Fantasy Chronicles of Cre' Est

[GojiBean]

As Whimsey sat by the fire to warm herself, Shadow walked down an animal trail leading through the small woodland valley they were in. Isolated within the mountains, it was almost like a miniature version of Roda Valley which made him feel right at home. But more than that... This was his home.

And ahead through the trail and in a small clearing as the moon poked its head out from behind the clouds for the first time all night, Shadow approached a hand-carved stone altar with a gravestone planted dead center. To either side of the gravestone was a large Moon Orchid, a white flower which only opened under the light of the moon. Hence its name. And as the moon shone down, Shadow watched as they slowly opened their petals and pointed skywards to soak up her pure, white light.

A small path made of flat circular stones led from the midpoint of the clearing to the front of the gravestone. And as Shadow approached it, he walked deliberately with one foot on every stone, never missing a single one along the way. Upon reaching the gravestone, he knelt down in front of it and bowed his head.

As he did so, a few tiny drops of rain began to fall. A light sprinkle. Likely a pocket of denser clouds passing overhead as a bit of a leftover from the storm. The drops began to drip down the face of the gravestone. And as Shadow's head came up a single tear dripped down his cheek, mirrored by a drop of rain on the opposite cheek in near perfect synchronicity.

"The two of us may as well be one and the same." He whispered while reaching a hand out to touch the gravestone.

"You told me once that I couldn't be the only one. And you were right... You were right..."

Shadow dipped his head down again as his tears began to flow freely, running down his face like silent rivers as his shoulders shuddered against ragged, uneven, suppressed breaths and gasps between his sobs. His hand on the stone gripped tighter as the memories flashed through his mind of that life-changing night.

It happened during a storm which seemingly had no end. The mansion. The darkness. The tears. The sorrow. The rage... It all boiled over as it flooded to the surface of his mind after years in suppression. Within his mind's eye Shadow relived the horrors of that night all over again in a rapid series of flash memories. Racing through the streets. The pain of a miscalculated step leading to a bad fall. The conflict with Te'i Sai before he reached the mansion. The mansion itself. The dark hallways. The servants dressed in black, knowing what was to happen to one of their own. The empty bedroom. The lonely bed with a single candle on an end table nearby for light. Her ashen face. Her tears. Her final words... And her smile.

Her smile...

Shadow's eyes slowly opened, the glow all but vanished, as he looked to the name inscribed on the face of the gravestone.

Iris Di' Nelma

Shadow's hand slowly slid down the face of the stone. His fingers lingering over Iris for but a moment before his hand fell to his side. Taking deep breaths, Shadow used the back of his sleeve to wipe his eyes and forced himself to his feet. He looked at Iris' name for a few moments longer before the glow began returning to his eyes along with that cold, stoic look which usually seemed permanently a permanent fixture.

Reading the rest of what was carved into the stone...

Beloved servant to the Di' Nelma household. Beloved friend of creatures great and small. Beloved savior to a Demon. Once lost. Now found. May you rest peacefully in the Goddesses embrace.

It was her true burial site. One which Shadow picked out and made with his own two hands. Just looking at the stone reminded him of the weeks he spent meticulously chipping away at the stone with his daggers until they were just the right shape. He'd gone through half a dozen slabs of stone before finally getting it just right. Finding the Moon Orchids was a challenge as well given their scarcity. But they were her favorite flower. And he would be damned if he didn't put at least one on her grave site.

"..."

Closing his eyes and giving a final, slow nod of his head in respect, Shadow turned on his heel with his eyes briefly flashing as he returned to the woods to begin his hunt.

------------------------------------------------​

Jessica nodded.

"Yep! Eileen'll find someone! She's too cute for the boys to leave her alone. And I'll be she's already seen at least a few suitors come her way!" She joked while giving Eileen a hug.

"You wanna go to bed, Maretu?" Myra asked. "You keep lookin' at the door leading to the Lobby like you want to leave the conversation." She said with a chuckle.

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

She didn't give herself all that much time to rest by the fire, filled with an urge to continue pressing on despite her injuries. She stood up and shed the blanket from her shoulders, grabbing her knife from her pile of wet clothes, and going through motions similar to the ones Shadow had been drilling her on. Knowing her legwork needed some work, she made an effort to work on some kicks and maneuvers in addition to simple knife swings.

