Rushing north, it occurred to me that leaving the torturer behind may not have been the best idea; while he could clearly not lift the statue on his own, if another Foundation stage cultivator or someone even higher lent their aid, he would have little difficulty escaping. Or, he could just dig his way out if we were not there to keep an eye on him. As much as I hated to give him the opportunity, I was more concerned with trying to prevent the calamity that would follow any further thefts.

Another flash lit the sky briefly, filtering through the trees as bright cracks in the darkness. Adjusting our course slightly, we continued on, my lightning and Reff’s dull glow providing just enough light to hopefully avoid breaking anything.

Moving as quickly as we were, it did not take long to reach the source of the flashes; bursting through the trees to a flare of light, we came to a stop, covering our eyes and hesitating a moment at what we found when our vision cleared.

Three people fought amidst the trees, though 'fight’ was perhaps a little too kind; one of them, the man that appeared to be getting the better of the exchange, was dressed in a long coat and wielded a six-foot pole with a wicked looking hammer made of some violet metal at one end.

Clearly enjoying himself, the capering man wove between the other two, seeming to hook and trip them almost by accident as they tried to attack him in vain. The scene was almost comic, as blasts of light and heat failed to find their targets, emptying out into the air uselessly.

The hammer-wielder, noticing our presence beamed a smile in our direction, his teeth a bright, perfect white as the attempted attacks illuminated his grinning face.

“Hoi there! I'll be right with ye, this is about done!”

He spoke with a deep brogue, his voice chesty but not deep and it reminded me a little of an Irish accent, though there was something else mixed in that almost dipped it into Germanic. Casually turning back to the fight, the strange man brought his long-hammer back to rest on his shoulder as he turned, just in time for the apparent heat cultivator to stumble face first into the rotating head and with a wet crunch he went down.

Staring down at his fallen foe in seeming bewilderment, the hammer-man almost missed the light-wielder's lunge, but even as brightness flares sharply in the guy’s palm, his body was jerked to a halt and he fell, tripping on some unseen disturbance on or in the jungle floor. With a shrug as the light died, he tossed something into the air where it froze above his head and began to emit a soft yellow light.

“I guess we’re done then?”

With a shrug, he spun his hammer and brought around in what was almost a golf-swing. There came another sickeningly west crunch before the man, now leaning on the embedded hammer grinned over at us again.

“Terribly rude o’me to keep ye waiting, but me Ma’ always said to finish dancing with your partners before finding more. Now, given the less than civilised stage on which we find ourselves, is it happenstance that brings us together, or am I to assume that you’re with these headless bastards?”

The man’s words were polite, and even if the tone was a little threatening, he still came across as way less of an asshole than any of the Risen Throne members I had met so far, not least because he had neither actually tried to kill me or torture me yet.

“We’re not really allied with anybody around here... besides Elder Flame Ever Dancing, I guess. If they were with who I think they were, we were definitely not with them. Uh, how about you?”

While I thought it more likely that the heat and light cultivators were more would-be-thieves, it was not entirely beyond the realms of possibility the man I was talking to was actually the thief, and while it would normally be a pretty stupid thing to admit, the Risen Throne had proven themselves oddly open about their douche-baggery.

The man’s grey eyes flickered between me and my companions, taking in my lightning and Reff’s molten armour before swinging the hammer back onto one shoulder, spraying fleshy detritus and blood out into the jungle as he did.

“Well, I do suppose that ye haven’t attacked me on sight, as these poor fools did. In fact, by comparison ye’ve been downright polite, the light-show notwithstanding. Introductions then! I’m Caddin Thatch; vagabond, ruffian, mercenary and life o’ the party! Currently in service to the Alchemy Association. Ye can call me Cad.”

