“Azarint.” He said with distaste. “Thought you were away for the next few days, don’t you have responsibilities to handle?” Huh, well this is new.

“I finished them early, I’d ask you what you were doing here, but I suppose you’ve made that abundantly obvious.” Azarint said wearily. “I won’t stop you. But if people are hurt because of your negligence, know that there will be consequences.” He said that with a hard stare.

“Hah, you would care wouldn’t you brother…” He said that with a word that meant a bond not of blood. More like a comrade than a blood relative. “I’m good enough, and don’t you forget that as you surround yourself with these people.” He gestured around at the tables.

“Don’t, call me that.” Azarint said. “We are no longer, and will never be.”

Linden clicked his tongue, and left the counter, walking out of the building. Azarint watched him leave, an inscrutable expression on his face. He turned to me. “Welcome back, did you manage to deal with the bandits?” I nodded, giving a brief explanation of what occurred.

“Wait. Doesn’t that make you…” Tina began, before the dots connected. “Oh gods. You’re the Masked.” Isn’t my name at least public knowledge… I thought, frowning slightly. “You’re… out of your armour. Gods…” At least she isn’t screaming or shouting. I thought, giving her a flat look.

“Hush Tina.” Azarint said with a small smile. “His name is Kael, and unlike the stories he does not drag people’s souls to the Abyss, when you saw his armour I’m confident that you realized that it was hardly smouldering and demonic.” He glanced over at me. “You did not change that did you?”

I shook my head and sighed. “If we’re done I’ll just grab my stuff and get some sleep. We have rooms here or should I check in somewhere else?”

“Numen will be able to direct you to a proper room.” Azarint replied. “Thanks to the spacious nature of the building you should be able to have a room of your own now.” I grinned back. I guess there are a few nice perks. A voice called out as I was about to reach the stairs.

“Fortuitous to catch you Kael.” I peeked from the corner of my eye, seeing Teal at the entrance of the building. I winced, she was looking straight at me as she said the name. A quick glance however allayed my fears. Most the others in the building hardly reacted at the name. Guess I’m known as Masked huh? I smiled a little ruefully. “I thought I had better find you before you decided to leave on another escapade. It would be terrible to miss an interesting story.”

… Is she… in character? I thought, a blank look on my face as she sauntered to the counter and requested a room. Some bargaining seemed to occur as Tina refused, and she ultimately walked away with a dignified smile. “You don’t mind sharing your room with me do you? Of course you don’t, away we shall go.” She announced, marching up the steps.

Azarint struggled to stay expressionless while his armour trembled in silent laughter. The others in the room looked equally stunned and amused. She had taken the spotlight off of me for certain, and I shook my head slightly as I walked up, amused.

Teal was waiting for me at the top of the stairs. “It seemed prudent to overcompensate after I called you out.” She said. “Did you enjoy the performance?” A good-natured grin graced her visage. “Which room is yours? I was in fact serious when I said I’d be sharing your room.”

“Alright.” I said. “Not exactly a stranger to that. We’ll need to ask Numen for directions to the room.” I pushed open the door to the map room. Numen and Frejr in conversation. I waited for Numen to face me. “Azarint said you’d be able to point out where my room is?” I asked.

Numen nodded. “Oh right.” She stood from her seat, pushing it back and stepping past me. “Come on. This way.” Teal and I followed her, walking down the corridors. The lights were very different from torches, no flickering shadows or changing lights. She counted down some of the rooms as we passed. “Azarint, Frejr, Qent, Rince. This is mine, and yours is right here.” She said triumphantly, rapping on the door. “Wait a bit, I’ll grab the key from my room and you can move in.”

She ducked into her room, stepping out a minute or so later and passing me the key. It was a simple key, practical and simple in design. I inserted it into the keyhole and turned it, pushing the door open with a creak. The room was simply furnished, a bed sat in the corner, ready to be unfurled and lay down, while a desk and table sat aside of it. A lamp sat on the desk, and came alight with a blue glow as I turned it on. “Where did all these lights come from?” I asked, turning to look at Numen.

“The Tower apparently… This was part of them paying off their ‘debt’ as they called it. I’m not complaining though, it’s a lot more expensive to get otherwise, magic isn’t available for cheap normally…” Numen replied, shrugging slightly. “They say that they’ll only give us a discount for the next building we get… It’s like they were psychic or something.” She grumbled.

“Soon as they heard we were putting down roots we got missives from nearly every major city. Save from the Republic and their vassals.” Numen remarked. “It’s part of why Frejr and Azarint have been so busy.” She trailed her hand. “Even Rince is organizing the inventory, he’ll be done in a few days though. I’ve got no skills to speak of that would help…”

She suddenly perked up. “Actually, the good news is, now that you’re back, we can actually take some of the stuff that’s been piling up. We’ve been giving the simple stuff to the new guys, but all the stuff that they can’t do we can’t do alone.” She cocked her head. “Well, I can’t do alone at least. Azarint and Frejr probably could, but Qent and I need more backup than that, and Qent can’t leave Frejr’s sight, right now he’s just studying on his own. It’ll be just like when we started.”

