After spending the night in Murroway, the three began to get themselves in order to head on the road again. Valeria had woken herself up the earliest and was waiting outside of the inn for the rest of the crew. Luckily, it wasn't long before they joined her. On their way out, they passed by a small farm, in which a dog was herding sheep. Nearby, the farmer, an elderly man, stood by.
"Good morning sir!" Valeria waved and walked over to the man. Mosi and Jae followed close behind, wondering if Valeria knew him. Valeria, of course, didn't, but accosted him nonetheless.
"Oh, good morning!" he cheerfully greeted her, "are you headed on the road?"
"Yup, we're headed to Reyvinar," Valeria informed him.
"Reyvinar, eh?" the old man pondered, his leathery face knit in thought, "I heard stories about how there have been a whole lot of drakes running around those parts. They're not just any old drakes either— apparently, they're especially aggressive and can even use some magic."
"We'll be alright," Valeria assured him.
"Are you sure?" he questioned. "I even heard of wyverns attacking people. Why don't you stay here a little while longer before it's taken care of?"
"I don't keep these two around for their good looks, y'know," Valeria teased, gesturing to her friends.
"Yeah!" Mosi enthusiastically chimed in. "Wait a sec—"
"The three of us are a certified kick-ass group of mercenaries! It doesn't matter if we're up against drakes or wyverns— we'll cut em all down!" Valeria boasted with a fist pump.
"Is that so?" the man asked, raising his bushy eyebrows.
"Yup! And since we're headed out, we'll be sure to get rid of any threats near Murroway, too," Valeria replied.
"That would be wonderful!" he beamed.
"Just doin' what we do best!" Valeria smiled.
"Oh, and by the way," he leaned over the fence, "word is that there have been some Demons lurkin' around. Now, I don't know what kind, but you better be careful. They're a shifty bunch."
"Well," Valeria looked to Jae and Mosi, whom she had just a big conversation with about Demons before, "we just fight monsters. I'm sure we'll be fine."
"You better pray to Sairesa it ain't no Hidden," the old man's eyes widened, pointing with a wrinkly finger. "You'll hardly be able to blink before they cut you down!"
"Uh, right, I'll keep that in mind," Valeria vaguely acknowledged, then started to walk away. "Take care, now!"
Valeria began to continue on the path outward with Mosi and Jae following behind.
"Be careful!" the man called after them.
Valeria turned around and waved at him.
"Did you know him?" Jae inquired.
"No, no," Valeria answered, "but we got some valuable information, didn't we?"
"Did you call me ugly?" Mosi jabbed.
"Maybe," Valeria smirked.
Jae shook his head in disbelief.
"You don't usually hear about wyverns being around here," Valeria changed the subject back to what was important. "I wonder if it has to do with the Prince's kidnapping."
"How could they possibly be related?" Mosi inquired.
"Well, our enemy was strong enough to take down the Prince, so maybe they figured out a way to lure powerful monsters like wyverns down here to tire him out. Then, they could easily kidnap him," Valeria theorized, clasping her hands above her head.
Wyverns generally lived up in the mountains away from any settled populations of people. Because of their remote habitat, they rarely attacked people— that is unless they entered their territory. But given that within Athelaric's territories there weren't many mountains, there weren't many wyverns either. It certainly was strange for them to be out in Reyvinar— a relatively low-lying area.
"Seems like a bit of a stretch," Mosi frowned.
"Got any better ideas?" Valeria probed.
"Well..." Mosi began, "... no."
"Exactly," Valeria huffed.
Valeria knew Mosi wouldn't bite on the old man blaming Demons for the issues, so she didn't bother bringing it up. Demons liked causing trouble, sure, but there wasn't even a large population of them in Athelaric in the first place. Their involvement was unlikely.
"Anyways, we aren't being paid to figure out why he was kidnapped— all we have to do is get him out." Valeria reminded the group.
"I mean, your explanation isn't impossible, though," Jae reassured her, "but it's probably more likely that the two events just happen to coincide. Maybe the monsters' original habitats are being disturbed, so they're heading down here?"
"That's probably the case," Valeria agreed, "makes me feel a little bad, though."
"Why?" Mosi scoffed. "They're just monsters."
"Yeah, but if someone like a Human, Elf, or Fae chased them out of their homeland where they were doing no harm, then it's kinda unfair that they now have to die because of it," Valeria explained.
"I guess that makes sense..." Mosi shrugged.
What Mosi wanted to do was explain to the group was how Humans, Elves, and Fae had chased each other out of their homelands and then were killed for trying to settle in others throughout history, so it was likely that the monsters were going to meet the same fate. But, he held his tongue and tried to think back about events in history where monsters had appeared in unusual places. Unfortunately, he couldn't think of any off the top of his head.
