Lucidity

Chapter Eighteen: Hothier Inn

Updating the three Surtrenans on all that was happened was a daunting task and had to wait until the end of the service. Luckily, all the mentions of "our recently deceased comrade Dale" and the burning of his body had made it fairly clear that he was dead.

Before they could properly explain all that had occured, Jacob came over, mainly focusing his attention on Kosa, and informed them, "I'm afraid that there'll be no food for the next 24 hours, according to our order's customs. You may well think it's awfully old-fashioned, however, tradition is tradition and our elders expect you to comply."

"Great, after two days of travelling and living off lettuce, I can't even look forward to a nice meal," moaned Junior, then poked Hazhil's antlers, "Those mushrooms look ready for harvest." As usual, she slapped away his hand.

"Yes, uh, that was the other thing... Um, how long are they going to be staying? And, uh, who are they?", asked Jacob.

Hjalmar immediately replied, "Yaz is one of the other chosen ones, Junior's a helpful friend and Hazhil's our main healer."

"Hello! It's lovely to meet you!", Hazhil smiled widely, as if she could devour him. Jacob shuddered.

Kosa reassured him, "We were planning on leaving at dawn, tomorrow."

Jacob grimaced, but nodded and ran off. Junior was about to make some mean comment, but Yaz prevented him from doing so by mumbling, "Dale... The poor kid... What happened?"

Within approximately fifteen minutes, primarily Hjalmar had managed to recount the tale of their visit to the order thus far. Naturally, he was grim from the funeral, but his spirits had also been lifted by the return of his fellow Surtrenans. There was this beautiful comfort in being amomgst people who shared a similar upbringing to him, who knew similar stories and who had similar opinions. Having them back was like having a bit of home next to him.

"That's awful," spoke Yaz once she'd heard the whole story, "Truly. But what's next?"

Oburon scanned their surroundings to assure hinself the mages weren't paying too much attention to him, then pulled out a leather-bound book. "This is Mentirix's journal. He left us a secret message inside, as well as hints of what might be going on. One of them left a location which should be within half a day's walk from here. Hothier Inn."

"I had no clue you were a geography whizz, Oburon," Junior teased him, shouldering him a bit too hard between the ribs for it to be well-intended. To the soldier's disappointment, years of being suscepted to pain had given the Gaspa a high tolerance.

Deciding to mess with him, Oburon casually lied, "As a child, I travelled throughout Lypera three times."

Surprisingly, Junior wasn't particularly fazed by that. "And you're still so useless aside from your linguistic talents." He tutted.

"Have we got any updates on the situation? As in, do we know what the threat is?", asked Yaz, glancing between them with open eyes.

Kosa filled them in, "We are about ninety-five percent sure that Imperon killed Mentirix. From what we understood from the journal, it sounds like Imperon was forcing him to experiment with giving permanent powers to animals, which would in part destroy balance, especially if those abilities were given to Parvi."

"That doesn't sound good," mumbled Yaz.

"No. No, it does not," agreed Kosa.

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The seven of them set off the next morning after they'd all had a large drink from the linguistic brew the mages had concocted for them. Oburon had requested that Jacob showed Caitlyn where Dale's funeral service had been held and that she was told he'd been the one to tell him to do so. Hopefully, when she got back from wherever she was, she'd find the map that Dale had enchanted, for he had buried it in the sand there. He hoped it would be enough, but if she didn't catch up with them within three more days, he'd be going back to the order in search of her. She was his friend now and friends shouldn't ever get left behind.