{-Casrane-}

She had to remind herself that it was completely normal for Vureta to be the only one to show up after a moment.

“You did all of that on your own?” Vureta questioned, clearly disbelieving and possibly a bit envious. “It took the other fully-trained guys months to get that other information! And here you are, shoving it across the other side without barely breaking a sweat.”

So, she probably didn’t see most of what happened. That was for the best; all of that were things Casrane would be glad to keep to herself.

“I guess that’s what happens when you’re chosen to be the hero of Masylm,” she instead said, unable to hide a nervous edge to it.

If Vureta noticed it at all, she didn’t pay it any mind. She glanced around and frowned. “Where do you think the Beithana twins went off to? All of that ghoul’s tricks should’ve ended by now. Unless they ended up somewhere weird, they should’ve shown up around here too.”

“I have a guess.” Casrane gestured for Vureta to follow her and moved through the forest. She wasn’t quite as sure of where she was going as she was before, but after a while she didn’t need to.

Apparently, Masylm’s thieves didn’t bother being discreet if they thought no one would be around to stop them.

“You’re outnumbered, so hand them over!”

“Yeah, or else things aren’t gonna be pretty.”

There was something to be admired about how calm Llewel could sound despite the apparent danger. “You’re not getting them.”

“Afraid you’re going to upset the dead? What are they going to do about it?”

“Last I checked you wouldn’t even be able to use them.”

“Hey, you’ve got your secrets and so do we. But if you’re not going to do this the easy way…”

At that moment, Casrane and Vureta came to where they were. There were only a couple of thieves but none of them seemed particularly prepared for an actual fight. They looked to their boss, mumbled some things to each other, then fled.

“Are you both alright?” Casrane prompted with a small smile.

The twins both gave a nod, albeit a little shaken.

“Can I ask what those guys wanted from you?” Vureta looked in the direction the thieves went off in but must not have seen anything interesting.

Myr touched the broken pendant around her neck before Llewel mumbled, “We can talk about that another time. This… isn’t really the best of places for a discussion like that.”

“We should be able to go to Kyirius City now,” Casrane remarked. “Do you think there’d be a better place for it there?”

“Either way, it’ll be good to rest before continuing,” he decided.

“We’ve got to check in with the other Ghost Hunters, though,” Vureta pointed out. “They’re gonna want to know that we defeated that ghoul.” She smirked. “They might even give us some halfway decent prizes out of it. What do you think?”

“I think first they’ll probably yell at you for doing something you weren’t supposed to,” Myr said casually. “Duuzlo did that.”

“Especially when you didn’t actually do anything,” Llewel pointed out. “Casrane’s the only one who deserves anything, at least.”

Vureta shrugged. “Trust me, I’ve been around them long enough to know they’re probably not gonna care what else happened before then.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

…

Casrane was never one to get in trouble herself, though her classes were full of those who were. She could tell which part of the story where the listener was willing to forget they ever heard… and the part that made it go too far.

“Winshed,” the presumed-leader hissed once they’d all finished retelling the events. He’d seemed impressed when they said they defeated the ghoul; even a second into the explanation and all that possible praise was gone.

Vureta let out a bit of nervous laughter. “Come on, we did it, didn’t we?”

“You got travelers involved in this!” he pointed out, motioning to the other three. Slowly, the whole thing was starting to gather a crowd as other members came to see what was going on. “Our duty, first and foremost, is to ensure the safety of all those who travel through Kyirius. What made you think it was a good idea to pursue the ghoul with them right behind you?”

“Remember what I said? The ghoul came to us. I wasn’t going to bring them along with me! At least not unless they wanted to…” She’d remained some kind of confidence until the last sentence, then she must not have had that good of an idea of when something was too much.

“What?”

She looked between the three of them, undoubtedly reminded of ‘keep them rumors.’ “They’re fancy travelers from Nafrius—that kind that mess with dangerous things for the heck of it. I told them what I was doing, so if they’d asked, I’d figured I wouldn’t be able to convince them out of it.”

“Why does something tell me you’re keeping much more of this hidden from me than you should be? Remember, you’re only going to get trapped in your own web if you keep spinning lies.”

Casrane mustered the courage to step up in hopes of making the situation a little better. “She’s not lying. We’ve all come from Nafrius and are on our way to Kehnore. It’s really not that big of a deal that we ran across the ghoul along the way—what matters is that we’re all fine in the end.”

The leader shook his head. “I appreciate the sentiment, but this means more than just your safety. It’s not something we could expect outsiders to understand… it seems not even all of us can understand it. But, I suppose, all of that is a matter for another time.” He gestured around them. “Though I hesitate to include Vureta in this, there is still something to be rewarded. That ghoul hopefully found peace and won’t be bothering any travelers from now on.”

Someone else among the crowd broke whatever sober mood there was by cheering, “It’s party time!” The owner of the voice, an older-looking woman that still seemed to possess plenty of energy, came out from the crowd of spectators. She ruffled Vureta’s hair and must’ve considered it for the others were they not strangers. “I was one of the people most involved in trying to get rid of it. I wasn’t really expecting a group like you, but I’ve got to admit, you’ve done just as much as we have!”

It took a moment—mainly a nod from the leader—and several more came out from the crowd. They surrounded the group, asking them all sorts of questions.

“What did you do? Did everything we’d laid out work or did you need to do something else?”

“Are you really all from Nafrius? What did you do before coming here?”

“You’ve got to be pretty powerful if you were able to do that all on your own without any training. Are you famous? How come none of us have heard about you?”

“Don’t tell Boss but I’m going to use the supplies for his birthday for your party. You don’t mind if everything’s green, do you?”

“Where did you find the ghoul?”

“When do you plan on leaving?”

Casrane looked between all of them and, too overwhelmed to muster any kind of response, just shrunk with each question.

“Can you be a little more patient?” Llewel asked the crowd, glancing at Casrane. They both knew what he said wasn’t really his reason. “We can’t answer your questions when you ask them all at once.”

They all gave mumbles of understanding, gave them all some more space, and started waiting for Myr to answer questions before asking new ones.

“I think I’m going to skip this whole thing,” Llewel remarked, all his attention on Casrane now. “What about you?”

She glanced at everyone else, then back at him with a smile. “I wouldn’t mind a moment away from all of this for a while.”

He smiled too and led her back out of the base. Vureta seemed to be the only one to notice them leaving, but she made no effort to stop them. It wasn’t like they went far—was there a need, they could’ve been found pretty quickly.

“You know, we… heard a little bit of what that ghoul told you,” Llewel said slowly, once they’d settled down. “Not a lot, though—those thieves came soon after we heard you talking to someone… a friend of yours, I think?”

Casrane assured herself that it truly had been all he heard and his casual way of asking the question. She nodded. “In the real world, I’m close to a girl named Erin. My father and her mother work together, but we met through school.”

“You must be pretty close to her.”

“You don’t have to be worried or anything—you’re just as important to me as she is.” She wouldn’t be doing this if she wasn’t sure of it.

She wouldn’t be risking promises she knew that, one day, she wouldn’t be able to keep.