Eve whispered to the others, interrupting Ava.

"Um, maybe we should wait outside."

Both Sara and Xhez seemed equally reluctant to do that, but the fairy practically dragged them out, leaving only Rin and her brother's ex-girlfriend in the room.

With that being the case, Rin approached Ava.

The guild employee shifted uncomfortably, but remained mostly firm as Rin asked:

"What do you know about my brother's disappearance? Like, what kind of mission was it, who was he with, that sort of thing."

Rin was still stuck in that strange emotional space where she both did not expect any answers and was eager to hear what the woman had to say.

"Not much, to be honest," Ava said. "I was told he would be going out to fight some orcs with a few friends of his. Or, some humanoid monsters like that," she waved a hand in the air, dismissively. "They made it back, he didn't. Such is often the case."

Indeed, it was. Rin and her mother had been told as much several times by the messengers who'd informed them of Tristan's presumed passing. And, Rin had already seen for herself just how short the life of an adventurer usually was.

This did, however, prompt Rin to ask one of the more prominent questions in her mind. It was early into the conversation, but she felt this was a decent time.

"Are any of them in Cradle? Could I talk to them too, maybe?"

"Maybe, but I didn't know any of his partners myself. You could ask around about them, but, since they're adventurers and all, I doubt they'd be close by or anything."

Just like that, Rin was left without any other leads to follow.

[... I don't know what I was expecting to hear. Why am I even here?] A small part of Rin's mind whispered to her. She knew that all this would result in was re-opening old wounds, but she couldn't walk away.

Unable to hold her tongue, she asked:

"Did he ever talk about me? Or, my mom?"

Ava took a moment to consider the question.

"Sometimes, he'd mention that he had family back home. But, not too often." She tilted her head, like watching some moment from the past play out right now. "Sometimes, I'd see him writing in his journal like a madman. I'm guessing he probably wrote a couple of things about you in there, but he never bothered to share the contents of that journal with me."

Her expression remained mostly the same as she said this. That being, slightly sympathetic but mostly unmoved.

Rin paced from one side of the room to the other, holding herself. Memories began to flash in front of her eyes. Some of the last moments she'd shared with Tristan before the boy went to become an adventurer. The things he'd said as he was about to walk out that door, back home.

"Did he enjoy being an adventurer?"

"As much as anyone else does," Ava quickly replied. "I wouldn't know, since I've only ever worked behind the desk, but I've heard it's a hard job and Tristan always looked like he agreed with that notion."

[Hm... He was a lot more positive in his journal, though. More upbeat. Maybe he was just coping, though.]

"Excuse me," Ava suddenly said, extracting Rin from those memories. "But, like I said, I didn't exactly get permission to give you any of this. If people find out you're basically stealing from the guild, you may not be let off easy."

Unfortunately, she was right.

There were countless little questions floating through Rin's skull. But, time was of the essence here. Any moment, the grandmaster could walk out of her office for a cup of water or something and find out about what was happening, if people weren't already heading up to her office to inform her personally.

[I should probably just take the stuff and go.]

Rin went to do just that, walking across the room and grabbing the backpack. Throwing it over her shoulder, she turned around and began to walk away... But, she stopped as one last thing she wanted to ask about came to her mind.

"Um, sorry, but, I'm curious... How was any of this stuff found?"

Ava blinked.

"What?'

"I mean," Rin said, "if Tristan went missing, shouldn't everything he had on him have gone missing too? Why did any of this stuff make it back to the Guild without him?"

Ava's brows raised.

"Unfortunately, you'd have to ask the people who were there when he went missing about that. Your guess is as good as mine," she replied.

"Oh... Thank you," Rin told her before exiting the room.

She found the others standing outside, waiting. Some of the few adventurers gathered in the guild, some of whom had almost certainly arrived after Rin's group, were giving them odd looks. But, Rin let that slide as, even to her own eyes, she, Eve, Sara, and Xhez all looked severely out of place.

"You got it?" Eve asked.

"Yep. Let's go."

Assuming they'd follow, Rin then walked out of the guild as quickly as she could.

The four women emerged outside as Rin snuck a quick glance at the items in the backpack. Most of it was simple traveling equipment. A folded mat, a toothbrush, a small lantern. Nothing stood out immediately.

"So... How'd the talk go?" Eve asked, floating in front of Rin.

Rin's eyes remained on the backpack as she responded:

"Nothing of value... She was pretty vague about everything." The amber-eyed adventurer sighed. "I wasn't expecting much anyway, though."

Floating a little closer, Eve said:

"At least you got what you came for, though. Nothing to wonder about now, right?"

"Yeah... Xhez," Rin said, turning toward the sprite. "Did you feel anything weird?"

The sprite shook her head.

"Everything was normal."

[It was?] Rin thought, surprised.

"Well? Is it mini-vacation time?" Eve asked. The barely contained excitement in her voice was obvious.

"I guess so... Let's check into a hotel first, though," Rin replied.

"Yay!" Eve raised her arms victoriously. "Come on, let's find a place!"

The others followed the eager fairy out into the streets, but Rin gave the guild one more look before walking away.

[Really? Everything was normal? So... Why did all of that feel so... off?]