All of this work with Shadow reminded her of her first introduction to killing with her mother. She was a distant child; one who never knew any better. Her memories of her father were all but gone, and her mother was all that remained. From the age where she would have been learning her most important lessons, making friendships with other children, she was learning to wield a knife and the finer skills of assassination and stealth from men and women hired by her mother. Not even a year later, and she was hidden out in a different house, her hair cut and clothing changed... At first, she was simply luring people into unfavorable positions. The middle of the woods to be eaten by bears, to the lakeside for her mother to drown them... But her mother quickly grew tired of getting her hands dirty in such a way, and soon enough, the tasks were entirely up to Whimsey. To this day, she'd no idea if her mother had any rhyme or reason to who she was having Whimsey kill, and from her attempts, never was able to find any connection.

It fueled her to become stronger. To become more than the little murderous child who'd spent her life killing. While the idea of taking her mother down, or at least getting some damned answers out of her, did speak quite kindly to her, she knew it was unrealistic.

Despite her injuries, she was training with more gusto and intensity than she had with Shadow. She was working up quite a sweat, and while she was trying to leave her injured arm and ribs out of most of the workout, she wasn't doing a wonderful job.

---

"Oh, no, no, it's not that." Shaking his head at the idea of heading out just yet, he realized he had been looking over towards the door quite a lot out of nervous habit. "I'm just worried this weather isn't going to let up."

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

About two hours after his departure, Shadow returned dragging a dead deer behind him to the cabin. A rather sizable slab of rock behind the cabin served as a clean(er) area for skinning the animal and carving out the best hunks of meat. Once he was satisfied with what he had and wanted from it, he set his choice cuts on a raised stone platform and dragged the rest of the carcass into the woods where he threw it out for the carnivorous animals to enjoy. Making his way back, he took the choice cuts to the side of the cabin where a large open fire pit sat. Sticking the cuts onto metal poles and hanging them over the fire pit, he lit the fire and set the angle of each stick to his liking before making his way indoors.

Once inside, he found Whimsey sweating like a pig and still trying to practice. And when he laid eyes upon this scene, his eyes flared.

"What part of 'your final task for the evening is to answer this simple question' did you not understand?" He growled, walking forward with heavier footsteps than normal.

"You're pushing an already exhausted and damaged body to the point of diminishing returns."

The glow in his eyes receded to a relatively normal intensity. And Shadow took a few steps back, took a deep breath, and spoke far more calmly.

"I get it... You want to make progress. But progress requires patience, Whimsey. It's why each of the last four days was broken up into segments, with each segment spaced out by either a rest period, a meal, or both, in order to make the following segment worthwhile. And no two segments focused on the same area of the body one right after the other. Footwork was followed by hand work. Isometric conditioning was followed by cardio. And the intense runs were followed by long breaks and meditation periods. To grow, the body must be allowed to recover. Right now, you're torturing yourself and enduring unnecessary pain for a few more reps of motions which are already in your muscle memory by this point. You've nothing more to gain from practicing them right now."

He took a few steps back and sat in a chair.

"I advise you to put up your feet and rest. You're not on any kind of deadline, so there's no reason to push yourself like this when I'm not around. If I felt you needed to continue, I'd have said something. But now's not the time. Your ribs, and that arm, need to heal before you can think about pushing yourself for any kind of meaningful or discernible gains."

He tapped his temple.

"If you learn nothing else from me during your time here, make sure you do learn this: Training is only as effective as you make it. When you push too hard, your body will push back... And it's going to win. To overcome its limitations, you have to approach it like you would any other enemy. With careful observation, proper planning, and efficient execution."

He leaned back in the chair, and the light in his eyes flashed briefly before returning to normal.

"You have everything you need to succeed and get stronger, Whimsey. So don't ruin it by trying to push more than you need to. If you want an example of what the results looks like when you do, then observe."

Shadow rolled up the sleeve on his left arm to just above the elbow. He straightened his arm out as far as he could, and balled his hand into a fist. But something was off...

"Do you see how my fist can't completely close?" True to his word, his fingers weren't fully pressed into the flesh of his palm. "I did what you tried to do, training in my quarters even after I was told to get my rest. Within a matter of days, I couldn't close my fist at all because I permanently damaged the tendons along the inside of my forearm which are needed for this flexing position. For the rest of my life, this is the best I'll be able to manage."

