Theo watched as the ground rushed by under him. His sides hurt. Maraz wasn’t being… careful, exactly. The opposite of that, in fact.

Stone tiles flew under Theo’s view, shifting in pattern as they traveled to the Merchant Guild’s district. The Guild’s building rose up in his sight before the sudden force of Maraz stopping jerked him forward.

Maraz turned Theo perpendicular to the ground once more and set him on his feet. “We’re here.”

The world wavered under Theo’s feet for a moment as he reoriented himself. He shook his head, and moments later Tirr swooped down from the sky and landed on him, coiling around him to perch.

“You don’t say,” Theo said, shooting a glare at the man.

“Squishing is still an option,” Maraz threatened, raising a fist. But he wasn’t even looking at Theo. He strode ahead, toward the Guild.

Theo glanced around. People were staring. His face heated, so he picked up his own pace and hurried after Maraz, cursing the man under his breath.

“Gosh darn strong people carrying me…” Theo grumbled as he walked through the ornate stone entryway of the Merchant’s Guild. He stopped in the entryway, realizing he’d already lost Maraz in a sea of people. Each person hurried from one place to another, carrying some form or calling for another.

Theo stood on his tip-toes, trying to see over the heads of the crowd. Through a fulvitre, he spotted Maraz, warped by the glass body.

Picking up speed, Theo apologized his way through the hustle and bustle. The Guild hadn’t been nearly this busy the last time he came here. Most of the people here did look dressed for work, however. Was this whole Relicor situation truly this involved?

At last, Theo made it to the far side of the room, rubbing at his arm where he’d accidentally bumped into another fulvitre.

Maraz stood next to a doorway, tapping a foot. “Right through here, Theo.”

“Thanks for waiting for me,” Theo said, following the man through. The moment he passed the threshold, all of the chatter and ambient noise disappeared. Looking back at the doorway, mana leaked into his eyes. Runes sprung up on the doorway.

“Air runes to cancel noise?” Theo asked, turning to Maraz.

The man nodded. “We spare no expense for privacy. This is our business dealings room. Or, the room you’ll speak to the Terrents in for today.” Maraz swept a hand across the room and pointed toward a seat. “Have a seat, I’ll retrieve them.” With that, he left through another doorway, leaving Theo alone in the room.

Theo finally took in the space around him - the runes had distracted him. Large, plush seating adorned the room. The kind where one could sink in and never want to leave. An artisanal rug covered the otherwise polished marble floor.

Both were definitely imported, considering that the rug looked fulvitre-made, with its intricate patterning that only needlelike glass hands could accomplish. And the white marble certainly wasn’t native to Romuen’s mountain, as far as he knew.

With as much care as he could, Theo took the seat Maraz offered. Tirr purred happily as he settled into the seat as well.

A part of Theo was worried about letting Tirr sit in the seat, so he pulled the zilant’s upper half into his lap.

Scratching under Tirr’s chin, Theo waited, never taking his eyes off the door Maraz had left from.

While they were probably minutes, it felt like hours. Just when he was about to stand up, Maraz strode through the doorway once more.

Elouise followed, with Girial, Willum, and Kennard in tow. She turned, looking at Theo, her eyes glistening. “Theo?”

Theo stood, unsure of what to say. Tirr made an unhappy noise as he plopped into the seat. “Elouise, I’m sorry I-”

The mother pulled him into a hug. “Sorry? What do you have to be sorry for?”

Tears threatened Theo’s eyes now. He paused for a moment, but wrapped his arms around Elouise. “A-All the trouble with Relicor. I shouldn’t have gone into the forest, I just-”

Holding him at an arms-length, Elouise stared Theo in the eyes. “Now, we offered that to you. I won’t allow you to take blame for our offer, okay?”

“But I-”

“No buts,” Elouise said, shaking her head. “Besides, we’re free from Relicor now, thanks to you.”

Kennard placed a hand on Theo’s shoulder. There was hope in his smile. “She’s right, you know. We’ve been working for Relicor ever since Girial was born. Needed the money.” He frowned. “Didn’t realize how long paying him back would take.”

“That,” Maraz said, pointing a finger, “is because he was exploiting you all. Romuen’s laws are usually quite ironclad when it comes to indentured servitude. Relicor found that he simply had to keep others charging you too much. Or, guards charging you for entry into a city you’re a citizen in.”

