The newly reunited group had no choice but to return to the Frostbeard residence. Finn needed to heal, and none of the three women wanted to carry him outside of the city. Braxton kept Alek at a wide berth, which was fine by her - it’s not as if she wanted to be friendly with the man that got her and Finn arrested in the first place.

Ellys had greeted them at the door and helped prepare a bed for the Hawthorne man, and now sat before them in what could pass as a living room. She took a sip of her ale and scratched her beard, deep in thought.

“He said what?” she asked, leaning close enough that Alek could see the remaining froth on the dwarven woman’s thick beard.

“That Artemis not only lives but is kidnapping prisoners,” Raelyn seemed deep in thought herself. This was why she came to Adanak in the first place, and to find that the subject of her personal quest was possibly alive? Must have thrown a spanner in her plans. “Which is, of course, impossible. She’d be four hundred years old.”

“Elves,” interjected Val in a deadpan tone, “the Valcaris had elven bloodline, I mean, what else would it be?”

Ellys nudged Alek with her half-empty tankard, prompting her to add to the conversation since she had been quiet since entering the establishment. “Cooper? You got any ideas?”

“Night creatures,” she blurted out without a second thought. Val sat forward, eyeing her curiously and gesturing for her to go on, “could that be possible?”

“What kinda night creatures?”

“Something-” Alek sighed, rubbing at each ball in her knuckle as she averted their gaze, “- something we haven’t seen before.”

“That’s a mighty big net you’ve cast there,” whistled Ellys before she downed the rest of her ale.

“No matter why or even if she lives, I need to find out what happened to Alice,” Raelyn stood hastily, running her hands down her face as she paced.

The name seemed to have struck a chord with Val, who froze momentarily before sipping at her drink. Whatever had come over her had vanished in an instant, and became the charismatic, dangerous woman that held Alek at gunpoint not so long ago. This concerned Alek greatly, but she didn’t comment, instead choosing to watch her friend wear a track through the carpet.

A silence fell over them, and after five minutes of eternity, Alek had had enough. She stood, carefully stopping Raelyn from her pacing, holding her hand and her gaze. Raelyn stared at her in confusion but didn’t pull away, relaxing her shoulders and resting her forehead against Alek’s with a sigh. After a minute they both pulled away, Raelyn seeming far more at ease than she had moments prior.

“Barnaby’s gonna want to hear about this,” she said, voice hitting a commanding register, “he might want to back out, it was supposed to be a straightforward search quest, not thieving from a woman who’s supposed to be dead.”

“Aye, about that,” Ellys trailed off, looking at Raelyn apologetically, “he hasn’t been back today. Not to alarm you, or anything, but I sort of assumed… that you knew?”

“Where did he go? Did he say?” it was Alek’s turn on the commanding aura, pushing past Raelyn to tower over the ginger assassin.

Ellys only rolled her eyes at Alek’s display, “okay first off, you need to back off, second, he wanted to check out some building close to here, which is pretty normal for him! The thing is, we’ve been hearing reports that that building got burned down all afternoon.”

Alek turned to glare at Val, who grinned nervously. The ex-Templar sighed and nodded slowly.

“The old manor, right?” she said, voice unnaturally calm, sounding foreign even to her own ears.

“The Valcari Manor, yeah.”

“Of course those bastards crop up again,” sighed Raelyn, tired and weary, “wait, how did you know that that was the building that got burned?”

Val rolled her eyes with a small smile, “it’s a coincidence, right? No need to get worked up over it.”

Raelyn sighed, seemingly unable to find the energy to be annoyed.

“Alright, whatever,” she sighed again, long and heavy as if her very soul had escaped, “I’m gonna head up, get some rest.”

“I’ll come with,” said Alek, looking over Raelyn with a concerned gaze, “need to be at our best to find Barnaby, yeah?”

Val rolled her eyes but ushered them away with one hand, sinking deeper into the couch and sipping at her silver flask.

Their new room was as cramped as their last. It was a mercy that only Raelyn and Alek were staying there, as Val had found accommodations elsewhere that suited her “needs” far better than the crime den.

