Upon being addressed by the orc-woman, we all stopped, focusing on her. From closer up, I could see her quite easily and noticed that she was quite muscular for someone who didn’t seem to be an adventurer, making me think she was doing some sort of labour. In addition, I noticed that her hands had a myriad of small scars, before focusing back to her face. Out of curiosity, I used Observe to get additional information, not caring about the discomfort it would cause her. Her eyes flashed to me but there was no aggressive movement on her part, which was smart on her part, not that a level thirty-three Orc would have been able to do anything to me, not if I was aware of them.

“How old is your daughter, it sounded like you were talking about a young adult earlier. Why do you think that she needs help?” Adra asked, some curiosity in her voice.

“She’s seventeen but she never stayed out after dark. That Capuar boy had something to do with it, I just know he did. Always sniffing around after her, like the mangy cur he is, trying to get her interested in him. But my daughter is too smart to fall for his sweet words.” the orc woman explained, with impressive venom in her voice when she talked about the other orc.

“What did you call my son, Monta?!” the other orc, with whom she had argued earlier, broke into our conversation, glaring at the woman, again. Out of curiosity, I Observed him as well, causing another flinch and learned that he was level thirty-eight.

“Her brute of a daughter most likely dragged my poor son away into the woods, forcing herself on him. That way, she could get her fingers into my mercantile-business, the only thing of worth in this town! Please, you have to help me find him, I’ll make it worth your while!” the male orc told Adra, who had been up front.

In front of me, two quests popped up, asking us to find out what had happened to their respective children, one from the male, the other from the female. Looking both of the orcs over, I had a reasonably good idea what the answer was and for a moment, I considered taking the quests and trying to give a weasel-worded explanation, earning us the quest-reward without giving away the truth. But only for a brief second, I knew my strengths and convoluted public speaking was not amongst them, that would need a professional liar, meaning a politician or lawyer.

I noticed Adra looking over to me and gave her a small, negative, shake of the head, not wanting to deal with the mess. She gave me a small nod in response before looking at the two orcs, telling them that we had no interest in inerting us into their quarrel and we would be heading out in the morning, giving us simply no time to help them. Both looked disappointed, first towards us before turning to each other and exchanging venomous glares. It made me wonder if there actually was magic to give a glare actual venom, maybe something I should look into, using mind magic. Maybe some sort of mock-medusa ability, physically freezing someone by glaring at them. I shared the idea with Lenore, giving her some amusement.

After a few moments of glaring at each other, the two of them started up their earlier argument, insulting each other while more or less ignoring us but still blocking our path.

“Now, leave us alone. We have better things to do than listen to your barking.” I snarled, speaking for the first time. As I did, I felt Lenore push outwards from within her Hallow, not quite shifting into our joined Avatar-state but letting the aura of having crossed the second divide leak out. Her intent was transmitted to me and I went along, our magic mixing and joining with our combined aura, causing the temperature around me to rapidly drop as wind caused my clothes to flutter and the lights in the room to deepen.

With the drop in temperature, the noise in the room dropped as well, the various people looking pale and starting to sweat, despite the clouds forming from their breath. The two arguing orcs had stumbled back, looking at me with wide-eyed fear, finally silent.

Giving them one last sneer, I hooked my arm into Sigmir’s and together we started towards the rooms. Behind us, the room remained mostly silent, with suppressed noises and a quiet shuffling of feet, making me wonder if I had just cleared the tavern, to make sure their revelry didn’t disturb our sleep. If so, I felt a little bad for the innkeeper but not a lot, there would be stories told for weeks, increasing his business. I wondered how big I would be in the stories and what feats of magic I would work, to awe and terrify the locals.

“Now, want to tell me what that was about?” Adra asked, once we were amongst ourselves, standing in front of one of our rooms. My behaviour had been quite out of character for me, putting myself out there so blatantly so her curiosity was understandable.

“Eh, I don’t think they wanted to know the truth about what happened to their children. Or rather, I don’t think it would have been smart of me to tell the truth and I have no idea how the system would interact with the truth that is known to me.” I explained, before looking around with my eyes and reaching out with my mind, trying to ascertain that we truly were alone.

“I’ll tell you the rest tomorrow, once we are an hour or three away from here.” I added, deciding that telling them here would be foolish. I was reasonably certain that nobody would hear but there was just no advantage in telling them.

Adra looked me over, a curious look in her eyes, before nodding and telling us to have a good night.

“We will see each other in the morning.” she added, before opening the door to the room she was sharing with Rai, both of them getting inside.

Sigmir and I shared a smile before copying their actions, walking over to the next room and getting inside. It wasn’t anything special, a simple room with two beds, a small table, two chairs and a washing place, a simple metal basin filled with water and a mostly clean cloth.

Looking at the mattresses, I wondered just how many creepy crawlies we’d share our bed with when I felt Lenore start to leave her Hallow, moving over to my shoulder.

“Let me handle this, please.” she told me and I felt her magic activate, right next to my head, a blend of air and death, blowing towards the two beds. It wasn’t nearly powerful enough to harm non-living material but for the various crawlies, it would mean an instant trip to whatever afterlife bed-bugs had.

“Thank you.” I told Lenore, now knowing that there wouldn’t be insect bites in our future. She gave me a nod before hopping off my shoulder, landing on the table as I stepped over to the washbasin.

“Love, if you wake up in the morning and I’m not here, only Lenore, it means I’m in my Hallow. I’ve got a few things to take care of in the other world so I might be a little delayed. If so, just continue on down the road.” I told Sigmir, while stripping off my clothes. While washing at a washbasin wasn’t terribly enjoyable, it beat not washing by a lot.

“That’s fine, as long as I know about it, I’m good.” she told me, as she watched me undressing with a smirk on her face and a gleam in her eyes.

“I just want to be sure you are okay.” she added, standing up from the bed and prowling over to me. I felt Lenore’s amusement mixed with annoyance as she hopped down to Ylva, cuddling up with her canine friend while suppressing our connection was much as possible, not wanting to know what happened between Sigmir and me. Looking over, I noticed that Ylva had rolled up around Lenore, tucking in her head to block out the sounds and smells coming from us.

Somehow, we ended up washing each other, taking about an hour to do so. Once we were clean, both of us were pleasantly exhausted, settling in to sleep. There was just nothing better than snuggling with Sigmir, cuddling up in her strong, warm arms. Even the prickly mattress and unfamiliar room weren’t enough to keep me from getting comfortable and relaxing. Before closing my eyes and letting myself fall into the sleep of the satisfied, I set up an alarm, so I’d be woken up early enough to get into my Hallow, log out and get things done in the real world.