"Hello, lovebirds." said Ruth. Her voice, clear despite the distance, was dripping with mockery. "You did not think I was going to let you go so easy, did you?"

  "Kurt," Called Conrad. "My sword. Now!"

  Without a word, Kurt reached for his inventory and extracted Conrad's saber from it. Then, without taking his eyes off the wyldfae, tossed it in the other swordman's direction, and Conrad took hold of its handle midair. The sheath kept its course through the air even as the blade itself stopped, and it finally landed on the concrete road with a clatter.

  "Hmm? Are you still in the mood for a fight?" Asked the wyldfae, deadpan, as she began making her way towards them. "One would expect that almost dying to me would cause you to..."

  Whatever she was going to say next, the group would never get to hear, because in that moment, and with an audible clang, she walked face-first into a streetlight. Ruth exclaimed something incoherently, and her frame went down, falling on her ass.

  "...what?" Whispered Mila.

  "Timber," said Conrad.

  "Fuck!" Exclaimed Ruth as she rose to her feet, and Kurt just noticed that she was shorter now than she had been back at the forest.

  He raised his gaze to the screen above the wyldfae's head.

  Wyldfae

  Ruth Watlin

  LV:41

  She was twenty levels lower than she had been at the forest too. And her tripping with a street light of all things, when her perception during their fight had been excellent.

  "She's weaker," he said, loud enough for the wyldfae to hear him. He turned his head to Mila. "Much weaker than when we fought."

  "Are you sure?" She asked, looking back and forth between him and Ruth, who was still propping herself up.

  Kurt nodded. "She's considerably shorter, too." he said. Mila turned to look at their foe, and her eyes widened slightly. "Maybe it's because of where we are. Like... she gets weaker when she's away from nature, or something."

  "But then, what is she doing here?" Asked Mila. "Why try to fight us at her weakest?"

  "I'm not here to fight you." Exclaimed Ruth before Kurt could answer. She had began to approach them once again, this time more methodically and carefully. "I just wanted to talk."

  "Excuse me?" Snapped Kurt.

  "You heard me, boy" She answered, sourly. She stopped on her feet, about ten yards away from the group, and raised her hands. "Look, I really don't want to hurt you, and even if I did I'm so weak now that you could probably fend me off without much problem. I just..." She lowered her head and groaned. "... want to talk to the both of you in private, that's all."

  "The two of them?" Asked Conrad, sword still firm on his grasp. "Maybe you can't see people better than you can streetlights, but there are three of us, and there's no way I'm leaving you alone with them."

  Stolen story; please report.

  The wyldfae turned her head towards Conrad. "I assume you are the one they needed my amber for." she said dismissively. "You seem to be doing pretty well thanks to it, so why don't you show some grattitude to the one that gave it to them?"

  "Because you only gave it to them after trying to kidnap Mila!" He barked. "And you almost killed Kurt too!"

  The wyldfae crossed her arms deffensively. "Hey! He almost killed me too! Burnt most of my body to a freaking crisp, so I feel like we're even!" She turned her head towards Mila. "Plus, I gave you the amber. Willingly. Don't you wanna know why?"

  "I don't particularly care about your reasons." said Kurt, his hand going to his own sword. "We alreaddy took what we needed from you. You want some grattitude? The fact that I'm nort killing you right now, after all the crap you put us through, is all you are getting from me. So get lost before I rescind it!"

  "Charming." Deadpanned the wyldfae, before turning to Mila. "Welp, we heard the two brutes' opinions. Care to share, dear? I really wanted to finish our talk, but if you want me gone... well, I guess I'll have to comply."

  A flash of uncertainty crossed Mila's face. Her brow was furrowed, and her lips pressed in a thin line. Kurt knew that look. Mila felt guilty at the idea of rebuking the other woman, because even after the hell they had been through, the hell that same woman had put them through, it just wasn't on her nature to reject someone without at least trying to understand them. It had been that same empathy that had allowed the two of them to become friends even after Kurt's... less than stellar first impression, and so Kurt had always had an especial appreciation for it, even among the slew of things he loved about her.

  So of course the universe would find a way to use to screw him over.

  "You just want to talk? Promise?" She finally said, looking more at him and Conrad than at Ruth.

  "Mila?" Called Conrad. "What are you...?"

  "I promise. " Cut in the wyldfae. "I just want a private conversation with you and Kurt. Nothing else."

