Location: The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

In the past, a few wayfarers having a little duel or fight in the middle of a town center wouldn’t have amounted to much of anything.

It was a pretty common occurrence in online games where “pvp” was something you toggled for one reason or another. However, the world of Aetheria had changed since the glitch in many ways and much like those ways another one seemed to turn up at the worst possible time. As Graves admitted defeat and the group of wayfarers finally easing up a loud whistle screeched across the city streets and before the group could realize it they were surrounded by armed denizens and one particularly angry one at the center of the sizeable group.


“You lot! Halt!”

By all obvious appearances the group were, well, they were the city guard. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to do the obvious math that fighting in the streets had been reported and they were carrying out their investigation.

To anyone who had spent enough time in Thorinn doing busywork, or particularly knew any snippet of the lore, the one who spoke was Lendie Everrandis, the leader of Thorrin’s city watchmen and in the past, general quest-giver for new and intermediate players who chose the city as their home. She was not a denizen who had much of a… sunny disposition.

“Drop your weapons immediately and explain yourselves!” The blonde commanded as her brows narrowed and she observed the entire group.

Location: Strange Reign Guild House -- City-State of Theremia, Aetheria

---

Graves nearly stumbled over his feet trying to escape from the repeated, hammering blows of his opponent. The dulled edges of twin swords clashed in the practice yard of the Strange Reign Club's guild house. It was an expansive piece of property just outside the city of Theremia, with numerous smaller structures surrounding the central manse that served as the guild's headquarters. Their status as one of the most successful PVP guilds in Pariah afforded them no small amount of wealth. It'd all been very impressive to a nineteen year old Andrew who'd barely touched video games prior to winning Pariah's machine in a raffle. His family never had the money to afford such extravagances as a console.

Now it served as the familiar backdrop to his regular beatings at the hands of his mentor. Graves gave swift retreat across the practice yard yet the bull of a man before him never faltered in closing the distance. Einhart leapt forward, slamming his shoulder full-force into Graves' chest and knocking him flat onto his ass. "Shit!" He shouted between heaving breaths. Fighting in Pariah wasn't quite the same as it was in real life- the pain was duller, and it never grew beyond an annoyance. But he still felt exhaustion deep in his bones.

"Tired already, bud?" Einhart grinned, resting the sword across his shoulders. "We just started!"

"Its been an hour and a half," Graves groaned, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "And I got work tomorrow morning."

The guild leader reached down to grab Graves by the collar and wrenched him up to his feet with only a single hand. "I thought you said you wanted to be the best."

"Well, I do, but-"

"And to be the best you have to make certain sacrifices. I'm not saying you gotta quit your job or anything, bud, but you gotta commit to this. The Reign ain't for casuals." Einhart cocked his head to the side. "Respectfully, 'course."

Graves rolled for Einhart's legs before the other man even knew what was happening. He took hold Einhart's greaves and used them to drag Einhart to the ground. The ensuing struggle was a blur of thrown fists, curses and steel. Graves was barely a novice at the sword compared to the venerable Einhart; but Andrew'd learned what a real fight looked like in the alleys and parking lots of Westwood.

The brawl only ended with Einhart finally had enough of it and drew his palm against the sharpened edge of his breastplate and let his blood flow free. A sudden force knocked Graves up and off Einhart, sending the boy flying back across the yard and into a bundle of trimmed bushes nearby. "Goddamn cheating bastard!" Graves snarled in frustration, fighting to free himself from the branches and brambles of the bush.

Einhart just laughed, wiping the blood from his hand onto a cloth. "No such thing as a 'fair fight' in Pariah. You either win or you die, simple as that."

After successfully defeating the bushes, Graves pushed himself to his feet. Shame, irritation and exhilaration all rushed through his veins as he approached. "Then teach me already. What's a sword s'posed to do for me up against mages like that?"

The older man hesitated. "It's not like the other elements, bud. The way you gotta fight to use blood magic effectively ain't easy. You're more likely to down yourself than the other guy if you can't balance your defense and aggression perfectly. That, and..." Einhart looked away, his smirk transforming into a thoughtful frown. "It messes with the way ya think. Blood magic incentivizes you to hurt yourself to grow more powerful so your brain sorta-" he wagged a finger around his temple, "-stop paying attention to the 'pain.' The buffs it pumps you up with can get you a little too excited to fight, if ya get what I mean."

