{-Kaylin-}

  “Ah, you all look familiar. I’m almost certain we’ve seen each other somewhere else. How’ve you been?” Kharis casually walked up to them, giving a fake smile as if to keep anyone who might be watching from looking at his words deeper than surface level.

  Ether stalked behind him, glaring at each of them before prompting in a mocking ignorance, “Wasn’t there someone else with you? Where’s that leader of yours?”

  Kaylin immediately froze. A part of her was angry—they knew exactly what had happened, and yet they still acted ignorant about it. More of her, though, was afraid. They weren’t far from where Rennyn was. Even if that hadn’t been the case, she knew full well the kind of abilities these two possessed, and she knew that, though they outnumbered the siblings, the four of them could barely stand against it. The only saving grace, at least in her mind, was the fact that they were surrounded by other people. As long as Kharis and Ether’s orders were at least in part to remain inconspicuous, they wouldn’t start anything.

  Maybe. Hopefully.

  Not like they could really walk away from the situation as it stood.

  “Come on now, sister,” Kharis said with a tsk. “We’re here to make some light conversation, not antagonize these fair people. Though I can’t say I’m not curious…”

  Cautiously, Lyrei said, “I have a feeling that you already know just as much as we can tell you. And I don’t just mean what you saw.”

  “We don’t want to give them hints,” Kaylin whispered. “I don’t even think we should be having this conversation. This isn’t exactly what I’d call a favorable outcome…”

  “Oh, you don’t think we already know?” Ether lowered her voice. “Dhymos is thorough in making sure that a job is done to the best of his knowledge. No matter what, he gets the results he wants, and he assures that the results are permanent. I’m afraid that we know much more than you think we do.”

  Still, Seldir slowly prompted, “Like..?”

  “We practically know where he is down to the room number. For all you know, we’ve already gotten rid of him while you were all off getting distracted. Really, did you ever think that would work? Dhymos doesn’t leave things half-finished.”

  “You didn’t, though, right?” Kaylin asked. At the thought, she found it hard to remain calm, and cursed herself for having thought that was a good idea in the first place. Why had she agreed to leave Rennyn alone, again? Sure, there was technically someone with him, but not one who would know how to deal with Dhymos or any of his minions.

  Ether was completely right—he could’ve been taken away from them for good, and none of them would’ve noticed until they got back, possibly hours later. And what she felt would be worst of all, he would have been alone.

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  And it was never a peaceful death, when one had to die alone.

  But Ether took one look at Kaylin’s expression, and laughed. “As much as I wished we could’ve, we didn’t. Part of our mission was explicitly not to. Because, annoyingly enough, someone wants him alive.”

  “I would like to point out, however, that it’s not always going to be an option to resolve things ‘peacefully,’” Kharis pointed out calmly. Even now, when all masks were otherwise dropped, he acted as if they were old friends. “I would advise against causing any more trouble after this, unless you want things to be a bit more… permanent.”

  He started to step away, but Seldir stepped forward. “I think there’s one more thing you haven’t told us yet. What are you and Ether doing here?”

  “And we should tell you, why..?” Ether raised a brow. “This isn’t a peaceful exchange of information. We’re giving you a threat.”

  Kharis waved dismissively. “It won’t hurt to tell them, though. You see, ‘friends,’ the answer is actually quite simple. We’re here to check on a couple of things. And, well, you’ve already heard what all of those things were. That’s the long and short of it, if you’re willing to believe it. That’s all it has to be, too, if you’re smart enough to leave it at that.”

  He whispered something else to her, she nodded, and they both gave some kind of fake farewell and left.

  “Guess it was worth a shot.” Seldir gestured towards the entrance of the inn. “They already know, so there’s no point in hiding it. Let’s just get back inside and get something to eat. We’ve been out for a while.”

  Kaylin knew that there was no point in bringing up any of her thoughts here, so she nodded, and let him lead the way into the inn. It was a lot warmer inside. She couldn’t quite find it peaceful, though.

  “We’ll have to continue to keep an eye on them,” she said after they’d all sat down. “They’re already too far ahead of us, we need to be sure that we don’t let too big of a gap grow. We can’t do anything with the information they already have, but we should do what we can to keep them from getting any more…”

  “I… get the feeling there’s not anything we know that we don’t,” Noa pointed out nervously. “I don’t really think that we have anything to use against them. We can’t really gain information right now, either…”

  “That might be true, at least for now, but that’s only half of it. They know where we are, and they know the state Rennyn’s in. Even if they don’t use that against us now, we need to be aware of what they do do with it. We’re going to have to leave if they start making more direct threats.”

  Lyrei shook her head. “But we’re nowhere near ready to move somewhere else. Rennyn’s just barely woken up, right? It’s only going to make things worse in more ways than one to leave now.”

  “Besides, that’ll make us even better targets,” Seldir agreed. “Not just for Dhymos’s minions, but any other bandits who might notice us, too. I get that you’re worried, Kaylin, but remember that it’s only hypothetical right now—and we’re going to do our part to keep it this way. These kinds of things have a tendency of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy otherwise.”

  Kaylin nodded, but she couldn’t be too sure of how much of the information she took to heart. Had Rennyn felt that way before? Maybe this was how he felt, when he struggled to listen to their grounding facts and reassurances. That didn’t really make her feel any better, though.

  Seldir seemed to acknowledge what she was thinking, and sighed. “Of course we’ll still try to keep an eye out for anything, but we shouldn’t let ourselves get distracted by it. We’ll figure something out. Right now, though, we should just be appreciating that this isn’t the worst case scenario. Let’s all just eat and get some rest. I want to practice with Noa in the morning, but after that, we could head out again. We’re going to need whatever we find out there.”

  She slowly pushed her seat out. “Could you ask them to send my food to the room? I want to check on Rennyn. Maybe… it won’t have to be a one-sided conversation.”