  "Well, he already told you off!" Snapped Conrad. "So you better get packing!"

  Kurt wanted to back Conrad up, and send the wyldfae on her way. He really, really, wanted to... but Mila was now looking at him with those big, expressive eyes of her. A look that was just as pleading as it was apologetic. A look that said: "I'm so sorry I'm putting you through this, but please help me out."

  And for that, Kurt had no defense.

  "Conrad," He found himself saying. "Could you give us five minutes, please?"

  The young man's head snapped in Kurt's direction. "What?!" He exclaimed, incredulous. "But you just said...!"

  Kurt gave him a pleading, apologetic look of his own, and gestured with his head at Mila. Conrad grimmaced, and it looked like he would try to talk him off it, but he didn't.

  "...Fine." He finally said, sounding defeated. "I'll be in the alley. I'll be back in five minutes. Or if I hear anything resembling a fight."

  And with that he made his way back to the store, picking up his sword's scabbard on the way, leaving the three of them alone.

  "What do you want?" Asked Kurt, coldly. "And how did you even find us?"

  The wyldfae chuckled, sweeping a wooden hand across her vine-hair. "Phew! You really are all bussiness, uh? I bet you are ready to try and kill me the moment I try something."

  "Yes, I am." he said, a snarl overtaking his factions. "And if you don't get to answering my questions, that's exactly what I'll do."

  "Uhm, Kurt." Called Mila, gently puting her hand on his shoulder. "We did agree to this conversation. I know that you don't want to do this, and I really appreciate you pushing through with it anyway, but... let's try to make this civil, okay? If only to make it go faster?"

  Her voice had taken a pleading quality to match her previous look, mixed with a softness that was almost maternal. Again, Kurt found himself incapable of disagreeing. The fact that her words were objectively true certainly didn't help.

  "Yeah, you're right." he said with a sigh. He turned to look at Ruth. "Could you please answer my questions before we keep this discussion?"

  "Ah!" Laughed the wyldfae, turning her head towards Mila. "Way to go, girl! You really have this one tamed, uh?"

  Kurt felt the grip Mila had on his shoulder grow a bit tighter. "Ruth," The girl said, a certain edge on her voice. "just answer his questions, please."

  "Okay, okay. Sorry." said Ruth, sounding very slightly apologetic. " So, to answer the little pyromaniac's questions: I located you through the amber. In case you didn't notice, I don't really have eyes or ears, so I have to navigate by sensing the flow of natural energy around me. It is... a lot less reliable when not in a place of nature."

  "That explains the pratfall." Snarked Kurt.

  "...Yeah, it does." said Ruth, her words oozing with barely contained rage. "Either way, that's how I sense the world around me. In fact, the only reason I can 'hear' your stupid quips, among other things, is by feeling how your voice disturbs that flow through its effect on the atmosphere. Is very complicated. Either way, my amber emits so much of that energy that I could track you all the way to the hospital. I then lost track of it for some reason, but it didn't matter, because all three of you had already been healed by it, and so..."

  "Our bodies were caked with its magic." Completed Mila. "Where you planning on... tracking us when you gave it to us?"

  "Not really." The wyldfae said simply. "If I'm being honest, I was actually planning to let you go without any further fuss. I changed my mind rather quickly, though. I don't wanna hurt either of you, that much is true, and I don't really care about the amber."

  "Then what do you want?" Asked Kurt. "Why are you doing this then?"

  "Because I didn't want to spend another sixty years obsessing over how much of an idiot I am." she said. Her tone was devoid of malice or mockery, being instead charged with enough raw emotion to make even Kurt feel a certain empathy for her.

  He rapididly squashed it, and kept on with his interrogation. "Care to elaborate? You still haven't answered my first question."

  "Kurt." Called Mila. "We promised to be polite about this."

  "It's fine, dear." Quickly said the wyldfae. "I was just getting to it either way." She turned her head to Kurt. "I figure you know what fae and wyldfae are, right? Given that your... best friend is so well versed on the subject."

  Kurt nodded.

  "Fine then." said the woman, before extending her arms to either side of her body. "This is my hometown. I lived here back when I was a human, sixty years or so ago. I... can't recall the exact years, just the decades, but I know I was just finishing high school back in the 60's. I also know that I was not treated well back then, not by my family, and definitely not by most of the townsfolk. Not being white back then tended to do that."