Alera’s loud snoring from across the room woke Ethan early the next morning. True to his word, he’d fallen asleep when she was in the shower and had no idea when she’d actually gone to bed. But with how late she’d gotten to the inn, he wanted to let her sleep a little longer, even though he knew they were in a hurry to get back on the road.

As quietly as he could, he slipped into the small bathroom attached to their room. The ride from Startesgarde had been calm and easy going so he’d worn simple traveling clothes. Now, with the known threat of the Blood Dragons, he wanted to be prepared.

Hastily, he removed his armor from his inventory and began equipping it. When he got to the bracers that Siv had given him before he left Skaro, he was hit with a twinge of guilt. Siv had kissed him before he left barely a week and a half ago. Now he was confessing how he felt about another woman.

He hadn’t actually thought about Siv romantically while he was there. She’d flirted with him a good bit, but his rule against romancing NPCs had kept him from returning her attention. He hoped he hadn’t done anything to lead her on, or encourage her.

Ethan, don’t be stupid. Siv is one of the strongest women you've ever met. She wouldn’t be pining over me, or missing me, he thought she is a warrior, she makes her own decisions on what she wants. And as a friend, she’d be happy for me and Alera. Just like I’d be happy for her if I ever get back and she’s with another guy.

Having justified his own small guilt to himself, he tried to sneak his way out of the room without waking Alera.

David and Sam were downstairs waiting on him when he finally made it to the common room. They’d ordered enough food for everyone, but their plates were nearly empty so Ethan doubted his was still warm. Both had obviously had the same thoughts he had and were wearing their full armor.

“‘Bout time you made it down here,” Sam said between bites of breakfast and David nodded in agreement.

“Sorry,” Ethan sat down at the table with them, “Alera got in real late last night.”

His friends exchanged a quick look when he mentioned their new recruits name.

“And I’m sure you didn’t keep her up even later.” David teased him.

“Shut up.” Ethan rubbed lingering sleep from his eyes and noticed a glowing indicator in the corner of his vision “hold on, got a message.”

He quickly swiped his hands to open the interface and pulled up the message. He read it quickly and relayed the information to Sam and David.

“Miguel and Leah are back at home safe, still no word on Daniel.” Ethan announced.

“What about Tara?” David took a sip from his mug, “Is she safe?”

“Yeah, Miguel checked on her as soon as they got back, no problems with her or the Greenbriar.”

“Good,” Sam nodded. “I was worried about her.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you actually cared about Miguel,” David smiled as he took another sip of coffee. “Between your emotional moment when we first got back to Startesgarde and now this, I think he’s grown on you.”

“Man, shut up,” Sam groaned, “he’s just more even with Tara. You remember how he was when we first got here, being with Tara has mellowed him out.

Ethan ignored them and began shoveling food into his mouth. If they were going to leave soon, he needed to eat quickly. Why do places keep having boiled eggs? They’re so gross. He thought between bites and sips of cool coffee.

“Alright,” he said, pushing his plate forward, his mouth still partially full, “I’m going to get Alera, we’ll leave as soon as she eats.”

“No need,” David jerked his head in the direction of the stairs, “sleeping beauty is awake. Guess some other Prince Charming got to her first.”

Ethan turned to watch her cross the room. She too had dressed in her armor. Her white leather seemed to radiate light, but Ethan suspected that was just his infatuation drawing attention to her.

“God, they’re already starting to dress the same,” he heard Sam whisper to David.

It took Ethan a second to realize what he meant, Alera’s armor was a stark contrast to his plate and brown leather. However, she had piled her blonde hair in intricate braids on top of her head similar to how he wore his. After his haircut before the Trial of Life in Skaro, he continued braiding the longer section that remained, leaving the shaved parts. A small pang of guilt twisted his stomach as he remembered Siv wore her hair in the same manner.

“Morning boyos,” she said warmly, kissing Ethan on the cheek and tousling his braids before sitting next to him.

“You guys are gross already,” Sam shook his head.