Shadow retracted his arm and rolled his sleeve down, flexing his and un-flexing his fingers to stretch them out after the demo.

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

Shadow's return didn't take her attention away from her practice, which had now evolved to target practice with her throwing knives, an incorporating them into motions of evasion or combat in general. She was more used to having time to hide out somewhere and wait for a perfect opportunity, a luxury which she knew wouldn't always be afforded to her. Though, when Shadow raised his voice and scolded her for what she was doing, she froze up where she was, the knife she had just thrown being the only sound in the room for a short moment.

Not having any sort of excuse, and not realizing she was doing anything 'wrong' per se, as she was trying to avoid straining her ribs and arm, which was easier said than done. The man shedding light on just how meticulous he had been with making sure her training alternated from this to that without focusing on one part of her too much, she looked at him with surprise in her eyes.

"Didn't think you were putting that much effort into all this... I... I didn't realize, Shadow." Immediately relaxing the posture she was in, she walked over and took a seat as well, pulling her legs up onto the chair with her and resting her arms atop them. "I... Guess I just wanted something to busy myself with. I wasn't thinking." More than anything, she had started more activity to keep her mind off of her mother. Whenever she allowed herself to think too hard on those times, she got way too caught up in it. "Linde's really left an imprint on you, huh?" The words almost sounded off coming from Shadow, with his talk of letting the body rest sounding almost exactly like what Linde scolded him about when he came back wounded from his run-in with Te'i Sai. Perhaps it was more of a 'do as I say, but not as I do' sort of deal, but it still made her smirk.

She watched Shadow's demonstration from her chair, not too horribly surprised that the man was guilty of pushing himself too far as well. They were similar in a lot of ways, and it didn't surprise her to hear that that was yet another of them. "It won't happen again... I'm sorry to see it. Not even Doctor Almna can fix it...?" With a small pause, she wiped a bit of sweat from her forehead and stretched her legs out, leaning back with a small yawn.

"Doctor Almna said 'at least I have a way with conversation', talking about the two of us right. It's almost funny to hear you talking more than me." While she would admit to anyone that she was far more of the blunt and to the point sort of woman, hearing Shadow have more than one-liners and mumbling to say was still a bit foreign. "I gotta say... You've got a wise head on your shoulder. I've had such a clouded view of the world my whole life, it's... Refreshing to be getting mentoring from you." A short breath followed her words.

"When I heard you had killed Ernest, I... I was ready to die right then and there. Maybe this is old news to you, but he had me under his thumb... Threatened to reveal my identity to people. As the girl who took so many lives in Cabaten. Had me do all of that awful stuff, for just enough money to scrape by. I've been living in Inns, forests, the streets for as long as I can remember." A pause in her words made her shake her head and wave a hand dismissively. "Sorry. Probably all old news to you by now, if Doctor Almna caught you up on it. I guess my point was... This is all new to me. Living for myself. In all honesty, I don't know what I'm gonna do once you're done training me. I'll have all of this looming over my head the rest of my life... I can't see myself starting a family and having to tell a husband, or my children, that I'm nothing more than a murderer."

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

Shadow's arms had crossed shortly before Whimsey began speaking. And if Shadow was being honest, he'd expected a bit more fight from her than agreement and compliance. However, thinking back on Linde's admonishing him time and again for judging people too soon, herself included, he couldn't be that surprised that Whimsey responded in a way he wasn't expecting.

"I think it's less about you not thinking, and more about you not knowing. You said yourself you'd never really trained in this manner before. Let alone in a way that was actually meant to accomplish something long-term as much as it was to accomplish what your mother needed from you at that moment." He said calmly, shifting his weight in his seat slightly.

"The Grandmaster of Te'i Sai was much the same as your mother. Manipulative and selfish. Shaping me into the weapon of his dreams while teaching the rest of the world, his own Te'i Sai operatives included, that my eyes were the coming of death's embrace. And while it's more extreme than what your mother did with you, it's no less the same kind of wickedness that shaped you into the killer you became."

Glancing briefly out the window to check the meat, he quickly returned his gaze to her.

