Marcus stood almost completely still. The midday sun lit up his face, reflecting off of teary eyes. His gaze was fixed through an opened wood-panel window. The outside world seemed distant and no longer important, but the scene within was all he could absorb and felt intimate.

  There were his supposed parents, Marcus’s father had similar hair but greyed, while his mother seemingly shared his eyes but tired. The years etched on their faces a tale of sadness and difficulty. Marcus felt it hard to appreciate any other conditions in their lives at first sight, though, all he felt was betrayal.

  The couple were sitting at their table, facing each other and away from the window, a tremble in their shoulders as they fought back tears.

  Why? Why did they have another son after Marcus? Was he given up because they found out he was a caster? Was the new child kept when his class would teach them how to live in wealth?

  The house wasn’t that large, the normal combination rooms for the entrance and two bedrooms. They hadn’t profited from their actions, and now it seemed karma or some other form of retribution came to take away the one child they cared to keep.

  Releasing a clenched fist, Marcus turned away to return to Logan’s side.

  “Not going to speak with them?”

  Marcus sighed, “It’s not important right now. We have children to save.”

  Logan placed a hand on his friend’s chest to halt his movement, “We can’t rush this. While I would love to save them as quickly as possible, if we aren’t prepared we’ll just hurry their demise.”

  Marcus shook his head slowly, “You’re right. Below curse it.”

  Amalia shortly reconvened with the pair, “The story is the same around the people here. The kids went off into the forest and never came back. Their guardian was a trusted parent too, so no motive there.”

  “We’ll investigate the scene next”, Logan instructed.

  Amalia looked at Marcus for a bit before asking, “So, were they your parents in the end?”

  “I didn’t ask, but it’s likely from how they look.”

  “I’m surprised you kept your name when you were dropped off, to be honest, especially the family name. Maybe they wanted you to return at some point?” Amalia said encouragingly.

  Marcus shook his head, “No. Orphans, when possible, are left with a letter of their name and other information.”

  Logan explained, “It’s to combat curses. If you lack a name, it can make many of the chants hard to do or more expensive.”

  “I had one, Marcus Eren. This village is close enough that it’d make sense they were able to make the trek to Tinte, or had someone do it in their stead like a merchant.”

  “Do you not want to confront them?” Amalia asked sincerely.

  Marcus clenched his fists again, “Below right I do. But I can’t land on the path I want to take. Do I just curse them? Blame them for everything in my life? Or accept they might have had a reason beyond selfishness?”

  “There’s the chance they couldn’t afford Marcus. Looking at them, they might’ve been quite young when they had him”, Logan explained.

  “If they were poor enough to lack funds for ‘intimacy magic’ then I was probably the last coin in the tower before it fell.”

  Amalia looked at Logan for a second with a blush between the two.

  “Either way, Marcus doesn’t want to, so we shouldn’t force the issue. We’ll be here for a while anyway”, Logan accepted.

  Amalia nodded.

  Marcus sighed again, “I had a whole plan when I was younger, but so much has changed”, he revealed under his breath.

  The trio walked around for a bit longer before investigating the area of the disappearance. This part of the forest was like many others, though just a tad more inviting with the talk about it. Sunlight dripped through the greenery above, painting a mess of calming shadows across the floor. Light and shadow danced around piles of leaves that had fallen due to wind and rain.

  Distinct child-shaped indents in the piles showed that the kids came here often to play, with a few wooden and straw toys and dolls strewn about. Carvings of initials and people could be seen within the bark of the willow trees. The branches wept, just like the parents in the nearby village, hugging around the area as if to protect the young in their play.

  Varied height stumps, logs, and branches allowed the kids to climb and jump around constantly, an easy way to burn off all the excess energy they had in their youth. Mushrooms of varying colours also provided adventure for the tastebuds, closely overseen by whatever guardian was with them at the time.

  Even a makeshift slide had been slowly carved out of a diagonal trunk that had fallen years ago, a handful of villagers taking turns to sheer a cylindrical indent through it. Pieces of fabric could be seen in the slide’s chips, tearing at clothing when it hadn’t been waxed or smoothed properly.

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  A land of wonder and excitement, now tainted with dread.

  Within the centre of the play area, which would have been where rings joined by hand were formed and items exchanged in hushed voices away from the guardian, now housed a deep, dark hole. The edges were mostly smooth like the others, but its soil was that same shade of almost-black. Getting close caused rocks and leaves to fall inside, though not much else would find easy entrance.

  “Looks to be around four feet wide?” Marcus estimated as he crouched down to the hole.

  The Devout stared at the hole, many thoughts swirling in his head as he tried to focus. “If it was only four feet wide, how’d it get them all at once? Was it still really long? Did it use some other form of teleportation like how it escaped us last time? Why take the guardian too?”

  “This would be the first known case of the worm taking people. Aside from defending itself, it has only gone after animals”, Logan said as he walked around the area.

