“They should have been right here. These are the markers we put down.” Kip waved his hands at the rocks they had placed, that pointed to where their packs should have been buried. Yet there was nothing to be had.

“Some sons of motherless dogs must have gotten lucky and stole em” Nick replied, growing red in the face, and hot under the collar, literally.

“Just great,” Mumbled Kip “My membership marker was in our bag.” His shoulders sagged.

““Mine was too”” added Nick and, Mic. In sync.

“You poor boys,” Mel said with mock sadness. “Guess you will have to lean on my good nature to help you get back into town without paying a tax.” Her smile was less polite and more fox like.

Nick and Mic looked on pleadingly. They knew she had a bit of a mean playful streak in her that just died to teach lessons.

“Wasn’t your marker in our pack too?” Kip asked a bit surprised.

“Of course not dear brother, how else would I get back into the city for free if something happened to our bags.” She had her head tiled, still smiling.

Kip sighed. Shoulders drooping further. “Alright what do you want?”

A small, inhaled gasp, hand going to chest in mock hurt. “Want? Me? What could I possibly need, as I have my marker right here in my pocket?” She tapped a small, covered pocket that was sewn into her leather tunic.

“Fine, I will take you to your favorite tea and sweets shop, my treat.” Kip answered her obvious lie.

Mel coughed and shot a side eye to Shae.

“And of course, Shae too. As if I would make her pay her own way. I do know she has no money, not quite that dumb.” He tapped his head and rolled his eyes.

“How very kind of you dear brother to make such an offer out of the blue like this!” Mel showed off a large, very fake, excited smile. She grabbed Shae’s hand pulling her in step, then leaned in to whisper to her as they walked toward the city again.

“You know, it would have been cheaper by far to just pay the tax.” Mic stated to kip.

“Yeah, but then she would never have let me live down the fact that I lost another marker.” Kip answered his statement. Then took up the trail behind the two women. His eyes not quite on the road in front of him.

“I, see…” was all that Mic said softly after seeing what Kip was looking at.

Kip catching on hissed softly back at Mic “It’s not like that! It’s, well, just a nice view from here to the city is all.” He shrugged with a small smile.

“Well, if that’s all there is to it, then I must agree with you there.” Then with a soft voice only the three men could hear mic added “Why do you think they wear such thin,” and with a cough into his fist. “Tight clothes in the North”

“That my fellow adventurer, I do not know, but maybe we should visit some time” Kip grinned, then looked over to Nick. “Hey, you’re being awfully quiet over there. We’re discussing women, and you’re what?”

“Yea, what is wrong with you now?” Mic asked, turning also to his brother. Then added “I know you went a bit off the mental path back there at the village, but I thought things were better?”

“Huh?” Nick looked up at the two after a nudge from his brother caught him in the short ribs. “Sorry, oh, I’m fine mostly. But you know… these last few days on the road, I have not been using magic to progress what I believe should be enough to further my healing.”

Mic always found “Scholar” Nick a bit odd. His speech totally changed from the rustic boys they used to be. Mic had grown out of it mostly, slipping only once in a while. But when Nick got like this, it was like he was possessed by someone actually intelligent.

“But my healing has continued, progressing to the point, I don’t think working on other areas matter anymore. Almost as if it was a chain reaction that set my aura into self-healing mode after a few days of hard work.” Nick scratched at the beard growing on his cheek absentmindedly. “They are going to want to poke and prod at me for days.” He added softly with a frown at to what might come if he let out what had happened to his malady.

“Are you going to tell them then?” Kip asked.

There was a call from up front where the two women were. “You boys sure are all gossipy back there. Why not join the rest of us in?” It was Mel.

“Nick was just giving us an update about his condition.” He waved his hand at his sister in a shooing motion.

“Well don’t leave us out in the dark. Share.” Mel answered ignoring being waved off, stopping to wait for the three men to catch up.

When they had, Nick was no longer quite distracted, but seemed to have a clear thought to share.

“I was just deciding if I wanted to put myself through the investigation. I do wish to let on to my discovery, but I don’t want to be a mad science experiment.”

“Well, can’t you just drop a secret note of something?” Mel asked to keep him thinking.

“It’s not that simple. There are not that many of us with the condition in town. There would be a vampire hunt.”

“That’s no good. So, what are you going to do? Lay low until we go to the city?” Mel threw out.

“Most likely. It’s not as if anyone will be affected much longer that way, and I could avoid being poked and prodded, or worse, stripped of my aura so they could “examine” me.”

“How could they do that?” Shae butted in for the first time. To her knowledge, what they called the aura was actually a power that flowed from the gods themselves. How could they strip that from someone?

“I really don’t know how they do it. But they can . And it’s never pretty for the recipient. They end up mad and ruined in body.” Nick shuddered as if he’d felt a ghost.

“…” Shae was at a loss. She couldn’t imagine people being able to subvert the gods power directly, well unless they lost faith maybe. But even that would be a slow process. It couldn’t be humane at all. Her imagination went a bit wild and she shuddered too.

“Now don’t worry Shae.” Mel placed a hand on her shoulder as they had all stopped walking somewhere in the discussion.

Nick nodded. “It’s not like they run around doing things like that. In fact, the only times I’ve heard of the academy doing such things was if your aura had become twisted by a demon. Dark magics are just not tolerated!” He added with some of his old fire.

“Still, it sounds bad.”

“Mmmm, yes, it is. I saw a woman who had been stripped of her magic. There was not much left of her mind, and while being young, her body was twisted up like that of a sick old crone. That is not something I’d wish to witness again. I feel sorry for those having to do it, it could not be an easy thing.” Nick continued to answer her.

“ANYwaysss,” Mel butted in on there dark discussion. “We have a sweet shop to visit!” She beamed an actual smile. Blowing away the dark clouds.

Kip groaned a bit, and Shae gave Mel a small smile at her efforts. Mel wrapped Shae’s left elbow into the crook of her own and led her off.

Everyone once again started toward the city. Their mood darkened but getting lighter by the minute.

The men listened to Mel talk first about the sweets they would encounter, and then went on to talk about how the guild worked, with Nick adding in a few of his experiences, but in his normal lowbrow way of talking.

Shae found his way of speaking odd. But did not butt in while the others spoke of life here. She was learning quite a bit and had a group of four new fast becoming friends to help her out. The “Gods” were smiling on her now that her tribulation was over.

At least for now…