Faye, Gavan, and Steader Einnua were staring down at the struggling, raging form of the teenager who had clawed her own mother’s face open. Celli stared up at them with wide eyes, her face and neck bugling as she tried to force her way out of the ropes, they had coiled around her.

“What did they do to her?” the Steader asked.

Gavan stayed quiet, frowning in thought.

“Well,” Faye said, quietly, “we can’t be sure how. She’s in mana starvation. I don’t know much…”

The Steader shook her head. “I cannot blame you for that, Adventurer. Thank you for not simply drawing your sword.”

Faye bristled. “Why would I kill her?”

The Steader gave Faye a look. “That is what adventurers do, is it not? Kill the things that need to be killed?”

“There is more to the profession than that, Steader, as you well know,” Gavan murmured. He had crouched to get a closer look at Celli and did not look up from his inspection. He did not catch the roll of the Steader’s eyes. Faye decided to leave it, she did not have the energy or time to unravel the woman’s problems with adventurers.

“It could be that the people affected ate some of the poisoned food,” the Steader said, after a moment’s thought. “We caught it fairly quickly, it was not a subtle poisoning, but there is a chance that people were… desperate enough.”

They looked back at Celli. Her slim frame told Faye that the girl was probably not eating enough as it was, let alone when their food stores were reduced almost to nil due to poison.

Gavan stood. “I presume you still have the poisoned stores, somewhere?”

The Steader nodded and gestured. “Of course, I’ll get one of the hands to show you where it’s locked away. We were going to burn it, but a part of me hoped we might be able to salvage something. Now…”

“It will need to be eradicated,” Gavan agreed. “As soon as I have finished examining it, I will do so.”

The Steader nodded and gestured for them to follow. As they were leaving, Faye caught Gavan’s sleeve.

“I think it’s way past time you taught me a healing spell.”

Gavan grimaced. “I agree. If only we had started sooner…”

“Well, there’s no time like the present,” she said.

“Without a prepared scroll, it would be the hard way. Believe me, we do not have the time to try that right now.”

Faye sighed. It made sense, but there was still a part of her that had hoped it would be as simple as with the [Fire Dart].

“As soon as we get to Nóremest, I will search for the supplies.”

They waited a few minutes for the Steader’s man to arrive, he looked morose but nodded at the Steader’s command. He turned without saying anything and walked away.

“Thanks,” Faye said as they walked past the Steader. The woman’s eyes were as hard as usual. Faye did not begrudge the woman her responsibilities and power. As an adventurer, Faye had been given a level of power and responsibility she had never held, nor really wanted, before. But that power was nothing compared to being the sole leader of a settlement, even one that in the grand scheme of things was as small as a Steading. Then, to have a problem like starvation hit your people as well as some unknown poison?

It was enough to drive anyone to madness.

The farmhand brought them to a large, locked barn. The huge double doors were barred and locked with a sturdy metal padlock that would probably prove a challenge for even Faye with her boosted physical attributes to pry open.

The man pulled out a key on a metal ring attached to his belt by a strip of leather and used it on the lock. It clicked open without protest.

“Thank you,” Gavan said, he held out his hand for the key. “The Steader has asked us to take care of this. You can go.”

The man looked at Gavan’s face, briefly, then his outstretched hand for a moment before shrugging and dropping the key and its ring in Gavan’s palm. The man walked away without a word. Faye watched him go, an uneasy feeling settling in her stomach.

“This is affecting the whole Steading,” she whispered.

“Aye,” Gavan agreed. He looked around them before moving to the door. “That’s why we have to destroy these stores before anyone loses their will to resist.”

The interior of the barn was dark, but light shone through gaps in some of the slats in the wall. The roof was well constructed and did not let any light through, however. There were no windows. Other than the light streaming in from behind them, there was no way to see with mundane means.

Fortunately, both Faye and Gavan had access to skills that were useful in this situation. Faye activated [Mana Sense], which showed her the flows of mana that were intertwined with the boxes, tubs, and barrels stacked throughout the barn.

Unlike what she had expected, the food was not devoid of mana, but teeming with it. But the swirling, shifting mana did not act as she would expect, either. Stepping closer to a crate, she looked into its open top to see a pile of root vegetables, like a pale carrot, which were literally stuffed full of mana.

“What’s this?” she asked. There was something odd about the mana. She leaned in closer to see better, but a second later pulled back in disgust. “Urgh, they’re crawling with mana bugs.”

Gavan paused and repeated what Faye had said. “Mana bugs?”

“Yeah!” she exclaimed. “The mana is crawling like little bugs. It’s gross.”

“Clearly a spell,” Gavan said. “It must be whatever the Primalists cast on the supplies.”

Looking back in the crate, Faye focused [Mana Sense]. The mana was a sickly green colour, which at first, she had mistaken for the green that was common amongst the Primalists. Now, though, she realised that this was a different shade. It was not the same mana signature.

“Not the Primalists,” she said. “It’s different.”

Gavan looked down at the infection of mana bugs and nodded. “I see. But why would anyone else poison the food?”

