A familiar party walked into the adventurers guild, their entrance met with wide eyed stares from the other adventurers. A few cast their gaze to the small figure cloaked in brown beside them before quickly switching it back to the others, dismissing him as simply a stray they picked up. One of Aaylia's eyebrows raised as she also saw the small figure, particularly how he kept his face hidden beneath a hood and how he seemed to stay very close to the Abyss Watcher. Skyla approached the front desk, returning Aaylia's warm smile with one of her own.

"We successfully retrieved the scepter." Skyla said, fishing the golden scepter out of the small bag they had placed it in. Greedy eyes were immediately pulled towards the gilded object.

Aaylia ignored the stares and instead gently grabbed the scepter. This thing was probably worth more than she could make in a year. She called over another employee, telling the young lad to take it to storage. "Unfortunately the guild does not have the reward on hand." She apologised as she turned back to face the party, "Nobles are very cagey with their money, especially when it is such a large sum."

Skyla nodded in understanding. A concerned expression then came upon her face, "Did Calon tell you about the [Dungeon]?"

Aaylia nodded grimly, "Yes he did. And due to the losses his party took, despite them all being Platinums, the Guild has decided to deny access to the [Dungeon] for the time being until we can get proper access to it. We just sent over the some Guild officials."

Xander let out an exasperated sigh from behind, "Honestly I'm surprised anyone made it all the way to the 12th Floor. There was a bloody Giant Death Knight down there!"

Aaylia's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to ask after their wellbeing before being interrupted by a wave from Skyla, "Don't worry we managed to defeat it without any injuries."

Xander puffed out his armoured chest in pride at those words before getting a quick slap on the back of the head by Alissa, "You did barely anything. The Abyss Watcher here did the most work out of all of us. Hell, what we did probably only barely counted as work." She scolded.

Aaylia nodded. Considering both his level and stats it was understandable that he would have done the most work during a boss fight. It was a shame she couldn't have seen what he fought like. She glanced to the kid standing behind the Abyss Watcher. "And who is that? Saved another kid have you?" She directed the last question at the Abyss Watcher in particular, who simply shrugged.

"It's a very long story, and we have a lot to discuss." Skyla replied for him, gaze sweeping around the room, "In private. And later." She said the last part in a low tone, trying to make it not insanely obvious that she was trying to keep a secret.

Aaylia worried slightly at what could require such secrecy before shelving that though away for another time. "You can contact me whenever you need to." She replied, sparing a glance at the cloaked child before switching it back to the group, "I'm sure you all have other places to be anyways."

Skyla nodded, "Yes, it appears that we are in need of some new horses. I think a visit to the stables would be beneficiary."

Xander began grumbling lowly as she said this, clearly peeved about something. Suddenly he perked up, "I'll come with you." He declared, "I'm gonna pick a faster horse this time."

Skyla let out a sigh laced with disappointment, "Don't ask." She said in response to Aaylia's confused expression. Skyla turned to face the Abyss Watcher, "Look after the kid for now. Take him for a walk or something." And with that she turned and left, a confident Xander in tow.

"Ah yes, I also have...some business to attend to." Alissa said, throwing a nervous glance at the Abyss Watcher as she turned and left the building.

Now, the Abyss Watcher and kid stood alone, the former seeming slightly confused about what to do as he looked around the room, occasionally looking at the kid. Finally, after a few seconds of aimless looking around he silently walked out of the Guild, the small kid following close behind.

As the door closed behind them Aaylia immediately glanced to her left, particularly at the young woman sitting at one of the tables situated in the corner of the common room. She had long hair that was tied back, it's colour, strangely enough, matching that of her cyan eyes. Her clothes differed greatly from the other adventurers, mainly due to the fact that she wore a long plain dark blue coat. Simple black pants adorned her legs, which were resting on top of the circular table she sat at, as she leaned her chair back. Her clothes looked far too clean for a normal commoner, yet they were also to simple for a noble to wear.

A strange curved sword with a hilt that completely encircled the blade lay across her lap, currently inhabiting a dark red sheath. She had one hand placed behind her head while the other had a mug filled with some sort of alcohol, occasionally lifting it up to her grinning mouth and sipping it. Aaylia had noticed her before but didn't give it much thought as half breeds often had strange hair colours. She seemed to be a bit down about something as well, and so Aaylia decided to leave her to her drink.

