{-Llewel-}

“Alright,” he announced as he walked outside, “I’m coming with you.”

At that moment, Tinath’s hawk landed on her shoulder and glared at him. It didn’t seem to mind when she shrugged. “It’s about time. I knew you’d come around eventually—was hoping it wouldn’t take so long.”

“It was only a couple of minutes,” he remarked.

She largely ignored him, starting to walk through the streets and gesturing for him to follow her. “I know a guy that we’ll need to help before we get too far.”

“And when’s the part where we get to Casrane?” Llewel prompted. “That’s the only reason I’m going with you.”

“We’ll get to that part! Not everything’s a straight path to whatever you want. Sometimes you’ve got to make a couple of detours along the way.”

“So, why do we have to help him?”

“There’s a specific part of the forest that only unlocks by doing his quest. We’ll have to complete it to be able to walk through it whenever we’d like.”

“What makes you think that Casrane’s there?”

“I just have a feeling that you’re going to be able to see her. Let’s say that place has a way of giving people what they want. If you want her as badly as I think you do… it’s not going to be that much of a problem for you to see her there.”

She didn’t mention anything else on the matter. He still tried at several points as they walked through Kyirius City and into the forest; still, she told him nothing. He wasn’t even sure of where they were going until she stopped in front of a panicked-looking man.

“Are you Nezri?” she asked.

He jumped but, after regaining himself, nodded. “Can you help me?”

[Quest: Heirloom Transportation

Nezri is trying to bring his family heirloom to a safe place; he claims that it holds great importance and that it should be buried far from the city. However, he keeps encountering monsters on the way and doesn’t want to accidentally break the heirloom. He could use the help of a couple of trusty adventurers to safely travel through the forest.

Rewards: access to the Whispering River section of Kyirius, +80 EXP, 500 coins]

Tinath grumbled something about the rewards hardly making it worth it but nodded anyway. “We’ll do what we can.”

“Oh, thank you both!” Nezri vigorously shook their hands. Then he paused. “I think it’s both. Are you two working together? You’re not a part of the same party. You know only party members can share the rewards!”

“Give it all to this one,” she said, gesturing to Llewel. “We’re only working together for a little while. I’ve already completed this on my own so I don’t need the rewards for it.”

Nezri looked at Llewel and nodded. “I can do that. The rest of your party will also gain these rewards, since you’re a part of one. Where are they, anyway? Most groups of players tend to all be logged on at the same time. It’s unusual for them to be apart from each other.”

“I’m not a player,” was what Llewel felt obligated to get out of the way first. He reminded himself that wasn’t the point at the moment. “The two players are out doing something else and my sister is still in Kyirius City. It’s not much to draw attention to…”

“You know what, do I know you? You look familiar and you said you’re not a player. But you’re definitely not Vureta, Relenri, or Tamlio. Well, you could be Tamlio. They keep changing his design and messing with his age…”

“I’m Llewel.”

Nezri immediately recognized him after that. “Right, Llewel Beithana! I’d figured they’d gotten rid of the two of you! With the amount of damage they made it sound like you caused, I thought they simply pulled you out and be done with it. I suppose Vureta did mention you all getting along surprisingly well with Casrane…”

Tinath was the one that seemed to want to avoid whatever conversation it might’ve caused. “Can we just start moving? We’ve kind of got something else going on here and we don’t have a lot of time to do it.”

Though momentarily disheartened by the harshness, Nezri nodded. “Alright, all we need to do is go through here. There might be a couple of ghosts along the way, but from the looks of it they won’t be much of a problem for you.” He started to guide them through the forest, only occasionally looking back to make sure that they were following him.

While they may have been perfectly content with silence, he wasn’t. “I heard a rumor that ghosts don’t come by as much if they hear people talking.”

“Seems like they’d be more likely,” Llewel pointed out. “They’ll know people are there. Not to mention that depending on the conversation, they might end up being too distracted to realize when a ghost is near them.”

“It’s always worked for me this long. I didn’t have anyone else with me, either. I just talked to myself and I didn’t encounter any ghosts.”

Tinath didn’t seem to believe it either. “How long were you going? From Kyirius City to here? You do realize they have codes in place to make sure that no monsters spawn that close to the city, right?”

Nezri shook his head. “I’d wandered a little further through here. I heard a terrible rumor along the way, though—that there was a giant monster where I had intended on burying the heirloom—and went right back. I don’t want to lose or break this, you see. It’s been very important to my family for generations. I was getting worried that I would need to risk making the trip back to Kyirius.”

“It’s probably safer if you went back to Kyirius,” Llewel remarked. “Nothing spawns there and a lot more players would be able to find you…”

Nezri shrugged. “I heard that monsters don’t spawn if you don’t move. So as long as I stood still, none of them would come near me. I might have encountered one of them if I’d made my way to Kyirius City.”

Tinath snorted. “Who are you getting this information from? Everyone figured out it was fake a year ago.”

“Oh yeah? And what information do you have that would prove it?”

She gestured to the hawk. “My mom is one of the devs.”

He stopped, looked back at her, and seemed to only now put together all the pieces. “That… would explain that. But wait! You could just be lying to me. You know how many people have tried to tell me that? No one with that kind of power would state it so bluntly. That’s it. You’re just making this all up to make yourself look cool.” He glanced over his shoulder at Llewel. “You were friends with Casrane, she probably would’ve told you. Did she mention this person at all?”

“Why would Casrane tell me that..?” He wasn’t going to mention that he didn’t remember enough of her to be able to actually know. He was just stuck on the fact of wondering how she would know that information to begin with. Several others—and she herself, from some of his memories—had mentioned her father… could it have to do with that?

“I was right!” Nezri said confidently. “You, Beast Whisperer, are simply faking it. If you didn’t know Casrane then you aren’t the daughter of one of the developers.”

“I did know her!” Tinath’s sudden burst of emotion caught them both off-guard, and it seemed to have taken her a moment to realize it herself. “She was that kid that always clung to her parents, the one in the back of her room all by herself because no one else cared. People terrified her but she still tried to make friends with those that bothered to notice her. Then she tested this damn game! It’s been two years. Two years since… since…” She caught herself in that moment, realizing all that she said. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I know where you’re headed, I’ll meet you there.”

Then she took to the sky without another word.

Nezri watched her for a moment. “I… don’t suppose I can ask what you’re supposed to be here to see?”

“We’re looking for Casrane,” Llewel explained. “Tinath said that we’d be able to see her in the place we unlock by helping you.”

“Casrane used to come by a lot, in the beginning,” Nezri mused as he walked. “That place is… rather special. She’d dance around the clearing, mumble things to herself… then once the illusion ended, she’d cry before picking herself back up and leaving. I haven’t seen her in a while, though. I hope you’re able to see her. It seems like you could use some reassuring familiarity.”