“I have no idea,” Faye said. “Which freaks me out.”

Gavan waved a hand. “Let me see what the rituals tell us.”

Faye let Gavan set up his rituals. Unlike spells, rituals were more akin to what she would assume magic would be like. Esoteric, relying on books and learning to empower them, and, most importantly, filled with arcane symbols and writing.

The rituals would use different components depending on the effect the caster wanted. Gavan’s were geared toward finding information. It had been something of a backup role for him in the team with Arran and Ailith. Alongside his healing. And his overwatch capabilities.

Faye looked at the mage, thoughtfully. Gavan had admitted that he was a little stuck in his learning. His class was not advancing the way he wanted. She was hardly surprised. Now that she had learned more about him and the way that he fit into the previous team, she was surprised he had lasted there as long as he had.

“Gavan…” she ventured, “how long has it been since you arrive in Lóthaven?”

“Hmm, about three years, I believe.”

“That’s not quite as long as I thought,” she said.

“It felt like longer, at times,” he said, absently as he poured over his book and checked something in the air above the crate that only he could see. “Of course, the time spent adventuring was not boring. It was the times in between.”

Faye hummed, noncommittally. She could not say for certain what it would be like to be in a situation like Gavan’s, because she was not him — she did not have his experience in this world, let alone share his upbringing. She assumed, though, that if she had grown up in the same way he had, she could not have handled a life in Lóthaven the same way he had done.

“Do you miss your previous home?” she asked.

“No,” he replied, “not especially. The city was filled with families that always wanted something from you. Even when you were with friends, you had to be certain you did not give them too much. Exhausting.”

She nodded. That would be something she would struggle with.

“Didn’t keep friends like that,” she said. “I would piss them off too quickly. Wasn’t in my nature to let them get away with crap like that.”

“Mmm, hard when that’s most people around you… Look, the mana is responding.”

Sure enough, the mana on the food was starting to swirl and react to whatever it was Gavan was doing to it. That meant that the food disappeared before their eyes. To [Mana Sense] it was as if the foodstuff just converted fully into mana.

“What happened?” she breathed.

“I was just trying a few identification rituals. It reacted negatively. Broke down the food for energy. The mana will not last long without the food there. That’s one good thing to see.”

“So, we can make sure that the poison won’t spread?”

Gavan nodded. “There’s another test we have to do before we know for certain.” He pointed a hand to the next crate. “Burn some. We will watch to make sure nothing untoward happens with the mana.”

Faye nodded. They separated a single crate of the infected food from the others and set it in the middle of the barn, pushing back other crates and flammable materials.

“There’s no grain or dust-like things kept in here, right?” she asked.

Gavan looked around, too. “I don’t think so.”

“If I light a flame in here and we go up in an explosion, I will not forgive you.”

Gavan grinned. “I will have a heal on standby.”

Shaking her head, Faye drew her sword. Gavan gave her a look and she shrugged. “What? You expected me to put my hand in there?”

She let the blade ignite. Pausing a moment to ensure that she was prepared, mentally, for something to go wrong she gently lowered the tip of the flaming brand.

Soon enough, the flames took hold in the crate and hungrily began devouring the fuel. Faye extinguished the blade and sheathed it, looking closely with [Mana Sense] active. The flames shone a faint green at the base, rather than the usual dark red or orange.

“It’s burning it up,” she said.

A moment later, they heard someone run up to the barn and slam into the doors.

“No! No! They’re ruining it!”

Faye spun around, whoever had just collided with the barn door was struggling against someone. She drew her sword and stepped toward the door. Their eyes had adjusted to the low light in the barn which meant now she was blinded. She kept [Mana Sense] active, which did show the faint markings of mana on the other side of the door, if barely.

“Who’s there?” she called out.

“No!” came another shout, before a muffled sound and a cry of pain.

Faye ran forward and burst into the open air, squinting against the harshness of the light. On the floor, next to the barn doors, were two struggling men.

The one who was seemingly winning the struggle was a larger man, a bushy beard and wild hair covered his features. On the bottom of the wrestling match was a younger man, who was desperately trying to claw his way free of his captor.

Faye was not sure what to do, she looked to Gavan, who had just emerged into the light.

“Alright, man,” the mage said. “Let him up, will you?”

“He’s not gonna hurt anyone, I won’t let ‘im.”

“Don’t worry, we can protect ourselves,” Faye said. “Let him up.”

The bear of a man slowly reduced the pressure keeping the struggling man on the ground. The smaller man shot to his feet immediately and tried to get past Gavan, but Faye intercepted his dash with her blade.

“Ah, ah, ah, no you can stay out here for a moment.”

“No, I knew that you were going to ruin it if you got in there… I couldn’t just watch you do it. It’s not right.”

After the man took a step back or two, Faye lowered her blade and adopted a relaxed guard with it, but still one she could react quickly with. Despite her higher attributes, it still made sense to her to ensure she had the drop on him.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” Gavan said. “What will we ruin? Why do you want to stop us?”