The old man's warnings only made Graves sneer. "Come on. If a dumbass like you can do it then so can I. Besides, all that shit about it being cursed or whatever is just flavor text. Ain't no different from everything else."

Something about the look Einhart gave Graves made a shiver creep up his spine. That face was burned in Graves' mind as he lay in the streets of Thorinn, bleeding on the stone with consciousness slipping away from him.

He couldn't help but wonder what would've changed if he paid heed to Einhart's warning.

Location:The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Seele was still blinking the light from Artemis’s spell out of her eyes when she heard the whistle. Combined, they shattered her focus, and she felt her hold on the Anchor slip away. Graves was blessedly and horrifyingly silent; she doubted he was a danger any longer, restrained or not, but she also worried that he was still terribly wounded. Her vision returned slowly and hazily, and she could just make him out, lying there in a splattering of his own blood—but he was breathing. Everyone was breathing.

She exhaled. Now everyone was breathing.

The fatigue hit her hard. She hadn’t had much reason to break her Shackles since the first day of the Glitch, and it felt a bit like she’d tried to lift heavy weights on her first day back to the gym. If there was such a thing as a ‘magic muscle’, she’d definitely pulled it. But, now wasn’t the time to whine; they’d managed to swerve clear of an iceberg, only to steer themselves right into Hurricane Lendie.

Seele knew her, the woman had as much patience for crime as she did for repeating herself. She wanted to check on Sif and Siegfried, and hearing poor Artemis so broken was killing her, but there wasn't time, yet. Quickly and obediently, she took the parasol from her hip and tossed it to the ground—not a real weapon, per se, but it might have easily been perceived as one. With a flick of her wrist, her focal rings retreated up into her sleeves. Rubbing her eyes one last time, she approached the captain of the guard with her hands open.

“Captain Everrandis,” she said, forcing composure into her voice. “My name is Seele, I’m with the Drox Fraternity. We're a...party, you could say. Our friend on the ground there is sick, and confused. We had to restrain him, but he’s been hurt and needs healing. Would you let us do that, please?”

Location: The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

The poor, broken form of the archer sat on her knees in the street with a gaze staring blankly ahead. While the sudden shock from her spell and losing her lunch had shaken the girl free of her hallucinations... she'd yet to actually recover from such a shocking experience. Her eyes tracked across the figures gathered in the street, aware of some commotion in the wake of the fight... yet it all seemed to be a dull buzz in the back of her mind. Words spoken, actions taken, all were but slight distractions to the roaring waves of her inner thoughts. She slowly, surely, tried to reign herself back in from such an episode... but it was slow work.

Eventually, the sound of skin hitting skin would echo cry out through the street. The source being rather obvious if one were to look toward the archer. A stinging red mark glowed on her cheek, where the girl had given herself a rather fierce slap. The pain helped. It drove down the distractions down deep in her mind and provided an immediate overload she could focus on. Artemis seized this moment to reign those horrid thoughts in. Seeking nothing more than to keep them quiet and suppressed. They couldn't hurt her that way, right? With a long sigh, the girl seemed to be attempting to gather herself once more before turning her gaze back along those assembled in the street.

Then she swore under her breath as her gaze stopped upon the blonde. It did not take any form of genius to figure out what somebody so ornately armored, and pissed-off-looking, was doing here. Certainly not in the wake of the chaos from mere moments prior. They'd managed to anger the guard, and as Artemis watched weapons slowly being stowed... she knew what had been ordered of them. What she'd missed while trying to reel herself in. The archer didn't speak a word, she didn't trust her voice at that moment. Instead, she moved to toss her bow down in front of her, away from the mess she'd made. Then moved to get to her feet just behind where the bow lay.

As she shakily did just that, the archer also rifled her hands through her cloak. Slowly, she dropped out a small dagger next to her bow, followed immediately by a belt holding a ring of small throwing knives around its whole length. She looked towards Seele as the other spoke to the woman, wondering if her words would gain any ground with the blonde or not. She wasn't overly willing to wager on the likelihood of Seele's success. With a soft sigh, Artemis kicked the weapons away slightly and turned her uneasy gaze back upon the blonde. She tried her damndest to put up a facade of strength for the group. To look as if she weren't ready to crumble back into tears with the slightest of pushes.