“That’s the reason we could never pay him back?” Kennard asked, clenching a fist. “It seemed every month we could only chip away a silver or two toward what he loaned us. There was just never enough money.”

“I can’t- that’s not right,” Theo said, anger toward Pelles Relicor igniting in himself.

“If it’s not too much to ask,” Maraz interjected, gesturing toward the arranged seats. “I am on a rather tight schedule.”

Kennard stared at Maraz, but the fire in his eyes died down. “...Right.” He took Elouise’s hand, and they dropped down on the couch. Their sons moved to follow, but stopped in their place, staring at Theo’s seat.

“What is it Gir-” Elouse stopped, staring at Tirr in the seat. “It’s you!”

Tirr stared back at Elouise, shifting to a bright yellow. “Little bastard!” he called out in Elouise’s voice, diving into her.

“You know Tirr?” Theo asked, laughing at the name Tirr used.

“We do,” Kennard said, scratching Tirr’s head. “Little bastard… seems he learned from someone.” He eyed Elouise, who blushed.

“He was always trying to nab ingredients from our bags,” Elouise said, running her fingers along Tirr’s plume. “I took to calling him ‘little bastard’ - playfully! Don’t repeat those words.” She eyed her sons. “We always left something, every visit. His name is Tirr now, then?”

“He… appeared in my shop one day,” Theo said, nodding. “He was eating my gallarant seeds.”

“Must’ve needed to mooch off of someone else once Relicor stopped letting us go to the forest,” Kennard said. “Gluttonous little thing.”

Tirr moved off of their laps, wrapping around Theo once more.

“Seems he’s taken a liking to you, though,” Elouise said, chuckling. “He never did that with us.”

Theo smiled at the zilant, stroking him. “Oh well I-”

“Momma, can we play with him?” Girial asked, tugging on Elouise’s shirt.

Elouise looked at Theo. “Your call. Seems he’s yours now. Traitorous little thing.”

“I’m okay with it if Tirr is,” Theo said, pulling the zilant off from around him. “Are you okay playing with Girial and Willum over there while I talk with your friends, Tirr?”

The zilant stared at the kids, his yellow colors brightening once again. “Shit!” he said, in Girial’s voice this time. He flapped down from Theo’s arms, landing in front of the boys.

Elouise gasped. She gave Girial the stare. “We’ll talk to you later about that kind of language.”

“...Yes, momma,” Girial said, staring at the floor.

“Now, go play with the little bas- Tirr,” Elouise said, shooing them.

The boys nodded, Willum following Girial as they moved across the room with Tirr.

Theo smiled at them, realizing where Girial’s mouth had come from, clearly. He did shiver at Elouise’s mom-stare, though. It was too familiar.

“I’m sorry about that, Theo,” Elouise said, frowning at her sons. “I suppose I should watch my mouth more around those boys.”

“This is all nice and sappy,” Maraz interjected, “but I believe we should move on with our discussion.”

“Oh, right,” Theo said, swallowing. “Elouise, Kennard? Would you be willing to tell Maraz what you know about Pelles Relicor?”

Kennard squeezed Elouise’s hand, and sat up straighter. He glanced at his sons, and refocused on Theo and Maraz. “Back when we had Girial, there were… complications with his birth. A healer had to be called. A high tier one.”

Theo nodded, leaning in.

“When all was said and done, we couldn’t afford all of the services,” Kennard said, his hand clenching on his knee. “We were approached by Relicor’s assistants later with an offer. The healer we saw bought potions from him, and the reimbursement came up in conversation between them.”

“And you took it,” Theo said, watching Kennard and Elouise nod.

“We did,” Elouise said, her eyes growing misty. “At the time it seemed like we’d work for Relicor for two years or so to pay off the debt. By the time two years passed, we’d barely made a dent in our loan. It seemed that life kept throwing us hardships that drained our funds.”

“We thought we were cursed,” Kennard said, pulling Elouise closer to him. “It was always something. Sometimes, we suspected… but it always seemed disconnected from Relicor. The guards at the gate? Why would we connect that to him?” He shrugged, his face set. “We just thought they were being greedy. It’s a good thing we didn’t have our money pouches, I suppose, or we wouldn’t have met you, Theo.”

