{Xhez}

"Well," Elisa said, putting her hands on her hips and smiling at the sprite. "Looks like it's going to be just you and me for a bit."

Xhez smiled up at the blonde when she heard that.

"I am thankful for the opportunity to spend more time with you," she responded, speaking from the heart. She hoped she'd get more chances like this in the future. Getting to talk with Elisa in the room she shared with Rin was usually fun.

Especially since she seemed to be slightly more open than Rin on the whole "sex" topic.

For some reason, Elisa's cheeks flushed a little when she heard Xhez's reply. She quickly regained her composure, however, and said:

"Don't thank me just yet. In my experience, this city can be pretty boring, most of the time."

"Truly?" Xhez asked, tilting her head. "Everything I have read about Cradle has been nothing short of exciting and awe-inspiring."

"Well, they're history books," Elisa replied. "Most only tell you the interesting parts."

"Hm. I see."

"Anyway, come on. Let's head out."

The two of them did just that, emerging outside the hotel and walking out onto the old streets of this strange city. Xhez was so distracted by the intriguing, old architecture that she nearly forgot to make sure no one was too suspicious of her. Outside of the occasional weird look, she would receive from what she guessed were officers of the law, she was allowed to gawk at everything in peace.

She stopped, however, when she found something curious. Something she asked Elisa about.

"What's that?"

"Hm?" Elisa turned toward her.

The sprite subtly pointed over at what she was seeing. As Elisa's eyes reached the cause of Xhez's confusion, she nodded slowly.

"... The slaves?" Elisa asked quietly.

Indeed, what Xhez had seen were beastborn with chains and collars around their necks. They were dressed in ripped, strange, clothing and were being pulled along by a human sitting atop a horse. Their expressions were melancholic and somber as they passed by the sprite. Her eyes followed them as they rounded the corner and eventually disappeared into a different part of the city.

"What about them?" Elisa asked, sounding a little uncomfortable.

"I don't really understand what that means," Xhez explained, turning toward her. "I read about them. Slaves are mentioned various times in passages about Cradle. But, I have yet to grasp the concept."

Nodding slowly, Elisa opened her mouth to respond but then closed it again. Eventually, she just shook her head and said:

"Maybe I can explain in detail later. Let's just head to the library for now."

"Alright," Xhez replied. Her mind still wandered toward that group of beastborn she saw, however, as the two of them made their way to the Eternal Library. With a name like that, Xhez was curious as to what exactly she would see.

Nothing she had imagined came close to the building the two of them had actually ended up at, however.

[What...?] Xhez's lips parted as her jaw all but fell to the floor. Elisa walked forward with a little smile and gestured up at the building ahead of her.

"Here we are. What do you think?"

The building was like a half-sphere, with a golden dome of a roof and multiple pillars outside. Glass windows and a few doors lined the lower portion of the building, which was elevated, requiring a small set of stairs to reach it. Whereas the rest of the city looked aged and worn-down, this place looked more like what Xhez had seen at Libera.

Here, this sort of place was so colorful and stuck out so much that it was almost blinding to look at.

"This is it?" Xhez asked.

"Yep," Elisa replied as various citizens of the city went in and out of the library. She lowered her voice and said, "we're going to have to be careful here since there are plenty of mages around these parts. But, as long as you stick close to me, we'll be fine. If anybody sees you for what you are, we can always just pass you off as a beastborn. With me doing the talking, I doubt they'd really press us on anything. Ready to head in?"

"Yes!"

---

{Rin}

The Mages Guild was... Interesting. It looked more like a professional school than the Adventurer's Academy did, with squared short brown buildings and many uniformed scholarly types coming in and out. The main things that hinted at this being a place for mages were the sapphire flames burning atop sconces placed throughout the garden ahead of the front door. They reminded Rin of those ruins she'd explored with Xhez a memory that felt distant these days.

Rin would have liked to spend more time admiring everything, but a strong headache kept her from doing so.

"Rin?" Eve asked, her tone laced with worry. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, just... Really wanna close my eyes for a few seconds."

"Let's not waste time." Maria cut in when she heard that. "The sooner you're cured the sooner we can spend a little bit of time sightseeing. Come on."

"Right. By the way," Rin said, "once we're done here, I would like to head over to the Adventurer's Guild. My brother," she explained, "had kept some stuff there. I think I'd like to check it out."

"We could do that," Maria nodded. "Let's get this over with first, though."

Rin nodded as Eve watched her with some concern. She didn't even bother saying anything. Her throat felt too dry for that.

The three of them went in and, again, the interior of the building felt like Rin had entered a proper university of sorts. The paintings on the walls, the sleek brown carpet just ahead of the front door, the cleanliness of it all. All of it coalesced to make Rin feel like she wasn't walking into a place filled with powerful mages.

[It's so... Welcoming?] Rin thought as she looked around. [A little eerie, but, still inviting. Maybe that's the point.]

Maria went straight to the desk at the back of this room and spoke to a man wearing a strange business suit with cut sleeves.

