"All the gods good and dark, how did I end up so damn interesting!? I'm like, the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to Prince Thaddeus's guys, and whatever I do know, I've spent like a solid day or two telling to Emma and Xenia! What sort of interrogation did I walk into this time?" Ruckus can't stop himself from giving a bit of a rant as the sitting demon looks on, which is perhaps an indication that the man had had a bit of stress building up. It had certainly been a relief not to have been killed by the dungeon, but that doesn't mean the past few days had been anywhere close to relaxing. The red-skinned librarian fellow probably isn't to blame for any of that, and as he stops to take a breath Ruckus considers that maybe he should be more careful around strangers in a place like this.

The demon simply laughs however as he carefully closes his oversized tome. "Perhaps you've mistaken my intentions. I find myself not particularly involved in Xenia's current scheme, so that's not where my interest lies. I was hoping for perhaps a more casual opportunity to delve your knowledge? Ah, allow me to introduce myself; I am Sincere, former arcane demon. Or...perhaps as a non-local, you're not familiar with my particular kin?"

The imp shakes his head, but finds himself a chair of his own as he settles in for whatever the demon has in store. "I'm pretty sure there's more demon varieties across the realm than almost anything else. You know imps are considered demons in some places? Not that those guys look anything like us. They got wings, which is a bonus, but their faces....euugh." Ruckus shivers. "Like flying babies with shark teeth. I assume you're into magic, though?"

"Secrets, actually, magic or otherwise. Arcane demons feed on such things, you see." Sincere gestures to his current form. "I am no longer an arcane demon, my species is now 'false mortal', parentheses 'demon', which has none of the particular traits of my previous race. Aesthetics only, I'm afraid. Even so, habits born of hundreds of years of travel die hard, and so if you don't mind I'd like to learn a few of the things that you know. Things perhaps so far unknown to this realm."

Ruckus grunts. "I'll admit, I might be a little full of myself when it comes to trap design or disarming. But I doubt I'm a one-in-a-realm prodigy at it, even with me getting training from ah, out of town."

With a bit of effort, Sincere moves his current reading material onto a nearby table before refocusing on his guest. "It's more your travel experiences I'm interested in. As I understand it, Prince Thaddeus has been tracking Xenia's soul through the realms, starting from the 'Kingdom of Seven Cities', at some point arriving in your own home realm we might refer to as 'Land of the Fallen Tower', and then eventually arriving here. That leaves quite a few gaps though, does it not? Perhaps you could fill in some of those for me - I'd be interested in knowing not just about your party, but the realms you must have visited. Or, for that matter, what traces of Xenia you found along the way. I assume she hasn't asked you for such herself?"

The question makes Ruckus scratch his head. "Uh, I guess not, now that I think about it. I guess she's not exactly interested in updates on the places where she used to hang out, huh?"

"Our leader's relationship with her past is a tricky one, it's true. I mean, look at you, after all. A physical reminder of a life she perhaps wishes in particular had best been buried. Still, I don't imagine she'll mind it too much if I ask a few questions." Sincere raises an eyebrow and looks upward to the ceiling. "Or if I'm wrong, may the dungeon strike me dead?"

The two watch the ceiling for a few moments, and eventually Sincere looks back and gives a thin-lipped smile. "It seems we've been blessed to continue. For starters, how much do you know about the prince's travels from before he arrived in your realm?"

"Not much. He was alone when he showed up, which seemed odd at the time. I mean, he's supposed to be a ranking prince, right? No way a guy like that doesn't have some sort of followers or friends or whatever, yeah? But he never talked much about the realms before he found ours, and I think that has something to do with it. I mean, I bet he did have another team before he stopped to recruit us, or hells, maybe he had a couple, and it didn't go so well for them. Not exactly a tale crowned in glory, eh? But he had his enchanted gear and a pile of gold, so he wasn't exactly some beggar on our doorsteps, neither."

Sincere leans forward. "Is there much danger in the realms you visited, then?"

That one makes the imp laugh out loud. "Danger? Brother, there were places that made me wish I'd stayed home, and that's saying something! Three times we lost someone within ten minutes of crossing over! After that we started doing the routine of sending in a scout, then a team of our best, before the rest of us squishies made the trip. One of those scouts just vanished once, too."

"Casualties were that high, then?"

"There's barely a quarter of us that even made it here! Granted, it was mostly the weakest of us that died or gave up. Some basic-ass guards, one dude even brought some of his slaves with him."

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The demon winces. "Unfortunate that they were forced to their deaths like that."

"Oh, no, the slaves murdered the guy one day and ran off. Hope they're living their best lives or whatever. Weren't the worst world they picked to run off to."

"I see. And what forms did these threats actually take, might I ask?"

"Well, once we landed in the middle of a tribe of goblins. Dumb ones, nothing like the couple I've seen around here. We ended up taking out the whole camp, but not without a few losses. Once we landed outside a human army base and they refused to believe we weren't an enemy force. Didn't go so well for them either. Then there was one time folk just...died."