Theo smiled at them.

“Other things would drain us too,” Elouise said, bunching up her tunic in her hands. “We’d buy groceries for the week, and prices would be just a bit higher than we thought on some items we needed.”

“It seemed like every time we thought we’d be ahead on those loans, something else took our money again,” Kennard said, shaking his head. “Eventually, though, we’d worked for Relicor for so long, and we had Willum, that he let us stay on his estates in the city. That… proved worse for us.”

“How so?” Maraz asked, scribbling down notes.

“The area he lives in… it’s not nearly as affordable,” Kennard said, looking at Elouise. “We had to walk even farther, out of the inner ring, just to buy essentials. We tried buying them from Relicor once, but we could tell he was overcharging us so we only did it once.”

“That’s when he decided to trust us with gathering in his family’s private forest, though,” Elouise said, clasping her hands. “We’d only been going to that forest instead of gathering in the mountains for a few months before meeting Theo.”

“It seems Relicor only wanted trusted individuals in there,” Maraz said, jotting more notes down. “Am I correct in assuming that?”

“He normally waits at least ten years, as far as we could tell,” Kennard said, nodding. “But the family that gathered there before us… had an accident, after an altercation with Relicor. We were the oldest replacements.”

“We always knew Relicor was a snake, even if he acted kind to us,” Elouise said, sneering. “He even brought gifts for Girial and Willum at times. We… didn’t expect that he was keeping us so far in debt, though. We just thought he was happy to take advantage of our misfortune.”

“Those gifts could have had tracking enchantments on them so he could keep an eye on you,” Maraz said, pulling out a second piece of paper. He hadn’t even written on the other side. How wasteful.

“I suspect what Maraz said is true, unfortunately,” Theo added, the corners of his lips tugging down. “W-What happened when he found out you’d let me into the forest?”

Kennard’s hands clenched again. His lips set in a firm line. “Things got… worse. We were moved. Given only the essentials he had to supply. A cot, five inches of hay for padding. Food, but most of it was stale or near-rotten. Nothing that was breaking the laws, just… close.”

“That’s horrib-” Theo started.

“Except for the lighting clause,” Maraz said, smirking. “Two lamps required. He only gave you one.”

“Thank the gods that the Guild found that out,” Elouise said, placing a hand over her heart.

“Is there anything else you know about that the Relicor family is hiding?” Maraz asked, preparing his quill again.

Kennard glanced to his sides, as if someone were listening in. “They were always private… but, our sons were playing near the main house one day, and they overheard Pelles and his father.” He paused.

Maraz waved his hand. “Go on.”

Kennard looked at Elouise. She nodded. “There may be a second hidden area in the-”

Holding out the note paper, Maraz stopped Kennard. “If I may, write that information down instead. I’d rather not have my… temporary associate know about it.” He looked at Theo.

Theo frowned at him. “It’s not like I’d-”

“Like you didn’t with the forest?” Maraz raised a brow.

“About the forest, Mr. Ruvenan,” Elouise started. “We’d-”

Maraz held up a hand. “Say no more, Mrs. Terrent. I won’t make you or Mr. Terrent here enter it again. The Guild already informed me of your reservations. We have your housing and temporary employment set up already. Theo will be leading me to the forest. And please, call me Maraz.” He shared a much friendlier smile to them than he’d ever given Theo.

“Here’s your information, Maraz,” Kennard said, handing the paper back to the man.

Maraz’s eyes scanned over the paper for a moment. His brows rose. “Interesting…”

Theo tried to sneak a peek, out of indignation more than anything else, but received a smack over the head with the wood writing surface for the paper instead.

“Relicor likely had the enchantments on the forest changed, unfortunately,” Elouise said, drumming her fingers on her knee. “The path we taught Theo shouldn’t have changed, but he supplied us a new brooch-key every month. I suspect he may have changed it sooner this time.”

“I’ve bought a high-tier Phrenic-defense enchantment,” Maraz said, pulling up a gem attached to a chain necklace. Enchantments shone brightly to Theo’s eyes.

How many enchanted items did this man own? He was just showing off at this point.

Once his envy settled down, Theo had to accept the practicality of it.