"Speaking of your mother, you mentioned that you'd kill her if you ever encountered her again. And while I won't try to stop you if that happens, I will say from personal experience that killing her will solve nothing... I thought that when I killed the Grandmaster I would experience some kind of catharsis. Some kind of... Fulfillment to slay the man responsible for turning me into a monster and stealing any chance I had at a normal life. But as his eyes grayed out and the rush of combat and adrenaline faded, I only felt more lost and confused."

He took a breath, huffing through his nose.

"If you kill her, then you kill her. But don't hold any expectations about it bringing you peace, or any sense of closure for what she did to you. The damage is done, and the time for healing is now. The longer you let her memory fester in your mind, the more control she still has over you despite your separation. And the longer your recovery will take."

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

"It's a messed up world that would put people through things like this..." The words came out softly, as she looked down at her lap with slight frustration in her eyes. "I know it won't." A hand moved up to her mouth as she brushed her thumb across her lip. "I don't know what she's doing now. I always worry she... She had another child, or something. Took in some poor child so that she could have a second murderer under her thumb. My village never managed to bring her to justice, and I escaped execution by... Well, blind luck, if I'm being honest."

"Honestly? I'd rather her rot away in a cell. I'd rather her suffer." It was clear the topic easily got her more than a bit on edge, but she was keeping her composure well enough. "I'm ready to carry my sins to the grave... But I just don't think a happy, relaxed life is ever going to find me. What about you...? You plan on doing this all your life? The heroics, the fighting..." Her words showed just what she was thinking; that she was worried about the man. A path like his could end at any second. "...Not that I think you should. You're fighting the good fight, Shadow, but even so... As sappy as it sounds, you and Doctor Almna are the first people to show me any honest compassion and kindness in my life. I'd hate for anything to happen to either of you..."

After a moment of silence, her eyes shot back to Shadow, locking on his face for a moment before she leaned forward with a curious smirk on her face. A question that had been bugging her for quite a while jumped to mind. "...Hey. Question. I'm sure you probably get it a lot..." Pausing and holding back a small snicker, she continued. "But how do you get your eyes to do that?”

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

Shadow huffed.

"I don't remember if I've shared this with you before, so I'll share it now. Just as true self defense starts in the mind, so too do success and failure. If you believe a happy life will never find you, it won't."

When she asked how he did the thing with his eyes, Shadow looked down and then quickly averted his gaze to look outside.

"I need to turn the meat."

He stood up and made his way outside to turn the meat over the fire to even it out.

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

Shadow's preaching about a happy life starting in the mind mostly went over her head. She was so attached to her perception of herself, as some sort of heartless killer, and that wasn't going to crumble overnight. That sort of peace of mind and hope for the future was something she had been denying herself for years and years.

His eyes must have been a touchy subject. Or, at least, that was her assumption, as Shadow didn't so much as acknowledge her question and went out to check on the food. She stay sitting for a moment, before letting out a short sigh and standing up to follow the man outside. "Smells great. That's deer, right?" She was mostly guessing from the color of the meat as well as the smell, but her sense of smell wasn't exactly great.

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

Shadow turned the meat until he was satisfied with its position.

"It is." He replied.

Standing up, he walked back inside and sat back down in his chair.

"You should probably go prep your eating space and relax until it's ready. It'll be another ten minutes or so."

------------------------------------------​

Back in Valkyom, at the Apothecary and Clinic, the rains had died away at long last opening the way for the moon to just start peeking out from behind the overcast.

With the moon present, Linde packed her stuff and walked out of the office.

"I'm heading out everyone! Stay warm tonight!" She called as she walked towards the entry door.

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

"That's the conversation avoiding Shadow I'm more used to." A small smirk crept onto her face as she took Shadow's advice and she turned to head back inside, sitting herself down and allowing herself to simply take a moment to be alone with her thoughts while Shadow finished the meal preparation. While she didn't want to check in any rooms that Shadow wouldn't want her in, she still decided to get up and simply walk the small cabin they were in. It hit her then that she wasn't sure if Shadow would have her staying here, or sleeping in the woods again... That would have to be a question for after dinner, she supposed.

---

"Oh, Doctor Almna...!" Maretu dismissed himself quickly from the casual conversation he was having with Karly, quickly making his way over to the woman and glancing ahead. "Would there be any issue with me taking at least part of your route home with you? I've... Something to ask." He prayed that the other nurses didn't hear his way of phrasing that he wanted to speak privately with the woman, for once realizing just how foolish he sounded.

