Lilyth

  We arrived in Dan-Hem in the early evening of the next day. The village was… cosy, for lack of a better term. Some houses, a two-floor inn, all well tended to, but I could see some poorly cleaned blood splatters on some of the walls near the village centre.

  Remnants of the massacre, I guess.

  What I was surprised by were the gallows in the main square. A rotting corpse, mostly picked over by birds, was still hanging from them.

  Probably the rat? I can't imagine the villagers would leave Elder Matis there.

  I felt an urge to pick up a rock and throw it at it, but managed to suppress it as villagers were milling around, probably taking care of the last chores of the day.

  ‘So… what's the plan?’ Ren asked Aki.

  Before my wife could answer we were noticed by one of the locals - a freckled-face golden-eyed girl in a grey dress and dirty auburn hair tied by a green headkerchief.

  ‘Aki!’ she waved to us. ‘You are back!’

  That got the attention of more of the villagers who started approaching us. They were staring at us, mostly with curiosity, some impassively and a few with mild hostility. Instinctively, I moved in front of Aki. Caei soon joined me, casually placing her hand on the pommel of her sword. That gave some of the villagers a pause, but Aki decided to ignore our efforts to protect her and burst forward and ran towards the golden-eyed girl.

  ‘Milla!’ she shouted.

  The girl also started running and soon they embraced each other. That broke the tension somewhat and both us and the villagers visibly relaxed.

  Suddenly, a deep female voice shouted from behind the gathered villagers:

  ‘What’s going on here?’

  A short and squat grey-haired woman pushed through to the front of the crowd. She was fairly well dressed in what I assumed to be a black mourning gown. The woman looked at us and with tears in her eyes exclaimed:

  ‘Aki?!’

  As I suspected, she turned out to be Bergia - my Dark Lady’s adoptive mother. Judging by her tears, it was clear she didn't expect to see her daughter ever again but to her credit managed to maintain enough composure to send the rest of Dan-Hemians away, which proved to be pretty hard to achieve because between Caei and her crown of horns, Ren with her avian looks and me being me we were quite a menagerie. I did my best to conceal my true nature - my eyes luckily looked normal in my elf form and I managed to “absorb” my arm “tattoos” into the skin, but I couldn't figure out how to change my grass hair wisps into “normal” hair and wasn’t that keen to mess with the facemarks, and well… there was no hiding how the other two looked.

  Even Bergia, once she and Aki finished embracing, had trouble processing our presence.

  ‘You have… very colourful friends,’ she finally said.

  You don’t know the half of it, lady.

  That was our cue to approach them and introduce ourselves.

  ‘Thank you all for being there for my d… my Aki.’

  ‘The pleasure is all ours, ma’am,’ I replied. ‘We were very sorry to hear about what happened to your husband.’

  Bergia’s eyes began glistening with tears again.

  ‘I am so sorry about what happened to him…’ Aki whimpered. ‘If it wasn’t for me…’

  The woman shook her head.

  ‘Never say things like this, my child. I do not blame you. Matis also didn't. He refused to give in to that horrible man to the very end. Matis loved you, and so do I.’

  Aki hugged her.

  ‘I still can't believe he is gone, m-mom,’

  ‘Me neither, daughter of my heart. Me neither.

  We helped Aki and Bergia to their house and left them to grieve in peace. We didn't want to intrude. At least… not that day.

  With no other place to go, we went to rent rooms for ourselves at the inn. Apparently, the word about us managed to spread around in the few minutes we were in the village as dozens of people were suddenly walking around doing their best to pretend they weren't gawking at us, though it was just curiosity this time rather than any show of hostility.

  Stolen story; please report.

  ‘I feel like the main attraction in a freak show,’ Ren grumbled.

  ‘Because we are one, dear,’ Caei sighed.

  ‘At least they are just looking rather than trying to lynch us,’ I whispered.

  ‘You always know how to cheer everyone up, honey,’ my Dark Sorceress laughed.

  ‘That’s why you love me,’ I laughed back.

  The inn was nothing that special: a small half-filled common room with three large common tables and four small ones and a counter behind which stood a lean bald man, though perhaps, by then, I should have stopped expecting places to be just like on 2024 Earth.

  Never thought I’d feel nostalgia for the bars I was semi-forced to go to during team-building events.

  Credit where it’s due, the proprietor did put in an amount of effort into giving the place a vibe as there were some hunting trophies on the walls: a Darhun, a ferocious-looking furry thing with a long snout and a few purple birds.

  I also noticed that there were stairs next to the counter, which we would later learn led to the rooms for rent.

  ‘You must be the three girls that came with Aki,’ the innkeeper chuckled when we approached the counter. ‘If stories are to be believed, you were some sort of a coven of bloodthirsty witches.’

  We looked at each other in confusion.

  Ooohhhh… I thought and snapped my fingers in understanding.

  ‘You’d think people here would be man enough not to spread rumours about women who stood up to them,’ I said loud enough for people in the room to hear.

