The air was quiet, making it feel thin while everyone had an eyebrow raised at me. The one to break the silence was Brell “You shouldn’t say that name too loud around here, they might think you're a supporter of them. Also some people here are probably still recovering from what happened to them several years back.”.

The way he worded things made me even more curious about Chelsey’s family and was wondering how much she left out when she told me about it. “What do you mean by recovering?” I asked.

Brell’s eyebrow looked like it was raised even higher than before. “Do you know nothing of what that merchant family did?” He questioned back. I simply shook my head as I didn’t know. Brell’s eyebrow looked like it was gonna fall off his head with how much he kept on raising it. “So you are asking about that merchant family while claiming that you don’t know anything about them?” Brell then said. His eyebrow finally relaxed as squinted at me “What is your relation to them?” he asked in a serious tone.

Not wanting them to figure out that I know the daughter of the head of the family, I quickly think of an excuse to use. “While I was selling some stuff to a shop, they mentioned the treacherous Hishtof family was in the area and was being weary so I was just curious.” Is what I told them since it was partially true.

Brell’s expression relaxed and he closed his eyes “Hmm… okay, I’ll accept that. But please if you use that name in Nishilon, say it a bit more quietly, people here will think that you associate with them if you openly use their name.” he then opened his eyes and looked at me. I just nod my head to his warning. “Anyways the most I know about that family is the chaos they caused a few years back, not much more in how they came to be a big family before the chaos they ensued.”. Brell then furrowed his brows “I’m just surprised that you know nothing about them since after it happened, it didn’t even take a full year before the news about that family spread all across Briona.”.

The more he beated around the bush on telling me about the family, the more curious I got as to what actually happened. “So what happened then?” I finally came out to say, hoping he’ll actually give me an answer.

Brell let out a sigh before he began talking “You know when we arrived here, you saw that there were three other village-like places, right?”. I nod to him and when he sees it, he continues “Each one is currently controlled by a big merchant family, well of course except for....” Brell looks around quickly before he says in a low tone “the Hishtof family…”. “Currently the one they used to control is kind of like a limbo, I heard as they have no merchant family that leads it.”. Brell then looked to the side as he stroked his beard. “Well I did hear that the family that was contracted as their protectors still watch over that area which I find weird since I would think they colluded with that family for what happened but apparently didn’t.” He said while looking back towards me.

“What was the family that were their protectors?” I asked, curious if it was Vaero’s family.

Brell shrugged his shoulders as he stopped stroking his beard “That I don’t know but anyways back to the tragedy. From some of the things I’ve heard, they randomly started or got found out that they were selling and buying slaves from the violet market and as you probably know ever since the current queen took over Briona about ten years back, the slave market was abolished and is now something that they can throw you into the cells for now.”. A lot of things he’s already said made me think of more questions but instead of questioning him, I let him continue. “Another thing that was found out was that they also started selling and getting people addicted to drugs that ruined lots of peoples lives.” He continued on “There were several more things they were found out for that I can’t quite remember but when they were finally confronted apparently every time a messenger went to their area, all that came back was the head of the messenger on the entrance to their area.” Brell then took a moment to pause and drink some water.

While Brell was taking a moment, I wondered to myself how much Chelsey left out. “Anyways now that you kind of know what the build up was like you could probably understand when the guild requested several parties to confront them but when they arrived, the results were much worse than just leaving the head of the people at their entrance but rather that night, after the people recruited from the guild were killed, many cloaked individuals poured out of the Hishtof’s area.” As he said Histof, once again he quieted his tone on the name. “That night their family with unknown manpower slaughtered many people in Nishilon with no reasonings and after that night of lighting Nishilon into flames, they all just disappeared.”. After Brell was finished talking, he let out a sigh “Anyways that's all I know about them, people here could probably tell you more but you probably know that merchants in general are weary of that name so you could probably understand that if you randomly ask people about that here, they would react quite differently.” Brell added on before he finally went quiet.

After hearing everything that Brell had to say, I had so many questions that he most likely couldn’t answer as well as would be hard for me to ask without raising too much suspicion. “So you said that the family that was their protector now watches over that area?” I asked him. All Brell did was nod to me. “Well anyways, thanks for the glass of water and information but I’ll be going out that way now then.” I told the table while getting up.

