Relief welled up in Rowena as she lay down on the simple but comfortable looking bed. She stared up at the timbered ceiling and let out a deep sigh.

She closed her eyes and shook her head as she remembered the shock on Thea’s face when she’d asked her about Damon. She’d looked sad, and sympathetic, but hadn’t been able to tell her any more about him than her husband– at least, not within the bounds of her obligations as an Innkeeper. That had been disappointing, but at least they were there, at an Inn, able to rest and refresh themselves.

Rowena had let Mattie take the first bath, then she happily had taken the second, taking care to scrub every inch of herself until she was as close to gleaming as one could get. She was extremely grateful that Kieran went third– that meant that she had a little time alone in the room she’d be sharing with him. She hadn’t realized how tired she was, and how much she wanted a private place to be alone for a few moments. No one had told her just how little privacy one had on the road, and added it to her list of grievances with the entire concept of travel.

Still, she thought things were going alright. They were halfway through their journey to Arcania, and if the mysterious stranger was still there– please, please be there!, she thought-- it might only be a few weeks in total before she could go home. Rowena wasn’t exactly sure how accusations and arrests worked in other towns, but it couldn’t be that complicated. Find an officer of the peace, explain the situation, and find this Damon and make a formal accusation.

She supposed it was possible that this Damon had nothing to do with any of it– with the apparent corruption of the Heartstone, Tommie and Mason’s deaths, the overwhelming power they’d been granted– but she shook her head and covered her face with her hands. It was too much of a coincidence. They hadn’t had any travelers at Tunehlan in weeks. What were the chances that someone– and not just someone, a MAGIC USER– had just so happened along at the same time the Heartstone did… whatever it was that it had done?

And even if Tommie’s death had been unintentional… well, that was still a crime. Someone had to be held accountable. And she deserved some answers.

Rowena started as the door burst open. A much cleaner Kieran came in looking somewhat refreshed, wrapped in a huge towel.

“That’s better!” he exclaimed, and threw himself down onto his own bed. The room was small, with the two beds along each wall, only a narrow walkway between them that led to the window. Still, it was comfortable, and furnished with care. “I feel so exhausted.”

“I thought you liked the open road,” Rowena said wryly, settling back down and closing her eyes.

“Even I prefer to be clean if at all possible,” he responded, and then sighed. “This tiredness, though… I just need to get up and move around. Don’t peek, I’m going to change.”

“How will I ever resist the temptation?” she asked, rolling her eyes underneath her closed lids.

“Guess you shoulda bunked with the ladies,” Kieran said, and she could vaguely hear the sounds of him pulling a tunic over his head and a slight clink as he put Leo’s necklace back on. “Or not. I think you’d be interrupting.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rowena asked with a frown.

Kieran paused and laughed. “Seriously, Ro?”

“What?”

“Nothing. You can look now,” he said.

“Oh, finally.” Rowena kept her eyes closed.

“I’m going to go downstairs. Mix a little with the other guests. You coming?” Kieran was already turning the doorknob.

“Mmm. I’m going to stay here a little longer,” Rowena replied, grateful he was leaving again so soon. “I’ll be down in a few minutes for dinner.”

She heard rather than saw his shrug. “Suit yourself.”

As he made his way down the hall, she took another deep breath. She didn’t want to think about Tommie right now; she didn’t really want to think of anything. Yet she found herself considering what Thea had said earlier, about the value of news. Presumably, this also extended to secrets. If she couldn’t be a Merchant of wares, perhaps there was something to the idea of being a Merchant of information?

She supposed there was no time like the present to work on honing her Detect Secret Ability. After all, the better she was with it, the more selective she would be able to be in the future, which would enable her to both specify the kinds of secrets she wanted to find as well as the ones she’d rather let others keep private. Privacy, she decided, was something she’d have to champion, because she was the very person who could invade it. Not that she could use Detect Secret on people until– what did the Fog say? Level–

Ten, the voice said smugly. Level Ten.