He shrugs and Sincere feels obligated to push a little more. "Just died, is it?"

"We think there were nature spirits, or fae, or something like that going around and doing folks in. Never figured it out, just started runnin' and didn't stop until we were out of the woods, literally. Maybe coulda put up a fight if we were prepped, but taken by surprise like that? With a bunch of our magic not working? Forget it. Oh, gods, I haven't even mentioned the fuckin' magic issues!"

Sincere nods. "I'm aware that different realms function slightly differently, and that enchanted equipment may lose its power over time in another realm. You suffered issues like that?"

"There was at least one realm where there was no magic at all. Some of the mages actually got sick! Then ones where everyone's got, if not magic, at least something crammed into their heads lettin' em pull off impossible stunts. On one of them, I was able to make traps by literally banging on rocks and sticks with a hammer."

The description takes the librarian a few moments to consider. "How...did that function, exactly?"

Ruckus waves his arms in frustration. "Fucked if I know! And I was the one doing it! Like I'd bang on some broken-ass branch, blink, and suddenly it'd be a polished lever! Bang on a rock and it'd be a pressure plate! And gods, the people in that realm were morons."

"Oh? They didn't use their...magic to its full potential?"

Ruckus shakes his head. "That's the problem, magic was all they used! None of them had the slightest idea how anything actually worked, or how to build shit for real! Cartmakers could make a cart that would basically drive itself, but wouldn't know how to put a wheel on an axle if they had to actually figure it out! I tell ya, whenever we did something that wasn't 'system-based' in front of them, they looked at us like we were demigods or some shit. I think someone baked a pie the regular-ass way and the tavern lost their damn minds."

Sincere chuckles at the thought. "Suppose I'm actually glad we don't have such shortcuts, then. But tell me more about how you were able to track Xenia from one realm to another. Were you going in order, following her from one life to the next?"

"That was something of a trade secret, I guess. Thaddeus never really explained how it worked, but the impression I got was that it wasn't exactly in order, no. In fact, sometimes we went places I'm pretty sure she'd never been at all. It was some combination of her traces, and like...the alignment of the realms? Sometimes we'd go 'off the trail' to take a shortcut, I think, or just because the place the prince wanted to go to was unaligned at the time, or something. We did investigate where we could, the ideal case was to find something Worthy owned at some point so Thaddeus could re-calibrate his magical doo-dad or whatever."

The demon's yellow eyes gleam with interest. "And what sort of things did you find out there?"

"A statue, once. Posthumous, actually, so I'm not sure how that helped. I mean, not like she ever touched the thing. But it was put up where she'd died defending a village from a swarm of giant bugs or something, and there was enough...spiritual essence or something involved to keep Thaddeus going? Honestly, I'm not remotely an expert in that kind of magic."

"Hrmm. I don't believe she's ever mentioned a 'death by giant bugs' to me before."

"Well, according to the statue she was twelve when it happened. Maybe not a life she bothered to count." The imp shrugs, while Sincere's mouth briefly hangs open.

"Saved the village at - no, I suppose it's not unbelievable. But some relics were actual possessions of hers?"

The man nods. "Lady - or dude, depending - loves her swords, that's for sure. Found like four of those. Think some folks kept a couple but none that made it this far. Once there was a cottage. Not hers, uh, apparently she fought something called a 'where wolf' in there and bled all over the damn place, it was still stained when we found it. Kinda doubting she made it out of that fight. Oh, there was this really cool mask once from when she was a bandit lord, or something like that."

Sincere furrows his brow. "Xenia? A bandit lord?"

"One of those noble ones that gives away most of their money. Well, half. ...Some of it, anyhow. Pretty sure the legends were way bigger than the truth of the matter. Anyhow, was this weird design that was split down the middle, the black half on one side was laughing and the white half was crying. Not sure I wanna read into that, honestly. Forget where it ended up. Anyhow, the final big break was when we busted into that one monster slayer's boarded-up mansion and found her amulet. That thing was already all keyed up for us, led us right here."

His questioner does narrow his eyes at that. "Yes, Sevastion did mention that to me...Beatrice's mansion, yes? I hope you didn't damage too many of her belongings. I have no idea if she ever expects to return home again, but I'd hate to imagine her returning to a ravaged ruin if she does."

That question manages to surprise the imp. "Wait, the monster slayer actually made it here? The rumors we were following said she just up and vanished one day! Well, hope she's not too upset. I mean, the place was basically emptied out before we even got there, it definitely looked like someone packed up and didn't plan on coming back any time soon. There were a few juicy items left though, I think Thaddeus and Linda grabbed them. They have the best bags of holding, after all."

Rather than getting worried by the news, Sincere actually smiles. "Is that so? Well...perhaps we'll have a few gifts for her when she next visits..."