{-Llewel-}

Of course he didn’t want them to mention it. That would’ve just caused more awkward silence, distracted them from the moments they were supposed to be having. But he had to admit, he was somewhat surprised that none of them even mentioned it. Maybe they felt the same way he did and understood what was better left unsaid… even if a part of him also felt like it was something that should be talked about, if not just for what it meant going forward.

Zetai had just come back from visiting someone’s house when she announced, “We’re all set to start completing the quest. She wants a couple of things from across the city, so we’re going to be doing a lot of walking around. That’s alright, right?”

Llewel, Myr, and Casrane all nodded. Reynneak and Tinath did, too, though it was clear they’d just been waiting for the other three to give their input. The players likely didn’t care either way—all of this was for the three of them, after all.

“Where’s the first spot?” Myr asked. She was the best of the three at pretending like nothing had happened in the first place. Or… maybe she was just the most experienced in pretending, as that’s something he felt she’d been doing a lot of recently.

Reynneak pulled up the map and answered, “It looks like just down the road from here. It must be another NPC’s house, because it looks like we’ll need to go in, but there isn’t any other special marker near it.”

“We don’t want to keep whoever it is waiting,” Casrane said. “We should get going.”

Zetai nodded and, checking the quest location for herself, started to lead the way.

Then, to fill the silence, Reynneak remarked, “I know we have a little while before we have to really think about it, but we should start considering what quests we want to do next. There’s not a lot of them left here in Anseshara that we can do, so it’s probably going to have to be late-game quests in other areas.”

“I suppose we can just travel through them in reverse,” Llewel mumbled. “That would make the most sense, considering where they all are…”

“And there were a couple that we should have no problem doing now,” Myr agreed. “I know we avoided a lot of fighting related ones before, but we’re probably strong enough to easily beat them now.”

“As long as you’re sure you’re okay with that.” Zetai glanced back at them, perhaps thinking something in their expressions might reveal the answer, but she likely couldn’t gain anything new from it. “You’re the three with the most at risk for trying, but I think all of the lower-level stuff should be fine.”

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“We should probably start with the lower ones, though,” Tinath said thoughtfully. “It’s been a while since we’ve done any non-obligated battles, so the gradual increase in strength might be able to help us get back into the groove of it.”

There were mutters of agreement, and then silence. The house they were supposed to be going into was nearby anyway, so Zetai simply stopped in there and got what they needed. Once they knew where they were going next, though, they didn’t pick back up on any sort of pleasant conversation.

Or, rather, it would possibly be pleasant—if the situation was slightly different, or if the topic didn’t hold such an uncomfortable amount of uncertainty with it.

“I’d kind of hate to bring it up now, but, uh…” Tinath began. “I know we’re probably hitting a busier time of the year. We’re probably not going to have as much time to be on here after the next couple of weeks.”

“You don’t have to feel obligated to come,” Llewel pointed out. A part of his mind, though, acknowledged what else might happen and thought, It’s probably for the better. “I’m pretty sure we all understand that you’ve got your own lives outside of here. We don’t want to keep you from them.”

Casrane was much blunter, mumbling, “Things there will last longer than they will here. You should probably take the opportunity to be there, instead of worrying about us…”

Zetai sighed, nudging Tinath. “Look what you did—you’ve got them talking like we plan on leaving them forever.” To the twins and Casrane, Zetai continued confidently, “We’re obviously still going to come in every now and again, it just might not be as long. Also, I don’t care what is going on in my real life. I’d choose the three of you over that mess any day.”

“Isn’t avoiding your problems the reason you got yourself in that situation in the first place..?” Reynneak asked cautiously. His only response was an aggressive-looking swat.

Llewel couldn’t actually find himself assured by her words, but… if Myr wasn’t really assured, she at least played the part well enough.

“Thanks,” she said, forming a small but undoubtedly genuine smile.

“That’s what friends are for, isn’t it?” Zetai replied effortlessly.

Tinath nodded. “Whatever comes, we’ll face it together.”

“You can count on that,” Reynneak agreed.

Myr took the most reassurance from the fact though, as much as Llewel wanted to, he couldn’t quite muster the same feelings. But he had to try. He didn’t want any of them to get worried, or realize that there was anything wrong.

“And, on the subject of the real world, you don’t have to worry much about that part either,” Reynneak assured them. “We’ll figure out what we’ll need to do to visit when we get there. There’s still a while before things get busier, and that’ll be more than enough time to prepare for something.”

“So, we’re all in this together until the end?” It was hard to tell Casrane whether to take comfort in the fact, or only found it more concerning. Honestly, she probably didn’t know either. “Maybe… that’s what we need for our happy ending. If all of us are playing our parts, then things don’t have to be any more complicated than they have to.”

Llewel dared to put a hand on her shoulder, giving a smile that he hoped was reassuring. “It doesn’t hurt to try, at least.” He glanced at the players. “And it’s a little comforting, too—to know that, despite everything, there’s still people willing to stay with us. Thank you for everything over the past couple of months. I really don’t know what we’d be doing, or where we’d be, if we’d never ran into you in Nafrius…”