A futile attempt at the task, but an attempt all the same...

Location: City Streets, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

The blonde denizen raised a brow as the clank of Artemis’ vast array of weapons hit the stone tiles that littered the roads beneath them. It was an amusing sight, but she couldn’t smile given the circumstances.

Wayfarers had gotten lackadaisical and some had injured citizens of the city or Lendie’s own guardsmen. In the past few weeks she had received apathy, outright hostility, whining, begging… but rarely had she received a reasonable explanation. This was close to reasonable. As the leader of the group, an apparent Drox fraternity member, explained the situation her hand moved from the hilt of her blade. The member of her group was injured–confused and needed healing, there was no dispute about that and Lendie had no need to send the boy to a hospital. Based on the reports she had many questions for him and the group, but that would have to wait.

The blonde sighed rather aloof as she looked behind her shoulders and jerked her head.

“Andrecille. Heal him.” She moved her eyes back to Seele as the cleric guardsmen moved up from formation and her voice seemed to get even more stern somehow. “You. Drox. With me.”

There was a brief silence as other members of Seele’s group followed orders, albeit anxiously.

“We have reports that a wayfaring group was endangering public safety. This would be the time for you to give me more than ‘sick, confused, and injured’.”

Location: Mystic Prophecy Chapterhouse, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Alja’s insistence for the group to essentially get lost was odd, but the Japanese girl wasn’t stupid. Her apathy didn’t mean she didn’t get social cues that people had personal business to handle.

“If you’re sure.” Rael uttered, as she took a disinterested breath.

She eyed Benkei and Kazuki, not sure if Alja’s insistence was going to work on them, but then again the two of them really didn’t want to be in Mystic Prophecy’s chapterhouse much to begin with, so maybe Alja’s suggestion for them to either meet her there or do something else. Rael thought back to Benkei’s comments on the road. He wanted to eye apprenticeships. It was something. Perhaps Kazuki had something he wanted to do instead, which given Luci was less than seven feet from him, was probably the case.

“Thanks Luci. We’ll keep that in mind.” She managed, “Benkei, Kazuki. We done here?”

Location:The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Seele sighed with relief as someone went to tend to Graves, and stared just a tad longer as Artemis took a…considerable moment to fully disarm herself. Huh. The girl was certainly resourceful—normally she’d have been glad for that, but right now she had to focus on more pressing matters.

Lendie demanded answers, and she paled to imagine what might happen if she didn’t give them.

“Captain, I can assure you those reports were...well, they were justifiably made, yes, but they’re also wrong. We made a scene here, absolutely, yes, undeniably, and for that I am deeply and sincerely sorry. But the only danger here was to ourselves.” She gestured back towards Graves. “This was little more than a scuffle over disagreements. The escalation was…unfortunate, but it wasn’t their fault. Magic was used, I fully admit, but it was for the sake of restraining my friend, who you can see is no threat to anyone right now.”

Frankly, she didn’t know if that was true. She didn’t want to lie to Lendie, of course, and god forbid he’d get back up to his feet and start swinging again. All she could do was hope he was down for the count, but even then, she wasn’t sure that’d be enough to assuage the captain.

“I sympathize with what you’re dealing with, here, she said. “I’ve seen it too. My…ah, people, the Wayfarers, we’ve been dreadful to this city these past weeks—some of us even before that. My friends and I, we’re trying to help. I’m sure with everything else you’ve had thrown at you, you’ve heard of the recent string of disappearances? Wayfarers and citizens alike. Well, Drox has us investigating them. We’d just finished planning when the…disagreement started. Bad, I know—but we do have a plan, and that man is crucial to it.

“Again, I am so terribly sorry for the disturbance. I’m not insisting you let us off the hook, but I am asking you, please, to give us one or two days to try and find these missing people. You have my name, my fraternity, you have all our faces—we can’t go anywhere. Once we’ve finished this investigation, we’ll march right down to the garrison and pay whatever fine, or serve whatever time you deem appropriate, but the window on this is closing and I don’t know when it will be open again.”

