Izick quickly lowered his hand, and Mill took a sip from her tankard before placing it on top of the paper depicting the Blessing's main menu. Barson took a swig as well from his own tankard. He raised a brow, then pointed to Izick.

  "Boy, why were you pointing in the air? You were looking a bit strange," Barson said before taking another swig.

  "Uh, I uh–My master needs to wipe her mouth. She's an extremely messy eater, and it's my job as her apprentice to support her through her weakness," Izick said as he pointed to Mill, who reeled back while shooting daggers at Izick through her eyes.

  "I'm a mess myself, but I'm getting distracted here. I want to talk business with you two," Barson said as he set his tanker down.

  "I want to keep you two on for our next campaign through the Misty Alps."

  Izick and Mill glanced at each other. Mill grabbed her handkerchief and wiped her mouth as she turned to face Barson.

  "I actually wanted to talk to you about keeping us on through the Alps. We have to cross it anyway to get to our destination. Most people in Ambri actively avoid us because outsiders aren't common here. We'll take you up on that offer."

  "That works for me. We should be done selling off those bandits by midday tomorrow, so you two can expect to leave the following day. We're not handing these bandits over without a price. These townsfolk are going to torture the location of the treasure caches that hold the stolen goods from Ambri and Grillin. We can use their desperation for our own profit. We are a mercenary band after all."

  "Noted. We'll be ready tomorrow."

  "Great. Another thing I need to mention. A few of my boys told me that a large beam of light smashed through the bandits' reinforcements. None of them got a good look at where the beam started or ended, but many claim to have seen the two of you near where this attack was spotted. You two know anything about this?" Barson said, alternating his eyes between Izick and Mill.

  "Yes, I saw it too. It came out of nowhere and vaporized everything in its path. I couldn't believe my eyes when it happened. Truly frightening." Izick said, shaking his head.

  "You know who did it?"

  "Why would I know? Stranger things have happened in our world without explanation. We might never find out who saved us."

  Barson finished off his tanker and then grunted as he stood back on his feet.

  "Huh, I don't care either way. I'm just glad to have two capable Mages in our band. We took some heavy losses today, and I lost some good friends…honker down for the night, and I'll see you two in the morning," Barson said before nodding to them both and swaggering away.

  Mill huffed as she turned away from Izick while taking a bite out of her food.

  "I know you wanted to distract Barson, but you didn't have to go so far as calling me a messy eater," Mill said as she pouted and ate her food.

  "OK, that was a little much, but you really have some sauce on your mouth this time," Izick said while pointing to Mill's face. Mill furrowed her brow and blushed as she silently and furiously wiped her mouth.

  Izick turned to his left and stared at the fractured blue-and-red message box from the Blessing. It still remained frozen. What was the meaning of this, and what really triggered this event?

  ***

  A stout and short man wearing a brown suit and a bowler on his head waited for Barson to exit the parlor.

  "Hobbs, they were inside like you said. Thanks for trailing them for me."

  "Not a problem. Your suspicions about that boy were correct; he's no ordinary Mage. He's likely more than that," the man said as he twirled his thick mustache with his fingers.

  "His keen senses made trailing him a hassle. I had to stay at a great distance to avoid him detecting me. His mannerisms lead me to believe he's actually some sort of Scout. A very experienced one at that, despite his apparent age," The man named Hobbs said while somberly shaking his head.

  "I'm surprised you still want my opinion after I chose such a disastrous route through Yenga."

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Barson patted him on the back and then motioned for them to begin walking.

  "We both know that wasn't your fault. Your route was perfect. Scotts suspects that our route was intentionally leaked by someone in our party."

  "Do we have our main suspects?"

  "Scotts does, but I also have my own suspects as well. Our new Healer and her apprentice joined us at the most curious time. That 'apprentice' could be the leaker if he's actually a Scout and not a real Mage."

  "I honestly doubt they're the leakers. Whoever stole my route was someone I interacted with, and I've never met the boy before. Also, there's no advantage in revealing yourself this late in the game if he worked in the shadows."

  "I'll trust your opinion on this then."

  Hobbs stroked his clean-shaven chin as he stared into the grass.

  "Giselle has a theory about the boy's true identity, which is something I don't want to even entertain at the moment due to how ridiculous it sounds."