The moment Skyla's party had walked in however, she immediately started smiling, never taking her gaze off of them, the Abyss Watcher in particular. She turned around to beckon over Holly, another receptionist.

"That lady with the blue hair, do you know who she is?" Aaylia said in a low tone.

Holly looked over Aaylia's shoulder and shook her head, "No, I'm afraid I don't. She hasn't spoken to anyone other than Forlet, and that was to ask for a drink." She replied.

Aaylia frowned before nodding and shooing Holly away. She turned back to face the door but risked a glance at the woman. She was looking directly at Aaylia, the grin never coming off of her face. She gave Aaylia a wink as she took another sip, causing Aaylia to quickly avert her gaze. She had noticed Aaylia looking at her.

Aaylia didn't even try to look at the woman again.

Alissa knocked twice on the oak door, silently waiting for an answer. The house she stood at was out of the way of the main road, and so there was almost no traffic whatsoever. The house stood out from the ones neighbouring it because of the design, which filled the outer walls of it with carvings of trees and leaves. The design was the best way to find a Carndolan, as more often than not they were the only elves that bothered to get houses designed like this, as while any elf can start living in a human city they usually don't stick around for long.

Carndolan's were some of the oldest elves alive that went into what was essentially retirement, the main goal behind them being to catalogue and store the information they have gained over their long lives and freely share it with all who ask. A part of this job was them getting rid of their previous names so that they can become a Carndolan, a force of neutrality and knowledge.

As they were some of the oldest, a few even managing to reach over 100,000 years old, they also happened to know essentially everything there was to know about the world and it's history. As such, the person most likely to know what Farron is was a Carndolan.

The door opened with a creak, revealing a smiling elf with grey hair, face covered in wrinkles. "Ah, Alissa, what a pleasant surprise, please come in." The old elf said, stepping aside to let Alissa through.

Alissa bowed slightly as she made her way inside, "I thank you for allowing me the privilege of this impromptu visit Carndolan." She said, eliciting a soft chuckle from him.

"You need not worry about such things young one. It is not as though I get much visitors anyways."

Alissa smiled as she walked further into the well lit home, the interior looking as though it had been cut into a tree with everything you could see being made of wood. It was quite soothing to her as it reminded her greatly of Lostia, her homeland. She took a seat in one of the two chairs situated in the centre of the room, both on opposite sides of a square table. She had visited this particular Carndolan once before, but hadn't returned until now.

The Carndolan took up his position across from Alissa and smiled warmly, "So pray tell, what is your question this time?"

Alissa took a deep breath. This was it. She leaned her arms on the table as she looked the Carndolan in the eyes. "Do you know what Farron is?"

The Carndolan's smile disappeared as soon as she said those words, and he stared silently at her. No emotion was portrayed on his face, and instead a look of deep though came into his eyes. He stayed deathly silent as he thought, lasting for a whole minute before he spoke.

"Where have you heard of this Farron?" He asked, frowning ever so slightly.

Alissa's hopes began to fall, "An adventurer known as the Abyss Watcher joined our party recently, and his class is [Farron Blademaster]." She explained.

The Carndolan stayed silent for a while longer before letting out a sigh and leaning forward as well. Uh oh. Sighing wasn't good. Neither was leaning forward.

"Alissa. I can't believe the words are coming out of my mouth, but I'm afraid I have never heard of this Farron before." He admitted, "Either this Farron has shown up too recently for the information to properly reach me, or it is simply too secretive for anyone to gain access to it."

Alissa groaned as she slammed her head onto the table, startling the Carndolan. This was her best bet at information about the Abyss Watcher. The Carndolan seemingly mistook her abrupt self abuse for anger at his inability for information and patted her on the shoulder lightly, his apologies going in one ear and out the next.

She suddenly perked up. There was still one more person she could ask. She hurriedly got up and excused herself, demoralising the poor Carndolan greatly. She would apologise later. She opened the door and walked out onto the landing, looking up to the sky with an invigored look on her face.

It was time for a date.

"He didn't have the information you wanted did he?" A familiar voice suddenly said from her left, bringing her gaze towards the source of the noise.

Standing not even two feet away was Zack, idly picking his nails with a disinterested look on his face.

"SWEET CELES-"