She breathed—gasped, nearly, for how empty her lungs were at the end. Well, Lendie had asked for an explanation, and Seele wasn’t particularly good at brevity. She only hoped what she’d given was enough, rather than too much.

Location: City Streets, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

“I’m going to leave you off with a warning.”

Lendie didn’t often give out warnings, and especially not since her senses had returned to her upon what wayfarer’s had called “the glitch”.

The wayfarer before her gave a reasonable explanation and the circumstances that they were actually questing gave Lendie some solace that things were going back to normal, or whatever normal was supposed to be with these wayfarers. They had been summoned to do the work of the gods and the girl’s assurance that they were doing something instead of sitting on their hands gave the blonde denizen some degree of relief. Still, it did not sit well with her. It was here that a thought came to Lendie.

As the girl gathered her bearings–likely from the anxiety of dealing with Lendie and her entourage as well as the fight that she had done with her fellow wayfarers–Lendie dug through her satchel before retrieving a rune-encrusted silverstone. She held out her hand to the girl with the stone in her gloved palm. It was a particular item, an item she had crafted for investigations of interest, though crafting one was also an expensive process so she did not have more than one on hand at a time.

“Take this stone.” She commanded, “If something like this ever happens again, break it and I will respond to the scene as expediently as possible. Do not break it without need.”

Location: City Streets, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Consciousness hit Graves like oncoming traffic. His eyes burst open only to be overwhelmed by the sun burning overhead. Pain sharpened and dulled like the coming and going of the tide. He wasn't quite sure where he was at first. Was he back in his apartment in Westwood? Had death disconnected him from Pariah? No. There was a person standing over him in the robes and armor of a cleric, their hands pressed against his battered form. Magic pulsed, stitching his wounds with impossible efficiency. Not home, then. And he wasn't back in the dungeon, either. The Laughing Worg loomed behind him- his home away from home ever since being trapped here.

People were standing around him, too. There was the new girl, Artemis, a comically large pile of weapons at her feet. Alex stood beside her as unwavering as ever. The hotheaded Siegfried was looking battered down and dejected. And then there was Seele. It all came back to Graves as he looked at her. The anger he'd felt at Sig for harsh words spoken without true malice. His own inability to back down; that need to not only to win but to destroy those that argued against him. And then the blade was drawn. Blood flowed, and he lost himself to the hunger. This wasn't the first time he'd let the blood lust take him. It was a useful tool for fighting through pain, fear and self-doubt. But this...he never thought...

"Christ," Graves coughed, grabbing Andrecille by the arm. "Don't. You shouldn't- its not-" the word caught in his throat. 'Its not safe for you to be near me.' Something stopped him before it could slip through his lips, however. He saw her uniform for the first time, as well as the pack of guards gathered around the street. Seele was in dialogue with a woman Graves vaguely recognized from before the glitch. 'Best to keep my mouth shut, I think.'

Graves let go. "Sorry. Just panicked. Thank you."

Location: City Streets, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

“Don't worry about it.”

The cleric sighed as she finished cleansing the wounds the wayfarer had been afflicted with. She had seen it before, even among denizens, traumatic impulse reactions to sudden healing. A light breath left her, almost like a huff of relief, as she looked over toward where the leader of their company was, talking to the first wayfarer who had been brave enough to offer her an explanation. Lendie had always been like this, even before she had joined the guardsmen.

“Hopefully you will not go to jail.” She remarked, albeit matter-of-factly. “Your leader seems to have caught the captain on a good day.”

Location: City Streets, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Graves stared up at Seele and Captain Lendie, the confusion plain on his face. They weren't arresting him? After everything that happened he was just going to walk away with a warning? It didn't make sense. No one in their right mind should've advocated for the man that just pulled a knife on them. And yet there Seele stood, her resolve solid as stone. It filled Graves' chest with a pained sort of wonder. How could he have lost himself so? He had strayed so far from the path that he could no longer see the light. Yet still his friends stood by him. The foolishness of it bewildered him. If Seele and the others had a single inch of sense among them they'd toss Graves to the wolves and count him a loss. He wasn't worth the effort- most especially after this. Andrew would've deserved it. He couldn't have blamed them for leaving.