I chuckled at that. “Old times huh. No internal wars going on this month though are there?”

She shook her head, flashing me a grin. “Not this time. We’ve had a single missive about a wyvern prowling in the area of a farm. They haven’t done anything yet, but some of the farmer’s have said that they saw them stalking them through the forest.” She grimaced. “That one will be tough. Besides that we’ve got some ogres.” She sighed with a pained expression. “They’ve made beeline for some of the farms, the slightly more experienced members were sent, but there’s one we haven’t managed to cover… Finally we’ve got some tales about a creature of fire and darkness… We know what it is, but it’s not threatening anything, so it’s a little low on the list despite the danger.”

I hissed through my teeth, the things I wanted to tackle first weren’t the ones causing immediate damage, but the potential… Dammit.

[The demon has to be our priority.] Page said reproachfully. [You remember what you found them doing last.]

Razing the wisp groves… I thought back. I know, but… I know that the ogre is attacking a village. Chasing that thing could take days. I don’t know if we have that kind of time.

[And if you leave the demon, it could sabotage the Alliance’s ability to fight the demons. You and I both know the best course of action.] Page argued. [They’re already tearing at the seams. We can’t let this go on.]

As I agonised over the decision, Teal peered over my shoulder. “It would be possible for me to remove the wyvern.” She said. Numen looked at her with a dubious glance. “Kael can vouch for me, while I look so I am capable of taking it out with little trouble.” I arched an eyebrow, but nodded.

“She’s capable, more capable than me.” A thought occurred to me. “She can’t deal with the ogre however, too much collateral damage. That means… we need to deal with the ogre.” I said. Page protested, and I hushed him. That’s enough. I can’t stand away while people suffer, it’s not me, it’s why I fought, why I didn’t stay a farmer and why… why I… we fought the gnolls.

[You would never have survived otherwise.] Page said quietly. [And this is bigger than them.]

It probably is. I conceded. But not to me.

“Get some rest, we’ll head out tomorrow.” Numen said, seeing the look on my face. Teal stepped into the room, looking around.

“Could we get another mattress?” Teal asked. “I do believe that even in your culture sharing a ro… bed is not done without a certain amount of intimacy.” Numen’s head whipped around.

“Wait, you’re going to be sharing a room?” She asked, surprised.

“The girl at the counter said that the rooms were reserved for the more distinguished warriors, and even as a guest of Kael here she wouldn’t budge.” Teal sniffed. “So the solution then was to take a room that wouldn’t affect anyone but my host.” She gestured at me. “And thus I hit upon my answer.”

Numen stared for a moment at her, then nodded slowly. “I’ll go see, we should have a spare mattress somewhere.”

“I will accompany you, far be it for me to trouble another on my behalf.” Teal said. “You should get some rest Kael, it will be a long day tomorrow I believe.” I nodded, laying the key down on the desk and collapsing onto the mattress. Removing my boots, faceplate and weapons to place on the desk as I lay down.

I was woken up as the door creaked open, and something was dumped onto the floor. “Careful, you’ll wake him up.” I heard Numen whisper.

“I believe he already woke up when we opened the door.” Teal whispered back. “But I will try my best to be silent.” Soft scraping sounds could be heard as she then pushed the mattress to one end of the room. I sighed internally, but kept quiet, trying to sleep again, the door was closed behind Teal, and finding the key she inserted it and locked the door. “Are you awake though?” She asked.

“Yes.” I replied. “But I don’t want to be. As you said, we have a long day tomorrow.”

“Are you absolutely certain that you wish to pursue the ogre?” She asked tentatively. “I would not presume to believe myself worthy of scrutinizing your choices, but the demon is the greater threat.” I sighed at that, she was right, but I couldn’t do it. “It is your choice Seraph. I will trouble you no more.”

“It’s not that.” I replied, my voice soft. “It’s just… I’ve been running around for weeks, the only time I’ve stopped lately was either because I got shot into a coma or because I was watching over Kinth and supplier.” I stopped. “It feels like at any time it’ll just rip apart at the seams.”

“You do always come at the times when things are most dire.” Teal answered, and I heard the mattress shift and stir as she settled. “But it will be fine, after all, we can solve our problems one at a time, it will not be long before there will be none left.”

I stared up at the ceiling, unsure whether it was my drowsiness or the frustration from the past week that made me say that. Her words were encouraging, though perhaps more to soothe me than because she actually believed it. I drifted off a while later, my thoughts still heavy.