The bandits were, in all honesty, the most exciting thing to happen on their trip to Elyra so far. It would still take a number of days for them to get there, and they had other stops they wanted to make along the way — the Guildmaster had marked out two quests in particular that were relatively urgent and that the Guild didn't have the spare manpower for. Each quest was located in a small village that was just barely off the road, making it convenient for them to make a stop on the way to Elyra proper, and the first quest...

"I am still unsure why this request is urgent," Derivan admitted, looking over the quest form for the third time. It seemed relatively simple — it was an extermination quest of sorts. At least, he assumed that was what the 'handle an infestation problem' part meant.

"Guildmaster priority," Sev said with a shrug. "Something weird happened with the receptionist that took down that quest, and the Guildmaster wants us to make sure that everything's on the level."

"Doesn't she have other people she can send to help with perception bullshit?" Misa asked. "I dunno about you, but I feel like we've dealt with more than our fair share of perception-related problems."

"I think that's exactly why she wants us to handle it," Sev said. "Nothing beats experience, and we've handled more infolocks and broken system boxes in the last week than most people do in their entire lifetimes."

"It makes sense for us to handle it," Vex said quietly.

Derivan glanced over at him. The lizardkin had stayed mostly silent throughout their trip — he had been most animated when they were dealing with the bandits, and Derivan had hoped that whatever malaise had overcome his friend had been resolved. But the moment they got back on the road, it had returned, and he spent most of his time just silently staring out of the caravan's window.

Not for the first time, he tried to approach the topic gently. "Are you alright, Vex?"

"I'm... fine," Vex said, managing a small smile at Derivan. He held that smile for a moment before it crumpled, and he let out a sigh. "Or not, I guess. I don't know. I know it's some time before we actually reach Elyra, but I'm not... looking forward to going back there, I guess. I didn't plan on doing that for another year or so."

"You said before you wanted to wait until you were ready to talk about it," Sev said. "I don't think any of us want to push you, but if you think it'll affect you..."

Vex looked down, seemingly conflicted. "It won't," he said. "I handled the bandits fine, didn't I? And I'll tell you before we reach Elyra. I promise. It's just, we've got these two other quests to handle, and I feel like if I tell you all now it'll just be a distraction. Let's handle these other quests first."

"If you say so," Sev said. Derivan simply placed a hand on Vex's back, and the lizardkin looked back at him, grateful.

"Let's go over the quest again," Misa said. "See if there's anything we're missing."

They'd all looked at the form multiple times, of course, but they took Misa's change of subject for what it was — a way to let Vex gracefully escape the conversation they'd found themselves in. Sev pulled out the sheet of paper that the request had been written on.

To say that the request was strangely worded was... an understatement.

To the Adventurer's Guild:

The town of Fendal would like to put in a request for a Silver team to handle an infestation. Further details will be given on arrival. Please come to the town hall and ask to speak to Gensen.

As a general rule of thumb, the Guildmaster had explained, the Guild didn't tend to accept vague requests like these — they'd learned that lesson a long time ago. The Guild had standards as to the kind of requests they would take, both as a politically neutral party amongst the Kingdoms and because they were positioning themselves as a constructive power rather than a destructive one. People had tried to get around it with vague requests like these, and the Guild had responded by banning these types of requests.

In certain, limited circumstances, however, vague requests could still make it through — typically requests that were too embarrassing to be publicly listed. In those cases the one making the request would still have to disclose to the receptionist the details, but the listing itself was allowed to be vague.

The problem, in this case, was that the receptionist that had taken the listing didn't remember what the explanation he'd been given was.

So all the information they had was that there was 'an infestation'. And it was an infestation that presumably required at least a Silver ranked team to handle, to boot; the receptionist on duty at the time must have agreed, or he would have adjusted the details down, which left the question — what kind of infestation?

"Nothing more there than the last dozen times we looked," Sev said dryly. "Unless one of you can magic something out of there."

Misa groaned. "We're just going to have to wait until we get there, aren't we," she grumbled. "I hate waiting. Also this stupid caravan."

"I think the caravan is kind of nice," Vex offered.

"It's nice but it smells weird and it makes me nauseous," Misa sighed. "Don't get me wrong, though. The Guildmaster's an amazing woman for getting all this together for us. Just wish there was a faster way to get there."

"Can't say I don't feel the same," Sev said, glancing out the window. "The caravan reminds me of Planeshifter technology. It's just... weirdly familiar, in a way I can't really remember anymore. And that's uncomfortable, let me tell you. At least the scenery's nice."

And it was. They were still passing through the edges of the Sunlit Forest even now, as the sun began to set again and the colors of the forest began to change; this time, they were able to enjoy the change of scenery in relative peace, watching in quiet wonder as gold light began to bloom across the leaves.