The three continued down the beaten path to Reyvinar which winded its way through the wilderness. Mostly, they were surrounded by scraggly trees and overgrown bushes. Valeria noted that the road might have been in better condition before, as the plant life seemed as if it only recently had grown. She assumed it was because of the recent monster outbreak.
It wasn't long before they came across said monsters. Before them was a lone drake standing in a small clearing. There was no need to be stealthy, as the three were at an easy advantage. Valeria charged in, and made the first strike, landing on its tail. The drake let out a shrill cry, causing others to emerge from the surrounding foliage. Jae quickly unsheathed his sword to help take on the others, while Mosi revealed his wings, flying up into the air.
"There's about five more coming," Mosi informed the others, "let's fight them in the open— follow me!"
Jae and Valeria heeded Mosi's advice and exited the forest. Ahead was a barren landscape of cliffs, rocks, dirt, and a nearby lake. Jae and Valeria easily spotted the incoming targets and were able to fight them with ease. From up above, Mosi attacked with fire magic. Unfortunately, just as the three took down one drake, it seemed that another immediately took its place. Again and again, the cycle continued. However, these drakes seemed to be a bit different from the ones Valeria was used to. The ones on the Athelaric trails were lazy and slow-witted, while the ones they were currently fighting seemed more fervent. Additionally, their eyes were blazing yellow, as opposed to the brown that Valeria had usually seen. There also seemed to be some sort of purple residue emitting from their bodies. Valeria couldn't take the time to make sense of it, though, since she was busy trying to stay alive.
"Jae, how good is your ice magic?" Valeria asked as she slashed at a drake.
"It's... alright," Jae replied, landing a killing blow.
Just as their victims died, a few more crawled out from the bushes. Something had to be done, and it had to be drastic. Valeria began to craft a plan.
"Mosi! Is that lake very deep?" Valeria shouted upward.
"Yeah, looks like it," he called back, surveying the land, "there's also an island near the middle."
"Jae, I'm gonna need you to freeze a pathway to the island," Valeria instructed. "I'll fight off the drakes in the meantime."
"But why?" he questioned.
"Every time we kill one of these buggers, they're real loud about it and let their buddies know where the fight's at. Lesser drakes like these can't swim, so the plan is to lure them across and Mosi will melt it once we're on the island, so they'll fall right in," Valeria explained. "Mosi, you got all that?"
"Yup," he affirmed, throwing a ball of fire magic at a drake.
"...I'll get on it," Jae reluctantly followed Valeria's instructions, even though he was a little unsure about his own abilities.
"You got this!" Valeria encouraged him, as she began to take on a larger share of the drakes.
Mosi continued to help out and tried his best to lure them away from Jae as he worked on the bridge. Jae never devoted any particular amount of time to strengthening his ice magic, so the task at hand was no easy one. Channelling it through his sword, he started working to make a platform strong enough and textured enough to run across without slipping. It took about ten minutes for him to complete it, while Valeria and Mosi fought diligently against the drakes. The moment he was finished, he rushed across to the island.
"Valeria!" he called out, giving the signal.
"Got it!" she promptly replied.
Valeria stopped for a moment to look at her opponents. At this point, there were about fifteen drakes in front of her amongst the many bodies. Valeria knew that she couldn't hold them off much longer.
"Mosi, you ready?" she inquired, beginning to step back.
"As I'll ever be!" he shouted back.
With that, Valeria began to sprint towards the ice bridge, pushing her body to the absolute limit to outrun the drakes. The drakes clamoured forward in pursuit of her. Valeria didn't look back— she focused only on reaching the island. At this point, she was running above the deepest part of the lake but was beginning to grow tired. Luckily, the gap between her and the drakes was large enough for Mosi to start melting the bridge. Valeria could feel the heat from the fire magic on her neck and hear the violent splashing of the drakes as they fell into the water. This was no time to rest, however, as the ice behind her was quickly disappearing. She continued to run, chest burning from the exertion. Jae was waiting on the other side, prepared to catch her once she arrived, but before he could reach her, she collapsed almost immediately after reaching the edge.
"Valeria!" he hurried over to her, crouching, "are you alright?"
"...Yeah," she rolled over on her back, and glanced over at the water behind her, "looks like we got 'em all."
Disgustingly, the drake corpses were drifting across the lake. Even Valeria could admit that it was unsettling.
"All thanks to you," Jae praised her.
"Go team!" Valeria huffed with a fist pump in the air.
Mosi soon joined the two.
"How can a person who placed twentieth out of thirty in track outrun fifteen drakes?" he playfully teased.
"Pure grit," Valeria exhaled and pulled herself into a sitting position. She then took out her canteen and started gulping down water.
