“Tell me straight, Yanadys, what do you see in our future?” Tanyth, the golden Elf, asked, coming to sit at their usual table at the inn in Folos.

  The tanned Wood Elf with dusty blond hair, Yanadys, stared up from her notes with her soft brown eyes. Her notes kept her mind occupied from the screaming danger that her team had inched closer to. No matter what she did, who she talked to, or what she didn’t do, never stopped that haunting vision of her teammates broken and beaten around her. Those terrible green eyes that held endless hunger always burned in the forefront of her mind. “We do encounter the creature, but after that, it’s hazy,” she lied once more. It pained her to keep lying to her team, but the outcome always remained the same. Whatever she saw in the visions that plagued her.

  Tanyth narrowed his eyes and gave a slight dip of his head. “So it could go either way…” he mused quietly to himself. “Have you spoken to Bacchus and Creston yet?” he asked, changing the subject.

  Yanadys shook her head. “No, they haven’t checked in from their search yet. We will have to move on from Folos soon, though. The vision keeps changing, but everyone in it stays the same.”

  “Good. I’m tired of this place. What’s our next destination?” Tanyth asked.

  Yanadys spread out her notes, each with a different name. “Our options include Gentry, Awh-Mun, and Ebira.”

  Tanyth crossed his arms. “All sea-based towns in different directions. But why? What’s off the coast of each of those towns?” He asked more to himself as Yanadys stayed silent, peering at him.

  Yanadys smoothed out her frayed greying robe before placing her hands on the table, taking away the notes on Gentry and Awh-Mun. “Ebira,” she stated, pushing the notes of Ebira forward. “If it is two Vampires, a master and a student, per se, then we need to remember that the Vampires of old fled to the Forbidden Continent. The master might be one of them who returned to the mainland.”

  Tanyth scowled. “We encountered none of them on our expeditions to the Forbidden Continent. What makes you so sure?” he challenged, grabbing the notes and skimming them.

  Yanadys sighed heavily. “I come from a long line of Oracles-”

  Tanyth scoffed. “Oracles,” he chuckled darkly. “Let’s not forget-”

  The air around Yanadys turned cold and stiff. “That you murdered Helena for power of all things. The woman you claimed to love. And I have kept your secret from the others, but one word from me, Tanyth, and you and I both know Bacchus and Creston will side with me,” Yanadys threatened, cutting off Tanyth, who stared in fury. “Do not think of threatening me again, Tanyth, or it will be the last thing you ever do in this life.”

  Tanyth practically threw the notes of Ebira back at her before getting up and storming off. Yanadys took a deep breath to calm herself, right around the time a teenage High Elf server of the inn came around to place her food down along with a glass of water.

  “Will that be all, Ms. Yanadys?” the server asked.

  Yanadys gave a smile to the boy. “Yes, thank you. You have been very helpful.”

  The serving boy smiled and gave a slight bow before backing away.

  Yanadys’ interaction with Tanyth continued to replay through her mind, as did her last moments of seeing Helena turn to ash from his beams in order to achieve something he wouldn’t share. He made her swear to secrecy, and ?the grief and shock of seeing someone she called a close friend, someone she considered family, murder one of their own made her mind fragile and easily moldable.

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  Deep down, she knew that one day she would take her vengeance against him, with or without Bacchus and Creston. What she didn’t share were the visions of the green-eyed man becoming clearer the closer they got and, in each instance, he always offered her a hand. She meditated on why her visions showed her siding with a Vampire of all things until she remembered that Vampires were agents of balance if, and a very big if, the Vampire in question was being raised correctly.

  Still, it bothered her to see Bacchus and Creston dead or at least beaten nearly to death. Those two had remained in constant contact with her after they all went their separate ways. More so for Creston’s sake in case his werewolf side ever caused issues out in the countryside. Luckily, she called in a favor among her people to get Creston the help he needed since her people were more attuned to nature and beasts, which Creston now was. She was thankful for it, but she hoped to spare them from their impending doom.

  Nonetheless, she lifted her fork to hold down the piece of chicken as she cut it with her knife. The simplicity of eating always kept her mind relaxed as she enjoyed the flavors. That was until her head started pounding and her fork and knife clattered against the plate as her hands raced to her head as the assault of an oncoming vision began. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as her body went limp, making her fall face first into her plate with a bang.

  Unlike her other visions she’s previously had, this one didn’t center on the green-eyed man as of late but of the deep dark woods of the Forbidden Continent. Insidious whispers of a forgotten language raced from it before sucking her in. She wanted to scream, but her voice was constrained to her throat as if the vision only wanted her to see. Through the darkness of the woods, she went before she came to a stop, seeing a ruined pyramid that was overgrown with the roots and vegetation of the woods surrounding it before purple light beamed from the top of the pyramid, shooting upwards into the sky. In the blink of an eye, the surrounding woods retreated as buildings were rapidly constructed in their place. The overgrown vegetation that consumed the pyramid was no longer present. Then she saw something terrible that made her blood freeze. Legions upon legions of Vampires marched out the mouth of the pyramid, through the town, and deeper into the woods, all prepared for war. But no, that wasn’t what made her freeze. It was seeing herself bringing up the rear of the army, riding atop a skeletal horse alongside a Giantess.

  The vision shifted, showing her the Undead city of Vaultstrand spewing out hideous monsters, skeletons, and Zombies all led by a woman with fiery red hair, sharp features that immediately struck her as a High Elf, and worst of all, she was a Vampire as well.

  It shifted again, showing her the civil war between the Fire and Ice Giants on Imawas joining forces against an enemy that emerged from the shadows. The green-eyed man led a contingent of Vampires, freed slaves, and men in golden armor. The vision was cut short when the green-eyed man inclined his head towards her, almost as if he truly saw her through time and space.

  She awoke from the vision gasping for air as she tasted the blood in her mouth from clenching her teeth so hard. “Oh, fuck…it's happening…”

  “What’s happening?” She heard Creston’s voice, and she stiffened as she slowly picked herself up.

  She stared at a frowning Creston, who had taken Tanyth’s seat.

  “What’s happening, Yanadys…?” Creston asked, caution and hesitation dancing for dominance in his eyes. “And don’t lie to me, not again.”

  Yanadys pursed her lips together, ignoring the piece of chicken falling back down onto the table. “I can’t tell you…”

  Creston frowned. “Bullshit, Yan…” he whispered.

  Everything in her wanted to tell Creston, but how could she tell him he was bound to die at the hands of a creature that was only told in myths. “Creston… I-”

  “Guys! I found a clue!” Bacchus, the black-furred Minotaur, came barreling to their table. An excited gleam in his eyes.

  Seeing the opportunity to pivot to a new topic, Yanadys latched on. “What did you find?”

  Bacchus twiddled his fingers with a grin, one that could only be noticed if you hung around Minotaurs long enough. “Apparently, there was a new Adventurer group that took on the Vault of the Jade Monk not too long ago before Folos was attacked by pirates,” he said. “And! From what the receptionist said, it was an odd group. Two Human Rogues, A Giantess Mage, and someone whose race wasn’t identifiable, which she found odd — but he was a Warrior.”

  Yanadys’ breath hitched and Creston’s eyes narrowed in her direction as he crossed his arms. “Well?” He questioned that was aimed at Yanadys.

  Bacchus, unaware of the tension, stood straighter. “That’s great news, right?! A clue!”

  “Or a warning,” Creston said, popping the bubble and letting the tension take up the space once more.