“Do you think the person you are looking for is in that area?” Brell said as he raised an eyebrow once more. I simply nod to him instead of saying anything that could raise any more suspicion then needed. “Well if that's the case, just be careful. They may say that they had no relations to the family when it went south but I have my own suspicions.” He told me. “Also It was enjoyable on the way out here with you lone wolf, maybe we’ll see each other during the festival and if we do, let's go drinking again! Maybe this time you can keep up with me.” Brell said with a smile that turned into a smirk as he mentioned the drinking.

“I’ll see you guys around then.” I simply say to the table before turning around and taking my leave.

After I left the guild building, I looked around me to find out a way to get to the area that the Hishtof family were to find out if the people who watch over that area are in fact the Trusley family. Since the area was to the left of Nishilon, I decided to walk back towards the town square first. When I arrived at the town square, I saw many people going to and fro with building materials as it looked like they were setting up the last bit of stuff before the start of the festival in several days.

As I made my way through the sea of people to the other side of town square, I thought about the two sides of the Hishtof family that I’ve heard about now, one from the inside view from Chelsey and the outside view from Brell and wondered how much Chelsey actually knew what her family was doing since what she mainly told me was that her brother slandered their name.

I finally broke through the crowd and was on the opposite side and could see that the road I was on led out the town and went towards another group of buildings farther out which would be my destination. While I walked along the road, I thought about how it was weird if the Trusley family was their protector then why did they seemingly dissociate from the Hishtof family. Maybe they knew what was going on and didn’t want their family to go down that path either but that wouldn’t make too much sense since Vaero’s father let him stay with Chelsey and their family when part of the Hishtof family went into hiding.

I just kept on thinking more and more on the matter but just caused me to think of more and more questions like why then if that was the case that someone from the Trusley family would buy a book of dark secrets about Marawa while leaving little detail about themselves or the fact that they even left a name since from what it sounds like so far during that time they laid a bit low.

While lost in thought I didn’t even notice that I walked into the Hishtof’s area until I saw a huge circular building in front of me. Curious to what it is, I entered the doors that felt like they were inviting me in. When I neutered in, I was brought into an area that had pillars evenly spaced out around me that seemed to help support the building and the pathway entrance lead straight to a counter that had someone standing on the other side of it with someone that was just walking away from it. When they turned to the side and started walking away, I took a double look at him since he looked familiar to Vaero but older and with light stubble on his face.

I arrived at the counter while the man similar to Vaero disappeared behind some doors that were off to the left. The instant I stopped in front of the counter, the man behind it spoke up “You’re here to register for the tournament festival, right?”. My response was to look at him in confusion and when he saw, he spoke up again “Are you not? With a sword like that I for sure thought you would be.”.

“I’m not really certain what a tournament is but I came to ask, who was that?” I said while looking towards the direction where the man disappeared behind some doors.

“That?” The man looked confused at first but then caught on “Oh him. That was one of the two sons from the protector of this estate.” He simply answered me. I was confused though since I thought the protectors were the Trusley family and I know that the head had three sons, not two.

I then looked back at the man behind the counter. “What’s the surname of the protectors?” I asked.

“Their surname? Well they usually just go by the protectors but their surname is actually Trusley if I’m not mistaken.” The man said. “Anyways, you said you don’t know what a tournament is?” He said, changing the subject. I just shook my head to him in response. “Well that's surprising since you look like quite the capable fighter but the tournament is a place where fighters are pitted against each other one on one to find out who the strongest is and the winner is decided when one side is incapable of fighting anymore but of course we avoid actually having people killed here. I mean we do have a specialized mage who can use the rare healing magic who comes in to help out at the tournament every year.” He explained it to me. “Anyways, would you like to enter? The main part of the tournament will be held during the festival but we need to do the prelims within a couple of days here now so you don’t have much time if you want to think about it.”. “Also as it’s happened over the several years now, the head of the protectors will be watching over the tournament.” He added on.

When he mentioned that, I thought that maybe this would be a good opportunity to try and talk to the head of the Trusley family if he's there. “Okay, I’ll join in.” I answered him.