"Greetings, Maria. Been a while," he said as he looked up at the Rank S adventurer. "Need to do any research?"

"No," Rin's teacher shook her head, "I'm here on slightly more urgent business. My student," she said, gesturing at the raven-haired girl, "has been afflicted with a strong case of vampirism. I'm here to get her cured."

"Ah, I see. Hold on a moment. I'll-"

"Don't worry," a voice spoke up then. Heels clicked against the ground as Maria, Eve, and Rin all turned their heads toward the person who'd interrupted the man. "I'll take care of it."

"Ah, I didn't see you coming, Miss. Thank you."

The woman who emerged wore a fancy black and purple dress and several gold bracelets on her arms to go along with a necklace of the same type. She was carrying a book that she closed as she got closer to the group. The dark-skinned woman grinned as she approached with open arms.

"Rin! How have you been, darling?"

The mage walked up to Rin and hugged her warmly before greeting Eve and Maria with a bow.

"Sye," Rin noted, feeling slightly breathless. "Uh, hi," she greeted her back, putting together a smile.

"Hmm, a bit low-energy, are we? The disease must be advancing faster than normal," Sye declared, tilting her head as she gave Rin a slightly analytical lookover.

Maria raised a brow and said:

"Greetings, mage. Were you expecting us?"

"Indeed," Sye quickly replied. "Admittedly, this meeting is not pure coincidence, as much as I'd like to think the Divine simply loves the idea of the two of us spending more time together~" Sye explained as she paced from one side of the room to another with her hands behind her back.

A blush fell over Rin's cheeks while Maria said:

"What do you mean?"

"Your Essence teacher, Harriton, called the Guild a little while ago. I was made aware of the situation, as the Guild often trusts me with regards to matters affecting outsiders," Sye stated. "I was curious, so I'd been waiting for some foreigners to come in with talks of vampirism and, well, here you are. That said," she looked back at Rin, "I did not hear that you, specifically, would be involved. That part was a very pleasant, and very welcome, surprise."

The adventurer giggled a little before Sye turned around and signaled for them all to follow her.

Sye moved a step ahead of everyone as she spoke a little bit about how things had been on her end lately. Unfortunately, whether thanks to the disease or thanks to Rin's own lust, she had a hard time focusing and keeping her eyes off of the mage's swaying hips as she led them through the Guild's halls.

[Is this normal?] Rin asked herself. [Maria said I would feel... things, but, more than anything else I just feel so fucking horny.]

"... strange, if I'm being honest," Sye explained, and Rin pulled her eyes back up to focus. "Lately, the guild's halls feel emptier than they have in the past."

"In what sense?" Maria asked.

"Well, I suppose there's no way to sugarcoat this," she muttered, "but, whatever weirdness Rin had stumbled across some time ago seems to be intensifying. More disappearances. Not just civilian disappearances, however, but powerful, respected, mages are just vanishing mysteriously these days. The worst part is, that we haven't found anything like what Rin had detailed to us. No psychos going around kidnapping people, or anything of the sort. No, it's as though the Divine took them all on a whim."

"Is there anything we can do about it? I'm sure I could put some pressure on the Adventurer's Guild to investigate. Does the government not care either?"

Sye scoffed.

"You'd have an easier time getting them to free the beastborn than making them look for these strange enemies of ours."

"Why?"

"A few reasons," Sye said, as they arrived at an office and she held the door open for them all. As they all entered, she closed it behind them and went to her desk. She crossed her legs and held her hands together over her abdomen as she continued. "The first, and likely the biggest issue is that... Well, what happens if we uncover that these arrogant fools are Liberan? Simple," she said, moving to answer that question, "every citizen in Cradle is going to be begging for us to go back to war with you."

"I have a hard time believing that," Maria quickly replied, raising a brow.

"I don't," Sye replied with a smile. "It's all any of the more selfish members of our wonderful society speak of. The superiority complex they have over Liberans is only matched by the disdain they feel for the government that gave up on stamping out the rebellion so long ago. Every day, some public speaker with more charisma than intelligence gets up and talks about how we should show you 'where you belong'," she said, making quotation marks with her hands. "The second issue is less serious for the city but just as serious for us. The Guild. What happens if we find out the perpetrators are current members of the Mages Guild? The way it's looking," Sye lowered her voice a little, as though worried someone would hear her, "there's a high likelihood of that. If we find that to be the case, we might just expel them and that'll be that. However, the good citizens of Cradle could view that as a reason to dismantle the Guild altogether. As irrational a conclusion as that might be, their emotional reaction could very well be to do that."

She leaned back and sighed.

"I could go on, but, these are the main problems with having the government participate in this little investigation. If we want things to not spiral out of control, it's best if we handle this ourselves. We could, however, involve the Adventurer's Guild. That would not be a bad idea, I believe."

"I'll write them a letter then. The most annoying one I can come up with," Maria stated and Sye chuckled.

"Thank you. Now, Rin," Sye turned toward her. "Before you grow fangs and try to suck my blood out from my neck, how about we get you taken care of?"