Ae softly closed the door behind her, the clunky lock shifting into place. The tavern was closed and only a few candles remained lit. Torrel's silhouette was leaned against the banister waiting patiently for her return. His hazel eyes were lit by the flame on a ledge next to him. His hairy arms tightly crossed over one another while the wick beside him subtly crackled.

  "Well? How'd it go?" He leaned in a little as she took off her shoulder pauldrons and draped them over her shoulder.

  "Not entirely sure. He certainly seemed to contemplate it. I think it's a possibility he'll stick around."

  A smile tugged at the tavern keeper's lips, an agreeable nod as he pushed off the wall. "Tell me Ae what's the real reason you don't want him going to the city?"

  Ae glanced sideways as she brushed by him toward the stairs. "Like you told me the night we arrived in town he's a Maverick at heart. We want to help him find a better life right?"

  Torrel rolled his eyes and stepped in front of the stairs, earning him a death glare from the woman who collided with him.

  "Not so fast. I agreed with you and said he might be after you asked to keep him around. You ma'am, initiated it." He boldly reminded her, his finger pressing against her sternum.

  "I don't know you like Ferren somehow did Ae but we've been friends a while. And while I know you won't pass up on helping those in need, I know for a fact you never get attached to the idea of another mouth to feed. Why are you stalling him going to the city? I know you have your ways of making it happen even with the closure of the gates. And the kid seems real anxious to do so."

  The woman pressed her tongue against her teeth, trying to just stare her way past but Torrel wasn't budging. "Alright fine Torrel if you have to know I think he knows something. Something the Kords probably want. He has a journal. When we met he was over-possessive with it. Ferren knew why they were after me, but he never said why. But the moment he found out he sure was quick to help me over them. And I've been desperate for a lead ever since. So I simply want a chance to see his journal, and keep the Kords from hearing whatever info he might have."

  "And what if it is just the kiddo's dairy with some embarrassing secret about a crush he had back home that he didn't want to share with some random barbaric woman he just met?" Torrel quizzed her.

  Ae frowned, "Then maybe I'll take him to the city, after I ensure he isn't hiding anything."

  Torrel brought a finger to his chin in thought before pointing toward Ae. "Still not like you. If he has something of such interest I'd normally see you just take it by force... unless you're taking a liking to him and don't want him to hate you. Am I sensing you have a soft spot for that kid? I noticed the look you give him. I can't put my finger on it, but it looks like he reminds you of someone." He got up in Ae's face with a grin.

  Ae scowled as she looked down at his mischievous mug. Torrel's next smart comment was muffled as her hand covered his face, shoving it way as she forced her way by. "Goodnight Torrel." She curtly trailed as she ascended the steps and quickly walked to her room the wooden door slamming shut behind her. Torrel shook his head and popped his neck with a quick jerk to the side, Ae's strength had easily put a kink his spine.

  "And that was the most obvious yes ever." He chuckled to himself, a self satisfied grin plastered to his face as he made his way to his own room.

  Ae had pulled off her shirt and hung her armor up on the hooks by her door. She untied her braid and let her hair fall in front of her face as she sat on her bed. The soft blue moonlight coloring the ashen wood floor. She gazed to the side to watch the southern road toward the pond. Nidian had been at that pond for a few hours now. He hadn't come back for dinner or anything. It shouldn't have been so complicated. She could have just ripped the stupid book from his hands. But no.. they had to be too alike each other. It was as if he was right in front of her. The resemblance was surreal. Something about the boy crippled her typical detached thought process.

  She needed to move past it and focus. He was hiding something and she hoped by some chance it was related to what she had been searching for for years. She slid a drawer open on her end table and pulled out a dark metallic rhombohedron. Her fingers gently traced its surface. The engravings etched into its faces by the roots of the tree it had come from. Her thumb pressed inward on one side causing a click. A static buzzing as the flat panels along it sprung away from the edges and hovered around it. A blue humming light clicking inside it. A small white orb in the energetic mist bounced about wildly as if it were searching for something. Ae leaned in and rested her head on her palm as her violet eyes observed it tenaciously while it suspended itself above her other hand.

  The odd relic was something from before their time. Constructed by the ancients that proceeded them. What materials and technology they possessed were far beyond the reaches of man now save for what they could dig up. Which was next to nothing. Another power mongering law of the Kordish monks she thoroughly despised. Possession of any relic was punishable by death.

  But there was something to it. The odd hum, the frantic movements of its internal components. It's link to the tree. It couldn't have been a coincidence. Before she could finish contemplating all the possibilities it hissed and snapped shut, going dark and silent in an instant. She gasped as it fell, barely having time to catch it.

  Torrel may have seemed to think she was jumping to some wild conclusions; maybe she was a little too suspicious... No, she couldn't have been. He knew about the dragon stories, he liekly studied relics himself. The odds of that journal containing information were far greater than Torrel was willing to accept. She needed that journal. One way or another.