"Thank goodness for that. Who knows how many more we'd have to deal with if you didn't think of drowning them," Jae looked out at the drake bodies in the water.
"Did you guys notice anything strange about them?" Valeria asked, "weren't their eyes a different colour? I thought maybe it was because they're a different variety, but their scales seemed to have this weird residue on them."
"We can go back to look at the ones we killed on land," Mosi suggested.
"Good idea," Jae agreed.
"Yeah..." Valeria nodded, still tired from everything that had just happened.
"Come on now!" Mosi grabbed her wrists and began to pull her up.
"Hey, I can stand up on my own, thank you very much!" Valeria retorted but didn't actually make any effort to make things easier for Mosi.
Jae made another bridge of ice for the group to cross on. He made sure to steer clear of the drowned drakes just in case they still had some life in them.
"Anyways, are you guys okay?" Valeria asked as they walked across, "both of you used a lot of magic."
"Uh, I'm doing alright," Jae answered.
"Same here," Mosi replied, "shouldn't we be asking you? I mean, you undeniably did the most."
"Well, I'm the leader here, and the leader is the one who takes one for the team," Valeria smiled, "and the leader also looks out for the team."
"Look at you go," Mosi grinned.
"Y'all better," she winked back. "Alright, let's have a look at these fellas."
After reaching the other side, Valeria began to examine one of the drakes. Surely enough, its scales were emitting some sort of strange, dark purple spores. They seemed to be almost evaporating from the bodies.
"We definitely can't eat these ones," Valeria remarked, "sorry Jae— you won't get to try drake meat today."
"Oh no..." he replied sarcastically.
"Did you have a look at its eyes? They're yellow instead of brown," Mosi noted, just as Valeria anticipated, "also, that purple stuff is coming from its mouth too. This is probably from some kind of spell."
"You guys stay back just in case it can affect people," Valeria warned, "by the way, who can even use this kind of magic?"
"Well, it looks like it's black magic, so naturally the most likely culprit would be a Dark Elf," Jae began, "but Dark Elves live all the way on Nilam, so it's strange to see traces of that here."
Nilam was an island southeast of mainland Nantae. Overall, the impression of mainland Nantae citizens to the Dark Elves was one of ambivalence. Once, they often travelled from Nilam to Nantae, cultivating strong trade and cultural relations with many. However, after their allegiance with the Hidden, opinions towards the Dark Elves grew frosty. The only ones that maintained a stable relationship with them were the Wind Elves of Wēifēng. Still, there was no reason for a Dark Elf to attack Athelaric on behalf of their people, so, if one was to be the assailant, they would likely be a mercenary like Valeria and friends.
"It's definitely not a Dark Elf," Mosi stated plainly, "this kind of spellcasting is rarely practiced among them since it serves them very little utility. Dark Elves are all about stealth and staying hidden, so this kind of thing naturally fell out of common practice. However, this kind of magic is very easy to learn, since it doesn't actually require magical abilities— you just need the right materials and you're good to go. Because of this, 'black magic' has become most popular among Humans."
"Sometimes I forget that part of your job is to know those kinds of things," Valeria mused.
"Being an antiquities dealer and archaeologist means that you gotta be aware of many different cultures and their practices," Mosi reminded her.
"But if the culprit of all of this is human, then Valeria's hypothesis on why the monsters were gathering around Reyvinar could be correct," Jae pointed out. "Someone probably lured them down here."
"Seems like it," Valeria nodded, feeling proud that she might have got it right.
"Geez, is this prince so important that all this is being done to make sure nobody goes after him?" Mosi blurted out.
"Mosi!" Valeria scolded, holding herself back from smacking him.
"Prince?" Jae questioned. "Our client is a prince?"
"Ughhhh," Valeria sighed, "it was supposed to be a secret between me and the Royals... and Mosi. Ah well, I guess it was going to get out eventually. But don't you dare tell anyone outside of this group, okay?"
"Yeah, got it," Jae answered, indifferent to the revelation, walking forward "who am I going to tell anyway? We're in the middle of nowhere in a place I've never been."
"...That's a good point," Valeria reluctantly agreed. Deep down, she knew that Jae would never do anything to jeopardize the mission anyways. "Well, we better get going and start to try and find some food."
"You guys find a place to relax. I'll find us something to eat," Mosi informed them, breaking away from the group.
Although he was often a little abrasive, Mosi genuinely cared for the well-being of his friends, though it was unlikely that he would ever openly admit it.
"Got it," Valeria nodded.
Mosi flew away from the two, leaving them alone. Even though Jae didn't have any feelings either way about their client being a prince, he still had a few questions for Valeria he wanted to be answered.
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