Even the general vibe of Keystone was significantly different from the quiet, morose villages they had passed by since they entered the valley, Allana thought.

Here, the people bustled about with an energy quite dissimilar from their counterparts in Correntry. The last of the trade town's crops were awaiting delivery–likely into the hands of trade caravans delayed by the ongoing investigations in Correntry–and the people were now preparing for winter. Laborers wheeled carts of prepared firewood to each of the town's homes, while many of its citizens sealed barrels and jars of food to proof them against the weather. But rather than the eager, almost celebratory energy that was building in the trade city with the end of the year, the people of Keystone went about their business with a grim, almost fatalistic, determinism that reminded Allana more of Emeston.

Already, Allana had begun to realize that the winters here would be different from those she had grown up with. The southernmost city in the Realm still experienced winter, but the constant flow of warm air from the southern Vast kept the bite of the cold season from sinking too deeply into the underprepared populace, and a slushy mixture of snow and rain was far more common in Emeston than any true blizzard. Both Olivia and Cadence had assured her that the winters farther north would be quite a bit more harsh, but Allana had only come to understand what that meant as the temperature quickly reached the chill typical of Emeston's coldest days–only to keep dropping.

As they entered the boundaries of Keystone, the party quickly began to draw looks from those they passed by, and Allana was under no mistaken impression that it was her, or Tenebres, or Cadence that were drawing attention. Even in the winter travel clothes they had bought in Correntry, the trio looked shabby compared to Olivia, and her own fine tunic and travel cloak paled in comparison to Adeline's garb. The two knights led the party, and their status and roles were obvious, so Allana wasn't surprised when three hunters, one in late middle-age and the other two around Adeline's own age, intercepted them.

"Ho there, milady," the lead hunter greeted with feigned cheer that didn't reach his dark eyes. "Welcome to Keystone."

Adeline greeted them with a cool smile Allana couldn't help but respect, the knight somehow acknowledging the hunter's obvious displeasure without stepping a toe over the line of propriety. "And a pleasure it is to be here. Would you be Sheriff Garol?"

"Aye milady, I am. So I expect you'd understand why I ask who you are, and what brings you to our town?"

As Adeline introduced each of the group, Allana sized up the three hunters. They were all cast from the same mold, muscular, scarred, and suspicious, with close-cropped hair and hard eyes, though there were enough differences in their features that Allana pegged it as an institutional similarity, rather than a familial one. Even within the village, they were well-armed, the sheriff with a thick-hafted boar spear slung across his back and a pair of hatchets on his belt, and his companions with matched swords and bows.

Adeline finished the introductions by referring to Allana, Tenebres, and Cadence simply as "traveling companions, lately of Correntry," without further explanation. Allana expected the sheriff to jump right on that, but his questioning went in a different direction instead.

"None of that tells me why you've come here, Lady Adeline," Garol told her. As he spoke, he crossed his arms. "I'm sure you know that the valley is currently in the midst of containing a disease. It's not a safe place for travelers like yourselves."

Adeline no doubt noted the sheriff's insistence on their reasons for coming, rather than their identities, but she accepted his questions with characteristic grace. "That's exactly what brings us here, Sheriff. It's not every day the King himself dispatches Apothic Order healers to staunch an illness. I thought, perhaps, that the addition of some extra hands, skilled in both battle and investigation, could only be of aid in these trying times."

The man's dark eyes narrowed, and Allana knew his next question before he asked it–he'd want to know just what a group of youths would do to help a veteran knight like Adeline.

But once again, Allana was surprised. "Don't know what you'd think some spare blades can do against a disease." No title this time–the man's tone was belligerent, and borderline hostile. "The Order are doing their part, and me and mine are doing ours."

Adeline nodded, as if she hadn't noticed the subtle change in the man's posture. "Of course, and never would I impugn the work of your militia." She threw a look around at the passerby, many of whom were covertly sneaking glances or attempting to listen in on the conversation. "Perhaps we should move this conversation to a more private locale?"

Garol noticed the direction of her looks, and grunted a faint agreement. "Very well. You can join us back at our barracks."

The man clearly intended that "you" to include only Adeline, but the knight quickly added, "My squire will join us as well. And would you mind directing the rest of my companions to the nearest inn, so they can get settled?"

Those dark eyes finally swung over to Allana and the others, none of whom looked much impressed by the muscular man. He may have been skilled, but they all knew he had little chance against Adeline, and he had done little to earn their respect. Already, the grizzled man struck a less imposing figure than Elway, the sheriff of Jellis, and his continued suspicion did little to earn him any kind looks from the adventurers.

