Dawn was still contemplating the echo stone and the story of the man and Saida with all its implications, when Grinna and Teren returned.

She ran downstairs and greeted the rangers, who were chatting amiably with Grinna’s mother.

“Hello Dawn,” said Grinna. “Are you very attached to those alchemy books you took from the caves? I've put some feelers out and we might know someone who’d be interested in buying them. He’s a pretty difficult person, but a renowned scholar and alchemist. And he can afford to pay a good price for them. If he agrees to buy the books it might give you some money of your own. I know you have been worried about that.”

“I can’t use them anyway. They’re much too advanced for me. Got to start with the basics.” Dawn said. “Excellent. Then I’ll arrange a meeting with the buyer. If you’re willing to trust me, I’ll try to meet him alone with Teren. As I said he’s a difficult one. Better if you don’t come to his attention.” Grinna grimaced a bit as she said it.

Dawn raised an eyebrow. “Difficult how?”

Grinna sighed. “He’s nobility. Many nobles have a huge sense of entitlement. If they’re dealing with commoners like us, they sometimes get ideas, like they don’t need to pay for things they want. If it is the word of a noble against that of a commoner, you can imagine whose statement will be believed. Teren and me are known and have some backing because we’re rangers. If he were to deal with you, I don’t know what would happen. You’re very young and have no family here in the city.”

“Of course I’ll trust you, if you think it is better that way.” Dawn took out the alchemy books, she had taken from the caves and gave them to Grinna. “There’s another thing I need to show you,” she said a bit tentatively and took out the white echo stone from her storage.

Grinna frowned a bit as she looked at it. “It’s a stone. I don’t think it’s valuable, Dawn.”

“Not in the monetary sense maybe,” Dawn retorted. “You need to hold it for a while.” She gave the stone to Grinna and looked at her expectantly. Grinna turned it in her hands and looked at it, but showed no reaction otherwise.

Dawn frowned. “Can you see the man?” She asked after a moment.

“What man?” Grinna retorted, looking blank.

Dawn took back the stone and held it for a moment. As expected the man appeared and his messages started to unfold. She looked at Grinna and told her. “It’s an echo stone. There are some messages stored in it. When I hold it I can see a man and he’s talking. It’s like his diary.”

Grinna snatched the stone from her and held it once more. “There’s nothing happening,” she said doubtfully after a while.

Dawn couldn’t understand it. Why didn’t Grinna see the messages? She touched the stone in Grinna’s hands and once more the messages started to appear. Grinna flinched. “I see him now,” she told Dawn excitedly. Dawn stepped back and said, “it’s an unbelievable story, you’ll see.”

But Grinna was frowning again. “He’s gone,” she said. “Strange,” said Dawn.

Grinna looked at her. “Touch the stone once more.” Dawn did it and Grinna said. “Yes, now I can see him. Seems you need to touch the stone for the message to appear.”

Dawn rubbed her nose. “I don’t understand it.” She told Grinna, but kept touching the echo stone. “This may take a while, maybe we should sit down.

Teren said. “Let’s do that. I want to see it, too.”

They sat down at the table. It was a bit awkward, all of them touching the small stone lying in the middle of the table, but it worked. Grinna and Teren could see and hear the messages.

After all the messages had played out, it was very quiet in the room for long moments, then Grinna said wryly. “Well, at least now we know where the demons come from.”

Dawn looked at her, astonished. “You think Saida is…” “The demon queen. Yes, of course. What else could she be.”

Grinna sighed and massaged her neck. “Loathe as I am to say it, but Madden needs to see this, too. That means you will have to come with us to see him. The stone doesn’t seem to work without you.”

Dawn wrinkled her nose. She wasn’t very keen on another meeting with the frosty head ranger. “Does it need to be today?” She asked.

Grinna smiled at her. “No, I think tomorrow morning will do well enough. Madden has a meeting with the city council this evening anyway. They meet every Waterday. Maybe tomorrow we’ll get an answer to how they plan to deal with the demons, then.”

Dawn shrugged. “I got the impression Madden didn’t see the necessity of dealing with them at all.”

