“So it is your first time to Brün, eh?” a middle-aged man with a bushy beard asked whilst puffing on his pipe, the man was sitting in a padded rocking chair in front of a stone fireplace. Edra and Bardo sat around the fireplace too on a small couch; they were drinking warm tea.

“Yes sir, we somehow made it this far without injury, thankfully the Sjörn is unwell resulting in us not running across anything too dangerous” Bardo explained cheerfully, he avoided speaking of the caravan or the swamp drake, little would come of it.

The middle aged man puffed a few circles of smoke out of his mouth before he responded “Yes, we live not far from the forest, and we have felt its effects too, the adventurer’s guild has made a request, but so far none has taken it ” the man shook his head silently “if it wasn’t for that warning many years ago… that damned forest!” he cursed loudly.

Instantly his wife came from behind and slapped him over the head “don’t be a fool! What good has ever come from cursing the forest? You silly old man, stop complaining and come help me with the firewood” she said strictly, she had a matron like look and had been otherwise friendly when Edra and Bardo offered to do some work for a meal and a bed.

“Sit sit, please” Edra pleaded as he and Bardo got up “let us help you out, you’ve been more than kind” it took some arguing back and forth before Bardo and Edra convinced the couple that they could go chop some more fire wood.

In the morning they helped out a bit more with chopping some firewood and other basic chores, the couple had been very helpful, and the wife had insisted on packing some food for them, the husband had given them both some tobacco and a pipe each, apparently he was a pipe craftsman, so for that reason alone he insisted that they took one each.

“You didn’t have to give them food you know” the husband said while waving goodbye to the two travelers.

The wife had a bittersweet smile as she responded “neither did you need to give them a pipe each, that’s a lot of coin” she too was waving to the two travelers, who if only for night had brought the couple memories of a time long since gone, back when they had had two young boys, they too eager for adventure, too eager.

. . . .

He should never have taken his coin. He should never have followed him. He should never have trusted his words. At this point it was too late, there was nothing left to do, there was nothing more he could say, he wanted to, oh how he wanted to curse the man who had brought death upon him, but he couldn’t, all he could do was watch him leave the damp room, his skinny back burned into his mind in his final moments, the guard closed his eyes. What a fool he had been.

Thomans Siebling left the damp room and quickly walked through intricate doorways and secret passageways, until he was standing in a back alley; he straightened his shirt and strolled out, pulling his pants up as if he had just relieved himself. He gave fake smiles and fake greetings as he passed through street after street until he made it to a large gate, he greeted the guard and showed him an emblem of entrance to this specific noble household, after which he entered nonchalantly.

. . . .

Peter had somewhat adjusted to his new position, he had been in Brün for about two weeks. He was returning from a subjugation request with Elisa, or the young miss, as he called her officially now. They went out to gain experience regularly with some of the mansion guards, it was a safe and secure way of achieving experience. It could be said that he had achieved the ideal! The big city, a secure job with great benefits for progressing, he should have no complaints. He sighed out loudly as he trotted along the streets of Brün, people looked at Elisa’s entourage with respect and envy, he just couldn’t forget Edra and Bardo, in many ways Peter was a cowardly man, but he had heart! He could’ve sworn that he saw them just moments ago through a window, but it couldn’t be them, if anything it was his guilt.

Looking at Peter she knew, it gnawed on her too, it had been a rash and stupid mistake. Letting herself be goaded like that was unlike her, yet it had happened nonetheless, she had already promised Peter that she’d send a messenger to Loktath to assure that Edra and Bardo made it back safely, however it would have to wait as the passage through the Sjörn was temporarily closed for safety reasons, the kingdom had finally stepped in. She would never forget that passage, and that chilling feeling still haunted her, what sort of power could affect them so, twist and turn their minds without them realizing just how much! She shuddered at the thought as leaned over from her horse giving a small beggar some coins; she smiled brightly when the girl ran off somewhere else. This was what she was protecting, the common folk.

The party was stopped upon trotting up to the entrance of the house of Edel, a young messenger handed over a message to Elisa and then left in a hurry before she had a chance to ask him any questions. She lifted her hand up to cover for the sun as she read the letter.