Self-consciousness was not a feeling that was familiar. It had never crossed her mind, not in her short adult life, that it was something that many felt. Her body was made as a weapon, a tool. Her mind, her being, and her sense of self, took a backseat to the Temple’s needs. She was a soldier, the Temple’s sword and shield. It was hard to feel self-conscious when the world she knew revolved around a faith that was never hers.

But as she lay on a rickety bed, in a room that smelled of cigarettes and sweat, she felt it. Torso bared to the room, only Raelyn cuddled into her side to cover her. Scars that saw more light than they ever had before patterned her skin in stripes thick and thin. The spider’s web that ran from her stomach to face in ghostly pale lines near glowed in the dim lighting. Hands that were not her own absent-mindedly trailed over the mismatching cuts on her chest, below where her breasts once sat unhelpfully, now thankfully flattened.

Raelyn stared forlornly at the ceiling. Alek watched her with knitted eyebrows, letting her hand drift to her chest, squeezing her friend’s. Raelyn cracked a small smile before she lost it to a shaky breath. She didn’t pull her hand away, intertwining their fingers. Warm skin and sweaty palms pressed together.

“She ruined my family,” said Raelyn softly after the silence that had fallen over them, “Artemis, I mean. She fucked my family up for generations. It took my grandfather to renew our businesses and reclaim our name. All because of what happened to Alice.”

“And if she’s alive-” Alek trailed off, running her thumb over her friend’s own.

“I don’t know what I’d do if I met her, nothing good probably.”

Raelyn shook her head and rolled over to face Alek. Her dark eyes weighed down and weary, lips pressed tightly together as if that was the only thing holding her together, and furrowed eyebrows. Alek pulled the other woman to her in a tight hug, Raelyn’s head resting on her collarbone and arms wrapped tight around each other’s torsos. They lay in silence, only their breathing breaking through the silence for several minutes, letting each other bask in the much-needed comfort.

Raelyn broke what quiet they had with a laugh, loud and exhausted, shocking a stunned chuckle from Alek.

“What?” asked Alek with a confused grin painting her face, eyebrow raised and eyes searching.

“Remember when we first met?” asked Raelyn in return, looking up the best she could from their tight embrace. “I thought you were such a stuck up prick.”

Alek rolled her eyes, “and now?”

“Eh, I still think you’re stuck up, but you’re open now. Mostly.”

Alek leaned her head back into the stiff pillow as she laughed, shoving Raelyn playfully. Raelyn muttered something that sounded a lot like ‘prat’ into Alek’s shoulder.

After a long period of silence, Alek let out a low breath.

“Hey Raelyn?” she whispered Raelyn who lay half-asleep on her chest hummed in response, Godfrey’s words weighing on her. She didn’t have the heart to tell Raelyn yet, out of kindness or cowardice she wasn’t sure. “Y’know whatever happens, if Artemis is alive or if she isn’t, it doesn’t matter. I got your back.”

Raelyn nodded, muttering thanks as she fiddled with the cord around Alek’s neck, heavy eyes closing as sleep took over her. Alek watched her breath softly, chest rising and falling in a gentle, hypnotic rhythm before she too succumbed to the warm grasp of sleep.

The morning came swiftly, but Val works faster. She flung the door to their bedroom open, revealing her unruly form, wide-eyed under her aviator glasses.

Alek shot up, tossing off a grumbling Raelyn.

“Val? What the hell-?” started Alek before Val cut her off.

“Got a note, your Barnaby-guy’s been taken.”

That got Raelyn’s attention. She swiftly sat up, leaning towards to feral white-haired woman in the doorway, “taken? where?”

“To Mythra,” she panted. She must have run from the hotel down the road. She came closer, handing Alek a note that she passed to Raelyn because of her own borderline illiteracy, “take a look.”

“To the Mother in the,” - Raelyn squinted at the rough scrawl, handwriting worse than Alek’s own,- “Sanguine Peaks?”

“That’s North Mythra, they couldn’t have got there already, that’s months away on foot,” frowned Alek, “we can probably catch up, easy.”

“Finn’s gonna want to hear about this.”

“Then we’ll tell him as soon as he’s up, he can rest on the road.”

Val sat on the end of the bed, watching them curiously, “so we’re going?”

“I don’t really have a choice,” shrugged Alek, “I need the money to go home.”

“That’s it then,” nodded Raelyn, getting out of bed with a stretch, “we’re headed to Mythra.”