{-Myr-}
It made her slightly better, to hear a better explanation of this from Bezyu. Slightly being the keyword. There was a lot left unsaid, but… Myr decided she’d leave that part to Llewel to worry about. One of them needed to act the same, after all, if they were going to keep the players from realizing it too.
When they reached another campsite, Myr immediately knew what they’d find there before Bezyu even said anything.
“I think this is where our thief is,” Bezyu announced. “We should stick together, though. I can’t be sure of what else is here.”
Myr saved them the trouble—half-hoping it didn’t disrupt any of Bezyu’s plans—by pointing at one of the tents. “I’m pretty sure I saw someone try to sneak in there.”
“Did he not even try to hide until we got here..?” Bezyu mumbled with a mix of confusion and weariness. She shook her head. “Oh well, it just means that we can end this quickly.”
“You think we’re going to have to fight the guy?” Zetai asked. She was already taking the lead towards the tent. “I just need to know if I should hit him first.”
“I mean, it’s not like you’re going to be able to do anything if he can’t fight back…” Tinath mumbled.
Bezyu shook her head to answer the actual question. “No, I think he’ll realize there’s no point when he sees that he’s surrounded. Just make sure there’s nowhere he can run off to.”
They all walked towards the tent, far enough apart that they might not be seen as too threatening but not too far that they couldn’t catch whoever it was. Myr doubted there’d be a chase, though—if this was all planned, then whoever it was probably wouldn’t bother. Especially if Bezyu had brought up the possibility.
Bezyu looked about ready to check the tent before the familiar face came out of it.
“H-hey, guys!” He let out a nervous chuckle, glancing between all of them. He had the crystal in his hand. “You showed up a lot quicker than I thought you were going to…”
“Well, it wasn’t like you were hard to follow,” Llewel remarked. “With the amount of clues you left, it was more like you wanted to get caught.”
“I’ll have you know that that had been some of my best work!”
“Either way, it doesn’t matter now,” Bezyu said. “It’s over, Rulle. Return the crystal.”
He relented and handed it back to her. “Would’ve been a lot more interesting if you’d taken your time…” He didn’t seem to stay defeated for long, though, glancing at the twins. “Good to see the two of you. Though I… don’t think you’d be very happy to see me, huh? We’ve never seen each other in the best of situations.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Do you know each other?” Reynneak prompted.
Myr nodded, especially since now she was confident enough to answer. “We met him during the story quest.”
“Weren’t you a part of the Rune Reactivation Project?” Llewel asked Rulle rather casually. “I didn’t think you’d end up becoming friends with Bezyu after what you were responsible for.”
“What can I say, everyone has parts of their past that they want to forget…” Rulle shook his head and, louder, said, “I deserted! K-kind of. I knew what I did was wrong but there was nothing I could do to stop it. I still have a couple of quests involving them here, and I still get dreams about other players’ story quests, but… I decided I wanted to be more than one of their disposable lackeys. I avoid them as much as I can.”
“So… why did you take the crystal?” Zetai questioned. “Doesn’t that just disrupt things?”
“Oh, it doesn’t really,” he said casually. It was clear a part of it was just to avoid the actual question. “No matter what, something this important can’t just disappear—that’ll disrupt just about everything in Eslasera. Wherever it goes during the day, it always resets back at the temple at midnight.”
Tinath glanced at Bezyu. “Did you know that?”
“Of course I did,” Bezyu said quickly. “But not everyone does. If something had happened to it, others might get worried. Retrieving it before the reset assures that no one else hears about it going missing.”
A part of Myr considered drawing attention to what they talked about earlier—she didn’t want to keep the players out of it. But… she played along with it instead, to help out a friend. “Either way, it doesn’t matter too much, right? Should we bring it back to the temple since we have it again.”
Llewel nodded, assuring that there might not be too much time to question it. “While we’re there, we can probably readjust the rest of our plans for the day. We can do something closer to the temple instead of stuff in the city.”
…
It was pretty clear that Bezyu had more she wanted to say, but never did. No matter how hard she might’ve tried, she couldn’t hide her worry, yet probably couldn’t think of a good reason to continue this.
Even though a pretty obvious one—or, perhaps more fittingly, two—were continuously giving her glances throughout the entire trip back.
Myr considered mentioning it sooner, but Llewel did it for her after they’d returned the crystal to its rightful position.
“I know we planned on doing quests today,” he began casually, “but I’ve got a different suggestion. Could we stay with Bezyu a little longer?”
Myr nodded to show her agreement. “We haven’t really had the chance to catch up! I mean, kinda, but not really. It’ll be nice to actually be able to talk with her without needing to worry about anything else.”
Bezyu looked surprised, for a moment, before it was replaced with a small smile. “That would be nice, but… I’ve troubled you long enough. I’m sure there’s plenty of other things you’d rather be doing. I don’t want to get in your way of what you, ultimately, had planned to do today…”
A single glance between the players seemed to put them in mutual agreement.
“I don’t think we care either way, really,” Zetai remarked, speaking for all of them. “It’s whatever the twins want to do first and foremost. If they’d rather stay with you, then we won’t stop them.”
Bezyu’s smile grew a little wider. “Thank you.”