With a wry smile behind his almost neat beard, the self-proclaimed vagabond dipped into a shallow bow before pulling a flat-cap from thin-air and depositing it on his head, somewhat taming his shock of brown hair. Trusting that I was not falling for some clever ruse, and conscious of his mention of my lightning, I dropped my Focus, allowing my Core to begin to rebuild what I had spent; from the hum, it had not been insubstantial, and while I hoped we had been successful on our attempt at forestalling the theft, it never hurt to be cautious.

“Uh, this is Reff, Riffa, Darina and I’m Hunter.” I pointed at each of my friends as I named us, before giving a small bow of my own. “I am also a vagabond, I guess. I think Darina is too, actually.”

“I’m not a vagabond, Hunter.”

“Weren’t you literally homeless when Sonja found you?”

“I was. Now my home is wherever my Master is, Hunter.”

The apprentice did not seem like she had calmed down a ton, given the way she was speaking and the twitching fists. Deciding that retreat was the better part of valour, I changed the subject before I got hit again. Turning back to Cad, who appeared to be cleaning his nails, I decided to direct some questions his way.

“So, you work with the Alchemy Association then? I thought they were further North, guarding some farmers?”

“That’s right, by and large. A party somehow got a might boisterous and me commander sent me to deliver a very important message to HQ. I on me way back when these two bastards took it upon themselves try their luck and me patience. ‘Couldn’t hold their liquor, as it turns out... lost their heads.”

Cad paused, clearly waiting for a reaction but this was really the wrong crowd for it, as I well knew. Luckily, Darina did not comment, for which I was grateful. If the mercenary had dispatched two Foundation level cultivators with what seemed to be comical ease, I did not want to be anywhere close to his bad side.

“With thankful consideration, it is fortunate that you crossed their paths when you did; I suspect these two were in service to a group we are attempting to oppose, and should they have been allowed to proceed unimpeded, it is possible that the results could have been catastrophic. You have our thanks, Caddin Thatch”

Reff’s voice was polite, though he had not dropped his own Focus, choosing instead to shape a small opening around the mouth.

“This pair were a menace to themselves, of that I hold little doubt, but catastrophe? Unless their shocking lack of tolerance was somehow contagious, I don’t see how they’d be threatening anything but a pub’s bottom line.”

“You keep mention they couldn’t hold their alcohol; did you drink with them?”

Darina sounded curious despite herself, and I had to admit that it was a fairly reasonable question.

“I told ye, I’m the life o’the party! Here, let me demonstrate.”

With a wide, toothy grin, Cad sucked in a breath before blowing in the apprentice’s face; it was a pretty powerful breath because while we were still a good ten feet apart, I could see her short hair wave slightly in the breeze. I saw Darina sway on her feet and stumble and I frowned, until I got a whiff of whatever it was and the world began to tilt around me, even as a warm feeling began to fill me and I had the inexplicable urge to laugh.

“Only a breath, and I held back the most part of it, so it’ll pass in but a moment. No need to get all glowy, big-man.”

After several long moments my head began to clear and I shook it in an attempt to clear the last lingering fog, but that proved to be a mistake as the jungle spun madly about me. Thankfully, that did not last and within another second, I was back to normal. I turned to see Darina glaring and Reff’s armour glowing a particularly violent hue.

“You either drink way too much, or you have some kind of alcohol Focus? Is that a thing?”

“Bang on, though ‘tis not just alcohol, there’s some particularly elegant drugs too. A right cheap night out, I am. Me Ma’ said I was an idiot when I first formed it, but as it turns out, 'tis Void blasted difficult to fight when blasted out of yer mind.”

“And... that’s it? You get your opponent’s drunk? What if they don’t breathe?”

“It’ll also absorb through the skin, though ‘tis slower, to be sure. But, should that fail, I’ve got me Path to fall back on. And before ye ask, I'll not be telling ye until we know one another better than we do right now.”

“That’s... fair. Anyway, these two; I think they’re part of a group called the Risen Throne. They're demon worshippers of some kind, and they’re after the phoenix Elder’s egg. Again.”

“To steal an Elder’s egg? These light-weights? And what do ye mean, ‘again’?”