Dear Elisa Edelgaard,

Old friend, I have heard that you recently returned to Brün, I imagine that you have been far too busy to greet me, however I request your company right away, I am bored after all.

Luna Somma.

Elisa felt a headache coming, she had indeed neglected personal relationships since she returned home, there were many reasons for it, but regardless she would rather not meet with Luna if she could avoid doing so. “Everyone can return to the Edel grounds, Peter, you’re coming with me” she sighed tiredly, having just returned from a subjugation request, being tired and hungry, yet she could not delay, because it was Luna Somma.

. . . .

A small beggar girl received a large package at a side entrance to the Somma estate; she buckled under the weight of the package, whereupon she ran off as fast her tiny feet could manage.

Sitting in an open outdoor pavilion was Luna Somma, she was playfully shifting a few coins in her hand; so far the plans of the master were coming along nicely, very nicely. She put the coins away when one of the estate servants came walking along a long pathway of white marble, the marble contrasted against the bright green trim grass on the sides. Elisa and Peter walked behind the servant, Elisa’s eyes cold and emotionless, contrarily Peter was looking around everywhere, on the small manmade hills and lakes, on the white marble pavilion in which Luna was awaiting them. Luna scoffed silently ‘a country bumpkin that one’.

Luna stood up in full splendor to greet Elisa; she wore clean white mage robes which fit nicely with her porcelain skin. In many ways she was the opposite of Elisa, which was even more obvious now, where Elisa had a tan from being outside and was wearing her still dirty leather armor, and her hair wild and unkempt, Luna was clean and her hair was a smooth silky black. Everything about her exuded beauty, excellence and her composed bearing only helped to certify that. Peter couldn’t help but stare.

Luna looked at Peter smilingly as she talked to Elisa “Where does your dog think he is? Had he been mine, I would’ve long since gotten rid of the mutt” for a moment Peter didn’t know what dog she was talking about, that is until Elisa reprimanded him to go outside of the pavilion and wait.

Elisa sat down on one of the straw chairs comfortably “so here I am Luna, what do you want?”

“I told you, did I not? That I was bored, come now, tell me about your recent adventure! You must’ve passed through the Sjörn, I’ve heard that it is experiencing change recently” she sounded genuinely interested and friendly, her attitude completely different than just a moment ago.

How many times had she been at the whim of Luna Somma? At some point she had stopped counting, the Somma were powerful, more so than her own family, the families also had multiple business cooperatives, but these were not the reasons she hadn’t postponed the meeting, she studied the smiling woman across from her “Where is Foss?” it was only at that moment that Elisa noticed that Luna’s regular manservant wasn’t around, he was always around.

Like a crack in a mirror Luna’s smile faltered, she hesitated even, she never hesitated “Foss decided to move to the countryside with his family she responded” but no matter how she tried to hide it, a hint of anger was clear as she spoke of the manservant.

Elisa truly was surprised, it was a simple enough question, innocent even, but there seemed to be more to the story, not that it was her business to ask, not that she cared “okay, well I wish him the best then” after which she went into details of her trip to Loktath.

When the gates closed behind them Elisa released a breath of relieve “I hate that woman!” she exclaimed to Peter.

“Well I didn’t care much for being compared to a dog myself” he joked “but couldn’t you just not meet up with her?”

Laughter erupted from Elisa, startling her horse slightly “Not meet up with her!” she was still laughing, but not the funny sort of laughter “the girl is crazy Peter! I once didn’t meet up with her, and what happened? I was locked out of any gatherings, my friends wouldn’t talk to me, I didn’t get peace until I apologized privately” defeat was evident in her facial expression “She is no more than a few years older than I, but she walks the circles of the nobles far steadier than I could ever hope to do” the horse got a small nudge with her ankle as it increased its speed towards the Edel estate.

. . . .