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

When the food had finished, Shadow brought it all inside on a large, flat stone mimicking a plate. He set it down on the counter, and brought out an actual wooden plate to put his own slab of meat on before going to sit in his chair in the corner given that there was no dining table.

"Take as much as you want." He said while taking his first bite.

---------------------------------------​

Linde paused at the doorway.

"Hm? Of course, mister Arjun. Please, come along." She said while holding the door for him.

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

"Gladly." Quickly moving over to pull a chair near the counter, she took a seat and dug into the food, letting out a small hum of satisfaction. She hadn't eaten since before her attempt at the mountain, so knew she would probably eat like mad now that she was able.

"...Oh, uhm... Thanks for the meal." She decided now was a good enough time to air her concerns. "I didn't want to snoop around the cabin... Am I sleeping here tonight?"

---

"I appreciate it, Doctor Almna." With a smile, he followed the woman out to the street and started walking beside her. "Apologies for tagging along so suddenly. I... Wanted to ask what happened to Whimsey." His first assumption was that Te'i Sai had gotten to her, and while he didn't know much about the standoffish girl, he wouldn't wish that fate on anyone.

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

Linde did a quick, casual check of their surroundings before glancing to Maretu out of the corner of her eye as she kept her head straight forward.

"A certain someone took it upon himself to train her to protect herself. She had a hard time when we were jumped in the street. So he's going to fix that. They'll be gone for a while though."

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

As Linde explained where the girl had vanished to, he let out a short sigh of relief and moved his hands to his pocket. “Whew... That’s reassuring to hear. I feared the worst, if I’m being honest...”

“I bet training with him is... Rough. Probably would put my training with the knights to shame...”

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

Linde chuckled.

"It was definitely a living Hell on Earth for me when I trained with him. But back then, he was training me specifically to combat you-know-who. So he couldn't afford to take it easy on me. And to be honest, I asked him to do that."

She looked up at the moon as the clouds began to disappear.

"I doubt Whimsey will endure the same training I did, given that you-know-who isn't coming after her anymore. But with him, you never know. If she ever comes back when they're finished, I guess we'll have our answer."

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

"When'd you manage to fit time for training that harsh in? Between your studies, the clinic, and everything else... I struggle to think of how you find the time to so much as breathe and relax, Doctor Almna." There was a pause in his words before he jumped a bit.

"Karly showed me your certificate when she was showing me the ropes. I've been meaning to give you a proper congratulations, though I'm sure you've heard the sentiment time and time again." He glanced down quite often to avoid puddles and such, not wanting to get his boots wetter than needed.

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

Linde chuckled.

"Oh, thank you very much!" She said happily. "To be honest, I'm not quite sure how or why I was able to will myself through that either. There were many sleepless and cram nights for me to graduate from Delvari in two years. And after I graduated it almost felt like it was just a formality, and not something real. But after opening my clinic, things kind of fell into place and I found a rhythm I was comfortable working in."

She took a breath.

"As for training with him... That happened because I was forced to leave Valkyom with him right after we met. I left Jessica in charge in my absence, which is why she's so comfortable serving the lead role when she needs to."

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

"Well, I don't know how you could possibly manage that, but you did." The thought of it still baffled him, but he supposed that Linde had already proved to be more than capable of feats like that.

"Regardless, I suppose that's all I had to ask. But, since we're here... Forgive me if this might be an improper question... Are you and Shadow not a couple? I was surprised to hear that you were a single woman." While he supposed maybe it was none of his business, and if Linde didn't want to speak on it, he wouldn't push it, but he wouldn't deny how curious he was.

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

Linde stopped walking, smiled, and a single chuckle escaped through her nose.

"No." She said softly.

She looked up at the moon as a strong breeze moved through the streets, causing her long flowing hair to billow out behind her while she turned her head to the side and closed one eye against it. As the breeze died away, she brushed her bangs behind her ear and looked at Maretu.

"I think Whimsey thought the same thing about the two of us." She chuckled. "I've come to respect Shadow greatly for who he is, and what he's trying to do. And I've made the choice to treat him the same way I treat everyone; with respect.. However, there are times I can't help but be a little flirty around him. His reactions are just too cute to resist sometimes." She said with a hearty laugh.

The laugh, however, faded quickly. And Linde's face shifted to one of quiet remorse.