  “All at once, too. Maybe it found it didn’t like people?” Amalia added.

  “That would be the best-case scenario. It would mean only one may have been actually eaten, the rest just kept somewhere like a spider’s late meal”, Marcus calculated.

  Peering into the hole’s depths didn’t reveal much aside from darkness, Logan’s Light Ally being of great use as it flew down to show more. A large tunnel had been dug horizontally, showing the worm had been back through here when it was larger.

  Marcus’s mind, wrecked with emotion, seemingly wanted to visualise the scene as if to learn more about it. However, the cheerful cries from the children screaming for the seeker not to find them or to not splash water on their new clothes were quickly replaced with scared screeches of fear. Tiny thumps of feet became a snarling snapping of teeth and gum.

  Through the sound a young boy’s call echoed toward Marcus as if he were there, standing, doing nothing to help, “Marcus!”

  Marcus quickly snapped out of his trance as Logan patted his shoulder, “Marcus, you alright?”

  Marcus looked back at the hole as if he expected to see something there before turning back to Logan, “Just my imagination running wild. Thanks for bringing me out of that below.”

  “We’ll save them.”

  “I know”, Marcus replied as he eyed another lost toy horse on the floor.

  “So, looking at this hole, the monster is growing ridiculously fast. It will come down to faster-is-better. Our attacks did little last time, so we need to coordinate our damage into a single point”, Logan started to explain.

  “There’s also its getaway skill.”

  “I’ll start with Warping Censure to try and counteract that”, Logan replied as he looked at Amalia, “it might be weaker on the inside. Would you be fine getting ‘eaten’ to deal some damage that way? You’ve got the best chance with your defensive skills.”

  Amalia’s face went white, “You want me to go inside of that thing?”

  “I can get you out if you feel it’s too dangerous”, Logan consoled her as he handed one of his tracking rocks to her.

  “Ah, you can teleport to me in there.”

  “The size of the thing should mean it's got space on the inside, and even then I saw inside its gob, it’s a wide area.”

  “What of Spellforce Blast?” Marcus asked.

  Logan shook his head. “The thing is too big for that to really impact its movements. I could charge it up while you keep its attention. However, we don’t know just yet if it is storing the victims in its stomach or a different tunnel. That’s the second reason I want to send Amalia in.”

  Marcus nodded, “Good caution. I’ll try to break its teeth in that case, that should at least slow down its tunnelling.”

  Marcus clenched his fists again, “This isn’t just for my… ‘brother’. It’s for all the others who were taken. Come on, Marcus, stop doubting this. You’re a good person. Just save people. Don’t think about your family right now”, he fought with his thoughts.

  Logan summoned up his elementals and began to give them commands while Amalia looked a bit further away from the play area.

  Marcus instead crouched down to pick up a wooden doll. Its paint had flecked off, and Marcus’s fingers wandering over its surface caused more flakes to fall off from his gloves. The image of a younger Marcus appeared in his mind, of him having this toy, running around outside the house of his parents.

  A war with his mind alongside the battle against the plague worm. Where Marcus had gained so much confidence and independence, now was slowly getting replaced with the familiar sense of inadequacy. Those days where he was used for a couple of spells he could cast a day, or as bait for his slow legs.

  Marcus shook his head again as Logan approached him, “My elementals will spend the rest of the day searching the tunnels. With how many turns, and the thing going back on itself, it’ll be a true maze to explore. I also don’t want us getting tired out from just finding the thing.”

  “We’ll stay the night in Acety? Or Noma?” Amalia asked.

  Logan crossed his arms, “Noma sent the request later than Acety, though both have been attacked. I doubt either is in more danger than the other of the monster returning. If it came from the south, I would wager its home is south further.”

  Marcus then added, rather reluctantly, “Acety would be the best place, then. Closest to the worm, and probably the best place to find more movements.”

  “Acety lines up with Tinte more, too. If the worm needs more food, at the rate it is growing it might, then Tinte might be next to hit.”

  The trio of adventurers returned quickly to Acety, the townsfolk a bit more active than before as they crowded the dirt streets with their gossip. Marcus reflexively pulled up his hood to hide his hair and some of his features, still not wanting to get recognised too much for his “family” resemblance.

  The same guard as before saw the party and approached slowly. “So, any luck? Who took our kids?”

  “We’ve got a lead, but it will take some time to see it through. I need to do some scrying, which requires us to see this into tomorrow”, Logan half-lied.

  The guard wiped his brow, “Thank the above. We’ve set up some rooms for you to use, please. We’ll make sure not to disturb you, magi need all the concentration they can get, right?”

  “Thank you.”

  Retiring to their rooms for the rest of the day, the party merely had to play the waiting game and see what Logan’s elementals could find in the morning. With fresh skills and spells, they’d have to go a second round with the plague worm. Their only hope was that the worm was indeed saving meals for later and didn’t just gobble them down on acquirement.

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