{-Myr-}

Reynneak was the one to walk up to a woman just outside of town and kindly ask, “Is there something we can help you with?”

Seeing the five of them brought her out of her pensive state and, after a moment, she nodded vigorously. “Yes, I could use the help of a few adventurers—desperately, even. Please, I can’t think of anything else to do…”

[Quest: Chasing Adventurers

Elena is the supervisor of a small adventuring team. But their last mission is taking far longer than it was supposed to and she’s starting to get worried. She’s hoping to hire another group to go out and look for them.

Rewards: 500 EXP, 800 coins]

“You had our help the moment you said you needed it,” Zetai remarked with a soft smile. “We’ll definitely look for the rest of your group for you.”

Elena let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Here—let’s head to our office. It’s a better place to talk than out here, and I can give you some more important information.” She showed them all to a little building nearby, fumbling with the lock for a moment before pushing the door open and gesturing them all inside.

It had the same kind of comforting air as Duuzlo’s office and, honestly, the base of it seemed pretty similar. A phonograph was on one side, along with a few comfortable-looking chairs surrounding it, and a desk full of papers was tucked in the corner. All around were drawings and paintings of a group of people, one of which was Elena, doing various things together; it must’ve been everyone in their group.

She gestured for them to have a seat while she messed with some things on the desk. “Now, being a bit late isn’t too unusual for them. They get distracted by anything shiny they see, so it usually takes them longer than what we planned for. But… it’s been a lot longer by now. More than it’s supposed to be, by the quest’s standards. I’m usually just worried they got themselves into a trap somewhere but, right now… honestly, I’m not sure what to think, but it’s nothing good.”

She walked back over to them with a more specific picture. “These are Andrew, Lydia, Lewis, Henry, and Muriel. They’re the five that you’re going to be trying to find.” She pulled out a map from a nearby pile and pointed to one of the mountains. “And this should be where they are. Or, at least, this is where they were supposed to be going.”

“It doesn’t look like it’s too far from here,” Tinath pointed out. “Is it hard to get to?”

Elena nodded. “They’d willingly gone to learn more about the surrounding area, but there’s a good reason no one’s done it before them. They’ve got the mix of experience and stubbornness to be able to take on anything they’d find there. When we’d all agreed to accept it, we’d been told it experienced worse storms than other parts, and rune-tainted beasts were around there.” She shifted nervously, going to put the picture and the map away again. “They usually get caught in storms, but… I’m afraid something else is keeping them. Something has to be, it’s never been this long before…”

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“You don’t have to worry,” Reynneak reassured her. “It sounds like they might be able to handle whatever it is, and we’re definitely capable of helping.”

She gestured to another set of papers. “Those are some of the information we got when we signed up for it. You might want to glance them over before you leave—some of it might help you.”

“You don’t want to come with us?” Myr asked, without considering the reaction she might get.

Luckily, Elena didn’t seem to think anything of it; she laughed a little before shaking her head. “No, that kind of thing was never for me. I’ve always liked staying where I knew a roof was over my head when it rained and there weren’t death traps at every corner. I’d get more than enough adventure just trying to keep up with them.” She gave a soft smile at the thought. “Tell me when you’re done looking over all of those. I’ve got some better maps of the area that I’m willing to show you, too—more than what you have in your menu. I’ll lend them to you.”

“That’ll count as aiding us,” Llewel pointed out. “You shouldn’t offer something like that. I don’t doubt that that’s something they’re going to take seriously if they heard about it.”

“I know I shouldn’t, but I will. Just because I stay behind doesn’t mean I don’t know how to take care of myself.” She went to, presumably, get those maps. “They’ve been gone for a lot longer than what they’re supposed to, by all records. That’s already one break in the sequence—mine will help make sure that nothing else disrupts things. They’re involved in a lot more than this; the longer they’re not here, the longer even more people are going to realize it.”

There was no point in trying to convince one side to join the other; they both had their reasoning and their own reasons to stick by it. Llewel must’ve realized that, too, because even if he looked like he disagreed, he stayed quiet to look over the papers with everyone else.

Myr glanced over them, for a moment. The most she could gather from it was “yeah, that’s an official request, alright.” There was something about a list of possible dangers in an area no one’s been able to really map out until now. A single line mentioned how the commissioner wasn’t responsible for anything that happened while the group was out there. She assumed everyone else had the important stuff figured out, so she didn’t spend too much effort trying to make sense of it on her own. When Zetai and Llewel stepped away to see the other maps Elena had, Myr joined them while Reynneak and Tinath studied the papers a little more.

“I don’t mind if you take them,” Elena said. “Unless any of you have a perfect memory, I’d suggest you do. There’s a lot of different caves and paths—you’re not going to be much help to anyone if you have no idea where you’re going.”

“Having them is just going to make it more obvious…” Llewel mumbled. Likely knowing that there was still no use in arguing over it, though, he accepted the maps from her. “I’ll hold on to them. You’re not going to be able to put it in your inventory since it’s not an actual item.”

Zetai shrugged. “Sounds good enough to me.” She glanced at the others. “Are you all ready? The sooner we can start looking for these guys, the better.”

Everyone gave a collective nod. They gave a few words of reassurance to Elena—and she made sure they knew to stay safe in return—before leaving.