"Continue down the road, take your fourth right. Two streets down is the Silver Grain, tell Casum I sent you."

Cadence nodded understanding, and Adeline gestured for them to be on their way. Allana exchanged a brief look with Olivia, who nodded, acknowledging that she had noticed the oddities in the man's behavior as well, and then the two groups split up.

None of them missed the way Garol's men drifted behind Adeline and Olivia as they left, boxing them in, but neither were any of them concerned. Oli was no doubt the match of either of the young hunters, and they had yet to see Adeline lose a fight.

"That was weird, right?" Cadence asked, once the group was out of even her enhanced earshot.

Tenebres nodded, but Allana replied only with a harsh "Shh!" She looked around, her eyes intense enough that anyone else nearby quickly cleared away from them. "Not here. Let's check out this inn."

#

Not too long thereafter, Allana and Tenebres were sitting at the Silver Grain, each sipping water (at Tenebres's insistence) while Cadence haggled over rooms with Casum. Allana thought the innkeeper little more than a stereotype–middle-aged, overweight, obsequious–but the inn itself was comfortable enough, given how empty it was. Between the spreading illness, the investigation into multiple Valley Hearth trading companies, and the overwhelming "friendliness" of Keystone's militia, the town apparently lacked any other visitors at the moment, and so Cadence didn't need to try very hard to get them good rates.

"One last thing," Cadence added, as she passed coins over to the innkeeper. "We were hoping to meet with some of the Apothic Order healers while our friends were talking with Garol. Would you be able to point us towards them?"

The portly man stopped mid-motion as he wiped a cloth over his shining bartop, and looked more closely at Cadence. Something in the reaction struck Allana as off, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Ah, yes, well," the innkeeper stumbled over his words. Was even the thought of the disease making him that nervous? "I can point you towards the hospital, of course, but I'm sure the healers are a bit busy to, well…"

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"I understand completely," Cadence reassured him, her voice dripping with the honey Allana recognized as a charm Surge. "We have no plans to disrupt their operations–Elder knows, I wouldn't even want to step inside a house of sickness like that!" Cadence said the last with a little laugh that seemed to set the man more at ease. "We just want to know where we can find them, so we can get a meeting set up for Lady Adeline."

The man nodded slowly, seeming more and more to agree with the celestial's reasoning–despite her having already said their intentions were very different earlier in the conversation. "Well, if you're sure then…"

Allana and Tenebres traded smiles while the innkeeper gave Cadence keys to their rooms and directions to the healers' base of operations, and despite the seriousness of their situation, Allana couldn't help herself from checking out her longtime companion. Even after a season spent in Correntry, weeks on the road had hardened Tenebres, giving the soft boy an edge Allana found quite alluring. His face had changed too, subtly but distinctly, in the time since they had met, as much a product of his own aging as their changing lifestyle.

She and Cadence hadn't picked up their occasional string of flings since a couple weeks before they left Correntry, but with a night to kill in the quiet town, Allana wondered to herself if tonight might not be a good night for the three of them to spend some time together.

First things first, though, Allana amended as Cadence returned to the table. Time to find this Mendicant everyone is so excited about.

#

"What do you mean they're not here?" Cadence asked. "This is the hospital, isn't it? Where else would the Mendicant be?"

The animist she was arguing with, an older man with a pinched face and a mantle crimson cloth proclaiming him a member of the Apothic Order, narrowed his eyes, further creasing his already wrinkled face.

"Despite what you may think, the Mendicant has better things to do during a plague of this magnitude than to talk to a group of pestering children."

Allana blew out a breath. She had willingly let Cadence take the lead, as she didn't have much interest in this mysterious sage, but the officious healer had rapidly gotten under the celestial's skin.

"Children? I'm nearly seventeen, and my fri–my companions are older! And we are here with Knight-Gallant Adeline Argent!"

The healer rolled his eyes, his gray eyebrow bobbing with vast indifference. "And we were sent here by order of the King himself. Your friends don't impress me, child. And even if I thought you worthy of the Mendicant's time, as I said, they are not here, and I do not know when they'll return. Feel free to have this silver knight of yours visit in a few days time. Perhaps we'll have an update then."

While they argued, Allana wandered a few steps away, idly glancing through the windows of the hospital. The building was clearly a recent construction, its timbers notably less aged than the buildings around it, and the glass windows set into it periodically were still clear. Inside, she could see a dozen robed healers of all genders and a variety of ages working their way up and down rows and rows of the sick and ailing, so many of them that the majority were laid on the floor, with a few threadbare white sheets spread out to keep them comfortable. With the hospital towering four stories, assuming a similar number of patients on each floor…

Allana drew a sharp breath. That would be close to a thousand infected patients, kept alive only by the efforts of the Apothic Order.