“I think you’re just jealous,” Alera popped an entire hard boiled egg into her mouth. “What’s wrong Sam, been a little while since you found a woman in game?”

David looked around awkwardly and Ethan cleared his throat and leaned closer to Alera, the sweet smell of her bath the night before still lingered.

“Sam’s husband is out in the real world,” he said quietly.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Alera blushed, “I didn’t know.”

“You’re fine,” Sam laughed, “it’s not like I wear a sign that says ‘gay black man’.”

“Yeah, that would probably be a bit weird,” Alera agreed with him, still embarrassed by her comment. “What about you David? Any man or woman I need to know about waiting for you back home, before I put my foot in my mouth again?”

David looked nervously at Ethan before saying anything. Ethan just shrugged his shoulders at his friend.

“Clara,” he said softly, “I have a daughter. She’s nine.”

“You have a daughter?” Sam said, shocked by the information he apparently hadn’t heard before.

“Right out of high school,” David continued, “her mom and I had an accident and nine months later, we had the most beautiful, perfect baby girl.”

“Are you still with her mom?” Alera asked tentatively.

“Nah,” David shook his head, “high school relationship. Didn’t work, she’s actually got custody.”

Ethan listened patiently as David talked about his daughter. Clara was like a niece to him, she even called him Uncle Ethan. He knew David was leaving a big part of the story out. How he’d initially tried to not claim her, spent a couple of years even denying her existence. The child support he paid out, he just called extra taxes. He and David had fought about it multiple times, Ethan couldn’t understand why his friend would just abandon the little girl.

Finally, when David’s mom had been diagnosed with cancer and wasn’t expected to live much longer, she had called him out. She literally beat sense into him, a feat for her chemo ravaged body. Said she didn’t want to die without knowing her only granddaughter. That had been the impetus for David to change. His mother ended up beating her cancer, but David kept his promise to her.

Now, he loved her more than anything else. It had been slow rebuilding the relationship. Michelle, Clara’s mother had been extremely hesitant. But David accepted how wrong he was and did everything she asked to prove he’d changed. He even bought a house for Clara and Michelle to live in after he landed a hefty contract. He didn’t live there, but he knew his daughter was taken care of.

“You don’t have any kids I should know about do you?” Alera turned to him, interrupting his thoughts of his niece, “or husband on the outside?”

“Just a cat,” Ethan smiled at her and shook his head.

“Good, because I don’t share.” She grinned at him and squeezed his thigh under the table.

“If you guys are done being gross, again, can we leave now?” Sam said impatiently, rolling his eyes, “it’s still four days back to Startesgarde.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Ethan said as Alera ate another bite of egg, “although I’m not looking forward to another four days of hard riding.”

After David paid the remainder of the small tab they’d accrued, the four of them met outside the small inn.

“At least we’re out of the desert,” Sam said quietly, summoning his horse from its crystal.

“Agreed.” David nodded, summoning his own mount. “You can keep your shirt on this time.”

Ethan and Alera quickly retrieved their own crystals and summoned their horses. When they had arrived at the inn so late the night before the stables had been full, giving no place to keep their horses. It had actually worked out fine, they’d saved a little bit of their dwindling gold by not paying for the care of the mounts.

“Well stop for lunch at the same place we did on the way here,” Ethan announced from atop his trusted mare, “until then, ride hard and fast.”

His friends muttered their agreement and took off, leaving Ethan in a small cloud of dust as their horses' hooves threw up clouds of sand.

Traveling on horseback in game was similar to the real world in some regards. While their mounts could be stored indefinitely in their crystals, they couldn’t sprint for hours on end, nor could they go days without rest or food. If they could, the trip would have been halved in time.

Lunch on the first day was quick, the calm stream they’d rested by two days ago provided a relaxing backdrop to their quiet meal. Their horses drank greedily from the creek as the four of them relaxed as best they could in full armor.

“You got a plan for when we get back?” Sam asked, tossing the core of an apple to his horse. He’d been sending his familiar ahead to scout the entire ride so far. Ethan had finally gotten used to seeing him with one glowing purple eye.

