be the only NPC here who doesn't know…” Tinath mumbled.
“Yeah, she was never a part of us,” Zetai remarked. “She was just some tagalong that ended up turning the twins in to Nankohm.”
Vureta gave a very wise nod, one broken by an overexaggerated look of contemplation. “But she’s good now, isn’t she? If she’s with you again?”
They were quiet for a little while before Zetai said, “The twins wanted her to come along.”
“Well, if the twins trust her, then why do you sound like you don’t?”
“Simple: nothing’s going to convince me at this point that she’s trustworthy.”
Reynneak sighed. “There’s no use getting her to talk about it. She’s always been like this.” Before anything more could be said on the matter, he continued, “It seems weird that you knew so little about all of that, though. Most of the good NPCs we came across in Kehnore knew what had happened.”
Vureta shrugged, turning back around to walk normally again. “I could tell there was something Relenri wasn’t comfortable telling me, but I didn’t push for any answers. We don’t get those little notification things like the players do when there's maintenance—but we are usually close enough to them that we know when it’s going to happen. I wasn’t. I was by myself hunting ghosts the whole time. I figured I just wasn’t having any luck finding the ghosts I was hunting, not that they’d stopped spawning after maintenance started.”
When they were threatened with the possibility of everything going quiet again, Myr prompted Vureta to tell them about what she’d been doing since the end of the game. She was more than happy to share everything and, if she realized there was a slightly different motive for asking, then she didn’t mention it.
As it was clear she was getting closer to the end of her stories, Myr began to consider how she’d share their own. There was a lot, but little she was particularly interested in talking about. Fortunately for her, she didn’t need to figure it out; they’d reached the Ghost Hunter base as soon as Vureta finished telling them everything she was going to say.
“Players can’t usually access the base unless they need to be in there,” she said when they got to the entrance. “It’s only gonna take me a couple of minutes to get the reports. Think you can wait out here until then?”
It was supposed to be a rhetorical question, but Myr couldn't have been the only one that had debated telling her “no.”
Then Vureta left, leaving them for whatever was going to happen without her.
“So,” Tinath began casually, “we’re halfway done with this quest. What do all of you think? Am I still that heartless monster that decided to risk the life of two kids for the fun of it?”
Though she assumed she’d be outnumbered, Myr was the first to say, “I think you should stay with us.” She was willing to be the first to offer a second chance, if that’s what it took.
And surprisingly, Reynneak was also able to say something. “Everyone deserves another chance.”
“You just want to be able to talk with Casrane,” Llewel mumbled. “I get it. And it’s not like you’ve done anything to hurt us during this, even when you had several opportunities, so…”
Zetai muttered something that still proved she hadn’t changed her mind, but she didn’t make it obvious.
A moment later, Vureta returned with a stack of papers.
“This should be all of them!” she announced. “Or maybe it’s too many of them, I’m not really sure. But just try to see how many of them you can fit in your Inventory and I’ll put the rest back later.” Zetai took them all and Vureta gave a satisfied nod. “Yep, that looks like those were all the ones you needed! The next person you’re going to need to find is in Nafrius. Bet you two are going to be looking forward to visiting your home again!”