That would typically be at least five, but more like eight years away for a normal person. For her, though… she gulped as she realized that at the rate she seemed to be progressing, it may just be a matter of weeks or months.

Well. It was what it was. Ignoring her capabilities wasn’t going to make them go away, or slow down. Better to be in control.

Rowena pulled herself up from the bed and sat cross legged, slowing her breathing as she did so. As she began to fall into the meditative state that signaled her Subclass activating, she opened her eyes and looked around the room.

Detect Secret, Activated!

As before, the entirety of the Wandering Vine had something of a foggy glow to it, since as Finnegan had told them, its existence was, in a sense, a secret. Because of that, she couldn’t make out any other specific secrets around the room, although whether that was because the Inn’s glow was making them indistinguishable or because there were no other secrets, she wasn’t sure.

Could she lessen the intensity of the glow to focus on other things?

Rowena pursed her lips and focused as she tried to imagine the glow that suffused the Inn toning down.

Nothing happened.

She screwed up her face and thought as hard as she could– Lower the glow, lower the glow!-- but when she opened her eyes again, nothing looked any different.

Rowena frowned, frustrated. Any ideas? she reluctantly asked the Fog.

Stop fighting, it promptly said.

Stop fighting? She wasn’t fighting anything. With a sigh, Rowena rubbed her hands together and looked around, noticing how the almost pearl-like cast imbued the entire space– the stone outer walls, the wooden inner ones, the timber that made up the roof, the beds, and even her own pack. For a moment, she wondered if anything within the Inn would be impervious to being tracked by an Ability since it was inside the Inn– but she had little idea of how the different magics worked and interacted. Surely it depended on who had done the casting, and how it was powered.

Stop fighting, the Fog had said… perhaps she was just trying too hard? Maybe she could… negotiate, or talk to her Ability? The thought made Rowena feel silly, but at least it gave her something to try.

She took a deep breath and thought, Can you dim the glow, please?

Nothing happened. Again.

Maybe she was approaching this in the wrong way. If the Ability was meant to ensure she noticed secrets, perhaps she just needed to… acknowledge them?

Rather than trying to force the glow to dim down, this time Rowena simply focused on noticing the secret, acknowledging its existence, as though she were ticking a mental checkbox. After a few moments, she felt a tickle in her brain, and the overall intensity of the room’s glow diminished to only the barest hint of a sheen.

“Yes!” she whispered to herself.

Detect Secret Ability Enhanced!

Subclass Level Increased from Three to Four!

Rowena was simultaneously excited and nervous about this development. She was proud of herself for improving her skills, but a little wary of how quickly she seemed to be developing. Each time her level had increased, she’d felt a deep nausea hitting her in the gut, and wondered if that was normal.

She cursed herself for not knowing more about the Class system, having taken it for granted her entire life. Sure, she knew the basics– Select a Class and Subclass at sixteen, work on developing Abilities, level up every year or so, et cetera– but she wished she’d asked more questions about the details so she had a better idea of what to expect. For example, would it really have taken another Secretseeker a year to be able to control the glow of the detected secret? Or would it just have taken her more time to properly detect a secret at all?

Questions and nausea aside, she was grateful for her improvement. This would make it possible for her to keep the Ability on without being too distracting. She wondered briefly how long it would stay Activated if she stopped focusing, and shrugged. She’d see soon enough– it was time to be getting down to the dining room.

As if in response, her stomach rumbled and she stood. For a moment, she looked at the truncheon that was lying on the floor next to her bag. Should she keep it with her? That seemed like something an adventurer might do.

She decided to leave the truncheon where it was and left the room, walking down the hall towards the stairs. The Wandering Vine seemed like a safe place, and she didn’t want Thea and Finnegan to think she didn’t trust them.

How much harm could come to them at an Inn during dinner?

Her answer seemed to come immediately in the form of a loud cry from Kieran down in the dining room.