The two travelers were clearly from the country side; they earned many amused stares and not so hidden snickers as they marveled at the city around them. Design wise Brün was not too different from Loktath, most of the kingdom of Brutsch had a similar design aesthetically, the difference was evident in the size of the buildings and the streets. Where in Loktath the wall encompassed the city, this wasn’t true here, there was a large wall, but it only covered until the noble estates, each estate had their own small village where the servants and their families lived, each estate had a small forest or workshop and so on. The noble estates were all located on the border of Brün to the west, this gave them a free and easy exit if anything were to happen. However that was only the outer part of Brün, the inner part was entirely encircled; anyone could enter with appropriate city passes. In the inner part the private houses of the nobles and aristocracy existed, and in the middle of everything the manor of the duke resided. Even with similar architecture, Edra noticed the difference in materials in the outer area of Brün compared to Loktath. They had also been told that there was a growing housing area leading towards the east, as there was no more space within Brün, the nobles occupied the west, the north was a fortified trade route, and no one wanted to live towards the Sjörn, which essentially only left the east for expansion purposes.

It had taken eight different tries before they found a pub with a somewhat decent price, and even then it wrung what little coin they had left. Regardless, they wanted to celebrate, they had done well, or at least they thought so. In the pub by buying a few beers to some locals they quickly found out about the cheaper establishments in the east, they would go to find an inn there later called the White Lady.

“I think we’ve just about had enough” Bardo explained as he dragged Edra outside, they leaned against each other drunkenly, evening had not come yet, but they were happy and drunk regardless, which wasn’t good because they quickly lost their way.

“We’re lost”

“Very lost”

“So lost”

And then they drunkenly collapsed into a deep slumber.

. . . .

“I suggest you head to the adventurers guild in the eastside, they often times help out new adventurers such as yourself” The guard spoke very officially. The previous day they had been robbed while sleeping , it was all very embarrassing, when they had approached a guard, he simply dismissed it considering it was only a couple of coins they had lost, everything else had been left on them.

“Thank you very much” Edra said sarcastically, earning him a nasty glare from the guard, whereas the two left grumpily.

“I bet they pitied us, you know?” Bardo said jokingly, trying to make the best out of a bad situation “they could’ve taken our weapons or other valuables, but they didn’t.

Edra nodded in agreement, there was truth to his words, everything else had been left on them, even his ring, he looked at the ring once more, what a fool he had been, he had completely forgotten about the ring since he arrived in Loktath, so much had happened in such a short period of time.

After a few hours they finally found their way to the East Brün Adventurer Guild, the building was way bigger than the Loktath one, and it was obviously busy as there was a steady stream of people walking in and out constantly. The two quickly entered, it took several tries before anyone took the time to help them out and tell them where to find the requests, rather than a request board, there was request ledgers, each request had a number, and taking the number an adventurer could then sign up for a request at one of the desks.

“Let me see your guild plates, and give me your guild booklets so I can officiate your new request” the clerk which was a young man took the guild plates to check the rank and authenticity, then he took the booklets, which recorded each request, he quickly wrote up the new request details and stamped it “so you come from Loktath, huh, I can see here that you still have an unfinished request, the returning of a letter to one of the nobles here in Brün”

Bardo and Edra looked at each other, they had forgotten about the letter, Edra quickly checked his backpack and found the letter, luckily it hadn’t been stolen “EH! How did you know we hadn’t returned the letter?” Edra asked mystified.

The clerk simply smiled “you new guys” he laughed “every request written up in your booklet functions as a magical contract, and the stamp too is magical, so when the contract is finished the colour of the stamp will turn from black to red, it’s really very simple, now get going, there is other people in line” the man hurried them off.

“We’ve got two requests now, one is to return this letter to a noble, the other is to help clear out some fire badgers from a farm not too far away from here” Bardo said while looking at a simplistic map that they received from the guild free of charge.

“But which one to finish first? Had we had the coin we could simply look for the noble and probably find him in a few days, but there is no guarantee that we’ll have an easy time” he rustled his hair in frustration “It is our first request however, and it is from instructor Lüdwig… how about we ask around a bit, and if we can’t find the location before midday then we’d better get going towards the farm” it obviously wasn’t a perfect solution, they both felt that they owed their instructor, but reality was reality, they had no coin, they’d be better off hunting their dinner and making their way towards the farm.