  "She floated that theory to me as well. I'm in the same boat as you. Let's monitor that Healer and her apprentice as closely as possible, but let's not make any moves yet. We can't afford to lose such a good Healer before entering the Alps."

  "Ah, that's right. Didra is dead, isn't she? I didn't think that timid girl would last as long as she did, but she really tried her best until the end. We still have Sibyl, but she is quite useless to us now. So, are we to feign our innocence as long as the Healer and her apprentice stay useful? Your focus is on the Healer, but having an extra Scout around wouldn't hurt either when I'm scouting out our next path."

  "I guess you could say that. We're all going to die if we have to rely on Sibyl for the Alps. And if things go wrong, we can just hand that Healer and her apprentice over to the Royal Guardsmen for some quick coins if Giselle's theory is true." Barson said with a smirk.

  Hobbs snorted while showing a slight grin of his own.

  "What a heartless man. Is there no empathy in your soul?"

  "This business turned my heart to stone after all these years. There are very few things I care about that don't involve coins. Anyway, we know Didra is dead, but what's the holdup with finding her body? Corpses don't just get up and walk."

  "The holdup is that there are still stragglers from the bandits who are still hanging around Yenga. We're actively avoiding skirmishes, so our body recovery team is moving more slowly than usual. We've identified most of our dead, but we're missing a few besides Didra, like Friggle and Hous."

  "This is the worst part of the business. Hopefully, we will find them soon and give them a proper burial. I don't want to do it, but we're leaving in the morning, with or without our dead."

  "Agreed. Now, if you still trust me, let's go over our plan for the Misty Alps…"

  Barson and Hobbs planned the next campaign for hours on end, going back and forth over the details.

  ***

  Deep in the Yenga forest, a small group of surviving Wolf Kenomi bandits ripped off the usable gear from their fallen comrades while grumbling amongst themselves.

  "What a horrible job. Our troupe is ruined since most of us are dead or captured now," said a bandit as he pulled off the coat of a dead bandit.

  "That's what we get for working with a Dark Mage. I knew it was bad business from the start, but no one wanted to listen."

  A bandit stopped in his tracks and noticed a white robe in the grass, contrasting with the night.

  "Hey, boys, look what I found over here."

  They gathered around and looked down at the body of the Healer Didra. An arrow was lodged in her mouth and pierced through the back of her head. Some of them shivered at the sight.

  "Ugh, Humins die in the freakiest ways. Let's take the robe and run before that mercenary band's recovery group gets here. Healer Robes sell pretty high these days in the markets," the bandit said as he reached towards Didra. The bandit near him slapped his hand away and got in his face.

  "I found the dead Healer first, the robe is mine!"

  "Move, you rothead. I'm leading this small group, and you're too dumb to sell anything anyway."

  The two bandits grabbed each other and began tussling, prompting the other bandits to intervene and try to separate them.

  The bandits were far too distracted to notice Didra slowly rising to her feet.

  She began to make choking sounds before grabbing the arrow lodged in her mouth and yanking it out.

  She stretched her arms before violently snapping her neck back in place and calmly walking up to the squabbling bandits.

  "So, from what I gathered from the conversation here, the operation failed. I was in a deep, divine slumber, but now I wake up to this. Frustrating, I played the perfect role and planned it so well."

  The bandits all stopped their fussing as they stared in horror at the reanimated Healer in front of them.

  "That loser of a bandit king is going to complain. I guess I have to kill him now instead of making him my toy," Didra said, materializing a black staff in her right hand.

  The bandits all tried to run, but gray, liquid-like spikes shot out of Didra's body, impaling each of their heads within seconds.

  They all fell to the ground in a heap as a grimace came over her face. She knelt and placed her left hand on one of the dead bandits, causing her hand to tremble like boiling water.

  The bandit began to shrivel up until his skin and fur clung to his bones. She smiled with satisfaction as a white aura enveloped her body. Her grin melted into a deep sneer as she began to grind her teeth.

  "I am going to kill whoever foiled my plans. Failure is an utterly disgusting feeling. It reeks too."

  She continued to drain each of the dead bandits as a prime suspect came to mind. She muttered to herself as she racked her brains on the best way to make her newest enemies suffer before snuffing their lives out.

  Revenge was coming, but first, she had business to take care of.