They remained all the same.

"I don't get it." Graves croaked, his throat hoarse with emotion.

Fumbling hands reached down and unbuckled his sword belt. He let it drop into the dirt, sheathe and bloodied knife clattering to the ground. He didn't much trust himself with a weapon at the moment.

Location: Mystic Prophecy Chapterhouse, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Children of Letria. Before the glitch, Benkei would have probably stalked everything about the guild, figured out the best players, and determined if they were worth dealing with anyone worth a shit in the game. The fact that they had some beef with Mystic Prophecy probably spoke to why they didn’t immediately come to mind; after all, Mystic was one of the best.

”We can go on ahead Alja,” Benkei told his companion, giving her a half-hearted smile. ”Is there anyone that would be willing to speak with us? Maybe we could drop your name to provide us with a little more help through their doors.” Benkei nodded to his brother and Rael, and was half-preparing to turn when he eyed Luci again. Shit.

There was so much he wanted to tell her. He’d thought about Aaginim a lot in the past few weeks. He thought about how he could never live up to him, how if he had survived, the efforts at bringing together players would have been so much easier. He was the kind of person who could draw so many together, he could have made an entire kingdom under his banner.

Kazuma was no such man. Benkei knew this all too well. Aaginim was someone to aspire to be, but he was nothing more than a lonely kid. But it didn’t mean he didn’t have to try. ”I’ll never be the kind of leader he was. I don’t even know if I’m the right person to try and bring people together. I’ve been so shitty to so many people in this game, trying to be the best. But I’m going to try my best, regardless. I know that it will never be as good as his best, but I have to try.” It felt good to get that off his chest. If there was anyone to think of, to aspire to be at this time, it was Aaginim. Even if he could never be the hero, if he strived hard enough, maybe he could still make some difference.

Location: Mystic Prophecy Chapterhouse, The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Benkei’s words were unexpected to the swordsinger.

Despite her instinct to coldly lash out at Benkei for mentioning her late fiancé to her she remained poised. She listened, even though the wound was still open. He spoke about being a leader–the role Aaginim had thought he would excel in, the role he had chosen for him. She thought back to his talks about Benkei as the man to replace Zain in the guild, about his in-game IQ. But the game was dead and a harrowing reality thrown in its place, and yet, he was trying. His words had caught her so off guard she had completely forgotten about his question about names of people in COL that would help him get in the door.

“He believed you could.” She remarked with a faint smile, “So you probably can.”

Location:The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Seele couldn’t help the heavy breath of relief, or the way her whole body slumped as if she’d just cast off a tremendous weight. She wasn’t good with being on the wrong side of the law, always one to stick closely to the rules—even in video games. As a kid, her friends forbid her from being their driver in anything with a car, because she always stopped at red lights and crosswalks. Though she had never had to talk her way out of virtual jail before. Beginner’s luck, perhaps.

Either way—no jail, and it seemed their investigation had Lendie’s support in some fashion or another. She gratefully took the stone from her marveling at her for just a moment before she remembered herself.

“Thank you, captain, sincerely,” she said, bowing low. “I promise you, you won’t regret this.”

Part of her felt it wasn’t enough to repay the leniency they’d been given, but she knew better than to push her luck, and Lendie did not seem the kind to respond well to perceived obsequiousness. So, she pocketed the stone, bowed again, and started back towards the others, stopping only the fix the captain with a bold look.

“We’re going to find those people,” she said.

Graves was being seen to by a healer. He seemed lucid, or at the very least awake, and though she had much to say to him, that absolute last thing she wanted right now was to interfere with him getting better. Instead she shuffled over to their newcomer, the archer, Artemis.

Seele had not been deaf to the girl’s breakdown during the ordeal—though she had at the end been blinded, just a smidgen.

“Sweetheart?” She smiled softly, placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. The girl had a nasty red mark on her face. “It’s okay, we’re all done here. Why don’t we get back inside? Maybe get some ice for that cheek, hm?”

