“Move it!” shouted one of the dwarfs, as both him and his bald pal squeezed Lilly’s arms, dragging her through the dark alley behind the inn. “That Wade’s a lucky bastard… If the miners and the chief didn’t love spending time over at his place, I would’ve busted him as well…”

“Harboring a Stranger,” the bald dwarf scoffed. “Chief Khadar will definitely want to know more about this. Hell, maybe he’ll agree to have someone else running the inn instead of that brazen fool.”

Lilly shrunk back, struggling to wrestle her arms out of the two’s vicelike grips. “Wade doesn’t know… anything!” she hissed as she pulled back, only to be mercilessly yanked forward.

You have taken damage! -11HP.

She gasped, pain shooting up her arms as the rough stone tiles dug into her palms. She narrowed her eyes and grit her teeth, getting ready to dart away into one of the side alleys. But the moment she tried to move, a crushing weight slammed into her back, knocking the air out of her lungs and pushing her face into the ground. Coughing, she strained her neck as she caught a glimpse of the bald dwarf grinning at her. His boot stomped out another quarter of her health, pressing down on her.

“Heh, thinking of going anywhere?” the other dwarf jeered, kneeling next to Lilly. He then grabbed her hair, pulling her head back and making it even harder for her to breathe. “You might as well come along quietly and spare yourself some pain. Once the chief’s done interrogating you, he’ll decide your fate, Str–”

A chilling breeze brushed against Lilly’s face as someone kicked the dwarf away, sending him tumbling to the side and into the stone wall of a small cottage. The pressure on her back then lessened and disappeared. She crawled forward and got up, turning around to see a masked man, the air around him shimmering eerily.

The man sidestepped a wild punch from the bald dwarf. And as the dwarf’s momentum propelled him forward, the masked man slammed his hand on his back. A violent gust of wind erupted from the point of impact, launching the dwarf forward and forcing her to squint. Before she could open her eyes, she felt another wave of wind circling around her and an arm wrap around her back.

“Run!” the masked man whispered, his distorted voice rousing Lilly from her brief bout of confusion as they started to run, a strange tailwind driving them forward. They dove into an alley right next to the inn, with Lilly looking back to check for either of the dwarfs. But before she could understand what was going on, the masked man came to a stop and hoisted her up by her waist. Immediately after, two pairs of hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up through a window right above them.

“Are you okay?” a female voice asked as Lilly looked up to see Mia staring worryingly at her, with Bane and Vala on either side of her, still holding onto her shoulders.

“Yeah…” Lilly replied, hearing a small thud behind her, only to see the white mask disappear as Drake’s dark, brown eyes stared back at her. Both him and the lycan spun around, shutting the windows and pulling the curtains. Glued to the wooden walls, the men peered out as muffled steps raced below the window. They all remained motionless for what must have been at least a minute as Vala face the room’s door, shield and mace in hand.

“I think you managed to give them the slip,” whispered Bane, breaking the heavy silence.

“Hell, I hope so,” sighed Drake. “Still, that was some quick thinking on your end, Vala.”

The taur glanced back at him, nodding as she slowly lowered her weapon. “That was the easy part,” said Vala. “I’m just glad you somehow managed to get Lilly back.”

“Yeah,” said Drake, “and I’m fairly certain that they won’t be able to identify me that easily.”

“Speaking of which,” said Lilly, raising her brow at Drake, “what the hell is up with that creepy-looking mask?”

“It’s an enchantment that I can use,” he replied, conjuring the white mask over his face again.

The pitch-black void behind the mask’s narrow eye-slits, coupled with the tear-like pinstripes going down from the far edges of the slits, made Lilly shudder. It was as if the air around Drake was shimmering and folding in on itself.

“But in any case,” he continued as the mask disappeared again, “we really should avoid tangling with the guards. Those two alone would’ve ended me if I didn’t get the drop on them. And they were both level 15.”

“After this stunt,” said Lilly, “they’ll be even more on guard for any sort of Stranger activity…”

Groaning, Bane paced around the room as he ran his hands over his face. “Why’d those guys even go after you in the first place?”

“I don’t know,” she answered, her lips thinning as she thought about what the dwarfs might’ve done to her. “I guess someone must have told them that I’m a Stranger…”

Drake frowned. “They dragged you out of the inn and stopped to beat you just because of that?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that…” said Lilly, her eyes now glued to the weathered, old floorboards. “Everyone’s on edge ever since yesterday afternoon, when a group of Strangers killed a couple of dwarven guards.”

“Why would they even do that?!” Mia asked incredulously. “They should have known that something like that would have consequences!”

“Word around the bar was that they got busted trying to rob a shop in town,” replied Lilly. “And when they didn’t want to go down quietly, the dwarfs executed them in the town square… One day later, they logged back in and jumped the first two guards they saw. By the time others showed up, the group had fled, leaving behind just two mangled corpses. Since then, the town square has been on constant lockdown with the dwarfs keeping an eye out for any new arrivals. The number of patrols has also increased and some were even saying that the Craftsmen's Guild has started to kick out any players that they catch.”

