{-Myr-}

Why did hearing stories about her childhood and of a woman she’d never remember make her feel better? It wasn’t like they were anything less then. They still had half their problems. The Rune Reactivation Project would still be after them for Emmyth’s blood or their pendants—that was a threat they had no matter what. But… others had said it before. Those guys are nothing compared to the kinds of things Nankohm could do to everyone—what they were already doing.

Zetai, Reynneak, and Tinath mumbled something to each other before announcing they were only going to leave the twins at the inn for a couple of minutes. Llewel, a moment after they left, added on the explanation, “I think there’s something they’ve got to do in the real world.” though he didn’t seem to understand it much better himself.

Myr took the opportunity to sit at one of the empty tables at the corner of the inn. There, she leaned her head against the wall and just let the swirling thoughts take over.

“Had it been that bad?” Dahasci asked as he walked by the two of them.

“No,” Llewel replied thoughtfully. “She’s worried about what’s going on. There’s stuff that neither of us understand…”

Dahasci looked at her when he offered, “Would you like some chocolate? That always cheers me up. I have some extra.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think I’m hungry,” Myr said, somehow managing a weak smile.

He blinked. “Llewel, what did you do to your sister?”

“It has nothing to do with anything I said!” Llewel defended. “The one thing I could tell her definitely just makes it worse.”

“Well, you must’ve done something, because she’s officially become the first person I’ve encountered in the past week who refuses chocolate.”

“And how many people did you make that offer to?”

“I don’t think that’s the important part here.”

Llewel didn’t look the least bit amused. She knew it wasn’t intentional, but she felt a little better herself to see it.

She was the first to notice who had just returned to the inn. She perked up more to see all three of them and wave them over. “We’re over here!”

At the call, Zetai mumbled something to Reynneak before quickly going over to join the twins. Reynneak and Tinath trailed behind, the former seeming only slightly more cautious than he usually was.

“Did you come up with any plans of what we’re going to do now?” Myr honestly couldn’t determine why she sounded so happy. Their options were quickly diminishing thanks to her—but at least she might be able to do more than just sit here.

“There’s one or two more we can knock out pretty quickly in the city,” Reynneak replied. “But we’ll have to head back out again after that. Are you two ready?”

Both of the twins nodded and stood up. Before any of them could go much further, however, they got distracted by someone else—a player nervously walking up to Dahasci.

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“You’re not, ah—busy, are you..?” she asked, barely audible over all the other players’ mutters and conversations.

“Of course not!” Dahasci replied with a wide smile. “Looking to rent a room? I’ve got plenty of open spaces available. You’ll be rejuvenated in mere moments, ready to take on your next set of adventures!”

“Oh, uh, no. I, uhm… was asked to give you this.” She showed him the letter she’d been carrying. “I-it might’ve gotten wrinkled a little, I couldn’t put it in my Inventory…” After a moment, she must’ve realized she may have needed to give some more explanation. “Esaphi gave it to me. She said she wanted her friends to find it, a-and that they’d get it if I gave it to you.”

“Well, in that case, I’ll make sure it gets to its proper recipient.” Dahasci gently took the letter from her. “Both of you can rest assured in that.”

“Th-thank you.” The player flashed a nervous smile at the other five before quickly walking away again.

Dahasci barely had to look at it before handing the letter to the twins. “I believe this is for you.”

Myr snatched it before Llewel could. If it was from Esaphi, it had to be important. She took care in opening it, though—the same kind of care she knew Esaphi had when writing it—and scanned through its contents hoping for something. She’d had a feeling, one she didn’t want to acknowledge, that it must’ve been because of something bad.

“What’s it say?” Zetai prompted after Myr had simply stared at it for a moment.

“Practically nothing,” she sighed, setting it on the table for the rest of them to see. “Just that she wants us to meet with her again…”

“I’m guessing it isn’t just because she misses you?” Tinath remarked, leaning over to read the letter.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t say.” Myr had a bad feeling about this. She already dragged others into this. She didn’t really want to know that she dragged Esaphi into it, too.

Llewel avoided giving his thoughts on the reason, just, “We’re not going to know until we go there and see.”

“Well then what are we waiting for?” Myr stood up and had to stop herself from leaving the inn without them. “What if she needs us for something important? Or she’s in trouble? We can’t just keep standing here!”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Reynneak tried to assure her, gently. The rest of them seemed to be preparing to leave painfully slow. “Nothing that bad could have happened to her.”

“Given the rest of the issues we caused, I really don’t think I can believe that.”

They all looked like they had something they wanted to say—some other way of denying it—but, ultimately, no one did. She decided that they knew she was right. And, somehow, it was easier to say it was something the twins were responsible for and believe that there was something she could change. The alternative was admitting that there really was nothing any of them could do, which only seemed more hopeless with the thought that, eventually, something else would happen and it was completely out of their control.

…

She had to be mindful not to stray too far ahead of the others. Llewel kept up with her, though, to the point he practically felt like her shadow. She didn’t pay attention to him. It was neither annoying nor comforting to know his extent of making sure she stayed safe, at least not right now.

Myr was half relieved to see that Esaphi looked okay—well, okay enough. She was pacing the length of the cave when they got there, though the small smile she managed when she saw them was soon gone again.

“I… wanted to make sure you all knew,” Esaphi began before any of them could say anything. “They’re done working on the runes here. They’ve done everything that they planned to do. Or, at least, I hope they have. No matter what, it definitely isn’t a good thing…”

She’d stopped pacing for a moment but, after apparently considering the weight of what she said, she started seeming to force herself to stay in one spot. She still cut off whatever questions they might have tried to ask when she said, “But… I think there’s still one more thing.”