A few rabbits were frying over an open bonfire, Edra and Bardo sat around the fire, their stomachs grumbling impatiently, it had been a while since they ate, and they had been walking all day on top of that. The stars shone strongly, and the moon was halfway visible, it was a wondrous night.

“Damn stars, I’m not getting a wink of sleep tonight with all that light!” Bardo grumbled, obviously not in a good mood.

“Calm down friend, we did our best, when we return from the farm we can look more, and hopefully we’ll find this sir Weiss next time” Edra stuffed his pipe, and began puffing on it, soon a sweet aroma of wood spread through the air “for now let’s just enjoy the stars, instead of condemning them” he smiled while turning his rabbit. Not long after the rabbit was eaten, and the two men were simply lying in the fresh grass gazing at the stars while smoking pipe, sometimes the simple things were better than fancy rooms and dining, it paled in comparison to this sort of living, Edra thought as he watched the bright stars.

“The reward isn’t much so we weren’t certain when we’d receive some help” An old farmer spoke whilst chewing on a piece of straw “we can’t pay you much in Vestir, but we can provide you a meal and a bed until the problem has been taken care of” he nodded to himself.

“Come now boys, don’t stand outside like that, we’ve soup ready, join us for dinner, and we’ll tell you where and what” the wife spoke up optimistically, finally they’d receive some help.

The old couple lived in a relatively small house, for a farmhouse that is, it was constructed of wood, and had a thatched roof, there was no ceiling so the wooden beams were visible when inside. The insides were filled with nitpicks and small homemade decorations, it was overall very homey. The soup was already on the table, and it was quite obvious that the two travelers had arrived during dinner time; they awkwardly apologized as they put down their travel gear and went to wash their hands, at the behest of the wife. Soon they were seated; the light of the candles hoisted onto the walls, and the other stearin lights brought a warm ambiance to the wooden home.

“The badgers are fairly big, mind you, so be careful” the farmer said seriously “they generally won’t attack unless provoked, but now that they are eating our crops we have no choice but to deal with them” he nodded self-approvingly.

The wife poured some beer for everyone before she sat down herself “They are called fire badgers for a reason, their claws when attacking turn extremely warm, and can rip through most average metals, and their breath is steaming, so be careful not to get scolded” she warned, while looking sharply at the two young men in front of her “You should be able to take care of it, even if you are at a low level, and had we been young and energetic, we might’ve tried our hands at them first, but we have old bones, and we only hire farmers for the harvest”

Bardo smiled with all the friendliness he could muster, he used to be the son of a farmer, and the old couple reminded him vaguely of his parents “don’t you worry, we’ll take care of your problem” he said while pointing his big thumb at himself confidently!

The old man chortled “that’s good young man, that’s very good”

Soon the four were sitting on the veranda, listening to the sounds of the night; the old man pulled forward a long cornpipe and began stuffing it, Edra and Bardo too pulled out their pipes, the wife simply chuckled as she mumbled “boys and their toys” then she continued knitting failing to realise the irony.

The light from the two lanterns hanging at the back of the terrace illuminated the scene, just enough for the old man to notice the pipes that the two young men had pulled out, he saw the exquisite wood which refracted the light ever so lightly, light redwood carved in detail, he quickly slammed his hand on the table and grabbed the pipe of Edra who was the closest to him “this, this is a Rhinefeldt pipe!” he caressed the pipe in his hands until he came across a marking “what, you! You scratched your name on it?!” the old farmer was flabbergasted.

“A what now pipe?” Edra asked confused “our pipes are quite similar so we scratched our names on them” he said with a very matter of fact tone of voice, Bardo nodded in agreement.

The old farmer was shocked, what a waste “this is a pipe produced by the legendary pipe maker, all pipe connoisseurs dream of owning one of his pipes, especially considering that he stopped producing pipes several years ago, and you marked it!” exasperated at the carelessness of the two youths he could only sigh out loudly.