Location: The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

The girl watched in silence as the others went about handling the situation, or being handled in a certain person's case. Her gaze stayed locked heavily upon that person, the one who'd pulled a knife mere moments earlier. Attacked his fellows with such ease, and the person that she'd been so willing to rely upon earlier. Graves. Her gaze was a mask of emotion, not one born of any ability to hide her feelings, but rather of the muddied mess of emotions that stopped one from picking out any particular feeling in her gaze. She couldn't move, couldn't speak, just simply found herself staring straight ahead at the man. The whole while, her own mind was at war with itself over how she wanted to handle the situation. Over whether she should hate him for what he did, burst into anger and lash out. Yet, another part demanded she go to Graves, check on him, and try to understand what had caused such a shift in character for him.

Artemis knew which side she wanted to trust. She knew she wanted to check on the man she'd newly decided to trust. The one she'd allowed herself to start considering a friend, and who she'd like to think wouldn't be able to kill another so easily. As she argued with herself, Artemis clenched and unclenched her fist. The small motion seemed to keep her mind focused on the debate, at times her nails dug into her palm as a way to use pain to keep herself focused. It was a long few minutes of arguing back and forth with herself, all the while her compatriots were handling the situation... yet she couldn't make up her own damn mind on what to do. Yet, finally, she came to a decision. Something has to be wrong... he didn't seem like the type to do this... She thought to herself, content with having reached a conclusion. With her mind set, Artemis took a step forward...

And froze nearly immediately. The way he had fought, memories she must've missed during her episode, flowed back into her mind. Her body froze in place as her eyes widened, and tension gripped her heart. It took her a long few moments to realize why she'd suddenly been unable to move. A realization that sickened her, and shoved forth a bit of self-resentment for being so weak. She was afraid of Graves. Afraid that he'd snap again. Afraid that next time he got so violent, she'd be the target instead. A fear so strong that it prevented her from even approaching her new friend. A fear that screamed at her only one logical source of action. Run.

Yet it seemed she wouldn't have time to act on this either as a sweet voice spoke from nearby, and a hand landed on her shoulder. The archer jumped and let out a small yelp in surprise, quickly followed by a deep blush of embarrassment as her mind once again came rushing back to reality. "A-ah. Right, that would be nice... t-thank you." She said in a small voice, still sounding hollow from before. Slowly, the archer knelt down to retrieve her discarded weapons before standing and looking at Seele once more. "Sorry i-if I made things harder." She said softly, not quite ready to admit aloud that she'd had a breakdown mere moments before.

Location:The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

It broke Seele’s heart to see Artemis in such a state. The poor girl had only just joined them, and already things had exploded—quite literally. She hoped this wouldn’t ruin things for her, but she couldn’t blame her if it did. Right now though, that was a distant concern.

“No, honey, no no,” she said softly, keeping her smile firm in the face of the girl’s hollow dismay. “You didn’t do anything wrong. The only mistake you can make now is blaming yourself, okay? It’s all handled. Just go back in and try to relax. I’ll be right behind you, I just want to make sure Graves is alright, first.”

It was impossible to ignore the way she had looked at him. Seele knew what fear looked like, and she knew how different it was to be afraid of someone rather than something. She stroked Artemis’s shoulder gently.

“Hey, it’s okay. I promise. Look at me. No one is going to hurt you, no one. We won’t let it happen.”

With that she left the archer, stopping momentarily on her way to Graves to speak with the siblings. To her relief they seemed fine, though she knew from the incident with Kazuki that, with things like this sometimes it was the bond that suffered more than the body. Sif and Siegfried had been with them from the start, they were part of the family, and she paled at the thought that she might lose them this way.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, bowing low like her mother had told her was right to do when you were truly apologetic. “I hope neither of you were hurt. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know what would have…happened, back there. Thank you for your help.

“And, Siegfried…you’re right. You are—about my plan. It’s stupid, and hasty, and chances are it’s going to get me killed, but…it doesn’t matter. This whole city’s collapsing on itself, maybe the whole world is, too. Someone has to do something. Even if it’s not the world, even if it’s just a few missing people.

“I’m not calling you a coward. You were in that dungeon, you were there when Aag…well, you’re one of the bravest people I know. I meant what I said; you don’t have to be part of it. Neither of you do. I’m sorry that I got you into this. I hope we can still be friends,” she managed a small smile. “I like you both very much.”