“Circle the wagons and then try to find out anything we can about Paul and his guild,” Ethan tried in vain to find a comfortable place to lean against the same oak tree he had two days ago. His stiff armor prevented him from finding a good way to sit easily. Alera was seated much more comfortably next to him. Her lighter leather armor was not working against her comfort level. “I’ll go talk to my sister. They were in the raid clan, she might have some information about them.”

“What about leveling?”

“What about it?” Ethan gave up on his search for comfort and stood up. “One of us is missing, kidnapped and tortured. Finding Tae-Won is the priority.”

“You know they’re going to have between twenty and thirty levels on us,” Sam stated grimly, “if it comes to a fight, we’re going to be overly outmatched.”

“We’re just going to have to hope Arianna can come through,” David said, rubbing a small brush down his horse’s sweaty flank, “we spend too much time leveling to catch up and they’ll hurt Tae-Won further.”

“I agree,” Ethan nodded.

“You think she can?” Alera asked from beside him.

“I mean, she's the Raid leader for the entire raid clan. She’s close enough to Junpei, he’s the leader of the raid clan and sits on the council that runs Startesgarde,” Ethan explained to her, seeing her confusion at the unfamiliar name, “she should be able get some help for us.”

“What if she can’t?” Sam asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared at Ethan.

“Then I don’t know,” Ethan sighed in resignation. “We’ll have to figure something out.”

“I might be able to ask the House for help,” Alera suggested, trying to be helpful. “It wouldn’t be cheap, but if we say it’s a power imbalance issue they may assign someone to help.”

“Getting into debt with them scares the living piss out of me,” Sam whispered, dropping his arms. “If we can't pay it, then they come after us.”

“You never told me what happened with them yesterday after...Leah.” Ethan tried to change the subject but then remembered the grisly events of the day before.

“That wasn’t the problem,” Alera shook her head, “got that cleaned up in about an hour. But,” she trailed off and looked around, as if unsure she wanted to continue.

“But what?” David asked, walking back towards them.

“One of the Silent Lords was replaced,” Alera whispered and continued looking around. “There was a ceremony I had to be there for.”

“Which one?” Sam asked, his voice low and calm.

“Murmur, the one that trained me,” Alera said, a small tear in her eye, “he died and I had to be there for the installment of his successor.”

“I’m sorry,” David said, waking over and placing a hand on her shoulder. “He was a good man, he trained me too.”

“I don’t understand,” Ethan said looking back and forth between his friends, his brows furrowed in confusion. “But I’m guessing it’s a huge deal?”

“Why don’t you take a walk?” David said to Alera, ignoring Ethan’s question. “Give us like two minutes.”

Alera nodded wordlessly and blinked away in a flash of blue light. She reappeared about thirty feet down the road and blinked away again.

David waved Sam closer and approached Ethan.

“Murmur is, was, one of the Silent Lords, remember, I told you about them?” He inclined head towards Ethan.

“Yeah, they run the House.” Ethan nodded.

“Right, Murmur served the longest. He was in charge of all the Inquisitors. Like Alera,” David jerked his head in the direction she’d just disappeared into.

“With him dead,” Sam took over from David, “it changes the direction of the Silent Council. He was always very moderate, and his long tenure gave him a louder voice.”

“What does that mean for us?” Ethan asked, crossing his arms, his body tensing in concern.

“More than likely, nothing.” David shook his head. “With two players still on the Silent Council, Startesgarde will remain pretty safe. But if the new member is more hawkish, some of the outer kingdoms could have problems.”

“And for Alera?” Ethan asked, glancing down the road.

“She may get called away mysteriously more often ,” Sam shrugged, “if she does, you definitely can’t ask her about it.”

“Road is clear up ahead,” Alera announced, suddenly blinking back into the clearing in a flash of blue light, startling Ethan, “I didn’t see anything that could slow us down.”

“Awesome,” David said cheerily, “let’s get going then.”