Tenebres rolled his eyes and thumped a hand against Cadence's shoulder. "Let it go," he suggested. "He's not going to help us, clearly."

"At least one of you has some sense," the wizened healer said, turning away. "If the Mendicant has any spare time when they return, I'll ensure they are notified of your visit." The man's tone made it clear that was unlikely, but Cadence let Tenebres drag her away before she could continue the argument.

"Well, that wasn't very productive," Tenebres sighed as they approached Allana.

"Stingy old graybeard…" Cadence muttered.

"You good?" Allana asked, a little humor tinting the question. "I don't think I've ever seen you get that angry before."

The celestial rolled her eyes. "I hate uptight types like that," she muttered. "Condescending ass. Calling us children."

"You can't argue with people like that," Tenebres told her with a shrug. "It just makes them dismiss you that much more quickly.

"So I guess we head back to the inn then?" Allana suggested. "Find out what Adel and Oli learned?"

Cadence shrugged, but Tenebres, clearly distracted, tilted his chin towards an approaching girl. A straw-haired little blonde, perhaps a year younger than Tenebres and Cadence, she was as unremarkable as they came, dressed in simple homespun with a pink wool shawl warding off the cold.

"Uhm," the girl mumbled, "did I hear you were looking for the Mendicant?"

The three adventurers traded looks. Allana shrugged, and Cadence turned back to the girl, curious. "Yeah. Sorry, I'm Cadence. This is Allana and Seo."

"N-Nel. Sorry, uhm, that is, I'm Nelly. I live here." The girl fidgeted in pace, her finger worrying at the hem of her shirt.

"Nice to meet you, Nelly," Cadence replied, trying to keep her voice gentle, to not scare the nervous girl. "And yes, we were asking after the Mendicant. Do you know them?"

The girl nodded awkwardly. "I-I saw him over by the shrine a little while ago," she said. "He spends a lot of time there. I can show you, if you want?"

Allana arched an eyebrow. "Shrine?" she asked. "What's that?"

The girl flushed. "O-oh, right! It's uhm, it's this really old place, from back when the village was founded. It's by the Lifetree."

"The Lifetree?" Tenebres asked. "That's the big vitalwood in the center of the village, right?"

The girl squeaked again, and nodded. Allana rolled her eyes, already getting sick of this. "Works for me," she told the others. "Shall we?"

#

"So what exactly is this shrine?" Cadence asked Nelly.

As they walked, Allana kept one eye on the girl, the other noticing the intrigued expressions of those they passed by.

"It's uhm… it's a remnant, from way back when the village was founded," the girl explained, her stutter thankfully fading a little as she spoke. "It's from back when the people still worshiped the Archetypes. They prayed to them, thought they were gods."

Tenebres frowned. "Gods… like the ones the outsiders worship?"

The girl nodded, then froze, and shrugged instead. "I guess, maybe?"

Allana huffed a breath. As they approached the Lifetree, the village buildings began to dwindle away, as if there was some sort of taboo around living under the boughs of the ancient vitalwood. Instead, bushes and trees became more common, all glowing with their own internal life magic, a veritable bounty of reagents.

"Wow," Cadence breathed, pausing to look at a bush near bursting with shimmerberries. "There's so many of them."

Nelly nodded. "That's why they made the shrine here, way back when. The Lifetree gives off so much magic, it makes this grove full of re-real magic plants like these."

Allana noted the slip, even if the others didn't.

A few minutes later, they finally reached the center of the grove and the shrine Nelly had described. A simple wooden hovel, it was made from the same vitalwood as the tree it leaned against, and over the years, the two had grown together, the magical wood fusing over the decades into a single surface, unbroken even by a door.

"The door grew into the wall a few generations back," Nelly explained, as if expecting the question.

Allana huffed. The "girl" wasn't even trying anymore. "That's just great. Now, do you mind explaining why you dragged us all the way out here?"

"Nelly" turned, meeting Allana's eyes for the first time, and the wraith was immediately sure she had guessed right. Those eyes were too old, too knowing, for the youthful face they were set in.

"What are you talking about," Tenebres asked. "She was bringing us to meet the Mendicant."

Cadence's eyes narrowed, and she studied the village girl more closely, finally catching on.

"She's not taking us to the Mendicant," Allana explained anyway. "She is the Mendicant."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.