"You're leaving?" Iris asked. "But why?"

Lina sighed. "I was thinking to myself recently, and I realize it's wrong for me to dragging you all around under false pretenses."

"What do you mean?" Montag questioned.

"I'm putting you at risk for something personal," Lina said. "It is a lie, everything I said about glory and justice. This mission to kill the Demon King is not about helping the war effort; it is all for revenge. The Demon King led a force into Mesburg years ago now. Since my family's land of Opol is right next to the border, we were the first to be attacked. I have been on the road ever since, waiting for the opportunity to kill him for what he has done."

"While your motives do dishearten me," Montag said. "It is still doing good in the end. I see no reason for you to leave."

"Yeh, stop being so emotional," Gonzalez said. "It doesn't matter the goal. You recruited us; we follow you, simply as that. Your motives matter about as much as the promises of a Palatine politician."

"Regardless, it does not feel right to me to ask you to follow me any further. Now that I have the artifact, I will do the rest alone," Lina replied.

"Do you even know how to use that thing," Derik said. "It looks pretty mundane to me. I thought you had to get it identified or something."

"I just needed to know if it was cursed or not," she replied.

"And how do you know that?" Derik asked.

"You have touched it already. If it was cursed, we would know; since you would be, well, cursed," she said.

"Ok, thanks for the heads up after the fact," Derik said.

"You don't have to go it alone," Iris said. "Do you really think we will let you go alone?"

"Speak for yourself," Derik commented.

"You have already been injured because of my goals. I will not allow that to happen again," Lina replied.

"What about the people you care about? Don't you still have a province to rule?" Iris asked.

Lina looked at Iris. "I will just have to make sure to come back for them then. I have already gone too far. I have to see this through. Titus knows what I mean."

Titus looked down, "I suppose as long as you come back, it's fine. Just don't do anything foolish like me."

Lina laid a hand on the shoulder of Iris. "Besides, I still have to take you to that tailor. I will find you when I get back, and we can go, ok?"

"Alright..." Iris responded.

They had walked towards their mounts as they talked, but they arrived to find them missing. Only two camels remained and a pouch left on the ground with a dusty note attached.

"That's not good," Derik remarked as Lina walked over to pick up the letter. She read the note, having to squint to read the loose handwriting.

"I know we might not be on the best terms of late, but why don't we let bygones be bygones. Here is some of the treasure, so yall don't come hunting me down. I don't expect we will be meeting ever again, so I'll take this opportunity to tell you that I had a good time with your little gaggle of adventures. Oh, and tell Gonzalez that I had a good time with him as well."

Tessier had signed the bottom of the letter. Lina opened the sack, which contained a moderate amount of trinkets and gold ornaments. Not a massive haul, but certainly enough for someone to live comfortably for a long time.

"I can't believe that she actually got away with this!" Gonzalez said. "She had better hope we don't meet again because if I see her, I'm going to put her in this bag and sent her floating down the river."

Lina handed Derik her map. "Do you think you can make it out of the desert on foot?"

Derik took a look at the map Lina had handed him. "Turns out there is a lot of desert in the desert. How are we going to get back to Mesburg from here."

Montag pointed out a village north of them. "This is the only place we could realistically reach on foot. We could stop by here for supplies, then make our way up to Melilla. Hopefully, they have someone willing to transport us back to Palatine from there."

"It's a plan then," Titus said. "We shouldn't delay."

"Yeh, I've had just about enough of this sun," Derik said. "It's bad enough that there isn't ac, but this is really a whole nother level."

"I guess that settles it," Lina said. "I would not be able to make good time with the rest of you following on foot, so gather the things and head back home."

Lina secured the gear on her camel. She hopped on it and began to ride off.

"Where are you planning on going?" Montag asked.

"I am going back to Dinar," she said. "I should be able to find a lead on the Demon King's whereabouts from there."

Iris went to follow her as she rode off, but Montag held her back.

"We should be heading back," Montag said as he dragged Iris to the rest of the group.

"Can't say I'm not a little sad to see her go," Gonzalez said. "Now, let's get out of this dump and get back to civilization, eh?"

"Right. Let's go," Titus said.

This was certainly not the development he was expecting, but Derik was pleased that they were finally heading back. He would be able to lounge around for a while after this. The group placed Iris and some packs on the last remaining camel. They tallied up their supplies, finding out how much they could use each day. With their plan set and rations planned out, they headed north into the sandy wastes. Iris gripped her necklaces tightly.

"May the light of the torch guide Lina to a safe return."