“Well we just got it from a friendly man and his wife after helping them out a bit, he was a pipe maker himself, maybe he made a mistake when he gave them to us?” Bardo said with surprise in his voice.

“here you go lad, although I think it a bit of a waste, I still got to hold a Rhinefeldt, if I could” he coughed lightly, slightly embarrassed “get a puff or two” the old farmer acting like a small kid made everyone laugh loudly, and so the evening passed quietly.

The morning sun and a few lamb-clouds was all that accompanied Edra and Bardo as they made their way towards the edge of one of the fields, on the way they passed the golden winter wheat stalks, and green aromatic onion fields. The smell of fresh onions was very nice and cleared the minds of the two as they walked towards the area where the farmer had told them that they had issues with the fire badgers. At a corner of one of the onion fields they saw a large amount of the crops having been eaten and the soil being messy, there wasn’t any sign of the badgers though, nonetheless they readied their spears and continued over to investigate. They found tracks leading into a nearby wooded area, past a broken fence, next to the fence there was a bunch of tools which had been knocked down.

“My dad showed me how to use that kind of hammer for knocking down the fence posts” Bardo said melancholically as he looked at a large blunt hammer lying carelessly next to the broken fence.

The forestry area wasn’t very dense and the tracks were easy to follow, it didn’t take long for them to find a small burrow into the side of a hill. Edra stared at the hill in shock and awe, the hole to the burrow was big enough for a large dog, just what kind of badgers were they!

“Let’s be smart about this” Edra put his hand in front of Bardo as he spoke “how about we gather a bunch of wood and other stuff, and then we smoke them out? Afterwards we ambush them!” Bardo almost clapped his hands in applause of the genius plan, they were both very satisfied with the idea of an ambush. A fire quickly caught hold of the plethora of burnable materials at the entrance of the burrow, Edra and Bardo stood atop the hill looking down at the burrow beneath, their muscles were tense and their adrenaline was pumping, like springs they were ready to jump into action. Bardo had a drop of sweat crawling down his nose slowly, he could feel his breath being heavy, his hands were clammy, it was strange, they had battled wolfs, they had faced a swamp drake, but somehow he still wasn’t used to this idea of battle. He was reassured when he looked at Edra and saw that he too carried similar worries, but before he could think deeper about his fears, he heard a fast movement of scratching steps, and then it erupted.

They sprung down the moment they saw something exit the burrow, spears first, brains last. The spears barely penetrated the thick black hide of the fire badger, they quickly moved away as the badger hissed out loudly in response, releasing a scorching steam in the process. The steam completely stopped them from approaching the badger, but not the badger from approaching them, it jumped forth towards Bardo, he barely blocked the first two attacks before his spear broke. While Bardo dodged to the side, Edra came from the back of the badger, through the steam he released an invigorating roar, sending the badger into a tree, granting bonuses to the party, and conditions to the badger, Bardo grabbed the spear tip and together with Edra they began circling and stabbing it until it died. They both felt their hearts in their throats, what fear, what excitement! They approached the dead badger, it was lying there with several cuts and stab wounds, it wasn’t an evil animal, in a way they were the ones who were evil, and they both knew it.

All of a sudden they heard loud hissings coming from behind, they turned around and saw multiple fire badgers coming out from the burrow, their noses smelled the air, and that was enough to make them move, Edra’s roar was on cooldown, Bardo’s spear was broken, they looked at each other and then they ran in a frenzy.

Two of the fire badgers followed them, they weren’t fast, but they were still gaining on them. They were too young, too inexperienced, they had overestimated themselves and underestimated the fire badgers, and they were paying for that mistake now. They made it to the edge of the onion field again; unluckily Edra stumbled over the fence post tools that lay scattered, he fell hard into the field, he barely had time to turn around and throw off the fire badger that had jumped at him, the second one quickly took its place though. The only thing separating them was his spear, which was being cut through in seconds by the heated claws of the badger, its scorching steam breath scalding Edra who lay on the ground with his eyes squinted ‘is this the end?’.