“Now, I don’t mean to interrupt this reunion, but we have an attendant waiting to bring you all to your new home,” Maraz said, standing up. “And I have a forest to visit.”

“O-Of course,” Elouise said, standing up and smoothing out her tunic. “It was nice to meet you Mr. Ruv- Maraz.” She held out a hand. “Thank you for taking part in helping us out of that situation.”

Theo’s stomach curled into knots. The deception of it all. Maraz was- well, he had done a good thing. Just, there were motives behind the good thing. He bit his tongue.

“It was my pleasure, Mrs. Terrent, Mr. Terrent,” Maraz said, nodding to them. He shook their hands.

“Thank you,” Kennard muttered, turning to his sons. “Girial, Willum, time to go.”

Both of them looked up. Tirr was trying to lift Willum into the air.

“Nice day!” Tirr chirped, flying back to Theo and letting Willum drop to the ground from his half-lifted position. Girial caught his little brother before anything could be damaged, fortunately.

“Oh dear, I’m sorry, Willum!” Theo said, bowing slightly. “Thank you, Girial.”

“Um, no problem, Mr. Theo,” Girial said, returning the bow.

Willum waved, before ducking behind his brother, and they returned to their parents.

“We’ll see you again soon, Theo!” Elouise called out as an attendant led them away.

“Thank you again, Theo,” Kennard said, waving to him.

Theo colored at the attention, but turned to Maraz as the man laid a hand on him.

“It’s time for us to go.”

“R-Right,” Theo said, swallowing.

The walk to the forest itself proved uneventful. No guard dared pester Maraz, and the crowds readily moved out of his way.

Maraz turned to Theo. “This is where you began walking in?”

Theo pulled out the slip of parchment he’d originally written the instructions on. He nodded. “It is. We just need to go-”

“You had these instructions on parchment this whole time?” Maraz asked, reaching for it. “I thought it was a special path that couldn’t be written down or something. I could have just-”

Slapping the man’s hand, Theo held the paper out of reach as best as he could. “I’m here so you can’t just take this spot for the Guild.”

Maraz chuckled. “And you could stop me?”

“Well, no, probably not,” Theo said, moving the paper as Maraz reached for it again. “But I can still feel important, can’t I?”

Sighing, Maraz ran a hand through his hair. “It’s always something, isn’t it? Romuen’s main government has already reclaimed his land. The Merchant’s Guild is just facilitating the taxation of gathering from this spot from now on and overseeing it so that it won’t be over-farmed and depleted of natural resources.”

“That’s… surprisingly appropriate,” Theo said, looking back at this paper. “Well, let’s go then, shall we?”

“Please,” Maraz said through gritted teeth.

While Theo didn’t trust for one second that the Merchant’s Guild wouldn’t do their best to monetize this forest in their favor, he hoped the part about not over-farming it was true. Rarer ingredients might become cheaper this way, a boon for him. Though, he still hadn’t had a chance to use the ingredients he’d gathered before.

Something to move up on the to-do list, he mentally noted.

“You have that Phrenic-defense enchantment, right?” Theo asked, stepping toward the forest line.

“Yes, why?” Maraz asked, falling in step next to Theo.

“You’re going to need to activate it now, I’m pretty sure this enchantment affects this entire section of forest,” Theo said, staring at where he knew the pendant to be on Maraz’s chest.

“Gods, it’s that powerful?” Maraz said, his eyes widening. He pulled the pendant out. “Mental Shield.”

The sensation of a veil falling over Theo’s mind was immediate. He wasn’t impressed, though.“...That is an incredibly boring enchantment name.”

Maraz shrugged. “It’s functional.”

“Is that a tier 6 dungeon gem in that pendant?” Theo asked, staring at the gleaming blue gemstone.

“Yes, and it was very expensive,” Maraz said, grinning.

Theo sighed. “Let’s just get going.”

As they walked, Theo let Tirr flit from tree to tree. The zilant seemed overjoyed to be back in his original home. A small part of Theo worried that Tirr wouldn’t want to come back to Romuen with him. Those fears proved false, he hoped, when Tirr would fly back to him and yell “Nice day” once again.

A problem arose, however, when they were halfway to their destination. The gem in Maraz’s pendant began to glow brighter and brighter, and the veil on their minds grew weaker and weaker.

And then, with a final flash of light, the gem shattered.