“Great,” groaned Bane, taking another peek out the window. “Then no one in town is going to want to talk to us…”

“I wouldn’t lose hope just yet,” smiled Mia. “Take mister Wade for example. He could have looked the other way, but he asked us to help Lilly, despite the fact that it might end up hurting his business.”

Lilly chuckled weakly as she sat down on the edge of the bed, running her hand over the freshly washed linens. “Wade’s an old softie,” she said. “He was also the only one who actually gave me the time of day when I first logged in.” Thinking back, she would have definitely skipped town if she hadn’t run into the innkeeper. Everyone else in Harkon had avoided her, both the people and the other shopkeepers. Wade, however, had offered her a place to stay in exchange for helping him with various jobs around the inn. He had even taken her hunting in the forest just outside of Harkon.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be that easy to begin with,” said Vala, snapping Lilly out of her thoughts. “So, as long as we keep a low profile and don’t draw too much attention to ourselves, we should be able to pass ourselves as travelers. At least until we find that foreman and that healer.”

“You mean Paula?” Lilly asked. “She usually runs around in the slums, treating the sick, or tending to injured miners in the compound located on the outskirts of town. If you want, I can take you to meet her tomorrow morning on her routes.”

Just as Vala was about to say something, the door to the room cracked open, just enough for Wade to slink inside. “Well?” he said, his back still facing the room’s interior as he closed the door and then turned around, “have you found… Lilly!”

The look of relief on the burly innkeeper’s face made Lilly smile. All the more as Wade then immediately slapped his hand over his mouth upon realizing that he had almost shouted her name. “It’s good to see you too,” she chuckled. Taking note of his confusion, she continued as she gestured towards the others. “They saved me and pulled me in through the window. It was all very thrilling, as if I was a veritable princess, being rescued by a group of brave knights!”

Half smiling, Wade sighed. “If you don’t knock it off with the wisecracks, I’ll call those dwarfs back here myself,” he grinned, his expression soon turning serious. “What happened? And why did those two goons drag you off like that?”

“Those two knew,” said Lilly. “They just came over and grabbed me… so someone must have tipped them off that I’m a Stranger.”

Wade’s face went from perplexed, to worried, to angry in a matter of seconds. “If I get my hands on the asshole that sold you out…”

“I know,” she said, coming up beside Wade to gently pat him on the back. “But riling up your regulars won’t do anyone any good.”

“Right,” said the innkeeper as he then turned towards Drake and the others. “I hope it goes without saying, but as long as you four are here in Harkon, you’ll have a place to stay here in the inn. And if there’s anything else I can do to help you, just say the word.”

“If you want to help us out,” said Vala, “then tell us if you hear anything about people going missing.”

“Yeah!” said Bane. “If you hear anything about a couple of–”

“If you hear anything at all,” said Vala, cutting the lycan off as she stared daggers at him.

“I’ll let you know,” replied Wade, stopping to ponder for a moment. “Right now, the only thing that comes to mind is two dwarfs that were talking about another guard going missing: the one that executed a bunch of Strangers in the town square yesterday.”

“When was this?” asked Vala.

“Not too long before those two assholes grabbed Lilly,” said the innkeeper. “According to them, those Strangers probably took that guard when they came back to life.”

Drake frowned. “The same Strangers that killed those two guards?”

“So they said,” Wade nodded.

“I assume that their colleagues are at least out there looking for him,” said Vala. “Right?”

“If they are, they didn’t mention anything,” replied the innkeeper. “But going by how thinly stretched the guards are, personally, I wouldn’t bet on them finding the guy. Alright, I might as well go downstairs. I’ll see if I can pick up anything else while I’m at it.”

With the innkeeper gone, silence befell the room briefly, before Vala spoke up. “So, we need to figure out how we’re going to go about this,” she said, her eyes trained on the brown-haired woman. “We can assume that those dwarfs will tell the others about Lilly, which means that they’ll be on the lookout for her. But unless she runs specifically into one of those two, it’s unlikely that she’ll be recognized. Now, like Drake suggested, we should probably split up. Smaller groups should make it easier for us to blend in. And on that note, Bane, if you’d please do the honors and add our newest member.”

“Right,” said the lycan, his gaze darting around in front of him as a notification then appeared in front of Lilly.

Banefang has invited you to join a party. Do you accept?

YESNO

Lilly couldn’t help but grin as she saw the invitation in front of her. This was precisely what she had waited for, why she decided to play Prism in the first place. “Thanks,” she said, confirming the system prompt as she skimmed over the party’s details. “I promise you won’t…”

Banefang (Level 5 – Lycan)

Vala (Level 5 – Taur)

Mia (Level 5 – Human)

Drake (Level 11 – Human )

Lilly (Level 3 – Human)

“Seriously?” Lilly chuckled as she stared at Drake who was still leaning against the wooden wall, next to the window. “I knew you had to have something going for you in order to take out those guards, but level eleven and a class? How’d you get so far ahead of the others? Was it a quest? A dungeon? Sorry, not the time for random questions.”