"But there are other times I can't stand the man. And I've had to ask him to leave many a time for the sake of my sanity. One of the cons of him being who he is... Although he's resolved to never again take an innocent life, if he feels you're not innocent... He'll take your life in the blink of an eye if you give him even a sliver of daylight to believe it's warranted."

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

Maretu couldn't help but scoff when Linde said that she found some of Shadow's reactions 'cute', but supposed he saw where he was coming from. There were a few cracks in his lone wolf persona, from what he had seen, for certain. "My mistake, then. Apologies if it offends you, in any way. I just found it terribly odd that a woman of your talents and personality has yet to settle down with someone." He shrugged before listening to Linde words that were a bit darker in tone.

Sure, he knew Shadow was a killer, and while he was glad to hear he never targeted innocence, how desensitized the man was to taking lives, guilty or not, worried Maretu more than just a little. "...That can't be good for his mental state. I won't pretend to know what he's been through, but so much bloodshed can't be good for his conscience." Clicking his lips at the thought of it, he glanced to Linde and gave a gentle smile. "Regardless... That's all I really had to ask. Perhaps I should get back to the clinic... Just in case."

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

Linde offered him another smile.

"Thanks for worrying about him, mister Arjun. I know of fewer than ten people in the entire world who do. And even if I can't stand some of his decisions and his mindset towards what it means to truly take a life, I do care about him."

She shook her head.

"Anyway, have a nice evening mister Arjun. I'll see you at the clinic tomorrow."

With that, she continued walking down the street towards home.

------------------------------------------​

As Shadow finished his own meal, he set the plate on the counter and walked towards the door just down the hall on the left and opened it.

"You sleep here only for tonight. Tomorrow, you're going to find a spot and create your own shelter in the Northern reaches of the valley. Your shelter must be capable of standing up to the elements, and keep you out of reach of the predatory animals who stalk the land. And only when your shelter is complete will we meet again to begin your training proper."

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

"Of course, Doctor Almna." Giving a smile and wave to the woman, he turned to head back to the clinic. "Sleep well." With that, he made the short walk back to the Clinic, being a bit more vigilant of his surroundings than he normally would. Once he got back, he found himself something to eat and settled in for the night.

---

"I'll take one night, I guess." It was better than having to sleep amidst the trees and mud again... Though Shadow's next mission for her made her swallow nervously. "...You're talking more than just a temporary thing, aren't you?" She'd no experience building much of anything, much less a full blown shelter to stand up to the storms and to keep the bears and wolves of the forests around from simply breaking it down. While she didn't want Shadow to know she was worried about it, a bit of that anxiety flashed on her face for a moment.

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

"Correct. The shelter you build will be your home for as long as it takes to complete your training. So take your time and build it well. You'll need it."

Shadow walked down the hall and went outside, taking in a deep breath of the forest air as he began preparing himself mentally for what was ahead.

Mothman

 

[Mothman]

“...Got it.” Watching the man walk outside for whatever reason he had, she decided to worry about her shelter tomorrow, and focus on the meal in front of her and getting some rest for tonight. While it may have just been some deer, she didn’t exactly have a refined palette when it came to food, so it was more than enough to satisfy her.

Eventually, she had gotten her fill of the food, eating way more than she expected to. She stood up with a short yawn, rubbing at her stomach for a moment as she continued to fight with the pain in her ribs. Hopefully by tomorrow, she would be able to move about and set to work on resource gathering...

GojiBean​

 

[GojiBean]

A full week seemed to pass in an instant.

On day 1, Shadow disappeared and left behind no tracks for Whimsey to follow him. All he left for her was a basic map of the region, with a circle at the Northern end and two unexplained red 'X' marks.

--------------------------------------------------​

Meanwhile, at the Almna Apothecary and Clinic, things continued largely as they had thus far. Day after day was the same. Wake up and eat breakfast, prepare for work, work, relax when the clinic closed, and then go to bed.

However, on the 2nd day Linde had received a message from a mysterious falcon who delivered the small rolled up parchment to her office window on her lunch break.

In three days, meet me on the roof of your home.

- T

Linde immediately destroyed the letter so nobody knew what had happened, and sent the falcon on its way.

