{-Llewel-}
They didn’t say anything else about what it meant; what Nankohm was trying to do and how it would affect things. He didn’t know if he should consider it a good or bad thing that they didn’t—he didn’t want to dwell on it any more than the rest of them did, yet he knew they had to at some point. Knowing about it, though, he waited until they got to the city to give Myr the medicine and hoped it wouldn’t be too much trouble again later. It gave everyone else some time to figure out where Esaphi’s parents might be, anyway.
“It doesn’t say anything specific?” Zetai asked, somehow surprised, looking over Reynneak’s shoulder at the map. “We’re really going to have to find them on our own?”
“Well, they’re in this area,” Reynneak said. “But the rest of it is up to us. It’s actually a pretty small range, all things considered…”
Tinath shrugged. “Won’t be too hard. Most of the crowd are players and they’re easy enough to ignore. Finding two NPCs who look like Esaphi should be easy.”
“And what if they don’t look like her?” Zetai prompted.
Tinath gave a wide gesture to the twins.
“Oh, right. Fantasy genetics.” Without another moment given to the thought, Zetai started walking again and gestured for the others to follow. “I guess we’re not really going to make any progress standing here, right?”
Their wandering, however, was still largely aimless, and one done in silence. Saying anything out loud would just voice the concerns none of them were quite ready to hear.
Myr was still the most attentive among them, the first to have a sense of direction and the one to eventually declare, “I think that’s them over there.” Like usual, she didn’t wait for the rest of them before walking up to the couple.
By the time they’d all slowly caught up to her, she already had a nice conversation going with them.
“Yeah! We just saw her. She seems to be doing pretty well. She gave us a letter to send to you!” Realizing they were there, Myr turned to Zetai and, after a moment, was handed the letter. Myr brightly turned back to Esaphi’s parents and handed it to them. “Safe and sound!”
They both smiled, but it was Esaphi’s father that spoke first. “Thank you for doing this for us. We’re always worried about her, it’s nice to know that she’s doing well. Here—it’s the least we can do to thank you.” He gave the quest rewards to her.
Esaphi’s mother nodded, finishing their obligations to the quest, so she could say what she wanted to. “She’s gotten all sorts of people to give these letters to us, but I never expected to see the two of you again.”
“So you already knew each other?” Zetai questioned. “Why didn’t you mention that earlier?”
“Nothing either of us would’ve said would’ve changed anything,” Llewel pointed out casually. “It sounded like the three of you came up with a good plan and you weren’t wrong.” He shrugged. “We talked to them right after we finished the story quest with Casrane—made sure they knew that their daughter was doing alright.”
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“Esaphi told us everything you did with her,” Esaphi’s mother remarked. “She tells us about the other players she remembers, too, but you’re by far the ones she’d really liked.”
“More than that, there’s everything else that we owe the three of you,” Esaphi’s father added. “What we all owe you three. I doubt anything that we’re all able to do now would be possible without you. The two of us have been keeping an ear out for anything about you. It’s good to see you’re both doing well—and with some reliable-looking friends, from the looks of it.”
“We weren’t the ones that did most of it…” Llewel mumbled. He’d stand by that fact; that it was because of Casrane that most of this was able to happen. Especially when, to him, it was her that had sacrificed something for them—it felt like the twins, by comparison, were only just following along.
“No need to be humble! If you ever need something, you let us know. We’ll be more than happy to help out,” Esaphi’s mother said. “You’ve probably got all kinds of plans. We won’t keep you if you’re busy.”
“I actually don’t think we had much of a plan,” Myr remarked. She glanced at the others and seemed to take their mutual silence as a confirmation. “I mean, we did, but they’ve kind of got to be reworked now…”
Esaphi’s father nodded. “I hear the developers have been all over the place. They’ve been interfering with a lot of different work—both ours and the players’. Hopefully they’ll be done with whatever they’re working on soon, though.”
Surprisingly, none of them made any obvious signs that showed they knew more on the matter. Zetai that felt nonchalant enough to agree, “Yeah, we’re hoping it gets wrapped up, too. Kinda messing with a bunch of stuff.”
Esaphi’s parents’ nods seemed to signal that all they’d wanted to say was said. After another moment, her father repeated, “Well, we won’t keep you waiting. Go on and stay safe now, alright?”
“It was great to have the opportunity to talk with you,” her mother added. “Talk to her again and help her send a few more letters, won’t you?”
Myr gave them a wide smile. “We will! And you have a good day, too!” As Zetai started to walk away, the rest following, Myr quickly waved goodbye before catching up with them.
“We probably should keep what Esaphi told us a secret, huh..?” Reynneak mumbled after they were clearly just wandering again. “Being honest isn’t really going to help anyone…”
Tinath didn’t seem nearly as bothered by it. “It’s for the better that we don’t. They’ll want to do something—I’m pretty sure almost every NPC in the game would—but they really can’t. You can’t exactly stand against the same people that are the whole reason for your existence.”
“Well, it’s possible…” Llewel muttered, thinking back to Duuzlo and Fininri, but then Tamlio… and perhaps the twins, to an extent, for both sides. “Just not something that everyone can handle. For everyone’s sake it’s better to keep them out of it. The ones that know are probably risking enough as it is.”
“No use in continuing to reason it out,” Zetai remarked. “First and foremost, it’s our problem. I’m confident enough in our ability to take care of it ourselves, without dragging anyone else into it.”
The most it got was some mumbles of mutual agreement. Nothing more could be done—they had better things to spend their time worrying about.
Before the silence could completely settle, she continued, “Rey, can you point us in the direction of some quests away from the spots Esaphi pointed out? We’ve got the time for a couple of them.”
He casually pulled up the map and, after a moment, had an answer for her. “There’s a bigger quest just outside of the city—we’ll be on the opposite side of where most of the work is being done. I can’t tell exactly what it’s going to involve, but the rewards are pretty good.”
“Great, then we’ll head there.”