There was only one more incident that night. Right as they passed out the border of the forest, all four of them felt a strange chill — but though they discussed it, there was nothing they could glean from it.

And so the night passed, with Derivan keeping watch through the night as usual.

The next morning saw them arriving just on the borders of Fendal. The town was certainly set up differently from Misa's home village of J'rokksur; for one thing, Fendal was directly supported by Elyra, and so had a lot more infrastructure set up. Despite that, they had no gates barring the way into the town — a couple of guards sent curious looks at their caravan as it rode in, but no one even questioned their appearance.

Derivan found this strange. It wasn't that he expected Fendal to celebrate their arrival — but the nature of the request had apparently been urgent, and some of the information they'd received on Fendal had indicated that the guards were the suspicious sort; they should have been questioned on arrival, at which point they could present their Adventurer's badges and quest and been allowed further in.

It didn't help that the town was oddly quiet. There was none of the bustle he'd gotten used to seeing in the makeshift village that J'rokksur's residents had built to replace the one they'd lost; they were loud and friendly with one another, and there was always laughter that could be heard somewhere. Here, people spoke instead in quiet murmurs, the volume just low enough that the sound didn't carry...

It was almost like the townspeople were afraid. Physical Empathy didn't tell him any more than that, as much as he tried to push the stat.

And there was another thing that was strange — the town was completely spotless, with not a hint of litter or dirt on any available surface. The pavement of the stone looked polished. It could have just been very well-maintained, of course, but when he asked Vex if that was the case in Elyra, the lizardkin just shook his head.

"Elyra is... clean, in the right places," Vex said, hesitating slightly as he answered. His tail waved nervously behind him — he was uneasy, too, even if he didn't want to show it. "But not even the noble districts are this well-maintained. I guess if they just ran a cleaning spell, that would explain it?"

"I dunno," Misa said with a slight frown. "This place feels off, honestly. Can't pin it down, but it's... uncomfortable."

"I'm getting that too," Sev said. He glanced out, then patted the side of the caravan. "Let's just stop here and get to the town hall on foot. We can ask around for directions and see if anything jumps out to us as strange."

So they did. They set up the usual barriers around the caravan before they left, much to the chagrin of some of the guards, who didn't seem to like seeing magic being practiced openly in front of them — Sev snapped the scroll shut as soon as he was done. Derivan couldn't blame him; he'd have felt uncomfortable with the vaguely hostile gazes of the guards, too.

Though he was surprised when Sev outright strode up to those guards to speak with them.

"Hi, we're new here," he said. "We're looking for the town hall. Any idea where we can find it?"

"...It's that way," a guard said after a short pause, pointing. "You here for the quest?"

"Yes...?" Sev blinked. Derivan paused at that, too, watching the guard carefully; he wasn't betraying any particular emotion besides a general distrust of strangers, which they'd expected coming into Fendal to begin with. But then was this quest common knowledge?

"Good," the guard said with a nod, and then he continued patrolling; Derivan stared after him, slightly bewildered by his behavior. Misa stared, too.

"Okay," Misa said. "I'm calling it now. There's some sort of mind control involved."

"I don't know if it's anything so direct," Vex said with a small frown. He was squinting at the air, as if only just noticing something strange; Derivan followed his gaze, amplifying his own [Mana Sight] to see what the lizardkin was seeing. "The mana here is behaving weirdly, too."

"It looks like it normally does," Derivan said cautiously. He watched the semi-playful ambient mana dancing around, as active as ever. "Are you seeing something different?"

"No," Vex said. "It's the fact that there's ambient mana here at all. It usually avoids towns. It prefers gathering in natural places."

Sev frowned. "Keep an eye on it," he said. "But let's get to the town hall and see what Gensen wants, first."

Derivan nodded, agreeing, and watched as the others did the same. The town hall wasn't actually that far away — the only problem was that it was a relatively nondescript building that blended in with all the rest, and if the guard hadn't explicitly pointed out, they might have walked past it without noticing. As it was, they only realized they were at the right building because of the tiny letters emblazoned on the handle of the door to the town hall, of all things.

Even the inside of the building wasn't particularly ostentatious. It was clean, like everything else in Fendal, but it was sparse and barely decorated; there was a red carpet lined with gold, a couple of pillars holding up the upper floor of the hall, and then a desk at the far end of the room. Just in front of that desk stood a tired-looking elderly gentleman, who seemed startled when Sev pulled open the door.

"Er... we're looking for Gensen?" Sev tried.

"Then you're just in time," the old man said with a small, weary-looking smile. "I am him. Why don't you have a seat, and we can have a chat?"