“We met up later,” answered Drake. “But yeah, we can talk about that another time.”

“First thing’s first,” said Vala. “We need to decide who goes where.”

****

The wagon’s constant creaking had started to get on Correy’s nerves. Everywhere he looked, he could see nothing but trees. Not to mention the fact that he was stuck riding in front with alderman Morris’ lapdog, a tall, pale-skinned man with dead-looking brown eyes, hidden behind strands of greasy black hair. And to make matters worse, they still had more than half of the way to Harkon ahead of them.

“Hey, Patterson, any reason as to why we’re taking the long way around?” asked Correy, flipping open a map of the area. “I mean, wouldn’t it be a lot easier and quicker for us to just take the main trade route towards Harkon?”

His questions, however, were only met with silence as Patterson simply stared forward, ignoring him.

“Always a pleasure talking to you,” Correy sighed. He glanced back, envying the sleeping avatars of the other Strangers. But as bored as he was of this seemingly unending trip, it was still better than anything he would have done in real life. His gaze then went back to Patterson’s almost expressionless face. ‘Well, despite all the rhetoric, the old fart doesn’t really trust us since he sent this goon to keep an eye on us. Heh, can’t say that I blame him, though.’

He sighed, leaning back against the wagon’s short backrest as his thoughts invariably wandered to the Spellsword that had killed him a mere two days ago. Still… even knowing the odds, a part of Correy hoped that he’d run into him in Harkon.

****

Orange streaks painted the dark blue sky above the rickety wooden shacks of Harkon’s slums, illuminating their broken paneling as the morning wind whistled through the cracks. Looking around, Drake saw no one as Lilly led the way through the narrow streets. Before long, they had stopped outside of what looked to be the only two-story building in the area. Hearing the coughs and moans coming from inside made Drake take a couple of steps back involuntarily.

“Isn’t it a bit too early?” he asked Lilly, checking to see that the in-game time was almost five.

“When Wade took me hunting, we cut through here on our way out of Harkon. And, if I recall correctly, it couldn’t have been much later than it is right now. Especially since Paula usually makes house calls throughout the entire town.”

“I see,” he said, his gaze still fixed on the healer’s house as a faint shiver crept down his spine at the thought of the people inside.

“But never mind that,” said Lilly. “Are you positive that the foreman accused the town healer of being part of the Conclave?”

“According to the message that the Guild got, yes. Why do you ask?”

“It’s just that… everyone I’ve ever heard talking about her had nothing but praise for her and her work,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “So, it just strikes me as a bit odd.”

He shrugged. A few minutes later, the door to the house swung open as a woman holding a small briefcase stepped out. Seeing her, the only word that came to mind was ‘defeated,’ the darkened circles around her eyes and the thin wrinkles running across her forehead only accentuated by the resigned smile on her lips. As the healer became aware of their presence, her demeanor immediately changed. “Oh? And who do we have here?” she asked, her now warm smile erasing any semblance of her previous state of mind. “Is there anything I can do to help you two sweeties?”

“Sorry to bother you, ma’am,” said Lilly, nodding slightly in the woman’s direction. “But we just wanted to ask you a couple of questions, if that isn’t too much trouble.”

“Not at all,” she said, raising her brow ever so slightly.

“We just wanted to know if you could talk to us a bit about foreman Pike,” said Drake as he watched for any sort of shift in the healer’s expression.

“Pike?” she asked, furrowing her brow and looking down at the porch. “There’s not much to say. The poor fellow has been a bit down ever since his daughter fell ill. Understandably so. But who are you and why do you ask?”

“We were just a bit concerned,” Lilly answered, almost immediately. “We just joined his team recently and he’s been kind enough to show us the ropes. Lately, however, he seemed pretty out of it… and we heard someone else saying that he came to see you. But we had no idea that his daughter was sick… Is there anything we could do to help?”

Drake dug his nails into his palms as he tried his best to not betray his surprise at the sheer speed with which Lilly had fabricated that tale. “Boss… she’s a scary one,” he heard Zeph say telepathically. And quite frankly… he had to agree with his spirit.

“Oh, my!” the woman smiled. “Well, aren’t you two sweet. But I think the best thing you could do is just to be supportive of mister Pike and give him some space. His daughter is responding really well to treatment right now, and I expect her to make a full recovery at this rate. Now, if you two youngsters will excuse me, I need to head out on my rounds.”

The two of them smiled and waved as the woman disappeared from sight, they themselves leaving so as not to look suspicious standing in front of the healer’s house.

“So, what do you think?” Lilly asked, cocking her head towards Drake.

“I think it’s terrifying that you can lie like that,” he said.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she winked, grabbing his arm and dragging him to the side.

“Wait,” he said, “where are we going?”

“Where do you think? We’re going to take a sneak peek inside of her house!”