{-Llewel-}

It was by Tinath’s suggestion that the players go and complete smaller, undoubtedly uninteresting quests while the twins talked with Bezyu. Whether it was because she was bored of standing around or wanted to be considerate—possibly even both—was up for debate, though. Zetai had agreed so she’d just told the twins that they could stay however long they wanted, and the players would head back to the inn for a little while before they had to go.

Thus, Llewel and Myr recounted everything worth noting about their journey so far. Bezyu mostly listened, but her occasional comments and much more frequent changes in expression proved all her attention was on them.

Then Myr had finished, ending with the tag-team event up until the moment they saw Bezyu again. In the awkward silence, they found everything else no one said, trying and failing to turn away from it.

“Are you going to tell us a little more about what’s happening in the city?” Llewel decided there was no point in ignoring it. “Or what Casrane is out there trying to find?”

Bezyu had gone from giving them unwavering eye contact to refusing to make it. “I’m afraid that anything else is something that I don’t know. I know something’s happening. I know Casrane left to find details about it. That’s the extent of my knowledge.”

He decided to try his luck with, “Would you happen to know, then, where she might be right now?”

“I have a guess. But I think it’s better if I don’t tell you.” She sounded resolved in that fact, at least, that he’d get no more information out of her. “I know what you must be thinking. I’d like to remind you that she wouldn’t want all of you rushing into danger for her sake.”

“I want to tell her she shouldn’t rush into it for ours…” he mumbled with a sigh.

Myr was quiet for a moment, before suggesting, “It’s probably around the time the others will be heading back to the inn. Is it… alright for us to go back now? See the others before they have to leave for the day.”

Bezyu gave it some consideration, then nodded. “I believe so. I haven’t heard any information that things had gotten worse, so it should be fine by now—they likely wouldn’t still be searching the city. I’ll walk the two of you back, though. I can tell if you might be in danger before you have to be put in any.”

…

They said goodbye to Bezyu in front of the inn, sharing an unspoken stay safe between them. There was one other thing she said before the left, though: “I think you’ll be able to get the answers you’re looking for sooner than you think.”

She walked back into the crowd, and the twins headed into the inn. They weren’t looking for where the others were for long, though—Zetai immediately waved them over.

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“Did you catch up with Bezyu?” she asked once they sat down. “Took a little longer than I thought it would, honestly. I figured you’d be back before we did.”

“We had a lot to talk about,” Myr answered casually. “What about you guys? Did you do anything interesting?”

“Fighting,” Reynneak sighed. “Lots of fighting.”

Tinath smirked and added, “Let’s be honest. I was carrying both of you.”

“Hey, you can say that about Reynneak, but I’m not letting you say that about me,” Zetai remarked. “I was attacking them, too!”

“But you kept taunting them and nearly respawned just about every other battle.”

“I got the job done, though, didn’t I?”

An eye roll was the closest thing she got to a response.

“Sounds like you had fun, then,” Llewel mumbled absently. It was a part of idle conversation, not addressing any feeling—the twins liked avoiding combat when they could. It didn’t pose nearly as big of a threat to the players as some other activities might’ve… not to mention it was probably easier, without having to constantly watch over the two of them.

A moment of silence, then Reynneak mumbled to Zetai, “I guess we’re not going to talk about it, then?”

“If they don’t want to talk about it then I’m not going to make them,” she responded quietly.

“Well, just mentioning it was probably a little too obvious,” Tinath remarked. She glanced up at the twins to answer the questions they were thinking. “We noticed you two and Bezyu all acted weird. Is there something else going on?”

Llewel himself was partially surprised by how effortlessly he said it. “Nothing you three need to worry about for now—just some things between us. We’ll let you know if it’s important, though. I promise.”

That must’ve been enough for them—or at least, they acknowledged they won’t get much further.

Zetai stood up. “I think that’s pretty much all the time we have for the day. We’ll see you again tomorrow, alright? Then we’ll hopefully be back on track.”

The twins nodded and they all waved goodbye. In a couple of minutes, a lot of other players were giving similar farewells; praises on whatever progress they were able to make today, with the promise of making more tomorrow.

It took a while before Myr said anything again, though. He barely noticed when she did. “I don’t want to keep it from them.”

“I never said we were going to, now did I?” When Tiolfe approached them, he just mumbled a request for something to eat. She seemed to understand that this wasn’t the type of thing she should get involved in.

“But I feel like, if we don’t do it soon, then no one’s going to.” Myr was mostly focused on some random spot on the table. “We’ll all know that something’s going on but we’ll all be too happy to actually address it.”

“You heard what Bezyu said. Casrane wanted to look into a handful of things first—once she has the answers she’s looking for, we can tell the players. It might not be anything they needed to worry about to begin with.”

“They’re definitely worried now. Whether or not we tell them isn’t going to make a difference…”

“Then let’s put it this way: something that they’re going to be able to change. You know they’re going to do whatever they can for us, whether they’re actually capable of it or not.”

Then Tiolfe walked back with what he asked for, and casually remarked, “You’re about to get the answer to that question.”

Neither of them could question her before she gestured someone over—a happily familiar someone.

Casrane gave them a weak smile. “It’s good to see the both of you again. Do you have a little bit of time now..?”