Grinna shook her head. “He isn’t very keen on dealing with the problem, I’ll grant you that. But as little as I like the man, Madden didn’t get to be head ranger by being stupid. A powerful enemy like that, with an unknown reproduction cycle, is too dangerous to leave alone. He’s going to do something to deal with them, I’m sure. But while Madden can easily send out a ranger or two to investigate or to deal with smaller problems, if he needs a larger force he can’t act alone. He’ll need to convince the other parties on the city council that it’s necessary to act. Politics!” She said contemptuously.

“Better he deals with the politics than us,” Teren said calmly. Grinna snorted. “You can say that again. Can’t you just see me verbally dancing around all those snobby nobles? Always placating them and stroking their egos. I wouldn’t last in the position for an hour.”

Yasema appeared at the table with bowls and cutlery. “Enough talk about demons and politics, now. It’s time to eat.”

They helped her set the table and enjoyed her excellent breaded chicken with potatoes and a spicy sauce. Afterwards they sat and talked, mostly about people and places Dawn didn’t know. She was listening quietly and feeling tired after her eventful day, went to bed early.

Dawn woke up early the next morning, once more disoriented by the unfamiliar room and the noises coming from the street outside. When she came down, Yasema had already set the table for breakfast and was dishing out bowls of porridge and mugs of tea.

Teren and Grinna were already sitting at the table, looking bright-eyed and much too awake for the early hour, Dawn thought.

Grinna smiled at her mischievously. “Weapon’s training first, and then we’ll go and visit Madden. Afterwards we’ll bring you back here to mother. Teren and me will try to set up the meeting with Aaron, that’s the alchemist who might be interested in buying your books.”

Dawn nodded and said. “I’ll need to do some laundry. Can’t run around in stained clothes in the city.”

Yasema looked at her and said. “Of course, that won’t be a problem. I’ll set up everything you need in the courtyard behind the house. You can start as soon as you come back.” Dawn smiled at her thankfully. “That’s very kind. Thank you, Yasema.”

After breakfast they went to the training court and Dawn once again had lessons with Grinna and Teren. Today, she already found the movements and drill easier and Grinna added more movements to her drill. Dawn was sweaty and exhausted when they finished with her sword lesson, but felt exhilarated. For the first time she felt she was fighting with the sword and not just stumbling around with it. Grinna smiled at her. “You’re skill is coming along faster than I expected, if this continues we’ll start with short sparring sessions soon.” Dawn got a message that her sword skill had leveled up and was surprised by a new message afterwards.

Level up!

Nature’s Shadow level 11

You have 2 free stat points to distribute.

She looked at her status screen for a moment. Apparently, the few experience points the rise of her sword skill gave her had been sufficient to get her to level 11, after she had already collected quite some experience during their last fights against the demons.

Status screen Name Dawn Trakam Path Nature's shadow Level 11 Exp 0/2800 HP 120/120 HP Regen 1.2 HP/Min MP 170/170 MP Regen 12 MP/Min SP 120/120 SP Regen 12 SP/Min Stats Strength 11 Willpower 11 Vitality 12 Perception 20 Endurance 12 Intelligence 17 Agility 20 Wisdom 12 Dexterity 10 Charisma 7 Class Skills Nurture Level 5 Alchemy Level 2 Shadow Play Level 6 Dark Sight Level 8 Call The Lightning Level 2 General skills Cleaning Level 1 Analyze Level 2 Sewing Level 3 Hunting Level 1 Climbing Level 3 Trapping Level 1 Knife fighting Level 2 Cooking Level 4 Sword fighting Level 3 Swimming Level 3 Bow fighting Level 2 Runic magic Level 1

After thinking about it for a short while, she distributed her free stat points between wisdom and intelligence again and went over to Teren for her lesson in bow fighting.

When Teren had finished with her, her arms were hurting and she had blisters on her fingers from the bow string, but she was glad to see she had leveled up her skill in bow fighting, too. Dawn cast Nurture to get rid of the blisters, trying to be inconspicuous while doing it.

Grinna had been training with her sword in the meantime and came back to them now. “Let’s all get a bit cleaned up and then we’ll meet with Madden.”