“They stole it before, somehow and used it to make a couple of alchemical concoctions, not the least of which was a plague that could only be cured with the egg.”

“Is that why Elder Flame Whatsit was throwing such a fit? With all the fire? But, it’s back now?”

“Yeah, we returned it.”

“They stole it from an Elder, but you lot returned it? What, are ye all Apexes?”

“It’s a long story, but we’re trying to help. We met one of these guys who could block Apex and Elder senses, so we were trying to intercept people who could get around other senses. We stopped a couple, though I have no idea how they were supposed to do anything, and it looks like you did too.”

“Is there any way we can be sure these were part of that lot?”

“In interjection, they each carry a pendant, do they not, Hunter?”

“Yes! Uh, one sec.”

I moved over to the two bodies and Cad took a couple of steps back to give me space; I saw Reff tense out of the corner of my eye, and I hoped his caution was unwarranted, as I was well within range of the strange long-hammer, should its wielder have a mind to use it.

I quickly found two pendants that were the same in every way to the ones I was now used to finding, but I also made sure to take their rings, though it was a little bit of a task with only the one hand.

“These guys were definitely with the Risen Throne.”

Standing, I held up the pendants in the light and with a nod, my giant friend appeared to be satisfied and retracted his armour before storing the large rocks.

“With measured consternation, if there were two groups, could there be more?”

I looked back at Riffa and wondered the same thing; while we had been lucky in finding V and McCreepy, and had been lead to these two by the blasts of light, the jungle was vast and I had no idea how we could locate any other groups without similar signs, and though I had certain advantages when it came to chance, I did not think I could push it quite that far.

“We could head back into the Elder’s domain, try to catch them there? We could at least raise the alarm, if we are able to identify them?”

“In sagacious confirmation, Darina is right; before, we only had suspicions and guesses, but now we know with certainty. We should take our warning to Elder Flame Ever Dancing once more.”

“Maybe we can take V with us, as proof?”

“In reluctant admission, V is held in place by sheer weight at the moment. To move him would be to relieve that weight, and while I can control such a mass, it does not mean that same pressure can be emitted by will alone.”

“Okay, so still too strong to transport. Got it. Well, it looks like our minds are made up, let’s get back to the Elder.”

“Would ye mind if I came with ye? Not for nothin’, but I’m a bit on the outs with the Association at the moment, and assisting in preventing some alchemical abuses might see me clear back into their good graces.Speaking of, I don’t suppose ye could bear to part with one o’them pendants? Should do fine for showing me boss that an outside party caused me delay.”

“Sure, I don’t see why not.”

I handed over one of the dangling emblems before storing the other; Cad slipped his into a pocket after giving it a cursory examination. As he was doing that, I considered his other request; it seemed reasonable and more help was always welcome, though I did foresee one issue.

“Uh, I don’t suppose you’re fire proof? We’re sort of on the ‘don’t incinerate’ list, but I don’t know how easy they’ll be to convince that you should be.”

“Hunter, don’t be selfish, we can give him a mango, he’ll be fine.”

I looked at the apprentice in shock; the Flaming Mangos had been hellish to eat, and I found it hard to understand why she would make the recommendation. But then I saw her lips twitch, and I understood; this was payback for the brief bout of inebriation. But even so, I could not let the suggestion go without a warning.

“Uh, sure? If you like, Cad, we have some Flaming Mangos that will shield you from the fire, but... they’re not the best experien-”

Cad interrupted me with a casual wave of his hand, clearly unconcerned.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine, I’ve partaken of many a less than tasty treat to refine me breath, so I thank ye for the concern, but I'll take ye up on ye offer.”

“In confused interjection, Hunter those fruits are-”

“I am sure he'll be fine, Reff; we all were.”

Darina’s voice was pointed, but I could see the risi did not get it; I would explain later, but for now I was just hoping the man could take as well as he could give. Pulling out one of the fruits, I handed it to the mercenary, making sure to keep my face straight.