A muffled slam was heard and the badger was knocked flying, Edra opened his hurting eyes and saw Bardo standing there with a hammer, it was the fence post hammer, he had picked it up and slammed the badger off of him. Edra scrambled up with his spear, which was on the border of breaking, two men, two fire badgers, fear and anger evident in both.

As nightfall came the old couple sat on the veranda, they couldn’t help but worry somewhat about the two young men; soon they saw a silhouette breaking through the darkness towards them, it was the two travelers, leaning against each other, both bloody both banged up.

“We got three” Edra said while he was being bandaged by the old farmer, his wife taking care of Bardo “they were much tougher than we expected” he laughed painfully.

Bardo followed up the sentence “We got three of them with little injuries, and we decided to try and get more, so we returned to the burrow, and planned another ambush, similar to the first one” Bardo shook his head in defeat “they ambushed us instead from behind, they must’ve dug a new exit, and they got us good, we were in a fighting escape all day, eventually we lost them, but then we were lost” he winced at the pain of some of the herbs the old lady put on his wounds.

“How many d’you reckon there are?” the old man asked.

“Initially we thought that there might be three more, as that was how many more we saw aside from the three we killed” he heaved a sigh “but after we were ambushed we both got a quest notification, a fire badger elder lives deep in the burrow, to save the fields we’d have to kill him and his family” an unhappy expression marred Edra’s face “we already gained a level today so tomorrow we’ll have to make up a new plan, personally I’m not happy about an extermination, but we have a blood debt now, I fear the badgers will attack other humans on sight”

The old couple stayed silent for a while, mulling over what they just heard “we can’t afford to pay for more adventurers” the wife answered truthfully “but you can stay as long as you need, we are in your care then” the entire request would probably end up taking a lot longer than any of them expected.

The following morning the two stood outside after breakfast, Edra brandished his spear, which had gotten a new iron shaft, and Bardo brandished the hammer he had taken.

“This hammer, it feels so much more natural for me” he said while trying to swing it in different motions “you know I never got the basic spearmanship from warrior training camp”

Edra was moving into different stances with his spear “well you never fought too well with the spear, I always felt that it was unsuited for you, too light, too tricky” he yelled a loud sound as he moved into a different stance“I always thought that a more direct approach might suit you better, and apparently it did, but you need to practice with it before we go, so let’s get some sparring done”

Four days of intense sparring was all that they got before the first fire badger attacked from out of nowhere near the main house, luckily Bardo’s power attack worked wonderfully with the heavy hammer and he dazed it long enough for them to pummel it to death. They looked around the farmhouse grounds all day that day to see if there were more fire badgers hidden, they knew it was time to venture back to the burrow!

They approached the burrow carefully, before they could even see the burrow they saw a few fire badgers lying around. After a careful retreat they began laying their plans.

“We need something heavy that can crush them, maybe some pitfalls too!” Bardo and Edra were speaking of all sorts of nasty traps, one nastier than the other, and this was the beginning of a long guerilla warfare battle.

. . . .

Meanwhile in a hidden study, accessible only by hidden passages, connected to hidden rooms, a man sat comfortably in the light of a magic crystal, he kept turning a bunch of coins in his hand, before he poured them into a small smelter.

“Is it good enough, master?” It was Luna Somma “can the coins be used? I did as you told me, although I don’t see the point fully, why couldn’t I just get some coins from Elisa normally?” her tone of voice completely different than when she spoke with Elisa, or the way she spoke with the other nobles, where she would usually be calm and collected, her words coming in a steady confident stream, they were now reverent and carefully chosen.

The man wore a hoodie covering his face despite being inside, no more than the grey of his beard visible, his cold detached voice echoed out into the room “intent, dear child, intent!” his voice like a sharp needle prickling on Luna’s skull and brain “magic rituals are different than skills and spells, they are more esoteric in nature, they require many different factors different intents and have different requirements!” the more he spoke the more excited he became, his hands moving in concert with his words “the coins have the intent of giving, they carry empathy, care, they carry emotions, there is meaning in all of these” his hands opened up his palms facing upwards “it is this emotion that we’ll exploit, don’t worry my child you’ll get what you want, and so will I!” his hands slammed into the table out of excitement.