And on the 5th day, after venturing home for the evening, Linde waited until midnight to go up to the roof of her home. When she reached the rooftop, someone was waiting for her. A female figure wearing all black, similar in style and appearance to Shadow himself, and a black hooded cloak. She stood around 5' 2" with the faintest singular streams of silver hair poking out from beneath the hood of her cloak. And she spoke in a mid-range, soft voice.

"It's been a while."

"Yes, it has."

"I know you didn't ever expect to see me again, but I needed to see you."

"What for?"

"Things are getting more dangerous, and it's not safe for you here anymore."

"It shouldn't have been safe for me at any time these last two years since the incident. But here I am."

"Linde, please. You know that I wouldn't say this if-"

"Taira, don't." Linde interjected forcefully.

The figure paused mid-speech, and closed her mouth.

"Ever since I helped Shadow kill the Grandmaster, things have changed... I've changed. And not all for the better."

"How so?"

"Long before I became a Doctor, I swore an oath to do no harm. To treat every life like one deserving of a chance for existence. Even among the most horrible criminals and degenerates this world has ever seen, the right to live is one I can't touch."

"... I know."

"Then you know why I say I've changed, don't you?"

Taira took a deep breath, but didn't answer. And as Linde spoke, a warble began to appear in her voice.

"These last two years have been some of the happiest of my life. After parting ways with you and Shadow, I came home and returned to the life I started and always wanted. One where every day I can make the world a slightly brighter place."

Moisture gathered in her eyes, causing them to sparkle under the light of the clear night sky.

"But ever since he came back... Ever since I met him again and found out he was here to hunt a lead I've..."

She closed her eyes and the first tear rolled down her left cheek. She sucked in her lower lip and breathed in hard through her nose, sniffling against the gathering fluids in her sinuses as she cleared her throat. And as she opened her eyes, Taira's heart sunk at seeing the expression which appeared on her face.

"Ever since he came back I've thought of almost nothing except that day... You know the one..."

Taira nodded.

"It won't leave my mind. Every day when I wake up, the memory's there waiting for me. Sometimes it visits me in my sleep, and I wake up in a cold sweat. Other times it visits me in the middle of helping a patient, and more than once either Jessica or Myra had to shake me out of it so I could finish my work."

Wiping her eyes, Linde took a deep breath and regarded Taira with a far more calm, but serious expression.

"I can't worry about whatever it is you're trying to tell me, Taira. I can't help you. No matter how well I know you, Shadow, and the others... I can't help you. I'm needed here. The people of Valkyom have their own problems, and we need to stand strong together to face them. The King's already declared war on Shadow and anyone else who would do our people harm, and his Royal Guards have been keeping this place under a hard lockdown and actually doing a great job."

Taira inwardly agreed. It was almost impossible to slip by them on her way into the city this night.

"I'm sorry, Taira. Whatever it is you need to say, I beg you to keep it to yourself. I can't hear it... I won't hear it."

Taira took a breath of her own and sighed.

"... Understood, Linde. But may I at least tell you one thing?"

Linde remained silent for a moment, but finally sighed through her nose with a nod of her head.

"Be careful. He's on the move now. And he knows where you are."

Linde gave a single nod.

"I had a feeling that he'd come after me someday after what happened... And if he shows himself, I'll figure something out."

"I hope you do, Linde... Be safe."

"You too, Taira."

Taira stepped forward, and the two women shared a long, hard embrace. When they parted, Taira lifted her hood just long enough to give Linde a smile before putting it back up and disappearing into the night.

However, Linde couldn't smile back. She'd been happy to see Taira again, in a way. But if she was here to enlist Linde's aid, then things really must have been getting desperate for Shadow and company.

"So... Rosche is on the move?" Linde whispered to herself as the wind blew over the rooftops causing her hair and nightgown to flare out behind her.

As it died away, Linde turned and walked back to her stairwell but paused at the door to look up at the moon.

"Looks like Te'i Sai's finally managed to shake off what Shadow did... I just hope that Rosche being on the move doesn't mean he's the one in charge now." She whispered.

With that, she walked inside and tried her best to sleep. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be this night. The next morning when she went to work it was obvious she hadn't slept. With dark circles under her faintly bloodshot eyes, everyone encouraged her to go home and rest. However, being the workaholic she is, Linde refused and remained at the Clinic to continue as normal.

The next night she got a much better sleep... But only because she took the same prescription she'd given Whimsey before.

Mothman