Once again she left, finally coming to the side of Lendie’s healer, and kneeling down next to Graves.

“Andrecille, right?” she asked. It seemed the woman had worked her magic on him already. “Thank you so much for helping. I’m sorry for the trouble.”

Her attention turned down to Graves, then. A pang of frustration flashed through her, along with the realization that she was upset with him. But that was silly, and she knew that. She was just embarrassed about being in the middle of a scene, and a little stressed from having to talk her way out of jail. He was hurt, and clearly much deeper than Andrecille’s magic could reach.

So, with a little muster she kept her smile alive for him. “Graves, sweetie, are you alright? Can you stand, do you need help?”

Location: City Streets -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

A whirlwind kicked up in Graves’ chest as he watched Seele approach him. There was an easy confidence to the way the woman walked, as if her friends hadn’t just been trying to kill each other a couple minutes ago. It was bizarre to see her smiling like that- like all this was no big deal. It made him angry, confused. If she had an ounce of sense beneath all that empathy she’d leave him in the dirt to rot. But that wasn’t the kind of person she was.

The ghost of a smile possessed Graves’ pale lips. The wind in his chest rose up to his throat, clinging there like a welt. Graves was surprised to find he could talk at all. “Stay the hell away from me,” he hold her, as casually as if he was chatting about the weather. The storm brought with it a clarity he had never known before. It was like he was standing in the eye of a hurricane and saw some profound truth hanging in the sky above him.

‘I tried to kill you, dumbass. Learn a little self-preservation and walk away.’ The words stopped just at the top of his tongue, his eyes tracking over the guards that still stood around them. Graves had no intent of being dragged off to jail right after Seele had bailed him out. It would’ve made her life more complicated than it needed to be.

”Better off on my own. This working was always a long shot. No need to get teary-eyed about it. Good luck, n’ tell Rael…tell her she was right.” Graves pushed himself off the ground and turned, walking away.

Location: The City of Thorinn, Aetheria

She hated the look on Seele's features, that look of pity. She hated that it was directed at her, that she let herself be seen in such a sorry state. Artemis desperately wished she could forge some sort of false display of strength, something to distract from that painful look on Seele's features. Yet, she knew that at this point, any display she could make would look just as hollow as it would be in truth. With a pained look on her features, the Archer decided to simply let Seele see the turmoil going on inside her fragile mind.

As Seele spoke softly, wearing that smile on her features, Artemis nodded softly. Perhaps it would be best for her to head inside and take a moment to relax and think through what had happened. Even as she found it difficult to accept Seele's words, that she'd done nothing wrong, Artemis still knew when it was pointless to try and argue. After all, it had been her arrow that had caused the explosion that ultimately drew the ire of the guards. Still, Seele's attempts to comfort the archer did at least reassure Artemis that she wouldn't be easily pushed away by the group. Yet the girl jumped lightly as Seele stroked her shoulder, wearing a sad smile as she shook her head towards the other. "I know you mean well, but we both know that can't be certain." She said softly in response to Seele's reassurances that nobody else would hurt her.

With that, Artemis turned and made her way back into the tavern. She made her way back toward the table where they'd all sat earlier but chose to take a seat further away from where she had been sitting before. Something just felt wrong about it, yet she found herself unable to put a reason as to why. Artemis sat quietly, listening to her own thoughts for a long few moments. Trying to sort it all out, everything had happened so fast. The tension that had boiled quickly into a fight, Graves' ferocity and clear drive to... to kill. Her own flashes back to that dreadful sewer, it was all a damned mess. Artemis let out a long sigh as she shook her head, wondering if she'd ever truly be okay again.



Slamming her hands heavily down on the table, the archer pushed herself up from her spot and made her way away from the table. A few moments later she'd return to her spot, a heavy mug of ale in her hands. Without even a hint of grace, she set to downing the mug with reckless abandon. If she couldn't quiet her mind on her own, then she'd find something else to ease her thoughts. Just a bit of alcohol couldn't hurt, right? A light buzz to let her mind relax a little bit. She just needed a little help to bring herself back, that was it, right? Yet even as she thought these questions... a sole thought floated forwards in her mind.

Damn, I'm pathetic...