  ‘Fucking elf bitch,’ one of them muttered.

  Message delivered.

  ‘Yeah…’ Ren picked up the conversation. ‘We know why Aki had to leave Dan-Hem, so when we saw a crowd approaching us…’

  ‘You thought people wanted to finish the job,’ the innkeeper sighed. ‘Guess can’t fault you for wanting to protect her though you would be surprised how people’s view of Aki has changed since the inquisitor. I gather you are aware of what happened?’

  ‘Some of it,’ I said. ‘Inquisitor Motherfucker lynched Elder Matis, some people rioted and there were casualties.’

  ‘That’s the gist of it, yes. Karkul, one of our militiamen, and Rel, a farmer, died. A few people got wounded, but they have mostly recovered by now. It would have been worse since the Inquisitor wanted to hang all of the rioters, but one of the Temple Dragoons talked him down. Said that it would probably end in a massacre. His name was Arca… Arca-something.’

  Well, well, well Ser Arcarius, you just officially ended up on my “good guys” list.

  ‘I’m both shocked the Inquisitor listened and you folks gave up.’

  ‘On our end, it was because one of them, a blonde bastard named Halveck, started using magic. That was enough to keep us at bay. As for the Inquisitor… he probably realised that if he kept pushing his luck all the magic in the world wouldn't keep us away. So they promptly packed their shit and left. At least they didn't manage to go through with the other part of their plan. The word was they wanted to exhume poor Veenaya and burn her corpse for the grave crime of giving birth to Aki.’

  Sweet Jesus...

  ‘You know…’ Caei seethed,’ I didn't think it possible for me to hate that bastard even more.’

  ‘All I can say is, I am very happy he didn't manage to get his hands on Aki,’ the innkeeper said. ‘Gods know I gave the girl a fair share of grief, but…’

  ‘Seeing where that led made you reconsider?’ I suggested.

  ‘You hit the nail on the head, lassie,’ he agreed. ‘I will need to apologise to her. A lot of people plan to do the same, I wager. But, there are some… who don’t feel that way.’

  ‘Don’t worry, we’ll keep our eyes around our heads,’ Ren said.

  ‘Looking at you three they would be crazy to try something.’

  ‘Let’s hope for their sake they think that way too,’ I sighed. ‘I imagine all the goodwill Aki gained might be lost if some idiots decide to start something they won’t be able to finish.’

  The innkeeper nodded.

  ‘You are probably right, lassie. Name’s Jirrin, by the way.’

  After we handled the introductions we asked if we’d be able to rent two rooms for a week. It was possible that we'd stay in Dan-Hem a bit longer if Taros and Deirdee decided to join us after all. While the demigod was excited to meet the “heroes of Mer-Cas”, Deirdee wasn't sure she was ready to see us yet. She was still trying to become her own person, and wasn't sure she'd able to do that with us around, which I deemed more than fair.

  ‘That’s gonna be three hundred Divines per room, food included.’

  That mostly lined up with what Aki told me back in the Tower.

  Probably decided not to price gouge us given how we are friends with one of the locals.

  Ren took out her money pouch and handed him an even thousand.

  ‘We’ll also buy a round for everyone in the inn,’ she smiled.

  Jirrin looked shocked.

  ‘I can’t believe I am saying this, but this is too much, lassie.’

  A thoughtful expression appeared on Ren’s face and then she then took out another thousand and added it to the first.

  ‘Consider this an investment into your inn,’ Ren said. ‘I have a feeling we could be frequent visitors here so we’d like your business to prosper. Also… I discussed this with my mom before we left and we’ve decided that it would be a good idea to find an extra market for our fish. I imagine you have some extra produce here in Dan-Hem that we don't get in Mer-Cas though I would need to tour around the place.’

  The shock on Jirrin’s face deepened as he slowly processed what Ren had just said.

  ‘Wait… you guys are heroes of Mer-Cas, aren’t you?’ he had sense enough to whisper. ‘I didn't register it at first but…’

  ‘That’s us,’ Ren interrupted him with a smile. ‘My mother is Ireela of the Bloody Perch Clan, soon to be baroness of Mer-Cas. I am speaking in her name here.’

  ‘When we heard about a blue-haired girl being there some of us did believe it was Aki, but I thought it was impossible. Our sweet Aki? Fighting bandits alongside Riftseeker Savri?’

  ‘Yeah… life can write interesting stories,’ Caei smiled.

  My part fu… was bad, I shuddered.

  ‘And speaking of bandits,’ I began, desperate to change the subject,’ did you have any problems lately? We are unsure whether all of them were taken care of.’

  Jirrin's forehead furrowed.

  ‘Four days ago, someone raided old Manter’s farm and stole some of his cattle and food stores. We tried looking for them, but the trail led deep into the parts of the forest that lay in one of the bad pockets of quiet so our trackers decided not to risk it.’

  Probably a good idea.

  I looked at Caei and Ren. They gave me small nods.

  ‘Please tell us more about that place.’